Khen Rinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsering, abbot of Sera Mey monastery, guides us through His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s sadhana, The Inseparability of the Spiritual Master and Avalokitashvara. Written by His Holiness, this text is a perfect introduction to tantric practice.
What is the purpose of this practice? Geshe la reminds us, it is to develop great compassion. And this is where we begin the actual text as written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Geshe la guides us in how to purify the place we are in, and the offerings we make. We don’t have to be too rigid with ourselves, there doesn’t need to be a prescribed order in the offerings we make, most important is that it comes from our heart. And explaining the mantra, Geshe la says the best purification is understanding the actual nature of the offerings. So here we have the essence of tantra, emptiness and bodhicitta, straight from our sutrayana studies.
At this point Geshe la gives an oral transmission of the introduction and verses so far. Once again we will be lucky enough to receive an oral transmission of the practice text we are studying.
To help us with what we really need to be doing in our visualisation, at this point the Front Generation, Geshe la reads A Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End of Practice by Lama Tsongkhapa. Here we see the qualities of a qualified teacher, qualities we can bring to the spiritual master in front of us. Starting with the Commitment Being, Geshe unpacks and explains the ‘three stacks’ of deities. What is meant by “in the space” before us? Geshe la explains.
This promises to be a detailed commentary and teaching on this sadhana. We hope very much you can join us over the next five Sundays.
With best wishes,
The Admin Team
You can find details of upcoming classes as well as the text available for download here.
https://foundationsofbuddhistthought.org/