A true Teacher knows how to use the Teachings to move a student forward, understanding that different presentation of the teachings are suitable at different times. Initially, Sakyamuni taught the precepts for living a happy life through the Four Noble Truths (see below, right) and the Eightfold Path, which showed the students how to begin living the non-attached middle way. This area of Buddhist Teaching comprises what is called the Theravada school of Buddhism.

But then, Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, arose and took the Teachings beyond just living a happy life. It started to teach about the arising of the spiritual qualities inherent in a person that can only come forward through service. That is why the Mahayana school emphasizes the role of the bodhisattva. Simply put, a bodhisattva is a dedicated practitioner who seeks to attain enlightenment for the upliftment of all sentient life, one who consciously acts for the benefit of others as an essential part of pursuing one’s own enlightenment. It is a path of service and compassion. It is through living as a bodhisattva that one comes to realize the oneness of all life that is the essence of divine love that Buddhism teaches.

Over time, Mahayana spread throughout Asia. In China, the concept of the bodhisattva was blended with the Confucian idea of service to country and family. In addition, most Chinese Buddhists incorporated Taoist thought, which overlapped with the Buddhist Teachings, such as the concept of non-doing, refraining from interfering with the natural course of things, and instead, responding naturally, without premeditation, to each moment. Once Japan was introduced to Buddhism from China, it took these Teachings and further adapted them, emphasizing the importance of one’s own experience with meditation and mindful living in the present moment.

After Mahayana, the Vajrayana school emerged. Today, it is often misunderstood to be about deity visualization, when in actuality, it teaches how to bring divinity or the creator to the forefront, to bring forth the qualities of divinity within the living manifestation of consciousness, or the person. (Vajrayana pullout)

HÜMÜH is Western Dzogchen, an assertion of these divine qualities in their purest form, the perfection of the lineage of spirituality. It strips away all the mental ornaments that have cloaked the fast and pure path to enlightenment.

The teaching is simply to maintain one’s awareness that they are aware at all times. If one is abiding in the pure, clear light of intrinsic awareness, there is no room to become absorbed in emotional feelings or situations in which one feels like circumstances are beyond their control. This describes HÜMÜH’s Clear Light Living Meditation. Continued...