Hi Catmoon,catmoon wrote:Hm. I have more beginners' questions. If you take seven or eight hundred empowerments, how can one possibly keep the samaya obligations? Is the term "empowerment" being used in the same sense a gelugpa would use it?
Yes, these are anuttarayoga tantric abishekas or empowerments. In the Nyingma tradition, one doesn't typically find the approach of assigning commitments of x amount of recitations of each mantra of each deity one received an empowerment for. Instead you generally find the approach of "accomplish one deity, you accomplish all" where one fulfills all one's commitments through the practice of guru yoga and one's yidam. All the other practices can then be practiced as needed, to fulfill a specific skillful means, should such a need arise.