Dharma Theatre

Most of our practice is exactly like theatre. Just like actors in a play dress up in costumes and put on masks to act out their parts, wiping off the make-up and slipping back into their jeans afterwards to get on with their lives; so we go about most of our practice. We put on our dharma mask and costume, get up early to sit up straight and meditate, thinking about impermanence and so forth. And when the time’s up, immediately we drop all that; we jump into our jeans and get on with our lives. Maybe we go and get some breakfast. And for us, everything about that food is real; we love it and crave for it. And that, for us, is our normal life and as long as that’s the case, our practice will never become authentic, it will remain forever a theatre of Dharma, a show.

For most people who feel they’re practicing secret mantra it’s a similar story, their practice is just acting. Of course true secret mantra practice has nothing to do with acting, but the way most of us go about it turns it into an act. For example, I’m sure most of you will have seen the lama dance done in the Tibetan monasteries in which dancers put on costumes and wear masks. You’ll also have noticed that most of the masks and costumes are not human, but of dharma protectors like Mahakala or other deities seen in the thangkas. And the dancer? They would almost certainly be feeling, ‘I’m me, wearing a mask and a costume, pretending to be, or acting and dancing like a deity.’ They won’t actually feel that they’re the deity. And that’s how most of our practice is.

Someone who has recognised the view of the secret mantra as taught in the tantras will recognise and see all sentient beings to be endowed with the Buddha nature. They’ll recognise; ‘This is what I am! I am the deity. I am Buddha.’ At that point there’s no longer any pretence, having seen the truth of it this has become their reality. For most of us though, because we haven’t gained that understanding and don’t have that way of thinking or view, what we do is just a charade, a secret mantra make-believe. For us, our practice is never reality, and therefore we don’t make much progress.

So one essential thing for us to do is look at and compare our way of thinking to the view of the practice, to see how much they match. For example, if we’re doing deity practice or meditating on impermanence, we have to think, ‘How do I really see things…? What’s the view of the practice…? Are they the same…?’ and then try to work out what it would take to bring them together. If we can do this, our practice will no longer be just an act and will start to take hold, and we can gradually become practitioners with good practice.