Final Words

As practitioners, we are taught to think about the gift of the precious human body. We have been born in places where the dharma is taught, at a time when teachers are accessible and where transmission is obtainable. We live where there is the political freedom to follow our spiritual paths. Our living conditions are good and we have the leisure to practice.

What we often lack is the recognition of the gifts we have already received. Sometimes we remember how good our lives are when we are brushed by tragedy, but then, caught up again in our normal lives, we forget.

We are driven away from gratitude and appreciation by dark and negative forces, by habitual dissatisfaction and constant stimulation. When others have more than us, we feel envy, but in a world where so many people have less than us, we often don’t recognize how fortunate we are.

The teachings often focus on view, meditation, and behavior. What this means is that the way we see determines how we feel and think. And how we feel and think determines how we act.

When we look from a dualistic viewpoint, we see an imperfect world and we live as troubled, imperfect beings in that imperfect world.

When we see the world in its perfection, just as it is, we are buddhas, living in a pure land, surrounded by other buddhas.

Until we have pure vision and realize the perfection of the world and the beings in it, it is helpful if we can accept the imperfections of the world as a natural part of life, as the material with which we can work.

When we turn away from any aspect of the world, we turn away from parts of ourselves. By opening to the world and accepting it as it is, we open to deeper dimensions of our own being.

Complete acceptance is the end of hope and fear, the end of fantasies of the past and future. It is living entirely in the present, in what actually is.

Growing up in a monastery with highly realized and educated teachers nearby led me to dedicate my life to learning, practicing dharma, and, for the last fifteen years, teaching others.

In my own studies of the shamanic (causal) vehicles, sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen, I have become aware of how deeply connected all the different vehicles and practices are, even though there are philosophical differences.

Experiencing this connection is illuminating and joyful, and when it is fully realized and understood, practice becomes stronger and more flexible. We can know what practices to do when. And we can adjust the practices to overcome our elemental weaknesses and to build on our elemental strengths.

One way of understanding this connection is through an understanding of the elements. Our bodies exist as the play of the elements. We move through the energies and forces of the elements in our environment.

We experience the subtle elements in and as our minds. All time and space is a play of the elements.

However subtle or gross the elemental energies seem to be, they are essentially the five pure lights, the sacred fundamental energies of all that exists.

No matter what practice I do, of whatever level, I know that I am trying to more deeply integrate with the five pure lights. Sometimes I have to work with balancing the elements on a (1) grosser level, sometimes in the (2) energetic dimension, and sometimes on the more (3) subtle levels of the mind.

Whether I am working with a yidam or khandro, or with movements and breathing, I am always moving toward the fundamental integration that is the goal of the spiritual journey.

I hope that this work with the elements will serve many people in the future, bringing to them physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

I plan on doing more research, practice, exploration, and work with people. Eventually my students and myself will develop a site devoted to elemental practice. We will construct houses—one for each element—of particular materials, in particular shapes and colors. In them will be housed sacred elemental mandalas empowered by the elemental deities.

It is our hope that people will be able to spend time there in order to reconnect with and develop the elemental energies in themselves.

I strongly believe that if more people learn these ancient teachings and learn when and how to apply them, they will improve their lives, overcome illnesses and obstacles, increase their life-spans, health, personal power, and fortunes, and develop their spiritual lives.

Knowing the five elements gives us a way to interact with the world, whichever world it is we are experiencing. Knowing the elements is knowing something fundamental, through which we can see everything. Knowing how to work with the elements gives us a key to working with all aspects of our lives, positive and negative. It is my sincere wish that all of us quickly realize our true nature.

Until that time, may we all develop compassion and love for all beings. May we open to the unbounded energy and wisdom of the primordial elements whose play is this great beauty that is our world and our lives.

Source: Wangyal, Tenzin Rinpoche. Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen. Boston, Massachusetts: Snow Lion, 2002.