Video: Secrets to Practicing Sadhanas

Why are Sadhanas, or guided, written meditations, an indispensable part of Vajrayana Buddhist practice? What is the goal of each of the steps in a Sadhana or guided practice? Why are Sadhanas compared to the secret sauce recipes of great chefs and cooks? What are the actual steps found in every Sadhana and what are the goals of each step? We answer these questions, and more, in this full-feature on the importance and method of Sadhanas in Buddhist practice.

Video:

Sadhanas are not just sacred Dharma texts, held up as venerable sacred texts — in Vajrayana they are also (metaphorically) the recipes to successful Buddhist realizations — passed down through traceable lineages from the originating recipient of the teachings.

CONTENTS

00:00-01:12 The importance of Sadhanas in Buddhist Practice

01:12-05:54 The Recipe for Realizations — but Teaching is Still Required

05:54-06:35 Do we have to follow the Sadhana?

06:35-08:45 Why are there Long, Medium and Short versions? (Alexander Berzin answers)

08:45-09:36Venerable Khenpo Ringu Tulku exlains the 3 Secrets of Sadhana

09:36-11:30 The Secret of the Middle Part 1: Merit Accumulation

11:30-14:01 Part 2: Generating as Deity and Completion Practices

14:01-14:48 Last Secret: Dedicating the Merit and Mangalam Prayer

14.48-16:29  Eight Goals of each of the 8 Methods in Sadhana

16:29-17:48 Do we have to recite outloud and use Mudras?

RESOURCES:

PDF SADHANA DOWNLOADS on BUDDHA WEEKLY: https://buddhaweekly.com/downloads/

SADHANA PRACTICE CALENDAR (next 3 years included): https://buddhaweekly.com/dharma-calendar/

LATEST BUDDHA WEEKLY FEATURES: https://buddhaweekly.com/

BUDDHA WEEKLY on PATREON: https://patreon.com/BuddhaWeekly

RELATED HOW-TO VIDEOS:

How to Bless Dharma Objects  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8J8HncBpL8&t

Why Mantras Work — and Sometimes Don’t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMABULfW34&t

How to Chant Mantras: Advice from Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Z3Jj0lacg&t

PLAYLIST OF CONCISE SADHANAS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8d71VyWOwkH5KFhKs3Xt51x0ZJwDTfrp

PLAYLIST OF HELPFUL HOW-TO PRACTICE VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8d71VyWOwkEs25YFQvW9kssmR0ONCaI2

As with any recipe, we can only learn to cook it, if we practice. And, if we aspire to become a great practitioner, in our metaphor, a chef, then, we also need the teaching, training and blessing of the chef. Chef’s don’t give out their precious techniques, except to their apprentices. Several chefs have been quoted as saying

“There are no shortcuts to being a great chef.” Chef Gordon Ramsay said: “If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs.” In Dharma practice, to attain great realizations, we need the sadhana, the recipe and our guru’s teachings.

Likewise, full Sadhanas come from our teachers in Vajrayana Buddhist practice, who first teach us how to practice. Today, we may find Sadhanas online, including on Buddha Weekly’s website, but these are normally the published recipe books, open for anyone. These are not the secret recipes. Merit-practicing Sadhanas or Pujas are not restricted, as they don’t involve any of the secret sauces.

Either way, we are taught by our teachers to respect the printed Sadhana as a Dharma Text, with full reverence.

Why? Because they contain sacred words and truths. By copying word-for-word, through centuries of lineage, we are assured we are reciting the same words, and using the same methods, as our venerable lineage of gurus, right back to the source.

It is for this reason that sadhanas normally have lineages stated on them, often with the connected line of venerable teachers going back to the source. The source is usually Buddha, or, in the case of terma, the terton. A terton literally means “terma discoveror.”

For pujas and offerings and merit practices, the strict lineage is less important. In our metaphor, these are like public recipe books. You’ll find a wide library of these pdf recipes on the Buddha Weekly PDF downloads page. For higher practices, involving self-generation, these normally require teaching and transmission from the “teacher” — in our metaphor the teaching chef.

To finish our metaphor, the written Sadhana, which contains the original words and instructions per the lineage, is the written recipe with preparation instructions. Even with the recipe and instructions, for complex recipes, teaching is still required. The chef will bat you on the hand and say “no, no, you’re stirring too fast.” This precious guidance makes the difference between wow and everyday dinner.

Do we have to follow the Sadhana? Ultimately, when we ourselves become great, accomplished meditators, like a great chef, we can put aside our sadhana or recipe. Until then, we follow the instructions, because we know our guru has already proven the method. As with a chef in the kitchen, you don’t have to use the recipe — but it ensures a good result.

This is why our teachers often give us a “long version” and a short version. The long version has the instructions, step by step. This is why some teachers only give us the longer version, to help us avoid shortcuts.

Alexander Berzin explains:

“There will be an abbreviated one; there will be a full one; sometimes there’s a medium level as well. And my teacher Serkong Rinpoche said that the abbreviated forms, the short forms, are for advanced practitioners. It’s the long, full forms that are for the beginners.”

Sadhana is a step-by-step guide to practice and meditation. All the elements, with none missing (like a good recipe), are formulated for the student: preparation, purification, guru devotion, visualization, seven-limb practice, and on it goes; even steps you might not comprehend at this time, such as, for example, body mandala meditation.

You can’t miss a step, or do something wrong if you follow the Sadhana handed down through hundreds of years by realized teachers — assuming you have empowerment from that lineage of teachers. Even if you don’t achieve realizations, due to some obstacle, at least you know you’re “doing it right.”

Venerable Khenpo Ringu Tulku explains the three secrets of Sadhana:

In the beginning, or during the preparation phase, there is the secret of Bodhicitta.

In the middle, that is the real practice, there is the secret of Selflessness.

In the end, there is the secret of the Dedication.

In other words, the first section of a Sadhana focuses on developing Bodhichitta. Venerable Kempo Ringu explains,

“I am doing this for the sake of all sentient beings, I am going to deliver them and lead them to Buddhahood”

Then, in the middle, we focus on practice without selfishness — with no attachments and “with a view of Shunyata.” To do this, we have to “purify” obscurations. We develop merit through the six paramitas or givings and through the 7 Limbs of Practice.

The seven limbs of merit-accumulation practice are prostration and homage, making offerings, both real and imagined, confession of negative actions, rejoicing in the virtues of others, requesting the turning of the dharma wheel or teachings, imploring teachers to remain and not pass into parinirvāṇa, and dedicating merit to the enlightenment of all sentient beings.

This is part one of the middle part of the practice. If we’re new, we might start and stop here. Essentially, we are practicing a Puja in this case. We’re working on accumulating merit to purify our negative karmas of the past, and to create virtues for future accomplishments. If we do not have empowerment for a particular practice, then, this is where it stops. The last section of the recipe is the secret sauce, which is called Generation and Completion. These practices require instruction.

These merit-accumulating practices are often called “preliminary practices.” In some lineages, we only practice the preliminaries for months and years before we are given the teaching for the last two stages of practice, called generation and completion.

If we have a teacher, we will additionally receive instruction for self-generation. Self generation is a fancy term that basically means we visualize ourselves as the deity.

In the beginning this is just practice. We pretend or visualize ourselves as the Enlightened Deity as a method to remove attachments to the incorrect view of reality, and to develop wisdom with the ultimate goal of attaining Enlightenment. Venerable Khenpo Ringu elaborates:

“Through the practice of sadhanas, we forcefully turn ourselves into a deity, and we exercise or train to see ourselves, our body, speech and mind, as the body, speech and mind of the Buddhas, even though we have not actually reached that stage. This is what is meant by exercising at the result level, which is why Tantrayana is sometimes called the Yana of Results.”

If we used a different metaphor than the chef, it might be stage actor. The self generation is like dress-rehearsals, to help us get “in character” so that when we hit the stage, we are convincing and real. Or, put another way, as a trade apprentice such as a plumber or carpenter, learning the trade through practice.

Lastly, we dedicate the merit of the practice to the benefit of all sentient beings. Without this, it is not a Mahayana Buddhist practice. Again Venerable Ringu explains:

“Emerging from the meditation, when we return to the mundane level of consciousness, we again dedicate whatever merits we may have gained through the practice we have just done for the benefit of all sentient beings. Then, we say the wishing prayers and conclude the sadhana by the Mangalam prayer, which means “auspicious prayer”.

The important thing to keep sight of, are the goals of each of these steps.

Protection and Safety is the goal of Refuge in the Three Jewels.

Purifying negative karma is the goal of the practices of Regret, Refrain and Remedy which are confession, promise to refrain and Bodhichitta.

Generating merit is the goal of offerings, 7 Limbs of Practice and accumulations of mantra recitation.

Developing compassion is the goal of Bodhichitta, intentions, and dedications.

Developing wisdom and insights is the ultimate goal of all practices.

Overcoming incorrect perceptions of the nature of reality is the goal of Self-Generation and Completion practices.

Realizations are the goal of Completion practices.

Siddhis, supplications, powers and wishes, both lesser and greater, are the goal of all activities.

The last big questions students usually have is “but, why do we have to recite this outloud, and why do we have to “act it out” with mudras and gestures such as bowing? Can’t we just do it all mentally?”

Yes, we can, but in the beginning, verbal recitation and gestures lead to absorption and learning. For example, reading a written story to yourself is a different experience from watching a top-notch dramatic presentation of the story in a movie.

Likewise, saying something out loud also “activates” parts of the mind — including memory recall, activation of visualization stimulation, and absorption.

We dedicate the merit of this presentation to the cause for enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.