Mipham's Shower of Blessings

yenima
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Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by yenima »

Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
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heart
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by heart »

yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
Seems to me there is an empowerment necessary for that practice, but I never managed to find out what empowerment.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
ngodrup
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by ngodrup »

In that it is based on the seven line prayer, any Guru Rinpoche wang would work.
Seven line prayer is not secret.
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Adamantine
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Adamantine »

yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
I think it would only help to get a Guru Rinpoche wang, but I never got the impression a wang was necessary for that practice. There is no self-visualization, etc. Certainly the lung for the seven-line-prayer would be important though, as this is the heart of the sadhana. And, it would help to have a Guru, i.e., to have had some kind of wang, or transmission before, since the essence is Guru Yoga. If you used to practice it all the time at your temple, I am guessing you have a Guru, and are familiar with the practice. That should be enough to practice it on your own. It is all about relating to the blessings of Guru Rinpoche, and your own Guru as Guru Rinpoche, etc. etc. If you feel a resonance to that, if you have some devotion, this practice is quite powerful.
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
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Adamantine
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Adamantine »

heart wrote:
yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
Seems to me there is an empowerment necessary for that practice, but I never managed to find out what empowerment.

/magnus
There may be a particular empowerment related to that practice, which would be of that particular manifestation of Guru Rinpoche in Sambogakaya form, blue in color, yabyum with Yeshe Tsogyal. However, I do not believe it is required to do the practice because I and many others I know never received that wang, whatever it is, but were always encouraged to do that practice. In fact, it is considered an ideal tsok for people to do at home, because it is so simple, and does not have self-visualization, elaborate tormas, dharmapala sections, men and rakta offerings, etc. etc. all the elaborate ritual aspects that are found in many full tsok sadhanas: It is more or less a Guru Yoga practice with some tsok prayers inserted. But despite or maybe because of it's simplicity, it is extremely powerful, blessing-full... It is one of my favorite practices.
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
yenima
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by yenima »

Thanks for your answer, Adamantine, I think you're right on the dot. I'm pretty sure when we did the SoB Tsok at the temple, we did the entire practice from beginning to end, left nothing out, and I don't recall ever receiving a specific empowerment for that. I can't reach my lama right now to clarify this but I think your presentation is correct.

I'm drawn to this beautiful brief sadhana, for its use as a daily Guru Rinpoche Guru Yoga practice, with or without the Tsok, that is a lot simpler and perhaps more effective than other Guru Yogas such as Konchog Chidu, Thigle Gyachen or Pema Sangthig, for all of which I've received the empowerment, lung & commentary, in which the Guru is treated more like a yidam in a maha/atiyoga kyerim practice.

This may be particularly effective in conjunction with a study of Mipham's text "White Lotus."
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Malcolm »

yenima wrote:Thanks for your answer, Adamantine, I think you're right on the dot. I'm pretty sure when we did the SoB Tsok at the temple, we did the entire practice from beginning to end, left nothing out, and I don't recall ever receiving a specific empowerment for that. I can't reach my lama right now to clarify this but I think your presentation is correct.

I'm drawn to this beautiful brief sadhana, for its use as a daily Guru Rinpoche Guru Yoga practice, with or without the Tsok, that is a lot simpler and perhaps more effective than other Guru Yogas such as Konchog Chidu, Thigle Gyachen or Pema Sangthig, for all of which I've received the empowerment, lung & commentary, in which the Guru is treated more like a yidam in a maha/atiyoga kyerim practice.

This may be particularly effective in conjunction with a study of Mipham's text "White Lotus."
It depends on how you practice it. There are many ways to practice Konchog Chidu. It is an anu yoga system in fact. But after it hit the Kagyus it has been treated more of a Mahāyoga system. But it isn't.
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simhamuka
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by simhamuka »

Adamantine wrote:
heart wrote:
yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
Seems to me there is an empowerment necessary for that practice, but I never managed to find out what empowerment.

/magnus
There may be a particular empowerment related to that practice, which would be of that particular manifestation of Guru Rinpoche in Sambogakaya form, blue in color, yabyum with Yeshe Tsogyal. However, I do not believe it is required to do the practice because I and many others I know never received that wang, whatever it is, but were always encouraged to do that practice. In fact, it is considered an ideal tsok for people to do at home, because it is so simple, and does not have self-visualization, elaborate tormas, dharmapala sections, men and rakta offerings, etc. etc. all the elaborate ritual aspects that are found in many full tsok sadhanas: It is more or less a Guru Yoga practice with some tsok prayers inserted. But despite or maybe because of it's simplicity, it is extremely powerful, blessing-full... It is one of my favorite practices.
Yes, I think this is dead on. At my temple we do Shower of Blessings every week, and visitors are encouraged to join in, no empowerment necessary. I suspect this is because you visualize Guru Rinpoche in the space in front of your ordinary body.
Sengdongma has an easy job, because there are no enemies.
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anikunzang
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by anikunzang »

Shower of Blessings is a beautiful practice. It is a main practice at my Temple, KPC in MD. We have Tsoks there every Sunday, and everyone is welcome to join in. The only part of the practice that is restricted is when we insert the Dharmapala or protector prayers. Otherwise everyone who wishes to is invited to participate. This practice truly is a shower of blessings with its simplicity, beautiful prayers and powerful visualisation of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal in union. I love participating in this Tsok practice.
yenima
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by yenima »

Thank you all for your helpful answers. They've settled the question for me.
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Terma »

A rather old thread, so I thought i would revisit.

This is a great practice; a Guru Rinpoche guru yoga with a tsok liturgy inserted. As someone else said, a good daily Guru yoga practice and a fairly simple tsok practice (text wise) that can be easily practiced at home. I have done other tsok sadhana's which are more elaborate, have various sections and parts and in which numerous torma's besides the tsok torma are prepared, such as the obstructions torma, terma torma, etc. In those practices, there are portions of the text that deal with these torma's.

With this tsok practice being much less elaborate, is it generally only done with the main tsok torma and not the other various torma's that are normally prepared and offered in other longer and more elaborate feast practices?

If this is too specific for the open forums, please feel free to PM me.

Thanks.
Malcolm
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Malcolm »

heart wrote:
yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
Seems to me there is an empowerment necessary for that practice, but I never managed to find out what empowerment.

/magnus

It is actually a practice based on the view of Dzogchen, so properly speaking it would need direct introduction and a lung, and that is about all.
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Tongnyid Dorje
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Tongnyid Dorje »

Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by heart »

Malcolm wrote:
heart wrote:
yenima wrote:Does one have to have an empowerment in order to practice Mipham's Shower of Blessings? I remember, in our temple, we frequently performed the SoB Tsok, and participation was open to everyone. Are there parts of the sadhana (e.g. the daily non-Tsok practice) that can only be practiced by those who have the appropriate wangkur?
Seems to me there is an empowerment necessary for that practice, but I never managed to find out what empowerment.

/magnus

It is actually a practice based on the view of Dzogchen, so properly speaking it would need direct introduction and a lung, and that is about all.
That makes sense.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Karma_Yeshe »

Tongnyid Dorje wrote:Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
It depends on how you define "empowerment", but since SoB is based on the view of Ati, some kind of transmission of the knowledge of Ati is indispensable.

KY
Malcolm
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Malcolm »

Tongnyid Dorje wrote:Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
There is no self-visualization as a deity in kriya tantra, and yet, you still need an empowerment.

As I said, Shower of Blessings is an Ati level practice, which is indicated by the mode of creation, and the completion stage of the practice. It is a guru yoga practice in which on receives the four empowerments. This indicates that it is a highest yoga tantra level practice, at minimum.
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Malcolm »

Karma_Yeshe wrote:
Tongnyid Dorje wrote:Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
It depends on how you define "empowerment", but since SoB is based on the view of Ati, some kind of transmission of the knowledge of Ati is indispensable.

KY

Correct.
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Tongnyid Dorje
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Tongnyid Dorje »

Malcolm wrote:
Tongnyid Dorje wrote:Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
There is no self-visualization as a deity in kriya tantra, and yet, you still need an empowerment.

As I said, Shower of Blessings is an Ati level practice, which is indicated by the mode of creation, and the completion stage of the practice. It is a guru yoga practice in which on receives the four empowerments. This indicates that it is a highest yoga tantra level practice, at minimum.
yes, i see... my previous post was an answer from my lama, who gave me lung and instruction for this practice.

:namaste:
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by dzoki »

Tongnyid Dorje wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
Tongnyid Dorje wrote:Not really... there is no self visualisation as a deity, so you dont need any empowerment.... but its good to have some Guru Rinpoche empowerment as a blessing for this practice...
There is no self-visualization as a deity in kriya tantra, and yet, you still need an empowerment.

As I said, Shower of Blessings is an Ati level practice, which is indicated by the mode of creation, and the completion stage of the practice. It is a guru yoga practice in which on receives the four empowerments. This indicates that it is a highest yoga tantra level practice, at minimum.
yes, i see... my previous post was an answer from my lama, who gave me lung and instruction for this practice.

:namaste:
I received this practice 3 times from different lamas and they all agreed that there is no need for the empowerment in order to do this practice, also my friend received it recently and his lama also told him same thing.
Malcolm
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Re: Mipham's Shower of Blessings

Post by Malcolm »

dzoki wrote:
Tongnyid Dorje wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
There is no self-visualization as a deity in kriya tantra, and yet, you still need an empowerment.

As I said, Shower of Blessings is an Ati level practice, which is indicated by the mode of creation, and the completion stage of the practice. It is a guru yoga practice in which on receives the four empowerments. This indicates that it is a highest yoga tantra level practice, at minimum.
yes, i see... my previous post was an answer from my lama, who gave me lung and instruction for this practice.

:namaste:
I received this practice 3 times from different lamas and they all agreed that there is no need for the empowerment in order to do this practice, also my friend received it recently and his lama also told him same thing.
Nevertheless, if you really examine what this practice is, it is an Ati level guru yoga practice.

There is no formal empowerment for the text. But many of these kinds of guru yoga practice do not need a specific empowerment. Just a lung. Guru yoga itself exists only in HYT, etc. There is no guru yoga in lower tantra.
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