Samaya: An Analogy

Introduction

I don't really think that we get samaya in this culture. It's something that comes up over and over again in Tibetan Buddhism; teachers continually try to explain with astounding urgency, emphatically attempting to convey the need for students to pay attention to, respect, and constantly repair their samaya.

What's the big deal?

I was recently reading in Jamgön Kongrul's volume on Ethics about the mutual examination that the teacher and student must undergo. Some of the (deeply disturbing) reasons for doing this were given in the text:

The consequences are particularly unfortunate when a tantric master initiates disciples indiscriminately without first testing them. An unworthy disciple will be unable to honor pledges. This will lead to the ruin of both the master and disciple in this life and the next, and their commitments will deteriorate. The master's own spiritual accomplishment will be remote, and he or she will be beset by obstacles.

The Analogy

That's pretty intense. But what does it mean? We can see that samaya is important, and that not following it will have a tremendous and negative impact. But why? What is samaya? How does it work? How can we look at it in a way that makes intuitive sense for those of us raised in the West? What is samaya like? What is it like when it's taken away? What are its intrinsic properties, such that when taken away, it causes so much harm?

I think there's an analogy that might serve useful in this exploration... though we're going to have to take some liberties with it...

Samaya is like a power company.

There are many things we want to be able to do on the Mahayana, Vajrayana, and/or Atiyoga-Dzogchen paths. Each of these paths are like very special technologies. We can't accomplish our numerous goals without that which powers those technologies. Bodhicitta is that power. Samaya is like a contract that governs the flow of bodhicitta.

But if that was the case, we'd all have a very good understanding of samaya... at least as good as we understand our utility providers, anyway. So we should tweak our analogy a bit:

Samaya is like a power company in a society where most people aren't really sure where power comes from, why it turns on, why it turns off, and why most people don't have it.

This is getting much closer.

But who gives us our samaya? That would be the teacher, the vajramaster, or the realized being who gives us our introduction to the nature of mind. We have to go through this entity to get our samaya; no one else can give it to us. So there's still something missing from the analogy. Let's try one more change:

Samaya is like a power company in a society where most people aren't really sure where power comes from, why it turns on, why it turns off, and why most people don't have it. The company has an agreement with various unlisted individuals, and these have to be discovered. The agreement to distribute or allocate power is passed from these individuals to their heirs, and only those who have honored their contracts and whose students have honored their contracts retain the right to continue distributing power to others.

This is an interesting amendment to the now rather sci-fi analogy, since it brings the concept of the lama and the lama's lineage as a crucial component of samaya. However, it's starting to lose its value as an analogy, due to its growing complexity. Regardless, let's explore it :-)

Breaking Samaya

Engaging in a serious practice is like setting up a long-running experiment in a high-powered scientific facility. In order to run those experiments over that period of time, you're going to need a lot of power. Due to your special needs, you may need to request a 30-year power contract where you're going to be guaranteed delivery of the necessary utilities.

If the project succeeds, you will easily repay your debt, thanks to the overwhelming rewards of your experiment. If you break your contract or do not repay your debt, you will not only be in danger of being "repo'ed", but your teacher will be asked to compensate for the lost investment as well, with power allotment being taken from him or her, decreasing their ability to do their own projects and subsidize those of other students. Additionally, the power to continue your own experiments will be withdrawn and you will no longer be able to continue.

Bringing this back to dharma... when we do things like any of the following (and don't repair the broken samaya immediately):

• break a promise to the lama
• fail to fulfill our practice obligations
• say bad things about fellow sangha members, or in general
• abandon any aspect of the bodhisattva's path

we are preventing our teacher from accomplishing their goals. We are breaking contracts and, in a sense, stealing power away from them (and ourselves), inhibiting their ability to benefit more students, or to even accomplish their own goals.

Keeping Samaya

A student who has taken refuge in the inner, outer, secret, and extremely secret three jewels, who continuously takes refuge, reflects on the Four Turnings, the Four Immeasurables, and generates bodhicitta, will have unshakable devotion in their teacher. If there is anything that can cause us to doubt the lama, then we haven't properly reflected on the preciousness of human life, impermanence, the inexorable law of cause and result, or the nature of suffering.

(This also really makes it clear why it's so important for us to evaluate a potential teacher properly and over the course of several years... we're handing this person an enormous offering, our complete trust; if they are not realized, this could very easily end in disaster.)

Those who do reflect on this constantly, and with deep understanding, will fully appreciate the inestimable value of their teacher. With the proper stability of devotion, this appreciation will continue unwaveringly even in the excruciating existential pain of the lama cutting through our ego-clinging. We will follow their advice and instruction at the risk of losing our own lives. What's more, we will need that strength; experiencing their ultimate compassion will feel like us losing our lives.

A student like this will not break his or her samaya. They will not endanger their teacher's life (current or future), and will not be the cause for them to have limited accomplishments.

That's the big deal.