Year: 2025

Cultivate Devotion

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

It is said in the writings of the great masters of the past that if you see your teachers as Buddhas, you will receive the blessings of the Buddhas.

If you see them as Bodhisattvas, you will receive the blessings of Bodhisattvas.

If you see them as accomplished beings, you will receive the blessings of accomplished beings.

If you see them as ordinary beings — simply as good spiritual friends — then that is the sort of blessing you will get.

While if you have no devotion at all, you will not receive any blessings at all.

For this reason, we should cultivate devotion, and there are four ways to do so. First, no other Buddha is greater than your own root teacher. The essence and embodiment of every one of the Three Jewels in the ten directions and three times is the teacher, and there is no end to the excellent qualities of the Three Jewels.

  • Dudjom Rinpoche – A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom

The Three Jewels

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

The objects of refuge for those who strive for complete liberation are the Three Jewels. The Three Jewels have the power temporarily to protect us from the fears of cyclic existence and ultimately to establish us in ultimate excellence, and they are therefore an infallible refuge, for as the Great Master has said,

Samsaric lords, however good, will let us down.
As objects of refuge, the Three Jewels will never fail.

The Three Jewels are identified differently according to the different categories of greater and lesser vehicles. Here, in the unsurpassable tradition of the Great Vehicle, there are three categories of object:

objects in which realization is manifest,
those that are sources of inspiration, and
the absolute object of refuge.

(a) Objects in which realization is manifest

These are:

  • the Jewel of the Buddha who embodies the four bodies and five wisdoms, who is endowed with the two puritiesc and is the ultimate fulfillment of the twofold goal.
  • the Dharma of realization and transmission—the cessation and path included in the truth of untainted complete purity, and the Excellent Words that express it as perceptible words and letters.
  • the Sangha—the true Sangha of sublime Bodhisattvas on the great levels, children of the Buddha endowed with the qualities of realization and liberation; and the surrogate Sangha of beings following the Great Vehicle on the paths of accumulation and joining and of sublime Listeners and Solitary Realizers following the Basic Vehicle.

(b) Sources of inspiration

  • all fashioned images representing the Buddha, for example, drawings or paintings and statues;
  • books containing the Dharma, the Buddha’s teaching, in the form of letters;
  • and the Sangha of ordinary beings following the path—the lesser Sangha of lay practitioners and intermediate ordinees, and the so-called greater Sangha of fully ordained monks, four such taken together being called an assembly of the Sangha. There is also the Sangha of knowledge holders comprising those, whether monks or lay practitioners, who are following the path of the Mantra Vehicle and abide by the commitments. Whichever discipline they observe, these are all fieldsg by which beings may acquire merit.

(c) The absolute object of refuge

The ultimate refuge is the Buddha alone. Neither of the other two is the ultimate refuge, for the following reasons. Once one has seen the truth, the teachings that make up the Dharma of transmission have to be discarded. The Dharma of realization in the minds of Bodhisattvas, Listeners, and Solitary Realizers is subject to improvement and is therefore impermanent and deceptive. As for the Sangha, since its members are themselves still on the path to be trodden, they do not have the ultimate qualities; and since they are unable to eliminate their latent tendencies and the obscurations
particular to their respective levels without depending on the Buddha, they still have fear. As we read in the Sublime Continuum,

One will be abandoned, one is deceptive by nature,
And one does not have and is still afraid. For these reasons
The two kinds of Dharma and the assembly of sublime beings
Are not the highest, everlasting refuge.

Ultimately, the refuge of beings
Is the Buddha alone, because,
the Buddha being none other than the body of truth,
the Capable One embodies the teachings
And that is the final goal of the community too.

ii. The particular refuge objects of the Mantra Vehicle

According to the tradition of the Diamond Mantra Vehicle there are, in addition to the above, the particular Three Jewels: the teacher, the object from whom one receives blessings; the yidam, from whom one receives accomplishments; and the dakinis and Dharma protectors, who are charged with accomplishing the activities.

Furthermore, we distinguish the teachers as the embodiments of all Three Jewels (their bodies as the Sangha, their speech as the Dharma, and their minds as the Buddha), the yidam deities manifesting in their peaceful and wrathful forms as the nature of the Buddha in the body of perfect enjoyment and body of manifestation, their tantras as the extraordinary Dharma, and the dakinis and Dharma protectors as the special Sangha. In this way, we take them as our refuge.

The Great Master expresses it thus:
The Lord Teacher, root of blessings,
Yidam deity, source of accomplishments,
Dakinis, who perfectly grant the blessings.

  • Dudjom Rinpoche – A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom

Guru Yoga

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Thinley Norbu and Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje

There are many kinds of visualization which are used for Guru Yoga. One is called “visualizing like gathering in the market” In this, the root lama (rTsa.ba’i bla.ma) is surrounded by many lamas of the lineage, yidams, ḍākas and ḍākinīs, buddhas, Dharma, and Saṅgha. Another is called “visualized in tiers.” In this, the lamas sit one above the head of another. Another is called the “system of gathering all together into the jewel.” In this, only the jewel-like vajra master is visualized. This means that the essence of all buddhas is gathered together into the varja master. We may practice whichever method we find convenient. In order to obtain the blessing of wisdom, we visualize ourselves as the wisdom ḍākinī. It is not that the varja master has desire for women, but rather that the wisdom ḍākinī is without obscuration, and by visualizing ourselves in this pure form, we can quickly obtain the blessing of wisdom.

When we have visualized the lama in front and ourselves as the wisdom ḍākinī, we recite the seven-branch prayer for accumulating merit:

We prostrate as an antidote for pride. We emanate hundreds, thousands, millions, countless numbers of body emanations to make prostrations before the lama. Making prostrations purifies obscurations, brings benefit to our body in the present and all future lives, and helps us to attain the body of wisdom and many other excellent qualities.

We offer as an antidote for greed. We offer all our various substantial possessions, as well as offerings emanated by mind, enough to fill the sky. The benefit of these offerings is that great merit is made and fortunate opportunities come to us. We confess as an antidote for anger or hatred.

We confess and make strong repentance for breaking Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna vows. The benefit of this confession is that we are liberated from the suffering of the lower three realms.

We rejoice as an antidote for jealousy. We rejoice in all virtues, with and without karmic outflows, because in so doing, we share in the virtues made by others.

We request as an antidote for ignorance. We request the Buddhas and bodhisattvas not to remain quiet, but to turn the Wheel of Dharma and to teach the Dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings. The benefit of this request to turn the Wheel of Dharma is that in this and future lives we will be able to hear the teachings of the precious Dharma.

We pray as an antidote for disbelief. We pray to the buddhas not to depart into nirvāṇa, but to remain amid saṃsāra’s suffering in order to help sentient beings. The benefit of this prayer for the buddhas to remain is that the sins we have committed in harming the lives of sentient beings are purified.

We dedicate as an antidote for doubt. We dedicate all the merit that has been gained so that we and all sentient beings may reach the state of enlightenment. The benefit is that all the virtue that we accumulate will not be exhausted until the time we reach enlightenment.

After we finish the seven-branch prayer, we recite the mantra:
OṂ AḤ HŪṂ VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HŪṂ one hundred times, one thousand times, or as many times as we can at one sitting. The meaning of this mantra is as follows.

OṂ is the essence syllable of the wisdom body of all the buddhas.
AḤ is the essence syllable of the wisdom speech of all the buddhas. HŪṂ1 is the essence syllable of the wisdom mind of all the buddhas.
VAJRA (rDo.rje) means indestructible, never divisible, never holding to the phenomena of duality. The dorje has seven dharma characteristics: it is uncuttable, indestructible, true, firm, fixed, completely unobstructed, and completely undefeatable. In this system, the name given to the dharmakāya is Nangwathaye or Öpame.
GURU means lama. La means “life itself,” that which is so precious; ma means “mother,” because just as a mother has great love for her children, so the great aimless compassion of the dharmakāya arises spontaneously in the sambhogakāya form of Thugjechenpo4 (Chenrezig). Lama also means lanamepa or unsurpassable because there is no one more precious than the lama. The lama always dwells within the sambhogakāya’s seven branches of conjunction.
PADMA means lotus. Just as the lotus grows from the mud but the mud never stains the lotus, Padmasambhava always remains in saṃsāra to benefit sentient beings, but he is never obscured by the faults of saṃsāra. Also, if all buddhas are collected into the five buddha families, then Padmasambhava is in the padma or lotus family, because he is the nirmāṇakāya emanation of the dharmakāya Nangwathaye and sambhogakāya Thugjechenpo, who are the padma or lotus family.
SIDDHI (dNgos.grub) refers to attainment of “general siddhi” (Thun.mong gi dngos.grub) and “supreme siddhi” (mChhog gi dngos.grub).

Small golden Key
Thinley Norbu
Shambhala