Common Illusory Body

Last night at our Yamantaka class, my teacher Geshe Loden spoke of the practice of the common Illusory body and how one can take this practice into everyday life. The practice is a method of seeing all events as like an illusion in order to not get sucked into these false appearances. The practice originated from Pandit Naropa an 11th century Buddhist mystic.

However this practice is just as important today as it was then, perhaps even more so with so much information being thrown at ordinary people. The Common Illusory Body is common to both the perfection vehicle and Vajrayana. So it is possible to speak about it here.

What is the Common Illusory Body.
It is the practice of seeing all things and events as a mere illusion. Thus diminishing the power of false conventional appearances. What is meant by false conventional appearances. See Beyond Appearances for more on this but, for now let’s just say that false appearances are conventional appearances to the mind of with the factor of inherent existence. That is, we see things as if they have a real, concrete, inherent existence, in and of themselves and NOT dependant on our viewing consciousness or labeling process. Because of this rather simply fault, we get sucked into them and then create action induced by them.

This is how ego engages the world, and how all dysfunctional states of mind are generated. By engaging the world as a mere illusion we are in fact viewing the world more realistically. That does not mean the world is just an illusion, just like a dream. No, you I and the world do exist, just not inherently. Buddhism asserts that the mind is the primary source of all happiness, problems and the natural world – the environment. Change our mind and we change our world.

Common Illusory Body example.
So in order to understand how the practice works lets take an example. Say a colleague accuses you of having a poor work ethic or gets angry and says something indirectly to you that implies you are selfish! You immediately react, or I should say your ignorance/ego immediately reacts and from this point you are engaging that person with a dysfunctional mind - dysfunctional in the sense that it is not working to its greatest capacity because delusion like anger distort the mind of stop it functioning properly. Some people might feel this is normal and justified. Buddhism assert that while it is normal for most people, it is however transformable and by doing so, you actually put yourself into a better position to engage your colleague. Have you ever seen someone get into an argument after they have become angry? Most often they look quite silly even though they feel they are justified in being angry. Even normally caring people do silly things when they are angry.

Having said all that, it can be quite difficult to practice when you are in front of the water cooler! You first needs to training by yourself, then when you find you are in a difficult situation your training will kick in naturally.

How to train in the Common Illusory Body practice
Well here comes the fun part…actually the first time I did this I couldn’t stop laughing because it felt so weird.

1: Go and stand in front of a mirror.
2: Look at the reflection of yourself in the mirror.
3: Start to criticize the reflection and learn to not react to the criticism by seeing it as it really is…mere illusion.
My teacher suggests saying things like…you are ugly, you are stupid, you are a thief and so on.�
4: Now praise yourself. You are the greatest, you are very handsome, you are such as good person…again hear these as mere words.
5: Now ask a friend to criticize you and then praise you, all the while you should remain balanced, seeing these words not as meaningless but relative.

The point is that we are all too often elevated by praise and depressed by criticism, when the reality is that good and bad, ugly and pretty are all relative. So why do we get so upset!

This is a mind training practice, training your mind to remain balanced in the face of adversity.

Good luck and if you do give this a go I would be interested t hear the result and your thoughts.