Meditation: Special LevelThe most advanced level of study and practice comprises engagement in the extensive major treatises of the Sakya or Kagyu traditions, and undertaking the meditation practice cycles which derive from the higher tantra sets of the vajrayana. In the Sakya tradition, the major treatises comprise the key works of the Sakya founding fathers, such as Sakya Pandita, as well as the famous teaching called The Three Visions. In Kagyu centres, the works of Gampopa and the Karmapas are particularly important at this level. Such teachings are usually given at the Sakya and Kagyu ‘shedras’ in the UK and France. As for meditation, Sakya practitioners who have completed the necessary prerequisites may have the opportunity to receive the major initiations of Hevajra or Vajrayogini and subsequently practice their development and completion stages, such as are found in the famous Path and Fruit and Naro Khachoma practice cycles. Kagyu practitioners at this level may receive and practise such cycles of practice as mahamudra or Konchok Chindu, with their extensive preliminaries (‘ngondro’), guru yogas, and main practices. |
