WUTYL – Dakini Chapter

Comment

Comment by janaki symon on February 22, 2009 at 10:39am

margaret, yes i did understand you were speaking only of water and void. and who can tell how traditions emerge which may even be further evidence that it doesn't matter if you transpose the colors while utilizing the kagyu approach

Comment by Morticia (Not My Real Name) on February 22, 2009 at 10:10am

Just as a note, Janaki, the transposition of blue and white is the only one I've come across; other colours such as red and green are not transposed in any Tibetan Buddhist system I'm aware of. As far as I can tell, the attribution of blue to water and the East, and white to space and the Centre, is typical of the 'old' Nyingma tradition, while the 'new' traditions of the Gelug, Kagyu and Sakya use blue for space and white for water. How this switch originated, and why it only applies to East and Centre, is a complete mystery to me.

Comment by janaki symon on February 21, 2009 at 11:47am

in teaching this practice, i've strayed from it's traditional formulation in an effort to allow the images and experiences to arise more spontaneously. for instance, we begin with imagining the enlightened form of the element internally, letting it build and grow and then emerging from within into whatever form the dakini takes. this helps to prevent the dakini from becoming 'other'. we do teach it in the color progression that ken introduced, but if you've established a relationship with the elements using a different progression, on the face of it, it doesn't seem to present a problem. i had not been aware of that there was a difference in other traditions and it's interesting because i'd wondered why water was clear and not blue and why void would not be clear. in any event, i'd encourage you to play with it and see if the practice suits you.

Comment by Josephine Spilka on February 21, 2009 at 11:22am

I don't have a lot of experience with this particular dakini practice but what little I have has shown this practice to be quite powerful in bringing forward unresolved emotional material and promoting it's self-destruction before, during and after any formal practice session. Needless to say, it does this without cognitive initiative and without warning....

Comment by Morticia (Not My Real Name) on February 20, 2009 at 10:19am

I'm circling around this practice at the moment, not quite sure whether I'm ready to commit to it. I like the idea. I find though that I'm a bit thrown by the fact that the tradition Ken teaches uses different colours from the (Nyingma) tradition I learned, which has blue for water and white/crystal for space. I'm not sure whether I can just switch the colours in Ken's meditations (advice, anyone?). I'm more familiar with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's version of the practice in Healing with Form, Energy and Light.

Comment by Valerie on February 19, 2009 at 9:41pm

Hi, I'm the rookie, who has started to work with the Dakini practice. I sit daily, and for about 3 weeks have been building gradually. So, I already did it my way and didn't follow the rules. I worked with earth only for a week, and have a clearer and clearer imagining of my Earth dakini, then I added Water, and so did Earth quickly and then focused on Water, so now I have a Water image, I added Fire this week and am listening to podcast getting ready to add Air.

I'm working with my discouragement and just keep keepin' on. The dakinis I've built have sound and smell and visual components, but I'm not having much success with the eyes and looking into the eyes. I expect that eventually, I'll have the script memorized and it will all flow a bit more naturally.

Comment by George Draffan on February 19, 2009 at 8:53pm

I've practiced and taught the five elements practices and have found them helpful if used carefully. The five elements practices in Wake Up To Your Life emphasize a particular set of reactive emotions. My experience, and that of some of the people I've worked with, is that the reaction chains aren't experienced the way they're discussed. The result may be an attempt to experience them "correctly." Frustration, and/or mere conceptual understanding are likely results. For example, one might try to use the five elements as a tool for psychological analysis or personality typing, rather than as dharma practice.

Ken McLeod's Song of the Elements may be helpful in taking a broader approach , as it links the emotions and reactions without going into the detailed components, as WUTYL does. But it uses the dakinis, which raises another set of challenges.

If you look at other texts on the five elements (Ngakpa Chogyam's Spectrum of Ecstasy, Irini Rockwell's Five Wisdom Energies, Thinley Norbu's Magic Dance) you'll see very different systems. Whether one uses the WUTYL system, or another, it's not helpful to mix different systems indiscriminately, nor to take a particular practice system as a description of Reality.

The five elements are also traditional subjects of meditation in Theravada Buddhism. Theravada texts using the five elements include the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification) and several suttas. Here the elements are used as objects of concentration, as well as for insight practice (clarifying how experience arises as combinations of the elements, and seeing that the elements are not self).

The different approaches to the elements raises the larger question of frameworks -- when are they useful, and when are they not? If a practice system deepens one's own experience, great. If a framework is taken as a description of Truth, or used to invalidate one's direct experience, then it's not helpful at all.

I'm offering a retreat on the five elements, suitable for practitioners from the Theravada and Tibetan traditions, from April 3-7 in Calgary. I hope the retreat will clarify how the five elements can be used, and will be accessible to practitioners of all levels of experience. More info at http://www.naturalawareness.net/

Comment by janaki symon on February 19, 2009 at 4:39pm

i have practiced and am currently teaching dakini practice. it's quite a powerful practice, one that deals directly with energetic transformation of patterns as they appear through the elements and, by extension, the realms.

Comment by A Serious Buddhist on February 19, 2009 at 3:42pm

I'm Franca, I started the dakini practices several years ago and subsequently taught them to a number of students in Toronto. I am now teaching a second group here and in Quebec.