either on a meditation cushion or on a chair, and begin the sadhana.
At the very beginning we should make sure that our mind is calm, peaceful, and free from conceptual distractions. Je Tsongkhapa once composed a text in which he asked a number of questions of Tibetan meditators. Later the first Panchen Lama wrote answers to these questions. One of Je Tsongkhapa’s questions was ‘What is the most important thing to do at the beginning of a meditation session?’ The Panchen Lama replied that we should begin by examining our mind. Sometimes the mere act of examining the mind, if it is done conscientiously, will pacify our distractions. At the beginning our mind is very much orientated towards external phenomena and we are preoccupied with worldly affairs, but by bringing our attention inwards to examine the mind it is possible that these conceptual distractions will cease.
We should sit quietly for a few moments, watching to see what kinds of mind are arising. If they are pure, virtuous minds we can proceed immediately with the sadhana. If on the other hand they are non-virtuous or worldly minds we should first practise breathing meditation to eliminate them. All minds depend upon inner winds. Pure minds depend upon pure winds and impure minds depend upon impure winds. If we eliminate our impure winds we will naturally pacify our impure conceptual minds, and if we then generate pure inner winds we will naturally generate pure minds. Therefore we begin by imagining that all our impure minds and impure winds assume the form of dark, black smoke within us. With a strong wish to eliminate these we exhale gently through the nostrils. As we do so, we imagine that all this black smoke rises from the bottom of our lungs, leaves through our nostrils, and disappears into space. We feel completely clean within. Then as we slowly breathe in, we imagine that we are inhaling all the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the form of pure, white light. This white light fills our body and mind and we feel completely pure. We repeat this two, three, or more times until our mind is completely pacified of all conceptual distractions and has become pure, happy, and single-pointed.
We practise breathing meditation at the beginning of a sadhana to eliminate impure minds and bring the mind to a neutral state. From that neutral state we can then easily generate a virtuous state of mind. If we do not first pacify our impure conceptual minds we will find it very difficult to generate pure minds. For example, if we wish to dye a piece of cloth that is already coloured, we will find it very difficult to achieve the colour we want without first bleaching the cloth. Pacifying the mind with breathing meditation is like bleaching cloth. If we use breathing meditation in this way, as a preliminary to more practical types of meditation, it is very helpful; but if we adopt breathing meditation as our main practice we will not attain any lasting results. We may temporarily pacify our mind and achieve a degree of inner peace, but unless we subsequently engage in practical meditations on the stages of the path – such as meditations on renunciation, compassion, bodhichitta, or emptiness – we will never bring about any lasting changes in our mind but will remain ordinary beings constantly prone to suffering.
Once we have brought our mind to a calm and neutral state we then need to generate an especially virtuous state of mind. This is done in association with the first verse of the sadhana:
With a perfectly pure mind of great virtue,
I and all mother sentient beings as extensive as space,
From now until we attain the essence of enlightenment,
Go for refuge to the Guru and Three Precious Jewels.
This verse reveals the causes of going for refuge, the way to go for refuge, and the objects of refuge. The causes of going for refuge are revealed by the first line. In general these are renunciation, great compassion, and faith in the Guru and Three Jewels. Because Offering to the Spiritual Guide is a Highest Yoga Tantra practice, it is particularly important to emphasize the second cause, great compassion.
We begin by briefly generating a mind of renunciation through recalling the faults of samsara. We need to be firmly convinced that the so-called pleasures of samsara are thoroughly deceptive and finally lead only to more suffering. If we find this difficult we should briefly contemplate death. No matter how many transient pleasures we may enjoy in this life, sooner or later we will have to die. At that time all the pleasures of this life will amount to nothing; they will just be vague memories, like a pleasant dream that has passed. All that remains at death are the results of our own actions, and all we can take with us are these karmic imprints. If we have used this life to create virtuous karma we will experience happiness in the next life, but if we have created negative karma we will have to experience suffering by taking rebirth in one of the lower realms. Moreover, if we do not attain liberation in this life we will have to continue taking uncontrolled rebirths in samsara where there is no real happiness but only suffering and dissatisfaction. Thinking like this, we should try to generate fear of the sufferings of samsara in general and of the lower realms in particular. In this way we generate a mind of renunciation.
We generate renunciation by contemplating our own suffering. If on the basis of this we then turn our attention to others’ suffering, we will naturally develop compassion. We should think:
I am only one but others are countless. All these countless living beings have been my kind mother in previous lives. They are all trapped within this vicious cycle of uncontrolled death and rebirth, experiencing suffering in life after life.
We contemplate in this way until we find the suffering of others unbearable, and then we firmly resolve to do whatever needs to be done to free them from their suffering. This is the mind of great compassion.
Without losing this motivation, we then consider how we can free mother sentient beings from their suffering. We realize that only the Guru and the Three Jewels have the power to protect us. In this way we generate a mind of faith, the third cause of going for refuge.
In the root text it says ‘With a perfectly pure mind of great virtue’. Here, ‘mind of great virtue’ refers primarily to the motivation of great compassion combined with faith in the Guru and Three Jewels. The words ‘perfectly pure’ indicate that this motivation is free from self-grasping and self-cherishing. All virtuous minds and virtuous actions are pure to some extent, but they are only perfectly pure if they are completely free from contamination by self-grasping and self-cherishing. Buddha said that if we engage in virtue with a mind polluted by self-grasping or self-cherishing it is like eating delicious food that has been laced with poison. If we were to eat such food our initial experience would be one of pleasure, but this would soon give way to suffering as the poison took effect. In the same way, the effect of contaminated virtue is rebirth in one of the higher realms of samsara as a human or god, but, although the initial effect is good fortune, the long-term effect is all the suffering and misery of another rebirth in samsara. This point is explained by Chandrakirti in the second chapter of Guide to the Middle Way.
The next two lines of the root text reveal the way to go for refuge. We go for refuge not merely to seek protection for ourself, but to free all sentient beings from their suffering. We imagine ourself surrounded by all mother sentient beings, a vast assembly as extensive as space, and then lead them in the practice of going for refuge. For auspiciousness we imagine all these beings in human form, but with compassion we remember that in reality each one of them is still experiencing the sufferings of their particular realm. Furthermore, we do not go for refuge just for a short time, but continuously, until we and all other living beings have attained the essence of great enlightenment. If we think like this it will strengthen our practice of refuge. Otherwise we may remember to go for refuge when we are experiencing manifest difficulties, but at other times complacency may get the better of us and we will allow our refuge to degenerate.
The last line of this verse reveals the objects of refuge, the Guru and Three Jewels. According to Offering to the Spiritual Guide, the principal object of refuge is Je Tsongkhapa, the Unification of Three Holy Beings, or Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang. Thus, according to this sadhana, we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Je Tsongkhapa who has Buddha
