. . . I would like to give you some advice: Don’t be partial. What I mean is don’t hold the highest view of Great Perfection, Dzogchen, and ignore other forms of practice. When it comes to practice, there is no higher or lower. It’s how you practice that makes the difference. That’s why it’s not right to hold to the Dzogchen view just in your intellectual mind. You must feel it positively, with devotion and appreciation for the qualities of the Three Jewels. You must also feel deeply about the suffering of all sentient beings due to ignorance. This is compassion. Then you must realize the true nature of your mind. That’s wisdom. Without compassion and wisdom, Dzogchen is merely intellectual. It is absolutely crucial that you integrate with everything. Then there will be an ultimate benefit.

The best way to do this is with ngondro, the preliminary practice, especially the Guru Yoga section. If you complete each ngondro a 100,000 times, that’s good. But at least do ngondro every day. Begin with contemplating the profoundness of the Four Thoughts. Then take Refuge with devotion, generate Bodhicitta with compassion, offer Mandala with generosity, and practice. Vajrasatta with genuine regret. Then, when you come to Guru Yoga, feel your genuine devotion, recite the mantra, and receive the empowerments. Then again generate devotion that is so powerful that it melts Guru Rinpoche as long as possible. After the session, maintain pure vision ~ yourself as Vajrayogini and all forms, sounds, and thoughts inseparable from Guru Rinpoche’s body, speech, and mind. Then, keeping that frame of reference, do whatever you have to do.

I am asking you from the bottom of my heart that you practice this every day. It doesn’t matter for how long. Just until you have a feeling of satisfaction in your heart. That is enough. Make your session pure, strong, and undistracted. Short sessions are very helpful because you make progress through the power of habituation. Practicing like this will support your realization of the Great Perfection of Dzogchen, and then little by little, you will be able to carry your view with you at all times into your life activities that will become buddha activities.

The positive circumstances we have together right now we are no accident. We planned for this is past lives. I pray that in this lifetime and all future lifetimes that we will continue to turn the Wheel of Dharma together. The foundation of all our activities is keeping pure samaya and creating a perfect wisdom mandala. Whoever participates in this, their merit will remove unwanted circumstances and their fortune will increase. Whatever we do, we should dedicate it to all sentient beings and plant the seeds of their enlightenment.

~ Lama Tharchin Rinpoche
Lotus Light Newsletter
October/November 1998
Volume 5, No 4

an explanation by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche

There are two kinds of outer offerings – peaceful and wrathful. The idea of making peaceful offerings is to offer desirable qualities that are pleasing to the senses. The peaceful offerings are related primarily to the Sutrayana point of view with its emphasis on the accumulation of merit. They create positive feelings and are an antidote to miserliness, and in that way accumulate merit. This is because as sentient beings, we generally have the idea that we should offer “good” things and not offer “bad” things. By thinking in this way, however, we fall into a dualistic mental extreme and lack equanimity. In order not to fall into this extreme, we also make wrathful offerings. Wrathful offerings represent qualities that would normally elicit revulsion in us. Wrathful offerings are related to the Secret Tantra tradition and emphasize the accumulation of wisdom. They liberate our conceptual limitations of accepting what is perceived as positive and rejecting what is perceived as negative. This directly cuts through the conceptual mind and we are freed from both extremes. The lines between good and bad, accepting and rejecting, vanish.

Pure plain or saffron-infused water may be used to fill all the offering bowls (both peaceful and wrathful) or specific substances may be placed in each bowl as indicated. Offerings are usually placed below or in front of the objects of refuge on the shrine. The peaceful offerings commo nly begin at the shrine’s right and end at the shrine’s left (our left to right when facing the shrine). The wrathful offerings are commo nlylaid out in the opposite direction. You may have a set of seven peaceful offerings or include both peaceful and wrathful offering. Continue reading

2019 Annual Ngondro and Personal Accumulation at Pema Osel Ling Retreat Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains CA ~ This 14 minutes video is of Drubpon Pema Rigdzin with closing advice and Amy Green reading Instructions written by Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.