Firstly Lama lena made offerings to the Land Spirits.
Be grounded but also know that these beings exist. eg like bacteria, they exist even though you can’t see them. Our vision and our hearing is limited to certain spectrums, but you may catch a glimpse of them out of the corner of your eye…except you would assume it was a bird. Land spirits like local products, milk, local wine, cheese, builders tea (what the locals like). The scent is appreciated.
Tone in the light. In India its pinky yellow light. in the Uk it has a white blue clarity, more so in scandanavia (not just about north and south its the dreamtime of the place).
Dream yoga shows the textures of different places. Give thanks and acknowledge the land and the vastness and beauty of the world and invisible spirits. Your vegetables and flowers will grow better.
Sacred ancient power plants from where you live can be used like crushed mistletoe, dried oak leaves, mugwort, saffron, sage and tobacco. These can be ground up and added to water in a vase. In the vase you can stand some peacock feathers, roses or other flowers bound with a reed. Blessings may be blown into the water. The offerings may be put in a garden or on the land wherever it feels like there is a sense of ‘place’, as this is where the spirits tend to dwell. You can also create sweet places and invite them in. Sadak – earth spirits in Tibetan – land kings.
In situations where people upset the nature spirits eg with mining, litter and pollution, the nature spirits may be angry and attack the plumbing, and other misfortune tends to result. If you need to cut down a tree or move some rocks, let them know in advance.
With a prayer, the key is to ask for help and blessings and buddha consciousness for all – not just for yourself.
Love meditation
1000 petal lotus bud memory of love and trust and waters its petals grow from your heart and elongate and grow and touch another heart and this repeats to another heart and so on, like rays of light. visualise seed syllable Hui and mantra Om Mani Padme Om to fill the entire universe full of clear light. An open heart is safe – you can’t kick a sunbeam. Only protection is get bruised, relax, open heart. I taste. perceive and perceived are the same.
Dream yoga
is another practice that requires reminders in daytime and very strong intention to practice in your dreams.
Dzogchen and nature of mind
Repeating behaviour patterns and belief systems – notice how obedient you are to them.
our mind makes our decisions – we are lead about by thoughts.
What are thoughts made of? – Troubles and rewards
Free yourself from its tyranny with Dzogchen meditation
Not forced to believe and be limited by thoughts. lose the ability to fool you, and drag you around like a bull with a ring in its nose. relax. cutting though. free from neurosis. perceive, don’t think.
Relative compassion, relative bodhisitta, absolute bodhisitta. Union of method and wisdom
Not thoughts but great heartedness, open mindedness, not held by thought but by generosity of mind. Allow our foibles and others, without a layer of guilt and disparagement.
We all think we are a single somebody, but we are much more interconnected than this, more like an ecology that is part of an infinite ecology. We have a group karma – like global warming. The Tibetans must have created a cause for the Chinese to invade. For the sake of others – group karma – be generous, keep giving to everyone: bake cakes, buy flowers, knit socks, give compliments. Let it catch on. Leave space for grouchiness. Don’t fix it or wrap thoughts around it.
Our entire personality is created by experiences. Nothing stays the same. Memories are an illusion as we all have selective memory.
A lineage like Dzogchen can be lost. Recognise our innate enlightenment and carry it to future generations. Be open-minded but do not be impractical with it. keep your feel firmly in the sky! Chop wood, carry water. Don’t fly over water if you can’t swim, don’t become ‘woo woo’ or spaced out.
Practise Dzogchen. let your thoughts come and go, you can’t rely on them or trust them. Perceive an object with your 6 senses. Perceive your thoughts and emotions, Let go of understanding as it gets in your way. Stamp relaxedly, you will let go of belief systems. If Dzogchen isn’t easy, you are making an error. if its too easy you are probably resting in a thought. Hang a little dorgee or ornament on a string on your person or where you will see it often to remind you to practice meditation.
Your personality is created by all your experiences and what stories you have made of them. Two clear empty mirrors reflecting each other, and experienced inside of you. Karma is writing the story from past experiences, its not about good or evil. Karma creates karma, reality creates reality. personality determines how you experience sensory input. We are bound by our personality and patterns. An angry person finds lots of reasons to be angry. A loving person finds lots of things to love. Dzogchen gives you a steering wheel, you listen to what you’re thinking but you are no longer bound by it, so you can break loose from your personality – take a nap from your thoughts. Don’t indulge, fear or suppress your thoughts, take the middle way. Sink into meditation like you sink into a hot bath. Don’t close your eyes, have them half open, otherwise you’ll fall asleep. Cutting through the web of habitual thought patterns. Release from neurosis and paranoia eg ‘I’m not good enough’.
Dzogchen Method:
Do it discreetly. Do it as a meditation but also six times during the day for about 30 secs to 1 minute.
Relax
breathe
wriggle neck
eyes half open, half closed
Posture – if you lean forwards you tend towards depression, if you tend to lean backwards you tend to be manic. Sit upright with your channels aligned. Keep an erect , balanced and comfortable posture, with your mind in neutral gear. Let the stream of thoughts go, shift your attention, relax with awareness, not interlect. Feel where those thoughts are happening. meditation – watch. Open the sluice gate so that the thoughts pass by in a stream, without turning the wheel. Where are your thoughts coming from?
Where do they occur?
Where do they go?
And then perceive the empty space – return to the vastness without grabbing it. Still and moving are the same thing. Emptiness, stillness is alive – perceive it. Words are limitations. look at mind. Don’t get upset at getting upset. Recognise that you are having it whilst its happening eg having angry thoughts and feelings. Pretend to be enlightened! Arise in mind, disperse in mind, don’t justify or suppress them. Move your body eg pacing/walking if it helps move the adrenalin. The key is to have your attention focused on the vastness of mind whilst the thoughts and feelings come and go, then experientially see what they see.
Rest in the nature of mind, whilst thinking. Choose a subject that is easy for you at first. unwind the thought patterns and neurosis. don’t ‘poke the snake’, just let it go…
Pause, glance, perceptual not interlectual. Experiential, disassociate with thoughts and the under mutter. pay attention to the vast nature of mind and eat an apple.
We all believe some stories. Crazy people have wierder stories. But we all believe some story and if our stories are similar to others we think we are sane. But our Western stories would sound insane to Tibetans. The Tibetans sing to the baby dragons in the rocks in early spring and this story sounds insane to most Westerners. People used to hear of stories and legends that change from village to village but now people have TV.
Six types of Pattern – You have been everything on the wheel
- Hell Realms – old, cold, slow, tight anger and hot, blind, rage, bursting from the abdomen, for those who have power over you or did. Fear and anger tightens into a ball of heat and and cold, then it comes from the outside – pattern of hell.
- Hungry Ghosts – dissatisfation, feel like you can never get enough, whether its chocolate cake, love, money, security or whatever
- Animal Realm – narrow focus on basic whims – food, shelter, sex. Dull, drunken oblivian. No awareness of others except how they can benefit you.
- Human Realm – constant nattering, complex stories, tripping over interlect and karma – oops!
- State of Competitiveness – whether its football, business, status, wealth, or beauty but in the end you get old and lose and someone else wins
- Demi-God realm – Levels of Samadhi – bliss. The only difference between a god or a demon is whether you like their agenda – its your opinion, not its nature. A tiger is a problem in a village where it could eat a human, but in the jungle or a zoo its considered beautiful.
Prayer
May all beings be happy, may all beings be free
NB You can follow Lama Lena on facebook as 'Lena Feral' to find out when she may be doing a workshop near you.
