Visualization

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. We have covered the taking of safe direction and reaffirming our bodhichitta motivation, the four...

To overcome fascination, repugnance, or bewilderment about the dazzling array of Buddha-figures (yidams, tantric deities) used in tantra and about their unusual forms, Westerners need to understand their place and purpose on the Buddhist path. They also need to differentiate...

Questions about Initiations (Empowerments) You said that after the preliminaries or preparation, then we take the empowerment. Does that mean that we have to have completed our ngondro before receiving an empowerment? That’s a very good question. It depends on what level we...

Visualizing the Closely Bonding Being After having dissolved the objects of refuge, we now want to build up the two enlightenment-building networks – the two collections – because that was one of the five trainings of pledged bodhichitta. We again visualize our guru-yidam. Are...

Introduction In outlining this third of the six preparatory practices, the texts say first you do prostration, then you sit down, then you clear the mind by focusing on the breath, and only then do you reaffirm your motivation of refuge (safe direction) and bodhichitta....

The Fourth Practice: Visualizing a Bountiful Field for Spiritual Growth The fourth of the six preparatory practices is to visualize a bountiful field for spiritual growth (tshogs-zhing, Skt. punyakshetra). That’s usually called the merit field, but there is a meaning to...

Engaging in Enlightening Conduct  Once we take the bodhisattva vows, which are the essence of developing this engaged level of bodhichitta, we need to actually practice what’s called “enlightening conduct,” bodhisattva conduct. This is actually what bodhisattva vows shape;...

Making Offerings Now, we’re up to making offerings. I present you with an ocean of clouds of assorted outer, inner, and hidden offerings: these I possess and those that nobody owns, both actually arrayed and mentally created. This fulfills the Amoghasiddhi bond to make...

The Difference Between a Healthy and Inflated Ego Firstly, some questions. There was one question during the break, which was what is the difference between the “self” and the “me,” or the “I.” I think that since this question was asked by a psychologist, and terminology is a...

The Blissful Understanding of Voidness  Now, we go on to the second half of the six-session guru practice:  Requested like this, my supreme guru alights on the crown of my head. We merge – samaja. Samaja is the Sanskrit word meaning “to unite.” It’s the same word “to come...