Tantrayana, the practice of Tantrayana is based on the Sutrayanas, on renunciation. Without strong pure renunciation, it is difficult to practice both Sutrayana and Tantrayana
The reason for Buddha to say that probably there is aways something to do with the nature – the nature of human beings, the people of land of snow. Because to receive this teaching the [receiver’s] nature has to be very pure.
“There are those who primarily meditate on the Dzogchen luminosity, which teaches that on reaching the limit of the practice of the subtle mind…” It’s a like different people or different teachings have different ways of understanding Buddha nature and different understandings how to meditate on.
Tantrayana was also taught in India. Some tantras were taught by Buddha himself, and some … he transformed into different deities and taught different Tantras
We can divide it into three things to understand the nature of phenomena: the outer nature, the inner nature, and the secret nature of phenomena. And the outer nature of, for example, Samsara is suffering, and the renunciation taught in the Hinayana and Mahayana teachings.
This great secret teachings of Dzogpa Chenpo were kept in a secret way, not taught to the public very much; but according to some of the predictions given by Buddha Shakyamuni – and Vajrasattva and some deities saying that – there will be more people practicing Dzogpa Chenpa and it would be more obviously practiced by many lay people during the time like degeneration times like now and it is coming
So how to start Dharma practice and why practice Dharma is the question? What kind of conditions one [need to have] to practice Dharma [well]? Well, these questions are pretty important for the people who want to practice Dharma.
We have to fix our habitual tendency to be lazy, right? (laugh) “I’ve been lazy and then to be more diligent.” Our laziness affects our practice, which makes it very, very, very slow and we are very forgetful (laughed). We forget to practice Dharma many times, many days. Therefore, we have to fix this problem.
The Longchen Nyingthig Lineage is about the Greatest Peace, how to achieve this Great Peace and how to see through the Great Secret of the mind. The Path of Longchen Nyingthig, or the result of the path of the Longchen Nyingthig Lineage is the Great Secret, the highest result which, at that, one can achieve through Dharma practices.
So, it is very important to build a good foundation for the practice of this Great Secret, the Great Perfection, Great Wisdom. And to have this good foundation one is to practice the Ngondro and to accomplish the 500,000 Preliminary practices like 100,000 prostrations, 100,000 mandala offering, 100.000 recitations of 100 syllables, and bodhicitta and refuge prayers.
