After the fading of the dzi bead hype in Taiwan came the obsession for the Iron Meteorite. Once, the owner of a Buddhist craft shop near the Bouddhanath stupa in Nepal unintentionally put an iron pestle at his doorway. As the pestle became heated by the sun, a Taiwanese traveler burnt his hand upon grabbing it and immediately declared that the iron rod was blessed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. He eventually paid a huge sum of money to purchase that “blessed” pestle. Thereafter, every owner of any type of Buddhist craft store in Nepal displayed iron products under the sun in the shop window at the doorway in order to attract Taiwanese pilgrims.
The generous donations from Taiwanese Buddhist disciples largely contributed to the construction and spiritual equipment of “Buddhist monasteries” in Tibet, India, and Nepal. In those foreign lands, I often came across pious Buddhists who had given up their family and career in order to follow a Secret Mantra guru. It is truly pitiful to see that, despite their devout minds and assiduous practice, all they are able to gain is deluded thoughts, which are nothing but arising and ceasing phenomena.
The cultivation of the four initiations pertaining to the class of Highest Yoga is entirely based on imaginative thinking and perceptive sensations carried out on the plane of one’s mental consciousness. Such practices require self-hypnosis and self-numbness, and sometimes even a psychic connection with ghosts and deities. As such, they are all of a deluded nature. As stated by Guru Norlha, “Being able to talk to a deity is only the first step of practice.” Secret Mantra practitioners are unaware that their supernatural powers have been conferred by external parties such as ghosts and deities, who in the worse cases will turn these followers into their subordinates. Moreover, no matter how solid the deity yoga accomplishments of those practitioners are, all it takes is one dose of anesthesia in the surgery room to obliterate their attainments. How could such a practice be called the yoga that permits the attainment of the deity’s form body?
The contents of the second and third initiations are in fact drawn from Hindu Tantrism and consist of the repeated cultivation of the wind-energies, channels, and drops pertaining to the subtle body. The so-called “accomplishment of the subtle body” has actually nothing to do with the Buddha Dharma, as it is based on a Hindu practice prescribed with the Buddhist term samādhi. Hindu followers also cultivate channels, wind-energies, drops, and sexual union, and many of them are also rumored to have attained the rainbow body.
Moreover, numerous renowned masters in the history of Secret Mantra have acted as lineage heirs of Hinduism. After the emergence of the hippy movement in the West, many books about the Hindu philosophy on the subtle body were translated into English, thus allowing us to easily verify that both the Tibetan and Hindu methods of the subtle body originate from the same source and feature identical steps of practice. The only difference is that the Tibetan version contains Buddhist jargon. However, most Secret Mantra practitioners are either ignorant of this fact or unwilling to admit it, given their reluctance to extensively learn about the Buddhist sūtras or even the worldly doctrines. Similarly, the five essential sets of tenets of the Bonpa religion, such as “Great Perfection,” “Ritual Dagger,” and so forth, are basically identical to the Secret Mantra teachings. Historically, Bonpa devotees and the excavators of the hidden Nyingma Treasure (terma) have always maintained intimate contacts and shared the same aspirations. Indeed, many “renowned gurus” hold the position of venerable master in both Buddhism and Bonpa. These facts make one wonder: What then sets the Buddha Dharma apart from those non-Buddhist beliefs? (Part 4)