The Great Cloud of Blessing
When you are ready, you may start the morning session with water and incense offerings, followed by three prostrations to buddha images. Then you seat yourself on a meditation cushion in the seven-point posture of Vairochana. The seven-point posture of Vairochana is also called the vajra crossed-leg position or the full-lotus position. If you are unable to sit in the vajra position, you can sit in the half-vajra position (the half-lotus position). The vajra crossed-leg position helps the body to quickly gain five kinds of mental or physical benefits including pliancy. The posture requires your back to be kept straight, neither bent forward nor backward so as to counter mental laxity and excitement. According to tantric teachings, when the trunk and spine are held in an upright position, the channels become straight; and when the channels are straight, the mind becomes clear. Your head should be lowered slightly, with eyes slightly open gazing at the tip of the nose. The tip of your tongue should touch the upper palate. Your shoulders should spread and rest evenly, and the arms should not touch the body. Your hands rest in your lap in the mudra (hand position) of equanimity, that is, the back of the right hand rests in the palm of the left hand and the two thumbs stand up and touch each other to form a triangle. Your breath should be natural and soft, without noise and barely discernable. While inhaling and exhaling gently, quiet yourself and rest your mind for a while.
The next step is to do the breath purification exercise . First, form your left hand into the mudra called “vajra fist” by pressing your left thumb on the base of your left ring finger and curling the hand into a fist, with the four fingers on the thumb. Then press the vajra fist on the artery at the base of your left thigh. Form your right hand into a vajra fist as well and use either the right index finger or middle finger to block your right nostril. Slowly inhale through your left nostril. Imagine that all the negative karma and obstructions you have accumulated throughout time turn into a black vapor, and as you slowly breathe out, they are expelled from you. Hold your visualization and breathe three times through the left nostril. Then press your right vajra fist on the base of the right thigh and block the left nostril with your left index or ring finger. With the same visualization inhale and exhale three times through the right nostril. And finally press both fists on the bases of the thighs and breathe three times through both nostrils. As there are channels related to emotions at the bases of the ring fingers and the thighs, pressing thumbs and fists there can help calm the mind further.
After the breathing exercise, start to recall what you dreamed the night before. If you did something positive in the dream, it means that you have made progress in practice, and you should be joyful and dedicate the merit to your teacher, the Three Jewels, and all beings in the six realms. If you did something negative in the dream, it shows that you are not diligent enough in practice and you should repent immediately and pray to your teacher and the Three Jewels for their help.
After this comes the practice of Guru Yoga. People often ask whether they should visualize their teacher in their normal appear-ance or as a particular deity when practicing Guru Yoga. The answer is subject to your faith and devotion to the teacher. If you sincerely believe, without the slightest doubt, that your teacher is a real buddha who appears in the form of a human being to help you, you may visualize your teacher in their normal appearance. If you only imagine your teacher as a buddha and still have doubt about your teacher being a real buddha, you can visualize them as a deity. Or, if you doubt your teacher is a real buddha, but visualizing your teacher’s image makes you feel better, you can also visualize your teacher’s image when practicing Guru Yoga.
Now visualize that your teacher, either in his normal appearance or as a particular deity, is above the crown of your head facing in the same direction as you, or in the space an arm’s length above you facing toward you. Then recite the prayer of Guru Yoga, followed by the recitation of your teacher’s mantra if there is one. After the recitation, visualize that the teacher is transformed into a bright orb and enters you through your head and dissolves into your heart. By wishing that you achieve the same perfect enlightenment as your teacher’s, merge your mind with your teacher’s mind and rest in that state of equanimity for as long as you can. Alternatively, you can visualize yourself as a bright, five-colored orb that dissolves into your teacher’s heart. Then your teacher starts to ascend, higher and higher, and farther and farther away. Merge your own mind with that of the teacher and remain in this natural state for a while.
Guru Yoga is the quintessence of all Dharma practices. It is supreme and unsurpassable, directly pointing to the uncontrived nature of all phenomena. Meanwhile, it is easy to understand and can be practiced in any situation and at any time. Every morning when you wake up, visualize that your teacher, like a fish jumping out of the water, immediately comes out of a lotus at your heart and rises above your head. As you go to sleep every evening, you lie down on your right side in the position called “the sleeping lion’s posture” and visualize that your teacher enters you through the crown of your head and sits on a lotus at your heart. Your teacher’s body emits rays of light, illuminating you and everything around you. Whenever you are eating or drinking, visualize your teacher inside your throat and offer them your food or drink. Whenever you are walking around, visualize your teacher in the space above your right shoulder. Whenever sickness, obstacles, or other unwanted circum-stances arise, think that they have been given to you compassionately by your teacher to purify your past negative actions and to help you swiftly generate bodhichitta through your own pain. Whenever you encounter good fortune, recognize this, too, as your teacher’s kindness and compassion. In a nutshell, maintain the thought, all the time, in every situation, that everything you see and encounter is your teacher’s manifestation that comes directly from the teacher like rays from the sun. Always keep in mind your teacher’s virtues and kindness, arouse your devotion to them constantly, and pray to them fervently or recite their mantras. Believing that your teacher is inseparable from you, and you should never stop your devotion to them for even a second.
After the practice of Guru Yoga, you should start reciting prayers, sutras, and tantric texts . Usually, you may recite the following in sequence: the Mantra for Multiplying the Merit of Recitation, the Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones, Offering and Invocation, the Seven-Branch Offerings, Taking Refuge and Bodhisattva Vow, the Great Cloud of Blessings, In Praise of Manjushri, the Sadhana for Invoking Shakyamuni’s Blessing , and so on. It is better for you to recite these texts using the Tibetan pronunciation and intonation with a good understanding of their underlying meaning.
Apart from the above-mentioned texts, you may also recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra, which is the quintessence of the Mahayana transcendental wisdom teachings. While it is extremely hard for anyone to recite even just once the entire Large Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom, it takes less than twenty minutes to recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra, but yields equal merit. Regular recitation of the Diamond Cutter Sutra allows us to swiftly purify karmic obstacles as well as to enlighten our minds. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra once a day. In addition, the profound Heart Sutra is even shorter. It is through the recitation of the Heart Sutra that some ordained practitioners realized absolute truth and displayed many incredible qualities and acts. Apart from these two sutras, the Sutra of the Recollection of the Noble Three Jewels reminds us of the vast merit of the Three Jewels and evokes our gratitude to them. This is the sutra frequently chanted at the beginning of Dharma gatherings at some monasteries in Tibet. In addition, recitation of The Confession of Downfalls to the Thirty-Five Buddhas helps us purify our negative karma of body, speech, and mind. All these sutras are short and suitable for you to recite on a daily basis. Besides, you may also recite the Prayer of the Ground, Path and Fruition, the Luminous Path to Liberation, the Wishing Prayer of Dewachen, and the Guru Puja . According to His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, the supreme practice of guru puja enables practitioners to swiftly attain realization. You can practice it in the same way that you practice guru yoga.
Once the morning session is done, you may recite deity rituals and deity mantras whenever you can during the day and count your recitations consciously .
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