Devotion - how and why?

Devotion (mögü) - another Tibetan word that doesn't quite correspond to its English usage.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Devotion that moves the heart, or moves mountains for that matter.
Easy to talk about, but how do we ever get there?
Hello to all my dear listeners. Thank you for actuating the actuation

(00:21):
dooberry to make this podcast play. Welcome or welcome back to the Double
Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 9. As usual, I'm Alex Wilding, and as does
happen once in a while, I've been thinking a bit.
There are a lot of semi-technical terms that we use when we're talking about Tibetan Buddhism.

(00:44):
And, as I have noted before, and indeed have many other commentators,
these terms don't all mean what we might first think.
In those cases where there is a strong overlap between a term in our own language and its
corresponding term in, for example, Tibetan, are precisely the ones where we might fail to notice

(01:09):
that at the edges, as it were, there is a crucial difference.
So, there are a few traps to avoid.
And first, of course, if the Double Dorje Podcast floats your boat,
please take a few seconds out to share, like, follow, subscribe, tell your friends, or whatever.
And thank you to those of you who do that.

(01:35):
If I remember correctly, it's the term secret that I've spoken about most of all in this way,
particularly in December of last year, Episode 22 of the first series.
Secret can indeed mean secret, i.e. not told to anybody else.
But its significance, if I were writing this down instead of speaking, I'd underline that,

(01:59):
so just to repeat it, its "significance" is really rather different,
referring to the depth and the spiritual intimacy that some teaching or practise may have,
even when the details may be quite easily obtained by a public audience.
Today, it's the idea of devotion that I think could do with a bit of a closer look.

(02:26):
Again, as in the case of secrecy, I'm not advocating for a different translation.
Rather, I want to emphasise that in the context of Tibetan Buddhism,
the term devotion does have a slightly different meaning profile,
if that's not too fancy a way of putting it.

(02:49):
A different profile from what it does in typical Western usage.
I had a quick look at some dictionary definitions to make sure I'm starting from the right place.
These do seem to refer mainly to loyalty, love or care for someone or something,
particularly in religious contexts.

(03:12):
Adherence, adoration, fidelity, reverence and worship
are all offered by the interweb as associated words.
The Tibetan word most often translated as devotion is mögü.
In the Wiley translation, if you want to look this up, that's m-o-s, full stop, g-u-s.

(03:39):
An AI summary of the meaning of this term,
and let me just say that I do have serious unease about AI in general,
but sometimes it is handy for quick summaries, as long as we are careful about it,
describes mögü as being more than just a feeling or emotion,
but rather an active driving force involving a longing or yearning for wisdom

(04:03):
and an enthusiasm for its pursuit, rather than being merely a matter of adoration.
So far, so good.
My small experience gives me no reason to quibble with that.
In point of fact, I recall Ato Rinpoche, I think this was in Hamburg,

(04:23):
but it could have been one of several other places,
talking about this term and explaining that it's a compound
of one word that suggests respect and another word that suggests longing.
That's fully in agreement with other explanations that I've heard.
So my point is not that there's anything wrong with the word devotion

(04:46):
as a translation of this mögü, but rather that there is, I do believe,
a little corner of its meaning not covered by these explanations,
but in fact crucially important in our practise
and in particular the general approach that we take when we sit down to do a sadhana.

(05:09):
We are advised, sometimes in fact in the practise text itself,
sometimes in the commentary, or sometimes just in the course of general teachings,
that we should perform our visualisations and prayers in the spirit of mögü,
that is to say with devotion.

(05:31):
But now, supposing that you are pretty much a beginner to this kind of stuff,
as I suspect quite a few of my listeners are, let's suppose,
as we have done before, that you're doing the practise of Chenrezig.
Recently you learned that Chenrezig is some kind of Buddha of compassion,

(05:52):
or perhaps putting it better is a Buddha whose particular emphasis
is on compassion, because of course compassion is an important aspect of every and any Buddha.
You've gotten over the barrier that might be presented by Chenrezig's appearance.
In his usual form he's cross-legged, white, dressed in silks, and has FOUR arms.

(06:19):
Perhaps you already knew about the way that, let's give them the crude name of
Eastern deities, the way they often have more than two arms, more than two legs,
more than one face, not to forget sometimes more than two eyes in the face.
So we are managing not to feel that that's totally weird.
But why should we feel devotion for this figure?

(06:42):
If, it's a big if, we have an unusually strong connection to a particularly good Lama,
we may realise that we have some devotion for that Lama, and we may have some devotion
to the Buddha and to the Sangha that has brought Buddhism through the last two and a half thousand

(07:03):
years to the present day. But devotion to this somewhat exotic figure that we recently learned
about, the unusual anatomy of Chenrezig is pretty mild compared to the many, many arms and legs
and heads and faces, the weapons, the ornaments and clothing of what, for want of a better word,
we might call advanced deities. But even so, those four arms with their skin as white as snow

(07:30):
are not what you normally see on the bus into town,
not even in the back seat. So how are we supposed to feel devotion?
I once saw a video, I think it is on YouTube somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment,
showing some Russian tummo practitioners. Tummo, as you may know, is the practise of generating

(07:54):
heat in the body to purify our psychic channels, to burn up our impurities.
These guys were students of one of my own teacher's teachers. Each of them had, as is traditional,
a thin white shawl, presumably cotton. They were sat cross-legged in heavy snow,

(08:17):
and were apparently successfully drying the shawls with their body heat, again as is traditional.
It was said that as practitioners they were not particularly long-standing,
although I don't think any actual figure was mentioned.
I asked my teacher how it was possible that they could achieve this in such a short time,

(08:38):
and his immediate answer was that it was the strength of their devotion and faith.
Again, I must ask, how are we ordinary people supposed to feel that kind of devotion?

(08:58):
The suggestion I want to offer you is that when we sit down to practise,
visualising, reciting prayers, and above all mantras of course,
the mögü is not just a matter of looking up to our teachers and the Buddhas with respect and longing,
but we need to feel that we are entering, or are indeed in, a profoundly magical space.

(09:20):
I'm talking here in general terms, but of course this is very much what is intended
when in the course of such a visualisation practise we enter into the mandala of the deity.

(09:45):
I suppose I should say that although I think magical is an excellent word here,
I'm not talking about some kind of physically efficacious external magic,
which is a whole different discussion, but about the magic of the imagination.
We should sense every time that our visualisations are of something exquisitely beautiful.

(10:10):
We should sense that our mantra, even if it is something as well known as the mani,
is a vibration of profound meaning and blessing, resonating throughout the universe,
radiating compassion and wisdom.
The light radiating from Chenrezig sparkles and shines with the mystery of moonlight and starlight,

(10:34):
while the whiteness of his body gleams like the snow on a high mountain
shimmering against the deep blue sky.
The kind of feeling I'm trying to suggest here is very different from the feeling of going through
the visualisation rather like a shopping list.
White skin, check.
Four arms, check.
Sitting cross-legged, check.

(10:55):
Two eyes, one face, check.
All the rest of it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Been, there, done, that.
Even if we've done this practise hundreds of times,
it's important to remember how sacred it is.
In fact, there is a term, sacred outlook, which is a different word from mögü,
but nevertheless is also very much connected with what we are talking about today.

(11:20):
Similarly, when we make our offerings,
it's not going to help very much if we have that shopping list mentality.
Ram, yam, kham, check.
Om, ah, hung, check.
Water, water, flowers, incense, and the rest, yeah, yeah, I know that.
It is a very different matter if the ram, yam, kham syllables vibrate with purifying power,

(11:43):
and the om, ah, hung syllables are powered by the blessing of all the Buddhas
of the future, present, past, throughout space and time, and perhaps even beyond that.
Our water offerings must, in our mind's eye, be sparkling, clear, and fresh.
The flowers, delicate, luminous, and scented.

(12:03):
The incense, spreading an enchanting aroma around, and so on.
In series one, I mentioned William Blake a couple of times,
but I think this, one of his most famous verses, bears repeating.
"To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower.

(12:24):
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour."

(12:45):
I rather suspect that these states of mind
may be similar to what some people experience under the influence of psychedelic drugs.
Although, of course, the problem with those
is that the experiences are uncontrolled, maybe even uncontrollable,
and are easily misunderstood in all sorts of ways.

(13:05):
So, obviously, I'm not recommending anybody to go down that route.
What I am suggesting is that when we are instructed to do our practise
with the application of mögü,
we really should be opening up a different way of looking at things.
I don't doubt that most of us, at one time or another,

(13:29):
will have had experiences, quite possibly spontaneously,
in which our perceptions took on this quality of magic.
For some people, this is often associated with nature,
forests, mountains, lakes, and streams.

(13:49):
But it might be something quite mundane,
like the extraordinary way in which light beams fall through a window,
throwing magical diagrams of light and shade across the floor.
If we can gently remind ourselves of the quality of those experiences,
we can draw nearer to performing our practise with mögü.

(14:11):
Our meditation can then become an experience of wonder,
rather than a process of ticking off the entries on a shopping list.
So, in summary, and yes, it does look like this will be a short episode,
our practise of mantra, visualisation, and so on,
will only be effective if we keep our imagination engaged,

(14:36):
if we continue to be aware of the magic.
It's the mögü, the devotion, that underpins that sense of magic,
and stops us from just drifting off and reciting a shopping list.
Because this is a short episode,
I'm going to turn on the sound for the film
that has been running as a background scene in the video version of this podcast,

(14:58):
to allow you to see one expression of mögü in emphatic action.
Those of you who are listening to the plain audio version
will hear the soundtrack,
but will have to imagine that we are looking at a valley
in which the stony ground is covered in snow.

(15:18):
A number of people are measuring their length,
as the saying goes,
on the way to some sacred destination.
Each pilgrim makes a full-length prostration,
stands up,
and then takes a few steps forward
to about where their hands had reached,
and then prostrates again.

(15:39):
They sing as they go, as you can hear.
After a while, the camera zooms back
to show us not just the dozen or so people that we started with,
but getting on for 50 people,

(16:00):
making progress in that way.
Now, that's what I call mögü!
I should mention that I got this clip off the net somewhere,
and it has the rather mysterious file name of
Gochag at Rizong Monastery.
If there's an owner out there who would like to be credited,
I would be more than happy to do so.

(16:22):
The same goes for the second clip,
which is entitled,
Prostrations in the Snow at Lamayuru Gonpa.
So, please remember, of course,
if you appreciate this episode or podcast,
then do like, follow, subscribe, and tell your friends.

(16:42):
And remember, it's not so much the practise,
it's the devotion, the mögü that you do it with,
that makes the difference.
Bye.