Luminous Emptiness – a Dzogchen / Mahamudra blog

Exorcism, Black Magic, Voodoo and Buddhism

On 26/07/2004

In response to a question asking:

if anyone can explain exorcism from the Buddhist point of view? And also things like black magic and voodoo and stuff like that?

Exorcism – I guess this generally refers to the removal of some sort of ‘spirit’ or being which is either possessing another being, or is around a person or particular location. In either case, it is seen as an unwanted guest who there is a desire to remove.

The Chod perspective on spirits or demons

There are a number of things here from a Buddhist point of view. One way to look at this is from that of the Chod practice, (which is my main practice, by the way, so I’m talking from personal experience here). If you are not familiar with this, it is a practice from the Tibetan Siddha Machig Labdron, which is based on the Prajnaparamita sutras, and which aims to ‘cut off’ demons.

These demons are seen as two-fold. Firstly, the sense of ‘external’ beings which it is desired to remove. And secondly, as mental defilements and obscurations which are desired to remove.

Relative Bodhicitta

To deal with the external demons case, which is more relevant to your email, here we work in terms of both Relative and Ultimate Bodhicitta. So, in terms of accepting the ‘reality’ of the appearance of the spirit or demon, our approach to them is one of relative Bodhicitta, in other words, of compassion. So rather than reacting with fear, or anger, or trying to push away the being, we open our hearts and use compassion. In Chod, we actually offer our bodies and other capacities to the demon to feast themselves on. So the key thing here at the relative level is that exorcism of the unwanted demon is through compassion and generosity for that being.

Ultimate Bodhicitta

Ultimately, the approach is in terms of Ultimate Bodhicitta, which refers to the realisation of emptiness. So they key to a permanent solution to the problem of the unwanted demon is that of seeing the ultimate nature of the demon and the situation, in other words to realise its emptiness. This is the most thorough and final solution, as it were.

So we can say that at a relative level we use compassion and generosity towards this being, whilst at an ultimate level, we realise the emptiness of the situation. As a result, in both cases, no harm comes to either ourselves, nor to the unwanted being.

Generally, if you live in a Buddhist countries, you will often find that a monk or lama is called in to clear a place or person of possession, usually through performing a ritual. It is said that the deeper the realisation of emptiness of the monk, then the more likely the result will be positive.

Possession vs Mental Illness

In terms of someone being possessed, and looking at it from a western psychological perspective, it is often said that what is called ‘possession’ in the east is a form of mental illness, or imbalance from a western perspective. Thus such things as schizophrenia get mentioned. The person is labelled as having visual or aural hallucinations.

Sometimes this can happen as a result of incorrect meditation methods, perhaps without the correct guidance, where someone goes quite far down a particular path of meditation without the necessary balancing factors.

What is magic?

Black magic – is talked of as different from white magic, the former being magic used for ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ purposes. So what is magic? Generally I’d say it’s the ability to make things happen in physical world, through using mental and usually ritual activity.

The example can be given of Milarepa, who was able to bring down hail, and also cause a house to be brought down through his ritual and visualisation actions. In this case, a particular being was invoked to lend its power to the action desired.

In Kabbalistic magic which I have personal experience of, again you invoke a powerful being in order to make things happen. In a sense, the key here is that through magic the commonly accepted seeming ‘rules’ of the physical universe no longer seem to apply. So they break the rules of accepted science.

What is Voodoo?

Voodoo generally involves gaining control over another person, again through some ritual and mental actions. In Buddhist countries, spells can be quite popular. For example in Thailand, my wife’s sister had a spell placed on her, and she then vomited razor blades.

Buddhist approach to black magic and voodoo

So how are black magic and voodoo explained from a Buddhist point of view? Well, all things are interconnected. The web of causes and conditions are infinite, so things that happen in one location can affect those in another remote location. Similarly, things in the mental realm can affect the physical realm. The ability to affect the physical realm, and other beings would seem to be connected to Siddhi powers, those things which are by-products of meditation practice.

As you progress in your practice, then the way things are starts to change for you. You are no longer limited by your perspective to affecting things as you used to. You gain the ability to make things happen which someone with lesser realisation cannot make happen.

These abilities are always seen as a by-product, not something to be actively pursued, and once gained, always to be used with Bodhicitta, for other beings’ welfare.

I hope these thoughts are of help to you?

Best wishes in the Dharma

Buddhist Pure Lands and God Realms

By Chodpa

On 23/07/2004

In Mahayana

In response to:

an email describing how their daughter is Christian, and reflecting on how to relate to her.

Many thanks for your kind words, and for sharing so much of your personal experience and situation. I’m afraid I can’t really do justice to your email at this time, but wished to send a response that at least touched on some of the points you raise.

The Pure Land notion in Buddha Dharma is quite a complex one in terms of origins and development, having developed in a number of ways in both China and Japan, and then again in the Tibetan sphere of Dharma. My own experience of pure land traditions is largely from Chinese Pure Land, which I used to practice many years back.

Amida Buddha sits in the center of his Pure Land, the “blissful land.”

Key differences between Pure Land and Heaven

To point to what may be the key difference between a Pure Land and an abode of the gods, or a heaven – essentially, one is seen as being still in the influence of karma, and the other isn’t. When you go to a heaven realm as a god, you still are within Samsara, and act in such ways to either create good or bad karma. And necessarily you will still be reborn into another realm when the karma that took you to that rebirth runs out.

However, in a pure land it is impossible to create bad karma. It is said that you are freed from the cycle of birth and death so that you can concentrate single-mindedly on attaining Enlightenment. It is taught that there you will not have any negative experiences, nor create bad karma. So if you like, from there, the only way is up! Once in a pure land, the only ‘place’ to go to is Nirvana, so to speak.

In the Deva realm, you are largely surrounded by other Devas (gods), whereas in a pure land, you are surrounded by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who guide you constantly in the Dharma.

Experience is not fixed

To turn to your other points, I would say that it is taught that all beings go through the stages you describe between death and birth, but it’s important to remember that how beings experience that would be dependent on their karma and merit. So they may experience that in an entirely different way. All things are empty, and the play of appearances is dependent arising so all that you experience is the result of your previous actions, and not fixed or a certain way in that sense for all beings.

A delicate path of communication

It’s wonderful you are able to communicate so well with your daughter about such things, and that she is receptive to your path too. Communicating across religious paths is something quite prominent in my personal and family life too, so I have empathy there with you. A delicate process, challenging to be sure. For myself I feel it important to not try to make everything either harmonise, or not to look necessarily for the ‘differences’ and indeed to be patient with seeming differences, but to just allow things to be as they are, to be a play of experiences and arisings, and allow things to take a course without too much forcing of them in particular directions. Everyone has their own way through these things, seeking to help others and to not create bad karma themselves, or to encourage others to do so either.

Could you tell me more about the Dzogchen book, I’m intrigued! Is it in English?

best wishes to you in the Dharma

Eden, Mind and Karma

By Chodpa

On 21/07/2004

In Vajrayana

A question asking that:

Christians will get to Eden because that is what their mind knows. So does that mean that I can visit Eden too if I meditate on it?

To address your question indirectly – when ***** says:

Because the only world we know is what the mind knows. There’s really nothing out there that is not also in here

– this alludes to the teaching that what we experience is ultimately all mind. There are many aspects and implications to this.

We only directly know experience, not an outside world

For example, it points to us never actually being able to directly experience anything ‘out there’. Our only knowledge or experience in within mind. Our experience is of arisings in mind, which may or may not accurately reflect anything which we imagine to be ‘out there’, but we have absolutely no direct knowledge whatsoever of what may be ‘out there’. This is extremely profound and far reaching.

Cutting away the idea that there is somehow an objective reality out there, and recognising that all perceptions, and our entire experience is mind made obviously cuts away the idea that there is a heaven, Eden or any other paradise (including Pure Lands!) which exist ‘out there’, which we can therefore ‘go to’ when we die, or before.

We see things in terms of our past experience

Whilst we are not enlightened, our perceptions take place in the 6 consciousnesses, and are necessarily ‘ignorant’. The sixth consciousness, (deluded) mind overlays its conceptual understanding on all the perceptions that arise from our other 5 senses. As such, we ‘see’ our experience through the ‘glasses’ of our 6th consciousness. As this consciousness makes sense of perceptions in accordance with our karma, it understands or decodes them on the basis of that karma. This means that we quite literally see things in terms of our past experience.

The example is often given of most humans most of the time seeing water as something refreshing to drink, whereas the same thing would be seen by a preta as molten lava, the devas as nectar etc.

We do not directly ‘see’ the perception, we actually ‘see’ the conceptual overlay. This is why the quality of ‘clarity’ is so important in Mahamudra. The relation between the conceptual overlay (which is determined by karma) and the perception from the 5 other consciousnesses is said to be like looking at pebbles through the running water of the stream.

Can we visit Eden?

So, coming back to your question, as to whether we can visit Eden etc – well, perhaps and no. No in the sense outlined above that there is no objective Eden existing ‘out there’. But perhaps in the sense that all that you experience is mind, is arisings in mind, then if the experience of visiting Eden arises in your mind, then you are actually there! Eden experienced in the mind, or a Pure Land, or a Buddha figure, or a chocolate bar, or pain, or a thought, or anything else are all the same in this respect – they are just arisings in the mind, which are ultimately empty, without substance, like a dream, like a rainbow, but which nevertheless do seem to appear to the mind, and which we do seem to experience.

It follows that if you meditate on Eden or anything else which you conceive to be a place, then you will likely experience ‘being there’, for what it’s worth.

Angels and Padmasambhava

On that note I would like to add in parting that one of my teachers from some years back came from a Christian background, and was someone who experienced very deep states of Shamata. He had many visions in the course of his Dhyana experiences, and the vast majority of them were of angels, even though his practice was on Padmasambhava. His karma ‘made sense’ of his experience in terms of what he had previously acted and known, as so this is how these experiences appeared to him.

Angel from a fresco decoration of a chapel in the Torre della Gabbia in Mantua

For us I’d venture to suggest it matters less what the experience is, from the point of view of ‘content’, much of the time, but rather matters more in terms of its ‘form’. In other words, don’t get caught up in the story in your mind, but see it for what it is – empty arisings, the play of mind, just appearances which cannot ultimately be grasped.

Don’t know if that in any way addresses your question, S*******?

What is really out there?

As a final note, I’d wish to respond to B****’s assertion that:

There’s really nothing out there that is not also in here

by suggesting that there is no way we can possibly know that. We can come to the recognition that all that we experience is mind and within mind, but we cannot possibly know if there is anything ‘out there’ which is also not in our minds. Practically, if it isn’t in our mind, it doesn’t exist, but that’s not quite the same thing 🙂

best wishes