Let's begin with a comfortable posture with the body upright yet relaxed.
And let's begin to rein in the awareness which has been externally dispersed,
Giving the mind one point of focus to anchor itself in the present moment,
Choosing either the tips of the nostrils or the abdomen as it rises and falls.
And we can go through ten rounds of breath.
Each cycle includes both an inhalation and an exhalation,
Just letting go of distractions and merging mind with breath.
And as we proceed now we can come into the body and inhabit the body with much more attunement,
Presence,
And just meeting the sensations as they arise on a moment-to-moment basis,
Accepting uncomfortable sensations,
Comfortable sensations,
Or neither comfortable nor uncomfortable,
Just scanning the body for ten rounds of breath.
And then transitioning into taking of refuge,
So do kindly join me in the reflection that we have been on a long odyssey together as souls or streams of consciousness.
We have migrated through countless life forms since beginningless time.
We have been compelled by the instincts and driven by blindness like a ship largely at the mercy of the currents,
Without rudder,
Without sail.
And so do just try to connect with that sense of weariness or fatigue,
Even despair,
At such a long journey coming again and again and again.
But this time we have had the remarkable fortune to have exhibited some modicum of virtue and consequently achieved the precious human life endowed with liberty and opportunity.
And so just take a moment to relish in the remarkable good fortune of having the qualities of sensitivity and inclination toward spiritual things and being at a time,
Living at a time when the Buddha was born,
Living at a time where the teaching still exists,
Living at a time where there are communities to plug into,
Living at a time where your body is healthy,
You're well-resourced,
You're well-endowed.
As I like to say,
All systems are go for liberation once and for all.
Once and for all in the great odyssey.
And so take refuge now in the Buddha,
The Dharma,
And the Sangha jewels,
And the fourth jewel,
The Guru,
Who embodies all three principles.
Reflect on the Buddha as the first human being to summit the great heights of enlightenment,
The Dharma,
His teachings that allow each and every one of his heirs to accomplish the same,
And the Sangha jewel,
The fellow travelers who support our orientation towards liberation,
And to the Gurus,
Who are the living emissaries of the Buddha.
Let's orient our minds towards putting our consciousness in their care and in their direction.
And so do kindly,
If you have taken the formal refuge,
Try to remember the ceremony itself,
Where you may have been,
Whom you may have been with,
What kind of prayers and intentions you set during the ceremony,
And call on the power of the memory to further inspire your taking of,
Retaking of refuge.
And as you do that,
You can also refresh your vows,
How many commitments and pledges you may have taken.
And then while you're doing that,
Those that have not taken the refuge,
Then just continue contemplating the utmost power of the mind,
Of your own consciousness,
Capable of great destruction and unimaginable liberation,
Depending on how well it has been mastered.
On the proper establishment of the refuge,
Then we can also generate the altruistic intention.
So do kindly think about consciousness migrating through infinite lifetimes,
And at one time or another,
All the vast array of infinite beings we have been interrelated to and interconnected to,
They have all at one time or another definitely occupied the position or role as the kind mother who gave us embodiment.
Because beings are infinite and time and space is infinite,
It means it's absolutely possible that every being has at one time been our mother.
And just take a moment to think about the great kindness that they showed us,
Not only giving away their body,
Mind,
Time and resources to birth us,
But then after making sure that we survived and educating us and essentially turning their life inside out for our well-being.
So kind.
Greatest kindness,
Unimaginable kindness.
And then let that kindness activate a sense of wishing for reciprocity.
So let's imagine paying that forward to all the living mother beings.
It's our time.
To reciprocate,
To birth and care and support each and every one of them for what they have done,
To make every single breath and moment of our lives possible.
Breathe.
And then having registered that they're all been kind,
Then we can feel the sense of separation begin to dissolve between us so that there is greater level of sensitivity.
And with that porousness,
We begin to really wish that they all be happy.
Sincerely,
May they all be happy.
Not just the temporary happiness,
But all the mother beings.
How amazing would it be if they were all truly tasted the happiness of liberation.
And as we become even more re-sensitized and intimate with all mother beings,
It also becomes very clear how much pain and agony and despair each of them is going through in the samsaric condition.
And so generate very strong compassion.
Just like me,
Each and every one of them also suffers blindness,
Karmic reaction,
And its consequences through infinite time.
And from there we can generate the strong heroic resolve,
I must be the one to help them out of this condition.
This is called the extraordinary resolve.
I must be the one.
Who else will help each of them,
Arouse them from the nightmare of their sleepwalking.
And just at the tail end of that then there dawns the recognition in my current circumstance and state how much impact can I really have.
So the six causes lead to the seventh result and the reflection that I have to go for enlightenment.
I have to be fully free of negativities,
Fully actualized of good potentials in order to be fully capable of helping them.
So I will turn evolution into the path of awakening for the benefit of others.
Breathe.
And with the altruistic resolve now,
Well,
Established.
And we can reacquaint our minds with the death or disillusion process of just imagine ourselves again on our deathbeds.
We may be in a very familiar,
Comfortable place at home,
Surrounded by loved ones.
In the lead up to this moment,
We have begun to see the early signs that death is coming.
And similarly,
We have also been well prepared for this moment in our sadhana.
And so there's no fear.
Breathe that in.
There's no fear now.
There is a welcoming home.
It's like being welcomed home,
The early stages of being welcomed home.
Now the elements that comprise the body begin to dissolve one into the next,
Beginning with the earth sign dissolving into the water element.
And so feel that sense of solidity that has kept us upright and mobile and firm and able-bodied begins to deteriorate as the earth element dissolves.
And like a great embankment of mountain crashing into the sea,
Just imagine that the sense of solidity begins to give way.
And you feel very frail and unsupported.
And the inner voice of your own gurus begin to very kindly ask you to let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one.
The hour has come.
And as we surrender,
The inner signs begin to appear.
First of the mirage-like quality of phenomenon that we have all taken for granted to be so solid,
Now they reveal themselves to be more dreamlike.
And the water element begins to dissolve into the fire element.
And so all the bodily liquids,
The blood and urine and tears and sweat and pus and fluids that have circulated in the body since beginning this time now just feel they're beginning to dry up,
Particularly the saliva in the mouth.
And that is like an early warning sign that the stage of dissolution has welcomed us past the threshold.
And again the guru's voice comes and reminds us,
Let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one.
And the inner appearance dawns of smoke and vapor.
Now the fire element dissolves into wind and the body's digestive processes and sense of being warm,
Warm-blooded,
Begins to fade and is replaced by a little chill.
And again just as that chill overcomes the body,
There's not a tense reaction or fear.
There's no fear because we have been well trained.
We have used life as the training ground,
The proofing ground.
The guru's voice reminding us to let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one.
And the inner appearance dawns of fire,
Fire,
Fireflies cracking like sparks in a dark night.
Breathe.
Wind into space,
Noble one.
Now the hour and the minute and the second approaches for the last breath of this life.
And we go without any regrets,
We go without any hesitation.
We go like we go to sleep,
Like we slip into a warm bath with complete surrender.
As you inhale,
Let go of the breath on the exhale out the mouth and fully release from the body.
And just as you exhale,
The final inner sign appears of a still candle flame in a windless room.
And now the immortal soul,
The consciousness,
Has been untethered from the body of this life and is free floating as an energy,
A subtle energy of consciousness.
And yet that consciousness is like a stream imbued with immense number of imprints and filters,
Instincts.
And so we pass into the next threshold of letting go of all the clinging and the attachment and the grasping of identity and safety and resources and people and places and things.
Let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one,
The Guru's voice reminds.
And as we let go,
The inner appearance dawns of a pristine moonlight which is accompanied by a sense of cooling,
Reassuring,
Contentment.
Breathe.
And next,
The instincts of aggression and self-protection,
Self-preservation.
The Guru's voice again encouraging us to let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one.
And as we let go,
The inner sign appears of a beautiful twilight,
Crimson horizon,
And we feel very safe and disarmed.
And then finally,
We find ourselves on the cusp of a precipice passing into the seventh transition of disillusionment.
We're here,
The sense of separation and the sense of subject-object dichotomy or separation that is split or fragmented consciousness since beginningless time will be renounced or let go.
Like entering into a deep amnesia,
We will lose consciousness entirely,
And the Guru's voice reminds us,
Reassuringly,
Let go,
Let go,
Let go,
Noble one.
And we disappear into the vast,
Total darkness of the deep midnight.
And here the subject-object dichotomy dissolves,
The self-other dissolves,
The form dissolves into utter formlessness,
The time-space continuum collapses.
There is nothing now,
Nothing but vast quietude,
Re- and most would be content to be eviscerated and linger here,
But in some pseudo-nirvana,
But we have been trained to break through the event horizon into the final stage of disillusion with our next in breath,
Then break through onto the other side,
Back into multiplicity,
Back into form,
Back into subject-object dichotomy,
Back into the world of duality.
But this time,
Things appear as they actually are,
Completely transparent and malleable,
Like a dream.
This is the clear light,
A world of mere appearance,
The dream time.
So there we have re-arisen in a body made of pure energy,
In a field of light,
A magic realm of possibility,
The quantum realm ripe for manifestation.
From the depths of our heart now,
We can imagine from the quantum womb of emptiness appears Menla,
The healing sanctuary.
Instantaneously,
We find ourselves in a beautiful valley surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains and a very deep lapis blue sky and a beautiful prairie and lush vegetation.
Very ripe fruit trees and magnificent medicinal herbs and gardens filled with medicinal plants,
Like a Garden of Eden,
With beautiful brooks and ponds and streams and lovely little creatures roaming around freely,
All protected in this beautiful healing sanctuary called a Beyul,
A hidden realm.
And just to imagine that in the center of this hill,
The healing realm is a healing sanctuary,
Like a healing center called Menla,
The abode of Bhaiyaja Guru,
The Medicine Buddha.
Very large,
Spacious sanctuary center temple with four gates and four entrances and the four cardinal directions all leading into a inner sanctum with a very high temple,
Like Cathedral,
Stood by the center.
We make our way through the Eastern Gate.
We pass by various libraries and clinics and study rooms and beautiful meditation rooms and sound bathrooms and spa treatment rooms.
We make our way into the inner sanctum and there we find a very serene setting with high vaulted ceiling and beautiful windows on every wall and beautiful light streaming and filling the inner sanctum with light.
We make our way to the center and in our own dream body made of pure energy we sit full lotus and let's evoke the mentor,
Bhaiyaja Guru,
The Medicine Buddha to join us.
So do kindly pray for his her presence.
And in the space before you miraculously what appears about a six feet from us is a beautiful lotus almost arising from emptiness and unfurling its petals revealing at the center a beautiful sun and moon cushion disk.
Very bright,
Made of energy,
Representing wisdom and compassion and of course the lotus representing renunciation.
And there the Medicine Buddha comes in its first form which is the vibratory form bubbling up from the center of the Sun and Moon disk is a beautiful exclamation point made of lapis light just bubbling up like that.
Just bubbling up erect and revealing a very subtle vibration so you can feel the Medicine Buddha's presence just by the hum of that exclamation point at the center of the Sun and Moon cushion situated in the radiant lotus.
And then we can ask for the Medicine Buddha's full presence.
Just imagine manifesting the full form of the Medicine Buddha with one face,
Two hands seated on full lotus posture cross-legged on these Sun and Moon disk cushions.
The beautiful radiant lapis light Medicine Buddha with crowning top knot and beautiful clear eyes gazing at you with care and a beautiful radiant reassuring smile and regal posture.
And the left hand is placed comfortably in the lap,
Palm facing up holding a mendicant's bowl which is the vessel containing the elixir of immortality Amrita.
And do kindly imagine that Amrita is symbolic of the Medicine Buddha's mastery over the inner chakra system,
Full alignment,
Full mastery of the subtle nervous system and consciousness.
Meanwhile the right hand is gracefully draped over the right knee palm facing out in the gesture of reassuring all the living beings.
And there he's holding a beautiful little sprig of aloe,
A medicinal balm.
And this represents his mastery over all the external world,
The conditions,
The medicines,
The healing ointments,
The healing knowledges.
So he is fully equipped both inner and outer resources are in full alignment and integration.
Also just admire this epitome of full mastery and we can now just invite the spirit of any of our own personal mentors or gurus,
Spirit guides,
Healers of any tradition.
Just imagine that they come,
They're welcomed into the form of the Medicine Buddha.
So whomever your guru is has just now arrived.
They're here in the healing sanctuary,
Manifesting in the avatar of the healing Buddha.
And of course there's no need to be skimpy so we can invite in all the lineage masters,
Saints,
And sages of all traditions to flank the Medicine Buddha.
We can call in the seven other Medicine Buddhas.
We can call in the White Tara,
The Green Tara.
We can invite in Amitayas.
We can invite in Tsongkaba.
We can invite in Nagarshana,
Asanga,
Atisha,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Every inspiring being flanks the Medicine Buddha and your personal guru and let's just be so moved.
We can make three prostrations here,
Full body prostrations.
And then we can make offerings feel so inspiring.
So moved out of devotion to make beautiful abundant offerings.
You could lay out flowers and incense and fruits and foods,
Medicinal plants.
You can stretch your imagination as far as you can.
The Medicine Buddha and the lineage receives all the bountiful offerings with great delight.
And then here feeling very close to the guru,
Very close to your mentor,
Very safe.
We can disclose any of our negativities.
So do kindly look into your mind and honestly let go of any of your fears,
Doubts.
If you have habits that are destructive,
That are repeating themselves,
Ask for the help that you need to recover,
To move beyond.
And whatever your weaknesses,
Your limitation,
Your fear,
Your doubt,
Your illness,
Pray now that the Medicine Buddha will help you,
Support you,
Guide you,
Receive you.
And at the tail end,
Then do ask for the accountability and support you need to fully resolve to let go of this instinct or this habit,
Whatever it might be.
In this lifetime,
Your consciousness,
Your soul will once and for all break this habit and feel that in your heart.
And now we can also rejoice.
So do kindly take a moment to breathe and also recognize your accomplishments and your goodwill and your sensitivity and your virtue and your generosity and your patience and your endurance and your concentration and your wisdom.
You are becoming a more complete human being.
Celebrate.
And not only that,
Celebrate the victory of all your Dharma brothers and sisters who are making a difference in their own conscious evolution and the evolution of the planet.
And feel good.
Feel good about who you are and what you do.
And now we can do some healing together.
We've made it to the step where we can ask the Medicine Buddha and the Guru to bless our mind streams and share the healing elixir with us,
The Amrita.
And so if you are struggling with some ailment,
Psychological or physical or otherwise,
Just now is the time for an anointing in the medicinal balm of the Medicine Buddha.
So from the depths of our heart,
Let's ask for the blessing.
And instantaneously and with great delight,
The Medicine Buddha sends from his or her heart the lapis nectar light that comes in a wave,
Stops just above the crown.
And just before we take it in,
Just find that sense of dignity that you are ready to receive the blessing and let the first wave of nectar light hit your crown and pass through your crown chakra.
And as it does feel that the body instantaneously is filled with luminous light,
Beautiful radiant light just fills the energy body,
All the chakras and nadis filled with light and so bright a light it begins to subsume and absorb any of the illnesses and imprints stains on the body.
Physical blocks are absorbed in a nuclear blast of lapis light.
Breathe.
And the nectar drop then descends from crown into the throat chakra.
And just as it merges with the throat chakra and feel that the narrative that we have been espousing since beginningless time filled with all its distortions and negativities and corruptions and fears and limitations,
Which has shaped our view of reality instantaneously becomes so relaxed,
Widens,
Becomes purified and takes on a very powerful constructive vibration.
Anything is possible and love heals.
Anything is possible love heals.
Right down to the DNA anything is possible love heals.
Frequency anything is possible love heals.
Finally the nectar drop of the first wave of the medicine light descends from throat chakra into the heart chakra.
Just as it merges there like a drop reaching the ocean dissolving inseparably.
The mind is instantaneously illuminated.
All things miraculously appear as an open field of possibility.
And we feel so confident in our skillful means of intervention.
We can see the infinite array of possibilities.
We know exactly how to intervene.
We are surgical in our quantum analysis.
We're compassionate in our motivation.
And we feel great competency in merging the skill of mastery of inner and outer worlds.
And just as we come to that beautiful sense of mastery,
The vibration or harmonics of the medicine Buddha is rekindled in our own consciousness.
So let's recite now the vibration of the medicine Buddha's mantra.
And as we jam together,
We can let the vibration occupy our energetic body as if it's a vessel filled with vibration.
And with each passing round of the mantra that we can repeatedly imagine waves of beautiful nectar lights hitting crown,
Throat,
Heart,
Healing body,
Transforming speech,
And illuminating mind.
Filled with light.
Stabilize your mind and feel that body,
Speech,
And mind have been awash,
Bathed,
Anointed,
Cleansed,
Purified.
By medicine Buddha and the lineage,
Feel you are healed.
You are safe.
You are pure.
Juice breaths now.
Take a nice deep breath.
And if you want,
We can do a vase breath.
Let's do three vase breaths,
Really sealing in the confidence that we are already free,
Already pure,
Already healed.
Take a nice inhale.
Close the upper lock of your neck by dipping your chin down slightly.
Atoned the pelvic floor so that you make a seal from above and below.
And press using the breath held in the vase seal that you are already free,
Already pure,
Already healed.
And then release both upper and lower doors and exhale.
Repeat two more times.
Inhale.
Dip the chin and close the upper door.
Atoned the pelvic floor and close the lower door.
Mix awareness and breath with the insight that you are already free,
Pure,
And healed.
Holding.
And then before it becomes uncomfortable,
Just release both doors and exhale.
One more time.
Inhale.
Close the door above and below and mix the energies between.
You are free,
Pure,
And healed.
Hold.
And then release both doors,
Exhale.
Now let's invite the lineage to collapse into the Medicine Buddha so you can imagine all the remaining seven other Medicine Buddhas and the Taras and the Amitayas and the other lineage masters,
Tsongkhapa,
Tisha,
Nagarjuna,
Asanga,
All collapse into Medicine Buddha.
All your spirit guides collapse into the single one,
Arc'tai.
Then Medicine Buddha collapses from the type of his top knot and the tips of his toes inwards towards the heart chakra until all that remains is a lapis,
Single drop of elixir.
And this drop of elixir,
Of course,
Coalesces all the insights and mastery of inner and outer transformation.
The healing nectar of Amrita,
The deathless state of transcendence.
And let that drop come to the crown.
And now just before you receive the entire lineage,
Upon request,
Just again,
Realign with the sense of dignity and pride.
Are you willing and ready to be the next emissary ambassador of the medicine lineage?
And when you can affirm that,
Then just open the heart and receive the blessings of the nectar drop.
Kisses your crown,
Slips past your throat and descends and merges inseparably with your own Buddha nature,
Embryo at your own heart center like sperm and egg combining two becoming one.
Now feel the lineage and the medicinal power has installed or impregnated itself at the center of your being.
And then just for a moment feel you yourself are the medicine Buddha.
You yourself are the very source of the medicine itself,
Emptiness and compassion.
Nandu.
Feel yourself in the regal posture of the Buddha in his Bhaja Guddu medicine healing form made of lapis light.
You're flanked by the Bodhi tree.
You have the crowning topknot.
You have the beautiful silken garbs and jewel ornaments.
You're made of lapis,
Laser-like light.
And with your clear,
Clairvoyant perception,
You can hear the cries of infinite beings in all six realms who are mired in the samsaric condition and instantaneously you see both the emptiness of their predicament,
Which is the openness of their predicament that everything can be transformed.
And you also feel the pull of compassion to send them the elixir.
And so from our own heart now we can send out waves of elixir light on the force of the vibration of the mantra.
So join me in repeating the mantra seven times and as we repeat the mantra we are emitting beautiful lights that spread from our heart,
Radiate outwards,
Filling the medla valley,
But then reaching all six realms,
Reaching the hearts and minds of living beings,
Kissing crown,
Throat and heart of all living beings just as we have experienced the healing boon,
Awakening them from their samsaric nightmare,
Installing them in their own medla healing paradises.
They each themselves become transformed into the emissary of the healing paradigm.
They all become themselves medicine buddha.
Even the animals in the animal realms,
The hungry ghosts and hunger ghost realms,
The hell beings,
The titans,
Fairies,
Demigods and gods,
All human beings,
The planet itself of Mother Earth.
We're going to imagine that she is restored to balance her stream and estuary and lake and oceans pure,
Her air systems,
Winds pure,
Her rainforests,
Jungles,
Marshlands restored.
Everything becomes like a healing paradise.
The universe becomes like medla.
Breathe.
All now is medla.
And it all has sealed itself in our internal vision of our manifest destiny now.
With the mission imprint,
We can return to the avatar of our regular lives in order to fulfill the prophecy.
And before we do,
Let's dedicate all the merits.
Feel that together in the course of this visualization through dying,
Through Sambhogakaya bardo realm,
And through rebirth,
We have created a enormous tsunami of love and merits.
It's dedicated to our own welfare so we can fulfill our mission,
As well as all our loved ones,
As well as the countless strangers and even the difficult ones of all six realms.
May they all be well,
Happy,
Healthy,
Healed.
All the gurus,
All the lineage masters,
May they all have long lives.
Stay with us,
Support us,
Lead us to liberation.
And with that,
The entire world vision of medla dissolves back into luminous clear light.
And from luminous clear light,
We take one breath before we enter back into the midnight formless realm.
Breathe in.
And as you let go,
You lose your consciousness once again.
Time-space collapse,
Self-other collapses.
There is sheer amnesia for a moment.
And we pass through that timeless threshold into the twilight horizon.
And from twilight,
Quickly into the moonlight.
And from moonlight,
The next breath brings the coming together of the elements of the body,
Wind,
Combining with fire,
Combining with water,
Combining with earth.
And there we break through to the ordinary world once more.
Wherever you are,
You're hovering above your body.
You see your body there meditating in your own bedroom,
In your own shrine room.
And you consciously choose to descend into the top of the crown of your own body to take on the nirmanakaya,
The emanation body to fulfill your mission.
Find your way into your body now.
Find your way into your body.
Feel the gravitational pull of the weight of your body.
Wiggle your toes,
Ankles,
Shins,
Knees,
Thighs,
Buttocks,
Pelvis,
Fingers,
Forearms,
Elbows,
Triceps,
Triceps,
Shoulders,
Chest,
Neck,
Jaw,
Nose,
Eye sockets,
And crown.
Returning from crown down to tips of the toes,
Re-inhabiting and reinvigorating and reviving,
Bringing back to life the body.
Listen to the sounds in the room,
Smell the air,
Taste what's in your mouth,
Let the senses,
The temperature in the room,
Let the senses bring you back into the present moment before you open your eyes though.
Before you open your eyes.
When you open your eyes,
The first thing that you see,
Let it strike your eyes from the illusory-like aftermath,
The sense that things are both there and not there.
They are emptiness form appearing.
You are the architect,
You are the potter,
You are the artist of life.
Everything is possible and love heals.
Open your eyes.
See things just as they are.
Remember who you are.
Remember you are the medicine.
