In the eight offerings to the Buddha, what should we do with the Naividya (food offering) after making the offering?
Should we consume it as blessed food, leave it outside for animals or spirits, bury it, or dispose of it in some other appropriate way?
I thought I would share a couple really helpful links about the history and role of Ngakpas and Ngakmas (Ordained, Tantric specialists), in the history of Tibet.
There's two really good sources on this, and I'll link both of them here.
The first, is a translated article by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang. This one is a shorter read, more of a long article than a book.
The second, and probably the most in-depth source that exists in the English language, is Dr. Ben Joffe's doctoral dissertation on Ngakpa culture from the University of Colorado in Boulder. This is an excellent read, and is highly recommended for anyone who is seriously interested on the history of the tantric path in Tibetan culture.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/wp988k847
By this merit, may all beings benefit!
🙏
Vajrakilaya is the fierce emanation of Vajrasattva, so this means he is also a purification deity.
But what exactly is this "Karma purification" thing, does this means he purifies our parabdha karma too?
-Parabdha Karma is our past life actions that reflects on our actual lifetime, including all harm we did to other sentient beings that now we need to pay for it.-
I know we can't erase parabdha karma, what I'm asking is if Vajraklaya purifies this so we experience this "bad karma" in a softer way so we can have better things in life and things flow more easily, even if it's for an auspicious next life.
How does Vajrakilaya practice works in this situation?
And Vajrakilaya is a Dharma protector too and have the same function as or Mahakala, Palden Lhamo, etc... or not?
We tend to scrutinize Buddhist teachers and overlook the people who control access to them, such as assistants, administrators, translators, attendants, resident staff, and trusted intermediaries.
These people can occupy an unusually powerful position. They may control communication with the teacher, decide what information reaches them, manage relationships with students, handle donations or gifts, organize retreats, and become the informal gatekeepers of an entire community. Yet they may have little formal accountability and can operate almost invisibly.
Most guru's staff are simply doing their job but proximity to spiritual authority is itself a form of power, and Buddhist communities should treat it that way.
Western converts in particular should be careful about assuming that someone is trustworthy simply because they are close to revered lamas, wear Dharma clothing, speak Tibetan, have the teacher's confidence, or have been around the teacher or organization for years.
Look for ordinary-world safeguards such as:
role transparency, clear boundaries, financial accountability, independent channels for complaints, protection against retaliation, and the ability to communicate directly with leadership when something serious happens.
Most importantly: DON'T CONFUSE SOMEONE'S ACCESS OR PROXIMITY TO TEACHERS WITH VIRTUE.
Someone can be logistically trusted by a lama and still behave badly behind the teacher's back. Someone can be indispensable to an organization and still require scrutiny, particularly when they are competant. Loyalty to a teacher or a tradition should never require loyalty to every person surrounding them.
We should also be aware of less obvious forms of power and status accumulation:
invoking proximity to realized masters to establish authority, cultivating unusually dependent or loyal relationships with students, positioning oneself as a gatekeeper to the teacher, gathering followers or information around oneself, triangulating people against one another, selectively controlling what reaches leadership, using privileged access as a status credential, or implying that disagreement with oneself constitutes disagreement with the teacher or lineage. Collectively, covert power and status seeking behavior can create a parallel power structure around the person who controls access.
I'm 55, Frenchie, having right now a closer look at reddit communities.
I got myself a PhD in astrophysics without any effort, was wired as scientist, autistic like, social phobic, hypersensitive, depressive as hell. I instantly put in all my mental ressource in studying Tibetan Buddhism when i first read a Matthieu Ricard's book when i was 30.
Done that because I recognize the scientific approach I could take on that one, Buddha himself said to not believe his words but study, contemplate, experiment for one self, that's the only way the essence of Buddhism could penetrate my mind, blind faith is totally stranger to me.
Until now I just can't find any flaw, and I'm still a bit depressive because I haven't found a way yet to convince my scientific fellow that science of matter is nice (physics) to bring external confort (or atomic bomb), but science of the mind is even better as it impacts directly your quality of life and those around you.
In fact physicist don't even know yet about the mental continuum of energy, they study only the material continuum of energy and they think a soap of quarks can start to think and feel all by itself, sounds like magical thinking to me now.
If only Einstein were alive, he would certainly have an opened enough mind to start studying seriously Tibetan Buddhism philosophie and theory, and spread that good news around the world.
Can someone share a good step-by-step guide or video for making tormas?
I’m also looking for some simple torma designs for Tara, Amitābha Buddha, and Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava).
I’m really not an artist, so I’m hoping to find something simple that I can actually make, but still looks beautiful and appropriate to offer.
Even basic designs or beginner-friendly tutorials would be really helpful.
This is mahasiddha noble Tilopa, a realized one who inspires great devotion in all who see him clearly. Tilopa had real caring and loving bodhicitta, and he had a noble student called Naropa.
Drupon Rinpoche recently posted the following account of this lama who slept all the time. Do you know anything more about him? It would be amazing if we could identify him more clearly.
(The attached images are of Lama Senge and Drupon Rinpoche, not the sleeping lama.)
Here is the account:
When I was young, my root lama, Lama Senge, told me about a fascinating lama from Shechen Monastery in Tibet.
Day and night this lama would stay in bed, covered head to toe with his bed covers. Once a day a relative would bring him a small ball of tsampa and a bowl of milk with a little butter in it. That is all he would consume. I guess partly due to his diet and lifestyle, he would only need to relieve himself once a week or so and even then he passed only a very small amount of stool.
He lived with his family, who were nomads. When they moved for new pastures, he would still remain mostly immobile and his family would place him on the back of a yak to travel.
One day, while he was lying there, a family member brought a mouse that had just died. The relative pulled back the covers from his face, showed him the mouse and said, “This has just died. Would you say a Mani mantra for it?”
The lama replied with a hum of acknowledgement, then simply pulled the covers back over himself and remained exactly as he was. On the face of it, he recited neither the Mani mantra nor any other prayer.
My lama commented that this lama must have been an extraordinary practitioner. There was no indication he was sick or that there was any other obvious reason for him to live like this. It is clearly not easy for an ordinary person to lie there, day after day, apparently doing nothing. Maybe we could do it for a day or two at most, before we would become restless. Of course, no one knows whether this lama was sleeping, or exactly what he was doing.
In my lama’s view, the way this lama responded to the request for prayers was a sign he had a high view and realisation. Most of us would think that we would have to recite the Mani mantra or at least do something different or extra for the mouse’s sake. This lama didn’t feel the need to do that; he must have been confident that what he was already doing would suffice or could not be surpassed.
We sometimes speak of realising equality. Once that realisation has arisen, one no longer keeps distinguishing between good and bad, better or worse. Naturally, one also stops thinking, “This is not enough; I need to do something additional."
Such a person may even appear to have very little emotional reaction to things. They seem to be beyond both joy and sorrow. From an ordinary point of view, we might not wish to become like that ourselves.
What I want to say is this: if someone is always looking for a new practice, or constantly feels that they need to do more of this or more of that, it is a sign that their view or realisation is not very high. This is an important point.
30 June 2026, Drupon Khen Rinpoche,
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal.
What commitments / obligations are associated with taking refuge?
I follow a certain spiritual discipline but want to compliment it with practices from vajrayana that require it
I would take them both seriously and want to be sure I would not have to choose one above the other
Sono un uomo di 40 anni con problemi di "psicosi". Adesso sono stabile e sto relativamente bene. Al momento sto praticando meditazione mindfulness e mi sto interessando al buddismo,in particolare al vajrayana. Una diecina di anni fa ho avuto una frammentazione dell'energia vitale dove ho sperimentato una luce verde emessa del mio petto e successivamente ho visto per tutta la notte dei cristalli di luce uscire dal lato della mia testa... Da allora e come se fossi solo una parte di quello che ero. Credo che una parte possa essersi scissa. Ho letto che un lama potrebbe essere in grado di praticare un recupero della mia energia vitale e questo mi dà molta speranza.io sono in Italia e qui dove mi trovo non credo di riuscire a incontrare un lama vajrayana.credete che trovare andare in Tibet potrebbe essere una buona idea? Mi piacerebbe anche fermarmi per un periodo se questo mi aiutasse nel mio progresso spirituale. Un problema di andare lì però,oltre al costo potrebbe essere di reperire i due farmaci che sto assumendo.vorrei avere delle opinioni su tutto questo e in caso un consiglio di qualche italiano se è possibile trovare un lama in Italia,meglio se vicino a Venezia. Grazie a tutti coloro che mi consiglieranno!! 🙏🏽
Hello everyone and I'm sorry if this is not the correct place or if this is somehow disrespectful. I am wanting to get a tattoo of the siddham script for Fudō Myōō (Acala, 不動明王, many other names). Is this character that I've attached in the image correct and would it be proper to get it tattooed centered on my chest? I do not happen to know any Shingon priests that I can ask so I'm just coming here to see if anyone knows. Thank you for any input.
I live with a domestic narcissist ("Alida") whose daily chaos is making me physically ill due to my own chronic people-pleasing and trauma responses.Through the lens of Indra’s Net, I realize I have been passively absorbing and reflecting her toxic energy instead of holding my own center. I am trying to view her as a krodha-guru (wrathful educator), but my nervous system is failing. The true war is in my head against my own conditioned urge to appease and submit.I need to urgently cultivate the fierce, unshakeable energy of Vajrapani. Specifically, I want to embody Alidhasana internally—using that asymmetric, grounded warrior lunge as an energetic boundary and a diamond-hard (vajra) mental anchor to stay in the present moment.How do practitioners in this sangha apply Vajrayana view and deity energy to cut through the panic of a toxic environment without bleeding out their own lung (prana/wind)?
Mahayana Buddhism says that after Shakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya will be the next Buddha to appear in this world.
But in Vajrayana, figures such as Padmasambhava, Milarepa, Naropa, Tilopa, Virupa, etc. are described as having attained complete Buddhahood.
Padmasambhava is even called the “Second Buddha.”
So how do these two views fit together?
Does this mean that Mahayana texts simply don't reveal everything about what happens between Shakyamuni and Maitreya, while Vajrayana texts reveal additional teachings and accounts of beings who attained Buddhahood during this period?
Is the information about these other Buddhas considered something that was not openly revealed in the Mahayana teachings but was later revealed through Vajrayana? Or is there another explanation for why Maitreya is called the “next Buddha” despite these other Buddhas?
domanda secca, risposta secca. astenersi, per favore, commentatori che non sanno. grazie
我们修行，施展的法术和召唤的神灵，其实都是自己调动修炼的力量体系产生的召唤物，并不一定真实宇宙有这么一个存在。 宇宙中也确实神通法力的世界和生命存在，但都是独立自主的 不会因为你的符咒而听命于你，我们在南瞻部洲性质的的系里，地球只有其中渺小的一粒。
这个地方不适合修炼，不是修法善地
包括我们往生时追求往生什么某某刹土，并不是现实宇宙中真的有这么一个绝对具体的空间，而是宇宙中有很多很多大量符合 这个某某刹土性质的的空间。我们可以借此往生这种性质的刹土。在那里获得身体和生命，进行更好的修炼。在那里，神通力量修炼的力量会明显的表现出来。
I’m asking because so far in my city, I have come across only one (Gelug) temple that has a publicly listed structured curriculum for newcomers. The other temples seem to have weekly events which are open to the public but don’t really seem catered to someone with minimal exposure to Buddhism, let alone Vajrayana. Are there events and classes that are not publicly listed that are intended to catechize newcomers to the practice like myself?
I believe that within the Dharma Realm, an entity’s identity, race, cultivation path, and level of power are actually separate concepts and should not simply be forced into a single system.
What an entity pursues determines its identity;
the circumstances of its rebirth, its manifested form, and various causes and conditions determine its race and general appearance;
the path it cultivates determines the type and source of its power, as well as how that power is used;
and its ultimate strength depends on how far the individual has actually progressed in cultivation.
Therefore, we cannot simply take the Buddhist system of spiritual attainments and use it to judge an entity that pursues the path of the asuras, the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, or some other path. Their ultimate goals are different to begin with.
For example, in my understanding:
The Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings represents an identity oriented toward order, power, and protection. Individuals within it may be kings or generals, and they may belong to many different races. Organizations of this type generally value order, protection, and strength, so they are more likely to come into conflict with asura-type organizations characterized by aggression, expansion, and plunder.
Asuras, by contrast, are more oriented toward power, competition, expansion, and active conflict. Many different races and organizations can exist under an asura identity; not all asuras necessarily have to look alike.
The Heaven of the Thirty-Three is more oriented toward orderly wealth, resources, industry, and prosperity. The goal here is not simply combat, but the possession and creation of resources, treasures, ritual implements, and wealth, while maintaining a stable, peaceful, and prosperous state.
The Yāma Heaven pursues ease and happiness.
The Tuṣita Heaven emphasizes contentment and enduring joy.
The Heaven of Delight in Creation pursues the ability to transform and create various states of happiness for oneself and become immersed in them.
The Heaven of Mastery over Others’ Creations is more distinctive: when others are happy, one can also experience happiness through them, and therefore wishes for others to be happy and fulfilled while also seeing one’s own desired aims realized.
Precisely because these pursuits differ, we cannot simply say that one identity is “higher” and another “lower.” They are better understood as different directions of development.
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Now consider the realm of hungry ghosts and the various races of the undead.
Within my framework, a “hungry ghost” can first be understood as a type of race or state of existence rather than as a single, uniform personality type.
This category could include skeletal ghosts, ghouls, wandering spirits, undead beings left behind by sorcerers, and various ghostly beings formed from decaying dead matter. Naturally, individuals among them can have completely different pursuits.
The defining characteristic of such beings is that their state of existence is often accompanied by intense dissatisfaction and suffering. They may, for example, experience continual hunger that cannot truly be satisfied even by consuming large quantities of food, or continual thirst that cannot be relieved even by drinking large amounts of water. They may also endure extremes of heat and cold, bodily pain, mental numbness, and other forms of suffering.
Thus, “hungry ghost” describes a state of existence; it does not mean that every individual within that category shares the same thoughts or personality.
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The same principle can be applied to cultivation paths.
There can be an enormous variety of cultivation methods within the Dharma Realm, and different systems of power can coexist.
For example, an entity pursuing a Brahmā-type identity could cultivate disciplines based on ethical restraint and purity, while an entity pursuing the identity of the Heaven of Delight in Creation could cultivate practices involving inner heat, bliss, and similar methods.
If someone cultivating internal alchemy ultimately seeks a mode of existence resembling the Form Realm heavens, then internal alchemy is simply one method for reaching that goal. After attaining the corresponding identity, that individual could still continue cultivating other methods consistent with their own pursuits.
Therefore:
Identity answers the question, “What kind of being do I ultimately want to become?”
Race answers, “In what form of life do I exist?”
Cultivation path answers, “Through what powers and techniques do I achieve my goal?”
Level of attainment and strength answers, “How far have I actually progressed?”
These four concepts should not be conflated.
For example, practitioners and immortals of internal alchemy can, within this model of the Dharma Realm, be understood as a cultivation community oriented toward a Form Realm-type identity. They regard the merits and accomplishments of internal alchemy as important pursuits, yet even within the same broad identity, many different paths can continue to develop.
The Form Realm heavens themselves can also be subdivided according to degrees of purity, luminosity, and states of body and mind.
From the Heaven of Brahmā’s Retinue, the Heaven of Brahmā’s Ministers, and the Great Brahmā Heaven, through the heavens of Lesser Light, Limitless Light, and Radiant Sound, and onward to Lesser Purity, Limitless Purity, Pervasive Purity, and still higher heavens, all can be understood as increasingly developed states within the same broad direction.
Therefore, what I call the “Dharma Realm” is not, in my view, a simple progression tree.
It is more like an immensely vast, multidimensional world:
There are countless identities;
many different races can exist under each identity;
each race contains different individuals;
each individual can choose different cultivation paths;
and even the same cultivation path can be developed to completely different levels.
The same applies to organizations.
A single type of identity can give rise to many different organizations. Asura-type organizations, for example, may exist throughout the Dharma Realm and differ greatly in style while sharing similar fundamental pursuits. Likewise, there may be many organizations corresponding to the identity of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Whether organizations go to war is not simply a matter of “who is higher.” It primarily depends on whether their pursuits and interests come into conflict.
Asura-type organizations tend toward power, competition, expansion, and plunder, so they are more likely to clash with organizations of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three that possess abundant resources. Organizations associated with the Four Heavenly Kings, meanwhile, tend toward order and protection and therefore often become involved in such conflicts.
Conversely, when different pursuits do not create significant conflicts of interest, there is little reason for frequent warfare.
So I prefer to understand the entire system this way:
Pursuit determines identity;
causes and conditions determine race and form;
cultivation methods determine the path of power;
cultivation determines one’s actual level of attainment;
and interests and ideals determine relationships between organizations.
Seen this way, the Dharma Realm is no longer a single ladder running from low to high. Instead, it becomes an immense network composed of countless paths, races, systems of power, and organizations.
Each path pursues something different, so there is no need to force everything to be measured by the same standard.
As a person without any formal transmissions or environment what all can we do on Dharma Protector Day?