I thought to send this under the thread of "Why is a lung for mantra necessary" to give a 2 cent answer to Michal's excellent questions but then realized his questions are addressing a more basic issue.
These are very good questions that need be addressed. There are many other comments on this, all of which are very excellent and completely correct. But as it is in the nature of human beings to add their own 2 cents, here are mine. It is suggested that you read through it once before jumping to the web links.
Into the lions mouth!
Michal wrote:Hi,
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu always says quite categorically that to produce the function of the mantra, you need to have received its lung, otherwise it does not work.
But there are a lot of teachers like AFAIK Lama Zopa Rinpoche or Tsem Tulku Rinpoche who just publish a lot of even quite high mantras (like protectors and so on) even on the internet just as you can normally use them without any empowerment.
If someone is your Spiritual Teacher then it is very much to your benefit to completely accept whatever they tell you, or do, without the smallest doubt or mistrust, even if it varies from time to time, or runs into direct conflict with conventional norms, usages, logic or common sense. Then the blessings will flow and you can get the inner benefit of the teachings. Call it a willing suspension of disbelief, if you want. Part of you can know that what the Teacher is saying may not be true, or what they are doing may not be good (crazy wisdom), but you let that go in order to achieve the greater truth or greater good of obtaining blessings. Perhaps the bigger the suspension of disbelief, the bigger the blessings of going beyond ordinary mind. If the Teacher is wise, then he/she works with the circumstance of each student. Then the student is not pushed outside their acceptance zone and does not run away.
This is very much like the concept of having complete freedom to act on impulse in Rushen, while keeping a part of your judgment in reserve so you don't hurt yourself or anyone else. If you forget this in Rushen you can really harm yourself or others: sounds heavy and it is. With a good guide it is safe.
The key point is that, by allowing yourself to hold diametrically opposed ideas about statements or behavior of the Teacher, without a need to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance, you grow beyond your conceptual limits. The benefit is that you are more tolerant and less reactive to whatever occurs in your continuum. Your equanimity is increased.
So I really don´t know what to think of it. Are these teachers just wrong ?
No they are not wrong thinking. What is right view for one student in one circumstance, or lineage, may not be right, or true, for the same student in another circumstance, or lineage, or for other students in the same or other circumstances, or lineages. What ever turns the Wheel, is OK.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche once said, "(...) The sun and the moon are reflected in clear, still water instantly. Similarly, the blessings of all the Buddhas are always present for those who have complete confidence in them. (...)" -
What the great Dzogchen Master HH Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche (may He always remain over my head) is saying here, is that if you have complete confidence [faith beyond any cognitive dissonance] in the Buddhas, then whatever occurs in your continuum will have the blessings of the Buddhas. In his analogy about the sun, moon, and water he is pointing out that these blessings occur instantaneously [are co-emergent] with the complete confidence. "Always present" means that these blessings are independent of cause, or lack of cause. You do not have to do anything to get these blessings. The sun and moon have many rich meanings in Tibetan Buddhism, which you can see here on Page 80 of:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-3804U ... page&q=sun" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and moon in Buddhism&f=false
What more then the blessings of all the buddhas could one ever need to produce the function of a mantra??
Yup - or the blessed function of ANYTHING that occurs in your continuum when you have the blessing of all of the Buddhas, or the blessings of your teacher as the essence of all of the Buddhas!
For me, at least Sanskrit mantras are kind of vibrations connected to some archetypes of Western culture whose language came up from Sanskrit (sorry for Jungian, not "Buddhist" terminology). So I think, at least if I recite it in the condotion of buddha-nature, i.e. connected to the Dharmakaya quality, in a non-dual vision or however I call it, it should work just as sound has power to affect matter (watch for example http://youtu.be/Uu6Ox5LrhJg).
Yup - but the devil is in the details: are you really in the condition of Buddha-nature?
But I really may be quite wrong, I don´t know.
You are doing fine - keep the questions coming - just need to work things through a bit. There is a light at the end of the tunnel of base luminosity – your natural state.
Also, I for one even have i little bit problem with how Chögyal Namkhai Norbu gives lungs via internet: He reads something very quickly, often not possible to understand, then it is converted to 0&1 (i.e. bits) and then your home-computer converts it back to sound. So the sound, its analogue-quality is completely lost on the way. How could it work, then?
Good question - and the answer is non-logical faith: complete confidence in his Buddha blessing - whatever he does, or doesn't do. To see the Teacher, as the essence of all of the Buddhas is one of the 5 certainties, that you need to have when you take Teachings to make them work.
It sometimes may also be helpful to keep in mind the phrase “my mother drunk or sober.”
Also, sometimes, when I am listening to the DC-webcast and the lungs on its last day, in fact I am not even in the state of Guruyoga, so really very far from an experience of the deity concerned. Could it work then, that I receive it?
Of course you receive it - if you believe that you do. Again, faith, complete confidence in the Teacher, as the essence of all Buddhas, is what allows it to work. Being awake helps - have some coffee or gently pinch yourself. Sometimes I strongly rub the top of my head and this helps me stay awake.
And also I would like to ask, there are some mantras or dharanis in Sutric Buddhism like GATE-mantra and so on. Maybe, as they belong to Sutra and not Tantra, one does not need lung for these mantras?
My 2 cents is that if you say any mantra - even without a lung - it is better than common distracted speech. You can also test a mantra to see if it works. Do an accumulation of a mantra without lung and then do an accumulation of the same mantra having received the lung for that mantra. I think you will find that with a lung (perhaps because you will have more faith and confidence), it works better.
One of my root Teachers, the Venerable Deshung Rinpoche said mantras 24/7.
http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teac ... onsect.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Now it is story time.
It was long ago and far away, in a land over the sea ---
A practitioner of the great yidam Vajrakilaya was practicing on an island in a lake, and because of the power of his practice, the people on shore saw 5 colored lights coming from his simple hut, and he became a little famous. Then one day a high Lama, with his retinue, was passing by on the shore of that lake and decided that he should go and pay respects to the mantra Lama on the island. So they hired a boat and went out to the I sland. After exchanging pleasantries, the high Lama practiced a little with the mantra lama. Then the high Lama stopped the practice and said to the mantra Lama, "But you are saying it completely wrong, it is not chilli chilli ya but killi kila ya." They finished the practice and the high Lama and his retinue went back on their boats to go to the shore. But just as they got to the shore they turned and saw the mantra Lama walking over the water to them. The mantra lama was very respectful to the high Lama and said, "Excuse me Master, I am getting old, but was it kalli kila ya or killi kila ya?
So maybe everything does depend on faith - full confidence in the Buddhas.
So for me, if there is no conflict with whatever my Teacher, says or does, I get the blessings. Hmnnn? Maybe I can walk on water? Better to try from the shallows.
Hope this helps,
Long life to the Dzogchen Masters, with good health and with success in all things.
Good fortune for all!
ob
ÓM Ah HÚM