A Torch for the Path to Omniscience

A Word by Word Commentary on the Text of the

Longchen Nyingtik Preliminary Practices
by Chkyi Drakpa

Empty in essence, expansive like space and free from the limits of conceptual
elaboration, is the Dharmakya.
With the nature of clarity, blazing brightly like the sun and ornamented with the signs
and marks, is the Sambhogakya.
The display of compassionate energy, manifesting in various ways out of compassion, is
the Nirmakya.
At the feet of the Lama, inseparable from the three kyas, I make heartfelt prostrations,
my body, speech and mind filled with devotion.
The rivers of the mind-direct, sign and aural transmissions,
All come together and converge in Jigme Lingpa,
His wisdom-mind treasure was the Heart-Essence of Nyingtik,
And it is to the recited words of its preliminary practices,
That I now compose this commentary.

Blessing the Speech

Firstly there is the blessing of the speech. The syllables O, and H are the
essence of the enlightened body, speech and mind. They purify obscurations of
speech and bless your own ordinary body, speech and mind with the enlightened
body, speech and mind. Upon your tongue faculty is a bright syllable RA, from
which arises a fire, consuming all defilements and obscurations of speech. The fire
transforms into a three-spoked vajra of red light. In its centre, or belly, are the
vowel and consonant mantras, and around them is the Essence of Dependent
Origination. The syllables are like a string of pearls. From them stream out five-
coloured rays of light with countless offering substances at their tips, to the buddhas
and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, thereby pleasing them. Then as the rays of
light converge back, the letters of the vowel and consonant mantra and the Essence
of Dependent Origination descend like rain and dissolve into your speech chakra,
purifying all your obscurations of speech. And through this, all the blessings and
siddhis of the vajra speech of the buddhas and bodhisattvas are obtained. If you
recite the vowel and consonant mantras and the Essence of Dependent Origination
seven times, or three times, at dawn before anything else, it is said that the power of
your speech will be multiplied one hundred million times.

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THE ACTUAL NGNDRO
1. The Ordinary Preliminaries
Within the actual preliminary practice, there are the ordinary (outer) and
extraordinary (inner) preliminaries. The ordinary (outer) preliminaries are reflections
on: the difficulty of gaining the freedoms and endowments; death and
impermanence; the karmic principles of cause and effect; the defects of sasra; and
how to follow a spiritual teacher.

a. The Difficulty of Gaining the Freedoms and Endowments

This first section consists of an invocation of the masters wisdom mind, and
recognition of the freedoms and endowments.

i. Invocation of the Masters Wisdom Mind

Firstly, as you recite O lama, care for me! three times, pray one- pointedly with an
uncontrived faith that is vivid, eager and confident. Vivid faith comes from thinking
of the qualities of the master and the Three Jewels. It is a very vivid and joyful state
similar to the way a small child feels when seeing its mother. Eager faith is the eager
wish to abandon negative actions having reflected on their faults; and the eager wish
to undertake positive actions having considered the benefits they bring. It is similar
to the yearning that someone suffering from extreme thirst has for water. Confident
faith is a confidence in the qualities of the master and the Three Jewels, which cannot
be shaken by temporary circumstances or events, and a trust in the laws of cause and
effect strong enough to survive the worst kind of circumstances such as illness. This
is the kind of faith one should have.

If you dont have this kind of faith, and you just mouth the words O lama! and call
out, you wont receive any blessings. It says in the sutras:

The pure Dharma will not arise in those without faith,

Just as fresh shoots will not grow from burnt seeds.

So, giving an example to illustrate this kind of faith, the text says, The blossoming
lotus of devotion at the centre of my heart. When you go to sleep at night,
consider that the lama descends from the top of your head [to your heart] and then
fall asleep with your mind indivisibly united with the masters wisdom mind.

Then, as soon as you get up, early in the morning, recite, O lama, care for me!
three times, with the three kinds of faith described above. Like a lotus flower
blossoming in the sunlight, the eight-petalled lotus at your heart unfurls its petals
through the strength of your faith. Pray to your only constant refuge in this life and
the next, your lama, whose supreme compassion for you is such that he rises out of
the state of great bliss and simplicity of the dharmakya, in his form body. Pray

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with these words: Please look upon me with compassion! I have accumulated
negative karma and harmful actions in the past, and now, as a result, I am plagued
by turbulent emotions, which are so strong that I suffer terrible misfortune in my
Dharma practice that hinders my progress on the path. To protect me from the
enemy of disturbing emotions, rise up through the central channel to the space above
the chakra of great bliss at the crown of my head, upon a lotus, and sun and moon
disc seats. Remain there as the jewel ornament and lord of my buddha family until I
attain enlightenment, I pray!

The method for guarding the mind from the disturbing emotions is described in the
Bodhicaryvatra:

If, with the rope of mindfulness,

You bind firm the elephant of the mind,
You will let go of every fear,
And find virtue close at hand.

Your mind is like an elephant or a wild horse. The mindfulness of focusing on

virtuous states of mind like faith, or devotion, is like a rope or a tethering post. And
the awareness, which discerns whether or not mind remains in that virtuous state, is
like a shepherd. So, as a guard to ensure that you are never distracted from
mindfulness and awareness, you invoke the lama, by praying: Rise up out of
compassion from the expanse of the dharmakya, so that my mind does not become
distracted from what is virtuous. And look upon me with your eyes of wisdom, I
pray!

ii. Recognizing the Freedoms and Advantages

There are eight freedoms and ten advantages. Firstly, if you were born in the hell,
preta or animal realms, you would suffer from intense heat and cold, from hunger
and thirst, or from enslavement, and it would be impossible for you to practise the
Dharma. If you were born amongst the long-living gods, it would also be impossible
because you would not have any thought of practising the Dharma. The Buddhas
teachings are not found in uncivilized lands of the border regions, so living there is
also an impossible state. Those with wrong views do not have any possibility of
practising the Dharma because their minds are contaminated by false beliefs, and
they are just like Devadatta or Lekpe Karma. If you were born in a world where a
buddha had not come, or during a dark kalpa, it would be impossible because even
the words Three Jewels would be unknown. If you were born incapable of
understanding, it would be impossible to practise the Dharma because you would
not be able to understand the meaning of the teachings. When you have a physical
body that is free from these 'eight states where there is no chance for Dharma
practice', it is known as possessing a support for Dharma practice complete with the
eight freedoms.

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Secondly, the ten advantages are divided into the five personal advantages and the
five circumstantial advantages. With regard to the first of these, being born as a
human being means that you have a proper physical support for practising the
Dharma. Having all five faculties intact means you can study the teachings and
contemplate them. In a central land means to be born in a place where the teachings
are available. A lifestyle that is not harmful or wrong means that your body, speech
and mind are in harmony with the Dharma. Having faith in Buddhas teachings
means recognizing that they provide a special path leading to freedom from sasra,
and a state which surpasses the situation of the worldly gods. When you possess
these five endowments, 'the five personal advantages' are said to be complete.

For the five advantages due to circumstances to be present, a buddha must have
come into the world, an event as rare as the appearance of an Uumbara flower; he
must have taught the three wheels of Dharma; and the teachings must have survived
without fading. There must be extraordinary friends who have embraced the
teachings;1 and a master or a spiritual friend must have accepted you. These five are
known as 'the five advantages due to circumstances'.

If you have every one of these eighteen freedoms and advantages then you have
what is known as a precious human life, and you are in a position to practise the
teachings that bring about permanent freedom from sasra. Nevertheless, if you
succumb to negative influences and adopt an incorrect lifestyle and so on, then your
human life will have gone to waste. As it is said:

Finding a human life with freedoms and advantages,

Is like finding a priceless jewel,
Just look how those without renunciation,
Waste this opportunity!

Or:

Used well, this body can be a ferry to liberation,

Used badly, it is an anchor in sasra.

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b. Meditating on Impermanence
There are many circumstances that cause death. It is possible to die from an attack of
epilepsy, after becoming bed-ridden with a chronic terminal disease, from food
poisoning, from falling from a precipice, or from being attacked with weapons. It is
uncertain when death will come. Life is as precarious as a candle fluttering in the
wind, or a tiny bird perched on the branch of a tree. There is no telling if, having
gone to sleep at night, you will wake up the following morning. You are alive now,
yet it is uncertain whether or not you will still be alive in a years time. Having left
this life behind, you will have to go on to yet another realm of existence. So pray:
O Guru Rinpoche, from this day forward, turn my mind towards the practicecare
for me! And see that my practice does not stray onto the wrong paths, such as
practising merely to avert sicknesses and demons in this life or to gain food and
clothing! Keep me from falling into the inferior attitude of seeking liberation from
sasra for myself alone, leaving all my past mothers behind! Omniscient Master of
Dharma Longchen Rabjam, you know me! Compassionate root lama, you who are
one with the Precious Master Guru Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjam, and Rigdzin Jigme
Lingpa care for me!

If you do not seize the opportunity to practise the Dharma offered by this present
situation, having obtained all the freedoms and advantages, then in future lives you
will not find such a perfect physical basis for attaining liberation from sasra.
That you have gained this happy existence now is a result of the slight merit you
have accumulated in past lifetimes. If you do not practise virtue in your present
situation, and instead accumulate only harmful actions, then once the merit from
past lives that provided this physical basis is spent, after death you will wander as a
being in the lower realms. Once you are born in such an unhappy state, you willnot
know good from bad, and you will never even hear the sound of Dharma. You will
not meet a spiritual friend. You will be just like a blind person left alone in the
middle of a vast desert. What a terrible disaster! What a tragedy! Sentient beings in
the hell realms are as numerous as atoms in the earth. Hungry ghosts are as
numerous as grains of sand on a riverbank. Animals are as numerous as grains in a
barrel of chang. If you think of the numbers and kinds of beings in the lower realms,
you will realize just how slim is the chance of gaining a human body. In
comparison to other beings, humans are as numerous as the particles of dust on your
fingernail. And even among human beings, those people whose behaviour is
harmful and contrary to the Dharma are like stars in the night sky, whereas those
who really act according to the Dharma are as rare as stars in broad daylight.
Reflecting on this, pray: O Guru Rinpoche, turn my mind towards the practice
care for me! Omniscient masters Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa, keep me from
straying onto the wrong paths! Compassionate lama, you who are one with them,
care for me!

Since practitioners of virtue are so scarce, to obtain a human body is like arriving at
an island of jewels. To attain such a promising basis as this, complete with all the

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freedoms and endowments, and then use it only to amass negative deeds would be
like a merchant landing on an island of precious jewels and then returning empty-
handed. With such a fickle and impetuous mind you will not have any foundation
for attaining liberation from sasra, and your body will only help you to create
further suffering.

It is especially important not to fall prey to the eight incidental circumstances that
make Dharma impossible or the eight impossible states where mind cuts us off from
the Dharma. Firstly, to be misled by corrupting influences, which means meeting
teachers who do not act according to the Dharma. Then, despite your occasional
desire to practise Dharma, you may be prevented from doing so by your conflicting
emotions, when the five poisons are raging inside your mind, and you are swept
away by their strength. Or whilst practising, negative karma may overtake you and
ripen as negative circumstances. If you dont know how to integrate these into the
path, then they will become obstacles. You may wish to put the teachings into
practice, but if you lack diligence, you will be distracted by laziness. In some cases,
you may have an interest in the teachings, whilst being a slave under someone
elses control. There are also those who merely appear to be engaged in the path and
just pretend to practise for the sake of gaining food and clothing, or as a cure for
illness or harmful spirits, or out of fear of punishment. This is like putting donkey
meat into a container and passing it off as quality venison or camel meat. Although
your attitude conflicts with the teachings, you act like a practitioner in the company
of others in the hope of gaining some respect or reward. Being chronically senseless
and stupid means not feeling any enthusiasm when learning of the qualities and
benefits of positive actions and not fearing the consequences of negative actions,
having been influenced by negative friends. These are 'the eight incidental
circumstances that make Dharma impossible'.

Then there is the second set of eight. The first of these occurs when, even though
you see and hear about the sufferings of sasra, such as those in the three lower
realms, you do not fear them, and therefore feel only slight disenchantment and little
renunciation. It is said that faith (or devotion) is like a precious wheel, which rolls
along the path of virtue day and night. And faith is the most important among the
seven noble riches. Yet there is a state in which you lack the jewel of devotion for
the teachings and for the master. There is also a state in which you are caught in the
bonds of worldly ties and cravings for wealth, possessions and friends. In another
state, you might have a negative character just like black coal that cannot be made
clean, and engage constantly in crude, degenerate behaviour, incurable like a
poisonous snake. Having never pacified your body, speech and mind, you may never
hold back from negative, harmful actions that conflict with the teachings. Or owing
to your lack of even the slightest real interest, you may not have even a hint of a
virtuous mind, just like an animal gazing at a temple. You might be left with your
prtimoka and bodhisattva vows all broken, or your samaya commitments of the
secret mantrayna torn to shreds through having disparaged the master and so on.

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These are 'the eight impossible states where mind cuts us off from the Dharma'.

Pray as follows: When these sixteen impossible states come upon me, menacing
my Dharma practice, O Guru Rinpoche, turn my mind towards the practicecare
for me! Omniscient masters, Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa, keep me from
straying onto the wrong paths! Compassionate lama, you who are one with them
care for me!

You must rid yourself of such adverse circumstances because once you have fallen
into any of these impossible states, you will not have the chance to practise Dharma
purely and authentically.

At this present moment, your body is not ravaged by sickness, and your mind is
free from pain, nor are you like a slave under someone elses control. So now that
you have this perfect, auspicious quality of total independence, if you waste the
freedom and advantages of this human life through your own indolence or laziness
and distraction, then there is no need to mention that you will be separated from
your companions, possessions, relatives and loved ones when you die! Even this
body you hold so dear, which is like the house of consciousness, will be carried out
alone from its bed and taken to some desolate spot to be torn to pieces by foxes,
vultures, dogs and so on. When that happens, your consciousness will be swept
through the bardo realm like a feather blown about in the wind and there will be
nothing but terror in store for you. So you should pray, In order to protect me from
these fears, from this day on, O Guru Rinpoche, turn my mind towards the Dharma
care for me! Omniscient masters, Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa, keep me from
straying onto the wrong paths! Compassionate lama, you who are on with them
care for me!

In the stras it is said:

Those who are lazy and lack diligence,

May live for a hundred years.
But it would be just as well to live for a few days,
Having constant diligence.

And in The Precious Treasury of Essential Instructions (Mengak Rinpochei Dz) it says:

Dont give away this human body with its freedoms and endowments to the
enemy of food and clothing,
Dont give away this altruistic mind of bodhicitta to the enemy of lesser
vehicles,
Dont give away the jewel-like nature of mind to the enemy of delusion,
Dont give away the two wish-fulfilling accumulations to the enemy of this
present life,
Dont give away the practice of compassion to the enemy of laziness,

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 And dont give away the mind of fervent devotion to the enemy of wrong
views!

This is exactly how you should practice.

c. Karma: Cause and Effect

The results of beneficial and harmful actions will follow me. This means the
various individual experiences of pleasure and pain undergone by beings in the six
classes occur purely as a result of their own positive and negative actions. As it says
in the Stra of a Hundred Actions:

It is the variety of actions,

Which creates the variety of beings.

And in the Stra of Advice to the King (Rjvavdaka Stra), it says:

When his time has come, even a king has to die,

And neither his friends nor his wealth can follow him.
So for us wherever we stay, wherever we go
Karma follows us like a shadow.

Although the results of our actions do not manifest immediately, they never go to
waste. The Stra of a Hundred Actions says:

The actions of beings never go to waste,

Even in a hundred aeons.
They are accumulated, and, once the time comes,
The result will come to fruition.

Even tiny negative actions should be avoided. The Stra of the Wise and Foolish says:

Do not disregard small misdeeds, thinking they are harmless,

Because even tiny sparks of flame,
Can set fire to a mountain of hay.

Once, during the era of the Buddha Kayapas teachings, there was a monk called
Shebu Kapila2 who teased the other monks by calling them names such as horse-
head. Altogether he called them by eighteen such names. It is said that later, during
the time of Buddha kyamuni, he was reborn as a fish-like sea monster with
eighteen heads. It is also said that a monk who compared another monk to a monkey
was reborn as a monkey for five hundred lifetimes. And there are countless other
examples which could be mentioned.

The great Bodhisattva ntideva said:

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 If a single moments negativity,
Can lead to an aeon in the Avci hell,
Then with all our harmful acts accumulated in sasra without beginning,
What chance is there of going to the higher realms?

The Stra of the Wise and Foolish also states:

Do not disregard small positive acts either, thinking they are without benefit,
Because even tiny drops of water,
Will eventually fill a large container.

In the past when the King Mndhta was a beggar, he threw a handful of peas to
Buddha Kantiaraa. Four fell into the Buddhas alms bowl and two struck his heart.
As a result, he reigned as ruler over the four continents for eighty thousand years,
then became ruler in the heaven of the Four Great Kings for eighty thousand years,
and finally ruled the kingdom of Indra for half as long. Then there was the beggar
woman who offered a bowl of water to a rvaka disciple of Buddha kyamuni and
was reborn in the heaven of the Thirty-three. It is also said that if an animal hears
the name of a buddha once, they will escape the lower realms and be reborn in the
higher states of existence. The benefits of positive actions are inconceivable.

The Treasury of Essential Instructions says:

Listen to the words of the master, the most cherished instructions!

Study the words of the victorious one, and put your trust in them!
By day and by night, dedicate your virtue and limit your misdeeds!
Reflect on how the interdependence of cause and effect will determine your
future!
Relinquish your attachment to the body and possessions you hold so dear!
And apply the points of the tantras, gamas and upadeas to your mind!

Take this to heart.

d. The Defects of Sasra

Basically, wherever you are born within sasra, whether it is in the higher realms
or the lower ones, you will only ever be tormented by the three kinds of suffering.

In particular, if you are born in the hell realms as a result of the karma of
accumulating harmful actions, in the eight hot hells the entire floor beneath your
feet will be of burning iron. In the first, the Reviving Hell, whatever you see turns
into an enemy who attacks you with weapons. Your head and body are hacked to
pieces, and you experience the suffering of dying and being revived time and again.
The life span of beings in this realm is described in the Application of Mindfulness
Stra:

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 The beings of the Reviving Hell live for one hundred and sixty two thousand
times ten million human years.

The life span doubles for each of the hells below this one.

In the Black-Line Hell multiple lines are drawn on your body which is then ripped
apart with saws. In the Crushing Hell countless beings are wedged in mortars of
iron the size of whole valleys and crushed with red-hot hammers. In the Howling
Hell you are trapped in a doorless cell of burning iron and worn out with suffering
and pain. In the Great Howling Hell you are trapped in an iron cell like before, but
with double walls, and you scream out loud ly in agony as you are beaten with
hammers and other weapons. In the Heating Hell you are impaled on red-hot spikes
and tridents, and wrapped in strips of heated iron. In the Intense Heating Hell you
are boiled in great vats of molten bronze. Whenever your head is struck with a
hammer you lose consciousness and in that instant you may experience a slight
feeling a relief, but otherwise you experience nothing but suffering and pain. The life
span of beings there is impossible to count in years. In sasra, there are twenty
intermediate kalpas for each of the periods of formation, subsistence, destruction and
void. The beings in the Intense Heating Hell live for half of one of these intermediate
kalpas.

In the Avci Hell of Ultimate Torment you are burned in a fire of the most intense
heat, greater than that in the other seven hot hells. The bodies of beings there are
indistinguishable from the flames and can only be perceived by the sound of their
agonized screams. Weapons fall from the sky and hell-workers torture you with
weapons causing you pain seven times more intense than that experienced in the
earlier hells. In this one of the eight Hot Hells, the life span is one intermediate
kalpa.

All the eight cold hells are surrounded by snow mountains, which are completely
frozen at their base. There, in the dark, on terrifying precipices of ice engulfed by
squalls and blizzards of snow, your tender naked body is lashed by freezing cold
winds. You break out in blisters, which burst open into festering sores. You let out
a ceaseless wail of agonized screams in the Hell of Lamentations. And in the Hell of
Groans, you experience suffering hard to even think about, like a dying person
whose strength is all gone, and let out deep gasps and groans. You grind your teeth
and clench them together in the intense cold. Your flesh turns blue and the skin
cracks open into four pieces like a blue lotus, and then the red raw flesh that is
exposed cracks further into eight pieces like a red lotus. Finally it turns an even
darker red and splits even deeper into sixteen, thirty-two and then innumerable
pieces like a great red lotus. Worms with metal beaks penetrate the cracked flesh and
start to eat away at your insides. These eight different sufferings are called the Eight
Cold Hells.

The life span of beings in the Hell of Blisters is equal to the time it would take to

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empty a container capable of holding two hundred koal measures filled with
sesame seeds, if you removed a single grain every hundred years. For the other cold
hells, the life span and sufferings increase by multiples of twenty for each one.

Similarly, in each of the four directions surrounding the Hell of Ultimate Torment,
there are four neighbouring hells, such as the 'Plain of Razor Blades'. When the
karma that led you there is exhausted, you leave the Avci Hell and see an attractive
plain. You walk towards it, but when you reach it, it turns into a plain of weapons,
cut ting your feet to ribbons. Similarly, you see what appears to be a pleasant forest,
but once you arrive there it becomes a 'Forest of Sword Blades' where your body is
gashed and chopped. Then you see a river and go towards it to have a drink, but it
transforms into a 'Swamp of Putrefying Corpses'. You become submerged in it up to
your head and worms with metal beaks eat away at your flesh. Alternatively, you
may see a shady trench, but once you arrive there it changes into a 'Pit of Hot
Embers' and sinking inside it, you suffer as your flesh and bones are burnt away.
These are the sixteen Neighbouring Hells that ring the Hell of Ultimate Torment.

The Ephemeral Hells are changing, in the sense that their location is not fixed and
the degree of pain experienced there is also uncertain. You suffer through taking
birth in a door, pillar, fireplace, rope and so onin a mortar, a broom, or a pot. You
suffer as you are trapped inside a stone, crushed between rocks, burned in a fire,
boiled alive, or cut limb from limb as a piece of wood is cut. These are the
'Ephemeral Hells' in which you are always made use of and exploited.

The cause of being born in any of these eighteen hells could be a vast accumulation
of harmful actions perpetrated out of desire or delusion. Even so, a single momentary
act such as taking life or speaking harsh words to an exceptional being, when carried
out with a mind of intense anger, will propel you straight to the hells. As it is said in
the Bodhicaryvatra:

If a single moments negative action,

Can lead to an aeon in the Avci hell,
Then with all our harmful acts accumulated in sasra without beginning,
What chance is there of going to higher realms?

Pray with the words of the text, Whenever intense hatred and aggression arises, O
Guru Rinpoche, turn my mind towards the practicecare for me! Omniscient
masters Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa, keep me from straying onto the wrong
paths! Compassionate lama, you who are one with themcare for me!

It is essential to give up your conflicting emotions. The Letter to a Friend states:

Having heard of these boundless sufferings,

Only someone with a mind as hard as a diamond
Would remain unaffected and unafraid.

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 And if just seeing pictures, hearing descriptions,
Or reading and thinking about the hells brings you such terror,
What will you do when you actually experience there
The full, inexorable effects of your actions?

Likewise, with sufferings similar to those of the hells, the preta realm is destitute of
food and drink, creating hunger and thirst. It is a grim place of rocks and charred
tree stumps, where the words 'food', 'drink' or 'comfort' have never even been
heard. In the past, roa travelled to the preta realm and, growing thirsty, he asked
the beings there where he could find some water. They replied that although they
were born there twelve years previously this was the first time they had heard
mention of water. Since these pretas do not find anything to eat or drink for
months and years on end, their bodies are emaciated like skeletons and they lack
even the strength to stand. There are three different kinds of suffering they
experience.

Firstly, those with external obscurations will go for many months and years without
even hearing any mention of food or water. Then, from time to time, they might see
a stream or some fruit trees far away in the distance. With weak limbs and aching
joints they struggle to get there, but as they approach they find that the water has all
dried up or the trees have withered away. Or else the water and trees are still there,
but they are guarded by beings who carry weapons, which they use to beat the pretas
and cause them pain.3

The pretas with specific obscurations undergo sufferings such as having many
creatures living on their bodies devouring them.

The life span for beings in this realm is about fifteen thousand human years.

There are many reasons for being born as a hungry ghost, such as eating in the
afternoon after taking the vows of a one-day fast, but the principal cause is being
miserly or greedy for wealth and possessions.

Animals living in the wild are in constant dread of being eaten by one another or
killed by hunters. Domestic animals are exploited and worked until exhaustion,
forced to pull ploughs or carry heavy loads. Even when sores break out on their
backs they are just given more to carry. They are made to carry people on their
backs and they are often killed. Bewildered as to what to do or not to do, they have
no idea how to practise virtue and only amass negative actions, so they are
oppressed by limitless suffering and lack any means of escaping from sasra.

The seed or cause for being born in such a state is wandering into the darkness of
stubborn stupidity, and thereby failing to undertake virtue and refrain from non-
virtue. So pray as follows, From this day forwards, O Guru Rinpoche, turn my mind
towards the practicecare for me! Omniscient masters, Longchenpa and Jigme

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Lingpa, keep me from straying onto the wrong paths! Compassionate lama, you
who are one with themcare for me!

Therefore we must practise virtue and give up negative actions.

Even in the higher realms of the gods and human beings there is no real happiness.

As the Application of Mindfulness Stra says:

There is never any joy in sasra,

Not even the tip of a needles worth.

And the Lord Maitreya said:

There is no joy among the five classes of beings,

Just as there can be no pleasant fragrance in a cesspit.

As humans we face the three fundamental sufferings, the four great rivers of
suffering of birth, ageing, sickness and death, the sufferings caused by fear of
encountering hated enemies, or parting from loved ones, and the sufferings of facing
situations we do not want, or not getting what we do want.

The asuras or demi-gods suffer from wars and strife. The gods face the suffering of
death and transmigration, and the suffering of falling into the lower realms.

So, no matter where we might take birth, among any of the six classes of beings,
there is nowhere that is beyond the nature of suffering.

As the Treasury of Essential Instructions says:

Our cherished homes and countries are like the iron cells of hell,
Wives and children are like the forest of sword blades,
Decorations and fine clothes are like the fiery tongues of flame,
Food and drink are burning lumps of metal,
And servants and workers the guardians of hell,
Angry quarrels are like a hail of glowing embers
Understand that they all bring virtue and goodness to ruin.

e. How to Follow a Spiritual Friend

Having entered the path of the Dharma, and taken the outer vows of the prtimoka
[Skt.]the vows of an upsaka/upsik [Skt.] (lay practitioner), novice or a fully
ordained monk or nunyou still havent put a stop to your erring ways and
transgress the four root and various branch vows.

You have entered the door of the Mahayana, aroused the bodhicitta motivation of
wishing to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings and taken the

13
vows of the bodhicitta of aspiration and application. But you simply repeat phrases
like, May all beings have happiness! and so on, whilst lacking any beneficial
thought for others, and with an attitude that is malicious and deceitful.

Having embarked upon the path of secret mantra, and received the vase
empowerment you are required to practice kyrim [Tib.], or the development phase.
Having received the secret empowerment, you should practice mantra recitation;
having received the knowledge empowerment, you should meditate on dzogrim
[Tib.] (the completion phase); and having received the fourth empowerment, you
should meditate on the meaning of shunyata. Though you have received these four
empowerments many times you do not even do the slightest practice of the
development and completion phases of meditation.

Considering how you have strayed onto wrong paths, pray with the words, O lama,
free me from these false paths! This is a prayer to avoid falling under the influence
of your conflicting emotions. Through relying upon a qualified master you should
maintain the precepts of the prtimoka, the bodhisattva vows, and the commitments
of secret mantra, as they are described in their respective texts. Then, through the
coming together of the masters blessing and your own faith and diligence, like a
hook passing through a ring, you will be liberated from sasra, crossing over to its
far shore.

Apart from that, there is not some other method whereby the lama just releases you
from sasra, without your having to undertake positive actions and abandon
negative actions, like a passenger carried along in a ferry or someone liberated by
being killed with a weapon. If this were the case, then since the buddhas love all
sentient beings equally as their very own children, they would liberate all limitless
beings in an instant, without leaving a single one behind in sasra. There was not
the slightest hairs breadth of a difference between the love Buddha kyamuni felt
for Devadatta and the love he felt for Rhula. If his compassion and blessings alone
could have liberated them, it would have been impossible for Devadatta to fall into
the hells.

So it is very important that you take the words of the Buddha and your master to
heart and put them into practice just as they have taught. As our Teacher said:

I have shown you the path to liberation.

But liberation depends on you alone.
So practise with diligence!

And ntideva said:

14
 Countless buddhas, working for beings benefit,
Have already come and gone;
Yet on account of my faults,
I have not been an object of their healing,
And if I continue on this course,
Again and again, it will be the same.

Although you have not realized the view of shunyata, you act recklessly as if you
were a master of crazy wisdom and disregard the law of cause and effect. Though
you are distracted in your meditation and lack the qualities described in the
scriptures, you allow yourself to remain stuck in concepts, and proudly refuse to
follow a qualified teacher. If you were really putting your heart into the practice,
your body, speech, and mind would be in complete harmony with the teachings, as
was the case with Glorious Atia and Gesh Ben. Each time they had a negative
thought, they would drop it immediately, and get down from their horse to perform
a mandala offering. This is how you should be. But instead of this, even though your
mind is filled with disturbing emotions and the actions of your body and speech are
at fault, you ignore your own shortcomings and dwell on the imperfections of
others. This is like having a ghost at your eastern door and performing the ransom
ritual of l at the door in the west. Having an intellectual understanding of the
difference between beneficial and harmful actions and then acting in a way that
contradicts the teachings is a sign that you are Dharma-stubborn, like the hide of a
butter bag, which is made tough by constantly being in contact with grease.

Pray that the lama may free you from your stubbornness and non-Dharmic
behaviour and then practise according to the teachings.

Although you suffer from sickness and could die tomorrow, you are full of craving
for and attachment to houses, clothes, and possessions. Although your youth has
passed and you are quite old, you do not have the slightest disenchantment or
renunciation for sasra. Although you possess only the slightest wisdom gained
through study, reflection and meditation, like the frog who lived in the well, you
pride yourself on all your knowledge. This arrogance comes from falling under the
power of delusion, so pray that the lama will free you from such ignorance, and
then abandon your attachment to sasra and your pride in your own qualities.

The time of your death is uncertain and, like a candle in the breeze or a little bird on
the branch of a tree, you are surrounded by potentially dangerous circumstances. Yet
still you forget about death and busy yourself with the affairs of this life, such as
taking part in local rituals. With a mind that is distracted, you may physically remain
in solitary retreats, but all the while your basic character remains as tough as a
block of wood. To remain calm like a jackal in the woods, without having uprooted
your disturbing emotions, speaking softly, while attachment and aversion boil inside
your mind, is like the behaviour of a crane or a cat. All of this is a sign that you are

15
under the influence of the eight worldly obsessions: gain brings you happiness, and
loss makes you suffer; you are happy to receive praise, but blame makes you angry;
fame makes you happy, and insignificance saddens you; and you are joyful in
happiness, but despair when you suffer. Pray with the words, O lama, free me from
these eight worldly concerns!

You should not allow yourself to become too preoccupied with concerns such as
happiness and suffering, but view them all equallyin one tasteand integrate them
into your practice. This is achieved firstly by recognizing that the one who is happy
when praised and becomes sad when blamed is essentially empty. Both are equally
illusory, dream-like, and lacking in true reality. Secondly, it is said:

When you are happy, dedicate it as a gathering of virtue:

May all of space be filled with benefit and happiness!

Whenever you experience happiness by gaining wealth or renown, or new clothes,

or eating a delicious meal, instead of holding onto that pleasure as your own, train
your mind by dedicating it. Think to yourself, May all sentient beings, especially the
hungry ghosts, the poor and the homeless, all enjoy this kind of happiness and
pleasure!

When suffering befalls you, such as when, for example, you hear something
unpleasant or are afflicted by illness, it is said:

When you suffer, take on the sufferings of all,

May the ocean of suffering dry up completely!

Train your mind by thinking to yourself, In addition to my own sufferings, may I

take on the sufferings of all beings and may they enjoy happiness and well-being!

Pray in the following way: Quickly rouse me from this deep sleep of ignorance, in
which I am like an animal who does not understand the difference between positive
and negative actions! And pray that you may be inspired by a healthy fear of
causing harm and an enthusiasm for beneficial actions.

Throughout the course of your lifetimes without beginning, up until the present, you
have not known how to practise the Dharma as a way of gaining freedom from
sasra. Instead, you continue to languish in sasras prison. Pray that you may
develop a genuine heart of sadness and renunciation and be quickly freed from the
dismal imprisonment within sasra, thereby attaining the state of liberation and
omniscience. Take this to heart.

The Treasury of Essential Instructions says:

One birth is sufficient: cut the ties of attachment today!

One accumulation is sufficient: see the master as the Buddha!

16
 One action is sufficient: accomplish the Lama Buddha!
One training is sufficient: abandon non-Dharmic actions!
One recognition is sufficient: recognize the dharmat!
One practice is sufficient: abide by that very state of reality!

2. The Extraordinary Preliminaries

There are six sections to the extraordinary preliminaries.

a. Taking Refuge
The first of these sections is taking refuge, which is explained in terms of the
divisions of refuge, the way to take refuge, and finally the benefits and precepts of
refuge.

i. The Divisions of Refuge

Generally, it is said that refuge is the foundation stone of all Dharma practices, and
that which opens the door to refuge is faith. The importance of the three types of
faith has already been shown above. It may be further demonstrated by the stories of
Ben of Kongpo and the old lady and the dogs tooth.

ii. The Way to Take Refuge

As for the method of taking refuge, the field of merit should be visualized according
to the descriptions in the various commentaries. Then:

The Buddha, Dharma and Sagha are supreme among all that is rare, like a priceless
jewel. They constitute the outer refuge. The real essence or embodiment of these
three is the Sugata, the Buddha, as it says in the Sublime Continuum (Gy Lama):

The single refuge is the Buddha.

The three roots are the lama, yidam and khandro, the inner refuge of the secret
mantrayna. They are like the root or the basis for all the positive accumulations
until you attain enlightenment. Taking refuge in order to use the channels as the
nirmakya, train the inner air as the sambhogakya, and purify the tiklswhose
nature is the bodhicittaas the dharmakya is the secret refuge. The ultimate refuge
is the primordial wisdom present within the wisdom mind of these objects of refuge
the mandala of the empty essence, the cognizant nature and the all-pervading
compassionate energy. In order to accomplish this within our own mind-stream we
take refuge until enlightenment is fully realized. With this in mind we take the vow
of refuge.

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iii. Precepts and Benefits of Taking Refuge
As regards the precepts and benefits of taking refuge, in terms of precepts there are
three things to be abandoned, three things to be adopted and three supplementary
precepts. Firstly, having taken refuge in the Buddha, do not take worldly deities such
as local spirits as your outer refuge and do not make offerings to them. Having taken
refuge in the Dharma, refrain from harming other beings. Having taken refuge in the
Sagha, do not associate with non-buddhist extremists (trthikas), or anyone whose
behaviour is contrary to the teachings. Regarding the three things to be adopted,
having taken refuge in the Buddha, you should honour and respect any
representation of his body, even a tiny piece of broken statue. Having taken refuge in
the Dharma, you should respect and take care to preserve the written teachings, even
fragments of paper bearing a single syllable. In the past, when Lord Atia saw a
scribe putting his pen in his mouth as he wrote, he cried out, Atsama! Thats not
right! Having taken refuge in the Sagha, even a patch of red or yellow cloth from
their robes should inspire you with faith. As supplementary precepts, rely upon your
spiritual master and practise without doing anything that violates or conflicts with
his body, speech or mind. Listen to the teachings and follow the Dharma and the
Sagha.

It says in the Pigs Story (Pak Gi Tokj):

Whoever takes refuge in the Buddha

Will no longer be reborn in the lower realms.
Forsaking even the body of a human being,
They will be reborn among the gods.

And the Parinirva Stra says:

Whoever takes refuge in the Three [Jewels]

Will swiftly attain enlightenment.

b. Arousing Bodhicitta
There are three sections: training the mind in the four immeasurables; arousing
bodhicitta, the mind turned towards supreme enlightenment; and training in the
precepts of bodhicitta in aspiration and bodhicitta in application.

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i. Training the Mind in the Four Immeasurables
Ho is an expression of compassion. The objects of compassion are the beings of the
three realms and six classes. They are mesmerized by the variety of perceptions,
apprehending an I where there is no I, and a self where there is no self. These
misperceptions are said to be like seeing a pile of stones from a distance and
mistaking it for a person, or perceiving a coloured rope as a snake, or thinking, like a
small child, that the illusory (not truly existent) reflection of the moon which
appears in water is the real moon.

Cultivate compassion for beings by considering their miserable situation: all of them
throughout the three realms and six classesgrasp at their deluded perceptions,
imagining them to be real, and wander endlessly in sasra without finding any
escape, like the turning of a wheel, or a rosary.

All beings, as limitless in number as space is vast, are our very own mothers and
fathers who have shown us exactly the same kindness as our parents in our present
lifetime. So that these parents of ours may remain no longer in their pitiful state, and
instead attain enlightenment, finding comfort and ease in the luminosity and all-
pervading space of the true nature of their minds, we should train our minds by
means of the four immeasurables.

1. Equanimity

Initially, we need to train the mind in equanimity. The way in which we are
currently attached to our friends and aggressive towards our enemies is a fault which
comes from failing to examine the situation thoroughly. In reality, todays so-called
enemies have, in the course of our many past lifetimes, been dear friends who have
helped us enormously. And those whom we currently consider to be our friends
have been our enemies in past lifetimes, having caused us considerable harm.

The Noble Ktyyana said:

He eats his fathers flesh, while striking his own mother,

And cradles in his lap the enemy he killed;
The wife is gnawing at her husbands bones.
sasra is enough to make you laugh out loud!

Recognize that this bias, which currently causes us to see some people as our friends
and others as our enemies, is a result of having fallen under the power of ignorance.
Train your mind until you feel a benevolent attitude, like the one you have now for
your present mother and father, for all beings, especially your enemies and those
who create obstacles for you.

2. Love

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Then, since these beings have shown you exactly the same kindness as your current
parents, cultivate love for them all and wish them happiness in order to repay their
past kindness. Train yourself to be like parents caring for a small child, or a mother
bird looking after her young, so that all your actions of body, speech and mind are
undertaken only to ensure the happiness and well-being of others.

3. Compassion

Cultivate compassion, which is the wish for beings to be freed from suffering.
Imagine a prisoner who is about to be executed, or an animal at the slaughterhouse,
and put yourself in their position, or imagine that they are your own dear mother.
When you experience an unbearably intense feeling of compassion for them,
consider that although the one experiencing such suffering is not actually your
mother or father in this lifetime, he or she has been your mother and father
countless times throughout the course of your innumerable lifetimes. Practise
cultivating this compassion until you feel exactly the same compassion for all
sentient beings as you do for your own mother and father.

4. Joy

Whenever you see someone who is wealthy and powerful, and apparently enjoying
all the pleasures of the higher realms, or whenever you see someone who possesses
the qualities of scriptural learning and realization, do not feel resentful or envious of
them, even if you consider them to be an enemy. Instead, feel joyful and make the
wish that their riches and power increase even further. And pray that all sentient
beings may experience the same kind of good fortune. Train your mind in this way,
again and again.

If, when you practise training the mind in these four immeasurables, you proceed
gradually first considering your own parents; then including your friends and
relatives; and finally extending the practice to your enemiesyou will come to feel
the same love and compassion for your enemies as for your parents. This is the
measure of your mind training.

ii. Arousing Bodhicitta

As for the actual practice of arousing bodhicitta, whilst in a state that is mindful and
aware of these points of training the mind in the four immeasurables, visualize the
field of merit in front of youjust as you did in the refuge practicewhich then
becomes the witness to your arousing of bodhicitta.

The bodhicitta of wishing to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient
beings is pledging yourself to the goal. This is the bodhicitta of aspiration, which is
like making a wish to go to Lhasa, for example.

Vowing that until you attain enlightenment you will practise the six perfections,

20
such as generosity, and strive with effort until sasra is completely empty, is
pledging yourself to the cause. This is the bodhicitta of application, which is like
making the actual journey to Lhasa up until your eventual arrival there.

The Bodhicaryvatra says:

Understand that, briefly put,

bodhicitta has two aspects.

Just as one would know the difference

Between wishing to go and going on a journey,
The wise should understand these two,
Recognizing their difference and their order.

Once you have taken the vows of the bodhicitta of aspiration and application, whilst
being mindfully aware of the words of the practice and their meaning, the field of
merit melts into light and dissolves into you. Consider that all the two-fold bodhicitta
present within the wisdom minds of the deities arises within your own mind-stream.
And then rest in the state of indivisible emptiness and compassion.

iii. Training in the Bodhicitta Precepts

Thirdly, there is training in the bodhicitta precepts. This includes, in the context of
the bodhicitta of aspiration, meditations on equalizing self and others, exchanging
self and others, and considering others as more important than yourself. And for the
bodhicitta of application there is the practice of the six perfections.

1. Precepts of the bodhicitta of Aspiration

Firstly, since all beings are equal in that they want happiness and wish to avoid
suffering, we should abandon the attitude of attachment and aversion which causes
us to cherish ourselves and feel aggressive towards others. Train in the practice so
that you view yourself and other beings as equals.

Secondly, the way to meditate on exchanging self and others is to practise giving
happiness and receiving suffering as you breathe in and out (the practice of tonglen).
No matter what unwanted suffering comes your way, focus on wishing to take on
the suffering of others as well. Train your mind in this practice, which is illustrated
by the story of Daughter, and the Buddha pulling a wagon in the hell realm.4

When you train your mind in considering others as more important than yourself,
cultivate the willingness to take birth even in the hells should it be of benefit to other
beings. This is illustrated by the stories of Atias teachers Maitryogi and
Dharmarakita; the bodhisattva Metok Dadze; and the Buddha in his earlier rebirths.

2. Precepts of the Bodhicitta of Application

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Then, the training in the precepts of the bodhicitta of application, which is training
in the six pramits, or the six perfections.

The first of these, generosity, is divided into material giving, giving the Dharma, and
giving protection from fear. You should practise these three kinds of generosity
according to your capacity. At the very least, you should offer Sur (burnt offerings)
and water tormas, since this offering incorporates all three kinds of giving.

Discipline is divided into the discipline of avoiding negative actions, the discipline of
undertaking positive actions, and the discipline of bringing benefit to beings. The
first kind of discipline means that you give up even the slightest unwholesome deed
of body, speech or mind. The second means that you strive to practise virtue as much
as you possibly can, beginning with the tiniest of positive acts. Be sure to embrace
these acts with the proper preparation, main part and conclusion. Thirdly, bringing
benefit to beings means working for the welfare of others through the four ways of
attracting disciples,5 once the time has come for you to do so, and when you are free
from any selfish motivation. For beginners, it is most important to train the mind in
the first two types of discipline with the bodhicitta motivation of wishing to benefit
others.

Patience consists of being patient when wronged; the patience to bear hardships for
the Dharma; and the patience to bear the profound truth without fear.

Diligence is divided into armour-like diligence; diligence in action, which means

exerting yourself to practice the Dharma and fearing laziness with as much energy as
someone who discovers a poisonous snake in his or her lap; and insatiable diligence.
Insatiable diligence is never being satisfied by a little, or a few months, or even a few
years of virtuous practice, and instead exerting yourself to practise throughout your
entire life.

Meditative concentration includes the childish concentration of those who practise in

isolation away from distractions and busyness, but are attached to the experiences of
bliss, clarity and absence of thought. There is also the clearly discerning
concentration in which emptiness is clung to as an antidote; and the concept-free
samdhi of intrinsic reality, which is known as 'the concentration delighting the
Tathgatas'. These should be practised successively, in stages.

Sixth, is the pramit of wisdom. Through the wisdom that comes from hearing, you
are able to recognize the disturbing emotions. Then, through the wisdom that comes
from reflection, you are able to overcome the disturbing emotions temporarily. And
finally, through the wisdom that comes through meditation, you conquer completely
the enemy of negative emotions and obtain the confidence of knowing inexpressible
and inconceivable reality with the wisdom of discriminating awareness.

22
If you fail to arouse this altruistic attitude of bodhicitta in your mind, then, however
much you might act virtuously and avoid negativity for your own sake, you will not
become enlightened.

The Bodhicaryvatra says:

What need is there to say more?

The childish work for their own benefit,
The buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them.

c. Meditation and Recitation of Vajrasattva

In the practice of Vajrasattva, the four powers must be complete.

The first of the four powers is the power of support. signifies the unborn nature.
Reflect on how all phenomena included within your ordinary dualistic perception
are empty, devoid of self and sky-like. From that state, the essence of which is clear
and spacious, generate compassion for all those who have not realized this
themselves. And then, with the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all
beings, visualize yourself in your ordinary form. Consider that about eighteen
inches above your head is a white lotus. If you are following the extensive
commentary [Kunzang Lamai Shelung] the lotus has a thousand petals, whereas
according to the briefer commentary [by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo] it has eight
petals. Upon it, in the centre of a full moon-disc seat, is a white syllable H,
which melts into light and becomes your own root lama in the form of Vajrasattva.
He is brilliant white, with complete sambhogakya adornments.

He is ornamented with all thirteen adornments: the five silk adornments of the
headscarf, upper garment, long scarf, belt and lower garment; and the eight jewelled
ornaments of the crown, earrings, short necklace, armlets, two long necklaces (one
longer than the other), bracelets, anklets and rings.

His legs are crossed in the vajra posture. His right hand holds a vajra at his heart,
and his left holds a bell against his hip. The consort white Vajratopa (Dorje
Nyemma) has her legs crossed in the lotus posture, and is embracing Vajrasattva.

Consider that their bodies appear vividly and distinctly, yet lack any true reality, just
like reflections in a mirror.

Then, understanding that it is through relying on you, Lama Vajrasattva, and taking
you as a refuge and support with one-pointed faith that all our negative actions will
be purified, we pray: Take care of me and all other beings! Look after us! Purify all
our negative actions and obscurations! Pray like this with such intense devotion
that tears come to your eyes.

23
The second power is the power of regret. Consider how, throughout all your
lifetimes, throughout beginningless time until now, you have accumulated negative
actions with your body, speech and mind. And even in this life, you have committed
intrinsically negative acts such as the ten non-virtues, and proscribed negative acts,
which are all the transgressions of the prtimoka, bodhisattva and mantrayna
vows.

With the deepest regret, like somebody who has swallowed poison, you should
acknowledge all your negative acts without concealing anything, and without
hiding anything. Without any thought of keeping your negative actions secret,
openly confess them, saying to yourself: I committed this negative action. I acted
wrongly in this way. I did this and that.

Just as, in society, if we are guilty of a crime such as manslaughter we are made to
express our regret and then pay compensation, here, too, we should confess our
negative actions of the past and then vow not to repeat them.

The third power is the power of resolve, or the power of turning away from faults
and misconduct. In the past, you have accumulated all kinds of negative actions out
of ignorance, disrespect, recklessness, and turbulent emotions. But now, through the
kindness of your spiritual master, you understand the gains and losses incurred as a
result of positive and negative actions. So from now on, even if your life is at stake,
vow to refrain from harmful actions.

The fourth power is the power of action as an antidote. Even though any virtuous
action will function as an antidote to our negativity, in this practice we concentrate
on visualizing the deity and reciting the mantra.

So, the text says:

In Vajrasattvas heart, upon a full moon, is the letter HUNG, encircled by the
letters of the hundred syllable mantra mala. Reciting the hundred syllables of the
mantra causes rays of light to emanate from the mantra mla, invoking his wisdom
mind. From the point of union of the bliss-emptiness play of yab-yum, a cloud of
nectar, the nature of which is bodhicitta, flows down like a stream of milk(or
camphor) and enters my body through the top of my head and the heads of all
sentient beings of the three worlds. Through this, my past negative karma and
more immediate destructive emotionsthe causes of sufferingare purified.

All illnesses are expelled through the pores of the skin and the two lower orifices of
your body, in the form of pus and blood. All harmful influences (dn) are expelled in
the form of creatures such as spiders, scorpions and snakes. All negative actions and
obscurations are expelled in the form of black liquid, smoke and soot. The ground
beneath you opens up to reveal Yama, the Lord of Death, surrounded by his
entourage, the controllers of karmic debts. All the impurities flow into their open

24
mouths. They are satisfied. All your karmic debts are repaid and untimely death is
averted. Yama turns away and the earth closes up again.

Pray that all your faults and imperfections, such as the wrongdoing of the ten non-
virtues, which are negative by their very nature, the downfalls that are infractions of
discipline and the blockages due to breakages of samaya are completely purified,
till not a single one remains.

Recite the hundred syllable mantra, considering that as a result of your one- pointed
faith, your body becomes clear and unobstructed inside and out, like a crystal vase
filled with milk. As it fills with nectar, you obtain the four empowerments and the
wisdom of the four joys arises in your mind-stream.

Cry out to your master like a child calling for its mother. We use the words, O
protector! because the master serves all beings as their refuge, and protector. Under
the power of ignorance and delusion, not knowing the benefits of positive actions
and the faults of harmful actions, I have gone against and corrupted my samaya.
Lama protector, be my refuge and protect me from the experience of suffering!
Chief of all the mandalas, embodiment of all the buddhas, Guru Vajradhara you are
the embodiment of great compassion. Chief of all living beings, until
enlightenment I take refuge in you!

There are twenty-seven root samayas of the body, speech and mind.6 Firstly, there
are three sets of three samayas related to the body. The outer three are to abandon
stealing, sexual misconduct and taking life. The inner three are to abandon abusing
your father and mother, your vajra family and your own body; abusing the Dharma
and other individuals, and striking your own body; and forcing yourself to undergo
the hardship of extreme ascetic discipline. The secret three are to abandon striking
the body of a vajra relative, or criticizing ornaments they may be wearing; striking
your vajra sisters or making sexual advances to the lamas consort; and stepping on
or over the lamas shadow, or acting carelessly with your body and speech in the
lamas presence.

There are three sets of three commitments related to the speech. The outer three are
to abandon lying, slander and harsh words. The inner three are to abandon speaking
disrespectfully about someone who teaches the Dharma, who contemplates its
meaning, or who meditates on the natural state. The secret three are to abandon
being disrespectful about what is said by vajra brothers and sisters, those in the
masters entourage, or the master himself.

There are three sets of three commitments related to the mind. The outer three are to
abandon malice, covetousness and wrong view. The inner three are to abandon
careless activity; dullness or agitation in your meditation; and clinging to the views
of eternalism or nihilism. The secret three are to maintain an awareness of the view,
meditation and action throughout every session of practice, to maintain an

25
awareness of the yidam deity, and to have faith in the teacher and love for your vajra
brothers and sisters.

There are twenty-five branch samayas.7 Firstly, there are the five to be recognized:
the five aggregates, the five elements, the five faculties, the five consciousnesses, and
the five objects. They should be recognized as the mandala of deities of the three
seats.8 Once they have been understood, there are the five to be accomplished: the
vajra family, ratna family, padma family, karma family and tathgata family. There
are five substances to be accepted at the time of accomplishment: faeces, urine, blood,
semen and marrow. There are five signs of warmth in the practice not to be rejected:
the transformation of the five poisons, which are matured into the five wisdoms.
There are five to be practised when the signs on the path have become manifest: the
three [negative] actions of the body and lying and idle gossip. You should practise
them in order to accomplish the benefit of others.

I confess all my impairments of these commitments! I implore you: let my negative

actions caused by disturbing emotions, cognitive obscurations, and wrongs or
downfalls, such as those described aboveall my flawsbe completely cleansed
and purified!

By confessing and making a resolution in this way, with all four powers complete,
Vajrasattva is pleased and smiling, says: Son/daughter of an enlightened family,
your negative actions, obscurations, wrong doing and downfalls are all purified.
Granting his forgiveness, he melts into light and dissolves into you. Through this,
you too become Vajrasattva, appearing yet empty, like a reflection in a mirror. At
your heart, upon a full moon , is H, around which the four brilliantly radiant
syllables O VAJRA SA TVA emanate rays of five-coloured light. Offering
goddesses appear at the tip of each ray of light, holding boundless offering
substances, such as the eight auspicious symbols, in their hands. They offer these to
the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, who are pleased and send back
their blessings and siddhis in the form of five-coloured rays of light which dissolve
into you. Light rays emanate from the mantra mla once again, transforming the
outer environment into the pure land of Abhirati ('Manifest Joy'), and causing all
beings to take on the nature of Vajrasattvas enlightened body, speech and mind.
With this in mind, recite the mantra.

At the end of the session, the outer environment dissolves into the bodies of the
Vajrasattvas within it. All their bodies dissolve into you. You melt into light, which is
absorbed into the mantra mla. The mantra mla dissolves into the H. The H
then gradually dissolves, beginning with the shyabkyu (the vowel sign), and you rest
in the state of nyat.

Then, in a single instant, you visualize the environment and beings as the pure realm
and Vajrasattvas once again, and dedicate the merit and make aspirations.

26
When you practise visualization and recitation like this, it is vital not to interrupt the
recitation with ordinary speech, and not to allow the mind to become distracted. As it
says in the tantras:

If you lack samdhi meditation,

You are just like a stone in the oceans depths:
You might recite the mantra for aeons,
But still there will be no result.

Nevertheless, if you can do the practice with the attitude of bodhicitta and with the
four powers complete, then you will purify even serious harmful actions. As
ntideva said:

Like the inferno at the end of time,

Instantly, it will burn away harmful deeds.

d. Offering the Maala

Your practice should be embraced by the points of good in the beginning, good in
the main part, and good at the conclusion.

If you are accumulating the practice and you have an accomplishment maala,
anoint it with bajung and scented water, and, having arranged five piles [of gems,
medicines or rice] on top of it, place it on your shrine. If you do not have an
accomplishment maala, visualize the field of merit as before.

The material of the offering maala plate should suit your resources: precious metal
is best; other metals, such as bell-metal, are the next best; while materials like stone
or wood may be used as a last resort.

Precious stones make the best offering substances; medicines are the next best; and
at worst, you could use grains, such as barley or rice, when cleaned and washed with
scented water.

Wipe the maala clean again and again, and anoint it with scented water and
bajung. Then offer the Thirty-Seven Point Mandala as it is generally done.

In this particular context, we offer what is known as the Trikya Maala.

O, and H were explained earlier.

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i. Nirmakya
The four continents, Mount Meru and the god realms up to the Abode of Brahm
constitute a single realm. Multiplying this realm by a thousand, you arrive at what is
called a first-order universe of one thousand worlds. Multiplying this universe by a
thousand, you arrive at an intermediate universe of one thousand times one
thousand worlds. If you then multiply the intermediate universe a thousand times,
you will have what is called a billion-fold universe, which is one hundred times ten
million worlds.

This billion-fold universe is filled with the seven precious gems and all the wealth
of gods, ngas and human beings, both riches that are owned and natural riches
possessed by no one. Visualize the whole universe filled with precious gems and so
on, and then consider also your own body, possessions and sources of meritthe
three bases of self-clinging and offer them all continually and in their entirety. Pray
that, as a result, you may turn the wheel of the Dharma, just as Buddha kyamuni
did.

ii. Sambhogakya
The inconceivable paradise of the sambhogakya is the highest heaven because it is
above the nirmakya realms, and it is also a place of Great Bliss, because bliss and
emptiness are indivisible within the minds of beings who dwell there. It is known as
Tukpo Kpa ('Densely Arrayed') because it is beyond measure, and it is perfect with
the five certainties. The certain place is this pure realm of Ghanavyha, or Tukpo
Kpa. The certain teachers are the buddhas of the five families. The certain teaching
is the Mahyna, or that which is beyond words. The certain audience is made up of
tenth bhmi bodhisattvas. And the certain time is the perpetually turning wheel of
eternity.

Visualize this maala of the buddhas of the five families and then consider that
countless offering goddesses, such as the goddess of beauty and so on, manifest
within it. The entire space becomes filled with inconceivably vast clouds of
offerings of every variety of sensual and emotional stimulants. Pray that through
this offering, you may enjoy the perfection of the sambhogakya fields.

iii. Dharmakya
Where all appearance and existence are completely pure signifies that there is no
falling into the fixed view that the whole outer and inner universethe environment
and beingsare solid and real. Instead, everything is vast, expansive and profoundly
spacious. Since the essence of the dharmakya is beyond birth and death, it is
described as youthful, and since there is a clarity that comes from its knowing
aspect, it is called the vase body.

When this wisdom mind of the dharmakya is taken as the base of the maala, then

28
the ornaments of the dharmakya are all the rising thoughts. These rising thoughts
manifest from the dynamic energy and play of dharmat emptiness and unceasing
compassion, which are unstained by disturbing emotions.

All clinging to the perception of kyas and tikls, which can occur from the stage
of 'increase of experience' [the second of the four visions of tgal] until 'awareness
reaching full maturity' [the third vision], is naturally liberated.

Pray that through this offering, with its piles representing the dynamic energy of the
dharmakya, you may attain the level of the dharmakya and enjoy the freedom of
the dharmakya reality.

e. The Kuslis Accumulation

The word kusli means beggar. Hermits and renunciants who lack any other
possessions make offerings of their own bodies. We cherish our bodies more than
any of our other belongings, so the benefits of making them into an offering are also
greater. As it is said:

Offering your horse or elephant is worth hundreds of other offerings;

Offering your child or spouse is worth thousands;
Offering your own body is worth hundreds of thousands.

Jetsn Milarepa described the meaning of the syllable Pha as follows:

The outer Pha gathers together thoughts that are scattered.

The inner Pha clears away the dullness of awareness.
The ultimate Pha is resting in the natural condition.

By abandoning all thoughts of self-grasping and attachment to this body held so

dear, the demonic forces of seduction through desire (the Mra of the Son of the
Gods) are destroyed. Your consciousness becomes a sphere of light, which shoots
out through the 'aperture of Brahm' at the crown of your head into all-pervading
space. Immediately, in order to destroy the demonic force of death (the 'Mra of the
Lord of Death') your consciousness transforms into Trma Nakmo, holding a hooked
knife in her right hand and a skull-cup in her left, and with a sows head protruding
from behind her right ear.

With her right hand she uses the hooked knife that symbolizes destruction of the
demonic forces of conflicting emotions (the 'Mra of Disturbing Emotions') to slice
the top off your corpses skull, destroying the demonic forces of the aggregates of
ego (the 'Mra of the Skandhas'). Her left hand holds the skull-cup to carry out her
activity, which she places on the hearth of three human heads inwardly
representing the three kyas, each as big as Mount Meru. The skull-cup is placed so
that the brow is facing towards you and then the corpse, now an offering as vast as
a billion worlds, is placed inside it with the hooked knife in her right hand.

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Below the skull-cup, the fire of wisdom blazes up from the stroke of a letter A and
this causes nectar to melt and drip from the upside-down white syllable HA above.
Consider that any impurities are purified through O, the offering is multiplied
through , and transformed through H into great clouds of 'space-treasury'
offerings with the essential nature of wisdom nectar, but manifesting as whatever
beings desire.

Recite O H as many times as you can.

Then visualize the field of merit as it appears in the refuge practice, surrounded by
all the beings of the six classes, especially those beings that cause you harm. From
your heart, emanate countless offering goddesses. Immaculate nectar is the white
feast offered by the offering goddesses to the guests above, pleasing and satisfying
them. Inconceivable offering substances manifest out of the steam that rises from the
boiling nectar: the five offerings such as flowers, the five sensual pleasures such as
visible forms, the eight auspicious symbols, the seven emblems of royalty and the
five meats and five nectars. This is the variegated feast, and offering it pleases the
guests, whereby the two accumulations of merit and wisdom are accumulated and,
as the attainment of the supreme siddhi, your mind is perfected in the two types of
bodhicitta. You also attain the ordinary accomplishments of long life, increased merit
and so on.

For the guests belowthe beings of the six classes of sasrathe kins take the
nectar from the skull-cup and scatter it so that it falls from the sky like rain. Consider
that all sentient beings receive some of the nectar to drink and are satisfied. As the
variegated feast, consider that whatever the beings of the six classes desire rains
down on them and through this they are pleased and satisfied. The creditors to
whom you owe karmic debts that shorten your life because you have killed, that
plague you with sickness because you have attacked and beaten others, and that
make you poor because you have stolen, receive whatever they desire: food, clothes,
houses, land and so on. As they enjoy these offerings, consider that all your debts are
repaid.

In particular, think of the jungpo demons of the eighty thousand classes, who create
obstacles for you and cause harm to sentient beings, together with the lame, the
blind, the deaf and the mute, who gather in the hope of receiving the leftovers. To all
the harmful influences and obstructing forces that crave flesh and blood, dedicate a
mountain of flesh, an ocean of blood and a mass of bones piled up like the banks of a
river, imagining it all to be like the flesh and blood of a seventh-birth brahmin.9
Consider that it satisfies them physically and they develop the attitude of bodhicitta
in their minds. Then the remaining guests all receive and enjoy whatever they desire,
such as food or clothing. The lame receive the limbs of miraculous powers. The blind
obtain the eyes of wisdom. The deaf hear immaculate sounds. The mute receive the
tongue of intelligence and so on. In this way, all those who are weak and

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underprivileged are satisfied.

Through the merit and virtue of this, all illnesses that plague the body, all
conflicting emotions that disturb the mind, and all destructive influences and
obstacles are pacified into all-pervading space. Harmful circumstances that conflict
with the Dharma, all selfish clinging to wealth and possessions, and thoughts of self-
grasping are exploded.

Finally, the offering of the body and the mind that offers, together with all the
guests to whom the offerings are made, dissolve into the nature of Dzogpachenpo,
the fundamental nature of your mind, in which they are no longer clung to as being
true, but seen as illusory and dream-like. This is the state of nyat. Resting in this
great simplicity, seal the practice into the dharmadhtu sphere of intrinsic reality
with the syllable .

Unless you exert yourself in gathering the accumulations and purifying your
obscurations through practices such as this, meditative experience and realization
will never arise.

The Treasury of Songs of Realization (Dohas) says:

Ultimate co-emergent wisdom can only come,

From gathering the accumulations and purifying obscurations,
And through the blessings of a realized master.
It would be foolish to rely on any other method.

f. Guru Yoga
Within Guru Yogathe practice that brings swift blessingsthere are three sections.

i. Visualization of the Field of Merit

Emaho is an expression of wonder and amazement. What is so wonderful and
amazing?

Guru Rinpoche, the Precious Master of Orgyen, was not stained by an ordinary birth,
but was born miraculously in the Milky Lake in the northwest10 of Oiyna. Then,
in India and Tibet, he subdued arrogant spirits and demons and worked as a regent
of the Buddhadharma. Finally, he attained the immortal vajra body, and travelled to
the island of the rkasas in the southwest, where he now resides, having established
the teachings there and transformed the place into a pure realm. This is wonderful
and amazing.

Do not perceive your surroundings as ordinary and constructed through effort and
exertion. Instead, you should see your environment as a pure realm manifesting
naturally and spontaneously through Orgyen Rinpoches blessings. Although this is

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generally said to be a nirmakya realm for taming beings, for someone who has
extraordinary perception this is a realm of infinite purity, a heaven of the
dharmakya, sambhogakya and nirmakya.

In the Prayer of Aspiration for the Copper-Coloured Mountain of Glory,11 the nine
verses from the line, A spontaneous arrayetc to the line, Sending out clouds of
offerings establish the nirmakya realm. Then the verse beginning, Above lies
the limitless palace of the sambhogakya, establishes the sambhogakya realm.
Then the verse that begins, Above, in the joyful pure land of the dharmakya,
establishes the dharmakya.

So this three kya realm arrayed in complete and perfect detail is the Glorious
Copper Coloured Mountain. And here, in the very centre of a palace, is your own
body, manifesting with the essential nature of Yeshe Tsogyal, but the form of
Vajrayogin.

She has one face and two hands, and her body is a bright blazing red. If you are
following the commentary of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, she holds a hooked knife
in the right hand and a skull-cup full of blood in the left. According to Patrul
Rinpoches commentary, she is playing a skull-drum with her right hand, whilst her
left hand holds a hooked knife against her hip. She is standing with her two feet
gracefully poised, the left leg slightly drawn in, and she is wearing silk and bone
ornaments. Her three eyes gaze into the sky in devotion.

In the sky directly above the crown of your head (according to Patrul Rinpoches
commentary) or in the space level with the top of your head and facing you
(according to Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo), seated upon sun and moon- disc seats and
a multi-coloured lotus with a thousand petals, is the embodiment of all sources of
refuge, inseparable from your own root master, in the form of the nirmakya
'Lake-born Vajra'.

His complexion is white with a tinge of red and he has the youthful appearance of
an eight-year old child. He is wearing the dark blue gown of a mantra practitioner,
the red and yellow shawl of a monk, the maroon cloak of a king, and the red robe
and secret white garments of a bodhisattva. He has one face and two hands, and he
is seated in royal poise. In his right hand he holds a vajra at his heart, and in his left
hand he holds a skull-cup, which contains the vase of immortality, filled with
deathless wisdom nectar, in its centre.

On his head he wears a five-petalled lotus hat, which has three points symbolizing
the three kyas, five colours symbolizing the five kyas, a sun and moon symbolizing
skilful means and wisdom, a vajra top to symbolize unshakable samdhi, and a
vultures feather to represent the realization of the highest view.

Cradled in his left arm he holds the 'supreme consort', Mandarava, who arouses the

32
wisdom of bliss and emptiness, concealed as the three-pointed khavga trident.
The three prongs of the trident symbolize the essence, nature and compassionate
energy. Three severed heads, dry, fresh and rotten, symbolize the dharmakya,
sambhogakya and nirmakya. Nine iron rings represent the nine ynas and five-
coloured strips of silk symbolize the five wisdoms. The khavga is also adorned
with locks of hair from dead and living mamos and kins, as a sign that they have
been subjugated.

He presides amidst a shimmering aura of rays and rings of rainbow light. All
around him, enveloped in a beautiful lattice of white, blue, yellow, red and green
light, are the King Trisong Detsen, the twenty-five disciples, all the paitas and
mahpaitas of India such as Vimalamitra, the eighty mahsiddhas, and all the
great scholars and accomplished vidydharas of Tibet.

Also present are the peaceful and wrathful yidam deities associated with the four
classes of tantra, the kas and kins of the three abodes, and an ocean-like
gathering of dharmaplas, guardians and protectors who keep the samaya. They all
gather like billowing clouds.

All the deities are vivid and distinct, like reflections in a mirror. Visualize them in
the state of the great equality of clarity and emptiness, so that all your ordinary
perceptions cease.

Then, when you invoke the jnasattvas, faith and devotion are extremely important.
In the same way that the reflection of the moon will appear automatically in a pool of
water that is clear and still, the wisdom deities will remain inseparable from anyone
possessing faith.

It says in the stras:

For whoever has faith in me,

I, the sage, will remain before them.

And the Kathang says:

If you pray to me, I, Padmkara, am there.

There is also the story of Magata Zangmo, who, with one-pointed faith, recited
prayers to the Buddha, such as the one beginning The protector of all beings
without exception, for a whole month. As a result of her prayers, he appeared
instantly in the sky before her house, together with his assembly of arhats. Keeping
such stories in mind, generate a strong and fervent devotion.

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The Seven Line Prayer
H is an expression of magnetism and a skilful means to invoke the wisdom minds
of the jnasattvas.

The place where the Precious Master took birth was in the northwest of the land of
Oiyna. There, in the Milky Lake, where the water has the eight qualities of
purity, he was born in the form of an eight-year old child in the heart of a lotus
flower. The King of Oiyna found that he was endowed with the most marvellous
attainments and invited him to his palace. As he had been born from the heart of a
lotus, he became renowned as the 'Lotus Born'. At the time of his birth, he was
surrounded by hosts of kins. Following in the footsteps of this wonderful
master, vow to practise until you reach his level of realization. Pray that just as he
arrived at the palace of the King of Oiyna in the past, he may come now and
inspire you with his blessing.

GURU means master. PADMA signifies that he is an emanation of Amitbha, since

Amitbha belongs to the buddha family of lotus speech. SIDDHI stands for the
accomplishments, and H for gathering. So altogether it means, 'Gather the
accomplishments of the Lotus Master!'

Praying like this, without even the slightest hypocrisy, will cause Orgyen Pema
Thtreng Tsal and all the deities of the three roots to arrive from the pure land of
Ngayab Palri and descend like rain, merging indivisibly with the samayasattvas.

ii. Seven Branch Practice

The seven branch practice (or the seven aspects of devotional practice) incorporates
all the key points for gathering the accumulations.

The first branch is prostration, which is the antidote to pride. HR is the seed or the
basis for the manifestation of the prostration offering. So, with HR, emanate
bodies as numerous as atoms. Having created all these emanations, you say, I offer
you prostrations, and consider that you prostrate together with all the beings of the
three realms, expressing respect with your body, speech and mind.

As you touch your palms to your three centres, all the obscurations and defilements
of your body, speech and mind are purified. As you touch the five points of your
body to the ground, the obscurations of the five disturbing emotions are purified, and
the blessings of the enlightened body, speech, mind, qualities and activity are
obtained.

When offering prostrations, it is not appropriate to perform them crookedly, without

standing up straight, or whilst swinging your hands about. It is said that practising in
this way will only cause you to be reborn as a hunchback.

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The second branch is offering, which is the antidote to stinginess. Arrange some
clean offerings as a focus for the practice and offer them with a pure motivation, in
which there is no trace of miserliness, hypocrisy or pretension. Then create offerings
in your mind through the power of samdhi. Visualize the outer environment as a
vast celestial palace made from the seven precious materials, with beautiful gardens
and pleasure parks, within which all material objects appear as the five offerings
such as flowers and so on, the five sensual stimulants such as visible forms, the eight
auspicious symbols, seven emblems of royalty, and the sixteen offering goddesses.

All these offerings fill the whole of space and extend throughout the pure lands of
the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Seal them with the gesture of offering, as in the
offering clouds of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, and offer them.

The third branch is confession, which must involve all four powers. As the power of
support, trust in the field of merit as a method for purifying your harmful actions.
As the power of regret, develop remorse for all the negativity you have accumulated
including the ten non-virtuous actions (the three of the body, the four of the speech
and the three of the mind). Feel as much regret as if you had just swallowed poison.
As the power of resolve, vow not to repeat them in future.

For the power of action as an antidote, consider that all your harmful actions and
obscurations, and all those of other sentient beings, are gathered together in the form
of a black pile on the tip of your tongue. Then rays of light emanate from the field of
merit, strike the pile, and purify it just like a stain being completely washed away.

Ultimately, the way to confess and purify is by resting in the luminosity of the
dharmakya nature of mind without grasping at the three spheres (of subject, object
and activity) as being true or real.

The fourth branch is rejoicing, which is the antidote to envy. Rejoice at all the
virtues accumulated by yourself and others, both those undertaken whilst observing
the relative reality of cause and effect, and those pertaining to the absolute truth,
such as the practices of emptiness and selflessness.

This is a way in which you can accumulate great waves of merit, without having to
strain your body or your voice, or expending your wealth in offerings. In the past,
when an old beggar woman rejoiced from the depth of her heart at the offerings
made over four months by King Prasenajit to the Buddha and his disciples, it is said
that her merit was even greater than the kings.

Since rejoicing at negative actions will cause you to accumulate faults in a similar
way, do not mistake what is to be avoided for what is to be adopted.

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The fifth branch of requesting to turn the Wheel of the Dharma and the sixth branch
of requesting the Noble Ones not to pass into nirva both serve as an antidote to
delusion.

Without someone to teach us the Dharma we would be like blind people left alone in
the desert. We would have no chance of achieving liberation from sasra.

So multiply your body and present yourself at the feet of all the buddhas,
bodhisattvas and spiritual teachers who have the capacity to teach but do not do so.
Offer them wheels and conch shells, and just as Brahma and Indra requested the
Buddha in the past, request them to turn the wheel of the Dharma of the three
ynasthe vehicles of the rvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvasaccording
to the receptivity and needs of different beings.

Then, pray before all the buddhas and bodhisattvas who intend to pass into nirva,
just as the layman Cunda did in the past. Multiply your body countless times and
pray with the words, Until sasra is completely empty, and all beings are
liberated, do not pass into nirva, but remain here among us!

The seventh branch is the branch of dedication. Consider that the virtue you have
just accumulated represents all the merit and positive actions accumulated by
yourself and others throughout the past, present and future. Dedicate it all so that
all beings may attain supreme enlightenment.

Remember that not only is the virtue you have accumulated illusory and dream- like,
but so too are its recipients. Not grasping at the three spheres of subject, object or
action as being real is what is called free from reference. This is not the same as
meditating upon a totally empty state, which is the nihilist view and something you
should avoid.

Generally, it is said that whichever virtuous action we undertake to perform, we

should first arouse the motivation of bodhicitta, perform the virtuous action with the
wisdom that is free of all grasping, and seal it with the illusory dedication.

All actions that are supported by these three noble principles contribute towards
your liberation and are the cause of enlightenment. If your actions lack the three
noble principles, then the merit you attain is ordinary merit, and having come to
fruition once will then go to waste. Virtuous action embraced with the support of the
three noble principles continues to yield beneficial effects a hundred times without
ever being exhausted, and instead, increases further and further. As ntideva said:

The tree of bodhicitta will forever

Bear fruit and grow unceasingly.

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iii. Prayer and Empowerments
Next there is the section of fervent prayer and receiving the path empowerments.

The attainment of liberation and omniscience is dependent upon the realization of

co-emergent wisdom within your mind. Whether or not that realization arises in
your mind depends on the blessing of the master; and whether or not you receive the
blessings depends upon your devotion.

Drikung Kyobpa Rinpoche said:

Unless the sun of devotion shines

Upon the snow peak of the masters four kyas,
The stream of blessings will never fall.
So strive to arouse devotion in your mind!

And Rangrik Repa said:

Expecting to realize non-conceptual wisdom,

Without praying to the precious master,
Is like waiting for sunshine in a north-facing cave,
That way, appearances and mind will never merge.

Come to the firm decision that your own root teacher is equal to the buddhas in
terms of qualities, but surpasses the buddhas in terms of kindness.

Firstly, accomplishing the siddhi.

Je means the lord of refuge for all beings. Tsn signifies that he is unstained by
disturbing emotion. Guru means lama, the unsurpassed. Rinpoche means precious
jewel. In the same way that precious jewels provide you with all that you need and
wish for, the master is the basis for all goodness and positivity until you attain
enlightenment.

We pray by saying, You are the embodiment of the compassion and blessings of
all the buddhas of the ten directions and three times.

Pachen Rinpoches Offering to the Gurus (Lama Chpa)12 says:

Even a single hair from the pores of your body,

Has been well praised as our field of merit
That surpasses all the buddhas of the ten directions and three times,
Lord of Refugeetc.

And:

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 Adorned with the precious wheels and the three kyas of the sugatas,
Out of the alluring web of appearances, with skilful means,
You manifest in an ordinary form to lead all beings
Lord of Refuge, compassionate master, to you we pray!

The only protector of all beings, my body, my possessions, my heart and soul
without hesitation, or the wish to hold anything back, I surrender to you! From
now until I attain enlightenment, if I find myself in a state of happiness as my
practice of virtue increases, even if I just enjoy a single delicious meal, I shall
recognize it as the kindness of the precious master. When I am suffering from illness
or destructive influences, I shall see it as the activity of the lama, helping me to
exhaust negative karma that might cause rebirth in the hell realms. I will understand
all good circumstances to be the masters blessing and all bad circumstances to be the
fault of my past actions. When I find myself in a high situation, I will not become
arrogant. And when I find myself in a situation that is low, I will not despair, even if I
am reduced to the level of a humble beggar. At all times, during the six periods of the
night and day13 I shall rely on you completely, O Padmasambhava, as being
inseparable from my root master!

Recite this prayer with such intense and fervent devotion that the hairs on your body
stand on end, tears stream from your eyes and your only thoughts are of your
master. Recite the mantra very strongly, as a kind of invocation of your master.

Then, recite the prayer once again and continue to recite the mantra as a practice of
approach.14

Next is invoking the accomplishments. For this you should pray as follows:

I have no one else to turn to, no one to rely on but you, precious master! In these
evil times, beings of the Kaliyuga like myself are sinking in a swamp of intense
and unbearable suffering. We are plagued by outer sufferings such as illness,
destructive influences, hostile enemies and thieves, and by internal suffering caused
by the five disturbing emotions. It is as if we are caught between the jaws of a
poisonous sea serpent. Free us from all this, O great guru! Bestow the four
empowerments to mature our body, speech and mind, O blessed one! Direct your
realization and experience into our minds, O compassionate one! Purify our
emotional and cognitive obscurations, O powerful one! You, who have liberated
your own being through your realization and have the capacity to liberate the minds
of others out of compassion, care for me!

Pray like this and then recite the mantra as the practice of approach.

The mantra begins with the syllables O, and H, which are the seeds of the
three vajras (of the body, speech and mind). VAJRA signifies the dharmakya, which
is endowed with the seven vajra qualities.15 GURU signifies the sambhogakya,

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which is endowed with unsurpassable qualities. PADMA represents the
nirmakya, since the radiant awareness of the wisdom of discernment arises as the
family of lotus speech. Consider that through the power of praying from a state of
recognizing the inseparability of the three kyas, all the supreme and ordinary
accomplishmentsSIDDHIare obtained as you say, H and think, Grant them
to me!

You can recite the mantra while keeping this in mind or, alternatively, you can
consider that VAJRA is the essence of the vajra family, GURU is the essence of the
ratna family, PADMA is the essence of the padma family, SIDDHI is the essence of
the karma family, and H the essence of the tathgata family.

As you recite the mantra, train in perceiving the outer environment as the pure
realm of Lotus Light, and all the beings within it as deities of the three roots. Allow
any thoughts that arise within your mind to liberate themselves without leaving any
trace behind, just like a bird flying through the sky.

Next, before receiving the empowerments, we come to the prayer to the root and
lineage masters.

Here EMAHO signifies that this prayer to Samantabhadra and the other masters is
wonderful. The heavenly realm of the dharmakya is free from any limits, and is not
restricted to any particular direction. It is immeasurable and pervades throughout
the whole of space. It is here that the Primordial Buddha, the dharmakya
Samantabhadra, resides. His wisdom-play, like the reflection of the moon in water,
is the sambhogakya Vajrasattva. (Samantabhadra is like the moon in the sky and
his emanation Vajrasattva is like the moons reflection). Perfect, with all major and
minor marks and buddha qualities, is the nirmakya Garab Dorje, the emanation
of Vajrasattva. Pray to them all, saying: Grant me your blessings and liberating
empowerments!

r Siha is a master of the treasure of the ultimate Dharma. Majurmitra is a

universal ruler of the teachings of the Nine Ynas: the Vinaya, Stras and
Abhidharma; the Kriy, Cary and Yoga tantras; and the teachings of Mahyoga,
Anuyoga and Atiyoga.16 Pray to them and to Jnastra and the great paita
Vimalamitra with the words, Show me the way to make my mind free! Grant me
the essential instructions and show me the path of liberation!

Padmasambhava is the sole ornament of this world of ours because his power and
his kindness are immeasurable. His supreme heart-disciples are the King Trisong
Detsen, the subject Vairotsana, and the companion Yeshe Tsogyal. Longchen
Rabjam Drime zer revealed a vast ocean of the Precious Masters wisdom mind
treasures. Jigme Lingpa was entrusted with all the teachings of the mind-direct, sign
and word-of-mouth lineages, but especially with the space treasury of the kins.
Pray to them all, saying, Grant me the fruition of the essential instructions and

39
immediately grant me the siddhi of liberating my mind!

Jigme Lingpas wisdom, compassionate love and spiritual power are like a great
and glorious ocean. Through the three kinds of faith, Jigme Trinle zer forged a
channel to these qualities in Jigme Lingpas wisdom mind, as if he was drawing
water from the ocean to establish a reservoir on its shores. As he did so, his own
wisdom mind was also filled. This process could also be compared to making a tsa-tsa
from a mould. In turn, just as a field is irrigated by drawing water from a reservoir,
Jigme Trinle zer Palbar saturated the minds of his fortunate disciples with the
qualities that had arisen in his own wisdom mind. This is how he brought them to
maturity. Pray to him, saying: May my faith and samaya commitment never fail,
but go on increasing!

If you are really practising the teachings genuinely, you should have true
renunciation for sasric existence and the wish to attain liberation. Consider all
that you have experienced in the course of your lifetimes without beginning, so that
you become disgusted, like somebody with a liver complaint seeing a plate of greasy
food.

You should rely upon your vajra lama, the ultimate master whose mind is emptiness
and compassion and who accomplishes the benefit of self and others, cherishing him
as though he were your very eyes. Follow his instructions to the letter, and take to
heart the profound practices he gives, not just now and then, but with diligent and
constant application. Practise with unflagging diligence for as long as you live. Pray
that you may become worthy of the transmission of his profound wisdom mind, so
that your realization becomes indivisible from his.

Recognize with certainty that all appearances, sasra and nirva, from the very
beginning are the Akaniha pure realm of Lotus Light. All perceptions of visible
forms and material objects are perfected into buddha forms. All sounds, whether
pleasant or unpleasant, are purified into mantra. And all rising thoughts are
matured into the clear light state of dharmakya reality.

Once the meaning of nyat has been actualized, there is no longer any effort to
abandon what is negative and adopt what is positive. There is no longer any
grasping at things as being real. All that you see, good or bad, all that you hear and
all that you think arises out of the state of emptiness and is purified back into the
state of emptiness, just like a bird flying through the sky without leaving any trace
behind. This is the perfection that we call the Great Perfection, or Dzogpachenpo.

As it says in the Prajpramit:

Form is without any true nature,

And whatever lacks true nature is inexpressible.

40
And:

Forms are dream-like and illusory.

And:

Form is empty of form.

Sound is empty of sound.

And so on until:

Omniscience is empty of omniscience.

There is not a single phenomenon belonging to sasra or nirva, from visible form
through to omniscience, which is beyond the nature of this Great Perfection or great
emptiness.

This ultimate meaning is rigpas self-radiance beyond the experiences of amatha,

or the thinking and mental analysis of vipayan. Pray that you may see this naked
dharmat reality, like the sun free of clouds, with the wisdom of discriminating
awareness.

The Sublime Continuum says:

The inner identity of the dharmakya,

Is seen with the eyes of wisdom.

From the perspective of the various paths, this [stage] corresponds to the path of
seeing. It is the first among the bodhisattva bhmis, and the first of the four visions
of tgal, the direct experience of dharmat.

Then, when you train in the practice of tgal, material reality can evaporate into
rainbow experience, and the kayas and tikls can be experienced as the radiance
and dynamic energy of rigpa. This equates to the lesser and middle stages of the path
of cultivation, from the second to the seventh bhmi, and the second vision of tgal,
which is known as 'increased experience'.

After that you will arrive at the third vision. Here, rigpas strength is enhanced,
maturing into the fullness of sambhogakya perfection. This is equivalent to the
greater stage of the path of cultivation, from the seventh to the tenth bhmi. This is
the point at which you perceive directly the sambhogakya fields and the buddhas of
the five families together with their consorts.

Finally you reach the level where all perception of phenomenal reality wears out,
and the conceptual mind dies into the state of total enlightenment. This is the
fourth vision, the fruition of Dzogpachenpo, and it is equivalent to the path of no

41
more learning, or the level of buddhahood, the eleventh bhmi of universal radiance.

Pray that you may gain the stronghold of the youthful vase body, the meaning of
which has been explained above, free from birth and death, the dharmakya with its
two-fold purity.

If you accomplish the practice of the great Atiyoga, and obtain the confidence of the
ultimate state of the dissolution of phenomena, beyond the ordinary mind, there will
be no need for you to wander in the bardos. But if you do not master the practice in
this life, your gross physical body will not be liberated into the pure space of the
rainbow body.

Then, when the constituents of life fall apart at the completion of the stages of
dissolution at death, you should recognize the ground luminosity as the
dharmakya, pure from the beginning, as soon as your consciousness reawakens.

At this point, the ground luminosity will dawn in the minds of all beings, without
exception. The only difference will be in terms of how long it appears for, and
whether or not it is recognized. If you do recognize the dharmakya, you will be
liberated.

For those who have gained some familiarity with the practices of kyerim or tgal,the
appearances of the bardo of dharmat experience will arise in sambhogakya forms;
and they will be liberated through meditating on their illusory nature.

On the path of trekch, all the rigidity of minds clinging to an I where there is no
I, and a self where there is no self, is cut through with Mdhyamika Prsagika
reasoning and the resulting conviction that an I or a self does not exist. Then, by
examining [where mind] arises, dwells and ceases, you become certain of the absence
of any true reality.

In tgal, all apparent objects are understood to be the energy and display of mind
and are brought to perfection by the mind itself.

So, in the bardos, at first when you lose consciousness or stray into delusion,
meditate immediately on the meaning of selflessness, and use your familiarity with
the kyas of the deities in tgal, or meditate on the illusory form of the deity as in
kyerim. Pray that through the power of such practices you may be liberated, as
naturally as a child running into its mothers lap.

In this great secret mantrayna path of luminosityDzogpachenpothe summit

of all, enlightenment is to be sought nowhere but in the dharmakya face of your
own mind through relying upon the instructions of Atiyoga. Yet if you are not
liberated into the primordial state by actualizing this, then there are the five
practices of 'enlightenment without meditating for a long time': liberation through

42
tasting the samaya substances, through takdrol,17 through contact with the
karmamudr, through seeing the chakras, and through hearing and remembering the
phowa.

Pray that you may be born into the nirmakya realms of the five buddha
families, such as Dewachen, through practising the phowa method of enlightenment
without meditation. And pray especially that you may take birth in the Palace of
Lotus Light, the Zangdokpalri heaven of Guru Rinpoche.

Pray that you may take birth in the presence of the Lord of Orgyen himself, chief
of the ocean of vidydhara masters, while he is celebrating the feast of the great
secret mantra Dharma, and that you may become his favourite son or daughter.
And pray that, having taken birth there, you may traverse the four levels of a
vidydhara, and reach the level of Samantabhadra. Then, emanating nirmakya
forms to take on the task of helping limitless beings, may you bring benefit and
happiness to them all!

Pray that through the inspiration and blessing of the ocean of victorious
vidydharas, and by the truth of the infinite dharmadhtu, beyond conception, and
with this free and well-favoured human form, you may actualize the auspicious
interconnection of perfecting the activity of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, ripening
the minds of sentient beings, and purifying the whole outer and inner world into
pure lands, and attain the state of buddhahood.

Take this practice to heart by combining your prayers of aspiration with actual mind
training.

Receiving Empowerments
Next is the receiving of the path empowerments. All the surrounding deities dissolve
into the root master. Consider that he is the embodiment of all sources of refuge, and
practise from a state of intense devotion and longing.

In the gurus forehead is the letter O, radiant and shimmering, like moonlight;
from it rays of light stream out and enter your forehead. The three negative
actions of the body and blockages of the channels are purified. The blessing of the
unchanging vajra body of the buddhas infuses you . The vase empowerment is
obtained and you become a receptive vessel for the deity visualization practice of
kyerim. The seed is sown for becoming a completely matured vidydhara, whose
mind is matured into the dharmakya while maintaining an ordinary body. The
potential or seed for obtaining the level of nirmakya is implanted within you.

At his throat is the letter , blazing like a ruby; from it rays of light streak out
and enter your throat. The four negative actions of the speech and blockages of the
inner air are purified. The blessing of the unceasing vajra speech of the buddhas

43
enters you . The secret empowerment is obtained and you become a receptive
vessel for mantra recitation practice. The seed of the vidydhara with power over
life is sown. The potential for obtaining the level of the sambhogakya is
implanted within you.

At his heart, from the letter H, sky-coloured rays of light pour out and plunge
into your heart. The three kinds of negative activity committed through the mind
and blockages of the tikl of clinging to reality are purified. The blessing of the
undeluded vajra mind of all the buddhas is instilled in you . The knowledge-
wisdom empowerment is obtained and you become a receptive vessel for the
caal practice of bliss and emptiness, known as Tsa Lung and Tummo. The seed
is sown for becoming a 'Mahmudr Vidydhara', whose body is transformed into
the form of the yidam and whose mind is inseparable from the wisdom mind of the
deity. The potential for obtaining the level of dharmakya is implanted within
you.

Again, from H in his heart, a second letter H bursts out like a shooting star
and merges, indistinguishably, one with your own mind. The karma of the
ground of all, cognitive obscurations, and all the subtle disturbing emotions, are
purified. The blessing of the spontaneously arising vajra wisdom, the unchanging
luminosity, pervades you. You obtain the empowerment of the absolute truth,
symbolized by the word, through which the inexpressible meaning is communicated
using a crystal, a mirror or a gesture. You become a receptive vessel for meditation
on the meaning of trekch and the primordial purity of Dzogpachenpo. The seed is
sown for becoming a spontaneously accomplishing vidydhara18 who
spontaneously accomplishes the benefit of self and others. The potential for the
svbhvikakyathe final fruitionis implanted within you.

When your life is at an end, at the moment of death, your whole perception should
be the heaven of Ngayab Ling or Cmara, which is one of the eight sub-continents,
and is also renowned as the island of rkasa demons.

It is here that the Master Padmasambhava presently resides. Having miraculously

liberated the king of the rkasas, transferred his consciousness to a pure realm and
entered his body, he subdues the demons there through a variety of peaceful and
wrathful methods and establishes them in the Dharma.

In the centre of that field of Lotus Light and the Glorious Copper Coloured
Mountain, the nirmakya pure land of indivisible appearance and emptiness
created through self-arisen wisdom, visualize your own body as Vajrayogin in the
palace that was described above.

You are transformed into a radiant, shimmering sphere of light, which dissolves
into the heart of Guru Rinpoche above your head, and merging, inseparable, with
Padmasambhava, you attain buddhahood.

44
Then, from the play of vast primordial wisdom, which is the miraculous
manifestation of bliss and emptiness, or compassion and emptiness, for every
single being in the three realms, you will emanate as their true guide, to lead them
to liberation. Pray to Jetsn Pema so that he might grant this prayer.

Say the following: I pray to you from the bottom of my heart. Its not just words
or empty mouthings: grant your blessings from the depth of your wisdom mind,
and cause all my good aspirations that accord with the Dharma to be fulfilled!

Visualize yourself clearly as Vajrayogin. From the heart centre of the lama a beam
of light, red and warm, suddenly bursts out and touches your heart.
Instantaneously, you are transformed into a sphere of red light the size of a pea,
which shoots up towards Padmasambhava, like a spark that spits from the fire. It
dissolves into Guru Rinpoches heart, merges and becomes one with him: one
taste.

Visualize this and then rest in the inexpressible state beyond any reference or focus.
If you are able to breathe your final breath in this state at the moment of death, then
you will achieve the king of all phowas, transference to the dharmakya through the
seal of the view. If you would like to practise any of the other methods of phowa,
this is the time to do so.

Then, as soon as you rise from the state of meditative equipoise, visualize your own
body and environment as before and recite the prayers that follow.

According to Jamyang Khyentses commentary, the prayer beginning, Glorious

tsaw lama, precious one, should continue with, Dwell on the lotus-seat on the
crown of my head. Most versions of the text however, give the line as, Dwell on
the lotus-seat in the depth of my heart. According to a mengak from the
instructions on phowa, you can visualize the master in your heart inseparable from
Amityus. But aside from providing a support for long-life practice, I dont think
there is too much difference between these two versions.

The prayer continues, Look upon me with the grace of your great compassion,
grant me the attainments of body, speech and mind, and make my mind one with
your wisdom mind!

Towards the lifestyle and activity of the lama, may wrong view not arise for even
an instant, and may I see whatever he does, whether it seems to be in accordance
with the Dharma or not, as a teaching for me. In this respect, you should remember
the story of Captain Compassionate Heart killing Black Spearman, and Brahmin
Lover of the Stars forsaking his vow of chastity for the brahmin girl.19

Through such devotion may his blessing inspire and fill my mind.

45
In all my lives from now until I attain enlightenment, may I never be separated
from the perfect lama; and having benefitted fully from the splendour of the
sacred Dharma, may I perfect the qualities of the five paths and ten bhmis, and
swiftly attain the sublime level of Vajradhara!

Through the power of the merit of this practice I have done today, may all beings
completely accumulate the causal accumulation of merit and the resultant
accumulation of wisdom. And from this merit and wisdom, may they obtain the
dharmakya for the benefit of self and the rpakya for the benefit of others!

Moreover, through all the merit that I and other beings havewhatever beneficial
actions we have done in the past, will do in the future and are doing now in the
present may all beings attain the stage of perfection! May they attain the
realization of a buddha, the profound wisdom of emptiness beyond the two extremes
of eternalism and nihilism! In order that they may swiftly reach this level of
realization, I dedicate all the merit and virtue accumulated by myself and others: may
it be the cause of all beings attaining the stages of perfection and full
enlightenment!

There are two types of dedication: the dedication free from any reference to the three
conceptual spheres of subject, object or activity, and the emulating dedication. The
first of these was explained earlier in the context of the seven branch practice. The
second is as follows:

Just as the bodhisattva Majur knew how to dedicate and did dedicate towards
the temporary benefit of all beings as well as their ultimate happiness with the
attainment of enlightenment, just as Samantabhadra did too, I shall train to follow
in these bodhisattvas footsteps. I make a perfect dedication of all this merit
towards the enlightenment of all beings just as these bodhisattvas did in the past.

As all buddhas, past, present and future praise the dedication for the sake of all
beings attaining enlightenment as supreme, all my sources of merit I dedicate
completely, so that all may perfect Samantabhadras Good Actions and attain the
state of buddhahood.

46
Special Prayer
In all my lives, wherever I am born, may I obtain the seven qualities of birth in
higher realms: long life, freedom from ill health, a beautiful form, high birth, great
riches, good fortune, and great wisdom! As soon as I am born, may I meet the
Dharma, and have the freedom to practise it correctly. Then, may I please the
noble lama, and put the Dharma into action day and night. With confidence in the
key points of the practice lineage and realization of the Dharma, may I practise the
innermost meaning of emptiness and compassion until my mind is purified! May I
cross the ocean of suffering existence in the very same life and secure my own
wellbeing by attaining buddhahood! Having attained enlightenment, may I teach the
sacred Dharma to beings wandering in sasra, and never grow mentally weary
or physically tired of working to help others. Through my vast, impartial service
and waves of virtuous activity for the benefit of others, may all beings, as limitless
as space, attain buddhahood together as one in a single gathering! And may sasra
be emptied from its very depths!

As you recite these words with your speech, be sure to focus your mind upon their
meaning.

In order to integrate the Guru Yoga practice [into your daily life], visualize your
master in the sky above your right shoulder as you walk, and consider that you are
circumambulating him. While you are sitting down, consider that he is on the top of
your head as a support for your prayers. Whenever you eat or drink something,
visualize him at your throat and offer him the first portion. When you go to sleep,
visualize the master in your heart and merge your mind with his wisdom mind.

In short, train your mind in devotion at all times and on all occasions by perceiving
all forms, sounds and rising thoughts as deity, mantra and wisdom play, and by
considering all that you perceive through your six senses to be the display of the
masters enlightened body, speech and mind.

The Siddha Mokchokpa said:

If Acal (Mikypa) is blue, then blue he may well be!

If Avalokitevara is white, then white he is!
As for me, Ive never been separated from the perception of the master!

And Jetsn Milarepa said:

When you grow weary of sasra which is by nature suffering,

There is no time to waste searching for fresh robes,
And towards the master, who embodies the buddhas of the three times,
There is no separation from a mind of yearning devotion.

This is how you should practise.

47
Colophon
This is the word-by-word commentary on the text of the Longchen Nyingtik preliminary
practices entitled, A Torch for the Excellent Path of Omniscience. As there are many
ocean-like commentaries on the preliminary practices composed by the omniscient
father and son,20 this may seem as unnecessary as digging a well of salty water on the
shore of a great lake of water possessing the eight qualities of purity.

The elaborate ngndro commentaries give the root text without explaining each syllable,
and since those with sharp faculties understand the meaning of the elaborate
commentaries there is no need for them to rely on syllable-by- syllable explanations. Yet
those with feeble minds like myself find that there is a lot we dont understand when
trying to match the points of the elaborate commentaries with the root text, so I thought
a word-by-word commentary on the recitation text would make it easier to practise.

None of the learned and accomplished beings of the past composed a word-by- word
commentary that definitively explained the straightforward and the subtle points of the
root text, and recently my attendants Dorje Chdrak and Trinley Jinpa have been
requesting me to write a word-by-word commentary to match the recitation text.

Dorje Chdrak made a commitment to remain in retreat, practising the ngndro, for the
rest of his life, completing one million prostrations and ten million mantra recitations as
part of the Guru Yoga. Trinley Jinpa also vowed to remain in retreat practising the
ngndro for the rest of his life, and to complete one million prostrations, one million
hundred syllable mantras, and a hundred thousand Confessions of Downfalls.
Changchub Dorje also added his request for a detailed commentary to those of the other
two, and he, too, vowed not to leave his retreat until the time of his death. He promised
to complete ten million Siddhi mantras and one million prostrations.

In response to their requests, and taking the works of the omniscient father and son as a
basis, supplemented by what I have seen or heard of the works of other learned and
accomplished masters, this was written by the beggar-monk with the name of Chkyi
Drakpa. May the merit of this become a cause for the main points of the ngndro
practice to arise within the minds of all sentient beings, especially those that requested
it! May they never be without the qualities of the seven noble riches, and may they
swiftly attain the state of omniscience, becoming guides to all sentient beings as
limitless as space!

Virtue! Virtue! Virtue!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2000, revised 2012.

1. There are different ways of interpreting this one of the five circumstantial
advantages. Words of My Perfect Teacher explains that it means we have

48
 entered the teachings. Some commentaries, as is the case here, explain it as
meaning that there are other people who have entered the teachings.

2. According to Patrul Rinpoche he was a brahmin. See Words of My Perfect

Teacher, p.115.

3. Chkyi Drakpa does not specifically mention the pretas with internal
obscurations.

4. See The Words of My Perfect Teacher, p.224-6.

5. The four ways of attracting disciples are 1) being generous, 2) speaking

pleasantly, 3) teaching in accordance with the needs of beings, and 4) acting in
accordance with what one teaches.

6. See Perfect Conduct, translated by Khenpo Gyurme Samdrub & Sangye Khandro,
Wisdom Publications, 1996, p.126.

7. See Perfect Conduct, pp.126-9.

8. The aggregates and elements are the seats of the male and female buddhas,
and the sense-sources are the seats of the male and female bodhisattvas.

9. Seventh birth brahmins are bodhisattvas who have taken birth as brahmins
seven successive times, in order that they may benefit beings. Their flesh,
bones, hair, nails and so on are said to be especially pure, and if consumed can
lead to the attainment of rainbow body.

10. The Tibetan text says southwest here, but northwest later on.

11. Secret Path to the Mountain of Glory: A Prayer of Aspiration for the Copper-
Coloured Mountain of Glory by Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.

12. By Panchen Lobzang Chkyi Gyaltsen (1567?-1662). See The Union of Bliss and
Emptiness, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1989 for a
translation of the entire text. The two verses mentioned here are 48 and 49,
which are given on pp.127-8.

13. Dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, dusk and midnight.

14. During the practice of approach, practitioners grow closer to, or approach, the
deity by reciting the mantra.

15. The seven vajra qualities are: uncuttable, indestructible, true, solid, stable,
completely unobstructable and completely invincible.

49
 16. This is an unusual way to list the nine ynas. The first three vehicles are usually
given as the vehicles of rvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas.

17. Takdrol means liberation through contact or touch. Numerous kinds of

takdrol exist: many are mantras in diagrams related to the Dzogchen teachings,
and others belong to the tantras. The takdrol can form part of a more detailed
empowerment, or it can be given independently as a simple empowerment on
its own. Sometimes a text of a tantra is used as a takdrol and worn, for
example, in a locket on the top of the head. (Taken from Dzogchen, Ithaca:
Snow Lion Publications, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, p.231, n.17)

18. Although this level of vidydhara is usually called a "spontaneously

accomplished vidydhara", this translation reflects Chkyi Drakpas
explanation.

19. See Words of My Perfect Teacher, p. 125

20. Longchen Rabjam and Jigme Lingpa.

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