Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 25.5-minute session, Ven Jampa Ignyen walks practitioners through the meditation posture and the Jorchö, the six preliminary practices of Tibetan Buddhist daily meditation. He begins with the seven-point posture of Vairochana—position of the spine, hands, head, eyes, and shoulders—which creates the physical foundation for practice. He then guides the six stages: making offerings, breath awareness, requests to the merit field, and the seven-limb prayer, unpacking confession with the four opponent powers, rejoicing (the “lazy person’s practice”), and dedication. The session closes with a Q&A on integrating practice into daily life without turning everything into a chore, emphasizing patience and the power of clear intention.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 Rays 2001 10 24.mp3
UUID: acb478ff-7cf2-47ad-b693-455e11d3aa0b
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Like Rays of the Sun (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-10-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 25.5 minutes
Words: ~2,365
Focus our meditation upon, then we make offerings to that object. That object is worthy of being made offerings. Then we adopt, now having made those offerings, set them out, then we adopt the sevenfold position of Vairochana. So if possible we then sit cross legged, but we don’t, we can also sit on a chair and meditate. But if possible, the best position is to sit cross legged on the floor, even in the vajra, in the Lotus position.
So that is the left leg below, the right leg above. So then our hands. First, our legs in the lotus position, then hands left below, right above, and the thumb’s touching, just barely touching, down at the navel. So in a sense, the thumb is about at the level of the navel. Chakra.
Just so the thumbs are barely touching and we’re aware that we’re not thumbs are not going off in another direction. Keep them reasonably touching together. Then the back straight, like an ordered stack of coins, not twisted to one side falling over in front, but straight, back straight, here so that the energy can easily flow down the spine. Then the teeth just close naturally together, not hard, not clenched. The lips just touching, and the tongue against the back of the teeth.
So just comfortably set So the mouth is not open and so forth. Then the head slightly bent forward. Back being straight. The head slightly forward, not down, but slightly bent forward. And then the eyes focused on the tip of the nose.
The eyes there, should, as if we’re watching the tip of the nose. The eye is not closed, but you can close them if that feels more comfortable. The danger with the eyes closed is that we fall asleep. But if we can just hold our eyes as if they’re focused on the tip of the nose and not fully shut, then that’s fine. Then the shoulder’s level.
Not one shoulder up or the other shoulder up, but level, straight back, so forth. That is the seven point posture of Vairochana. And the eight, there is an extra, there’s an eighth point there, and that is, being mindful of the breath in that position. Being mindful of the breath is a preparatory state of meditation. It’s not, in a sense, regarded as meditation in the strict sense of the term.
So the third point of the sixth is having those seven qualities of the meditation posture. But we can also sit in a chair, leave out the first one of having the legs crossed, and just keep the other six. In a way, most important there is keeping the back reasonably straight, reasonably erect. And then we can practice breath meditation like that. Then the fourth practice is making requests to the merit field.
Requests for our own development, generation of compassion, love and compassion and wisdom and so forth. And then the fifth preliminary practice is offering the seven-limb prayer. the seven-limb prayer is one that we recite we recited earlier. So the seven-limb prayer then also is a complete practice in itself. Firstly, have prostration.
So, here we can just recite the words of prostration. And here, in a sense, we’re making a prostration to the body, speech, and mind of a Buddha or the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha we will become. In a sense, we’re paying homage. We’re paying physical homage. And if we do the when we actually do a prostration, we can do a five point prostration or a full prostration where one is touching one’s head to the ground.
In a way, it’s designed to overcome our pride. That really we are recognizing that we have a lot yet to learn and that what we really seek and aspire to achieve is a state of perfection and that we haven’t attained yet. And so prostrations are very, very important. And then we make off the second second of the seven limbs is to make offerings. So, again, that’s making offerings to the field of merit, say, to Buddha, the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha.
So there’s visualized offerings can be made and so forth. Then the third one is confession. So their confession is firstly having directing oneself to the field of merit and then making offerings, prostrations and offerings, then one reveals all the negative actions one’s committed and confesses those negative actions. One can do it verbally or one can simply recall negative actions mentally. But one in a sense is confessing one’s negative actions to that field of merit, to a fully awakened being.
And here one can apply the four opponent powers as well. So the four opponent powers, there’s lots of lists in this particular text, But the four opponent powers are firstly taking refuge, and then repudiating past negative actions, seeing the fault in faulty action, faulty thought, faulty speech, being able to see that it’s at fault is the second power, the power of repudiating past negative actions. That is not easy. Here, it’s simply recalling our actions. We can even all the actions of today, and then seeing what’s faulty, negative physical action, negative verbal action, negative mental action, and simply confessing it.
This I did, and that was a negative action. It was a faulty action. It was something that I shouldn’t have done. There was fault in it. Admitting there was fault in it, recognizing there was fault in it, and repudiating the action, meaning recognizing the fault.
And the second one, that’s the second one. First, taking refuge, then repudiating, the power of repudiating negative actions. Then the third one is third opponent power or strength is the resolution not to commit that action again, taking a very strong resolution that, that is a negative action. I will not commit that action again because it can only have a negative outcome for me. So I resolve not to commit that action again.
Whether it’s physical, verbal or mental, for instance, we might have said something nasty to someone. When we see it to be a fault, then we confess it. We see it to be a fault. Therefore, we also commit ourselves to not engaging in such an action again in the future. Then the fourth opponent power is then doing something positive in order to to complete the process of applying the antidote to that action.
We do something positive in a sense to make up for that negative action, especially on a mental level. This is important, although the mental level is more difficult. So the third of the seven limbs is the limb of confession, and the limb of confession is using them or applying the four opponent powers. Then the fourth limb is the limb of rejoicing. So here we think about all the positive actions we’ve committed in the past and all the positive actions of all sentient beings throughout the universe, and we rejoice in those actions.
We rejoice in the good fortune that we have. We rejoice in the good fortune of other beings, seeing that that good fortune is coming from past positive actions. So sometimes this type of practice is called the lazy person’s practice. We don’t have to do a great deal. All we simply do is rejoice in all the positive actions of other beings.
All the positive actions of everyone in the street we live in and all of Adelaide, everything positive that people have done in Adelaide, I rejoice. I rejoice in all my past positive actions, today, yesterday, in the past, every past lifetime. Rejoice in the positive action of the present and rejoice in the positive actions that will be committed in future of myself and all sentient beings. So this is easy to practice. So we practice rejoicing, the fourth limb.
Then the fifth limb, we request teachings of other beings, that other beings should teach us the path. So then the sixth limb is requesting one’s teachers to remain and not pass away, not go elsewhere so that we have the opportunity to continue to study and so forth. And then the seventh limb is we make a request, or we dedicate all of that positive potential to ourselves attaining a state of enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. So this is the fifth of the six preliminary practices. And then the sixth one is then making further requests for our development, making prayers for our growth and development as an individual.
So these are the six preliminary practices that we should first engage in. They’re quite straightforward, but it is very good to do these on a daily basis, to set aside some time to doing a little bit of meditation. Firstly, to clean the place where we’re gonna sit in meditation, have a representation of the body, speech, mind of the Buddhas in front of us, to make some offerings, water offering, offer an apple, offer whatever is pleasant, then sit and engage in meditation, do some breath meditation, then make requests of that merit field, then offer the seven-limb prayer, and then also make other prayers for the benefit of ourselves and others. In brief, that is the the the Jorchö. In Tibetan, the Jorchö, the preliminary practices that we engage in.
So in general, this is the way that Tibetans themselves practice. This Jorchö is very famous. And if one goes into it, there is it’s a complete practice in its own right, and it can be enhanced and developed as as we need or see fit to do so. Are there any points or are there any anything there that any questions? It it is here.
In a way, though, it’s a there’s a variety of practices there. They all have their own benefit. We can see what appeals to us to do and perhaps extend those and lessen the ones that we don’t have an immediate appeal to do. But they all do have their purpose. They’re really all there to change their current state of mind so that we’re overcoming the faults of the mind.
Oh, then once once it’s offered, we can have it ourselves. No. We can make an offering in the beginning and and then during the practice and then later use it ourselves. In fact, that’s what we do anyway with our food. We whatever food we eat, it’s very good to offer it to the Buddhas because it’s a way of accumulating merit through generosity.
Anything can become a practice through the motivation that we have. At present, many of the things we do have got little to do with a spiritual practice, but it’s only because of our the habits that we have at present. Habits that we have at present. But we can extend what we do into a spiritual practice through our motivation. A spiritual practice through our motivation.
Of course, various doubts arise about this. If I try to make everything into a practice, it’ll become really boring, really hard, really difficult. These doubts, they’re okay to have those doubts. We need to investigate them. Absolutely.
Yeah. No. Very much. Often our motivation is not clear to us unless we really examine. But also we have a certain bias in our everyday life that often prevents us from really clearly seeing fault where fault exists.
But there are ways by which we can develop insight into ourselves, our nature, and so on. And probably the central way of doing this is developing a practice, anchoring ourselves in a particular practice, and simply observing our reactions and what we do day to day in our lives. Much, of course, of what we do do is directed towards mundane ends, but we’ll never really generate the result that we want. But seeing the fault in that takes time. It’s the same for it’s the same for even great practitioners, you know, like, are susceptible to faults just as we are.
And it takes a long time to eliminate all faults. In the perfection vehicle, it takes three countless eons to iron out all the faults. It’d be nice if we could just change the mind completely in a moment. Mind itself is just so extensive and so deep, and we’re aware of this the very superficial level. But faults exist all the way down.
So it will take time to eliminate these faults. Sorry? Oh, we need a notion of patience with ourselves. We’re just this bundle of faults and no. We’re faulty.
And we need patience. Absolutely. Absolutely. And also with other beings. But anyway, this tonight we were talking mainly about the Jorchö, the six preliminary practices.
And these practices are very, very useful for us to do. And the basic reason for existing is to help us change our mind, starting on the superficial level and gradually working to deeper levels. We need a notion of patience because results are gonna take time to manifest. Alright. Anyway, we should stop there for this evening.
Unless there’s any other points? Okay. So at the end, we should dedicate as in the seventh limb of the seven limbs, we need to dedicate. And here, we can even rejoice in any merit that we’ve collected from beginningless time on all other beings and bring that positive potential now and bring it here now, accumulate it here, establish it here in the present, and dedicate this to our attaining the state of complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. And we can recite the dedication prayer.
And this is on page number five of the prayer book. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to that enlightened realm through these skillful actions. May the supreme jewel of the awakening heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. And there’s another short prayer on page number ten. If we can do this one in Tibetan.