Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche explains the foundational yogas of Vajrayoginī practice according to the Naropa tradition: the yoga of sleeping and the yoga of awakening. He clarifies why sleep meditation comes first, mapping night to emptiness and the Dakinis’ nocturnal activity, then walks through both development-stage sleep—visualizing oneself resting on a sun disc in an elaborate mandala mansion, the root lama Vajradharma cradling your head—and completion-stage sleep, where appearances dissolve into the syllable BAM at the heart until only emptiness remains. He then covers the yoga of awakening: recognizing the sounds of Dakinis and drum as signals to rise, perceiving all appearances as the pure form of the deity. Pitched at practitioners who have already received Vajrayoginī initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1991-09-26 – 2B – Comm – KR.mp3
UUID: eea587f4-f2be-4a16-af4f-1d762ed42875
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Vajrayoginī
Date: 1991-09-26
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,482
Distinguishing factors of this particular practice and the first was distinguishing factor that it is condensation and has all its source in the original context as the first Now the second distinguishing factor of this particular practice is that it’s easy to handle or another way user friendly. The mandala is quite easy to visualize, there is almost single deity so it is quite easy to work with and the third is that one can achieve supreme powerful attainment that is to grant very quickly powerful blessing. And also it’s extremely those who even are talking about the power and even those who have great deal of attachment and delusion are able to achieve by this so now we’ve come to the third overall division that is how to practice the teaching and this is the first subdivision within this overall division. The first is the Yoga of the Generation Stage for mainly actualizing the external Dakini. So I’m going to translate this as the yoga of the generation stage for mainly actualizing the external Dakini mandala.
And then the second subdivision is the Yoga of the completion stage for mainly actualizing the Dakini of the completion stage, mainly actualizing the internal vajra. The So there is these two subdivisions. So then with respect to the first of these two subdivisions, as it is in accordance with the condensed method of practice according to Naropa there are 11 yogas. These 11 yogas are the yoga of sleeping, yoga of sleeping, yoga of awakening, yoga of tasting nectar, the yoga of immeasurableness, the fifth is yoga of the lama, the sixth is yoga of generating oneself as a deity, the seventh is the yoga of purifying sentient beings, the eighth is the yoga of being blessed by the heroes and heroines, the yoga of being blessed by the heroes and heroines, the ninth is the yoga of mental and verbal recitation.
The yoga of mental and verbal recitation. The tenth is the yoga of inconceivable offerings. The yoga of inconceivable offerings. And the eleventh is the yoga of daily activity. Yoga of daily activity.
The 11 yogas which are included in the development stage. So it says why do we have the yoga of sleeping? Why does it come first? It comes first because everything the next which is yoga is the yoga of awakening and before we can awaken we have to go to sleep. So what is the reason?
In accordance with the tradition of the Dakinis in which the text of explaining the image of the Vajrayoginī is that this deity is included in what is called the side of emptiness, which is the wisdom aspect. What is the reason for giving the yoga of sleeping first and in terms of the period of day and the period of night and there are various categorizations which are included in this division of the day, that means the daytime, the light time and the nighttime and between appearance and emptiness, appearance is included in day between method and wisdom method is included in day between illusory body and clear light illusory body is included in day between the male and female consort, the father consort is included in day. And then with respect to the night between appearance and emptiness, emptiness is included in night.
Between illusory body and clear light, clear light is included in the night. Between male and female consort, female consort is included in night. So this is mainly, this is the reason why the night yoga comes first. Additionally the reason for the practice at night taking this initial place is because the Dakinis are most active at night and if we were to practice during the night then we would attain who would be led in our practice by the Dakini, we would be able to receive their blessing and we would attain powerful attainment. So this practice this of the yoga, sleeping in which yogini is done at night and in terms of the night, the night is divided And with respect to the yoga of sleeping there are two types and this is in accordance with the desires of the practitioner.
There is the yoga of sleep which is sleeping in accordance with the development stage with mental fabrication, and sleeping in accordance with the completion stage without mental fabrication What is the practice for that individual who wishes to practice yoga of sleeping in accordance with So there are two main abandonment with respect to secret mantras. These are the ordinary appearances grasping at the ordinary. In accordance with this first type that is sleeping in accordance with the development stage with mental fabrication then one should eliminate all the various ordinary experiences that one no longer conceives as the place is being ordinary, that one can see it as being empty and as an illusion and one imagines that one is actually residing in a reality source which is the shape of a double triangle like a bow and within that reality source one is within that reality source is a throne supported by eight lions and upon this throne is eight petal lotus and upon this eight petal lotus is a sun cushion and You are sleeping on this sun disc. You are wearing ornaments and holding implements.
Imagining that oneself lying upon the sun disc, your head is pointing to the north and that at your head there is a moon cushion and upon that a sun cushion and upon that is one root lama in the aspect of Vajradharma and your head is resting in the lap of Vajradharma. Is facing to the West which is towards the land of the Dakinis and oneself in the aspect of Vajrayoginī and having faith and respect for the root lama Vajradharma, and one should try to have this visualization very clearly. Try to imagine that one is inside a reality source within this reality source you are residing within this mansion on this throne, lotus, etc. And try to maintain the mindfulness of this clarity of this visualization and aspects. The second type of the yoga of sleeping is in terms of sleeping in accordance with the completion stage without without mental fabrication.
In this one is initially in the aspect of our yogini and at one’s heart is a syllable BAM you should now imagine that from the BAM at one’s heart light radiates out coming in contact with everything within the environment and having contacted that everything within the environment it now withdraws into the BAM at one’s heart along with oneself withdrawing into the BAM at one’s heart. So now there is only the BAM, the letter BAM, everything is condensed into the BAM then this is called the head letter. The bottom half of the syllable condenses into the head letter. This line. Then this condenses into the crescent moon. The crescent moon then dissolves into tikle or circle.
The circle then dissolves into what is called the nada or scribble and slowly the circle begins to dissolve until it entirely disappears and there is only emptiness this great master later said that when I sleep, I I sleep I sleep the the meditation of sleep and that there is never a time that am not, however much I sleep, I abide within the clear light that is to say I abide within emptiness and there no one who has a practice like this but myself. So what is the need for the yoga of sleeping? By means of sleeping within the sphere of emptiness, in the future when one practices the second stage one will be able to mix one’s sleep with the clear light of emptiness and this is extremely beneficial and as a result of this one achieves the two bodies, the Dharmakāya without mental fabrication in accordance with the development stage and with respect to this practice we don’t wake up all of a sudden, we are awakened by the sound of Dakinis in the sky reciting syllable and the sound of the drum, the drum, and the mantra OM KHANDROHI is being heard and it’s it’s this sound which awakens it.
Upon awakening, we simply we are not trying to see impure appearances; we understand that everything is a pure appearance, that oneself is the deity. So one then wakes up, the form has all the various ornaments and implements. And then the second type of yoga of awakening which in accordance with the completion stage one instantaneously arises So what is the need of this yoga awakening? It is because in actual practice of the completion stage one will be able to mix one’s death with the illusory body.
One will be able to mix the path of the dream body with the clear light.