Vajrayana practice is like an iron pipe with a snake inside, it can only go up or down.

In this short video clip from Day 10 of Fifty Verses on the Guru, the 17th Karmapa like other great Vajrayana masters, compares Vajrayana practice to be like an iron pipe with a snake inside. "If a snake gets into it, either it is going to go up, or it is going to go down, there is no other way to go. Similarly, with the Vajrayana, if it goes well, it will bring you up to Buddhahood, if it does not go well, it will bring you down to hell. There is no other place to go. Thus, why we need to be very careful about not only inner practice but our conduct." So, these days the 17th Karmapa explained: "there is not that kind of detailed and thorough examination of student or guru as there was in the time of siddhas like Tilopa and Marpa. It is very rare to find any examples of relationships like this in such a degenerate age. The Buddhist teachings have spread not only to Tibet but are now all over the world east and west. So, we have people from different ethnicities and different cultures and we need to teach with very skilful means. We just cannot do as they did in the old days and follow the old traditions and be really stubborn hard-headed about it. This is going to prevent you from benefiting many sentient beings. This is another important point to bear in mind." The Karmapa then went on to explain that although Marpa and Milarepa practised mainly that of secret mantra lineage, this was later combined as one with the Sutra teachings, and the stages of the path (lam-rim) by Jowo Atisha, and that tradition also became very strong in Tibetan Buddhism. The 17th Karmapa also explains why it is normally considered important to keep the relation and practice about one's guru and yidam deity and practice of secret mantra secret/private. The reason one keeps it secret is that there are extremely few people who really understand how to practice the secret mantra dharma or who can get their heads around it. So, there is a great danger that most people will understand it incorrectly and use it improperly. For full transcript of the Day 10 teaching: https://dakinitranslations.com/2025/0...