Protective Aspects of Vandana and Refuge
 

Hello All,

I just posted this on DW and was hoping to get some responses here as well. I recently heard of at least two different people who, during their meditations (non-Buddhist) , were accosted by malevolent entities. Although I never thought of it until I heard of these people's experiences I was wondering if the "Namo tassa"s, the vandanas and the refuges I customarily recite before my meditations have any protective effect. The idea that this may be so is not unheard of in the tradition (take for example the Paritta chants and suttas like the Ratana sutta) but I was wondering if anyone had heard of anything concrete. Sukhitaa hontu!

Hello Khalil Bodhi.

Even if you were speaking from personal experience, it could be difficult to distinguish between a malevolent (or weird) entity and a fabrication of the mind. For hearing about experience in non-Buddhist meditation, it's even more difficult to know what really was observed.

There's nothing in the namo tassa or in the Refuges that refers to protection. I do not believe there is any need for protection before meditation as we have nothing to fear. Fear itself is a mental construct.

I'll be unable to offer you any concrete evidence, I'm sorry. On meeting a malevolent entity, it would be wonderful to be sufficiently settled to offer it a welcome and metta. I would love the opportunity, though I suspect I would panic.

The only "protection" is non-attachment http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif

Hi Khalil Bodhi,
I'm curious to know what kind of meditations they were. I'm not clued up on Theravada enough to comment on your question but in Tibetan Buddhism there are many practices to protect the disciple.
What difference, if any, they make I'm not sure.
Namaste