The Eight Disciplines of MahaSiddha Dharma
Written by Kali Ma, Fall 2004

It is very easy to say that all of life is one's meditation, one's path, but it is quite another reality to actually experience this as so. It is possible for insight into the nature of mind to be revealed by our work, diet, body, intimate relationships, speech and energy of experience. We are already engaging in work, diet, body rituals, intimate relationships etc... To practice the eight disciplines is to make these activities conscious. It is a matter of meticulous specificity so that all our activities become a source of growing awareness and clarity. It is a way of approaching spiritual growth from all angles. It is a way of being thoroughly attentive to all aspects of one's life. The eight disciplines can generally be described as the MahaSiddha Dharma path in its three fold aspect of view, meditation and action

The practices engaged with in MahaSiddha Dharma are of eight categories, which when applied in combination, transform all the aspects of ones life into the path. Their objective is a clarified non-dual experience, where we integrate with our life, with our world, with others, while also developing a rich inner life. As a Yogic tradition, the practices, then are not aimed at renunciation or retreat from the material world, or from the mundane. Instead it is a more thorough experience of it, one that goes beyond mind-trips and projections that keep us from experiencing things as they actually are. Relationship, work, diet, and daily body rituals all become the means, or practices of the MahaSiddha Dharma. The Eight disciplines are also called Sadhanas. Sadhana is a Sanskrit word and means spiritual technologies or practices that engage body, speech and mind in order to reveal compassion, wisdom and awareness. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India and the original language of BuddhaDharma. In general, the MahaSiddha Dharma seeks to use English terms whenever possible, except when there is no english equivalent.

Together the eight disciplines bring the dharma teachings into their fullest embodied meaning, beyond philosophical conceptualization into a living expression of meditation, of awake way of being. Though many teachings in these times propose a connection between "body, mind and spirit," few actually elaborate on the actual relationship between body mind and energy and how to cultivate their synchronization beyond abstraction. It is the synchronization between body feeling and mind that brings us most fully alive, and is the aim subject of our spiritual practices.

The practice of the eight disciplines of the MahaSiddha Dharma facilitates a state of being that is holistic in nature. It is not merely intellectual, though the Yogic tradition has always included study of the teachings. It is devotional and opens us to our wonderous innocence, yet it is as intelligent, discriminative and grounded as it is open-hearted. It is a path of skill and precision, yet it is not disengaged from emotions which are a primary focus of the practices of transformation and recognition. It is esoteric and a tradition of mystics and yet it is simply about being a human being, sane, awake, present to all aspects of mundane life. It is not merely body oriented athletics, or a disembodied heady spirituality- instead it is a mindfulness of the intricate reality of the body and its role in our state of being and way of relating are understood. Together, the eight disciplines represent all aspects of our life and our being as a discipline of growing awareness and going beyond confusion and neurosis.

1 Ayurveda; The Yoga of Herbs and Diet:
The five elements make up our existence. When we live in awareness of their qualities we cause emotional imbalance and disease to abate. When we have skillful relationship to the elemental world within and without, we can bring forth a state of clarity, inspiration and energy that supports the realization of the teachings. To attune with the five elements as they manifest in our body, emotions and mind state is to address our diet, lifestyle, inner and out ecology. In the MahaSiddha Dharma we practice this Yoga within the system of Ayurvedic knowledge that comes from the Buddhas physician. Not only did Buddha himself live according to the Ayurvedic principles, but also Yeshe Tsogyal, from whom the eight disciplines are inhereited, was advised by Padmasambhava that to practice dharma without the knowledge of herbs and elixirs was foolish. Ours is a unique approach to Ayurvedic knowledge that emphasizes essence of the science- removing the blocks to the flow of life.

Ayurveda is an extraordinary art and science of balancing the five elements of the body. Doing so transforms the body, mind and emotions so as to eliminate obstacles on the path and bring forth inherent clarity of being. Buddhist and Hindu Yogis have used the Ayurvedic wisdom for two thousand years as an integral part of their spirituality. For sincere practictioners who desire to go beyond emotional and mental obstacles and who seek to respect the preciousness of life by properly caring for their bodies, this wisdom is essential. Rather than attempt to use subtle means- like ones meditation practice- in order to deal with gross problems, we can use gross means. So many meditators spend twenty or thirty years unsuccessfully trying to meditate away problems that could easily be cleared by Ayurvedic wisdom in a short period of time. It is a waste of time, energy and resources. Also the path of MahaSiddha Dharma is about a celebration of form. As a non-renunciate path, we do not ignore or discount the body, insteady we inhabit it mindfully, with reverence, with awareness. We can become intimately and skillfully aware of the qualities in all phenomena, how they manifest as the five elements, and therefore our emotions, mind, and body.

All students of the MahaSiddha Dharma are strongly encouraged to live an Ayurvedic lifestyle as an extension of the meditative discipline of the path. This aspect of the work is also shared with the public for its own purpose of healing the body, mind, restoring balance and addressing the toxicity and disease that are endemic in our society today. Click for Information about MahaSiddhas Ayurveda

2 Mantra:
The practice of chanting, saying, writing and singing sacred phrases, words and sounds as a way to discover the meditative state; presence of awareness, and activate primordial intelligence. Mantras can be practiced in many ways, through repetition, as part of rituals, and in Mantric Song. Mantra has always been an integral aspect of the Tantric Yogic tradition whose adherents were sometimes referred to as "mantrics." Mantra is a science of the vibratory, feeling dimension of existence and using speech consciously. Mantra is an essential aspect of the meditative disciplines of the MahaSiddha Dharma. It provides a way of practicing meditation that is not forced or contrived but instead easily facilitates awareness. The basic mantra that everyone in the MahaSiddha Dharma practices as a foundational aspect of the path is the Vajra Guru Mantra given by the MahaSiddha Padmasambhava.

3 Yoga of Postures, Breath and Awareness:
The Hatha Yoga path was brought forth by two Mahasiddhas, Matseyandranath and Goraknath, who felt that most people were not able to access meditative states directly and needed preparation and conitinuing support through these psycho-physical excercises. Later Hatha Yoga grew into its own phenomenon within Indian religious traditions and an exoteric version came to be practiced in the west. Today the practice has even more revelance as our society supports the most awkard and disassociated ways of inhabiting our bodies.

Buddha instructed Dharma practitioners to cultivate meditative awareness in breathing, sitting, standing, walking and lying down. Through becoming mindful of how we hold our bodies, we become aware of our minds, of our emotions, of our experience. This mindful awareness is a state of sensitivity and sanity that allows us to communicate more fully with life as it is arising.

In MahaSiddha Dharma we practice a unique Hatha Yoga system designed to free the body of deep tensions and awakening a profound awareness that synchronizes body and mind. It is unique in that it is more precise and meditative in nature that what most people know as Hatha Yoga. It emphasizes a deep unravelling of conditioned tensions in the body and mind and a training in relaxation, openness, sensitivity and energy. The use of breathing practices, meditation, postures, mudras (gestures of the hands and body) and energy locks work together to bring forth a tremendously potent state of presence and synchronization of body, speech and mind.

Even if a practitioner of MahaSiddha Dharma does not engage in elaborate traditional yoga asana practices, everyone sits for meditation. There is a science behind that sitting. Everyone walks, there is a science behind walking. In a sense, to be in a body is to practice Hatha Yoga; it is just a matter of whether that practice is full of faulty methodoloogy or the skillful means and wisdom of the science. All our movements and ways of holding our body are ways of generating mind-states, ways of communicating with our mind and with our world. To be conscious in our movements and skillful in how we use the body is the science of Hatha Yoga. It is composed of psycho-physical exercises done to affect the subtle and gross aspects of the body to bring about the ultimate health which is enlightenment, as well as general health and well being. These exercises and practices clear out conditioning from the mind and body making both more supple, and ripe for the awakening of awareness and igniting of the life force. The practices include breathing practices, mudras (hand gestures), bandhas, (energy-locks) and meditative exercises.

4 Meditation:
A state of natural mind, freedom of being, absorption in the presence of awareness. Meditation techniques can be used to access the state of meditation. The techniques have a structure, a focus and a quality, even though meditation itself is truly about doing nothing. For example, the calm abiding technique can be used in order to discover the presence of awareness and sit silently watching ones mind and experience. In the MahaSiddha Dharma the spiritual journey is to bring forth meditative state into all aspects of one's life and via all aspects of one's life. Yet also formal sitting practice is a crucial foundation of a sane and happy life. It is through meditative practice that one learns how to relate with one's own mind, and therefor can carry that relationship with one's own mind into all other activities. Without the insight gained in formal sitting meditation, this is impossible. At the beginning, meditation is very simple. The more one develops in the path, the more the meditation practice can develop to include the envisionment practices and the practices of ritual, meditation, mantra, and envisionment combined, like in the Chod practice.

5 Jnana; Study of Teachings:
Through immersion in the teachings we ignite insight, gain perspective, remind ourselves what matters most in life, and educate ourselves out of neurosis. Teachings provide a context for realization and expand one’s view to see what was previously not recognized before. They act as a support, guide and inspiration. It is through the teachings that one's view is trained and one's unconscious conditioning exposed and unravelled. The dharma teachings expose confusion as confusion and wisdom as innate. By continuously returning to the teachings, one continually refreshes the vision of dharma, staying inspired, motivated and nourished. The teachings are like the great rising sun in the East that sheds light on the nature of self, mind, life and reality. Through receiving teaching transmissions one gets what is not transmitted through books, through the internet or the New Age supermarket.

We can immerse ourselves in the teachings most potently by relating with the teacher who brings forth the living essence, and essential meaning of the path. This may happen in formal and informal enviroments and it is actually best that it happens in both. It is also useful to study books though books cannot convey the lived meaning of the teachings and they cannot point out our misconstruing of the teachings. The knowledge found in books is meant to be a support, not a replacement for, a living relationship with the teacher and teachings. There are diffently some written works that are profound in their precision and potency and add significantly to one's understanding of the path. In the teachings page of this website is a list of recommended books and cds for study. The online store also carries recommended titles.

6 Karma; The Yoga of Activities and Accomplishments
Karma Yoga is the inner and outer science of wisdom conduct, service, and action as a path. These practices relate to how we approach all activities. Especially it points to understanding how to approach our livelihood, the daily chores of mundane existence and our purpose in life. They point to a way of living “self”-lessly, an attitude that is the crucial foundation for growth. To practice meditation in activity is to engage in full body, speech and mind with the lived meaning of the teachings and to discover the skillful means that are the body of Tantra. Currently, the primary avenue for training in Karma Yoga is in the Meditation Training, which can be learned of in the courses section of the MahaSiddhas.org dharma website.

7 Inner Yogas & Yogic Dress:
These are practices that deal with the energetic workings of ones’ state and body-mind. These include practices related to breathing, mudras, and the vital energies. They include the Tummo practice, the Sadhana of the Red and White Essence, Breathing in the Clear Light, and the envisionment practices wherein the deity is generated.

Yogic Dress is a symbolic reflection of the inner yogas. For example, Yeshe Tsogyal wore white cotton clothing when practicing the eight sadhanas as an expression of the inner heat and the purity of all things. The white cotton clothing represents the non-monastic, non-renunciate path of practice.

8 Devotion, Love & Compassion:
These practices relate to untying the knots of the heart through developing the skill and power of pure, masterful love, devotion and kindess. This is generated through the Dharma of Love discipline, the Red & White Essence Sadhana, ritual ceremonies (pujas or tsoks), prostrations, sacred dance, sacred theater, making offerings, and other poetic activities. Enlightenment without love is not enlightenment at all. The Teachings of the Red and White essence guide us in how love can be a profound catalyst in the path to enlightement, how our devotion, compassion and passion can fuel our growth and reveal the nature of mind.

The Eight Sadhanas Origin

These practices where given by Padmasambhava, the extraordinary inheritor of the MahaSiddhas Tradition who revolutionized spirituality throughout India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and the world. It is the essence of his being which as appeared in many times, in many places, in many ways, under many names and religions. He gave the eight sadhanas to his student and consort, the extraordinary Yogini and MahaSiddha, Yeshe Tsogyal. She swiftly accomplished enlightenment through these practices and through her devoted service to her Guru. She then wrote them down in her life story, which she left for future generations. This text is the source of many of the sadhanas practiced by the practitioners of MahaSiddha Dharma.