Indigenous spiritual and healing traditions around the world are based on an understanding of the five elements.  In the Tibetan tradition these are known as earth, water, fire, air and space and are understood as the
underlying energies from which the physical world, our bodies our emotions and our minds arise.

This is the third of three weekend teachings in LA on how the elements are understood in Tibetan Bön and Buddhist traditions and how that
understanding is applied to physical and emotional healing and to meditative and spiritual development.  Rinpoche teaches from an understanding of the elements that unites Bön shamanism, Bön and Buddhist tantra, and the
highest teaching of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). The shamanic teachings focus on the form of the elements, the tantric teachings on the energy of the elements and the Great Perfection teachings focus on the radiance of the
elements.

There is often a division between people interested in dharma and those interested in shamanism.  Rinpoche hopes that dharma  practitioners will learn to work with physical and emotional disturbances as yogis in Tibet have done for centuries in a way that does not reduce those disturbances to psychology or materialism.  The wisdom to do this can be found in the
Tibetan traditions that offer the means to balance the relationship between the individual and nature, which is understood to be sacred and alive.

In this teaching Rinpoche will focus on the Great Perfection teachings that work with the secret dimension of the elements—the radiance of the
elements.  The emphasis is on recognizing and abiding in the pure nature of mind, in which the elements are spontaneously balanced in the body.  The Great Perfection teachings describe how the body evolves from light into form, and how the external and internal world is constructed from space and light, and how the interplay of the five elemental qualities give rise to all that exists.  In the Great Perfection this understanding is used by the practitioner to dissolve experience, including the body, back into light, resulting in the attainment known as the rainbow body or the body of light.

Explicitly presented or not, working with the elements is fundamental to all meditative practices.  The practitioner who understands the relationship between the elements and practice is able to use the practices flexibly, knowing when to use different kinds of practices and knowing which practices are best suited for their own path.  This understanding also removes any apparent conflict between the different levels of the teachings—shamanism or external practices, tantra or internal practices and Dzogchen or secret practices.

It is not necessary to have attended the previous teachings in this series to attend this weekend teaching.  All are welcome.

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