Chenrezig - practice, sadhana`s etc...

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SuryaMitra
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Chenrezig - practice, sadhana`s etc...

Post by SuryaMitra »

Hello all . I have a few questions.

1.What sadhana is used as a base in Karma Chagme`s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings? Is it the one from the Royal Tradition from Songtsen Gampo ? or Thangtong Gyalpo?

2. When one is practicing Chenrezig as personal Yidam in Karma Kagyu, what sadhana is usually recommended?

3.I`ve heard that Thangtong Gyalpo sadhana is Chenrezig Guru Yoga, rather than actual Yidam practice, can someone with knowledge explain that to me?



Thank you in advance :)
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conebeckham
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Re: Chenrezig - practice, sadhana`s etc...

Post by conebeckham »

Not sure of the anwswer to your first question......would love to hear from others.

In general, I'd say the most popular Chenrezig sadhana amongst Kagyupas is Thangtong Gyalpo's Droden KaKhaybma, fleshed out with additional prayers and liturgy. There's also the whole tradition of Gyalwa Gyamtso, which is vital to the Karma Kagyu lineage, and is a three year retreat practice, normally, these days.

There's also Khorwa Dongdruk, there was a thread about that here....some Lamas maintain a daily recitation of that practice.

As for ThangGyal's Chenrezig being a "guru yoga"--well, there's some truth to that--the guru as Chenrezig above the head, etc.--and that aspect of the practice can be emphasized. The "Dak Kye" or self-generation can also be emphasized.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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SuryaMitra
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Re: Chenrezig - practice, sadhana`s etc...

Post by SuryaMitra »

Ok. Thank you.
So I assume that it is Guru Yoga when you have Chenrezig above your head (in Droden KaKhaybma) and that correspond with Kriya yoga style, and when you generate yourself as deity then it is more Yoga Tantra?
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Chenrezig - practice, sadhana`s etc...

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

conebeckham wrote:Not sure of the anwswer to your first question......would love to hear from others.
I second that. Glyn, you seem to be rather well acquainted with Chagme Rinpoche's lineage. Do you happen to know?
As for ThangGyal's Chenrezig being a "guru yoga"--well, there's some truth to that--the guru as Chenrezig above the head, etc.--and that aspect of the practice can be emphasized. The "Dak Kye" or self-generation can also be emphasized.
Keep in mind that many of the practices (ngondro, yidam practice, etc.) are often said to be "complete paths" by the lamas. This means that they contain all the essential elements necessary to cause to realization of enlightenment.

Yidam sadhanas are usually glossed as "generation stage" practices, but as Cone indicated, really there are many facets and you can emphasize one aspect or another. Deity yoga starts with refuge & bodhicitta, then deals with generation stage visualization and mantra recitation. And then there's the dissolution of the visualization, which is completion stage.

All sources of refuge and all the three roots are complete within the guru, and remember that you visualized the guru as the deity when he or she gave you the empowerment. In that sense, the whole thing could be considered guru yoga.
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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