...is not different from the nature of our mind.
We need to combine our perception of holy beings - whether images, visualized, or in person - with wisdom realizing emptiness. Due to our self-grasping ignorance, we perceive a gap between the Dharmapala and us. We tend to solidify this apparently external appearance of Dorje Shugden, and the accompanying feeling is a sense of separation, and a sense that we are very different. This is a huge obstacle to receiving deeper more profound blessings that take us closer to his mind. The blessings are flowing transparently from mind to mind. Our job is to peel away the layers that obstruct this union. The nature of blessings is the living experience of union with the Guru's mind.
With ignorance we conceive our Guru's mind and our mind to be inherently existent entities. When we do the visualization dissolving the Guru into our mind, internally there is a struggle, because we are conceiving there to be two people, and though we experience some benefit, there is deeper experience we are being prevented from touching.
Meditation on the nature of mind is the key.
Because the Guru-Protector's mind is the nature of clarity like clear empty space just as ours is, the key to mixing minds, to receiving more profound blessings, is simply to relax into the nature of mind. During the early stages of becoming familiar with this, though we initially have various thoughts such as 'this is the nature of the union of my mind and the Guru', it is when our thoughts are put to rest in the silence of mahamudra that we begin to experience the loss of a dual perception. So, when the Guru comes down into the heart, just rest in the nature of your mind beyond concepts and know that this is union with the Guru. This is from the point of view of the conventional nature of mind.
When we have gained some familiarity with that, with silencing our turbulent active thoughts in this conventional union, we then turn to the ultimate nature of mind, for of course they are the same nature there as well. When we meditate on the conventional nature of mind, a vacuity appears that is the absence of form. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso explains this is very close to ultimate truth emptiness in that it is a vacuity, that the only difference is the object of negation.
After gaining some familiarity with union from the point of view of both the conventional and ultimate nature of mind, when we turn to the tantric perception that our mind has been transformed into the great bliss and emptiness of the Guru's mind, it will be more blessed for us.
When we see or think of the Guru, Protector, Yidam and so forth, we need to check our feelings. Do we feel that we are alone in a room we've entered that has holy images? When we come across an image in a book, or on a webpage, do we say hello to the holy beings or even acknowledge their living presence? Do we feel a gap between us? If so, we need this experience of the nature of mind. Then, for example, when we visualize Guru Dorje Shugden before us, we will feel that we are connected. We will begin to receive the blessings more powerfully and this will transform our mind more quickly.
It is important to continuously take our view of the Protector to more profound levels. It is very easy not to think about this, to just go along with our conception of an external deity that we are very different from, when the reality we are not as different as we conceive ourselves to be. I remember HH Kelsang Gyatso saying once "You are your own Protector, you are your own enemy". When we meditate on the nature of mind, it will gradually begin to dawn on us to greater and great degrees that we ourselves are Dorje Shugden. Gelong Lobsang Choepel, one of the attendants to the late Trijang Dorjechang has repeatedly said that it is crucial to maintain the view that our mind, the Guru's mind, and the Yidam's mind are the same. Of course we need to be skillful with this view, making sure it is not being done incorrectly. If our deluded pride is increasing, that is a sure sign.
I am speaking here to different levels of practitioner, not just us babies who can't stop grasping at this present life.
I have personally found that removing this obstruction through the nature of mind meditation to be very blessed, so I wanted to share it in hopes somebody find it useful.
