At the time of death, our dwelling place is of no use to us. Even if it is a measureless palace in the god realms, we will have to leave it behind and depart. We might hide somewhere impregnable, but there is nowhere that can help us, as we read in the Vinaya scriptures:

Wherever one is, there is nowhere
That is not struck by death:
Neither in the air, nor yet in the ocean,
Neither in the gods’ abodes, nor even in a hidden valley.

The wealth we have accumulated will not help. The gods’ precious attributes and possessions, the universal monarch’s dominion, and the treasuries of the rich will all have to be left behind, as the Vinaya scriptures explain:

When a tree falls down,
What use are the twigs and leaves?
Likewise, when a person dies,
What use are possessions?

Food, clothes, and the other things we enjoy will not help. The gods’ sweet nectar, their finest clothes of five-colored silk, the most delicious human foods “with a hundred tastes,” the finest satin and cotton — in short, the whole variety of beautiful forms, pleasant sounds, sweet scents, delicious tastes, and stuff that is soft to touch—none of these will help us when we die. As we find in the Sutra of Extensive Play, Constantly these beings are caught and snared By lovely forms and beautiful sounds, sweet smells, The most delicious tastes, delightful sensations, and death.

Like a monkey caught in a hunter’s net, To those who delight in the senses much harm will come, With fear, with constant enmity and afflictive emotions, Like a sword’s sharp edge and the leaves of a poisonous plant. And in The Way of the Bodhisattva we read:

Though we be rich in worldly goods,
Delighting in our wealth for many years,
Despoiled and stripped as though by thieves,
We must go naked and with empty hands.

- Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom - Shambhala Publications

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156399828022928&set=gm.1149461771875650&type=3&theater&ifg=1

https://dudjomtersarngondro.com/2018/10/01/samaya-continued/

Because all vajra brothers and vajra sisters are bound
by a single samaya to be our companions on the path to enlightenment,
we must abandon the reverse views of anger and malice toward each other
and have the pure view of seeing each other as male and female wisdom deities.

༄། དམ་ཚིག་གཅིག་གིས་བསྡུས་པའི་མཆེད་ལྕམ་རྣམས། །

     བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་ལམ་གྱི་གྲོགས་ཡིན་ལས། །

     ཞེ་སྡང་འཁུ་སེམས་ལོག་ལྟ་སྤང་ནས་ཀྱང་། །

     ལྷ་དང་ལྷ་མོར་མཐོང་བའི་དག་སྣང་དགོས། །  །།

A Concise Heart Advice of His Holniess Dudjom Rinpoche

gateway A.

When the vajradhara Lord of Mysteries had finished speaking thus, the World-honored One addressed him, saying, “Excellent, excellent, Lord of Mysteries! It is indeed excellent that you have asked the Tathāgata about this matter. You should listen attentively and consider it carefully as I now explain.”

The Lord of Mysteries said, “So be it, World-honored One. I am eager to listen.”

The Buddha addressed the Lord of Mysteries, [saying,] “One achieves accomplishment by means of the letter-gateway A. Either in a place inhabited by monks, or inside a mountain cave, or in a clean chamber one places the letter A on all one’s limbs and recites three lakṣa [times]. Then at the full of the moon one uses everything one has to make offerings until the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, Vajradhara (i.e., Vajrapāṇi), and so on or other holy divinities appear before one and caress one’s head, exclaiming, ‘Excellent, practitioner!’ One should [then] bow down, make obeisance, and offer up argha water, whereupon one will achieve the samādhi of not forgetting the bodhi-mind. Again, if one repeatedly recites it with such lightness of body and mind, one will obtain purity of mind and purity of body wherever one is born. If one places [the letter A] on one’s ear and recites it, one will obtain purity of the organ of hearing. If one perfoms exhalation and inhalation with the letter-gateway A, meditating three times [daily], and if the practitioner is then able to maintain this, he will be longevous and live in the world for long eons. If he wishes to be loved and respected by a rāja (king) and so on, then he makes the person who is to be won over into the letter-gateway Ha, and giving him a padma flower and himself holding a śaṅkha, they look at each other, whereupon they will engender joy.”

--THE VAIROCANĀBHISAṂBODHI SUTRA

Tashi Zegye (བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) are eight auspicious items which are associated with the different events in the life of the historical Buddha.

Tashi Zegye (བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་) are eight auspicious items which are associated with the different events in the life of the historical Buddha.

They were offered to the Buddha at different points of his life and blessed by him as sacred substances which bring auspiciousness.

Like the eight auspicious signs, the eight substances also have a pre-Buddhist prototype but in Buddhism, they are sometimes seen as symbols of the Noble Eightfold Path.

In the Vajrayāna tradition, they are personified as eight offering goddesses.

1. The White Conch Shell (དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་)
2. The Nutritious Yogurt (བཅུད་ལྡན་ཞོ་དཀར་)
3. The Durva Grass (རྩ་མཆོག་དུར་བ་)
4. The Bilva Fruit (ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལ་བ་)
5. The Vermillion Powder (ཚོན་མཆོག་ལི་ཁྲི་)
6. The Clear Mirror (གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་)
7. The Giwang Medicine (སྨན་མཆོག་གིཝང་)
8. The Mustard Seed (ཡུངས་འབྲུ་དཀར་པོ་)

The eight substances are offered to generate auspiciousness during important Dharma events.

The White Conch Shell (དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་)

After the Buddha experienced the profound and blissful nature of enlightenment, he remained reclusive in the forest for seven weeks fearing that no one would be able to understand and share his experience.

The celestial king Indra offered the Buddha a white conch shell spiraling clockwise and asked him to share his experience and teach the dharma.

The Buddha blessed the conch shell as a symbol of the resounding words of Dharma.

The Nutritious Yogurt (བཅུད་ལྡན་ཞོ་དཀར་)

When the Buddha stopped six years of mortification, the cowherd girl Sujata offered him the condensed yogurt which revived the Buddha’s physical health and splendour.

The Buddha blessed yogurt as a sacred nutritious substance. He used this to avoid the extreme of physical mortification, just as he avoided self-indulgence by renouncing his palace life.

It is one of the “three white food” mentioned in Indian culture alongside milk and ghee.

The Durva Grass (རྩ་མཆོག་དུར་བ་)

As the Buddha approached the Bodhi tree to sit under it in meditation, the grass cutter Maṅgala offered him durva grass, which is considered special in Indian culture.

The Buddha sat on the grass and practised meditation through which he reached enlightenment.

The durva grass, which some identify with kusha, is blessed as a sacred substance and symbolizes the adamantine seat and stability.

The kusha grass is used for sleeping on in some tantric rituals.

The Bilva Fruit (ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལ་བ་)

The bilva or bael fruit has a very sacred place even in the pre-Buddhist Indian culture for its medicinal value and spiritual origin in Vedic mythology. 

The celestial overlord Brahma is said to have offered the fruit to the Buddha. 

In some accounts, a tree goddess is said to have offered this fruit to the Buddha when he was meditating under a tree as a young prince. 

The fruit was blessed by the Buddha as an auspicious substance.

The Vermillion Powder (ཚོན་མཆོག་ལི་ཁྲི་)

The vermillion or sindhura powder of cinnabar or minium having orange-red colour is widely used in ancient Indian culture.

It represents love and passion and is a substance for magnetizing activities.

The Brahmin (or naga) named Jyotisharaja is said to have offered the vermillion to the Buddha and the Buddha blessed it as a sacred substance.

The Clear Mirror (གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་)

Being an open and pure object which reflects all things indifferently, the mirror represents the open, luminous and empty nature of the mind in which all empirical experiences are reflected naturally without distortion.

The offering goddess Prabhavati is said to have offered a mirror to the Buddha who blessed it as a sacred symbol of the enlightened mind.

The Giwang Medicine (སྨན་མཆོག་གིཝང་)

Giwang or bezoar of animals, particularly of an elephant, is considered to have a high medicinal value to cure many diseases and poisoning.

The elephant Sasrung or Norkyong is said to have offered bezoar to the Buddha who blessed it as a sacred substance with a power to heal and stimulate supramundane power.

The Mustard Seed (ཡུངས་འབྲུ་དཀར་པོ་)

Mustard seeds in addition to being an important household item particularly for producing oil is known for their sacred power to alleviate problems and annihilate evil forces.

Vajrapani is said to have offered the mustard seeds to the Buddha, who blessed it as a sacred substance to get rid of negative energies and exorcize evil forces.

It is widely used in tantric rituals of exorcism and subjugation.

I just spent several hours blocking most of the annoying, passive-aggressive, envious, mostly talentless and zero-wisdom, overwhelmingly overtly left-wing Western Buddhists I met over the last 10 years in India and Nepal. Feels very liberating. It's time to stop being Mr. Nice Guy and set our boundaries. These people will never do anything for us, and are always waiting in ambush. Some of them would probably kill me if they had the chance. They're cultish and stingy and closed-minded as hell. I should have cut most of them off 4-8 years ago. Tibetans are mostly cool, but a whole lot of those Western Buddhists are a very misguided, egotistical and uncompassionate bunch, to say the least. The politics is more indicative of their neurosis than the cause of it though. Fucked up society, what can you say, Buddhism won't fix their problems because they don't even understand it or practice it, it's really better to keep a polite distance, and be extremely discerning...

Erick T.

FOUR YOGAS OF MAHAMUDRA via TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE

FOUR YOGAS OF MAHAMUDRA

THUBTEN KWAY·FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE

The Four Yogas of Mahamudra are called One-Pointedness, Simplicity, One Taste, and Nonmeditation. The stage of fruition is realized when the dharmakaya throne of nonmeditation is attained.

One-pointedness, the first yoga of Mahamudra, has three levels: lesser, medium, and greater. One-pointedness, for the most part, consist of shamatha and the gradual progression through the stages of shamatha with support, and without support, and finally to the shamatha that delights the Tathagatas. During the process fixation gradually diminishes.

The next stage, Simplicity, basically means non-fixation. During the three levels lesser, medium and greater Simplicity, fixation falls more and more apart, While One-pointedness is mainly shamatha, Simplicity emphasizes vipashyana.

One Taste is the state of mind in which shamatha and vipashyana is united. Appearance and mind arise as one taste. One does not need to confine appearances to being there and consciousness to being here, but the dualistic fixation of appearance and mind mingle into one taste in the space of nonduality.

Dualistic concepts such as good and bad, pure and impure, pleasure and pain, existence and nonexistence, object to be accepted and rejected, adopted or avoided, as well as hope and fear: everything mingle as one taste, the royal seat of dharmakaya.

At this level there still remain some sense of enjoying the spectacle of one nature, one taste, but at the fourth stage, Nonmeditation, even subtle concepts of watcher and something watched, meditator and object of meditation, are dissolved within the space free from mental constructs. Thus, the Dharmakaya Throne of Nonmeditation is attained. Dzogchen calls this stage the exhaustion of phenomena beyond concepts. Nothing needs to be meditated upon or cultivated; that is Dharmakaya.

At the time of One-pointedness don't fixate. During Simplicity don't fall into extremes. Don't cling to the taste of One Taste. Nonmeditation transcends conceptual mind.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/thubten-kway/four-yogas-of-mahamudra/10217593973547002/

sept 6 2018 via https://buddha-nature.com/2018/09/06/the-dhara%E1%B9%87i-for-seeing-dreams-of-vajrapa%E1%B9%87i/

The Dhāraṇī for Seeing Dreams (of Vajrapāṇi)

The Dhāraṇī for Seeing Dreams (of Vajrapāṇi)

རྨི་ལམ་མཐོང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།

(rmi lam mthong ba zhes bya ba’i gzungs)

Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos

རྒྱུད། ཅ།

From the Ca volume of the ‘Tantra’ (rgyud) section in the Kangyur (bka’ ‘gyur), the Tibetan Buddhist scriptural canon; Lhasa edition.

།དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

HOMAGE TO THE TRIPLE GEM!

།གནོད་སྦྱིན་གྱི་སྡེ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲག་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

HOMAGE TO THE GREAT COMMANDER OF THE YAKṢAS, THE FIERCE VAJRAPĀṆI!

[The Dhāraṇī is as follows:]

།ཨོཾ་མུ་ཙི་ནི་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། མུ་ཁེ་ས་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། མོ་ཧ་ནི་སྭཱཧཱ། དིནྟི་རི་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

OṂ MUCINI SVĀHĀ/ MUKHESA SVĀHĀ/ MOHANI SVĀHĀ/ DINTIRI SVĀHĀ

[Tibetan pronunciation:

ONG MUTSINI SWĀHĀ/ MUKHESA SWĀHĀ/ MOHANI SWĀHĀ/ DINTIRI SWĀHĀ]

ཆོ་ག་ནི། ཆུ་ཁྱོར་བ་གང་ལ་བཟླས་པ་བྱས་ཏེ་འཐུངས་ནས་སེམས་བཞིན་དུ་ཉལ་ན། ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེས་རྨི་ལམ་སྟོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།

The ritual is as follows: If one recites [the Dhāraṇī] over some water filled into the palm of one’s hand, drinks it, and goes to sleep while contemplating it, then Vajrapāṇi will reveal dreams.

།རྨི་ལམ་མཐོང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་རྫོགས་སོ།།

THE DHĀRAṆĪ FOR SEEING DREAMS IS COMPLETE.

(Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos, August 21st, 2018. Completed September 6th, 2018.)