As you have learned through your previous studies in the Locker System Meditation, that one should approach every session of study of Dharma study with the right attitude and the right practice. Now the attitude, what we call right attitude, is a very conscious resolution that by one's efforts to learn the Dharma that all beings might be. become benefited, and that the result of one's efforts to acquire right knowledge and understanding of God is to be accomplished for their sake, and is intended to bring about the ultimate result, the light, the full enlightenment of all beings and everyone's self.

[01:21]

That is right attitude. The right way to practice listening to the Dharma, studying the Dharma, at least on tantric occasions such as the present, is that one should not harbor common conceptualizations of this of the present situation, rather than seeing it as simply merely a study session, exchange of information between ordinary humans. We should visualize your teacher as being none other than Shakyamuni Buddha himself, who is teaching you personally the path to liberation, visualizing him in the

[02:23]

radiant form of Shakyamuni Buddha, I'm sure. As he is teaching, think that rays of light shine forth from his body to touch all living beings and yourself, removing all obscurations, ignorance, and emotive defilements, passions, etc., and blessing your continuity with awakening that way, understanding, insight, and profound realization. Then as he is speaking, expounding the teachings to you, you should think of the sound of his voice as being the proclamation of the sound. on what voidness itself is. This very sound of these words proclaims this profound doctrine of voidness.

[03:27]

And further, you should visualize yourself not as an ordinary person, but as being done at the Yenchisri Bodhisattva, the personifies the wisdom aspect of the Buddha's right mind, and tirelessly seeks out all the dharmas of the doctrines that only have the living beings. So thinking of yourself, I think of guru as extraordinary beings. Thinking also that the entire situation is that this house, your own form of guru, that 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.

[04:55]

They're 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 only substantial. It only owes its appearance to a concatenation of causes and conditions, so to present moment. Trying to keep this approximation of ultimate reality in mind, then you should listen. mindfulness, sincerity, compassion, your heart, good resolve, to the teachings, attempting the mindful effort to understand and retain this communication of the Dharma, which you will receive. Can you all hear me? I'm afraid my voice is good. To return to our course of studies, you will recall that we told you that there are two kinds of preliminary practices or ngondro teachings.

[06:19]

That is the ordinary and the extraordinary. For this we need by ordinary practices, by ordinary nando practices, we mean those according to me, which are performed in the light of exoteric instructions of practice, the non-tantric pragya paramita path of training in meditation. And by extraordinary mudro or foundation practices we mean specifically those tantric, esoteric practices which are designed to prepare the meditator for advanced tantric meditations.

[07:20]

We are presently concerned with receiving instructions for the latter class of london meditations that is esoteric extraordinary london practices there are four such london practices these are known as the four foundation meditations and consist of the 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 discussed the first of these four foundational meditations, that of refuge, and have completed our discussion of the instructions for that first mandra practice.

[08:40]

Today we will turn to the second mandra, meditation, the practice of the Vajrasattva, the practice of the Vajrasattva meditation through which obstacles and obscurations are purified through in practice of Vajrasattva meditation. It should be obvious by now that this concept of duricitta or 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 of Mahayana Buddhism as a whole.

[10:01]

If religion is performed with this attitude present, it automatically pertains to the Mahayana's God. If a spiritual act, a religious act is performed Apart from such a resolve, it does not belong to Mahayana style, no matter how virtuous word it may be. So, the presence or absence of this bodhicitta, universalist resolve, is and working litmus tests for Mahayana practices.

[11:12]

Now, you recall also that we said that the bodhicitta has two aspects, studies and revisions, that it consists of both bodhicitta as aspiration and bodhicitta as application. But it first remains that one formulates within one's mind a conscious resolve, a decision, to direct one's efforts towards the attainment of total enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. This is, in so many words, in so many thought constructions, one develops this idea in one's mind. and considers it to be a formulation of one's aim in life, or at least one's aim in one's religious efforts.

[12:22]

The second aspect of dorichite, as we said, dorichite is application. When one undertakes to train oneself in accordance with this aspiration to enlightenment, then what everyone does may be considered to be a manifestation or 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, seeking to gain insight into selflessness.

[13:41]

All of these paramitas, training in these paramitas or spiritual reflections are examples of bodhicitta in application. 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 really by thinking about arriving in India, you haven't reached your goal. So between the time of making a conscious decision to go to India and pilgrimage and your actual arrival there, you will have to engage in a number of steps.

[14:49]

For example, you will have to acquire necessary papers, necessary flight arrangements and you'll have to physically to move from one place to another until you finally reach your destination in India. So this bodhicitta of application consists of merely of formulating this idea, your goal, and then there's 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 to get you there actually is set in bodhicitta, in application.

[15:52]

Liberating from existence. All living beings have been my life. Yes. Very good. And this is repeated on the following page in another shorter poem where it says, for the sake of it, it gives you a long and a short poem. You don't have to do both, but choose one, a long and a short reduction. Then let us turn to page 29 for a discussion of the Vajraya-Fatma meditation, which will be our topic for today. Now listen to it. We're gonna bring him out, huh?

[17:15]

I was back there for a flash of soccer. But we'll be doing the vatna, the breathless meditation. So there will be some differences. But to give you some idea of the deity's appearance, you can refer to this. All right. 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 or purification of obscurations and obstacles that might hinder one in either one's practice or in one's attainment of spiritual status.

[18:46]

So it is important for beginners to undertake his meditation at the beginning in order to remove these possible hindrances before they are encountered. His meditation is attributed with the with qualities which remove karmic results before they ripen. That is, if one puts his meditation before a non-virtuous karmic action has ripened into bad results, it's possible to circumvent right 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 present and future practice.

[19:55]

Why is this quality attributed to Vajrastattva and not to other deities? It's because he is a central position among the... Among tantric deities, as you know, there are five Buddha families in tantric Buddhism. The Vajra family, the Jewel family, the Karna family, the Lotus family, the Wheel family, the Dharma Wheel family, the Vajra family. But Vajrasattva, when these Dhyani Buddhas are arranged together, when they are assembled together and not taken individually, Vajrasattva is placed in the midst because he is the utter familias of all five Buddha families.

[20:59]

In other words, he is lord or chief over all the families and not really over one single family as are the other Dhyani Buddhas. Therefore, in order to remove, to him is attributed the power to remove the obstacles or impurities that hinder beings who belong to one or another of these five families. Okay. Now, as for the appearance of the deity itself, the way in which one meditates with Vajrasattva itself, you visualize yourself in ordinary human form. Visualize also that parallel to one another, within one's body runs the

[22:04]

three vertical psychic channels. You've probably heard of these three psychic channels, which are a special feature of tantric meditations. In the center, there is the so-called middle channel, and then there is one other channel, on either side, left and right. So this middle channel runs up through the center of one's body, and in this case, in this meditation, it exits through the top of one's crown at 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.

[23:18]

Atop one's crown, there rests this fully blossoming lotus. And then you just frown, trying to frown. How can that be true? Balderdash. Okay, there's this fully blossoming lotus whose stem, whose stem, how to say, enters or rests inside the opening, the upper opening of this middle psychic channel. If you get 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 is this open petal lotus whose stem rests within the hollow of that hollow psychic channel. All right. Now, on top of this lotus is a disc of the moon. And atop that disc of the moon there suddenly appears

[24:21]

the bodhisattva or the deity Vajrasattva. Now in some traditions, there is first he visualizes the letter and then he undergoes transformation and then which turns into Vajrasattva. But in Vajrasattva tradition or Landry tradition, it is he just suddenly appears there. All right? Now, Vajrasattva is white in color, has single face, two hands. He's seated in the full Vajrasana posture, that is, the full lotus posture, cross-legged posture. In his right hand, he holds to his heart a Vajra, single pleasure in a vertical

[25:25]

It's just held up right. And his left hand holds to the side, to his left side, a bell, which has as its handle a Vajra. One end is the Vajra and the other end is the bell itself. It's held cradled to his left side, sort of like this. It's cradled. On the other hand, the right hand holds the Vajra at his heart. But he is also, he is not alone. He holds, he sits in union with his consort, the famous Vajragarbi.

[26:27]

Now, she is similar in appearance to him. This is one of the differences between his ordinary or single form. Here you see him in his Peaceful Lord, as Sambhogakaya has meant. The difference is he has a consort in this meditation and he is not wearing the same garments. And in this, in our visualization, he is wearing bone ornaments, ornaments of human bone. He's not wearing celestial garments of silk or jewel ornaments. He's wearing bone ornaments. And he has a console. 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 and jewels, medals and so forth, and wears celestial garments.

[27:43]

Or, in his wrathful aspect, he has a consort and he wears ornaments of loads. In this aspect, he is called Vajra Heruka. Vajra Heruka. Heruka, translated literally, means vampire or blood drink. A heruka means blood drinker. Now, what are we to understand by blood drinker? We can understand that blood is a symbol of mazuka, of the elixir of great bliss. that blood is the symbol of both life and death in a mundane context of vital matters of life and death.

[28:53]

It symbolizes the ambrosia or the elixir of great bliss. Mahasukha. Vaiten. Yes, it is, as Rinpoche just stressed, 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's a tantric term, and it represents the tantric experience, the meditator's experience of ultimate reality, which is called the non-duality of great bliss and goodness.

[29:54]

This is symbolized, that state that experiences, which is total purity, total bliss, and so forth, is symbolized by blood. So Heruka, who experiences great bliss, is called the blood drinker. And therefore, we meditate upon him, not as Majusattva, but as Maju Heruka, meaning in his wrathful tantric aspect. Now, apart from these two differences, we said there's another difference. He has a consort, and he wears bone ornaments. He wears six kinds of bone ornaments. They are... Crowns of, it's described in the book how many guns he has on his head, skulls on his head. He has five, I think. And he wears, he has six kinds of ornaments, you know, bone ornaments, a head, a necklace, which is here. kind of a wheel formed of bones, spokes, and another one on the back, which are laced together by kind of bone, how do you say, beads of bones, you know, you've got the picture, it's sort of kind of a saddle.

[31:11]

Not necessarily just bone beads, you know, I've seen these bones and it makes sense. Yeah, they're just sort of what... strong beads of bones that are ornamented, and then they have this very beautiful one, a big circle, a big wheel here, spokes, then the earrings. Then he has counted together as one of his exponents is where you have these bracelets on the upper arms, on the wrists, and on the ankles. These are counted one by one of his exponents. Then he has a belt bone from which dangle in particular to form a kind of an apron of interwoven bone strands. You'd have to see it to really know. And it's kind of an apron that is where these bone filaments are strung together. It's quite beautiful. If you get an example, you should go in later and you should go look at a little picture of Vajrayoga Nishimura's human bones.

[32:19]

And, okay. Well, well. So. Bhaji Ruga then as consort and wears bones. He wears six ornaments of human bones and these are attributes of his wrathful aspect. On top of Bhaji Sattva's crown also is another tiny image of his guru, who also appears in the form of Vajrasattva, in other words, a tiny image which duplicates his own appearance, is seated atop his crown.

[33:27]

And atop that image, that Vajrasattva's crown, is a small half-vajra. In other words, the vajra has two ends, right? has two ends. So just one end is on top of that tiny Vajrasattva friend. Now you should think of Vajraheruka, sorry, instead of going to Vajrasattva. Vajraheruka as being none other than your own root guru. That they are, with the appearance of Sato, Vajraheruka is none other than your own root guru. Why should you do this? Because If you meditate upon your guru, if the deity is your guru, then because of your guru's own personal rapport, 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 than if you meditate upon your guru as a human.

[34:38]

So in this way, through these two techniques, the meditator, the student who meditates in this way, receives quicker and more powerful transmissions of blessings from both Buddha and deity. Atop your head, yes, there's a tiny buzzer sattva about six inches tall. And on top of his head, there's another tiny buzzer sattva. And on top of that little buzzer sattva's head, there's a half a buzzer. Oh yes, he always faces the same way you do. He'll always be looking at the wall behind you. Yeah, no, he should always be facing the same way. He's not lying flat. I'm just drawing him pictures. It should be one toe in measure. Right. What is a toe?

[35:39]

Toe is... One toe is the distance between your outstretched thumb and the tip of your middle finger. This is one toe. Now, if you're 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 five toh in height. Okay? Five toh. Now... Yes. Yes. Then, if you visualize that image of Vajra Heruka on top of your head, as having one toh in its...

[36:45]

in its height, this would be just right. Okay? When I was a child, I used to go to school. I went [...] to school. What about his consort, Vajra Garhvi, which means adamantine pride? Vajra Garhavi is, as we said, seated upon Vajra Heruka's lap.

[38:13]

They are in yogic union and she is, of course, facing her consort. Her right hand is stretched out over Vajraheruka's shoulder, and in it she holds a curved blade. You know, the Vajrakartinai is a curved cutting knife. She holds it straight out over his shoulder. She faces the consort and holds over his shoulder who is facing her. She holds a curved blade. Very good. All right. 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.

[39:19]

And she is drinking blood from that skull cup. Okay, you got the picture? We'll look for a picture. Easily. Just around his neck. Just around his neck. He says, don't doubt. Rinpoche says, you'll hear many strange and even sometimes embarrassing things in the tantric, when you're discussing and describing tantric practices.

[40:29]

However, you shouldn't, you shouldn't You shouldn't be embarrassed, nor should you doubt them, nor doubt the practices. All you should understand is that in tantra you use words and practices symbolically, that only these things have meaning. They have meaning to the tantric meditator, not to be taken literally as an uninitiated, non-tantric person. Of course, being inclined to take it would be ignorant and it would find it very shocking. But for the tantric meditator, understanding the meaning and their application to his own particular experience of that was, of course, very useful. There's good benefit to the meditator in using these symbols as, how do you say, a code for tantric experience.

[41:32]

But for the literal-minded, they may be embarrassing and may be harmful if they reject them by mistaking them. So, that's what he wanted to say. Now, finally back to the meditation. She is, Vajragadari has only five of the six bone ornaments. She does not need to wear the chakra, the wheel, the bone wheel. On her breast. Why? Because the sixth mudra. As these. Six kinds of ornaments. The sixth mudra. Is that of wisdom. And she herself. The female deity symbolizes wisdom, so she need not wear it. Male deities wear six kinds of ornaments because they need wisdom.

[42:33]

Female deities do not need it because they are wisdom. You know we love that. Now, after you visualize deity and his consort, you should visualize next that within his heart, within the heart of the deity that is within the heart of Vajraheruka, not with the consort, there rests upon a lotus and moon a small white syllable Khun. Now, rays of light shine out, shine forth boundlessly from this white syllable Khun within his heart to invoke all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space, wherever they may be.

[43:40]

Now, the The Buddhas respond, the enlightened ones respond to this invocation and send back to Vajrasattva that is to say, the quintessence of their own mind, of their enlightened mind, 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 is formless, it has no form, it is not white ambrosia, it is not something that is endowed with

[44:54]

form at all. Yet for the sake of meditation, in order to gain the effects of this transcendentosis, to invoke it upon ourselves in meditation, we use the technique of formalizing, that is, of visualizing it as having born. So we visualize it as assuming this transcendent gnosis is taking on the form of trance of this ambrosia, celestial white colored ambrosia, which reigns throughout space and converges upon Vajra's Heruka, who is seated at the top of our crown. and as it converges upon him, it is absorbed into his own form. After visualizing in this way, as we just described,

[46:03]

grain of elixir is absorbed into the home within his heart, you should invoke the invoked Vajra Heruka directly by praying as it is Written on page 32, the world has began. O blessed one, cleanse and purify, I pray, all the accumulations of sins, obscurations, faults, painings, and impurities, which I and all sentient beings have collected here. All right, then. Now, what has been cured by, you say, sins, obscuration, faults, failings, and impurities? Well, um, my, uh, By this generally we mean by sense that we mean unholy karma.

[47:09]

The opposite of the ten virtuous actions of body, voice, and mind would be the misuse of body, voice, and mind would be ten unvirtuous kinds of actions. Obscurations, by that we mean both cognitive and emotive obscurations. Emotive obscurations such as the depravilence, negative mental states such as desire, hatred, delusion, pride, envy, and delight. By cognitive obscuration, we mean the ignorance and the deluded misperception of reality, so that we see it subjectively and in terms of subject and object. We don't see reality as it is, but if we want to see it as it is not, all it is is obscurity, maybe obscuration of reality. This is a cognitive alteration.

[48:10]

Faults and failings mean those conscious and unconscious violations of our Buddhist precepts and vows, or either those that we have that are naturally incumbent upon us, like this naturally incumbent upon us not to take life, that we might do it through ignorance or even consciously, and then keep it concealed. That we may be failing, having committed unconsciously, unconscious violations of good. 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.

[49:19]

But any attempt to conceal these and not to confess them is also a feeling that must be purified in this kinder earth in our practice. And there are six kinds of impurities there, which I don't know. So when you think about all these various obscurations and obstacles that you may have accumulated, past lives, or in your present life, or in any kind of moment, and realize that they are sure to hinder you, or if not purified, to create obstacles for you in the future, and they ripen you with bad results. And then through realizing the wholly negative nature, you realize that the only thing to be done with sins and sins, obscurations, faults, failures, and goodness is to discard them, to get rid of them.

[50:36]

And if you perform this meditation at Sri Vajraherupa, Sincerely, mindfully, with 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.

[51:45]

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

[52:55]

and if you sincerely repent having done these actions, then that is called the force of remorse. That's the second prerequisite. The third prerequisite is the power, is the force of resolution. If upon reflecting upon the ill that you have accomplished, that you have achieved, breaking your bowels or 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, unobstructed actions, then that constitutes the force of resolve. You decide that having purified it this time, I will never do it again. That is the force of response.

[53:57]

The fourth force is called the force of... of... Let's see. Well, I can't name it. I can explain it. It's the force of... of... 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, your obstacles and obscurations.

[55:01]

If these three are present, these first three forces are present, it is possible to purify every sin, every bad karma, no matter how great it is, even if it is one of the five immeasurable sins, five very heavy sins, 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.

[56:10]

It can be purified through this meditation of Vajrasattva when all these forces are present. And so the fourth force consists of the knowledge and confidence that sins, no matter how great, may be purified through the right performance of this Vajra Heruka meditation. These four forces must be present, and they have been explained to you this evening exactly as the great Gautama Malandaka Rinpoche expounded them to revision Rinpoche. They are so important that Rinpoche repeated them to me three times. I spare you the second and third repetitions, but take it as a record that they are important, unique, In order to purify anything, you must have all these four forces present in your practice.

[57:14]

All right. Now, to return to your visualization, remember you invoked the transcendent gnosis of all the Buddhists throughout space. That transcendent gnosis rained down a bone rained down throughout space in the form of ambrosia, white-colored ambrosia, and it was absorbed into the white syllable om within the father, that is, within Vajra Heruka's heart. Now, at this point, after you invoked him, his blessings to purify you of all sins and obscurations, in response to your prayer, then his... And this white ambrosia begins 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.

[58:28]

His entire form begins to fill up. And then, now it begins to pour over into the form of the mother, his consort. it passes through the father's vajra into the mother's padla and then fills up her entire body. And as it begins, as it completely fills up her form also, it overflows at the crown of their heads, both their heads, and... Uh, from every part of their body, from every pore of their body. Hmm. Prince, the, uh, the... Yes. Okay.

[59:37]

Okay. It does not descend from, it doesn't overflow at the top of the head, it's up in the body. That's a single aspect of Vajra. I start with meditations. What it does is 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 it flows down uh flows down through the lotus into the top of one's crown that is remember the aperture of dharma top your own crown and

[60:59]

And it proceeds to flow downward through your body into all its parts and to fill the entire body. And as it passes through your body and fills your body, you should visualize that all illnesses, all evil spirits, all sins and obscurations are completely purified and washed out of your entire being, physical and mental, wherever, and you could 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.

[62:12]

That's wrong. It just says that you can visualize 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. But it does not say that you could visualize this as pieces of urine. That's quite wrong. It says that in Tibetan it is visualized as a smoking liquid or pus and blood, etc., that are usually cut into. Excuse me? You're welcome. That's a good distinction. Yeah, really. No, it's not. It's like a, like sins usually, when you go into the details of sinning, you know, there's sins like that, are usually thought of as smoking, kind of a smoke-colored liquid, and that's the way you get rid of them.

[63:20]

And poor, evil spirits are in the form of like, even like... little snakes or scorpions and spiders and insects like that translation i mean somebody just read a little sunset this right just like the two little passages and they have purified it but he decided to throw in well if you put the two little passengers you know pieces of urine but what is fortuitous and i've never heard that but Everything minus the, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think. You want? I'm working. Visualize the exiting out from your body and disappears into emptiness. So that's, so. But your entire body becomes just pristine clear as if there's really white snow. You get that feeling that you're really radiant, pure, white, inside. Filled with inside rosy, shining.

[64:22]

Very good. You, upon reciting the mantra as many times as you can, or will, you again invoke directly Vajra Heruka who is seated upon the crown of your head with the words of the prayer, which I don't know if they relate to me, of the prayer found on page 36. in which you were dressing. It's not written here. You have to add the word gumbo, which means lowered. I, in beginning this prayer, say, Lord, or protecting, Lord, I, deluded by ignorance, have broken and spoiled the vows, prudent and protectively my refuge.

[65:31]

To the highest Vajradhara, possessed of the essence of great compassion, the chief of beings, I draw to refuge. I confess all my transgressions of root and branch vows, that body, voice, and mouth. cleanse and purify, pray, or be accumulations of sins, obligations, faults, failings, and impurities." So you invoke, again invoke the power, his power to purify, and they confess beforehand, all the, in particular, all the broken precepts that you might have, broken precepts about that you might have committed, for example. For example, all the misdeeds, 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.

[66:32]

That means it kind of goes against the law of moral nature to perform, to misuse the body, voice, and mind in, for example, taking the life of other beings, telling lies, gossiping in being, or harboring false views and malice and so forth. the performance of these so-called natural violations, natural misdeeds. And on top of that you have what are called the Well, these are

[67:37]

violations of vows, meaning they don't apply to all beings naturally. For example, it's a misuse of body, voice, and mind. It won't take its life to localize and so forth to everybody, doesn't it? It doesn't. But then there are certain precepts or certain vows, which only those who have taken according to those vows will be held responsible for. For example, the Vajrayana vows, you know, But only those who have taken on the advice would incur the sin of downfall through not practicing them or not observing the vow. They would apply to all beings naturally. So these sins and these sins and faults which one may have incurred, carelessness or ignorance or whatever other reason, you now confess to Vajradhara himself and you

[69:00]

uh you reveal you hold nothing back however terrible they may be however you resist confessing them out loud to some other person that before vice your guy you completely reveal open up your mind confess acknowledge that you have you have a committee be saved uh Oh yes, the other kind is called overt violations, meaning that these are violations, conscious violations of your precepts, special precepts and vows you have taken for yourself. So both natural and overt violations. You confess and ask for his help in purification. This applies also, as we said before, for all accumulations of the obscurations. That is, you ask for yourself, purifying all the cognitive and emotive obscurations and all impurities.

[70:11]

There are six kinds of impurity, which we will take process to explain later. So, having invoked him sincerely and having prayed in this manner, you should visualize or you should think that your own guru who is sitting on top of your head in the form of Vajrasattva responds to your prayer and says, very well, or something to that effect. A son of a good family, you are purified of all your sins, obscurations, faults, downfalls and impurities. From this time in sport, we should not commit them again. We should refrain from committing these certain actions. And we think that he is very pleased with you. He looks upon you with favor. And as he does so, then we should visualize that you should think that he has known your sins and your faults, that he has accepted your confession and your purification effectively, practice of contraceptive meditation, and that you do have his blessing.

[71:30]

that all is purified between you and the world, and that now Vajra Heruka dissolves into white light and is absorbed down into your own consciousness, and that your own body, words, and mind become none other than the body, words, and mind of Vajra Heruka himself. And you should meditate upon this great feeling that your own body is brilliantly white, quiet and pure as the world, radiant and clear, absolutely without flaw, and having nothing but nature, total pristine purity. And then, you know, she did often delight with me. But they don't know me. She didn't need me back. Oh, no, no, no. You're just, you're your own body. Your body is clean and pure.

[72:35]

And your own body becomes very, very clean and pure and not solid flesh and blood like the Deity's body is. 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 voidness of your own mind, which is the ultimate nature of Vajrasattva itself. It is that Vajrasattva, the ultimate nature of your own mind, which has been evoked and through which power you have been purified. Do you think Vajrasattva knows what you are doing? before Vajrasattva. Just think you are Vajrasattva. Now, then finally you dedicate the merit of all this that you have acquired through this practice of Vajrasattva's meditation by saying something like, by this virtue you may quickly attain the stage of Vajrasattva and place upon his stage also all living beings without exception.

[73:37]

Now, we had a few questions. One here, one there. Yes, please. Uh, well, can I answer off the top of my head, or do you want me to re-coerce him? I can see... Yeah, yeah. No! No! No! My answer is, it depends. For example, in sinful action, an unwholesome process, 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 sinful thought. But if you don't follow through it, then you don't have the sin of killing. However, the first step is the conscious thought construction.

[74:40]

I will kill so-and-so. The second step is 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. But I'm talking about desire, where you don't say, for example, I want to build a building. It's not intending to desire. Well, it's a thought. You mean just a random thought like that? Yeah. Well, in itself, you can't call it wholesome indefinitely. It's an unwholesome thought just, you know, because even a thought must arise from the anger or else the cruelty, if you even have a random thought, I will kill. So it's a, you know... Surely the... It would be effective for it, but there you're only purifying those faults, which really comes under this category of, you know, like obscurations, you know, cognitive and emotive.

[75:43]

It's one of those angers. It's one of desire, hate, and illusion, which are emotive obscurations. But, more specifically, there are other thoughts, not necessarily out of kill sense. For example, Vajrayana rules. For example, if you think of things as being empty, all things as being void, that is breaking a vow. If you think of that. But you might think of it that way, or you might think of certain things that are patriotic, and you've broken your vow. I mean, it's just a thought. Right. I take it you haven't read your Vajrayana vows recently. How did you fail? For example, other thoughts, like there, it is not so bad. It is just a random angry thought. But there are other thoughts. For example, if you know your 14 vows, I don't know if there are some who may have taken those Vajrayana vows. I don't know if they're in good detail. But if you break those just by so much thought, for example, if you perceive things not as they really are,

[76:46]

If you think of pain as being, for example, real, You've broken your Vajrayana vow. You reversed. I think you reversed it. You reversed it. Go read up your Vajrayana vows and you can see that there's so much as a fault, 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, you can be purified by this meditation. That's a good thought. That's right. It's natural and overt. It's rooted in the... It's one of the emotive departments. Yeah. Okay, you want to ask us a very interesting question. Very interesting. Oh, it's all right. All right. bad. They are non-virtuous. They are not right. They are rooted in desire.

[77:49]

Desire is the cause of continued deluded existence. It is that which binds beings, delusion to suffering. Therefore, there is no way that you can conceive a desirous thought as being anything but non-virtuous. It can, however, be purified. You got it. You got it. Innocent thought. Yes, it's the thought. The thought. I asked him, I just said the mere thought of desire. That thought, such wicked thought can be purified through this meditation of Vajrasattva. Of course, now you're talking about, you're taking thoughts as being... thoughts per se. In Vajrayana, there are other things you can do with wicked lustful thoughts, like transforming them into wisdom.

[78:50]

That goes into a... 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. you know, killing a mother, a father, or a Buddha, or something like that, okay? So it goes without saying that minor and wholesome things like lustful thoughts can be purified. All right, Helen had a question. Let's see. Back here. Oh, about confession. I have a confession of sins. I'd really like to know about confesses. How specific do you make it? Do you visualize the sins that you've actually committed, these sins that you've committed in your life that you didn't know you wanted to? Whatever, you know. But do you actually... I just turn back.

[79:56]

I can turn back to when I was 11 and I said something really designed to destroy my life. You know, the coolest thing I've said. I can bring it back instantly in form. Technical, everything. Do I do that and confess it and do it? Or do I just lump it all together with all the other rotten things? All right. First of all, you can lump all the sins in generally. Take all the sins, go regenerate, say all the unwholesome, terrible things that may have accumulated from beginningless times, like body, voice, and mind, through all of that, and just really sort of blanket manner, try to cover everything that you might possibly have reason to be too sorry about, even though you don't remember specific instances, for example, that happened in your era or life or whatever in the past, except for whatever karma you may have dreamed of, to purify.

[81:15]

So you confess all of that. But if you have a specific instance where you know that you yourself did something that that you regret. There are some things that stick in your memory that have not been forgotten, that still remain within memory as a sure point, as a sticking point for bad karma, as something that pricks your conscience and reminds you of something that you have done that was not right, that was harmful, 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. And this way, those you should dwell upon in particular, and pray especially that those could be purified by this meditation. For example, what you said to your mother when you were 11 years old, that would be something that you could dwell upon and pray for special absolution.

[82:16]

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 a very light and purified body and mind. You will feel as if freed from these mental burdens and the physical effects of your body. and you will start to have dreams when you are, when you know, when you will know that you are being, you are purifying these sense of obscurations, when you start to have the following dreams. When you dream, for example, of seeing Vajra Heruka himself in person, dream of a deity. Or when you dream of The sun and the moon rising. Mind you, I'm saying.

[83:19]

The sun and the moon. You dream of bathing, dressing yourself in white garments. You dream of drinking white liquid such as milk. You dream of... That's all I remember. Okay. These sort of dreams, or when you dream of waking up, things like that, all of these are signs that you're... Dream of waking up. Of waking up. Of waking up. All of them. Yeah. When you... All of these are signs that your meditation is progressing nicely, that you are being purified. You should keep it up to really assure that you're pure. No. One at a time.

[84:21]

You can do that. Frustrations and then refuge can be taken together, if you wish, or you can take them separately, 100,000 each, or you can combine refuge and frustrations. Then after you've completed... As I said, you can combine prostrations and the refuge, do 100,000 combined, meaning you've got to do 100,000 refuge recitations, which you can combine with 100,000 prostrations. Or you can do those separately, yeah. After you've done the 100,000 refuges, next you do the Vajrasattva meditation. 100,000 recitations like this 100-syllable mantra is required. You can do as many as you want, but the minimum is 100,000, yes. It's not... I've never heard anybody advise you to skip around. But we have quite a lot of time for... In each of these bowls... through each of these four stages of meditation that each has a specific purpose.

[85:33]

For example, we 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 you might encounter through the practice. Then next you want to build up merit, so you offer you offer the mandala offering, so forth. Then by that time, once your mind is pure, you also need to develop this rapport with the guru, so forth. So there is a progression among these. This does not say that you absolutely must follow that order right down your mind. At least, at the very least, refuge, the 100,000 refuge recitations must precede all of these. After that, I suppose it's all right, he says, to mix the remaining three up, but there's really no point.

[86:35]

Oh, can we just do it if it doesn't count? Oh, sure. Sure, no harm, I mean. Yes? Can this be accomplished at some point? Build the engine in one row, the jeep will droop a lot easier. Of course, it's not required that one must go and do a retreat in order to accomplish these foundational qualifications. It's obvious that there will be many advantages if one is able to perform them while in the retreat. You'll finish much quicker for one day. If you're able to concentrate on it.

[87:38]

However, if one is unable to do that, it is, of course, permissible to do it in any way that you can manage. One has to be encouraged to do it. There are people who have spent three or four years on each one. They would do, for example, 100 recitations a day or 100 prostrations a day, until after three or four years later, they would have really accomplished 100,000 of them. It takes much longer, but if that's the way that you've got to do it, there's nothing wrong with it. That's all right. I know. I know. I know. Rinpoche's own experience in his practice of these foundation meditations is that it's much better to do them while in retreat.

[88:43]

He has tried it both ways. And it's his experience that there are too many interruptions. One's energy is not at its peak. One has many interruptions. It takes too long. And one can't keep up the... A single-pointed constant practice that you get in a retreat situation is just a piece of experience. I think it's preferable to do it in retreat rather than that. It's a short. What form of prostrations would you recommend? Would you do prostrations alone? What kind of hesitation would you have? The chagya, the chapsal, the chapsal would boom, dribble up. He'd come to it and then do dana, yapa, dribble, yapa. He'd come to it and then do dana, yapa. As UJ urges you to combine the 100,000 prostrations with your rescuing out the

[89:52]

refuge prayer because then by doing this you have the amount of time that you need to when you recite one refuge prayer with each performance of the cross of one prostration do this a hundred thousand times and then you finished you know at one scoop you finished both uh he recommends that It's good if you can also medicate that. What are you doing? You know that? Yes, Rinpoche says that now you will all join in in meditating for a while.

[91:12]

You'll excuse me. I have an appointment with an elsewhere. This won't take long, Rinpoche, I assure you. I don't think you're worth it, Mike.

[92:22]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_81.72