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Subduing War, Pestilence, Evil and Fear—the Vajrayana Way

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ElementSkulls

When we are faced with outrageous situations, challenges beyond our wildest dreams, strange and dangerous times that push us towards the precipice—there are many and extreme ways to meet these impacts. Fear, freaking out, hiding, disappearing into ideologies and dogma, seeking security in all kinds of mass psychosis, mass formation or hypnotic states, activism, fighting back, escape, taking up arms, waiting it out, and on and on.

There is also a very different way, one that is preserved for us in the Adamantine Path, the Vajrayana tradition preserved in the hidden valleys and mountain fastness of Tibet. This is a spiritual way, but also incredibly brilliant and effective in its practicality in dealing with these formidable demons of our time. The method is based squarely on the foundational principles of Buddhist Tantra. It involves the most basic manipulation of reality, one that is repeated throughout the entire corpus of Vajrayana practices. But those of any spiritual persuasion may also be privy to these ideas, which are scattered across our world and found wherever transformative practices are still known and not yet destroyed by time or malice.

Whatever our political, ideological, or even moral bias, in this practice we can leave it all behind. There is no need to work on one side or the other, defeat the enemy, overcome the bad guys or anything like that. In fact that would be quite counterproductive, and in fact would be the polar opposite of this kind of transformation. Vajrayana is not just a road to enlightenment, but can be used in all kinds of practical situations, from finding a lost cow to pacifying ecological disturbances or calming the enmity between conflicting factions. Such could be called mundane Vajrayana and has been an important part of Buddhist Himalayan countries for thousands of years. It is also the purvey of shamans, Daoists, Shaivites and every manner of community-focuses spiritual advisors and guardians. This is the next level up, more like sacred Vajrayana than profane. In spite of a transcendent nature, however, it does not mean that it has no material effect, or only has impact the practitioner engaged in this work. Instead, it can be expected to have deeper and more lasting effects than even the best mundane magic. This is because its entry point takes us to the root causes, changing the context and paradigm in which all these calamities and struggles take place.

Setting the Mind

Here we have to resist the temptation of taking sides, and let that mindset of polarity fall away. We are not working to combat those we perceive as evil, fix those who we decide have insane ideas, who harbor the wrong philosophy, those who we consider to take erroneous actions or those harboring malicious intent. We will assume at this point that we do not know, or cannot know, the deepest karma, collective or individual, or the light or darkness that lives in the hearts of men and women. We go beyond praise and blame, fame and infamy, and move to another framework, another worldview, another level of perception.

The Practice

Before one is a vast skullcup, a gigantic, enormous bowl of the human cranium. This is an appropriate vessel (in a certain way) as the basis of all our problems, worries and woes. In it, we throw all the warring factions, all the suffering beings, all desperate narratives, all material set-ups, along with all the hatred, enmity, despair, suffering, horror, evil, striving, hope eternal and utter confusion that surrounds us. All the things that disturb, frighten, upset and annoy, cause us to rack our brains and gnash our teeth—everything is piled in. We toss in not just what we don’t like, but all the polarities and conflicts, all the irresolvable tensions, the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. If imagination fails, just browse the news and throw every item of the day in there—sickness, war, madness, arrogance, fascism, communism, self-righteousness, moral superiority, both pride and self-hatred. All in.

The Preparation

And now this vast ocean of the stuff of life, good and bad, worthwhile and horrific, will be cooked down into its essential nature, beyond all those confused appearances. In the traditional methodology that many readers may be familiar with, the entirety of this stew we are about to cook manifests as the “five meats and five nectars.” This profound symbolism is the summation of all that appears unclean, negative, taboo, filthy and negative in this world—the impure five elements personified. Historically, there are five “meats” of taboo foodstuffs, taken from the Brahmanical tradition of India. And the “nectars” are the simply what we consider foul and unwanted, the wastes matter of the body. Each has a seed syllable, and each a physical representation. We are not worried about those details here, in spite of their value in deeper studies, but the results we are seeking are the same. Everything will be purified and rendered into its underlying and inherent ultimate state. But we aren’t there yet. A few things have to happen first.

SkullcupScene

The Transformation

Beneath this skullcup and its contents which extends to the far horizon and the extent of space, we summon a primary blazing Fire Element, fanned by the primordial wild wind of the Air Element. With this intense wisdom flame, the entire phantasmagoria of human suffering, conflict, confusion, hope and fear melts into an endless ocean. Dissolving together, bubbling and boiling, all impurities and toxicity spill over and out like foaming froth. Thus begins the disappearance of all the seeming contradictions, the reconciliation of opposites, of confused appearances, the phantasms that dance before our eyes each day and haunt us each night. But we need to travel further, beyond that primordial soup, to discover the hidden nature behind appearances, the cacophony of sounds and the luminosity that fills our senses.

Bring Down Grace

To fully accomplish this transformation, we need something beyond our puny powers and drowsy consciousness. So at this point we invoke a spiritual downpour, a vibrant flash of cosmic lightening. This is the same spark of beingness that first animated the universe before the appearance of an observer and an observed, or the movement of time and events. This original force of Form, Energy and Mind descends in the guise of a white OM, a red AH and a blue HUNG syllable and dissolves into our grand mixture of samsaric goop.

The Five Elements

From this, our vast soup of worldly cares and worries of mind and body, of time and travail, is rendered back into its original nature—its pristine state. That is none other than he purified five elements that comprise the building blocks of experience. The five meats of dog, elephant, horse, cow and human, and the five nectars of urine, feces, brain, blood and bodhicitta become the Male and Female Buddhas. Five elements of water, fire, earth, air and space have become Five Wisdoms. These profound meanings are shown by symbol, images with potency and depth that must be unpacked by our own silent and open attention and that cannot be rendered by word alone.

The Offering

Now all that was false, chaotic, fabricated and spell-binding is washed away. All that fascinated us into the cycle of object-hypnosis is gone. But we can’t rest in that void, the un-creation of all that was evanescent and thus false. Even if we find that untarnished ground to be luminous and open, we must return to our illusory world, in commitment to the Bodhisattva vow.
The five elements are the fabric from which everything is cut, the substance from which our experience of the world is fabricated. With this prima substantia, this original substrate of all matter, we can create anything we wish. We have the replicator of Star Trek fame, which seems to manufacture food and drink out of photons and thin air. Having these building blocks of the whole of reality, we make use of them, not to full our own belly or to indulge our fantasies. Instead, we turn the entire ocean into an endless stream of offerings. It is by nature inexhaustible, since it comes from the infinite fount of the Five Elements, the basis of creation. Our dreams show us how creative and unimpeded the psyche is in creating whole worlds and the people in them, each with their own history and qualities. Beyond the chimera of a dream, harnessing that generative power allows us to interact with real forces and fields of consciousness in the spiritual world as well as material “reality.”

The Guests

But what are we offering—and to whom? Vajrayana, with its strong cultural context of ancient India, Tibet, Bhutan and other Himalayan realms, describes four types of guests encompassing the whole of lived possibilities, all according to Buddhist cosmology. Here we take full allegiance tot he principle embodied in these methods, rather than the cultural container. True enough, symbols of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Yidam and other enlightened forms are multi-layered meaningful and full of rich treasures of understanding. Notwithstanding, here we will adhere to the purpose of offering a simple and direct way of transforming the mess we find ourselves in, with becoming lost in minutiae. In this context there are two kinds of radically different classes of guests that are invited to this cosmic party. Understanding each, what we offer also becomes obvious.

Offering High

The first offering that we see in our mind’s eye is directed towards the nexus of enlightened forces in the universe. In Buddhism these realized beings appear as Buddhas in pure realms, with a panoply of traditional adornment and characteristics. But these can be transposed with Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Daoist, Shamanic or completely non-aligned ways of perceiving the highest levels of development and purity with which humans can connect. Heretically, one could see them as planets and stars or as crystalline energy forms or cosmic containment fields. Here we are reminded of the famous Tibetan folk tale of the old lady who was given a supposed relic of a tooth of the Buddha—that was actually from an aged dog. Though ridiculed, the we are told that she attained full enlightenment, so strong was her power of faith and devotion. Purity of intent and sincere striving outweighs scholastic complications every time. However we perceive these guests, it also valuable to see them, at least in part, their white, red, green, yellow and blue forms, expressing the perfection of the elements of Water, Fire, Air, Earth and Space. We live in the step-down versions of those Wisdom Elements, several levels removed form their nature. Now we have purified the mundane elements into a sea of potential and from it we offer it right back to purity—The circle is complete.

In essence what we are offering is everything beautiful, and a guide to that is our senses themselves: exquisite flowers, extraordinary scents, velvet touch, delightful tastes, a mind of joy and peace. The possibilities of exalted objects and experiences become endless. Each of these once again represents our daily experience uplifted to its best and purest possibilities. We do not have to itemize all these offerings (though looking in a magazine for the rich and famous like the Robb Report might be useful). We need only have a felt sense that all this is flowing to all beings who are further along than us on the spiritual path, and that embody goodness, strength, wisdom, compassion, equanimity, impartiality, patience and so on. And each of these objects and experiences are instantly emanated from our endless ocean of transformed nectar, in a never-ending stream. Know that it is received and know that it is acknowledged. While this might be thought of as a mere “visualization” it is also happening within a spiritual reality.

Guests of Compassion

The second guests are closer to home, and the purpose of the offering very different from previously but also very near and very familiar to us. For now we offer to all living creatures, all life on earth all sentient beings, all of nature. Again, we intentionally depart from Buddhist cosmology. We can think about the immense suffering of animals great and small and our ecosystems as a whole, of trees, plants and microbes in the soil. But the focus here is on the range of distress, pain and torment to which the human body and mind is heir. For those in fear, we offer solace; To those who hunger or thirst, they are satiated; Where there is war and conflict, we see peace and agreement; Where there are predators and victims, we perceive cooperation and mutual respect and care. Loneliness becomes community and connection. Intolerance becomes understanding and justice. Sickness of all kinds becomes a state of well-being and vitality. All this flows out as streams of nectar with a five-colored radiance.

The pith of this contemplation is that we can be as detailed, and specific as we wish. This could be a universal balm against suffering, or have a laser-like focus towards a town, a people, a person, an event. It can be directed towards the anonymous millions or those we know and love It may be personages that we have come to hate, those we fear, those we salute, those we ignore. But they are all bathed in the same beneficent waters of healing and change, one and all. In this same motion, our own enmity, bias and polarities are washed away, with universal release from suffering of body and mind.

The Finale

Whether we do this practice for three minutes or three hours, in the end, we see the outer guests, the offering and even ourselves as witness, dissolve into a unified field of warm and luminous awareness, a vast and unfettered space that is our natural state, our true home.

Engaging in this kind of work is not a trip inside your head, sitting in your little room, in the middle of nowhere, on the far edge of the milky way, surrounded by billions of other suns. It is a direct embrace of the center of the universe. This journey requires no travel on a rocket ship, no plugging into a computer interface, nor the permission of any human, non-human or superhuman. It is your gift, a power beyond comprehension that is accessible in this and every other moment.

WrathfulHangings

Trauma Dharma

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The greatest obstacle to spiritual development is—not what you might think. Various religious and spiritual pathways talk about our disturbed emotions, our anger, our anxiety, our past actions. Others dwell on the persistent clinging or attachment to various aspects of our outer world and inner experience. Still others site our self-centeredness, our  grasping at a self or so-called “ego-clinging.” Each of these is valid in relation to different stages and aspects of the path. And in every case we could also debate their value or relevance or the misunderstandings that arise in regard to any of these complex issues. A plethora of books are also available that focus on one or another of these factors, but they all neglect a major obstacle to our progress. Indeed most of these factors that contribute to our suffering are based on a still deeper cause. Like the mythical many-headed hydra, it can manifest in hundreds of ways, yet if you cut off one head, ten more grow in its place. That overarching cause is simply this: Trauma. Before we can either reject or accept such a notion, we need to define what trauma is, beyond the limited concepts offered by either the popular press or clinical psychotherapy. And though the extensive literature and methods of working with PTSD and trauma are well-developed, diverse and generally effective, for our spiritual development, the impact of trauma is different, as are the solutions.

What is a Trauma?

For our purpose, a trauma is anything whatsoever that disrupts our normal physiology or homeostasis on a body, mind or spirit level—and leaves a chronic, seemingly permanent and distorting imprint on our optimal bioenergetic structure. There is no need in this short article to present a full catalog of the toxic impacts we are subject to all the live long day. These are inflicted on our biological being in the form of internal wastes and oxidative by-products, along with thousands of toxins in our food and water and atmosphere. There is a gigantic grab bag of genetic predispositions, toxic metals, drugs, viruses and other microbes, and other pollutants. Psychologically there is past or ongoing stress, loss and grief, fear, worry and abuse and so on. From the more complex spiritual perspective, there are astrological forces, ill-will and “curses,” non-human entities and of course the effects of our own actions i.e. karma. Karma simply means cause and effect and so it is not just “what you did” but also what was done to you, what your experienced and what your endured.

None of the above are necessarily traumatic if the body-mind-spirit fends them off and recovers perfectly—or at least almost so. But intense shocks create a semi-permanent record that results in dysfunction somewhere along the traumatic spectrum. Rather than a temporary impact, it becomes a perpetuating, recurring, usually hidden and resistant pattern or program that will sabotage our health, wealth, well-being or sanity whenever it is triggered or we become weak enough that one or another such trauma rears its proverbial ugly head.

Trauma Effects

The range of symptoms produced by trauma are legion. Being a form of stress, the effects are not only psychological, but metabolic, neurological, immunological, vascular and so on. While none of these problems specific to trauma alone, the real key is to appreciate what trauma means for the bioenergetic body, for the intricate web of electrical, magnetic and photonic forces and fields that make up our subtle body.

Our physical form itself functions as a liquid crystal matrix, with the fourth, magnetic stage of water being an important part of our composition. Our connective tissue matrix and PVS (primary vascular system) interweaves through every organ and tissue. Beyond this exquisite network of minute vessels and microscopic collagen, we also have an energy body. Just as there is network of ever finer arteries and capillaries, and ever more subtle branches of nerve fibers, there is a highly structured energy field. Imagine a polished diamond or some other magnificent gem with billions of facets, intersecting and overlapping in perfect symmetry, reflecting photons carrying complex qualia of light and information. This network, these formative patterns, are the basis on which our physical organism is built. And all structure and all function follows these invisible lines of force.

Buddhist and Hindu texts describe the body as having 84,000 energy channels, known as nadi (Sanskrit) or tsas (Tibetan). This is certainly a figurative number, or represents only the more coarse channels. The main energy pathways have been detailed in Chinese Medicine and Daoist alchemy, in Buddhist Vajrayana and Hindu Shaivite and yogic practice. But for now we only need the broadest of brushes to understand the role that trauma plays in disrupting or damaging this complex energy body.

Traumatic Channels

Trauma exists within our body, tissues, cells and molecules. Recent research has given us extensive new understandings about what happens within the vascular system and how blockages and distortion, or a lack or excess of angiogenesis (blood vessel building capacity) accompanies disease.  Such disruptions also occur within the complex web of energies, the vibrating strings of light and organized fields that belong to each unique organ and tissue. These take the form of weakened or broken lines of forces, distorted or expanded “bubbles” within the bodyfield or thickened, tangled or blocked energetic pathways. The perfect symmetry and organization of our bioenergetic structure is transformed into a tangled skein. To make matters worse, these areas, large and small, develop defensive fields, not unlike the physical scabs and scars with which we are so familiar. The traumatic imprints become walled off and inaccessible, “safely” stowed away—yet becoming a ticking time bomb.

While the energy body will reflect the impacts of long-held traumas, these impacts also live in our memory. The location of memory may be disputed by science, but in reality it exists within the bioernegetic matrix. These various disturbed and distorted areas, whether deficient or congested, hold the traumatic memories, the overwhelming impacts that we could not resolve and could not eliminate. They are stuck there, adding to the accumulated burden of negative, unresolved experiences.

Trauma Repair

The fact that trauma is stored in the physical organism, the energy body and the mind is also our key to resolving these points of dysfunction. In mainstream Vajrayana Buddhism we have already have many of these tools, though for cultural reasons they have not been used to full effect. Vajarasattva practice, for example, is used to cleanse the body and psyche in preparation for deeper meditations. But while this kind of practice is used for “karmic purification,” it can and should be used to specifically target physical and psychological trauma. Some would object that this is a form of therapy and not dharma, and that the two should not be conflated. It is a valid point, except that one discovers that the two are intimately and irrevocably intertwined. The only thing that makes something therapeutic, as opposed to spiritual practice, is one’s orientation. Is this about making me a better, healthier, saner person or moving me towards enlightenment? I see these both as valid goals for a creating better world for all of us, call it what you will.

And in my own experience, the 5 Elemental connection is the crucial missing component, even in this practice. Using Vajrasattva of the five different colors, or using the Elements themselves, their forms, colors, seed syllables and sounds, allows one to specifically target the trauma. With a thorough understanding of the Five Elements in both their healthy and maladaptive forms we can focus on which Elemental or subelemental energy field combinations suffered the original damage.

Additionally, Western psychological methods such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and HMR (Holographic Memory Resolution) are useful and effective methods. Integrated with various bioenergetic models, they have the potential to be even more profound in their effects.

Trauma Defense

While we are clearing up past impacts, we may also be busy accumulating fresh trauma! The solution seems straightforward—protect oneself. But how to most effectively ward off these attacks, large and small? Fortunately Vajrayana again is replete with defensive methods, and in fact a good deal of the daily practice of a tantric Buddhist professional is spent in this way. Daily water offerings, smoke offerings, morning Tara practice and evening protector practice are largely dedicated to stopping harm to one’s health, possessions, companions, spiritual practice and the transformative teachings in general. The extensive and widespread practice of Chöd is another unique way of clearing “incoming karma” before it manifests into serious obstacles and difficulties. Then again, merely holding to the identity of the Yidam or meditational deity archetype provides ongoing protection, as we discard our habitual identity, the proverbial “magnet of suffering.”

The Trauma-Resistant Form

Inner work of another sort is also necessary and highly effective. This takes of form of building up one’s five element structure, area by area, noting where there are weakness and filling in the gaps. The integrity of our Elemental matrix is our greatest asset and greatest bulwark against the forces of entropy and decay. They are formative patterns of meaning and intelligence that provide a scaffold for biophotonic light, electricity, magnetism and eventually a vital form built of molecules, cells and sinews. The Elements should be our first concern in the morning and our last thought at night, providing diurnal protection. If one can achieve full Mahamudra pure light states, do that. But the Elements will still be our guide through the mundane world of apparitions and the confused wandering of sentient beings.

The Trauma World

Without question, we are in one of the most turbulent and disruptive times of our collective lives. That means that the traumatic impacts—physical, mental and spiritual— are coming hard and fast, with no certain end in site. Working daily to clear out “hits” of the day is more essential than ever. Meanwhile, opportunities arise to whittle away at our lifetime backlog of karmic impediment. Every liability can become an asset. The spiritual alchemist knows hat we are here to transform lead into gold, poison into nectar, confused bumbling into sacred living. We just need to put into practice what we already know and let it slowly enter our Essence.

Bibliography

Hershoff, Asa (August, 2021). 5 Element Energy Healing: The Ancient Key To Health, Vitality And Wholeness Through Life’s Formative Forces Of Earth, Water, Fire, Air & Space. Healing Wisdom Books.

Hershoff, Asa (Oct, 2021). Elemental Psychology: The Ancient Key to Awakening Your Inner Strength, Dominion, Creativity, Wisdom & Open Heart. Healing Wisdom Books.

Babbel. Susanne. (2018). Heal The Body, Heal The Mind: A Somatic Approach To Moving Beyond Trauma. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.

Chia, Mantak and Hilton, Doug. (2017). EMDR and the Universal Healing Tao: An Energy Psychology Approach to Overcoming Emotional Trauma. Rochester: Inner Traditions.

Emerson, David and Hopper, Elizabeth. (2011). Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body . Berkeley: North Atlantic Books

Fireman, John and Gila, Ann. The Primal Wound: A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction, and Growth. SUNY Press.

Gyatrul Rinpoche and Norbu, Trinley. (1978). Commentaries on the Practice of Vajrasattva. Ashland: Mirror of Wisdom Publications.

Kalsched, Donald. (1996 ). The Inner World Of Trauma: Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit. New York: Routledge.

Levine, Peter A. (1993). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences.  Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

Shapiro, Francine. (2012). Getting past your past: take control of your life with self-help techniques from EMDR therapy. New York: Rodale Press.

Van der Kolk, Bessel. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Viking Press.

Wolynn, Mark. (2016). It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle.  New York: Viking Press.

Yeshe, Lama Thubten. (2004). Becoming Vajrasattva: The Tantric Path Of Purification. Somerville: Wisdom Publications.

Elemental Protection in Desperate Times

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Vajra Network

Illustration by Mark Kusek

Why Protection?

Life on planet earth, within the Sol solar system, on the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, itself made up of 100 thousand million stars, has never been particularly easy. But the challenges we share globally, and the problems we face individually, have reached a whole new level of difficult. Yet for those who follow the spiritual path, not as an avocation, but as an inner imperative, it is a unique opportunity to deepen realization and expand one’s compassionate heart. Still, while we decrease grasping and abandon the false narrative of both narcissism and self-hatred, we need protection. It may be a paradox that the path towards non-self requires fences and walls, yet it is painfully true. The crucible of the soul in which we transform our small mind and fragile form into a vehicle for infinite luminosity and unlimited consciousness needs containment. Ironically, someone on “the path” needs far more protection than the those who are limited to the luxury of such mundane problems as family, finances, relationships, career, health and all our other enduring anxieties. None of these persistent sufferings of the human condition should be minimized or underestimated. The pain that people endure in the simple process of living is always beyond our expectation and happens in spite of our best hopes. But those who are compelled to enter the spiritual highway immediately acquire whole new levels of difficulty. One of the those compelling issues is protecting this sacred part of life from those very life problems we have mentioned. One’s sacred center needs to be guarded and sheltered from a thousand distractions, interruptions, toxic intrusions and destructive forces. These include all the passive issues of life, as well as active opposition from the jealous, the hateful, the misdirected, the confused, the self-righteous, the well-meaning disruptor, the lost souls and more. While we aim to take our realization and our deepened wisdom into the world and make it a better place, this is only possible if we have maintained a secret and safe hermitage somewhere in the depths of our being.

Creating Sacred Space

Yet it is simply not possible to keep track of all the issues and problems that beset us, that can knock us slightly off kilter or drive us over the edge. And in any case that kind of accounting would not be a spiritually skillful approach. Instead we can achieve this end through the internal power of the psyche, using visualization, mantra, and connecting to finer energies and a higher consciousness. While there are many methods within Vajrayana for guarding our inner sanctity none is more simple, and more commonly used, than the sung-kor—the protection circle.

At the core of Tibetan Buddhism are tantric practices in which we take on the enlightened form of the Deity, allowing the mantric force within the heart to resonate and radiate light throughout the larger world. But as a preliminary to this shift in reality, our practice environment needs to be transformed into a circumscribed sacred space. And the protection circle is an ideal way to demarcate this imaginal landscape.

Traditionally the sungkor is fabricated from visualized crystal vajras that form a domed latticework of floor, walls and ceiling that completely encircles and enclose our meditation area, creating a fully cloistered space. Whether this is done in concise or elaborate form, those who use this method become aware of its power, its effectiveness, and its depth, far beyond what we might expect from the “imagination.” The great meditation master Kalu Rinpoche stated that this was the main practice of his father, also a renowned yogi, who treasured it above all the myriad of other skillful means at the disposal of a Vajrayanist.

Here though, we can are suggesting a simpler, but no less effective method, and one that s also ancient in its provenance. The five element protection circle is inherently the same as using the crystal vajra, which itself represents the Five Wisdoms and the five Buddhas families in male and female expression. The pure element approach is particularly valuable and accessible, because each of the five layers of our protective sphere has a meaning, a purpose and its own special relation to our mind, body and activities.

In order to create our sungkor we surround our selves with five sphere, like cosmic bubbles, one inside the other. We start from the inside and work our way out to the periphery.

The Elements, being the basis of all we know and all we see, are a vast topic, and in spite of the experience of sages, scholars and healers for thousands of years, there are many books yet to be written on the subject. Here we are merely sketching out some basic ideas about Elemental characteristics and their effects, a framework for future investigations.

Setting the Sphere

Our sphere can be as expansive as we wish, but we will keep it cosy for now. The first sphere is closest to the body, six inches or a foot away. It is golden yellow and made of light, a luminous egg. This represents Earth Element. As the essence of stability, structure, and order, it protects against physical injury and harm, augments the immune system, and makes mind and emotions strong and firm against all opposition.

The next layer, six inches to a foot outside the first sphere, is Water Element, a luminous shimmering white globe, like transparent crystal. This encompasses fluidity, nurturing, a strong and understanding heart and a sense of unity and connection with life. The protection it offers is freedom from depressive and negative energies, and illnesses that affect the digestive system, liver and overall metabolism.

Outside this is the sphere of Fire Element, the epitome of energy, warmth, drive and willpower, vitality and engagement. A transparent dome of ruby and vermilion, the cocoon of Fire staves off debility, weakness, febrile illness and anger and hatred in our physical and mental environment.

Next is the Air sphere, a hologram of emerald light, encompassing vibrance, action, creativity and every form of movement in our body and mind. It guards against invasive forces that are outer and inner storms, physically impacting us with tension, spasm, neurological problems, anxiety and over-stimulation in general.

Finally, the outermost bubble of protection is that of Space, deep sapphire in color, yet appearing like a glowing mirage. Space is the ground on which all arises and to which all returns. But it is also wisdom itself, providing guidance, harmony and balance. This sphere is the final barrier, holding back chaos and disorder, ignorance and a contracted mindset that does not recognize the wholeness and interdependence of all things.

The Anytime Protector

We can use this method of protection circle creation anytime and anywhere. It is an ideal meditation for falling asleep at night. In the morning, it is the best way to start the day. Set it and forget it! We should understand that as we go through our daily activities, we will gradually create an enhanced protection against that which would harm our body, disturb our mind, or be an obstacle to what we need to accomplish. Think that sickness, manipulation, deception, disputes, ill-will, hatred, greed and misfortune are unable to enter our impenetrable energetic protection sphere. Remember thought that this is a semi-permeable membrane in which we determine what should be digested and what rejected. Though we are guarding the inner treasures, we actively welcome the forces of creativity, goodness, tolerance, care, inner strength, resilience and wisdom that are all around us, flowing freely across the galaxy and into our open presence.

The Mystery of the 5 Elements

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The Elemental Conundrum

The five Elements are the very bedrock of Vajrayana. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that, to date, there has been no attempt to define more precisely what these phenomena are, and how they exist as principles that structure our entire world. Those master yogins and yoginis that have achieved an inner realization of the Elements should have more to say about them and the part they play in our bodies and minds. Maybe all that is needed is to learn the method, follow the practice, and receive the fruition, as tradition dictates. While the illustrious history of highly realized beings within Vajrayana demonstrate this to be true, there are shortcomings to this approach, especially for the West.

The Need for Renewal

All significant innovation or discovery—including spiritual truths—eventually becomes increasingly codified and structured. Likewise, Vajrayana follows a set of highly structured dogma, creeds and ideologies. Those boundaries serve a useful purpose in keeping the integrity and meaning of a spiritual path intact. Group culture and modes of thought and action need to be preserved, but they can also become excessively dogmatic, canonized and rigid. Such systems might even transform into a lifeless husk, instead of a living, evolving organism. That is the tight-rope of human striving. One way to keep a tradition from becoming petrified is the healthy encounter with new thought, fresh insight, and the experiences of those who plumb the depths of that system, and then bring new pearls of wisdom to the surface. These are the wellspring of new growth and evolution, and s defense against losing the essence, while merely maintaining the outer facade of the tradition.

Western Mind 2.0

We do have a square peg and round hole situation with Western Buddhism. Those who have traveled to “exotic” locations and immersed themselves in Eastern life know how profoundly and essentially different the shape of the mind can be in different cultures and epochs. The interface of Buddhism with modern physics and psychology are two prominent attempts at bridging the gap between how we experience life today, and that of 10th century Tibet or 5th century India. Such dialogues look for similarities and common ground, or for confirmations, but do little to explain or expand on the crucial points of ancient knowledge. The West seeks understanding from the outer world, while Easter wisdom specializes in inner exploration. A possible bridge between the language of the inner and the outer is none other than the Five Elements.
Here we are not trying to solve the riddle of the existence of the Elemental template, but to looke at different approaches that mystery. This can only enhance our path of inner development. A deeper Elemental understanding also augments our ability to heal body and mind, to benefit others, and repair the natural landscape we inhabit. In so doing we fulfill what Buddhism calls the “two benefits” of self and other. Indeed Elemental work is fundamental to our spiritual unfoldment, but also can be a tool for treating illness, mental stress and anxiety and the underlying traumas that limit our vast potential.

1. Elements as Metaphor and Archetype

The Elements stand as an elegant statement about our human condition. They are symbols, living representations of a specific set of circumstances, qualities, attributes, and liabilities. They represent archetypal patterns, forces and states that as familiar as our five senses. The stability and weight of Earth, the immediacy and presence of Fire, the dynamic flow of Water, are not just concepts, but experiences we can relate to on multiple levels. Once we dive in, we discover that they are not superficial or peripheral, but central to our being. Just as modern physicists seek the core principles to explain what is behind phenomena, Plato spoke of Forms, eternal principles that stand behind our perceptions. Similarly the Five Elements model encompasses both outer and inner sources of experience. These archetypal meanings are, by nature, both multifaceted and multi-layered, requiring study and direct work with Element forces themselves to unlock their secrets—and their power.
Even on a superficial level, Elemental archetypes, such as the 5-point star, carry great weight, representing the wholeness of the human as incarnate spirit. Its use on coins and architectural objects goes back at least 5,000 years to Sumeria and Egypt. The Greek Pythagoreans used it as their main symbol, arrayed with syllables of the five elements, spelling out the goddess “Ugieia” or Hygeia meaning wholeness/health. It is a perennial and global icon, the pentacle appearing on more than 60 national flags and in every form of art, decoration and advertising. A “five-star” review is a pale reminder of the inner meaning of this holistic archetype.

2. Elements as Organizing Principle

A useful and practical way of thinking of the Elements is as an organizing principles or template. Such theoretical models are developed in the realms of science, philosophy and religion. But models can be purely artificial or they can reflect an organic reality. The more accurate and pervase a model =is in organizing our perceived world, the more it confirms that reality itself is formulated in this way. The 5-elemental template was applied to health and illness millennia ago, through the ancient sciences of Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine. And it has impacted psychological understandings from the time of Galen until modern times in the truncated (yet still useful) four-Element system of the temperaments and Jungian types. In the East it has been applied equally well to five-fold configurations of environmental forces and forms, demonic obstacles, ritual activities, architecture, art, spiritual unfoldment, pure realms and consciousness itself. Learning to perceive this pentad division is an exercise in itself, and one that can be deeply enriching.

3. Elements as Mathematical Core

The form of the pentagon (five-sided rectangle) and pentagram (5-pointed star) have fascinated humanity for millennia. This is partly because they perfectly embody the Golden Ratio, or phi and the Fibonacci sequence of numbers or spiral that is found throughout nature, art and architecture. That ratio of 1 to 1.618, exists in most of the proportions of our body, including eye and ear, in shells, sunflowers, insects, the DNA spiral, frogs, the curve of galaxies—everywhere. It is found in the pyramids of Giza, the art of Leonardo da Vinci and the pagodas of Japan. And it is the basis of our musical notation system and a large part of our sense of beauty and harmony in general. Five is intimately related to phi as a mathematical formula as well as a geometric form. Making the five-sided figure into a solid, we have the dodecahedron, replicating the golden mean to infinity. There are current cosmological models that consider the universe itself to be a complex dodecahedron.
These geometric figures and their associated mathematics were directly associated with the Elements by the ancients. Pythagoras taught that the entire universe was a mathematical structure, for which he used the tetractys to explain the meaning and import of the numbers one to ten. In this model, five is the central and most important; The diagram of the tetractys itself contains various phi ratios and displays how the monad or spirit moves down to create the four lower elements. It seems clear that Pythagoras learned these 5-elemental and mathematical mysteries from his long apprenticeship in Egyptian temples and his Brahmanical and Buddhist studies either in India itself or with gymnosophist teachers among the Egyptians and Babylonian Magi.

4. Elements As Psychological Template

The correlation of the Elements with the psyche as presented in traditional Buddhism is, unfortunately, rudimentary. More significantly, it seems like an artificial force-fit of pre-existing Buddhist concepts with the emergent five-element insights that had arisen through direct tantric experience. Initially, there was no connection between mental defilements (Sanskrit: kléshas, Tib: nyön mong) and the Elements. But they became aligned in an effort to integrate classical Buddhist Mahayana and Sarvastavadin thought with Vajrayana concepts. The lists of emotional neuroses from which these five were drawn were by no means consistent. Different texts within the Abhidharma list five, six and ten kléshas, while the older Hinayana texts have a different set of five, more related to the obstacles facing monk-meditators. The contemporaneous Hindu tradition has several different lists as well, from the Yogic school of Patanjali, the Nath Siddhas and the Samkya tradition and its complex tattva cosmology. The most crucial issue is that the accepted standard list that became canonized in Buddhism does not jibe with the Western ideas of Temperament that evolved from Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen. Note too that kleshas represent a distorted or neurotic aspect of the Elements. Missing is the description of “healthy” or normal Elemental mental characteristics, though this does find some expression in Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine. Here thought, we are hampered by the three-guna system that squishes the five elements into three categories. Thai Ayurveda, representing the original Buddhist system originating in Indai, has maintained that the five-Element approach, and informants say that the three-temperament system is a clinical approach that simply ignores Space and Earth, in order to focus on Water, Fire and Air as the cause of the majority of acute symptoms. In spite of all this historical confusion, we can begin to understand the mentality of the Elements by correlating their characteristics and qualities with the vast resource of Western psychological knowledge and observation, from early philosophers to Shakespeare and onward to cognitive and humanistic schools of psychology.

5. Elements As Energy

The elements are formative principles, but they are not merely organizational frameworks. They act, they impact, they cause things to be put into motion. They are a set of forces, and these are tangible, since they can be experienced and worked with internally. In the world of material science the outer “objective” facts are what is important. On the path of inner exploration and transformation the “subjective” reins supreme. These are both a form of science, working in very different contexts. And so the goal of Element practice is to actually sense these five individual energetic qualities in your own body and mind, and in the world around one
Medical and meditation teachings from India and Tibet speak of five winds (vital or subtle energy, prana or chi) and five fires, as subdivisions of these major Elements. Vajrayana provides the details of working with these energies through the mental access points of specific sounds (mantra), color and form visualizations. We learn to listen to, and move these energies through channels, energy centers and body tissues. Traditionally though their inner qualities are not described, though the great sage and polymath Tongtang Gyalpo does allude to their heating, cooling and other qualities. Even Chinese Qi Gong or Nei Dan, with its sophisticated knowledge of bioenergetics, does not focus on an the experience of elemental phases in any detail. However, the practitioner must learn to differente these energies and their relationship to bodily processse (physiology), psychology, and spiritual alchemy. From there, the practitioner will eventually be able to perceive the Elemental energies in other people, and in all objects, animate and inanimate.

6. Elements as Spiritual Anatomy

For the Buddhist, Hindu and Yogic traditions, the main interest in the Elements is their relation to our spiritual anatomy, and transforming our impure elements into their original, inherently pure “wisdom” form. There is an established relationship as to the location of the Elements within the specific energy centers—the chakras. More than indwelling components, tantric embryology tells us that these energy centers are formed first, with the physical body congealing around them. this adds a new dimension to the way we characterize the Element, Now they are not only part of our biology and physiology, but present in a higher, more refined form. This points towards the primary or original form of the elements, their highest “divine” level, that can pervade our ordinary state, suffusing it with their pristine qualities. We live in a step-down world, where our experience is a pale reflection of the infinite and timeless consciousness that is the fundamental matrix. Our job is to climb back up the ladder, albeit against the current of biological life. Mantric sound and visualized lights and syllables, yogic postures and movements and penetrating mediations are part of that methodology.

The Elemental Bottom Line

Clearly modern science has yet to discover a set of five “somethings” corresponding to the five elements. While this may be unfortunate in terms of explaining these long-standing concepts, it is likely a good thing for the survival of the human race. If the knowledge of how to manipulate the five organizing forces of reality were in the technologically sophisticated, but ethically, morally and spiritually stunted hands of science, technology, commerce and politics, the timeline of our demise could be greatly accelerated. It is not for nothing that these powerful truths were closely guarded secrets of the Egyptians and followers of Pythagoras, and no less so the tantrics of India, Tibet and Bhutan, right up until our present day.
This is the razors edge. All religion moves towards entropy, towards extinction, unless renewed from within by the same spiritual forces that enlivened it in the first place. We must continually redefine what the five Elements mean in the context of our modern mind and oddly configured culture. For spiritual seekers, the pressing issue is not politics, not ecology, not cultural shifts or social movements. Maintaining the original vision and purity of the source (which goes by many names) and its five-part Elemental expression is the greatest challenge of our age, without it being co-opted by fear, doubt, ignorance or inflation.