Vows

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...

How Vowed Restraints Prevent the Commitment of Actions One Has Pledged to Abstain From In An Extensive Commentary on (Vasubandhu’s “Treasure of Special Topics of Knowledge”): Illuminating the Path to Liberation (mDzod-ṭik thar-lam gsal-byed) (Varanasi ed. 208), the First Dalai...

Let us look more closely at the type of nonrevealing form that a pratimoksha vowed restraint (so-sor thar-pa’i sdom-pa, Skt. prātimokṣasaṃvara) is. There Is Only One Nonrevealing Form for All the Branches of a Pratimoksha Vowed Restraint  Vasubandhu adds further detail...

This is a special Kalachakra version of the six-session practice written by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama that includes various expanded vows to include the further aspects of Kalachakra commitments. ​​

Taking the Kalachakra empowerment also entails six uncommon practices that create close bonds with six Buddha-family traits.

These root tantric vows give the necessary supporting context to our practice. Without them, we cannot gain attainments or realizations from tantric practice in the yogaand anuttarayoga classes.

With the secondary tantric vows, we promise to refrain from “eight thick actions.” Committing them would hamper meditation practice and progress along the yoga tantra and anuttarayoga tantra paths.

In addition to taking bodhisattva and tantric vows, we also pledge at an anuttarayoga empowerment to maintain nine auxiliary bonding practices that bond us closely to tantra.

In addition to taking bodhisattva and the Kalachakra root tantric vows, another commitment of the Kalachakra empowerment is to safeguard 25 modes of tamed behavior.

There are many misunderstandings about ngondro practices, such as that they are a miracle cure for all our problems.