Transcription from Cultivation Session – Saturday, July 12, 2014

Terjemahan Indonesia: Transkripsi untuk Sesi Sadhana – Sabtu, 12 Juli 2014

Link to the recorded video: 12 July 2014 Event A
Led by Lotuschef – 12 July 2014
Transcribed and edited by Lotus Nino

For complete steps of the sadhana, please refer to: The Annotated Repentance Sadhana [Shri Vajrasattva Sadhana of the Four Preliminary Practices]

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Today we are celebrating the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva Enlightenment Day and in this year it falls on the 15 th of July. So today’s yidam is Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.

Prelude

Before we start, before cultivation, actually you should take a bath and change your clothes, or you can go wash your hands, it's a form of cleansing.
And then relax and to start, I'd like you to hollow out, throw away the stale air, stagnant air, all the unhappiness.
So you can yell loudly “Ai” (Chinese word for “Love”), you straighten your spine, take a deep breath, hollow out from your Dantian (wiki: Elixir field, sea of qi), that is three to four fingers below your umbilical.
At your own timing, shout out “Ai” 3 times.
You can follow me too.

Normally I would ask whether you love Grandmaster or not. And in chinese, the Love is “Ai”.
So let's do it, at the count of three.
Take a deep breath first, at the count of three, shout “Ai”; and at another three, shout “Ai” again.
That's hollowing out.
Ready?
One, two, three, “Ai!”
One, two, three, “Ai!”
One, two, three, “Ai!”
Ok, we are ready.
Are you happy? Ok?
You should feel light, and then you feel... how do you say... you feel happy, in the joyful mood.
You should be in this frame of mind before we start cultivation.

Now we take three deep breaths.
With each breath, you visualise you draw in great amount of white light, slowly filling your body.
Using your mind or your “Will Power”, move this light to your hand and move your fingers a little bit, slowly move and move it downwards to your feet, toes.... and move your toes a little bit.
All the time (while doing that) you are holding your breath!
And when your body is filled with this light, you should feel good.
When you can’t hold this breath anymore, again with your mind visualise you open all skin pores and emit the light outwards.

Just now you threw away all the black things, all the unhappy things. So when you draw in the white light, it fills you, and you in turn give out the white light, so no more darkness. Okay?
You've already thrown away the darkness, so you are now lighted just like a light tube or light bulb.
When you switch on the electricity, that means you bring the light into you. It fills you and then you shine the lights outwards.
Like the energy-saving bulb, you get brighter and brighter.
You can go try with those things if you don't know how it feels: you can switch on the light with a dimmer, from dim slowly adjust it to brighter and brighter.
That's how you will be as you get brighter and brighter.

So when we chant Guru's mantra or other mantra, just visualise that you're that light bulb or that lamp, it becomes brighter and brighter – this means that you're sharing the goodness of the universe, the light, the energy, the brightness, and everything all that is good with everybody.
Bear that in mind, Sharing! And we'll do fine.

Now we do the three deep breathings and we will enter the cultivation.

The Four Immeasurable Visualisation

We do the Four Immeasurable visualisation.
We visualise True Buddha Lineage:

Namo Vairochana Buddha, Buddha Locani, Amitabha Buddha, Padmakumara, and the Living Buddha Lian Sheng.

Visualise that they bless us with great amount of light.
Visualise the light fills us and in turn we share this light by emitting them through our skin pores to all sentient beings.
Remember: we do not choose who to give to, we give to all without discrimination, differentiation, segregation!
This is the part of Bodhicitta – the Dharma Charity.

Feels good? You should!

We form Padmakumara’s hand mudra.
We chant the long mantra 7 times:
[Root Guru's long mantra]

Purification

We go into Purification Mantras. We are purifying the body, speech, and mind.
If you've done the previous visualisation well, you are pretty clean actually and pretty pure now.
We chant the earth deity’s mantra too.
Let's begin: [the Purification Mantras]

Invocation

We do invocation. First, with visualisation:
We visualise that we shoot a beam of great white light towards the universe like we outstretch both hands very sincerely, asking all divinities to grace our events and bless us that may all be auspicious and fulfilling for all of us.
Maintain this visualisation, and we chant invocation mantra:
[the Invocation Mantra]
[Sincerely invoking: the list of the deities]

Great Homage

We do the homage prostration
[Four Great Homage]

Mandala Offering

We do the Great Mandala Offering.
Form the (mandala offering) mudra, we visualise offerings of flower, incense, lamp, tea, fruit, and then treasure cone, pure water, bath liquid, and all kinds of precious gem, all kinds of treasure, gold, silver, bronze, crystal, jade, nice clothing, gown, suit, all kinds of food, grains, sweets, rice, meats from pig, cow, chicken, fishes, crabs, prawns, and all nicely prepared cuisines and all offerings that you bring yourself.
They are transformed into golden yellow light, filling the whole universe.
You can also offer dance, songs, and music.

Visualise glad acceptance from root guru, lineage gurus, the session's yidam, and all buddhas, bodhisattva, of the three times and ten directions.
The whole universe is now filled with golden yellow lights.

We also offer them to all heavenly beings, and also transform the offerings to all beings in the six realms in the form of rain of white light.
And as this white light touches all sentient beings, it transforms into multi-coloured lights. It means that all beings receive what they want and what they need.
We can also visualise that we can hear the happy laughter, signifying the glad acceptance from all beings in the six realms.
Maintain this visualisation, we chant the verse and the mantra.
[The verse and mantra of the Great Mandala Offering]

The Four Refuge

Ok now we do the Four Refuge:
We visualise root guru, lineage gurus, buddhas, dharmas, shanghas, of the three times and ten directions beaming light forming into one, blessing us and we in turn emit this light to share with all around us.
Remember: this is dharma sharing too!

We can visualise that we, all around us, transform into light, forming an ocean-like. In this, there is no differentiation or discrimination, because all are light – light as a whole, so we are all one.
We chant the Refuge Mantra 3x.
[the Refuge Mantra]

Armour Protection

We do armour protection.
We draw a beam of dazzling white light downwards, filling us, engulfing us.
We chant the mantra [the Armour Protection Mantra 7x].

We light up as a crossed dorje, and we return the mudra to the crown chakra, we visualise that we shoot a beam of medium blue light towards the universe; and we in turn draw it down, placing it to the front, back, left and right of us.
Visualise it in a form of blue light, starting to rotate in a clockwise direction. It starts to spin faster and faster.
We thank all dharmapalas for guiding us, protecting us, all around the clock.

The High King Avalokiteshvara Sutra

Now we chant the High King sutra.
Let's do the visualisation:
We visualise the eight-petalled lotus in our heart chakra slowly blooms, and in the centre sits the High King Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. All around on the lotus are the buddhas and bodhisattvas mentioned in this sutra.

We now have a lotus in our heart chakra filled with dazzling light like that of the stars shining brightly, we have actually the mandala of High King Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva – that means pure land!

When you have pure land in your heart chakra, you have no more darkness, worries, sufferings, cravings, desires, angers, hatreds, aversions; and all you have is wisdom, compassion, bodhicitta for all beings.

Maintain this visualisation, we chant High King sutra.
[the High King Avalokiteshvara sutra]

Amitabha Rebirth Mantra

We now form the mudra of the Rebirth Mantra.
We visualise that Amitabha appears from the universe, and from Amitabha’s heart chakra emits a strong beam of pinkish light.
This light consists of white, red and pink colours.
This pinkish light blesses all beings that we knowingly and unknowingly harm in the course of our daily lives.
We have the pigs, cows, chickens, fishes, crabs, shrimps, cockroaches, lizards, mosquitoes, bacteria, viruses.

When all these beings receive light blessings from Amitabha Buddha, their karmic negatives are neutralised and all unhappiness of other beings are neutralised too.
They become crystal-like pure, and we can visualise they happily sit upon lotus dharma boats.
Visualise these golden lotus dharma boats transform into golden dots of light, forming a golden river flowing into Amitabha's heart chakra.

Maintain this visualisation, we chant the rebirth mantra 7x.
[the Rebirth mantra]

Guru Yoga

Now we form Padmakumara's hand mudra.
We visualise Padmakumara appears from the universe, blessing us with white, red and blue lights.
Remember to sit up straight, keep your spine straight, then you can get the blessing!

Now visualise a HOM seed syllable from the mantra wheel in Padmakumara's heart chakra spinning and shooting a beam of great white light directed at your heart chakra.
In an instant, a white-lighted lotus appears within your heart chakra.
The white-lighted lotus continues to emit great white light, filling you and spreading outwards.
You are sharing this light with all.
We maintain this visualisation and we chant Guru's mantra.

Now remember, you are like the light bulb! Once you are lighted, you continue to give out lights.
You can actually time your breathing to draw in and give out the light.
It is up to how you want to do it, but once you are lighted, you stay lighted – like a bulb, when you switch on the electricity, it is lighted until you switch it off.
Once you light it, don't switch it off. Continue to stay lighted!
We start to chant mantra.
[Guru Padmakumara’s mantra 108x]

Feels good?
Once you’re lighted up, you feel lighter, feel brighter, there is a joy coming from within that is oozing outwards, now maintain this visualisation.

Yidam Yoga of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva

We form the Lotus Mudra and we visualise that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva appears from the universe, blessing us with white, red and blue lights.
Oh, you should have become very much brighter now!

Now we visualise within His heart chakra there is a mantra wheel and within it there is a seed syllable SEH (also known as HRIH).
If you don’t know, go and look it up please.
Now visualise this SEH syllable shooting a strong beam of white light directed at our heart chakra.
In an instant, this white light transforms into a mani gem, sitting upon a white lotus within our chakra.
As this white mani gem spins, it throws up many coloured lights as many as the variations of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, like the Green Tara, White Tara, Yellow Tara, Red Tara, and so on.
We maintain this visualisation, we chant the Six Syllables mantra 108x.

Please sit up straight, draw in the goodness and share it with all around you.
Remember: you are lighted up, and getting brighter and brighter as you chant mantra.

In this mantra, please emphasise the “OM” part, within there are vibrations going outwards filling all the void. The Six Syllables mantra reaches every corner of the six realms.
Let's start: [Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva’s mantra 108x]

The Nine-Step Buddha Breathing

We can do the 9-step breathing.
For those who don't know, I just give you the three basic steps.

[1]
Close your left nostril with your finger.
We start with visualising Root Guru sitting in front of us, and from Guru's nostril, He beams up white light, and you breathe in this white light from your right nostril.
Once it enters our body, it becomes red colour.
Close both nostrils now (to avoid the air from leaking).
So you have white light (now red light inside) going down the Right Channel to Dantian.
I've told you that Dantian is the area about three to four fingers below your umbilical – actually we also call it the little stomach.
From Dantian, it comes up to the Left Channel, and you release it through the left nostril.

Whatever comes out is black. So you're actually doing a cleansing of your system.
Like just now from cultivation, you've already cleansed yourself and you're a light bulb, so whatever comes out of you is not dark anymore.
But for beginners, when you’re doing this, it actually cleanses you. It cleanses all the darkness from you. So, if you are very tired after a day's work, you can do this.

The nine steps is of one set, so you can do this in three sets.

Now the key is your timing and you have to sit up straight, and your tongue must touch the roof of your mouth, blocking up the exit through the mouth; so there's a straight channel downward. It won't come out from your mouth because it's all blocked up.

When you draw in from the right nostril, you time it – if you are beginner, please start up with three counts: you draw in [one... two... three...], close the right nostril, it go down, visualise and use your mind power, push it down.
You have to close both nostrils so it (the air) won't come out!
You push it down in the Right Channel to Dantian at the count of three too.
Then at the count of three, from Dantian it goes up to the Left Channel and reaches the left nostril (remember when the air is inside, it's red) then you it blow out.

If you are already cleansed, and you can accomplish yoga, what you throw out is the white light, it's all the good one.
But when you need cleansing, when you're tired, you can blow out the black one to empty all the no good things (if you still have no good things to empty).
If you are tired, you're down, then you have something not good that you need to expel in the form of black or dark smoke.

[2]
The next one, you open the left nostril and draw in the white light at the count of three.
It enters you and becomes red, going down the Left Channel towards the Dantian, and then another count of three from Dantian it reaches the right nostril, release and let it come out (exhale) at the count of three.

[3]
Now breathe in from both nostrils at the count of three, and then block both nostrils, let it go down from the Left and Right Channels to the Dantian.
From Dantian, will it upwards through your Central Channel to your Crown.
When it reaches your third eye chakra, visualise that it blooms like a flower. Here it is up to you whether you want to count for three or not. The flower then closes and you count another three and draw it down to Dantian.
When the flower opens, move the light around, and then you can close and count three and move it back (downward) to Dantian.
From Dantian, count three and move it to both the Left and Right Channels back (upward) to both nostrils and let it out.

Those were the three basic variations and are considered as set no.1.

For the set no.2:
You draw in from the left nostril » Dantian » right nostril » release.
Then go in from the right nostril » Dantian » left nostril » release.
Then both nostrils » Dantian » Central Channel » blooming like flower » Dantian again » both channels up to both nostrils » release.

For the set no.3:
Both nostrils » Dantian » Central Channel » blooming like flower » Dantian again » both channels up to both nostrils » release.
Then go in from the right nostril » Dantian » left nostril » release.
Then from the left nostril » Dantian » right nostril » release.

You have completed the 9 steps that is one set.

Normally I would prefer that you practise it at home, so when you join in the group cultivation, you can do it easily and smoothly.

Postlude

When you become the white-lighted lotus, become the mani gem, you are already in samadhi; so we will not have anymore for this session.
In fact when you're doing Avalokiteshvara visualisation, and you form the mandala of the bodhisattva, you are already in the pure land, you are also in samadhi, bright and giving out the light.
If you can maintain just giving out the light, you are eternally in samadhi, you never exit from samadhi, you just give out the light all the time.
As you breathe in and breathe out, open up all the pores, you're like a walking lamp or light bulb, okay?!

The Heart Mantra of The Eight Principal Deities

We chant the mantra of the eight principal yidams.
[the 8 principal yidams’ mantras]

Intonation of Amitabha Buddha's Names

[Namo the 36 trillion 119 thousand and 500 Amitabha Buddhas with the same name and identification. 3x]

Merit Dedication

You can do the dedication, and I would advise that you do dedication to all sentient beings, may all sentient beings be free from any suffering, and may all sentient beings be well, happy and healthy.

Now we visualise white-lighted lotus with the lighted crossed-dorje sitting upon it. We beam light from the dorje we are holding that the crossed dorje and the lotus burst into great light and spreading wider and wider with the sound of the vajra bell. [Shout “WUN!”]

Edification

Now we visualise Vajrasattva appearing from the universe and we sincerely ask that all be auspicious, and may all our requests and wishes be fulfilled, and may all darkness be dispelled completely.
Before we chant the mantra, we visualise that we switch on the light again, or you have never switched the light off at all. As you chant, throw out great white light again.
[100-syllables mantra of Shri Vajrasattva 3x]

Great Homage

[Great prostration to all Buddhas] We thank all buddhas for blessing us all the time.
[Great prostration to all Bodhisattvas] We thank all bodhisattvas for blessing us all the time.
[Great prostration to all Dharmapalas] We thank all dharmapalas for guiding us and protecting us all the time.

The Completion Mantra

We chant the completion mantra.
[The completion mantra 3x]


Thank you everyone. Amituofo.
That ends our cultivation session today.
If you have any question, please write to purekarmaservices@gmail.com.
Thank you everyone.