Visualization

Once we have practiced for a while, trying to maintain this deep awareness of nondual profound and clear – the profound understanding of voidness and the clarity of the visualization – then we practice the four types of mental stability. Not necessarily that we practice all...

Clarification of Points about Kagyu and Sakya Teachings There are many different traditions, for instance in Kagyu there’s the tradition of two streams merged together, which refers to having both sutra and tantra mixed together within the mahamudra teachings. The disciple...

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...

Sadhana Practice in Our Own Language  Do you think it would be good to do much of our sadhana practice not in Tibetan but in the language that is easier for us to understand, like English or Norwegian? If we look at the way that the Tibetans practice their sadhanas, they...

Visualizing the Spiritual Master When it comes to visualizing the objects of safe direction, of refuge, then we visualize the spiritual master in the form of the yidam (the Buddha-figure) or in the form of Shakyamuni Buddha. But more comfortable here would be in the form of...

Purification of the Environment and the Offerings Now in our discussion of this practice, The Yoga of the Spiritual Master Inseparable from Avalokiteshvara, we’ve done the safe direction and reaffirming our bodhichitta motivation and the four immeasurable attitudes. Then...

Although tantra practice is extremely advanced, many Westerners receive tantra empowerments without proper preparation and begin tantra practice without deep understanding. Most, at first, see only the surface features of tantra, such as its emphasis on ritual, its profusion...

Review of the Qualities of a Spiritual Teacher A guru is a great teacher, a great spiritual master or mentor, someone who is not only able to teach from knowledge of the texts but is also able to teach us by his or her own example. A living example of what Buddha has taught, a...

We have been discussing this practice which has been composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama called The Yoga of the Spiritual Master Inseparable from Avalokiteshvara. And we have covered the taking of safe direction and reaffirming our bodhichitta motivation, and then the...

Review We have spoken about how it is possible to follow and practice tantra at a Dharma-Lite level in which we are thinking only about this lifetime and doing the practices in order to benefit this lifetime alone. In this case, our goal or objective is to attain enlightenment...