CuriousMonk wrote: ↑Tue Jan 17, 2023 11:04 am
Dear All,
I am a Hindu and I have been an avid reader of this forum for a couple of years, but have not yet posted here.
Welcome!
Acharya Malcolm says that understanding the view clearly is of the utmost importance before practicing Vajrayana and Dzogchen, otherwise, the practitioner might land in undesirable states.
Those statements have context.
Nobody starts practicing with a correct understanding of the view, but some basic knowledge is important. View, conduct and practice work in a positive self feeding loop.
Also, Hindu views (esp. Advaita Vedanta) are the polar opposite of the Mahayanist views of dependent origination and sunyata. Therefore, I cannot be both a Hindu and a Buddhist, because then my beliefs would be contradictory and beyond reconciliation. Hence, first I have to get a complete understanding of the Buddhist views and then take refuge in the Buddha Dharma, then only can I become a serious Buddhist practitioner.
See above. When you start practicing, View is just a fancy word for belief. Someone told you something and you decided to trust his word. It might have been a book, messages on a virtual board, conversations with others, but somehow these ideas made sense. You liked them. Now you want to know more.
But we don't have any alternative to start practicing with a vague, poorly understood view in the worst case, or with a good yet purely intellectual understanding, about it, in the best case. To be honest, how things will go from there deppend on the practitioner. You might introduce all sorts of counter productive ideas if your intellectual understanding is poor, or a certain innocence might even benefit your practice because you didn't become too attached to concepts. Or, if you studied a lot without practicing, you may have jailed yourself inside a conceptual cage of your own making. So, we never know. That's why having a qualified teacher is important. The best thing is, despite whatever you learned intellectually, starting with things you can know through your own experience, while learning the framework necessary for you to understand and connect those experiences in the context of a working path. Dzogchen works a lot in this way. You need experience, but you also need to understand the meaning and how to work with the experience you got. So, you don't have to compromise too much before getting your feet wet. You don't need to make a vow, saying loud and clear "I'm now a Dzogchenpa!". You are a human being searching for a way out of confusion. That's enough.
Being a deep-rooted Hindu I have read here, that higher Bodhisattvas defeated the Hindu deities like (Lord Siva); and Hindu deities like Rudra (an angry form of Siva) are actually considered hell beings in Vajrayana. So, if I take refuge in the Buddha Dharma, would the Hindu deities punish me, and will I be sent to hell?
Why don't you ask a Hindu deity the next time you meet one?
Don't let yourself be shackled by ideas other people came up with. Be a little skeptical. It won't hurt you. Try stuff. Consider the rest as a sort of working hypothesis. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, maybe it's partially true, maybe it's beyond such dichotomy. It deppends on what we are talking about. Just don't let the ideas of others paralyze you without knowing their veracity. Leaving the mess that is the experience of samsara is your own responsibility. Seek help, but don't become dependent. Devotion for a master comes from the insight that sprouts from you working under his advice.
Secondly, I was once consulting a Sowa Rigpa doctor in Delhi for my mother, and I casually mentioned to him my interest in the Buddha Dharma; he strictly advised me not to leave my religion and convert to Buddhism because otherwise, I'll have trouble at the time of death. He said this multiple times on my subsequent visits too. I couldn't understand the basis of his warning but got scared.
See? Some people believe in the weirdest stuff you miggt imagine. Others, with many unfortunate psychological issues, lend them their trust too easily, to the point of killings themselves to catch a ride on a comet (or something like that). My point is, don't be scared because of the religious beliefs of others. Do your own practice, follow the advice of those whose wisdom became clear for you, and always keep in mind that the practice of Dharma, Dzogchen in special, is aimed to make you more independent, more free, not to bind you in belief upon belief.
So, how can a deep-rooted cultural Hindu resolve the above paradox and be in the good light of both the Hindu and Buddhist deities and still be able to take refuge in the Buddha Dharma?
Regards
In my opinion, you shouldn't care in the slightest about being in good light of fantasies created by humans. Get rid of those fears. If a deity of some sort gets pissed because you are tackling your own way to be free from suffering and confusion, that's a deity you shouldn't care about.
So, worry less about labels or pleasing deities. You are a human being, intelligent, who wants to stop the samsaric experience. Your sole allegiance should be to that purpose. Devotion is something that will grow out of it, helping you in its pursuit. Instead of a shackle, it will feel like a great expansion, like seeing the dawn of the sun after a very dark night. If devotion feels limiting and claustrophobic, it's just fear and insecurity. Don't mistake one for the other.
Best wishes!