International Festivals
2024 Summer Festival
10. Week 2 - Teaching 2

10. Week 2 - Teaching 2

2024.08.03

Gen-la Jampa

Commentary to Blissful Path continued.

From Portugal:

There are 2 stages to generating our self as Vajrayogini:

  1. The preparatory practice (of which there are 4):

    1. Visualising the object of refuge, the gateway to increasing our faith
    2. Generating refuge
    3. Generating the supreme good heart, the gateway to entering the path to enlightenment
    4. Receiving blessings - the actual gateway to attaining the enlightened body speech and mind, by purifying our body speech and mind.

  2. The actual self-generation practice

4. Receiving blessings

First offer a mandala, then request blessings. The Buddhas in front dissolve into white, red, and blue rays of light, which dissolve into me and I receive the blessings of body speech and mind of all the Buddhas. My continually residing body, speech and mind transform into the body speech and mind of Buddha.

What are special blessings? They are powerful blessings from our spiritual guide that enable us to attain spiritual realisations of Sutra and Tantra.

My ordinary appearance of my body speech and mind is purified.

What is ordinary appearance and conception? From the NKT Glossary:

Ordinary appearance is any appearance to an impure mind. Ordinary conception is the mind assenting / believing this appearance to be true. According to Tantra, ordinary appearance is the obstruction to liberation, and ordinary conception is the obstruction to omniscience. These 2 are the main objects to abandon according to Tantra.

Tantra is defined as an inner realisation that functions to prevent ordinary appearances and conceptions and functions to accomplish the 4 complete purities - of environment, body, enjoyments, and activities. Actual Tantra is necessarily an inner realisation (not the teachings called Tantra)

Ordinary appearance is our perception of all the things we normally see. Such as our self and body. This appearance is subtle mistaken appearance. It is mistaken because our self, our body, and all other things we normally see do not exist, even though we always mistakenly see them. They are subtle because it is difficult for us to understand that they are mistaken. Our subtle mistaken appearance is the root of self-grasping, which is the root of all other delusions. We can abandon this subtle mistaken appearance completely only through HYT, and we will accomplish the 4 complete purities of Buddha.

Our perception of our ordinary body is the main obstacle to attaining the enlightened body. Our ordinary perception of speech which is the perception of the speech we normally perceive is the main obstacle to attaining the enlightened speech, our ordinary perception of mind is the main obstacle to attaining the enlightened mind. Through receiving blessings, all of our ordinary perceptions cease. We meditate on this belief single-pointedly.

2. The actual self-generation practice

This is very important. First we generate ourself as Vajrayogini by engaging in the 3 bringings. Then we engage in generation and completion stage of Vajrayogini.

Geshe-la gave encouragement on overcoming distractions. What is distraction? From HTUTM:

It is a secondary delusion. It is a deluded mental factor that wanders to an object of delusion. Distraction makes us lose our concentration on our spiritual practice by making our mind wander to a contaminated object like a samsaric person, place, or enjoyment.

It obstructs our progress along the spiritual path. Our mind wanders to objects that will cause suffering. It’s horrible.

The object of distraction can be any object of anger, attachment, or ignorance.

So the objects of distraction are mental poisons. We know our objects of anger and attachment. Geshe-la says that we should know that the things we normally see are the objects of our ignorance. Distraction is the worst obstacle to our spiritual development. The worst obstacle to our spiritual development is in our mind. Frightening. But the good news is that we can do something about it. We need to be patient.

From Portugal:

All these practices should be done with single-pointed concentration without distraction. Keeping this enemy of distraction in our mind while trying to engage in recitation, meditation - we will never make progress, we will never develop spiritual realisations. So I am saying sincerely that we should do these practices without distraction. Our mind is like the sky. Distractions are like clouds. Dharma practice is like the sun that eliminates the darkness of ignorance from our mind. Through studying and practising Dharma we can eliminate the darkness of confusion from our mind. However if our mind is obscured by the clouds of distraction, the sun of Dharma can’t get through. Therefore we must apply effort to be free from distraction whenever reciting prayers, contemplating, and meditating. Please keep this is your heart. Whenever you recite sadhanas you should concentrate single-pointedly. In reality you don’t need to think much. You will naturally become familiar with the meaning and develop clear understanding in the meditation break. In this way you can make yourself happy all the time, and benefit others. We should know if our Dharma practice is qualified.

The 2 best methods for eliminating distraction are breathing meditation and absorption of cessation. But here, our instruction to do this is by following the meaning of the sadhanas. To stop the bad habit of following distraction we do not need a special meditation. We only need a strong determination. We should completely forget other things and simply try to mix our mind with Dharma through the power of our own determination. Gradually we will develop this as a good habit.

From Portugal:

We train in the 3 Bringings. The first is Bringing Death into the Path of the Truth Body, Buddha’s very subtle body. Only Buddhas can see the Truth Body, no one else. Buddha’s subtle form can be seen by pure Bodhisattvas. Buddha’s emanation body can be seen by pure practitioners because of their pure minds. Buddhas can emanate any thing to benefit others. Buddhas can bestow blessings to make the minds of living beings peaceful. Our temporary and permanent liberation from suffering is due to Buddha’s blessings. We do not know who is and who is not an enlightened being. They can be in animal or even hell being society. And of course in human society. Because Buddhas help all living beings, the there is no place where there is an absence of enlightened beings. In front of every living being there is an enlightened Buddha. We don’t recognise this because of our obstructions.

Bringing the clear light of death into the path of the Truth Body. Ordinary death cannot be transformed into the path. We are bringing or transforming our clear light of death into the spiritual path which will make us attain enlightenment quickly. At the time of death when we experience the death process, our mind dissolves into our central channel. Then our very subtle mind will manifest. This is the clear light of death. Its nature is great bliss, and it is extremely peaceful. It perceives only emptiness, the mere absence of all phenomena we normally see or perceive. We don’t recognise the clear light of sleep because we lack mindfulness. The subtle mind has many levels. When the gross mind dissolves all pain will stop. The subtle mind is peaceful. The melting of the drops in our central channel is bliss. Because of this everyone dies with a blissful mind. Very few people recognise this but I understand this very clearly. I promise the nature of the very subtle mind is great bliss. I know this. It is extremely peaceful and perceives only emptiness. Now is the time to learn this. We should never waste this opportunity.

How to engage in bringing death into the path of the Truth Body (practical instruction): we do this through correct imagination. It is a mental action. It is correct belief and it is a pure mind. Follow the instruction in the sadhana.

Geshe-la said:

The Truth Body is inseparable from great bliss. The Dharmakaya is the endless space of emptiness. It has no end.

Body means basis of imputation for a person. Body can be anything. It can be form, e.g. flesh and bone. It can be sound, it can be fire, it can be the Dharmakaya. Through the inconceivable kindness of our spiritual guide, we can now choose our body. Throughout our endless rebirths we have taken so many bodies created by ignorance. Now we can choose our body with wisdom through correct imagination through the kindness of our spiritual guide.

We gradually forget our normal name. Completely forget. I am Truth Body, Vajrayogini. At that time we have changed the basis of imputation from our contaminated body of suffering to the body of great bliss, Vajrayogini. Through this action we become completely pure.

09. Week 2 - Teaching 111. Week 2 - Teaching 3