Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [98]
In Vajrayana Buddhism, the image of a masterful tantric practitioner is that of a peacock who loves to eat deadly snakes and poisonous plants, which only make his tail feathers blaze more brilliantly. In the Mahayana tradition, the image of the Bodhisattva practitioner is of the learned physician who knows how to use these poisonous plants medicinally. If you lack these master skills, poisonous plants can kill you; working with the poison-laced intense passions can kill the spiritual life too, if misdirected.
Too often, tantric sex has been used as a rationalization and justification for self-indulgent behavior, exploitation of power imbalances, and even sexual misconduct. Some yogis have fallen off the path and deviated into sensuality, rather than continuing to develop spiritually congruent with their original intent. This reminds us that for the sincere practitioner, tantric sex can become like a dangerous high-wire act. Tantric sexual practice was never intended as a way to justify sexual addiction or hypocrisy. Some notable modern teachers have slipped down this slope. Buddhism has not been immune to the same kinds of sexual scandal that have hit other religious institutions. Even those who have taken vows of celibacy have been known to rationalize their sexual relationships in the name of the higher spiritual practice of Tantric sex. If we are involved in this so-called Crazy Wisdom, an advanced tantric style of teaching and practice, we would do well to remember to ask ourselves whether our lives are thereby becoming more wise or more crazy.
The sexual act, if approached with utmost sincerity, can provide a way for men and women to be transported beyond our habitual sense of finite, separate selfhood and experience a rapture that is akin to divine mystic union—even if only momentarily. Buddhist tantras present a way to take that experience and use sexual energy as a propellant to the broader and more penetrating experience of spiritual development, liberation, and awakening.
REFRAIN FROM INTOXICANTS
THAT CAUSE HEEDLESSNESS
The best mind-altering drug is truth.
—LILY TOMLIN
The Tale of the Hapless Monk is a traditional teaching tale—reminiscent of the wisdom of Aesop—that is often used to illustrate how intoxicants cause heedlessness. As you read, notice how the training precepts are interlinked and dependent on each other:
One lovely spring day, a monk was out on his begging rounds when the beautiful wife of a wealthy businessman, recognizing the monk as susceptible to temptation, invited him into her home. There she engaged him in a spirited conversation. When the monk finally realized that too much time had passed, he went to the door only to discover that it was locked.
“Please,” he asked the woman, “would you open this door?”
“Not just yet,” the woman said, “I will let you out of the room only if you do one of the following: Kill the goat who is tied up outside the back door, have sex with me, or drink this jug of wine.”
The monk tried to think his way out of this dreadful situation. As a peaceful Buddhist, he couldn’t resort to violence against the imposing woman in order to fight his way out of the house. Killing a goat would mean breaking the precept against killing; having sex would be breaking his monastic vows of chastity; here it would also mean adultery, which is sexual misconduct and stealing as well. The perturbed monk decided that the least offensive thing he could do would be to drink the wine, which would harm no one but himself. So he did.
Not accustomed to strong spirits, the hapless monk got very drunk, which quickly weakened all of his resolve. By then he was so hungry and lacking in mindfulness that he killed the goat; and while it was cooking, he and the woman had sex. Thus all his pure vows were lost.
The moral of this story, of course, is that intoxicants, whether they be