As with all things, let us respect the instructions of our teachers. They are inseparable from the practice. To paraphrase the Words of my perfect teacher there are so many Dharma teachings, we need a teacher to distill the essential points for us. This depends on personal karma or background - for some of us, our teachers consider XYZ essential, for others their teachers may consider WXY essential and so at times there appears to be a contradiction but really it is superficial and not a contradiction of the essense.booker wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:55 pm Hi.
I've heard using wrathful mantras without initiation may lead one to some bad consequences, ie. harming oneself and others. I'm not sure to what degree this is applicable, but if we read ie. Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, there's a line over there some dzogchen practices can lead to not so nice consequences. I think in general when we're talking about powerful practice one should be aware there was some reason in the past these practices were secret and not just given to any "person from the street". I'd think likely someone without proper introduction might find it unable to hold the power properly and just go nuts, instead the power to transform one properly. No idea. But in general I'd think people should be cautious with careless practice of wrathful deities. Being ignorant to the power of fire will not help your hand not get burned, me thinks. Hope people will have this respect the same way
Dzogchen - definitely best to keep personal reading and study to a minimum and only read what your teacher recommends and definitely connect with a qualified lineage teacher, to get requisites to receiving the teachings properly. Yes if you practice without the requisites it will just lead to confusion and harm ultimately being a obstacle to truly practicing so it is best to not do that...... It is not a matter of the teacher or lineage gate keeping it is just a fact that the teacher and lineage are PART of the practice itself and so it is not really possibly to skip or remove that unless you want to end up with not-Dzogchen or a fake Dzogchen (I am not assuming that you need to hear this message Booker I am just putting this out there for anyone who might benefit from knowing if they already don't )
However all that being said I have heard that the sidpa gyalmo yeshe walmo mantra and healing practice has been encouraged by Bonpo lamas and what I have heard (through a senior student who was relaying advice from her teacher) is that with serious good intention and motivation of devotion compassion etc you can do the practice even if you do not have initiation and transmission - YMMV check with a Bon teacher you trust
KN