Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

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Konchog Thogme Jampa
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Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Konchog Thogme Jampa »

Hi

I am asking because I can't find the answer to this question properly.

I have taken some Empowerments online from Garchen Rinpoche. I have written to Garchen Institute and Garchen Rinpoche himself replied and gave me some very good practice advice. This was a one-off, the Institute has made clear he cannot take me on as a disciple due 'to the immense number of disciples he has worldwide'.

So I am continuing with the practices. But with no qualified guidance.

Also, the Empowerments like White Tara have the respective Sadhana, but I have no idea from the Empowerment whether I have the permission to practice from the Sadhana does it require a Reading Transmission which I wouldn't know where to receive? The Empowerment gives the permission to visualise yourself as the Deity and recite the Mantra. Is it then OK to practice the Sadhana?

For example, I would like to practice the Milarepa Guru Yoga, I purchased the Sadhana, the Empowerment is next month April 13th. Having participated in the Empowerment, can I then just practice from the Sadhana. If not how would I gain permission to do that? The Sadhana is 'The Glorious Blazing Wisdom.'


Any advice would be helpful.
Soma999
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Soma999 »

"Normaly", one should get the empowerment and the lung.

Then, what i can tell you is that i practiced sadhana without formal empowerment, and it worked. Then i got the empowerment, it worked too.

I have practices sadhana with the lung, it worked. I have practiced some without, it worked also, but with the lung, i felt there is special blessings.

My opinion, i you find it helpful, is that all deity are one. In fact, if you worship one, you worship them all. And if you have realisation with a deity, it is my feeling it opens the door to all deities.

The Mother is one. If you worship the Mother in a tradition, but can't recognise Her in other tradition... well, it's not that she is different. Its that we are fixated upon a form and can't see outside of this form. That is rigidity of mind. Then i can also understand one does not want to "disperse" his energy and prefer focusing into a single form.

So, if you already have a major initiation, or direct introduction to primordial nature, it opens the door to all deities. That does not mean you should not get empowerments, or don't respect lungs.

Empowerments are great help and great blessings, a priviledge to get. And lung really help. I would certainly not reject an empowerment or a lung to a deity i feel a connection with.

That being said, don't make the formal ritual empowerment or the lung a prison, a dogma, something rigid. It's here to help you, not to stop you.

Empowerment can be obtained through webcam now, as you now. I have personally received very powerful transmission through recorded video. How ? Certainly because of the merging of mind with the person. And i'm far from being the only one who got such experiences.

There is story of people who even get the darshan of saint through a photo, or in dreams. There are many possibilities if we drop our ideas about how the universe work or should work.

One of my teacher first got teachings in dream... before following masters. But it all started on the "internal planes".

Please know it's just an opinion, based also upon practice and experimentation. I am not a lama, take my words as a brother in dharma who share his feelings and perception.
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

It is always better to get lung. Do NOT practice deity without having at least lung for sadhana or better initiation.

I have asked the question with white tara and from replies I have gathered that yes after receiving empowerment from Garchen Rinpoche you can practice the white tara sadhana, so I guess you can also do the Milarepa guruyoga sadhana.

I think I heard Garchen rinpoche tell us that if we do not have sadhana it is very much okay to visualize the deity in the sky infront of us and recite its mantras and receive blessings and purification etc. But not sure about it, hwoever when I do it it feels right especially when I realize the deity is all of my teachers.

I'd suggest you finding a drikung kagyu group in your locality, it has helped me a lot and I met many great people and it gave me an opportunity to study and take part in retreats.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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Josef
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Josef »

Empty Desire wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:52 am Hi

I am asking because I can't find the answer to this question properly.

I have taken some Empowerments online from Garchen Rinpoche. I have written to Garchen Institute and Garchen Rinpoche himself replied and gave me some very good practice advice. This was a one-off, the Institute has made clear he cannot take me on as a disciple due 'to the immense number of disciples he has worldwide'.

So I am continuing with the practices. But with no qualified guidance.

Also, the Empowerments like White Tara have the respective Sadhana, but I have no idea from the Empowerment whether I have the permission to practice from the Sadhana does it require a Reading Transmission which I wouldn't know where to receive? The Empowerment gives the permission to visualise yourself as the Deity and recite the Mantra. Is it then OK to practice the Sadhana?

For example, I would like to practice the Milarepa Guru Yoga, I purchased the Sadhana, the Empowerment is next month April 13th. Having participated in the Empowerment, can I then just practice from the Sadhana. If not how would I gain permission to do that? The Sadhana is 'The Glorious Blazing Wisdom.'


Any advice would be helpful.
The empowerment is completely legitimate and you can do the practice as though you were there in person.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Lhasa
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Lhasa »

During the online empowerment you can ask questions in the chat room and also send in practice-specific questions to Garchen Rinpoche at the Garchen Institute email address...use a 'question for Garchen R' in the subject line. They have told me they would forward the question to him. Be present when he answers questions live, because you may not get an email reply. Also Garchen R. has been telling people to ask the new resident Khenpo...Tenzin? I forget his name, ask him questions, so you could email the Khepo at the Institure too.

Have you received the lung for 'A Guru Yoga that Brings the Dharmakaya onto the Path' ? You can take this self-empowerment and then use any text/sadhana you wish, while you are transformed. The text for it is in the new blue Drikung Kagyu Prayerbook.
Thendup71
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by Thendup71 »

Garchen Rinpoche on taking online transmissions:
You think that, when you receive the empowerment, that the Deities abide in space like massing clouds and when they confer the empowerment, the blessings of the empowerment shower down like rain and then dissolve into the universe and all sentient beings. And that is actually also why we can also receive the empowerment over the live-stream for example, or we can take our own empowerment and so on”.
Spring retreat, 4 May 2018
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lelopa
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Re: Garchen Rinpoche - Empowerments Online

Post by lelopa »

A few months ago Garchen Rinpoche gave a Kalachakra-Wang in Portugal with the "main mantra".
Afterwards he teached a short Sadhana where there is a different Mantra but afaik gave not the lung for that shorter one...
or did i missed something? :shrug:

Is it intended to practice the short sadhana with the long mantra, or may one use the shorter one too? :thinking:

Years ago i also recieved karma kagyu empoerments with this, or that mantra (f.e. Dechen Gyalmo from Khandro Rinpoche)
but the sadhanas had another one (in the case of Dechen Gyalmo two different Guru Yogas) & there were no lungs for that...
nobody cares, or could explain to me why... the attendants used the sadhana because they bought it at the center's shop afterwards.
i do not know about today, but in the 70ies & 80ies many empowerments were given and taken as a kind of blessing... no practices were teached in the case of a Marpa-empowerment given by Kalu Rinp. or a Chenrezig-empowerment ( Chokgyur Lingpa's Cintamani,thugs rje chen po yid bzhin 'khor lo) given by Tulku Urgyen even not the mantras were mentioned, etc
Lost In Transmission
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