Tsa tsa are the small clay images. He had made I think a hundred thousand of the tsa tsa in a very short time. I say this because one of the great purification practices is to make images of the buddha A person who has purified all defilements and developed all good qualities. Our actions leave imprints on our mindstream and later bring about our experiences. While traveling, later on that same day, we came to another place where Lama Tsongkhapa had done prostrations and mandala offering.
He had gone with eight of his closest disciples into retreat there. Everyone else was begging him not to go, to stay and teach. But Tsongkhapa felt it was really important to go into retreat. He did a hundred thousand prostrations to each of the 35 buddhas. Also, Tsongkhapa did mandala offerings, and the stone where he did mandala offerings was there too. All these places were mostly destroyed after the Chinese takeover, but there were a few things remaining we got to see.
When we do mandala offerings we use a nice comfortable place and a smooth plate. Tsongkhapa had a stone mandala plate. But you look at the stone and again you can see images of flowers and letters and deity A meditational deity; a manifestation of the enlightened minds appearing in a physical form. Then another time I was at Reting and this is over the hill in back of Lhasa in Tibet. And this is out in the middle of nowhere, really nowhere.
The monastery was also destroyed—every building. Lama Tsongkhapa wrote this text because he really wanted to make it as easy as possible for the Tibetans to understand the Dharma In the most general sense, Dharma refers to the teachings of the Buddha.
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Most specifically, it refers to the realizations of the path and the resultant cessations of suffering and its causes. Atisha in the eleventh century had gathered all the teachings and had rearranged them in a systematic order, and Lama Tsongkhapa amplified on that. So Atisha and then later Tsongkhapa really systematized the teachings.
They set it up so people could really easily understand the three levels of motivation, the three principle aspects of the path, and all the submeditations and the subtopics involved. That was really a great contribution to Buddhism. Again, so in Reting there was the place where he wrote this great text. When we went there we did some prayers, and then we followed some people.
There were a couple of monks from the monastery and they were taking some important Chinese officials up to see something so we tagged along. The three of us Westerners. But inside these boulders, I mean, coming out from the boulders—you know how rocks have different colors? Different colors of rock within a rock? So, some of these veins—I mean, I saw with my own eyes: Boulders with the letters ah.
Many of the letters ah in the rocks. And they told us after we saw this that Lama Tsongkhapa had been meditating on emptiness there and the letter ah fell from the sky and imbedded in the rocks. This is because ah is the symbol of emptiness. No, it was there all the time. No, it was there. It was part of the rock, of the veins of the rock which were in the form of those letters. It was in the rock. So that kind of attested to his meditative ability. Just the way Lama Tsongkhapa organized the teachings was something I came to appreciate so much when I was in Singapore.
I say this because there I met people from all different Buddhist traditions; and people were so confused. Do I do vipassana meditation? Do I generate bodhicitta? Do I generate renunciation? What do I do? And how do I practice it? How do I put it all together? It made it much easier to really know: Remember that chart I gave you?
So Atisha and later Lama Tsongkhapa were really responsible for that. Lama Tsongkhapa was a great yogi as well. They say he was enlightened already when he was born—that he was actually an emanation of Chenrezig, Manjushri and Vajrapani. They say that for the sake of us he showed the aspect of being a monastic and then attaining enlightenment in the intermediate stage. Also there are some books you can read like The Teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa and some other ones that tell about it.
From Lama Tsongkhapa and the way he drew all the different traditions together, then what followed from him was the Gelug tradition. Each of the four main traditions in Tibet, the Kagyu, Nyingma, Sakya, and Gelug, they each when they do the Guru Yoga—they have a specific manifestation of Buddha as a human being that they do the Guru Yoga with. Nyingmas use Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. And then the Gelugs use Lama Tsongkhapa. The reason we do the Guru Yoga in that way is because sometimes when we think of the different Buddhist deities, like we think of Chenrezig or Vajrapani or Manjushri, they seem so far away.
So, the purpose of doing Guru Yoga with a more recent historical figure is the idea of bringing the feeling of the presence of the Buddha very immediately to us. But with a golden radiating body they might do something. Take him to Hollywood! They just made it up yesterday. So the Guru Yoga practice is also a way of bringing that whole spirit of the Buddha, of our teacher, of the deities to us very importantly in our own heart. And so we really have to nurture ourselves through our own meditation and feel that closeness ourselves.
The Guru Yoga practice is a way of doing that. It really brings the presence of the deities and the Buddha and Je Rinpoche and our teacher very much into our heart. Then we feel more inspired to practice. Due to the extent of the virtue of the Triple Gem , then any karma we create in relationship to them becomes very powerful. Remember when we talked about karma?
One of the things that made it powerful was the object that it was created in relationship to—like creating it in relationship to the Triple Gem, or to somebody who was poor and needy, or our parents. And so, by the power of the Triple Gem, their virtue, their realizations, then any offerings or anything we do in relationship to them becomes very powerful; and so it becomes a very strong way to purify our mind of defilements and to create a lot of positive potential.
We need both of those things, the purification and the positive potential or merit in order to gain realizations of the path. We think that practicing Dharma is a matter of will because this is the way our society is. The mind is like a field. And so, purification and collection of positive potential or merit is like doing this with our mind.
We purify our mind of the stains of all the negative karma we created in previous lives, and we create a lot of positive karma or positive potential by doing virtuous practices. And then we plant the seeds which is like listening to teachings. So the purification and collection of positive potential in these practices are extremely important.
For example, you do a hundred thousand prostrations or a hundred thousand mandala offerings. One of the ngondro practices is a hundred thousand Guru Yoga mantra A series of syllable consecrated by a Buddha and expressing the essence of the entire path to enlightenment. They can be recited during meditation to purify and calm the mind. We listen to teachings and we fall asleep. Or we listen to teachings and our mind is full of doubt A mental factor which is indecisive and wavering regarding important points such as karma and its result, emptiness, etc.
Or we go somewhere to listen to teachings and we get angry at the teacher and we get angry at the other people in the room and we sit there like a volcano in the middle of teachings. I talk from experience. When all this happens we can clearly see that there are many obstacles in our mind that keep us from transforming our mind to being loving and compassionate and wise.
These practices of purification and collection of positive potential are really essential for this. The practice of Guru Yoga is very important in that respect. In our regular sessions we do the seven-limb prayer. At that time we have just one line for each limb whereas in this one we have one verse for each limb. I take refuge until I have awakened in the Buddhas, the Dharma and the Sangha. By the merit I create by engaging in generosity and the other far-reaching practices , may I attain Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings.
First, we have the refuge and generating the altruistic intention. Please come here together with your spiritual heirs. Now in the actual practice the first verse starts out: Tushita is not just a retreat center in India. When he left that pure land, he left the forthcoming historical Buddha, Maitreya or Jampa in Tibetan , in charge of Tushita. It would be very good to be born at his time and receive teachings from him. So, you see, he grew up in the West.
So he is the Lord Protector of the various divine beings in this pure land of Tushita. From his heart comes a stream of light that becomes like fluffy white clouds piled up like fresh curd. This is the Tibetan image, okay? In Western image we might say fluffy clouds like cotton. Upon that there are three thrones. These are all made of light and so then you can really think that you also have Chenrezig, Manjushri, and Vajrapani in your three spaces.
It makes you feel like you have these three qualities within yourself and the ability to act according to them. I probably have a picture somewhere of him. Lama Yeshe, when he formed the first three centers he named them Chenrezig, Manjushri, and Vajrapani. When you do these visualizations, it subdues the suffocating ego projection. It also subdues our dissatisfied energy. But the mental energy that plays into our physical energy—and the mental energy that wants chocolate and wants TV and wants this and wants that and wants the other thing.
It really subdues the dissatisfied energy. Extremely helpful for us. Not just helpful, necessary. From Je Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual children flows the orange nectar of great wisdom that fills your entire body. The essence of each atom of nectar is a small Manjushri. These Manjushris radiate light rays that touch the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the ten directions. All of their wisdom, in the form of millions of Manjushris, absorbs into you through the pores of your body, like snow falling into the ocean.
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Feel that you have generated great wisdom. The first wisdom is the great wisdom. So to help us really understand the meaning. It means understand it in our heart so that it really becomes part of us. We project wrong meanings onto the Dharma because of the words that we hear that ring bells from our own culture. So, this is really helping us to—may we eliminate that kind of fog and may we really understand the meaning clearly of the vast teachings so that we can really put them into practice and change our hearts.
What we imagine here for gaining the great or vast wisdom is that from Lama Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual children—those are the two main disciples—flow orange, or red-yellow nectar, golden nectar of great wisdom. This fills your entire body. You can imagine the three tubes coming and merging into one and coming into you with the golden light or the orange light. Use whichever shade you find most effective for you.
Walt Disney prepared us very well. The appearance of Manjushri coming into us, filling us up. From each of these Manjushris inside us then, light rays go out into the entire universe and are touching all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the ten directions. Ten directions are the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, up and down. This light from all the Manjushris that are now in your body goes out throughout the ten directions—all the infinite universe—to touch all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas there.
This wisdom comes in the form of many, many, many Manjushris of all different sizes. All these Manjushris then come and dissolve into you—really sink into your heart. Manjushri is really beautiful. Or even when snowflakes come and touch your skin, how they melt and absorb into you. Kind of like that.
You might really spend some time developing this visualization. Please inspire me to generate clear wisdom that can understand the subtle and difficult points of the Dharma without confusion. Millions of mantras are invoked from the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. They dissolve into you, and you generate clear wisdom. The second wisdom is clear wisdom. Similarly, here just the same—understanding the ultimate and the conventional, two levels of wisdom. So, thinking of that kind wisdom and wanting to develop that.
From Lama Tsongkhapa, Gyalsabje, and Kedrupje come the tubes of light and through them are flowing this golden light. All the atoms here are made of little circles of the mantra. All these atoms of light and nectar that are coming to you have the nature of om ah ra pa tsa na dhi coming in, filling your whole body and mind with om ah ra pa tsa na dhi. Then from all these little atoms of om ah ra pa tsa na dhi light emanates all throughout the whole universe into all the directions, and to all the Buddhas and all the bodhisattvas in all the directions. It invokes from them the nature of clear wisdom.
Hooking back from the Buddhas and bodhisattvas the nature of their clear wisdom. And this comes back in the form of more atoms of om ah ra pa tsa na dhi. Which then come and fall into us through all the pores of our body and completely fills our body.
In the previous visualization it was the body of Manjushri. Remember when you were a kid you would pretend to be anything? The problem is we believe in what we pretend to be nowadays. What is it like to have a clear mind? Just pretend; and imagine what it would be like. And let yourself feel like that as this is all dissolving into you. And then really concentrate on that feeling at the end. Please inspire me to generate quick wisdom that quickly cuts off all ignorance, wrong conceptions, and doubt A mental factor which is indecisive and wavering regarding important points such as karma and its result, emptiness, etc.
Then the third wisdom is quick wisdom. You can see Buddhas have many different kinds of wisdom. All these wisdoms are the same in nature, but different aspects. Prove it to me. The quick wisdom that very quickly can kind of get to the point without getting lost. The mind that when you listen to teachings can just kind of get to the point of what something is, without getting sidetracked here there and all over the place on all sorts of irrelevant things—but that can just quickly get to the point.
Here the visualization is the same as above with the tubes of light and nectar flowing through them, from Lama Tsongkhapa and the two disciples, coming into us. Here the light and nectar, the nature of all the atoms is the syllable DHI. Like I told you, in the monasteries when everybody gets up we all go om ah ra pa tsa na dhi.
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Then we say DHIs or as many as you possibly can, to generate quick wisdom, to wake yourself up in the morning. You can imagine just the English letter, you can imagine the Tibetan letter if you want to, or the Sanskrit letter. And that the nature of all these atoms are the DHIs. The whole nervous system settles down, too, as these things absorb into you. Please inspire me to generate profound wisdom that understands the meaning of the scriptures in a profound, limitless way. The fourth one is for the profound wisdom. It understands not just the relative way of functioning and the relative way that the words work together, but the deeper meaning and the emptiness of inherent existence.
So Manjushri holds a sword and he holds a text. It has flames that come from the top because it burns wrong conceptions, it burns the darkness of ignorance. The sword that cuts off doubts and wrong conceptions and things, this is again falling into you. The flames that burn away the darkness of illusion, this also falls into you.
The Heart Sutra comes from that genre of teachings. We really imagine that the text, the Prajnaparamita texts, flow into us. These again fall into you, merge into your heart, and fill your whole body. You can invoke millions and millions of those inside of you. You can see the flaming sword. Those are the flames there, the wisdom sword. And then here the text is on a lotus, but you can just visualize the text.
Please inspire me to generate the wisdom of explaining the Dharma that elucidates the definite, correct understanding of all the words and meanings of the scriptures. Visualize as above, substituting texts, and feel you have generated the wisdom of explaining the Dharma. The fifth wisdom is the wisdom of explaining the Dharma. This is good to do before you have to give a teaching, or before you have to lead a group in any sort, or answer questions on the Dharma, or whatever. But just being able to explain the teachings in a really accurate way so that it makes sense to the other person; and explaining the real meaning of the teaching.
We request for that. Here the visualization is the same except all the atoms are made of texts. This kind of thing is so effective for our mind. This is how we call upon that help from the Buddha—very effective for your mind. Please inspire me to generate the wisdom of debate that courageously refutes the pernicious words that express wrong ideas.
Visualize as above, substituting eight-spoked wheels of swords, and feel that you have generated the wisdom of debate. But what about the deluded views that we hold within ourselves? Because winning an argument—what good does that do you? This is very good when we have a lot of deluded views. This visualization method undermines a habitual belief that views of reality and self are solid and fixed, enabling the practitioner to purify spiritual obscurations Sanskrit: Deity Yoga employs highly refined techniques of creative imagination, visualisation, and photism in order to self-identify with the divine form and qualities of a particular deity as the union of method or skilful means and wisdom.
Representations of the deity, such as a statues, paintings Tibetan: Kye-rim and the Completion Stage Tibetan: Dzog-rim of Anuttarayoga Tantra.
Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, Part 1
The mandalas are symbolic representations of sacred enclosures, sacred architecture that house and contain the uncontainable essence of a yidam. All of these are available in Tibetan form, many are available in Chinese, and some are still extant in ancient Sanskrit manuscripts. The unfolding of the tantric ritual depends on the mandala; and where a material mandala is not employed, the adept proceeds to construct one mentally in the course of his meditation.
The dedication of merit Sanskrit: Patrul Rinpoche defines ground luminosity as the:. The practitioner trains to consciously enter the deep sleep state. The practice is represented in yab-yum imagery. All traditions agree that qualified lay practitioners including former monks who have given back their vows can use physical consorts as the Vajrayana founders did.
For example, Atisa wrote that " Those consecrations on which the householder may rely include everything taught in the tantras. The Buddhist scholar Tripitakamala felt the overall goal of Buddhahood overrides concerns for monastic vows. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. November Learn how and when to remove this template message. Generation stage Completion stage Phowa Tantric techniques: Kriyayoga Charyayoga Yogatantra Anuttarayogatantra Twofold division: Inner Tantras Outer Tantras Thought forms and visualisation: Pointing-out instruction Samaya Vajracharya.