Judith Simmer-Brown's Articles on Lions Roar

Judith Simmer-Brown on the role of desire in Buddhist Tantra. When the Buddha sat under the tree of awakening, one of the primary discoveries that he made was the role of desire and passion in human life. He recognized that human life is pervaded by experiences of anxiety and sorrow, and suggested that they arise from desire, a kind of craving which drives humans into continuous experiences of pain. All of us without exception wish to be happy and not to suffer. We pursue pleasure and devise elaborate schemes to elude painful experiences. The irony of human life is that our very desire for pleasure results in suffering: Whatever we have, we wish for more or for something different. When we do have what we want, we eventually lose it or decide it is not what we really wanted. Buddha Sakyamuni’s teaching of the four noble truths accurately pinpointed this emotional style of human beings, that this impulse toward pleasure creates an endless series of frustrating situations for us, and until we recognize how human life is driven by unfulfilled desire, we cannot experience a respite to our suffering. But according to the view of vajrayana Buddhism, desire is also the working basis of compassion. Desire’s very eagerness to please carries intelligence, which when liberated from self-centered preoccupations, resonates with the emotional experience of others. Desire becomes empathy as we develop our capacity to recognize the different styles of suffering described in Buddhism as the six realms. Human desire propels us into momentary psychological experiences which mirror the unrelieved ordeals of each of the other five realms of existence: We experience moments of intense jealousy, echoing the experience of the jealous gods. We experience raging anger or cold disdain similar to the beings of the hot and cold hells. Like animals and god-realm beings, we fall into the numbing ignorance of daily routine or the blissful ignorance of idealism. Like hungry ghosts, our arrogance is haunted by the yearning for satiation. Because of these temporary empathetic experiences, we can feel the intense styles of suffering of other realms, and we are sensitized to the endless patterns of suffering and hopelessness which pervade the world. We are aware of the suffering of other beings and, if we reflect, we can feel empathy and compassion and the desire to liberate them from their suffering. When our habitual self-centered desire turns toward care for others, a kind of spiritual transformation is possible. This is described in Buddhism as the practice of the bodhisattva, one who is committed to clarity of understanding and the welfare of others. The fuel for this practice is desire, which has been transformed into the awakened heart, a spontaneous openness and warmth which liberates habitual self-centeredness. The practice of the bodhisattva would have no fuel if it were not for the power of our desire. Accompanied by strong commitment and clarity of mind, transformed desire is a kind of contagious fever of compassion. How do we liberate desire and turn its intelligence and intensity toward awakening for ourselves and others? In tantra, this fundamental quality of human existence is liberated with very skillful methods. The intensity of desire can only be liberated by desire itself. As the Hevajra-tantra states, "That by which the world is bound, by that same its bonds are released, but the world is deluded and knows not this truth, and he who is deprived of this truth will not gain perfection." The passionate quality of human experience can only be liberated through desire itself; then it is described as a "mingling of passion and absence of passion." One of the distinctive features of Tibetan vajrayana, especially in the practices of the "highest yoga tantra" (Anuttara-yoga-tantra), is its inclusiveness with regard to desire, and especially sexuality in a spiritual context. This offers a way to work directly with desire, but it requires a strong foundation of training and a selfless motivation. According to Anuttara-yoga, training in the "three vehicles" (yanas) is essential to spiritual development, especially in the area of working with our most primitive emotional life. In order to work with our self-centered desire, we train in the foundational vehicle, the hinayana, in which we learn self-restraint, renunciation and simplicity. "Desirelessness" is one of the treasured spiritual qualities of the practitioner who has mastered the hinayana. However, after disciplining ourselves in this way, we retain a residue of aggression: we have rejected too much of the intelligence of desire, and have cut ourselves off from the suffering of others. In the broad vehicle, the mahayana, aggression is seen as the strongest obstacle to the practice of compassion, we cannot benefit beings if we are angry toward them or toward their suffering. With mahayana training, aggression is transformed into patience and care, and we are able to begin to relieve the suffering we encounter. But while the mahayana acknowledges the close relationship between desire and compassion, there is the danger that desire can lead to "idiot compassion," a kind of compassion tainted by our own personal agendas. So having completed the training of the first two vehicles, we discover a residue of blindness or obliviousness which inhibits our further development. We have used our altruistic dreams to dilute the intensity of the world. In avoiding painful emotions, difficult life passages and underlying habitual patterns, we have become enamored with the idealism of our compassion. When we continue our training in the "diamond vehicle," the vajrayana, we address directly this oblivious quality. Vajrayana training and practice give us immediate proximity to all aspects of our experience, removing the blinders which remained from the previous practices. This time the residue that remains is passion. However, it is now said that passion need not be an obstacle to spiritual growth. By this time, it has been refined through spiritual training and represents the warm heart combined with the intensity of vajrayana experience and practice. If desire becomes the object of contemplation, it holds great power for bringing the mind to the essential point. In the Anuttara-yoga tradition, there is really no distinction made between passion in this sense and compassion. When purified of self-centeredness, passion is expressed as devotion to others, as caring skillfully and utterly about their welfare. It is also expressed as zest in living and appreciation of the unique beauty of each moment. Experiences of realization naturally carry with them the burning heart of joy and compassion, otherwise they are not genuine realization experiences. However, this is also a dangerous path, for if passion seeks to serve the ego, the explosive result creates havoc for both partners and for others. Hence, the dynamic of sexuality in Anuttara-yoga tantra is always pyrotechnic and potent. Since desire and passion are so basic to our human life, it is important that we work with them properly, employing them as fuel for wakefulness and compassion. According to the sacred outlook of vajrayana, the ordi- nary chemistry between men and women is a powerful expression of the fundamental dynamic of phenomena. For this reason, the realm of gender relationships is of utmost interest for the tantric practitioner, for the dynamic experienced there exposes the heart of the world. On any ultimate level, there is no real difference between women and men. Our natures are ultimately empty of inherent existence, vast and expansive, and free of conceptual elaboration. Yet there are sacred masculine and feminine energies which are an essential part of the mind-body complex that makes up the individual. These energies are not determined by biology, in the vajrayana view, it is more that biology has emanated from these fundamental energies of mind and phenomena. Each of us is made up of these subtle masculine and feminine energies, whatever our gender. Masculine and feminine energies flow in our minds, emotions, and subtle and physical bodies. On an ultimate level our minds have no gender, but "feminine" insight and "masculine" skillful means intertwine in all our experience. On a subtle body level, all humans have feminine and masculine channels and winds (nadis and prana), which intermingle and which may in meditation meet in the nondual central channel. Our physical bodies have both feminine and masculine qualities, but depending upon our karma and the physical bodies we have inherited, we have different abilities to radiate feminine or masculine energies. Always, the physical body expresses the qualities which are there in the subtle body and in the mind. All three of these are interdependent. On the level of appearance and manifestation, women and men are distinct and complementary in their physical forms and psychological experiences. From the view of vajrayana Buddhism, both feminine and masculine qualities are inherently positive, awakened and beneficial, but when accompanied by ignorance and habitual patterns they can manifest in painful ways. When powerful self-centeredness is the motivation, relationships between women and men can arouse dramatic streams of emotionality, conceptuality and fantasy, leading to pain and alienation. But whether manifested in awakened or painful ways, the qualities of feminine and masculine energies remain consistent. Feminine manifestation is associated with energetic heat and intensity; masculine manifestation is associated with steady power and groundedness. Penetrating insight as manifested in the lives of human women is a subtle, pervasive and very intelligent energy, a kind of sharpness or sensitivity. In its basic nature it is awareness, but in daily life it manifests as sensitivity, which can be quite intense and hot, related with emotionality. This sensitivity has more...

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