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 gradual sequence that takes a practitioner to the stage of completion. She draws from Tsongkhapa’s advice on the type of practices of that stage: working with the inner fire, energies, channels and bindus. She emphasizes the importance of stabilizing the mandala of the stage of generation, before working with these energies. Lama Tsongkhapa further writes about practices of the stage of completion for beginners and matured practitioners, and Eva elaborates on this.
Yangchen addresses the dangers of working with subtle energies before having the pliancy of shamatha of the advanced stages. As a Dzogchen practitioner, one has to allow for the qualities to manifest by themselves. So she talks about the practices of approach and actualization, coming from the Guru Yoga. These practices are equivalent to the stage of generation, and they lead to the stage of completion. The practice is of complete surrender, and this surrender will bare the fruit of the completion stage.
She seals the Khandro Nyingtik and continues with the Phowa practice with commentary where we left last time, until the end of the “Treasure House of Blessings” text. She comments on the importance of dedication, and we dedicate.
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