Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 29-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen covers the practical foundations of meditation retreat: setting up water bowls for offerings with the correct number and fill level (both affect one’s moral discipline and wealth), blessing them with Om Ah Hum to transform them into inexhaustible nectar, and preparing tormas and other altar offerings. He then walks through the meditation cushion setup—laying kusha grass, which echoes Buddha’s own practice at Bodh Gaya, and long-life grass beneath a swastika—and explains the seven meditation postures of Vairochana. A closing Q&A explores why some practitioners of the most powerful tantric practices achieve only lower states of enlightenment, emphasizing that motivation, not technique alone, determines outcome. Intended for those preparing for longer retreats.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 LR 1995 05 28.mp3
UUID: 26742d4c-547f-4466-946c-b123f7597d97
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-05-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 29.6 minutes
Words: ~2,073
Physical body like like we do. I mean, they do have all the shape, but not like physical one. And and those are known as the smell eaters. So then, like, for this smell it is like in Tibet when when people dies, when someone dies in the family, then for this forty nine days, they make a ritual like smoke offering. That is like you burned some, like, flowers, like flowers or other foods.
You burn into the fire and then and offer the smell to the to the dead ones, like to the to the to the being of intermediate state. So the smell it is or the intermediate beings here, like, they are not like us. They can be anywhere. They can go where their mind is what they are thinking. Like if they think somewhere else they can be there.
Like it’s what do you say? Whatever in their minds they get there, to that place. So that’s the reason in the very beginning when you are setting up the water bottles, not setting it empty, but put a little bit of water in every box and then you set up. So then when you pour the water in the water bottles, like should do it out of respect. We do it out of respect and then you shouldn’t like overfill the water bottles.
If it’s overfilled then it’s like you, it’s a sign that it degenerates your morality or your moral discipline. So then if it’s not well filled, the water bottles. If it’s not well filled, then again, it’s harmful to one’s wealth. One becomes poor and ailing. So so there’s this set number, like, there are seven bowls, seven sets of water water bowls that you make offerings.
But then that doesn’t mean yeah. It has to be always like that. If you have more than that, you can do it. You can set more. Or if you don’t have, then you can it’s one water bottle is enough.
So after setting, like when you finish peeling all the water bottles, then you bless it with the three syllable letter. So once you like bless it with the, with that’s like a you can use your ring finger, like take some water from the jar and then sprinkle on saying Or you can use a stick of like flour or a branch and take some water from the jar and then like sprinkle So then this visualization that you can do which the Om Ah hum, the syllable that mixed becomes inseparable from the water and then it transforms it into all into nectar and also it becomes exhaustible where you enjoy more. It’s always there. So same thing, like, when you are making other offerings, like, for example, like torma, making tormas. It’s another, like torma which you make out of barley flour and then you make different shapes.
So when it’s ready made, then even that too has to be blessed with with these letters. So same thing when when we’re doing this, like, Guru Pujas. Like, when you buy offering for Guru Pujas, and then when you bring back to your your place, your home, you should bless it with the with with these three letters. So the reason again is that if one is not to bless the offerings, like the and so on, then it’s also said again, some spirits may take, like possess the or the foods. And again, if you if you make that, like, offering which have been processed or by the spirits there, then, again, to make that offering to the gurus or the to the Buddhist, then, again, it becomes, like, harmful to one.
So with water bottles, if possible, like making doing it three times a day. Like, often, it’s three times a day is the best. So if if not if can’t if you don’t have enough time to do three times, then, like, one time is good enough. Like, you set up the altars and set the order of offerings in the morning and then take it out in the in the the evening, in the afternoon. So so like when you take it out, yeah, like you shouldn’t the order that you take it out, shouldn’t throw it anyway.
Just shouldn’t throw it anywhere like as you like or you shouldn’t also some some people they drink the water, but also said that it’s also not right to drink. So if you use it to quench your taste, like drink it, then again it’s a what you say, it becomes a misuse, which is you are using the water of the huge objects. So then I would do this much for this one. And then go to next, the third preparatory practice, which is like then arranging or setting up comfortable cushions and sitting on top of that and then on top of that with these meditation postures, like the seven postures of Vairochana. So while you are doing meditations, if you have comfortable cushions, then that also helps your meditations.
So the cushion should be like a little high on the backside. So like they are like when you place of your meditations under the cushion, they are like you have to draw a swastika. And then on top of that, you have to, like, arrange these two different kinds of grass known as, like, kusha grass and then another grass which is known as long life grass. So the reason that is this swastika is drawn under the cushion symbolizing what we call the double. Actually, it’s a it’s a you need a double under under your cushion, but symbolizing that you use the source.
So the double vajra is usually what is used for the cushion, but because it is implement of the double vajra. So that’s why we don’t use as in double vajra, but instead of double vajra symbolizing that, use the swastika So using this, like, the double vajra is like to remind one how Buddha achieved the full enlightenment stage in Bodh Gaya. Do So then this drawing of the swastika, they are like a there are two different ones. One that that as in Tibet, that is drawn like the pawn the pawn religion, they draw the swastika in different ways. Then like in Tibet, in Tibet, they just they draw the Tibet, how would you say, swastika in a little different ways.
And like the, what is it, swastika goes from left to right. And then this, the one that we draw under our cushion is from right to left. The one type of grass known as the long life grass, it’s also known as in Tibetan, tuba grass, that’s long life. And it’s a sign to prolong your life. That’s like putting underneath that is like to make you to prolong your life.
That’s why. So then the Kusha grass is used also because when Buddha first did his meditation, he got this Kusha grass and used that as his cushion and meditation, his meditation there. So just to remind us of the life story or the life of Buddha, we use this And another explanation with kusha grass is that it is known as it’s used for removing stains and pollutions. These are the reasons why we use kusha So so when you set the the grasses, these two grasses, kusha grass and the durva grass, it should be, like, pointing out in front. And and shouldn’t be, like, sort of mixed each other, like, shouldn’t be mixed each other, like separately pointing out.
So then on top of that, you set your cushion, And then you sit with these meditation postures, the seven postures of Vairochana. And this, I guess, we’ll explain next time. So if you have any questions that you’d like to ask, you can Oh, yeah. You? Me?
Yeah. This, relating to that, this story, there was one practitioner in India was doing the practice of Hevajra, doing the practice of Hebhajra and then through his practice he came to achieve one of the state like known as the stream enterer. So this stream enterer, the state of stream enterer is what you call the liberation of hearers. That’s what it is and then though the practice is like the highest yoga tantra practice, Instead of it didn’t lead him to the full enlightened state, but to the lower state, I mean, to lower type of enlightenment. And also stories that in Tibet, there’s a practitioner who does Yamāntaka practice and he did his long retreat and also did many practice of Amantaka.
Later time, instead of achieving the full enlightened state, he was born as one of the spirit. And he has the aspect of amantaka, the spirit having the aspect of amantaka, altar protectors, but actually born as an spirit. So because of the practice and the highest yoga tantra practice, that’s like the practice is always very powerful. And when one’s through that practice, one is born as an spirit, then that person becomes very powerful also. And only it can only be subdued by some lamas who are who are really high, very high and high in advance.
Otherwise, they are very not easy to control. Oh, yeah. Even even just for using for plants, because I don’t think it’s, like, completely right to act completely right to do that? So it’s a it depends on your motivation. For example, usually it’s like poured in a clean place.
That’s what all you do, like pouring into a clean place. So thinking that having the motivation that I’m pouring it into a clean place, you like you can pour into the flower or But then it helps to the flower and then you’re pouring with motivation that you’re pouring into a clean place. Sorry? Mhmm. So, like, has to be filled, but, like, you have leave some space like a sort of like drain of rice.
Like, just make that, I wanna say, space on top of that. Not overfill but leave that much space. So the practice, there is highest level practice, highest practice that one is doing, but it’s because of the motivation. It’s something to do with wrong motivation there. Like some people just do this practice just to become more powerful and control others.
For that purpose, they use this practice. So that’s how it happens. So, like the motivations is what it is very important for the practice. And motivation somehow, that’s how it changes the whole thing. So, for example, like doctor to do an operation, he or she has to know how to all the procedures, how to do it.
So something like that, like so the has the has if it if the doctor has a good motivation and knows how to do all the things, then it becomes a good result and and then or if the doctor has better motivations and doesn’t know the actions, does it may have again better result. So so So, digital listening probably has similar time, similar to that. Oh, yeah. No? Yeah, yeah.
So usually this like like these settings, your cushions and all this thing is mainly when you’re doing a longer retreat. When you’re doing into a retreat then this is sort of what is it advice to do. But then, and also like in the beginning here what we are explaining is that how to gain what do you say? Like, how to gain like, how to become closer to the to the spiritual master. Before that one has to accumulate lots of merit and how one accumulate merits is like bring this preparatory practice.
So that’s how Israel is explaining this. But doesn’t mean like everyday what you are doing, like in every practice you should you should like draw. It doesn’t mean that. But then if it’s possible for you to have a small room for your practice, if it’s easier for you to set altars and also set up your cushions then it’s good and it’s right to do the right procedure like setting the cushions and drawing altars and swastika and so on. So it’s a to turbo class.
It’s it’s you can find it easily. Some of them can see many around here too. Like, it’s just, like, spreading in the ground. Yeah.