Field of Blessings: Ritual & Consciousness in the Work of Buddhist Healers

by Ji Hyang Padma

Overview

Ji Hyang Padma believes that we are hungry for a direct experience of the sacred in this culture. We try to fill the void with technology, and its 'quick fix' of images and information. This leaves us hungry for true connectivity. We don’t need more information. We need more appreciation. Gratitude opens the heart, and gives our life meaning; it becomes a form of spiritual experience that gives us strength. Field of Blessings explores how meaning-making can be approached by deep examination of the stories of our lives, which bridge the gap between the inner world and the outer world, giving shape to our experience. How can these narratives be spoken, written, or embodied? Ritual is the story brought-to-life, and a powerful vehicle for spiritual transformation, for reconnecting people with an embodied wholeness. Ji Hyang Padma shows that Chod, Medicine Buddha practices, and other Tibetan rituals are used by healers to evoke sacred energies, radical empathy, and to contact deep archetypal realms of the psyche.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785356445
Publisher:	Mantra Books
Publication date:	03/26/2021
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	848,673
Product dimensions:	5.72(w) x 8.56(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Ji Hyang Padma holds a doctorate in psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University. Her dissertation research focused on consciousness and healing, through the lens of traditional Buddhist healing practices. She currently serves as Director of the Comparative Religion & Philosophy Program at the California Institute for Human Science. She has also taught Zen at Wellesley College, Harvard University and Omega Institute. She lives in Encinitas, CA.

Table of Contents

Part I Buddhist Healing 1

Chapter 1 Introduction 3

Chapter 2 Buddhist Healing-A History 7

Early Historical References

Paticca Samupadda: Interdependence

Early Buddhist Healing Practices

Mahayana Developments: Emptiness and Skillful Means

Mahayana Healing Narratives

Mahayana Healing Practices and the Perceptual States of the Trikaya-Ultimate and Relative Healing

Dharmakaya: Ultimate Healing

Nirmanakaya: Physical Healing

Sambhogakaya: Healing through the Subtle Body

Contemporary Approaches

Conclusion

Chapter 3 Introduction to Buddhist Ritual 43

The Need for Ritual

Buddhist Definitions of Ritual

Cultural Narratives of Ritual

Buddhist Symbolic Language

Linguistic Differences

Characteristics of Healing Rituals

Chapter 4 Embodied Wholeness -Healers' Stories 49

Chapter 5 Foundational Healing Rituals 55

Setting Intention

Mindfulness

Creating Space

Mantra Practice

Returning the Mind to the Heart

Medicine Buddha Puja

Therapeutic Attunement

Evoking Sacred Power

Vajrasattva

Chod Practice

Bon Soul Retrieval

Changing Awareness

Reconnection with Relationships

Healing Rituals: Summary

Rituals and the Lens of Anthropology

Chapter 6 The Five Elements in Healing (Lama Jinpa) 89

Resting the Mind within the Heart

The Five Elements: A New Paradigm in Energy Healing

Introduction

The Breadth of Five Element Concepts

The Five Buddha Families (rig nga)

Mandala Iconography

Empowerment

Yidam Practice

The Four Activities

Long Life Rituals

Dakini: Female Wisdom Beings

Healing Rituals

Shangpa Style

Land Healing

Offerings

Directional Offerings

Demonic Entities

An Integrative Approach

The Cross-Cultural Matrix

The Tattvas

The Greco-European Line

Ayurveda

Homeopathy

But What Are Elements? Elemental Biology and Psychology

A Brief Elemental Primer

Working with the Elements

Physical Healing: Elements and Subelements

Healing Others

Psychological Healing

Conclusion: A Modern Take. 89

Chapter 7 Healing Rituals for Our Modern World 105

Space-Creating Rituals

Ritual for Returning the Mind to the Heart

Rituals for Therapeutic Attunement

Rituals for Purification

Healing Rituals

Memorial Rituals

Chapter 8 The Clients' Work, and Clients' Experiences 111

Part II Healers' Stories in Relation to Their Work 115

Chapter 9 Healer's Vision (Lama Jinpa) 117

Chapter 10 Buddhist Medicine, American Culture: Healers' Cultural Adaptations to Diverse Client Communities 121

Part III Making the Connections: Consciousness and Healing 125

Chapter 11 How Does It Work? Paticca Samupadda 127

Tendrel

Logic

Subtle Energies

Karma

The Field of Blessing (Venerable Thubten)

Chapter 12 The Healer's Body as Initiation 135

Spiritual Crisis as Healer's Initiation (Lama Jinpa)

Chapter 13 Paticca Samupadda and the New Neuroscience 139

Interpersonal Neuropsychological Research and the Element of Space

Space

Meditation, Healing, and Healthy Attachment, introduction to Attachment Theory

Interpersonal Neuropsychology

Integration

Empathy

Attachment Styles

Restoration of Healthy Attachment

Meditation and Physical Healing

Tibetan Tantric Buddhist Rituals: Integration of Primal Energy

Tibetan Buddhist Healing and Subtle Energy: Bioenergetic Research

Core Components of the Healing Process across Cultures

Chapter 14 Looking Ahead: Creating Cultures of Healing 163

Intention

Seeing the Connections

Healing across Cultures

Mind-Body Medicine and the Bioenergetic Field

Interpreting Chod: Practice and Research at a Cultural Crossroads

Transformation of the Author

Buddhist Traditional Healing Praxis: Theoretical and Practical Applications

Endnotes 175

Acknowledgements 178

Permissions 180

References 181

Glossary of Terms

Buddhist Terms

Neurobiology Terms 191