Q: Why is it necessary to get an empowerment to practice mind-training techniques?
A: Many of us when we think about the empowerment, we think that, empowerment has something to do with the object that I am holding, or you are sitting there, with your clean head, and without any hat on it, and in a temple, and then I recite some mantras and then I put the object on your head, and then you think “Okay, I received the empowerment.” That is our general ideas about the empowerment.
Empowerment, and that’s a general idea, and it’s not really harmful, it’s not really negative, it’s fine, but it’s not really fine if you keep this for a very long term habit. If you say “Okay, I go in front of the Buddha statue, I make a three time prostration, and then I put my head on the shrine of the Buddha, on the feet of the Buddha, and I seek a blessing of the Buddha Shakyamuni”, yeah, that is good, that is meaningful, that is good.
But when it comes to empowerment, having the same idea, and saying that “Oh, I am receiving this object on my head, so if this object touch my head, and then I received the empowerment. If this object did not touch my head, then I did not receive the empowerment”. That is a very limited understanding. And we need to improve our understanding.
I’m not saying that you are unfortunate and I am more fortunate because I am Kalu Rinpoche, I’m not saying that. What I’m trying to say, is that we need to improve our understanding of the empowerment itself.
So the meaning of the empowerment itself, is basically empowering our mind. Not necessarily giving us a miracle. Empowerment is not a miracle. Empowerment is simply an instruction, an instruction, and teaching, and visualization and method, all combined together, and telling you how to visualize, how to practice, and what are the commitment, what are the samaya that we need to uphold, starting with the Three Jewels and bodhicitta. And that is the meaning of the empowerment.
Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 20 December 2020
To be continued…
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