Secret offering: Compassion

BODHICHITTA

The king of the North: Earth

Egyptian fellowcraft:

Invoke Vaishravana but do not forget EMPTINESS:

OM VAISHRAVANAYA SVAHA

The earth treasures belong to the ones who DARE,
but if your motivation is not right,
then BOLDNESS becomes RECKLESSNESS.

Wealth can trigger the power of EGO,
and you will be fettered by it. You
will DECEIVE YOURSELF and
accumulate bad KARMA.

Antiently, evoking the King of the Earth
with a selfish motivation was called to
come to an agreement with the devil:
the EGO.

So, if your BODHICHITTA is not well
developed, forget the King and develop it.

If you are still an egyptian apprentice,
forget about this post.

Take this WARNING seriously,
unless you want to fall and break
your bones.

Cittamatra: Only mind and emptiness

Egyptian apprentice:

If you have worked on the first stage of the progressive stages of meditation on Emptiness, as presented in the book of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, now you have some insight on the emptiness of Self, similar to the Shravakas.

The next stage, the Cittamatra, belongs to the Mahayana, which means that Bodhicitta must be your driving force.

Now you have to focus on the emptiness of the skandas and you will find out that there is no difference in nature between mind and matter. But do not think that everything is yourself or your own personal experience. There is a world that you share with others.

The appearance of an inner perceiving and an outer perceived aspect in each moment of consciousness gives rise to the illusion that they are of different substance, mind and matter.

If you can rest your mind in its own nature and see its emptiness, then all confusion would disappear and the mind would be bright, clear and self-aware: self-illuminating mind.

If you meditate properly, you will find that experience has three natures:

1- the imaginary nature

2- the dependent nature

3- the truly existent nature

The imaginary nature is conceptual, and empty: your own interpretation of dependent nature.

The dependent nature includes all the eight consciousnesses, and it is dependently existent.

The truly existent nature is absolute existence: ultimate, pure and perfect reality.

Unless you meditate and find out for yourself the validity of all the above hints, this is nothing but conceptual understanding, and you will never get a direct experience of emptiness.

So Egyptian Apprentice, work hard and join your fellow practitioners if you want to reach the next camp on our way up to the summit: madhyamaka camp.

HUNG

The key

The mahamudra system was designed for people willing to learn from a master.

Usually, if you want to learn FAST about any subject, you have to find an expert, and learn from him. That will save you a lot of time and effort, provided that you TRUST him and put into practice his advice.

One of the preliminary practices of mahamudra is GURU YOGA, which is a powerful tool to speed up your progress. The essence of guru yoga is seeing your master as the enlightened mind, and fusing your mind with him. In fact, there is no difference between the nature of your mind and the nature of his mind; they are one and the same: EMPTY CLARITY.

Practicing guru yoga correctly, you will get some experiences of BLISS, CLARITY and NON-THOUGHT, that usually it would take you longer to experience if you didn´t have a master.

Guru yoga does not mean becoming a slave of a despot.

The key point is FINDING and TRUSTING a QUALIFIED MASTER.

Most of us fear surrendering ourselves to somebody else. But we shouldn´t. We should fear surrendering ourselves to a non qualified master.

My personal experience has proved me that if I ´m not very wise, and my motivation is not clean, then I end up trusting the wrong "pseudomasters". When my motivation gets cleaner (bodhichitta), then I can see the real face of all this pseudomasters, and I can go away from them, without blaming them, because it was my dirty motivation and ignorance that didn´t let me see who they really are.

Once you detach yourself from the wrong motivation, you will find the qualified masters. So, it is very important to develop a good MOTIVATION (BODHICHITTA) in order to find a qualified master.

When climbing a dangerous unknown peak, it is smart to join a competent expedition, with trustworthy guides. To reach the MAHAMUDRA PEAK, you must join the MAHAMUDRA LINEAGE. In doing so, you will avoid many sidetracks and flaws that will come up with your practice.

That is why it is very important to PRAY asking for help from the lineage masters. That is an exercise of humility, because you admit that you need some help from qualified guides. Your Ego usually doesn´t like to admit his incompetence, and praying becomes an antidote against his "power", provided that you have a good motivation like bodhichitta.

Once you become a member of the lineage, praying can be used as an means of COMPASSION, wishing that all sentient beings become free of suffering.

Therefore, my advice would be: CHECK YOUR MOTIVATION and LOOK FOR A QUALIFIED MASTER who can help you to SEE THE NATURE OF MIND.

That is the key of a successful practice.

Samaya