extensive and condensed. The extensive practice is done according to the great texts of Lamrim and Lojong as mentioned above.
The condensed practice is done according to the Prayer of the Stages of the Path, or the prayers requesting the blessings of the stages of the path in Offering to the Spiritual Guide, or the request prayer of the stages of the path of both Sutra and Tantra in The Hundreds of Deities of the Joyful Land According to Highest Yoga Tantra: the Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa as a Preliminary Practice for Mahamudra.
We make these requests while doing analytical meditation on Lamrim, Lojong, generation stage and completion stage. For example, we can understand the condensed way of practising bodhichitta from the verse in Offering to the Spiritual Guide:
For the sake of all mother sentient beings,
I shall become the Guru-Deity,
And then lead every sentient being
To the Guru-Deity’s supreme state.
This is the way to generate bodhichitta according to Highest Yoga Tantra. In the line, ‘I shall become the Guru-Deity,’ the Guru-Deity is our personal Guru-Deity. For modern Kadampa practitioners their Guru-Deity is Guru Heruka. This is because their principal Highest Yoga Tantra practice is the practice of Heruka Father and Mother. Through contemplating the meaning of the verse above, we should generate the mind of bodhichitta according to Highest Yoga Tantra and meditate on it.
THE SECOND GREAT PRELIMINARY GUIDE, TRAINING IN PURIFICATION PRACTICE, THE GATEWAY TO PURIFYING NON-VIRTUOUS ACTIONS AND OBSTRUCTIONS
As a result of the non-virtuous actions of rejecting the value of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in previous lives, animals have no opportunity to listen to or practise Dharma.
Although we humans have such an opportunity, the vast majority of us have no interest in Dharma; and for those who do have some interest, when they listen to Dharma they experience difficulty in understanding the meaning, when they contemplate they do not develop joy, and when they meditate they do not develop any realizations. They experience so many outer and inner obstacles that they are unable to practise Dharma purely. These are also the results of the non-virtuous actions of rejecting the value of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in their previous lives.
Non-virtuous actions are the main causes of all our suffering in this life and countless future lives; and especially they are the main obstacles to attaining Dharma realizations. Therefore we definitely need to purify them through purification practice. Buddha taught many different methods to purify non-virtuous actions, downfalls and broken commitments, but the supreme method is the practice of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva. This practice is a scientific method to purify our mind and transform it from an impure mind into a pure mind using Tantric technology.
All Buddhas specifically appear in the form of Vajrasattva to purify the minds of living beings. For this reason the practice of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva is superior to other purification practices. We should practise the meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva by following the sadhana, the ritual prayer for the attainment of Vajrasattva. A simple, essential practice for the attainment of Vajrasattva can be found here.
In this purification practice it is most important to practise sincerely the four opponent powers, which are the power of regret, the power of reliance, the power of the opponent force and the power of promise. Detailed explanations of these can be found in the books Joyful Path of Good Fortune and The Bodhisattva Vow.
THE THIRD GREAT PRELIMINARY GUIDE, TRAINING IN THE PRACTICE OF THE MANDALA OFFERING, THE GATEWAY TO ACCUMULATING THE COLLECTION OF MERIT AND ATTAINING AN ENLIGHTENED PURE LAND
In general, the practice of accumulating the collection of merit is very extensive. However, in this context there is great meaning in giving a separate explanation of the practice of making mandala offerings. Here, ‘mandala’ means a Pure Land of Buddha generated through the power of correct imagination.
The practice of the mandala offering is a scientific method to attain the Pure Land of a Buddha. It contains the practice of the four complete purities mentioned in Tantric teachings – the complete purities of worlds, body, enjoyments and activities. For qualified practitioners this practice of the mandala offering is very profound and powerful, and attainments are achieved quickly. For this reason, to show an example to others, Je Tsongkhapa made offering the mandala one of his principal practices.
How do we offer the mandala? We stop our appearance of impure worlds, their inhabitants and enjoyments through correct imagination, and believe that every appearance of worlds, their inhabitants and enjoyments appears as the worlds, inhabitants and enjoyments of a Buddha Land. In this way we generate a new Pure Land of Buddha through our correct imagination, and we offer this new Pure Land of Buddha to the assembly of Deities of the Guru-Deity. The principal object of offering, the Guru-Deity, is Guru Heruka. He is also our Spiritual Guide, Je Tsongkhapa and Buddha Shakyamuni, and is therefore called ‘Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka’.
In short, offering the mandala is offering a Pure Land generated through the power of correct imagination. There is no difference between offering a Pure Land generated through the power of correct imagination and offering an actual Pure Land – both are mere appearance to the mind. If we have a pure mind both exist, and if we do not have a pure mind neither exists.
It is said that a person who has strong faith who practises Tantra continuously with correct imagination can accomplish Tantric realizations easily. Sometimes we see people who have faith who externally appear to be dull and foolish and not to know much, but who in fact have achieved high Tantric realizations through the force of great faith and imagination. The Kadampa Geshe Jayulwa for example, spent all his time in the service of his Spiritual Guide and did not have time to listen to Dharma extensively or to meditate, but his practices of faith and correct imagination were extremely powerful and as a result he attained high realizations. This was widely known among the scholars of the time.
There is no such thing as a Pure Land that exists from the side of the object; the Pure Land is merely an appearance to a pure mind. Equally, there is no such thing as an impure world that exists from its own side; an impure world is merely an appearance to an impure mind.
If our mind is impure we are an impure being, and if our mind is pure we are a pure being. In Ornament for Clear Realization, Buddha Maitreya says:
Impure worlds develop because living beings are impure. This proves that we can accomplish a pure world, or Pure Land of Buddha, by becoming a pure being ourself.
This clearly shows that if we really want to be born in a Pure Land we must purify our mind and make it pure and clean. Every day we clean our body regarding this as important, but how much more important is it to make our mind clean and pure so that we will experience everything as pure, including the world?
How do we accomplish a Buddha’s Pure Land? Through the power of faith and correct imagination we stop all our appearances of an impure animate and inanimate world, and generate all our appearances as a pure animate and inanimate world. If we meditate on this generation continually, then through this practice our mind will become pure and so we will become a pure being, and in this way we will be able to attain a Buddha’s Pure Land.
The practice of attaining a Buddha’s Pure Land just explained is included in the practice of offering the mandala. If we are born in a Buddha’s Pure Land in dependence upon this practice, it is almost no different from becoming a Buddha for one’s own purpose.
An extensive general explanation of how to offer the mandala can be understood from the clear explanations in Lamrim texts.
THE FOURTH GREAT PRELIMINARY GUIDE, TRAINING
