Eva Natanya, 03 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins with a guided meditation on settling the body, speech, and mind, and setting our deepest intention. She then begins an overview of the preliminary practices (ngondro) of the Dudjom Tersar tradition, emphasizing that the preliminaries are never finished until we reach enlightenment. She adds that these practices actually nourish us along the way, and never get old or dry as long as we continue to deepen our understanding. Eva then explains the origins of the Dudjom Tersa…
Eva Natanya, 03 Apr 2020
Settling Body, Speech and Mind
Eva Natanya, 06 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins with a meditation on the root text of Dudjom Lingpa’s terma, “Heart Essence of the Dakinis,” which leads us through the four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma, or the four revolutions of mind, leading up to renunciation (spirit of emergence) and refuge. Eva then quickly reviews the various scopes of taking refuge, summarizing them as either taking refuge out of fear or out of the wish to free oneself and all beings based in an insight that such an aspiration can actual…
Eva Natanya, 06 Apr 2020
Practice of the four revolutions in outlook as instructed in the Chariot of Liberation
Eva Natanya, 07 Apr 2020
We begin with a brief meditation from Dudjom Rinpoche’s compilation of the extensive practice of the preliminaries; a calling of blessings for the guru. Eva (Yangchen) continues with her explanation of the refuge visualization, specifically the figures of the Sangha, Yidam and Dharma protectors. She explains how we can visualize all sentient beings around us, including our enemies to the front of us and harmful beings and obstacles behind us. To preface the meditation on refuge, she invit…
Eva Natanya, 07 Apr 2020
Calling for Blessings and Taking Refuge The first instruction in A Chariot on the Path to the Union of the Two
Eva Natanya, 08 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins today’s session by explaining what we will be doing during meditation, which will be based on the brief recitation of preliminaries. She states that it is important to do this brief practice once one has a good understanding of the more elaborate one. Meditation starts at 3:30 After meditation Yangchen comments on the importance of refuge in all our daily activities; how is it that we can find this refuge, even when we are not aware of that pristine awareness in whic…
Eva Natanya, 08 Apr 2020
Four revolutions in outlook, refuge, and bodhicitta from the Düdjom Tersar Brief Preliminaries
Eva Natanya, 10 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts the session by explaining how it is that committing to the path is a commitment that one undertakes over and over again. This is because new layers are revealed everyday, as we develop, as reality rises up to meet us. This is why the preliminaries are not something you do once, and then you are finished for life. This also motivates us to give the complexity of the visualizations a chance, and to trust that each of their elements will come in time, as they should come to u…
Eva Natanya, 10 Apr 2020
First Steps as Instructed by Dudjom Rinpoche
Eva Natanya, 13 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts today’s session with a short meditation following the brief recitation of the Düdjom Tersar, up to the practice of bodhicitta. Meditation starts at 1:28 After meditation Yangchen clears out the question of the refuge precepts. Rather than precepts, a literal translation would be ‘refuge training’, she states. Meaning, these indications are things to train on, in which to get better and better everyday. She draws from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo to clear out what…
Eva Natanya, 13 Apr 2020
Meditation
Eva Natanya, 14 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins todays session by inviting us to call on our root Guru to accompany us through the teachings on bodhicitta. Yangchen goes back to where we left off last time, the four analogies to the four immeasurables. She comments on the special emphasis that is given here, focusing on us as all sentient beings’ mothers instead of the other way around, which would be the most common way. Yangchen then talks about the meaning of a commitment to practice for eons, and how this can mak…
Eva Natanya, 14 Apr 2020
Meditation
Eva Natanya, 15 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) first comments that today we will go into the teachings on the six perfections. She regards this training as our way to take responsibility for the world that surrounds us, which at the end is made of our own appearances, and it’s our duty to transform them. Yangchen continues with some recommendations on how to balance our daily practices. Independently of our situation at every stage of our life, how do we manage to make every waking hour a practice of dharma? She shares what s…
Eva Natanya, 15 Apr 2020
Meditation
Eva Natanya, 17 Apr 2020
Today’s session starts with a meditation based on the preliminary practices until bodhicitta. Meditation starts at 2:50 After meditation Eva (Yangchen) continues teaching on the six perfections. She comments that these are explicitly written in this text, and extensively in Thinley Norbu’s commentary, basically to give us a way to train once we have taken bodhisattva vows. In this context she talks about the possibility to take bodhisattva vows from an image of the buddha, or even from a vis…
Eva Natanya, 17 Apr 2020
Four revolutions in outlook, refuge, and bodhicitta from the Chariot of Liberation, with Tibetan recitation and commentary.
Eva Natanya, 20 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins today’s session with some clarification about the lineages of the Bodhisattva vows, and about the files that have been now uploaded to the retreat website, including the thangka of the refuge field. She then reads the last lines on practice of bodhcitta, which take her to speak briefly about the scope of virtuous and non-virtuous deeds, and about the Mahayana motivation. Afterwards Yangchen starts the Vajrasattva guidance. She first talks about the mantra source, commen…
Eva Natanya, 21 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts the session with a story about her permission (empowerment) to read, translate, and transmit the Düdjom Tersar, and about the lineages through which she received particularly the Vajrasattva practice. She then talks about the meaning of a distinct enlightened being, within the same essential nature of all the Buddhas. Each one of these distinctions emphasizes some aspects of pristine awareness. This takes her to talk about Vajrayana practice and the depictions of the Buddh…
Eva Natanya, 21 Apr 2020
Vajrasattva Practice
Eva Natanya, 22 Apr 2020
On this session we continue where we left off last time: the visualization of Vajrasattva above our head, with all its elements. Eva (Yangchen) goes through Düdjom Lingpa’s commentary to clear out what we are doing during this visualization. We are currently at the point of the purification practice which concerns the application of “power of practicing the remedy”. Yangchen gives several examples of active practices in which one applies the power of remedy. Within all those types, this one…
Eva Natanya, 24 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts the session by clarifying that, in the Vajrasattva mantra, there are two possible choices of the word śreyaṃ, so she explains why she made her particular choice and afterwards recites the complete translation of the mantra. She then gives different suggestions for the visualization, depending on how familiar with the practice we already are. Adding new details when one has been reciting the mantra for a long time is a good idea, she comments, and so she provides us with…
Eva Natanya, 24 Apr 2020
Vajrasattva Mantra Practice
Eva Natanya, 27 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts by saying that the meditation practice of today will be a cumulative practice of everything that we have done so far. She will be drawing from Düdjom Lingpa’s terma, interpolating with the visualizations. Yangchen elaborates and how this practice is integrated with the path of śamatha, how one can make sense of practicing preliminaries along with the instruction to focus all day long on śamatha, with the least possible mantra recitation. If we are going to pursue śamath…
Eva Natanya, 27 Apr 2020
Stages of the Practice Thus Far
Eva Natanya, 28 Apr 2020
We start the session with a short surprise meditation. After meditation, Eva (Yangchen) starts the explanation of the mandala offering, she comments that emptyness is the most essential point for understanding this practice. As she says, we will go into the question on how Buddhist cosmology fits within our current “map” of the universe (on session 16). We will also explore the meaning of the three stages: outer, inner, and secret mandala (on this session). Yangchen goes then to the recitati…
Eva Natanya, 28 Apr 2020
Imagine Yourself as Siddhartha
Eva Natanya, 29 Apr 2020
Eva (Yangchen) introduces today’s session by inviting us to always maintain fresh this particular practice, to vary the visualization and so on. Then she instructs us to arrange our plate, cloth, substances, and talks about the different types of plate and substances. She gives then the steps for setting the offering, and with this introduction we go into meditation. Meditation starts at 5:30 After the meditation Yangchen gives recommendations on how to address our daily practice regardin…
Eva Natanya, 29 Apr 2020
Mandala Offering Practice
Eva Natanya, 01 May 2020
Today’s session is a prelude to Guru Yoga, which will be our next preliminary practice (we will receive the teachings on Chöd until the end of the retreat). But first, Eva (Yangchen) explains the hand mudra and symbolism for mandala offering, and what can be done with the physical mandala after concluding the practice. Then she comments a little further on the ‘wet and flowing’ example of last session, that which appears differently to different perceptions, as an analogy to the Buddhist cos…
Eva Natanya, 04 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins today’s session by answering some questions related to the Vajrasattva practice. The first question is regarding visualization, if we can ‘move our awareness around’ Vajrasattva during the practice. The second question is on how is it possible for deeds from previous lives that we don’t even remember to be purified. Afterwards she recites the Vajrasattva mantra in different speeds, for us to have it. We then go into the Guru Yoga instructions. We will visualize ourselve…
Eva Natanya, 04 May 2020
Vajrasattva Mantra Slow
Eva Natanya, 04 May 2020
Vajrasattva Mantra Medium
Eva Natanya, 04 May 2020
Vajrasattva Mantra Fast
Eva Natanya, 05 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) first comments on the files we have received via Google Drive, which correspond to the Shower of Blessings, Vajrayāna empowerment samayas, and a couple of Christianity / Buddhism sessions. This is all material from last year’s retreat. She also comments on the “Calling the Guru from Afar” text we have received from her, and some images helpful for visualization. Eva then brings a Tibetan term which refers to all the characters one actor might take in different situations, and…
Eva Natanya, 05 May 2020
Guru Yoga of Blessings
Eva Natanya, 06 May 2020
Today we go directly to meditation, it is the complete Guru Yoga practice, drawing from A Treasure House of Blessings and Spiritual Attainments. Eva (Yangchen) then goes back to the text, at the point of the visualization in which Padmasambhava’s presence becomes manifest, together with the mandala of vidyādhara gurus. She details the sacred images surrounding the central figure, and the emanating rays of light. Yangchen elaborates on the ‘places’ from which the enlightened beings attend to…
Eva Natanya, 06 May 2020
Guru Yoga Meditation
Eva Natanya, 08 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) introduces this session explaining the meditation practice we will be doing today, which will be a concise form of what we have learnt thus far, based on the seven branch offering. Before the meditation she comments on some parts of the Guru Yoga practice we did on last session which haven’t been commented on. The first clarification is about the point of the practice at which one recites the 12 syllable mantra (which can be unclear from looking at the Treasure House terma). D…
Eva Natanya, 08 May 2020
7 Branch Prayer as an Antidote for Mental Afflictions
Eva Natanya, 11 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) comments briefly on the last versions of the texts we have received, dated May 10th. Then we go into a meditation based on the “Calling the Guru from Afar” prayer. After meditation, Eva reminds us that a common way to start a preliminary session is with this prayer, which makes it a daily basis of our practice, while being highly profound in its content. We then go back to the point we left off last time: the Guru Rinpoche Mantra. Yangchen first reads to us some of the benefit…
Eva Natanya, 11 May 2020
Calling the Guru from Afar
Eva Natanya, 12 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins today’s session by clearing out some lingering questions. These questions are about the scope of action of the Guru Yoga practice, when purifying broken samayas or restoring a connection to empowerments of other tantric systems. She also comments on the meaning of the term ‘samayam’ in the Vajrasattva mantra, and on how is it that, even though we are already visualizing ourselves as Vajrayogini in Guru Yoga, we can go into a practice meant to purify obscurations. The last…
Eva Natanya, 12 May 2020
Dudjom Rinpoche’s Guru Yoga
Eva Natanya, 13 May 2020
Today we will start the next preliminary practice, Phowa. So, might this give an ultimate answer to ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. We can enter this practice with a sweet, uplifting attitude. Eva (Yangchen) reads an excerpt from the book “The Velveteen Rabbit”, as a parable for the path to enlightenment. Yangchen then addresses how Phowa practice is not in contradiction with the aspiration to reach buddhahood in a single lifetime, rather it is complementary. What characterizes o…
Eva Natanya, 15 May 2020
We start today’s session directly with the practice of Phowa, as guided by Düdjom Lingpa. Eva (Yangchen) first comments that she guided us just as Düdjom Lingpa instructs, but she chooses a visualization of our own body instead of the form of Vajrayogini, since it is easier to perceive the central channel in this way. We continue, then, with the commentary on the practice of “the transference that uses the three conceptions”. Yangchen begins by talking about the symbolism of Vajrayogini, as one…
Eva Natanya, 15 May 2020
Phowa Meditation
Eva Natanya, 18 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins the session with the clarification of how the channel practice we are doing is not a completion stage practice. In the Phowa practice we are not trying to actually eject our consciousness before the time of death. The visualization is not meant to move the energies, there could be danger in doing so. She therefore explains what the purpose of the practice is, and highlights the most important part of it: prayer, faith, bodhicitta, purification. Yangchen talks about the…
Eva Natanya, 19 May 2020
Today we will go into the longer version of the Phowa practice in the Chariot of Liberation. Eva (Yangchen) first comments about the supplication to the lineage contained in this practice. She details a little on every member of that lineage, allowing certain mysteries to remain there. After her commentary, Yangchen addresses the nature of the Copper Colored Mountain and Sukhavati, and our prayers to go to either of them. Eva then talks about a parallel to Christianity in the concept of spee…
Eva Natanya, 19 May 2020
Full Phowa Practice
Eva Natanya, 20 May 2020
On today’s session we will go through the five core preliminaries of the Khandro Nyingtik, leaving out Phowa and Chöd. Eva (Yangchen) suggests this as a daily solid foundation for shamatha practice. Before the practice, Yangchen talks about the four causes to be reborn in Sukhavati: foundational power to plant the aspiration, collecting merit, purifying obscurations, and the conducive condition of prayer. She clarifies some things about the amount of merit we have to accumulate; we don’t have t…
Eva Natanya, 20 May 2020
Practice Transmission for “The Chariot of Liberation”
Eva Natanya, 22 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) starts today’s session by talking about the history and meaning of Chod within the different lineages in Tibetan Buddhism, and the use of this practice within the Dudjom Tersar; Chod serves as a way to get through obstacles and nyam, she highlights. She also explains why we are exploring just a foretaste of the practice. She will speak the root verses in Tibetan, but will not give us the translation, only a brief explanation of the verses. Yangchen then elaborates on the deep…
Eva Natanya, 22 May 2020
An Experiential Taste of Chod
Eva Natanya, 25 May 2020
Eva (Yangchen) begins today’s session by commenting that we will go into the brief recitation of preliminaries, with simplified visualizations, but doing it as profound as possible. She then talks about the prayer composed by Khandro-la that we will receive, which is related to the current situation in the world. Yangchen specifies that this particular prayer is available for us to share. Moreover, we will receive a file called “Prayers of Infinite Light”, which is a series of short prayers by…
Eva Natanya, 25 May 2020
The Complete Practice of the Brief Preliminaries
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