Overview of “The Three Essential Moments”

The first essential moment of the practice for this lifetime has four points:

1. Oral teachings concerning the circumstances you must arrange (for successful practice)
2. Oral teachings concerning the actual bodhichitta meditations
3. Oral teachings concerning the method of requesting your guru-yidam
4. Oral teachings concerning meditation on the dependent arising nature of your own mind.

Oral Teachings Concerning the Circumstances You Must Arrange (For Successful Practice)

First, as for obtaining the proper circumstances, think about the precious human rebirth and the three ways to take advantage of it – to get a better rebirth, to escape samsara and to attain enlightenment. We have the same basis as Milarepa had, and relying on our precious human rebirth, we also can attain enlightenment like he did. We should think of our fortune and feel happiness. However, if we do not take advantage of it, we will die having wasted it. No one was born who did not die. It is just a matter of time – death is certain, but its time is uncertain. Nothing but Dharma will help at death. If we have not practiced at all or if we have not practiced well and we die like this, no material things will come with us, only negative karmic debts, and if we are reborn as an animal due to that, then what are we going to do? Think what it would be like to be born as a dog and then think of refuge and sincerely take safe direction (refuge) out of dread of suffering and confident belief in the objects of safe direction. Do not just take safe direction in words but entrust your mind fully and follow the advice given in the context of taking safe direction, namely avoid the ten destructive actions – three of body, four of speech and three of mind – and never do negative actions again.

Practice it by visualizing a jewel, and on it the stem of a four-petaled lotus. In the center of the lotus, on the lion throne, lotus and moon, visualize Avalokiteshvara as either standing Khasarpani or the more usual form of Chenrezig with four arms. You have your fathers to the right, mothers to the left, enemies in front, and friends behind. Khasarpani stands, with his right arm to his side with the palm facing outwards, and his left hand at his heart holding a white lotus by his shoulder. Take safe direction out of dread, confident belief and compassion. Visualize light that comes from the objects of safe direction in front, and it hits sentient beings around you, purifying them of all karmic debts and transforming them into Avalokiteshvaras. Then the objects of safe direction, whether you do elaborate or simple visualization, dissolve into light, and the light enters your mid-brow, becoming inseparable from your mind. This completes the first step, gathering the proper circumstances as a condition for successful practice.

Oral Teachings Concerning the Actual Bodhichitta Meditations

Secondly, you should meditate on great compassion. To do this, think of all the suffering that we would have to endure if we were born in the lower realms. Also think how no matter where we are born in the higher realms, it is also nothing but suffering. The more affluence we have, the more suffering there is. Thus, think how horrible all suffering of samsara is, develop a strong wish to get out and be separated from it. Then extend it and wish the same for all others: first your mother, your father, your friends, enemies and all limited beings. This is great compassion.

Now meditate on compassion – the wish to separate all beings from suffering, and love – the wish for all of them to be happy. However, it is not sufficient to just wish this, as you need the intention to do it yourself, the exceptional resolve; meditate on this now. Then think, “But I’m not capable of doing this, since only Buddhas have this ability. Therefore, I must attain enlightenment; this is the most important aim I can achieve with my precious human rebirth.” Meditate now on bodhichitta. Thus, these meditations, from precious human rebirth to bodhichitta, are essential points for continual meditation for this lifetime.

Oral Teachings Concerning the Method of Requesting Your Guru-Yidam

Thirdly, on your head, visualize a crystal-clear stupa with 1,000 doors. In the vase-like sanctum inside, on a white lotus and a moon, visualize your guru inseparable from Avalokiteshvara. In the 1,000 doors, visualize 1,000 Buddhas. The stupa has 250 doors in each of the cardinal directions, and you should visualize 1,000 Buddhas in these 1,000 doors. In the east direction, they are in the form of Vairochana, in the south direction in the form of Ratnasambhava, in the west direction they have the form of Amitabha, and in the north, the form of Amoghasiddhi; they have the appropriate hand mudras.

Visualize yourself as Khasarpani having a thousand-petaled red lotus in your heart, the size of the thickness of one finger, and in the center of the lotus, visualize your own mind in the form of Khasarpani. On the 1,000 petals of the lotus, visualize 1,000 white syllables AH or 1,000 Avalokiteshvaras. Khasarpani on the crown of your head in the stupa, the guru-deity, and yourself as Khasarpani, as well as Khasarpani in your heart, all three have red Amitabhas on the crown of their heads. All these Buddhas and Khasarpanis have OM AH HUM in their three places. 

In the heart of Khasarpanis on your head and in your heart, there is a moon disc with the syllable HRIH standing on it, surrounded by the Mani mantra. Lights go out from the object of safe direction on your head and bring back the good qualities of the enlightened body in the form of Avalokiteshvaras, the good qualities of the enlightened speech in the form of the Mani mantras, the Sanskrit long dharani mantra of Avalokiteshvara and so on, and the good qualities of the enlightened mind in the form of white lotuses and the syllables HRIH; all of that dissolves into the guru on your head, and the guru becomes the all-encompassing object of safe direction.

This is the basis for the visualization of the field of merit; we have Buddhas in the stupa on our head and so on, and all the good qualities of safe direction dissolve into them. In the heart of our guru on our head, there is also a tiny Khasarpani. Thus, there are three beings: the guru on our head, ourselves as external Khasarpani and another Khasarpani in our heart, and in his heart, there is a moon disc with HRIH and the Mani mantra. They correspond to method, wisdom and the unity of method and wisdom, as well as there being parallels for each predisposition, such as shravaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattva predispositions. This topic can be studied in great texts that speak of these classes of realization, or predispositions; for example, when we develop bodhichitta, we become members of the bodhisattva class, and there is a corresponding realization of that class. 

Then visualize that you have infinite bodies, and together with all limited beings you do prostrations to objects of safe direction that reside on the crown of your head. You offer water of eight good qualities – it is delicious, pure, cool, clear, does not harm the throat, and so on – water for the mouth, water for the feet, infinite kinds of flowers, deliciousness, lights of the sun and moon, electric light and so on, perfume to refresh the heart and body, infinite kinds of food and music; all these kinds of offerings.

Then you regret your negativities, insofar as all your suffering comes from negativities. You regret the ones committed in the past and promise not to repeat them, or try your best not to, and then you purify them, usually by taking safe direction indicated by the Three Jewels and developing a kind heart toward all limited beings, since they are the object of negativities. Our negativities are compared to a scorpion, which brings pain. In the same way, negative karmic debts hurt us like a poison would harm us if we ate it. Visualize the lights that come from the objects of refuge on your head and let these lights purify you.

Next, rejoice in the positive force built up by others, since by doing that, we get the same positive force ourselves. Also, rejoice in your own constructive actions of the past that gave you your precious human form, as well as in the constructive actions you do now, such as being kind to others. In this way, your positive force increases and is enhanced.

Then request the gurus and Buddhas on your head to teach. We need to accumulate positive force and eliminate negativities, and we must know which actions to perform and which ones to avoid, and this is something that we cannot do without the teachings. Thus, we request them to teach so that we can all get out of suffering. If we do not practice the teachings, Buddhas will feel no use and will go to the Buddha-fields. This is the reason why we need to request them not to go. We say that we will practice well, that we won’t have ill-will, but will be kind.

Then dedicate all your positive force from this, together with any other positive force, even the smallest. If dedicated, the positive force will not run out or be finished until you attain enlightenment. It is similar to adding a drop to an ocean – it will not deplete until the ocean dries out. Thus, the seven limbs are very important to do completely, even if you do them briefly.

Then make a strong request to the source of your safe direction, guru Khasarpani on your head, for you not to die a miserable death, such as from cancer, not to die with great pain, not to be reborn in lower realms, but to be reborn in a pure land. Meditate on this. Then visualize lights and nectars that come from the heart of Khasarpani on your head and hit the heart of the small Khasarpani in your heart. Then, from his heart, they strike the 1,000 Avalokiteshvaras on the lotus petals, and from them, lights and nectars fill your body and purify all your negativities and karmic debts that go out through your pores and orifices. Then lights go out, and your entire environment becomes palaces and limited beings become deities. Alternatively, visualize that the lights pass from head to heart and to Avalokiteshvaras and so on, in one stream, and they purify all negativities altogether, like switching on a light. As before, generate dignity of the deity. Holding it, visualize lights that go out and purify each of the six realms, transforming all beings into Khasarpanis. You can do one or the other visualization, or both in turn. Do all these purifying visualizations while reciting the Mani mantra.

Then have all limited beings and the environment dissolve into light, and the light dissolve into you, and the 1,000 Buddhas in the stupa and the guru on your crown dissolve into the Khasarpani and 1,000 Avalokiteshvaras in your heart. The stupa dissolves like a rainbow. You dissolve into the lotus and 1,000 Avalokiteshvaras, and these into Khasarpani at your heart. Khasarpani dissolves into HRIH and the moon disc, and this dissolves into the void. Then meditate on voidness. 

Oral Teachings Concerning Meditation on the Dependent Arising Nature of Your Own Mind

Fourthly, meditate that all phenomena of samsara and nirvana are devoid of existence from their own side, like how this new meditation hall was previously an empty room, and then, due to mental labeling, it becomes a meditation hall. The old hall is no longer labeled a meditation hall; now it is a dining room. If it existed as such from its own side, it could not change and would have been so from the beginning. But it is okay now to call each of the rooms by its appropriate name. Likewise, the visualizations of purification and of oneself as a deity and so on are not like that from their own side from the beginning; they are like that in terms of the appropriate mental labeling. Thus, meditate on voidness. After that, see all things during subsequent attainment (post-meditation) like an illusion or a mirage – a mirage does not exist as what it appears to be; we just label it as water. This completes the first moment, which is the practice for this lifetime.

The second moment on the practice for the time of death also consists of four points:

• offering your illusory body to the assembled field of positive force
• cutting off the strong connection to this life
• opening the great pathway to liberation
• propelling your mind upwards.

Offering Your Illusory Body to the Assembled Field of Positive Force

First, visualize yourself as Khasarpani and your mind as a small Khasarpani in your heart. Then imagine that it emerges from the crown of your head, while your old body falls like a lump. Next, imagine that three human heads, each the size of Mount Meru, appear and form a tripod. From your heart, as the meditational deity, a dakini comes forth holding a butcher’s cleaver. She chops off the crown of the skull of your old body and places it on top of the tripod.

Then many dakinis come forth holding butcher’s cleavers. They hack the flesh, blood and bones of your old body into little pieces and pour them into the skull-cup until it is filled. With OM AH HUM, it transforms into nectar. More dakinis then emerge and offer the nectar with smaller skull-cups to the guests. We imagine the gurus in the middle, the Buddhas in front, Manjusri to the right together with the Dharma protectors, Avalokiteshvara to the left together with the guests of the six classes of limited beings, and Vajrapani below together with the unseen interferers: those to whom we owe karmic debts, those who do not harm us directly but may come to our house and bring bad luck, and those within us who make us depressed and detracted, like being possessed. Meditate in this way.

Then imagine that the guests go away. The noble guests dissolve into the small Khasarpani, and he then dissolves back into our ordinary body as we remain here. Once again, we become Khasarpani with the three beings. It is like when we go out of our house: while we are away, we do not think of it, but when we return, it is still there.

Cutting Off the Strong Connection to This Life 

Secondly, to transfer consciousness you must have no attachment to your old body. You must break this attachment, and the best method for doing so is meditation on voidness. The intermediate type of method would be to focus on seeing everything as like a mirage or a dream. Even if you live as long as 100 years, at the time of death your entire life will seem like a dream. The least way of doing it is to reflect on death and impermanence.

Opening a Great Pathway to Liberation

The third step is to visualize yourself again as Khasarpani with the small Khasarpani in your heart. Visualize the central channel, which is closed at the bottom, below your navel, and is open like a trumpet at the crown of your head. Above yourself, visualize the Tushita Buddha-field of Maitreya and Maitreya himself, who is orange, has a wheel at his right shoulder, a vase at his left shoulder, and so on.

You should make a request to Maitreya to lead you up to his pure land and imagine that he sends down a shaft of light from his heart to your central channel. Then, a hook made of light takes your mind, in the form of Khasarpani who has been residing in your heart, up all the way to the heart of Maitreya in his Buddha-field.

Propelling Your Mind Upwards

At the fourth step, imagine that your mind as Khasarpani flies like a shooting star up the course of the light shaft and dissolves with relief into the heart of Maitreya. In this case, you are the body of Khasarpani, your speech is the Mani mantras, and your mind is the mind of love and compassion. Having dissolved in Maitreya’s heart, you are then born in a lotus flower before him. Light from his heart goes out and opens the lotus, and you learn Dharma instantly. 

The essential moment of instruction for the in-between bardo period is to see everything as a deceptive appearance, just like visions of the bardo. You should visualize yourself as Khasarpani, your environment as a mandala, and so on. By mixing present deceptive appearances with recognition of them as the bardo, then you will get used to this and will recognize the same when you actually are in the bardo. Thus, this practice cuts attachment and grasping both to this life and the bardo. Then think that you wish to take rebirth with a body that is fully appropriate for practicing Dharma, tantra, bodhichitta, and so on.

The view is the understanding of voidness. Meditation is, after you have certainty about the view, to have single-pointed concentration on voidness without letting your mind lose it as the object. As for the way you should act, whatever you do, see everything to be like an illusion; things appear to be truly existent, but in reality, they are not.

You should not just leave Dharma at hearing, but practice whatever teachings you hear, meditate on them and practice them immediately. Do not think of meditating on something else. There is a story about Geshe Demo Locho from Drepung Loseling. In Mä, there was someone who had developed samadhi. Geshe Demo went to meet him, and the practitioner told him that he should meditate. He said, “I have studied for 18 years and meditated on everything I studied.” Geshe Demo did not believe that he could memorize at first sight and be able to memorize the whole Kangyur. However, when Geshe Demo tested him, he found that it was actually the case, and he went to Central Tibet himself and became highly realized. If you have the same enthusiasm, then it is easy to generate renunciation and bodhichitta and to understand voidness. 

Serkong Rinpoche received this teaching from Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Meditate on it gradually and steadily. Do not expect results in a year but proceed slowly. If you practice it for all limited beings, then the realizations will come, and you will become enlightened.