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...

The Benefits of Taking the Body of a Buddha-Figure as the Basis for Voidness in Tantra  The next point in our four-point analysis of why tantra is more efficient than sutra is that there’s a special basis for voidness. When we focus on voidness, voidness is the total...

Review  We’ve seen that to be able to practice tantra properly, we need proper preparation. That preparation entails the common preparation of the main aspects of the sutra path and also the uncommon preparation (or preliminaries) which are known as the ngondro, doing a...

Recap Buddha-Nature: Two Networks of Positive Force and Deep Awareness We’ve been speaking about Buddha-nature and trying to understand tantra in terms of Buddha-nature. We’ve seen that it refers to, first of all, the two networks of positive force and deep awareness. These...

Review We have been talking about the meaning of the word “tantra” to get a general introductory picture of it. We saw that there are two meanings – one is the “warp of a loom” upon which all the threads of the themes of practice from sutra are interwoven as the different...

We’re going to be speaking about tantra and various aspects of it. I’ll try to leave a little bit of time open for more questions in order to give you an opportunity to ask different things that might be of interest to you concerning the topic. Sutra Study and Practice ...

Recap: Looking at Tantra in More Depth We’ve been looking at tantra in more and more depth. We’ve seen that it refers to an everlasting continuum and also to a loom, the strings of a loom on which we can weave many things. We’ve seen that this everlasting continuum refers on...

Introduction  We started our discussion of tantra in general with an introduction to what tantra actually is. One of the main points that I try to emphasize is that tantra is an advanced practice. It’s a practice that is not intended for beginners. Even if we have started...

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...

The Sakya Presentation of Inseparable Samsara and Nirvana The pathway level of the continuity is referring to partially purified, partially unpurified, so there’s some stoppings there. To understand how that is an everlasting stream of continuity, I think the most helpful is...