Someone wrote: "What are
the methods non-tantric buddhism has for this? I know of vipashyana
but do not know how it is practiced in classical buddhism. Does
anyone know? Is it reasonable for a modern layman to expect
liberation from all personal karmas with this method, without
tantric tools?"
I replied:
Even in the earliest tradition of Buddhism, the
Buddha himself have stated that the numbers of his lay followers
attaining the stage of non returner were numbering in the range of
thousand ( Majjhima Nikaya 73 ), likewise for lay once returners or
lay stream enterers, in other words
in addition to removing the first three fetters of self-view,
attachment to rites and rituals, and skeptical doubt, a very
substantial number of his lay students also attained the
elimination of the fetter of 'sensual desire' and 'ill will',
therefore they will no longer take birth in the sensual planes like
the human and lower deva realms, and instead at most be reborn one
more time in the pure abodes to attain arahantship there. That's
non-tantric Buddhism.
Are there lay arahants? Yes, a number of arahants have
attained arahantship as laymen in the suttas, however,
interestingly all the laymen arahants simply renounced after
attaining full arahantship. Why is this so? I can only say, with my
own logical deduction (since I am not arahant), that since arahants
have cut off all attachments, they simply are completely unattached
to worldly life, they have no more interest in living a worldly
life or enjoying pleasures of the worldly life. They have no more
attachments to family ties or material belongings at all, and see
no more reason to continue living as a lay man. I think they would
rather live a simple life of pleasant abiding in their nirvanic
bliss. This however does not mean they no longer engage in human
interactions - many arahants are known to have many students in
dharma and continue to benefit many people.
Now when it comes to later forms of Buddhism, like Mahayana
Buddhism, (even before the formation of Tantric Buddhism), there is
becoming greater and greater emphasis on the role of a lay person
in Buddhism. It does not mean that laymen have no role in Theravada
Buddhism - in the suttas, one of the layman (I think was either a
sakadagami or an anagami) was designated as the 'best lay dharma
teacher' (in fact - one best lay Male and one best lay Female lay
dharma teacher) basically by the Buddha, which also indicates his
approval for experienced laymen and laywomen to teach the dharma,
and the potential for laymen to be advanced in dharma practice and
knowledge... nonetheless later on as the Theravada tradition
developed it would appear that the emphasis has been more on the
monastic community. It is unfortunate that in many Asian Theravada
countries, most lay people only aim for gaining merits (e.g.
through giving alms to monks) to be reborn in a higher realm or as
a monk in the future lifetime, since they do not believe it is
realistic for them to attain awakening and liberation as a lay
person. This is without any scriptural basis, since their
scriptures clearly state that there were abundance of awakened lay
persons. This is especially so in recent centuries whereby
Theravada has degenerated quite a bit, and it is only in the recent
1-2 century that there has been revival of the vipassana practices
and emphasis on bringing dharma to lay practitioners, which has
seen very good results so far. More and more people - monastic and
lay practitioners alike are learning to do vipassana
meditation.
So, it is accepted notion even in the earliest tradition that
laymen have great potential to attain liberation, and that Nirvana
is not limited only for monastic monks and nuns. Nonetheless there
is more emphasis on cultivation and practice within the monastic
context.
The Mahayana further shifts the focus away from monastic to
the lay people and community. i.e. all the images of Bodhisattvas
you see are almost always in the form of laymen, there is only
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva which manifested as a monastic monk. In the
Vimalakirti Sutra, the Vimalakirti Bodhisattva is a 10th stage
bhumi bodhisattva living as a lay person completely engaged in
living the lay life and benefitting people in all walks of life,
which probably became the role model for the emphasis of 'entering
the marketplace' in Zen Buddhism. Because of this, laymen are seen
in Mahayana (including non-tantric) Buddhism to be as equally
capable of attaining the fruition of spiritual life as a monastic
person.
"The character of Vimalakirti is a pretext to express the
teaching on emptiness ⎯ the ungraspability of phenomena ⎯ the most
difficult aspect of the Buddhist teachings. He manifests this
aspect by presenting seemingly contradictory characteristics: he
lives alone yet he is surrounded by many servants; he lives a life
of celibacy yet has a wife and children. He takes the teachings of
the Buddha into every context: bars, brothels, schools and the
market place. Vimalakirti is completely integrated within Indian
society and, as a fictional figure, he illustrates integration in
any type of society." -- http://www.vimalakirtiusa.org/about_vimalakirti.html
The practice and engagement of the 10 paramitas (or 6) in the
daily life becomes of utmost importance, allowing the twofold
cultivation of merits and wisdom so necessary for the attainment of
full Buddhahood. It is in fact in the very mundane activities of
daily life and interactions that allows us the opportunity to
attain the ten perfections (paramitas) that allows us to attain
full Buddhahood. The paramitas are not just 'mundane qualities',
but the actualization of awakened wisdom - for example, the
perfection of generosity is not just the ability to give lots of
money to other people, but rather, the selfless giving freed from
any confusion of a giver-giving-gift. The wisdom of the emptiness
of self and phenomena allows our act of generosity to be perfected.
When our giving transcends giver-giving-gift, without attachments
we relinquish and give and sacrifice for other beings out of
genuine compassion, that is true generosity. The cultivation of the
ten paramitas in conjunction of the wisdom of emptiness is itself a
method for the liberation of taints, and does not require tantric
methods, though one can very well implement them.
It is said that at each of the ten bhumi stages, one
of the perfections have been perfected. For example, the first
bhumi perfects the perfection of generosity, second bhumi the
perfection of precepts, so on and so forth... all these are part of
the so called 'common/non-tantric
Mahayana' path.
In short, in the Mahayana (even non-tantric) path, as Huayan
Patriarch Cheng'guan explained ( http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com.au/.../httpssites...
), the essential wisdom that allows for the twofold
liberation of afflictive obscurations and knowledge obscurations is
the wisdom of twofold emptiness (this is similar to Tantric
Buddhism as well). Then there is the emphasis on cultivating the
paramitas.
If you're asking about specific meditation methods, there are
lots of meditation methods.
For example in the early tradition, i.e. the suttas,
Theravada, etc, the four foundations of mindfulness are said to
lead someone to the stage of non-returner and arahant, in at most 7
years and as little as 7 days (mahasatipatthana sutta). I would
think that would mean practicing them in a very diligent manner and
not merely in a half hearted way. There are many methods involved
in the four foundations of mindfulness, from anapanasati, to the
contemplation of the impurities of the body. Different methods are
taught with different emphasis. For example, the practice of the
mindfulness of breathing is very suitable for someone with a very
distracted and wandering mind, full of discursive thinking.
Anapanasati is very suitable for developing the sort of calm
abiding, mental samadhi, etc. Whereas, the contemplation of the
impurities of the body can lead to the elimination of sensual lust.
So there are also in fact many kinds of practices in the early
tradition that can help overcome the taints.
In Theravada Buddhism, there are number of different systems
of vipassana being practiced nowadays, including for example the
Mahasi Sayadaw's system which emphasizes the technique of 'noting'
and the progress of insight based on Venerable Buddhaghosa's
Visudhimagga, as well as the Goenka's system of vipassana
practices. One similarity between them is that both emphasizes
mindfulness of one's direct perception/sensations and being mindful
of the three dharma seals of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and
non-self in direct experience. This leads to direct insight and
realization.
The Mahayana (non-tantric) tradition has its own set of
shamatha and vipashyana teachings. Venerable Dharmamitra has a
number of translations including Master Zhiyi's meditation manual
of the Tiantai tradition's shamatha-vipashyana methods:
http://www.kalavinka.org/ . Due to a large
number of various Mahayana traditions, there are focus on different
methods of practices, however the many non-tantric sects of
Mahayana Buddhism have in recent centuries died out only leaving
Zen and Pure Land Buddhism. Zen has a system of zazen, koan,
practice-enlightenment.