Approach a Lamdré teaching: what to ask before joining the tantric parts
Before you engage Lamdré’s tantric parts, learn the Sakya structure, ask how a teacher received the teaching, and check with a qualified lineage-holder what you are ready for.
Pourquoi ça marche
Lamdré’s tantric part is the Triple Tantra on Hevajra (Drogmi.org). Lotsawa House’s notice says that Vajrayāna restricts the reading and practice of certain texts to those who have received the requisite empowerments, transmissions and instructions. This page has not found a fetched Sakya source that states the Lamdré-specific rule, so the rule that applies to your own situation is the one the teacher of your centre or lineage gives. The two lines, Tsogshé for the assembly and Lobshé for private disciples, reflect different settings. Checking the teacher and what they give is this page’s advice.
Comment faire
- Learn the public outline first: the Triple Vision as the entry, and the Triple Tantra as the esoteric part. Stearns’ translation of Lamdré texts (Wisdom, 2006) and the Lotsawa House Lamdré texts are places to start in English.
- Ask any teacher offering Lamdré how they received it, from which lineage holder, and what they are authorised to give publicly.
- Ask which parts are open to anyone and which require an empowerment or a commitment, and what those are.
- Keep the public practices going while you decide: the reflections on the visions and the daily review of the four attachments.
- Do not begin any tantric practice on your own from a book. If a teacher says you are not yet ready, treat that as information about the sequence, not as a closed door.
Données probantes
The restriction is the general Vajrayāna norm stated on Lotsawa House; no controlled study exists to test how a Lamdré centre applies it. This practice is this page’s advice for approaching the teaching carefully. (anecdotal)
Requirements for empowerment and commitment vary by lineage and centre. Ask the teacher you are dealing with directly; this page cannot tell you what a given centre requires.
Sources
- Lotsawa House. Empowerment Series — site notice that Vajrayāna Buddhism restricts the reading and practice of certain texts to those who have received the requisite empowerments, transmissions and instructions, and advises consulting a qualified lineage-holder if unsure. lotsawahouse.org.
- Stearns, Cyrus (ed.). Taking the Result as the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdre Tradition. Library of Tibetan Classics 4. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006. ISBN 9780861714438.
- Drogmi.org. “Lam Dré” — overview of the Triple Vision, the Triple Tantra on Hevajra, the lineage (including Gayadhara, Drogmi Lotsawa and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, with dates), and the Lobshé and Tsogshé lines.
- Lotsawa House. Lamdré Series — texts on the theory and practice of Lamdré (lam ’bras), or Path with Its Fruit. lotsawahouse.org.
Erreur fréquente
Assuming a book or recording is an authorisation. Lotsawa House’s notice says the restricted texts are for those who have received the requisite empowerments, and advises consulting a qualified lineage-holder when unsure.
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Plus de pratiques pour Lamdré: The Path with Its Result in the Sakya Tradition
- Reflect on the impure vision: the ordinary cycle, seen in one episode
Take one ordinary cycle of wanting and disappointment from your own week and look at it as the impure vision, the first of the three visions the Sakya course page names.
- Know what meditation experiences are and are not: the experiential vision
Notice a vivid meditation experience, such as warmth, light or stillness, and hold it as an appearance that arises and passes rather than as an attainment.
- Aspire to the pure vision: the result as the aim of the path
Let the aim of the path, complete awakening, become a felt aspiration rather than a concept, and point the day toward it.
- Parting from the four attachments: a daily review from the short Sakya teaching
Once a day, check the day against four attachments, to this life, to saṃsāra, to your own interest, and to grasping, in the words of the teaching Sachen Kunga Nyingpo received.
- When a meditation experience unsettles you: ground first, shorten, and reach a teacher or clinician
If a reflection or a sitting leaves you shaky, unreal or frightened, stop the practice, ground yourself in ordinary contact, and bring it to a teacher or clinician.
Concepts associés
- Tibetan Buddhism: The Four Schools, Bön, and Where a Beginner Starts
Four schools, one shared ground, and the devotional practices that hold Tibetan Buddhist life together
- Mahāmudrā: Looking Directly at the Nature of the Mind
The Kagyu path of calm, then looking at the mind itself — practised the way the manuals lay it out
- Lamrim: The Stages of the Path and the Three Scopes
Atiśa’s three scopes and Tsongkhapa’s Great Treatise: a contemplative map from a precious human life to awakening
- Bodhicitta: The Awakening Mind and How It Is Cultivated
The intention at the heart of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and the classical ways Tibetan teachers train it