In Tibetan nature religion one of the things that brings meaning to one's life is being in good standing with your community. Your community includes not only your townsmen and family but also many nature spirits. Much ado is paid to the needs and wants of local nature spirits, its considered kind of like a big cosmic d'uh, in that OFCOURSE you need to be worshiping the spirits around come on! This may be related to how primal and open the landscape of Tibet is. If one transgresses against the spirits there will be consequences so the quality of one's life depends on appeasing these spirits.
Another thing to consider when weighting the meaning of life and Tibetan nature religion is to remember that Tibetans believe that their soul, or la, is a six part system that you share with other beings. Your la can go out on adventures and inhabit other beings but the most common and safe place is in either a specific bird, horse, ox, tree, lake, and of course your own human body.
As far as the meaning of life, this idea of a multi-part shared soul lends itself to thinking of oneself as a humble being of a larger system and may promote community and nature reverence. Another thing to consider when contemplating the meaning of life is to remember that the world is dualistic.
There are two primal forces in the world a white force, which is good, and a black force, which is bad. Ideally somebody should find their meaning in the white force and dedicate themselves to serving the good gods. One of the things the gods want is animal sacrifices, so part of the meaning of life is to provide the gods with their sacrifices.
Shamanism
The meaning of life for a Shaman may be to serve his or her community. There are several themes that are common to most Shamans in Tibet and they all play a part in what a Shaman or follower of a Shaman believe about the nature of existence and the meaning of life.
If your la gets lost somewhere while its out adventuring while you are asleep, you need a Shaman to go look for it. So in one way big part of the what it means to be a Shaman is to be a protector and finder of lost souls. Shamans use many tools for finding lost souls but one of their most useful tools is the ability to soul travel. Through trances and other meanings Shamans can leave their body and go out into the spirit world to try to find your soul and bring it back to you. Perhaps you've angered a local nature spirit and it scared or kidnapped your soul, in such a case the Shaman must use his or her spiritual ability to try to appease the spirit. Being able to soul travel and make face to face communications with the nature spirits is very helpful for soul retrieval task.
Face to face meetings with the spirits also allow Shamans to make spirit friends, these spirit friends help to teach and serve the Shaman through his or her career. More so than the average person, a Shaman is responsible for harboring and developing relationships with local spirits.
Another important aspect of the meaning of existence when considering Nature Religion, Shamanism, as well as other expressions of Tibetan religiosity, is to recall that a popular idea in Tibet is that dreams are a real reality in and of themselves, sometimes even considered to be more real than waking life. So if one wanted to explore what their purpose in life was, a prudent place to look would be in your dreams. While in your dream world, you and your soul can go on magical adventures all over, just be careful not to get scared or caught like we mentioned earlier.
How does a Shaman get all these powers that define and give meaning to his life? Tibetan Shamans, life Shamans all over the world, go through something scholars label as the “Shamanic illness”. During the Shamanic illness the future-Shaman becomes very sick and falls in and out of trances and is just generally crazy. The goal is for the future-Shaman to die, or at least be broken down all the way to his core, and then cure himself and come back as a healthy member of society. It is thought that through curing himself that the Shaman gains the entry-level experience needed to be a Shaman. Also while under this Shamanic illness the Shaman may make some life long spirit friends.
Buddhism
The meaning for life in Tibetan Buddhism fits in with the grander themes of Buddhism in other traditions, but also has its own unique positions on certain issues. The essence of Buddhist teachings are the four noble truths which are that dukkha is pervasive in samsara, dukkha is caused by tanha, there is a way to stop dukkha, and that way is the noble eight-fold path.
A key precept of Tibetan Buddhism is the concept of interdependence. I depend on you, you depend on me, and so and and so on in an imaginably complex and beautiful way. If one was looking for meaning to their life in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, interdependence would be a good place to start. The repercussions of this idea is that everything you do has enormous reprocutions on the cosmic scale, so it is important that one live their life in a compassionate and wise way so that the repercussions of one's life will be as good as possible.
As with all schools of Buddhism, the goal of Tibetan Buddhism is to become enlightened one day. Similar to Mahayana in Tibetan Buddhism it is typically said that spiritually powerfully people do not reach full enlightenment because their compassion and vows require them to stay in samsara until every sentient being can achieve samsara. In Tibet this has had the unique occurense of tulkus, which are spiritually powerful and enlightened people that choose to be reborn. If you're born as a tulku your goal in life is to help as many people as you can reach enlightenment.
One of the specific goals unique to Tantic Buddhism is to overcome duality and realize that life is, as Milarepa puts it, ro chig or a single taste. One should spend their life realizing that any and all dualities are man made and get in the way of realzing greater spiritual truths. There are many Tantric rituals and concepts directly related to the idea of overcoming and collapsing duality whether its day and night, the sun and the moon, male and female, pure and impure, or living and dead.
The idea that there is no difference between pure and impure has had many profound effects on Tibetan culture. In contrast to other Tibetan civilizations, Tibetan gods frequently enjoy alcoholic beverages and monks often do things that are considered impure, such as drinking from a human skull bone.
Although there is a goal to overcome duality, many Tibetan ritual objects seem to represent duality, on the surface, however because Tantric practices are so secret and there is the understanding that there is no duality, things that seem dualistic on the surface are done only to attempt to show a conquering of this duality. Its just that we as observers aren't spiritually powerfully enough to realize that.
Another consequence of the breakdown of duality is that Tibetan Buddhism has some antinomian qualities. If there is no difference between right and wrong, then human made senses of morality and right and wrong do not apply to a Tibetan Buddhist. This idea contrast sharply with the Natural Religion, Shamanism, and Bonpa ideas we talked about earlier where everything is either part of the primordial white or black forces.
Another goal that goes along with achieving enlightenment is to become a monk, nun or a lama. Monks and nuns take vows and precepts and live in monasteries or nunneries fulfilling their monastic duties. Monks and Nuns are very important to Tibetan culture and through out the centuries the education and proliferation of monasteries was a very big deal in Tibet.
A lama is a spiritual teacher and be either male or female. He or she may or may not be a monk or nun but there is considerable overlap between monks, nuns, and lamas. Lamas primary role is to minister to the people and do rituals for people. They serve a very important role in Tibetan society and this could said to be one of their main reasons for finding meaning in their life.
One need not be a monk, nun, or lama to find meaning to their life or even to have the goal of enlightenment. Since there is no distinctions or duality in Tantric Buddhism to say that there is a difference between monks and laypeople would be erroneous. In Tibetan Buddhism it is typically said that any yogin or yogini can achieve enlightenment at any time. So Tibetan Buddhism lore has stories of many lay people that became enlightened and/or became great spiritual teachers. Many of the 84 Mahasiddhas, great spiritual teachers, were said to be lay people. Perhaps the greatest spiritual folk hero in Tibet, Milarepa, was not a monk.
If one was a member of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the meaning of life would be found in the teachings of Karmapa, who is said to be an incarnation of Chinrezig. And as far as the practices you would practice to help you find meaning to life you would practice the six yogas of Naropa, one of the Mahasiddhas. These include: heat yoga, illusory body, dream yoga, clear light, bardo, and phowa. As well as the six yogas of Naropa you migh talso pratice Maching Lab Dron's chod yoga, which consider of spiritually cutting up parts of yourself and offering it to demons.
If you were a member of the Sakya school you might find solace in the idea of “crazy wisedom”. If you were a member of this school you would study how there is no difference between the mind of a Buddha and the mind of roach, and that enlightenment isn't something that can be achieved but only realized.
If you were a member of the Geluk school, you may find yourself more focused on scholarly and book work than members of other schools, genreally speaking. Your primary spiritual teacher would be the Dalai Lama who is said to be an incarantion of Chenrezig. If you were a member of a Geluk school your goal in life may be to become a Geshe, which is kind of like a PH.D. in Geluk studies.
If you were a member of the Nyingma school, you would rely on hidden spiritual treasures, gter ma or terma, to be discovered to teach you new doctrine and other ideas that were considered too advanced for people in the past. Terma can be dreams, visions, or literally lost or hidden objects found or dug up by a spiritually powerful person. If you were a member of the Nyingma school your main meditation practice would be dzogchen, which is similar to zazen, and is where you just sit there. Since there is no difference between enlightened and unenlightened and you can't achieve enlightenment only realize it, you need to sit there and just wake up to the fact that you're already enlightened. A goal common to all 4 of the great schools is the goal of Bodhisattva ideal and the goal of asceticism.
There is also an Islamic minority in Tibet. For them the meaning for life is living up to Allah's precepts with the hope of being judged good enough during the day of reckoning.
Tibet may be fairly classified as one of the most religious places on Earth and as such many people look to religion to find a meaning or answer to their life.
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