Upaya Dharma Podcasts - Losang Samten: Teachings on Green Tara

I have never been too enamored with the deity meditations of Tibetan Buddhism, but the Green Tara meditations have always been an exception. The only thangka I own is a Green Tara - I have been drawn to the meaning of compassion in action.

Losang Samten: 12-21-2011: Teachings on Green Tara

Speaker: Losang Samten

Recorded: Wednesday Dec 21, 2011

Venerable Lama Losang Samten discusses Green Tara, one of the most important practices in Mahayana Buddhism in all four lineages in Tibet. Losang takes us through a short text, paragraph by paragraph, and introduces two Green Tara meditation practices. More information may be found at his website, www.losangsamten.com.

Losang Samten has been sharing teachings of loving-kindness, joy and compassion, as well as the path to enlightenment for almost 30 years. Losang lived and studied over 20 years in the Namgyal Monastery (the monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) earning the highest degree attainable at the monastery, equivalent to a doctoral degree in the West. He also became a Master of Ritual Dance and Sand Mandalas and was the Personal Attendant to His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama prior to moving to the United States in 1988. Ven. Losang Samten is one of the Mandala Masters who created the first public sand mandala in the West in 1988. He is the spiritual director of several Buddhist Centers in North America, with a home base currently in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – the City of Brotherly Love.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Dalai Lama - Emptiness as a Preliminary for Deity Yoga

[NOTE: I find today's Dalai Lama quote interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. I do not practice Tibetan Buddhism because of these seemingly prerational beliefs in a "truly existent divine body" of a given deity. Maybe I misunderstand, and please correct me in the comments, but this feels like a holdover from the Bon tradition that was prevalent in Tibet prior to the arrival of Buddhism.]

DEITY YOGA
in Action and Performance Tantra
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins
more...

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

At the beginning of the process of deity meditation and mantra repetition one meditates on emptiness, settling the non-inherent existence of oneself and the deity through a reasoning such as that of dependent-arising--the fact that both oneself and the deity arise in dependence on their respective bases of designation. One's own final nature and the final nature of the deity are the same, an emptiness of inherent existence.

To perform deity yoga one does not just withdraw ordinary appearances and then appear as a deity but causes the mind realising emptiness itself to appear as a deity. Thus, it is essential initially to meditate on emptiness, cleansing all appearances in emptiness. One then uses that wisdom consciousness realising emptiness as the basis of emanation of a divine body. This must be done at least in imitation of a consciousness actually doing this, for meditation on a truly existent divine body, instead of helping, will only increase adherence to inherent existence. Meditated properly, the appearance of a divine figure is the sport of the ultimate mind of enlightenment, first in imitation and later in fact. (p.39)

--from Deity Yoga in Action and Performance Tantra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

Deity Yoga • Now at 5O% off
(Good through February 25th).

New Dalai Lama Images...

Tags: Deity Yoga in Action, Performance Tantra, His Holiness, Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications, Emptiness, Preliminary, Deity Yoga, Buddhism, books, deity yoga, prerational, Bon