So now we're talking about the actual material that the mandala is made out of. Actually, the word mandala itself is a Sanskrit word. It's a Tibetan word. It means some sort of circle. So this mandala can be made out of many materials. If you're wealthy, it could be gold. You know, metal is possibly gold or silver. Or if you're not that wealthy, then maybe copper or bronze or whatever. But however, by the way, iron is not used. And if you're poor, you might use a wooden one or even a stone one, it's okay, or a glass one, it doesn't really matter. So if you have a mandala made of precious materials, then it'll do if it's just the size of your stretched out hand.

[01:36]

I guess the diameter or something. If it's of the cheaper materials like wood, then it should be bigger. It should be maybe the size from your elbow to your finger. So, in the beginning of the year, [...] Now, if you're very wealthy, for the actual heaps of the offerings that you're making, if you're wealthy, it can be made of jewels, crushed jewels, of all the different gold and silver and diamonds, made into a powder.

[02:55]

Um, if you're not that wealthy, you might be of herbs, special herbs and medicinal herbs. Um, and if you're fairly poor, then you make it out of grains. It has grains on it. Thank you. Yawm al-fajr. Yawm al-fajr. You can't talk to me.

[04:48]

You can't talk to me. I'm very, very black. And you can't talk to me. You [...] can't talk to me He said, oh, you only need one. Well, I think when you're doing this, it comes with it. When you're getting ready to use the sandal, whatever material that you're using, hot sandal, it's glazed or stone or whatever it is, you have to make sure it's very well cleaned and washed, and especially with the saffron water, pure water.

[06:41]

It's very important that also you make the mandala, thank you. very, very clean and shiny. Even if there's a little bit of dirt on it, it's kind of a sign of the stains and defilements within your own character. It becomes a symbol of that, because this whole thing is a very symbolic thing to begin with. Therefore, you make great effort to do everything in the most auspicious possible way, which means that you make this as clean as possible. And if you don't work long enough, actually, it's not working all the same. I don't know. [...]

[07:56]

I don't know. [...] I don't know It's just that it doesn't work. In the past, when I was young, I used to go to the temple to pray.

[08:58]

I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray. So first, when you start doing that, you take a bit of this rice in your hand, and then you don't have any cloth or anything on your hand, just your hand itself shines the top of the thing while you're holding a couple grains in your hand, and you're saying the 100 syllable mantra that you just did. And then with the water, you must have this water over here, which is the water which has the saffron in it, a little water in a small pitcher, And then you pour a bit, like you just did, on there. A little bit. And then now, it doesn't matter where you're actually facing, but you imagine that in front of you, east.

[10:02]

That's east. So you set up that direction. Even if you're not actually facing east, it's okay. But just imagine east. That's south, north, west. Goes around to the right. So first you started that prayer which is in the book And first you make a square. You start up at the top, the way he's doing it. You go to the right and down like that. You make a square. And you sort of spread it.

[11:07]

You make a square and then you make it into a circle. You should all sort of see what he's doing, unless you've seen it before. So then you make, I think you make the square twice. You make the square sort of in the water, you know, you kind of make the trace because there's liquid there, and then you rub it out by making, you sort of smudge it out like that. Then you do it again. Then when you get to the word koyuk, which you'll see it's a couple about two sentences in. Koryug means this thing which goes around like a fence, I think, or something around. Then you, with your finger, you make a circle right around the rib of it. And then when you get to hung, the hung, then you put that little pile in the center. You really should be looking at the book also. What page is it on? Did he tell you what to say with what action?

[12:19]

There are three things you have to learn. First of all, what to do with your hands and that has to be synchronized with what you're saying. And also, at the same time, you're also visualizing and meditating. So there's three things that are going on, so it's very difficult. And you're visualizing, that's your magic. Well, I don't know, the way of the... Let's hear it. I don't know.

[13:27]

I don't know. I don't know. Now I'm going to tell you a story about a man. He was a doctor. He was a doctor. He was a doctor. He was a man. He was a doctor. He was a doctor. So now you're visualizing that on that plate is the whole universe.

[14:33]

And the universe is in accordance with the Buddhist cosmology. It's really hard to relate that to the Western idea of the solar system, etc. So you just kind of think in these terms right now. So, first of all, when you're doing this, I mean, the prayer actually says what you're supposed to be visualizing. So it's that when you read that from the book, it's the translation. So you're going along with what the words mean, right? So, Seraphim Sashi, there's a place that says the land is all gold, or something like that. I don't know how to translate it. In other words, the basic surface of this universe, or the earth, is gold. So you're visualizing that. And then when you get to the word Koryuk, you'll see it in a minute. Koryuk is the rim of surrounding mountains. It's this area. First of all, there's this gold sort of area, which is this huge area. which is the mountain by the ocean. I think of all the mountains which are blazing on the horizon.

[15:48]

Then in the center, when you say, Hum Rikyahu River, that means the Mount Sumeru, which is this mountain right in the center of the universe. And that's this huge mountain which has four sides. And the front, I don't even know. And then to the south is the blue, I think it's lapis. Then to the west is ruby. What movie was called? Movie. And then in the north is gold. This is a poor country. It's 8,000 of these units of measurement, which is

[16:55]

There's the thirty-three levels of the God realms on top of the peak of this mountain. Thirty-three levels. Dilli, dilli, arambai, yada, sādhani, chhāli, viṭṭhā, hari, sāṅjata, sāṅsiddhi, kathā, gādhe, tukhā, yānta, mūṅdhī, sādhani, nāṅgāra, etā, nāṅgāra. In the sky above that are the Pure Realms, which are above those in order. There's a whole mini-ganden center. Right around the mountain, Sumeru, there are seven circles of golden mountains. Between each, that's all in ocean. Then in the east, there's a place called Lubabo. That's one big world realm. Lubabo.

[18:22]

Then in the South, Zangbaling means our own world. In the West, there's this place called Bawangshih. It's a very large world. In the North, there's a place called Damingyin. We make little piles each time to represent So each of these four big islands have two small sermon islands. So in the east there's Lud and Uba. So you put two small little things in each of them. These are the two services of our world.

[19:43]

Two other ones in the west. Dominion and domination. Two other little islands in the north. When I was young, I used to go to school to learn how to read and write. When I was older, I used to go to school to learn how to read and write. When I was younger, I used to go to school to learn how to read and write. When I was older, I used to go to school to learn how to read and write. So now don't forget the mountain Rerub has the four sides made of those four jewels.

[20:45]

So each side is shiny and it's light. So for example, to the east is the crystal glass side, which is white. So that whole land and world has a white cap to it. And our side has the I think it's either Lapis or Sapphire. Lapis. They say Sapphire. Well, they say Phiduria is Sapphire. Yeah, I thought Phiduria is Lapis. Yeah, that's what I thought too. So I'm not sure, but I personally think it's Lapis. But I saw that it says it. Yeah, it said it. It said Lapis last week. Oh yeah? Yeah, it said Sapphire. Sapphire Lapis is Lapis. Phiduria is the... Phiduria is the... Phiduria. Phiduria is the Mongol king. Because, um... It's not magic.

[22:02]

It's very shiny. First of all, he's never seen it. And it's very, very rare. And if we had a small piece of it, it's light shining would be seen all over Manhattan. It's very, it has this incredible... So since the side of the mountain is all from this jewel, that's why our whole sky is blue. That's the shining reflection from that jewel. No, I don't think it's mythical to me. Well, he doesn't think it's mythical. I mean, it exists, but it's very rare. It's quite rare. It's hard to draw the line. I don't know. I don't know. So most people in the human world, I mean in this world of ours, we're basically, our size is about four of these in general.

[24:10]

In the eastern realm of Lubavo, the people are eight in size. In the west volunteer there are twelve of these spins. Sixteen in the north. Then there's the Rinpoche Kiriru, which is the mountain, the precious mountain made of jewels, which is somewhere between the Mount Sumeru and the eastern land in the ocean.

[25:20]

There's this mountain made of all sorts of jewels, incredibly. You see it in the book actually, but that's the jewel now, the precious one. So you made another piece for that? Then there's a place called Basam Kishin, which is between our world and Sumeru, which is also very wealthy and rich. It's kind of a god realm. And it's the source of many of the jewels and riches in our world, in our life.

[26:20]

I don't know. There is another land to the west which is, I think it's a land of cows. But the cows have their horns and are all made of precious materials. And their tongues and mouth. In the north. Then there's another precious land there where all the trees and plants don't need earth and they don't need any water.

[27:46]

They just grow just by themselves. It's kind of a reflection of the good karma of the beings who live there. These plants just grow naturally. There's another, then again in the east there's a circle of gold. It's like a huge wheel that during, in good kalpas, which this is not, but in a good time when there's the ruler, universal ruler, then he has this wheel which is the symbol of his power of ruling the whole universe, this huge golden wheel.

[28:57]

Well, that sort of floats around to the east. Then there's the noble grain, which is a very precious jewel, which is floating around through the South, which again is the source of all the wealth and riches that you may need. You can pray for that jewel sometimes and get wealth from that. Then in the West, you imagine that the Zumo Rinpoche, which is the queen, precious queen, she is the queen of the universal monarch.

[30:12]

His wife is this queen, and she's extraordinarily beautiful and attractive. Then in the north, there's the Lungpo Rinpoche, which is the minister, the precious minister. And he's also the minister of the universal monarch, who advises him on all matters. So he's there in the west. Imagine that. Okay, then again back in the eastern direction it says, precious elephant. And it's not like the usual elephants that we have around here, the elephants, but it's a beautiful elephant, the type of elephant that's used by the universal monarch.

[31:48]

So it's a special, special, special elephant. That's in the southwest. I mean, the southeast is the elephant. And then in the southwest, it's natural. Then in the southwest is the horse, Precious Horse, who's also the horse used by the Universal Monarch. He's blue. Blue, beautiful, incredible horse. He's capable of riding to all four of these islands. He can go that far, that kind of horse. Then in the northwest, there's the general

[32:52]

who's the head of the armies for the Universal Monarch, who's capable of fighting off all the various sorts and levels of armies and wars. He's in the Northwest. Then in the northeast, there's the precious vase. This vase, if you can manage to put your hand inside the vase, there's all sorts of jewels and money, etc. that you can just take out for the asking. It's a huge, beautiful face which is the source of all wealth and riches.

[34:18]

So visualize that in your peace. Then in the sky to the east of the mountain is the Gemoma, which now we're getting into the offering goddesses and the first one It's Gemuma who's white in color and extremely beautiful and holding a... She's the laughing one.

[35:20]

Gemuma is laughing. Then next is the yellow goddess of the rosary. Not rosary, but necklace I guess. Who's wearing many necklaces of precious jewels. Tewama. She's over to there. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?

[36:20]

Okay, so the first goddess I think was in the south, in the southeast. And the second was in the southwest. And now the third is in the northwest. That's Luma, the one who sings songs. She's white. I think a pinkish white. I'm not sure. Pinkish white. And she's holding a guitar made of precious jewels. Yeah. Yeah. Luma. Luma. Luma means song. Luma means the one who sings the song. Then in the northeast there's the green dancing one. She's holding a vajra also and she's dancing.

[37:50]

Okay, so then back then back to the southeast Next to the Gamma Ma, which we were just talking about, Dupa Ma, which is the one who is holding the incense. Then to the southwest. sent to the southwest to avoid goddess who's holding the flowers, Medoma.

[39:13]

So she's always offering these flowers to the goddess. And to the northwest is the Mame Ma, who's carrying the butter lance, who's pink. Then to the northeast again is the green goddess who holds the washing water.

[40:13]

again to the east of the mountain in the sky and the sun which is like... So the sun is made out of something called fire crystal, which is a burning stone. And that is 51 of these pakte, which is a certain measure, 51 of those sides. Then to the west of the mountain is the moon, which is 50 of these measures in size.

[41:48]

And it's made of chushe, which is this water crystal, which is this cool light as opposed to the hot of the sun, heat of the sun. Then in the south there's this precious umbrella which is the umbrella which is like a banner umbrella because they made out of gold and all sorts of precious materials gold stick gold top Then to the north is the huge banner of the Universal Mother, and in the north also made up of precious materials.

[43:22]

So now we've just gone through 37, that's what is meant by, what his parents called the 37 heap prayer, because he made the 37 heaps. I don't know. This prayer, by the way, was first composed by Chogya Padma.

[44:35]

You know, Chogya Padma was the great Sakya Lama of India. He went to Mongolia and China. He was sort of the Lama of Kultakon. And he was the one who composed this. And then later, this basic structure is used by all the sects to threaten Buddhism. And since he did this prayer, it's very powerful, because he himself became the ruler of Tibet by through this kind of thinking. Yes, I'm saying it. Tom and the nurse are with me. I don't mind if I'm your person, so I'm not going to be abandoning you. It's in the name of Tom. And if that's your mind, you're going to get a trash heap. See? Trash heap. It's all here. They are according to what the book says and you sprinkle a bit more of the rice on the whole thing all over it and you imagine that you're just putting all sorts of good things on it, any type of things that

[45:42]

human's life or anything like that just sprinkled over the whole thing and then you finish saying the whole prayer as it's in the book. So now this of course is very hard to repeat many many times. But at least you do this three times, I think, during one period of the week. So that's the 37th prayer. Now we do the 70th prayer, which is the easier one. So now we're starting all over again. So now you start off the same. The first thing is the same.

[46:57]

Then you put the reverb. South. West. I'm not sure. Then you go directly to the sun. Then now there's seven heaps, right? Then you pour on the rest of the sand there. Imagine all the human things. I mean, all the different... in the I don't know.

[48:25]

I don't know. [...] I don't know So when you're doing this according to the wrong leap of the chain, you imagine that you're only doing seven leaps. Then he said, So when you're just doing it with the seven heaps, then you imagine that the whole sky is filled with the cow.

[49:55]

You remember there's the cow land, which is to the west. So instead of seeing that actual place, then you just imagine that the whole sky is filled with the yellow, wish-fulfilling cows when you're doing it. And then all the mountains have the essence of the Vastu of Kishing. That was the land where there's all the, you know, anything you want, all riches and wealth. That's all the mountains are of that nature. And then all the earth, all the land in this thing are of the nature of the land where the plants and trees grow naturally. So that's just all the land becomes like that.

[50:59]

So, and now I'm last on Rinpoche. This practice of the seven heaps, he did 100,000 times? Oh, 10, 100,000 times. One heap. And in two short years he did that. That's it. Don't worry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So the main point though is that you shouldn't regard this as just a plate on which you're heaping little piles of rice.

[52:09]

But there's a whole visualization that goes along with it. You're visualizing in terms of the whole universe. So it won't help very much if you just make the little piles. You have to think, you know, know what you're doing and think in a whole universal span. So all this is just a symbol of what you're visualizing. So that's very important. So you finished the prayer now. and then the rest of that prayer you say one time which is you're just asking all the deities and buddhas etc that you have visualized before to take it, eat it or whatever or offering the whole thing accepted to them Now this is the middle line.

[53:19]

Now the shortest one. The long one was the 37, the middle one was the 7. Now the short one is just the 4 line verse. I think as many as you can. His guru did it at 1 million. Read the first line you've written. You're still making 17. Then you're finished. That's the short one, eh? You're making 17, and then you can go. You could do it, but it's too late. You should pour a bit of water each time you clean it off.

[54:20]

So, you know, uh, the, [...] uh, the When you're putting the heaps on, you don't let the rice go out through the bottom when you're doing that. That's a bad symbol. You have to pick it up like this and then pour it out like this with the tips of your fingers. Because the whole thing is a symbol anyway. An offering shouldn't be coming from the bottom of your head.

[55:42]

It should be coming from the tips of your fingers. That's according to Nalanda. And also, when we are collecting 100,000, we are doing the four lines first. I mean, those who do the seven-heap prayer are very rare. Prabhupada's guru is one of the few people who did it in that way. But in general, everyone's doing it. So we do the thirty-seven things three times and then the rest of it, the four strokes. Seven lines, four lines? Yes. Seven rows, four lines. I think there's a calendar, Kusarit. You can get it from Munda. [...] This is the wrong thing, right? You have to do it. You have to make the service. He's done something to people anyway.

[56:59]

It's not much of a marriage. It can't be true. But it's hard work, he says. Are you keeping track of the number of offerings on the wall? Yeah, I was just looking to see.

[58:08]

I can't find the score line here. That's all I'm going to teach you. I'm going to teach you how to read. [...] So this is the accumulation of a store of merit.

[59:45]

And if you do it well, and you have a good bodhicitta while you're doing it, then you'll have certain signs in your dreams. For example, of seeing a high mountain, or your body is pure, a yellow color. or you'll see the sun in the moon or you'll get a jewel in your hand painted by that of sun. You're doing that one. That's those were dream signs and then for actual signs In your mind you'll have a lot of faith in the Buddhist teachings and you'll have a lot of compassion towards all beings and you'll have great faith and a good relationship with your guru, etc, etc. That'll be the sense in your real life.

[60:46]

You'll remember a cause and you accept and understand the real cause and effect. And then the real fruit of all of this is the understanding of the wisdom which knows that there's no ego. That's the true fruit of the practice for the highest. I'm going to do it. I'm not going to tell you anything.

[62:01]

I'm not going to tell you anything. [...] You're talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. What I do?

[63:04]

Good morning. I don't know. I don't know. When his Lama Nagarjuna first started to practice, before he did the two-year retreat, he was rather poor, almost like a beggar.

[64:15]

But after he finished that, well, his first 500,000 of these were on a shing, a wood mandala, but the next 500,000 were on a kind of gold medal, where he started getting more wealth. Etc. And by the end of his career, he was very, very well wealthy. He had managed to somehow he just got a lot of wealth with the monastery. They had a beautiful temple, one of the best in all of Tibet. He became very, very rich. And it's through doing this, the way he did it. I still can't find the wine. I'll show you. It's 79. It's 79. Well, there's a lot of them. There's four of the first four. So if you are doing this practice

[65:44]

In addition to having the seven cups, you also have a small mandala in which there's five sort of heaps. That's the kind of visualized image. Oh, that's the image of the... that you're offering to the... I'm not equal. I'm not changing. And in that ship, you know what I mean? So, okay, when you're doing this practice on your altar, you have a small mandala, which has five heaps, which is just what you're offering this mandala to.

[67:53]

And the five heaps stand for in the center is the Lama, And then to the east is the Nidam, to the south is the Buddha, to the west is the Dharma, and the north stands for the Sangha. So that stays on the altar. And then you do your practice here at the Rice Center. That's on page 42. And if you can afford it, you should change the rice and all these things each day, or each time you do it. if you're really wealthy, but if not, at least each day you should change the rice that you're using. It should be different rice. New rice. New rice. I think both. No, that one you don't have to change. Which one is that? What do you do with these? You can either give it to a poor person or give it to animals to eat.

[69:02]

You can if you want to, but you're there. But in Tibet there's many poor people, beggars, so many people to get into here. So when you're visualizing this in front of you, you visualize the Yudam here and then this one down here. So the Yudam is in front of you, because the East is always in front of you, right? And then, could you just remember what's in the other direction? Because I got lost in this. The Buddha is where? Buddha is to the south. Down is to the west and the sun is to the north.

[70:28]

Thank you. Okay, now we'll go through it once. Nāni? [...] I'm going to do that. They're not quite sure whether the diagram at the back of the book is correct either.

[71:57]

Yeah, just look at the back. It's all faked out. You're saying the refuge for Indianapolis would be page 43? kṣetra-lāya-taṁsiṣṭhaṁ kṣetra-pāyeśvaraṁ kṣetra-lāya-taṁsiṣṭhaṁ kṣetra-pāyeśvaraṁ [...] kṣetra lakṣmāṇi pākeh sva-bhāgavān yāni lakṣmāṇi lakṣmāṇi sva-bhāgavān yāni [...] lakṣm

[73:12]

khal nal chik chak, rung sin chik chak, wang chung kwai khok, gul chit loy nyam yin, man dag shuk suk, duk kyi tsoy ngo yin, tong choy tsoy, shrey mo yin, chen chen tsoy, tsoy chen chen, I just want you by my side. I don't want you to leave me. [...] Khyentse Khyentse Khyentse Khyentse Khyentse Khyentse

[74:18]

that you are receiving teachings on Dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings so that you can become enlightened like a Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings. That's called the arousal of the bodhicitta. That's very important for you to do before receiving any teachings about Buddhism. Then you start to visualize that The environment that we're sitting in is like Dawachen paradise, like sitting in a palace where everything is beautiful, like enlightened land.

[75:58]

And the Lama who we're receiving teachings from is not a usual human being, but he's actually Buddha himself, Buddha Sarasvati himself is actually here. And all lights are emanating from his body. And the words that he's speaking are the words of the Buddha's doctrine. And we ourselves imagine ourselves to be like Manjushri, the proper vessel for receiving teachings. Visualize that way now. The keys that he gives us are the keys to the keys. Then you come to the contemplation of compassion and loving-kindness for all sentient beings.

[77:03]

That's the basic preliminary practices which are supposed to be contemplated on. And the teachings which Rinpoche has given from the wonder of the which he has already given to you. In that book and in those teachings, none of these topics have been left out at all. Complete teaching on that. So if you're able to think about all of that and know that very, very well, then you'll have at least understood the basic preliminary practices for Buddhism. That's it. They didn't teach him. People said, you can't teach him. Actually, in the Sankhya Teachings, there are seven different books, I believe, on the subject of Preliminary Practices.

[78:34]

And out of those seven, the one which was written by Kuntalipoye Lundrup, the one that we studied here, is the longest one, the most extensive, most detailed teaching. So the fact that you received that is extremely good. He feels the fact that he was able to tell it to you and to explain it to you and that you were able to hear it, it's a really good sign, a really good omen, and this must be a great era when such a thing can happen. And so we should feel good about that fact and also have faith in those teachings, that they are quite effective. And so we have a little confidence from having received that teaching, since I received it. I did a change. I do this. It's really good if you can do the refuge first. because the refuge prayer, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is extremely important. It contains the essence of all the Buddhist teachings, and also one who has done the refuge.

[79:37]

Once you have taken refuge in Buddhism, then that means that you yourself are a Buddhist. That's the kind of whole difference between someone who is a Buddhist and someone who is not a Buddhist, whether they actually take refuge and hold the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha as the highest ideal. That's the kind of cutting off point. Once you've actually made that decision, that means you are a Buddhist. So that's why it's very important. And when the great teacher Atisha, who was from India, came to Tibet, he taught many, many types of teaching, great amounts of teaching when he was there for a long time. But he also, he didn't know Tibetan very well, so he had to speak to a translator. And so many of the Tibetans always would say, well, he's a great Lama, et cetera, so I wonder what is his name teaching? And they were always told by the translator that it's Refuge, Refuge, you have to learn Refuge. He always said it, that's very important. So, sooner or later, he became known as the Refuge Teacher.

[80:41]

That was like his name that they referred to him as. And he thought that that's very, very good that he's called that, because by having that name, then that name, his point comes through that refuge is really the basic thing that he's talking about. So therefore, you must do that well. And then once you have understood that idea, then you go on to the other kind of syllable mantra and mantra offerings. What can we do? [...] I said, you hear that?

[81:45]

He said, yes. I said, come on now. He said, come on now. I said, yes. [...] He There was a great Sakya teacher named Kunda Sambho. And when he was getting very old in age, his student asked to write down his life story, his biography. And he said, no, no, there's really nothing much true to write. Really, what I've done is I've taken refuge, and I've also believed in cause and effect.

[82:50]

That's the two main things that I've done in life. There's really not enough to say but that. And so, he also was known as the great refuge teacher. And it's not that someone great like Kunda Sambo or Aarti Shadid didn't know the other teachings, you know, all these key terms that he said, etc. I mean, they knew all of that. It's just that they realized what the essence of all that was, having known it all, that the essence could all be stated as taking refuge. So that's why they thought it. So it looks like we've sort of So next now we come to the Guru Yoga. In the Guru Yoga there are two, the ordinary and the special.

[83:54]

Enough, enough. You got it. Enough. [...] So, we're not going to talk about the special guru yoga now, because in order to do the special guru yoga, first of all, you need to have received many initiations from the Lamje teachings, and right now you haven't received those things, and that's also a very complex type of meditation, and it requires certain blessing, et cetera. There's the inner and the outer of those. Well, we're not going to do that right now. We're going to do the ordinary. I should say ordinary, but let's say the usual, usual symptoms of... This time, the kid might get tricked.

[85:11]

You know, he can't go in there and [...] he Now, when you're starting to do guru yoga, just as in any practice, including the hundred syllables, or the manda offering, etc. Before you do any of these practices, you always start out with the four-verse prayer of Sanghe Shantaram, the refuge prayer. You only say that a few times. That's always the beginning. Take this as your Buddhist practice. You can do that in the future. There is a saying in Tibetan, that if you want to become a Muslim, you have to become a Christian.

[86:45]

If you want to become a Christian, you have to become a Muslim. If you want to become a Christian, you have to become a Muslim. And when you're saying those first four lines, it's not that you just say it, but meanwhile your mind is thinking about all sorts of other things. Your mind, you know, shouldn't just be from your mouth, but you have to actually think about what you're saying and visualize what you're saying. And the first two lines, you know, it's actually taking refuge, that in the precious Buddha and the precious Dharma and the precious Sangha, you think about what they are. What they mean is that you're taking refuge in them from starting from right now until you actually become enlightened. You actually take refuge in them. And the second two lines are the arousal of the bodhicitta, saying that anything that you've done is for the benefit of sentient beings. And you have to really feel that and think that. It's not just saying it out of the mouth.

[87:46]

In this way, you will be able to understand the meaning of the Buddha's teachings. Darī lama kadha dhūnu l-chūn. Rūla l-haqqān. Darī lama l-chūn. Rūla l-haqqān. Darī lama l-chūn. Rūla l-haqqān. Darī lama l-chūn. If you don't say it, you won't be saved.

[88:51]

If you don't say it, you won't be saved. [...] I don't know. Okay, so once you have said now a few verses, a few times of the four-verse prayer that you just were talking about, then you start on the actual Guru Yoga, which is on page, whatever, which is on it.

[90:03]

So you start off with visualizing on top of your head, you're sitting there in meditation, and on top of your head there's a lion throne, a throne which is supported by lions. And on top of that, there is a lotus, a mini flower, a lotus flower on top of that, you know, like that. And on top of that, there's a sun seat, a round sun disk, flat, like a cushion. And on top of that, a moon cushion, flat. And on top of that is sitting your root guru, who is as Dorje Chang. And he says, your root guru, there's two types of root gurus in Buddhism. One is the one who taught you the basic two sets of Buddhism according to the Sutra.

[91:23]

And then one according to Tantra. But the one according to the Sutra, you don't really call that a root guru. That's like your spiritual friend. But the one who actually gave you the initiation, the tantric initiation, is your root guru. And of course, if you have received many different initiations from different guru-gumis, then you imagine that all of them are connected into one, having the same essence. In our case, we received a very high...

[91:56]

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