Please find the attached YouTube video of our study group session on Suffering and Reflecting on the Defects of Cyclic Existence where we covered the lower realms: Hells, Hungry Ghost and Animal Realms as described in Dudjom Rinpoche’s “Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom”. This often overlooked chapter is really the key to understanding the important aspects of Buddhist psychology, which we will be continuing in part 2. Precious Human Birth takes on new and more profound meaning in light of these considerations of the other realms.

Please continue to generate Bodhicitta (the wish for enlightenment for yourself and others), and then read/listen, contemplate and meditate on this important vajra topic. Take notes on the main ideas and copy several quotes which to you convey the key points. As mentioned before, this is alchemy. These considerations are meant to reveal the GOLD.

In this session we generated bodhicitta, created the visualization for the 5 certainties to arise, reviewed Seven Point Posture and Nine Rounds breathing and Guru Yoga as presented in the chapter on how to make oneself a suitable vessel. We then recited Manjushri mantra 108x, then read from and discussed the section 3 lower realms, and listened to the Prayer of Kuntuzangpo and sat in silence. At the end there is a dedication of merit and Vajrasattva purification.