Request to Practice Six Yogas of Naropa
A student wrote asking if they could practice the Six Yogas of Naropa. Instead, they got life practices.
My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing how the people in Lawudo have been kind to you. I am very happy to hear that.
I know you want to practice the Six Yogas of Naropa, the tummo explained by Lama Yeshe, but you need a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation first. This practice, the Six Yogas of Naropa, can only be read and studied if you have received a great initiation, which means an initiation that has vase initiation, secret initiation, wisdom initiation and word initiation. This plants the seed of the four kayas, it makes the mind ripen, in order to practice the generation stage and the unification of clear light and illusory body. That is what a great initiation is for. After you receive a great initiation then you can learn and practice this.
LIFE PRACTICE ADVICE:
Vajrasattva mantras: 200,000
Dorje Khadro (burning offering) mantra: 10,000
Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga mantras: Daily practice
Chanting the Names of Manjrushri: Every second week
Golden Light Sutra recitations: Each week until death
Reciting the text Chanting the Names of Manjushri has unbelievable, unbelievable benefits. It helps you to develop wisdom, to be able to understand the teachings and to not forget them.
By reciting the Golden Light Sutra there is no returning from enlightenment. Your life always goes toward enlightenment, there is incredible purification and great success, and it helps you bring so much peace and happiness in the world.
One week recite the Golden Light Sutra and then the next week recite Chanting the Names of Manjushri, so recite like that. You can read more than that but recite each one at least once in alternate weeks. Please make sure to motivation with bodhicitta before beginning and dedicate well afterwards.
TO GAIN EFFORTFUL LAMRIM EXPERIENCE, MEDITATE ON: For you the main lamrim to focus on is Manjushri’s Words, [The Sacred Words of Manjushri] by the fifth Dalai Lama. This is the main lamrim for you. Of course, you can read other texts like Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, but the main lamrim for you to know is Manjushri’s Words, so please read this three times from beginning to end. Read it mindfully. When you read mindfully, it becomes meditation.
Write down any questions, whatever you don’t understand, and discuss with students who have studied the lamrim well, or ask a geshe.
The jangchub lamrim teachings [by His Holiness the Dalai Lama] are not yet published, but they will be coming out. If you are around a geshe you can request these teachings, until the translation is completed.
In the meantime use Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, and when you do the meditations, use Essential Nectar as a guide book, unless you get teachings from a geshe on Manjushri’s Words. That is different.
Meditate according to the lamrim outline:
Correctly following the virtuous friend: seven months
The graduated path of the lower capable being: three months
The graduated path of the intermediate capable being: three months
The graduated path of the highest capable being:
- Bodhicitta: three months
- Emptiness: four months
Go through this cycle four times, spending this amount of months on each subject, and then do effortless meditation.
Your main deity is either Vajrayogini and Most Secret Hayagriva. From these two, whichever deity you feel closest to, that is your main deity. Vajrayogini doesn’t have many arms and also the mandala is quite simple. Most Secret Hayagriva is very powerful for dispelling obstacles and for success, to benefit other sentient beings.
The reason you take Highest Yoga Tantra initiations and do these practices is because this is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment in this life for yourself, and then to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment quickest.
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Five Buddha Types
Date of Advice: May 2012
Date Posted: September 2016
Rinpoche gave the following advice about the translation of the Tibetan word rigs: don't use the word family or lineage.
Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche explained that there are five buddha types. Each type of buddha is a remedy for a different delusion, a remedy for attachment or anger or pride, etc. So type or race is OK, but family or lineage doesn’t work. Rinpoche says, “Is there a buddha that doesn’t have a lineage?”
Personal Deity for Tantric Practice
Date of Advice: February 2015
Date Posted: November 2015
A student asked Rinpoche about her main deity for tantric practice [Tib: yi-dam].
My most dear one,
Sorry for the long delay. The purpose of practicing Highest Yoga Tantra is to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible in order to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment in the shortest possible time.
According to my observation the deities you have a connection with are Yamantaka and Heruka. Whichever of those two deities you feel a strong connection with, you can decide on that one.
Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhichitta day and night and in every action you do.
Highest Yoga Tantra Practice
Date of Advice: February 2015
Date Posted: August 2015
A student asked Rinpoche for advice about her personal deity for tantric practice [Tib: yi-dam].
My very dear, most precious, most dear, most kind, wish-fulfilling one, I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying Buddhism more and more. That means that you are a lucky person, so, so, so fortunate. Thank you very much.
In order to make your life most meaningful and beneficial not only for yourself, but for sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to the state of buddhahood—the total cessation of all the obscurations of the mind and completion of all realizations—you need to achieve that state of sang-gye, (the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the qualities.)
In order to quickly achieve that, you need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra. You can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime by practicing the lowest tantra, but to do so you need to practice long life techniques to live for 100,000 years. In Highest Yoga Tantra there is the most skillful method, the extremely subtle wisdom realizing emptiness that is so powerful, the clear light. If you can experience this clear light then you are able to achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times.
I suggest, from my observation of your karma, that you practice Vajrayogini as your deity. To practice Vajrayogini you need to receive the initiation, and to receive that initiation you need to first receive either Guhyasamaja, Kalachakra or Heruka initiation. The most appropriate initiation is the Heruka initiation. I am supposed to be giving Heruka initiation in Mexico this year, but I can’t say if it will happen or not.
With much love and prayer. Good luck!
