Buddhist
Practice

 

Daily Practice from the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama has asked that the following practice be shared with as many people as possible. A group recently spent five days visiting with the Dalai Lama focusing upon what they believe are the five most important questions to be considered as we move into the millenium.

The five questions were:

1. How do we address the widening gap between rich and poor?
2. How do we protect the earth?
3. How do we educate our children?
4. How do we help Tibet and other oppressed countries and peoples of the world?
5. How do we bring spirituality (deep caring for one another) through all disciplines of life?

The Dalai Lama said all five questions fall under the last one. If we have true compassion in our hearts, our children will be educated wisely, we will care for the earth, those who "have not" will be cared for. The group asked the Dalai Lama, "Do you think love on the planet is increasing or staying the same? His response: "My experience leads me to believe that love IS increasing."

He shared a simple practice that will increase love and compassion in the world. He asked everyone in the group to share it with as many people as they can.

The practice:

1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering we all want the same things (to be happy and to be loved) and we are all connected to one another.
2. Spend 5 minutes breathing in cherishing yourself, and breathing out cherishing others. If you think about people you have difficulty cherishing, extend your cherishing to them anyway.
3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet. Practice cherishing the "simplest" person (clerks, attendants, etc.) as well as the "important" people in your life, cherish the people you love and the people you dislike.
4. Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you. These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.

The practice of cherishing can be taken very deep if done wordlessly, allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that already exists in your heart. Will you commit to creating Peace in yourself and thereby "On Earth" by spending 10 minutes a day with this simple meditation? Peace on Earth, Good will To All. It's not a season. It's a daily practice. Please pass this on to as many people as you can.

This Practice Found at: http://www.silcom.com/~snospx/events.htm

Preliminary Practices - Ngondro - pp154-55

For the masters introduction to be fully effective however the right conditions or environment. Only a few special individuals in history, because of their purified karma, have been able to recognize and become enlightened in an instant; and so the introduction must always be preceded by the following preliminaries. It is these preliminaries that purify and peel away the ordinary mind and bring you to the state where in your Rigpa can be revealed to you.

First meditation, the supreme antidote to distraction, brings the mind home and enables it to settle into it's natural state.

Second, deep practices of purification, and the strengthening the positive karma through the accumulation of merit and wisdom, start to wear away and dissolve the emotional and intellectual veils that obscure the nature of mind. As my master Jamyang Khentse wrote:

"If the obscurations are removed, the wisdom of one's own Rigpa will naturally shine."

These purification practices, called Ngondro in Tibetan, have been skillfully designed to effect a comprehensive inner transformation. They involve the entire being - body, speech, and mind - and begin with a series of deep contemplations on:

These reflections inspire a strong sense of "renunction," an urgent desire to emerge from samsara and follow the path of liberation, which forms the foundation for the specific practices of

All these practices build up to and center around Guru Yoga, which is the most crucial, moving and powerful practice of all, indispensable for the opening the heart and mind to the realization of the state of Dzogchen.

Third, a special meditative investigation into the nature of mind exhausts the mind's restless hunger for thinking and research, and its dependence on analysis, and references, and awakens a personal realization of the nature of emptiness.

I cannot stress strongly enough how important these preliminaries are. They have to work hand in hnad systematically, to inspire the student to awaken the nature of mind, and to enable the student to be ready and prepared when the master chooses the time to show himor her the original face of Rigpa.

Source: Above excerpts from "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying ~Sogyal Rinpoche Rider Paperback - 7 May, 1998 - Paperback - 440 pages new edition (7 May, 1998) Rider; ISBN: 0712671390 (read more - amazon.co.uk)

 

 

 

 

Chod

Chöd is one of the four daily offerings of the Bön tradition. The other three are smoke offering (sang chöd), water offering, and burnt food offering (sur chöd). In the chöd practice we transform into the deity and cut our illusory body and offer it to all the enlightened and sentient beings. Offering our body (lu gyin) in this way allows us to cut attachment to ego and cultivate generosity toward others. Through this practice we cut through our misunderstanding of our own real condition and reconnect to our own true nature. There are many chöd liturgies within the Bön tradition. “Laughter of the Skygoers” was composed by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, who achieved the rainbow body in 1934. This is the sadhana currently used at both Bönpo Monasteries of Menri (Himachal Pradesh, India) and Triten Norbutse (Kathmandu, Nepal).

The Elements

Indigenous healing and spiritual traditions around the world are based on an understanding of the five elements. In the Tibetan tradition, these are known as space, air, fire, water and earth, and are understood as the underlying energies from which the physical world, our bodies, our emotions, and our minds arise. The elements are addressed in all nine levels of teachings of Bön, including shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.

The Experiential Transmission Part 1: Ngondro

The Ngöndro or 'foundational practices' comprise the first chapter of the Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung (Zhang zhung nyams rgyud), a Bön Dzogchen text that delineates a complete path to liberation for a practitioner to follow. This Ngöndro has nine practices, divided in three sets of three. The first set contains the practices for taming oneself, the second set for purifying oneself, and the third set of three for perfecting oneself. Rinpoche and all the lamas of our tradition emphasize the importance of the ngondro as the way to enter the dharma. These practices are not only the key to liberation but they are the life-long companion to the practitioner.

Zhine: Calm Abiding Zhine, the practice of calm abiding, develops concentration and mental stability. “Concentration practices such as zhiné are found in many traditions, for example, Sutric and Tantric Buddhism and the many forms of Hinduism. In all these traditions, it is considered a necessary and fundamental practice. In Dzogchen, zhiné is considered a preparation for the essential practice of contemplation. In fact, it is very difficult to get very far in the practice of Dzogchen contemplation without first having practiced.” - Wonders of the Natural Mind, pg. 79. “Once we have achieved a strong and reliable steadiness in calm presence, we can develop this steadiness in all aspects of life. When stable, this presence can always be found, and we will not be carried away by thoughts and emotions.” - The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, pg. 89.

There are chapters in each of the books by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Wonders of the Natural Mind, and The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, in which the practice is described as well as advice given on how to overcome the obstacles that may arise in practice.

Six Sessions: Short Meditation The Meditation Practice in Six Sessions is a Dzogchen contemplative practice compiled by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche for his students. It consists of the Nine Breathings of Purification, Securing a Boundary, Guru Yoga, Refuge, Bodhicitta, and Contemplative Breathing Practice. “In Dzogchen, nyamshag, contemplation, has a precise and specific meaning. It indicates presence in the state of the inseparability of clarity and emptiness. In the symbolic language of Dzogchen, this is the 'union of mother and son.' Contemplation is the foremost Dzogchen practice. What we must develop as Dzogchen practitioners is the contemplation of the inseparability of emptiness and clarity in the natural state of mind. As these are already inseparable, in Dzogchen we do not try to unite them, as Tantric practitioners do, but simply to recognize their indivisibility.” -- from “Wonders of the Natural Mind” by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (pgs 90-91) As with all practices, if one wishes to truly engage with them, it is necessary to receive transmission (permission/blessing) by a qualified Bon teacher. With regards to this booklet, it is available to those who have not received the transmission but who intend to do so.

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep It is said that the practice of dream yoga deepens our awareness during all our experiences: the dreams of the night; the dream-like experience of the day; and the bardo experiences of death. The practices of dream and sleep are powerful tools of awakening, used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Unlike the Western psychological approach to dreams where the content of the dream is interpreted for meaning, the ultimate goal of Tibetan dream and sleep yogas is the recognition of the nature of mind itself, or enlightenment. Extensive teachings on the Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep can be found in the Mother Tantra of the Bön tradition. “The Mother Tantra says that if one is not aware in vision, it is unlikely that one will be aware in behavior. If one is not aware in behavior, one is unlikely to be aware in dream. And if one is not aware in dream, then one is unlikely to be aware in the bardo after death.” -- The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, pgs. 81-82.

 

9. Atiyoga:

: Atiyoga is a means to liberate the meaning of primordial Buddhahood into its own state, and it is the nature of freedom from abandonments and acceptances and expectations and fears. The six million four hundred verses of Atiyoga scriptures are divided into three divisions by Jampal Shenyen.

These divisions are:

The first two of these were introduced into Tibet by Vairochana; the third by Vimalamitra. Those teachings that were originally transmitted by Padmasambhava and then hidden in various places in Tibet are also part of the Series of Secret Instructions. This kind of text, known as "terma" (gter ma) or "treasures," began to be rediscovered from the 13th century onwards. Those texts which, on the other hand, were transmitted orally from the time of Garab Dorje onwards, are known as the "oral tradition" (bka' ma).

There are two major categories of training in Mengagde:

(a). Thregchod (Cutting Through): there are four stages of realizations through meditation: dwelling, unmoving, equalness, and spontaneity.

(b). Thodgal (the Direct Approach): there six crucial means of training, the four visions arise gradually. The four visions are: the direct realization of Ultimate Nature, development of Experiences, perfection of Intrinsic Awareness, and Dissolution of phenomena into the Ultimate Nature.

Thodgal is for breaking out of the cycle of existences (samsara) by directly experience of "naked," or "ordinary," mind, which is the basis of all activities of consciousness. In addition to approaches of this kind that are oriented toward emptiness and intended to be applied without goal-oriented effort, Thregchod places the emphasis on the clear light aspect of primordial knowledge. Their goal is realization of the "rainbow body," i.e., the dissolution of the physical body that is, of the four elements that constitute the body into light.

Vajrasattva Sadhana

A daily meditation on Vajrasattva, the diety of Purification. Includes instructions for visualization as taught by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and the Hundred-syllable Mantra. Note: You MUST recieve empowerment from a qualified Lama or Rinpoche to practice this sadhana. http://members.tripod.com/~Vajra108/vajrasattva.html

http://members.tripod.com/~Vajra108/breathepure.html

 

http://members.tripod.com/~Vajra108/padmas.html Guru Rinpoche Sadhana -A daily meditation on Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava was an 8th century Indian Master who brought buddhism to Tibet. Includes the Seven-Line Prayer, Instructions for visualization as taught by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and the Twelve-syllable Mantra.

"When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the people of Tibet will be scattered like ants across the world and the dharma will come to the land of the red man." --Guru Padmasambhava, Eighth century. OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUNG!

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