Q & A with Robina

QUESTION
Dearest Venerable Robina,

First, I wanted to thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your wonderful teachings and for making yourself available to so many during the pandemic. It has been wonderful and had a dramatic impact on me personally. 

I was able to take the bodhisattva vows and the Thousand-Arm Avalokiteshvara empowerment from His Holiness in June in his teaching online. I have been working toward developing this wonderful practice since.

Also, I have found information about a lama who will give a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation online. Would you be so kind as to offer me some guidance? Would you recommend that I attend, and if so would you recommend that I take the blessing or the initiation? This is a big step, so I would appreciate your thoughts very much!

Thank you again for your kindness and  for sharing your wisdom! I am blessed.

All my love,
Y

ANSWER
Happy to hear from you, Y.

Wonderful that you’re finding teachings everywhere! And I’m so so delighted you took the initiation from His Holiness. Amazing!

As for attending a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, if you’ve checked carefully on the lama, the tradition, and you have confidence in their validity, then it’s wonderful to take it simply as a blessing.

If you want to take the actual initiation, the same due diligence applies. But you need to be very clear that you want to take this lama as one of your lamas, and you also need to be clear about the commitments he will request you to agree to.

Certainly, as you can see on the website — and this is typical — you will be taking the tantric vows. They are usually presented in the same way in the various traditions.

You have to feel clear that there is a karmic connection there.

If you’d prefer to wait to receive this or another Highest Yoga Tantra initiation from a lama in the tradition that you feel connected to, then that’s just fine.

We can certainly have lamas from various traditions — I have lamas who are Sakya and Nyingma, as well as my Gelug lamas.

If you have more questions, please ask.

Love to you,
Robina

QUESTION
Dearest Venerable Robina,

Thank you for your kind guidance! It means so much to me!

I have spent the last several days reading and reading and reading. I am very drawn to this deity.

I have confidence in the teacher and the lineage, and I have decided that I am going to receive the blessing. I will continue learning about this practice and the other different anuttrayoga systems and will keep an eye out for an empowerment after the pandemic subsides. 

In the meantime, I have plenty to learn and work on with Thousand-Arm Avalokiteshvara, which is wonderful. This will also give me more time to work more deeply with single-pointed concentration, bodhicitta, and emptiness, so I am more qualified when the opportunity arises. 

I am really drawn to this deity very strongly, and will use this time to learn as much as possible. I can also use this time to investigate the other systems and empowerments, which is all really new to me. I had never really considered tantra before, but after writing with you and having recently read several of Lama Yeshe’s books, I am eager to get to work. I want to be sure that I am making the correct choices, too. 

Does this sound reasonable? Do you have any recommendations? How does one know which empowerment to take?

Thank you again for your great kindness and taking the time to write me. 

Much love to you!
Y

ANSWER
Dear Y,

As for which initiations we need to take: in the end, we need all of them! Because they’re all simply manifestations of the various qualities we want to perfect.

But move along as you are. Keep your commitments, study your vows, and aspire every day to do what is most beneficial and you will be guided by the guru buddha.

Here is a PDF that includes everything you have already in relation to your Refuge, Lay Vows, and Bodhisattva Vows, as well as the vows and commitments in relation to receiving a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation. Of course, this relates to our Gelug tradition, so such things as Six-Session Guru Yoga will not be involved in another lineage. But the vows and various other commitments, such as those in relation to the Five Buddha Families, will apply. 

Although you will take the initiation as a blessing, it is good for you to study what’s involved when you finally actually take an initiation.

Love to you,
Robina

ANSWER
Thank you so much, Venerable Robina! I will let you know how it goes.

Much love to you!
Y

QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,

I wanted to write to let you know about the empowerment.

I’m not sure how much detail would be helpful here, but I ended up dropping out of the initiation (blessing) after Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows. There was a monk that gave a teaching before the actual ceremony started that really made me feel uncomfortable, so I went into the initiation wondering if I should proceed. The lama who was to give the initiation said nothing that I found to be incorrect or misleading, but I decided that it would not be beneficial for me to continue. 

I hope that I did not create any negative karma here. I made an offering to the lama and did a longer than normal Vajrasattva practice last night. I felt leaving the ceremony was better than continuing with these thoughts in my mind. 

Would you please let me know if I did the right thing? Is there anything else I should be doing to minimize any negative karma?

Thank you so much for your guidance through this! 

Love,
Y

ANSWER
Good to hear from you, Y.

You were wise; you made a decision. I suppose this just shows we need to have confidence, not just enthusiasm, before embarking on such a journey.

The main thing is to learn about your mind.

Keep practicing daily, keep purifying, and keep aspring to do what is most beneficial.

Many prayers,
Robin