THE ACTUAL PRACTICE OF VISUALISATION

THE ARISING OR DEVELOPMENT STAGE

At first the yogi should visualise the tutelary deity through the gradual steps till the whole body of the tutelary is completed. If the deity has many faces and arms the yogi may disregard the others and concentrate on visualising the two main arms and the main face.

There are two ways of visualising the tutelary deities body,Upwards from the feet to the head.Downwards from the head to the feet.

The deity should be visualised as a whole, clearly and vividly.

At first: Visualise the body in sketchy form, not in specific detail, but the body complete at once; this should be held softly and loosely without distraction ~ [it will however fluctuate - come and go (Akong Rinpoche)].

If any disturbing thought or diversified thought arises liable to cause the meditator to follow it, the meditator should be mindful and gently bring the mind back to the object of meditation. If the mind picture (visualisation) becomes unclear the yogi should freshen it by seeing it vividly until it becomes clear again. In the process of his meditation the yogi will have the following experiences.

The part of the deity he intensifies in the visualisation will appear clearly and vividly.

The part which no attention will not appear in the visualisation.

Finally, the mind picture, visualisation, will become so clear that he will think that not even the actual eye could see it better.

However to rest the mind stably on the clear picture, drowsiness and distraction have to be overcome. Throughout the period of meditation he must possess the power of concentration.

Having mastered these things, which does take some time, the yogi should then visualise the other faces, arms, adornments until all the other faces and adornments are complete and perfect. From then on after perfecting the main visualisation or mother deity the other deities should be visualised using the same process until eventually the yogi can picture clearly and vividly all the deities in the mandala and the objects in the Beyond the measure Palace, the Buddha Palace, general and specific all at once in perfect concentration.

NOW THE TEACHING OF THE TUTELARY PRIDE

Now the yogi should raise the Tutelary Pride and think to himself, "I am the Buddha So and So" and concentrate on this. If the vision is unclear, the yogi should freshen it again. In the beginning this meditation with effort and stress

is needed. Later on, the yogi will be able to maintain a stable feeling of the Tutelary Pride after the meditation in his daily activities. When the yogi reaches this stage his mental power of retaining the visualisation will be strong enough to withstand the fluctuating and will retain and maintain the Tutelary Pride between the meditation periods.

The visualisation practise and the Tutelary Pride Practice should be exercised alternately. Working on this superb meditation consisting of both deities and their dwellings, will eventually prevent the arising of the Samsaric visions, only the Superb Visions will appear in the yogis mind. The spontaneous Tutelary Pride - capable of maintaining itself in ALL fluctuating circumstances - is the cure which purifies the vulgar (or samsaric) attachments in the yogis mind.

When the yogi arises from his meditation whatever he sees - living beings or the natural world - he should think of as Buddhas and Buddhas dwellings. If he can stabilise this feeling he can attain the steadfast Samadhi. When he has reached this stage he is admitted to have purified the Common Visions through the practicing of Arising Yoga.

All living beings are the deities of the Mandala

According to the principal of Vajrayana, all manifestations are the mandala of heaven, all feelings and experiences are the great bliss, all thoughts are the uncreated. To follow and to identify this principle is the main function of the Arising Yoga. In the Arising Yoga the great bliss of the perfecting yoga, produced by the entering of life Prana into the central channel - is not found.

Never the less - since the practitioner has attained a very stable and clear visualisation of Yab Yum Buddha, he is able to unify wisdom and skill to stop wavering and fluctuating Bodhi-heart as symbolised in the male life force or semen and pad(me) which symbolises the stability of the union of the male and female forces; and he will experience a variety of blisses in Arising Yoga.

In short, the main objective and function of the Arising Yoga - the practise of visualising the mandala - is to ripen the yogi, to bring his consciousness forth to the realisation of the identity of Buddha and sentient beings.

During the practice of visualisation there are moments when we imagine the Jnana aspect of the deity coming into us and also moments when we imagine the blessing coming into us by way of the different sending out of lights and absorption of lights into oneself all of which will produce a special feeling within you, an inner experience and correspondence with this as will also happen through praying to the real sources of blessing. If you are practicing properly and really trying to accumulate good action and insight then, through the blessing from the practice the true quality of meditation will grow in you if it had not done before.

ARGAM Drinking waterPADAM Water to bathe feet YELLOW GoddessPUPE Flowers WHITE Goddess

DUPE Incense BLUE GoddessALOKEY Lights RED GoddessGENDAY Scented water GREEN GoddessNEWADAY Food YELLOW GoddessSHAPTA Music YELLOW Goddess

If you already had this quality of meditation within you it will become more clear and stronger - gradually. Hence the stage of visualisation is very important. It is what can make our understanding grow.

TENGA TULKU EASTER 86

THE STAGES OF VISUALISATION

The Vajrayana path is something which has to be practiced on the basis of receiving an initiation. After initiation you practice the development and completion stage of whatever deity is chosen. With regard to the different categories of beings the Buddha taught both Sutra and Tantra. You don't have to know all the teachings to follow the path, if you practice one teaching this is enough, you will be able to follow the path.

To begin any practice you first have to recite the refuge and Bodhicitta prayers, however this has to be done with full attention, reciting the words when your mind is somewhere else reduces the benefit, makes it less [1st 2 lines].

Imagine the Bodhisattvas in space before you giving refuge to yourself and others. You don't have to imagine them having a particular form, colour or to be holding specific objects, it is enough to think they are in front of you, in space.

When reciting the prayer for Bodhicitta, you should think that, in order that all beings are liberated I will do this practice [2nd 2 lines].

In Samye Ling the pujas are ones meditation practice, for instance Chenrezig and Amitabha is the evening puja. Meditation is not just to be done in retreat, a retreat just gives you more time, a longer time, it doesn't matter whether its practice on your own or with other people.

To really practice properly you should meditate on the precious human existence, impermanence, sufferings of Samsara and action and their consequences before you begin your practice, also, if you really want to practice Dharma properly. You think that the body you have now is very special as we have entered the Dharma and it will be very difficult to obtain in the future. Considering this carefully, you should be very diligent. Through contemplating death and impermanence you realise everything changes continually, everything dies and you should consider the fact of "When am I going to die?"

Through contemplating karma, actions and their consequences we will realise that all bad actions which are directed towards and harm others will come back to you, you should think in this way.

Through contemplating the viciousness of Samsara we will realise suffering. We can't see the suffering of Yidaks and the hells but we can see the suffering of animals etc. who are killed for food, fur and meat as well as the suffering of humans who become old and sick, who are dying etc. Through contemplating this you will wish to be free from the suffering and strive for liberation.

This is the basis or root of ALL practice.

Nowadays, people have great diligence when they first practice Dharma, then 3 or 4 years later think that this is not for me, go to do other things, to other teachers, change their way of life; there are many people like this. There are also people in retreat who think, this is not worth it, a long time is passing I am wasting my life away etc.

The reason for this kind of thinking is that they have not contemplated the 4 ways of changing the mind sufficiently. These preliminaries and the Ngöndro can be found in many texts and due to this they don't want to bother with them they want to practice the development and completion (parts) of the practice, not realising that they have no foundation for practice, not having the root, of the 4 ways of changing the mind to build on.

We all are practitioners here and hope that our practice will go well but for this to happen we must contemplate the 4 ways of changing the mind, this is the root of all practice, the basis for diligence. You should consider impermanence every day as well as the 4 ways of changing the mind and through the habituation of this a great interest will arise regarding Dharma, having great diligence will give rise to practice through which a lot of blessing will arise and qualities which will remove all uncertainty.

If you have the basis of refuge, the preliminaries and the Bodhicitta, and enter into the development and completion stages, rapid progress will be made.

The development or visualisation stage is meditation on the deities, peaceful and wrathful, holding different objects, having different colours, many arms etc. they all represent the Dharmakaya mind of the Buddha. Ultimately through Shinay and Lhatong, meditation on the true nature of the mind becomes possible, all the deities are contained in that, they arise from the ultimate nature of the mind. [If you do many practices then you meditate on the deities because doing is very difficult to do for a long time]. There are many Sadhanas, they describe the way to practice those visualisations and what to do. This meditation is the activity or work of the mind, not activity of body.

If you have an object you admire there will be a tendency to look at it again and again if however the object is removed or hidden and you wish to see it in front of you, you visualise it, create a mental picture of it. For this development stage, the image is sometimes clear or unclear, how it appears in front to you depends on the potential habit you develop for seeing the image.

You can develop this tendency by looking at a picture of the deity and if this is practiced for a long time, the picture can be removed and the mental image remain in your mind.

If you only look at the image for a short time then the result will be a weak or rough image or mental imprint because you have a weak tendency to practice this aspect visualising.

Through developing this aspect we pacify and eliminate the tendency we have for our own body.

ACTUAL PRACTICE OF VISUALISATION

If we don't practice the pacification of clinging to our body then, through this attachment, when suffering in the hells, we will feel our body to be cut up by swords etc. and through having this strong tendency another will appear and will be destroyed. As well as those illusory experiences in the hells we'll experience one of the 4 types of birth due to this clinging to, or tendency towards this body ie. birth through, heat, moisture, egg and miraculous instantaneous birth; through this we will be born in a body.

There are 4 ways of giving rise to the deity in Kye Rim, visualisation or development stage. The first is, COMPLETE IN AN INSTANT, eg. for Dorje Palmo one becomes Dorje Palmo in the space of instant, one thought. This is the same for all visualisations, any deity, you imagine them complete in an instant. This pacifies the tendency towards this instantaneous miraculous birth.

In some pujas, for example Chenrezig, first, above ones head a lotus and moon disc is imagined, then the syllable which transforms into Chenrezig.

This is called, the 3 developments or three stagesi Lotus and moonii Seed syllableiii Deity

This purifies the tendencies through being reborn through heat or warmth eg. if you have thread and leave it in water and keep it warm for a long time it will develop into an insect or worm. Also if you have leaves from trees and leave in a warm damp place for a long time then they will become insects. There are three factors required, warmth, moisture and consciousness. This type of practice purifies the tendency for birth through heat or warmth.

In Dorje Sempa practice, 1st lotus and moon seat, 1st Stage, white which transforms into a white vajra with a in the centre this again transforms into Dorje Sempa. This is Sadhana with 4 stages of visualisation which purifies the tendency to born from an egg.

4 aspects or stages:- White element from fatherRed element from motherConsciousness from bardoAnger and attachment

There is also the 5 stage visualisation process which is used for White TARA......................

1st: Oneself rests in emptiness2nd: from white lotus

from moon disc3rd: from (white)4th: white becomes lotus with white in its centre5th: Previous stage transforms into white TARA

This purifies the tendency for one to be reborn as a human being. The 1st stage, purifies the consciousness coming from the Bardo......resting in emptiness.

The 2nd stage, moon disc and lotus seat, represent the purification of the white element of the father and the red element from the mother joining together.

The 3rd stage, on the lotus and moon disc this purifies the white element from the father, the red element from the mother and the consciousness from the Bardo, all three together, hatred aversion and anger are purified through all three merging together, which is the 4th stage.

The 3rd stage: on the moon disc appears the syllable which purifies the union of the white element from the father, the red element from the mother and the consciousness from the Bardo which was caused by anger and attachment of the consciousness.

4th stage, the transforms into the lotus, which has a white at its centre; this corresponds to, having been conceived in the womb the body gradually grows, through all the stages of development in the womb, this 4th stage purifies this development of the body in the womb.

5th stage: this purifies the actual birth, from the womb, the seed syllable (symbol) transforms into the deity, in this case, white TARA.

This is called the practice of 5 purifications which primarily purifies the birth from a womb.

The results of all of these types of visualisation practice are the same from instantaneous to the 5 stage practise? This is all the development stage. They have the same power to pacify the clinging to and tendency of having a body.

After this there is the mantra and Dharini practice which transforms all ones bad karma and obscurations, the karmic Prana into wisdom Prana.

There then follows the dissolving of the visualisation, all the outer world and beings in it dissolve and melt into oneself as the Yidam deity, then oneself as the Yidam deity melts into the seed syllable in ones heart or or whatever

which dissolves and one rests in emptiness. At this point, on the meditation on emptiness, if you have time, you can, if you know how, do Samatha, Shinay or Vipassana meditation.

If you only wish to do Shinay or Vipassana meditation you don't have to do all the visualisation practices before hand.[If you wish to develop the Shinay and Vipassana meditation to]