To really receive the empowerment, you must know the precise meaning of the words used and then take that meaning into meditation. Without knowing the meaning, the feel of the bumpa as it touches your head or tasting the water from it will not necessarily mature the mind. However, the root of mantrayana is pure perception, and therefore to see the lama as the principal deity of the mandala and the empowerment substances as blessing nectar, and with devotion free of doubt to view the mandala and hear the names of the deities purely, will have great benefit. In that manner receive the empowerment.

After receiving the empowerment you have to protect the samaya. Your relation to the vajrayana samayas can be compared to a snake’s options for movement when placed into a hole in bamboo: keep samaya and go straight up to the pure lands, destroy samaya and go straight down to the lower realms. There are only two ways to go. There is no third way. You need to understand that keeping samaya and practising dharma, rather than merely an obligation, brings great benefit to oneself. There are many samayas to protect and many dharmas to practice, but you must always remember to bring them all into a single essential practice. In general, all of us who claim to be practitioners soon discover that our actions are not in accord with dharma, and that is our biggest mistake. Therefore don’t confuse your high purpose with your actual behaviour. Your actions should be the same in private as they are in public. If your mouth proclaims, “I take refuge, I take refuge,” and “I act for the benefit of all beings,” but you act like the ringleader in your own circus of self-important, ego-clinging tricks, then in reality you ignore karma and samaya and this is no good.

-- His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche