The Steps of Visualization for the Three Essential Moments

In this life, meditate on your yidam deity. At the time of death, meditate on the oral teachings of transference of consciousness. During the period in between rebirths, meditate on blending appearances. Continual meditation is important for all of these.

In this opening stanza from the root text, the first line indicates the practice for this life, the second for the time of death, and the third that for the in-between rebirth period. The fourth line applies to all of these. Thus, although transference of consciousness and the blending of appearances are imperative at the time of death and the in-between period (respectively), you should practice them now in order to receive their desired benefit (at those times). As for how to do this, your practice should not be very intense one day and lax the next, but rather it should be steady like the flow of a river. This is important.

For this there are four sections: 

• How to do the practice of your yidam deity during this life
• An explanation of the practice of transference of consciousness at the time of death
• An explanation of the practice of blending appearances during the in-between rebirth period
• A supplementary demonstration of the important points of philosophy, meditation and conduct.

Having remembered impermanence and suffering, strongly generate great compassion. On the crown of your head (visualize) your guru, in your heart the yidam-deity, meditate on the dependent arising of your own mind.

To practice the specific points of this, there are four sections: 

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

Oral Teachings Concerning the Circumstances You Must Arrange for Successful Practice

This first point is indicated by the opening line of the second stanza of the root text. Thus, when it says, “Having remembered impermanence” and “Having remembered suffering,” the former means you should meditate on the impermanence of death and the fact that there is no certainty as to when you will die. This will cause you to turn away from your obsession with this life. The latter indicates the method for developing a genuine attitude of wishing liberation from uncontrollably recuring samsaric rebirth. This is turning away from your obsession with the various so-called pleasures of samsara by recognizing the suffering nature of all the different realms of samsaric existence.

Taking these two as examples, you should at this point practice the various classes of meditation for training your mind on the stages of the graded path to enlightenment when you are a person of initial and intermediate levels of motivation. These meditations are a common (prerequisite training for proceeding to the next stages). I fear, however, that if I were to outline these here, this work would become too long. Therefore, you should learn about these (meditations) from A Grand Presentation of the Graded Stages of the Path (Lam-rim chen-mo) by the glorious Je Tsongkhapa.

Oral Teachings Concerning the Actual Bodhichitta Meditations

This is indicated by the line, “Strongly generate great compassion.” Without being interested only in liberating yourself from samsaric rebirth, you must accept full responsibility for bringing about the happiness and benefit of all limited beings by yourself alone. For this purpose, you should train yourself to have a very strong desire to develop a supreme enlightening aim of bodhichitta and follow the conduct of all bodhisattvas.

There are two methods for training your mind to have such an enlightening aim. These are the seven-part cause and effect meditation and that of exchanging self with others. You should impress these on your mind from A Grand Presentation of the Graded Stages of the Path and the oral tradition teachings of the Mahayana trainings of the mind.

Oral Teachings Concerning the Method of Requesting Your Guru-Yidam

Until you become a Buddha by having developed a supreme enlightening aim and completing your two networks (of positive force and deep awareness), it will be impossible for you to liberate all limited beings from samsara. Although this is so, it is imperative that all limited beings receive protection and safe direction (refuge) right now from the unbearable sufferings of samsara (in general) and the three worse rebirth states (in particular. Realizing this and seeing that) you do not have the ability (to liberate them), now think how necessary it is to request the Noble Avalokiteshvara and the thousand Buddhas (of this eon to be able to benefit them now).

(Visualize) on the crown of your head a flawless stupa of white crystal moonstone with a thousand doors [see note 1], transparent and having the nature of light. Within its vase-like sanctum, on a mandala seat of a lotus and moon disc, (sits) your root guru in the form of the venerable Noble Avalokiteshvara. His body, white as a snow mountain, has one head and four arms. His first two hands are pressed together at his heart; the lower right hand holds a jeweled rosary of crystal; and the lower left a white lotus flower. He sits with his feet crossed in the vajra posture, wearing precious jeweled ornaments and clothes of multi-colored scarves, his heavenly body fully adorned with all the major and minor marks of a Buddha. Thus, he appears in the midst of a great burst of rays of light, like a rainbow in the sky with no true independent existence. This is what you should envision first.

Then at each of the thousand doors (of this stupa) imagine the thousand Buddhas of this fortunate eon. All those on the east (in front of you) are white, in the form of Vairochana; those on the south are yellow, in the form of Ratnasambhava; those on the west are red, in the form of Amitabha; and those on the north are green, in the form of Amoghasiddhi. This is the way to visualize with your guru on the crown of your head.

Although several texts say to picture Avalokiteshvara in his Khasarpani form [2], there is no difference in what this signifies. Nowadays more people who use (Avalokiteshvara’s) six-syllable mantra recite it while visualizing his four-armed aspect. Therefore, I have arranged (these practices) accordingly.

As for how to see the yidam-deity in your heart, (this is as follows). Visualize at your heart a red thousand-petalled lotus, slightly opened with its petals standing erect. At its center on a mandala seat of a moon disc is Avalokiteshvara, the yidam-deity of great compassion, inseparable from your own mind and envisioned the same as on the crown of your head. On each of the thousand petals imagine a flawless white A, having the nature of light and glittering white. At Avalokiteshvara’s heart there is a moon disc with a white syllable HRIH. Around its edge revolve the letters of the six-syllable mantra (OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUM) like pearls strung on a rosary. Visualize this well.

Your confident belief in the Avalokiteshvara and thousand Buddhas of this fortunate era, visualized on the crown of your head, is so intense that tears stream from your eyes and the hairs of every pore of your body quiver. Your mind is single-pointedly yearning and filled with great belief, (and you should request as follows:)

“O great compassionate guru-yidam: My mothers and fathers, all the beings of the six rebirth states, are drowning in the great ocean of samsara’s suffering. They have no one to protect them, no safe direction, these poor beings who are in such agony. I beseech you, please save them right now from this great ocean of samsara’s suffering. I implore you, please free them this instant. I beg you to liberate them on this very spot!” This is how you should make your request, with intense yearning.

Then rays of light are emitted from Avalokiteshvara’s body on the crown of your head and touch the Avalokiteshvara in your heart; and rays of light stream forth from the thousand Buddhas of this fortunate eon and strike the thousand A’s in your heart. From these thousand A’s and the Avalokiteshvara in your heart streams of white nectar flow in immeasurable waves. The nature (of this nectar) is the discriminating awareness of non-duality; it merely appears in this (white) form.

This (nectar) now totally fills your body and all the obstacles and unripened consequences of your previous destructive actions of body, speech and mind, together with their constant habits are purged. They completely leave you, oozing out blackly from every orifice and pore of your body in the form of tar, filth and scorpions. Your body becomes fully transformed into Avalokiteshvara, transparent and clear as polished crystal, radiant with the major and minor marks of a Buddha.

Streams of nectar now flow from all the pores and openings of your body. First, they go down to the hell realms, completely filling every state of hell, purging all hell creatures of their sufferings of heat and cold as well as of the causes for these: their karmic impulses and disturbing mental factors, (eliminating them) completely from their roots. They are fully purified of them. Then all their surroundings – the red-hot iron ground, the iron houses blazing with flames, the icy confines, the black darkness – all these unbearable things, their entire environment, instantly disappear. Everything totally transforms into a pure land, like Sukhavati Buddha-field, precious by nature, broad, expansive, wide-open, soft to the touch and blissful. And all the beings living there become totally transformed, assuming the appearance of the heavenly body of the Noble Avalokiteshvara, having no true independent nature just like rainbows in the sky. This is what you should envision [3].

Then streams of nectar flow forth in turn to every state of existence, to the hungry ghosts, animals, anti-gods, humans and to the gods of the desire, form and formless realms. They purge them completely of all their sufferings, together with their causes: their karmic impulses and disturbing mental factors. The hungry ghosts are freed of hunger and thirst; the animals of their stupidity, dumbness and devouring of each other; the anti-gods of their fighting and quarrels. No longer do humans suffer from birth, sickness and death; the desire realm gods from death, transference and falling to lower rebirths; the gods of the form and formless realms from all-pervasive suffering. They are fully purified of these, and all the lands they inhabit are totally transformed into pure lands like Sukhavati Buddha-field. And all the beings living there become totally transformed, assuming the heavenly body of the Noble Avalokiteshvara. This is what you should envision.

At this point if you wish to recite the six-syllable mantra (OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUM, you should do so as follows). Visualizing yourself as the Noble Avalokiteshvara, imagine that, as the sound of this mantra comes forth from your mouth, it is likewise proclaimed from the mouths of all the beings you have transformed into Avalokiteshvara. It is as if the sound of this mantra causes the entire universe to shake. (In this way) recite it as many times as possible.

At the conclusion of your meditation session, visualize rays of light being emitted from the HRIH in the heart of the yidam-deity within your heart, spreading out and striking all the lands you have been visualizing as Sukhavati Buddha-field. These places completely melt into light and dissolve into the beings inhabiting them, whom you have been envisioning as Avalokiteshvara. These beings then completely melt into light and dissolve into yourself. The Avalokiteshvara at the crown of your head melts into light and dissolves into the Avalokiteshvara in your heart. The thousand Buddhas of this fortunate eon dissolve into the thousand A’s in your heart. The stupa vanishes like a rainbow in the sky. Then you yourself, whom you have been visualizing as Avalokiteshvara, dissolve into the lotus in your heart with the A’s on its petals. This dissolves into the Avalokiteshvara at its center and he into the (moon disc) seat in his heart, with the rosary of the six-syllable mantra around it. This then dissolves into the HRIH at its center and finally even this disappears into a state of clear mind unaimed at any (self-established) object. Concentrate single-mindedly in such a state.

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

This is divided into how to gain experience in the identitylessness of the conventional “I” and in the identitylessness of all phenomena. If I were to explain these in brief, (it would be as follows).

First of all, each of us has a very strong thought of an “I” that arises automatically in our mental continuum. If you examine this thought and how (this “I”) appears, you do not see it as a mere appearance, as only the name “I” designated onto your five aggregates. Rather, as the object of this thought, an “I” comes to mind that seems to truly exist as some self-established “thing” on top of the five aggregates as if it were there from the beginning.

(Likewise) when you see something having the ability to function as a support, the thought, “This is a pillar,” automatically arises. When you examine this thought and this “pillar” appears, you do not see it merely as the name “pillar” designated by your conceptual thought onto this piece of wood. Rather, on top of this object, which is just a piece of wood, there seems to appear something truly existing as a pillar. But although these things seem to truly exist in this way, there has never been any such thing as an “I” truly existing on top of an object, the five aggregates.

For example, other than (the mere name) “pillar” designated by a conceptual thought onto a piece of wood functioning as a support, there has never been any such thing as a truly existing “pillar” on top of that object, a piece of wood. Yet there arises in all of us the thought that this is really a pillar, not just the name “pillar” used as a convention for this (piece of wood). However, you do not see that the name “pillar” is being used as a convention. This thing does not have self-established existence as a pillar; only subsequently has the name “pillar” been designated onto it. Yet because there are conventions such as saying, “I see the pillar,” when you have seen this object – you grasp at it (as if it were truly a “pillar”). But not only is a pillar (merely) something conceptually labeled onto a piece of wood, there has never been anything whatsoever that has existed objectively as a truly established pillar even to the slightest extent.

Likewise, as soon as an infant is born, someone gives him a name, like “Tashi.” Then whenever you see him, you think, “This is Tashi.” But in this case also, even though it strikes you that this infant exists objectively as Tashi from his own stance, he does not exist objectively as a truly established Tashi at all. This is because if he were to exist in this way, then even before he was given such a name, if you saw him, it would only be possible to think, “This is Tashi.” No other thought could arise. Therefore, this infant exists as the so-called “Tashi” merely by virtue of having been named that by a conceptual thought.

By analyzing such examples, try to become firmly and thoroughly convinced that everything – your conventional “I,” your aggregates and so forth – exist merely as conceptual labels that have been labeled by conceptual thought onto their respective (and appropriate) objects of labeling. None of them exist as truly established things on top of these objects, even to the slightest extent.

In meditation, you should concentrate single-mindedly on such a conviction. During subsequent attainment periods, train yourself to see every appearance of an object that arises as (just) an appearance. (Realize that) like an appearance these arise as if they were illusions, devoid of any objective existence established from their own individual stance.

I have explained here only briefly and simply how to gain experience in this view of voidness. Please learn further about it from other texts in which this view is more elaborately presented.

The essence of the oral teachings concerning the time of death is how to practice transference of consciousness. This is indicated in the root text:

Having made an offering of your body and given it away, completely abandon all you rely on. Making use of a shaft of light, hurl your mind into Tushita Buddha-field [4]. 

The practice of this point is divided into three sections: 

• Eliminating unfavorable circumstances for accomplishing transference of consciousness
• Gathering the favorable circumstances
• The actual visualization for transference of consciousness.

Eliminating Unfavorable Circumstances for Accomplishing Transference of Consciousness

If you are attached to and have compulsive attraction for places, your body or possessions, it is like a bird trying to fly in the sky with stones tied to its wings. No matter how much you wish to transfer your consciousness to Tushita Buddha-field, this transference will be prevented. To counteract this, you must block such attachment and compulsive attraction for your body. Therefore, first you must offer your illusory body to the assembled field of positive force, as indicated by the first line of this stanza.

To visualize clearly the field of positive force, envision before you in space a broad and expansive jewelled throne supported by eight lions. Seated upon it on cushions of a lotus and moon disc is your kind root guru, seen as before in the form of the venerable Avalokitesvara. Above his head are the gurus of his lineage. Level with the upper part of his body are the meditational deities of the four tantric classes together with the assembly of deities from each of their mandalas, as well as all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Level with the lower part of his body, all the shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, dakinis, dharmapalas and protectors are gathered together like billowing clouds. In addition, spreading out from the lower corners of the throne are all the invoked harmful spirits, which bring you misfortune from the harm you have caused them in the past. Seated directly beneath the throne, without any space between them, are all the limited beings of the six states of rebirth, headed by your kind mother and father of this life. This is what you should envision. In short, you should picture the entire earth, the heavens and all the space between completely filled as if by sesame seeds with all these invoked beings.

Then, as for how to build up positive force, (this is as follows). You should think, “In samsara I have taken countless bodies of limited beings in general and specifically I have taken countless human bodies. Yet every one of them has been meaningless. I have done nothing but waste them all. Not even once have I taken advantage of their essence and made them meaningful. Now in this life I have taken this awkward body and until now I have been unable to accomplish any pure Dharma practice that would be of benefit. Rather, to support this body, I have done so many kinds of destructive actions.

“Now, as the time of my death (is approaching), I shall have to leave this body behind like the wild, barren pastures at the top of a mountain. Then the negative karmic force I have built up because of this body will bring me the unbearable suffering of a lower rebirth in my next life. Therefore, as it is so improper to be attached to this body, let me instead use it to complete in great waves and with ease my network of positive force. For this I must request help from my compassionate yidam-deity.”

At your heart visualize your mind in the form of the body of Avalokiteshvara, the size of a finger. All of a sudden, he bursts forth from your heart and stands in the space before you – white, healthy, handsome, beautiful, glistening – looking back at your old set of aggregates.

Then request your guru in the form of Avalokiteshvara before you, “O compassionate guru-yidam, I beseech you to help me use my body to complete in great waves and with ease my network of positive force.”

Having been requested in this way, Avalokiteshvara proclaims, “OM AH HUM,” and three human heads the size of Mount Meru appear forming a tripod. Then from the heart of the yidam-deity a dakini comes forth, holding a butchers’ cleaver. Using this curved blade, she chops off the crown of the skull of your old body from its forehead up and lifts it off. It grows larger than a thousand, a million, a billion world systems, and she places it covered with blood on top of the (human-head) tripod. This is what you should see.

Then once again many dakinis come forth holding butchers’ cleavers. They hack the flesh, blood and bones of your old body into little pieces and pour them into the skull-cup. It becomes filled to the brim with a great heap of flesh and blood.

Once more from the mouth of the meditational deity “OM AH HUM” is proclaimed. All your flesh and blood are thereby transformed into the nectar of untainted deep awareness, orange like the color of the sunrise. Even its aroma and texture bring blissful satisfaction to the minds of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and it is able to eliminate the sufferings of the six rebirth states. This is what you should envision.

Then many dakinis come forth from Avalokiteshvara’s heart holding butchers’ cleavers and skull-cups. They fill all of space. Using these skull-cups in their hands, they spoon out the nectar as if it were inexhaustible. Offering it to your root and lineage gurus, to the meditational deities, Buddhas and bodhisattvas, to the shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, dakinis and dharmapalas, they bring great blissful satisfaction and pleasure to all their minds. (In this way) envision completing your network of positive force in great waves and with ease.

In similar fashion, (the dakinis) give (nectar) to the invoked harmful spirits, which bring you misfortune from the harm you have caused them in the past. Your karmic debt to them is thus cleared, their grudges are soothed, and they are all transformed into Avalokiteshvaras.

(The dakinis) then present (nectar) to all the limited beings of the six states of rebirth headed by your kind mother and father. They are purged completely of all the suffering of their individual states, together with its causes: their karmic impulses and disturbing mental factors. They are fully purified and, as before, all the lands they inhabit are totally transformed into pure lands like Sukhavati Buddha-field. And all the beings living there become totally transformed into Avalokiteshvaras. This is what you should envision. Then recite as before the six-syllable mantra.

At the conclusion of this, visualize all the lands melting into light and dissolving into the beings inhabiting them. These in turn dissolve into your mind (in the form of Avalokiteshvara, your guru). Then the entire assemblage, from the lineage gurus to the dakinis and dharmapalas (dissolve) into your root guru who is seated in space before you (in the form of Avalokiteshvara). He in turn dissolves into (the Avalokiteshvara that is) your mind, as a way of bestowing upon you waves of inspiring strength. Finally, your mind itself disappears into a clear state without any object. This is what you should envision.

Thinking of how all (three) aspects of offering – the person who makes it, the offerings themselves and those to whom they are presented – are totally devoid, not having even a speck of self-established existence, expand your discriminating awareness and understand that these three circles are not true objects existing unto themselves.

By practicing in this way, you will remove your attachment and compulsive attraction to your body. If, however, it happens that you are still not rid of your attachment and compulsive attraction to your friends, relatives, wealth and possessions, the way to block this is indicated by the second line of this stanza. No matter how many friends and relatives you may have in this life, it is due to the forces of previous karmic force that they have gathered together for but a brief moment like leaves blown together by the wind. In the end they will desert you and you will forsake them, for at the time of death not even a single relative or close friend will accompany you. You must go into the future completely alone. Thinking in this way, try to become unattached to them.

When you die, your wealth and possessions are also left behind. Realize that you must travel on all by yourself like a hair pulled out of a lump of butter. Therefore, without any compulsive attraction and with no attachment give them away to constructive causes, as offerings to the Three Jewels of safe direction (refuge) and for the service of the monastic community. Do not have even the slightest attachment or compulsive attraction.

Gathering the Favorable Circumstances for Accomplishing Transference of Consciousness

Set a very strong intention to be born in Tushita Buddha-field and offer many prayers to take such a birth. Dedicate all the roots of your constructive acts as the causes for (transferring your consciousness) there.

The Actual Visualization for Transference of Consciousness

This is indicated by the last two lines of this stanza. Visualize in the center of an encircling rosary of precious jeweled mansions called The Dharma Palaces of Joyful Tushita, the precious jeweled palace of perfection in which resides the venerable Maitreya Buddha. It is called The Palace of the Exalted Dharma and The Palace of the Lofty Banners. Before it is the courtyard in which the venerable Maitreya teaches the Dharma. It is of the nature of all precious gems, exquisitely delightful, broad and expansive, called The Holder of the Dharma Bringing Joy to the Mind. In its center on a lion throne, called The Excellent Dharma, sits the Buddha Maitreya, his golden body radiant with the light of a hundred thousand suns, resplendent and shining like Mount Meru. He sits facing Jambudvipa, our own Southern Continent, giving copious teachings to a circle of countless bodhisattvas on the ways and methods of prajnaparamita, the far-reaching attitude of discriminating awareness. With single-pointed yearning you must strongly wish to be able to witness (this scene) and receive these teachings yourself.

“O great compassionate Maitreya Buddha, please show me a safe direction out of the fears of samsara and the unfortunate lower states of rebirth. I beseech you, please lead me right now to your Tushita Buddha-field of joy. I implore you, please lead me there this instant. I beg you to take me on this very spot.”

Having been requested in this way, the venerable Maitreya emits from his heart a long and straight shaft of light like an extended sleeve. It penetrates the aperture at the crown of your head, opening it up like a skylight. Then all at once, in the region of your heart, your mind takes the form of the divine body of Avalokiteshvara, the size of a finger. Looking up through the pathway of this shaft of light through the aperture at the crown of your head which has opened up like a skylight, you see directly the golden mandala at the heart of the venerable Maitreya, dazzling yellow as if polished and struck by the rays of the sun. With the triple awareness that this shaft of light is a pathway, that you must travel this path and that you must transfer your consciousness into the heart of Maitreya, request as before with intense yearning.

Then from the heart of the venerable Maitreya another light is beamed down inside this light shaft, long and straight, in the form of a hook. It enters through the aperture at the crown of your head and, striking your mind which you have been visualizing in the form of Avalokiteshvara, it lifts it upwards all at once as if caught by this hook. Bursting forth from the aperture, it flies without any obstruction like a shooting star up the course of this light shaft and dissolves with relief into the heart of the venerable Maitreya. Feel that your mind and that of Maitreya have become fully mixed and are now of one taste. Remain for a while absorbed in this state.

Then once more you emerge from Maitreya’s heart. Transmuted into a heavenly child with great intelligence and common sense, (you appear) in the center of a thousand-petalled lotus in the Dharma courtyard of the venerable Maitreya Buddha. Having taken this birth as someone with the good fortune to make abundant use of the Mahayana teachings, you drink insatiably the nectar of Maitreya’s words [5].

The essential practice for the in-between rebirth (bardo) period is blending appearances. From the root text:

Having understood this as the in-between state, make the outer, inner and secret transformations. With the union of voidness and compassion, the wise make connection with their next rebirth.

The first line of this stanza indicates the method for identifying the in-between rebirth period as such. As for how to do this, you should start right now to see every object that appears to you as a deceptive appearance of the in-between state. Meditate on this repeatedly, thinking how imperative it is to recognize the in-between period as such. Then when you are actually born in this state, you will be able to think, “Now I am born in the in-between state; all things that appear here are the appearances of the in-between state.” In this way you will recognize this state as such, just as in a dream you can tell that what you are dreaming is a continuity of remembrances of the day.

The second line indicates the actual practices for the in-between rebirth period. The external transformation is as follows. From now on, whenever anything of the external physical world appears, seeming to have the self-establishing nature of earth, a rock, a tree and so forth, meditate by thinking that these are the deceptive appearances that come from your being in the in-between state. They do not have any self-established existence as such. Do not let your mind follow after these impure objects (grasping them as real). Rather, visualize these surroundings as totally transformed into a pure-land like Sukhavati Buddha-field.

The inner transformation is exactly the same. Whenever any beings appear – humans, animals or whatever – inhabiting these places, envision them all transformed into the divine body of the Noble Avalokiteshvara.

The secret transformation is as follows. Whenever any beings or their surroundings appear like this, seeming to exist objectively from their own stance, remember that all these appearances seem to exist in this way due only to the power of your own mind being corrupted with the constant habits of grasping for truly established existence. Meditate on how they do not have even a speck of objective existence established from their own individual stance.

Having meditated in this way, then when you are born in the in-between state, you will be able to transform whatever impure places appear, such as hells and the world of the Lord of Death, into a pure-land like Sukhavati Buddha-field. Whatever beings appear there, such as torturers of hell wielding swords and chasing you, you will be able to change them all into the form of Avalokiteshvara. And anything whatsoever that appears, you will be able to transform into a state of voidness without any self-established existence.

The last two lines indicate how to take rebirth willfully in samsara. This method for being reborn with a perfect (human) body fully possessing the complete liberties and endowments for the practice of Dharma is as follows. When you are in the in-between rebirth state and you see your future father and mother lying in union, an attitude of repulsion towards your father and attraction for your mother will arise if you are under the sway of being born as a male. When this happens, think about such things as how your father, the object giving rise to your repulsion and anger, has been kind to you from beginningless time. Turn back your aversion by meditating on strong compassion towards him.

(Likewise) meditating on how your mother, the object of your attraction and desire, is devoid of existing objectively and truly independently from her own individual stance, although she appears to exist in this way, turn back your attraction. Then take this rebirth letting yourself be thrown by the thoughts, “It is to be able to practice the rest of the path that I now take rebirth in this mother’s womb. May I be able to fulfill in great abundance the purposes of limited beings.”

A Supplementary Demonstration of Important Points of Philosophy, Meditation and Conduct

The essential point of philosophy is to recognize whatever arises. The essential point of meditation is not to be distracted from this. The essential point of conduct is to remember (that everything has) an equal taste. These are the teachings of the great Master Practitioner.

Thus, whatever arises, although appearing to exist objectively from its own stance, you must recognize (its nature correctly). Being convinced that it does not exist in the way it appears is the essential point of philosophy. Meditating single-pointedly without distraction on this point of which you have become convinced is the essential point of meditation. Training yourself with the enlightening conduct of the bodhisattvas to work for the sake of others while in the state of remembering that everything of samsara and liberation has the equal taste of voidness as its nature is the essential point of conduct. This is the meaning of what the great Master Practitioner has taught.

The last line (of this stanza) indicates that everything previously explained was the teachings of the venerable Maitriyogi, thereby implying that this final stanza is not the venerable Maitriyogi’s words. This concludes the explanation of the steps of practice for the work known as The Three Essential Moments, which (has been composed) for easy comprehension and convenient practice.

These pearls of a profound path have come from the ocean-heart of the Holder of the Lotus and have been strung on a thread to form the necklace of this composition. May it adorn the necks of those glorious ones of good fortune. By the constructive, white positive force of my efforts here, may all beings be freed from the abyss of the worse rebirths. In the immeasurable joyful delight of the fabulous Tushita Buddha-field, may they make abundant use of the nectar of the Mahayana teachings.

These easily understandable words explaining The Three Essential Moments have been composed by the most reverend expounder of the Dharma, (His Holiness the Second Dalai Lama), the glorious Gendun Gyatso, at the Taktser Palace in Wöl-kha, Tibet. They have been written to enhance the profound meditational practices of Yeshe Chodron. This glorious and great benefactress of so many people extends her generous hand afar, giving the breath of life to the poor and needy. She has supreme and unshatterable confidence in the teachings and those who uphold them. The scribe for this work was Sangye Gonpo.

This work, for the most part, may be classified in the category of kriya tantra. Included in it, however, are certain practices of the anuttarayoga tantra, such as those concerning the in-between rebirth period (bardo). Thus, it is a mixed work composed by Maitriyogi for the specific needs of his disciples. For its practice only the kriya tantra initiation for Avalokiteshvara is required, and not necessarily the anuttarayoga one. A Chakrasamvara initiation empowers you to do any Avalokiteshvara practice.

[1] The thousand doors may be visualized all in a row on one level around the stupa, or stacked in levels on each side, whichever way is more convenient.

[2] The Khasarpani form of Avalokiteshvara is white, with one head and two arms. He sits in the half-vajra posture with his left leg crossed on his right thigh and his right leg bent and extended forward, resting on a lotus cushion. His right hand is in the gesture of giving protection, resting on his right knee with the palm facing outwards. His left hand is at his heart, holding the stem of a lotus which extends upwards above his left shoulder.

[3] Sukhavati Buddha-field is presided over by Amitabha, the Buddha of infinite light and life. This Buddha is the guru of Avalokiteshvara and has appointed him to make conditions conducive for Dharma study, to teach the Dharma and to lead all beings to the Buddha-fields. It is for this reason that Sukhavati is visualized in these purification practices.

[4] Tushita Buddha-field is presided over by Maitreya, the fifth and next Buddha of the thousand of this eon. As limited beings living during the 5000-year duration of the teachings of Shakyamuni, the fourth of these Buddhas, we have a special relation with Maitreya. Moreover, Their Holinesses the First and Second Dalai Lamas also shared a close bond with Maitreya Buddha. The residence of the Dalai Lamas, the Potala, was named after Maitreya’s celestial palace. Thus, it is the practice to transfer your consciousness to Tushita Buddha-field.

[5] According to the oral tradition explanation, it is dangerous to end your meditation session with your mind visualized outside your body. Therefore, at the conclusion of this practice you should bring your consciousness back into your body through the shaft of light and visualize the shaft withdrawn back into Maitreya’s heart. In order to ensure that your consciousness does not accidentally leave your body or that harmful forces will not take advantage of you, you should envision the aperture at the crown of your head as sealed with a crossed diamond-scepter (vajra, dorje). However, at the moment of death when you actually do transfer your consciousness to Tushita Buddha-field, you should not bring it back to your deceased body. Remain there instead, merged into the heart of Maitreya Buddha.