The Seven Preliminaries according to the Revelations of Düdjom Lingpa. Presented by Eva Natanya (Yangchen Osel)

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 Tersar tradition and the way in which the ngondro practices have been passed down from the time of Dudjom Lingpa to the current generation. She then walks us through her process of researching the various explications of the Dudjom Tersar ngondro and explains that she has discovered a commentary on the preliminary practices from an early terma that Dudjom Lingpa himself revealed.

Eva then walks us through the various “uncommon” preliminaries of Refuge, Bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, Mandala Offering, Chod, Guru Yoga, and Phowa. She explains that Refuge is the foundation to all Buddhist practice, Bodhicitta the gateway to the Mahayana, and that Vajrasattva purifies our two obscurations (afflictive and cognitive), while Mandala Offering helps us achieve the two accumulations of wisdom and merit. She describes merit as the “fuel” of “goodness” that propels us along the path. After a few comments on Chod, saying that while it is a profound practice of offering the body, and is said to remove all obstacles and difficult circumstances, we will not go too deeply into it in this retreat because the full practice of Chod technically should come after the complete vipashyana practice, according to the framework in Dudjom Lingpa’s revelations. She then turns to Guru Yoga, described as that which makes our being filled with blessings. Finally, she turns to Phowa, which “trains one in the path to liberation.” It is also sometimes referred to as “Buddhahood without meditation.”

She then begins her teaching on Refuge, starting with an explanation of the three types of faith (admiring faith, aspiring faith, and undivided/unbreakable faith) and the three types of Refuge (Fear of lower realms, or Lower Capacity, fear of suffering of all of samsara, or Middling Capacity, and Mahayana Refuge, which is of the Highest Capacity and entails taking refuge for the sake of freeing all beings from samsara and bringing them to enlightenment). Finally, she speaks of the importance of having a true refuge that we can rely on, especially in times of adversity. She comments that something about this profound practice gives inherent meaning to our life, regardless of what might happen externally.

Settling Body, Speech and Mind

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 actually be fulfilled.

Eva then turns to the various levels of taking refuge, listing the common, inner, and secret objects of refuge. Common: Buddha as Teacher; Dharma as entryway to authentic path; and Sangha as guides or aides along the way. She also mentions the medical framework within which Buddha is doctor, Dharma is the medicine, and Sangha is like the nurses. Inner objects: Guru, Yidam, and Dakas and Dakinis. Secret: Nature of one’s own existence, Samantabhadra. Finally, she explains this deepest refuge as the nature of reality expressed in the three kayas of Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya (Essential Nature, Manifest Nature, and Compassionate Expression). The text explains taking these nondually as the path is the authentic unsurpassed way to go for refuge.

Eva then comments on the ways in which other worldly objects of refuge will not protect us, citing the beautiful confessional prayer written by Khandro la regarding the negative karma based in misguided seeking of refuge that has given rise to the pandemic. Eva also turns to the issue of what constitutes “true refuge” and whether these teachings are telling us that only a “Buddhist” refuge is the true refuge. Speaking of her own experience in navigating the Catholic and Buddhist paths, she points to the idea that what is meant in the teachings is that “true refuge” points to the true heart of reality, and that in theory even non-Buddhist paths could serve as “true refuge” if they are leading to an authentic path of awakening, culminating in a realization of ultimate reality.

The final portion of the session is devoted to a meditative reading of the description of the field of refuge as given in Dudjom Lingpa’s commentary to the root text.

Practice of the four revolutions in outlook as instructed in the Chariot of Liberation

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 invites us to reflect on our deepest fears, and how they can be the fuel for us taking perfect refuge in the Mahayana path.

Meditation begins at 31:15

Calling for Blessings and Taking Refuge The first instruction in A Chariot on the Path to the Union of the Two

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 which we take refuge on. After some remarks we continue where we left off in a Treasure House of Blessings, diving into the precepts of taking refuge. Eva elaborates on “the three things to abandon” and on the scope of ultimate refuge vs. relative reliances; on “the three things to take up” and on how these might take us directly to pure vision; and on “the three conducive trainings” and on how to relate with our Guru. Yangchen then talks about the benefits of taking refuge, as written by Düdjom Lingpa. Once we have taken refuge, which is the first step on the buddhist path, we are on a straight trajectory to buddhahood, she emphasizes.

Four revolutions in outlook, refuge, and bodhicitta from the Düdjom Tersar Brief Preliminaries

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 us.

Yangchen then discusses the meaning of reciting in one language or the other: Tibetan, English, mother tongue, etc, among with some suggestions for us. We have to balance between sticking to the tradition and making practices our own, she gives some advice for this balance.

She then addresses the question of blessings: where do they come from, what do they mean? How is it that calling for blessings works, and how is it that they arise for us? Asking for blessings can become the whole path, Yangchen concludes.

Meditation starts at 31:30

First Steps as Instructed by Dudjom Rinpoche

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 the meaning of worldly deities can be in different contexts. She emphasizes the importance of having a correct view of the reality we take refuge in, and encourages us to discern wisely between the objects that can provide ultimate refuge, and those that are merely relative sources of reliance, and to relate to them accordingly.

Eva then moves on to the teaching on bodhicitta in A Treasure House of Blessings. To begin, one develops the mind through the four immeasurables, then one performs the actual ritual, and finally one trains in prayer and engaging bodhicitta. Yangchen will just give some brief commentaries on the four immeasurables, covering what Düdjom Lingpa says in the text.

First of all, what to do after the Lake Born Vajra has said that training in bodhicitta in a dualistic way, like a mother looking upon her child, is “like hoping that the son of a barren woman could become the head of a household”? Well, this is the way to train (dualistically) until we are mature enough to be able to rest in pristine awareness.

Yangchen reads the four analogies to the four immeasurables given in the text. What stops us from feeling unbearable compassion? What is the subtle distinction between loving-kindness and compassion and how are they linked? What does it mean to generate the last two immeasurables, of joy and equanimity? Yangchen addresses all these things briefly.

Meditation

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 make sense within the swift path. Eva suggests that it is the preliminaries, and specially the Guru Yoga, which turn the path into a swift one. Guru Yoga might allow us to make the bodhisattva vow without feeling frustrated about what we set out to do, moreover it might be the doorway to realizing bodhicitta in a more comprehensive way, than by merely engaging in the cultivation of bodhicitta step by step. Can we imagine a mind that is able to love and hold all sentient beings perfectly? This is what we aspire to develop, not simply to worship, but to become. Can we surrender completely to the heart of this divine Guru? If so, our path is instantly accelerated.

After the analogies, Yangchen moves to the second part of the bodhicitta training, that is, generating supreme bodhicitta. In this context she comments on the way to balance the benefit of self and others, and how is it that our meditation based on our admiration to the embodiment of bodhicitta of great beings might be a way to let the blessings of those beings transform our mind. At the end, it is bodhicitta that will enable us to go through all the upheavals of the path. Yangchen reads the final instructions of this practice, and points out that it is set as a full bodhisattva vows ceremony.

Meditation starts at 41:15.

Meditation

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 she has learned through personal experience, and suggests that we should always find our own equilibrium between shamatha, practices which aim at cultivating the heart, and those intended for cultivating wisdom. She gives a suggestion on how to approach the teachings we are receiving in these eight weeks. Today she guides us through an abbreviated form of refuge.

Meditation starts at 14:05

After meditation we continue with Düdjom Lingpa’s commentary, in the third section of bodhicitta, training in prayer and action. Training in prayer is a Tong Len practice, so Eva gives the different bases on which one is to exchange self and others, and how giving away one’s own happiness doesn’t diminish it, but increases it. Furthermore, the instruction leads us to tap into the wellspring of all that is good, and sharing that with everyone around us.

The training in action is that of the six perfections, and Yangchen teaches now on the first three: generosity, ethical discipline, and patience. She will continue on next session with remaining teachings on the perfection of patience, enthusiasm, meditation, and wisdom.

Meditation

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 visualization of the merit field. Eva starts with the perfection of patience, and its relation with developing fortitude and endurance through difficult situations. She comments also on the meaning of ascetical hardships, and what does ‘putting up with them’ entail. She goes on to the perfection of enthusiasm, of meditation, and of wisdom, elaborating a little on the teachings on the text.

Yangchen highlights that the instructions on the perfection of meditation and of wisdom given here, seem to summarize all of the teachings on shamatha and vipashyana that appear throughout Düdjom Lingpa’s revelations; which at this point were yet to be revealed. She finishes the session with the triad of view, meditation, and conduct, which constitute the wisdom of meditation.

Four revolutions in outlook, refuge, and bodhicitta from the Chariot of Liberation, with Tibetan recitation and commentary.

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, commentary, and translation. She draws then on Thinley Norbu’s commentary to elaborate on the need and relevance of the purification practice. What is it that makes the Buddhas manifest as differentiated beings? She narrates the story behind Vajrasattva becoming this specific bodhisattva who can purify every and any deed of every sentient being.

Eva draws on parallels to Christianity to invite us to connect with beings which pray to take on the sins of the world. In western society forgiveness is something we connect to strongly; so what does it mean to forgive ourselves, and in this way to clear away all residues, and become totally pure? This practice leads us all the way to the immaculate purity of the Buddha, and she reminds us that it is not until enlightenment that we are finished with purification practices.

Thinley Norbu further emphasizes the equality of Samantabhadra and Vajrasattva. This also happens in all the new translation schools, which equate Vajrasattva to Vajradhara. Yangchen comments on the first verse of Vajrasattva practice on A Treasure House of Blessings, and clears out that we are allowed to do the practice without a Vajrayana empowerment. With this final points we go to the guidance on the meditation and recitation in this same text, focusing only on the visualization.

Meditation starts at 49:10

After going through the first three remedial powers in meditation, Yangchen makes some comments on the visualization paragraphs, and in this way closes the session.

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 Buddhas we go through for this type of practice. When we visualize the Sambhogakaya we are visualizing the sublime nature of what human beings can become, so the images serve as an access to our buddha nature; but we shouldn’t get attached to the association between a name and a form.

After this, Yangchen comments on some details of the Vajrasattva practice. Vajrasattva is the first practice with which one transforms their own body into a body of light, she affirms. She then speaks concretely of the four remedial powers: the visualization (foundational remedial power), and in this context she makes a detailed description of the adornments of the male and female figures; the confession (power that rips out bad deeds) as a way to recognize the problems in our mindstream in order to heal them; the promise to turn away from the actions to purify (power of restraint); and performing the practice itself (power of practicing the remedy), which we now do on meditation, without mantra on this occasion.

Meditation starts at 46:00

Vajrasattva Practice

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 is the most effective, namely, the meditation on the recitation of the Vajrasattva mantra. Starting from the visualization we did on the session before (Vajrasattva hovering above our head) Eva comments on the letters appearing inside the heart of Vajrasattva. It is important, she states, that we actually visualize the letter hūṃ (either on Sanskrit or Tibetan). She also comments on the power of the nectar dripping from the mantra and what it does when it infuses our being.

This practice has the great potential to purify all negative deeds stored in our mental continuum as karmic seeds. To do so, one imagines these seeds have a particular form (worms, insects, pus, blood, dark smoke, and liquid charcoal, depending on the particular nature of the deed).

Yangchen then explains the mantra, describing the vibration of the mantra and the washing river that falls down from it, this enters our being through the crown of our head and encounters all the images of the seeds mentioned before. She explains the symbolism of the different images representing the particular deeds, which exit our body and are fed to beings residing 9 levels bellow the earth. She explains who these beings are, what they represent, and what feeding these different substances to them means.

After the description of the visualization we go on to study the mantra and the meaning of its parts. Eva comments about the language suggested to visualize the mantra (Sanskrit vs. Tibetan), then recites the mantra once, and afterwards explains its meaning in great detail.

At the end Eva comments about the outer, inner, and secret stances of this practice and reads the closure of the meditation, which includes the recitation of the six syllable mantra, pure vision, and secret meditation. All this will be explained in detail during the next session.

No explicit meditation session today.

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 such details.

Yangchen gives then some practical techniques for the visualization of the mantra around the moon disk at the heart of Vajrasattva, recommendations for counting the mantra, and options for the way of accompanying the different stages of the visualization with our mantra count.

Then she moves to explain the supplication, and confession stage, here we focus on purifying five essential categories: broken samayas, sins, obscurations, bad deeds, and downfalls. She gives an explanation of the different categories. We go then onto the inner purification. Yangchen instructs on the visualization and recitation of this stage, and afterwards on the visualization corresponding to the secret purification, including the dissolution of all appearances into emptiness. She is drawing from different sources to teach us this practice, one of them is a commentary on the practice by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. In this commentary, Rinpoche defines the last stage of the practice as the ultimate power of turning back.

Yangchen shares the lines of Thinley Norbu’s commentary around the nature of Samantabhadra and Vajrasattva, why is a distinction made if they are of the same nature? She explains that this practice and personification of Vajrasattva is the bodhisattva’s offering to us to realize the essential nature of ultimate reality, Samantabhadra.

Meditation starts at: 44:00

Vajrasattva Mantra Practice

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 śamatha, then the preliminaries is a preparation, she says, just after we have prepared the soil, can we focus on the śamatha pursuit. One can also do a one month retreat focusing on the preliminaries, to deepen the practice, and so on. So we do preliminary sometimes 80% of the time, sometimes 20% of the time, sometimes 100% of the time, and sometimes just our Vajrayana commitments, depending on our individual condition at every certain moment.

Afterwards, Yangchen comments on the ordering of the ‘six syllable mantra’ and the ‘dissolution of Vajrasattva’ in the Düdjom Tersar. This particular text is given as a concise practice to recite the mantras without visualization, she clears out, but if we are doing the visualization, then the opposite order is advised, as is instructed in the text by Düdjom Rinpoché and in the commentary by Thinley Norbu.

Eva responds to some questions she has received, these are: 1. What to do if one cannot follow the visualization through all those little details? 2. What should one do after Guru Yoga has concluded, how should one proceed with the practice?

She gives several suggestions to both of these questions, clarifies something about the buddhafield and buddha family of Vajrasattva, and then takes us into the practice.

Meditation starts at: 19:10

Stages of the Practice Thus Far

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 recitation in the brief preliminaries. She explains that it is longer in English, basically because more words are needed to wrap up all that is encompassed in the Tibetan. Eva is drawing from Thinley Norbu’s commentary, which says that there are two mandalas, the one we reach to and the one we offer. She describes then the visualization of these two mandalas, and the representation of them by physical substances (5 piles of what one has arranged). In this context she talks about the qualities of Padmasambhava (within the mandala to be accomplished) which encompass each of the 5 Buddha Families, and what should be set physically, or what can be visualized to represent those Buddha Families.

Yangchen continues with the text, the collection of merit is great through mandala offering, but it is essential to know what the steps in the practice mean and symbolize. She explains what is the idea behind the ‘best, medium, and lowest quality’ mandalas that one can offer.

One is instructed to imagine the physical mandala as the three realms of existence, Mount Meru, and the four continents, together with other ingredients of Buddhist cosmology, as much as one wants to visualize. Yangchen recites now the mandala offering from the Khandro Nyingtik, and explains what a ‘billionfold world system’ is. The aim is to go to the limits of our imagination. One transforms then the billionfold world system into a nirmāṇakāya buddhafield, one’s own body into a sambhogakāya buddhafield, and one’s mind into a dharmakāya buddhafield; this constitute the outer, inner, and secret mandala. Then, one offers all this to one’s guru. She comments that the last three lines of the recitation each refer to the outer, inner, and secret mandala.

At the end Eva gives some details about the steps one follows to arrange the physical offering, the location of the piles, and what each pile in the mandala represents.

Imagine Yourself as Siddhartha

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 regarding mandala offering, how to make it our own. She draws from two analogous stances of the Christian tradition which hold, respectively, a strong parallel with guru Padmasambhava embracing all worlds, and with the offering recitation. Yangchen then gives an account of the Christian prayer, and talks about what it means to ‘give back’ everything we own to the greatness of the ultimate, the ground, the dharmakāya. She reminds us that every preliminary encompasses the other 7, and how this is so regarding the mandala offering.

Eva talks about the four continents surrounding Mount Meru, naming them all from East to North: Purvavideha, Jambudvipa, Aparagodaniya and Uttarakuru. Then, she speaks about the way in which this cosmology appears, where and to whom. This explanation is drawing from the essential nature of space, which is emptiness. Yangchen gives an analogy by Lama Tsongkhapa, of how something that is ‘wet and flowing’ can be regarded as different from three different karmic perceptions, how the same basis can be simultaneously seen as blood and pus, clear water, and ambrosia. It is in this way that the Buddhist world system can be here and now, in our Universe of solar systems and galaxy clusters, she invites us to think how this could be true to us.

Mandala Offering Practice

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 cosmology /modern cosmology descriptions of the Universe. Yangchen proceeds by commenting on the inversion of the order (Vajrasattva- mandala offering) in the shorter recitation versus the other texts. In any case, coming into the next practice from Vajrasattva or mandala offering, we have dissolved all appearances into emptiness, and arrive in a pure realm, ready for the Guru Yoga.

She goes then to our arriving in the pure land, and the form in which we arrive there, that of Yeshe Tsogyal as Vajrayogini. This connection to the pure land and a pure being is highly auspicious, which makes this Guru Yoga the most profound among profound crucial points, as described by Düdjom Lingpa. She elaborates on how we are receiving the empowerment from Guru Rinpoche, and on the basis of what is that a qualified teacher is replaced by the presence of Padmasambhava on this particular practice. Yangchen also explains that it is the devotion and surrender to the blessings that can enable the whole transformation of stage of generation and completion to take place, without elaboration; letting dharmakāya ‘do the work'.

Next, Eva goes on to the description of our emergence as Yeshe Tsogyal in a celestial palace. She comments on what is our form as the perfect student of Padmasambhava symbolizing, and on what is the feminine energy representing here. Further, she explains that Vajrayogini is appearing as the womb of all buddhas, which is emptyness. The point of all of this is to be a good vessel for the empowerments, so we see ourselves as a pure symbol of transcendent wisdom.

At the end Yangchen summarizes the three lineages of these revelations. She reminds us that, no matter how many beings are in between the origin and ourselves, we are always receiving the full power of the teachings, as nothing stops Samantabhadra to appear as our Guru. She concludes by reading a prayer by Mipham Rinpoche to Yeshe Tsogyal.

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 ourselves as Yeshe Tsogyal in the form of Vajrayogini. Yangchen encourages us not to look up images of Vajrayogini, rather to trust the images that come to mind from the description. Eva reads the description from Düdjom Lingpa and elaborates on the details based on the commentary by Thinley Norbu. After emphasizing the important details of Vajrayogini, Yangchen starts with the emergence of Guru Rinpoche in front of us, at the level of our crown. She gives a sketch of this appearance and comments that she will give the full visualization tomorrow, in meditation.

Vajrasattva Mantra Slow

Vajrasattva Mantra Medium

Vajrasattva Mantra Fast

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 draws from this concept to talk about the different manifestations of dharmakāya, or in our particular case, the manifestations of Vajrayogini. She makes an account of how Vajrayogini manifests at the dharmakāya, sambhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya levels.

Yangchen goes back to Thinley Norbu’s commentary to describe the emanation of Padmasambhava we are in the presence of. Amitabha is dharmakāya, Avalokiteshvara is sambhogakāya, and Padmasambhava nirmāṇakāya. But this are indivisible. He is in fact inseparable from Samantabhadra, Vajradhāra and Shakyamuni. Yangchen continues with the description of the visualization of Padmasambhava (the root Lama) across from Vajrayogini (you). In the midst of this description, Eva speaks about how we can determine who our root Guru is. She further explains what the garments Padmasambhava wears symbolize. After this details we go into the meditation, coming from A Chariot on the Path to the Union of the Two.

Meditation begins at 46: “Guru Yoga of Blessings”

Guru Yoga of Blessings

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 us, and instantaneously manifest. We are in the presence of the Treasure House now, the mandala of Guru Rinpoche.

Eva turns to the recitation that follows, and explains where Cāmara is in the Mount Meru map. She clears out different approaches to visualizing the manifestations. One approach is to see them as if responding to our call, coming from somewhere else; this is to be done if there is the slightest doubt that they are already here and now. If one is certain of their presence, one takes on the second approach; here, there is no need to elaborate on the visualization of the dharmakāya beings traveling through space.

She further quotes from a sutra, which talks about the presence of the Buddha, as soon as we bring the Buddha to mind. Yangchen talks about the nature of the tears of devotion, which are a manifestation of the naked supplication, deep within our heart. She ends the session by commenting on the essence of the prayer of supplication.

Guru Yoga Meditation

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). Drawing from the commentaries of Düdjom Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu, this would be after the supplication and before the four empowerments.

After this, Eva recites the last verses of the Guru Yoga practice, which take her to an explanation of who we receive the empowerments from. She explains the three forms of empowerments. The foundational empowerment (given by a Lama), a self empowerment or an empowerment through Guru Yoga (path empowerment), and the fruitional or ground empowerment. Putting together the reverence and the ‘three secrets’ of the Guru are what make the Guru Yoga empowerment sublime and supreme. So, do we need the empowerment from a Lama? Yangchen discusses this question; we do need a human Lama. Yangchen comments further on where genuine visions arise (at the level of pristine awareness), in contrast to visualizations which are a fabrication of the substrate consciousness.

Yangchen then elucidates the meaning of the Vajra Guru mantra. In the explanation she also lists the seven limbs, with a brief definition of each one, this is in the context of the seven limbs of the Guru (sambhogakāya) body. Eva takes us then to the meditation, which will be on the seven branch offering as an antidote to the 6 root afflictions plus jealousy.

Meditation is “7 Branch Prayer as an Antidote for Mental Afflictions” and begins at 40:45

7 Branch Prayer as an Antidote for Mental Afflictions

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 benefits one obtains from certain numbers of this mantra’s recitation. She clears out what these benefits mean, and in which way the recitation can be complementary to śamatha, the latter being a practice without elaboration.

Next, we go back to "A Chariot on the Path” text, at the point right after the seven-limb practice (which we did on last session). She explains the coming paragraph, this talks about our admiration and reverence to our root Lama as a determining factor for the blessings to flow our way. Since she already recited the supplication that follows, she spends just some time in the last two paragraphs of this prayer. In this context, Yangchen details “the four empowerments”, “the four obscurations” and “the four kāyas”.

After the supplication comes the mantra recitation, but one wants to sustain continuity between the supplication and the four empowerments, which will come after the mantra recitation. So Yangchen talks about both, the visualization during mantra recitation and the visualization during the four empowerments. She elaborates on the symbolism linked between the visualized objects (rays, kāyas, syllables, hand implements) and each of the four empowerments. Eva warns us not to force things, and to allow the empowerment come in a natural way from the Guru in front of us. At the end she gives further elements to visualize during the mantra recitation.

Calling the Guru from Afar

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 question concerns when, during the 7 preliminaries, to do physical prostrations.

Yangchen then draws from Thinley Norbu’s commentary to explain the resultant state of each of the four empowerments – siddhis. She speaks of the signs that manifest (gradually) from receiving the vase empowerment (attachment, body, earth and water elements, bliss, eye of wisdom, nirmāṇakāya), the secret empowerment (hostility, speech, wind and fire elements, luminosity, eye of primordial consciousness, sambhogakāya), and the wisdom empowerment (delusion, mind, space element, non-conceptuality, eye of ultimate reality, dharmakāya). The fourth empowerment encompasses the previous three, and the experience is that of the svabhāvikakāya, the emptiness of the other three kāyas.

Meditation is at [43:50], and is a complete practice of Guru Yoga as given on “A Chariot on the Path to the Union of the Two”. Yangchen reads directly from the text.

Dudjom Rinpoche’s Guru Yoga

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 our aspirations is the perseverance to remain in a path no matter the number of eons it takes, as Tsongkhapa writes, the quickly part is for the sake of others. She talks about how Phowa helps on our surrender, knowing that we are and will be taken care of by our Guru, our ultimate Guru, even when our configured mind is losing its ground. Phowa is letting our heart fly, into infinite space.

The Phowa practice we focus on is based on a Nirmanakaya Buddhafield, which arose from Amitabha’s intense prayer. Yangchen reads Lama Tsongkhapa’s prayer to Amitabha, and explains how birth and life unfold in Sukhavati. She then talks about the possibility of feeling a greater connection to other pure lands, and what this implies for us when practicing Phowa. She also elaborates on the state of mind the prayers generate, as we aspire to be reborn in Sukhavati.

Yangchen clarifies that two termas are put together by Düdjom Lingpa in his commentary, adding up to seven preliminary practices. She also clarifies why there are two Phowa practices in the Khandro Nyingtik text, and reads the opening colophon, as well as the closing lines, of both of them. After this, she goes into “A Treasure House of Blessings” and reads the starting paragraphs related to the practice of Phowa.

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 who has conquered death. She goes on to the details of the central channel, and to the the nature of the indestructible bindu, together with the symbolism of transferring it to the heart of Amitābha.

Then we move to the visualization of Buddha Amitābha, and to the first stages of the root text, which go through the conception of the pathway (central channel), the host (Buddha Amitābha), and the guest (the orb of awareness). Regarding the “phat”, Yangchen suggests us not to recite it during the emission for the moment; this practice should be done very gently, letting things evolve naturally. Eva proceeds with the text until the dissolution of Amitābha into our central channel. We will continue from this point at the next session.

Phowa Meditation

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.

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 speech emanation of the Dharmakaya. She also speaks about how our single pointed devotion to the the divine can arise our devotion to all its manifestations, the five facets of primordial consciousness, knowing that these are the windows through which the divine can speak to us.

Meditation starts at 33:00, and is on the longer version, with some commentary by Yangchen in between.

Full Phowa Practice

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 to create Sukhavati.

Meditation starts at 10:50 , and is a transmission of the Khandro Nyingtik in Tibetan, with commentary by Yangchen.

Practice Transmission for “The Chariot of Liberation”

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 and profound implications of the act of offering and giving, through a practice of Chod. She compares Chod practice to a mind training practice, where we look at the depths of our bodhicitta, and the deepest resources that we can access, to serve all sentient beings. It transforms in this way our relationship with our aggregates, and invites us to go beyond aversion and attachment to a finite body. Eva lists also those who are attending our offering, our guests. She compares this practice to the Eucharist in Christianity, and gives the parallels.

Yangchen reads the verses in Tibetan and explains the visualization related to them; our body, Troma Nagmo, and their characteristics. She goes also through the ritual and offering description. In the file “Prayers of Infinite Light” we can find the verses that she is describing.

The practice starts at 44:20, and is an experiential taste of Chod.

An Experiential Taste of Chod

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 Düdjom Lingpa, related to the treasure revelation “From the Matrix of Pure Appearances and Primordial Consciousness”. Within it, there is a brief recitation for Chod practice, and Eva gives suggestions on how to approach this.

Meditation starts at 7:25 and it is a transmission of the brief preliminary practices in Tibetan, with English translation and commentary. Yangchen added also some of the Prayers of Infinite Light, related to Chod and dedication. After meditation Yangchen goes onto the longer text, The Chariot of Liberation. She picks up right after the Guru Yoga, into the instructions for everyday practices. They instruct on food offering, clothes offering, sleep yoga, and the dying process. She concludes with the comments of the importance of Guru Yoga in the Vajrayana path, and with the dedication prayers on the text.

The Complete Practice of the Brief Preliminaries