Really explains so much about the Mormon/LDS faith. In our temples, it’s “endowment” rather than empowerment. And the names and forms of the various gods/figures/angels are taken to be real and external, and practice assumes they are such. But what is visualized and what is aspired to is relatively directed and focused.
Yes. You can emphasize the proprioceptive, emotional, and "energetic" aspects of the yidam instead of imagery. Also you typically practice a mantra along with the yidam, and that's auditory rather than visual. Also you can practice with mudras (hand gestures).
> Conversely, does cultivating hyperphantasia help?
Tradition says yes. Supposedly people who practice intensively for many hours per day for years develop extraordinary powers of stable, detailed visualization. I have no experience of that, and haven't talked with anyone who has.
I have found that the practice can increase my ability to visualize somewhat, and I've never done it all *that* intensively; so maybe it's true. Or maybe it's religious hype; I don't know!
I have to say, what a feat, trying to explain deity practice to people.
When I encountered this practice, it changed my life completely. But I had more luck than I was being reasonable. I went for a retreat introducing such a practice without knowing much, fortunately having accumulated the important preliminary insights into emptiness, the three characteristics and what not. Also the practical skills like just resting in awareness from my previous interest in Dzogchen. Without all this I have no idea how that retreat would have played out for me. But perhaps it just lead to me integrating all the material I've personally accumulated, it was the right thing at the right moment.
But anyway, what I basically wanted to say, it cannot be overestimated how much this practice is about embodiment and relating. About just relating from certain place. And this is indeed what the practice does for me. I also see all the difficulties people from the West must have trying to understand it conceptually. This is an entirely wrong way to try to grasp it, although there is that need naturally. Why should I invest the time? You don't know and you cannot know until you taste it. The idea is, go to a certain place, relate from there, dwell there. Or that is my understanding. When you rest in emptiness, cease being yourself, and then you arise as the deity from the place of compassion, it is a moment when the whole world is lit. The intensity is almost unbearable. Fortunately, there is nobody that has to bear it :-)
It reminds me of a saying from Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: When bodhicitta is born, it is like a flash of lightning on a dark night that illuminates everything. It is like reliving this moment again and again, until you just become a living manifestation of all of what the path is. Can't speak for others, but so far I haven't really found anything more meaningful, but that is also because my values are very much in sync with this path.
Actually what did me in properly was also just learning to take refuge in something that speaks to me. I feel like it's a mental move that is pretty much alien to us right now since we dwell so much on our identity. This is also something not so easy to explain to a random person on the street. Having said that, people are somehow rightfully scared about this move as you can also take refuge in e.g. fascism and end up in a really bad place. Vajrayana just happens to release and direct this tremendous energy skilfully and for skilful means. And that is why you need some preliminary practices.
I actually do think the world looks as it looks currently very much because we are still completely ignorant on average about these mechanics, being largely unconscious about these forces that Vajrayana has known about for a long time.
Really explains so much about the Mormon/LDS faith. In our temples, it’s “endowment” rather than empowerment. And the names and forms of the various gods/figures/angels are taken to be real and external, and practice assumes they are such. But what is visualized and what is aspired to is relatively directed and focused.
(Assuming comments from strangers are welcome) Is aphantasia compatible with yidam practice? Conversely, does cultivating hyperphantasia help?
> comments from strangers
Yes, please, thank you very much!
(Great question!)
> Is aphantasia compatible with yidam practice?
Yes. You can emphasize the proprioceptive, emotional, and "energetic" aspects of the yidam instead of imagery. Also you typically practice a mantra along with the yidam, and that's auditory rather than visual. Also you can practice with mudras (hand gestures).
> Conversely, does cultivating hyperphantasia help?
Tradition says yes. Supposedly people who practice intensively for many hours per day for years develop extraordinary powers of stable, detailed visualization. I have no experience of that, and haven't talked with anyone who has.
I have found that the practice can increase my ability to visualize somewhat, and I've never done it all *that* intensively; so maybe it's true. Or maybe it's religious hype; I don't know!
Thank you, much appreciated.
I have to say, what a feat, trying to explain deity practice to people.
When I encountered this practice, it changed my life completely. But I had more luck than I was being reasonable. I went for a retreat introducing such a practice without knowing much, fortunately having accumulated the important preliminary insights into emptiness, the three characteristics and what not. Also the practical skills like just resting in awareness from my previous interest in Dzogchen. Without all this I have no idea how that retreat would have played out for me. But perhaps it just lead to me integrating all the material I've personally accumulated, it was the right thing at the right moment.
But anyway, what I basically wanted to say, it cannot be overestimated how much this practice is about embodiment and relating. About just relating from certain place. And this is indeed what the practice does for me. I also see all the difficulties people from the West must have trying to understand it conceptually. This is an entirely wrong way to try to grasp it, although there is that need naturally. Why should I invest the time? You don't know and you cannot know until you taste it. The idea is, go to a certain place, relate from there, dwell there. Or that is my understanding. When you rest in emptiness, cease being yourself, and then you arise as the deity from the place of compassion, it is a moment when the whole world is lit. The intensity is almost unbearable. Fortunately, there is nobody that has to bear it :-)
It reminds me of a saying from Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: When bodhicitta is born, it is like a flash of lightning on a dark night that illuminates everything. It is like reliving this moment again and again, until you just become a living manifestation of all of what the path is. Can't speak for others, but so far I haven't really found anything more meaningful, but that is also because my values are very much in sync with this path.
Actually what did me in properly was also just learning to take refuge in something that speaks to me. I feel like it's a mental move that is pretty much alien to us right now since we dwell so much on our identity. This is also something not so easy to explain to a random person on the street. Having said that, people are somehow rightfully scared about this move as you can also take refuge in e.g. fascism and end up in a really bad place. Vajrayana just happens to release and direct this tremendous energy skilfully and for skilful means. And that is why you need some preliminary practices.
I actually do think the world looks as it looks currently very much because we are still completely ignorant on average about these mechanics, being largely unconscious about these forces that Vajrayana has known about for a long time.