Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Je Tsongkhapa’s verse likening the mantra vehicle to the sun and sūtra to the moon, Khensur Rinpoche uses this 47-minute session to introduce the Inner Heart Retreat and lay doctrinal groundwork for tummo (inner heat) practice. He explains why highest yoga tantra surpasses the sūtra path — taking the result into the path, meditating as a deity, working with bliss and emptiness — and can lead to Buddhahood in a single lifetime rather than three countless eons. He then traces the tummo lineage from Naropa through Marpa to Tsongkhapa, outlines the prerequisites (common path, four empowerments, generation stage familiarity), and closes with step-by-step guidance on the preliminary practices: Vajrasattva purification and the six-session Guru Yoga, including which Guru Puja verses to use for each offering. Aimed at practitioners who have already received highest yoga tantra empowerment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 IH 1993 12 05.mp3
UUID: 300d607d-4afd-4edf-8447-66deb480835b
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Inner Heart Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-12-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.4 minutes
Words: ~2,159
Quoting from a verse by Je Tsongkhapa where he says, in order to attain the the ground of Buddhahood, there are two paths, those of Sūtra and Mantra. Of these two, the mantra vehicle, the mantra, that is the path of mantra, the vajra vehicle, is very much superior to the sūtra, the causal perfection vehicle. It is comparable to within the world the difference between the sun and the moon. So why is the the mantra vehicle so much superior to that of the perfection vehicle? That in terms of the perfection vehicle, one goes on to develop the three capacities of three perspective, Moving through the perspective of the being of narrow perspective, middling perspective, and then generating the awakened heart and developing that of the vast of the being of vast perspective.
Engaging in the various bodhisattva the deeds of the bodhisattva, which require three countless eons over the path of accumulation and preparation being one eon, the impure paths, the impure grounds, another eon, and finally, pure grounds, another eon. So this this traversing this the path of the perfection vehicle takes three countless eons. On the other hand, in terms of the vehicle’s secret mantra, that practitioner of great intelligence and one who has tremendous liking for emptiness and willingness and inclination to cultivate emptiness. Such an at the time of actually traversing the path, takes the result into the path. The resultant ground becomes part of the path in terms of the individual meditates on themselves on the Buddha field in terms of their environment which they will eventually attain.
One meditates on themselves as a deity, the deity which will be an embodiment of their Buddhahood. One makes use of objects of enjoyments, which are constitutive of a nonduality of bliss emptiness. And one involves oneself in the deeds that one will eventually involve oneself in the state of Buddhahood, various activities. Activities. So there is a similarity in terms of the practice of the path similar to those things which one will actually gain as a result.
Through this method of practice, one can attain, roughly speaking, Buddhahood in this life. If one does not attain Buddhahood in this life, one can attain it in an intermediate state. If having not attained it in an intermediate state, then one can attain it in a few lifetimes. So it is in this way that secret mantra is so much more superior to perfection vehicle. Because one can attain Buddhahood, it is in such a way it is termed the quick path or the profound path.
And therefore, its superiority to that a sūtra is likened within the world, the difference between the sun and the moon. So in general, there are four levels of tantra, action, performance, yoga, and highest yoga. Amongst these, highest yoga tantra is supreme. Within highest yoga tantra, there are the divisions into mother and father tantras. Mother being the wisdom aspect, for example, and emphasizing the clear light in order to generate that wisdom exemplified by such practices as In terms of father tantra, the method is emphasized, which is expressed in practices by means of which to attain the illusory body exemplified by such practice as So one can make use of a combination of wisdom and method in order to attain Buddhahood.
Division into mother and father is in terms of method and wisdom. Mother and father tantra is in terms of wisdom and method respectively into these. So, the method employed in order to generate the The method which is used is the method of generating the illusory body, which is exemplified within emphasized within the tantra, for example, and the wisdom, which is exemplified within the tantra of Chakrasamvara, is that of the development of wisdom. And development of wisdom is necessary to generate the wisdom of the clear light. The clear light practice having two levels.
The actual clear light, the metaphoric clear light. And initially, one has to generate the metaphoric clear light, which is the wisdom of the non duality of bliss emptiness in order to generate the clear light. In order to generate the wisdom of bliss emptiness, it is necessary to cause the wind energy in combination with the mind mounted upon it to enter into the central channel. So the there is an entrance into abidance and dissolution of the winds in the central channel. So causing the coarse winds to enter into the central channel and there dissolve is of the two stages of secret mantra, generation stage and completion stage is a completion stage practice.
So within so in order to In order to cause the coarse winds to enter into abide and dissolve in the central channel. The method which is used, for example, within the Father Tantra, within the Father Tantra, for example, within the practice of Guhyasamāja, is the visualization of consorts at the level of the secret place channel wheel. And then in combination with the vajra recitation of Om Ah hum. So this is the method which is used within practice, for example, of in order to bring about the entrance of the coarse winds into the central channel. But within division of mother tantra, as exemplified by the tantra of Chakrasamvara, the, there is within Chakrasamvara the two lineages of Luipa and Ghantapa.
At the, at the tradition of Ghantapa, the wind energies are caused to enter the central channel at the heart. In the tradition of the Luipa, it is mainly the focus upon causing the winds to enter into the central channel at the navel. And the way the method which is used here in the Luipa tradition is the practice of Tummo, inner heat, causing by practice of Tummo, one is able to induce the coarse winds to enter into dissolve, abide and dissolve into the central channel. So what has been explained here is the main practices is not to say that these are all other practices. For example, within Guhyasamāja, there is the practice of Tummo, but mainly it’s the winds are caused to enter into the central channel by means of the practice of the vajra recitation.
Again, in terms of the Chakrasamvara, the main practice which is used, the method which is used to induce the winds to enter into the central channel is tummo, but there is also the vajra recitation practice, but mainly tummo. So we’re going to be giving a teaching on the practice of Tummo, inner heat. I’m going to recite the the offering beginning of the text. In reviewing reviewing the lineage of these teachings initially, it the source of these teachings is with the Indian master Naropa within his practice of the six yogas of Naropa. And these were brought to Tibet by Marpa, the translator Marpa.
And he carried he brought these to Tibet and disseminated them widely and coming down to the Tsongkhapa in lineage. So there, with respect to the six yogas of Naropa, there are different ways of enumerating these six, but according to the enumeration of Tsongkhapa, there is the, first, the inner heat or tummo. Second, the illusory body. Third, the clear light practice. Fourth, transference of consciousness.
Fifth, intermediate state practice. And sixthly, the transformation. So dream dream yoga, the clear light of sleep, and transformation are sub topics or sub branches of illusory body practice. So in order to practice the six yogas in the foundation practice is that of tummo. Just like if you’re building a house, first you have to lay the foundation.
In this case, that is and then upon that, you can build the remainder of the house, for example, the practices of illusory body, clear light, etcetera. So in order to carry on the practice of tummo, first is there is the it’s necessary to involve oneself in the practice of the common path. This is the involving the In order to involve oneself in the practice of Tummo, one has to become a basis of practice. One has to be constituted as a basis of practice, and this involves firstly to involve oneself in the practice of the common path. This is the path of the six perfections.
And this would involve the development in terms of the three fundamentals of the path. Determination to awaken, the awakening heart, the awakening mind, renunciation, renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view of emptiness. Then when in dependence upon that, one goes on to receive the four levels of empowerment of highest, highest yoga tantra, the four empowerments, The vase empowerment, the secret empowerment, the knowledge wisdom empowerment, the word empowerment. Then one in terms of having received the empowerment, the four empowerments, observing one’s words of honor to involve oneself in the practices of the generating stage, the meditation on oneself as a deity, in terms Ideally, is to complete the generating stage, but one should at least have a full familiarization, having contemplated the generating stage again and again and again, developing a facility with the generating stage. So involving oneself in the uncommon path, which involves the attaining of the four levels of empowerment and observing one’s words with honor.
And then practice of the generation stage, either completing the generation stage or minimally developing a facility with the generation stage. And then having completed that, then one goes on preliminary to its meditation, it’s necessary to remove inhibitory conditions, which that is to say, there must be a practice of the purification of negativities and obstructions. This is done through the practice of Vajrasattva, and then a practice to bring about all the necessary conducive conditions. This is done through the practice of Guru Yoga. So today, you know, we’re going to continue with the teaching, but tomorrow that we should, when you gather together, perform the the preliminary of the Vajrasattva practice, the recitation of a hundred syllable mantra in the context of applying the four opponent powers.
Then it’s necessary to meditate Guru Yoga? So in this context, it would be good to meditate the Guru Yoga, the six session yoga. So in the practice of the Guru Yoga in terms centered around that six session yoga. You know, Lama visualized in space, one then goes on to invite the wisdom beings to dissolve into the commitment being. Then one offers prostration, which is within the Guru Yoga text, the offering of prostration.
Then one makes offerings, the four types of offerings. The the external offerings, etcetera, the various waters and substantial offerings. Then the internal offering and the remaining three offerings, you can make use of the verses from Guru Puja versus the verse thirty four. We offer a libation of China tea, the color of saffron. That’s verse thirty four.
That constitutes the inner offering. In verse thirty five, we offer voluptuous illusion like consorts. That’s a secret offering. And then verse thirty six, we offer you supreme ultimate bodhicitta. That’s the offering of suchness.
And then also, additionally, the thirty seventh verse was the offering of medicine. So then you offer the if having received mother tantra empowerment, one should offer the praise of the eight lines. If one hasn’t received, then it’s not necessary. Then there’s a section which is continued in the six session yoga. And then it we go back to Guru Puja in which we the part where it says Kuni Lama.
The the pardon? Page forty nine. So verse number fifty three. So then returning back to the practice of six session yoga, you know, there is the verse where the my Lama requested comes to the top of my head. So inviting the inviting the Lama in the aspect of Vajrasattva to the crown of one’s head and in aspect of vajradhara and one, but then dissolving into oneself as Vajrasattva.
But one doesn’t dissolve into oneself. And then one becomes one with Vajrasattva. Then the beings and the environment dissolve into oneself. Oneself dissolves and everything becomes empty. And then instantaneously, generally in this practice of six session yoga, one emerges as Vajrasattva with consort.
But in this case, we don’t arise an aspect of Vajrasattva. If you receive the empowerment of Heruka, then you would arise instantaneously out of this emptiness in the aspect of Heruka with consort. Or if you received just the Yamāntaka empowerment, then Yamāntaka with a consort. Seated seated in a comfortable firm posture. And then, as we normally do, the one’s posture, one’s back should be straight.
The hands in meditative equipoise at the within your lap. The eyes slightly open in the generally the sevenfold posture of Vairochana. So taking such a physical posture. Establishing your motivation that for the sake of all living beings, I must quickly quickly attain the state of and therefore, am in order to achieve that, then I’m going to practice tummo. So that mind generation should be