Visualization

Keeping Our Level of Participation Private By evaluating our preparation for receiving Kalachakra empowerment and our ability to keep the vows and commitments, we can make a realistic decision whether to attend as an active participant or an interested observer. Spiritual...

I am very happy to be with all of you today. Although I am not a monk, still I have had the good fortune to have been able to study Kalachakra with a number of different great Lamas. Based on their kindness in teaching me, I shall try to pass on their wisdom to you by...

The Sanskrit and Tibetan classical Buddhist literature provides the source material for how to relate to a spiritual mentor. Most of the texts, however, explicitly refer only to the relationship with a tantric master. The main examples include Ashvaghosha's Fifty Stanzas on...

The Way of Proceeding I’d like to conduct this seminar like offering you a sampler box of chocolates. That means a little taste of this Buddhist topic and a little taste of that one. So the seminar will not be organized so logically. Let me give you a sense of what I have in...

Points 1 and 2 “Lojong” is the Tibetan word usually translated as “mind training,” but I don’t find this translation terribly appropriate, because it seems to imply an exclusively intellectual activity to most people. “Lo” means “attitude” while “jong” means both “to cleanse”...

Kriya tantra (ritual tantra) is the first of the four tantra classes in the Sarma classification scheme and the first of the six tantra classes in the Nyingma scheme. It puts a great deal of emphasis on cleanliness, vegetarianism and purification. PreliminariesBefore sitting...

Common Features of Tantra Tantra is a type of practice which is found not only in Buddhism, but also in Hinduism and, to a small extent, also in Jainism – the three major Indian religions. And so when we want to look at what Buddhist tantra is all about, it’s very...

Introduction Tantra, in brief, is a Mahayana system of practice to reach enlightenment so as to be of best benefit to all beings. As the word “tantra” connotes, it employs an everlasting continuum of practice with Buddha-figures as a path to purify away the obscuring factors...

I have a stack of questions here in front of me. Let me try to answer some of them during the course of explaining what will happen today during the first day of the actual empowerment. Following the Visualizations One thing to keep in mind about what is going on here is...

Equalizing and Exchanging Self with Others We’ve been discussing the Seven Point Mind Training by the Kadam Geshe Chekawa who lived in the twelfth century. So far, we’ve covered the first two points: the preliminaries and the actual training in deepest bodhichitta. Now, we’re...