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 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.
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