Is it a common thing when a student who is doing the 5-Fold Mahamudra accumulations is required not to cut their hair until they finish? And a related question, does this have the same meaning related to deities and dakinis as not cutting your hair in other retreats, plus being a visual reminder of passing time, or there's something more?
Carnelian and a 21 bead silver divider. I like it so much that' can't resist bragging. 😄
I'll need to have it on display for a ~1.5-2 weeks in a room without a conditioner at +30 C something, and I'm afraid it would start spoiling in such temperature. Will it survive? I was told to use a traditional torma, not any replacements. Maybe you guys have some tips for such cases, like a ratio of ingredients, or some additional ingredient that may prolong freshness? Thanks in advance.
upd. It has to be eadable and contain 3 white and 3 sweet, not just tsampa.
A small backstory: I was practicing purely in the Gelug lineage until recently. My teacher is a Gelugpa geshe by education but his own root guru is from Drikung Kagyu and he did his retreats under his guidance, so in terms of practice he is more a Drikungpa than anything else. And this spring he offered me to start practicing a Drikung cycle too, which I did. And for now it's still rather confusing for me what to to do with the refuge tree visualizations. If you are practicing something from a particular lineage it's clear that you'll be visualizing a related tree, but what if you are doing something non-sectarian but there's a merit field visualization there? Will you visualize two trees at once? Or will you merge them somehow, even if the central figures of the tree visualization of these schools look different? If someone is practicing in several schools at once, can you tell please what you're doing about it? I'm going to ask the lama this question today, but I'm also curios about other people's approaches.
One vajra sister told me when she saw my dadar that there have to be a small bag with different types of seeds attached to it. Have you heard of such thing? And if yes which seeds and what for? Possibly it's our local (Buryat) tradition, 'cause I don't remember seeing Tibetans with such thing, but I'm not sure. I'll of course ask the lama when I see him, but maybe someone will tell me before that.