Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00122)

In a message dated 12/7/98 3:49:21 PM, Jerry wrote:

>The idea of the karma-mudra has never been to establish
>a few hours of excitement (I can't understand where you
>got this idea). The teaching is that our spiritual body is
>naturally blissful (the anandakaya or bliss body) and that
>by proper yogic techniques we can raise consciousness
>to that level and focus from within our spiritual body. One
>of the goals of Tibetan yoga is to do this just as physical
>death approaches in order to maintain continuity of
>consciousness through the bardo.
>
>Vajrayana teachings differ from other schools in that
>emptiness is not considered enough. It has to be merged
>with bliss. Why? Because when actually functioning in
>our spiritual body, we will experience both emptiness and
>bliss. Without bliss we are probably functioning in our
>causal body and mistaking it for the spiritual (which I think
>happens a good many times).

Are such Vajrayana practices or, specifically, Sexual Tantra (using Karma-
mudra "seal") techniques the only way to experience "bliss" in Tibetan
Buddhism or Hindu Yoga?

Are there any other "Action-forms (symbols)" (Karma-mudras) which can be
utilized to obtain "bliss" coupled with "emptiness"--to achieve enlightenment
and/or "maintain continuity of consciousness through the bardo"--other than
the specific sexual "form" of applying a female "seal"?   How about certain
non-sexual body gestures, positions and motions (mudras) used in Taoist Tai-
Chi or Hindu Hatha and Bakti yogas, among others--which all have the same
"enlightenment" ends and purposes as the various Buddhist or Hindu Tantra
practices?

Since there are so many mudras used in both Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu yoga
practices, why is this specific "sexual seal" mudra given the name "Karma"
(since all mudras, being symbols of fundamental truths (cyclic laws of action-
reaction), could be called, "Karma-mudras")?

Could such sexual Tantra teaching and practice  simply be a rationalization
used by some "Red Cap" or "Dugpa" Lamas or Yogins (a strictly male title) to
justify their macho (male chauvinist;-) superiority over their female consorts
while, at the same time, satisfying their Lust?

Or, could it be it used by them (possibly along with the above reasons) as a
shortcut to the raising and holding of Kundalini so as to prolong their
(selfish?) "blissful" experiences of sexual pleasure during meditational
practice?  Or, to obtain the power of focusing and controlling kundalini
energy for greedy, self-serving  "magical power" purposes?

Is it possible that the complex mystical background of "powerful" entites with
strong emotional contexts in the Tantra teachings, is not another form of
priestcrafty theological contrivance to justify their sexual "power"
practices?

Can we be certain that the Spiritual body is not the real causal body, and
that the Vajrayana Tantra teachers might not have been mistaken in their
insistence that the lower nature is the cause of suffering and that it,
therefore, must be propitiated by, and transformed through sexual practices
for ultimate enlightenment?  Doesn't this directly violate the Buddha's Second
Noble Truth that, "the cause of all suffering is ignorance"?  Isn't ignorance
a mental problem rather than a physical one?  And, isn't the search for
universal truth and enlightenment the desire, aim, "cause", and practice of
the consciousness or spiritual nature--and has no relation to the physical
nature, or its desires and practices?

So, why do we hear implied in these arguments that Vajrayana teachings and
practices are superior to Mahayana or Hinayana teachings and practices--and by
denial of HPB's and her Teachers' teachings about Tantra, as well as Tzong-ka-
pa's remarks relating to Karma-Mudra (as possibly having a non-sexual
connotation)--that they also superior to Theosophy?

To help with the answers to some of the above questions, here are comparative
definitions of "mudra" and "karma" culled from several published glossaries.

----------------------------------------------------------

TG Mudra (Sk.). Called the mystic seal. A system of occult signs made
with the fingers. These signs imitate ancient Sanskrit characters of
magic efficacy. First used in the Northern Buddhist Yogacharya School,
they were adopted later by the Hindu Tantrikas, but often misused by
them for black magic purposes.

OG Mudra -- (Sanskrit) A general name for certain intertwinings or
positions of the fingers of the two hands, used alone or together, in
devotional yoga or exoteric religious worship, and these mudras or
digital positions are held by many Oriental mystics to have particular
esoteric significance. They are found both in the Buddhist statues of
northern Asia, especially those belonging to the Yogachara school, and
also in India where they are perhaps particularly affected by the Hindu
tantrikas. There is doubtless a good deal of hid efficacy in holding the
fingers in proper position during meditation, but to the genuine occult
student the symbolic meaning of such mudras or digital positions is by
far more useful and interesting. The subject is too intricate, and of
importance too small, to call for much detail of explanation here, or
even to attempt a full exposition of the subject.

SKv Mudra A mystic symbol, seal, or sign used as a talisman of magical
power. One such Mudra is the Hindu Vajra or thunderbolt-weapon of the
gods, which exerted power over invisible and evil forces. The Mudras are
also a system of occult signs of magical effect made with the fingers,
as well as certain postures taken during meditation. Mudra is derived
from the verbal root mud -- to be happy, to rejoice.

SP Mudra -- symbolic gesture.
------------------------------------------------------------
TG Karma (Sk.). Physically, action: metaphysically, the LAW OF
RETRIBUTION, the Law of cause and effect or Ethical Causation. Nemesis,
only in one sense, that of bad Karma. It is the eleventh Nidana in the
concatenation of causes and effects in orthodox Buddhism; yet it is the
power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, the
metaphysical Samskara, or the moral effect of an act committed for the
attainment of something gratifies a personal desire. There is the Karma
of merit and the Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor rewards,
it is simply the one Universal LAW which guides unerringly, and so to
say blindly, all other laws productive of certain effects along the
grooves of their respective causations. When Buddhism teaches that
"Karma is that moral kernel (of any being) which alone survives death
and continues in transmigration" or reincarnation, it simply means that
there remains nought after each Personality but the causes produced by
it; causes which are undying, i.e., which cannot be eliminated from the
Universe until replaced by their legitimate effects, and wiped out by
them, so to speak, and such causes -- unless compensated during the life
of the persom who produced them with adequate effects, will follow the
reincarnated Ego, and reach it in its subsequent reincarnation until a
harmony between effects and causes is fully reestablished. No
"personality" -- a mere bundle of material atoms, and of instinctual and
mental characterlstics -- can of course continue, as such, in the world
of pure Spirit. Only that which is immortal in its very nature and
divine in its essence, namely, the Ego, can exist for ever. And as it is
that Ego which chooses the personality it will inform, after each
Devachan, and which receives through these personalities the effects of
the Karmic causes produced, it is therefore the Ego, that self which is
the "moral kernel" referred to and embodied karma, "which alone survives
death."

KT Karma (Sans.) Physically, action; Metaphysically, the LAW of
RETRIBUTION; the Law of Cause and Effect or Ethical Causation. It is
Nemesis only in the sense of bad Karma. It is the eleventh Nidana in the
concatenation of causes and effects in orthodox Buddhism; yet it is the
power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, the
metaphysical Samskara, or the moral effect of an act committed for the
attainment of something which gratifies a personal desire. There is the
Karma of merit and the Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor
rewards; it is simply the one Universal LAW which guides unerringly and,
so to say, blindly, all other laws productive of certain effects along
the grooves of their respective causations. When Buddhism teaches that
"Karma is that moral Kernel (of any being) which alone survives death an
d continues in transmigration" or reincarnation, it simply means that
there remains nought after each personality, but the causes produced by
it, causes which are undying, i. e., which cannot be eliminated from the
Universe until replaced by their legitimate effects, and so to speak,
wiped out by them. And such causes, unless compensated during the life
of the person who produced them with adequate effects, will follow the
reincarnated Ego and reach it in its subsequent incarnations until a
full harmony between effects and causes is fully re-established. No
"personality" -- a mere bundle of material atoms and instinctual and
mental characteristics -- can, of course, continue as such in the world
of pure spirit. Only that which is immortal in its very nature and
divine in its essence, namely, the Ego, can exist for ever. And as it is
that Ego which chooses the personality it will inform after each
Devachan, and which receives through these personalities the effects of
the Karmic causes produced, it is, therefore, the Ego, that Self, which
is the "moral Kernel" referred to, and embodied Karma itself, that
"which alone survives death."

FY Karma, the law of ethical causation; the effect of an act for the
attainment of an object of personal desire, merit and demerit.
WG Karma, the law of universal harmony, or the self-adjusting force of
nature restoring harmony disturbed by action; the self-enforcing
equation of action -- cause and effect in endless succession; the moral
law of compensation, operating to produce all conditions of life, misery
and happiness, birth, death and rebirth, being itself both cause and
effect, action and the effect of action, the rewarder of good and the
punisher of evil, and being always in operation, involving all worlds up
to that of Brahma. The three divisions of karma in the Siamese school
are: thittham wethaniya kam, fruits experienced at once, or in this
life; upadha wethaniya kam, fruits for next life; aprapara wethaniya kam
, fruits in future lives from the third onward. In the Indian schools
some of its great divisions are: karma now being experienced; karma that
we are making for the next incarnation or incarnations, and delayed
karma from other lives still unexperienced. (karma, action, work deed;
derived from the root kri, "to make," which is akin to the Latin cre-are
, whence comes the English "cre-ate.")

OG Karma -- (Karman, Sanskrit) This is a noun-form coming from the root
kri meaning "to do," "to make." Literally karma means "doing," "making,"
action. But when used in a philosophical sense, it has a technical
meaning, and this technical meaning can best be translated into English
by the word consequence. The idea is this: When an entity acts, he acts
from within; he acts through an expenditure in greater or less degree of
his own native energy. This expenditure of energy, this outflowing of
energy, as it impacts upon the surrounding milieu, the nature around us,
brings forth from the latter perhaps an instantaneous or perhaps a
delayed reaction or rebound. Nature, in other words, reacts against the
impact; and the combination of these two -- of energy acting upon nature
and nature reacting against the impact of that energy -- is what is
called karma, being a combination of the two factors. Karma is, in other
words, essentially a chain of causation, stretching back into the
infinity of the past and therefore necessarily destined to stretch into
the infinity of the future. It is unescapable, because it is in
universal nature, which is infinite and therefore everywhere and
timeless; and sooner or later the reaction will inevitably be felt by
the entity which aroused it.
It is a very old doctrine, known to all religions and philosophies, and
since the renascence of scientific study in the Occident has become one
of the fundamental postulates of modern coordinated knowledge. If you
toss a pebble into a pool, it causes ripples in the water, and these
ripples spread and finally impact upon the bank surrounding the pool;
and, so modern science tells us, the ripples are translated into
vibrations, which are carried outward into infinity. But at every step
of this natural process there is a corresponding reaction from every one
and from all of the myriads of atomic particles affected by the
spreading energy.
Karma is in no sense of the word fatalism on the one hand, nor what is
popularly known as chance, on the other hand. It is essentially a
doctrine of free will, for naturally the entity which initiates a
movement or action -- spiritual, mental, psychological, physical, or
other -- is responsible thereafter in the shape of consequences and
effects that flow therefrom, and sooner or later recoil upon the actor
or prime mover.
Since everything is interlocked and interlinked and interblended with
everything else, and no thing and no being can live unto itself alone,
other entities are of necessity, in smaller or larger degree, affected
by the causes or motions initiated by any individual entity; but such
effects or consequences on entities, other than the prime mover, are
only indirectly a morally compelling power, in the true sense of the
word moral.
An example of this is seen in what the theosophist means when he speaks
of family karma as contrasted with one's own individual karma; or
national karma, the series of consequences pertaining to the nation of
which he is an individual; or again, the racial karma pertaining to the
race of which the individual is an integral member. Karma cannot be said
either to punish or to reward in the ordinary meaning of these terms.
Its action is unerringly just, for being a part of nature's own
operations, all karmic action ultimately can be traced back to the
kosmic heart of harmony which is the same thing as saying pure
consciousness-spirit. The doctrine is extremely comforting to human
minds, inasmuch as man may carve his own destiny and indeed must do so.
He can form it or deform it, shape it or misshape it, as he wills; and
by acting with nature's own great and underlying energies, he puts
himself in unison or harmony therewith and therefore becomes a co-worker
with nature as the gods are.

(After this chewing of everyones cud, (it's a good thing I didn't have to type
it in;-) we can all go to <A HREF="http://www.blavatsky.net/";>
http://www.blavatsky.net/</A> Under "TOPICS" and click  "Study Aids" to
understand meanings of specific terms used in these discussions.:-)

LHM