Читать книгу The New Guide to Dakini Land - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso - Страница 9

Introduction

I have prepared this book, The New Guide to Dakini Land, to clarify many profound meanings, and to make it easy to understand and practise this precious holy Dharma. Please enjoy!

We should know that living beings have many different capacities for spiritual understanding and practice. For this reason, out of his compassion, Buddha the Blessed One gave teachings on many levels, just as a skilful doctor administers a variety of remedies to treat different types of sick people.

For those who wish merely to attain human happiness Buddha gave teachings revealing actions and their effects, or karma; and he taught moral discipline as their main practice. For those who wish to experience the permanent inner peace of liberation, or nirvana, for themselves, Buddha gave teachings on the disadvantages of samsara, the cycle of contaminated rebirth; and he taught the three higher trainings – training in higher moral discipline, training in higher concentration and training in higher wisdom – as their main practice. For those who wish to attain the ultimate goal of full enlightenment Buddha gave teachings on learning to cherish others, great compassion and the supreme good heart, bodhichitta; and he taught the six perfections – the perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom – as their main practice. All these teachings are open to anyone who wishes to study and practise them. The experiences that are gained from practising them are called the ‘common spiritual paths’.

Besides these teachings, Buddha also gave teachings on Tantra. These may be practised only by those who have received Tantric empowerments. The experiences gained by practising these teachings are called the ‘uncommon spiritual paths’.

Venerable Vajrayogini

In the Tantric teachings Buddha revealed four classes of Tantra. The practices explained in this book, The New Guide to Dakini Land, are included within the highest of these, Highest Yoga Tantra. These are the very essence of Buddha’s teachings. They include special methods for preventing ordinary appearance and ordinary conception, special methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state and rebirth, and uncommon methods for transforming all daily experiences into higher spiritual paths. By transforming ordinary experience in this way we can prevent all the problems we experience in our daily life and swiftly attain the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment. In this context, ‘Dakini’ refers to Vajrayogini, and her Pure Land of Keajra is called ‘Dakini Land’ or ‘Keajra Heaven’.

The source of all the essential meanings contained in The New Guide to Dakini Land is Illuminating All Hidden Meanings (Tib. Be don kun sel), which is a precious commentary to the practice of Heruka and Vajrayogini Tantra by Je Tsongkhapa. Through the kindness of my root Guru, Dorjechang Trijang Rinpoche, I have had the opportunity to study and practise the instructions of Heruka and Vajrayogini. Now I have written this book as a special offering, mainly for practitioners of the modern world.

To practise the instructions explained in this book we require special inner conditions. First we should train in the common spiritual paths, the practice of Kadam Lamrim, and then receive the empowerments of Heruka and Vajrayogini. Having received these empowerments we should strive to maintain our vows and commitments purely.

If we have a pure motivation and read the entire book carefully, concentrating deeply on its meaning without rushing to finish it, we will gain profound realizations of Buddhadharma.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso