Tibetan Buddhism Vajrayana Tantrayana esoteric tradition

Three Keys for a Successful Practice
By Phakchok Rinpoche

On this Guru Rinpoche day, I, Phakchok Rinpoche would like to share some pithy advice with all the practitioners.

Sometimes, even though we do all sorts of practices, and put a lot of time and effort into it, it isn’t really going anywhere. It doesn’t carry much benefit. The reason for this is that our practice is not going to the essence—it’s missing the key points.

That is why I wanted to share with you a pithy passage from The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. In these three lines, the Omniscient Gampopa gives us three keys for creating all the positive conditions for a successful practice (the accumulation of merit):

The power of wisdom makes it superior.

The power of knowledge makes it expansive.

The power of dedication makes it immeasurable.

The power of wisdom means not conceptualizing the three spheres: whatever you are doing, you do so without clinging on the idea of a subject, an object, or an action. So, for instance, there is no ‘you’ meditating, no object of meditation, and no meditating to be done.

The power of knowledge refers to the three excellences: the excellent preparation, excellent main part, and excellent conclusion. The excellent preparation is the motivation of bodhicitta that should suffuse all of your actions, and all of your practices. The excellent main part is the absence of clinging in whatever you are doing. The excellent conclusion is to be without any hope or expectation of a result. I know we all have hopes for some kind of result, but we need to let go of those.

Finally, the power of dedication is to dedicate the merit in the same way as all the buddhas and bodhisattvas before us. This is for example the way it is done in these two verses from Samantabhadra’s “Aspiration to Good Actions:”

འཇམ་དཔལ་དཔའ་བོས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཁྱེན་པ་དང་། །

jampal pawö jitar khyenpa dang

Just as the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī attained omniscience,

ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་དེ་ཡང་དེ་བཞིན་ཏེ། །

küntuzangpo deyang dezhin té

and Samantabhadra too,

དེ་དག་ཀུན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་སློབ་ཕྱིར། །

dedak kün gyi jesu dak lop chir

all these merits now I dedicate

དགེ་བ་འདི་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་རབ་ཏུ་བསྔོ། །

gewa didak tamché raptu ngo

to training and following in their footsteps.

༈ དུས་གསུམ་གཤེགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས། །

dü sum shekpé gyalwa tamché kyi

Just as all the victorious buddhas of past, present, and future

བསྔོ་བ་གང་ལ་མཆོག་ཏུ་བསྔགས་པ་དེས། །

ngowa gangla chok tu ngakpa dé

praise dedication as supreme,

བདག་གི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་འདི་ཀུན་ཀྱང་། །

dak gi gewé tsawa di kün kyang

so now I dedicate all these roots of virtue

བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་ཕྱིར་རབ་ཏུ་བསྔོ་བར་བགྱི། །

zangpo chö chir raptu ngowar gyi

so that all beings may perfect good actions.

It is most helpful to learn these two verses by heart, whether in English or Tibetan, so that you can always dedicate your good actions exactly as the buddhas and bodhisattvas have done before.

This is Gampopa’s pithy advice for a successful practice, which I hope you will all take to heart and remember, so your practice may bear fruits.

With all my love and prayers,

Sarva Mangalam.
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Ajahn Chah, Buddhist teacher of Thai forest meditation of Theravada Buddhism channel:


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The Noble Sutra on the Good Person

འཕགས་པ་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པའི་མདོ།
’phags pa skyes bu dam pa’i mdo
Arya satpurusa sutra

While staying in Śrāvastī, the Buddha gives a short teaching on five ways in which gifts are given and discusses the karmic results of giving them.

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Royal Empowerment
By Mahamudra Master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

A vajrayana empowerment is a kind of baptism or coronation. It is the coronation of the student as a would be king or queen. In Tibetan, an abhisheka is referred to as a wang, which means “power” or “strength.” By the time you receive abhisheka, you have already become a part of the royal family of vajrayana practitioners, as either a prince or a princess; and in the abhisheka ceremony itself, you are confirmed as a king or a queen. Royal in this case means victorious: you are victorious over the five skandhas, or components of ego, and victorious over the five kleshas, or elemental neurosis. That is the general abhisheka process.

From “Transmission,” in The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness, Volume Three of the Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, pages 380-381.

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The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
By Kosho Yamamoto

The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra is an influential Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture of the Buddha-nature class. The original title of the sutra was Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra (Great Scripture of the Great Perfect Nirvāṇa) and the earliest version of the text was associated with the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda school.

The Nirvana sutra uses the backdrop of the Buddha's final nirvana to discuss the nature of the Buddha, who is described in this sutra as undying and eternal, without beginning or end. The text also discusses the associated doctrine of buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) which is said to be a "hidden treasury" within all living beings that is eternal (nitya), blissful, Self (atman), and pure (shudda). Due to this buddha nature, all beings have the capacity to reach Buddhahood.

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Parinirvana. Eventually 'the remainder of life' will be exhausted and, like all beings, such a person must die. But unlike other beings, who have not experienced 'nirvāṇa', he or she will not be reborn into some new life, the physical and mental constituents of being will not come together in some new existence, there will be no new being or person. Instead of being reborn, the person 'parinirvāṇa-s', meaning in this context that the five aggregates of physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being cease to occur. This is the condition of 'nirvāṇa without remainder [of life]' (nir-upadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa/an-up ādisesa-nibbāna): nirvāṇa that comes from ending the occurrence of the aggregates (skandha/khandha) of physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being; or, for short, khandha-parinibbāna.

Green Tara practice according to Longchenpa tradition

Part 7 of 37

The History and Manifestations of Tara

Tara is connected to the idea of compassion and she has twenty-one manifestations. She is also a mother goddess and many aspects of her are borrowed from forms of the Mother Goddess like Durga who is a rescuer from danger. This mother goddess imagery is universal in the sense that is it present in both the West and Asia. Tara’s function is usually one of containing and protecting. She is also the goddess of the underworld; she appears in the hell realms and to the dead. She controls the nagas, who are the water spirits, the pretas, who are the hungry ghosts, and the guardians of the hells. At the secret level Tara is one of the five female Buddhas. In that context, she is called Samaya Tara, representing the Karma Family and the element of air. When you feel the wind, that is Tara.

The word Tara means “star,” “savioress,” and “she who leads across.” In the 108 Names of Tara, which is one of her praises or prayers, Tara says, “I shall lead beings across the great flood of their diverse fears; therefore, the eminent seers sing of me and the world by the name Tara.” She acquired this name from the numerous beings that she “led across,” releasing them from samsara.

In ancient times Tara was connected to the merchants who traveled trade routes full of many dangers. It could be these very trade routes that spread Tara to the West. It seems that Tara was present in former Yugoslavia where a sacred mountain is connected with her. And of course the ancient capital of Ireland was called Tara. We do not know exactly how far she traveled, but in the Pagan-European tradition there existed the idea of the green goddess. I mentioned earlier how as Westerners we need to find a way to relate to Tibetan traditions. It may be that we can see the tradition of Tara as Western as well as Asian.

In Tibet, Tara was present in the Nyingma School but she was not well known until around 1000 A.D. when Atisha arrived with Tara teachings.

One of the great Indian teachers, Atisha, was invited to Tibet but at first refused the invitation because he had heard that Tibetans were very uncouth. Also, he was afraid that he would freeze in the high altitude. One day he received a prophesy from Tara telling him that in the Land of Snows he would be like the sun in darkness, and that he would meet his main disciple there. So Atisha finally went to Tibet where he met his disciple Dromtonpa. Together, they founded the Kadampa School, which became the source of inspiration for the Gelug School now headed by the Dalai Lama. They also popularized Tara, especially the practice of the Twenty-one Taras. Archeological evidence supports the fact that merchants related to Tara very closely. On the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, right before the Silk Road sets off into a huge, empty expanse which ends up in Kashgar, there is a series of caves about two miles long called the Caves of Tun-Huang that contain many different artistic styles. Merchants from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries would sponsor frescos in these caves as a way of gaining merit and protection on their journeys. The merchants would often bring artists from their own countries so one can find Khotanese, Chinese Buddhist, Tibetan, and many other cave painting styles, and many others. The two miles of Tun-Huang caves are an incredible distillation of Asian art which was only rediscovered in the 1970’s.

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What makes our spiritual practice Buddhist?

It is not merely doing practices taught in Buddhist scriptures, for some of those practices—such as refraining from harming others, cultivating love and compassion, and developing concentration—are also found in other religions.

Doing these and other practices with a mind that has taken refuge in the Three Jewels is the key that makes these practices Buddhist.

Taking refuge means we entrust ourselves for spiritual guidance to the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. Based on knowledge of their qualities, we choose to follow their guidance.

The Entrance to the Buddhist Path

Our ultimate goal is to become the Three Jewels ourselves. To do this, we need to rely on the guidance of the Three Jewels that already exist.

To actualize the Dharma Jewel—which, as true cessation and true path, is the ultimate refuge—in our own mindstream, we take refuge in the Buddha as the one who taught the Dharma and in the Saṅgha as the ones who have actualized some true cessations and true paths in their mindstream.

Taking refuge is not simply reciting “I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha” with our mouths. It involves an internal commitment to our spiritual practice that motivates us to humbly seek spiritual guidance.

Refuge is to be lived each moment, so that all the practices we do are directed toward actualizing the Dharma Jewel in our mindstream.

When we have done this, we will have genuine, lasting joy and fulfillment, and our lives will have become highly meaningful.

To attain nirvāṇa, we must start practicing now.

Source: Following in the Buddha's Footsteps, The Library 0f Wisdom and Compassion Volume 4 by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron.

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Updated with more links.

The Self-Radiance of Indestructible Awareness and Emptiness

An Aspiration towards the Meaning of the Indivisible Ground, Path and Fruition of the Great Perfection Mañjuśrī
༄༅། །འཇམ་དཔལ་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུ་དབྱེར་མེད་པའི་དོན་ལ་སྨོན་པ་རིག་སྟོང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རང་གདངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས།

by Mipham Rinpoche

And

Vajra Verses on the Natural State

revealed by Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa

༃ གནས་ལུགས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་བཞུགས༔

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https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jigme-lingpa/vajra-verses-on-the-natural-state

https://garchen.net/?ddownload=35531

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The entire you of yesterday no longer exists within you today. Nothing of yesterday remains in your body today, does it? The energy that moved through space yesterday does not exist today. It’s different. It’s the same with the energy movement within our body’s nervous system. It may be similar, but yesterday’s does not exist today at all. It’s entirely different. Yet our conception of permanence still thinks, “I’m the same person that I was yesterday. I am. I’m yesterday’s me.” Which is totally unreasonable.

It’s not right. I’m not just talking from the religious point of view. Scientifically, it’s absolutely wrong. I can demonstrate that to you right now. I’m not talking from the religious point of view or about something that’s just Lord Buddha’s or Lama’s idea. I’m talking from exactly the Western, scientific point of view. Exactly.

You have been carrying the fixed idea “I am this” for such a long time, but it’s totally unrealistic in describing the entirety of yourself. Nevertheless, you still think “I am this.” It’s completely silly, isn’t it? As you think “I’m this,” if I were to say to you “I’m this cup,” you’d think that was pretty silly. But it’s exactly the same thing. Perhaps I’m joking too much! Well, check out what I say. It’s a good thing to check and never too late to do so. It’s true. You can’t imagine what we’re doing now.

It's also so simple. What I’m talking about is not some extreme you have to believe. Just meditate and check what you think you are. “I’ve always thought I’m this, and I’ve thought the same thing for year after year, but after checking up scientifically now I see I’ve been completely hallucinating the whole time.” It’s true, right? For example, say you’re twenty now. If I were to ask you if the twenty-year-old you existed when you were five, what would you say? You’d say no, it didn’t exist then. If you understand that clean clear, you can see that the entire you of today did not exist yesterday.

So my conclusion is this. As soon as you fix the idea “I’m this,” how can it change? If your fixed idea were true, how could you not be the same a second or a minute from then? That would need a change in nature, a change in reality. That shows your fixed idea is a wrong conception, and it’s this wrong conception that causes you all the trouble that you find and is the basis of your entire evolution. It all starts from that.
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The Total Reality of All Existence
By Lama Yeshe

Lama Yeshe gave this teaching at Manjushri Institute, England, September, 1976. Excerpted from Clean Clear: Collected Teachings, Volume 2, edited by Nicholas Ribush.

Until we realize the absolute nature, shunyata, we won’t be able to see the complete unity, the totality, the absolute nature of all existence. That is exactly what Lord Buddha said. You can understand that, right? You need to understand totality nature, which we sometimes call shunyata or, in English, the total reality of all existence. Now, totality nature is simultaneously existent within the relative good and bad. Relative good and bad are like waves on the ocean. Ocean waves come and go. Sometimes they go this way, sometimes that, but it’s still all water, isn’t it? It’s still water energy. Similarly, when we say good and bad, women and men, all kinds of other different things, if we have seen totality, we can see that there’s some totality absolute nature existing equally in all of nature: living things, nonliving things, organic things, nonorganic things, every kind of energy, human beings, animals, the sky, the four elements, whatever—it doesn’t matter. You can see that within everything some totality nature exists.

When you reach that level of insight, you don’t have too many hallucinated fantasies flashing in front of you: “Oh, this is fantastic!” Presently, everything the relative mind perceives is kind of flashing, giving off a strong vibration, so you have to run after it. You can’t liberate yourself from it, in other words. It’s like somebody has laid some powerful vibration on you and you can’t escape it without paying strong attention. Similarly, all relative phenomena attract our attention. “Oh, this is fantastic, this is good, this is bad.” Our mind has to pay too much attention, “Oh, this-that, this-that,” and be liberated, seeing some absolute nature of equality. We have too much overwhelming superstition.

Sometimes, if you have a good meditation session, you can experience totality, a kind of universal energy pervading both yourself and the outside world. You can see this through meditation. You can feel this totality strongly rather than the usual movement of the surface waves.

It’s especially important to check what you think you are and your everyday thoughts: “I need this, I need that, I’m this, I’m this, I’m this, I’m this….” We spend all our time thinking, “I need this, this, this, this…,” there’s a billion things we need because we have the fixed idea, “I am this, therefore I need that.” We have a fixed idea of what we are. We make ourselves bigger than this entire building through our imagination. Our imagination constructs us with the bricks of wrong conceptions. We lay one wrong conception on top of another, then add another wrong conception, another wrong conception and so forth until there’s this huge edifice bigger than this large building we’re in: “I am this.” From “I am this” comes “therefore I need this, I need this, I need this.” It’s all too much. And then the grasping attitude begins.

This fixed idea, this imagination of what you are, is extremely important to know. It’s so simple. Check up right now what you think you are. I don’t mean your profession or whatever work you do. Just investigate what you think you are, your fantasy idea, “I am this, therefore this.” You make a kind of frame for yourself, like the brocade around a thangka. You think, “This is me; this is me.” It’s a completely false conception.

I’ll tell you why it’s a false conception. The minute you think, I am this,” the very next second you’ve entirely changed. We’re not talking about your absolute nature but the relative, “This is me.” Your relative nature changes minute by minute, second by second. One moment you’re like this; the very next moment you’re not the same as you were the first one, even though your conception of permanence thinks, “I’m like this. I’m always the same. I want to live in the world permanently. I have lived, I am living, I will continue to live.” It’s interesting.

Milarepa learned black magic rite called Zadong Marnak (Tibetan basilisk) that, when cast, kills with the syllable hum and causes unconsciousness with the syllable phat, and the practice of casting hailstorms by pointing one’s finger, from Khulungpa magician named Yonten Gyatso who lived in the region called Nup Khulung in Tsangrong. Yonten Gyatso gave instructions to Milarepa to find a place on the mountain and construct a retreat cell where he will not be disturbed by human hands. The cell had three stories below and one story above in which he placed sturdy beams, aligned side by side like rows of fish. He secured the perimeter with boulders nearly the size of yaks, leaving no gaps between them. He thus made the retreat cell so that others could neither discover its door nor find a way to infiltrate its walls. The master then gave instructions on black magic to invoke Dark Red Faced Dza.

Then Milarepa fell into dark arts until he met Marpa Lotsawa and gave him Mahamudra teachings.

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The Life of Milarepa
By Tsangnyön Heruka

Most of the stories and attributes associated with the figure of Milarepa stem from a single source: the account of his life translated here, The Lif of Milarepa. It is difficult to overestimate the role that The Life of Milarepa has played in shaping the way Buddhism developed in Tibet and later came to be understood in the West. Numerous versions of Milarepa’s life story exist, some written within a generation of the yogin’s death in the early twelfth century. The present version, composed by Tsangnyön Heruka in the late fifteenth century, almost four hundred years after Milarepa, draws upon many of these early works. But the resulting narrative eclipsed them all, serving as the canonical record of Milarepa’s life ever since. The Life of Milarepa is now famous for its themes of sin and redemption, faith and devotion to the guru, perseverance in the face of hardship, dedication to meditative mastery, and the possibility of liberation in a single life. The story helped establish the founding figures of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It shaped the sacred geography of southern Tibet. It served as a vivid inspiration for both the plastic and performing arts across the Himalaya

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