Next week I’m going to be teaching a retreat for young meditators (under 30) called “An introduction to Vajrayana”. So I thought I would formally introduce you all to the topic as well. Like introducing an old friend.

“Vajrayana” literally translated means “Diamond Vehicle”. It’s an enormous body of meditation practices, teachings, philosophies and cultural artifacts that started in India and spread throughout the Buddhist world, arriving in the United States in the early 1970s.

Vajrayana practices build on the mindfulness and awareness practices that we’ve been doing. Vajrayana meditations are not separate from them. In fact, it’s universally acknowledged that Vajrayana doesn’t work unless the meditator has a thorough grounding in mindfulness, has an open and compassionate heart, and has some experience working with emotions and other people in a skillful way.

The main attitude or approach that distinguishes Vajrayana meditation practices from other types of Buddhist meditation is that everything is included. Every part of life, every emotion, every doubt, every shadow, can be fuel to travel on the path.

Sometimes when we are practicing mindfulness, we can shun difficult topics because they disturb our peacefulness. Sometimes when we are practicing compassion practices, we avoid or ignore feelings of anger, resentment, jealousy, etc because we don’t think they are appropriate.

Vajrayana uses all of that. Everything.

The two main tools that Vajrayana practices use that mindfulness and compassion practices don’t (at least not much) are ritual and imagination.

Ritual:

Imagination: