Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

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“I am one who has transcended all, a knower of all, unstained among all things,
renouncing all, by craving’s ceasing freed. I alone am a Perfectly Enlightened One
whose fires have been extinguished.”
- The Buddha, The Noble Search Sūtra
An Awakened One
Śākyamuni called himself the “Buddha” or Awakened One. A buddha is a person who has
attained permanent peace and bliss. You have realized the Four Noble Truths, and are free from
desire, aversion, and ignorance. While alive, your Five Aggregates still function together, but are
released at death so that it is impossible to be reborn into any kind of world. You have entirely
renounced worldly life. You experience no lust, and are incapable of becoming sexually aroused
or having sex. You no longer attach to a permanent self that never truly existed. You are
someone who “knows and sees reality as it is.” All your emotional and mental obscurations are
“blown out,” gone. The state of a liberated one is incomprehensible. You are omniscient, radiant
and majestic, perfect in knowledge and conduct, loving and compassionate, sorrowless, and
utterly unsurpassed. A buddha possesses all excellent qualities.
The Buddha also called himself the Tathāgata, literally meaning the “Thus Gone One,” one who
has passed over into the permanent peace of nirvāṇa. A buddha is no longer human, transcending
even the gods. He mentions his miraculous abilities to “travel through the sky like a bird,” “touch
and stroke with my hand the Moon and Sun,” and know the thoughts and feelings of others. A
buddha’s greatest ability of all is to perceive directly the Four Noble Truths.
Vows
The Refuge Vow - Tri Śaraṇa
Taking the Refuge Vow (Tri Śaraṇa) means you seek refuge from suffering in the Three Jewels
(Tri Ratna): the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. The vow guides you to peace and
prosperity. You make an inner commitment to venerate images of the Buddha, treat the words of
the Buddha with respect, and honor members of the Buddhist community.
Suggested Items
Pratimā - A statue or image of the Buddha, representing the teacher.
Sūtra – A text of the Buddha’s discourses, representing the teachings.
Stūpa – An image of a memorial burial marker, representing the community of practitioners.
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