The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra by Rob Preece

Author:Rob Preece
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Jungian, General, Religion, Buddhism, Movements, Tibetan, Psychology
ISBN: 9781559392631
Publisher: Snow Lion
Published: 2006-12-01T02:02:58+00:00

An understanding of emptiness and an experience of nonduality are not the only intention of Buddhist practice. A Buddha's enlightened state unifies relative and absolute truth, which gives the ability to manifest constantly in the dimension of form for the welfare of sentient beings. We develop our relationship to the sacred within this relative dimension of reality. If we overlook the significance of relative truth, we lose some of the richness that comes through an appreciation of the sacred. Emptiness alone is sacred, insofar as its experience profoundly affects our lives. It is the sacred mystery that underlies every aspect of Buddhist practice. However, it is often easier to understand the nature of ultimate truth than it is to comprehend and then live creatively with relative truth.

Inhabiting relative truth and not seeking to abandon a relationship to its meaning lies at the heart of the bodhisattva's journey. Though relative truth brings us into relationship with all that may be seen as the cause of suffering, how can the bodhisattva abandon sentient beings by seeking personal liberation? The bodhisattva manifests in an embodied form to serve sentient beings through dynamic love and compassion, and that compassion will not allow the abandonment of active participation in relative truth for the sake of a disembodied nirvana.

In Tantra, our relationship to the dimensions of form and the manifestation of Buddha activity is cultivated with great skill, devotion, and beauty. Learning to live with the world of relative truth requires skill and understanding, and the threshold between relative and absolute is subtle and mysterious. It is a place of dynamic creativity, where form comes into being as the spontaneous expression of emptiness. This threshold is also the place of the sacred in its archetypal and symbolic manifestations. On this threshold we come into relationship with the power of "archetypal intent," the forces that can shape our lives. The tantric deity occupies a central position on this threshold as a personification of that intent. While this threshold remains unconscious it will remain akin to Jung's notion of the collective unconscious (Diagram z). Awakening our relationship to the sacred on this level has a profound influence upon our lives, because the deity is the vehicle or channel through which the power of dharmakava manifests (Diagram I). The dynamic energy present here is a creative and vivifying force, the inspiration that Tibetans call the jinlab, the "blessing" of the deity.

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