Archive Result

Title: Introduction to Tantra

Teaching Date: 1986-03-31

Teacher Name: Gelek Rimpoche

Teaching Type: Vajrayana

File Key: 19860330GRJHNLIT/19860331GRJHNLIT 5.mp3

Location: Netherlands

Level 4: These files are Vajrayana related, but not restricted.

Video and audio players remember last position of what you are currently playing. If playing multiple videos, please make a note of your stop times.

19860331IT – file 5 of 6

…..drawing mandala already done, then two are not necessary. But the vase preliminary preparation and the disciple preliminary preparation both become necessary. The vase preliminary I don’t have to say anything about, because you need not to know just now.

0:00:30.6 You can know later. Now the disciple preliminary, the disciple preparation, what do you have to do for that? The disciple preparation has five:

0:01:06.3 (Tibetan, hard to hear: ku lu che she, na wang che se, tso wa che she, ji ge che she, spelling???)

Correcting your motivation and obtaining inner initiation. That’s the first preparation.

Second: making request

Third: holding vows and blessing

Fourth: throwing the stick for what siddhi you could obtain

Then there are three other siddhis: (0:02:10.5 Tibetan: suk chu jin pa, sung gö jin pa, ku shö jin pa – spelling ??) They will give you water to drink, a thread to protect and kusha grass to have clear dreams.

Fifth: make the people happy and protect through mantra and ask you to check your dreams.

These are the five preliminary arrangements for the disciples. When you go through initiation, that’s what we do at the preparation point.

I am sure a number of you have gone through it and a number of you might not have gone through it. Quite a few of you might have gone through it but you may not know what it is all about, except you saw that you were given some thread to put on the arm and you got some kusha grass and we told you to put it under your bed and under your pillow. And you drink some water, but you don’t know what has happened.

0:03:22.9 That happens when you first go in it. So, that’s what happens actually. Do you need a little better explanation or is this enough? (laughter) I mean, this is such a thing, if you talk, it will be endless, ok, and if you cut it, you can cut it wherever. What time do I have to stop?

Audience: at 5 o’clock.

Rimpoche: Okay, I will briefly finish this off. The first – let me explain. It doesn’t need much explanation. Correct thought you know. There is nothing to correct except remind you to generate bodhicitta. That is of major importance. If you do not generate bodhicitta here, even your preliminary arrangements are not done properly.

Then nang wa po wa (spelling???) – the inner initiation. This is only applicable in the case of Maha anuyoga tantra. The three lower tantras don’t have that. Those who know the inner initiation, I am sure they know, and those who don’t know, you will know (laughs). I am sorry, that sounds rather funny. Why is it called inner initiation? What does that do? The vajra master will visualize that the vajra students will go through the mouth of the master and melt at his heart level and go through. In other words, they will be re-produced as vajra son. That’s why it is called inner initiation, you pass through. That is only applicable in Maha anuyoga tantras, not lower tantras.

That is the first preliminary.

0:06:07.7 Then comes the request. That becomes very important, because if you do not request, you will get nothing. (Tibetan) you always have to make request. That’s where there are a lot of requests. Then hold unshakeable faith. I don’t like to use the word ‘faith’. So have unshakeable trust in the vajra practice. That is the second preparation: requesting and making your trust unshakeable.

0:07:06.4 dom pa sum kyi jin gyi lab - the basis of the vajra initiation, it seems is Buddhist practice. The basis of all the vows is taking refuge. Refuge vows, bodhisattva vows and Vajrayana vows are the basis of taking initiation. Therefore they will give you these three [sets of] vows. Ever since you take these vows you have commitments. Even if you take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha you have commitments. When you take bodhisattva vows you have commitments.

0:07:46.4 When you take vajra vows you have further commitments. In the case of Maha anuyoga tantra you take the vows of the 5 castes of the buddhas. Each one of them has its own commitments, which runs into 19. You remember them three times a day and three times a night. That’s why you have to say the 6 session yoga. That’s the reason why. You say the 6 session yoga. Six times a day, to fulfill this commitment. That’s why you say it 6 times.

0:08:44.0 Then jin gyi lab – blessing of body, mind, speech: HUM AH OM – that is here, there, here there, move - with that conch shell.

Then tso zhing dor je– throwing the stick. I am sure those who have been through the initiation have seen it. You draw an 8-petalled lotus and then you throw the stick there. You don’t look up, you don’t look down and wherever the stick falls, accordingly you are most likely to get that siddhihood. If the stick falls towards the lama you get ultimate. When it stands up you get the upper siddhi. When the stick turns upside down and stands up – sometimes it really does – the person is most likely to have the underground siddhihood. I have not seen the upside down standing up, but I have seen the stick standing up. It happened in Malaysia this year when I was giving initiation. I really stood there for about 2 minutes. We didn’t touch it. It just stood up. Then after some time it fell.

0:10:20.0 So it happens. If the stick falls three times out [of the drawn lotus] you have no siddhihood chances. That is better mentioned here, because normally in the direct case you can’t mention. Sometimes it fall three times outside. You can repeat three times. If even then it goes out, the sign is that you have no siddhihood for whatsoever.

0:10:53.4 I mean, not for whatsoever, but for this life there is less chance.

Then you have this suk chu tso su jin pa (spelling??) – drinking the water and giving the protection thread. The protection thread is done through the mantra of love and compassion and in the name of Buddha Maitreya. There are two reasons. One is that love is the unchallengeable protection. Maitreya is Jampa in Tibetan. Jampa is love. This is how it works in Tibetan. Love is the unchallengeable protection. So in the name of Maitreya Buddha we give you the thread.

0:11:46.2 Also, protection through Maitreya means that when Maitreya’s time comes, until then you will be protected. So for both reasons, no matter whatever the deity, the protection thread is always given through the Maitreya mantra OM BUDHA MAITREYA RAKSHA RAKSHA.

Then the kusha grass. We give you two kusha grasses, one short and one long one. The long one you are supposed to put under the bed, just in the direction as you sleep, the short one you are supposed to put under the pillow. Why kusha? Kusha is cleaning material. True, if you go to India, the brooms that you sweep the floor with are kusha. Then in the tradition of the Brahmin system, if the Brahmins are touched by some lower caste people, they consider that terrible filthy, dirty. The sweepers cannot go into the Brahmin’s room. If a sweeper touches some of their utensils, they will throw the utensils out. They won’t use them anymore for whatsoever, because they were touched by someone from a lower caste. They consider them dirty.

0:13:24.4 To purify themselves, they will go into an open area where a lot of kusha grass grows and they sleep there overnight. They consider that purification. It is the Brahmin culture which has been injected or which has influenced, so it has been put in here and that’s why you are given kusha at this time. Those who had initiation will remember.

0:14:01.4 Then after that they make you happy. As I mention earlier (Tibetan) this is the only opportunity you have and you are lucky, because normally Vajrayana does not come in. So that is done to make you happy. And they also ask you to check your dreams.

0:14:25.7 So these are the preliminary arrangements for the students to enter into the mandala. That’s what they do. I cannot introduce more than that. I think it is quite in detail for that. Also it is almost 10 to 6 and after the translation I think we will call it a day.

0:14:48.1 Dutch translation

0:21:45.2 Okay, that’s it. So briefly, I have introduced you that much up to the preliminaries. Tomorrow I will try to introduce you to the actual initiation. That’s easy now. The lower tantras have only two initiations. The Maha anuyoga tantras have four initiations. That’s going to be quite easy. Then you should have a good, rough idea what really tantra is. What commitments are involved you have to look into separately. I don’t think I will have time to explain what they are. Maybe some of them are not even allowed to talk about. So that’s it. Tomorrow afternoon we have the Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda combined empowerment – not initiation. That’s called a jenang in Tibetan. We will do it in both ways, for those who have already had [a full initiation], they can take it as a full-fledged jenang, and those who did not, can take it in the form of a

blessing. So both will be balanced. That’s what I always do. That’s what we have in the afternoon and I guess that’s it.

0:23:18.0 I am very sorry I was holding you back and boring you for one more solid hour. I’m sorry for that, but whatever the virtues we gained, I am sure we gained quite a lot. Discussing Vajrayana alone can bring tremendous virtue. Those virtues we should dedicate. If we do not dedicate we will miss it. So we dedicate as usual.

0:23:50.6 Dedication

0:25:13.4 end of recorded session

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Next Session on same audio file:

0:25:42.4 mandala offering, other chants (refuge sangye chom de de……and refuge/bodhimind, sangye chö dang tso kyi chog nam la…Rimpoche pre-teaching verses)

0:30:06.3 O la so, now, [think]: I would like to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all mother sentient beings, for which I would like to listen to this introduction of the tantras and after introduction, I will know about it and practice and obtain enlightenment through this. For that reason I would like to listen to this talk.

0:30:48.5 If you generate such a mind, as recommended through the normal teachings. Very often I mention that two activities are really important: the activity in the beginning and the activity at the end. The activity of the beginning is generating the proper motivation. If you motivate everything properly, whatever you do will be perfect. If you do not motivate properly, then whatever you do will be wrong. That is very simple.

0:31:25.2 (Atisha quote: Tibetan:..) If you have good motivation every work you do will be successful. If you have bad motivation, then whatever you do will have a lot of problems and difficulties. That is natural. Also the result you gain will be bad. But if you have good motivation and go through in a good way, the result will be good. Motivation, not even talking about spiritual, but even otherwise, it goes that way. Now, from the spiritual point of view, it is very important. Whether the practice will go towards Dharma practice or not does not depend on the individual’s way of sitting or what you do, but it depends on your motivation.

0:32:30.5 You follow what I am saying? I hope you do agree with me. It is true. If you want I can give you better examples. But it is. Even if you sit in the holiest shrine, like Bodhgaya somewhere and even if there is the holiest person, like His Holiness or somebody, and if you sit among great spiritually developed persons, but if you just sit there and keep on thinking, “How do I cheat people and how can I do this and that”, you may be sitting right in the middle of a holy place, you may be right in the middle of some teaching or whatever, but even then, because of your thoughts and motivation……

I will tell you one thing. Even if you don’t know how to cheat or even if you don’t think, “How do I do business and how can I cheat?”, even if you just think, “I will go and see what His Holiness says about it and what more information I can get about it and then when I give a talk I can add up on my talk and make a very impressive talk” or if you think, “I can pick up that information and when I get back I will see how I can utilize that in some money-making business”, if you have that sort of motivation, the time of your sitting is totally wasted, just because of one single, little motivation.

0:34:21.0 Even during that period you may be concentrating, you try, to take in the information, you meditate, no matter whatever you do, just because of that simple motivation of yours, it will destroy all of your efforts. I am telling, it’s true, that’s what happens.

So have pure thoughts. The word “pure” becomes important. People repeat the word “pure” one after another. That’s the reason why. A single, little dirty thought can destroy your whole virtue.

0:35:04.1 An example: if you have a beautiful jug full of milk, but if you have a tiny, little dirt in it, it can destroy the whole jug. You can’t drink it. So the motivation is very important for spiritual practice. Very important. Positively.

Not only important, but as I told you, whether it becomes Dharma or not, depends on that. Even among Dharma, whether it becomes a Mahayana practice or otherwise, also depends on the motivation. That’s why in the Tibetan tradition, automatically it comes on our mouth – Tibetan – every single damn lama says the same damn words “For the benefit of all the sentient beings I would like to obtain this and that and generate…” – this is automatically attached to their mouth. That is the only reason. Not that the lama is great or not, but the great masters have provided that as ready-made material and it has been attached here. The reason is that the motivation is important.

0:36:54.2 That’s why. Also you say “sang gye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la…….dro la pän chir sang gye drub par shog”. Dro la pän chir means “for the benefit of all beings may I achieve Buddhahood”. Sometimes it becomes so obvious, everybody keeps on saying it. It almost becomes a technical name for the Tibetans sometimes. Not technical, but slang Tibetan. It then means “not perfect”. I give you an example.

0:37:57.3 We used to have an Indian doctor in Mussorie at the Tibetan school. He came from some volunteer area to check on the refugee children. He was supposed come once a day or something like that. So he definitely came once a week, for sure, and all the people who were sick lined up. He would stand up and look at them and say, “Oh, you get this thing, you get that thing”. Everybody would get something like an aspirin. So the people called him Dr. Dro la Pän chir. It means not perfect. He pushed the time. You can’t say he wasn’t there. He was there, but he didn’t do any good. If someone was sick he wouldn’t look at them. Everybody almost got the same medicine. How many people there today? Oh, and that is how he did this. So this is how he became Dr. Dro la Pän chir. So this sometimes becomes a slang language for not doing things properly.

0:39:39.5 Why? Because sometimes it becomes too much of a demand. So then it doesn’t even mean anything. Everybody nowadays knows sangye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la…..almost all the Tibetan Buddhist followers everywhere say it, in every part of the world, in English or Tibetan. But do they think about it? As I said, the lamas automatically say it and now it is almost attached to your mouth with everybody.

Anyway, this sangye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la verse – the first two lines are generating refuge and the second two lines are generating bodhichitta. That is almost attached to everybody’s mouth now. Everybody is saying it. But you have to know what it means. For that reason it has been attached to your mouth. You understand? Otherwise, if you do not generate refuge and bodhichitta, it is becomes almost like a parrot. If you tell a parrot to say

sang gye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la

jang chub bar du dag nyi kyab su chi

dag gi jin sog gyi pai sö nam kyi

dro la pän chir sang gye drub par shog

and give it some good nuts, I am sure the parrot can say it (laughter). And it should not be that way. The thought must be generated properly. And if you generate these thoughts properly, then whatever you do within that field becomes a virtue, and not only virtue, but it becomes a direct cause for you towards enlightenment. Otherwise it will not become a direct cause towards enlightenment, no matter whatever you do.

0:41:37.1 You may give tremendously generous gifts. You may sacrifice so much and have perfect morality. You may do all the six paramitas perfectly and even then, if you do not have this proper motivation it will not go as a cause for enlightenment. You must also know – and I am sure everybody knows – that if you do not have the mind and motivation for at least liberation from samsara, then no matter whatever you do – you may read 1000 volumes or say multi-millions of mantras or sit throughout your life in retreat – then what happens? Every one of your virtues just becomes lucky karma.

0:42:47.2 Karma is divided into three: lucky karma, unlucky karma and neutral karma. Unlucky karma brings the hell realms, hungry ghost realms and animal realms. Lucky karma will bring you rebirth as samsaric god and things like that. Every virtue, if you do not have the motivation to liberate yourself from samsara, will become lucky karma. It doesn’t go against samsara, but for samsara. That’s why motivation is important. I am sure those who are familiar will know and those who are not familiar, this is like that.

0:43:36.5 That’s why in the beginning, motivation is important. Whether it is dharma work or not, that depends on motivation. Whether it goes against samsara or for samsara almost depends on your motivation. Whether it becomes Mahayana or ordinary practice also depends on your motivation. So that’s it. Even two people sitting together and doing the same thing, if they have different motivations, it will go to different purposes. Do kindly keep that in mind and realize why motivation is important and then cultivate your own motivation accordingly.

0:44:28.1 Dutch translation

0:52:04.1 Okay, what was I talking about? Whatever you do, even if you say OM MANI PADME HUM once and everything whatever you do, you should have a good motivation, so it becomes worthwhile. For the benefit of all sentient beings I would like to obtain enlightenment. Therefore I will do this. That makes the motivation strong. A lot of people now are trying to substitute this, saying “For the benefit of sentient beings, I will do this…” Sometimes it becomes too much. They may say, “For the benefit of sentient beings, I do business” or “For the benefit of sentient beings I cook”. That won’t do now. It will definitely not do. You have to think why you are doing what for the benefit of who a little bit.

0:53:34.7 Bodhichitta, the altruistic mind, is such a thing. We cannot grow it just by closing our eyes and saying one verse. That definitely will not do, unless you are a very special person who already has full development of that bodhichitta itself and it automatically has grown with you. Then I can’t say. Otherwise it will not grow for whatsoever. It will only be the words. Therefore it becomes absolutely necessary to think a little bit about generating it properly. Even if you are saying your commitments, doing your sadhanas, saying your mantras, doing whatever you do, spend a little time, before you start, relax yourself a little bit and correct your thoughts. Always, that is necessary, you must develop it correctly, so it becomes your habit.

0:54:42.8 Once you develop it as a habit, then it becomes automatic. Then you don’t have to put efforts in. You just sit down for a little while, at least go through the seven stages of development or the exchange stages of development, or as I mentioned to you the other day, wherever there are difficult points to grow, Tsongkhapa has very special ways of doing it. Always. So even here, at the bodhicitta level, there is the 11 stage development, a combination of the exchange stages and the seven stages. Together it is very good practically to develop the 11 stages of development. This is Tsongkhapa’s special teaching. Like that, you should use it and get at least something moved in the mind and then start. And then your motivation will become correct. Sorry, I spend over time on the motivation business.

0:55:52.0 Dutch Translation

0:58:09.6 With such a motivation do kindly listen. The teaching you are listening to is “Introduction to Tantra”. I think I have it fairly well introduced with the 14 points. That was up to yesterday. The 14th point has 3 outlines:

In order to ripen the person, obtaining initiation

After obtaining initiation, what commitment you should keep

After that, what activities you should do

Out of the initiation we said:

The quality of the master who gives the initiation

The quality of the disciple who takes the initiation

Preparation

Preparation has four outlines and the fourth of these is the disciple preparation.

That also has five. We did that.

Now, let’s go over to the initiation. The reasons why it is important I gave you yesterday.

Tibetan

1:00:15.1 If you don’t have initiation, you get no result. The example is if you squeeze sand you don’t get oil. Yesterday I also mentioned to you that even if you get a simple little benefit, even then, if you carry on the activities without proper initiation, then both, master and disciple, the moment they die, go down together. What happens exactly I don’t know, but both of them will go down.

1:01:06.3 But I did not mention this: Tibetan

When there is no initiation, if you squeeze the sand, no matter how much you squeeze you don’t get oil out of it. That is the example. When there is no initiation, nothing will happen. So, now, what is initiation?

People have been asking even if this afternoon, is that an initiation or what is it? We are using a lot of borrowed terminology. Initiation is also borrowed language, empowerment is also borrowed language and people use whichever, without knowing if that is the correct terminology. That’s really what’s happening.

There are two kinds, actually. What we call initiation now is the full-fledged initiation. That means you are properly introduced to the mandala, the person enters the mandala and meets a number of families and is introduced to them and finds out which family they belong to and this sort of thing. With all these preparations, as I mentioned yesterday, that is the full-fledged initiation. If you obtain that, you are really authorized to carry out activities, say mantras, meditate yourself into the form of the deity, whatever, and other activities thereafter.

1:03:04.1 Now the other kind is the empowerment. In Tibetan we call it jenang. That means giving permission. It is giving permission to do things. Though in the ritual of the jenang itself you also have first initiation, second initiation, third and fourth initiation and so on. It will say all this. However, what it is really doing is just giving you permission, a permit. It is not a temporary permit, but a permit that you can use – with or without initiation. Actually truly speaking, if you really follow properly, always the jenangs will only be given to the people who already had a full initiation. But nowadays we always do it the other way round, including myself. I don’t know why, but that’s what happens.

1:04:19.0 So, originally, the jenangs were given only to the people with full-fledged initiation. Why? Because in the jenang, there are forms where you visualize yourself in the form of the particular yidam this and that. Now, if you don’t have the full-fledged initiation, you cannot meditate yourself in the form of the yidam at all. You have to be really careful on that. Especially in the west there is the tendency that people want to always meditate themselves in this form or that form. For those deities, if you have no initiation, you cannot.

Remember, (Tibetan) both, the person who tells you to meditate yourself in this or that form and the person who does, even if you get simple little things here and there, but the moment you die, both go down. That’s what it really means. You should know.

For example I cannot tell anyone who has not had full initiation to meditate themselves in the form of this or that yidam. If I do so, I will be breaking my vow, my root tantric vow. But when you do the jenang, as the part of the ritual, you do visualize all the disciples in the form of the yidam and this and that. I asked HH Ling Rinpoche what to do. He told me: you skip that part. Or, if there are people who had the full initiation and there are people with no full initiation, then you say that those who had the initiation before may visualize and those who did not have it, may stay just as observers.

1:06:13.8 And they just observe the ritual. That’s what you should do. That’s it. That’s what we have to do. Since this is the introduction, I am not…..(inaudible rest of sentence) 1:07:03.9 The reason why you can’t do it is that if you do this and I make somebody who meditates, in the form of the yidam [who has not had an initiation] then it becomes the 7th vow breaking. What is the 7th vow? What are the 14 vows? The seventh is: “revealing secrets to those who are not ripe”. And the 14th vow should be almost the same, isn’t it? So that’s what we get, the 7th and 14th. Remember, during the full-fledged initiation, they will make you a commitment separately for the 7th and 14th. So not only as part of the general vows, but separately they come up.

Tibetan – so that’s what it is. So you cannot give these secret instructions to those are unripe, who have not had the initiations. In other words you can’t tell secrets to those who are not fit to have them mentioned to them. They are top secret (laughs). Looks like secret stuff, but it is not like that. So under these conditions, meditating oneself in the form of a yidam is not allowed. And if you tell somebody who is not ripe you are losing the secret. This is how it works.

1:09:52.4. That’s why there a lot of commitments. That shows you really how serious it is. And these are the most important ones. That’s why you commit to them twice. So that’s it. These short empowerments – and lots of people call them initiations too – are actually just authorizations, not even empowerments. They are authorizations to say mantras, to do things, to carry out activities, not fully, but to a certain extent. People have to know that. Everything is called initiation. You must know what the difference is. You have to know if you have obtained a full initiation or a jenang, an empowerment. You should also know, on what text, by whom, what lineage, which system.

For example, Vajrapani. There are so many different systems. I am quite sure there are about 40 different Vajrapani systems. So which one and what. Some lamas give so many initiations and empowerments nowadays. So you must know what is what. Earlier, it was excusable. But now you must really know what you have and what you don’t have and where and what. Especially, if the Dharma is going to be transferred into the west, people must know what they have.

1:12:01.7 and what you can do with that. I am sure, later many of the western people will start giving them too. They will give teachings and initiations and empowerments. You also must know on what basis, through which lineage, from whom you have received and what requirements you have to give them back and how to give them back. All of that you have to know. Otherwise, what should we do? So that’s it. So first you must know the difference between a full initiation and an empowerment.

1:12:43.8 Now for full initiation, that is the real introduction and I mentioned that and how to enter into the mandala.

Now the difference between the four tantras. The two lower tantras, kriya and charya, have only two initiations. What are those? They are called water initiation and crown initiation. I have already introduced you to what is lower tantra and what is higher tantra, which detail belongs to what. Let me not repeat. In case there are those who had the 11 face Avalokitesvara initiation of the Palmo system, they will know what it is. It is a much shorter initiation. They will know.

Vajrayogini is not a full-fledged initiation. It is called “full-fledged blessing”. That full-fledged blessing has its own requirements and is only given after receiving a full-fledged initiation of the Maha anuyoga tantras. Otherwise you can’t receive this. Particularly, in the teaching lineage system of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, they will insist that you need first to take one initiation of Maha anuyoga tantra – besides Kalachakra. That’s because Kalachakra is a popular public drama. Everybody goes to Kalachakra, so it doesn’t count.

I think the initiation system goes for almost all different initiations. The lower tantras have two initiations, the yoga tantras have three and the Maha anuyoga tantras have four initiations. That’s talking about full initiations, besides jenangs and jin labs (blessings).

The empowerments will give you authorization or permission to use the mantras and to pray and things like that. But the real question is if the person has no other initiation before and takes a short empowerment, can he or she say the sadhana? I don’t think so. My personal feeling is: I don’t think so. The sadhana means you generate yourself in the form of yidam, particularly in Maha anuyoga tantra. So I don’t think the jenang empowers you to say the sadhana. But you can say the mantra.

But if you take the empowerment after any full-fledged Maha anuyoga tantra initiation, then it does empower you to say the sadhana and you can work as though you have obtained the full initiation of that yidam.

1:18:36.3 In addition to that I had forgotten ngö trub (spelling???), the mantras. There are systems of giving a mantra, not only repeating the mantra, but writing the mantra and blessing. It is a sort of semi-initiation. In that introduction I should briefly mention that thing called ngö trub.

1:19:21.3 Then this is part of jenang. There is another thing called heart transplant, lab du nying chu (spelling???)

Briefly, these are the most important initiations.

1:20:00.2 Dutch translation

1:29:11.4 Now, the kriya tantra – Sanskrit is Greek to me, sorry –

Audience: And Chinese to us

Rimpoche: Kriya, as I mentioned to you, has water initiation and crown initiation. There are certain texts which will also mention that kriya has five initiations. In such a case they will count water, crown, vajra, bell and name. They are given in kriya, but commonly accepted are two initiations, water and crown initiations. Even if you don’t do the last three, it doesn’t mean your initiation is not complete. That briefly about kriya.

1:30:30.3 Now about charya, they have water initiation, crown initiation, vajra initiation, bell initiation and name initiation. These are the charya initiations. To prove this yeshe tigle gyü, the wisdom essence tantra, has mentioned:

dor je dril bu mi gi wang

chö le chu la rab du se (???spelling??)

The five castes of the buddhas will be given as this thing.

1:31:51.7 Now yoga tantra also has water initiation, crown initiation, vajra initiation, bell initiation and name initiation and in addition to this the vajra master initiation. So these six.

Now Maha anuyoga tantra, generally has four initiations. If you make it a little more detailed, I think there are eleven. The main four are vase initiation, secret initiation, wisdom initiation and word initiation. These are the four basic initiations of Maha anuyoga tantra.

Now the first is vase initiation. That you have to…..end of recording 1:33:52.2


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  • A word searchable feature for the teachings and transcripts 

We will be strengthening The Gelek Rimpoche Archive Webportal as we test it, adding to it over time, and officially launching the Webportal in the near future.  

The transcripts available on this site include some in raw form as transcribed by Jewel Heart transcribers and have not been checked or edited but are made available for the purpose of being helpful to those who are listening to the recorded teachings. Errors will be corrected over time.

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