Tantra

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your letter expressing your feelings and wishes to be beneficial, not only for yourself, but for every sentient being—the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts and the numberless animals.

If I make it a little bit more elaborate, from animals there are those we can see, the numberless animals in the ocean, large like mountains, the whales, and the smallest that we can’t see with the eye, but through a machine; then there are worms and so forth under the ground and above the ground, worms and snakes; and in the bushes, the tiniest flies; and those on the trees, in the sky and in people’s bodies, so like that. So, you can make your life beneficial for everyone, including the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the suras and asura beings. This includes not only sentient beings in this world, but also in the numberless universes.

Please, first thing in the morning, do the morning practice, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). This is what I tell students to do, because it transforms the life from kaka into gold. Everything depends on the mind, which can make the life kaka or make it become gold. You can make the whole life gold.

Not only that, the mind becomes Dharma; we transform or change from the worldly mind, the nonvirtuous thoughts, from there into virtuous thoughts, a healthy mind, Dharma, a holy mind, holy Dharma. Then from there, our mind transforms into bodhicitta, renouncing the self-cherishing thought, which causes suffering and problems from beginningless rebirths, now and in the future. So we transform from that self-cherishing mind into cherishing others, with bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta.

So that becomes the cause of enlightenment, and then with that mind, the actions done with body, speech, and mind become the cause of enlightenment. That means to free the numberless sentient beings from suffering and cause everyone the happiness of enlightenment.

The Method to Transform details how to live our daily life and how to make Dharma become Mahayana practice, with bodhicitta. It’s very, very, very important, so thank you very much. This is the first thing. Then you can see how your life becomes most happy and most beneficial.

According to my observation, the main deity for your practice is Secret Hayagriva. I can’t do the initiation now, because I haven’t done the retreat, but there are some other good lamas. If they have done the retreat, then they can do the initiation.

Other than this, you need an explanation of why you need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra. There are deities of Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Annutara Yoga Tantra and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra. To explain a little, by practicing the Hinayana teachings, we actualize the four noble truths. We actualize the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, and the true path Then from that we achieve the true cessation of suffering, which means the cause of suffering, delusion and karma, is ceased. For that we have to actualize the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and so forth, ultimate reality.

We have been experiencing the suffering of samsara since beginningless rebirths; if we still don’t practice Dharma in this life and don’t realize emptiness in this life, then we have to suffer in samsara without end. Again, we experience the same suffering of the six realms—the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras—numberless times.

By practicing the Mahayana teachings, the going beyond teachings, the Great Vehicle teachings, the Mahayana teachings, not only can we become free from the suffering of samsara, but we can cease the subtle obscurations. We can cease those and then we can achieve enlightenment, the total cessation of gross delusions and subtle defilements. We can achieve the complete realizations, enlightenment, but it takes three countless great eons without the practice of tantra.

By just practicing Mahayana sutra, we can achieve enlightenment, but it takes three countless great eons to collect the merit of wisdom and merit of virtue. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did that for us, for every sentient being, for every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every ant, every mosquito, the tiniest animals in the ocean and the big ones the size of mountains, like whales, all the animals under the earth, living in the bushes and the tiniest flies living in the trees, worms living in the trees and animals outside in the sky, so there are numberless, the tiniest beings in the water, the names of which I have forgotten that can only be seen with a microscope.

Buddha did that for three countless great eons, collecting the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue, practicing the six perfections, charity of the limbs, the eyes, the whole body, and not just one time but numberless times. Buddha also practiced morality, with many hardships; he practiced morality for sentient beings and patience for sentient beings. It is said in the teachings that there is no enemy like anger and there are no hardships like patience. In the teachings it is mentioned that we need to practice perseverance, concentration and wisdom, and also the ten powers.

So Buddha did that for us, for every human being, every sura being and every asura being. He practiced for you and me for three countless great eons, then he achieved the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Dharmakaya is the holy [truth] body of the [enlightened] mind and rupakaya is the holy body of the form. He was able to do perfect works for the sentient beings by achieving this. Buddha did that. He already enlightened numberless sentient beings in the past and will do so now and in the future. Yes, you could also be one that Buddha is enlightening if you recognize it, by Buddha revealing the various methods. There is no other such thing than this; it is definite.

There are all kinds of things we don’t know, like myself, I have no omniscience or even ordinary clairvoyance, so I can’t tell. That process is taking so long, however, we can only do perfect works for sentient beings after we are enlightened. We receive omniscience and perfect power to benefit others according to their karma, their level of mind and many other things, like their capacity, and [we embody] great compassion, embracing every sentient being.

Regarding compassion: the reason for practicing tantra is incredible compassion, because [without tantra it takes] three countless great eons [to become a buddha]. It takes so long to be able to benefit sentient beings. It takes an unbelievable length of time, so that is why we practice tantra. Even if we practice Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Annutara Yoga Tantra, all these lower tantras, we can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, but first we achieve a long life of about one thousand years and then we can achieve enlightenment. By practicing the lower tantras, it is like that. Even that takes so long, and sentient beings have to continue to suffer in samsara—wow, it’s unbelievable—so we can’t stand this if we have much compassion. So then we need to practice highest tantra, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra. Through practicing that, as Buddha explained, then we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times, within a few number of years.

Also what we need commonly and which are easy to receive, are the Chenrezig great initiation, and also Medicine Buddha great initiation. Those two are common practices to help in everyday life. It’s so important to recite OM MANI PADME HUM and the other one is Medicine Buddha.

Chenrezig practice is mainly not only to purify the defilements and complete the merits and achieve enlightenment, but particularly to develop compassion for all the living beings. From that we can generate bodhicitta, and from there, enlightenment. And Medicine Buddha is so important for success—success for ourselves and success for others.

For the Chenrezig great initiation, if possible, don’t just take the jenang, the short one, the blessing of body, speech and mind. The correct way is first to receive the great initiation of Chenrezig and then you are qualified to receive the jenang. That’s what is explained in the tantric texts.

There are many lamrim texts. The principal ones are Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo and the Middle-Length Lamrim. A very short text is Hymn of Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa, and even shorter is the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. All those are extremely worthwhile.

The main lamrim text for you to study well from beginning to end is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by the great enlightened being, Pabongka. It’s condensed and clear, and it contains the essence of the Buddha’s 84,000 teachings, which come into the Lesser Vehicle teachings and the Greater Vehicle teachings of sutra and tantra. These are embodied in the lamrim.

Read and study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand eight times. There is a saying that if we read the Lamrim Chenmo nine times, then we get nine understandings; we get something that we didn’t have before. When we read it again, we get new understanding, so like that.

The main thing is to have realizations of the path to enlightenment, so then we’re able to achieve enlightenment, and we’re able to bring numberless sentient beings to enlightenment, not only freeing them from samsara. This is the whole purpose of our life.

You can see now that your life is not just for meditating, and not seeing people, not talking to people, not eating, not just that. It’s not living alone, just as many animals live alone in the forest or in a cave. You’re making your life most meaningful for yourself and especially for every sentient being. So that’s what you need to do for sentient beings.

So study this text eight times from beginning to end.

Shamatha is good to learn and to understand intellectually, then later, when you have found the perfect place to meditate on shamatha, where there are no obstacles or less obstacles, then you can do the practice. But all the other subjects you can practice now.

The explanation of shamatha in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is regarded as the clearest one. I heard this from my guru, Gen Jampa Wangdu. I heard from my guru that it’s the easiest explanation of shamatha to understand and the other clearest one is bodhicitta.

This is what Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the heart disciple of Kyabje Pabongka, said. He said that and recommended it to my teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu, who in the ordinary view was successful in the realization of calm abiding in Dalhousie, India. [He also realized] emptiness down below the residence of Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, who was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s elder guru. Down below that residence there is a big rock. Gen Jampa Wangdu dug the earth and made a cave, then did retreat there for seven years and generated the realization there. At the back side of Tushita Retreat Centre where there’s a hill, a huge mountain, and many meditators, he was there. My teacher was there for fifteen years; he built a house there and he actualized bodhicitta, in the ordinary view.

Of course, relating to myself, he’s an enlightened being, no doubt. He told me and also Lama Yeshe that for fifteen years he never went to another person’s house for himself. So that means he actualized bodhicitta fifteen years earlier. He’s not saying that he didn’t go to another person’s house, but he didn’t go for himself; that means he actualized bodhicitta.

Read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand mindfully, so that it becomes a meditation. In terms of lamrim practice, first there’s effortful meditation, and then effortless practice. Read my advice for effortful lamrim practice here. Following the outline, meditate for seven months on bodhicitta. Spend one month on the extensive kindness of sentient beings, by exchanging oneself for others, then, spend one month on remembering the kindness of the mother. And one month on the kindness of all mother sentient beings, from where all the happiness comes, for example, numberless sentient beings died, were killed, suffered and created negative karma so we could have the protection of living in a house.

Then our clothes; numberless sentient beings died and suffered for our happiness and protection of life. This is besides the animal skin clothes that we wear. Also, numberless sentient beings died, were killed, suffered and created negative karma for our food. That’s how we get the protection, the pleasure, and we’re able to live our life due to this kindness.

So you can do it again and again, meditating on all three. Afterwards, alternate one day on this and one day on that. You can also do it like that. You can decide; see how you feel. Then do effortless practice.

Now in order to have realizations, for example, to grow plants and fruits, and those things, we need proper conditions—the earth, the minerals, water and so forth, like that. Just the seed alone cannot grow. So for realizations we need to collect all the conditions; we need to purify the obscurations and we need to collect the merits. If we have harmonious conditions then the seed can function, can develop, can grow from that. Realizations can come in our mind up to enlightenment. Therefore, we need to do the practice; it’s so important to do the purification and collection of merits.

Tonglen meditation: do this 20,000 times, with bodhicitta. Read my advice about tonglen practice if you are not sure about the practice of giving your own body, possessions and merits to others, then bringing them to enlightenment. You’re taking others’ suffering and the cause of suffering on yourself, and bringing them to enlightenment. This is an incredible practice; it’s a quick way to achieve enlightenment, a quick way to achieve bodhicitta realization. It’s an incredible practice and most beneficial not only for you, but for numberless sentient beings.

Water bowl offerings: 70,000. If you’re alone, then it takes a long time to do this many, but of course it’s worthwhile to do. Generally, you do a certain number of bowls every day as one of the preliminary practices. You can do it alone and offer many bowls, then you will finish quickly.

So, with many bowls, you can make sessions. The easy way is that if there are many other people who want to do it also, then you can do it as a group. Even if the water bowls are not all offered by you, but by others, when you finish the number, like 100,000 or something, since everyone made the offerings together, even if the offerings are performed by others, this way you can count them together, so you finish more quickly.

One lama did it like that in Tibet. Here at Kopan nunnery they did this in the past for some years. Mainly a student from Singapore came and also some Western people. I don’t know if this can still happen or not due to the disease, the virus [COVID-19].

Guru yoga: 60,000, reciting migtsema on the basis of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. For the first session of the day, you can do it on the basis of Lama Chöpa (Guru Puja).

I always suggest a most incredible way to collect merit is to recite the Arya Sanghata Sutra, and when you have finished that one, you can read the Sutra of Great Liberation. It has been translated now, but I think it’s not yet published. [Note: This sutra was published by FPMT in 2023. Find links here.] You should recite this one until you die. Even hearing the name, you won’t get reborn in the lower realms, it’s incredibly good. You will know by reading that; I don’t have to tell you now. So, continue to practice like this. That’s it.

On the Buddha days, on the solar and lunar eclipse days and on other days, at any time you feel comfortable, take the eight Mahayana precepts as much as possible. That’s incredible; you collect so many times skies of merits and it purifies [your negative karma]. The precepts are only for one day, just for one day. It’s incredible, incredible, so beneficial for sentient beings. You’re really serving sentient beings.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
According to my observation, your deity is Most Secret Hayagriva or Dorje Phurba (Tib); Vajrakilaya (Skt). You can choose whichever deity is easier for you to practice and who you feel you have a stronger or closer connection to.

In terms of guru yoga practice, you should practice Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga.

You need realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta and right view in order to achieve tantric realizations. You can’t complete tantra without these three as a base. If you don’t have any realizations of these three, you should put your main effort into realizing renunciation, bodhicitta and right view.

Then secondly, regarding tantra, you can leave a positive imprint of that. After you generate bodhicitta, then you can spend more time on tantra. So that’s my general advice. Practice generation stage and when you’re succeeding in this, you can put more time into completion stage. Otherwise, you practice completion stage just to plant the seeds.

There’s a commentary by Chöding Rinpoche, and if you can get that, it has guru yoga and lamrim. He was a great practitioner in his life. However, you should not just recite the prayers. It’s easy to study the commentary, but you should do the practice along with reading the commentary.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your email. In order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, there are four levels of tantra: Kriya (Action), Charya (Performance), Yoga and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra (Highest Yoga Tantra). We need to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, in order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings as quickly as possible, therefore we need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra.

According to my observation, your main deity is Heruka, Vajrayogini or Secret Hayagriva. Whichever of these three deities that you feel closest to and have the strongest feeling for, that is your main deity. After you have received the initiation, that is the deity to become oneness with every day. You have a connection with all these deities, so you can take the initiation of any of them and do their retreat, but whichever deity you have the strongest feeling for, that is your main deity; that is the one to mainly emphasize.

By learning and practicing and achieving the Mahayana sutra path, we can achieve enlightenment, but it takes three countless great eons to complete the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue. Then the sentient beings have to suffer so much, for so long, therefore this is why Buddha revealed the tantric teachings.

Practicing the lower tantra teachings we can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, because even lower tantra has a more skillful path than the Mahayana sutra path, but even then, sentient beings have to suffer for a long time because we have to achieve a long life, like living for one thousand years. That's why, with unbearable compassion for sentient beings, so that sentient beings don't have to suffer for a long time, Buddha revealed the Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra teachings.

Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra is the highest level of tantra. It is the most skilled in method as well as in wisdom. The wisdom clear light mind has gross and subtle and extremely subtle [levels], so through that, by realizing emptiness, that ceases the obscurations the fastest and we are able to achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times, in a certain number of years. This is why we need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra, why it is so important.

Yes, as you thought, you do need to take a great initiation of that deity, whichever of these three deities that you choose. Generally if you want, you can take the initiation of any of these three deities, but especially the one you feel the strongest connection to or feel closest to, oneness with, you can practice that every day to quickly to achieve enlightenment.

Achieving the tantric path is based on actualizing the lamrim, renunciation, bodhicitta and right view. That depends on perfectly following the virtuous friend, so having realizations of that, seeing the guru as a buddha, as numberless past, present and future buddhas, and seeing that every single action of the guru is a buddha's action. We have to realize that and by training the mind in that, on the basis of that stable realization, then we can achieve realizations of tantra and attain the state of omniscience.

Later, if you wish, there is lifetime practice. You can ask about that when you are ready.

With much love and prayers ...

[Tantric practice] is very strong preparation for death. When we die, we die alone, and when we are born, we are born alone. This is a very strong preparation for quick enlightenment.

Please think, or you should know, that in tantra, attachment is utilized on the path in order to quickly achieve enlightenment; that means to achieve full enlightenment in this life.

There are four classes of tantra: Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Yoga Tantra and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra. These were taught by the Buddha in the aspect of Vajradhara. The last one, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra, is to achieve full enlightenment in the unified state of Vajradhara in one very brief lifetime of degenerated times. So that is how to quickly achieve full enlightenment.

If [tantric practice] is done with the self-cherishing thought, then it never becomes the cause of full enlightenment; it becomes the worst enemy to achieving full enlightenment. If it is done with desire for samsaric pleasure, then it is the cause of samsara and it becomes the ordinary cause of samsara. If it is done with attachment to this life and to this life’s pleasure, then it becomes negative karma and the cause of the lower realm sufferings.

All these tantra practices have to be one with bodhicitta realization, and only then do they become the cause of full enlightenment. Also, tantra practices should be done with right view, then all these practices directly cease the gross and subtle obscurations, and they become the remedy of samsara and the cause of samsara—delusions and karma. These practices should be done with renunciation, to be free from samsara. Holy Dharma is the cause of happiness.

So people who like doing those tantric practices very much first need to have lamrim realizations. It is so important to practice lamrim.

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.

When your mind is ready, take the initiations when available and train your mind in the practice of the generation stage. You can do a little completion stage practice just to plant the seeds for that, but initially your main emphasis should be on the generation stage. You might like to meditate on the completion stage just for fun, but you cannot accomplish it without accomplishing the generation stage. Do that first and then practice the completion stage.

The reason to take Highest Yoga Tantra initiations and to do the practice is that it 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 the quickest.

From these three deities—Gyalwa Gyatso, Most Secret Hayagriva and Secret Hayagriva—whichever you have the strongest or closest feeling toward, that is your main deity, but you can take all of these initiations and do the practices of these deities if you wish and do retreats. If you don’t have initiations yet for the one that is your main deity, then you can still recite the mantra and recite lamrim prayers (stages of the path prayer of that deity) then later you can take the initiation when you have finished your study of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo or Middle Length Lamrim, or Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongkha Rinpoche.

Study these well from beginning to end, then after that you can take the initiations and commentaries and then you can do short or long retreat, but most important is the lamrim. Even if you study the five great treatises, whatever you study, the lamrim is still the most important thing, from guru devotion to developing renunciation, these things.

When you are most fluent in generation stage then you can practice completion stage, for imprints, then with the realization of generation stage—both gross and subtle—then you can complete the practice of completion stage and go to enlightenment.

But the main thing is the lamrim from beginning to end. You can take the initiations, then do whatever commitments are given by the lama who gives the initiation, whether it is mantra commitment or sadhana commitment, but the main thing is the study and practice of the lamrim. Otherwise, it becomes like going in the restaurant and tasting all different kinds of foods but not doing anything properly or correctly. So please practice in the correct way.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind letter. We are in New Mexico for a few weeks, then I am going to the Santa Fe center to give Medicine Buddha great initiation, then to North Carolina to do a course on Lama Atisha’s teachings. After that I am going to Austria and then to Italy for 100 million mani recitations and then to south India for the teachings.

Regarding advice for your practice, first I want to thank from the very inside of my heart, that you do so many prayers and that you are doing all the commitments for the initiations you have taken. That is great, great, great, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. Even myself, yes, I have received many initiations, but even myself, because of laziness—of course, many activities, but laziness is the main thing—I do miss. So, for you to do all these prayers, that is incredible, unbelievable. It leaves a positive imprint on the mind when you do the prayers and that brings you to enlightenment, it frees you from samsara, from the oceans of samsara sufferings and brings you to buddhahood, the peerless happiness. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the benefits?

Of course, because each practice is Mahayana, you begin with bodhicitta motivation, which creates the cause for you to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and to free the numberless sentient beings from each realm, to free them from the oceans of samsara suffering forever and bring them to enlightenment, buddhahood. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

Some of the practices are Highest Yoga Tantra, but even with lower tantra practices you are able to achieve enlightenment in one life, of course, by first achieving a long life, like being able to live for one thousand eons, and then because of that you are able to actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. Then with Highest Yoga Tantra you can achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerate times, because of method and wisdom. This is the most profound and quick way to cease the dualistic view and dualistic mind. It’s amazing, amazing.

One thing I want to tell you, each time, before you do any commitment or practice, make sure to generate strong bodhicitta; generate compassion as strongly as you can for other sentient beings. In order to generate strong compassion for others, you have to realize your own suffering in samsara. It is in the nature of suffering, so then that enables you to generate compassion for others, who are also suffering in samsara. That’s the motivation, the Dharma motivation, and then because of that, the action becomes Dharma. Especially by generating bodhicitta, the action becomes the cause of enlightenment. When you are doing commitments or anything else, you have to pay a lot of attention to this, to make the time most meaningful and most beneficial to sentient beings. Then whatever you are doing—eating, walking, doing your job, sitting, etc.—becomes the cause of enlightenment. This is very important to really understand.

Of course generally, as I asked you to be director of the center, then all the activities that you do there are done to fulfill my wishes and to follow my advice, therefore you collect the highest merit and it is a quick way to achieve enlightenment. In every action you do, you are fulfilling my wishes, following my advice, so then you collect the most merit and it becomes the most powerful purification, the quickest way to purify all the defilements and negative karma. You should rejoice in that, day and night, and in whatever you do. So you should enjoy that.

I am sure you have heard this already, what Sakya Pandita mentioned:

Even if you practice the six paramitas, making charity of your head, legs or hands to others for a thousand eons, and even if the merit you get from that is dedicated for others, you get that much merit when you follow the guru’s wishes and advice. You collect all that merit in one second by following the guru’s path.

This is what Sakya Pandita advises and this is what you are doing; this is the advantage that you get, so you should rejoice all the time. This is the most important practice in your life, because everything happens from here up to enlightenment, and then you are able to enlighten all sentient beings.

In regard to commitments, there was one monk, just an ordinary monk, a very ordinary monk but very sincere, from Tsawa Khangtsen at Sera Je Monastery. Of course, when he came back in the late afternoon after going to a puja or doing pujas in family houses, all the young monks and students were just playing, so then of course he beat them. This is what many monks do. When they come back they beat or scold the young monks who are here and there, running around playing.

Anyway, this young monk was very sincere and he never missed his commitments, Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, Heruka, and when he died, he died in meditation. This was from not having missed his commitments. That is the benefit, whether there is understanding or not. Just by following the guru’s advice given during the initiation and by doing the commitments, just by not missing them, there are these benefits. He died in meditation, sitting up. That’s kind of an accomplishment in one’s Dharma practice in this life, so it’s fantastic. So that is the story, that he never missed his sadhanas.

There are so many monks like that, not necessarily learned in Dharma, but very sincere, good monks. So many monks die in meditation, either lying down like the Buddha in the snow lion position or sitting up.

There was one monk who was very famous in the monastery for being angry. After saying just a few words, the monk got angry. He was famous because of that and everybody was scared to talk to him. When he died, he died in meditation. So then he became famous in a positive way. People couldn’t believe that, because outside he looked so angry, but maybe in reality he was not like that. So you never know who he was, maybe a buddha or bodhisattva.

The very first thing—this is very important—is for you to study the lamrim, to learn that. I know I gave life practice advice to you before, anyway now it comes out for you to study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, to read it from beginning to end. You got instructions before for your life practice, so I don’t need to tell you again; you can just follow what I told you before. But study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand twice through, from beginning to end. Even if you have done this before, still if you can do it two more times, then do effortless meditation on the lamrim.

Regarding the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, first you need the realization of emptiness, the Prasangika view of emptiness, the meaning of subtle dependent arising. Samsara, nirvana, hell, enlightenment, I, action, object—everything exists in mere name. The karmic seed and fruit, the karmic cause and result—everything functions in mere name. From negative karma the result is suffering, but it functions in mere name. Negative karma exists in mere name and the resultant suffering exists in mere name. Good karma exists in mere name and the result of that, happiness, exists in mere name. So everything functions in mere name.

Emptiness, the meaning is subtle dependent arising, existing in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, and subtle dependent arising, meaning emptiness, so [phenomena] exist in mere name and therefore do not exist from their own side. That’s how everything is a unification of emptiness and dependent arising. This is what the Buddha taught and what Lama Tsongkhapa taught.

Also, with the inner experience of meditation, the sign is when your devotion to the guru is stronger, by looking and seeing [the guru as] a buddha, by looking and seeing a buddha, by using quotations and logic. The more you see a buddha, the stronger the devotion which arises, and at those times it is easier to experience [realizations]. Also, if you are meditating on compassion, or if you are meditating on emptiness and renunciation, it is very easy to experience realizations when the devotion is stronger.

By discovering and realizing emptiness, by depending on that, then with devotion to the guru, seeing the guru as a buddha, looking at the guru as a buddha. Everything, all the realizations up to enlightenment—renunciation, bodhicitta, right view—these are the foundation of tantra, up to enlightenment. All the realizations are dependent on the root of path, guru devotion, correctly following the virtuous friend. This is the most important practice; everything is to do with that. It is like the key of a big museum. Without the key you can’t do anything, but with the key you can open the door. That’s the heart advice, what I’m talking about, how to develop the mind.

Regarding the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, the actual one, on the basis of generation stage tantra you then do the completion stage practice. So when the wind comes, it enters the central channel and abides and absorbs. That is like the death time, when the twenty-five absorptions happen. It is a similar meditation during the life. When you succeed in attaining the completion stage path, when the wind enters the central channel and abides and absorbs, then you generate the four blisses. They are greater and greater and greater, and the last one is the greatest, so then the gross mind absorbs. Then only the subtle, very subtle mind actualizes the clear light. Then you see emptiness, the greatest bliss you are experiencing, nondual with emptiness. When you get that realization, the transcendental wisdom, nondual bliss and voidness, clear light—if you are able to achieve that realization in this life, then you are able to be enlightened in this life. That is like an atomic bomb, the quickest way to purify the dualistic mind and dualistic view and to achieve the unified state of Vajradhara in this life.

This has happened to many meditators who are correctly practicing the path and on the basis and realization of guru devotion, seeing the guru as numberless buddhas, by looking with effort, then on the basis of that the realization [is achieved] and the whole path develops. This is done up to enlightenment, along with this transcendental wisdom, nondual emptiness, the clear light. This is the Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra path.

Also each deity—Yamantaka, Heruka, Guhyasamaja—has method and wisdom, and the two stages, such as the Six Yogas of Naropa. Lama Tsongkhapa explained each of these things that you experience. The bliss in the Heruka teachings is explained by Pabongka Rinpoche. It is said that the sexual pleasure and the culmination, you know that one, so you quickly remember that experience and then expand on that. Then the mind is in the state of emptiness, so that’s an example of how to generate, if you don’t get any feeling. That’s how to start the feeling.

However, for us beginners, even if it is just visualized, even if we don’t actually experience that, even if we just have the visualization, that’s what we should do. At least imagine, at least like that, and in this way gradually the feeling can arise and then we actually have the experience. It can help for that.

So these are just simple examples and advice regarding the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra. It is so important to understand meditation on emptiness in the correct way, therefore studying Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching and what the Buddha taught is very important.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...