Q: Why is that one should receive initiation, blessings and empowerment before beginning any practice?
A: Well, if you try to understand the meaning of the empowerment, if you listen everything clearly. If you’re Bhutanese, if you’re Tibetan, if you’re from Lhadak, or if you’re from Nepal, then you will definitely understand everything that you are hearing. Whether when we are reading the mantras, because it’s all Sanskrit pronunciation.
Basically the whole idea about the empowerment is explaining to you how do you visualize it, and giving you the introduction about what is mandala, what is deity and what is the bodhicitta, and what are the key principles to uphold this practice. And when you put these things together, and then it becomes blessing, empowerment. Okay?
It is not a blessing and empowerment, like putting an object on your head, that’s not an empowerment. Meaning of the empowerment is all the instructions about how do you visualize, how do you create, how do you dissolve, explanation of the mandala, regarding which tantra level may be, different categories of the tantra may be. And then also the bodhicitta, and the refuge and the dedication, and what are the key principles with this particular deity practice or the protector practice.
So if you are listening carefully, all these are combined together and giving it to you and the object that are touching your head, is simply a symbol, you understand? Is simply a tendrel, the connection, let’s put it like this, simply a tendrel.
The real empowerment is when you are clear, when your mind is clear, and when you are listening, when you are visualizing, and when you are transmitting with all the samaya deities and the wisdom deities, back and forth with the visualization, that is the real meaning of the empowerment. And then so that you can adapt like that in your daily life. So that’s that.
Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 9 January 2022 (56’20”)
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