Incorporating the teachings associated with Padmasambhava begins with establishing a clear foundation of refuge and motivation. One orients the heart toward the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—and, in Padmasambhava’s tradition, also toward the Three Roots of Guru, Yidam, and Ḍākinī or Protectors. On that basis, the cultivation of bodhicitta, the resolve to awaken for the benefit of all beings, becomes the guiding intention for any practice. This ethical and altruistic ground helps ensure that more profound methods are not pursued for personal gain alone but are directed toward the reduction of self-clinging and the welfare of others.

Within that framework, Guru Yoga is a central way to relate to Padmasambhava as a living source of wisdom. One visualizes him before oneself or above one’s head as the embodiment of all buddhas and teachers, reciting prayers and his mantra—OM AH HŪM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HŪM—with devotion. The syllables can be contemplated as purifying body, speech, and mind, while invoking his indestructible, compassionate activity. Allowing this visualization and recitation to suffuse awareness, one then rests in an open, lucid state, regarding one’s own mind as not separate from the awakened mind being invoked. In this way, devotion and contemplative insight mutually reinforce each other.

The view that underlies these practices emphasizes emptiness inseparable from clarity and compassion. In meditation, thoughts and emotions are recognized as empty appearances that arise and dissolve by themselves, and the mind is allowed to rest without clinging. This approach resonates with Dzogchen-style resting in the nature of mind, even if approached in a preliminary manner. Analytical reflections on impermanence and egolessness can alternate with simple, non-conceptual presence, gradually revealing the unity of wisdom and compassionate responsiveness. At the same time, tantric methods encourage transforming obstacles and strong emotions into the path by recognizing their energetic nature, offering them mentally to Guru Rinpoche, and imagining them dissolving into light rather than being suppressed.

Daily life becomes the testing ground where these insights are integrated. Ethical discipline, awareness of karma, and the cultivation of compassion, patience, generosity, and truthful speech give concrete shape to the inner view. Short but consistent sessions—such as morning refuge, bodhicitta, guru yoga, and mantra, and evening review with confession and dedication of merit—help weave practice into the fabric of ordinary activities. Remembering Padmasambhava through a single mantra recitation in moments of difficulty, and using every circumstance as an opportunity to reduce self-clinging and benefit beings, allows devotion, wisdom, and skillful means to function together. When supported by authentic instruction and lineage, this integrated way of living reflects the spirit of Padmasambhava’s legacy.