good evening :namaste
this is turning out to be an interesting post ,
please bear in mind this is my reply , my personal reflection , and may not be true of all schools .
:namaste ratikala
I see it's referred to as a "fast track", but I know so little about other schools of Buddhism and the practices other than meditation and following the Noble Eightfold Path, I wonder why this is any more of a fast track to enlightenment.
"fast track" ,...yes , .. this is the way I was taught vajrayana , I forget now the term used but it implied that this was the method of acheiving buddha hood in this lifetime .
but then I had also studied the eightfold path and could see that it was equaly possible to acceive enlightenment by sincere practice of the basic tenents .
what at times turned me off was the western approach , the hard sell !" .....only by this special and most superior method , .......become a bohisattva for the benifit of all , .........practice this sadhana and become a superior being , .......and it will only cost you......
but after reflection much as I love vajrayana , much as I love my yidams , I will tell you the universal method which can be used by anyone within any practice and costs nothing ! further more it needs no special mantras , .... it requires two things dedication and total surrender !
That's avidya at work, which we must see through, yes?
:yes:
Good point. A while back I asked if the concept of aham Brahmasmi was not like self-worship. I think the answer was no because there are checks and balances against it in this world, namely ignorance. We don't realize we are Brahman until we realize it (catch-22).
yes, some times I look at the problem buddhism faces in realising buddha nature , because as conditioned beings we are looking to find something we recognise , judging it against what we understand, namely ourselves and our being . but I see practice as striping away the layers upon layers of conceptions about what is and what we are , and when all is striped away or deconstructed you find something that the conditioned mind could never have beheld , .......
....and for this reason it was allways so that one did not teach on emptyness untill the practitioner had acheived a certain level , why ...because you canot understand it through terminology , you canot understand it with the conditioned mind , .....only words conveying theory .in much the same way that I have no experience of your home town just from veiwing it on a post card , I think I know what it is like but in truth I am simply excercising my imagination !
It's funny you mention asking for the blessings to become like the deity because most of the prayers I found and use in my sadhana do exactly that, especially this:
and as we can know nothing by use of our imagination , and we can know nothing by the assimilation of second hand information , ..... we pray , ..... please grant us your blessings :namaste
infact we humbly pray , and the more humbly we pray the sooner we make progress due the mercy of our worshipable divinity , so we are back to surrender , the fast track of all fast tracks :yes:
Lord, You are now with me, yet I am unable to see You.
Grant me Grace; empower me to behold you. You are my Light.
You are my Father. You are my eternal Mother. You are the
Breath of my breath. You are everything. From all sides, at all times,
You are watching me, seeing me, blessing me. You are in the children,
in the creatures great and small. You are everywhere.
Will you not reveal Yourself to me?
Lord, lead me, guide me, purify me, render me peaceful, wise, strong, noble, saintly.
As you are in me, express Yourself through me. Let me be a channel for the flow of
Your Nature and Qualities. Not my personality, but Your Personality which is full of
Perfection, finds its expression through me. I don't want my will to be done, for my will is imperfect, exposed to wrong impulse, full of limitations. Your Will is wonderful,
perfect, omnipotent. Let Your Will be done through me.
and if one recites this from the heart then he surrenders most perfectly , and blessings will be bestowed upon him he will become ever more pure , ever more blissfull and eventualy full of knowledge ,..... ki jai !
so in truth does it matter ? yidam or ishtadevata ?
not from where I am sitting :namaste