Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a fish leaping from water — one’s self arising as Vajrasattva within emptiness — captures the experiential arc at the heart of this 52-minute commentary. Khensur Rinpoche unpacks the symbolism of the guru-as-Vajradhāra visualization: the lotus, sun, and moon beneath the throne representing renunciation, correct view, and bodhicitta; the vajra and bell signifying bliss and wisdom. He then traces the full sequence — outer, inner, and secret offerings; mandala offering; guru yoga as mind-union; dissolution into emptiness; and arising as Vajrasattva to fulfill the commitments of the five Buddha families. The session closes with a walkthrough of the first three of the fourteen root tantric downfalls: disrespecting one’s lama, disregarding practice, and abandoning bodhicitta. Suited to practitioners who have received tantric empowerment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Six Session Prayer 1b.mp3
UUID: bc73efff-f5cf-45ed-8855-1fd81fff4382
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 6 session guru prayer (Khensur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 51.8 minutes
Words: ~2,186
Now the next verse is the union of of the Lama, the spiritual master, and in this case, vajradhara. That one imagines before oneself upon a throne supported by lions in space. Upon the throne there is a lotus, the sun and moon, and seated upon that moon cushion is the union of one’s vajradhara, blue in color, has aspect of vajradhara but in nature is one’s root lama, one’s spiritual teacher, that is to say that the individual who has given you the Dharma, who has given you the empowerment, in nature. And that in aspect vajradhara, blue in color, holding in his right hand a vajra and in his left hand a bell, embracing his consort vajradhatu Ishvari. And there are three places, the crown is marked by Om, the throat Ah, at the heart hum, the three syllables radiate out light to the victors in all the directions of space.
Upon this throne which is visualized before you in space is a lotus, sun and moon. The lotus is symbolic that the Lama has developed the determination to be free, that is, has the renunciation. The sun is symbolic of the correct view and the moon of the awakening heart. So these three are symbolic that the Lama has generated, these three. Then he is holding the vajra in his right hand which is symbolic of bliss.
The bell in his left is symbolic of wisdom, the wisdom realizing emptiness, and therefore these held coming together is symbolic that one’s lama has achieved the wisdom of bliss-emptiness. And then the vajradhara is embracing a consort and this is symbolic of the necessity of the consort to generate bliss. And then marked by at the crown a white OM, and this denotes the consummation of the physical aspect, that is, having attained the Buddha body. The red AH at the throat is symbolic of the Buddha’s speech, that type of speech which has sixty melodious qualities. And then the blue hum at the heart is symbolic of the wisdom bliss emptiness.
So the light radiates out from hum at the Lama’s heart. And though in fact that the Lama visualized before you is in fact a Buddha, but it’s difficult for us to have that conviction. In order to enhance that conviction we then radiate out light to the various directions bringing forth the wisdom beings. Then we make prostrations at the lotus feet of vajradhara. Then we make offerings, the three types of offerings outer, inner, and secret.
Outer is the various external offerings such as inner incense, flowers, water. The inner offering is the offering which is contained in the inner offering cup, the nectar. And the secret offering is we emanate out from our heart our Dakini, which sits in union with the lama generating great bliss. Then we go on to offer the precious mountains, the islands, the treasury, the sun and moon, etc. That is to say, we go on to offer a mandala.
And this is in keeping with a text called the fifty verses of guru devotion, or the fifty in which it emphasizes the need to offer one’s lama a mandala. Then the prayer goes on emphasize that it is by means of respect and faith towards one’s lama that one will attain all the various powerful attainments, that one will achieve, as it says here, the supreme powerful attainment, and that is Buddhahood. But also the common powerful attainments, there are eight common powerful attainments which are attained and all of these wonderful qualities are attained in dependence upon the spiritual master, the lama. So then we make, having made offerings and requests, Lama vajradhara comes down to the crown of one’s head. Generally when we do the practice of the yoga of the spiritual master, for example in the practice of Guru Puja, offering to the spiritual master, there is a vast field which we are making offerings and requests to.
These include the various meditational deities, the various Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, the protectors, the dakas, dakinis, viras, virinis, heroes, heroines. But here we should imagine that though there is only one figure, that is to say the figure of Lama vajradhara, that in fact that this individual is the condensation of all of these vast numbers of lamas which are visualized in other fields, that this individual is the condensation of all of them. In response to our request, the Lama vajradhara comes down to the crown of our head and then dissolves into one. And as a consequence of the lama dissolving into one, one becomes indivisible and identical with one’s lama. This is what is meant by Guru Yoga.
Yoga literally means union. And what is being united, one first requests the Lama to come down from space, making offerings and making requests, and the Lama comes down to the crown and dissolves one into oneself and in fact what becomes united is one’s own mind and the mind of the Lama. They become yoked or union or yoga. So at this point the Lama vajradhara has dissolved into one. One becomes indivisibly identical with the lama vajradhara. One is marked with the syllable OM, AH, hum; from the hum at one’s heart light radiates out to all the sentient beings in the universe, in the environment, transforming the environment, all the various environments into pure lands with celestial mansions.
All the beings, when they are touched by this radiating light, are transformed into vajradharas. Then having been transformed into vajradharas, all of the vajradharas are drawn back into oneself at the heart, dissolving back into one’s heart. One then dissolves downward into the hum at one’s heart, then the hum begins to dissolve upward into the nada, then finally that even disappears and then at that point one meditates on emptiness. So all appearances have been resolved that there is there the only thing which appears to one’s mind is emptiness and one abides in that state. So to the extent of your ability, you should meditate as well as you can on emptiness at this point.
And then within this emptiness, just like a fish jumping out of water, leaping out of water, within this emptiness, one instantaneously arises in the aspect of Vajrasattva, white with consort. So one is seated in equipoise as Vajrasattva with vajra in the right hand, bell in the left, embracing one’s consort. In this manner of being seated in equipoise with the vajra in the right hand and the bell on the left embracing one’s consort, one is fulfilling the commitments of Akṣobhya, the commitments of the vajra, Bell and Mudra. So it is by this means of, in this way we observed our commitments of the So the vajra is fulfilling the commitment of the mind, the bell is fulfilling the commitment of speech, the mudra is fulfillment of the commitment of body, and by making the various offerings to the lama, one is fulfilling the commitment of honoring the spiritual master. These are the four commitments or pledges of Akṣobhya.
Is in this meditating on emptiness fulfills the commitment of meditating on emptiness six times a day. Then the the prayer continues that I offer my home, my body, all my material possessions, my skillful actions, my accumulation of virtuous actions brought about over the three times, and I give these away. We give these to those who are in poverty, to those who are in suffering, and this giving is the fulfillment of the commitment of Ratnasambhava. And then the prayer goes on to say that even at the cost of my life, will not act in contradiction or transgress the three vows of individual liberation, the bodhisattva and secret mantra. This, acting in this way, this is the practice of ethics and fulfills the commitment of the practice of ethics of Vairochana.
So the prayer continues that that I will completely liberate sentient beings through the methods of the three vehicles, the four levels of tantra — that is the action, performance, yoga, and highest yoga tantra — the Dharma of the verbal doctrine and the doctrine of realization. By this means, one observes the three commitments of Amitābha, of practice. So one is one has committed oneself to observe all of the vows which one has taken. So this is the various types of vows, one is enumerating them and reaffirming one’s commitment to observe them.
So one has accepted to observe the of the nineteen of lineages of the victors, of the five lineages of the victors and through this practice of the six session one ceases the fault of not observing one’s commitments which one has accepted to observe. Then there follows a prayer, in which essentially is that by the very skillful action which I have created in this way, may all sentient beings attain Buddhahood. May the virtues collected through the Dharma preserve and nourish the prayers of the masters. So these are the So there are only a few words here, so I think you could do this practice in three minutes. So by doing this practice we’re going to cease a great many faults.
It’s very extremely beneficial. We’re going to accumulate a great collection. So, we’re often motivating ourselves that for the sake of all sentient beings I must attain Buddhahood and that by means of eliminating all my various faults and bringing to consummation all my acts and qualities, and this is the method that we can actually do that. So, we all want to be happy and we don’t want to suffer and this is an excellent way to achieve that end. And it’s a very abbreviated practice, but it’s a very effective practice.
Once we are familiar with it, then we can practice this at any time. Once we have it memorized, then we can practice even while we’re walking down the street. We can do our recitation. That’s sufficient. But if we have enough time, then we can do it well in our home.
We can properly motivate ourselves such that I must quickly, quickly, for the sake of all sentient beings, achieve Buddhahood. And then reciting the prayer and trying to understand the meaning, trying to understand committing self that I will abandon what is to be abandoned, will practice what is to be practiced. This is essentially what the prayer is trying to bring across, that we are to remind ourselves again and again what we should be practicing, what we should be avoiding. So, there are various vows and commitments with the various downfalls of the bodhisattva and the various infractions. I think it would be very worthwhile if I went through the four downfalls of the what did I say?
The fourteen downfalls of the tantric vows of secret mantra. So there are fourteen root downfalls. So these are the greatest faults amongst the tantric vows, these fourteen root downfalls, and these are to be avoided because one will, incurring these downfalls, one loses one’s vows. So these are essentially what we are to try to cease. So the first of the fourteen downfalls are to So to dishonor one’s, to show dishonor toward, disrespect toward one’s spiritual master, one’s lama, And this is done through, I’m not sure that we’re, I mean here they have despised, to show disrespect to one’s spiritual master, one’s lama.
And this is done through one’s body, speech and mind. Through one’s body, physically showing disrespect to one’s Lama, through speech criticizing one’s Lama, and through mind having non faith, in one’s mind that I don’t like this lama, and I have no faith. This would be showing your disrespect for one’s lama. That’s the first of the root downfalls. If one incurs one of the root downfalls, one loses one’s tantric vows.
So the second root downfall is disregarding one’s practices. There are various practices which we are to observe in terms of what is to be abandoned and what is to be cultivated, and simply in one’s mind think, Oh, it doesn’t matter. What benefit are these? And simply disregarding them out of belittling them or thinking that they don’t matter. So, it’s a different order but the next one is, third root downfall is abandoning the awakening heart.
That one previously has committed oneself to the attainment of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. And in the course of this one accepted the aspiring, develop the aspiring mind and the practical mind of the awakening heart. The aspiring mind is this aspiration to achieve Buddhahood and then the practical mind of the awakening heart is actually engaging in the various practices such as generosity, ethics, tolerance, etc. In order to achieve in fact this end. But then having committed oneself, one simply says, Oh, I can’t do it.
I can’t attain Buddhahood. I quit. I give up. And once one has given up this, having taken these aspiration and practical vows, one has abandoned the awakening heart, which is a root downfall.