Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 12/21/2010

Question
QUESTION: Dear Laurie,

Firstly, I just want to say how much I appreciate your thoughtful and informed answers to the questions posted here. Recently you skillfully answered my question about impermanenence that I had asked senior students at the Buddhist Centre I attend without a satisfactory answer.

My questions now concern Tara practice. From what I have read it seems there were no deities in Buddhism for several centuries after Buddha. Tara seems to have originated outside of buddhism and been incorporated into it. While I can appreciate the attributes she represents, her presence to a neophyte like myself seems to be in contradiction to the rational side of buddhism that appealed to me initially. Could you explain why Tara practice is such an essential element in Tibetan Buddhism. Also, I'm not and haven't been involved with NKT, nevertheless I don't understand why Tara is an acceptable deity while Dorje Shugden isn't.

Why don't buddhists practice more as Buddha practiced, instead of bringing other elements into it. I realize all religions incorporate aspects of new cultures as they spread, but shouldn't buddhism as it enters the west shed some of the add-ons that have accumulated.

Thank-you in advance for your help.

Daniel

ANSWER: Hello Daniel -

Thank you so much for letting me answer your question.

I am glad you find the answers I write helpful.  I just try to study hard, be mindful and keep the answers as true to the Buddh'a teachings as I can.

I am definitely NOT an expert on some of what you ask but will do my best to answer.

If I interpret your question correctly (and let me know if I did not) you are wondering about the wisdom in doing Tara practice, for one reason because Tara came along so long after the Buddha taught.

I can answer this first with a question. Do the gospels in the New Testament have less value because they were written 50 years or so after Jesus died?

You ask why don't Buddhists today practice more as the Buddha practiced.  My first answer is that Buddha was already a highly advanced practitioner when he came into the world as Siddhartha. As we get farther and farther away from the time of Buddha, we live in more and more degenerate times and that means that it will be harder and harder to gain the attainments Buddha had and therefore harder to practice like him.

We did not have the karma to live during the time of Buddha when so many of Buddhas followers became enlightened.  We had the karma to meet the dharma 2600 years after Buddha stopped teaching. So it is naturally going to be more difficult due to our karma to actually practice as austerely and sincerely as he did.

Well, if when you say shouldn't Buddhism drop some of the trappings it has as it comes west, if you mean the trappings of Tibetan Buddhism, I would say "don't fix what ain't broken". From the Tibetan Buddhist tradition I study works is that they try to keep as much as they can in the Tibetan because they know it works and don't want Westernize anything till they know that it will work just as well as it does now.

And if you mean that there are Western Add Ons, that is true, there are some Western add ons but Buddhism has lasted 2600 years and since its beginning in India, as it spread, it picked up different add ons from each culture it touched.  But from my side as long as the dharma itself and the teachings themselves come down in an unbroken lineage from Buddha himself from teacher to student - as long as that is not broken and the teachings are preserved as pure as possible then perhaps it does not matter what extra trappings get put onto the teachings. From my side, one is free to embrace the extra add ons or not.

You say that from your reading there were no deities for several centuries.  I am not sure what you mean by "dieties" as Buddha himself speaks of Brahma, I believe and he also speaks of other Buddhas.

And you say that Tara originated outside of Buddhism - I am not sure what you mean by that. Did Tara already exist within Buddha as he was walking the earth?  Did Avalokitashvara already exist within Buddha as he was walking the earth?  

If you look at Avalokitashvara, certainly he had Buddha Nature, and... yes, Tara was not born from a mother and father like a normal human and like most of the other Buddhas.  So yes this defies the logical part of Buddhism most of us resonate with.

But, from what I have learned, there is also some faith required to practice Buddhism. As we work on our practice and we go farther and farther along the path, we develop faith that enlightenment is really possible.  We cannot prove it. But believing in it and working towards it helps us be better people and helps us to help others.

And as we grow in our practice, we take on a guru. This guru we must have faith in that they can help us get to enlightenment. Some gurus are quite advanced and because of their practice can do things we call magic.  They can become clairvoyant and change the weather and such.  We follow these teachers and we grow and progress just like they say we will.  And some of these advanced gurus, lamas and tulkus have great faith in these practice such as Tara and even lead empowerments so that we can gain the qualities of Buddhas like Tara.

And practicing them requires faith.   But we see that our wonderful gurus,  who have taught us so much and who have not steered us wrong thusfar have faith in Tara, and therefore we can too.

So yes, Buddhism is very logical and that is why so many people like it.  But it also has elements where faith and believing in things that are not seemingly grounded in logic apply.

And it is kind of like an icy lake you need to cross to get somewhere.  You take a step and it holds your weight.  You take another step slowly and it holds. Then a third and it holds. Then  another and another and another.  After 10 steps, you are gaining faith that the lake is iced over enough to hold your weight all the way across. With each step you take you gain more and more faith that the lake is frozen solid.  

From my side, Buddhism is like that.  You take a step at a time and find that yes, the teachings are sound and I can trust the teachings and the teacher and then you take another step and another and with each step you gain more and more faith in the teachings and the teachers so that if you are at a certain place and your guru tells you that, for example, practicing Tara practice will help with your compassion, for example, you have faith that they are telling the truth based on their wisdom and experience then you try it and see if it resonates with you.

What seems true to me is that when Buddha was teaching there was no need for anyone else to teach because Buddha was present and what else did one need? But after Buddha went to Parinirvana and left the earth, and as time has gone by, it seems from my side, that mankind needs more and more various Buddhas and practices to bring them to Buddhism.

Just as Buddha taught 84000 teachings and geared each one for the audience he was teaching to, so now we have many many Buddhas which we can use to bring us closer to Buddha himself and his teachings.

And since there were so many teachings for so many types of people, it follows that we can see Buddha in various aspects and that each persons karma leads them to resonate with different parts of Buddha.  Again if Buddha were here, everyone would resonate with Buddha himself.  

I, myself do not resonate with Tara, but do resonate with Buddha Akshobhya and my practice with Buddha Akshobhya helps me develop those qualities I need in order to eventually become enlightened.

I am not sure why the Tibetans seem to resonate so with Tara, but I do know that doing the Tara practice at the Center here when I have done it does again bring me in touch with aspects of Buddha. And of course some people resonate better with the female aspect of Buddha which Tara represents than the male aspect.

If you are really interested in getting the full answer, I suggest you find a teacher you trust and ask them.

And then you ask about why Tara is such an accepted practice and Dorje Shugden is not.

Well, I did start my Buddhist studies with the NKT and now am with the FPMT. I have done some  research on Dorje Shugden and from what I have learned so far I will answer your question.

Dorje Shugden is a Dharma Protector Buddha, whose job it is to protect the dharma from becoming tainted and Dorje Shugden also has promised to keep people from turning away from the dharma.

The reason that Dorje Shugden practice is not encouraged is that His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama believes from actual experience that Dorje Shugden is not a real Buddha.  Real Buddhas of course have nothing but compassion for all sentient beings and want only to help all sentient beings.

But when His Holiness wanted to practice outside the Gelugpa tradition in order to learn more and improve himself, bad things began to happen which upon investigation he traced to Dorje Shugden.  Dorje Shugden was trying to prevent His Holiness from practicing other forms of Buddhism and he was harming him.

His Holiness reasoned that a true Buddha is incapable of causing harm and therefore Dorje Shugden
cannot be a true Buddha because he was causing harm to His Holiness.

That said, in my years as an NKT practitioner, I found that the dharma I learned was pure dharma and that the folks that practiced Dorje Shugden were nice people and were not doing it to harm anyone but with the same good intentions and motivation that I practice Buddha Akshobyha practice.

From my side, I believe His Holiness is a very advanced being and everything I have ever heard him teach has been true and therefore, I trust that what he says about Dorje Shugden is true as well and that is why the Dorje Shugden practice is banned by His Holiness and Tara is not.

I hope this answers some of your questions but if you have any other questions or any follow up questions, don't hesitate to let me know


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank-you for your answers, Laurie.

I agree that it would be best to find a teacher, however due to my location and circumstance (my karma, I suppose) that is difficult at present, which is why I have asked you these questions. There is a Tibetan Buddhist centre I attend when possible, but I cannot get there with enough regularity. I am an active reader, so to compensate for my lack of a teacher I have read quite widely on buddhism in the last few years. I know this may not be the ideal situation, but it is where I am at present. I hope that this will change one day and I can have more direct involvement with a teacher. In the meantime I was considering subscribing to an online course and found this one. http://www.buddhism-connect.org/what-we-offer/online-courses/discovering-the-hea  Do you think this is worthwhile for someone in my situation?

I do have some follow-up questions, somewhat relating to your explanation about the difference between Buddha's time and ours. It relates to karma, which I appreciate is a very complex subject.  You wrote that since Buddha lived, we live in progressively more degenerate times. My question is why this is? If buddha left his precious dharma, and sangha, and a host of bodhisattvas who vow to return life after life to assist other people to attain enlightenment, should the world not be getting less degenerate instead of more?

Similarly, while I've never been there, from what I've read,  Buddhism in Tibet is probably more thoroughly a part of people's everyday life than anywhere else on earth. The result, it seems to me should be a country with exceptionally positive karma, not one which is under the grip of a brutal occupier. Also, they have probably been blessed with the presence of more boddhisatvas proportionately than anywhere else on earth. In fact, if one extrapolated , from the 8th century when buddhism began to  be widely embraced there until today, if bodhisattvas continued to be reborn after each lifetime, and during each lifetime each bodhisattva was instrumental in helping at least 2 others to become enlightened and to return after their deaths, I would expect that the bulk of the Tibetan population should be enlightened beings by this point. This observation may be simplistic, but I hope it illustrates my question as to why the vast majority of people today are so far from enlightenment, despite bodhisattvas returning to this world life after life.

Answer
Hello again Daniel -

I totally understand how hard it is to not to live near a dharma center, so if I can be of any help don't hesitate to ask.

I do hope that soon circumstances will provide you a dharma center near you in the not too distant future.

I was able to do some research on Lama Shenpen Hookham.  Without actually reading any of her dharma books to see if she is teaching pure dharma, I can't be totally certain, but from all the research I did on her on the Internet, she seems to be the real deal and I would feel comfortable at least checking out her program.

She teaches from the Nyingma and Kaygu lineages which are different than the Gelugpa lineage which is what I study.  There is nothing better or worse in any of these lineages, they are just different in how they practice and what practices they do.

And it appears she teaches in a very western manner, without the trappings and structure of the Tibetan tradition.  Again, one is not better or worse than the other, you just need to check it out for yourself. If it resonants with you, then that is great.

If it does not resonate with you, know that there are other Buddhist traditions that might resonate more with you for which I could provide you websites.

But definitely go with your instinct of what tradition, lineage and teachers feel right for you.

From what I understand, the reason we live in degenerate times is that the wise Buddhist masters say we do AND because logically, everything is dependent arising. Therefore everything, including the dharma arises, abides for a time and then must decay or degenerate.

So, Buddha arose and gave his teachings,those were great times for the dharma but once Buddha disappeared and the great masters left, the dharma began to decay.  

Dharma must degenerate and as it does, so does society because they are unable to access it.  And when the dharma has totally disappeared and can no longer be understood and life is even worse than it is now, then Buddha Maitreya will come just as Buddha Shakyamuni came when the dharma had disappeared.

Buddha arose, abided and is gone and will arise again in the form of Buddha Maitreya.  So too the dharma arose, is abiding,and will decline and become unintelligible.  And the Sangha (those that are arhats and above)of course they cannot return to samara, but from what I understand, the farther away we are from when the dharma appeared, the more confused we are and I would guess that means the harder on the sangha for them to teach us.

You say that Buddhism is Tibet is probably more thoroughly part of people's life - of course Buddhism in Tibet is currently banned.  But what you mean is with Tibetans, Buddhism is more thoroughly part of their lives, then through their great karma, they should be that much closer to enlightenment and not subjugated under a brutal occupier.

If that is true, then one could reason that in the Vatican, where Catholicism is more thoroughly a part of their life and with each Pope, the folks living in the Vatican should be the most pious and spiritually advanced of all Catholics on the earth.  But that is not necessarily so.

Ah yes, so why do you think that Tibetans are under the thumb of the Chinese?  Read Tibetan history and you will see that in 1240 the Mongols invaded Tibet.  The Tibetans have have as I understand it been at war on and off throughout their history and from what I have heard, the Tibetan warriors did a fair amount of damage to their opponents. So perhaps there is some karma that comes into play when thinking about the Chinese invasion of Tibet. From the small amount of reading I have done about the history of Tibet, it seems that they are not any more or any less warlike than any other country has been.

Although each Bodhisattva and Buddha is no doubt doing everything in their power to help all sentient beings become enlightened, becoming enlightened must come from our own side, not the side of the Buddhas.  They can only show us the path.  They cannot do  single thing to change our deluded minds.  We have to do that ourselves.

So, even if Buddhas can emanate in more than one form at the same time, there are many world systems in the Buddhist cosmology.  So if one thinks of all the sentient beings on this planet alone; think of every ant, flea, fish, mouse, snail, worm and cockroach and that is just in the animal realm.  There are five other realms, just on this planet alone. So taking into consideration all the other world systems, that's a lot of sentient beings to liberate from samsara and then add our stubbornness and the fact that we are in a degenerate time, it appears from my side that the Buddhas have their work cut out for them, no matter if they are in Tibet or any other country.

I hope what I have said has given you some answer to your questions.  If you have any further questions or thoughts, don't hesitate to let me know.

In the mean time, happy New Year.

Laurie