Author Archives: Ven. Lopon Osel

Explaining the Benefits and Advantages of the Vajra Guru Mantra By the great tertön Karma Lingpa (14th century) OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUNG
is the mantra of Guru Padmasambhava, you can say this mentally or verbally, it is better to start out loud until your mind is quiet and then say it mentally, the benefits of this mantra are below. It should sound like this if pronounced correctly:

How to determine levels of Practice and that pracitce’s meditations.
Buddhas teaching has many categories. Is all very beneficial. Why? Because in Buddhas Omniscience he knew all of the beings various faculties. This is why there are so many teachings. However all of them can be classified in the system of the 9 yanas that exists in the Nyingma Lineage.

The three baskets of teachings are the Vinaya, emphasizing renunciation and teaches us to see samsara as a harmful fire and helps us develop the need for liberation from samasara, renunciation. Because of this emphasis it is known as the vehicle of self-liberation, Vinaya. Sutra teachings is Mahayana. This is View.
We recognize that all beings in truth have been our father and mother, because of this recognition, we realize that to seek only liberation for myself would be of no use because all my mothers and fathers would still be caught in unending suffering.
In Mahayana the motivation is to do something to help them. In Mahayana, the motivation is very very important. If you do not have the proper motivation, even if you practice high level meditations your practice will become a Hinayana practice.

You will achieve Hinayanahood instead of Perfect Buddhahood. Why is this? The motivation is what determines the level of practice not the meditation practiced. When the Great Scholar Atisha was visiting Tibet, he became very sad and said to his attendant, “Oh no, one of my students in India who is practicing Dorje Jigje practice just entered the path of Hinayanahood.” Dorje Jigje is a high level Mahayoga Tantra practice but because of his low motivation, this high practice was brought lower.

For the Higher Level Tantric teachings the key point is maintain pure view, pure perception. Then all high level practices will yield good results. People who mix levels of practice and try to practice many at once need to learn the deep meaning of the level suitable to them and then practice that. Most people don’t like to visualize deities or recite mantras, they like to do meditation. Meditation helps the mind temporarily but does not usually bring good results.
Why? Our habitual tendencies are so thick and ingrained that the best way to purify is to visualize deities and recite mantras to powerfully transform our negative energies. When a Lama has powerful energy and merit encouraging and cultivating it is how Buddhahood will be reached. Once you have this positive power then meditation is appropriate. If you buy good vegetarian food at the store, while you are in the store you can’t immediately eat it, but should first take it home and wash and cook it to have a delicious healthy meal. It is the same way if you like to meditate, you need a foundation to practice first – visualize deity,

use recitation mantra. It will encourage you toward a warm heart. This encouragement and wisdom is for loving compassion for all beings. Otherwise some people do meditation for a very long time, but the mind is so confused and the meditation feels empty.

This is because there is no loving compassion there. For example, if you don’t visualize deities or recite but jump straight to meditation, it is just like eating the produce out of the package, you could get sick. There is a danger of falling into the sickness of Nihilism or Externalism. Buddhist meditation is far from this.

Continue reading →