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Vajra Wisdom Deity Practice in Tibetan Buddhism

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“As more and more people embrace the Tibetan Buddhist path with sincerity and dedication, priceless instructions like these by the great masters of the past take on a crucial importance. Only with such clear and practical guidance can we fully appreciate the depth of the extraordinary practices of the Vajrayana, and discover for ourselves their transformative power.”

Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying


Vajra Wisdom presents the commentaries of two great nineteenth-century Nyingma masters that guide practitioners engaged in development stage practice through a series of straightforward instructions. The rarity of this kind of material in English makes it indispensable for practitioners and scholars alike.

The goal of development stage meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is to directly realize the inseparability of phenomena and emptiness. Preceded by initiation and oral instructions, the practitioner arrives at this view through the profound methods of deity visualization, mantra recitation, and meditative absorption.


The Dharmachakra Translation Committee draws its inspiration from the vision, commitment, and magnificent achievements of past Buddhist translators. Directed by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, the Committee is dedicated to making Buddhist classics available to modern readers in their native languages.

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VAJRA WISDOM


Deity Practice in Tibetan Buddhism


Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima and

Shechen Gyaltsap IV


FOREWORD BY


Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche


Translated by the

Dharmachakra Translation Committee


Bstan-pa’i-ñi-ma, Kun-mkhyen, 19th century.

Bskyed rim gyi zin bris cho ga spyi’gros ltar bkod pa man ṅag kun btus. English

Vajra wisdom: deity practice in Tibetan Buddhism / Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima and Shechen Gyaltsap IV; foreword by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche; translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee.


Includes bibliographical references.



1. MeditationRñiṅ-ma-pa (Sect) 2. Rñiṅ-ma-pa (Sect)—Rituals.

I. Źe-chen Rgyal-tshab Padma-’gyur-med-rnam-rgyal, 1871–1926. Bskyed rim spyi’ irnam par bźag pa ñuṅ gsal go bder brjod pa rab gsal nor bu’i me loṅ. English. II. Dharmachakra Translation Committee, translator. III. Title.


Foreword by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche


Translators’ Introduction


The Compendium of Oral Instructions: General Notes on the Rituals of the Development Stage

by Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima


Illuminating Jewel Mirror: A Brief, Clear, and Comprehensible Overview of the Development Stage

by Shechen Gyaltsap Pema Namgyal


This book contains Sanskrit diacritics and special characters. If you encounter difficulty displaying these characters, please set your e-reader device to publisher defaults (if available) or to an alternate font.


FOREWORD BY CHÖKYI NYIMA RINPOCHE



OUR COMPASSIONATE TEACHER, the perfectly enlightened Buddha, offered those in need of guidance an inconceivable number of Dharma teachings. These can all be condensed into the categories of sūtra and tantra. The latter of these two, in turn, contains the ocean of tantras, statements, and oral instructions.

In India and Tibet the practice of this vajra vehicle of Secret Mantra flourished and the number of practitioners who gained liberation through these practices is truly beyond count. Today the legacy of these great beings is still with us in the form of an uninterrupted lineage of realized masters who uphold the teachings and practices of the vajra vehicle. In this way it is still in our hands to connect with this tradition and make enlightenment a living experience for us as well.

To accomplish this we must rely on living lineage masters and key scriptures that outline the practice and theory of tantra. I am therefore pleased to present translations of two important guidance manuals concerned with the practice of tantra. Both Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima and Shechen Gyaltsap were extraordinary teachers, and today their works are among the most cherished scriptures on the practice of the development stage. In fact, although both texts focus predominantly on the development stage, the key points of the whole of tantric practice are all contained in these pithy instructions. I am therefore confident that sincere practitioners will find great inspiration and guidance in these precious texts.

Even though the message laid out in these translations is generally clear and ready to be applied, it is of utmost importance to first receive the guidance of a realized master of the lineage. Only by connecting with such a master and receiving empowerment, reading transmission, and oral instructions are we fully able to benefit from the tantric path. In fact, it is said that, without the blessing of a realized master, the practice of tantra is likely to do more harm than good. Still, if practiced correctly, these teachings have the potential to transform your being into the state of complete awakening in a short time span and through only little hardship. Such is the power of the tantric path. I therefore sincerely request all readers to study these texts under the guidance of a genuine master of the lineage.

May the precious wisdom of the practice lineage spread and flourish throughout the world and may this publication be a positive circumstance for that. In this way, may all sentient beings quickly traverse the path of the four knowledge holders and awaken to the full and complete enlightenment of the four bodies and five wisdoms.


TRANSLATORS’ INTRODUCTION


OVER THE LAST forty years Buddhism has spread to all corners of the world. In this process, Tibetan Buddhism has often been represented in ways that play into our need to re-enchant an increasingly materialistic world with the magic, drama, and supernatural elements of a lost wisdom nurtured in isolation on the roof of the world. For this approach to Buddhism, the development stage, with its attention to colorful deities, magical mantras, and exotic rituals, has become a popular form of practice. Deity practice is ripe with evocative and inspiring imagery that seems a perfect cure for our weariness and disenchantment with the ordinary world. And these practices, which today are performed at numerous Dharma centers around the world, do undeniably help build communities and provide devotees with a ritual register and a sense of belonging. Still, in recent years, it has become clear to many Western practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism that the development stage is a much richer practice than what first meets the eye.

To fully appreciate the depth of development stage practice it is important to study the works of the lineage masters, in particular the texts that apply the often detailed and complicated tantric theory directly to practical experience in clear, concise, and practical statements. Recently we have been fortunate that an increasing number of such texts have been made available in translation. As these texts now become available to the Western world, one may hope that they will provide a foundation through which the practice of the development stage in the West can develop and grow in a way that is suited to the Western mind, yet remain faithful to its Indian and Tibetan origins. If we are able to appreciate the richness and depth of the tradition beyond simply a superficial fascination with a curious cultural phenomenon, we may be better suited to assimilate the crucial aspects of the tradition rather than latching on to the mere outer characteristics of such practices. Perhaps this could be one way to challenge our fondness for spiritual materialism that Chögyam Trungpa so kindly pointed out?

The translations found in this volume are of texts written in Tibet during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors, Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima and Shechen Gyaltsap, were masters who shined with their life examples on the very eve of a millennium of Buddhist practice in Tibet. Both masters inherited the full tradition of Tantric Buddhism through the lineages of the famed wisdom teachers Jigme Lingpa, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Jamgön Kongtrul. As such, both texts represent a summary of more than a thousand years of tantric practice that present the highest insights of the tradition in a simple yet inspiring format that is excellently suited for the beginner as well as the advanced practitioner when traveling the path to the peak of human achievement.

At this point in time, when the vast majority of this incredibly precious Tibetan Buddhist culture is threatened with extinction, it seems that texts such as these are important to study. While we still have the precious fortune of sharing this world with genuine wisdom masters, who embody the very pinnacle of the Buddhist path, we must therefore strive to receive their blessings and guidance. Only then can we assimilate the wisdom they brought with them as their gift to the world when they fled the Chinese occupation. We therefore hope that this publication may be able to, in a small way, assist this process.


KUNKYEN TENPE NYIMA AND The Compendium of Oral Instructions


The colophon of The Compendium of Oral Instructions informs us that, at the request of some of his devoted students, the author, Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima, gathered the instructions from the recitation manuals of various accomplished masters and from his own guru.

Although The Compendium is a practice manual on development stage widely used by followers of the Nyingma School, authorial attribution of this text has turned out to be a complex matter with several options and opinions. Several masters by the name Tenpe Nyima flourished in nineteenth-century East Tibet and we have been unable to settle the matter definitively. However, based on advice by the late Gene Smith and colophonic information in one of the manuscripts, we have attributed this text to a certain Khartrul Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima (Mkhar sprul kun mkhyan bstan pa’i nyi ma, nineteenth cent.).

His brief biography is found in a collection of hagiographies of tantric practitioners from the far eastern province of Rebkong. The biography is concise and very little is said about the actual life of Tenpe Nyima. What we can glean from his hagiography is that he was a master from Rebkong who was regarded as the reincarnation of the eighth-century Indian scholar Śāntarakṣita. Tenpe Nyima belonged to the Longchen Nyingthig tradition that his father had transmitted to him. His father, Chöying Thobden Dorje, was a close student of the first Dodrubchen, Jigme Trinley Öser, the heart son of Jigme Lingpa, and his association with this lineage was therefore obvious. Institutionally, Tenpe Nyima was associated with Dzogchen Namgyal Ling, the monastery founded by his father. His date of birth is not mentioned, but his hagiography states that he was born shortly after his father founded Dzogchen Namgyal Ling in 1818.

From his father he received empowerments and instructions on the general sūtras and tantras and, in particular, on the Longchen Nyingthig He also received in full the transmission of the volumes of scriptures composed by his father, such as the Treasury of Sūtras and Tantras, and put them into practice. Eventually he attained realization, perfected his training, and was empowered as a Great Lord of the Dharma. Then, we are told, in accordance with their individual potential, he established countless disciples on the path of ripening and liberation through offering them mind training, advice, empowerments, guidance, and pointingout instructions. In this way, he engaged in activities of inconceivable kindness.

The Compendium is a guidance manual that describes the different types of ritual activities associated with the practice of the development stage, pertaining particularly to the Treasure lineage of the Nyingma School.

This text explains the general structure of deity practice in the mahāyoga tradition, without focusing on any particular sādhana. It belongs to a class of Tibetan literature called “notes” (zin bris), consisting of a series of annotations, written down by the author for his own purpose based on the oral instructions of his guru and later compiled for the benefit of others. These texts are usually very practical in their intent. This is clearly the case for The Compendium of Oral Instructions, and in fact one recension of our text contains additional notes apparently added by a later unidentified author, but we have not translated those here. Tenpe Nyima’s text explains extensively the different stages—preliminaries, visualization, recitation of the mantra, meditative absorption, and subsequent practices—that must be covered in deity yoga, emphasizing always their concrete application within the context of retreat practice.

The ritual activities explained in The Compendium follow a uniform structure that can be applied to any particular Nyingma sādhana. The unique features of this text are the detailed technical explanations and advice given by the author for each particular step of the practice. The structure of the text follows the usual sequence found in other revealed mahāyoga sādhanas.

Each stage of deity practice, with its liturgies, visualizations, practice articles, and so forth, is thus described in exhaustive detail and is always accompanied by precise and useful practical advice. The clarity of its explanations, its abundance of technical advice, and its emphasis resolutely placed on practical application make The Compendium of Oral Instructions an ideal companion for the practitioners of deity yoga, particularly in the context of a retreat.


SHECHEN GYALTSAP AND Illuminating Jewel Mirror


Shechen Gyaltsap Pema Namgyal (1871–1926) was born in the middle of the exciting renaissance in Tibetan spiritual culture that took place during the latter half of the nineteenth century. At that time Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892) and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye (1813–1899) had begun promoting the nonsectarian movement through their extensive activities and oeuvres, while Patrul Chökyi Wangpo (1808–1887) and Ju Mipham (1846–1912) were spearheading a revival of practice and study within the Nyingma School. Each of these masters was, in turn, to act as a mentor to the young child who was prophetically identified as the reincarnation of Orgyen Rangjung Dorje (nineteenth cent.), the third regent of Shechen Monastery in eastern Tibet.

Educated in his early years largely by his uncle, Lama Kyiyang, and later by Troshul Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, he eventually took monastic ordination under the famous preceptor of Dzogchen Monastery, Khenpo Pema Benza, who gave him the name Gyurme Pema Namgyal. His two primary teachers, though, were, above all, Khyentse and Kongtrul. Based on their instructions and empowerments, and by transmitting their major works to him, they fostered him as a torchbearer of their spiritual insight. Moreover, they played a critical role in guiding him during a major turning point that occurred in his life at the age of twenty. At that time, during a pilgrimage throughout all Tibet, he underwent a spiritual transformation whereby, to use Dilgo Khyentse’s words, the “knot of hope and fear snapped all by itself.” This led him to lose interest in worldly affairs, even institutional monasticism. Under the counsel of his two teachers, he then stepped aside from the everyday management of Shechen Monastery to live the life of a carefree vagabond.

Traveling to meet the great visionaries of his day, it seems he was a perpetual student. From Patrul he received teachings on The Way of the Bodhisattva during the course of which Patrul is said to have spontaneously waved his hand through a solid pillar. Journeying to Karmo Taktsang, he received from Mipham transmission and instruction on several of his major works, in particular his famous Abhidharma compendium, Gateway to Knowledge, and his commentary on the Eight Sādhana Teachings. He also is said to have sought guidance, again and again, from Mipham on his inner realization until their minds became inseparable.

At the same time, however, it seems he lived his entire life in seclusion, engrossed in contemplation and meditation. His main personal deity was apparently a form of Vajrakīlaya known as “Innermost Razor of Kīlaya,” which he practiced for at least three months each year. In the biography that Dilgo Khyentse composed about his teacher,3 he recounts how miraculous signs appeared even the first time Shechen Gyaltsap practiced the Innermost Razor of Kīlaya in retreat. The story goes that, while carrying out the recitation, one day a pack of “iron wolves” gathered around Shechen Gyaltsap’s retreat house, even on its roof, howling and trying to find a way in. Despite this terrifying turn of events, Shechen Gyaltsap simply supplicated his master and performed the practice of “mingling their minds into one,” thereby pacifying the frightening development, although this subjugation took several days! Through the power of this he displayed the signs of accomplishment in the practice after only one hundred days, although it was predicted to take three years. At this time he is also said to have left a footprint in solid rock, which another lama (named Barchung) insistently prodded him to finally admit.

While living mostly as a hermit spending his time in meditation practice, he nonetheless somehow also found time to author an immense thirteen-volume corpus of texts spanning topics from grammar, astrology, and poetics to a wide range of treatises on Buddhist philosophy, ritual, and practice. Last, but not the least, he nurtured the next generation of budding luminaries, acting as teacher to the remarkable reincarnations of his own teachersDzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893–1959), Shechen Kongtrul (1901–1960), and Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991)—as well as many other highly regarded scholar-practitioners, such as Khenpo Kunpal (1872–1943) and Khenpo Nuden (nineteenth/twentieth cent.).

All of this he accomplished despite passing away at the young age of fifty-five. In the last year of his life, 1926, perhaps in foresight of his passing, he pitched a tent on the hillside above Shechen where he proceeded to grant audiences to all of his students, monks, and patrons. There he stayed while performing ceremonies and giving his last counsel until one day, just before his passing, he was visited by the heir to Shechen, a weeping young Rabjam Tulku, to whom he bestowed an unspoken, symbolic final teaching by simply pointing to his heart.

Composed in the latter part of his life, it seems that Shechen Gyaltsap intended Illuminating Jewel Mirror4 to be a general guidebook for development stage practitioners of any particular yidam deity. In that way it serves the purpose of tying together the features of all sādhanas, thus highlighting their universal functions and meaning.

Structurally, after enumerating in detail the prerequisites for engaging in sādhana practice, the text follows the standard framework of most sādhana manuals. Shechen Gyaltsap weaves in, however, another thread in the introductory discussions that he uses to string together all the manifold elements of this complex practice. This is the fourfold scheme of the “basis, object, process, and result of purification.” In the introductory section he characterizes the first—the ground for the development stage transformations—as “true reality, suchness, or the essence of the bliss-gone.” The latter three aspects then serve as a refrain that repeats at every step as the basis for Shechen Gyaltsap’s commentary, presenting a rich portrait of the way in which the elaborate development stage visualizations transform the various stages of birth, death, and rebirth into a set of corresponding events in the process of spiritual awakening. In part, these descriptions inform the student about how the seemingly esoteric images and themes of Tantric Buddhism have a deep foundation in Great Vehicle Buddhism. They also, however, highlight the unique, paradoxical vision of the Vajra Vehicle, which states that we are actually already divine, enlightened beings. In this vision, the lavish and colorful worlds the practitioner “imagines” are actually more real than his or her ordinary experience, and serve as methods to lead him or her closer to the way things actually are.


ABOUT THE TRANSLATIONS


It was Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche who first suggested that we translate these precious texts, as he found them to be particularly relevant and helpful for practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism today.

A group consisting of Benjamin Collet-Cassart, Cortland Dahl, Catherine Dalton, Andreas Doctor, and James Gentry translated The Compendium. The individual manuscripts were then compiled, compared against the Tibetan, and edited by Cortland Dahl. Zachary Beer translated Illuminating Jewel Mirror, while Andreas Doctor compared the translation against the Tibetan and edited the text. Graham Sunstein and Shenpen Lhamo also looked through the manuscript and offered helpful advice.

Along the way we received much help and guidance from a number of learned and realized masters. Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche guided our translation work by giving instruction on the “enlightened mind” section of Illuminating Jewel Mirror and offering numerous teachings on the general themes of the development stage and the importance of bringing the teachings into direct daily experience. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche kindly took the time to clarify the meaning of the more complex development stage passages of Illuminating Jewel Mirror.

Khenpo Tashi Palden, or Kyabje Khenpo as he is also known by his students, gave the full reading transmission of The Compendium together with a brief commentary on the full text and elucidated some of the more vexing passages. Kyabje Khenpo himself received the transmission in his youth from the renowned master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893–1959), and later from both Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–1996).

Beyond these, many other teachers from Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery offered their wisdom and patience in helping to unravel the profound and often mysterious world of development stage practice for us. In particular, we would like to thank Lama Tenzin Sangpo, Tulku Jampal Dorje, Lama Tsultrim Sangpo, Khenpo Sherab Dorje, Trokpa Tulku, Tulku Pasang Tsering, and Lama Kunga Sangpo for assisting with guidance on numerous complicated passages. We are therefore indebted to these kind teachers, without whom it would have been impossible to translate these texts.

We are also grateful to the Tsadra Foundation for generously sponsoring the translation of this book. The vision of Tsadra is truly remarkable and the foundation’s impact on the survival of Tibetan Buddhism is a source of continual joy for us. We also wish to thank Snow Lion for publishing this book and for their hard work in bringing the Buddhist classics to the West.

We sincerely apologize for any mistakes these translations may contain. They are exclusively our own due to our limited understanding of the profound nature of tantra. Lastly, we dedicate whatever goodness may result from this publication to the benefit of all sentient beings and to the long life of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and all other wisdom teachers.

1. Kun mkhyen bstan pa’i nyi ma, bsKyed rim gyi zin bris cho ga spyi’gros ltar bkod pa man ngag kun btus. Delhi: Chos Spyod Publications, 2000.

2. Reb kong sngags mang gi lo rgyus phyogs bsgrigs (Ye shes’od zer sgrol ma, 2004).

3. Dil mgo mkhyen brtse’gyur med theg mchog bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, “Mkhas shing dngos grub brnyes pa’i rdo rje’i rig pa’dzin dbang’gyur’gyur med padma rnam rgyal dpal bzang po slob brgyud dang bcas pa’i rnam thar nyung ngur brjod pa ngo mtshar zla ba bdud rtsi’i’dzum phreng,” in The Collected Works of skyabs rje dil mgo mkhyen brtse rin po che, vol. 1 (ka). New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 1994.

4. Zhe chen rgyal tshab’gyur med padma rnam rgyal, bsKyed rim spyi’i rnam par bzhag pa nyung gsal go bder brjod pa rab gsal nor bu’i me long. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2004.


THE COMPENDIUM OF ORAL INSTRUCTIONS


General Notes on the Rituals of the Development Stage


Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima

Magical dance of the wisdom, love, and ability of all victorious ones,

As the lord of the maṇḍala and the universal master of the hundred buddha families,

You are a powerful wish-fulfilling jewel that bestows supreme happiness upon others—

I pay homage to you, my peerless and benevolent master.


For countless disciples who fill the furthest reaches of space

You make the nectar of the definitive secret shower down like a rain of Dharma

From the cloud banks of your tremendous compassion

I bow down to you, omniscient father and son, and the masters of your lineage.


By unfolding the wings of the two stages—

The union of means and knowledge of the swift path, the vajra essence of the supreme vehicle

I will now set forth a banquet for those fortunate ones

Who wish to swiftly arrive at the kingdom of the four bodies.


Utilizing the profound practice of the two stages on the direct path of the vajra vehicle of Secret Mantra allows you to actualize the level of a vajra holder in this very lifetime. Those suitable individuals who wish to reach this level should begin their practice by earnestly arousing renunciation through the mind training of the common preliminary practices and engendering the precious mind of awakening. Next, they should receive the four empowerments in full from a qualified master, cultivate faith, and abide by the samaya vows. Those who have done so may enter this path.

This discussion consists of three main topics: (1) the preparation, (2) the main practice, and (3) the concluding activities.


THE PREPARATION


The Bright Effulgence states:


First, find the right place and time,

And gather supportive conditions and the articles for your practice.

Then, in the interim, practice secretly.

Concerning the appropriate location for practice, beginners must stay far away from places that are filled with diversions, busyness, and distraction, as well as those that elicit attachment and aversion. The Questions of Adhyasaya Sūtra instructs:

It is best to travel one hundred leagues

From places where you have responsibilities or find disputes.

Do not stay a single instant in places

Where afflictive emotions are present.


It is said that in monastic centers where the saṅgha quarrels past virtue will decline and not develop in the future, and the earth will be scorched down to seven layers so that every good thing pertaining to the environment and its inhabitants will decline. In particular, neither signs of fruition nor positive qualities will manifest from practice in such places. You should therefore abandon these places.


The Ornament of the Sūtras states that a place of practice should have five qualities:

The place where a wise person practices

Should have readily available goods

And be in a wholesome environment and healthy location

With good companions and positive qualities.


It is taught in The Wheel of Time Root Tantra:


A yogi should practice well in a place

Where the ruler is faithful to the Dharma,

Where all beings live in constant harmony

And without dispute.


As stated here, in general you should practice in a place where there is a monarch devout to the Dharma, where the local lay people engage in wholesome, virtuous actions, and where there are no enemies, thieves, or disputes. More specifically, The Tantra of the Layered Lotus Stems explains:


It is extremely important

For any general or specific places—

Sacred locations, countries, or places where the Victorious One came—

To be auspicious and agreeable to the mind.


Sacred locations and lands imbued with blessings, as well as places where the Great Master of Uḍḍiyāna and other accomplished masters of the past practiced, are highly praised. The Condensed Realization states:


It is easier to gain accomplishment by practicing one day

In such places than by practicing for a year in ordinary places.

More specifically, it is also said that places for practice should have certain geomantic features, such as particular shapes and colors of the sky and the earth that are in accord with each of the four activities. If you cannot arrange such locations, Resting in Meditation explains:

In summary, a place that is delightful at first but later becomes unpleasant is a place of less spiritual accomplishment. A place that is initially frightening and unpleasant yet later becomes delightful is a place filled with great blessings, where you will attain spiritual accomplishments quickly and without obstacles. Apart from those, all others are neutral, without particular benefit or harm.

This passage explains that you should practice in a place that you find delightful, once you have gotten used to it, and which has no impediments to meditative concentration. It is important to stay in secluded and delightful places that agree with your mind.

The Condensed Realization states:

If it agrees with your mind, even a city is a suitable place.

The Condensed Tantra also mentions:

You should practice wherever your mind is content, O Lord of Men. Sitting on your soft bedding and cushion, observe your mantra recitation.

Concerning the appropriate time to practice, The Tantra of the Layered Lotus Stems states:

The waxing period of the first month of each of the four seasons

Causes auspiciousness and excellence to manifest.

On a full moon, new moon, and on the eighth day of the lunar month

Practice flourishes, together with good omens.

These days are propitious times for great accomplishment. Moreover, it states:


During the king of constellations and so forth your wishes are fulfilled.

The waxing period of the planets and the moon . . .


A tantra explains:


Undertake activities on the eighth day of the waxing period of the moon.

Engage in the vast conduct of enlightenment during the great king of constellations.

In order to attain the secret and supreme spiritual accomplishments swiftly,

Practice when the planets and stars are in an auspicious configuration.

Although those with confidence in nonconceptuality do not make distinctions in terms of place and time, it is said that for beginners it will generate extraordinary results to practice when the dates and positions of the planets and stars form an auspicious connection that accords with the four activities. The Awesome Flash of Lightning comments:

Excellent conditions and time are indeed conceptual thoughts,

But due to them the signs and marks

Of spiritual accomplishments occur.

Whatever the case, gradually gather as much virtuous supportive strength as you can by ransoming the lives of animals, freeing fish, restoring dangerous paths, making figurines and tormas, performing the four hundred offerings and making other offerings, or reading the words of the Buddha, such as the Five Sūtra Collections or a condensed version of them. In particular, engage in wrathful fire offerings and other such rituals. You should also bring together all that you need, including practice companions, provisions, and practice articles. You can learn more details on how to perform these activities from scriptures such as The Treasury of Oral Instructions.

Next, clean your place and display representations of enlightened body, speech, and mind if you have them. Place the offerings in the correct order, arranging them beautifully and in an attractive way. When you look at them, you should feel at ease and sense their blessings. If the place is new to you, you need a ritual to consecrate the land, which includes self-visualization in its preliminaries. If it is an old place, this is not necessary. Outside, in an unsheltered area, visualize the spirits of the eight classes in general, and the earth lords of the ground and other such spirits in particular, and give them whatever elaborate or simplified offering you can, such as the Great Offering of All Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa, the Three-Part Torma Offering, the Offering to the Eight Classes of Spirits, smoke offerings, and so forth. Doing so, urge them to act as allies in your practice. At this point, you can also expel obstructing forces, establish a boundary, and set up the guardian kings’ poles.

Facing the maṇḍala, draw clockwise-swastikas with white grains or white chalk beneath your seat. If you want to take a more elaborate approach, spread kusha or durva grass on the ground, with the roots turned outward and the tips turned inward, and place your cushion on top of them. It is also explained that it is good to have the back of your seat slightly elevated.

In this context, the importance of making tormas and other offerings with pure materials and substances and arranging them beautifully is taught. The tormas should be made from select portions of excellent ingredients. These ingredients must not be obtained through wrong livelihood, or be of inferior quality, stale, and so forth; they must be ritually pure. With these ingredients, begin by mixing a small amount of the three white substances and make small offering tormas for the deities. For the torma dough, mix nectarlike medicinal powder, made by someone free from samaya breaches, together with beer, the three white substances, and the three types of sweets. Corresponding to the amount of food you have, make the torma with the quality of sādhana tormas stipulated by the text you are using. You may then paint it either maroon or white, whichever is appropriate.

Whatever the torma’s shape, its corners should not point toward you and it should be adorned with various types of butter adornments and foodstuffs. A parasol of a matching color should also cover it, and to its right and left there should be nectar and rakta, along with their respective substances. When you find the right occasion, you may also include any appropriate tormas, such as those for oath-bound protectors, Dharma protectors, treasure guardians, and local deities, as well as the articles for feast offerings and so forth.

If you are inclined to include dhāraṇīs in the tormas, draw the root mantra of the main deity and its retinue on Chinese paper with saffron or vermilion ink, followed by the sky treasury mantra. Next, write a supplication to the assembly of the noble deities and their retinue to grant you the supreme and mundane spiritual accomplishments. Finally, draw the Ye-dharma dhāraṇī one time. Starting at the beginning of the mantra, roll the paper such that the letters are turned inward. Wrap it in brocade of the same color as the deity and, without turning the mantra upside down, insert it into a bamboo shaft or copper container and then into the torma itself.

If you want to take a more elaborate approach, visualize the shrine torma as the deity and maintain the visualization for as long as you render offerings to it. The perpetual torma is kept for a specific duration of months or years. The sādhana torma, also called the offering torma, is offered and received by the deities as a gift. As a means to delight them, mending tormas serve as an offering substance symbolizing sense pleasures and enjoyments. The captured torma is kept until an activity is accomplished, after which it is to be offered. The purpose of this torma is to ensure that an activity is accomplished swiftly and without delay. The session torma, also called the daily torma, is given occasionally in order to enjoin certain temporary activities. A simple renunciant practitioner may also make these tormas using simply the best portions of his or her own food and drink.

You should also know that tormas can be viewed in a threefold or fourfold manner, depending on the context in which they are used. The Condensed Realization states:


A torma can represent four things:


At the time of receiving the blessings and empowerments,

It is visualized as the guru, yidam, ḍākinī, and so forth.

Those who desire the spiritual accomplishments

View it as the nectar from which every desired manifestation appears.

When destroying the activities of the obstructing spirits,

It is visualized as sharp weapons.

During the supreme and mundane mending rituals,

It is visualized as the individual mending substances

The offering clouds of sense pleasures and enjoyments.

Know that a torma can perform these different functions.

The same applies in the context of sādhana practice. The Key of the Crucial Instructions of the Eight Sādhanas teaches:

In terms of practice, torma can be understood in four different ways:

The great baliṃta torma can be understood

As an offering, as the deity,

As armies, and as magical weapons.


While practicing a ritual text, the torma can be viewed as an offering. During exorcising rituals, the torma can be viewed as the deity. During covenant rituals, the torma can be viewed as an army. During the throwing ritual, imagine the wisdom being of the torma dissolving into yourself. Viewing the samaya being of the torma as weapons, fireballs, poisonous vapor, molten bronze, and other such things, you then visualize all demons, together with their dwelling places and strongholds, dwelling within the fire and throw the torma into it.

You should also know that, for those of superior faculties, on the outer level everything is an inexhaustible adornment torma. The world is the torma vessel and the beings are the torma ingredients. On the inner level the aggregates are the torma vessel and the flesh and bones are the torma ingredients. On the secret level, the emptiness of inherent nature is the torma vessel and appearances are the torma itself.

In terms of presentation, in front of the representations and on the upper level of a two-tiered covered stand, set out medicine, nectar, torma, and the practice articles on top of grain heaps, following the instructions of the text you are using. On the lower level, arrange the five sense enjoyments in a row, preceded by the two types of water offering. For the practice of approach these offerings will suffice. The outer offerings are transformed by chantingargham . . .” These are referred to as “circumstantial offerings” in the detailed commentary of The Clear Realization.

To the north of the land of Uḍḍiyāna, on the slopes of the Glorious Mountain, water possessing eight special qualities is found. It is clean and free from any impurity, clear and unsullied, cool and aromatic, smooth and free from defect, sweet smelling and fragrant, delicious and of supreme flavor, fulfilling and rejuvenating, and delightful and healthy. It is taught that this water resembles that which is diligently prepared as an offering at the time of great Dharma festivals.

Jigme Lingpa elaborates:


The offering substances represent the aspect of skillful means, appearances, and bliss. They are not of the highest type. The recipients of the offering, the victorious ones and their heirs, represent the aspect of knowledge and complete liberation. It is advisable to start presenting the offerings from the left side, the side of knowledge.


Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche explains further:


Whether during self- or frontal visualization, the female deities have their face turned towards the recipients of the offerings. Therefore, start the offerings from the left side of these offering recipients.


And Lingtrul teaches that:


For peaceful offerings made during self-visualization, you should begin offerings from the left side of the offering torma.


Nevertheless, followers of the New Schools and the majority of those in our own tradition also teach that offerings must begin from the right to left for both self- and frontal visualizations since the head of the row occupies that side. During frontal visualization, when approach and accomplishment are practiced together, you can place a real or painted maṇḍala, or else just heaps of grains, in front or behind the offerings of the self-visualization, whichever is the most convenient.

First, arrange the practice materials according to the instructions found in the text you are using and then begin the peaceful offerings with flowers in the northeast. This serves to prevent the influence of obstructing forces. Next, place drinking water in the east, bathing water in the southeast, and the remaining offerings clockwise in a circular manner.

When wrathful offerings are called for, place the following wrathful offerings in a counterclockwise circle. From the west, set out blood as drinking water in the southwest—the cannibal island—followed by poisonous water for bathing, sense faculties as flowers, human flesh as incense, human fat as a butter lamp, bile as scented water, and flesh and bones as food offerings. It is also said that peaceful offerings should be arranged in rows and wrathful offerings in a circle. Surround these offerings with all the individual ornaments you have, place them on a tiger skin and so forth. As a convenient alternative, place the peaceful offerings in a row starting from the right side of the frontal visualization and the wrathful offerings in a row starting from the left side. Between these rows place the daily tormas.

Do not carelessly mix the outer with inner offerings, such as nectar and rakta. The Great Master of Uḍḍiyāna said:


In short, you should understand that no fault entails if the light rays of lower offerings strike the higher offerings, but if the light rays of the higher offerings strike the lower offerings, those who like common offerings, such as water, will not receive them.


It is also said that obstructing spirits will enter the tormas and offerings if they are not consecrated as soon as they are displayed. Therefore, perform a brief consecration by sprinkling them with pure water.


THE COMMON PRELIMINARIES


Next, according to how much free time you have, train in the preliminaries for an appropriate number of days. The path of liberation is rooted in the genuine attitude of renunciation, while the four mind-changings are the method that engenders this attitude. The path of the Great Vehicle is rooted in the precious mind of awakening, while the four immeasurables are the method that engenders this mindset. When these trainings have transformed your mind and conviction has arisen within you, focus on the practices of going for refuge, generating the mind of awakening, and reciting the seven-branch prayer. In particular, concentrate on the meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva to purify the obscurations, on the maṇḍala offering to gather the accumulations, and on guru yoga to receive the guru’s blessings.

Before you begin your practice in the afternoon and evening sessions, cleanse your mouth with water from the vase and sit in this purified state. Next, exhale the stale breath, rest your body and mind in their natural state, and refresh your motivation. Imagine a blue HŪṂ syllable in your heart as the essence of the innate awakened mind. Light radiates out from this syllable, invoking from the natural abode the essence of your root guru in the form of the deity of any class of tantra: the principal figures, the three jewels, the gurus of the lineage, ḍākinīs, and Dharma protectors surrounded by all the objects of refuge without exception. Visualize them all gathered in the space before you, like cloud banks in the sky.

Imagine yourself going for refuge, over and over, together with all sentient beings. Doing so with your body, speech, and mind is the relative act of going for refuge. The ultimate act of going for refuge is to take refuge in the dharma body, the inconceivable true nature of reality in which the objects of refuge are inseparable from your own mind. This is the wisdom of the empty essence. The enjoyment body is the luminous nature, while the emanation body is unified compassion. Directing your attention to the inherent presence of the three bodies is the ultimate act of going for refuge.

The relative mind of awakening involves thinking, “I will practice this profound path to establish all sentient beings in the state of complete enlightenment.” The ultimate mind of awakening involves resting evenly in the true nature wherein nothing ultimately exists. Relatively speaking, however, the true nature can manifest as anything. This is the state in which emptiness and dependent arising are inseparable. Apply yourself earnestly as prescribed here. Further details about these practices, including the acts of going for refuge and generating the mind of awakening, may be learned from other sources.

Since the entire range of the methods for accumulating, purifying, and increasing is contained in the seven-branch prayer, train in gathering the accumulations. To conclude, dissolve the field of accumulation into yourself and then rest for a moment in the state wherein your minds mingle inseparably. More elaborately, you can consecrate the vajra, bell, purifying water, and other articles at this point, following the instructions of other texts.


THE UNIQUE PRELIMINARIES


EXPELLING OBSTRUCTORS


Next, go outside and, while visualizing yourself as a deity, present a white torma and request supportive activity. In front of your doorway, place the torma for the obstructing forces adorned with flesh, blood, garlic, onions, and so forth.

With the pride and overwhelming, radiant confidence that comes from visualizing yourself as a wrathful protector deity, such as the heruka Hayagrīva, focus on the torma and utter the three syllables. The syllable OṂ cleanses and purifies all impure defilements. The syllable ĀḤ multiplies the substance such that it increases and expands infinitely. The syllable HŪṂ transforms it into sublime sense pleasures that manifest as precisely whatever one desires. Finally, the syllable HOḤ consecrates the torma by transforming it into the nectar of undefiled wisdom.

Next, imagine countless wrathful Ṭakkirājas emanating from your heart center. They are pink in color and have one face and two arms. Brandishing hammers in their right hands and hooks in their left, they summon into your presence all the mischievous spirits, obstructing forces, and elemental spirits, all of whom are powerless to disobey you. Issue your command to these beings, then offer them a torma and send them off to their respective dwellings. Visualize that all those who ignore your command and set out to make obstacles are, in a single instant, threatened, chased away, and crushed by wrathful weapons and powerful flaming rays. As you imagine all this, recite the verses for expelling obstructing forces from your sādhana, burn some resin incense, throw wrathful mantras and charmed substances, and seal your practice by remaining free of reference point.


DRAWING THE BOUNDARY


Following this, write down the name mantras of the Four Great Kings along with requests addressed to them. Place these on a small altar composed of piled-up white stones, which can be situated either seventy steps away from the place where you are practicing or beside your door. Once this is done, visualize that the Great Kings are mobilized and dissolve into the altar, then present offerings, praise, and request their protective activity. Imagine that the Four Kings oversee the periphery with delight, and that the entire surroundings become completely covered by a protective dome. This is the establishment of the outer boundary. In the context of approach, practices such as subjugating samaya demons and sealing your door are not necessary; these elements are necessary only in the context of the great accomplishment.

Next, come back inside, close your door, and abandon distractions and wanderings. For the inner boundary, visualize the entire base of the protection dome as a ground composed of vajras and the entire upper part as a vajra dome and canopy. Completely surrounding this, in both the cardinal and intermediate directions, is a vast, spacious, and elevated circular vajra fence. The fence is devoid of gaps; instead, every opening is patched by small conjoined vajras that seem melded together. The exterior is covered by a lattice which is completely bound by crossed-vajra cords. The top of the dome is covered by half-vajra tips and the midsection braced by strings of vajras. The whole dome is blue and is shaped like a helmet. Wisdom fire of five colors radiates out from this dome, spreading in all directions. Some systems describe the shape of the dome as either oval or spherical, but they all come down to the same essential meaning: the fact that there are no open spaces anywhere within the vast and spacious protection dome. The dome is surrounded by various kinds of small wrathful emanations and weapons, which amass like rain clouds. These, in turn, are themselves surrounded by three successive domes of fire, water, and wind.5

Alternatively, in the limitless expanse of space and amid a blazing mass of fire, visualize a ten-spoked wheel with a rim and hub emanating out from the syllable BHRŪṂ. Its center is vast and spacious, while its spokes are as far-reaching as the basic space of phenomena. Between the ten inner spokes, on seats made of lotus, moon, and sun discs, visualize ten wrathful emanations emerging from ten HŪṂ syllables.

Other visualizations may also be taught at this point, such as visualizing the deity Uṣṇīṣacakravartin as the vast and spacious belly of Vairocana in the inner empty part of the protective dome, but it suffices to follow the instructions that are mentioned in each sādhana ritual.

Thus, having established a boundary with the protective dome, imagine that all demons and treacherous spirits are prevented from approaching, while you and all those in need of protection are safe inside. As you imagine all this, chant the verses for establishing the boundary. This comprises the inner boundary.

Concerning the secret boundary, Commentary on the Secret Essence states:


Subdue the king of demons, discursive thoughts,

With the king of boundaries, nonconceptual wisdom.


Within the state of innate luminosity, which has never been tainted by the dualistic delusion of a perceiver and perceived, seal your practice by seeing the lack of inherent nature of all the demons, obstructing forces, and adventitious conceptual imputations. This constitutes the extraordinary protective dome. Sealing the practice non-conceptually, in this way, establishes the secret boundary.

If you will need to meet someone during your retreat, visualize that person included within the protective dome. Do not come into contact with anyone else, and stop engaging in any material exchange with the outside world. Do not dissolve this protective dome until the last session at the end of the retreat, and visualize it at the beginning of each practice session. There are also practice traditions whereby other activities may be performed at this point, such as arranging offerings, accumulating merit, and purifying the obscurations.

To summarize, from the establishment of the inner boundary onwards you must maintain the physical retreat of not seeing other people, the verbal retreat of refraining from ordinary communication, and the mental retreat of not getting caught up in negative thought patterns associated with the afflictions, such as attachment and aversion. At the same time, you must also maintain mindfulness, introspection, and attention. For your virtuous endeavors to be effective, you should practice in four sessions: at dawn, in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.


SHOWER OF BLESSINGS


For the shower of blessings to take place, with fervent devotion visualize yourself as the deity and imagine rays of light emanating from your heart center. Accompany this with specially prepared incense, melodious chanting, and music. In this way, invoke the assembly of deities of the three roots. From the natural expanse imagine all their blessings of wisdom, love, and ability, as well as their spiritual accomplishments, in the form of rays of light, rainbow-hued clouds, flowers, spheres of light, and so forth. Their enlightened bodies appear as divine forms, their enlightened speech as seed syllables, and their enlightened minds as symbolic implements. Imagine that all of these dissolve into you, your dwelling place, and all the ritual articles, endowing you with the nourishing power of glorious, great wisdom.

For those of superior faculties, whenever any perception of the six collections of consciousness arises, the knot of perceiver and perceived vanishes—self-liberated from the moment it manifests. Through this, whatever appears arises as the outer, inner, and secret offering clouds. This is the descent of blessings of the great wisdom of infinite purity.


CONSECRATING THE OFFERING ARTICLES


According to the sūtras, the vehicle of characteristics, the actual offerings are consecrated and emanated through the recitation of dhāraṇī mantras, knowledge mantras, the power of devotion, and the power of truth. In the mantra vehicle, however, they are consecrated by five practices: going for refuge, deity, mantra, meditative absorption, and mudrā. With this in mind, visualize yourself as the deity and imagine the syllables RAṂ, YAṂ, and KHAṂ emanating from your heart center.

Transforming respectively into wisdom fire, wind, and water, they incinerate, scatter, and wash away all the impure stains, faults, and defects of believing that the offering articles are real, until nothing remains. From the state of emptiness the syllable BHRŪṂ then appears and transforms into a vast, open jewel vessel. Within this vessel the syllable OṂ gives rise to the flowers of divine substances and the rest of the five common outer offerings, to the unique inner offerings, including the self-arisen flowers of the five sense faculties, to the wrathful offerings of the charnel grounds, and so forth. Every desirable thing throughout saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is present, without anything missing. Imagine that clouds of countless offering goddesses, each carrying her own individual offering, radiate out from each of these offerings and fill the entirety of space.


THE INNER OFFERINGS OF MEDICINE, RAKTA, AND TORMA


For the inner offering of medicine, visualize wind, fire, and a tripod made from a human skull arising from the syllables YAṂ, RAṂ, and KHAṂ. On top of the tripod a vast open skull cup, containing the five meats and the five nectars, emerges from the syllable ĀḤ or the syllable BHRŪṂ. Human flesh and excrement are in the middle of this skull cup, cow meat and semen in the east, dog meat and brain in the south, horse meat and menses in the west, and elephant meat and urine in the north. Next, visualize the syllables HRĪḤ and BAṂ, TRĀṂ and MAṂ, OṂ and MUṂ, and ĀḤ and TĀṂ above each of their respective offering substances. These syllables then transform into the male and female buddhas of the five families.6 A stream of red and white bodhicitta then flows from the place where the male and female deities unite and fills the skull cup. At the conclusion of this process, the deities melt into light and dissolve into the offering substances. Imagine that this becomes a swirling ocean of wisdom nectar, and that sense pleasure goddesses emanate from each of its droplets. The Condensed Realization states:


The skull cup is heated by blazing fire stirred by the wind from below.

Rays of light, from the vapor of the boiling articles, spread in the ten directions.

They summon the wisdom nectar, which dissolves in the skull cup.

The deities, sacred substances, and wisdom nectar

Mingle indivisibly, swirling white and red.

For deities the nectar becomes pleasing and appeasing articles.

For spiritual companions the nectar is an elixir of spiritual accomplishments.

For enemies it becomes a dangerous weapon.

For obstructing forces it becomes a charmed substance that pulverizes them.

Envision it as nectar that meets the needs of whomever it comes into contact with.


For the inner offering of rakta, atop the wind, fire, and skull stand described above, visualize a vast, open vessel made from a fresh skull with the hairs still on it. Next, imagine that all the concepts of craving and attachment related to the three realms coalesce within it in the form of blood. In the middle of this swirling blood visualize the rakta goddess Gitima. Red and naked, she holds a knife and a skull cup. From her bhaga, a stream of rakta flows down, mingling inseparably with the substances of the skull cup and filling it completely. Finally, the goddess melts into light and dissolves into the articles. This creates surging waves within the ocean of rakta, which is essentially detached great bliss, and causes clouds of sense pleasures to emanate forth.

For the inner offering of torma, visualize a vast, open skull cup or jewel vessel. Within this vessel is a torma made of various foods, a divine nectar endowed with a hundred flavors and an inexhaustible treasure made of a mass of desirable things. Imagine that countless clouds of offering goddesses emanate from the torma, each carrying delightful and appeasing offering articles for all the outer, inner, and secret guests.

Everything up to this point concerns the stages of the common and unique preliminaries.


THE MAIN PRACTICE


This section consists of (1) an abridged teaching on the general meaning and (2) an elaborate explanation of the meaning of the scripture.

AN ABRIDGED TEACHING ON THE GENERAL MEANING


This section covers (1) the intent of the individual classes of tantra, (2) the deity meditation as applied to the purification of habitual tendencies of the four types of birth, and (3) how deity meditation can be practiced in relation to the varying capacities of individuals.


THE INTENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL CLASSES OF TANTRA


A tantra explains:


All skillful practitioners

Who aspire to the completion stage

Should practice the development stage, starting with the foundation.


The Instructions of the Lord of Secrets states:


In short, the development stage involves transforming all impure appearances into pure appearances and meditating on the maṇḍala circle. The completion stage involves meditating conceptually on the channels, winds, and essences in order to realize the wisdom of empty bliss and meditating nonconceptually on the absorption of the true nature.


The first of these two, the development stage, can be divided into three types: (1) the illusory development stage, in which you realize that objective appearances are not real, (2) the profound development stage, in which these manifest spontaneously as empty appearances, and (3) the emanated development stage, which refers to the divine form with faces, hands, etc. Here I shall discuss the development stage from the perspective of the last of these three approaches.

The defining characteristic of the development stage is to give rise to the divine form of empty appearance using concepts and fabrications concomitant with blissful melting. Furthermore, the development stage has four unique qualities, as described by the saint Kunga Nyingpo in the following passage:


Its unique rituals are the complete development stage rituals taught in the tantras. Its unique result is the capacity to develop the power of mantra. Its unique essence is the nature of emptiness and blissful melting. Its unique function is the completion of purification, perfection, and maturation.


In Resting in the Nature of Mind Longchenpa explains the three outer classes of tantra in the following way:


In action tantra the practitioner is seen as inferior and the deity as supreme;

You receive the spiritual accomplishments of practice

In the manner of a master and a servant.


In performance tantra the practitioner and the deity are seen as equals;

With the wisdom deity before you as the samaya being,

You receive spiritual accomplishments as though from a friend.


In practice tantra the two are indivisible during the main practice,

Yet in the preparatory and concluding stages they are two, as the deity is invoked and later departs.

The spiritual accomplishments are received nondually, like water poured into water.


As outlined here, in action tantra generally the practitioner does not imagine himself as the deity. However, in particular instances, the deity, or the wisdom being, is regarded as a king and you, the samaya being, regard yourself as his subject. With this approach you emphasize acts of ritual purity and other outer actions through which you receive the spiritual accomplishments. The Tantra of Receiving the Spiritual Accomplishments of All Buddha Families explains as follows:


Looking at the body of the king, your master,

And thinking of yourself as a servant,

Accomplish the mantra and receive the most supreme—

The essence of spiritual accomplishment.


In performance tantra the view is the same as in practice tantra while the conduct is the same as in action tantra. Here you receive the spiritual accomplishments as though you and the deity are siblings or friends. This occurs through a state of equality between you as the practitioner, visualized as the samaya being, and the wisdom deity that you have visualized in front of yourself. The General Tantra of the Three Families mentions this:


The sacred spiritual accomplishments should be received

As though from a sibling or a friend.


In practice tantra you meditate on yourself as the deity and, by invoking and dissolving the wisdom deity, you and the wisdom deity become indivisible. At the conclusion of performing offerings, praise, and recitations, you receive the spiritual accomplishments and the deity is requested to depart. The Vajra Element states:


The nondual expanse of reality

And receipt of the highest, sacred spiritual accomplishment . . .


The meditations of the three inner tantras are also described in Resting in the Nature of Mind:


Mahā stresses the energies, the development stage, and skillful means.

Anu emphasizes the elements, the completion stage, and knowledge.

Ati highlights that everything is nondual wisdom.

All three practice with the knowledge

That all phenomena are primordial equality.


In mahāyoga the emphasis is on gradually developing the maṇḍala based on the three samādhis, whereby you meditate on the indivisibility of the deity and concept. In anuyoga it is held that all phenomena are, by their very nature, indivisible from the three maṇḍalas, and that the root maṇḍala of the awakened mind is primordially enlightened. As such, the form of the deity emerges as an expression of the unceasing play of Samantabhadra. The Magical Key to the Treasury explains:


The anuyoga of completion holds that

The aggregates, elements, and sense sources

Are not developed, but perfect

As the maṇḍala of male and female deities.


And also:


In the vehicle of anuyoga,

By merely expressing the essence,

You meditate on the deity, which is perfected without being developed.


The Compendium teaches:


Within the primordial openness of the great perfection, Samantabhadra,

The outer, inner, and secret maṇḍalas are arranged.


According to atiyoga the spontaneously present appearances of the Direct Crossing manifest from the primordial pure basic space of the Thorough Cut as the gathering of divine forms. These forms are the expression of awareness, the natural manifestation of unceasing dependent arising. In this way the mind focuses on the vivid appearance of the thoroughly established deity of great purity and equality. This accords with the approach of most of the practice manuals in the tradition of the key instructions of the heart essence.

The difference between the outer and inner tantras is also described in The Condensed Realization:


In the outer tantras the deities are either male or female

And the completion stage relates to syllables or essences.

In the inner tantras the deities are joined in union

And the completion stage is the Great Seal.


In terms of ornaments, deities of the outer tantras have jewel crowns,

While in the inner tantras they wear bone ornaments and other such things.

In the outer tantras you offer the three white substances,

Whereas in the inner tantras the five meats and five nectars are offered.


In the outer tantras you use a jewel vessel,

While a kapāla is used in the inner tantras.

Tormas, fire offerings, consecration, clay statues, and vase rituals

Are common to the outer and inner tantras alike.


DEITY MEDITATION AND THE FOUR TYPES OF BIRTH


The appearances of the various phenomena of saṃsāra manifest in dependence upon our having taken birth within existence. For this reason, the primary elements of saṃsāra are the four types of birth. To purify the habitual tendencies associated with these four types of birth, four corresponding styles of development stage meditation are taught. A tantra explains:


To purify the four types of birth

There are four types of development:

The very elaborate, the elaborate,

The simple, and the completely simple.

The Very Elaborate Development Stage


First we will examine the very extensive development stage that purifies egg birth. The following accords with the process of being born from an egg, which takes place in two stages. Begin by taking refuge and giving rise to the awakened mind. Next, visualize yourself instantly as the primary male and female consorts and invite the deities of the maṇḍala into the space before you. After presenting offerings, praise, supplications, daily confessions, and so on, gradually dissolve the visualization and rest evenly in emptiness for a moment.

The unique feature of this approach is to first visualize in a concise manner and then in an extensive manner according to the systems of your own children and another’s child. The Eight Great Sādhana Teachings mention this process:


There are five steps involved in making others your child:

(1) the primary male and female consorts are generated from the seed syllable;

(2) the buddhas of the ten directions are invoked and dissolve into the space of the female consort;

(3) sentient beings are summoned and their obscurations purified;

(4) the greatness of nonduality is developed; and

(5) the deities are evoked from space and established upon their seats.


Making yourself the child of another has eight parts:

(1) the primary male and female consorts dissolve into light and transform into the seed syllable;

(2) the male and female consorts develop fully from this seed syllable;

(3) the male consort’s conceptuality transforms into syllables;

(4) light emanates from the female consort and supplicates the deity;

(5) all maṇḍalas dissolve into you, arousing divine pride;

(6) the male and female consorts join and the maṇḍala is generated in space;

(7) your forty-two concepts are visualized as deities and projected externally; and

(8) the deities are bound and sealed with the four seals.


As outlined here, since you yourself are a thus-gone one at the time of the ground, the thus-gone ones are transformed into your children. And to ensure that the potential of the thus-gone ones does not decline, you become the child of others. This is how the great Rongzom explained it. He also taught that when you meditate on these practices there is no fixed progression.

The Elaborate Development Stage


Next we will examine the intermediate development stage that purifies womb birth. This stage involves three approaches. First, the condensed approach, the ritual of the three vajras, which accords with father tantra. Its objects of purification are (1) the intermediate existence, (2) the fetus, and (3) birth. The process of purification involves meditating on the features of the symbolic implements, such as the five-spoked vajra. This, in turn, purifies the mind (the object of purification), transforming it into vajra mind. The symbolic implements are then transformed into, or visualized as being marked by, a HŪṂ or another such syllable. This perfects your speech into enlightened speech. Next, light radiates out from this seed syllable and is then reabsorbed, performing the twofold benefit. Finally, the symbolic implement undergoes a fundamental transformation into the complete form of the deity, along with its ornaments and apparel. This ripens the ordinary body into the enlightened body.

Next is the medium-length ritual, the four manifestations of enlightenment, which corresponds to mother tantra. The Galpo Tantra describes this as follows:


First, emptiness and the mind of awakening.

Second, the occurrence of the seed.

Third, the complete form.

Fourth, setting out the syllable.


Here the corresponding objects of purification are

(1) the death state and the intermediate stage,

(2) a disembodied consciousness coalescing with the semen and ovum,

(3) the gradual formation of the body through the ten winds, and

(4) the faculties engaging with objects subsequent to birth.

Lastly, the extensive ritual, the five manifestations of enlightenment. Here the respective objects of purification are

(1) the intermediate state consciousness,

(2) the moment before consciousness enters the womb,

(3) entry into the womb,

(4) the ten months of physical development in the womb, and (5) birth.


These five can be applied to the five paths. The process of purification for the first three is the three samādhis. The process of purification for the fourth is the five manifestations of enlightenment. The Hevajra Tantra explains:


The moon is mirror like wisdom,

The seven of seven, equality.

Discernment is said to be the deity’s

Seed syllable and symbolic implements.

All becoming one is perseverance itself,

And perfection, the pure expanse of reality.


The process of purification for the fifth element begins with visualizing divine appearance (the support and the supported of the Great Seal) and extends throughout the four aspects of approach and accomplishment that contain the instructions on the “four stakes that bind the life force” all the way up to the ritual’s dissolution stage.

The Simple Development Stage


The condensed development stage ritual purifies the habitual tendencies connected with birth from heat and moisture. In this approach the object of purification is the completion of a body that emerges from heat and moisture. The process of purification involves visualizing the transformation of the seed syllable, which rests upon layered sun and moon discs, into the complete form of the deity.

The Completely Simple Development Stage


The extremely concise development stage ritual purifies the habitual tendencies associated with miraculous birth. Here the deity is instantaneously visualized merely by uttering the essential syllable. On this topic The Tantra of the Natural Arising of Awareness states:


What is instantaneous practice?

The deity is not developed, but perfected by recalling its essence.


In this way an individual of the highest caliber can visualize the primordial deity, the essence of mind, recalling it perfectly in a single moment, just as though he or she were seeing a reflection in a mirror.

Of these four types of birth, womb birth and egg birth are purified using the mahāyoga approach, while birth from heat and moisture is purified with the anuyoga approach and miraculous birth is purified using the atiyoga approach.

When practicing these approaches, the existence that resembles cyclic existence is cleansed and purified, while the fruition that resembles passing beyond suffering is perfected in the ground. Both of these features will mature you for the completion stage. This is the general understanding.

Generally speaking, for those who begin these practices, these four approaches, with their varying levels of complexity, are primarily taught as specific ways to purify each of the four types of birth. In reality, however, there is no difference in terms of the degree of purification achieved by these four approaches.

DEITY MEDITATION AND THE VARIOUS TYPES OF PRACTITIONER


The Condensed Realization explains:


Practitioners of superior capacity understand that utterly pure simplicity—which is unfabricated, naturally occurring, spontaneously present, and primordially clear—is the essence of the deity. Practitioners of moderate capacity understand that the self-existing expression of unfabricated and nonconceptual compassion is the brilliant deity of the pure channels. Practitioners of the lowest capacity practice within the nonconceptual state where all forms are male and female deities. In this way the deities manifest like fish jumping from a lake. With pure faith and samaya vows intact, the deity is clearly visualized through the five manifestations of enlightenment and the three samādhis.


According to The Tantra of the Layered Lotus Stems, each of these three categories can be divided into three subcategories, for a total of nine divisions. Such variations may be learned from their respective sources.


THE ELABORATE EXPLANATION OF THE SCRIPTURE’S MEANING


This section consists of (1) the practice of equipoise and (2) the practice of the ensuing attainment.


THE PRACTICE OF EQUIPOISE


The practice of equipoise has three divisions:

(1) the visualization practice of enlightened body,

(2) the recitation practice of enlightened speech, and

(3) the luminosity practice of enlightened mind.


Enlightened Body


There are five subdivisions in this section:

(1) the framework of the three samādhis,

(2) visualizing the maṇḍalas of the support and the supported,

(3) invoking the wisdom beings and requesting them to remain,

(4) the activities of homage, offering, and praise, and

(5) focusing on the deity’s appearance, the primary focal point.

The Framework of the Three Samādhis


The system of developing the visualization by means of the three samādhis is something that is found in mahāyoga and the other inner tantras.

The Samādhi of Suchness

First, relax your mind and do not chase after any confused thoughts. Then let go for a moment, and rest in the simplicity of reality—the state of empty awareness that transcends words and concepts. This is the samādhi of suchness, also known as “the practice of great emptiness,” “the vajralike absorption,” and “the absorption of emptiness.” This samādhi eliminates the extreme of permanence and purifies the habitual tendencies associated with the formless realm. It also purifies the death state into the dharma body. Hence, this is classified as the essence of awareness, the inconceivable aspect. In this context, you rest without visualizing the protection dome and the other elements outlined above. However, you must understand that they are not entirely absent either.

The Samādhi of Total Illumination

Out of this state of emptiness, meditate for a brief moment with non-referential illusory compassion towards all sentient beings who do not realize their own in-dwelling wisdom. This is the samādhi of total illumination. The practice of illusory compassion is also known as “the absorption of the heroic gait” and “the absorption of wishlessness.” It eliminates the extreme of nihilism and purifies the habitual tendencies connected to the form realm. It also transforms existence in the intermediate state and perfects it into the enjoyment body. Hence, this samādhi is classified as the radiance of awareness, the aspect of the unobstructed nature of compassion.

The Causal Samādhi

Once compassion has stirred the mind out of this nonconceptual state, the essence of your mind assumes the form of a seed syllable, such as a HŪṂ or a HRĪḤ, which manifests brilliantly in the unsupported, empty expanse of space. Focusing on such a seed syllable is the causal samādhi, the training in the subtle syllable that is one aspect of the single mudrā. The causal samādhi is also known as “the illusory absorption” and “the absorption of no characteristics.” It purifies the view of a self and the stains of apprehending characteristics. It also purifies the habitual tendencies connected to the desire realm, thereby ripening birth into the emanation body. It is therefore classified as the expression of awareness, the aspect that manifests as objects.

Here meditating on the assembly of deities connected with the support and the supported constitutes the training in the coarse divine form, while meditating in a more elaborate way with companions, faces, hands, etc. constitutes the training in the elaborate mudrā. These are the four practices of the path of accumulation. The states of the four knowledge holders are then gradually attained in reliance on the proximate cause of the group practice that takes place on the path of joining.

In this context you will find the mantra OṂ SVABHĀVA ŚUDDHAḤ SARVADHARMĀḤ SVABHĀVA ŚUDDHO’HAṂ. In reciting this mantra, you are saying, “Just as all phenomena are naturally pure, so too am I pure by nature,” which captures the meaning of the samādhi of suchness. The meaning of the mantra OṂ MAHĀ ŚŪNYATĀ JÑĀNA VAJRA SVABHĀVĀTMAKO’HAṂ is “I am the very embodiment of the nature of vajra wisdom and great emptiness.” In this mantra the phrasegreat emptiness” refers to the samādhi of suchness, while the remainder refers to the samādhi of total illumination and the causal samādhi.

The Maṇḍalas of the Support and the Supported


Next you visualize the supportive celestial palace and the supported deities.

The Supportive Celestial Palace

As explained in the Appendix to the Recitation Manual of the Embodiment of the Sugatas, begin by imagining that the syllables E, YAṂ, RAṂ, BAṂ, LAṂ, SUṂ, and BHRŪṂ emerge, one by one, within the space of a vast protective dome. They emerge from the previously visualized seed syllable of the causal samādhi. The letter E completely purifies all clinging to reality and then transforms into a blue triangle of limitless size whose nature is the empty expanse of space. Above the upward-facing wide opening of this triangle is the syllable YAṂ, which transforms into a wind maṇḍala shaped like a dark-green cross rimmed with dark-green light. Above this cross the syllable RAṂ transforms into a fire maṇḍala shaped like a red triangle rimmed with red light. Above this, the syllable BAṂ transforms into a white spherical water maṇḍala rimmed with white light. Further up, the syllable LAṂ becomes a golden ground shaped like a yellow square rimmed with yellow light. On top of the golden ground, the syllable SUṂ transforms into Mount Meru composed of four types of jewels and with four terraces. Upon Mount Meru is a multicolored crossed-vajra in the center of which is BHRŪṂ, the seed syllable of Uṣṇīṣacakravartin.

This syllable then transforms into a square celestial palace of precious wisdom. To indicate that reality itself is free from elaborations, its center is spherical. Its four walls represent the four truths, and it is surrounded by a gallery that represents the unity of the two truths. As a sign that each of the wisdoms is endowed with the four superior wisdoms through which the wishes of those to be tamed are fulfilled, beautiful bejeweled ledges with the colors of the four families jut out from the four walls.

The four entryways, representing the four complete liberations, are accompanied by beautiful porticos. To indicate traversing the eight vehicles, there are four steps inside and outside of the doorways respectively—these are the eight causal architraves. As a sign that the qualities of the tenet systems of the vehicles are perfected thereby, above the vestibules are ornaments called toraṇa. The eight resultant architraves consist of the horse ankle, the lotus, the casket, the lattice, the cluster ornament, the garland, and the rain spout ledge, layered one upon the other forming a sort of projected molding, the top of which is ornamented with garuḍa heads.

On top of each vestibule there is a Dharma wheel resting on a lotus and surmounted by a parasol. Two deer sit beautifully next to each Dharma wheel, one to each side. At the top of the five layers of the wall, which represent the display of nondual wisdom, are jeweled hangings—pearl lattices and tassels suspended from lion heads. Above these are jewel lattices and tasseled streamers of the top border. Facing outward from these are jewel rainspouts suspended from the eaves, above which is a parapet that ornaments the palace. Banners, parasols, victory banners, and so forth are displayed all around.

Symbolizing that the sense pleasures are not abandoned, but arise as ornaments of realization, many offering goddesses bearing aloft offering substances are gathered like clouds on the platform of delights that protrudes from the palace. Envision all of this as completely transparent and open. As a sign that the wisdom of the basic space of phenomena is limitless, the pinnacle of a heap of jewels at the center of the roof is adorned with a jewel vajra top-ornament that one never tires of beholding. Door ornaments, bells, silk streamers, trees, and every other adornment also beautify the area. Encircling the outer enclosure are lotuses, along with charnel grounds encircled by vajra fences and blazing fires.7

The specific characteristics of wrathful maṇḍalas are as follows. There is an ocean of rakta, a ground of human skin, and Mount Meru, which is composed of skeletons. On its summit is a multicolored crossed-vajra resting within a great mass of wisdom fire. At the center of this crossed-vajra is a square celestial palace with four doors. Its gallery is composed of either gold or blood, whichever is appropriate, and its walls are made of fresh, dry, and shriveled skulls that are nailed together with nails of meteoric iron and glued together with blood. On top of the walls is a border of various types of skulls with garlands of intestines and hearts. On the streamers of the top border are lattices and tassels made of snakes and garlands of skulls. The rain spouts are made of hands and feet; the ledge is made of backbones and ribs; and the lower part of each door is made of turtles, with upper parts made of crocodiles. There are poisonous male vipers that constitute the planks on either side of the door, while the planks of the door itself are made of human skin. To the right and left of the Dharma wheel are baby crocodiles resting atop the architraves. Above them are parasols made of human skin. The ceiling is also made of human skin. The central chamber has a skylight for the sun and the moon and is made of the overturned skull of Mahādeva, which is surmounted with a top-ornament of a heart, and so forth.

In the center, cardinal, and intermediate directions of the palace are the seats for the deities. As a sign of fulfilling the wishes of those to be tamed, these thrones are made of precious jewels and are supported by fearless lions, mighty elephants, and so on. They are surmounted by jeweled lotuses, which symbolize being untainted by the flaws of saṃsāra. The anthers of the lotus are covered with the sun and moon discs of skillful means and knowledge. These and other elements are included, depending on the context. Wrathful deities may be seated on animals, Rudra, a corpse, lotus, sun and moon discs, and so forth. These aspects of the visualization should be spelled out in the text you are using.


The Supported Deities

The Condensed Realization states:


Gradually generate the celestial palace from the outside.

Gradually generate the deities from the inside.


As indicated here, to visualize the supported deities imagine that the previously visualized seed syllable descends onto the central seat. This syllable then either transforms into the complete main deity or into the symbolic implement, held in the deity’s right hand, which is marked by the deity’s life-force syllable. In the latter case, light radiates out from the implement and is then absorbed back into it, accomplishing the twofold benefit. When the light is absorbed back in, the implement transforms into the form of the deity, complete with all of its ornaments and attire. You may then gradually visualize the main deities and their retinue in their entirety, as spelled out in the particular ritual text you are using.

Next is the blessing of the three places. In the bone mansion at the crown of the main deity, as well as in those of all the deities of the retinue, imagine white OṂ syllables resting upon white discs. Red ĀḤ syllables rest upon red eight-petaled lotuses in the center of their throats. In their heart centers blue HŪṂ syllables rest upon sun discs in front of their hearts. Thus, the visualized deities are sealed by clearly visualizing these three syllables as the essence of vajra body, speech, and mind. In some contexts, you may imagine that they are sealed by visualizing that the three syllables emit and absorb light and then transform into Vairocana, Amitābha, and Akṣobhya, each of whom wears enjoyment-body ornaments. You then recite mantras, perform the gestures at each of your own three places, and generate the confidence of the three vajras.

Next, for the bestowal of empowerment, light radiates out from the seed syllable at your heart center, or from the heart center of the wisdom being, and invites all the sūgatas, in the form of male and female empowerment deities of the five families, to come from their natural abode. Joined in inseparable union, the fire of their passionate desire creates a stream of the five wisdoms, which melts and flows down onto the five places at your crown, conferring empowerment and purifying the stains of the five afflictions. The liquid that overflows from the top of your head transforms into a crown endowed with the adornments of the five emanation-body families, with your own family in the position of the lord. By purifying the five aggregates, give rise to the confidence of the buddhas of the five families. Make the empowerment mudrās of the five families at each of your five places and recite the mantras for receiving empowerment. In some cases, blessing your three places or receiving empowerment may be unnecessary. There may also be other variations. Hence, practice as stipulated in the text you are using.

Invoking the Wisdom Beings and Requesting Them to Remain


The Invocation


From the letter HŪṂ at your heart center countless red light rays shine forth. These light rays, which are bent slightly inwards at the tip like hooks, invoke the assembly of deities, the maṇḍala of the victorious ones of the three roots who abide in manifold buddhafields that pervade all of space. As the embodiment of the manifold aspect of the dharma body, the deities are invoked along with their retinues, which include the guardian deities and Dharma protectors.

While not moving from the dharma body, imagine that the power of their compassion arouses the display of the form bodies, which arrive immediately. In the same way that you must first send an invitation when requesting the presence of a king in a worldly context, here the samaya being must show reverence and respect to the wisdom maṇḍala as the object of veneration. In addition, if you practice the deity yoga of the development stage with unshakable devotion, it is the nature of things that the commitment of the host of deities of the three roots will naturally

be invoked and they will immediately come to the place of devotion where they are being visualized. For this reason, generate intense devotion and recite the words of the invocation melodiously while playing music and offering incense. With these words imagine countless wisdom beings identical to the deities of the visualized maṇḍala—the supportive celestial palace together with its protective dome—along with whatever peaceful or wrathful deities are being invoked. Like snowflakes in a blizzard, they gather like clouds in the space above the samaya maṇḍala, all the way out to the mountains of flames. These wisdom beings represent a display of illusory wisdom and an overwhelming mass of wisdom, love, and capacity.

Alternatively, in some contexts it is taught that four mudrā goddesses are emanated from your heart as the samaya being. The Hook Goddess invokes the commitment of the wisdom beings, the Noose Goddess invites them, the Shackle Goddess arouses them from their dwelling places, and the Bell Goddess delights them and invites them into the space in front of you.

The Request to Remain

At this point you supplicate the entire wisdom maṇḍala to merge indivisibly with yourself as the samaya maṇḍala. Imagine that, with loving delight, the wisdom maṇḍala dissolves into you like snowflakes landing on a lake and merges indivisibly with the samaya maṇḍala. On this point The Oral Instructions state:


Source