Paths, Tracks and Trails

Some terms on the spiritual search

By Jamyang Tsultim

Path

The term marga in Sanskrit translates as ‘path'. It comes from the word mrga, meaning a wild forest animal (usually a deer). So originally marga meant something more like the ‘track' or ‘trail' of an animal that a hunter would follow. It is actually quite common for Sanskrit's spiritual terminology to be derived from words that originally were very mundane, such as hunting or military jargon. We all have to forge our own solitary but rewarding trails through the wild forest of this illusory life, guided by the lamp of study, contemplation and meditation on the Dharma. This search for the Buddha within is a samyak, or authentic, path. A Dharma practitioner is engaged in seeking the truth, and the reward or result of the journey is the seeking itself. Central to this search is receiving blessings into our mind-streams, which we find from our spiritual teachers, and ultimately, from ourselves during our daily sadhana meditations.

What does ‘Dharma practice' really mean?

The Tibetan term for ‘practice' is nyams su len pa, which taken more literally (and more poetically) means ‘to receive into (one's) experience'. It can be much more helpful to think to ourselves, "I'm going to receive into my experience the Dharma" rather than "I'm going to practice". Looking even deeper into these etymological meanings, the word Dharma literally means ‘that which supports' or ‘that which maintains'. It is cognate to the English word ‘firm'. Lord Buddha introduced this term as a way of describing his teachings, because, as he realized himself, his Dharma is the only thing that can support us at the time of death, and the only thing that can maintain our true sanity in times of difficulty. So when we think of ‘Dharma practice', it would be very worthwhile to remember that it really means ‘to receive into one's experience that which supports at the time of death'.

Sadhana

The correct pronunciation of this Sanskrit word is counter-intuitive for Aussie speakers; the emphasis is on the first syllable which is elongated, so it's SA-dha-na, not sa-DHA-na. It basically means ‘recipe': just as we need to follow a ‘prescribed ritual' when in the kitchen to cook a meal, so too we need a sadhana in order to be nourished by the food of siddhi, or spiritual success. A sadhana, which is a mental yoga that is performed by a sadhaka, is the type of authentic meditation particular to tantra; it is a special type of ‘role-playing' of a particular divinity that re-enacts the conception, birth, life of turning the wheel of Dharma and dissolution, or death, of the deity. In fact by virtue of doing our sadhanas we are all ‘hidden' Dharma teachers; although we may not have a conventional audience, our japa (Sanskrit for ‘murmuring recitation') of the specific mantra is, by definition, turning the wheel of Dharma.

Mantra

What exactly is a mantra? It literally means ‘instrument (-tra) of the mind (man-)'. It is a tantric method of "en-trancing" the mind toward a meditative absorption, using its sacred Sanskrit sounds that contain cryptically coded meanings. The quality of these sounds and their repetitious nature induce meditation.

Tantra

Tantra has a similar etymology; it means ‘instrument (-tra) of stretching/weaving (tan-)'. So tantra is a ‘loom' that lets us stretch our mind's raw and unprocessed (better known as "impure") appearances out onto it, and weave them into yogic, or experiential, appearances and perceptions.

Yoga, yogis and yoginis

In a tantric context, meditation is regarded as a yoga, not the usual physical type but a mental type. Yoga means ‘to yoke' or ‘to harness' (originally used as a military term). So whereas physical yoga increases the suppleness of the body, mental yoga is increasing the suppleness of the mind. Our otherwise wild minds are fastened with the harness of meditative discipline and therefore kept tame and workable. Therefore anyone who gains some degree of experience in yoga is a yogi (also yogin) (male) or yogini (female), literally meaning ‘one who is possessed of yoga'. Traditionally this term is reserved, though, for those who have been evidently successful in their yogic pursuits, and have some sign of accomplishment. The Tibetans glossed this term as rnal ‘byor, meaning ‘natural abundance', as mental yogas allow us to discover the natural abundance of our hearts, that naturally contain all positive qualities such as wisdom and compassion.