Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen presents a detailed explanation of Vajrasattva practice, a purification method central to the Lamrim path. In this 38-minute session, he walks through the complete visualization: generating a seed syllable at the heart, radiating light to make offerings to all Buddhas, and manifesting Vajrasattva with consort. The core purification process involves requesting white light from the deity’s heart to descend through the body, washing away obscurations and negativities as dark smoke swallowed by Yama, the Lord of Death. He covers recitation practices (ideally 100,000 mantras, or 21 daily), alternative visualizations using lightning and nectar, and adapted shorter versions for time-constrained practitioners. A Q&A session addresses common questions about visualization technique and the role of permission initiation.
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File: 02 Lam Rim 1995 09 03.mp3
UUID: 04b31e99-081f-4957-9a14-c8da4ab8c623
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-09-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 38.1 minutes
Words: ~1,925
So from that syllable at the centre of the vajra, which is marked with hum. Light radiates out up and down and to all directions. So from that — on the tip of each light ray, you visualise the offering goddesses that, last time, when you make mandala offerings, all those offering goddesses. And then they make offerings to all the Buddhas of the ten directions.
And they accept the offering and they are pleased. And all of them take the nature of Vajrasattva. And again you visualise light radiating out from the syllable at the centre. And then that light ray strikes all the sentient beings — sentient beings in the hell realms, animal realms, and the rest.
So by striking them, the light removes all the physical sickness and mental sufferings of all sentient beings and completely purifies the sentient beings. And then they all become Vajrasattva. So similarly, that light ray also touches all the places — all the universe — and that too is transformed into the mansion of Vajrasattva. So all those Vajrasattvas that you visualised — all of them melting into light and then merging into the syllable that you have visualised at the centre of the vajra. So then that syllable at the centre of the vajra completely transforms into Vajrasattva.
Which is one face, two arms. Holding bell and vajra. And sitting in the manner of the lotus or the vajra position. And then visualising the consort with the consort. That is a consort — I don’t remember the name, but it’s Nyema Khamo. And which is also white in colour. One face, two arms. And holding a curved knife. And what do you call it? Kapala. Kapala. And which is holding that and which is embraced with Vajrasattva. And both of the deities, Vajrasattva and its consort, marked with the three syllables — OM at the crown, AH at the throat, and hum at the heart.
So the hum at the heart is sitting on a moon cushion, and then there is hum there. And then this hum syllable is like, what do you say, the rim of the moon. So you visualise the Vajrasattva mantras. So when you do this visualisation, then you make the request, which is: may I — Nyema and all other sentient beings — have our obscurations and negativities purified. And you make this request. So by making this request, you should visualise that from the heart of Vajrasattva and its consort, continuous natural white light flows. A natural shower descends over one’s head from the crown.
And from the top, like it removes, like it cleanses both external and internal stains — all the stains — and pushes down and takes them away from the lower openings in the body, in the form of charcoal, like a dark colour. Or black, thick black smoke. So then it takes them out from the lower holes, and when it pushes down just under the earth, the earth just opens and then those thick black stains go down very deep — down to the certain nine levels where you should imagine the Lord of Death — the Lord of Death, which is like looking up with the head of an ox, looking up, opening the mouth. And you just imagine that all these stains went right through the mouth of that Lord of Death. And then that Lord of Death is completely satisfied with it.
And imagining that, now going back to its place, that Lord of Death, completely satisfied, goes back. And imagining that at the same time the earth again closes. So by doing these practices, it is like a long-life practice, one of them. So with these visualisations, then you recite the mantras. And if possible, then one should complete this one hundred thousand times — the recitation of the mantra, one hundred thousand times.
And if you do that, then that purifies all the, what you call, transgressions of the vows. And if not, then do like twenty-one times every day. So if you do like twenty-one times every day, then that stops the negative action that one has committed from increasing or multiplying. So we can do also another visualisation where natural white light comes down and enters from one’s crown in the form of lightning, and that lightning hits wherever one has any sickness in the body — like a bomb — and destroys the sickness.
So another visualisation which one could do also is taking the nectar and, entering first from the top, coming in from above. And then those nectars of white light go out from the pores of one’s body. And then at that time you have to visualise all sentient beings around you, and that white light goes through the pores of the other sentient beings into them. And then that natural white light removes all the sicknesses, pain, and obscurations of those sentient beings. So if you do that with this type of visualisation, then it’s like a form of practice which is akin to giving the Dharma teachings.
So then, finally, after the visualisation, you should imagine that Vajrasattva speaks to you saying that your negativities and obstructions are being purified. So after Vajrasattva has spoken to you, then visualise that both Vajrasattva and its consort melt into one. And one’s self becomes Vajrasattva. One’s body, speech, and mind becomes inseparable from the body, speech, and mind of Vajrasattva. So this is a very brief explanation of how you do Vajrasattva meditation and recitation.
So to do this Vajrasattva purification practice, one needs to receive the permission initiation, which is the unbroken lineage of blessings. So the big difference between doing it with the permission initiation and without is like the differences in the result — how powerful the practice becomes. So maybe after this, in the next two months when the newsletter comes out, probably Geshe-la will then give the permission transmission or permission initiation for those who want to do the practice. So then we stop here today and do some question and answer.
The Lord of Death. Sorry? The Lord of Death. Yes. In other words, it’s known as Yama. Yeah. Heavy load. Lord of Death. That’s how it is translated.
But in Sanskrit, it’s known as Yama. Yama. Yama. So it’s explained in that way because in the merit field, it includes all the thirty-five Buddhas. So that’s why you don’t need a separate one.
So you don’t have to re-visualise all the visualisations, but it’s included within the refuge — sorry, within the merit field. And while you are doing the practice, you can just imagine that they are — like I want to say — they are coming out a little bit from the thangka. Like, what do you say? More like that. They are more visible in front.
Yeah. Dhyāni Buddhas. Yeah. Five Buddha families. No, no — Dhyāni. Five lines.
Planned from the top — yeah. Seven in a row. Yeah. Yeah. Real quick.
Yeah. As a daily practice. Yeah. Can you repeat the question? So the quickest, shortest. So if you have enough time, then as explained before, visualise the merit field, and then take refuge and then follow with the rest of the practice.
And if you don’t have much time and want to do a quick one, then just imagine Vajrasattva at your crown and then do the practice. And it’s also good — when you’re working, maybe you might be singing — instead of that, if you recite the mantras, then that is also very good. And same thing when you’re driving the car, you can also recite the mantras.
It’s just a difference of short form and long form. So if one doesn’t have enough time to do the long mantra, then just doing the short one. So here is the seed syllable of the inseparability of bliss and emptiness. The inseparable bliss and emptiness — the seed syllable of that. So this whole syllable has all the rest of meanings.
Yeah. So if you can recognise the negative action you have done, then once you — so if you don’t remember, then just think: out of my ignorance I may have done this. So in that or one of that. Yeah.
So any more questions? Yeah. Yeah. So like each individual sentient being has their own place and that you transform into the place of Vajrasattva and the place you visualise there — you mentioned it depends upon how many one visualises.
Like, one can visualise one or many. So like numberless sentient beings, and all those numberless sentient beings led to the state of Vajrasattva. So if each of those sentient beings has each their own place where they enjoy, one place to enjoy — so all of those places that they enjoy, if they are transformed into Vajrasattva as you mentioned, then there are numberless individual places.
So same thing in, like, at the very beginning, start with the practice with a good motivation that I’m doing this practice to lead all sentient beings to the enlightened state and then all to the state of Vajrasattva. And then after when you do this visualisation practice, when you lead all sentient beings to the state of Vajrasattva, at that very time you should also rejoice in your action, saying that as you motivated, you have done the action. So one can also rejoice in that.
So with this visualisation, that doesn’t mean that all of oneself and others actually become Vajrasattva in reality. So if one thinks that imagining that oneself became Vajrasattva and others also became Vajrasattva — then there is, what do you call, an auspicious result. Auspicious. One positive thing. For example, thinking that all sentient beings become Vajrasattvas — when one thinks that, then there’s no anger that one can generate.
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So with this permission initiation, it’s just giving permission to do the practice. So when you take this initiation it doesn’t mean that you have to take it as a daily practice. You just take it as receiving the blessings of the unbroken lineage into one. And then that means that whenever one decides — even when one is not doing a Vajrasattva practice — sometimes one feels like doing a Vajrasattva practice. Then with having this permission initiation, it becomes, what is it, the practice becomes more powerful than without the permission initiation.
So it depends on whether one takes it or not. And one can do either way. And one of the things — like receiving the unbroken lineage — for which the lineage started from Buddha vajradhara and then continues up to now. So it’s a matter of taking that unbroken lineage or not.
Negative actions or negativities — which is all of these. So all the actions which are known as negative are those which have the intention, the actual action, and then the completion. All which have all these are known as negative actions. So for example, as an example of stealing — the first intention that you want to steal, that is negative. And then the actual part, taking the money or stealing it — the actual action — that is also negative. And then the third part, which is when you are satisfied with what you have done, that is also negative.
So any and all negative actions have that structure. That is, what is it, a negative motivation. Yep.