Understanding Vajrayana Ritual, Part One

On the Vajrayana path, skillful methods such as elaborate ritual are employed in order to bring realization more swiftly.  To this end, every aspect of a Vajrayana ritual is a powerful tool designed to hasten our progress by reminding us of the profound view.  In order for the offerings and ritual implements to be useful as reminders and for our ritual practice to be meaningful, it is invaluable to study the exquisite symbology of Vajrayana. This set of teachings is designed specifically for this purpose.  Lama Chonam, at the request of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, began this series of teachings to introduce both outer and inner explanations of ritual practice. Part One of the series took place this fall over the course of several Saturdays, and Lama Chonam has promised to continue the teachings in the future in order to complete the topics thoroughly. Part One covered many facets of Vajrayana ritual practice, including offerings such as the eight auspicious symbols, the seven possessions of a chakravartin, amrita and rakta.  Musical instruments such as the drum, long horns, gyaling, kangling, conch, and cymbals were also discussed, as well as ritual implements such as the bell and vajra. The teachings describe the characteristics of each, the materials they are made from, their purpose, symbolic meaning, and the power and blessing of their proper ritual use.  Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, who has hoped for years that such teachings would be made available, recently explained why they are so precious: "The days are racing by. We are like soldiers marching on our way to our own death. We should really take this seriously, and study dharma and focus on dharma. That's why I asked Chonam to begin these teachings explaining about why we do sadhana practices in the temple and what the offerings are, the offering substances, their outer, inner, and secret meanings, these things that we are making use of, the cymbals, the drums, the substances. It's good to know, beyond thinking that it is just ordinary. Therefore we have Buddha's teachings, so that we can know, and Lama Chonam is explaining the teachings. That way we can come to know that everything that we are doing in the context of sadhana is blessed, and not really ordinary." This item consists of one audio CD in mp3 format. ------------------- NOTE: TRANSCRIBERS WANTED! We are looking for folks to transcribe these teachings as soon as possible! We would like to send out short chunks to many people for a quick turnaround and offer these teachings in written form as soon as we can! Please send an email to vimalatreasures@gmail.com if you are interested in helping with the transcription process.