Archive Result

25-11-2014, part 1

So now generate bodhimind. Because particularly today - with today I mean in this year, in our life, in this 21th century - it is very rare. There are some people who are totally devoted to and engaged in Dharma practice, but it’s quite rare. Many of us have that willingness to do the right thing, to be nice. We do have that. And also we are very busy. There is a lot of pressure in life: pressure of paying bills, looking after children, looking after old parents, all kinds of commitments, and all kinds of things are there. So it is very hard to have such a practice as the books are talking about. But if you want to do it, you can do it.

And I myself am the example. When they say you have to do kidney dialysis five times a day, it is almost impossible. But then they say “otherwise you are going to die”. Alright. So then it is possible. But if you look at it as difficult, then yes it is. If you look at it as easy, yes, it is easy, it is a matter of getting used to it. If you get used to it, it is easy. And if you have help, it is even better. And without help, I don’t know how it is going to go. It’s the same thing in your Dharma practice. If they are going to tell you: “Hey, you are going to go to hell”, it doesn’t bother you much. Either it’s the wrong thing to do, or it’s a great opportunity, a great thing to do. So maybe you can do it, just like anything else. It’s not that difficult. However, you have to make it as easy as possible, that’s because of what we are. Again, I am the example. So now there is a machine, called a circular machine. So the doctors told me: “When you use the machine, you don’t have to do dialysis five times a day”. But I didn’t bring the machine here. So we are doing it manually here. But when you use the machine, you hook up with the machine for nine hours at night. You will be hooked like a little dog there with a leash, exactly the same way. The individual is hooked to the machine with a little leash. You can move around but for nine hours you are tied. But that is much easier than five times a day, which probably takes an hour for every exchange. So again, we do that easier nine hours together, and then one time during the day, instead of five. It makes it easier, so we opt for that. Similarly Dharmapractice also we have to make as simple and easy as possible.

Traditionally you have all these great many paths. And one or two really hit the individual and really work with him or her. Everything may not hit with everybody. Some people link with something, some people don’t. Similarly us, we have so many ways to practice Dharma. We have Mahamudra, we have Vajrayogini, we have Cittamani Tara, we have Heruka, Heruka body mandala, Yamantaka, Guyasamaya, Tara, white Tara and all of them. But everything is not necessarily hitting, clicking with everybody. Some click more, some click less. So whatever you are able to click with and do it, you have to do. That is the opportunity, and that is great.

Whatever you do, two things are necessary. Wisdom and compassion are the base of our major practice because they are the foundation, the base on which we are functioning. We are functioning in the two Truths, the relative and the absolute Truth. And that is why wisdom is a link with the absolute Truth, and compassion etcetera is a link with the relative Truth. The base is twofold, therefore the path is twofold. Because the path is twofold: wisdom and compassion, you have mother tantra practice and father tantra practice. So I guess these two are necessary: one mother tantra and one father tantra is necessary. Without, there will be a Buddha without a body, or a body without a mind. So both are necessary.

Either of the father tantras is capable of delivering the goods, either of the mother tantras is capable of delivering the goods. So that’s why Jamgon Lama Tsongkhapa recommended to get a fully developed mental capacity by means of the mother yidam Heruka. To have a fully developed illusion body activity, he recommended to practice the yidam Guyasamaya. In order to clear all obstacles and generate success both, he recommended to practice Yamantaka. So lama Jamgon Tsongkhapa emphasized three major yidams. Because it is based on these two Truths and two paths, there are two results: Dharmakaya, the mental aspects of the enlightened Buddhas, and Rupakaya, the physical aspects of the Buddha. So two, two, two. These are necessary.

And when you look at this compassion and wisdom, it is Lamrim. It is definitely Lamrim. That means the base of Lamrim is absolutely necessary, without that you cannot go. You may think: “I am a Vajrayogini practitioner, so I can go slow on Lamrim”. “I am a Heruka practitioner, I can go slow on Lamrim”. “I am a Yamantaka practitioner, I can go slow on Lamrim”. No, it is not going to happen, nothing is going to happen. Without the Lamrim, compassion and bodhimind are not going to develop. Without Lamrim, Mahamudra or wisdom, anything is not going to develop. That is a must.

But if you have to sit down and meditate Lamrim all the time, we don’t have enough time. So what do you do? You really internalize the Lamrim: three scopes: common with the lower, common with the medium and the Mahayana. If you look at this, the Lamrim tells you: guru-devotional practice. Okay, look in Vajryana, anywhere: the sadhanas begin with guru-devotional practice, called the lineage prayer or whatever. So that tells you one cannot do without that. And then: precious human life, embracing the human life, and impermanence. Now you look: even in the Mahamudra, we are talking about emptiness, solidlessness. Without knowing impermanence, how do we know solidlessness, how do we know emptiness? Though impermanence is not emptiness, impermanence really brings you closer to the wisdom, to emptiness itself. Though we don’t talk about it, you are learning emptiness, you are learning wisdom. You are talking about impermanence, but that really brings you closer to the emptiness. No way somebody can encounter, understand, or realize emptiness, without knowing impermanence. No way anyone can free themselves without knowing impermanence. Because the solidness of the self, which is always existing and always planned to be, always being, is always in our head. So these things.

And compassion, suffering. Without knowing suffering, there won’t be compassion. Without love, there will be no compassion, there will be no care. So all Lamrim, common with the lower, medium and Mahayana, combined together, really provides the foundation of our practice. So you can internalize it without separately saying “I am now meditating on..”.

Guru-devotional practice, embracing human life, impermanence, meditating on suffering, we all learned them one by one. Now learning is one thing, engaging is another thing. So whatever you have learned, internalize it, so it becomes part of your life. It should become your character. You become of it. And then you don’t have to put separate time to push that and say: “Well now I am doing this”. But you internalize it, you become part of it. And that makes that our life itself becomes practice. And that is why every time, wherever you sit, walk or chitchat, any chore, or no chore, or meditating, all become good practice. Even walking, sleeping, anything. That’s what we should do.

And also Mahamudra: when we are learning, it is one thing we are emphasizing. We learn in detail, that is what we did, the last couple of days, we were reading the root text and I was commenting on it. I was a little surprised yesterday. I was talking with some of you and I said: “How is the teaching going?” They said: “Well, you read the English text and then you did not explain”. “Huh? Okay”. So I was a little surprised. So we read each verse in the English text, and then in between what we are talking about is commenting on it. Though we did not go and say: “Now, how to do the introduction”, I didn’t go in that way, but I really explained, I thought really each verse was explained in detail, yesterday and the day before and the day after that, right?

So anyway, now we are almost at the end of the root text. But we still have some time. So I would like to give you a very brief review. You know, in the Lamrim teachings, after the outline is introduced, you have a detailed talk on it. Like on guru-devotional practice: what is a guru, how is it, and the benefit of having a guru, the disadvantage of not having a guru, the disadvantage of having a wrong relationship with the guru, all of those we talked about in a very detailed way. We read the text, we listen to the earlier master’s quotations, we think about examples, all that, and then at the end, we will give you a little abbreviate thing which you can meditate on. Likewise I would like to do for this Mahamudra. There are a few of you, some of you, or maybe all of you, who would like to engage in the activity of the Mahamudra. This way you have something solid to hold.

Even when you are not particularly wanting to do Mahamudra as practice, it should be part of your life. Without it you have no wisdom, no Dharma, no Vajryana, nothing, because wisdom is the essence. So whether you specifically emphasize getting specialized on focusing wisdom or not, it is a necessary part of it. When it is internalized, personalized, you have a shorter way of thinking. You are not going to read this text ‘this one said this, that one said that’, every day. But then you have an abbreviate way of thinking. So I would like to do that before we go beyond this.

Let’s say an individual would like to do meditation on this. And if you do it, the meditation on this, then you get it. When you get it, even though it will not be perfect, it will make a huge dent to the ego-grasping. So it is a very important thing I would like to share within the next couple of sessions. So I’m going to talk to you from the beginning. If you are looking back at what you have heard the last couple of days, while I am talking, you are going to review your root text. I think everybody has a copy, right? You probably have noticed it is touching everywhere, but it is going to be simple. You make it simple for yourself, so that within five to ten minutes you will be able to do something. And that five to ten minutes will become two minutes for you, and that two minutes will become like naturally there. So when you have that done, then we are reaching somewhere.

Again, it’s a beautiful place where you meditate. We all know, we all like to see a good place. When we see some good place, we say: “Oh, this is a nice place to do a retreat”. That means you have an understanding that the place where you meditate has to be comfortable for you. Whether your home is comfortable for you or not, depends on you. But a nice place. And settle yourself down, really sit down, both physically and mentally. If you are nervous of something, if you have to get up all the time, if somebody is knocking at the door, and tries to get in, or somebody is going out, all that is not settling down. Settle down. Particularly if you are meditating, you cannot meditate if you are waiting for noise, so you can get up. Some people do that. So that is not settling down quietly. Quietness is necessary, unless you have a huge meditative development. Then you can do your practice, turning the TV on as loud as you can, and have two minds competing. Which mind is stronger? On the one hand you have the television entertainment, something you like a lot: romance or violence. And then on the other hand you have this Dharma practice going on. That is a different issue. For us it is not like this. We have not internalized meditative power at all. If you have internalized it, your practice will really internally, almost physically materialize in you so that the noise and all of those will never bother you. That’s a different story, but in the beginning you can’t do that. And then you will never settle down.

So settle down in a nice place. Not only the mind has to settle down, physically settling down is also necessary. And that is why Buddha Vairocana’s style of sitting is recommended. And even if you can’t do it, it doesn’t matter. Try to get as close as possible to Buddha Vairocana’s style. If not, whatever is comfortable. Ginsberg says: “If you want to meditate, sit on the ground. If the ground is not there, sit on the chair.” I don’t know where you put the chair, if there is no ground. But: “If the ground is not there, sit on a chair”. Okay, it doesn’t matter.

So sit down and meditate, and then have this nine round of letting the dead air out. In the West it is known as the nine round meditation on the breath, right? But traditionally, it is blowing dead air out of your physical body and providing fresh air within. So that is nine rounds. So counting these nine rounds, makes your mind subtle. Yesterday we had a word for that, we talked about the salad dressing, about the pure part and the scoria. So let the scoria settle. Clear the mind and the impure thoughts are settled, they go away, and you are thinking pure, nice things, the mind gets to that level. And then, you have very strong bodhimind. That is necessary always, bodhimind. At least, even when we just say the words: “I would like to become Buddha for the benefit of all beings”, these words are with a meaning. The point of the words is hitting the mind of the individual. And whether you say the words or not, is not that important. But the mind must be a very strong bodhimind. Think about it, and remind yourself. We all have bodhimind somehow within us, but we have to remind ourselves to make it vivid within us. And with this very special virtuous mind, - I am referring to that bodhimind - you yourself as leader, is leading every sentient beings to liberation. You have to think of Buddha as ultimate liberation. Here it is Mahayana Buddhism, so you have to think of leading everybody to the ultimate liberation. So all of those living beings are in their own realm: the hell realm people are in hell, the hungry ghost people are hungry ghost realm, animals are in the animal realm, human beings are in the human realm, demi-gods are in the demi-gods realm, samsaric gods are in the samsaric gods realm and they are all suffering in their own way. You have a good background of thoughts from the Lamrim. You may or may not have to go through that in your mind, but it’s there.

So you are the leader, you are leading all sentient beings, they are in general suffering from samsara. Particularly those who are in the suffering realms, already born there, are suffering. And those who are going to be born in there have fear of taking rebirth. Not only I, but all these people or beings are looking to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and they trust that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha can help. That is the idea you need. Very strong trust and relying on.

So here you are the leader of all living beings, and you are leading them towards something. First you are protecting them from miserable fear, miserable suffering. And how are you going to do that? By the object of refuge, Buddha Vajradhara, the guru-yidam, all inseparable. In reality the two ways of thinking this are: Buddha Vajradhara as the guru, the yidam, or Buddha Vajradhara surrounded by Buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis, including Dharmapalas, non-samsaric Dharma protectors, all of them. Just imagine them right in front of you, imagine them in there. So you have the object of refuge. You may call it the refuge tree or not, but you have them there, either the single solid Buddha Vajradhara, or the assembly, that doesn’t matter.

And then take refuge, generate bodhimind, and practice the four immeasurables. And don’t just say the words, but have the mind very strongly connected. And then particularly you have to have a very special mind here: “I would like to liberate them, I would like to liberate them quickly, quickly for which I would like to do this practice”. This special mental commitment is necessary.

Most of these are in the Lama Chöpa teaching. You know, there is a sort of abbreviated practice of the Lama Chöpa in there because it is the base. And that is why Mahamudra teachings are normally done with the Lama Chöpa teachings because it becomes part of it. But as an individual, you practice it shorter, maybe you don’t like to do the whole Lama Chöpa. But if you do it with the Lama Chöpa, it is very easy for you, all of them are there. Generating this mind is ‘rap kar ge sem chen pö ngang nyi ne’(Verse 2), the field of merit ‘dhe tong yeer me lha lam yang par’(verse 6), etcetera.They are all there. So if you are not saying the Lama Chöpa, then you have this shorter version that you composed by yourself mentally and you go through with this, imaginatively. That is what it is: the beginning of meditation is imagination, imagining going through.

Then all the objects of refuge dissolve into light and you become Buddha or whatever you want to. If you do the Lama Chöpa ‘dhe chen ngang lay rang nyi la ma lha’(verse 1), it begins there. But the object of refuge now dissolves to you. The word dissolving means emptiness. You don’t dissolve to anything except to emptiness. That is why there are these Sanskrit words: ‘om svabhava shuddha sarva dharma svabhava shudda ham’. So everything is in the nature of void, it is pure, right? So that empty. And try to think that empty is emptiness and Dharmakaya. Because whether you like it or not, if you are following this path, you are Vajrayana practitioner, whether you are openly committed or not, permitted or not. One of the most important things is Dharmakaya, that is mind as absolute, free, empty wisdom nature which is inseparable from you as a future Buddha. That is Dharmakaya for you. Then from that emptiness you arise as a yidam or whatever. If you look in the Lama Chöpa ‘dhe chen ngang lay rang nyi la ma lha, gang der sal way ku lay ö zer tsoh’(verse 1), that is really what it is.

Then you have some offerings. These offerings are ordinary offerings you don’t offer to the lama yidam. You sometimes have to have blessed offerings to make it pure. You as yourself cannot bless them: an ordinary person cannot bless ordinary material and make it extraordinary. So you yourself have to be in the form of a yidam. So if you are Vajryana practitioners, whatever yidam you are using, you suddenly become in the form of that yidam, from that Dharmakaya look like emptiness. Whatever offerings you have, you bless them. Now, you are there, offerings are blessed. To whom do you offer: to the object of refuge. So emphasize, - you know, to do this in detail is very difficult - but you offer to the lama inseparable of Buddha Vajradhara and the yidam. Or to whatever it may be: the lama in his own form, all lamas. The root master is such, - maybe you have an individual person, very specifically emphasized or not -, but your root master is all your gurus in one, no separation, all in one.

In my case, when I look at my lama Buddha Vajradhara, I sometimes see or acknowledge my earlier teachers, this person, that person. Sometimes I see them in the face of Kyabje Ling Dorje Chang, Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang, and lately Kyabje Locho Dorje Chang, because he just recently passed. And other teachers as well. And the last couple of days it is Ribur Rinpoche. It doesn’t matter, they are all Buddha Vajradhara, Buddha Vajradhara is them, that one is my root master. Sometimes it is Song Rinpoche. I think of Song Rinpoche a lot, because Song Rinpoche is the one who told me in the Cittamani Tara yoga: “Don’t try to think of some individual person but a Tsongkhapa look-alike, either lay person or monk, whatever it may be”. He told me: “Just one Tsongkhapa look-alike is easier”, make it in a saffron robe: ‘saffron clad’. So think in that way. And that is also in the nature of all Buddhas.

In the Lama Chöpa you have these 32 Guyasamaya deities in the body. ‘kyö nkyi phung kham kye che yan lag nam, dhe shek rih nga yap yum sem pha dhang, tro wö wang pö rang zhin choh sum gyi, dhag nyi la ma choh la söl wa dep’, verse 43). The five Buddhas are in the center, five consorts and bodhisattvas, and ten wrathful deities are in the hand. It becomes the essence of the Guyasamaya practice, the essence of guru-yoga, and inseparable, although the Guyasamaya deities are put on the body, on the crown, the throat and the navel, the hips, here and there and everywhere, they are put on the body. But in the Heruka mandala it is becoming of it.

So in reality in our oneness, the root guru is made out of all this, in the form of a Tsongkhapa look-alike. And it is always the same, sometimes you have a different face, but it is the same person. Different faces are coming in because of our rational mind. But that is your root guru, for you, made by you, the actual Buddha. You may be thinking “I imagined it, it is not a person”. I know, it is not. It is neither past nor future, but it is past-, present- and futureless. And it is past: this guru, that guru, it is present: this guru, that guru, it will be future, because it will be there all the time. That is what Milarepa said: “I meditate the lama in the palm of my hand, on my nostrils, in the center of my heart”, all those, and that’s that.

So, then, if you have this circle, then just like in the Lama Chöpa, you have these eleven flower decks or whatever. So that will be very difficult for us to think those detailed yidams, Buddhas and bodhisattvas and all that. So basically it is there, and if you specifically zoom in, it is there, and if you don’t zoom in, it is basically there and that will do. Because if you keep on separating and clearing each one of them, you will never do anything else for months. So basically you do it like this, and if you specifically want to think you are zooming in, then you begin seeing it and otherwise it is just there.

Then you make seven limb or seven branch offerings. Seven branch offerings in the Lama Chöpa are very detailed. The Ganden Lha Gyema has each in verses, and in the Jewel Heart prayers, you still have the seven lines, you still have the seven limb offerings. It is important you make the seven limb offerings. You offer prostrations because you admire the quality and you want to express your desire to obtain that quality. And you make offerings. If you look in the Lama Chöpa there are so many detailed offerings: like flowers, incense and all that, separately. There are even various types of flowers: garlands, trees, bouquets and all that. It is not simply offering, it is not only the offering of flowers, but there are seven offerings. The second of the seven limbs is seven different offerings. And important is: there are actually created and mentally fabricated offerings. Actually created offerings are very limited to us, but you can make a hell of a lot of mentally created offerings. The space has been filled up by these offerings. When you are visualizing, don’t think of a single little flower: ‘I have a flower for you’. No, multiple flowers fill up the space. These offerings are made by all living beings who fill up the ground, to this object who fills up the space and these offerings fill the space between the sky and the ground. That is how you should think instead of limiting.

And the next of the seven limb offerings is purification. That is absolutely necessary because we have some committed some sins. Whether we remember or not, we definitely have, because we are suffering. That means there are sins. So there is an opportunity for me and all living sentient beings to purify all our negativities. We purify those we personally engaged in, that we stimulated others to do and created opportunity for others to engage in. Also we purify that we appreciated and admired people’s negative activities. They are all purified by the application of the four powers. The power of the base is already provided because you took refuge and generated bodhimind. The power of regret you must create for the negativities you remember. And for those you don’t remember, you acknowledge they are there, and you regret them as well. The antidote action: of course you meditate on Mahamudra, what else? The power of repentance. If you have strong regret, repentance is automatic. If you don’t have strong regret, you think: “I have to regret it, so let me think I am regretting, and then let me think I am not repeating”. That’s what it is, it is weak.

And then rejoicing, that is a little easier. You are rejoicing in Buddha and Buddha’s activities, you are rejoicing in Buddha Vajradhara and his activities, and you are rejoicing the great masters, living and passed, everybody. You are also rejoicing the deeds done by the great sangha, and by individuals themselves.

Then dedication. Dedicate for all living beings to become Buddha. That’s the dedication.

While making those seven limb offerings, particularly offering to the guru is considered so important in the practice. Remember that in guru-devotional practice it is very often mentioned: making offerings to all the Buddhas that ever existed in the world, for eons, is much less significant than making one very small offering to the guru for even a single minute. Even when you are offering a small part of the gross body, like a hair pore or something, you have so much accumulation of virtue and purification together. It is said so many times. So think that. And that strong motivation will make your devotion, requesting, praying become stronger. And do the best you can. And do whatever you can say: mantras, guru mantras, Tsongkhapa’s mantra: ‘Om ah guru Vadjradhara sumati kirti siddhi hung hung’, Buddha’s mantra: ‘Om muni, muni mahamunaye soha’, most important is ‘Om ah hung’, that is the essence of all Buddhas, all of them, that yidam, this yidam, that one, this one, all of them, the essence of all is ‘Om ah hung’.

Somehow many earlier Western artists, either poets or those who presented art, knew this ‘Om ah hung’ is important. So even in their art presentation, in performance, in poetry, in music they have this ‘Om ah hung’ everywhere. In the beginning when I was in America, I was wondering where they had picked that up. And normal Tibetans don’t even know how important ‘Om ah hung’ is. And people also don’t talk about it much. And sometimes ‘Om ah hung’ becomes an example of how to use it inappropriately. People might have used ‘Om ah hung’ so much for generations, and now you have people who say ‘Om mani padme hung’. Some of them say: ‘Om mani padme hung, om mani padme hung’, which means nothing. So that is the culture changing. But when you look at it, for so many earlier artists, like Ginsberg, way before becoming Buddhist, or Jack Kerouac, ‘Om ah hung’ is everywhere. They will say ‘Om am hung’ everywhere. When I was in America for the first time, many people would look at me and say ‘Om am hung’, and that means there is that culture. So this ‘Om ah hung’ is very important.

There is a Rinpoche, a very good Rinpoche, who was in Switzerland, called Tendhong Raro Rinpoche. Raro Rinpoche kept on corresponding with kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang. I read their correspondence. Many times Raro Rinpoche was saying : “The practice needs to be shortened, shortened, shortened”. And kyabje Rinpoche gave so many ways of shortened practicing, and still it was not good enough for Raro Rinpoche. Kyabje Rinpoche was pointing out: “This short practice is there, this is here. And also sometimes you can combine them all together, like this and like that”. It was still not good enough for Raro Rinpoche, he still needed it shorter. Then kyabje Rinpoche replied: “Well if you really want it completely shortened ‘Om ah hung’ is enough, just ‘Om ah hung’ once is enough, so you make the choice”. So it means now you can’t go beyond that, right? So I think Raro Rinpoche replied with a little apology. But I mentioned that because it is that important. So if you can say ‘Om ah hung’ a hundred times a day, that is necessary and important. But I did not say that substitutes your commitment, okay?

Then make requests to the lama, very strongly, whatever request you want to make, if possible with the reviewing of the stages of the path. And that is how easy it is when it goes with the Lama Chöpa, it is like you are killing two birds by one stone. And if you are doing it separately, you have to generate them. And also look at this verse:

verse 1 of the Supplication to then Ganden-Kagyü lineage of Mahamudra

‘Gyü dak dzin tri wa chö pa dang.

Jam nying je chang sem jong pa tang. Lam zung jug chak gya chen po yi. Chok nyur du top par chin gyi lop.’

I request you please to grant me your blessings, so that I may cut the creeping vine of self-grasping within my mental continuum, train in love, compassion and bodhichitta and swifty accomplish the Mahamudra of the Path of Union.

First there are all the lineage names and then you have the actual request. You may be emphasizing each lineage teacher by his own name, but the request you are really making is: ‘Gyü dak dzin tri wa chö pa dang.’: May my mental state be free of ego-grasping. Free my mind from the tight web of ego-grasping. Spiders make a web, so that flies can’t move, and that is the sort of thing that is made by ego. So ‘Gyü dak dzin tri wa chö pa dang’ means: May my mind stream be free from this grasping and its webs. And the second one is ‘Jam nying je chang sem jong pa dang’: May kindness, compassion, bodhimind be fully developed. The word ‘jong’ in Tibetan means ‘well trained’. It’s training your mind in love, compassion, kindness and bodhimind, and you are requesting ‘May I be very, very, excellently well trained’. ‘Lam zung jug chag gya chen po yi. Chok nyur du top par chin gyi lop’: May the path, the union of great Mahamudra quickly develop with me. So you have to make that request.

And also remember the kindness of the guru and appreciate your guru. Try to develop devotion and faith to the root guru, including remembering the qualities of the guru. See, the Lama Chöpa is there, including the quality. It is mentioning the quality of sutra and tantra and all of those, it is really designed for it. And then the single pointed request : ‘You are the guru, you are the yidam, you are the Lama..’(verse 46, Lama Chöpa) and taking the four initiations. Remember if you take the four initiations once in the Lama Chöpa or Vajrayogini, or the other sadhanas, it is substituting for the continuation of a river stream of initiations. You do it once, it doesn’t have to be in here and in there.

So then all the points of the path are coming: guru-devotion, embracing human life, renouncing samsara , development of the Three Higher Trainings, proper understanding of the Four Noble Truths, compassion, and developing bodhimind. And in the Lama Chöpa you have both the seven stages of development of love and compassion in one verse, and the exchange stage of development in a couple of verses. And finally you are requesting the Lama: “May I have all the sufferings of the world and give all my goodness and virtue to all living beings”, so exchanging, and then the six perfections, and all this follow. And at the end of this it is ‘Dhe tar söl wa tap pei la ma choh’(verse 80 of the lama Chöpa).

Finally, if you have the lineage tree, it is dissolving. The dissolving system is slightly different in the lama Chöpa and the Lamrim, but it is the same thing. The whole lower portion, the lower petals are dissolving to the higher ones, and the higher petals dissolve to each other. Finally you have Maitreya Buddha to whom the whole compassion lineage dissolves, Manjushri to whom the wisdom lineage dissolves, Buddha Vajradhara and the root master. Then they all dissolve to Lama Buddha Vajradhara. Lama Buddha Vajradhara finally wants to dissolve into you, and you would like to merge with Buddha Vajradhara. That is going up and down in that profound dancing. And within that, the lama dissolves in the form of light. There is something a little bit different in Vajrayogini: you have a little red light and all of them. But all sadhanas, even the Six Session Yoga have this dissolving system.

What is dissolving to you can be anything, whatever is convenient for you: a light form, or a physical form, but preferably a light form. This light form can be red or blue, in accordance with your special yidam. Yamantaka has blue light, Heruka and Vajrayogini have red light, but also white lights and all that is possible. But it doesn’t matter, I don’t want to say it is so important. Physical color may not be so important to some people in general, but for some people it may be very important. That is personal. The lama in light form merges into you, in the Lama Chöpa it merges into you in the complete form, not in light form. That is also fine. In Cittamani Tara, it is in the form of Tara. So anyway, the lama comes down into the center of your heart, and remains there. And now, remember: three things, the lama, the yidam, and your mind, all three as oneness. All three become one and then you have that joy of a long lost reunion of the guru and me, like a mother and child reunion, happiness, solid, clarity, yet pervasive, vivid.

Remember the root text is saying: void, but clear, ‘shi le wa’, which means vividly existing. Why are we saying: clear, empty and then you are talking about vivid? Vivid here is the mind absolutely clear like a mirror, and whatever conceptualization appears to it, it is able to see it, to perceive it. That is why it is called solid, clear and knowing. In Tibetan it says ‘Hrig shi le wa’. The word ‘Hrig’(verse 24) means when you have this jelly, when it is liquid, it is liquid, and when it becomes jelly, it has a physical shape. So this word ‘hrig’, gives you that understanding, which means luminous. And then that ‘hrig shi le wa’ is being able to see, perceive, or knowing. So, two of them together. So, here you are focusing the nature of your mind, luminous and knowing together, and keep on focusing on it. So when you are thinking about it, the mind is not a form, that we talked about yesterday. There is no shape, form or color at all, so it is void, it is empty, yet it has a capacity to clearly know everything. We have that void and knowing together. When we are talking we add up the word ‘capacity of knowing’, but whether it is the capacity of knowing or knowing of whatever, it is luminous, solid and knowing together. That is your object of meditation. And while you are holding that, your thoughts will change: hopes will come, doubts will come. So it is important you don’t let your mind move off the focus, because when it will go, it will go. So I don’t know how long one can hold, but you have to know also what is going on. So there is a side mind observing. There is a little side observer. So you haven’t heard anything new, you have taken notice of what you have heard, important points were pointed out, and that is how you meditate. It is not complete, there is still more to go.