Vajrayogini
Eastern Tibet, 19th century, mineral pigment on cotton, 19.50 x 14.75 in. © 2010 Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 290)
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Eastern Tibet, 19th century, mineral pigment on cotton, 19.50 x 14.75 in. © 2010 Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 290)
I love this image of Vajrayogini! I first heard of Vajrayogini about 13 years ago from H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. Recently, he gave some most excellent advice about how to prepare for Vajrayogini's holy tantra, which I'd like to share: The best anyone can do, if not enlightenment for now, is to gain mastery over taking rebirth coupled with developing Three Principle Paths. Where you want to take rebirth can be determined by yourself if you practice the sacred Vajra Yogini Tantra thoroughly.
Tsem Tulku Rinpoche says that we can start now before we are awarded the Vajra Yogini empowerment by:
Holding vows and commitments.
Be honourable and have integrity.
Whatever work or practices you’ve been assigned, do it diligently and happily.
Develop contemplations on the good qualities of one’s lama again and again.
Never give up.
Practice the 8 Verses of Thought Transformation.
Make it a point to get along with everyone or as much as possible & be forgiving.
Study Lam Rim, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Bodhisattvacha-avatara by Shantideva, Lojong, 50 Verses of Guru Devotion by Ashvagosha.
Commit to one practice that is light and easy yet profound such as Tsongkapa Guru Yoga daily without fail.
Follow your Teacher loyally and all the way.
Then next step:
Engage in the preliminary practices slowly but surely and finish.
Guru Yoga
Vajrasattva
Mandala
Prostrations
Water offerings
35 Confessional Buddhas
Don’t start practice only when you get Vajra Yogini’s empowerment, because you can start now! Prepare for the empowerment immediately by engaging everything I mentioned above. You have Vajra Yogini now. She is everywhere and She is ready for you. If you wish or if your teacher says start, start in this way that I’ve written. Start now. Don’t wait. Nothing happens when we wait. It gets harder the longer we wait.
Obtain a sacred image of Vajra Yogini on your shrine and do all the practices I mentioned ‘directed’ or focused towards Her. All the practices, readings, contemplations use Her as your Universal Buddha. The Buddha that encompasses all Enlightened Beings as your focus. Hence you create powerful affinity with Her this way. So you should be starting now. If you do as I have mentioned, then when you finally receive the Empowerment of Vajra Yogini, you will be READY to practice Her sacred Tantra and reap the results much quicker!! Reap the results quicker because you have prepared for it well and thoroughly. Don’t receive a sacred empowerment of Vajra Yogini without doing the preparatory practices now when you have the chance.
(http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/06/starting-on-vajra-...)
How kind of you to share this inforamtion and indeed, of Tsem Tulku to spread the word far and wide across the internet. A little bit of etymology: Guhya mantra-thats the Sanskrit for tantra, or more correctly SECRET (guhya) Mantra. Why secret? Because it is the belief of the great siddhas down the ages that the power of these practices was in part due to their beIng kept secret, not bandied around lake it was some kind of over the counter mass produced plastic talisman.According to the yogis who have realised the true meaning of these practices then, widely publicising information about Vayrayogini,weakens the strength of the practice. A corresponding decrease in the number of beings who ultimately benefit from it is therefore inevitable. Once again thanks........for closing the door to enlightenment to generations of yogis in the future.I guess the road to hell IS paved with good intentions after all
"Be honourable and have integrity.
Whatever work or practices you’ve been assigned, do it diligently and happily.
Never give up."
These seem rather nebulous and appear to be nothing more than the Eminent Tulkus personal advice-I cannot locate them in original texts
"Have integrity" Do things "diligently and happily"?"Never give up?" What does that mean exactly?
"Practice the Eight Verses?"
Urm, arent these 12th century Kadam teachings? So how come they are a preliminary to Indian tantras which preced them by centuries.according to the web famous Tsem Tulku.
In fact, this is just more of the increasing mish mash of Buddhist advice that one expects nowadays.
All the appropriate preliminaries for such practices are explained in the commentaries: We have no need for people to itheir own self-created spanners into the already confused workings of Western Buddhism-Maybe better to practice tantrra for a few decades/lifetimes before one starts advising others one doesnt even know through the open-to-all medium of the internet
Ah! Now I understand, Shaon Saw is a leading figure in Tsem Tulku's self-promoting Kechara Foundation
Just look her up in Google and add Tsem Tulku and you can see for yourself-Looks like tricycle is getting its own bespoke spam! Isn that agains its blog policy?
Heres Tsem Tulku praising the gyalpo worshipping enemy of the Dalai Lama Kelsang Gyatso and his publications: "The great master, the Kadampa Geshe, Kelsang Gyatso, you can see very clearly his works, his centers, his books, his pure vows, and how many thousands of people he affects."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NJkuR3pk6Q
One can also find a Praise of Kelsang Gyatso by Tsem Tulku on D*****S*****.com. However, when one visits this site, Anti vrus software indicates it autmoatically sets up viral cookies specific to your own URL
Everyone is free to choose their teacher. But the truth needs to be known before making such decisions. I would be very concerned about 'lamas' who make such praises and then publcly deny it when they are uncomfortable with the fallout
Vajrayoginī,She is a ḍākiṇī- literally a "sky-dancer". I love this image as well. Condos Puerto Vallarta
A very good and interesting image of Vajrayogini ("Diamond Female Yogi"). Hope to attain an spiritual understanding in high level soon.
Beautiful image but why do this as a "practice"? Seems to me that those who are aware that they need to work on being honorable and having integrity etc... will then do it with or without a given practice... any formal practice. There seems to be a lack of confidence or an insecurity that needs the formality of a "practice". It makes me wonder if people who engage in any formal practice in order to be better individuals or for spiritual enlightenment of some sort simply have no clue that everything they are seeking is already here. As if something outside of themselves will bring about some awakening. I've personally found that these practices helped put into words what I could not describe already, so awakeness was sort of backwards for me. There was an awakening, something shifted in thinking, perceiving, internalizing and THEN I sought explanations for "it" - even though the explanations aren't "it". There was no practice or even knowledge of a practice to "get there". Buddhism was as close as I could get to being able to verbalize and point to "it" or explain "it" after the fact but there are many philosophies, concepts and teachings that do the same.
She kinda reminds me of Kali, a Hindu goddess. Beautiful.
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