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Tibetan Astrology Eastern Methods of Mind Preparation by Michael Erlewine (From the NCGR Journal - Winter 1987-1988 (Philosophy Issue)) 
For the last several years, I have been researching astrology as
practiced in the far East, in particular in India and Tibet. This
article is a preliminary report of what was found. For those of
you who are not familiar with my background, I have spent many years
exploring astrological techniques, both traditional and not-so-traditional.
As a programmer, I have had the opportunity to analyze, program,
and test most astrological techniques, both East and West. The techniques of Eastern astrology are not so different from what we have in the West, with one major difference. Technical astrology in the East is but one part of an overall program of student training. This is most apparent in the Tibetan approach, where technical skill is balanced by a rigorous program of preparing the mind of the student to handle astrological knowledge. This is quite unlike anything we have here in the West. At first I ignored this program of mind preparation and instead concentrated only on learning what I could recognize as standard astrological techniques. However, in time I began to understand that these methods of mind preparation are essential to understanding how astrology is learned and practiced by Tibetans. Before I get to the main topic, I have two diversions that will help to set the stage for what I am to present. First, it is important to understand just what astrological technique is, how it is created, and how it might be handled. As we know, new astrological techniques of any real value don't pop up every day. In general, techniques are the end result of a particular researcher's experience in astrology. The best astrologers in the past have left certain techniques in the wake of their lives. These techniques are the result of personal exploration, the remains or residue of an astrological voyage of discovery. An astrologer finds or discovers a part of themselves through astrology and the trail or residue they leave behind is the particular technique connected with that experience. This technique may or may not have a general application; that is, others may or may not find it useful. The best techniques are ones that all of us can use. Techniques of any kind are very potent. They are also very personal, at least at the time of their origin. Techniques are tools, much like hammers and typewriters are tools, but tools fashioned by the mind on its journey to know itself. Too often techniques are approached as if they were only a finished thing, a tool like a pencil or chisel rather than, also, a map and route to an experience - an experience that we ourselves can take. As most astrologers know from experience, techniques that we have not discovered for ourselves are not always enlightening. If we cannot get into or realize a technique, it can easily weigh us down. When an enlightened teacher shows a student a particular technique, the student is shown how to get into and use that technique. He or she is empowered by the resulting experience and takes possession of the technique. It becomes a part of our personal experience. Without this realization, the technique remains a closed book, something that can be used, like any tool, but without any real knowledge or awareness. Many astrologers use some techniques for which they have not been empowered. That particular portion of their astrology is unenlightened. Real teaching, and thus real learning, is the process of the revivification or energizing of techniques. In a very literal sense, techniques are brought to life and live on thru the energy and life blood we put into them. This is how all vital information is communicated and passed on from generation to generation. When we meet a teacher who possesses a living experience and who is capable of empowering us in regard to a particular technique (through which the technique comes to life for us), then real learning takes place. During these current times, techniques and the technical in general have attained great prominence in astrology. It could be suggested that the externalization and refinement of technique may perhaps be at an all time high. This is not to say that the realization and vivification of all this technique... the living knowledge... is necessarily at that same level. It could be argued that the sheer mass of technique available retards or intimidates many. Too often we lack the key to reawaken or bring this technical knowledge to life, to bring it to our lives. A massive amount of technical material is available, but our ability to digest or absorb this material is not always up to the task. Having myself been involved with technique and technical matters for many years, it should not be surprise you to learn that I had an early opportunity to overdose on it, and to fall through the cracks in the floor of this modern technical revolution. I have written on this subject in Welcome To Planet Earth, but let me here summarize my predicament. Having made a quite thorough examination of traditional astrology, I launched into areas where less was known. Heliocentrics, local space, and cosmic structure (astrophysics) are a few subjects with which I spent many years of research. The results of this kind of personal research were what one might expect from any unexamined area of astrology: new and fascinating techniques arose in the wake of a journey into these dimensions. Some of the resulting techniques, such as local space, heliocentric chart patterns, and cosmic structure are just now finding some general acceptance... almost 20 years after their introduction. Although the results of my research were indeed satisfying, there still remained a gnawing feeling or thirst within me. I admit that I was searching for some form of astrological Rosetta stone, some technique that would be several orders of magnitude more useful than what I had come to know to date. I sought to experience astrology in a new way. A new experience, in fact, did begin to dawn on me, although for many years I tried very hard to deny it. The entire world of astrology as I knew it ceased to satisfy me. It seemed that the more I worked and studied, the more dissatisfied I became. The entire edifice of astrology as I had come to know it began to lose all meaning. It became transparent, empty of any significance for me. I cannot convey how frightening, humiliating, and threatening such an experience can be, when it is your life's work that is ceasing to signify or provide direction. I was indeed falling through the cracks in the floor of astrology, yet where I was headed I did not know. At the same time, there began to dawn on me, in a very gradual way, a new understanding. In my years of astrological work (I had done many years of teaching and over 8 1/2 years of full-time counseling), my focus had always been on the technique or tools that I was using. I had questioned and examined these astrological techniques in a most critical and exacting manner. Yet, it had never occurred to me to inquire, even for an instant, into the one who was using these techniques. This now began to occur, but not like some thunderbolt from out the blue. No, this understanding rose like the Sun rises, ever so slowly. It dawned on me. Enough of my story. I hope that I have included enough of the personal element for you to key into what I am referring to. My search of astrology ended up carrying me beyond astrology as I knew or had envisioned it, and into strange and unknown territory. And what at first appeared as the end of my astrological journey ended up revitalizing and enhancing the entire subject. In other words, I fell into an area of experience that threw astrology as I knew it into complete relief. Now, I come to my second phase. The first clues as to what was happening to me came from exposure to astrology as it is used in the far East. I became interested in the kind of astrology practiced in India and Tibet. This did not mean reading books on Hindu astrology that have been available in this country for the last 20 or 30 years, but, instead, experiencing the living tradition itself. Speaking of books, I should mention one error I committed. When I set out to learn about Eastern astrology, I first approached scholars on the subject. I was looking for an overview, and assumed that scholars might be able to provide an objective look at what was going on in the subject. A well-known translator of Tibetan texts explained to me that Tibetan astrology was a very crude sort of affair compared to what we know here in the West. It was mostly lunar, he said, and did not even have proper ephemerides, per se. In general, he felt the subject was probably unworthy of much study. After all, he pointed out, it was quite medieval, unrefined, and perhaps even a little embarrassing compared to modern Western methods. This made sense to me at the time. I accepted this man's appraisal and decided to put the subject on the back burner. This was a decision that I came to regret, for I lost a lot of valuable time. Yet I continued to be impressed with the Tibetan and Vedic approach to psychology and philosophy as compared to what I had been raised with. In time this growing respect led me back to the astrology. Why, I asked myself, should Tibetan astrology be backward when everything else that I was learning about their approach to life was so enlightening. Finally, I began to question the experience of the translator who was neither an astrologer nor a practitioner. He was a scholar and a professor who had never been empowered in the use of the Tibetan astrological technique. I stopped asking the pundits and started seeking out the practitioners (the monks and lamas) who use this astrology on a daily basis. At this point, I began to make some progress. It is interesting to learn that the majority of people (about 80%) in India and Tibet use astrology. In our country, some 20% are interested. Astrology is an accepted course of study and is considered a "right" livelihood in the East. There is not the downplaying and humiliation connected with learning astrology that we have here in the West. Although both the Indian and Tibetan traditions share many techniques, I have concentrated on the Tibetan approach since Tibet has maintained an unbroken lineage of practitioners stretching back at least 1500 years. To a marked extent the Hindu methods of astrology have been somewhat separated from the general environment of spiritual training. This is not true of Tibet, which has kept its tradition intact, whereby astrology is very much an integral part of spiritual training. The Tibetan approach to astrology and spirituality is similar in many ways to the American Indian religions, which have always captured my attention. One major difference is that, where the American Indian tribes have all but been destroyed, the Tibetan tradition is whole, unbroken, and as healthy today as it was 1000 years ago. I set out to learn about Tibetan astrology. As it turned out, this was not an easy task. In the beginning, the greatest stumbling block was that I could find no body of Tibetan astrological technique to get my hands on and test. The only way I knew to study astrology was to select a technique, and then test it to see if it worked for me or vice versa. If I ended up working for it, than it was not worth the effort. Yet, with Tibetan astrology, try as I might, all I could get were short leads... and no major unraveling. Everywhere I came up against the methods of Tibetan mind preparation, which were preliminary to learning the astrology. I was not particularly interested in these methods. I had decided long ago that meditation and the like was of secondary interest. Finally, I met my first student of Tibetan astrology who spoke genuine English! In fact, he was a Westerner. Yet, his only lasting message to me was to learn the mind preparation methods. He also pointed out that he hadn't delineated a chart in years, but that instead he had been working and training his mind. This information was a shock to me. No charts! His comment made a singular impression on me. What could be more important and meaningful than using astrological charts and techniques to explore life? For the first time, I began to consider looking into the Tibetan methods of mind preparation. Soon after, I was told that no one would teach me Tibetan astrology unless I had learned to prepare my mind for the knowledge. Not because it was a big secret, but because without first preparing my mind, I would not be able to grasp the esoteric knowledge that I sought. I can well remember driving my entire family halfway across the country during the coldest days of the year in order to get permission to start an advanced practice for which I felt I was ready. Our tiny car crept up that icy mountain in the cold and dark of night to meet a very special Tibetan lama. We spoke through a translator. I told this lama that I had studied astrology for over 20 years. I even pointed to my photograph on my books. I did everything I could think of to make it clear to him that I was no beginner. Yet, ever so gently, while acknowledging my experience in astrology, he firmly directed me back to the most basic, beginning practices of mind preparation. I had hoped that, with all of my years in astrology and spiritual practice, I could skip a grade or something. Not possible. The best place for me to begin, the lama pointed out, was at the beginning. He made it clear to me that although technically I was a whiz, when it came to preparing my mind for the esoteric information I thirsted for, I was still a beginner. That was enough for me. I gave up my protest about mind training. I accepted his suggestion and, even though I was afraid I might be too old to begin such things, 1 went to the beginning and started there. Today, I am ever so grateful that I was able to do this. The preparation of the mind for knowledge is also called mind training and meditation - a term that has all but lost its meaning here in the West. Up to this point, I had always assumed I already knew something about meditation. I certainly had read all about any number of approaches to the mind, but had not practiced any of them for more than a short while. I began to practice some of these methods. I will make a long story short by saying that what became very clear to me right away was that my mind had received very little preparation. I was a rank beginner. Once I got over my initial fear and prejudice toward the subject, preparing my mind for real astrological work became a major interest. Reading and study had little to offer at this point. What was needed was the training itself, the very doing of it. I have a habit of reading about things rather than doing them, so, for me, things came slowly. Since that time, I, and members of my staff here at our center, have worked to better understand and practice some of the methods of mind preparation used in the East. One noteworthy result of all of this is that it has quenched my thirst. My astrology, which was withering on the vine, has recovered and assumed a stronger, albeit more practical twist. For the last three years, we have held conferences at Matrix on the methods of Eastern astrology. In addition, we now have both a full-time hindu or Vedic astrologer (Shyam Sundara Das) and a Tibetan astrologer (Sange Wangchug) on our staff. This last summer, we put on our first program of mind preparation and have a major conference on this subject planned for the summer solstice of 1988. In recent years, we have become an official center for some of these Tibetan methods of preparing the mind. If I have rambled too much, let me restate what I have been learning: The mind as we come to know it in our life (as we grow up and learn to use it) is capable of more things than we may have been shown... than our Western upbringing may have exercised. I was ignorant of all this and assumed that my mind, just as it came with my birth, was complete and ready to use. It needed no preparation or training of any kind. In fact, I was proud of the fact that I had not tampered with it by subjecting it to the ignominy of some form of meditation. I had always used my mind, just as it was given to me, to do astrology. Whatever mental discipline I had acquired came more from my natural inclinations and attitude than from any preparation my mind had received. The only problem with this approach is that any bias and prejudice that were part of my upbringing never had an opportunity to be corrected. It is like looking through a dark glass. I spent my years trying to fiddle with astrological techniques without it ever occurring to me that, had I received some small amount of mental preparation, this adjustment might have affected my entire approach. It is not unlike focusing a telescope. In other words, had I adjusted my approach via mind preparation, I might have been led to discover a different form of astrology or to view astrology differently. Although I could understand that one could be trained to use a typewriter, a computer, etc., it never occurred to me that there was training that might be appropriate for the mind itself, that could help prepare it for spiritual techniques such as astrology. This brings me to the main point: I have come to understand that what Western astrologers need most of all is not some other not-yet-found technique to hang on the array of techniques that we have already collected about ourselves, and that we call our astrological vehicle - our body of astrological knowledge. Instead, we need to learn to use the techniques we already have with greater understanding and facility. I spent years questioning every possible technique, but had never spent any time preparing myself to handle these techniques. What is wonderful about the Tibetan approach is that they stop you cold right at the entrance, sit you down, and begin to help you prepare your mind to use astrology in a proper way. At this point, I have done enough mind preparation to begin to have some grasp of the subject, and I will share with you something of what I am seeing. Tibetan astrology is concerned not so much with the once-in-a-lifetime conjunctions of this or that planet as it is with events that happen to all of us each month, and each day. The Tibetans, along with many other Eastern disciplines, pay careful attention to what the Sun and Moon are doing. Individuals learn to articulate and base their life around the natural intersections of time - events such as the Full and New Moon. In fact, they divide the month-long lunar cycle into many sections, each of which may be celebrated. The accent is always on action and involvement rather than on observation and detachment. The astrologer celebrates each section of the lunar cycle. It is not enough to make a mental note that "today is Full Moon day". If it is Full Moon day, then you are to take advantage of this opportunity by a particular form of practice. Not thinking about it, but doing. You are doing it. It is your celebration. The Tibetan student is shown how to take an active part in the celebration of each event that life offers, whether that be a daily, lunar, annual or a once-in-a-lifetime event. A Tibetan astrologer who does not celebrate these events is a the astrologers who do celebrate Full and New Moon days as well as the other special events. Their astrological calendar, unlike our own, has not drifted away from their secular calendar. They have no Saturday and Sunday off each week. Instead, the days of the New and Full Moon are holidays, and are always set aside for celebration and special practices. All Tibetan students know that New and Full Moon days are days when any sincere effort (spiritual practice or whatever) can result in accelerated progress, for these are times when visions can come. A technical note: The technical reasons why these days are special are very well documented in Tibetan literature, but are too complex to go into much detail in this article. I am preparing an article on the subject, should anyone be interested. Briefly, Full and New Moon days are the times when the subtle breath, the Male and female channels (Sanskrit: pingala and Ida), come closest to the central or middle channel (Sanskrit: susumna). In Tibet, just as in the West, New and Full Moon days have been observed to be more sensual, even stressful. Yet they go on to add that, at these times, the potential for real vision and insight is more available due to the movement of these subtle channels. Eclipses are considered even more important since these are the times in the year when both the right and left subtle channels simultaneously come closest to the central channel. These Full and New Moon visions are genuine events. They come each month like clockwork, and Tibetan astrologers learn to take advantage of these moments and to use them for vision and inner growth. There are specific forms of practice that can be done during these moments to obtain insight into the nature of our lives, and into reality. The above, albeit brief, example will give some idea of the Tibetan approach. After several years of practical experience with these methods of mind preparation, it is clear to me that Western astrological training could benefit from these same methods. And they deserve to be more than just another option on our already varied menu. Here is an essential complement and antidote for some of the problems that confront astrology in this country. This is even more true now that astrology appears to be coming into higher focus in this country. And, while it is wonderful that we are getting our technical act together, we should be farsighted enough to balance that technical accomplishment with the ability to use these techniques with wisdom and skill. We American astrologers have been pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Our technical progress this century has been almost miraculous, yet our spiritual practices are, for the most part, hand-me-downs from the 19th century. In addition, Western psychology is very primitive compared to what is practiced in the East. In the coming years, as astrology is more and more accepted here in the West, it will be important for us to update our spiritual practices as well. Reform may be the correct word. We have an enormous amount to learn as regards the preparation of the mind to do astrology, in particular as regards counseling, and these Eastern methods are the perfect antidote for the technical malaise that more and more of us will be noticing. I am not suggesting that the astrological techniques of the East are superior to those we know here in the West. Let me make it clear that astrological techniques, whether East or West, are quite similar. The only important difference between the East and West that I have found is that, at least in the Tibetan approach, astrology is taught only after the student has undergone considerable mind preparation. This mind preparation is worth looking into for those of us in the West. Obviously, it is too late for some of us to prepare our minds before studying astrology. Yet, I can testify that it is not too late to make some adjustment in our approach. After studying the subject, and putting what I have learned into practice, I have become dedicated to making the practices available to all astrologers. If there are receptive readers who are interested in learning more about these techniques, please contact me. We will have a major conference on this subject in Big Rapids during the weekend of the 1988 summer solstice. I would also be happy to send you the address of the nearest center where you can obtain this kind of training first-hand from an experienced teacher. 315 Marion Avenue, Big Rapids, MI, 49307 |
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