Lama Sonam Rinpoche

Dakini Day Blessings: Troma’s Wisdom & Hayagriva’s Power

~ DudjomTersarNgondro
Thangka by Sergei Noskov

Troma Chöd is the fearless path of severing attachment, dissolving self-grasping, and realizing the true nature of mind.

Dudjom Rinpoche teaches:

“The essence of Chöd is the wisdom of emptiness and compassion inseparable. When one truly cuts through grasping at the self and phenomena, all fear dissolves into the space of great liberation. This is the fearless path of the dakinis.”

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche reminds us:

“Troma is the direct path to realizing the nature of mind because it severs all attachment at the root. Through offering everything—our body, our emotions, our thoughts—we leave no place for ego to hide. What remains is pure, uncontrived awareness, free from hope and fear.”

7:30 am Shower of Blessings Dakini Tsog
HAPPY DAKINI DAY !

On this Dakini Day, we turn our devotion to the union of wisdom and enlightened activity—Troma and her consort, Wrathful Black Hayagriva—whose dynamic compassion subjugates all obstacles. Through the blessing of Tulku Thadral Rinpoche, we have the rare opportunity to receive the Wrathful Black Hayagriva Empowerment on February 22nd. 

Lama Sonam Tsering Rinpoche says:

“Extremely Wrathful Black Hayagriva has special power to affect beings’ minds and benefit those who are depressed, dysfunctional, or crazy, as well as to cure disease. This is the condensed essence of all the billions of Hayagriva practices. It is easy to practice and highly effective. Even hearing this practiced will subdue all classes of spirits. Remembering it will eradicate all wrong views and demonic forces. Touching the image of this Hayagriva will pacify all disease and the passions of the five poisons. For whoever has a connection to this practice the seed of samsara will be destroyed.”

As the Tibetan Wood Snake Year, draws near, we emphasize practices that address the accumlation of karma, purify negativity and avert obstacles. Join the Vajrayana Foundation, our Precious Lamas and Precious Sangha at The Pema Osel Retreat Center for this seven-day retreat centering on Black Hayagriva, a the wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara. The retreat includes Black Hayagriva Empowerment, Oral Reading Transmission, Practice, including the Lower Activity culminating on Gutor Day with the Torma Burning Ritual.

Empowerment and  Retreat Details and registration: https://www.vajrayana.org/events/282/

Practicing the Black Hayagriva Sadhana
with Tulku Thadral Rinpoche

On February 15th and 16th, Tulku Thadral Rinpoche we received teachings on how to follow the sadhana as well as the meaning of the different sections of the practice that we will be doing at our 2025 Gutor-Losar Retreat.

You can replay the YouTube Livestream teachings here~~~>

Session One  Introduction to the Sadhana through the Mantra Recitation and visualization Session Two Lower Activity

See DharmaTreasures, the Vajrayana Foundation bookstore at Pema Osel Ling, for Practice texts, photos and recording teachings on the Wrathful Black Hayagriva. 

Mendrup Chömen

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

 

HH Dudjom Rinpoche Pema Sangye Shepa receiving Siddhis from Tulku Thadral Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Tsering Rinpoche 2018 Vajrakilaya Mendrup Drupchen at Pema Osel Ling

Lama Sonam Tsering Rinpoche talks about the Mendrup Practice:

This is a short reminder addressed to the faithful students, dharma brothers and sisters, ordained and lay practitioners, male and female, of high and low status, all of you who want to enter the profound mandala of the group gathering practice connected with the profound ripening and liberating samaya substance düdtsi chömen (nectar medicine that makes all phenomena pure) here at Pema Osel Ling.

The pinnacle of the Buddhist teachings, the three collections of highest yoga tantras of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana, are differentiated from the common vehicles that use teachings from the Vinaya and Sutras, etc, because the Vajrayana has so many more techniques, greater methods, more profound meaning, less hardship, and the possibility of attaining buddhahood in one lifetime.

Düdtsi chömen, also called mendrup, is praised as the supreme samaya substance. It is a wish-fulfilling jewel that grants liberation without practicing, so among the four types of liberation it is called “liberation upon taste”.

In Eight Volumes of Nectar it says,
The three realms are, from the beginning, the five nectars.
They are uncontrived, spontaneously present, perfectly enlightened.
The three realms of the three poisons are wisdom body, speech, and mind
Because they are primordially pure nectar.
All phenomena that make up the three realms, including the five passions, the five sense pleasures, the five elements, and the five aggregates, are actually enlightened in their nature as the male and female deities of the Five Buddha Families.
That is why it is said that, They are primordially pure, self arisen,
United in equality with all buddhas.

Continue to read 

words_about_the_mendrup_practice.pdfDownload

Anyone participating in the rolling process of drying the
Mendrup Chömen will receive a portion
when it is finished.

Rolling Mendrup 2014 Guru Rinpoche Mendrup Drupchen
IMG_7634.jpeg
Rolling Mendrup 2014 Guru Rinpoche Mendrup Drupchen

The Vajrayana Foundation invites you to join in the sacred practice of making Mendrup, Dharma medicine. This year during the Khandro Thik Thuk (a terma of Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje revealed as a gongter in 1928) Mendrup Drubcpen, this Tibetan medicine, believed to liberate through taste, will be empowered, blessed and consecrated.
Join us for three retreats:

  1. Troma Nagmo Ngondro and Four Feasts Retreat and Empowerment
  2. Shitro Ngakso 100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities) Empowerment, Retreat and Neydren Ceremony
  3. Collection of Seven Treasures Guru Rinpoche Retreat and Empowerment

We will engage in the physically demanding process of drying and rolling the Mendrup. Volunteers commit to six hours a day, with opportunities to attend retreat sessions. Accommodation and meals will be provided, with a contribution towards food appreciated. The rolling starts May 30th  and continues until June 16, with the possibility of extension. All volunteers receive Mendrup to take home whether full-time or part-time. Come share in this opportunity for merit, purification, and gathering with Sangha amidst the beauty of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Contact the Vajrayana Foundation office for details and  if you have physical limitations but wish to contribute.

Vajra Brothers and Sisters at Pema Osel Ling

 

The Vajrayana Foundation’s Dudjom Ngondro Program

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Rinpoche began planning the Ngondro Program with Vajrayana Foundation staff in the fall of 2012.

On April 21, 2013, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche gave the first Ngondro Program video conference teaching to a group of 36 Program members from the US, Europe, Mexico and the Pacific Islands.

On August 24th , 2015, we introduced the Ngondro Program to the world wide web. We mark the Web Ngondro’s 8th year with the launch of the Dudjom Ngondro Podcast. You can listen to our Podcasts on Spotify, Google Podcast, Podbean and Apple Podcast.

Blessings from Tulku Thadral Rinpoche 

Cy Kassoff English Translation

Choying Wangmo about the Dudjom Ngondro Program

Early Beginnings
Becky Loy, Co-Director
Vajrayana Foundation

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Rinpoche began planning the Ngondro Program with Vajrayana Foundation staff in the fall of 2012, with the objective of providing to serious students of the Dharma the structure and guidance needed to complete their Dudjom Tersar Ngondro from start to finish.
The Program was announced in February 2013 with an email detailing the unique Program components:

  • A Personal interview with one of the lamas once a year
  • Senior student advisors to give personal support by email or phone
  • Video webinar teachings by one of the lamas every other month
  • Video study and discussion groups led by senior students on alternate months
  • Annual in-person Ngondro Retreat

Students began signing up immediately, and many attended the Ngondro Retreat in March, which began with Sam Bercholz’s first teachings at Pema Osel Ling: Establishing the View: The Golden Key to Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche’s A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar.

On April 21, 2013, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche gave the first Ngondro Program video conference teaching to a group of 36 Program members from the US, Europe, Mexico and the Pacific Islands. In it he welcomed the “new Tersar Lineage Holder guys”. He said,
“I want to say how much I’m happy all of you are willing to do Dudjom Tersar Ngondro. In this generation, by His Holiness Thinley Norbu Rinpoche’s kindness, we established pretty well all the Dudjom Tersar teachings. But [for the] next generation we have to keep these things going.
“His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche told me to take care of the Tersar tradition. My life meaning is only I want to serve dharma. People who do practice, that is my main focus, the meaning of my life. All our sangha is my special friend; and particularly, those who do more practice, that is closest to my heart. All of you willing to do Ngondro, please continue. I am dedicating my body, speech and mind, anything I can, to the Dudjom tradition. We have to be willing, responsible, to hold that doctrine lineage.”

This talk was part of a very auspicious weekend at Pema Osel Ling, beginning with Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche giving sublime Dzogchen teachings on Garab Dorje’s Three Words That Strike the Vital Point, and concluding with a Kurukulle jinsek (fire puja) led by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, Tulku Jamyang Rinpoche, and Lama Sonam Rinpoche in order to magnetize all positive circumstances for Pema Osel Ling and the whole sangha.

The Ngondro Program has expanded in scope and offerings and has continued without interruption from 2013 to the present.