## Meditation 1. **In this meditation, what do the three syllables OM, AH, and HUNG represent?** • OM = the inhale, the entering wind. • AH = the pause, the still point of emptiness. • HUNG = the exhale, the rising wind. Together, they express the cycle of winds entering, staying, and rising—dissolving into the drop at the heart. 2. **How does this meditation mirror what we practiced in pranayama (nadi shodhana and nadi tonglen)?** Both guide the winds into the central channel and drops. Pranayama uses breath and visualization to purify channels and emotions, while this meditation uses OM, AH, HUNG as “wind syllables” to ride the prana directly into the heart drop, opening it to bliss-emptiness. 3. **The practice asks us to take full responsibility for the world’s suffering instead of looking away. What is one way you can “not look away” today—in small or ordinary moments? ** Answer (examples): - Listening fully when someone is upset instead of changing the subject. - Noticing my own irritation and seeing it as “my wind” rather than blaming others. - Choosing one painful situation in the news or community and silently dedicating my practice to it. 4. **This meditation suggests that every joy and every sorrow we see is our own projection. How does this change the way you feel about responsibility for your life and the world? Do you feel it as heavy—or as empowering?** Sample Answer: At first, it feels heavy, but then I realize it means I am not powerless. If the suffering comes from me, I also have the power to plant new causes and create a different world. ## Asana 1. **At the close of class, we complete the practice with two mudras symbolizing offering. What are they, and what do they express?** The Flower Offering Mudras — two gestures of reverence symbolizing gratitude and surrender. They remind us that the physical practice is a gift, an offering of beauty and effort to all beings. ## Sadhana 1. **Who wrote the Springtime Song of Colourless Light, and what is the meaning of the poem’s title?** The poem was written by none other than Geshe Michael Roach. The meaning of springtime is in reference to the drop of spring at the heart chakra. The colorless light is the experience of ultimate love that can follow the direct perception of emptiness. When the heart chakra opens, it’s a pure, colorless light that comes out of the chest. It is this light that connects us to all beings, and we make a profound commitment to serve them all. 2. **From the perspective of the open teachings, what meditation leads us to this experience of ultimate love?** The Seven-Step Cause and Effect Method for Developing Ultimate Love. With this meditation, we train the mind to see all living beings as our very own mother, and to use this profound connection to inspire us to treat all beings with total love and compassion. 3. **What is the meaning of the following: *Om Arya Sumati Dharma Dhara Ah Hung *** This is the Sanskrit name of Geshe Michael. It shows us that we can use the name of our heart teacher as a mantra or a method to call out to our heart teacher, the divine, or the deepest, most pure essence of our heart. 4. **What is the connection between the experience of ultimate love and the following lines:** Who isn’t the Lady Illusion? I will serve them all. With the experience of ultimate love, we are connected with every being, committed to ending their suffering. In these last lines of the sadhana, we ask, who isn’t the Lady of Illusion? And that is the point - we don't know. She could be anyone and everyone. With that commitment, we resolve to walk through our days serving others as best we can, striving to live a perfect life as shown to us by Lady Niguma. ## Pranayama 1. **What is Nadi Tonglen and why do we practice it?** Nadi Tonglen joins two ancient lineages: the breath purification of Nadi Shodhana and the heart practice of tong len—“giving and taking.” Through the winds, we learn to exchange self-concern for compassion. By visualizing a loved one (tonglen friend) and cleansing their channels as our own, we plant powerful seeds to become someone who can truly remove suffering. 2. **How do we practice Nadi Tonglen?** Begin with Blue Sky Body, Yogic Breathing, and Nadi Shodhana to prepare the channels. Then: 1. Set your intention: to use this breath to help others. 2. Visualize the rose and diamond at the heart — the rose of compassion, the diamond of wisdom. 3. See your tonglen friend before you. Breathe for them. • Exhale left / inhale right → release attachment. • Exhale right / inhale left → release anger. • Inhale & exhale both nostrils → release ignorance 4. When their suffering appears as dark smoke, let it touch the diamond—see it dissolve instantly into golden light. 5. On the next exhale, send radiant light through their central channel, filling them with joy and ease. 3. How does Nadi Tonglen deepen our understanding of OM AH HUNG? Just as OM AH HUNG unites entering, staying, and rising winds, Nadi Tonglen unites taking, transforming, and giving. When wisdom (the diamond) meets compassion (the rose), suffering transforms into light. Breath becomes offering; offering becomes bliss. ## Storytime 4 — The Real Gold 1. **In Marpa’s sixth vision, what offering did he make to Naropa, and why did the teacher reject it?** Marpa offered a mandala made of gold dust—his most treasured possession. Naropa rejected it, showing that attachment to praise, gain, and approval still bound Marpa to the eight worldly thoughts. The true mandala was not gold but Marpa’s transformed mind—joyful, detached, and free. 2. **What realization did Marpa reach about the “offering of realization”?** He understood that the highest offering to the teacher is not wealth or ritual, but the living demonstration of inner transformation—emptiness applied in daily life. The real gift is a mind freed from grasping and filled with joy and understanding. 3. **What lesson did the seventh vision—the dismembered corpse—teach Marpa about bliss and equanimity?** Naropa’s shocking act revealed that bliss and revulsion arise from the same source: the student’s own mind. Until Marpa could meet every experience—pleasant or disgusting—with equal taste, his winds would not obey, and true samadhi would remain hidden. 4. **What was the final teaching of the eighth vision about the teacher and the path?** When Marpa tried to chase Naropa and failed to reach him, he learned that the guru is not found by pursuit but created through devotion. By surrendering pride and resting in the emptiness of coming and going, the teacher appears naturally as the mirror of one’s purified seeds.