Advice to a YAMANTAKA Initiate

19 Responses to Advice to a YAMANTAKA Initiate

1. 

   Jan Tewi on Mar 13, 2011 at 6:21 am

   I have not yet done the preliminary practices. Would it be better to wait, or to go now, while we have the opportunity to receive this intiation from HHDL?

   Reply
   • 

     tsemtulku on Mar 13, 2011 at 11:10 am

     His Holiness is very sacred no doubt, but if you are not ready, rushing it does not gain benefits. Being prepared and receiving the initiation when you are ready both creates merits to increase the lama’s life and you gain insight/attainments.

     Reply
     • 

       Jan Tewi on Mar 13, 2011 at 6:22 pm

       Thank you, Rinpoche. I understand, and will do as you suggest. May you both have long lives!

       Reply
2. 

   Wangmo Gyeltsen on Mar 13, 2011 at 9:32 pm

   Dear Rinpoche,

   Much appreciate your word of advice for Yamantaka practice. I’m practicing Vajra Yogini, and will receive the Yamantaka Initiation from HHDL on May 1,2011. Since I do practice on Vajra Yogini every night, my question is that when should I practice Yamantaka?, before or after doing my daily for Vajra Yogini.

   Thank you,

   Wangmo

   Reply
   • 

     tsemtulku on Mar 13, 2011 at 10:30 pm

     Dear Wangmo,

     When you do Yamantaka does not matter. You can do before or after Vajra Yogini…It is all ok. TR

     Reply
3. 

   Jnaseh on Mar 13, 2011 at 10:37 pm

   Dear Rinpoche,
   Thank you for answering this question if you have a free moment and for posting the teaching you shared.

   In regards to “contemplating receiving the Yamantaka initiation” (or others initiations)—what guidelines would you highlight in determining if one is READY for the next step of initiation? Are there certain practices that must have been completed, integrated already such as the preliminaries as posted earlier?

   Many many many thanks for being accessible like this, through your postings and active presence online.

   My gratitude,
   Jnaseh
   San Diego, California

   Reply
4. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:20 am

   Dear Melvin, I am happy to hear your response. I do not know you but assume you are ready… I wish you so much luck and good results. If you have practiced the basic/foundations and are ready for Yamantaka, that is rejoice time. Truly. Afe…r you take Yamantaka, go all the way…you don’t need other initiations..Just go all the way, be humble and quiet and don’t reveal you practice Yamantaka..do it continuously…study up on the bodhisattva/tantric vows before hand. Master them and after initiation, hold them without any excuses, but treasure them. Better to give up everything, except your vows. After taking the vows, YOU CANNOT GIVE THEM BACK..REMEMBER THAT. They are not like vinaya vows, you can give back. The vows are the roots of attainments. If you break and do not repair, they will generate karma that will come back to you to practice wrongly, have wrong views, even generate more delusions. Must hold the vows well.
   Again I wish you great fortune. May we come under Yamantaka’s sway of emptiness, Tsem Rinpoche

   Reply
5. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:20 am

   PS. it’s not the vows that come back to give you delusions, it is that you broke your promise and everyday your promise is broken generates negative karma. You break them due to delusions. So results resemble causes. Why would you break you…r vows? Laziness, no training, justifications, attachments. Hence preparing before tantra is more crucial than the actual tantric practice. People have the mistaken idea tantra is the quick path if your full of delusions and the quick solution out of samsara. It is if you are ready. It isn’t if you are not.

   Reply
6. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:21 am

   If you are really committed to tantric practice and to gain attainments in this day and age, you must stop eating meat immediately. Can you do that everyone? If you cannot, check if you have attained anything from your practice so far.Do no…t talk of higher practices, see if you have mastered the ‘lower’ practices. If you find the lower practices, challenging your mind, transforming your attitudes, and generating the mind to work for others difficult, then tantra should wait….this is my general thinking from 20 years of teaching and answering questions. Tantra will add to your heap of guilt, commitments that you are not ready for and list of things you find difficult to do, but stuck with it…

   Reply
7. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:21 am

   Yamantaka, Heruka, Vajra Yogini, Guhyasamaja, Kalacakra, Gyelwa Gyatso, Hevajra, Cittamani, etc are like rocket ships…you can go bust very fast and easy if you don’t know how to pilot one. How can one who only knows how to drive a car, wi…th no training pilot a rocket ship? You don’t learn to pilot while your in the rocket ship flying and heading to where? Do all preliminary practices, studies, and ground your mind first. Master the Lam Rim by practice and stable mind not dry scholarly knowledge. Then when you enter tantra, the rocket ship takes you beyond what you can never have imagined.

   Reply
8. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 9:27 am

   As a Vajrayana practitioner, do you not partake of meat at vajra feasts? I am a great admirer of the late Kalu Rinpoche. Now in Sukumvati. He was very clear on this subject. On page 124-125 in his book, “Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism”,… he goes through the root Vajrayana downfalls. Let me please share downfall #13: “The thirteen root downfall concerns our attitude and approach to tantric practice and tantric ritual. If we are participating in a ganachakra or vajra feast, where ritual use of meat and alcohol is made, and we abstain from one of the other of these on the grounds that it is impure or that it is contrary to our convictions and principles, then we have failed to appreciate the view of tantra which attempts to transcend purity and impurity, attempts to transcend dualistic thinking, and we have failed to appreciate and take part in the spirit of that tantric transformation process. To indulge in this kind of superficial, dualistic clinging to appearances during the course of a tantric ritual is to commit the 13th root downfall and to go against the spirit of our tantric practice.”–(from a facebook comments post)

   During tantric rituals, a tiny bit of meat, must be had for the greater view and greater good..which is to overcome clinging…but what I am talking about is daily consumption of meat…steaks, fried chicken, pork chops, leg of lamb, turtle soup, sharksfin, duck, rabbit stew, frog legs, clams, seafood chowder, sushi, and all the other animals slaughtered daily for our taste buds…. If we give up all meat eating and meat consumption then let’s talk about tsok meat. HH Kyabje Zong Rinpoche mentioned in Los Angeles, we can take some tsampa and put a few drops of alcohol on it in place of meat when we cannot get it for tsok…..that can be used for meat. In Tibet Kyabje Zong Rinpoche would do that. Tsem Rinpoche

   Reply
9. 

   tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 10:25 am

   Let me share a story: When I was Los Angeles, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was going to give a Yamantaka initiation. I did not want to go. I did not want another practice or sadhana. I had many already. So while I was cleaning the kitchen in the centre (30 mins before the initiation) Geshe-La came down and said to me see you inside the gompa. I was like, I am not going please. Geshe-la said to me yes you are.I was like no I am not. I already had around 3 hours of sadhanas per day to do. I said to him I didn’t get a chance to check out Yamantaka and if it suits me, he said to me,YOUR TEACHER CHECKED IT OUT (meaning Geshe-la himself) so I dont have to check it…30 mins later I was in the gompa getting the initiation and dreading it…I though OH NO, more commitment/sadhanas as I was working two jobs and was around 18 years old at the time…as I listened to the explanantion of Yamantaka by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, deep faith developed in me for the Yamantaka practice.
   My teacher really was necessary in so many of my dharma practices, moves and advancements in the last 30 years.. Without my teacher it would be much much much slower I realized. At the advice of His Holiness Dalai Lama when I met Him personally, I did a long Yamantaka retreat with fire puja. It made a huge difference in my memory, analysis, and speed of thougth. I really noticed it among other things. Tsem Rinpoche

   Reply
10. 

    tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Why teach the dharma when no one wishes to transform. You only offend them, make them angry, and because they can’t face themselves, become enemies with you. These days, one of the best ways to make enemies, is to teach others dharma. So teaching less dharma is better during these times…transformation creates the causes for more dharma. Making excuses creates the causes for dharma teachings to stop….

    Reply
    • 

      Mihai on Mar 15, 2011 at 9:42 am

      Dearest Rinpoche,
      If I remember well, a story says that even Avalokitesvara lost hope at a given moment. But there are many that really want to transform and truly make a sustained effort to do so. They might not come out and boast in the open about that but they are surely out there and – among other things – learning from you as well. For the benefit of all sentient beings I supplicate you to please keep teaching even when there is no evident result. There are also many other types of beings aside from humans that benefit when the Holy Dharma is expounded. I remember you saying: “The guru comes back from the bardo to teach you and you don’t show up?” Well, we are here; it is just that we take the back seats in the Dharma hall so is hard to see us so far from you. But we see and hear you. May you have a long life and your dharma activities spread far and wide. May all beings benefit.

      Reply
11. 

    tsemtulku on Mar 14, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Why teach the dharma when no one wishes to transform. You only offend them, make them angry, and because they can’t face themselves, become enemies with you. Or they avoid you, or just run away….These days, one of the best ways to make enemies, is to teach others dharma. So teaching less dharma is better during these times…it’s sad, but true…transformation creates the causes for more dharma. Making excuses creates the causes for dharma teachings to fade and end….Buddha mentioned the Dharma will be destroyed by those on the inside (Buddhists), not from the outside….Nothing on the outside can destroy the Dharma. If you examine inside, how many teachings have you received yet not put into practice or ignored..isn’t that destroying the Dharma. You can reverse that of course….up to you…Tsem Rinpoche

    Reply
12. 

    tsemtulku on Mar 17, 2011 at 3:30 am

    In everything we do, there is positive and negative effects due to the nature of our existence. It is 100% correct you don’t eat meat. HH the Dalai Lama, the highest authority within Tibetan Buddhism recommends we do not eat meat, so that is all we need to remember. Buddha said, we should not lie, or get attached to drinking, singing, dancing, intimacies,entertainments and that we should spend our energies to become enlightened. Are we doing all die and not just the meat part?? People tend to pick what is convenient from the Buddha’s teachings to suit themselves. If we are going to follow Buddha’s teachings or quote, we may ask are you following everything Buddha says? If you are not, then rejoice when others follow the best they can and as much as they can. Since it is the right path for 21st century Buddhists to follow the no meat path, let’s do it. We have so much variety of food. Let’s eat the no meat diet and get on with our practice and basically compassionately go passed the criticisms. It is very simple, do not kill. So hence animals will not die in front of you to eat them…There is no good karma in eating meat..full stop, but definitely there is good karma refraining from eat. Many of the tantras when engaged in the practice prohibit meat as taught by Vajradhara. Many rituals we do in the great Monasteries prohibit meat so the rituals are more effective…..Many who are not monks or not living in the monasteries would never understand that. Reading from books, net or from dharma centres would never be the same as in the monastery. Again, eating meat does not gather good merits for our spiritual practice, avoiding does. Listen to some of wonderful Tenzin Palmo’s views on not eating meat. She is the great yogini who meditated for the longest time in the mountains.TR

    Reply
    • 

      Martha on Apr 27, 2011 at 11:38 pm

      Many of the great Tibetan monastic teachers eat meat, including HH the Dalai Lama himself. He tried being vegetarian and got sick, so he then ate meat again. Venerable Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche ate meat. It was such a principal part of the Tibetan diet in earlier days, that is just how it was. What I have heard HH the Dalai Lama say about meat is that it is good to be a vegetarian if possible, but if it is harmful to your health then it is all right to eat meat.

      Reply
13. 

    Martha on Apr 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche, I am going to the initiation on May 1, but thought that I needed to understand more about the full meaning of the deity and the practice. Your explanation and advice are very helpful. I feel so fortunate to have found you and this teaching. Thanks again.

    Reply
14. 

    Ian de la Rosa on Feb 1, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    Thanks for the Yamantaka videos.

    Reply