Dorje Chang - or Vajradhara in Sanskrit, though I always prefer the sound of the Tibetan. He is the Adi-Buddha, the Primordial Buddha. Dharmakaya. He is everything and nothing at all. In his being all dualities are resolved, all paradoxes swallowed into a single form of beauty. Neither Oneness nor Multiplicity can get a hold, both turning out to be simultaneously phantoms and mirror-image aspects of reality.
The bell and the vajra: these are Dorje Chang's twin symbols, the magical implements that he wields, his weapons of gnosis. One in each hand, typically crossed in front of his heart, just to emphasise their centrality to all that he is.
The primordial consciousness of Dorje Chang splits into these twin aspects, these two arms, bearing the bell and the vajra. The one becomes two, and the two becomes one. The eternal dance of reality, the inseparability of spirit and world, of heart and mind, each a mirror of the other.
The primordial consciousness, the godhead if you will, split and sundered into two. Between them, the vajra and bell encompass everything. They are the great divide, into duality, but just one small step from Buddha.
Vajra: masculine, head, thought; sun, day, wisdom. Being, Siva.
Bell: feminine, heart, body, feeling; moon, night, love. Becoming, Shakti.
The sounding of the bell, the wielding of the diamond-hard vajra: this is also the call, the invitation, for kundalini. It is her wake-up call, for her to arouse from her slumber and uncoil herself. She, sacred serpent of the one-in-two and the two-in-one.
Wisdom and compassion entwined is how the Buddhist texts put it. Sounds a bit abstract and heady, that's all. Maybe better to think of it as Siva and Shakti, in ecstatic embrace, simultaneously in eternal union and everlasting separation.
Part Two
As above, so below. As in the figure of Dorje Chang, so in the affairs of human beings. This is the essence of mystical perception and experience. It is a trickle-down, and a trickle up, I suppose. Sacred correspondence. The individual needs to align sufficiently with 'higher reality' in order for that higher reality to begin to flow into, within, and through their being.
In this case, the task is to mirror the totality of Dorje Chang, along with the great union of vajra and bell, in the lives of human beings, both individually and collectively. To aspire to see the diamond wisdom of vajra and the great love of bell in tandem is a worthy road map for human endeavour.
"Compassion without understanding is not compassion." The words jumped at me the moment I heard them spoken. It is a quotation steeped in wisdom. It speaks of Dorje Chang, of the inseparable nature of the bell and vajra. For they are inseparable, two mirror reflections of the singularity of Dorje Chang and of each other. One without the other is useless, or worse, destructive, quite possibly disastrous. Incompleteness imagining itself as whole: tragedy.
"Compassion without understanding is not compassion." These were not the words of a great Buddhist sage, a Nying-ma lama in rich attire addressing an audience of devout followers. Nor of any other wise teacher or guru with a woolly beard. They were spoken, during her 'prelude talk' to 'Borderless' entitled 'Changing my mind on immigration' by Lauren Southern. A talk, by the by, during which she possesses the dignity and humility to do what many-a so-called great guru is incapable of doing: to admit that maybe she got things a little bit wrong.
"Compassion without understanding is not compassion." Rather less charitably, I refer to it as 'idiot compassion'. It is an insight reflected similarly in the old proverb 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'
How so? How can it be? Surely 'compassion' is a good, great, and wonderful thing. Depends. As once noted, you can use a knife to spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, or you can use it to stab someone and kill them.
Scattered across the posts on Pale G.V. are references to the obverse: understanding, or at least thought, without heart or feeling is not wisdom. Much of the academic world is filled with people of this type, who end up creating all manner of ridiculous proposal. That gender is a purely social construct, for example. This is 'idea' totally devoid of heart, soul, intuition, common sense, decent eyesight. Try the simple 'clothes-off' test for starters. Or, if that's not your cup of tea, watch a top tennis match between two women, followed by one between two men.
Yet because, oh wow!, they happen to have got a job at some university or other, these academics are well placed to have their stupid theories and theorems taken seriously. Dragon's head, snake's body (with due respect to all snakes out there).
But it's the same with compassion that lacks understanding. In the context of 'Borderless', it's a matter of good-hearted but blind sentiment driving a European immigrant situation which all too often benefits neither immigrant nor indigene. Promoted enthusiastically by people carried away by words and sentiment, without a serious care for the complex and sometimes heart-breaking consequences of their proposed actions.
Who 'open borders' immigration does benefit are folk who singularly lack compassion, but who have a well-developed 'understanding' of what will help their own dark, self-serving ends. But heart without understanding can be applied to other circumstances typical of western cultures as well, where the enthusiasts for political correctness in its various forms, victim culture, are doing less of a favour to society than they delude themselves they are doing.
Compassion without understanding provides the fuel for the wolf in sheep's clothing who stalks the corridors of politics and power. If there are dark forces at work behind the scenes, nefarious beings rolling out programmes intended to disempower, then 'compassion without understanding' provides the perfect fuel for such endeavours. Entire populations will unwarily sign up to attitudes which they believe are for the great benefit and betterment of humanity, while nothing could be further from the truth.
A little picture of Dorje Chang on the bedroom wall, and a daily check that both vajra and bell are intact, polished and gleaming brightly together, might go a long way...…
