A COMMENTARY ON GURU YOGA

                     Sermey Geshe Lobsang Tharchin

PART ONE A Commentary on Guru Yoga

                             INTRODUCTION

This text consists of transcriptions of four teachings given one each month by Geshe
Lobsang Tharchin during the fall of 1976.  The lectures were delivered to Geshe-la's
Washington D.C. group, the Mahayana Sutra and Tantric Center.  Due to the all-
inclusive nature of this practice of Guru Yoga, it was conceived that these oral
teachings might be made into a booklet to help beginning students establish a good
foundation for their meditative practice.  To this end a pronunciation guide to the root
text is provided to aid in reciting, a translation of the root text is added at appropriate
points in Geshe-la's commentary, and a glossary of terms marked by asterisks (*) is
also appended.

      Geshe Tharchin ("Geshe" is a Tibetan doctoral title) is a Buddhist monk who
completed studies at Sera-me Sutra (1929-1953) and Gyu-me Tantric (1953-1959)
monastic universities of Lhasa, Tibet.  Since 1972 he has taught Buddhist philosophy
and logic, as well as Tibetan language, to interested Americans.  The present lectures
were transcribed and edited by students of the center.  

      Although reading of the Yoga and commentary will be of benefit for all, it is to
be kept in mind that receiving these teachings, as well as personal advice, directly
from a qualified Lama is essential for the success of this practice.

      In order to genuinely learn and understand this teaching you should pay close
attention to what I am going to say.  Buddha* stated that he had taught countless
volumes' worth of Dharma*.  He said that all of his teachings had to be learned and
then studied by you as individuals.  Then after that you must check the value and
benefit of these teachings within yourselves.  He said the individual has to do his own
checking using his own wisdom.  He likened this process to the buying of gold.  If
you buy gold you want to examine it first before you decide to buy it.  Oftentimes
you will want to cut the gold or rub it on a special stone to test it.  Sometimes gold is
also put to a fire test.  Then if it is real gold it is bought.  Buddha said to examine his
teaching like that, asking yourselves the value of learning and practice and what the
results will be.  He said to check this yourselves and that he had spoken these many
volumes' worth of teaching for the purpose of practice and for people to gain goals
individually.  He said he had taught them for your benefit and not for gaining your
respect.

      Therefore tonight I am teaching not a general lecture but I am teaching
Mahayana Dharma's* essence.  Mahayana Dharma can be divided in Sutrayana* and
Tantrayana*.  All of the Dharma's essence is collected in this practice.  The practice is
called in Tibetan: Lamay Neljor Ganden Hlagyama or in English: "The Guru Yoga* of
Tushita's Deity Host."  There are twelve verses. In a brief summary, the first verse is
called Invoking.  This is inviting the objects of meditation.  The second verse is called
Beseeching your Lama* to remain.  That keeps those beings before you so they won't
go back to their paradise.  They will remain in front of you for as long as you wish. 
The third verse is making Prostrations for the purpose of accumulating great virtue for
our selves.  The fourth verse is Offering things to the object of meditation.  The fifth is
Confessing all of your bad deeds in front of those holy beings.  Then the sixth is
Rejoicing about other peoples's good deeds as well as your own.  That is a very great
point. The seventh is Requesting the teaching of Dharma.  The eighth is Dedicating all
of your good deeds, from beginningless time, to the purpose of achieving Buddhahood
as soon as possible.  The ninth verse is Requesting the Bestowal of the Ultimate
Result.  Then the tenth verse is Supplicating.  The main meditation starts from this
verse.  It is very important and you have to learn it and practice it.  There are three
main steps to the meditation at this point, and we must learn all three of them.  Verse
eleven is a prayer and verse twelve is another, concluding prayer.

      Tushita (in Tibetan Ganden Yiga Chunzin) is Maitreya's heaven.  In this eon, in
this great kalpa, 1,002 Buddhas* will appear.  The fourth Buddha has appeared
already: the present Buddha, Shakyamuni.  The fifth Buddha will be Maitreya.  The
main point is that countless Buddhas and countless Buddha heavens, as well as
countless worlds, exist.  Your mind and my mind are different mental continuums but
all the mental continuums of all the Buddhas, who have achieved the ultimate goal,
are one.  When snow falls into the ocean the flakes melt and become one with the
ocean.  When a person becomes a Buddha his mind continuum becomes one with that
of all Buddhas.  Maitreya is a deity. He is an emanation of all the Buddhas' loving
kindness.

                             I.  Invoking

      The omniscient King of the Law, Losang Drakpa, together with his spiritual
sons, rides on the peak of a cloud resembling a cluster of snow-white curds.  I
request them to come to this 
place form the heart of the Lord of Tushita's deity host.

      "The lord of Tushita's deity host" refers to Maitreya.  A very good connection
exists between our world and Maitreya's heaven.  After Tzongkapa* was enlightened
he went to Maitreya's heaven. In that paradise there are many other deities, not just
Maitreya.  In the scripture it is written "one hundred" deities, but in this case a
"hundred" is a figure of speech for "many"  The Dharma king of all these deities is
Maitreya, the regent of Tushita.  Buddha Shakyamuni gave Maitreya the crown of the
Dharma king when he himself left from that heaven 2,500 years ago to come to this
world.  Tzongkapa also resides in this heaven.  You can find the story of how he came
to be there in his biography.  With this first verse we invite Tzongkapa from that
heaven as our object of meditation.

      Losang Drakpa (Tzongkapa's monastic name) appeared in Tibet six hundred
years ago and lived just as long as Buddha did, eighty-one years.  The first part of his
life he studied night and day.  He didn't waste any time.  The middle part of his life
he learned by concentrating on the meanings of what he had studied, and found the
meanings.  The last part of his life he only practiced.  In the Tantric school system he
achieved Buddhahood in his lifetime. 

      We can consider this teaching a direct instruction by Tzongkapa.  Every scholar
went to him to receive teachings and he became like a Dharma king together with his
two spiritual sons, his two disciples, Gyaltsab Je and Kedrup Je.  Gyaltsab Je was his
Dharma regent. Kedrup Je was his second Dharma regent.  These three sages were all
predicted by Buddha. To begin this practice, you request Tzongkapa and his disciples
to come to this place from the heart of the lord of Tushita's deity host.  You visualize
a cloud coming from Maitreya's heart.  On the tip of the cloud, which is white like
fresh yogurt, in the very center, is a jeweled throne.  Tzongkapa sits on the throne
with his two disciples.  They arrive on your invitation and sit before you at eye level. 
The visualization should be away from you the same distance as the length of your
body in full prostration.  You might think this visualization has no great meaning but
if you learn the main points I am giving you, you will gain insight into their
significance.

      Tzongkapa is all of Buddha's three qualities of compassion, wisdom, and power. 
These three combined appear as Lama Tzongkapa.  The outer form is Tzongkapa but
the essence is Buddha's compassion, wisdom, and power. 

      How do we know Tzongkapa is like that?  Because all Buddhas accumulate
great virtue for many kalpas for the benefit of all beings.  To accumulate this virtue
they sacrifice their bodies in many different lives as well as their eyes, wealth, and so
forth for the purpose of achieving that goal.  Finally all Buddhas achieve
Buddhahood.  But when they achieve this goal they don't rest then.  No, before thay
achieved Buddhahood they took a vow in front of many Buddhas to achieve it for the
benefit of all beings, and for that reason Buiddhas always act for our benefit.  If they
didn't have wisdom they would not know where disciples who are ready vessels for
teaching are living, what they wish and their levels. But their wisdom does see these
things clearly.  Therefore when we request they will definitely come because they
know.  But if they didn't have great compassion they would not care how much the
beings were suffering.  They do have compassion, though, so they care.  If they had
wisdom and compassion and they didn't have power they wouldn't have the ability to
come, but they do.  They have every power.

      It is very easy to explain this power.  Buddha's body is not like ours.  Our
body's form is very rough.  It is samsara's* body.  Buddha's body appears as form but
is actually a kind of mind.  The bodies of the Buddhas and the minds of the Buddhas
are the same.  When they show that form to humans it looks like form but it is
actually mind,  If I ask you, "Where is your house?"   "Did you lock your door?" your
mind immediately goes to your house and to your door and checks. Similiarly
Buddha's body is a kind of mind.  In many holy scriptures it is stated that if you
invite the Buddhas they come instantly.  Yet even if they all come we can't see them. 
Why can't we see?  Buddhas has four bodies: Jnyanadharmakaya, Svabhavakaya,
Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya.  Of all of these, we can see only the Nirmanakaya.
When Buddha appeared 2,500 years ago, the body which was visible to ordinary
people was the Nirmanakaya only- not the other three bodies.  Whose fault is it that we
can't see these other bodies?  Our fault.  If the Buddha manifests himself in the form
of the Nirmanakaya, we can see him.  You have heard of the phenomenon called
shunyata.*  When we can see, directly, this true nature of all objects, both the worldly
and the transcendental, we have at that time achieved Arya* level.  When we reach
the level of a Mahayana Arya we can also see the Sambhogakaya, as well as the
Svabhavakaya. The Sambhogakaya is the ultimate deity form.  The Svabhavakaya is the
true nature of the omniscience and cessations of all the Buddhas.  Still, we can't see
the Jnyanadharmakaya until we ourselves achieve Buddhahood.  In this way Tzongkapa
is an emanation of all of the Buddhas' wisdom, compassion, and power.

      Now all the Buddhas's wisdom is manifested as the deity Manjushri.  All the
Buddhas' compassion is manifested as the deity Avalokiteshvara, and all the power of
the Buddhas is manifested as the deity Vajrahara.  These three deities embody all the
compassion, wisdom, and power of the Buddhas; and Tzongkapa embodies all three of
these deities.  If you need to learn more about this you can look in his extensive
biography.  Since Tzongkapa is a combination of all the Buddhas's wisdom, power,
and compassion, he will definitely come before us if we invite him. 

                            II.  Beseeching

      The venerable Lama sits before me in space on a throne of lotuses and the
moon, all held high by lions.  His face is bright, smiling in delight.  I beseech Him to
remain a hundred eons as the best one on whom I may practice the merit of mental
faith and for the spreading of the Dharma.


      If you invite an important guest and he comes into your home, you ask him to
sit down.  This should give you the idea of the second verse, Beseeching your Lama to
remain.  You beseech your Lama to stay in front of you so that you can make
offerings to him, prostrate to him, confess, and so forth.  This beseeching has great
meanings.  Here we request that he stay for eons but we can't stay that long, we must
die.  Yet such beseeching is a good omen.  The Buddhas can stay for eons but we
can't; however, if we make a wish to remain for eons in front of the Buddhas, some
time in the future we will definitely be able to stay if we practice their teachings.  If
they can stay, why can't we?  If we stay a long time we can learn, practice, and
achieve every goal.  So we should have the thought, "For the purpose of increasing
my faith in the object and increasing Dharma in my mind, you must stay eons"

                          III.  Prostrating 

      His wisdom mind (lo) perceives the total amount of things to be known and
aphorisms He speaks turn to jewelry on the ears of the virtuous (sang).  His glory
renowned (drakpa) majestifies and lends beauty to His body.  I prostrate myself
before Him whom to see, hear and recall is useful.

      This third verse in entitled Prostrating and is very important.  If I recognize a
holy person I make prostrations to him.  If, on the other hand, I think I am on the
same level, it is difficult to make these prostrations. Therefore you should know the
good qualities of your object of prostration.  Knowing these good qualities is a reason
for the development of faith.  With a realization derived from reasoning your mind
becomes very firm.  A firm realization helps develop great faith in the object, and then
you feel like making prostrations.  

This practice is very useful and we can accumulate great virtue.  Making prostrations
is also not expensive.  This is a very important aspect of prostrating,  Maybe, you have
seen Buddhists offering water.  You might think that water is very ordinary and the
Buddhas are really not thirsty.  But the advantage of offering water is that it is not
expensive.  With that water offering you therefore don't feel stingy.  That kind of
stingy thought won't come and it thereby become a great offering.  Prostration is also
not expensive.  It is just a body action, that is all, but you do need good motivation. 
This comes about by knowing the good qualities of the object of prostration.  How do
you generate that motivation?  I will tell you briefly. 

      Tzongkapa appears as a Lama but his essence is all of the Buddhas's
compassion, wisdom, and power.  Tzongkapa's color is white with a little bit of red. 
That also has great meaning.  White represents Bodhisattva mind*, the chief of
compassion.  It means the mind willing to achieve Buddhahood for the benefit of all
sentient beings as quickly as possible.  That mind is the father of all Buddhas.  The
father's semen is white and the mother's blood is red. When these two substances mix
then a human being is conceived.   Likewise Bodhisattva mind is the father of all
Buddhas, and the wisdom which realizes shunyata is the mother of all Buddhas.  The
red color therefore symbolizes this wisdom.  These colors are combined in
Tzongkapa's image.

      Tzongkapa's two hands are in the "teaching gesture" in front of his heart.  Now
when you see Tzongkapa's picture you perceive his outer form.  That is relative truth. 
There are two truths, relative truth and absolute truth.  Visible things, for example are
relative truth.  When you are perceiving a relative-truth object you can't perceive an
absolute-truth object.  When you are perceiving the absolute truth object you can't
perceive visible objects, which are relative truth.  This is the condition of our level. 
When you achieve Buddhahood you can perceive both truths simultaneously.  The
"teaching gesture" shows that Tzongkapa can perceive both at the same time. 

      His right and left hands also represent Sutrayana and Tantrayana.  Sutra* is the
cause vehicle and Tantra* is the result vehicle.  Everybody knows that cause and
effect occur sequentially, one after the other.  They can't appear at the same time: first
come the causes and then the results.  Therefore, if you wish to achieve the ultimate
goal you must practice Sutra first and then Tantra.  Then you can receive the ultimate
goal quickly.  His two hands thus represent the cause vehicle and the result vehicle. 
Both of these are Mahayana*.  The two palms of the hands in the "teaching gesture"
are facing each other.  It means dependent origination and absolute truth depend on
each other.  You can perceive shunyata with the help of dependent origination and
you can perceive dependent origination with the help of shunyata.  They are mutually
dependent on one another.  That is the explanation of the Dharma teaching gesture.

      Then how is the Dharma taught?  Tzongkapa also hold a sword and a volume. 
Generally, a sword cuts object easily.  The sword here represents Tzongkapa's wisdom. 
Why does he hold it?   It means that if you study his teachings about wisdom, you
can gain that wisdom, and like a sword it can cut away all your ignorance.  The
volume represents all of Buddha's teachings.  Generally, there are two aspects to these
teachings.  On one side there are the teachings about the wisdom that perceives
shunyata directly. On the other side there are the teachings about skillful means.  The
volume symbolizes not only the wisdom side, but the other side too.  There are six
paramitas*,  and wisdom is only one of them.  There are five others: generosity,
morality, patience, perseverance, and meditative concentration.  Tzongkapa teaches the
other five paramitas as well because all of them were taught by Buddha.

      The sword and the book are each placed on moon flowers.  There are many
kinds of flowers: lotuses and moon flowers and so forth.  Outwardly this moon flower
looks like a a common flower, but its nature is very different.  When the sun rises the
lotus blooms.  When the sun sets the lotus closes.  When the moon rises the moon
flower opens.  It closes when the sun rises.  The significance is as follows: the sun
gives warmth and the moon brings coolness.  When you feel cold you go to the sun
and it brings you happiness with its warmth.  Moonlight makes you cool.  The moon
flower is a symbol of Tzongkapa's compassion.  Compassion keeps everybody peaceful
and cool.  His teachings are motivated by great compassion.  Therefore this object is
very valuable and we must make prostrations. 

      Now how do we make these prostrations?  From the verse we read, "His
wisdom mind perceives the total amount of things to be known."  This means that
Tzongkapa's mind can perceive every object directly.  We can't perceive everything
directly.  When I read the first line of a scripture I can't perceive the second line
simultaneously, but Tzongkapa's mind can perceive all objects, all existent objects,
directly and at the same time.  Therefore his wisdom mind is unusual and holy. 

      Then we consider his speech.  "His aphorisms turn to jewelry on the ears of the
virtuous."  Persons put earrings on their ears.  These are ornaments.  Sages don't value
diamonds for their ears, only good speech.  This is to them a true ornament for their
ears.  Tzongkapa's speech is an excellent ornament for scholars' ears.  Another name
for Tzongkapa is Losang Drakpa.  In this Guru Yoga one syllable of his name is
incorporated into each of the first three lines of this verse, corresponding to the
following meanings: lo means "wisdom mind," sang means "virtuous," and drakpa
means "renowned."  His glory is renowned.  Now Tzongkapa is wearing robes and a
scholar's hat.

      Maybe you think this hat is strange.  It is very high and sharp and it signifies
his attainment of correct view, the highest correct view.  Everything he possesses on
his body lends beauty to it.

      "I prostrate myself before Him who to see, hear, and recall is useful."  This
means that Tzongkapa is a great and unusual person.  When we see, hear, or recall
him it plants good seeds in our mind.  Some time in the future these seeds will ripen
and produce good results.  Everything we see or hear of Tzongkapa is useful for us. 
You make prostrations keeping these good qualities in mind.  

      You must learn that there are three prostrations: prostrations of body, of
speech, and of mind.  In this classroom people can't make prostrations of body nicely. 
It is a small room.  If there is enough space you must make short of even full
prostrations.  But in places like here you can make prostrations in this way.  In front
of your heart press your hands together with the thumbs turned inward between the
palms and bow your head.  This is prostration of body.  Then recite the third verse of
this ritual.  This is prostration of speech.  Then keep your mind very clearly focused
toward these good qualities I have just taught you.  This is prostration of mind.  You
can then do the three prostrations very easily.

                             IV.  Offering

      Sweet water, varied flowers and fragrant incense, lamps, perfumes and such -
a great ocean-like cloud of offerings set forth directly and amplified in
manifestationbs of the mind's eye - I offer to you, supreme garden of merit.

      These are the offerings: clean water, different flowers, fragrant incense, lamps,
water perfumed with saffron, fruit or other things to eat, and music.  Then you
multiply the offerings by your concentration.  Emanate one into two, two into four,
four in eight, and so forth, until you have an ocean of offerings that fills all of space. 
Then that becomes a great offering.  Everybody watches television.  Sometimes many
letters come from, one letter and then dissolve back into one.  That is a good example
of how our concentration can work.  Television shows many wonderful things but our
mind is hundreds of times more powerful. Then in this fourth verse we offer this
multiplied offering to our object of worship.  When that object is actually sitting in
front of us we can do all these activities and accumulate great virtue from that object. 
For that reason we call it a virtue field.  From a good field you can get lots of crops. 
From a good object you can get lots of merit.  Therefore, offer!

                            V.  Confessing

      With deep, heartfelt regret I confess - individually - any non-virtue done in
body , speech, or mind and collected from beginningless time, most especially those
contrary to the Three Vows.


      The three vows here are pratimoksha* or morality vows, the Bodhisattva* vows,
and the Tantric vows.  I will explain them in more detail a little later.  These vows we
have to keep and cherish like our eyeballs, without breaking them.  If you break any
of these vows it is a very bad deed and you must confess to make them clean again. 
For making a confession it is important to have regret, heartfelt regret.  If you don't
have heartfelt regret you can't have absolution.  "Bad deeds" refers generally to those
of body, speech, and mind; and especially to the breaking of the three kinds of vows. 
If you remember them individually you can confess them individually.  If you don't
remember them individually you can make a combination confession.  The way to say
this combination confession: "I confess all the bad deeds I have collected through
body, speech, and mind from time without beginning up to now."

      Then why does confession come fifth in this ritual?  The purpose and meaning
of every religion is to purify and improve our mind.  How do we do this?  We remove
stains from our mind and transform it into a mind which possesses only good
qualities.  I told you once about confession in great detail, and very extensively.  Here
the text is briefly written and I will tell you briefly.  We have to confess all the bad
deeds we have done before, any non-virtue we have done by body, speech, and mind. 
Harming anybody, harsh speech, and bad motivation are examples of each.  Bad
motivation produces bad deeds through body and speech.  Bad thoughts, bad
motivation, is the most powerful of these three types of non-virtue.  Certain bad types
of mind are themselves bad karma*.  Bad deed of body and speech come from those
bad thoughts.  Without bad motivation they would not come.  Removing bad thought
is most important.

      If you think: "I haven't accumulated many bad deeds, I don't kill and steal, I am
pure" - if you have these thoughts, thinking that you a virtuous person - then that is a
wrong attitude.  If you examine your mind you will see that you have accumulated a
lot of bad deeds; not just within this life either.  In the Buddhist system we talk of
former lives, future lives, and this life.  That is not just talking.  Through reasoning,
logic, and philosophy we can realize this ourselves with an unerring mind.  If we do
have former lives it follows easily that they are beginningless.  Our former lives' mind
and our present life's mind are the same continuum, so if we have done bad deeds in
a former life we can experience the results now.  If we do bad or good deeds now, we
can experience the result in the future also because of the continuum going on
without breaking.  During their school years, students work very hard.  Why? 
Because they think to themselves: "I will become an adult, an older person.  If I study
now, it will benefit me when I get older."  This shows that they are are thinking their
mind is a continuum.  For example, in 1976 we do something; we know we can
experience a result in 1977 or 1978.  This again shows our awareness of a continuum. 
Similarly our mind goes from past lives into future lives without a breakage of this
continuum.  The physical body changes but the mind continues on.  You must
examine your present life's body for evidence of what you did in previous lives.  

      There are three kinds of thoughts: good, bad, and neutral.  Today from
morning up to now, every hour and every minute, your mind generates many
different thoughts.  You won't realize this but your mind never rests, it is constantly
changing.  New thoughts come.  Each thought focuses on a different object.  All of
these thoughts are difficult to perceive individually.  It is especially difficult to find
good thoughts.  To help other people from the heart, for example, is a good thought. 
Are these good thoughts coming or not?  It is difficult to find them.  Many hours and
seconds pass.  If you can't find good thoughts most of them must be bad thoughts.

      You may not recognize bad thoughts.  Bad thoughts are not necessarily just
anger.  There are many desires: desire for car, for house, for money, for family, for
friends, position, and so forth.  Most thoughts that come to our mind are desire
thoughts.  The scriptures say this.  They also say if the causes arise, we will become
angry.  Anger is less frequent than desire but desire is there almost all the time. 
Therefore disire is the worst bad thought.  The motivation of desire influences our
body and speech, causing bad deeds.  In one day alone we accumulate countless bad
deeds through body, speech, and mind.  Think of how much we have collected since
last  month, last year, and for the length of our beginningless mind continuum.  We
can accumulate a lot!  We must check this in our confessing.

      If you do an excellent confession, that can remove most bad deeds from their
roots.  If your confession lacks power, your bad deeds will not be removed to a great
extent.  In confession there are four causes that have to be assembled.  If you gather
these four you can remove bad deeds.  You should check whether those four causes
are gathered or not.  The first cause is the object to which you confess. It should be an
exalted object: the Triple Gem* (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha*) or -  in Mahayana
Dharma - the object is all sentient beings.  There is a reason for this.  It is likely that
most of our bad deeds were against the Triple Gem or all sentient beings.  Therefore
we confess these deeds in front of them.  That is the first cause.

      Now the second cause is regret.  We develop this by imagining that we have
mistakenly taken a bad poison.  It goes into our stomach and then our mind realizes
the great mistake we made.  We think we will die very quickly and we surely can
generate strong regret.  We think then if there is a method to remove this poison we
will do anything.  We will not hesitate to spend our entire wealth to remove this
poison.  We then decide to remove the poison.  We get a good doctor and good
medicine and we think that now we have a good doctor and good medicine, and that
in the future we will never eat that poison again.  That is the way we must feel regret
about bad deeds.  

      Then how do we make this regretting mind even stronger?  In winter it is
difficult for us to stand outside in the cold for just an hour.  We must come in and
turn on the heat.  In the summer we can't stand it outside either.  We come in and
turn on the air conditioner.  There are many conditions like these that we can't stand,
very insignificant conditions that we can't bear even for a short time.  Needless to say,
there is no escape from conditions like these if we are born as animals or hell beings
or hungry ghosts.  We can't escape or avoid the suffering.  We can't do anything to
protect ourselves.  We must experience very great suffering.  We can think that we are
not beings from other realms, but a Dharma person should have this thought:  "Why
do beings take birth in lower realms?  They have no choice because taking birth in
samsara happens only by the force of karma* and kleshas*.  Nobody can choose. 
"Karma" means deeds, good or bad deeds. "Kleshas" are mental afflictions: hatred,
desire, ignorance, and so on.  By the force of these we have to take birth.

      Karma and kleshas are taught in the scriptures many times.  They are not
unusual terms.  Karma and kleshas are causes.  We have to realize that if there are no
good seeds no crops will grow, because the seeds are the causes.  If there is a cause it
will definitely give a result.  Now we surely have those seeds.  If we have bad causes,
then definitely they will produce bad results and these will have to be experienced by
us.  What can we do now?  We can read books and go to a teacher.  He will introduce
us to methods for getting rid of the bad seeds, and give explanations and special
instructions.  We then practice ourselves and purify our mind.

      Here in the Guru Yoga this confessing verse mentions general bad deeds of
body, speech, and mind, and "especially those contrary to the three vows."  The first
type of vow is the pratimoksha: the morality vows.  There are eight sets of vows of this
type.  The first three of the eight are vows for laypersons.  Two of these are the five
precept vows of upasaka (male) and upasika (female), and they consist of: no killing, no
stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no use of intoxicants.  What is the
benefit of taking them?  Abandoning these five actions is the main seed to attain
liberation.  If you wish to attain freedom you possess the main cause, which is these
vows.  If you wish for not only liberation but Buddhahood also, you must take the
second type of vows, the Bodhisattva vows. There are eighteen root vows and forty-six
branch vows among them.  Before taking them you must first study these precepts.

      Now Mahayana Dharma has two levels, Sutra and Tantreqa. The Sutra path
will definitely give you Buddhahood but it takes a long time.  If you want quick
enlightenment you enter Tantric practice.  To enter the door of Tantric practice you
must take Tantric vows.  There are fourteen root vows and eight special vows. 
Confession counteracts the effects of breaking these three types of vows.  If you
remember your bad deeds individually you can confess them individually.  very rich
people can't count all their money: like that, we can't count our bad deeds.  Therefore
we can make a combination confession, as I mentioned before.  All of this you have to
confess before Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha with restraint and regret.  These two
attitudes are very important.

      Restraint, the third cause, is the wish to stop bad deeds in the future and to
stop their accumulation.  Restraint and regret are both very important attitudes.  Then
finally the fourth cause is the actual antidote to destroy the bad deeds.  You can recite
mandala offerings*, do prostrations, meditations, read scripture, or do recitations.  You
can do any Dharma activity to remove bad deeds.  If you use these four causes, then
bad deeds will disappear without a doubt.  If we can purify our mind, then definitely
at the same time we can accumulate good deeds.


                            VI.  Rejoicing

      Discarding the eight wordly dharmas*, you exerted yourself in much hearing
and practice here in the eon's decline, thus giving great meaning to a life endowed
with leisure and fortune.  We rejoice whole-heartedly, Savior, in these - your most
efficient deeds.

      In this verse we practice especially to accumulate good deeds.  Buddha taught
about rejoicing in the Sutras and their commentaries, and also there is a beautiful
poem by Tzongkapa which is a great instruction for us.  Someone asked Tzongkapa if
there was a method for achieving great virtue with little effort.  Tzongkapa's reply
was that rejoicing is the best method for this, praised by all the Buddhas.  You can do
it easily - laying down, eating, working, or walking.  There is no effort and no
expense.

      There are two types of rejoicing.  The first is rejoicing in other persons' deeds
and the second is rejoicing in our own deeds.  If you generate and maintain that
rejoicing thought in your mind, that is the best method.  All the Buddhas have stated
this.  Even if we practice to accumulate great virtue all of our lives, we can't compare
this to the virtue a Bodhisattva* generates in one day.  Therefore to accumulate one
day of a Bodhisattvas's virtue is impossible at our level, but it says in the Sutra's
commentary that if you rejoice in the good virtues of the Bodhisattvas and their good
qualities you can get ten percent of their virtue.  That is great profit and benefit for
us.  Therefore rejoicing is very important and useful. 

      Now you have invited the object of the seven-limb puja*, or the object of
meditation: Guru, Tzongkapa, and Buddha, these three being inseparable.  The outer
form is Tzongkapa, with his two great disciples sitting at his feet, one on each side. 
These three come from Maitreya's heart.  They are sitting in front of
you.  Their qualities of body, speech, and mind are immeasurable.  Their activity is
unbelievable.  All of them are in actuality Buddha's compassion, wisdom, and power
manifest as Tzongkapa, Guru, and Buddha.  Rejoicing in these is rejoicing in the
deeds of others.  Also you have now accumulated great virtue by meditating and
rejoicing about this holy object.  Now you can rejoice about your own good deeds. 
You think, "Today I did very nicely, I never did so well!"  Rejoice about your own
good deeds.  The merit is two or three times larger when the object of rejoicing is
your own good deeds.  These are very brief explanations.

                      VII.  Requesting Teachings

      Let fall, You reverend holy Lamas, the rain of the deep wide Dharma - to the
earth of beings, as they are ready, from the sky of your Buddha-minds overcast with
clouds of compassion and knowledge.

      Now after you have purified and enriched your mind with the previous two
verses, your mind is like a fertilized field.  Whatever seeds you put there will grow
very well.  In that field you put seeds by requesting teachings.  That teaching is like
good seeds in the field of your mind.  The sky in this verse is a metaphor for the
Bodhisattva  mind of these holy Lamas.  That mind is overcast with clouds of
compassion and knowledge.  If the Lama didn't have compassion, wisdom, and power
he could not benefit us - but he had all of these qualities.  The Lamas have great
compassion directed toward us all the time.  If we request them to help us, they will
definitely do it.  Since they have all these good qualities, you request them to teach
Dharma.  The rain in this verse is a metaphor for Dharma.  This falls to the earth. 
The earth is a metaphor for beings.  Just as the rain falls to the earth, so Buddha's
teaching comes to beings.  We have already fertilized the field in the previous verses.

      You should know that Buddha's teachings are divided in Hinayana* and
Mahayana, the lower vehicle and the higher vehicle.  Inside Mahayana there is
Sutrayana and Tantrayana.  Then what Dharma do you wish to practice?  Knowing
the following reasoning is very useful  Buddha's highest teaching of all is Tantric
Dharma.  If the highest teaching is Tantric, then why doesn't he only teach that? 
Why teach Hinayana or Sutrayana?  The reason is that there is not enough power in
some disciples and they wouldn't be able to gain a result.  Buddha know what level of
faculties you have and what class of being you are.  He teaches exactly what each
being needs and exactly what his level requires.  He never teaches higher or lower.  If
he taught lower Dharma to beings of a higher level of faculties it would only waste
their minds.  If he taught high Dharma to low disciples it would only give them a
headache.  Therefore Buddha teaches exactly what disciples need.  For that reason, in
former times a Hinayana person might say that there was no Mahayana Sutra or
Tantra.  He might not believe it, because Buddha had taught him only Hinayana
Dharma, since it fit his level.  Then he might think to himself, "Buddha's entire
Dharma is what he taught me.  Other Dharma I don't believe."  Some Hinayana
schools completely reject Mahayana Dharma.  Whose fault is it?  Is it Biddha's fault? 
No. The only fault is the lower level of the disciples.  Okay, then I am teaching
Mahayana Dharma. 

                           VIII.  Dedicating

      May these virtues, as many as I have gathered, be of all possible benefit to all
beings and to the Buddha's Dharma.  May I especially brighten a long time reverend
Losang Drakpa's teachings of the Dharma's essence.

      You have now purified your mind and collected great virtue with the
confessing and rejoicing verses.  You then made request to your Guru and Buddha
and received many Dharma instructions from them.  By these practices you have
collected many good deeds.  These good deeds are like money.  If you keep money
on your person it may be lost, burned, or other things may happen to it.  But if you
put money in the bank it remains there for when you need it.  Likewise, if you keep
this virtue in your hand it will be stolen by the two great thieves of virtue.  The two
great thieves of virtue are anger and wrong view.  Both Sutra and Tantra describe
how wrong view and hatred burn up our virtue.  Anger can destroy our virtue
almost from its roots.  Wrong view can destroy the very roots of virtue.  

      Shantideva and Chandrakirti were great Indian scholars of former times.  They
both wrote many good texts, which were translated into Tibetan around 1,400 years
ago.  We memorized these texts and debated over them.  In those texts it is written
that if you rejoice in a Bodhisattva's deeds, as I told you before, you can get ten
percent of his virtue.  Similarly, if you get angry with a Bodhisattva for one instant you
lose the amount of virtue you have accumulated over a period of a thousand kalpas. 
We strive all our lives to achieve great virtue.  Generally, this cannot compare with
the virtue a Bodhisattva generates in one day.  But the bad side is that if you generate
anger toward Bodhisattvas you burn up a thousand kalpas' worth of virtue.  How can
we avoid this?  We get angry three or four times a day.  We can't stop anger.  It will
destroy our virtue very easily.  We wish to become liberated and liberation comes only
from our accumulation of virtue; but we can't accumulate virtue for long.  It is so
easily destroyed.  What can we do?

      When you accumulate virtue you dedicate it.  How do you dedicate virtue? 
You dedicate it to be of benefit to all beings and also you dedicate it for the purpose
of causing the Buddha's Dharma to remain as long as possible and as widely spread
as possible.  When we make this dedication, in what way should we think that it
caused the Buddha's Dharma to remain?  We don't wish for the scriptures to remain
in the library for a thousand years, for example.  No.  We dedicate the virtue so the
teaching remains in people's minds and that they practice it and study it.  Then we
think, "By the force of that virtue may I become a leader like Buddha, and teach his
Dharma as wide as space and as deep as the ocean."  This is in general, but
specifically dedicate it especially to brighten Tzongkapa's teaching of Dharma's
essence.

      Buddha taught many, many Dharmas: both Sutrayana and Tantrayana. 
Tzongkapa collected the essence of all the Buddha's teachings and put them in an
order for the purpose of practice.  For example, he constructed a schedule for one
person to follow from the beginning up to the achievement of Buddhahood.  All of
this essence is every useful and easy for us to learn and practice.  You then think,
"May I brighten that essence and teaching as long as possible."

          XI.  Requesting the Bestowal of the Ultimate Result

      Precious One, glorious root Guru seated upon lotus and moon at my head's
center tip, bestow on me blessings of your body, speech, and thought - taking me
after You in great kindness.

      We have now come to the verse immediately preceding the main meditation.  It
is asking that we achieve the ultimate result right now.  Your object of meditation is
visualized in front of you.  At this time you invite a second Tzongkapa to sit on your
head facing your original visualization.  He requests the holy objects to help you. 
First visualize a lotus and a moon throne on your head then invite this second
Tzongkapa to occupy that place.  He makes request to the holy beings to help you. 
He requests and you request at the same time.  He requests, "Please give me the
ultimate goal.  Take care of me with your great kindness.  With your great compassion
give me the blessing of your body, speech, and mind."

      The word "bless" is a very common word.  What does it mean?  You should
know.  How can we receive a blessing?  If we don't know the real meaning of
"blessing" it is just an empty word.  That is not good because we only have a
conception of the word "blessing" as it is commonly used.  "Blessing" is described in
the Sutras and Tantras as power, seeds, or ability: power of body, of speech, and of
mind.  That is the blessing.  Then we think, "By the power of this blessing change my
mind into a better condition."  If your mind is changed into a better condition you
have received a blessing.  After you receive a blessing, after a ritual for example, your
mind should be more noble, bright, and strong.  Then you know you have received a
blessing.  So at this point in this practice we think:  "By these powers change my mind
into a better condition.  Please give me great compassion and great kindness.  Doing
this would be a great kindness to me.  Please give me the ability to achieve your good
qualities of body, speech, and mind," and this is the blessing.

      We can't achieve Buddha's body, speech, and mind instantly.  Buddha's body is
indestructible but our body can be destroyed.  Buddha's mind is unclouded and his
speech is wonderful.  He possesses many good qualities.  These we can't achieve
within a short time, but if we request we will receive a blessing.  A blessing is like
seeds.  If we put seeds in our mind they won't give sprouts immediately but they will
definitely give a result.  If there is a cause we can get a result.

      Now at this time you invite Tzongkapa to come onto your head.  He is
inseparable from your Guru, Buddha, and Vajradhara.  We often speak of: "Lama
Losang Tubwang Dorje Chang."  "Lama" means "Guru."  "Losang" means "Tzongkapa." 
"Tubwang" means "Buddha."  And "Dorje Chang" means "Vajradhara."  Vajradhara is
the lord of Tantric teachings and he holds a Vajra*.  Then the Lama, Tzongkapa,
Buddha, and Vajradhara - these four - are inseparable.  Their outer form is
Tzongkapa.

      You must imagine him on your head.  You must sit very straight when you
meditate.  Assume the posture with seven characteristics*.  You can't lean forward or
back.  If you lean forward, you will experience mental dullness.  If you lean back, you
will experience mental agitation.  You must be upright.  Later when you do Tantric
practices it is very useful to have proper body position, because in the Tantric system
you work with the nervous system and vital airs and the mind system.  So body
position is very important.  Many people ask me, "Should I close my eyes or open
them?"  You can close or open them.  If you open them, don't open them wide and
focus them no further than the tip of your nose.  At the beginning our mind is
accustomed to being distracted by outer objects.  If you don't close your eyes you will
see outer objects and it takes away from your concentration.  Therefore at the
beginning it is better to close your eyes.  Let your mouth be in a normal condition;
not too open or too shut.  You must close your mouth when doing the breathing
meditation I taught you.  You don't breathe through your mouth at that time.  In
general meditation, however, you can breathe both through your mouth and through
your nose.  If you are planning to meditate for a long time, touch the tongue to the
top of your teeth and it helps you not to get thirsty.  If you can't sit in a full lotus
position, you can sit in a half lotus position.


                           X.  Supplicating

      I make supplication at the feet of Losang Drakpa: Tzongkapa, crown jewel of
the Snowy Land's masters; Chenresik, vast store of compassion picturing no selves;
Jampelyang, Lord of immaculate knowledge; and Sangwedak, executor - leaving not
one - of the demon host's destruction.

      
      Now visualized on your head is a lotus and on it a moon disk.  On that moon
is Tzongkapa's image.  The outer form is Tzongkapa but the inner essence is Lama,
Buddha, Tzongkapa, and Vajradhara: these inseparable four.  Now you recite verse
ten.  This is the five-line mantra*.

      mik-me tze-we ter-chen chen-re-sik
      dri-me kyen wang-po jam-pel-yang
      du-pung ma-lu jom-dze sang-we-dak
      gang-chen ke-pe tzug-gyen tzong-ka-pa
      lo-sang drak-pe shab-la sol-wan-deb


      This mantra has great power and is very holy.  Mik-me means a particular type
of compassion.  There are three types of compassion.  This is the name for the highest
type.  Mik means "exist," me means "not," and tze-we means "compassion."  What does
this mean?  Non-existence is the characteristic of this form of compassion.  This is a
little bit difficult to understand.  When we generate compassion toward human
beings, or animals, or insects, we can perceive them or imagine them as relative truth. 
I have spoken before of the two truths: relative truth and absolute truth.  Absolute
truth means sunyata, or the true nature of all objects.  Relative truth is all the visible,
hearable, touchable objects, mind, mental functions, the five skandhas, and so on. 
There are very many relative-truth objects.  The true nature of all the objects of
knowledge is their absolute truth.  

      That is a little bit difficult to understand without an extensive explanation. 
Briefly, mik-me means "non-existence."  There are no self-existent things.  All objects of
knowledge depend upon other things.  For example, this microphone depends on the
factory that made it, the tape recorder, electricity, and so forth.  It depends on many
things.  Likewise a table, a house, our body, our mind depend on other things.  For
example, a sprout depends on the seed.  Smoke depends on fire.  A child depends on
its parents.  Everything depends on other things.  For that reason all objects of
knowledge are not self-existent.  Therefore mik-me means "not self-existent."  This
compassion focuses on other beings but does not perceive them merely as beings, it
also has to focus on their self-existentlessness.  When we practice compassion on our
level we can't think about this self-existentless condition without losing focus on the
relative condition of beings.  At our level we can't think about these two conditions at
the same time with one thought.

      This compassion is inseparable from Lama Losang Tubwang Dorje Chang. 
Actually this great compassion is all the Buddhas' compassion.  Therefore the
Buddhas' compassion can focus many different ways at the same time on one object. 
In this first line that compassion's great quality is considered.  Ter-chen
means "great treasure."  In a big treasure there are limitless jewels.  In a great treasure
there are many good things of similar nature.  Chenresik is the Tibetan name for the 
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and is a great treasure of this highest kind of compassion. 
The compassion of the countless Buddhas residing in the ten directions is a kind of
mind.  That mind emanates or manifests as a deity, Avalokiteshvara.  His outer form is
a deity's but his essence is all of the Buddhas' great compassion.  All of the Buddhas'
great compassion is limitless.  Avalokiteshvara is an emanation of all the Buddhas'
compassion and for that reason he is a great treasure of that compassion.  That is also
Tzongkapa, whom you are visualizing on your head.

      Dri means "mental cloud, obstruction, obscuration."   Me indicates negation. 
Together the words dri-me means "stainless."  Dri-me kyen-pe wang-po means "Lord of
stainless wisdom."  This is describing the Bodhisattva Manjushri.  The female deity is
Yangchenma.  Both of them are gods of wisdom, Jampelyang is Tibetan for Manjushri.

      Du-pung means "army of demons."  Ma-lu means "leaving none."  Jom-dze means
"to destroy."  Sangwedak means, literally, "Owner of the Secret."  This is the Tibetan
name for Vajradhara.  He destroys the host of demons without leaving a single one. 
Vajradhara holds a Vajra in his right hand.  The Vajra  destroys the demons.  This is a
rough explanation.  It is very important to know what an actual demon is.  Is a
human being different from a demon?  Do we have demons in our mind?  Are we a
demon or not?  We must know and study about this.  The main demon is egotism. 
There are many kinds of egotism.  Ignorance and egotism are synonymous and this is
the root of samsara.  This egotism has harmed us all from beginningless time up to
now.  Therefore the main demon is our ignorance and egotism.

      Outside the picture of the "Twelve-limb life wheel*" is  very fearful-looking
demon representing our egotism and ignorance.  Then included in the host of this
demon are desire, hatred, and jealousy.  There are many members to this demon's
host.  All of them are destroyed by Vajradhara's  Vajra. This is a Vajra. Vajradhara
holds it like this in his hand.  This Vajra  can destroy all demons.  Maybe it is a little
funny to hear this.  The outer form is a Vajra but the actual Vajra is wisdom.  That
wisdom which realizes shunyata directly is the actual Vajra.  That mind can destroy
egotism; therefore, that powerful wisdom appears as a fearful deity.  That is
Vajradhara, the "Owner of the Secret."  "Tantric" and "secret" are synonyms.
Vajradhara is the owner of the Tantric teaching, and therefore that great and powerful
Vajradhara emanates Tzongkapa's outer form.  Briefly Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri,
Vajradhara, and Buddha are Tzongkapa.  Tzongkapa is the crown jewel of all Tibetan
scholars, their main ornament, because all Tibetan scholars went to him as their Lama. 
Therefore they put him as high as a king puts his crown.  His common name is
Tzongkapa but his actual name, given to him by his Lama, is Losang Drakpa.  Shab-la
means "at the feet" of Tzongkapa.  Sol-wan-deb means "I make supplication."

      You have to imagine and think about the meanings of these lines, one by one. 
That is called shargom meditation.  There are many different kinds of meditations, and
I will explain them in detail a little later.  To prepare your mind for these meditations
you first perform the breathing meditation.  Then how do you do it?  I told you once,
in detail, how this practice has been outlined as having six aspects.  The breathing
meditation is common to all the vehicles: Mahayana, Hinayana, and so forth.  The root
text concerning this practice is written in the sixth chapter of the Abhidharmakosha and
in the fourth chapter of Abhisamayalamkara.  Both Indian and Tibetan scholars
composed commentaries on this practice and followed it themselves.

      The main purpose of breathing meditation, to be done at the beginning of your
meditation, to be done at the beginning of your meditation period, is to remove your
different thoughts and to keep your mind one-pointedly on your object of meditation. 
It is difficult to get rid of your many thoughts and to bring your mind onto your
object one-pointedly and very firmly.  Therefore Buddha instituted this very forceful
method and gave useful instructions about this meditation.  The details I told you in
previous lectures.  Before you start to recite always try to start your practice with
breathing meditation.  I cant't tell you tonight.

The Guru Yoga practice is a very powerful and useful.  In Tibet very great scholars
and sages did this Guru Yoga practice every day.  I received these Guru Yoga
instructions from many Lamas many times.  It is very useful, simple and easy.  There
are not many verses or words but the meaning is very complete.  It contains all the
essence and it is easy to practice.  The amount is small but the meaning is very big. 
Then verses II through VIII are the seven limbs of the seven-limb puja.  We have
finished these already.  Now the five-line mantra is the actual Guru Yoga.  These five
lines are a very powerful and holy mantra.  Many sages practiced this mantra.  We
also recited this mantra in our monastery every day, on the debating ground.  We had
to stay there at least four hours every day.  At the beginning of the period we recited
this ritual and repeated this mantra one hundred times and meditated.  The leader
would count on a rosary.  Therefore you have to know why it is powerful and holy. 
You must know the reason.

      All the Buddhas's countless excellent qualities can be collected and divided into
three types.  The three groupings would be: compassion, wisdom, and power.  All of
the Buddhas' omniscience you can't see because omniscience is mind.  Mind is not
form; therefore we can't see mind directly at our level.  Compassion, wisdom, and
power can't work directly for us so they manifest in deity form.  To do this the
wisdom, for example, manifests as Manjushri, the god of wisdom.  Manjushri's form is
a deity's and his essence is the wisdom of all the Buddhas.  In Manjushri's form
Buddha teaches and gives instructions.  Manjushri actually has a deity's form.  Our
life is a common human being's life.  Common human beings' eyes can't see
Manjushri in his deity form.  If you reach Mahayana Ayra level, the third path - the
path of insight which sees emptiness directly - if you achieve the path of insight, you
can see deity forms as we see other people.  Therefore Manjushri is the essence of all
Buddhas' knowledge and wisdom.  Avalokiteshvara is all the Buddhas's great
compassion manifested as a deity form.  Avalokiteshvara is like Manjushri.  We can't
see either one directly at our level.

      Mik-me tze-we ter-chen chen-re-sik, the first line of the mantra, speaks of a special
great compassion.  Some levels of compassion we can practice and generate.  Also, a
person who has not yet achieved Buddhahood can have compassion.  In Mahayana
Dharma there are many Bodhisattvas with great compassion but they have not
achieved Buddhahood yet.  Therefore if their great compassion perceives human
beings and human beings' misery and poor condition of suffering, their great
compassion can't at the same time perceive all the beings' true nature - as I said
before.  To summarize that, if the Bodhisattva's wisdom perceives all beings' true
nature that mind can't perceive the relative truth, the sentient beings' quality of
suffering and misery.  However, Buddha's mind does not have to alternate like that. 
One thought can perceive both an object's true nature and its relative truth
simultaneously.  This great compassion is one thought that perceives both.  Therefore
it is a special great compassion.

      Dri-me kyen-pe wang-po jam-pel-yang, the second line of the mantra, speaks of
stainless wisdom perceiving shunyata directly along with other objects.  These two,
great compassion and great wisdom, are the subjects of the first two lines.  The third
line, du-pung ma-lu jom-dze sang-we-dak, speaks about great power.  If you wish to
destroy those inner and outer demons then you must have greater power than they
do.  What is that great power?  It means that the Bodhisattva Vajradhara is the
destroyer of all the outer and inner demons, who possess complete power over us. 
That is the power of the Buddhas.  You should know this in more detail, and it is a
little bit difficult.

      Maybe you have heard of the Four Noble Truths*.  There is the third Noble
Truth, the truth of cessation,  Inside the truth of cessation there are many different
levels.  The highest level, the ultimate cessation, which abandons all obstacles and bad
deeds and the mental afflictions that ultimate cessation is possessed only by Buddhas. 
That is the great power spoken of here.  Than if you wish to achieve that great power,
you can do it two ways.  The first is Mahayana Sutrayana way.  This takes a long
time.  It took Shakyamuni Buddha three great eons of practice to achieve that
cessation.  You might worry that this will take too long a time, but comparatively it is
not that long.  Why?  There is a reason.  For beginningless time, in all our lives up to
now, we have stayed roaming in samsara.  In the future, if we don't practice to try to
achieve Nirvana* or Buddhahood, we will stay for measureless time, as before. 
During that time we have to experience misery and suffering and a poor condition. 
You could never count your lives up to now.  If you make this comparison it is not so
long.

      Thus, in the Sutra way, it takes a long time - though regarding yourself you
shouldn't be discouraged no matter how long it takes.  But in regard to other beings,
you should think:  "I can't bear to have them suffer so long.  I need a quick way." 
Thinking this way provides the impetus for entering Mahqayana Tantric Dharma
practice.  If you enter the highest Tantric Dharma and do everything properly, you
definitely achieve Buddhahood, called Sungjuk in the Tantric system, within sixteen
lifetimes at most.  You can definitely achieve Buddhahood.  This was stated by
Vajradhara himself in the root Tantric texts. 

      That is general: more specifically if you enter the highest Tantra, call
Guhyasamaja Mahatantraraja, and study and practice, you can achieve Buddhahood in
twelve years and three months.  People who have very great effort, sharp minds,
wisdom, and virtue can achieve it in three years and three months.  Then there is one
instruction, the quickest way, that if you sit down and do everything properly, before
you get up from your bed you can achieve Buddhahood.  This is the forceful method. 
So you can achieve that cessation if you enter the Tantric school system, and you can
achieve it within this lifetime.  Buddha gave all those Tantric teachings and all the
powerful instructions to Vajradhara.  His name means "Holder of the Vajra"  It shows
he is the lord of secret Tantric Dharma.  These three deities - Avalokiteshvara,
Manjushri, and Vajradhara - are all the Buddhas' compassion, wisdom, and power
respectively, manifested in these three as a deity form.  Just as I told you before, we
can't see these deities directly at our level.  Therefore these deities have to re-manifest
as a human being: as Tzongkapa, whom we can all see.  That is the meaning of the
first three lines of the mantra.

      Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Vajradhara have been mentioned.  Guru
Yoga's main object is Tzongkapa.  Tzongkapa is the manifestation of those three
deities.  Then Tzongkapa, Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, Vajradhara, and Buddha - these
five - are inseparable.  Tzongkapa lived six hundred years ago.  His teaching, the
essence of the Buddha's Dharma teachings, has remained pure up to the present.  The
next two lines then are, gang-chen ke-pe tzug-gyen tzong-ka-pa and lo-sang drak-pe
shab-la
sol-wan-deb.  While reciting these two lines we should think: "I make this request to
you Tzongkapa: may I receive these good qualities. Please give me the ability to
achieve your qualities - your compassion, wisdom, and power."  Tzongkapa is a
combination of all three of these qualities of all the Buddhas.

      This means that if you practice this yoga then three meditations are included in
one.  If you wished to meditate and practice on each deity separately it would be a
little bit difficult for you.  It is difficult to receive instructions too.  If you do this yoga
everything is included and you can receive all the three goals.  Then to practice and
meditate about this you have to recite the mantra at least 450,000 times.  Reciting the
mantra this many times is considered one full set. It takes a person six months sitting
in retreat to do this.  If you have the time you can go into retreat and do this practice. 
If you don't get a chance to do it in this way, you can recite the ritual every day,
morning and night, and after that recite the five-line mantra as many times as you
can: one hundred, fifty, or at least twenty-one times, thinking of the meanings as you
recite.  When the reciting is finished there are special visualizations and meditations. 
Then that is very good.  Many sages recited this ritual and mantra and achieved many
goals and knowledge.  Also it can protect you from many obstacles and problems.

      Tzongkapa appeared six hundred years ago.  At that time he was born in the
Tzongka area of Tibet.  Losang Drakpa was the name given to him by his Lama.  One
thousand years ago he was born as a prince in India named Atisha.  Tzongkapa is the
reincarnation of Atisha.  Atisha is the reincarnation of Padmasambhava, and
Padmasambhava is the reincarnation of the boy who met Buddha directly and offered
Him a rosary of one hundred crystal beads and then generated Bodhisattva mind in
front of Him.  Buddha predicted that two thousand years later the boy would be born
in Tibet and woudld make a monastery between two places named Dri and Den, and
that the monastery's name would be Ga.  His name would be Losang Drakpa, and he
would teach there, spreading the Mahayana Dharma teaching and restoring the
Madhyamika* school's system of correct view.

      Therefore we have to practice and receive blessings and teachings from all of
those lineages starting from Buddha through all the lineage Lamas, in proper
succession, up to the present.  Then we shouldn't ignore any single one of the lineage
Lamas.  Only their outer form changes and the time is different, but their mind
continuum is the same.  And thus we have to respect all those lineage Lamas, we have
to recite, pray, and make requests to all those Lamas.  We should recite many
requesting verses every day.  Guru Yoga was taught to Tzongkapa by Manjushri
directly.  Tzongkapa could see Manjushri like we see our teachers directly, and he
received many instructions from him.  Therefore this five-line mantra is very powerful
and very holy.  Like a very skillful hunter can kill three deer with one bullet, we can
receive three goals, Buddha's three qualities, at the same time. 

      Now for the actual meditation and how to practice it.  This involves thinking
and reciting.  Also you have to know that there are many meditations:  shargom,
chegom, and jokgom.  Shargom is where there are many paths or different objects of
meditation which you review in your mind one after the other.  For example, there
are many mandalas.  In a mandala there are many deities.  In the Guhyasamaja
mandala there are thirty-two deities.  Each deity has three faces, six hands, a different
instrument in each hand, different colors, a different position, and a different
meaning.  We must meditate on this mandala in Tantric practice.  What is the
meaning of the mandala itself?  What do these signs symbolize?  What is their
essence?  What is their actual nature?  Everything you must learn and practice. 
Therefore when you do the highest Tantric meditations, for example, you have to
visualize everything.  There are many objects that you have to visualize one after the
other.  There is a ritual for it.  As well as doing the ritual you must change the
visualizations in a set order.  That meditation is call shargom.  Shar means to think and
to visualize one after the other in ritual order.  Chegom is when you have received
instructions on the method, ways, ritual, and teachings, and then think about the
various meanings: you check, using good reasoning to establish the real meaning of
each subject.  This is very, very important.

      If I teach you this mandala, the Guhyasamaja initiation mandala, after you
receive instructions you go and practice.  You go and if you don't forget what I said it
is very good.  You recite the way I told you, visualize and meditate only the way I
said.  However, you must also use your own discriminative wisdom.  After listening,
you also think: "He told me this instructions and the object of this method for
meditation is like that..."  Why should you do this?  This way you can gain your goal. 
You can think,  "What is it he told me?  Why is the meaning like that?"  You check
your self with your own wisdom.  This is the best way.  You receive instructions and
add your wisdom - then you can realize the actual object itself with your wisdom. 
You can perceive it with your wisdom.  Then if you perceive those paths and
qualities, the function, and the result, there is no erring.  Then you can believe and
practice.  It makes your motivation more powerful and makes your practice straight.  

      In the Abhisamayalamkara it is written that there can be many kinds of disciples. 
Some disciples are very sharp, clear-thinking and sharp.  Some are dull and narrow-
minded.  If you tell something to the dull and narrow-minded student he will believe
exactly what you say and do the practice, but he can't use his own judgement.  Then
that way there can be very big faults and mistakes.  Some students, if they have sharp
and broad wisdom, hear the same instruction but their understanding is very different. 
They can check, read, and compare other scriptures and think about who gained what
previously by this way.  They decide what is correct by using their reasoning.  Then
they have used their wisdom.  After that if someone tells them differently, then
immediately they can realize whether they are correct or not.  That is very important
and useful.  Doing that is chegom.  We must do it that way.

      Now I will tell you actually how to meditate.  This Buddhist system is very
important and not just invented by Lamas.  If we don't know about this system we
can't practice properly and we won't gain the proper result.  Our activities and time
will be wasted.  We therefore have to do everything the proper way.  You can do the
actual meditation while reciting the five-line mantra or after you stop reciting if you
are tired and can't do both together.  The actual meditation has three main points. 
They are called: madak tru, mishey sel, and ngudrup drup.  Madak tru, the first, means
literally to wash all the stains from your mind and this is subdivided into two parts
called marn de, a driving down of impurities and yarn dr, a driving up and out of
impurities.  These obstacles or impurities prevent us from developing our mind.  How,
specifically, do we get rid of them?  I will give you instructions later.  After washing
out those stains then your mind is clean and you are ready to perform the second part
of the three, mishey sel, meaning to brighten your wisdom.  Then the third part,
ngudrup drup, means to take or receive the ultimate goal, our meditation goal.  

      Now as I mentioned, the Lama, Tzongkapa, Buddha, Manjushri,
Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrahara are all inseparable.  The latter three - Manjushri,
Avalokiteshvara, and Vajradhara - are called Riksum Gonpo, or the "Three Kinds of
Saviors" manifested in deity form.  They represent all the Buddhas's wisdom,
compassion, and power.  All of those objects of meditation are the same essence.  You
have them visualized on the center tip of your head as the outer form of Tzongkapa.
There is a lotus.  On the lotus is a moon.  The two are like mattresses.  On this is your
visualization of Tzongkapa.  You shouldn't think it is like an image made of clay or
copper.  Perceive it as really being Tzongkapa, inseparable from the three deities,
Buddha, and your Lama.  You have to think that Tzongkapa is a combination of all
those objects.  Now we start with the madak tru meditation and from Tzongkapa's
body comes nectar descending through light rays.  If you can, imagine five different
colors of light rays: blue, white, yellow, red and green.

      The nectar comes down through the light rays and comes into your body.  As it
enters you your obscurations, bad deeds, are washed and driven out.  This explanation
is a little bit lengthy but very important because if you don't hear this complete
instruction you can't do the meditation.  Then the nectar washes out all your bad
deeds and your obscurations.  They are driven out your bottom and into a crack in the
ground.  In this meditation you have to visualize the ground as cracked open a little
bit underneath you.  That dirty water goes into the ground.  Underground there is the
lord of death, like the one depicted on the "Twelve-limb Wheel of Life.*"  He is a very
fearful demon named Yama.  His mouth is always open toward us, just about to eat
us, like a cat's mouth opens toward a mouse.  Just like that the lord of death has his
big mouth open toward us, just about to eat us.  All those dirty things washed from
our body go into his mouth, fill his stomach, and he is satisfied.  Then you close the
earth and on it visualize a double Vajra. 

      You are then sitting on this double Vajra.  This has very great meaning.  If the
lord of death is satisfied he won't try to take your life and it extends your lifespan. 
The nectar and light rays are coming continuously.  They first wash downward, and
all the dirty things are washed out.  This is the marn de part which we just completed. 
Now the yarn de meditation.  Sometimes the swirling action of water causes the little
bit of dirt left on the bottom to come out the top.  Then all of those slightly dirty
things come out from your eyes and nose and so forth, from the doors of your senses,
and dissolve into the air.  
At this point you should think that your whole body is clean and filled with Vajra
nectar.  You shouldn't think that if you put too much of this nectar into your body
that it will possible make you sick.  This nectar is the essence of wisdom.  Therefore,
even if it fills your whole body it won't make you uncomfortable or sick like other
substances such as water would if they filled you completely.  Your body is now
completely clean.

      Now  the second point in this meditation is called mishey sel.  We have been
collecting bad deeds for beginningless time up to now.  We have lots of bad deeds. 
This second time you visualize your bad deeds like a heap of darkness at your heart. 
The nectar comes in rays a second time and just as it enters your body the darkness
completely disappears.  This is call pung de or driving out the heap of darkness.  Your
body and mind at this point are brightness, clear brightness.  You must now think to
yourself very certainly that your mind is now completely clear.  This is very important. 
You must think, "Now my mind is cleaned up, very clean, nothing left dirty.  Now my
mind is very bright and crystal clean, no obstacles or stains or bad things."

      In that clean place you perform the third part of the meditation.  You now
receive the compassion, wisdom, and power of all three deities.  This is call ngudrup
drup: achievement of the goals.  This ngudrup drup involves seven major ways of
practice to receive wisdom, which is the main ngudrup, goal, achieved here.  The outer
form of the three qualities is still nectar and light rays.  Then when the nectar comes
into your body it fills you and you are very clean.  At that time you have to resolve in
your mind that you have now received Buddha's compassion, wisdom, and power.

      You might think that this only imagination and that actually nothing is
received or changed.  You might think that it doesn't have any benefit or that it
doesn't make any difference for you.  Actually it is not like that.  When we plant good
rice in a good field the sprout won't come up immediately after planting the seed. 
Other causes are involved and the sprout won't come up too easily.  Then the causes
and effects we are producing there are ultimate causes and effects.  Because they are
ultimate it is more difficult for them to arise in our mind but if you think, practice,
and meditate, at that time the good field of your mind is cleaned and made stainless
and clear.  In that field you put the seeds to achieve the omiscience, compassion, and
power of Buddhahood.

      You practice and keep putting that propensity in your mind once, twice, and so
forth and then definitely it accumulates more and more and becomes stronger and
stronger, bigger an bigger, Definitely some day it will become ripe.  Dharmakirti
taught in his logic texts: "If all the causes that are needed are present then you don't
have to worry whether the result will come.  It definitely will come, because that is its
nature.  If there is an assemblage of every cause then the results will come.  That is
the quality of results and causes."  We should consider this main meditation like that. 
If you receive these three - compassion, wisdom, and power - these three seeds are
very difficult to keep without spoiling or losing them.  It is difficult to make them firm
and increase them because, needless to say, we have many mental afflictions.  The
roots are ignorance, hatred, desire, doubt, pride, and wrong view, and there are many
other related afflictions besides.  

      If I ask you if you can stay until tomorrow without getting angry it is difficult
to make a promise like that because if something happens and the causes assemble
then immediately anger will arise in our minds, because we are used to this wrong
thinking as if it were a great friend.  This is because we meditate about anger and
ignorance and hatred.  We meditate a long time, we check and visualize.  How do we
meditate about anger, ignorance, and pride?  If you check and think then you realize
how.  If you don't check and think then you won't realize.  

      When we meditate about a good object first we receive instructions, then we
search for and find the object of meditation.  Then we bring our mind to the object
and hold it a long time firmly.  Like that we meditate about anger, stronger and
stronger, longer and longer, more and more powerfully.  For example, if you have an
enemy and you fought today, then since then you have developed anger.  After
fighting we think of all the causes of this anger, "Last year he did this to me.  Last
month he told me such and such and he ruined my reputation and he harmed my
possessions and physical well-being."  We think of very strong reasons.  With the
thinking of these reasons our anger become stronger.  That is an actual meditation to
develop anger in our mind.  Then the opposite of that is patience.  If somebody asks
you what you are doing you say, "I am meditating about patience."  If somebody asks
you how you do that you say you are thinking about the benefit of meditating about
patience, thinking about the faults of anger, its harm and function, and the benefit
and function of patience.  You meditate and think about these reasons.  You can tell
that this is a good meditation. 

      We have a lot of mental afflictions.  If anger arises in our mind it is like a fire. 
Fire's function is that it definitely burns other objects: that is the definition of fire as
written in the logic textbooks.  "Heat and burning" is the definition of fire.  Anger is
like fire.  When it arises in our mind it burns all of our good qualities.  You should
think about it.  When a person becomes angry his attitude, action, speech, motivation,
everything changes and becomes bad.  Therefore we have many mental afflictions. 
The power of these mental afflictions destroys our good seeds.  Then how do we keep
these good (virtuous) seeds?  We need instructions.  Then we put these seeds in the
bank.  If we received one hundred dollars today and kept it our pocket it could be
burned or it might get lost.  If we immediately put it in the bank it will never be lost. 
Like that, just after collecting our good virtues we put them into the bank.

      What is the bank?  The bank is the great treasure of virtue that produces
Buddhahood.  We mix the virtue we collected into the total collection of virtue that
produces Buddhahood.  This means virtues that we have collected by Bodhisattva
mind, by the motivation of Bodhisattva mind.  Those virtues bring only the result of
Buddhahood.  Therefore our virtue is turned into causes to achieve Buddhahood.  If
we change our virtue into the causes to achieve Buddhahood then it is never lost. 
One teaching that comes from the Sutra called Lodru Gyatso Shupe Do says that if you
have a vessel of holy water and you keep this in your room as long as one year then
it will disappear, evaporate or - if it spills - immediately it will be lost.  If you put it
into the great ocean it won't be lost until the ocean disappears.  It will remain until
the end of the kalpa.  Like that, if your virtue is changed into the causes to achieve
Buddhahood, it is never lost.  Also Shantideva writes in the Bodhicharyavatara that
common virtues, once they have given a result, disappear like a banana tree after
giving its fruit.  Some trees die after giving their fruit.  Generally all virtues are like
that.  If they give a result they are finished:  they can't give a second result.  But those
virtues that you change into a cause to achieve Buddhahood, those virtues won't
decrease, they will develop more and more.

      There is a big difference between general virtue and virtue that causes you to
achieve Buddhahood.  Therefore Mahayana Dharma and deeds are more powerful,
higher, and more holy.  Then how do you change virtue into a cause to achieve
Buddhahood?  This is contained in the concluding verses of the ritual.


                             XI.  Praying

      By force, Victor Tzongkapa, of Your acting directly in all my lives' string as a
tutor of the Mahayana may I never for even a moment be parted from that noble
path which the Victors commend.

                        XII.  Concluding Prayer

      In all my rebirths may I practice, basking in the Dharma's glory and never
apart from unerring Lamas.  May the qualities of the paths and levels be perfected -
Dorje Chang status quickly achieved.  

      The "path which the Victors commend" consists of renunciation, Bodhisattva
mind, and correct view; or compassion, wisdom, and power, these three paths or these
three good qualities.  Dorje Chang is Vajradhara, the highest deity of the Tantric
system.  In the Sutra system the highest Buddha is the one who appeared in the form
of Shakyamuni, as a monk in India.  What is the difference between them?  You
should know this.  All the Tantric teachings were taught by Dorje Chang.  You might
think those teaching were not taught by Buddha.  You may think this way but it is
not true.  When Buddha teaches Sutra he teaches in Buddha Shakyamuni' form. 
When he teaches Tantric teachings his form changes into a deity's . The outer form is
changed but actually Buddha Shakyamuni is Dorje Chang.  There is no difference.

      Therefore in the Tantric system there are millions of different Tantric teachings,
mantras, mandalas, and deities.  When Buddha gives all those different teachings he
changes into many different deity forms.  Then those many different deity forms and
mandalas are actually Buddha's omniscience.  He can manifest mantras, mandala
deities, chief deities, and the circle deities, which surround the chief deity, within an
instant and he can remove them all in an instant.  Therefore Dorje Chang is like that. 
When Buddha teaches Tantra his outer form changes to Vajradhara's.  All your
activities, your virtue, meditation, and holy seeds you must change into the cause
which brings Buddhahood, which is called Sungjuk in the Tantric system.

      Now I have completed this instruction.  This is a very short ritual.  Also you
should know what wang, lung, tri, and me-ngak are.  If you recite this ritual without
have received a lung you can get a little bit of virtue but it is not too powerful.  Lung
means a blessing which comes in an unbroken continuum, passed down by the
lineage Lamas without a break, and to receive it you just have the text read to you, by
your Lama, and listen to him reading.  Tri means to receive the explanation of the text
from your Lama.  It is also a blessing that comes in an unbroken chain from Buddha
Shakyamuni.  It is not enough to receive only lung and tri.  You must also receive me-
ngak, which is your Lama's unique instructions.  This is very important because me-
ngak supplies the keys, the main points.  Finally there is wang.  This is initiation and
refers to Tantric practice.  Thus these four are all different.  I have give you the
explanation and instructions, so now I give the lung.  You can listen and follow the
text.

      gan-den hla-gye gun-gyi tu-ka-ne
      rab-kar sho-sar pung-dre chun-dzin-tzer
      chu-kyi gyal-po kun-kyen lo-sang-drak
      se-dang che-pa nen-dir shek-su-sol

      dun-gyi nam-far seng-tri pen-de-teng
      je-tzun la-ma gye-pe dzum-kar-chen
      dak-lo de-pe su-nam shing-chok-tu
      ten-pa gye-chir kel-gyar shuk-su-sul

      she-che kyun-kun jel-we lo-dru-tuk
      kel-sang na-we gyen-gyur lek-she-sung
      drak-pe pel-gyi hlam-mer dze-pe-ku
      tong-tu dren-pe dun-den la-chak-tsel

      yi-ong chu-yun na-tsok me-tok-dang
      dri-shim duk-pu nang-sel dri-chab-sok
      ngu-sham yi-trul chu-trin gya-tsin-di
      su-nam shing-chok kye-la chu-par-bul

      gang-shik tok-me du-ne sak-pa-yi
      lu-ngak yi-kyi mi-ge chi-gyi-dang
      kye-par dom-pa sum-gyi mi-tun-chok
      nying-ne gyu-pa drak-pu so-sor-shak

      nyik-me dun-dir mang-tu drub-la-tzun
      chu-gye pang-ne deln-jor dun-yu-je
      gun-po kyu-kyi lab-chen dze-pa-la
      dak-chak sam-pa tak-pe yi-rang-o

      je-tzun la-ma dam-pa kye-namkyi
      ch-ku ka-la kyen-tze chun-dzin-trik
      ji-tar tsam-pe dul-jen dzin-ma-la
      sab-gye chu-kyi char-pa wab-tu-sol

      dak-gi ji-nye sak-pe ge-wan-di
      ten-dang dro-wa kun-la gang-pen-dang
      kye-par je-tzun lo-sang drak-pa-yi
      ten-pe nying-po ring-du sel-je-shok

      pel-den tza-wa la-ma rin-po-che
      dak-ki chi-wor pen-de teng-shuk-la
      ka-drin chen-pu go-ne je-sung-te
      ku-sung tuk-kyi ngu-drub tzel-du-sol

      mik-me tze-we ter-chen chen-re-sik
      dri-me kyen-pe wang-po jam-pel-yang
      du-pung ma-lu jom-dze sang-we-dak
      gang-chen ke-pe tzuk-gyen tzong-ka-pa
      lo-sang drak-pe shab-la sol-wan-deb

      tse-rab kun-tu gyal-wa tzong-ka-pe
      tek-chok she-nyen ngu-su dze-pe-tu
      gyal-we ngak-pe lam-sang de-nyi-le
      ke-chik tzam-yang dok-par ma-gyur-chik

      kye-wa kun-tu yang-dak la-ma-dang
      drel-me chu-kyi pel-la long-chu-ching
      sa-dang lam-gyi yun-ten rab-dzok-ne
      dor-je chang-gi go-pang nyur-tob-shok

GLOSSARY

Arya - A being who has percieved shunyata directly.

Bodhisattva - A being striving to achieve Buddhahood and inpossession of
Bodhisattva mind.

Bodhisattva mind - The thought to achieve Buddhahood for the     
benefit of all beings.  It may take the form of a wish or a complete resolve.

Buddha - In this text "Buddha" may refer specifically to the most recent Buddha,
Skakyamuni, who appeared in India 2,500 years ago, or it may refer generally to the
archetype of the countless Buddhas existing in the universe.  In either case a Buddha
has triumphed over two types of obstacles.  He has abandoned the obstacles stemming
from the mental afflictions (hatred, desire, ignorance, and so forth). Beyond this a
Buddha has abandoned a second type of obstacles, obstacles to omniscience.  This
omniscience refers to His ultimate wisdom perceiving all phenomena directly.

Dharma - That which secures beings from falling into miserable and unattractive
conditions.  In one sense it is the teachings of the Buddha, which are to be actualized
in our practice.  Real Dharma, however, is cessations and paths - the last two of the
Four Noble Truths.

dharma - a term separate in meaning from the normally capitalized "Dharma."  It
means phenomenon or existent.

eight wordly dharmas - In the practice of Mahayana Dharma our main motivation
should be the wish or resolve to liberate all beings from suffering.  This perfectly
selfless thought does not come into our minds easily.  Instead we are preoccupied with
these eight thoughts, which are presented as four sets of opposites.  They are: being
pleased with material gains or upset by losses, being happy about worldly fame or
unhappy with having a poor reputation, desire for material happiness or being
concerned with having to endure suffering, and delighting in the praise of wordly
people or being mentally tormented by their scorn.  

Four Noble Truths - This is the central theme of the first of Buddha's three periods of
teaching on earth.  The truth of suffering is the first truth.  That that suffering has a
cause is the second.  The truth of the cessation of suffering is the third, and the truth
of a path leading to that cessation is the fourth Noble Truth.

Hinayana - Lesser vehicle.  This refers to those teachings of the Buddha which act
chiefly as a cause for the complete cessation of the mental afflictions (kleshas) and
bring the state called "peace" or "liberation" or "passing from sorrow," in Sanskrit:
Nirvana.  The designation of "lesser" addresses itself to the type of practitioner, one
who possesses the strength to shoulder the responsibility of his own liberation, but
lacks the motivation to carry other beings to that goal.

karma - Means deeds or action and can be classified into three types: action which
results in happiness, action which results in suffering, and neutral action.  The doors
through which this action occurs are also three: action of body, of speech, and of
mind.

klesha - Mental affliction.  The broad scope of these mental afflictions is described
using the analogy of a tree.  There are six roots to this tree, the main root being the
ignorance which misunderstands one's true nature, similar to the western concept of
egotism.  The other five roots are hatred, desire, pride, doubt, and wrong view.  Close
to the tree's roots are twenty main limbs, the secondary mental afflictions.  The tree
has a total of 84,000 branches.

Lama - A being who functions as a carrier of the lineage of teaching that reaches back
in unbroken succession to Buddha Shakyamuni.  The Lama's principal quality is that
of leading disciples from the beginning of their quest all the way to the attainment of
Buddhahood.  Before leaving the earth Buddha said that he would appear in the form
of Lamas for those who would in the future desire to follow his teachings.

Madhyamika -The highest of the four schools of Buddhist philosophy.  It is literally
translated as, "the middle way."  This "middle way" avoids the two extremes of
nihilism and eternalism.

Mahayana - The great vehicle, producing the result of the fully completed state of a
Buddha.

mandala offering - A religious practice in which one offers a mental construction of
the wealth and good qualities of the whole universe to the object of worship.

mantra - Secret name or quintessential name.

Nirvana - The cessation of the obstacles brought by the mental afflictions (kleshas) or
the complete cessation of all obstacles.  Synonyms are: passing from sorrow, liberation,
freedom, and peace.

paramitas - Six activities a being undertakes to achieve Buddhahood after he has
generated Bodhisattva mind.

posture with seven characteristics -  This refers to instructions on good meditative
posture.  Specifically it describes how to position the legs, the hands, the back, the
mouth, the head, the eyes, and the shoulders.  The legs should be crossed comfortably. 
The hands are placed right over left with the palms facing upward.  The tips of the
thumbs are touching.  The back is kept perfectly vertical, like a stack of coins.  The
teeth and lips are neither tightly closed nor hanging open but in their natural
position.  The head is neither bent forward nor backwards, and to neither side.  The
eyes are focused gently in the area of the top of the nose and shoulders are kept even.


pratimoksha - One of the three types of vows which constitute the training of
morality, which is the basis for the trainings of concentration and wisdom.

samsara -  Cyclic existence.  The condition of having to take endless rebirths through
the force of one's karma and kleshas.

Sangha - The community of all Aryas.  Even though not all monks may necessarily
have attained the status of real Sangha, the practitioner should regard them as a visual
manifestation of the Sangha. 

seven-limb puja - Seven different ways of pleasing the object of worship.  In Guru
Yoga, verses II through VIII include these seven limbs.

shunyata - The lack of self-existence which all phenomena possess.

skandhas - This term means, literally, "heaps" or "aggregations."  The skandhas are five
classes of phenomena on which we ascribe the term "I" or "me"; they are groupings
whose sum total we regard as ourselves.  The first skandha is form and is divided into
ten: the five senses and the five objects of those senses.  For example, vision would be
one of the senses and a blue color would be its object.  The second skandha is feeling,
which can be divided into good, bad, or neutral.  The third skandha  is discrimination. 
Discrimination is the mental function that would allow us, for example, to separate in
our mind a cup from the table on which it was sitting.  The fourth skandha covers
forty-nine different mental functions: various states of mind, some of them basic and
ever-present, some constituting virtue, some constituting non-virtue, and so on.  The
fifth skandha is consciousness and is divided into six types: consciousness of each of
the five senses, and mind consciousness.

Sutra - The discourses of the Buddha, of an exoteric nature.

Tantra - The esoteric teachings of the Buddha.  To teach these, Buddha transmutes his
form to that of Vajradhara.

Triple Gem - Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the Buddha being the one perfectly free
of all obstacles, the Dharma being the actual cessations and the paths to achieve those
cessations, the Sangha being those who have achieved the path of the Aryas. 

twelve-limb life wheel - A drawing designed by Buddha himself to illustrate his
teaching of dependent origination.  The twelve limbs of dependent origination are
symbolized by twelve drawings around the rim of the wheel.  Inside the rim there are
six spokes and between the spokes are depicted the six realms of samsara (gods,
demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings).  At the hub of the wheel
there is a pig with the tails of a snake and a rooster in its mouth.  The pig symbolizes
ignorance, the deepest root of samsara.  The snake and the rooster symbolize hatred
and desire.  The whole wheel is in the clutches of Yama, the lord of death.

Tzongkapa -  A great Buddhist scholar, who was born in the fourteenth century in
Tibet.  Padmasambhava, Atisha, and Tzongkapa were of the same mental continuum. 
They appeared at different periods in the history of Tibet when the teaching of the
Buddha was in need of revitalization.  Tzongkapa founded the monastery of Ganden
near Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.

Vajra - Generally, a symbol of indestructibility or firmness.

Yoga, Guru Yoga - A practice which involves the focusing of body, speech, and mind
one-pointedly upon a Dharma object while putting forth effort.  In Guru Yoga the
Dharma object is the Guru.