Dear Rojal,

All Buddhist practices necessarily involved the purification of karma and the generation of merit. So any Dharma practices you do, whether formal practice like sadhana, meditation, etc. or informal practice such as transforming your mind in daily life, etc, all generate merit and purify negative karma. The best of all of these is transformation of the mind and spiritual growth.

There are however, many practices that focus on either purification of karma and generation of merit. To have a better idea of the context of this, you can read this article: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/how-to-purify-your-karma-in-kechara-forest-retreat.html

In addition, in relation to purification of negative karma, these articles are indespensible:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/vajrasattva-and-prostrations-transcript.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/an-important-purification-practice.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-35-confessional-buddhas.html

We hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear John,

Sosordrangma is the deity’s Tibetan name. Her name in Sanskrit is Pratisara. She is found primarily within chapter fifteen of the Vajrapanjara Tantra. In the Vajrapanjara Tantra, she is associated with two other deities who are Bhutadamara Vajrapani and White Prajnaparamita. She is also related to the Hevajra Tantras. Her practice descends primarily via the Jonang lineage and has since been included within the Rinjung Gyatsa collection of sadhanas or daily practices. Pratisara is specifically propitiated to protect women who are pregnant as well as from various physiological ailments associated with women.

She provides excellent and effective protection against problems related to feminine health, both physical and mental, and is especially beneficial for pregnant women or those who wish to bear children. In general she also bestows powerful protection from negative influences, increases positive energies, and helps overcome life’s challenges. Hope this helps.

You can find a thangka of her here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/pratisara-a-buddha-for-women

Thank you!

Dear Luna,

Thanks for your question. This actually has to do with the way that the Lamrim teachings are practiced. Most people think that just reading or studying the Lamrim is the be all and end all of the teachings, but that actually isn’t even practising the Lamrim. The Lamrim teachings are meant to be contemplated/visualised in meditation. Studying or understanding the Lamrim on an intellectual level is the step before actually practising the Lamrim.

So for example, if we are focusing on the suffering of the lower realms, we actually visualise this and contemplate the types of sufferings in those realms, not just for ourselves but others as well. That way, we change our behaviour from negative ones to positive ones, because as we learn in the Lamrim, rebirth in the lower realms is due to negative karma. Negative karma comes from negative actions. Hence, when we engage in the contemplation/visualisation of this, over time we naturally change our behaviour so it is less negative.

However, in order for the Lamrim, or any other teaching for that matter to have a transformational effect, it has to be practised (contemplation/visualisation). But just doing this is not enough to transform our minds, because of two things – 1) the sheer amount of negative karma that we have and 2) lack of merit. That is why in Buddhism we place great emphasis on reversing these by purifying negative karma and generating merit.

In the Lamrim, (excuse me, I am paraphrasing) it says something like: ‘your mind will only transform when you generate much more merit and purify your negative karma and delusions. You won’t have realisations if you try to internalise (contemplate/visualise) the Lamrim teachings without invoking the merit field to request them for their blessings (part of this necessarily include purification of negative karma and generation of merit).’

So the prayers and visualisation as taught in the Lamrim are very important for these two functions: generating merit and purifying negative karma. At the same time, you gain the blessings of the enlightened beings to successful in your meditation. These are part of what are known as the Prepatory Practices. Basically, these are practices to help you prepare for something, in this case, it is meditation on the Lamrim topics to transform your mind. The prepatory practices are all very important.

You can read the sections on the Prepatory Practices again, this time when you read, try not to get too caught up in what to visualise, but read it to understand better why all of this is done. Then later, when you read it again, you can learn up the visualisations better.

Alternatively, you can incorporate the Lamrim teachings into your daily sadhana also. Your daily sadhana has the effect of purifying karma, generating merit and gaining blessings. You can do contemplation on the Lamrim topics before the completion dedication of your sadhana. If you recite prayers such as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path or the Yonten Shugyurma prayer you can do the contemplations at those specific verses. The manner in which the prepatory practices are described in the Lamrim teachings are from the point of view of practicing Lamrim by itself, but you can definitely include meditation on the Lamrim topics into your normal daily sadhana as well. I hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for your questions.

In regards to your first question, here is a part of Tsem Rinpoche’s teaching (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/how-to-purify-your-karma-in-kechara-forest-retreat.html):

“As I have shared before, during the Buddha’s time, he had a student who was not very intelligent, an old monk. And when this old monk memorised the first word, when he got to the second word, he forgot the first word. When he went back to the first word, he forgot the second word. And he’d yo-yo back and forth like that. And he was very frustrated so he asked the Buddha what he could do because he was having such a hard time memorising and understanding the Dharma due to his very, very, very, poor memory. And so the Buddha said, “Visualise a temple, the shoes of the monks, the floor, the surrounding area, the garden, the trees and all that as your mind. And all the leaves that have fallen as your karma, and your kleshas, your obstructions, your obstacles. Think of all the dirt, think of all the dust, as your kleshas and your obstructions and your negative karma, and every day clean it. And recite this DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG. Remove my defilements, remove its leftovers. Remove my defilements, remove the leftovers, the stains.. So, to recite that every day carefully and to visualise it carefully and do that.”

So when you are cleaning, you visualise that you are cleaning the defilements from your mind, you can recite “DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG.” or “Remove my defilements, remove its leftovers.” Or you can recite mantras of purification such as Vajrasattva.

In regards to your second question: from the Tibetan Buddhist viewpoints you would not burn mantras or images of or associated with the Three Jewels. However, the specific mantras on the blanket, may be for this specific purpose. We wouldn’t be able to give you a definitive answers as we would need to know the specific mantras, prayers, images on the blanket.

Hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Jason,

You’ve asked a very interesting follow-up question. Generally speaking, yes if you are in samsara, then you are always creating more karma. That’s why the goal of Buddhists is to be liberated from samsara. The Buddha and other enlightened beings achieved this and the practice of Dharma itself is geared towards achieving this.

I’ll try to explain it here, hopefully I can do so in such a short space. So, normally there is no way out of samsara, but when you practice the Dharma there is. Remember in my previous reply to you, I mentioned that there are differing levels of severity of karma? Some are heavier, some lighter, etc. When practising the Dharma, you reduce the amount of karma that you produce. When you have less effects of karma, due to less negative karma itself, you can focus more on the spiritual practices that lead to liberation.

I’ll take the examples of the Refuge vows. There are 10 of them, split into three categories related to the body, speech and mind. First is the body, which includes to abstain form killing, as killing creates negative karma. The in the speech section, it includes to abstain from lying. This is harder to do. What is easier – to abstain from killing another human being, or lying to another person. The easier one is not to kill. Hence, you train yourself in this manner, working from those actions that are easiest to avoid, working up to those that are harder. For example in the mind section, one of the vows is not to covet something that another person has. But this is harder to do than either not lying or not killing.

In other words, in our spiritual practice, we reduce the karma that we create though the actions of our body, speech and mind. Since we have less karma, we suffer less. And then finally, we are get to really subtle levels of karma, which are like residue in our mindstreams. But it’s still there. In order to get out of samsara, you need to realise what we call emptiness (which is way to complicated to talk about here). In other words, the very path of the Dharma is to reduce the karma we create, starting with the easiest and working up to the hardest, which is where it becomes the easiest to understand emptiness.

This who journey is a process, that’s why teachings such as the Lamrim are indesipensible as it shows us the actual way to practice. Normally, we are stuck in Samsara. But when we practice the Dharma and ultimately realise emptiness (there are many, many steps in between) we are able to get out of samsara completely. This may sound confusing, which is why in Buddhism study, understand and practice is very important.

We have Dharma classes available, where you can learn and find out more: https://www.kechara.com/learn/dharma-classes/

I hope this helps.

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your question. In essence, any action that causes another person harm or suffering whether physical or emotional generates negative karma. But karma is complicated and not as simple as we usually think about it. There are differences in level of severity of karma created, some can be very light and some can be heavy. These are due to the variables when creating karma, such as motivation, the actions, your feelings after it, etc. This can all be found in teachings that talk about karma, especially the Lamrim teachings.

In Buddhism we teach that we need to avoid the creation of negative karma for sure. But simply by being stuck in samsara, there is actually no way out of creating karma. That is why Buddhists seek to be free from samsara altogether. Only when we are free from samsara, are we free from the creation of karma.

In relation to your situation, if you are young and rely on your parents, for now you should try not to do things that are create division or disharmony within the family environment. That itself if the practice of the Dharma. Then later, when you are independent you can make more of an informed choice about what you want to do.

Even in your current situation, you can practice the Dharma, it is not necessary to become a monk or nun to progress on your spiritual path. Dharma can be practiced in any environment, and actually practising towards our family is the best. When we transform our minds and our behvariours and they see just how beneficial this transformation is, this is the best way to show them that Dharma is good. This was a piece of advice that Tsem Rinpoche used to tell people in family situations all the time.

I hope this helps you.

Dear Rojal,

Thank you for your question. In regards to meeting your guru, there are many different ways. These days you can meet your guru online as well. For example, many people did not meet Tsem Rinpoche personally, but they consider him to be there guru. You may find this article interesting: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-guru-protocol-a-guide-to-knowing-who-your-guru-is.html

In regards to tantra, yes, one definitely needs a qualified guru to bestow initiation and teach us the path of practice once you have initiation. In regards to our tradition, it is also considered necessary to have a guru to attain full enlightenment. Hope this helps. The article lined above will definitely help to answer some of your questions on a deeper level. Thank you.

Dear Rojal,

Thank you for your questions. It’s always nice to see you here wanting to learn more.

Yes it is definitely possible to deepen your practice in your sleep. This is done during practice of Highest Yoga Tantra, after receiving initiation and progressed along generation stage practice. This would obviously include everything before receiving such iniation such as having a basis and grounding in the Three Principle Aspects of the Path and the Lamrim teachings. In this practice you are able to use sleep to engage in meditation. This would need you to be able to lucid dream before hand.

The ability to lucid dream itself can be developed a number of ways, but the most common is single-pointed mediation concentration during waking life. This is also known as Shamatha meditation. But in this case, the object of your meditation should be a mental one, rather than a physical one. The best would be a visualisation of the Buddha. All of this is outlined in the Lamrim teachings in the section on developing concentration.

In terms of Astral Travel, yes it is definitely possible, and again there are different methods to go about this. Again this should be done only after having received the appropriate intiations and teachings from your guru. However, there are quite a few dangers involved with this. As Tsem Rinpoche mentioned before, the two main ones is that your consciousness is not able to return to your body and two that a spirit can take possession of your body if your protection is not strong and you have not invoked a Dharma protector to help with protection aspects.

Another thing about astral travel, is that even if learn how to do it, it is not necessary that you can actually visit pure lands or receive teachings, etc. This is because, to do this, would require a lot of merit. So there are many things and practices to develop merit before you should engage in it. Often times, people who claim that they have received teachings or visited purelands, actually haven’t though they may think that they did. It could simply be a projection of one’s mind and in some serious cases perhaps even due to spirits mascarading.

If you would like to learn lucid dreaming, please look into the teachings of single-pointed concentration normally. The ability of lucid dreaming comes naturally for those who progress in their shamatha meditation. As for astral travel practices, I would advise not to engage in such practices unless you receive the appropriate initiations, teachings from and under the strict supervision of a qualified guru. Hope this helps.

Dear Dirji,

We are sorry, but we do not understand your question. Perhaps because you asked using the english phoenetics of the word. If possible, please post again using either the English translation of the word or using the Tibetan script, so that we can help you properly.

Thank you.

Dear Marc,

Thank you for your question. You can find a translation of the meaning of Tsem Rinpoche’s name mantra on Kechara’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=683136630510067. Hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Rojal,

We can understand that you feel this way, and seeing the illusion of life should definitely motivate us to want to achieve something more spiritual. In the past when people asked Tsem Rinpoche the same question, he used to tell people a couple of things:

> The first is that there are two methods to deal with our spiritual path. The first is to physically renounce everything and go into the wilderness, like Buddha Shakyamuni and Milarepa did. To cut yourself from everyone and everything and meditate continuously for years until you achieve realisation. But this is very hard to do in our day and age. We still need to have contact with people, there are the necessities of life to think about. Rinpoche said we need to think about things from a practice angle also. It takes a very great level of practitioner with an immense store of merit to be able to do this successfully.

> The second method is to keep living within our a community and use them as a support for the transformation of the mind and spiritual progress. For example, that it why we have monasteries and nunneries, or Dharma centres and organisations to help with spiritual practice. This method is more measured, but you can still gain the same results. This is the more practical method. Especially according to the Mahayana path of practice, Bodhisattvas need to practice certain qualities in our minds and we progress towards enlightenment. Such qualities include the Six Perfections, but if we are not around others, how do we practice them? In order to practice generosity, we need others to be generous towards. In order to practice patience, we need others to be patient towards. In order to practice morality and ethics, we need to be in situations to be able to practice our vows. Enlightened beings like Buddha and Milarepa were able to do all of this in their minds during meditation but as mentioned before they were already high level pracitioners with immense merit. For example, Buddha Shakyamuni had three countless aeons of consistent practice life time after life time until his achieved enlightenment.

> Another thing that Rinpoche shared, that while understanding the drawbacks of life and the benefits of becoming enlightened, a lot of the time what happens these days is that it is mixed up with emotion due to the challenges of life. People are looking for an escape, but not an escape from samsara into enlightenment, but simple an escape from their current problems. The need for escape, known as renunciation in Buddhism, is not to simply escape samsara, but developed in a certain way through contemplation and meditation. When we have such feelings, we should analyse them to see if they are in accord with the teachings and the methods of developing true renunciation. Many people also have a unrealistic way of thinking about physical renunciation and the spiritual path in general. Most people think it is easy, but it is not, is difficult because we need to deal with our minds, our emotions, our traumas, etc, from countless lives. If we don’t have a firm foundation in Dharma practice and transformation before we attempt something like Buddha Shakyamuni or Milarepa, we will give up after a while because we find it too hard. And perhaps give up spiritual practice because the path did not actually match our expectations. So the key is to be as realistic as possible about our spiritual path.

So our advice, rather than give up everything, as you may have family or other responsibilities, is to use your current situation to transform your mind, to practice the teachings right now in life, so that you can start progressing along the spiritual life. The best way to do this is to practice the Lamrim teachings, which give you a firm roadmap of how and what to practice in a sequential manner. Giving up everything is not necessary to make real progress on the spiritual path, as outlined in the Lamrim, but sustained and consistent practice is the key. Then use the situations in your life to actualise that transformation. We hope this helps.

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your question. We are very happy to hear that Tsem Rinpoche’s Dharma talks have inspired you, especially to practice patience and kindness towards others. Please do keep it up, the benefits of both qualities are immense and are central to spiritual transformation.

We should always try our best to practice both patience and kindness, but sometimes practising it in the way we think may not be the best option. For example, in the case that you mentioned, it is not having the right effect on your own mind and also you are enabling your co-worker to exhibit negative behaviours as well.

In this case, actually practising kindness would not be to become a pushover, taking more responsibilities, etc. This isn’t beneficial for your or the co-worker. So here, practising kindness would actually be not to allow the person to do such things, but it should be practised with patience and not out of emotion. So you would do this in a very skilfful manner. The best would be to have a talk with your co-worker in a very calm manner and explain how you are feeling and how they are making you feel in the work environment, and try to sort out the situation before it progresses. Especially since you are having such thoughts of anger and the posibility of lashing out.

Practicing kindness and patience is not at all become a push over or allowing others to skip out on their responsibilities, etc. We really hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Sok,

Kusha grass and Durva grass are two different types of grass, they are not the same.

Kusha grass is also known as halfa grass, big cordgrass, or salt reed-grass. Its scientific name is Desmostachya Bipinnata. In shape, each blade of grass is long and straight.

Durva grass is also known as bermuda grass. Its scientific name is Cynodon Dactylon. In shape, each blade looks segmented and has smaller leaves sprouting from it.

You can google the scientific name to see the difference between the two.

Generally, they can be bought at Indian religious stores if there are any nearby where you live. Alternatively, if you live in Asia, you can buy a traditional grass broom, which you can substitue for the Kusha grass. It is a close relative of Kusha grass and the lamas have said that it can be used as substitue if you cannot find the actual grass.

I hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Bhavisha,

Local deities are not enlightened. They are sentient beings who look after or take care of a specific area. There are different names for these types of beings, such as local deities, Land God, Landowner deities, etc. They belong to the God Realm, but as other beings in the god realm, they are not enlightened. Hope this helps.

Dear Rojal,

Nice to see you back here!

Shamatha is a tool, basically through this meditation you develop single pointed concentration. But after developing that, you use it to engage in Vipashyana meditation, otherwise known as Special Insight.

Different traditions have different version of Special Insight. In our tradition, we use this type of meditation to analyse what we call “emptiness.” The teachings on the emptiness are the actual teaching that leads to enlightenment. All other teachings or practices help to prepare your mind to be able to do this.

Shamatha comes in, because the topic of emptiness is so deep, that we need single-pointed concentration to analyse it. If we don’t have this type of concentration, we will not be able to understand emptiness. Hence, shamatha and vipashyana meditation are used in tandem to achieve enlightenment.

This may seem a little abstract. The Lamrim teachings go into this in a lot of detail. They can be found in the chapters dealing with the Concentration and Wisdom as part of the Six Perfections in the Great Scope sections of the Lamrim.

Hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you for your question. There is no one heart disciple of Tsem Rinpoche. This usually refers to specific person who carries on the teachings and practices of a particular teacher. Tsem Rinpoche wanted something different for Kechara, hence we carry on his teachings and practices as a group, rather than one specific person.

Rinpoche trained his students, who are either Sangha, Pastors or senior students in various ways of continuing his teachings, especially through the work that they do. In this way, we continue Rinpoche’s teachings as a group rather than any one heart disciple.

Hope that this helps. Thank you.

Dear Sirius,

Thank you for your question. In terms of practice, you are doing a lot. We are very happy to read that you are doing all these beneficial practices. They will be very beneficial for you. What you are doing is very good already, the only thing that I would say is to make the Dorje Shugden sadhana consistent as well as the others. If you are doing the short Diamond Path sadhana, it includes the Vajrasatta meditations, so you don’t have to do it separately.

We just have some points to help you improve your practice:

> First is whenever you do any of the practices, is it vital to make sure you take refuge, generate bodhicitta and practice the four immeasurables before each session. And then at the end of the session, make sure to dedicate. This seals the merit generated from your practice. This is very important as if we don’t have the correct motivation at the beginning and dedicate it at the end, since the merit is not sealed, the positive potential is destroyed when we have disturbing emotions, especially anger.
> The second is to be consistent in your practices and do them daily. If you cannot be consistent with the practices you are doing at the moment, then reduce what you are doing to make it simple, for example just the Diamond Path (which includes Tsongkhapa’s Guru Yoga anyway). Then once you are consistent daily, later you can slow add in other practices and become consistent with them.
> The third is to keep revising the teachings on these practices, understand the motivation, deepen your visualisations, etc.

> In regards to your meditation, if you are doing breathing or concentration meditation, again, revise the teachings again and again to make your practice stronger and understand where you are on your meditational path.
> You can also spend some time every day, maybe five or ten minutes contemplating the Lamrim teachings step by step. This itself is extremely transformational and will propel you along the spiritual path.

In regards to what else to study or read, here is a very good article: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/books-that-are-a-must-read.html

If you consider Tsem Rinpoche to be your spiritual teacher, there are thousands of hours of teachings on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoTg0Wc5q3Gnz8ej3ETCdMQ You can watch and re-watch them to deepen your understanding and practice.

I hope all of this helps.

Dear Alby,

The physical form representations of the Buddhas, including statues, are very special as each form of a Buddha represents not only the path to enlightenment, but the state of enlightenment itself. In fact, even just seeing a Buddha image plants imprints in our minds that will open when the conditions are right, to help us further along our spiritual path. So they are powerful and protective in and of themselves, as long as they have been created according to correct iconography. This last point is very important.

That being said, images or statues are just pieces of metal or clay, etc. When statues are consecrated, they actually become the embodiement of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha). That’s why making offerings and doing any virtuous activity (even cleaning them) generates merit for your spiritual journey. As embodiments of the Three Jewels there is no way that they can be possessed by spirits that haunt the owner of the statue.

Traditionally, statues are made to be hollow and then filled with certain mantras and holy items, then consecrated. Following the traditional method will be the most effective to bless your statue properly.

If your statue is hollow, at Kechara we offer a service to fill your statue properly with the correct mantras, etc. The service is part of Kechara Saraswati Arts. You can find out more here: https://www.kechara.com/services/buddhist-art/

We also have DIY kits available if you cannot send your statue in and would like to do it yourself:
https://www.vajrasecrets.com/mantra-rolls-complete
[Please note these mantras are inserted into specific parts of the statue, you can contact Vajrasecrets through the website to get more information on how to fill the statue yourself]
https://www.vajrasecrets.com/mantra-rolls-anywhere
[These mantras can be inserted anywhere within the statue]

If you cannot do any of these, then at the very least, you should insert something into the statue so that it is not completely hollow. This can be a piece of paper with the mantra OM AH HUM written on it (either Tibetan or English is fine). Then roll this up and place in the statue. Otherwise you can use a pearl or semi-precious stone, etc.

While statues themselves have protective power, when they are left empty there is a certain type of spirit that come to reside inside a statue as it is completely hollow. It’s a spirit that likes hollow places. However, this type of spirit is not usually malicious or harmful. But that is one of the reasons a statue is never left hollow.

Once the filling is done, the traditional ceremonies of consecration known as Soongdrup Puja (to bless the insertion items) and the Rabney Puja (to fully consecrate the statues) are performed, which we also offer https://www.vajrasecrets.com/rabney-soongdrup-consecration-puja-fund

For those who cannot have the pujas done for whatever reason, you can actually bless the statues yourself. A comprehensive guide and the prayers necessary for doing this are available here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/how-to-bless-buddha-images-yourself.html

Given all of this, yes there is a type of spirit that can inhabit statues, but only if they are completely empty and not consecrated (whether by a monk, lay practitioner, yourself, it doesn’t matter). But this type of spirit cannot haunt the person, etc, in that sense. It simply resides in the statue.

The reason why statues are blessed or consecrated is so that they embody the Three Jewels, they become immense objects of merit making and protection from spirits, negativity, etc. So, if you do have a statue or are thinking of an inviting a statue, the best would be to have it filled and consecrated properly. However, even if you cannot, you can do the blessing yourself. There is no need to worry about a statue being haunted if not consecrated by a monk before you invite it or bring home.

In fact, if you have a personal practice, at the end of your practice you can dissolve your visualisation into the statue, to bless it. This actually makes your statue much more powerful than consecration alone. You basically bless your statue through your own daily practice.

I hope this information helps. Thank you.

Dear Rojal,

Thanks for your question.

Generally, there are three types of dreams as described below. Most of us only experience the first type, unless we progress on the spiritual path.

1.⁠ ⁠Samsaric dreams: these arise from karma and karmic traces in the mind. This also includes emotions, memories, etc. The meaning we find in these dreams are imputed by the dreamer, and not inherent in the dream. This also applies to waking life. We impute meaning onto situations and circumstances, rather than the meaning being inherent to the circumstance. It is like reading a book. Words in the book are just marks on paper, however, because we use our sense of meaning, we make a meaning out of it. However, this is always open to interpretation. For example, if you tell your dream to two people, they can interpret the meaning very differently, even though you told them the exact same details.

2.⁠ ⁠Clarity dreams: These dreams occur when you are fairly progressed in meditational practices and can carry this into the dream state. These dreams arise not from the emotions, or memories, etc., but from more subtler forms of karma and delusions. However, just like in waking mediational practice, you are not affected by the images or thoughts that appear to you. You simply let them appear and then pass. At this stage you are aware that you are dreaming while in the dream.

3.⁠ ⁠Clear Light dreams: In the advanced tantric practices, there are teachings called dream yoga. The object of these is to achieve the clear light dreams, which are very difficult to achieve and take years and years of intense practice. The most important clear light mind that arises is actually at the time of our death, if we are trained enough in this very subtle state, we can actually control where we take rebirth. If we are more experienced in this state, then we can actually use it to meditate on the teachings and achieve enlightenment. Clear light dreams are a “lesser” type of clear light mind, that helps practitioners prepare for the time of death.

When we have an auspicious dream such as of our teacher, our practice, the Buddhas and enlightened beings, etc., even though this is auspicious, it is still more than likely to be just a samsaric dream. Because it is a samsaric dream most people would dismiss it as being just a normal dream arising from the subconscious. But it is a very auspicious type of dream, because it shows that the Dharma and virtuous imprints are beginning to take root in your life. When you learn the Dharma and more importantly put the Dharma into practice in your life and transform to become a more compassionate person, the Buddhas themselves will bless you.

Such dreams are indications that you are on the either planting very positive seeds into your mind, or seeds from previous lives are opening, or that you are on the right path of studying the Dharma and that the enlightened beings are blessing you to continue on your spiritual journey. Such dreams are your subconscious telling you that you are on the right path.

Usually when you have a dream of an enlightened being, it is usually one that you are familiar with. If it is not, then it could be due to imprints from previous lives. In any case, when you have an auspicious dream, don’t hold on to it and tell everyone you have dreams of Buddhas. Instead, think to yourself, no matter what the reason, I am extremely fortunate to have been blessed to see the holy form of an enlightened being in my dream. And use that to fuel your practice of transformation.

I hope that this message helps.

Dear Lee,

Protector Rice:
> Protector rice is commonly used to relieve spiritual disturbances or to dispel negative energies in an area, especially when burned or placed over doorways.
> Protector rice can also be placed in water (along with other holy rilbus), imbuing the water with the same powerful potential. The water can then be used to bathe for healing, protection and blessings, especially for those with physical or mental aliments.
> For cases of negative interferences, lay two lit incense sticks parallel to each other. Then place one or two protector rice grains across the top of the incense sticks so that it starts to burn. This will invoke the presence of the Protector in the affected area.
> Insert into Buddha statues and stupas for consecration and increased positive potential.
> Encase and wear around the neck for a continuous supply of positive energy and protection.
> Place in luggage for a safe journey and to help prevent untoward incidents.
> Place in the mouth of a dying person or animal to help them pass on peacefully.
> Place in the mouth of a deceased person or animal to help them take a better rebirth.
> Put into bathing water to relieve skin problems and for general protection.

Entourage mantras:
When you invoke on certain deities, they come with an entourage, hence when you recite the entourage mantra, you are invoking on them also to aid you. You can read more about Dorje Shugden’s entourage here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/the-entourage-of-the-king-dorje-shugden

Blessing Buddha images:
In regards to blessing Buddha images yourself, you can read more about how to do it here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/how-to-bless-buddha-images-yourself.html