Vajrayana, The Journey of Emptiness

by Jayaram V

Summary: Understanding Vajra, the essence of emptiness and indestructibility and Vajrayana as the vehicle or the journey of emptiness.

The whole purpose of spiritual practice is to become empty and nothing. In liberation you become nothing. In renunciation, you become nothing.

In Samadhi, as you become dissolved in pure awareness, you become empty and nothing.

As you give up everything and unburden yourself of all that you accumulate through seeking and striving, you become nothing.

As you exhaust your karma, that shadow which follows you as your troublesome child, and as you burn away all the vasanas and samskaras, you become nothing.

That nothingness or emptiness, which is not imagined but real and which is free from delusion and deception, and pure as a freshly cut diamond, is the state of indestructibility.

It is what yogis cherish and the initiates dream. To become pure and mirror the world and life in the emptiness of your consciousness without being touched by them, this is the goal.

When you have nothing, what can be taken away from you? Who can steal anything from you?

Where is the question of worrying or feeling anxious about loss and gain when you have nothing or when you are nothing?

Hence, the state of emptiness or nothingness is also the shining state of blissfulness, fearlessness, sameness, peace and tranquillity

In that state of nothingness, you will be as transparent and pure as a diamond.

It is why in tantra they call it vajra, the shining and pure state of transparency, clarity and indestructibility in which you see things as they are, without the delusion of your ego, of desires, of ownership and doership, of having relationships, of seeking and striving, of the fear of losing or the anticipation of gaining.

In classical yoga, it is called the virtue of samaapatti in which the mind in the emptiness of vrittis becomes like a transparent jewel and takes on the form of whatever object is placed before it.

In worldly life you want to become something. You strive and struggle to achieve something better higher, richer or excellent. By gaining, by accumulating and by gathering things you love and cherish, you seek fulfillment and happiness.

The price of that effort is bondage, suffering, fear, anxiety and vulnerability.

In spiritual life you do the opposite. You do not seek powers or status or name and fame or importance.

Instead, you give up everything. You reject everything. You unburden yourself of all the formations and accumulations so that you become nothing, empty, nonexistent, immaterial, unimportant, undone and insignificant to others, but pure, serene and indestructible within yourself.

You cross the troublesome sea of samsara by the indestructible and impenetrable boat of vajra which you build with the pieces of your mind and body which you give up as a sacrifice to emptiness.

You prepare for that journey through renunciation.

What is renunciation?

It is but the process or the effort of becoming nothing or empty or indestructible.

When you peel off all possessions, relationships and accumulations to become nothing, nothing can disturb you, worry you, or cause you to feel grief, fear or anxiety.

Self-sacrifice or Bhakti also leads to the state of indestructibility (vajra) only.

In bhakti, you give up yourself and put yourself at the feet of God. You become the sacrificed (bhakti) while God becomes your caretaker, the bhokta, the enjoyer of your life and the consumer of all your burdens, worries, accumulations and formations.

When you are consumed by the fire of devotion and your impurities and ego are fully burnt, you become the Lord of Death, the destroyer of impermanence, the shining Parama Shiva himself who is untouched, undisturbed, indestructible and pure as diamond (Shivam). You attain the indestructible supreme state of Vajra.

You will realize that the state of nothingness is also the state of wholeness, wholesomeness and completeness.

When you are firmly established in Vajra body and embody nothingness or emptiness without confusion or delusion, you will reach the end of the great journey called Vajrayana.

You will find that the state of indestructible emptiness is also the state of unending freedom, purity, innocence, surrender, firmness, courage, fearlessness, and the readiness to be anything or face anything or accept anything without conditions and expectations.

You will walk on a pathless ground in a pathless land as a nameless person, with no fear of tomorrow or what is coming, forming or shaping up in the book of time.

As a feather separated from the wing of a bird or a broken kite cut off by gusty winds, you will fly freely as the winds of fate blow.

This is the essence emptiness, nothingness, egolessness, nonexistence, and deathlessness, which you attain at the end of an arduous and lonely spiritual journey.

After all, is not it what we become in the end? Nothing? When you refuse to be nothing, Death comes knocking and takes it all away.