The Teacher's Empowerment

The teaching of empowerment that blesses the mindstream

First, we need to find the place to practice. Find an isolated place that is conducive to virtue. A place free from the distractions of worldly activities – samsaric activities. Then the spiritual students through faith and devotion seek out the authentic qualified teacher with the view and realization.

How to find a qualified teacher? You don’t need to focus on labels of Buddhist or Bon. If you concern yourself with those labels, you are already caught by the delusions of the extremes. So first, reflect “Why do I need a teacher?” “What is the importance of a teacher?” “What are the activities of a teacher?” “Once you have a teacher, what are they doing for you?” We need to check ourselves and reflect on these questions. 

We can also read and study the teachings and texts that detail the qualifications of a teacher. That way when we find a teacher we will have some baseline to evaluate them. We can investigate where they practiced – at what monastery did he learn? How many years did he study? What subjects did he learn? Who is his personal teacher?

Once you reflect and investigate and find an authentic teacher, you can request him or her to give teachings. Then it’s the teacher’s turn to investigate you.

Then you can do a tsok feast offering to your spiritual teacher, formally request the oral transmissions of the instructions and do great prayers and rituals. This is how you do the empowerment. Then the teacher will teach you according to his own experience of the practice and the knowledge he got from his root master. The teachings must be based on the root texts, not on opinions. This is very important. If you want to become an authentic student, you must have the root texts. An opinion is one person’s individual opinion. But the root texts represent all of the old lineage masters. This is why the lineage texts are so important.

Benefits

If you have your own spiritual teacher, and you get teachings, blessings, and connections – what is the benefit? Outer and inner obstacles will be pacified. Your wishes will be fulfilled. You will be under the protection of the Buddhas and four jewels – teacher, buddha, bon, sempa (bodhisattvas).

To get the authentic teachings from authentic lineage teachers is what is meant by receiving the blessing of empowerment.

This completes the teaching of the blessing of empowerment. 

A prayer for the blessings to enter the mindstream

We pray to you master, glorious protector of beings, please hold us with your compassion.

Kind and sublime father of beings, bless us with your protection like your children.

Bless us with the ability to practice the profound, essential instructions.

Bless us to be weary with deluded worldly appearances.

Bless us to have revulsion to the ocean of suffering of cyclic existence.

Bless us to cut attachment to the deceptive demon of enemies and relatives.

Bless us to be without desire and attachment to illusory material possessions.

Bless us to have no time for worldly activities and distractions.

Bless us to always feel distressed towards the ego, the basis of our faults and misdeeds.

Bless us to be without partiality to our mothers, fathers, and children of the six realms.

Bless us to recognize and become familiar with the nature of the mind, which is difficult to realize.

Bless us to be without fear in the terrifying abyss of the bardo.

Bless us to attain freedom from the great path of birth and death of cyclic existence.

Bless us to diminish and recognize the demons of analyzing

experience, magical displays, and obstacles as our own appearances.

Bless us to equalize the taste of concern about sickness, hope, and doubt.

Bless us that we may recognize our face, the

unfabricated, limitless natural state.

Bless us with the experience of bliss, clarity, and non-conceptuality without separation.

Bless us that the unceasing variety of dynamic energy of Rigpa arise as ornaments.

Bless us that the sudden conditions of good, bad, happiness, and suffering be taken into the path.

Bless us that all mental activity arises as helpers.

Bless us to realize and be liberated in the experience of the three

Enlightened Bodies beyond joining and separating.

Please bestow empowerment and accomplishments.

ཨ་ཨཱོྃ་ཧཱུྃ། ཅི་པར་རདྣ་ཐ་ཚན་སིདྡྷི་འདུ།།

A OM HUM CHI PAR RADNA TA TSEN SID DHI DU