Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Thubten Dondrub guides students through a Chenrezig visualization meditation in this 45-minute teaching on combining sūtra and tantra approaches. He walks through detailed instructions on how to build the visualization—Chenrezig’s form, mudras, and ornaments—then leads the recitation of Om Mani Padme Hum while imagining purifying light. He then explains how this Kriyā Tantra practice differs from sūtra methods and introduces highest yoga tantra, stressing the role of bliss as a practical tool for developing subtle mind states and ultimately the clear light mind needed for rapid enlightenment. The second half shifts to guru devotion, clarifying the essential need for a qualified spiritual master and warning against false pretenders—a foundation he argues is absolutely required for tantra practice. Aimed at practitioners already initiated into Chenrezig or seriously engaged with tantric study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 Combining Sūtra and Tantra 1998 02 22.mp3
UUID: 2e258270-f60e-4b22-b8ef-bd2982e47109
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 1998-02-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~3,893
So I think before bombarding you with more information, maybe we should just do some meditation, proper meditation session, a little bit tantric, Kriyā tantra. We’re doing some meditation on Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. So if you’re not familiar, Chenrezig looks like this here. I’ll describe it and describe Chenrezig as much as I can. And the idea is just to try to imagine with my with one’s mind, not with one’s eye, but to try to imagine and visualize with one’s mind, in front of oneself, and we recite the mantra.
So don’t worry if one is not able to visualize well or clearly. We just try. We just train our mind to do this. So, again, we can start putting our body in the right posture. Just try and generate the right motivation of doing this in order to train one’s mind away from all disturbing thoughts and to use this practice to develop the innate potentials of one’s mind that will lead one to achieve complete enlightenment, a state that can continuously, perfectly benefit every living being without exception.
So with this motivation, just try to concentrate the mind for a short time by doing the breathing meditation, just watching and observing, experiencing the breath coming in and going out. Then try to imagine oneself surrounded by countless living beings of the different realms. We could start by visualizing one’s mother of this life at one’s left side, your father father next to you on your right, all your friends and relatives, the people you like and care for behind you, the people you dislike or dislike you in front of you, and think of all the other countless living beings. You can imagine them all as human beings but experiencing the different sufferings of the different realms. At the same time, try to be aware that these living beings who only want happiness but only experience dissatisfaction and pain have been so kind to me in countless lives in so many ways.
I’ve always depended on their kindness. Think how wonderful it would be if all these living beings could have happiness in its causes, be free of suffering in its causes. Never separated from higher rebirths and complete liberation. And how wonderful if they could abide in equanimity, free of attachment and aversion. And think not only would this be wonderful, but it is definitely possible.
It can happen because the delusions don’t truly exist. The mind is inherently, by its very nature, pure. We all possess the Buddha nature, so it can happen. And try and generate the compassionate thought that I myself will make it happen. And then try and generate from the depths of one’s heart a sincere request to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas to bless one’s mind, to give oneself the strength, courage, the wisdom to be able to bring all these things about for all sentient beings.
So then imagine that once heartfelt request for blessings and help is answered by all the buddhas, by them appearing now in the form of Avalokiteśvara Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, in front of oneself. So imagine that in the clear space in front of oneself, at the height of one’s forehead, approximately an arm’s length away. It appears a very beautiful lotus with many petals, each petal of a different color. This lotus is a transparent radiating light. And imagine floating within that lotus horizontally is a golden sun disc.
Floating above that and slightly smaller is a silvery white moon disc. I can imagine seated just above the moon disc is the very beautiful form of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. So imagine that he has a body of transparent white light, very pure white light. So he sits in the cross legged, full vajra position. And he has four arms.
The first two hands are at the heart, holding a very beautiful jewel at the heart. Then the the other right hand, right arm, just holding a crystal rosary held up at the level of the the right ear. The other left arm is also raised up and holding a white lotus petal bit of white lotus. Imagine that gender is sick’s face is very peaceful and beautiful. His lips, they’re a dark red, long narrow eyes.
His eyes are blue in color. His hair is of a very deep blue color and is piled above the crown of his head and tied up. And one can imagine that his body is adorned with many different beautiful jewels. There’s a crown on his head. He’s wearing earrings, bracelets, and various necklaces, a belt a jewel belt, and anklets.
So all these jewel ornaments symbolize the six perfections of a bodhisattva. Can you imagine that his lower body is is draped in a very beautiful multicolored silken robes. So try to make the image very, very clear, transparent, very vivid as much as possible. So try to concentrate on that image, not forgetting it. And while concentrating on the image, we can recite the mantra of Chenrezig, which is, Mani Padme hum.
And as we recite the mantra, imagine that white light comes from Chenrezig’s heart, going out in all the directions. It goes to oneself and all living beings. And as we recite the mantra, imagine this white light is purifying us of all disturbing thoughts and their causes. As we become more purified, all the positive qualities of the buddhas flow into us as well. The wisdom, compassion, skillful means to benefit others.
Particularly while we recite the mantra, try and think of the suffering that exists among all living beings, and that’s being purified by the sound of the mantra, the white light coming into them. Try to really visualize and feel it as much as possible. So just try and concentrate. Imagine that oneself and all living beings are completely purified of all negative qualities, and that all qualities of enlightenment are now existing within one’s mind. Imagine that all living beings transform into the aspect of Chenrezig, completely free of suffering, completely enlightened.
Just try to imagine that. Then imagine all these countless beings now in the form of Chenrezig. They all dissolve into the main Chenrezig we visualize in front of us. They all dissolve into his heart, becoming completely oneness with him, inseparable. Then imagine that the lotus that Chenrezig is seated on dissolves into light.
This light dissolves into the sun disc. The sun disc dissolves into light and absorbs into the moon. The moon disc dissolves into light and absorbs into the body of Chenrezig. So now imagine that Chenrezig comes towards oneself, growing smaller and smaller as he does so. Comes directly above the crown of our head, turns and faces in the same direction as ourself, dissolves into brilliant white light.
Imagine this white light descends down the central channel and absorbs into our pure mind, which is centered at our heart chakra and the center of our chest. So when that happens, when this blissful white light mind of Chenrezig dissolves into our own, then just imagine, pretend that all one’s ordinary concepts of oneself completely disappear, dissolve, even one’s ordinary body dissolves into the light. Imagine that one is experiencing the pure nature of one’s mind, very blissful, clear, compassionate, and exist existing in the aspect of just clear, vast, limitless space. So then we can quietly dedicate the merit of doing this that may become a cause for us to really develop the great compassion of all the Buddhas so that it becomes a cause for us to quickly achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. Okay.
Thanks. So this kind of meditation is connected with Kriyā Tantra. What is Kriyā Tantra? Ideally one should have an initiation to do these practices. If one has that initiation, then it has more effect on one’s mind.
And in highest yoga tantra, one does similar things, but in this case, in highest yoga tantra, one visualizes oneself as the deity, imagines purifying all sentient beings, leading all sentient beings to enlightenment. This is in the generation stage. And having done that, then one does the completion stage practices where one works with these very subtle energies of the body in order to experience the mind of clear light. So this is some of the main aspects of tantra. One other aspect I haven’t mentioned is that in tantra there’s a great emphasis on generating bliss.
We’re trying to realize emptiness through developing the clear light mind, but also there’s the idea of generating bliss. The and the point just very generally is that when the when the mind is blissful, happy, then the mind is very workable and it’s very undistracted. It has inner contentment, and so that blissful mind is something one can use to work for enlightenment, to follow the path. When there’s no inner satisfaction, then we chase outside. But when there’s some inner satisfaction, then we can use that inner satisfaction to remain inside and work with our mind more and more.
Conventionally, in the sūtra side of Mahāyāna, we talk about wisdom and the method. So in the sūtra Mahāyāna, the method is the generation of compassion and bodhicitta. But in tantra, the method aspect of tantra is the development of bliss, The way to quickly develop compassion and bodhicitta through tantra is the development of bliss. By having a blissful mind, one can then wish all sentient beings to have this blissful mind, and imagine sending that, radiating that blissful mind to all sentient beings. And the point is that when we work with the more subtle levels of our mind, this bliss does arise.
More and more subtle levels of bliss. For example, that when one develops single pointed concentration in the ordinary way, in the ordinary sūtra method, you take one object and you try to concentrate on the you place your mind on that object again and again until it can stay on that object effortlessly. And this can only be done in strict retreat and takes can take quite a long time. This is the the the traditional way of doing it, not the tantric way, but the the traditional way. When you develop when we develop single pointed concentration, then when that mind of single pointed concentration arises, or what is called sam Samatha, Samādhi, Samatha, when that mind arises, it is blissful.
It is an extremely blissful mind. Right? More blissful than even the bliss of sexual orgasm, which is about the only bliss that ordinary people experience. So the bliss of Samādhi is more blissful than that, they say. And that’s that is the bliss of the ordinary gross mind.
Yeah. So when you work with the more subtle minds, the bliss is even greater. Yeah. More blissful bliss. Yeah.
So it is this bliss that is is being sought after in tantra as being part of the path to enlightenment. So there are various meditation practices that are involved in generating this bliss, because also when you can generate these more subtle refined levels of bliss, this also enables one to generate the mind of clear light. When you generate the mind of clear light there is the experience of bliss. If you can generate bliss it’s easier to induce the mind of clear light somehow. So one of these methods I won’t explain it, but one of these methods that you’ve probably heard about is the tummo meditation, the inner fire meditation.
So this this is a method. It’s one of one of the six yogas of Naropa. It’s the first of the six yogas of Naropa. So this is about generating bliss, not just for having a good time, right, but the purpose is that by generating this bliss it enables one to generate more and more subtle levels of mind and to eventually generate the mind of clear light, which one meditates uses to meditate on emptiness to quickly gain the realization. And that mind this is a these two things go together.
You have wisdom and bliss together in one consciousness. Yeah. So you have the method and wisdom together in one consciousness. The blissful mind wishing to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and the wisdom of the clear light mind united in one consciousness. When that is achieved, one can achieve enlightenment very quickly.
I mean there are many, many details of this which you can read about the various stages of highest yoga tantra, how it works. There are I think five stages where you talk about the isolation of speech, the isolation of mind, and all these things. Then there’s the clear light, the illusory body or is it the illusory body then the clear light? I don’t remember. I’m sorry.
All these different things. But basically, just one point, one of the main reasons of visualizing oneself as a deity practice. This is creating the cause to achieve the illusory body. The illusory body, right? And the illusory body is in fact the it is actually how can you say?
I think it’s made up of this most subtle energy, this physical energy. When you unify the illusory body with the clear light mind, you have enlightenment, because the illusory body is the subtle wind, the most subtle wind taking the form of a Buddha, and then there is the mind of clear light realizing emptiness, and these go inseparably together, then you have enlightenment. You have the Rupa kaya, which is the illusory body, and the Dharmakāya, which is the mind of clear light realizing emptiness completely together, unified. So anyway, it’s something immensely profound, very, very subtle, and very, very tricky. It’s not something you can do by yourself or by reading books.
Yeah. What is absolutely essential is to have a spiritual master, a genuine spiritual master, not someone who claims to be, you know, big, I am a spiritual master. It has to be really qualified being who has gained these experiences. So in the lam rim it talks about so to go back to this point, in the lam rim meditation, there’s the meditation on guru devotion. So this is essential.
And what guru devotion is about is not just being devoted to a teacher, thinking, oh, this teacher is wonderful and nice and a really good guy and very intelligent and very wise and compassionate, blah blah blah, these things. That’s nice. That’s good. One should have that. But guru devotion means more than that.
Guru devotion is referring to, and it’s something more or less unique to tantra, it is seeing that a qualified spiritual master, the master that you’ve decided is qualified by checking carefully, not by them telling you, I am a qualified spiritual master, but by you carefully checking and you decide, ah yes, this person is a qualified spiritual master. And of course this is also a catch-22 tricky thing, because how can you tell a true spiritual master? Because a true spiritual master doesn’t go around saying, I’m a true spiritual master. You have to find out from your own side. And the only way you can really understand if someone has some quality, genuine quality, is to understand the teachings.
But the only way to understand the teachings is to have a true spiritual master. Right. Well, it’s not the only way to understand the teachings, but the if you’ve got a really good teacher, then you understand the teachings really well. But the more you understand the teachings, really understand them, teachings, really understand them, the more one is able to judge whether this person is teaching the Dharma and teaching it properly with the right motivation and so on. When I was in Taiwan years ago, I was told about this famous Tibetan monk who had a monastery with many monks and nun disciples and many lay disciples, and he was advertising in all the Buddhist magazines in the country for a teacher in his monastery.
And he seriously this was a serious personal ad. It was not a joke. Unfortunately, it was serious. He advertised that the qualification of the teacher in his monastery should be a third level bodhisattva. So this is absurd.
I mean, is absurd. Do you think a real third level bodhisattva is going to show up and say, hi, I’m a third level bodhisattva. I’d like the job. I mean this is utterly absurd, and of course it’s implying that the teacher of the monastery is more than the third level bodhisattva. So if you know something about the teachings, you know this person there’s something wrong with this person, generally.
Oh, yeah. Maybe he is great being with a great sense of humor, but if he was serious, then some there’s something seriously wrong there. I I hope you got the point right. Yeah. Or maybe just this this teacher just didn’t really know what a third level bodhisattva was.
Yeah. So the more you know the Dharma, the more you can protect yourself from all sorts of absurd pretensions of people. And people can be very impressive. Right? And speak very cleverly and wisely and look very impressive and sound very impressive, but that doesn’t mean anything.
Doesn’t mean anything. Hitler was very impressive too. There’s no doubt about that. Very charismatic. So being charismatic doesn’t mean you have any quality, any good quality.
Just means you’re charismatic, just some karma from the past to be charismatic, to be impressive. So the more we know the teachings, really know them and what they they’re really leading to, then we can check whether this teacher has those qualities or if we can infer. Right? And a real spiritual master is like an iceberg, in that only one tenth of an iceberg sticks above the water. So if you can see some really fantastic qualities in someone, you can really see those without that person putting on any pretense, you can really know that this person has got something, then that means in reality, since they’re not trying to actually demonstrate their actual qualities, it means they’ve got much more than you can see.
Alright. So there are the ten, you know, qualities of a true spiritual Mahāyāna master that Maitreya Buddha explained to Asaṇga, which we should check up on. And then there are the qualities on top of that that a Tantric Master should have. So this is something we have to check from our own side carefully. So then on the basis of that, one develops devotion to that teacher.
From one’s own side, one makes the commitment to be devoted to that teacher. And what this particularly means in the tantric aspect, from the tantric point of view of devoting to the spiritual master, means you are developing the devotion that sees that this master, this teacher who has these qualities is a Buddha. Not just a nice guy or advanced, clever, wise, compassionate, but anyone who has these qualities is a Buddha. That’s the devotion that one is trying to develop, and that’s the devotion that one needs to have to some extent in practicing tantra, to be convinced from one’s own side that spiritual master, one’s own spiritual master, is a Buddha. Because the spiritual master is doing the work of the Buddhas.
What do Buddhas do? They enlighten sentient beings. They lead them on the path. That’s what Buddhas do. Yeah.
They are always nonstop. So if we look around this earth, who is doing this job of actually leading sentient beings on the path to enlightenment? Not not claiming to, pretending to, or leading people off the path, but it’s actually leading me on the path to enlightenment. You look around and find it’s one’s own spiritual master is doing that. Nobody else is doing it, but one’s spiritual master is leading one on the path to enlightenment.
If one is convinced of that, then you can know that that person is a Buddha, because that’s what Buddhas do. Only Buddhas do that. That’s the logic. But as Pänchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen says, in fact, this guru devotion is extremely difficult to generate sincerely, strongly. And as his holiness Dalai Lama points out, in these degenerate times it’s actually quite tricky.
One should be very careful, because it’s difficult to find true spiritual masters. Can’t be like Milarepa with Marpa anymore. Even Marpa said, please don’t he said to Milarepa, don’t treat your disciples like I treated you because these are the degenerate times, and there aren’t people like you anymore who have this unbelievable devotion based on wisdom, not neurotic desire for a guru, a big deity who will take care of me. Yeah. Well, ideally, it will.
In some ways, theoretically, it’s best to be with the guru, theoretically, but in practice, not always, because when you’re close to the guru, you can see faults, and familiarity breeds contempt. And when that happens, you’re in a very big serious trouble. So sometimes separation from the guru, although in theory, is not so good, in practice, it’s quite good. But yeah. But I know I know the point is because one wants this direct guidance.
But, basically, the guru only needs to tell you well, ideally, the guru only just needs to tell you things occasionally, and then the main thing is just to do them, to get on with doing it, and just to continuously hold the guru in the heart. That’s the main thing. If the guru is next door to you, but you haven’t got the guru in your heart, there’s no point in the guru being next door in the next room. But if the guru is a million miles away, but you’ve got the guru in the heart, you don’t need anything else because that’s where the guru is supposed to be, in your heart, not next door. And the guru is not the person, the body.
That’s not the guru. There is absolute guru. What is the absolute guru? This is the wisdom realizing emptiness. That is the absolute guru.
Oh, no. That’s not true. The absolute guru is the dharmakaya. Sorry. Sorry.
Cross that one out. Delete that from the big mistake. The absolute guru is the dharmakaya, the omniscient mind of all the Buddhas. That is the absolute guru, which manifests as the relative guru, somebody with a body. But even then, you one shouldn’t identify the relative guru with the guru’s body.
The even the relative guru is more the mind of the guru and the qualities of the guru, not their personality. That’s not the guru that one devotes oneself to, but the qualities of the guru. So one needs that to practice tantra, this devotion, and to work on it to develop more and more, because to enter tantra one has to receive the blessings of the guru’s mind through what is called an initiation. So in Kriyā tantra is these ceremonies which we call initiations. The Tibetan word for what we translate as an initiation is actually jenang, which means something like subsequent blessing, something like that.