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). 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
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