So now, coming back to the Niguma yoga, just a brief explanation to you for this time, so that perhaps next time, I can offer to you, so that you can practice.
Niguma is, she’s a, she’s a lady from, she’s a lady from Kashmir. She’s a lady from Kashmir region, and she’s the eldest sister of Naropa. Naropa is the one that, who established the Kagyupa lineage. You know, you have the Drukpa Kagyu, Taklung Kagyu, Tsalpa Kagyu, Karma Kagyu, and you know, so you have different branches of Kagyupa. So all that different branches of Kagyupa, the practice of the Kagyupa, that comes from the Naropa himself. You know?
And Niguma, she is the sister of the Naropa, and her teachings is “gser chos lnga“, “gser chos lnga” means The Five Jewels of Niguma. So “The Five Jewels of Niguma” is: (1-the Roots) རྩ་བ་ནི་གུ་ཆོས་དྲུག། “rtsa ba ni gu chos drug“, (2- the Trunk) སྡོང་པོ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ། “dong po chak gya chen po“, (3- the Branches) ཡལ་ག་ལམ་ཁྱེར་རྣམ་གསུམ། “yal kha lam khyer rnam gsum“, (4- the Flowers) མེ་ཏོག་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དཀར་དམར། “me tog mkha’ spyod dkar dmar“, (5- the Fruit) འབྲས་བུ་འཆི་མེད་འཆུག་མེད། “bras bu ‘chi med chugs med“.
(1) རྩ་བ་ནི་གུ་ཆོས་དྲུག། “rtsa ba ni gu chos drug” རྩ་བ་ནི་གུ་ཆོས་དྲུག། “rtsa ba ni gu chos drug” means, like her foundation of her teachings is rooted on the Six Yogas of Niguma [Nigu Chö Druk]. The Six Yogas of Niguma, the first stage is heat generating practice. Heat generating practice it doesn’t mean that you become an “ice man”, you know? A “heat generating practice” means you have to understand the breath and the air, no, breath and the mind as one. So when you, when you conquer your breath, with the, with the continuation of awareness, you conquer your mind. You understand? You understand what I’m trying to say? You know?
Because we can do this, we can do that, we can put this picture, we can do lot of prayers, and pujas and offerings here and there, but we have no awareness of our own breath. You know? So when you have awareness of your own breath, so that means you have awareness of the 21 000 times, you know, of breath that is going out per day and night that we breathe. You know? So when you have this continuation of awareness of the breath, you have also conquered your mind, as well, which means you overcome the cycle of the influence of illusion of the mind. Which is, you know, uplifting you from the, the samsaric realm. Let’s put it like this. You know?
So when you, with the Toumo practice, and then illusion, illusory, illusionary body and mind practice, གཏུམ་མོ “tum mo“, རྨི་ལམ་ “mi lam” means the dream yoga practice རྨི་ལམ་ “mi lam“, འོད་གསལ་ “ö sel“, འཕོ་བ་ “powa“, འོད་གསལ་ “ö sel” means the clear light practice, and then འཕོ་བ་ “powa” means transmitting the state of the consciousness practice, བར་དོ་ “bar do” means “the state of between” right?, the intermediate state, so that practice as well. So all the practice is, is interrelated, it’s not separate. It’s not cherrypicking. You know?
Many people they think that “Oh I like about the bardo practice” you know? And then “I really like it, and I’m really fascinated by the bardo teachings” it doesn’t work like that. You know? Like an example Thangtong Gyalpo have said, you know, “What is the point of recognising the nature of the mind, if you cannot liberate yourself from the state of the bardo”. The whole purpose of the recognising the nature of the mind, out of many purpose, you know, is to liberate yourself in the state of the bardo. You know, with that, the purpose.
And then, the Mahamudra of the Niguma, the (2) སྡོང་པོ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ། “dong po chak gya chen po“, and then the trunk of the Niguma’s teaching is, you know, the Mahamudra. And then (3) ཡལ་ག་ལམ་ཁྱེར་རྣམ་གསུམ། “yal kha lam khyer rnam gsum“, means the branches of the Niguma’s teaching is the, you know, the Three Kayas inseparably practicing. And then [(4) མེ་ཏོག་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དཀར་དམར། “me tog mkha’ spyod dkar dmar”] the flower from the trees are seen as the, you know, the red dakini and the white dakini, the deity of transmitting the state of the consciousness. And (5) འཆི་མེད་འཆུག་མེད། “chi med chugs med” the seed within the flower, and that is […] right? So that is the infinite practice, timeless practice, or འཆི་མེད་འཆུག་མེད། “chi med chugs med“. Yeah, “No death, no mistake”, “No death, no mistake”, at that stage, the whole visualisation, the conceptual ideas of the visualisation is minimalised over the time, you know?
So that’s how it goes, that’s all her teachings. Of course, different method of visualisation, but all of that is already made it by Buddha Shakyamuni. None of that teachings is made up by her, you know? It’s all the teachings were based on the teachings of the Lord Buddha, as a principal. And all the different visualisation was, you know, different technical way of visualising, visualisation, came from her guru and her inspiration from her own highly realised mind. And she is a, you know, enlightened dakini, you know? Of India.
Kalu Rinpoche at the Buddhist Community Centre UK (BCC UK) Monastery – 30 Nov 2022 (51′ 57”)
To be continued …
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