Ogyen Trinley Dorje - 17th Karmapa
About Guru yoga
In Vajrayana, guru yoga is a tantric devotional practice in which the practitioner unites their mindstream with the mindstream of the body, speech, and mind of their guru. Guru yoga is akin to deity yoga since the guru is visualized in the same manner as with a meditational deity. The process of guru yoga may entail visualization of a refuge tree as an invocation of the lineage, with the 'root guru' channeling the blessings of the entire lineage to the practitioner. The guru may be visualized as above the meditator, in front of them, or in their heart. Guru yoga may also include a liturgy, prayer, or mantra, such as the "Seven Line Prayer" of Padmasambhava, or the "Migtsema".
Amitabha Foundation - US
Depicting the Painting of Machik Labdron and Chod Refuge
This is mid-20th-century painting of Machik Labdron and the Chod refuge field displaying teachers and deities.
Thangka Painting Chart
Depicting the Painting of Machik Labdron and Chod Refuge
N°1 Asanga
Asaṅga was "one of the most important spiritual figures" of Mahayana Buddhism and the "founder of the Yogacara school".
Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the major classical Indian Sanskrit exponents of Mahayana Abhidharma, Vijñanavada (awareness only) thought and Mahayana teachings on the .
Tibetan Buddhist meditation – Reveling the nature of consciousness
In Tibetan Buddhism, the central defining form of Vajrayana meditation is Deity Yoga (devatayoga).
This involves the recitation of mantras, prayers and visualization of the yidam or deity (usually the form of a Buddha or a bodhisattva) along with the associated mandala of the deity's Pure Land.
Advanced Deity Yoga involves imagining yourself as the deity and developing "divine pride", the understanding that oneself and the deity are not separate.
"Yidam" in Tibetan technically means "tight .
Tantric practices – The esoteric South Asian traditions
Tantra are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed in South Asia from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards.
The term tantra, in the Indian traditions, also means any systematic broadly applicable text, theory, system, method, instrument, technique or practice.
A key feature of these traditions is the use of mantras, and thus they are commonly referred to as Mantramārga ("Path of Mantra") in Hinduism or Mantrayāna ("Mantra Vehicle") and Guhyamantra ("Secret .
Vajrayana practices – The tantric samaya vows
Vajrayāna along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism are names referring to Buddhist traditions associated with Tantra and "Secret Mantra".
Practitioners of Vajrayāna need to abide by various tantric vows or pledges called samaya.
These are extensions of the rules of the Prātimokṣa and Bodhisattva vows for the lower levels of tantra, and are taken during initiations into the empowerment for a particular Unsurpassed Yoga Tantra.
The special tantric vows .
