Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Ah, you think you've received an empowerment, but is it a real one?
Let's take a look.
Hello to all my dear listeners.
Thank you for clicking or pressing whatever it is you have done to make this episode play.
(00:21):
Welcome indeed, or welcome back, in double-deed.
This is the Double Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 8, and I'm Alex Wilding.
In Episode 37 of Series 1, I took a bit of a look at empowerments, especially from the point of
view of a relative newcomer, as many of us probably are, someone who might have been encouraged to attend
(00:46):
an empowerment, and who isn't quite sure of the implications or the etiquette.
Today, I want to look more closely at what empowerments really are, or at least what they should be.
There may be some overlap with that episode, but this is going to have to touch on a few contentious
subjects, some points of dispute.
(01:08):
But what did you expect of Buddhism?
Peace and love?
Total agreement and never a critical word?
At first, of course, if you like this Double Dorjee Podcast, 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.
(01:32):
If you yourself want to become a digger into these matters, a Dharma miner, so to speak, you will find,
when you look in the right corners, plenty of authentic material from Tibetan masters about empowerment,
about its general meaning, the ways in which it's carried out, and quite a lot of technical detail.
(01:56):
You could, for one example, look at Tsele Natsok Rangdrol's “Empowerment and the Path of Liberation”, or at
the encyclopaedic works we are now lucky enough to have translated, such as Chamgon Kongdrol's “Treasury of
Knowledge”, which does lean towards the Kagyu and related traditions, or, from the Nyingma point of view,
(02:21):
the “Complete Nyingma Tradition”, compiled by Chöying Thubten Dorje.
This last collection has still got a few translations to go, but we live in hope!
But, unless you're determined to enter the deep cave where monsters and dakinis, not all of them helpful,
(02:41):
dwell, there is a bit of a problem with these works.
They were not originally written for people like you and me.
They were written for Tibetans, mostly already deeply versed in the lore of the Dharma.
That, of course, is lore as in folklore, not in the sense of the law that Donald Trump seems to
(03:06):
be determined to trash.
Precise and clear these works may be in their own context, but they tend to assume that the reader has
a mindset that is, frankly speaking, altogether foreign to us, an understanding of allusions, hyperbole,
double meanings and allegory.
So, my intention isn't to emulate, even on a tiny scale, any of those great scholars or the great
(03:33):
translators who are bringing their works to us, but I just want to move our understandings a little bit
deeper into what it is helpful, as a basic, straightforward practitioner, to understand.
You may well already realise that the tradition knows of and preserves a very large number of empowerments,
(03:58):
and they vary enormously in detail and in structure.
Empowerments into each of the four classes of Tantra, for example, differ quite markedly.
To avoid getting into too much detail, which the Dharma diggers can take time to study for themselves, I am
going to simplify this by saying no more than that there is a spectrum.
(04:22):
It extends from empowerments associated with the first of the four classes of Tantra, known as the Action
Tantra - Chenrezig or Tara would be examples of this - up to the scary fourth class, which is known as the
Highest Yoga Tantra.
Now, if I'm counting correctly, that last name is 19 keystrokes, enough to make HYT a common abbreviation
(04:49):
in this field.
An Action Tantra empowerment is likely to be relatively simple.
It may be preceded by a general talk about its value, its history, possibly about the lineage of teachers
from whom the officiating lama has received this empowerment.
(05:12):
The main course will start, as pretty much any Buddhist procedure will, with refuge prayers, and with
prayers for the release of all beings from suffering, in other words, bodhicitta.
The deity will be invited from wherever he or she lives, and will be offered the standard offerings:
(05:35):
drinking water, foot-washing water, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food, and music.
Liturgies such as the Sevenfold Service, and the offering of mandalas will be recited.
Things will be done to convey the blessings of the deity to the assembled people.
(05:55):
They may be touched on the head by a statue or picture to convey the blessing of the Buddha's body.
They will recite the deity's mantra along with the lama.
There is one charming enactment of this particular phase, which is when the lama will hold a mala that has
been dedicated to the deity, empowered as it were, and to recite the mantra while the student at the same
(06:20):
time counts a few mantras on the beads of the same mala.
Some visualisation or other will convey the blessing of the Buddha's mind to the mind of the students.
An empowerment at this level of the action tantra can in fact have quite a large number of such sections
and activities, but that's a matter for the particular case, and particular cases is not what I want to go
(06:43):
into, nor would it be appropriate to do so.
At the end, the deity that has been invoked is dissolved, most likely being asked to return to its usual
heavenly abode.
I should make clear that in this whole process, the students do not visualise themselves as anything other
(07:04):
than their normal appearance, although the deity may appear above their head, and may indeed melt into
their heart.
This is all reflected in the sadhana practises for the deity, which will describe these visualisations.
The deity or Buddha itself at this stage will, in all likelihood, be peaceful and beautiful.
(07:28):
If you showed a picture of him or her to your maiden Auntie Ada, she would probably think it was
rather exotic, but there would be little or nothing to cause shock.
Students will be expected to make certain vows, but in practise, the extent to which these are emphasised
depends on the lama, and on what the lama thinks about the students.
(07:54):
At the minimum, the student will be expected to always revere the deity, respect the lama from whom the
empowerment has been received, and, quite possibly, to recite a certain number of the deity's mantra,
preferably in the context of a sadhana practise.
They might be expected to complete a certain number over a period of time, or to recite a certain number
(08:20):
every day.
At the other end of the spectrum, in an HYT empowerment, for example, things are more brightly, if not
garishly, coloured.
At some stage, the students will visualise themselves as the deity, who may very well have more than two
(08:46):
arms or legs, even more than one face.
Even in those forms with a standard count of limbs, he or she will, in most cases, have a frightening
appearance, holding weapons and skullcups full of blood, be wearing garlands of heads, and other possibly
gruesome items.
Probably best not shown to your Auntie Ada, not without warning and preparation anyway.
(09:12):
The students will be required to taste nectar somewhere during the main empowerments.
I will skip over the complex symbolism here, but I will explain that on the physical level, the nectar will
be composed of hooch, whisky is a favourite, and this liquor will have had amrita pills crushed or
(09:36):
dissolved into it.
The formulation of these amrita pills is very complex, both in terms of the couple of dozen or more, partly outlandish
ingredients, as well as in terms of the rituals that need to be carried out to empower it.
Very few lamas make their own amrita pills, they tend to be made during big ceremonies, at big monasteries,
(10:03):
it's actually one of the jobs those monasteries have to do, and the pills are passed on down the line.
As in other empowerments, the students will be touched on the head by a vase, a vajra, a representation of
the deity's body, and indeed probably many other implements, some of them startling.
(10:33):
It is absolutely essential, if these ceremonies are to make any sense at all, that the students have
confidence, not only in the deity or Buddha, but in the lama who is enacting the empowerment.
The whole point is that they make a visceral contact with the deity, through and with the lineage of
(10:55):
teachers who have been carrying the flame, the electricity, or whatever metaphor you like to use to
describe this stream of blessing.
If the students feel that they are just going through the actions, then the whole thing is, rather
obviously I think, no more than a charade.
(11:15):
Yes, I have spoken about a lot of this before, but I felt it was important to set up the
framework of an empowerment, in the sense of a ceremony, before getting to the thing that I am really
interested in, which is, in a more fundamental sense, what is it all about?
Away from the theory discussed in the text coming out of the tradition, can we possibly step right back and
(11:41):
ask things like, if this is an introduction to the deity, what part does that deity or Buddha play in
the process?
Is the whole thing just a formality?
In other words, if we simply sat there, recited the bits we were supposed to recite, put the blindfold over
our eyes when we were supposed to, and take it off again at the right time, stood up, sat down,
(12:05):
prostrated, and had little or no idea of what was going on, have we then received the empowerment?
Another way of looking at this would be to ask if it is like being admitted to a university.
You turn up on the day of the matriculation ceremony, wearing the right clothes, shake the right hands,
(12:27):
recite one or two things, and hey presto, you are a member of the university.
Is that what it's like?
Or, is there something deeper involved?
Is there a spiritual connection established with the lineage of the particular practise?
The answer to that last question is, of course, yes, at least in theory.
(12:50):
But that still leaves the question of, what is the nature of that connection?
Was some kind of telepathy involved?
Something that some people might think of as paranormal?
Was there some kind of blessing or connection made between the minds of the initiates and of the deity,
mediated, of course, through the lama?
(13:10):
Or is it just a set of formulaic words and actions, maybe effective words and actions, operating entirely
on an outer level, such as could be recorded on a video camera?
In some ways, this isn't all that important.
In a real empowerment, the students already have a sense of who the deity or Buddha is, know very well
(13:34):
who the lama is, open their hearts and minds in the course of the ceremony to the stream of blessing
of the particular deity and, crucially, commit themselves to upholding the vows appropriate for that deity.
The question of what these vows are is hugely complicated, especially if you want to be a scholar of these
(13:57):
things, but many of them boil down to what is described as maintaining sacred outlook.
There may very well be specific details, such as keeping a dorje and bell with you at all times, or
keeping an image of the deity, or performing the recitation of a certain number of mantras.
(14:21):
These may well be explained at the time, or it may be necessary for you to ask your teacher to
find out.
Recognising that you have received this blessing, and committing yourself to maintaining these vows in one
way or another, is perhaps the most essential part of the empowerment.
(14:42):
But the question of whether this is just a formula, or is something more, is crucial to the controversial
question of whether empowerments have to be given in person, or whether they can be given virtually over
the internet.
A consensus has largely emerged, and note that I say largely, that lungs can be given virtually.
(15:11):
A lung is the reading over of a text with the intention of authorising the listeners to use and study
that text.
The teacher reads the lung, the students are at the same time watching and listening in the appropriate
way, either in the same room, or perhaps through a monitor connected over the internet.
(15:33):
It's worth noting that when a lung is given, while it will be surrounded by refuge and similar prayers
beforehand, along with dedication afterwards, nothing happens other than the reading of the text.
The teacher does nothing but read with the intention of giving the lung, while the students do nothing but
(15:58):
listen attentively.
This may be more difficult than it sounds, especially if the lung goes on for not just a few minutes,
but for hours or even days, and when it is done at a rate that even native speakers can't understand
what's being said!
It is what it is.
(16:19):
Empowerments, however, are a different matter.
It's often said that in the Vajrayana we make use of all the senses, and of sense pleasures indeed.
Singing, dancing, food and drink, incense, music, all play a part, even though sometimes this is more a
matter of the imagination than of concrete reality.
(16:39):
If you are going to try to take an empowerment virtually, what are you going to do when the assistant
takes the sharp-smelling Gugulu incense - it's a kind of incense that I think smells a bit like burning
tyres, but not so bad - through the room to drive out negative forces?
(16:59):
Is the virtual student just going to pretend to smell it?
I suppose it would not be difficult to have a bowl of rice in front of you, and when the
students who are physically present throw it into the air, thinking of it as an offering of flowers to the
lamas and deities, so you can throw some rice at your computer screen instead.
(17:23):
And when various sacred items, such as dorjes or crystals or vases, or whatever it is that the vision, that
the originator of this particular empowerment specified, when these things are brought round, having been
blessed by the lama, and placed on the heads of the students, are you going to go up to the
screen and bump the top of your head against it?
(17:46):
Perhaps.
And what, I have to ask, are you going to do when the shrine servant comes round with a bowl,
possibly a skull-bowl, of nectar, and a long, admittedly small spoon, and puts a little bit of the blessed
hooch liquid into the students' left hands?
(18:08):
This probably alcoholic liquid will have blessing pills dissolved in it, and will have been blessed by the
lama during or immediately before the empowerment ceremony.
If you are there, you will drink it, you will taste it, it will pass over your tongue and into
your stomach, you will feel it.
How are you going to substitute for that?
(18:30):
Are you going to lick the screen, or what?
Empowerment ceremonies vary in complexity and in detail, and there are many other ways in which the
connection to the deity is made viscerally real.
Watching it on a video screen is, at the very best, a very thin substitute.
(18:55):
I will offer one analogy.
If you are a bit prudish in nature, then fair play to you, but you might like to skip a
few seconds forward.
I'll wait a brief moment for you to do that... Tum, tum, tiddle-eye tum.
Okay, let's leave virtual impairments aside, and think for a moment about virtual sex.
(19:16):
It's not hard to imagine that for people who are into that kind of thing, it must be quite fun.
But is it actually the same as the real thing, skin to skin, exchanging bodily fluids, for better or worse?
I think not.
You can come back in now.
Right, now there are those who say that, okay, but with faith you can visualise these things and get the
(19:41):
same result.
They may have a point, but then we can visualise or pretend anything, can't we?
We can pretend or visualise or imagine that any lama of our choosing has given us any high and much
sought after secret empowerment of our choosing, just like that.
Seems a bit off somehow.
(20:03):
There are those also who point out that some highly revered lamas have given online empowerments.
Even the Dalai Lama has given Chenrezig empowerments online.
In fact, some of the considerations I've talked about also apply to the mass in-person empowerments that
the Dalai Lama, for instance, has given, where many of the thousands of participants can scarcely even see
(20:27):
the place where the action is happening.
He has, however, said that he does not give the whole of the empowerment, but that it is mainly a
way of giving a powerful blessing.
Obviously enough, it seems to me, in these cases, many of the participants, I would guess most, will not go
(20:48):
on to keep the complex vows, study the theory behind the practice, and the techniques of the practice
itself.
Another famous case often quoted by the proponents of online empowerments is that of Garchen Rinpoche, who
is noted for saying that not only can students take his empowerments online, but can do so later from
(21:13):
Recordings!!!
Because of his acknowledged holiness, it can feel over-sceptical to challenge the view of such a master,
and to point out the difficulties of this position.
Then again, Buddhism is famous for not having an infallible Pope, so one may wonder.
(21:34):
It is allowed.
His own students, of course, will be expected to accept this view, along with the value of applying sacred
butter that has been used to lubricate the axle of an important prayer wheel at his monastery, to their
nostrils, as a protection against COVID.
(21:55):
It follows, say those proponents, that online empowerments are generally valid.
You and I are free, of course, to agree with this line of thought.
I myself don't.
It's just not the same.
And with that, we have made our way through the Double Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 8.
(22:18):
Please remember, of course, if you appreciate this episode or podcast, then do please like, follow,
subscribe, and tell your friends.
And remember, if you truly, deeply, totally, have the right motivation, anything is possible.
But just don't kid yourself!
Bye!
Ah, you think you've received an empowerment, but is it a real one?
Let's take a look.
Hello to all my dear listeners.
Thank you for clicking or pressing whatever it is you have done to make this episode play.
(00:21):
Welcome indeed, or welcome back, in double-deed.
This is the Double Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 8, and I'm Alex Wilding.
In Episode 37 of Series 1, I took a bit of a look at empowerments, especially from the point of
view of a relative newcomer, as many of us probably are, someone who might have been encouraged to attend
(00:46):
an empowerment, and who isn't quite sure of the implications or the etiquette.
Today, I want to look more closely at what empowerments really are, or at least what they should be.
There may be some overlap with that episode, but this is going to have to touch on a few contentious
subjects, some points of dispute.
(01:08):
But what did you expect of Buddhism?
Peace and love?
Total agreement and never a critical word?
At first, of course, if you like this Double Dorjee Podcast, 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.
(01:32):
If you yourself want to become a digger into these matters, a Dharma miner, so to speak, you will find,
when you look in the right corners, plenty of authentic material from Tibetan masters about empowerment,
about its general meaning, the ways in which it's carried out, and quite a lot of technical detail.
(01:56):
You could, for one example, look at Tsele Natsok Rangdrol's “Empowerment and the Path of Liberation”, or at
the encyclopaedic works we are now lucky enough to have translated, such as Chamgon Kongdrol's “Treasury of
Knowledge”, which does lean towards the Kagyu and related traditions, or, from the Nyingma point of view,
(02:21):
the “Complete Nyingma Tradition”, compiled by Chöying Thubten Dorje.
This last collection has still got a few translations to go, but we live in hope!
But, unless you're determined to enter the deep cave where monsters and dakinis, not all of them helpful,
(02:41):
dwell, there is a bit of a problem with these works.
They were not originally written for people like you and me.
They were written for Tibetans, mostly already deeply versed in the lore of the Dharma.
That, of course, is lore as in folklore, not in the sense of the law that Donald Trump seems to
(03:06):
be determined to trash.
Precise and clear these works may be in their own context, but they tend to assume that the reader has
a mindset that is, frankly speaking, altogether foreign to us, an understanding of allusions, hyperbole,
double meanings and allegory.
So, my intention isn't to emulate, even on a tiny scale, any of those great scholars or the great
(03:33):
translators who are bringing their works to us, but I just want to move our understandings a little bit
deeper into what it is helpful, as a basic, straightforward practitioner, to understand.
You may well already realise that the tradition knows of and preserves a very large number of empowerments,
(03:58):
and they vary enormously in detail and in structure.
Empowerments into each of the four classes of Tantra, for example, differ quite markedly.
To avoid getting into too much detail, which the Dharma diggers can take time to study for themselves, I am
going to simplify this by saying no more than that there is a spectrum.
(04:22):
It extends from empowerments associated with the first of the four classes of Tantra, known as the Action
Tantra - Chenrezig or Tara would be examples of this - up to the scary fourth class, which is known as the
Highest Yoga Tantra.
Now, if I'm counting correctly, that last name is 19 keystrokes, enough to make HYT a common abbreviation
(04:49):
in this field.
An Action Tantra empowerment is likely to be relatively simple.
It may be preceded by a general talk about its value, its history, possibly about the lineage of teachers
from whom the officiating lama has received this empowerment.
(05:12):
The main course will start, as pretty much any Buddhist procedure will, with refuge prayers, and with
prayers for the release of all beings from suffering, in other words, bodhicitta.
The deity will be invited from wherever he or she lives, and will be offered the standard offerings:
(05:35):
drinking water, foot-washing water, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food, and music.
Liturgies such as the Sevenfold Service, and the offering of mandalas will be recited.
Things will be done to convey the blessings of the deity to the assembled people.
(05:55):
They may be touched on the head by a statue or picture to convey the blessing of the Buddha's body.
They will recite the deity's mantra along with the lama.
There is one charming enactment of this particular phase, which is when the lama will hold a mala that has
been dedicated to the deity, empowered as it were, and to recite the mantra while the student at the same
(06:20):
time counts a few mantras on the beads of the same mala.
Some visualisation or other will convey the blessing of the Buddha's mind to the mind of the students.
An empowerment at this level of the action tantra can in fact have quite a large number of such sections
and activities, but that's a matter for the particular case, and particular cases is not what I want to go
(06:43):
into, nor would it be appropriate to do so.
At the end, the deity that has been invoked is dissolved, most likely being asked to return to its usual
heavenly abode.
I should make clear that in this whole process, the students do not visualise themselves as anything other
(07:04):
than their normal appearance, although the deity may appear above their head, and may indeed melt into
their heart.
This is all reflected in the sadhana practises for the deity, which will describe these visualisations.
The deity or Buddha itself at this stage will, in all likelihood, be peaceful and beautiful.
(07:28):
If you showed a picture of him or her to your maiden Auntie Ada, she would probably think it was
rather exotic, but there would be little or nothing to cause shock.
Students will be expected to make certain vows, but in practise, the extent to which these are emphasised
depends on the lama, and on what the lama thinks about the students.
(07:54):
At the minimum, the student will be expected to always revere the deity, respect the lama from whom the
empowerment has been received, and, quite possibly, to recite a certain number of the deity's mantra,
preferably in the context of a sadhana practise.
They might be expected to complete a certain number over a period of time, or to recite a certain number
(08:20):
every day.
At the other end of the spectrum, in an HYT empowerment, for example, things are more brightly, if not
garishly, coloured.
At some stage, the students will visualise themselves as the deity, who may very well have more than two
(08:46):
arms or legs, even more than one face.
Even in those forms with a standard count of limbs, he or she will, in most cases, have a frightening
appearance, holding weapons and skullcups full of blood, be wearing garlands of heads, and other possibly
gruesome items.
Probably best not shown to your Auntie Ada, not without warning and preparation anyway.
(09:12):
The students will be required to taste nectar somewhere during the main empowerments.
I will skip over the complex symbolism here, but I will explain that on the physical level, the nectar will
be composed of hooch, whisky is a favourite, and this liquor will have had amrita pills crushed or
(09:36):
dissolved into it.
The formulation of these amrita pills is very complex, both in terms of the couple of dozen or more, partly outlandish
ingredients, as well as in terms of the rituals that need to be carried out to empower it.
Very few lamas make their own amrita pills, they tend to be made during big ceremonies, at big monasteries,
(10:03):
it's actually one of the jobs those monasteries have to do, and the pills are passed on down the line.
As in other empowerments, the students will be touched on the head by a vase, a vajra, a representation of
the deity's body, and indeed probably many other implements, some of them startling.
(10:33):
It is absolutely essential, if these ceremonies are to make any sense at all, that the students have
confidence, not only in the deity or Buddha, but in the lama who is enacting the empowerment.
The whole point is that they make a visceral contact with the deity, through and with the lineage of
(10:55):
teachers who have been carrying the flame, the electricity, or whatever metaphor you like to use to
describe this stream of blessing.
If the students feel that they are just going through the actions, then the whole thing is, rather
obviously I think, no more than a charade.
(11:15):
Yes, I have spoken about a lot of this before, but I felt it was important to set up the
framework of an empowerment, in the sense of a ceremony, before getting to the thing that I am really
interested in, which is, in a more fundamental sense, what is it all about?
Away from the theory discussed in the text coming out of the tradition, can we possibly step right back and
(11:41):
ask things like, if this is an introduction to the deity, what part does that deity or Buddha play in
the process?
Is the whole thing just a formality?
In other words, if we simply sat there, recited the bits we were supposed to recite, put the blindfold over
our eyes when we were supposed to, and take it off again at the right time, stood up, sat down,
(12:05):
prostrated, and had little or no idea of what was going on, have we then received the empowerment?
Another way of looking at this would be to ask if it is like being admitted to a university.
You turn up on the day of the matriculation ceremony, wearing the right clothes, shake the right hands,
(12:27):
recite one or two things, and hey presto, you are a member of the university.
Is that what it's like?
Or, is there something deeper involved?
Is there a spiritual connection established with the lineage of the particular practise?
The answer to that last question is, of course, yes, at least in theory.
(12:50):
But that still leaves the question of, what is the nature of that connection?
Was some kind of telepathy involved?
Something that some people might think of as paranormal?
Was there some kind of blessing or connection made between the minds of the initiates and of the deity,
mediated, of course, through the lama?
(13:10):
Or is it just a set of formulaic words and actions, maybe effective words and actions, operating entirely
on an outer level, such as could be recorded on a video camera?
In some ways, this isn't all that important.
In a real empowerment, the students already have a sense of who the deity or Buddha is, know very well
(13:34):
who the lama is, open their hearts and minds in the course of the ceremony to the stream of blessing
of the particular deity and, crucially, commit themselves to upholding the vows appropriate for that deity.
The question of what these vows are is hugely complicated, especially if you want to be a scholar of these
(13:57):
things, but many of them boil down to what is described as maintaining sacred outlook.
There may very well be specific details, such as keeping a dorje and bell with you at all times, or
keeping an image of the deity, or performing the recitation of a certain number of mantras.
(14:21):
These may well be explained at the time, or it may be necessary for you to ask your teacher to
find out.
Recognising that you have received this blessing, and committing yourself to maintaining these vows in one
way or another, is perhaps the most essential part of the empowerment.
(14:42):
But the question of whether this is just a formula, or is something more, is crucial to the controversial
question of whether empowerments have to be given in person, or whether they can be given virtually over
the internet.
A consensus has largely emerged, and note that I say largely, that lungs can be given virtually.
(15:11):
A lung is the reading over of a text with the intention of authorising the listeners to use and study
that text.
The teacher reads the lung, the students are at the same time watching and listening in the appropriate
way, either in the same room, or perhaps through a monitor connected over the internet.
(15:33):
It's worth noting that when a lung is given, while it will be surrounded by refuge and similar prayers
beforehand, along with dedication afterwards, nothing happens other than the reading of the text.
The teacher does nothing but read with the intention of giving the lung, while the students do nothing but
(15:58):
listen attentively.
This may be more difficult than it sounds, especially if the lung goes on for not just a few minutes,
but for hours or even days, and when it is done at a rate that even native speakers can't understand
what's being said!
It is what it is.
(16:19):
Empowerments, however, are a different matter.
It's often said that in the Vajrayana we make use of all the senses, and of sense pleasures indeed.
Singing, dancing, food and drink, incense, music, all play a part, even though sometimes this is more a
matter of the imagination than of concrete reality.
(16:39):
If you are going to try to take an empowerment virtually, what are you going to do when the assistant
takes the sharp-smelling Gugulu incense - it's a kind of incense that I think smells a bit like burning
tyres, but not so bad - through the room to drive out negative forces?
(16:59):
Is the virtual student just going to pretend to smell it?
I suppose it would not be difficult to have a bowl of rice in front of you, and when the
students who are physically present throw it into the air, thinking of it as an offering of flowers to the
lamas and deities, so you can throw some rice at your computer screen instead.
(17:23):
And when various sacred items, such as dorjes or crystals or vases, or whatever it is that the vision, that
the originator of this particular empowerment specified, when these things are brought round, having been
blessed by the lama, and placed on the heads of the students, are you going to go up to the
screen and bump the top of your head against it?
(17:46):
Perhaps.
And what, I have to ask, are you going to do when the shrine servant comes round with a bowl,
possibly a skull-bowl, of nectar, and a long, admittedly small spoon, and puts a little bit of the blessed
hooch liquid into the students' left hands?
(18:08):
This probably alcoholic liquid will have blessing pills dissolved in it, and will have been blessed by the
lama during or immediately before the empowerment ceremony.
If you are there, you will drink it, you will taste it, it will pass over your tongue and into
your stomach, you will feel it.
How are you going to substitute for that?
(18:30):
Are you going to lick the screen, or what?
Empowerment ceremonies vary in complexity and in detail, and there are many other ways in which the
connection to the deity is made viscerally real.
Watching it on a video screen is, at the very best, a very thin substitute.
(18:55):
I will offer one analogy.
If you are a bit prudish in nature, then fair play to you, but you might like to skip a
few seconds forward.
I'll wait a brief moment for you to do that... Tum, tum, tiddle-eye tum.
Okay, let's leave virtual impairments aside, and think for a moment about virtual sex.
(19:16):
It's not hard to imagine that for people who are into that kind of thing, it must be quite fun.
But is it actually the same as the real thing, skin to skin, exchanging bodily fluids, for better or worse?
I think not.
You can come back in now.
Right, now there are those who say that, okay, but with faith you can visualise these things and get the
(19:41):
same result.
They may have a point, but then we can visualise or pretend anything, can't we?
We can pretend or visualise or imagine that any lama of our choosing has given us any high and much
sought after secret empowerment of our choosing, just like that.
Seems a bit off somehow.
(20:03):
There are those also who point out that some highly revered lamas have given online empowerments.
Even the Dalai Lama has given Chenrezig empowerments online.
In fact, some of the considerations I've talked about also apply to the mass in-person empowerments that
the Dalai Lama, for instance, has given, where many of the thousands of participants can scarcely even see
(20:27):
the place where the action is happening.
He has, however, said that he does not give the whole of the empowerment, but that it is mainly a
way of giving a powerful blessing.
Obviously enough, it seems to me, in these cases, many of the participants, I would guess most, will not go
(20:48):
on to keep the complex vows, study the theory behind the practice, and the techniques of the practice
itself.
Another famous case often quoted by the proponents of online empowerments is that of Garchen Rinpoche, who
is noted for saying that not only can students take his empowerments online, but can do so later from
(21:13):
Recordings!!!
Because of his acknowledged holiness, it can feel over-sceptical to challenge the view of such a master,
and to point out the difficulties of this position.
Then again, Buddhism is famous for not having an infallible Pope, so one may wonder.
(21:34):
It is allowed.
His own students, of course, will be expected to accept this view, along with the value of applying sacred
butter that has been used to lubricate the axle of an important prayer wheel at his monastery, to their
nostrils, as a protection against COVID.
(21:55):
It follows, say those proponents, that online empowerments are generally valid.
You and I are free, of course, to agree with this line of thought.
I myself don't.
It's just not the same.
And with that, we have made our way through the Double Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 8.
(22:18):
Please remember, of course, if you appreciate this episode or podcast, then do please like, follow,
subscribe, and tell your friends.
And remember, if you truly, deeply, totally, have the right motivation, anything is possible.
But just don't kid yourself!
Bye!
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