Tibetan Buddhists Believe You Need to Have Sex to Become Enlightened
Lama Thubten Yeshe (Introduction to Tantra, 147) wrote:

"There is a certain point in the mastery of the completion stage where physically embracing a consort is necessary . . . ."

Je Tsong Khapa who founded the Gelugpas, agreed that to attain Buddha-hood in one lifetime, it is necessary to use an actual consort (karma mudra) saying,

"A female companion is the basis of accomplishment of liberation."

That is, in order to generate an illusory body as that of a particular deity with all the qualities of existence, another person must interact with it.

Tsongkhapa, founder of the Tibetan Gelugpa sect is of the same opinion:

“A female companion is the basis of the accomplishment of liberation” Shaw, 1994, p. 146 Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism, Princeton 1994.



The Dalai Lama said he would not reach enlightenment in this lifetime because he did not have a consort.

The Dalai Lama also said that many within Buddhist schools believe that the Shakyamuni became enlightenment with a consort under the Bodhi Tree and that his was edited out in many iconographies and written accounts.

It is generally understood in the tantric tradition, that it is not possible to bring all five winds into the central channel at the same time unless one performs karmamudra. The yogi will do the practice at an advanced stage. Milarepa did karmamudra with dakinis. The source for the oral instructions on the completion stage of the Kalachakra Tantra by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey of the Gelugpa. I've also heard this from the Drikung Kagyu lamas. In some lineages an advanced yogi who is a monk will take a consort and it is not seen as violating vows, because this is what the Buddha said to do as part of the tantric method.

In Dzogchen and essence mahamudra, karmamudra is not important, and works with different channels.

From The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings by Dalai Lama:

"Yogis who have achieved a high level of the path and are fully qualified can engage in sexual activity, and a monastic with this ability can maintain all the precepts."

From the book: Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Sarah

for those unaware of the nature of everything,
Great bliss is attained in sexual union;
As if thirst-ridden, chasing after water in mirage,
They die from thirst, and do they ever drink the sky-water?
Whoever frolics in this bliss,
Living between vajra and lotus,
What for? This has no capacity for truth,
So {where} in the three worlds will you be complete?
The bliss of means is the moment,
And this itself becomes both;
Through the kindness of the master,
A handful in a hundred will understand.

from: http://downthecrookedpath-meditation-gurus.blogspot.com/2011/09/tibetan-buddhists-believe-you-need-to.html

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corboy
Not all can afford to do this...when I discovered that some books in my possession had been written by gurus who had grievously exploited their subjects, I chose to tear the books to shreds.

I didnt want any book from my collection playing any part in some sincere person being led into a trap.

The two authors whose works I rent asunder were Chogyam Trungpa and Muktananda--both of whom turned citizens into subjects and exploited them emotionally, sexually, and financially.

How sad corboy! Sad that we were in a religion or two where exploitation occured. When I left SRF I burned my books and in the process i had my boot near the fire and the rubber burned. karma! ha. the Vedanta Society books i sold. My Tibetan Buddhist I threw in the garage as well as all of the lamas emails to me.

Now as I study the history of tantra I have learned that it was not part of the Vedas but crept in later, so I will read the Vedas on my own and stay away from gurus.

I have heard so much bad about NKT, and like SRF members they come and post that we are all wrong. The thread on SRF here has been read by SRF Headquarters because my partner has the stat counter on the blog, the glass onion, and said that the referring link was from Rick Ross. People from these cultish groups ale all alike. Not once has the Vedanta Society come to the blog to read what I said about them. They could care less. But still they are abusive. Perhaps I will start a thread here.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newkadampasurvivors/

wow!!! I just googled NKT forum to see if they had a forum, but before I went any further I saw this, AN NKT SURVIVER FORUM.

Thanks for your kind words Mystic,
I'm positive there are references to DS being higher than a Buddha in the long puja Tsog I think.
Anyway, life's much easier when you don't have all that mumbo jumbo to contend with!

Hi all I wrote ages ago but am back now. I was hanging on to the NKT until I realised the festival fees had gone through the roof. This year it costs £200 for spring festival. If its £200 for 4 days for 14 days surely its going to be £1000??
Its totally wrong. teachings in this tradition have bee watered down for years and its at the point where you can only get a traditional Buddhist teaching if you join a study programme or attend an empowerment. The other teachings are all focused on this life alone. And as Geshe Kelsang once said years ago, "If there is only this one life..we dont need Buddhism". So making the entire teaching about reducing stress at work and improving relationships is making the initial scope, intermediate and great scope only revealed at empowerments and on foundation programme. The rest of the teachings are about improving this life and the remainder is implicit but only implicit for those who add that part mentally as they are listening. Its totally wrong. The great fault of leaving out instructions is what causes instructions to dissappear and lineages to become no longer revealing the path correctly. if a whole generation is taught that future lives is not the main topic......this will become the lineage because the people who werre taught future lives is important are no longer around so they wont know that it ever was important. noone will know what the orignal teaching was and that Geshe Kelsang taught at numerous festivals that future lives is one of the most important topics.
They are not even saying what Geshela taught at the festivals anymore and if the first generation cannot repeat the Dharma the 2nd certainly wont. During the time he revealed the Atishas advice translation he taught for 2 years at all festivals that it is crucial to forget about this life and base the entire practice on future lives...to become a proper initial scope practitioner. Goto and big centres website and look at their courses on offer for the next year you will nto find a single course about this topic. Its shameful

I have made a website to tell the NKT our feedback. I am seeking to put it in a positive and gentle way so that those still loyal can feel it is constructive rather than destructive. [removingallobstaclestoflourishingnkt.blogspot.co.uk] I hope you will all comment on my articles and send in your feedback also I am going to do extensive publicity so if you put your comments (remember its about solutions not just saying ..its all crap) then your comments will be on there when all the big cheeses come to read

SEEKING ADVERTISING

I am seeking to get through to those still in the NKT who are wishing for reform. Reforming administration is not editing the teachings. The current administrative techniques are damaging everything. So if you have any ideas how I can advertise to these people and tell them about my campaign for reform please message me. It is an anonymous campaign so that anyone can join without being sacked/fired/ banned etc for speaking their mind. Great yogis such as Milarepa always spoke out if he saw spirituality degenerating. We should do the same. YOU NKTers know that in 5 or 10 years time you will wish you had said something when you see the centres closing down. You also know it has turned from a lamrim teaching facility into a 3 course meal spa weekend. Future lives are no longer taught. It is all about this life and fundraising. What do you think Milarepa would sing in a song about us?

20 years ago yes it was corrupt with Neil Elliott and his wrong conclusions about tantra. But at least then the lamrim was being taught openly. Not hidden as an embarrassment. 20 years ago there were courses on future lives, reincarnation, renunciation. The Gp used to be pure Dharma. But now only initial scope small being is taught. Its not Dharma if its not beyond this life.

The mass booting of people off TTP was ridiculous. Another step towards the reduction of study prayer and meditation and increasing emphasis on fundraising. The students were told to work in cafes/bed and breakfasts/hotels instead of reading and discussing Dharma. Consider at your centre how long people used to be resident there 15 years ago compared to the speed at which they move out now. My own local centre 20 years ago people used to write to Geshe Kelsang before moving out. the atmosphere was incredibly positive. Now 50% of the people who move in have left within 12 months. 20 years ago negativity towards the administrators was incredibly rare. Now even the devoted people struggle to accept the administrative front. Those same people who were in the incredibly positive communities 20 years ago cant believe what they are seeing nowadays. The degeneration of atmosphere is unbelieveable. Everyone is suppressing negative feelings. NOONE WAS DOING THAT 20 YEARS AGO. IT HAS CHANGED!!!!!!

All the decisions about the centres are now made by someone at the end of a telephone at manjushri. Not a Buddha but a human being. This human being cannot see what is happening at a community. How can you make an important decision about a place without even going there and looking at what is happening. The whole point is that the people at the centres know what is best for the centre not someone 100s of miles away just hearing a brief summary on a telephone.

Anyway if you are still in the NKt sitting around waiting for the centres to get smaller and smaller and then close, there is a platofrm where you can speak up about how you feel [removingallobstaclestoflourishingnkt.blogspot.co.uk] I hope you will join us

Quote
grainne uaile
Tibetan Buddhists Believe You Need to Have Sex to Become Enlightened
Lama Thubten Yeshe (Introduction to Tantra, 147) wrote:

"There is a certain point in the mastery of the completion stage where physically embracing a consort is necessary . . . ."

Je Tsong Khapa who founded the Gelugpas, agreed that to attain Buddha-hood in one lifetime, it is necessary to use an actual consort (karma mudra) saying,

"A female companion is the basis of accomplishment of liberation."

That is, in order to generate an illusory body as that of a particular deity with all the qualities of existence, another person must interact with it.

Tsongkhapa, founder of the Tibetan Gelugpa sect is of the same opinion:

“A female companion is the basis of the accomplishment of liberation” Shaw, 1994, p. 146 Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism, Princeton 1994.



The Dalai Lama said he would not reach enlightenment in this lifetime because he did not have a consort.

The Dalai Lama also said that many within Buddhist schools believe that the Shakyamuni became enlightenment with a consort under the Bodhi Tree and that his was edited out in many iconographies and written accounts.

It is generally understood in the tantric tradition, that it is not possible to bring all five winds into the central channel at the same time unless one performs karmamudra. The yogi will do the practice at an advanced stage. Milarepa did karmamudra with dakinis. The source for the oral instructions on the completion stage of the Kalachakra Tantra by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey of the Gelugpa. I've also heard this from the Drikung Kagyu lamas. In some lineages an advanced yogi who is a monk will take a consort and it is not seen as violating vows, because this is what the Buddha said to do as part of the tantric method.

In Dzogchen and essence mahamudra, karmamudra is not important, and works with different channels.

From The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings by Dalai Lama:

"Yogis who have achieved a high level of the path and are fully qualified can engage in sexual activity, and a monastic with this ability can maintain all the precepts."

From the book: Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Sarah

for those unaware of the nature of everything,
Great bliss is attained in sexual union;
As if thirst-ridden, chasing after water in mirage,
They die from thirst, and do they ever drink the sky-water?
Whoever frolics in this bliss,
Living between vajra and lotus,
What for? This has no capacity for truth,
So {where} in the three worlds will you be complete?
The bliss of means is the moment,
And this itself becomes both;
Through the kindness of the master,
A handful in a hundred will understand.

from: http://downthecrookedpath-meditation-gurus.blogspot.com/2011/09/tibetan-buddhists-believe-you-need-to.html

This is a strange topic for me. My own experience of it is this. When you are dull and rigid your heart is closed. But there is something that happens when you start to develop mahayana love that is true. People start to appear amazing. Its as if your heart was closed and then suddenly you start to let people in. As if you start running towards others with open arms (not literally). So a mentally embracing others is inevitable. Add to this seeing them as more and more beautiful -mentally NOT PHYSICALLY. They start to appear as spiritual and it is their spiritual qualities that you long to bond with. So to me it feels like an embrace and a craving but a craving to bond with people not a person. And its a craving for a mental bond not a physical one. Well thats what Im finding. I think that sort of energy and direction is a vague image of how Tantra begins. Who knows where it ends. But it feels like when you meet a person who does not have the rigid qualifications but has a unique way of invoking in you such spiritual longings then you have found someone who can function as an emanation of Buddha. The whole thing is about deep mental bonds that are highly passionate and emotional eg Marpa and Milarepa its an elecrtifying encounter between 2 minds that leads to a form of union of those 2 minds

In the last few weeks at my local NKT centre the resident teacher twice has claimed whilst giving teachings that Geshe Kelsang is the only teacher in the world who is giving the path to Enlightenment correctly. Basically out of the 1000s of people Trijang Rinpoche taught in Tibet, none of them are giving correct teachings. We were told that kadampa Buddhism is the only Buddhism that works. Basically this is saying that all other forms of Buddhism such as zen, therevada and even the monasteries that have recently been buit where Trijangs teachings are still being given...are not authentic...and are giving incorrect or incomplete teachings.

I find it amazing that the NKT has websites saying that they do not do these things. That they do not speak badly of other traditions, that they do not say the only pure Dharma left in the world is NKT------ and then resident teachers are quoting Kelsang Dekyong as saying that only Kadampa Buddhism works.

I believe part of this is an excited zealotry. Craving mental excitement people get a thrill out of saying these things. But its like getting a thrill that harms Geshe Kelsang. There is nothing more contradictory. Because repeating things like this on a weekly basis in teachings will only create more bad energy in the long run and destroy everything.

In the interests of fairness I feel moved to add an update to a few posts I made on this forum in January 2012.

Ironically, just a few weeks after posting my views I decided to walk away from the NKT, and I now practice within the Theravada tradition. It's certainly true that the demands and expectations on me piled up noticeably after I had signed on for the Foundation Programme, and my initial doubts as to the wisdom of committing myself ostensibly to years of handing over good money to just basically read and memorise six of Geshe Kelsang's tombs line by line showed no signs of going away. Feeling taken for granted and somewhat disillusioned, I eventually voiced my concerns to the Resident Teacher; after listening to his rather defensive response I then decided to risk a bad rebirth by abandoning the 'supreme vehicle' of Vajrayana.

Did my resolve to practice Geshe-la's teachings sincerely (i.e. no 'picking and mixing') leave me vulnerable to exploitation? Quite possibly... One could argue that the NKT is successfully introducing Buddhist ideas to a wider audience. Given the NKT's practice of Guru devotion and esoteric transmissions of 'secret' teachings from teacher to student via empowerment ceremonies (a legacy of its Gelug heritage), one might naturally expect to find a division of sorts existing between 'those in the know' and those 'not in the know', and this MAY account for SOME of the disillusionment and criticism one often sees levelled against the organisation. Whether or not the trivial problems I personally experienced were peculiar to my local centre or endemic within NKT centres world-wide I couldn't possibly say, but there you go... :-)

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20nkt12
In the interests of fairness I feel moved to add an update to a few posts I made on this forum in January 2012.

Ironically, just a few weeks after posting my views I decided to walk away from the NKT, and I now practice within the Theravada tradition. It's certainly true that the demands and expectations on me piled up noticeably after I had signed on for the Foundation Programme, and my initial doubts as to the wisdom of committing myself ostensibly to years of handing over good money to just basically read and memorise six of Geshe Kelsang's tombs line by line showed no signs of going away. Feeling taken for granted and somewhat disillusioned,

So, how does it work in NKT? They offer different programs that students/members/followers sign up for, and this entails a financial commitment? How does that work? I've never been to a Dharma center of any kind in the Tibetan tradition that required attendees to pay anything, just fyi. In my experience, that's not how legit Dharma centers work.