Tantra

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind letter. We are in New Mexico for a few weeks, then I am going to the Santa Fe center to give Medicine Buddha great initiation, then to North Carolina to do a course on Lama Atisha’s teachings. After that I am going to Austria and then to Italy for 100 million mani recitations and then to south India for the teachings.

Regarding advice for your practice, first I want to thank from the very inside of my heart, that you do so many prayers and that you are doing all the commitments for the initiations you have taken. That is great, great, great, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. Even myself, yes, I have received many initiations, but even myself, because of laziness—of course, many activities, but laziness is the main thing—I do miss. So, for you to do all these prayers, that is incredible, unbelievable. It leaves a positive imprint on the mind when you do the prayers and that brings you to enlightenment, it frees you from samsara, from the oceans of samsara sufferings and brings you to buddhahood, the peerless happiness. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the benefits?

Of course, because each practice is Mahayana, you begin with bodhicitta motivation, which creates the cause for you to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and to free the numberless sentient beings from each realm, to free them from the oceans of samsara suffering forever and bring them to enlightenment, buddhahood. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

Some of the practices are Highest Yoga Tantra, but even with lower tantra practices you are able to achieve enlightenment in one life, of course, by first achieving a long life, like being able to live for one thousand eons, and then because of that you are able to actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. Then with Highest Yoga Tantra you can achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerate times, because of method and wisdom. This is the most profound and quick way to cease the dualistic view and dualistic mind. It’s amazing, amazing.

One thing I want to tell you, each time, before you do any commitment or practice, make sure to generate strong bodhicitta; generate compassion as strongly as you can for other sentient beings. In order to generate strong compassion for others, you have to realize your own suffering in samsara. It is in the nature of suffering, so then that enables you to generate compassion for others, who are also suffering in samsara. That’s the motivation, the Dharma motivation, and then because of that, the action becomes Dharma. Especially by generating bodhicitta, the action becomes the cause of enlightenment. When you are doing commitments or anything else, you have to pay a lot of attention to this, to make the time most meaningful and most beneficial to sentient beings. Then whatever you are doing—eating, walking, doing your job, sitting, etc.—becomes the cause of enlightenment. This is very important to really understand.

Of course generally, as I asked you to be director of the center, then all the activities that you do there are done to fulfill my wishes and to follow my advice, therefore you collect the highest merit and it is a quick way to achieve enlightenment. In every action you do, you are fulfilling my wishes, following my advice, so then you collect the most merit and it becomes the most powerful purification, the quickest way to purify all the defilements and negative karma. You should rejoice in that, day and night, and in whatever you do. So you should enjoy that.

I am sure you have heard this already, what Sakya Pandita mentioned:

Even if you practice the six paramitas, making charity of your head, legs or hands to others for a thousand eons, and even if the merit you get from that is dedicated for others, you get that much merit when you follow the guru’s wishes and advice. You collect all that merit in one second by following the guru’s path.

This is what Sakya Pandita advises and this is what you are doing; this is the advantage that you get, so you should rejoice all the time. This is the most important practice in your life, because everything happens from here up to enlightenment, and then you are able to enlighten all sentient beings.

In regard to commitments, there was one monk, just an ordinary monk, a very ordinary monk but very sincere, from Tsawa Khangtsen at Sera Je Monastery. Of course, when he came back in the late afternoon after going to a puja or doing pujas in family houses, all the young monks and students were just playing, so then of course he beat them. This is what many monks do. When they come back they beat or scold the young monks who are here and there, running around playing.

Anyway, this young monk was very sincere and he never missed his commitments, Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, Heruka, and when he died, he died in meditation. This was from not having missed his commitments. That is the benefit, whether there is understanding or not. Just by following the guru’s advice given during the initiation and by doing the commitments, just by not missing them, there are these benefits. He died in meditation, sitting up. That’s kind of an accomplishment in one’s Dharma practice in this life, so it’s fantastic. So that is the story, that he never missed his sadhanas.

There are so many monks like that, not necessarily learned in Dharma, but very sincere, good monks. So many monks die in meditation, either lying down like the Buddha in the snow lion position or sitting up.

There was one monk who was very famous in the monastery for being angry. After saying just a few words, the monk got angry. He was famous because of that and everybody was scared to talk to him. When he died, he died in meditation. So then he became famous in a positive way. People couldn’t believe that, because outside he looked so angry, but maybe in reality he was not like that. So you never know who he was, maybe a buddha or bodhisattva.

The very first thing—this is very important—is for you to study the lamrim, to learn that. I know I gave life practice advice to you before, anyway now it comes out for you to study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, to read it from beginning to end. You got instructions before for your life practice, so I don’t need to tell you again; you can just follow what I told you before. But study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand twice through, from beginning to end. Even if you have done this before, still if you can do it two more times, then do effortless meditation on the lamrim.

Regarding the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, first you need the realization of emptiness, the Prasangika view of emptiness, the meaning of subtle dependent arising. Samsara, nirvana, hell, enlightenment, I, action, object—everything exists in mere name. The karmic seed and fruit, the karmic cause and result—everything functions in mere name. From negative karma the result is suffering, but it functions in mere name. Negative karma exists in mere name and the resultant suffering exists in mere name. Good karma exists in mere name and the result of that, happiness, exists in mere name. So everything functions in mere name.

Emptiness, the meaning is subtle dependent arising, existing in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, and subtle dependent arising, meaning emptiness, so [phenomena] exist in mere name and therefore do not exist from their own side. That’s how everything is a unification of emptiness and dependent arising. This is what the Buddha taught and what Lama Tsongkhapa taught.

Also, with the inner experience of meditation, the sign is when your devotion to the guru is stronger, by looking and seeing [the guru as] a buddha, by looking and seeing a buddha, by using quotations and logic. The more you see a buddha, the stronger the devotion which arises, and at those times it is easier to experience [realizations]. Also, if you are meditating on compassion, or if you are meditating on emptiness and renunciation, it is very easy to experience realizations when the devotion is stronger.

By discovering and realizing emptiness, by depending on that, then with devotion to the guru, seeing the guru as a buddha, looking at the guru as a buddha. Everything, all the realizations up to enlightenment—renunciation, bodhicitta, right view—these are the foundation of tantra, up to enlightenment. All the realizations are dependent on the root of path, guru devotion, correctly following the virtuous friend. This is the most important practice; everything is to do with that. It is like the key of a big museum. Without the key you can’t do anything, but with the key you can open the door. That’s the heart advice, what I’m talking about, how to develop the mind.

Regarding the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, the actual one, on the basis of generation stage tantra you then do the completion stage practice. So when the wind comes, it enters the central channel and abides and absorbs. That is like the death time, when the twenty-five absorptions happen. It is a similar meditation during the life. When you succeed in attaining the completion stage path, when the wind enters the central channel and abides and absorbs, then you generate the four blisses. They are greater and greater and greater, and the last one is the greatest, so then the gross mind absorbs. Then only the subtle, very subtle mind actualizes the clear light. Then you see emptiness, the greatest bliss you are experiencing, nondual with emptiness. When you get that realization, the transcendental wisdom, nondual bliss and voidness, clear light—if you are able to achieve that realization in this life, then you are able to be enlightened in this life. That is like an atomic bomb, the quickest way to purify the dualistic mind and dualistic view and to achieve the unified state of Vajradhara in this life.

This has happened to many meditators who are correctly practicing the path and on the basis and realization of guru devotion, seeing the guru as numberless buddhas, by looking with effort, then on the basis of that the realization [is achieved] and the whole path develops. This is done up to enlightenment, along with this transcendental wisdom, nondual emptiness, the clear light. This is the Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra path.

Also each deity—Yamantaka, Heruka, Guhyasamaja—has method and wisdom, and the two stages, such as the Six Yogas of Naropa. Lama Tsongkhapa explained each of these things that you experience. The bliss in the Heruka teachings is explained by Pabongka Rinpoche. It is said that the sexual pleasure and the culmination, you know that one, so you quickly remember that experience and then expand on that. Then the mind is in the state of emptiness, so that’s an example of how to generate, if you don’t get any feeling. That’s how to start the feeling.

However, for us beginners, even if it is just visualized, even if we don’t actually experience that, even if we just have the visualization, that’s what we should do. At least imagine, at least like that, and in this way gradually the feeling can arise and then we actually have the experience. It can help for that.

So these are just simple examples and advice regarding the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra. It is so important to understand meditation on emptiness in the correct way, therefore studying Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching and what the Buddha taught is very important.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

In the six-session guru yoga, the guru is Vajradhara; you have to think the essence is Buddha, so that means having no mistakes, only realizations. You have to think that from your side. Then [the guru in the] aspect of Vajradhara, in the nature of light, is absorbed into your heart.

There is gross, subtle and extremely subtle body and mind—so, the guru’s holy body, speech and mind absorbs into your extremely subtle body and mind, and becomes oneness with that. Meditate a little on that oneness, infinite bliss, nondual with emptiness. Then you can think, “this is I.” Meditate for a little while on that. Then you become Vajradhara.

With much love and prayers ...

By discovering that our own samsara, our samsaric pleasure, is in the nature of suffering—all that we know, all the enjoyments are in the nature of suffering —by realizing that, we abandon attachment and seek ultimate happiness. In order to achieve that ultimate happiness, we need to practice the three higher trainings of morality, concentration and wisdom. That is the preliminary graduated path of the lower capable being. Therefore, for the happiness of this life and future lives, we need to take refuge and with that refuge we abandon the ten nonvirtues and practice the ten virtues. So now, on the basis of this Sutrayana path, we practice tantra.

Here I am talking about Highest Yoga Tantra, which gives us the opportunity to achieve enlightenment within a number of years, without needing to achieve immortality or having to live for many hundreds or thousands of years.¹

We can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra, which is the only path offering a method to cease the gross mind and to actualize clear light, simultaneously-born great bliss, nondual emptiness. Actualizing nondual emptiness is the principal cause of the dharmakaya and achieving the illusory body is the cause of the rupakaya.

When we achieve example clear light, we achieve the isolation of body, then isolation of speech and isolation of mind. Isolation of mind is that clear light. When we achieve example clear light, we achieve the impure illusory body.

After that we achieve meaning clear light, which becomes the antidote to the disturbing-thought obscurations. When we have removed the disturbing-thought obscurations we achieve the pure illusory body.

After that we achieve the unification of clear light and illusory body. This is the learner’s union. After that comes the path of no more learning, which is enlightenment. So, beginning with the clear light and illusory body, we are able to complete this path, which, using Sutrayana methods [without tantric practice], would take three countless great eons. In Highest Yoga Tantra we can complete all those merits within a few years and we will be able to complete [the path.] That’s why practicing Highest Yoga Tantra enables us to achieve enlightenment more quickly than in the lower tantras.

The Guru Puja [LC5] says,

MA SEM CHÄN THAM CHÄ KYI DÖN DU DAG GI
For the sake of all mother sentient beings

TSHE DI NYI LA NYUR WA NYUR WAR DÖ MÄI SANG GYÄ
I shall quickly, quickly, in this very life,

LA MA LHÄI GO PHANG NGÖN DU JÄ
Actualize the state of the primordial Buddha-Guru-Deity.

Regarding “quickly, quickly,” [Tib: nyur wa nyur war] the first “quickly” refers to the lower tantras, which are quicker than the Mahayana path. The second “quickly” refers to Highest Yoga Tantra. Therefore, “I must free all sentient being from all the sufferings and lead them into state of enlightenment, great bliss, therefore, I am going to practice the profound path, the yoga of the guru-deity.”

Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri, “What is the quickest way to achieve the graduated path to enlightenment?” Manjushri answered, “The quick way to do that is to purify the negative karma and obscurations and to collect the necessary conditions for realization.” To remove the obstacles so we can achieve realizations, Manjushri mentioned purification practices such as Vajrasattva and so forth. We collect merit, the necessary conditions, by offering mandalas and so forth.

Then, with a one-pointed mind we make requests to the guru. To elaborate on that, it means [making requests] with the mind of great guru devotion, with all our effort, no matter how many weeks, months, years and lifetimes it takes. With all our effort, as much as possible from our own side, we must try to see the guru as a buddha, then, as a result, we will see a buddha, and with that mind we make a one-pointed request. Next is the actual meditation, training the mind in the path to enlightenment.

Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri, “What is the quickest way to achieve the graduated path to enlightenment?” Manjushri answered, “The quick way to do that is to purify the negative karma and obscurations, and collect the necessary conditions for realization.” So we need to purify and collect merits and make a one-pointed request to the guru. These things are what is needed. Meditation on the path to enlightenment is the actual body [of our practice] and we need to have that in our mind all the time. That’s Manjushri’s answer.

These preliminary practices that I am going to give you are to purify the defilements, negative karma and obstacles; to collect extensive merits and the necessary conditions; and to develop guru devotion and increase the merits.

There are five paths to achieve liberation—the path of merit, the path of preparation, the right-seeing path, the path of meditation and (the unification of) no more learning. When we actualize the right-seeing path, the third path, we remove 112 delusions or obscurations. By actualizing the right-seeing path, we abandon 112 delusions or obscurations.

After achieving liberation for ourselves, we are in the state of bliss, the blissful state of peace for many eons. Our mind abides in that. Then, one day, I guess when our karma ripens, the Buddha asks us to enter into the Mahayana path, inspires us to enter into the Mahayana path. We develop compassion for sentient beings, we actualize bodhicitta by entering the Mahayana path. This is the Paramitayana or Sutra vehicle. The five Mahayana paths came from this, so we achieve enlightenment in that way for sentient beings.

What is the meaning and purpose of achieving enlightenment? It’s only for sentient beings, to free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering.

Now, the reason for practicing tantra is also mentioned. If we practice only the Mahayana Sutra path, we have to collect merits for three countless great eons in order to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. That means sentient beings have to suffer for a long, long, long time. They have to suffer for three countless great eons; they have to wait for a long time and they suffer so much, which is unbearable for us. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas who only work for sentient beings, there are numberless sentient beings who have a connection to us. For example, in this life there are numberless beings suffering, but we have met a particular person and we help them, whether by giving food or shelter and so forth, or bringing them Dharma, meditation. It is only after the person met us that they have the opportunity for happiness, the opportunity to practice meditation, Dharma. There are so many examples, so many people, and especially [we can help them by bringing] Dharma.

You can see there are numberless sentient beings suffering for an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable number of times. They die and are reborn in the six realms again and they suffer again. Therefore, the sentient beings need to be liberated from suffering much more quickly, they need to be brought to enlightenment much more quickly, and for that, we need to achieve enlightenment quickly. There’s the possibility, there’s the method, there’s the possibility. Why? By practicing tantra we can achieve enlightenment in one life, and in this way we are able to liberate sentient beings from the ocean of samsara suffering and bring them to enlightenment much more quickly than by practicing the Sutra path.

By practicing the lower tantras, we can first achieve immortality or a long life where we live for hundreds or thousands of years, then we achieve enlightenment. However, by practicing the fourth division of tantra, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra, we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time, within a number of years, just as Milerepa, Gyalwa Ensapa and Lama Tsongkhapa’s disciples achieved enlightenment. There are also many others who achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime in degenerate time.

Why can we achieve enlightenment by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra much more quickly than through the lower tantra practices? It’s because Highest Yoga Tantra is the only one, first of all, where the gross mind doesn’t go to enlightenment. What goes to enlightenment is only the extremely subtle mind. The mind has the gross mind, subtle mind and extremely subtle mind, and the body has the gross body, subtle body and extremely subtle body. The extremely subtle body is the wind—the extremely subtle wind. So what goes to enlightenment is that extremely subtle wind and mind. The others don’t go to enlightenment. Therefore, Highest Yoga Tantra is the only path which offers a method to cease the gross mind and body, and to actualize the extremely subtle mind, the clear light.

The cause of actualizing the extremely subtle mind, clear light, is only found in Highest Yoga Tantra, not in the lower tantras. The wind from the other channels—the right and left channels—is brought inside the central channel and abides there. Then there are twenty-five absorptions during our meditation. It also happens when we die, but that’s not part of our meditation. [When we die, we] go through natural evolution, but this absorption is happening during meditation. There are twenty-five absorptions, and then we experience the four types of bliss. We experience the kundalini [going] down, sometimes it’s also going up, and the four types of bliss: joy, supreme joy, extraordinary joy and simultaneously-born joy, which is the greatest bliss. Who experiences this great bliss? It’s the extremely subtle mind understanding emptiness—not just intellectually understanding but [directly perceiving] emptiness.

Notes

¹ Lama Zopa Rinpoche often states that the lower tantras are a slower path to enlightenment that can take hundreds or thousands of years, whereas by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra we can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime or within a few years. The Sutrayana method can take three countless great eons. [Return to text]

My dear one,
Thank you very much for your card and note. [I will explain] the purpose of practicing tantra, especially Highest Yoga Tantra.

If you only practice Sutra, the Paramitayana path, it will take three countless great eons to complete the merit of virtue and the merit of transcendental wisdom, to be able to achieve the two kayas. That means sentient beings have to suffer for a long time. Therefore, that is the reason for practicing tantra. Even practicing the lower tantras, you are able to achieve enlightenment in one life, but that means practicing during a long life—you pause your life for hundreds and thousands of years, then you achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, you should practice Highest Yoga Tantra, because it is the most skillful way to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerated time. The gross mind does not go to enlightenment; only the extremely subtle mind. Therefore, you need to actualize simultaneously-born clear light. Lower tantra does not have this method to actualize this, only Highest Yoga Tantra, so that’s why you need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra.

I have checked, and according to my observation, the deity for you to practice came out to be Secret Vajrapani. This is your mind-seal deity. The other deity that came out is Secret Hayagriva, but anyway, mainly you should practice Secret Vajrapani. This deity comes out beneficial for you according to my observation.

Please continue to make your life most beneficial to sentient beings—to each and every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura, asura and intermediate state being—by practicing bodhicitta. Live your life as much as possible with bodhicitta motivation, as much as you can.

Much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing how the people in Lawudo have been kind to you. I am very happy to hear that.

I know you want to practice the Six Yogas of Naropa, the tummo explained by Lama Yeshe, but you need a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation first. This practice, the Six Yogas of Naropa, can only be read and studied if you have received a great initiation, which means an initiation that has vase initiation, secret initiation, wisdom initiation and word initiation. This plants the seed of the four kayas, it makes the mind ripen, in order to practice the generation stage and the unification of clear light and illusory body. That is what a great initiation is for. After you receive a great initiation then you can learn and practice this.

Life practice advice:

• Vajrasattva mantras: 200,000
• Dorje Khadro (burning offering) mantra: 10,000
• Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga mantras: Daily practice
• Chanting the Names of Manjrushri: Every second week
• Golden Light Sutra recitations: Each week until death

Reciting the text Chanting the Names of Manjushri has unbelievable, unbelievable benefits. It helps you to develop wisdom, to be able to understand the teachings and to not forget them.

By reciting the Golden Light Sutra there is no returning from enlightenment. Your life always goes toward enlightenment, there is incredible purification and great success, and it helps you bring so much peace and happiness in the world.

One week recite the Golden Light Sutra and then the next week recite Chanting the Names of Manjushri, so recite like that. You can read more than that but recite each one at least once in alternate weeks. Please make sure to motivation with bodhicitta before beginning and dedicate well afterwards.

TO GAIN EFFORTFUL LAMRIM EXPERIENCE, MEDITATE ON:

For you the main lamrim to focus on is Manjushri’s Words, [The Sacred Words of Manjushri] by the fifth Dalai Lama. This is the main lamrim for you. Of course, you can read other texts like Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, but the main lamrim for you to know is Manjushri’s Words, so please read this three times from beginning to end. Read it mindfully. When you read mindfully, it becomes meditation.

Write down any questions, whatever you don’t understand, and discuss with students who have studied the lamrim well, or ask a geshe.

The jangchub lamrim teachings [by His Holiness the Dalai Lama] are not yet published, but they will be coming out. If you are around a geshe you can request these teachings, until the translation is completed.

In the meantime use Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, and when you do the meditations, use Essential Nectar as a guide book, unless you get teachings from a geshe on Manjushri’s Words. That is different.

Meditate according to the lamrim outline:

• Correctly following the virtuous friend: seven months
• The graduated path of the lower capable being: three months
• The graduated path of the intermediate capable being: three months
• The graduated path of the highest capable being:
     - Bodhicitta: three months
     - Emptiness: four months

Go through this cycle four times, spending this amount of months on each subject, and then do effortless meditation.

Your main deity is either Vajrayogini and Most Secret Hayagriva. From these two, whichever deity you feel closest to, that is your main deity. Vajrayogini doesn’t have many arms and also the mandala is quite simple. Most Secret Hayagriva is very powerful for dispelling obstacles and for success, to benefit other sentient beings.

The reason you take Highest Yoga Tantra initiations and do these practices is because this is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment in this life for yourself, and then to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment quickest.

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche explained that there are five buddha types. Each type of buddha is a remedy for a different delusion, a remedy for attachment or anger or pride, etc. So type or race is OK, but family or lineage doesn’t work. Rinpoche says, “Is there a buddha that doesn’t have a lineage?”