BeyondDeities

The speaker talks about the unpredictable British weather and the different ways they practice their tantric prayers. They mention a traditional shrine and a more modern version using photographs and mantras. They discuss Dzogchen, an aspect of tantric Buddhism considered a quick path to enlightenment. The speaker explains that Westerners often want to jump straight to the advanced teachings without fully understanding the foundational aspects. They give examples of mantras, such as Chenrezig and Om Tala Tu Tala Tu Re Soha, and explain how different Buddhas embody different qualities. They mention that Dzogchen accepts and embraces all aspects of ourselves and encourages compassionate behavior. The speaker warns that Dzogchen is not as easy as it may seem and suggests further research for those interested. Hi everyone. It started off raining today but now it's lovely. British weather is all over the place, completely unpredictable. I've just been sitting outside for a few minutes having a coffee, done some washing. I think you call it washing in America as well. Anyway, that's all done and all the chores are done. I've been clearing things up and what have I came across my tantric prayer. I don't know what you call it really. It's basically an instant shrine that you sit cross-legged in the Kagyu tradition, which was the tradition that I was involved with the most. You sit on your cushion, you have a little sort of stall in front of you and you put this thing on top and open it up and you have your gurus or your deities and you have your mantras so you can chant to your deities or you can join in group activities using the mantras that you have, the initiations that you've had. So it's quaint. I've also created a more up-to-date version of that using basically a set of pages for putting photographs in and I put mantras in there and I put pictures in there and I use those as well. So we have different ways of doing things and people at the moment are very interested in an aspect of tantric Buddhism called Dzogchen, which seems to go right to the heart. It's considered the quick path. There are in various, for example in Sufism there's the Shatira which is the quick path and other systems have quick paths. Now the quick path is sometimes associated with the dark side of the force if you like, the Sith. This is the quick path, the easy path, the path of anger and fear and all the negative emotions which are generated easily because we all have them to a degree. But the positive aspects of all parts of our being have to be tempered and have to be generated to start with and this is why quite often Dzogchen is considered the final path. But as always the Westerners want to go straight for that. They want the final, the best, the highest teachings which are reserved for the Lamas who've been through the whole process of initiations and understand the pantheon of deities and Buddhas and what they mean and how they are used. So to give you an example of some simple ones, I started with Chenrezig which is the mantra of the Dalai Lama if you like. He's seen as an embodiment of the qualities of compassion and his mantra is Om Mani Padme Hum, pronounced in Tibetan slightly differently, Om Mani Padme Hum, but that's to do with the way the language is used and I prefer a softer version with Pemi which is one of the meanings of which is flower. So, and then we have another one is Om Tala Tu Tala Tu Re Soha and this is used as usually the second open, you know, all the Tibetans use it, they'd be familiar with it. But some of the more wrathful aspects which we can come onto, so you know you get others, you get healing Buddhas, you get wisdom Buddhas, you get all kinds of Buddhas that embody qualities and those qualities are things that you generate through a combination of visualization and mantra. Dzogchen is different, it accepts that everything that we are as a totality and hopefully we are not nihilist or total chaotic mayhem creators but have developed some sort of inner core of decent and civilized and compassionate behavior and through that we can then start practicing Dzogchen. So if it's something that interests you, by all means look into it. But as I say, if you just think this is going to be easy, you just do this and that and that's the end of it, a bit more to it than that. Anyway that's all from me for today. Bye now.