I got a long way to go. what we call right attitude is a very conscious resolution that by one's efforts to learn the Dharma that all beings might become benefited and that the result of one's efforts to acquire right knowledge and understanding of the Dharma is to be accomplished for their sake

[01:12]

and his intention is to bring about the ultimate result of the enlightenment, the full enlightenment of all beings and oneself. That is right attitude. The right way to practice the listening to Dharma, studying Dharma, at least on tantric occasions such as the present, is that of the current situation, rather than seeing it as simply merely for this body to touch all living beings and yourself, removing all obscurations, ignorance, motive, defilements, passions, etc.

[02:44]

and blessing your continuity with awakening, understanding, insight, and profound realization. Then as he is speaking, confounding the teachings to you, you should think of the sound of his voice, the proclamation of the sound of boyness itself. And further, you should visualize yourself, not as an ordinary person, but as being none other than Sri Bodhisattva, who has personified the wisdom aspect of the Buddhas of life and mind.

[03:55]

and tirelessly seeks out all the dharmas, all the doctrines on behalf of living beings. So thinking of yourself and the guru as extraordinary being, thinking also that the entire situation is that this house, your own form, the form of the Guru and all, are not substantial, solid bodies of flesh and blood, but that, while very clearly apparent in their manifestation, nonetheless, are also void, at the same time void through interdependent origination. They are not to be thought of as something solid and substantial, but rather like the manifestation of the clear appearance of a rainbow, which no matter how clear it is, is not substantial and only owes its appearance to a contamination of causes and conditions, such as the present moment.

[05:13]

Trying to keep this approximation of the reality in mind, that you should listen to mindfulness, sincerity, compassion in your heart, and a good resolve to the teachings, making To return to our course of studies, you will recall that we told you that there are two kinds of preliminary practices or Nandro teachings.

[06:13]

That is the ordinary and the extraordinary. By this we mean By ordinary practices, we mean those which are performed in the light of exoteric instructions of practice, the non-tantric prajnaparamita path of training in meditation. And by extraordinary, or foundation practices. We mean specifically the tantric, esoteric practices which are designed to prepare the meditator for advanced tantric meditations. We are presently concerned with

[07:14]

receiving instructions for the latter class of mundral meditations, that is, esoteric extraordinary mundral practices. There are four such mundral practices. These are known as the four foundation meditations, of refuge, practice of taking refuge, that is, the Vajrasattva meditation, the mandala offering, and the guru yoga meditation. During our past two classes, we have and have completed our discussion of instructions for the first mantra practice.

[08:30]

Today we will turn to the second mantra meditation, the practice of the Vajrasattva, the practice of the Vajrasattva meditation. which obstacles and obscurations are purified through the practice of Vajrasattva meditation. obvious by now that this concept of bodhichitta or of a resolve, the presence of a mental resolve to strive for Buddhahood for the sake of all living beings is the hallmark or the special feature

[09:45]

Buddhism as a whole. If religion is performed with this attitude present, it automatically pertains to the Mahayanic path. a spiritual act, a religious act is performed. Apart from such a resolve, it does not belong to the body and its path, no matter how virtuous or good it may be. So, the presence or absence of this bodhicitta, or universalist resolve, is Mahayana practices.

[10:58]

Now, you will recall also that we said that the Bodhichitta has two aspects, studies and revisions, that it consists of both. Bodhichitta as aspiration and Bodhichitta as application. By the first we mean a conscious resolve, a decision to direct one's efforts towards the attainment of eternal enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. This is, in so many words, so many thought constructions that develops this idea within one's mind and considers it to The second aspect of bodhicitta, as we said, bodhicitta is application.

[12:22]

in accordance with this aspiration to enlightenment, then what everyone does is maybe considered to be a manifestation or an expression of one's bodhicitta in application. That is, one's training in, for example, making gifts to other beings, training oneself in moral conduct, practicing patience, developing diligence in meditation or other practices, applying oneself to meditations and so forth, and seeking to gain insight into selflessness. All of these paramitas, training in these paramitas or spiritual perfections, are examples of Bodhichitta in application.

[13:39]

To give a very mundane example, suppose you conceive the idea of making a pilgrimage to India. It begins there with just the idea that I shall go to India, but merely by thinking about arriving in India, you haven't you haven't reached your goal. So between the time of making a conscious decision to go to a new pilgrimage and your actual arrival there, you will have to engage in a number of necessary papers, necessary flight arrangements, and you'll have to physically move from one place to another until you finally reach your destination in India.

[14:50]

So, this Bodhicitta application consists of merely of formulating this idea of your goal. as in all that follows in between your actual arrival at that goal constitutes your bodhicitta in action, in application. All that it takes in the light of your original intention to gain enlightenment, all that it takes All living beings have been my mothers. Yes, that's all. Very good.

[15:53]

And this is repeated on the following page in another shorter poem. It gives you a long and short poem. to page 29 for a discussion of the Vajrasattva meditation, which will be our topic for today. Shakyamuni Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha. All right.

[17:10]

Now, Our topic today is the second of the four foundation meditations, that of the Vajrasattva meditations. Now, Vajrasattva's primary function as Tantra deity is to bring about purity, purification of obscurations and obstacles that might hinder one in one's either one's practice or in one's attainment of the spiritual stages.

[18:22]

So it is important for beginners to undertake his meditation in the beginning in order to remove these remove karmic results before they ripen. That is, if one meditates, for instance, meditation, before a non-virtuous karmic action has ripened into bad results, it is possible to circumvent the ripening evil karma through his meditation. In other words, he purifies bad karma and the results of bad karma such as diseases, mental and physical obstacles to future practice, present and future practice.

[19:31]

Why is he Why is this quality attributed to Vajrasattva and not to other deities? It is because he has a central position among tantric deities. As you know, there are five buddha families in tantric buddhism. The Vajra family, the jewel family, karma family, the, what, buddhist family, real family, dharma real family, why don't you know? But Vajrasattva, when these jnani buddhas are arranged together, when they are assembled together, not thinking individually, Vajrasattva is placed in their midst because he In other words, he is lord or chief over all the families and not merely over one single family, as are the other jnani buddhas.

[20:48]

Therefore, in order to remove, to him is attributed the power to remove the obstacles or impurities that hinder beings from belonging to one or another of these five families. Okay. Now, as for the appearance of the deity itself, the way in which one meditates on Vajrasattva itself, you visualize yourself in your ordinary human form. Visualize also that, that within, that parallel to one another within The Tendon Swadhi runs the three vertical psychic channels. You've probably heard of these three psychic channels, which are a special feature of tantric meditations.

[21:50]

In the center, there is the so-called middle channel, and within there are the There is one other channel on either side, left and right. This middle channel runs up through the center of one's body, and in this case, this meditation exits through the top of one's crown, what is known as the aperture of Brahma. Now, you should visualize these channels, particularly the central one, And visualize further that atop one's crown, there rests... He looks so serious. Atop one's crown, there rests this fully blossoming lotus.

[22:55]

David is trying to frown again. How can that be true? Okay, my foolish last line. Learn it. Whose skin enters or rests inside the opening, the upper opening, of this middle psychic channel. Have you got the picture? I mean, the channel runs up to the center of your body and it comes out the top of your crown or opens there, and atop that But a lotus would stay and rest within the hollow of that hollow psychic channel. All right. Now, on top of this lotus is a disc of the moon. And on top of that disc of the moon, there suddenly appears the Bodhisattva, or yes, the deity, Vajrasattva.

[23:59]

Now, in some traditions, there is, first you visualize the letter, which turns into Vajrasattva. But in our Sakya tradition, our Landry tradition, it just suddenly appears there. Alright? Now, Vajrasattva is white in color, has single face, two hands. He's seated in the full Vajrasana posture, that is, full lotus posture, cross-legged posture. He is in his right hand he holds to his heart a Vajra a single Vajra in a vertical position he's just held upright and his left hand holds to the side to his left thigh a bell which has as its

[25:05]

on the top of the sandal of a washer. One end is the washer and the other end is the bell. He sets it to a post or cradle to his left side, sort of like this, sort of cradle. The other end is where he holds the washer at his heart. He is also, he is not alone. He holds, he sits in union with his consort, the famous Vajragarbhi. Now, she is similar in appearance to him. This is one of the differences between his ordinary or single this meditation, and he is not wearing the same garments.

[26:20]

In this, in our visualization, he is wearing bone ornaments, ornaments of human bones. He's not wearing celestial garments, and so are jewels, jewels, ornaments, but he's wearing bone ornaments. And he has a consort. So, what we are doing, is meditating upon Vajrasattva in his wrathful aspect rather than his peaceful aspect. In his sambhogakaya, or peaceful aspect, he appears, usually he appears alone, he wears ornaments of precious stones, jewels, metals, and so forth, and wears celestial garments. Or, in his wrathful aspect, He has a consort and he wears ornaments of bones. In this aspect, he is called Vajra Heruka.

[27:23]

Vajra Heruka. Heruka translated literally means vampire or blood drinker. Eruka means blood drinker. Now, what are we to understand by blood drinker? We understand that blood is a symbol of mazuka, of the elixir of great bliss. That blood is a symbol of life and death in a mundane context of vital It symbolizes the ambrosia or the elixir of great bliss.

[28:26]

Mahāsūkha. Mahāsūkha. Great change. Yes. It is the transmutated strength. It is the symbol of the transcendent gnosis or transcendent wisdom of what we call great bliss, meaning when it's a tantric state, it is a tantric term and it represents the tantric experience, the meditator's experience of ultimate reality which is called the non-dual state. the non-duality of great bliss and wholeness. And that this is symbolized, that state that experiences, which is total purity, total bliss and so forth, is symbolized by blood.

[29:33]

So Heruka, who experiences great bliss, is called the blood drinker. And therefore, if we meditate upon the head, not as Vajrasattva, but as Vajrasattva, Now, apart from these two differences, we said there's another difference. He has a consort and he wears bow and ornaments. He wears six kinds of bow and ornaments. They are crowns of, it's described in the book, how many crowns he has on his head, a skull on his head. He has five, I think. He has six kinds of ornaments, you know, bone ornaments on the head, a necklace, which you see here, a kind of a wheel formed of bows, spokes, and another one on the back, which are laced together by kind of bone, how do you say, beaded beads of bones, you know, you get the picture, sort of a kind of saddle.

[30:35]

Not necessarily that, just bone beads, you know. I've seen these bone beads and necklaces, I think. And they're just sort of like strong beads of bones that are ornamented. And then they have this, this is a very beautiful one. The big circle, the big wheel here, the spokes. Then the earrings. Then he has, counted together as one of the six balloons. It's where you have these bracelets on the upper arms, on the wrists, and on the ankles. These are counted one by one of the six balloons. Any other belt will bewitch dangle, in particular to form a kind of an apron of interwoven woven strands. You'd have to see it to really know it. It's kind of an apron that is where the woven filaments are drawn together. It's quite beautiful. To give you an example, And, uh, okay.

[31:47]

Well, well. So, Bajiru Ruka bin, a consort, and wears bones of, uh, he wears six ornaments of human bones and these are attributes of his wrathful aspect. On top of Vajrasattva's crown also is another tiny image of his guru who also appears in the form of Vajrasattva. In other words, And atop that image, that Vajrasattva's crown, is a small half Vajra.

[32:57]

In other words, the Vajra has two ends, right? So just one end is on top of that. tiny Vajrasattva there. Now you should think of Vajraheruka, sorry I'm still calling Vajrasattva, Vajraheruka as being none other than your own root guru, that they are. So if the appearance is that of Vajraheruka, he is none other than your own root guru. Why should you do this? Because if you that you get more blessings, just as the guru is inclined to bless you in your practice. And if you meditate upon the guru in the form of the deity, then the blessings are more powerful and the results are more effective, rather than if you meditate upon your guru as a human.

[33:58]

So in this way, these two techniques, a meditator student who meditates in this way, receives quicker and more powerful transmissions of blessings from both Buddha and me. Atop your head there's a tiny Vajrasattva about six inches tall, and atop his head there's another tiny Vajrasattva, and atop that little Vajrasattva there is a It should be one toe in measure. What is a toe? One toe is the distance between your outstretched thumb and the tip of your middle finger.

[35:32]

This is one toe. Now, if you are seated properly in meditation with your back straight, that your body from the tip of your spine to the top of your crown, would be approximately 5 tō in height. Okay? 5 tō. Now... Yes. Yes. Then, if you visualize that image of Vajraheruka on top of your head, it should, as having one tō in its height, this would be just right. Okay? Sayyidina Ibrahim. The young, [...] young.

[36:49]

What about his consort, Vajragarhvi, which means adamantine pride? Okay, Vajragarhvi is, as we said, seated upon Vajraheruka's lap there in yogic union, and she is, of course, facing her consort. Her right hand is stretched out over Bajra Heruka's shoulder and in it she holds she holds a curved blade you know the Bajra Karatri knife it's kind of a curved cutting knife she holds that straight out over his shoulder got it? and she faces her consort and holds over his shoulder who is facing her she holds that curved blade straight oh yeah I need it I don't know if I can watch it I need it Alright.

[38:23]

And her left arm, her left hand is curved around her consort's neck. In it she holds a skull cup. A human skull cup. And she is drinking blood from that skull cup. Okay, you got the picture? Look, we will look for him. Just around his neck. Just around his neck. Ha ha [...] You'll hear many strange and even sometimes embarrassing things in that tantric, when you're discussing and describing tantric practices doubt them, or ignore doubt in their practices.

[39:54]

All you should understand is that in tantric you use words and practices symbolically, but all of these things have meaning. They have meaning to the tantric meditator, not to be taken literally as an uninitiated, non-tantric person. There's good benefit to the meditator in using these symbols as, how do you say, a code for tantric experience. But for the literal-minded, they may be embarrassing and may be harmful if they reject it out of mistaking it.

[40:57]

So, that's what he wanted to say. Now, finally, back to the meditation. She, Vajragarbhi, has only five of the six bone ornaments. She does not need to wear the chakra, the wheel, her own wheel, on her breast. Why? Because the six mudra, as these is that of wisdom. And she herself, a female deity, symbolizes wisdom. So she need not wear it. Male deities wear six kinds of ornaments because they need wisdom. Female deities do not need it because they are wisdom. After you visualize Deity and His consort, you should visualize next that within His heart, within the heart of the Deity that is within

[42:08]

the heart of Vajra Hiruka, not of the consort. There rests, upon a lotus in the moon, a small white syllable, HUNG. Now, rays of light shine forth boundlessly from this white syllable, HUNG, within his heart to invoke all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space, wherever they may be. The Buddhists respond, the Enlightened Ones respond to this invocation. And Sindhā, Tūbhāśa-satrā, the quintessence of their own mind, of their enlightened mind,

[43:27]

their transcendent gnosis of the Dharmakaya, their transcendent gnosis of the nature of ultimate reality returns to Vajrasattva in the form of white ambrosia or white-colored elixir. Now, even though the transcendent gnosis, transcendent wisdom of ultimate reality with which these Enlightened Ones are endowed It is formless. It has no form. It is not white ambrosia. It is not something that isn't bound with form at all. Yet, for the sake of meditation, in order to gain the effect of this transcendent consciousness, to invoke it upon ourselves in meditation, we use the technique of formalizing it, that is, of visualizing it as having form.

[44:32]

So we visualize it as assuming this transmittance is taking on the form of this ambrosia, this celestial white-colored ambrosia, which reigns throughout space and converges upon Vajras, Heruka, who is seated above. the top of our crown. And as a ray converges upon his abode, it is absorbed into his own form. Let us attest. After visualizing it in this way, as we just described, the rain of the electricity converges into the pool within his heart, you should Well, by this generally we mean, by this we mean unwholesome karma, the obscurations of every need, both positive and negative obscurations,

[46:04]

Notive obscurations such as the defilements, negative mental states such as desire, hatred, delusion, pride, envy and the like. By cognitive obscurations we mean the ignorant and the deluded. reality as to whether we want to see it or not it is not of this obscurity that the obscuration of this is a cognitive obscuration. False and failing mean those conscious and unconscious violations of Our Buddhist precepts and vows are either those that are naturally incumbent upon us, like naturally incumbent upon us not to take lives, but we might do it through ignorance or even consciously and then keep it concealed.

[47:34]

conscious and unconscious violations of our precepts, such as not to take life, and of vows, such as those that we have consciously taken upon ourselves at one or another ceremony, that any attempt are failing and must be purified in order to hinder us from our practice. And there are six kinds of impurities, which I don't know. When you think about all these various obscurations and obstacles that you may have accumulated either in past life or in the present life or in any time up to this moment and realize that they are they are sure to hinder you or if not purified to create obstacles for you in the future when they ripen into bad results then through realizing their wholly negative nature you realize that the only

[49:11]

all things good, to discard it, to get rid of it. And if you perform this meditation of Sri Vajrayarupa, sincerely, mindfully, with the all four forces at your command, it will be effective. Your aim will be achieved. What are the four forces? These are the four essential factors which must be present in order for this Vajrasattva meditation to be effective in removing the obstacles, sins, and shortcomings. The first force is the is the force of your object of meditation.

[50:31]

The object of your meditation is Sri Vajraharuka. Now, his function is to purify sins, obscurations, bad karma, and so forth, the effects of bad karma. through the force of the nature of his function, such as being who he is, able to do what he is, what he does, and through your invoking him and his function. That comprises the first force, which is necessary in this meditation. The second force is the force or the power of your own remorse. If you, upon considering the karmic obstacle and evil that you have accumulated through unwholesome actions of body, voice, and mind, through breaking your vows, precepts, and so forth, and you realize that you have only caused harm and obstacles to yourself and to others, and can only result in present and future harm,

[51:42]

And if you sincerely repent, having done these actions, then that is called the force of remorse. That is the second prerequisite. The third prerequisite is the power and the force of resolution. If upon reflecting upon the ill that you have accomplished, that you have achieved through misusing body, voice and mind to the detriment of yourself and others. If you resolve that never again, even at the cost of life and limb, will you repeat these same actions, unwholesome actions, then that constitutes the force of resolve. You decide that having purified at this time, I will never do it again. That is the force of resolve. The fourth force is called the force of... I can't name it, I can explain it.

[53:01]

The force of... The force of the method itself, meaning that If you have a pure object such as Vajrasattva, and if you have within your mind genuine remorse for your past bad actions, as well as a firm resolve never to repeat them, then it is possible, it is possible to purify your bad karma, obstacles and obscurations, that if these three are present, these first three forces are present, it is possible to purify everything, every bad karma, no matter how great it is, even if it is one of the five immeasurable sins, the five very heavy

[54:07]

You can purify it through this Vajrasattva, Vajra Heruka meditation if all these factors are present. Why? Because sin itself has no inherent nature of its own. It is like virtue, a product of causes and conditions. and devoid of any inherent nature of its own. It is not something which is immutable, not something that is inherent, has an inherent identity of its own. All that can be done with sin is to get rid of it, to purify it. Because it has the nature of being purifiable. It can be purified through this meditation of Vajrasattva with all these forces. are present. And so the fourth force consists of the knowledge and confidence that sin, no matter how great, may be purified through the right performance of the spajna-eruka meditation.

[55:18]

These four forces are, must be present, and they have been explained to you this evening exactly as The great Gautama Mandala Guru Rinpoche expounded into Vijayan Rinpoche. They're so important that Rinpoche repeated them to me three times. I spare you the second and third repetitions, but take his word for it that they are important. You need to meditate. In order to purify anything, you must have all these four forces present in your body. Alright, now to return to your visualization, remember you invoked the transcendent gnosis of all the buddhas throughout space. That transcendent gnosis rained down throughout space in the form of white-colored ambrosia.

[56:31]

absorbed into the white silver womb within the father, that is, within Vajra Heruka's heart. Now, at this point, after you invoked His blessings to purify you of all sins and obscurations, in response to your prayer, then this white ambrosia begins to to flow from the white silver womb within his heart. It fills up his entire body. In other words, as if his body were like an empty glass. It fills it up throughout. His entire form becomes filled up. And then, now it begins to pour over into the form of the mother, of his consort. It is... it passes through. the father's Vajra into the mother's Padma and then fills up her entire body.

[57:37]

And as it begins, as it completely fills up her form also, it overflows at the crown of their heads, both their heads and from every part of their body, from every pore of their body. Hmm. Which is the, uh, [...] It is that. It does not descend from, it doesn't overflow at the top of their heads or from their body.

[59:01]

That's a single aspect of Vajra Sakra meditations. But it does that it flows out after passing from the father's body into the mother's body. It fills up her body also and then begins to flow out from their union and it flows down over the lotus petals and flows down through the lotus into the top of one's crown. That is, remember the aperture of Brahma, the top of your own crown. And proceeds to flow downward through your body into all its parts and fill the entire body And as it passes through your body and fills your body, you should visualize that all, all the illnesses, all evil spirits, all sins and obscurations are completely purified and washed out of your entire being, both physical and mental, wherever it may be.

[60:17]

And you can visualize them as being a Yeah, well it says here in the book, it says that they are purified as pieces of urine but it doesn't say that at all. all these obscurations and impurities as being, how do you say, cleansed from your body and exiting from your body at the, as it says, the two lower passages as well as the soles of your feet.

[61:20]

But it does not say that you to visualize this as facing the mirror. That's quite wrong. It says that it, in the Destiny it is that you visualize this as as smoky liquid or pot and blood, etc. that usually... Well, that's a good distinction. Yeah, really. No, it's not. It's like a... Like fins, usually, when you go into detail about human anatomy, fins, the way to get rid of it and for evil spirits are in the form of like, or even like little snakes or scorpions and spiders and things like that. Translation is probably the most interesting. Yeah, I'm saying, it says here, I mean somebody just read it, Rup Senthil did, read just the two lower passages and he purified it, but he decided to throw in, well if it's the two lower passages

[62:23]

Everything minus, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Upon reciting the mantra as many times as you can or will, you again invoke directly Vajraharuka who is seated upon the crown of your head. with the words of the prayer, which I don't have available to me, of the prayer found on page 36, which you address in, it's not written here, you have to add the word,

[63:49]

in Gombo, which means Lord. In the beginning of this prayer, it says, Lord, or protector, Lord, I, deluded by ignorance, have broken and spoiled the vow. Guterin, protector, be my refuge. To the highest Vajradhara, the best of the essence of great compassion, the chief of beings, I go for refuge. I confess all my transgressions by the root and branch vows of Hari, Gaur, and Samadhi. cleanse and purify, pray all the accumulation of sins, obscurations, false statements and impurities. So you invoke, again invoke the power, His power to purify and they confess before Him all the, in particular, all the broken precepts. that you might have broken precepts about, that you might have committed.

[65:01]

For example, all the misuse of body, voice, and mind that you might have incurred, you might have incurred through the performance of what are called natural violations. That means it kind of goes against the moral nature to perform harboring false views and violence and so forth. The performance of these is called natural violations or natural misuse. And on top of that you have what are called the... Well, these are violations of Tao.

[66:23]

They don't apply to all beings. naturally. For example, it's a misuse of body, voice, and mind. If one takes a life, tells a lie, and so forth. So everybody, no matter who, does it. But then there are certain precepts, or certain vows, which only those who have taken above themselves the vows will be held responsible for. For example, the Vajrayana vows. Only those who have taken above themselves the vows will incur the fall. That was a scary thing enough to downpour through their... through not practicing them or not observing them at all. They didn't apply to all beings naturally. So, these... these sins and... these sins and faults

[67:25]

which one may have incurred through carelessness or ignorance or for whatever other reason, you now confess to Vajradhara himself and you reveal, you hold nothing back, however terrible they may be, however you resist confessing them out loud to some other person. But before Vajradhara, you completely reveal, open up your mind, confess, acknowledge that you have committed these sins. Oh yes, the other kind is called covert violations, meaning that these are violations conscious violations of your precepts, special precepts and vows you have taken for yourself. So those natural and covert violations, you confess and ask for his help in purification.

[68:35]

This applies also, as we said before, for all accumulations of the obscurations. That is, you ask for his help in purifying all the cognitive and emotive obscurations and all impurities. There are six kinds of impurities which Rinpoche promised me to explain later. So, having invoked him sincerely and having prayed in this manner, you should visualize and you should think that your own guru, who is seated on top of your head in the form of Vajrasattva, responds. Responds to your prayer and says, very well, or something to that effect. Son of a good family, you are purified of all your sins, obscurations, faults, downfalls, and impurities. From this time henceforth, you should not commit them again.

[69:37]

You should refrain from committing these actions. And we think that he is very pleased with you and looks upon you with favor. And as he does so, then you should visualize that you should think that he has known your sins, he has become your fault, that he has accepted your confession and your purification efforts in the practice of such and such a meditation, and that you do feel that all is purified between you and the Buddha. Now Vajraharuka devolves into white light and is absorbed downward into your own consciousness and let your own body, voice and mind become none other than the body, voice and mind of Vajraharuka itself. And you should meditate upon this by thinking that your own form is radiantly white, bright and pure snow, radiant and clear, absolutely without flaw and having

[70:47]

nothing but nature, total pristine purity. And then you will... She dissolved into the matter. Okay? Excuse me? Oh, no, no, no. You're just, you're your own body. You're just clean and pure as far as you're concerned. Your own body becomes It's very, very clean and pure and not solid flesh like the deity's body is. It's as translucent as a rainbow, but very, very pure and clean. And then for a while, you sit and meditate upon the non-dual clarity and oneness of your own mind, which is the ultimate nature of Vajrasattva itself. It is that Vajrasattva, the ultimate nature of your own mind, which is getting both and through whose power you have been purified.

[71:52]

Just think you are Vajrasattva. Now, then finally you dedicate the merit of all this that you have acquired through this practice of Vajrasattva meditation by saying something like, by this virtue may I quickly attain the stage of Vajrasattva. and placed on his stage also, all living beings without exception. We had a few questions. One here, one there. Yes, please. Well, can I answer off the top of my head or do you want me to?

[72:55]

Of course. Well, my answer is, it depends. For example, if in a simple action train, one knows the process, but the thought is the first step. You have to have intention, which would include the thought. For example, I will kill so and so. That would be a simple thought. But if you don't follow through with it, conscious thought construction, I will kill someone. So the second step is taking, is the preparation. For example, you go out and buy a Saturday night special, then that is preparation. Then the third step is the actual perpetration of the act. I'm not talking about desire, what you meant to say. Well, it's a thought. Do you mean just a random thought? Well, in itself, you can't call it wholesome indefinitely.

[73:57]

It's an unwholesome thought, just, you know, because even that thought must arise from anger or else through cruelty. If you even have a random thought, I will kill, so and so, you know. It would be effective for it, but you're not which are emotive obscurations. But, more specifically, there are other thoughts. Like I said, I would kill some servants. For example, your father, Yonah, rules. For example, if you think of faith as being empty, or faith as being void, that is breaking the vow, if you think of that. But you might think of it that way. or you might think of a certain thing, a Vajrayana, and you've broken your vows, and it's just a thought. I take it you haven't read your Vajrayana vows recently.

[74:59]

No, but how did you fail? Yeah, for example, other thoughts, like there, it's not so bad, it's just a random angry thought. But there are other thoughts, for example, if you know your full name, For example, if you perceive things not as they really are. If you don't, if you think of things as being, for example, real, you've broken your Vajrayana vow. You reversed it. I think you reversed it. You reversed it the other way. You reversed it. Go read up your Vajrayana vows and you can see that there's so much of this thought. Even though in an ordinary person, an ordinary person In an ordinary person, those very thoughts may not be a violation of any vow, but for you, the tantric practitioner in the south, it's a downfall right there, and you can be purified by this meditation.

[76:03]

It's a natural cause. That's right, it's natural and overt. It's rooted in the, it's one of the motif kathāras. Yeah. Okay, you want to ask if the virgin is a nun? The virgin is a dojāki. bad. They are non-virtuous. They are not right. They are rooted in desire. Desire is the cause of continued deluded existence. It is that which binds the illusion to suffering. Therefore, there's no way that you can conceive a desirous thought as being anything but non-virtuous. It can, however, be purified. It is a innocent thought. Yes, it is a thought. I asked him, I just said, the mere thought of desire. Such thoughts, such wicked thoughts can be purified through this meditation of Vajrasattva.

[77:05]

Of course, now you're talking about beauty, taking thoughts as being thoughts per se. In Vajrayana, there are other things you can do with wicked lustful thoughts, like transforming living to wisdom. That goes into a mirror, you're asking whether it can be purified. I mean, it goes without saying that if it's unwholesome, it can be purified, even if it's one of the five unforgivable sins, like, you know, killing a mother, a father, or a Buddha, or something like that. Okay? So it goes without saying that minor and host things, like muscle bones, can be purified. All right, Helen had a question. Um, let's see, back here. Oh, about confession. About the confessing of sins. I'd really love to hear your practice. No, how specific do you get?

[78:20]

Do you visualize the extent that you have actually committed these things that you have secreted in your heart in the open or in the secret? Do you actually visualize it in a very... I can turn back to when I was 11 and I said something really designed to destroy that moment. Do I do that and confess it and do it? Or do I just lump it all together with all the other rotten things I've done? First of all, you can lump all sins in, generally.

[79:22]

Take all sins together, generally, and say all the unwholesome and terrible things that I may have accumulated from beginning to end, like buying oil supply and all of that. Just really sort of blanket manner, try to cover everything that you might possibly have recently, feel sorry about, even though you don't remember its significance. or whatever, or fire, or whatever it is, fire, soap, whatever it is, calm, it purifies you, so you can settle there. But if you have specific instances where you know that you yourself did something that you regret, you did it, there are some things that stick in your memory that have not been forgotten, that are still remain within memory as a sore point, as a sticking point, a bad karma, something that pricks your conscience and reminds you of something that you have done that was not right, that was harmful, that is in need of purification or that you wish that you had not done and you are not sure that you are purified of having done that.

[80:41]

In this way, those you should dwell upon in particular and pray especially those who have been purified by this meditation. For example, what you said, your mother, you left yourself that would be something that you think that you could dwell upon and pray for special absolution until you feel that you have been purified. Now the results of this meditation of Vajrasattva are that you will, through repeated practice, come to feel very light and purified in body and mind and you will feel as if freed from these mental burdens and their physical effects upon your body and you will start to have dreams when you are when you know when you will know that you are being you're purifying these obscurations when you start to have the following dreams

[81:42]

When you dream, for example, of seeing Vajra Heruka Himself in person, you dream of the Deity. Or when you dream of the sun and the moon rising, mind you, not setting. The sun and the moon. When you dream of bathing, of dressing yourself in white garlands. When you dream of drinking white liquid such as milk. What else was it? When you dream of... That's all I remember. Okay. These sort of dreams are when you dream of waking up. Things like that. All of these are signs that you're... of waking up. Of waking up. Yeah. When you... All of these are signs that your meditation is progressing nicely, that you are being purified, you should keep it up and really assure that you're pure.

[82:52]

Should you do all of these at the same time, like the prostrations and the refuges and all that stuff? No, no, you take your time. Can you do one prostration and then all? You can do that, prostrations and the refuges can be taken together, if you wish, or you separately, 100,000 each, or you can combine refuge and prostration. Then after you've completed, as I said, you can combine prostration and the refuge, do 100,000 combined, meaning you've got to do 100,000 refuge recitations, which you can combine with 100,000 prostration, or you can do those separately, yeah. After you've done the 100,000 refuges, Next, you do the Vajrasattva meditation. 100,000 recitations of this 100-syllable mantra is required. You can do as many as you want, but the minimum is 100,000 recitations. It's not a... I've never heard anybody advise you to skip around.

[83:58]

So, we have quite a time for... So, Guruji, the Tathagatagarbha, through each of these four stages of meditation that each has specific purpose, for example, you recall that we said that refuge is for removing the obstacles to entering the path, really getting into the stream of Buddhist spirituality and so forth. Then the Vajrasattva's purpose is to remove the obstacles. Once you're in, removing the obstacles that might you might encounter it in your practice. Then next you want to build up merit. So you offer a mandala offering and so forth. Then by that time, once your mind is pure, you also need to develop this rapport with your guru and so forth. So there is a progression. It is not to say that you absolutely must follow that order right down to the spine.

[85:02]

At least, at the very least, refuge. A hundred thousand refuge. Refugee recitations must precede all of these. After that, I suppose it's alright, he said, to mix the remaining three up. But there's really no point. Can we just do it if it doesn't count? Oh, sure. Sure, no harm in it. Yes? Can that be accomplished outside of the refuge? Of course, it's not... It's obvious that there would be many advantages if one is able to perform them while in retreat.

[86:19]

You'll finish much quicker, for one thing, if you're able to concentrate on them. However, if one is unable to do that, it is, of course, permissible to do them any way that you can manage. And one is to be encouraged to do it. There are people who have spent three or four years on that, each one. If they would do, for example, a hundred recitations a day or a hundred prostrations a day, after three or four years later, they would have really accomplished a hundred thousand. It takes much longer, but it's amazing. You've got to do it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's really good. Yes, sir. That's all good. I don't know what to say. Guruji's own experience in his practice of these foundation meditations is that it's much better to do them while in retreat.

[87:20]

He has tried it both ways and his experience is that there are too many interruptions, so his energy is not at its peak. One has many interruptions, it takes too long, and one can't keep up with a single-pointed constant practice that you get in a retreat situation. It's just his experience that it's preferable to do it in retreat rather than elsewhere. would be recommended. The incarceration is a wrong and what kind of incarceration would be recommended? Rinpoche, the Chagya, the Chagpal, the Chagpal Vagum Dhrubhala, the Khyandro Tanyantri Dhana, the Yapa, the Khyandro, the Yapa, the Khyandro Mata, the Khyandro Mata, the Yapa, the Yapa, the Khyandro, [...] the Yapa,

[88:35]

100,000 prostrations with your recitation of the Refuge Prayer. Because by doing this you have the amount of time that you need to... I mean you recite one Refuge Prayer with each performance of one prostration. If it's 100,000 times you need to finish it. That's one school if you finish it all. He recommends that. the enlightened soul. It's a British prayer, isn't it? Yes. Can you do that also, Raja? Raja, the Chanthar, Raja, Kapra, Kapra, the Dandula, the Chanthanya, the Kutai, Revata, Vinaya... What Chanthar? British Dandula? Yes. Yes. Yes, Rinpoche says that now you will all join in meditating for a while.

[89:44]

You will excuse me, I have an appointment with elsewhere. This won't take long Ramakrishna, I assure you. In so deep is the Namgyelwa life and so the Namgyelwa rise your eyes. Namgyelwa, Namgyelwa. sung gyö par tsö zang nö gyä sung gyö pa gyi shung tso gyi lü tsö nang gyi lü la tsen tsur sung gyö chö pa yi gyi woi sung gyö zang gyi gyö tsen tsur sung gyi gyö go gwang tso far gya gyi gyi tsö tso gyi lang tso mo nyong tso long yi gyi woi sung gyö zang gyi gyö tsen tsur sung gyi gyö go gwang tso far gya

[91:04]

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