A short, personal view by Tejananda
These are introductory remarks to a MIG Forum looking at Mitras and deeper practise, held in December 2023. You can read a report on the meeting itself here.
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I’m talking about ‘hands-on’ insight practice from my own point of view.
Sangharakshita ’s teachings include a great deal about wisdom, insight and enlightenment:
– teachings on insight in all 3 yanas – some on Zen / mahamudra
– Also he talked about the ‘śūnyatā element’ in sadhana
[“sadhana without śūnyatā is just vulgar magic” – Yogi Chen]
However, he did less teaching In terms of hands-on practice leading to insight:
Impression: in the 80s and before, most Order members, like me, did sadhana and occasional 6 element. Manjughosa sadhana was my main practice. However, I never received individual instruction on how to practise sadhana or bring in śūnyatā and not much wisdom emerged (none, actually)
Vajraloka did just sitting retreats and Kamalashila, Vajradaka and others were teaching insight reflection before I arrived in the mid-90s.
Even in the 90s, teaching reflection on the dharma to non-Order members was already controversial.
2000 – 2008 Colloquia at Madhyamaloka – instigated by Sangharakshita via Subhuti : particular focus on insight / wisdom practices and just sitting.
Order members visiting ‘other teachers’ came up for discussion
– around early 2000s a lot of Order members were doing this, particularly with Lama Shenpen
- This led to significant deepenings in many Order members’ insight practice, with knock-on effects on teaching
In colloquiums, there were clarifications particularly around just sitting as an insight (or shamatha-vipashyana practice.
– Sangharakshita agreed that just sitting could have this aspect.
Around 2013, LU appeared on the scene. Some mitras did the inquiry process
but on an institutional level, this led to a lot of ructions …
Another colloquium at this time with Subhuti led to the Insight inquiry pilot projects, taking over two years.
In the end, insight inquiry was accepted, but ONLY as Order practice.
Re non-Order members:
Some time ago, Subhuti stated that there should be an ‘insight element’ in Triratna teaching and practice from the start.
This has largely been interpreted as ‘reflecting on (=thinking about) the dharma’.
- Difficult to get a real sense of how this is acted upon in Triratna centres worldwide.
There is some loosening-up and progress around insight practice for Order members, but mitras doing effective insight practice is still controversial in some quarters.
Discussions are ongoing – the MIG initiative is part of this
– MIG activity includes our objective that more effective, experiential, insight practice should be recognised and offered appropriately both within and beyond the Order.
We’ve had discussions with the Sikkhā project meditation kula, and members of the College but have not as yet really managed to open up any really meaningful discussion regarding insight practice and non-Order members.
Identification of “effective GFR” with readiness for ‘serious’ insight practice is a stumbling block.
Many non-Order members just ‘take the law into their own hands’.
On final note, over many years, Vajraloka has developed ways of offering experiential insight practice / teaching appropriately (I believe) to those who come on our retreats.
Collectively, there is still quite a long way to go …