As you are reciting the refuge mantra, the most important thing is to remember the negative karma that is purified and the qualities that are received. In the beginning of your recitation concentrate mainly on purification; near the end meditate that other sentient beings are also being purified.

At the end of the session, feel that you and all other sentient beings have entered completely under the guidance of Guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Visualization for "Namo Gurubhya"

First visualize that nectar is emitted from the direct gurus in the refuge field, then from the lineage gurus, who are seated behind. Then nectar is emitted from the gurus at the two sides, those of the profound and the extensive lineages.

As you are reciting and visualizing the nectar, meditate that you are purifying negative karma committed toward the guru:

The negativities to be purified:

• having harmed the guru's holy body
• breaking the guru's advice
• disturbing the guru's holy mind
• lack of devotion arising
• giving up or criticizing the guru
• degenerating one's samaya (vows) in relation to the guru

Think that all of this negative karma that has been collected in beginningless rebirths is purified. Visualize that it all comes out, flowing down through your pores like dirty liquid. All of these negative karmas are completely purified. Think that the mind and body are completely pure like crystal. Meditate strongly that all the negative karma relating to the guru that you have collected since beginningless time is completely purified.

As you receive the blessing qualities of the gurus' holy body, speech, and mind by reciting the mantra and doing the visualization, the most important, the key thing is to do this visualization without ordinary thought, without the ordinary view of the person of the guru. Thus, as you are reciting the prayer of going for refuge to the guru, the most important thing is to do this with guru devotion: that is, seeing the guru as Buddha, actually seeing Buddha. Then the blessings can be received.

There is an example from the texts: "At the beginning Guru Shakyamuni Buddha made so many prayers for sentient beings who are in the one-hundred-year-lifespan age of quarreling (the Kaliyuga), sentient beings who are left out because of being so difficult and unable to be subdued by other buddhas. And because Guru Shakyamuni Buddha felt this to be so unbearable, he made prayers to help these sentient beings. Now this is our time; therefore, if one analyzes who is that Buddha, one can find no other than the virtuous friends who give us advice, teachings, oral transmissions, initiations, and the three vows, those who are doing the actions of teaching to enlighten. The Buddha who is working through the virtuous friend, manifesting as the virtuous friend."

Visualization for "Namo Buddhaya"

Again, from the refuge field, nectar is emitted from the 1000 Buddhas of the Fortunate Eon, the 35 Buddhas of purification, the Medicine Buddhas, and all the deities of the four classes of tantra: kriya, charya, yoga, and maha-anuttara yoga.

As you recite the mantra and perform the visualization of nectar, meditate that you are purifying the negative karma committed toward the Buddha:

The negativities to be purified:

• having criticized the Buddha
• having arisen heresy in the mind
• giving harm to a buddha's holy body
• selling statues of the Buddha
• treating buddhas as material (using for business)
• showing disrespect toward holy objects and statues
• pawning statues of the Buddha
• discriminating among statues of the Buddha because of thinking one is bad and one is good
• having disrespect toward images of the Buddha because of poor quality art or characteristics
• breaking the precepts of the precious sublime Buddha

Think that all of this negative karma collected in beginningless rebirths is purified. Visualize that it all comes out, flowing down through your pores like dirty liquid. All of these negative karmas are completely purified. Think that the mind and body are completely pure like crystal. Meditate strongly that all the negative karma relating to the Buddha that you have collected since beginningless time is completely purified.

Then, meditate that you receive all the infinite qualities of Buddha's holy body, speech, and mind.

The qualities that are received:

• the holy body of Buddha: which has perfected all beauty; which one can never see enough of; which eliminates obscurations merely by being seen; which does not cause delusions to arise
• the special qualities of the holy body: the 32 signs, signifying the realizations in Buddha's holy mind; the 80 exemplifications, which have resulted from the good actions the Buddha has done in the past
• the 60 qualities of Buddha's holy speech: its melodious tune; that one word of Buddha's teaching is heard in different ways (or different subjects, such as some hear impermanence, others hear emptiness) exactly according to the level of the mind and karma of each sentient being; that his speech is able to benefit perfectly without any mistake
• the qualities of Buddha's holy mind: omniscience; compassion and loving kindness; that the omniscient mind knows all past, present, and future; that the omniscient mind is able to read all sentient beings' minds without any mistakes

For example, from the scriptures: "If someone picks up a small plant, cuts it into pieces, mixes it with many other tiny pieces of other plants, and puts them all in the ocean for many years, and then these many tiny pieces are shown to the Buddha, the Buddha is able to explain from which plant each piece comes, from which place, and so forth. The Buddha can explain everything about each tiny piece of plant."

Buddha's loving kindness toward us, toward all sentient beings, embraces all sentient beings. The strength of Buddha's loving kindness toward us is thousands and thousands of times more than the strength of the love we have for ourselves. The Buddha has equal compassion and loving kindness to each and every sentient being; Buddha's compassion and loving kindness are completely the same, whether toward someone who criticizes him or toward someone who has devotion.

For example: "If there were a person on Buddha's right offering perfume to his holy body and a person on his left cutting his body with an ax, Buddha's compassion and loving kindness would be exactly the same toward both people."

Other qualities possessed by the Buddha are the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, and the twenty-one uncontaminated transcendental wisdoms.

Visualization for "Namo Dharmaya"

In the refuge field, the Dharma refuge is visualized as many Dharma texts in front on the right. Think that all realizations appear as those texts, their words written in silver on gold paper. From the letters of every text, nectar flows and drips, purifying your negative karma and bestowing the blessings of the qualities of the Dharma.

The negativities to be purified:

• abandoning the holy Dharma by any of the following:

1. being a Mahayana practitioner and criticizing the Hinayana by saying that it is not Buddha's teaching
2. being a Hinayana practitioner and criticizing the Mahayana by saying that it is not Buddha's teaching
3. saying that tantra is not Buddha's teaching, that it is Hindu tantra
4. practicing the Vajrayana but denigrating the Mahayana and sutra teachings

• criticizing any of the other Tibetan schools (Geluk, Kagyu, Sakya, and Nyingma) by saying any are superior or inferior to the others
• thinking that any teaching of Buddha is not for you; when finding a teaching difficult to understand, it should be kept for future understanding and not dismissed
• selling Dharma texts and using the money for one's living expenses (the result of this is very heavy pollution, obstacles for realizations, and heavy sufferings)
• pawning Dharma texts
• treating Dharma texts as material
• showing disrespect toward Dharma texts by putting them on the floor, on the bed, or on the bare ground without putting something underneath them.

Think that all of this negative karma collected in beginningless rebirths is purified. Visualize that it all comes out, flowing down through your pores like dirty liquid. All of these negative karmas are completely purified. Think that the mind and body are completely pure like crystal. Meditate strongly that all the negative karma relating to the Dharma that you have collected since beginningless time is completely purified.

The qualities that are received:

Think about all the qualities, all the realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment.

Realizing guru devotion brings the success of all the rest of the realizations up to enlightenment. Renunciation of samsara causes one to achieve liberation from samsara. Bodhicitta enables one to achieve enlightenment. The realization of emptiness is able to cut root of samsara and enables one to achieve right view.

Then there is the realization of the two stages of tantra, the generation stage and the completion stage. The generation stage prepares the mind to achieve the three kayas (enlightened bodies), to be able to purify ordinary death, rebirth, and intermediate stage and thus achieve the path-time three kayas-the path-time dharmakaya (truth body), sambhogakaya (complete enjoyment body), and nirmanakaya (emanation body).

Then there is the realization of the completion stage of tantra, which actually cuts ordinary rebirth, death, and intermediate stage and becomes the direct cause of the dharmakaya (wisdom truth body) and the rupakaya (form body). Then there are many extensive meditations on the five paths and the ten bhumis (bodhisattva grounds). These are the inconceivable qualities of the Dharma.

Visualization for "Namo Sanghaya"

From each of the bodhisattvas, arhats (not ordinary manifestations), dakas, dakinis, and protectors visualized in the refuge field, nectar is emitted, purifying and bestowing blessings and realizations.

The negativities to be purified:

• criticizing the Sangha, which is extremely negative karma causing a deep schism among the Sangha (in a place where this happens the karma is so heavy that one cannot achieve realizations there for twelve years)
• decreasing offerings to the Sangha (when someone offers then taking some away from the Sangha by saying there is no need)
• making very small offerings to the Sangha when there appears to be enough (this is very negative karma bringing one's next rebirth in the hell realms)
• using things belonging to a monastery without permission from the Sangha (which creates karma to be reborn in the hell realms)
• stepping over the robes of a monk or nun

Think that all of this negative karma collected in beginningless rebirths is purified. Visualize that it all comes out, flowing down through your pores like dirty liquid. All of these negative karmas are completely purified. Think that the mind and body are completely pure like crystal. Meditate strongly that all the negative karma relating to the Sangha that you have collected since beginningless time is completely purified.

The qualities that are received:

• from the bodhisattvas: bodhicitta, great compassion, the six paramitas, the bodhisattvas' conduct
• from the arhats: the three higher trainings (morality, concentration, and wisdom), the twelve pure trained qualities
• from the dakas and dakinis: transcendental wisdom, non-dual bliss and voidness, the qualities to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime (enabling you to achieve enlightenment the quickest by cutting the defilements and dualistic view in the quickest way)
• from the protectors:

The four qualities:

1. pacifying diseases and obscurations
2. increasing life, fortune, wisdom, scriptural understanding, and realizations to the path to enlightenment
3. control over sentient beings in order to bring them to enlightenment; control over needs so one can practice Dharma and do extensive work; control over delusions, especially over the subtle mind (this is ultimate control)
4. wrath liberating evil beings who harm sentient beings and holy beings in wrathful way out of compassion, separating their mind from their body and sending to a pure land

When you meditate on seeing the four qualities in your own mind and receiving all power from the protectors, it is like having a puja done to purify your obstacles and sickness. This is not only true of this last visualization; it is true of the entire refuge practice. If you do the entire refuge practice well, you are purifying negative karma and receiving blessings for complete success.

Transcribed by Holly Ansett 25 January 1997, San Francisco, California. Lightly edited by Ven. Connie Miller, 29 January 1997.

Additional notes by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Refuge

January 1997

What is to be avoided

1. One should not take refuge from the depths of one's heart in worldly gods such as Brahma and so on, and one should not prostrate to such objects. One should not entrust oneself from the depths of one's heart to non-virtuous friends or teachers of anti-Buddhist religions which don't have supporting levels.
2. Having taken refuge in the Dharma, one should avoid harming any being, either directly by oneself, or indirectly by asking others to do it for you.
3. Having taken refuge in the Sangha one should avoid entrusting oneself to and keeping company with negative friends and followers of hedonism.

What is to be practiced

1. With a mind of respect towards Those Gone to Bliss (the Buddhas), one should regard even statues as being actual Buddhas, prostrate to and pay them respect. One should avoid showing disrespect such as by placing them on the bare ground, judging them according to their material value, or discriminating between them, saying that some are good and others bad.
2. Having taken refuge in the Dharma, one should pay homage and respect by generating the recognition of all scriptural texts or even just one syllable of the teachings as being the actual rare sublime Dharma. And one should avoid placing them on the bare ground, regarding them as material objects, using them as security for a loan, or carrying them together with one's shoes.
3. Having taken refuge in the Sangha, one should regard even one member of the Sangha as being the actual Sangha. One should avoid discriminating within the Sangha community and have equal respect for all. One should train well in all the advice concerning what is to be practiced, such as not even stepping pieces of robe or throwing them in dirty places but instead placing them in clean places.

General Advice

In general, there are four points to the practice of Dharma. One should rely upon holy beings, listen to the holy Dharma an after correctly comprehending, follow the Dharma and practice it. One should not let one's senses become excited (i.e. control the senses when in danger of creating negative karma) and take as many vows as one is capable of keeping. Have a compassionate attitude towards sentient beings. Whenever you eat or drink make effort to offer to the rare Sublime Ones (Triple Gem), and train well in the refuge precepts, including exerting oneself to make offerings to the Triple Gem.