WHAT ARE THE OUTER AND INNER PURE DAKIN! LANDS?
Outer Pure Dakini Land is beyond the world of ordinary experience. It is the Pure Land of Buddha Vajrayogini and Buddha Heruka. A Pure Land is a world that is free from true sufferings. Nowhere in samsara is without true sufferings because the samsaric environment itself acts as a condition to experience suffering. Ordinary beings are born in samsara without choice and continually have to experience dissatisfaction and mi~ery. However, if we purify our
mind, we purify our experience of the world and thereby attain a Pure Land free from all suffering. There are different Pure Lands associated with different Buddhas. Pure Dakini Land is similar to the Pure Lands of Tushita and Sukhavati, except that Heruka and Vajrayogini's Pure Land is the only one
in which beings can receive teachings on Highest Yoga Tantra and put them into practice. When, through Vajrayogini' s guidance, those who are very old and infirm reach her Pure Land they will no longer experience the sufferings of old age and disease. All signs of their old age will disappear and they will be transformed into sixteen year-olds of great beauty and vitality, enjoying an endless lifespan. All the enjoyments they wish for will spontaneously appear.
They will never be reborn in samsara again, unless they choose to for compassionate reasons. Everyone who reaches this Pure Land will receive teachings on Highest Yoga Tantra directly from Heruka and thereby attain enlightenment quickly. Outer Pure Dakini Land can also be explained in terms of an individual
practitioner's personal experience. From this point of view, outer Pure Dakini Land is attained by completing the practices of the generation stage of Vajrayogini. During our training in generation stage meditation, we visualize our body as the pure body of Buddha Vajrayogini, our immediate surroundings as the mandala of Vajrayogini, and our world as Pure Dakini Land. If we engage in generation stage practice continuously, the ordinary, impure appearances
to our mind will gradually diminish and finally cease altogether. Once we have gained a firm realization of generation stage we shall experience only pure appearances, and our world will be transformed into Pure Dakini Land. The great Teacher Tenpa Rabgya said that Pure Dakini Land is not some far-away place, nor is it necessary to disappear from this world to reach it. Pure appearances are experienced only by realized practitioners. It is generally accepted in
both Sutra and Tantra that the world appears to our mind as faulty, imperfect, and unsatisfactory because our mind is impure, polluted by the delusions and their imprints. In Ornament for Clear Realization, Venerable Maitreya says that when the minds of sentient beings become completely pure, their environment becomes a Buddha's Pure Land. A Pure Land can be attained only by purifying the mind. Even when we have attained outer Pure Dakini Land through a firm
realization of generation stage, we shall still appear to others as ordinary, impure beings. Ordinary people cannot recognize that another person is in a Pure Land because they cannot perceive that person's Pure Land and cannot share their experience of it. Someone once asked Milarepa in which Pure Land he had attained enlightenment and Milarepa pointed to his cave. The questioner could see only a cold, empty cave, but for Milarepa that cave was a Pure Land.
Because the minds of ordinary beings are impure, whatever appears to them is seen as ordinary. As ordinary beings with ordinary appearance, we cannot experience anything as totally pure and perfect. Even an emanation of Buddha appears to us to have faults. Everything we experience is impure, potentially harmful, and in the nature of suffering. It is because we have ordinary appearance that we view ourselves and others as imperfect, subject to faults such
as sickness and ageing. According to Sutra teachings, the root of samsara is selfgrasping and the delusions that arise from it. However, according to Secret Mantra teachings, the root of samsara is ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. The self-grasping recognized by Sutra practitioners is only a gross, ordinary conception. In this context, any living being who is not a Buddha, and
any environment, enjoyment, or body that is not a Buddha's is ordinary. Perceptions of these objects as ordinary due to impure minds are ordinary appearances, and the minds that conceive of objects in this way are ordinary conceptions. According to Secret Mantra teachings, ordinary appearances are
obstructions to omniscience, and ordinary conceptions are obstructions to liberation. Both ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions have many levels of subtlety. One of the main purposes of practising generation stage meditation is to overcome ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. We can
overcome ordinary appearances by generating a clear appearance of being Vajrayogini, and we can overcome ordinary conceptions by developing strong divine pride of being Vajrayogini. Because of our ordinary perceptions and ordinary conceptions, we experience an endless cycle of ordinary death, ordinary
intermediate state, and ordinary rebirth. This endless cycle, known as 'samsara', must be broken. Through generation stage and completion stage practice we can purify,the three ordinary states of death, intermediate state, and rebirth, and thereby attain the three bodies of a Buddha. When we attain a full
realization of the generation stage of Vajrayogini, we experience our environment as Pure Dakini Land, and when we attain the illusory body in the aspect of Vajrayogini, our body becomes the actual body of the Deity. When we achieve full enlightenment in the form of Vajrayogini we become a newly-born Buddha Vajrayogini, our place of residence becomes a newly-developed mandala of Vajrayogini, and our world becomes a newly-developed Pure Dakini Land. With a superficial realization of generation stage meditation we will attain only a similitude of Pure Dakini Land. By gradually developing the power of our
generation stage meditation, this similitude will be strengthened and stabilized and we will move closer to attaining the actual Pure Dakini Land. By practising the generation stage and completion stage meditations continuously and enthusiastically, we will complete the spiritual path by depending on Vajrayogini. At first we may doubt the existence of Pure Dakini Land or doubt that it is possible to reach it. To overcome such doubts,
we can consider dreams. Sincere practitioners familiar with Vajrayogini practice may dream of reaching a Pure Land. In their dream they will see all places as pure and themselves as Vajrayogini. At that time, they do not think they are dreaming. They believe they are in a Pure Land and therefore experience
great joy and happiness. If they were to remain in that happy state without ever waking up it would be valid to say that, according to their experience,
they were in Pure Dakini Land. Through studying the correct view of emptiness we can understand that everything is merely an appearance to the mind and, like a dream, merely imputed by conceptual thought. This understanding is extremely helpful for developing conviction in the existence of Pure Lands. Clear
and deep understanding of the nature of outer Pure Dakini Land will help us to gain a firm faith in Buddhadharma. Through this we will practise with greater power and enthusiasm. Inner Pure Dakini Land is meaning clear light. This is achieved only through completion stage meditation. Through completion stage meditation, we develop spontaneous great bliss, and when this mind meditates on emptiness and gains a direct realization it is called 'meaning clear light'. This is the fourth of the five stages of completion stage meditation. When we attain inner Pure Dakini Land through Vajrayogini practice, we also
attain outer Pure Dakini Land. This is explained more fully later in this book. The way to train in the two stages of Vajrayogini Tantra is explained in the instructions that follow. First there is an explanation of how to train in
generation stage, and then there is an explanation of how to train in completion stage. The instructions on generation stage are in two parts: an explanation of how to practise the eleven yogas of generation stage, and an explanation of how to attain outer Pure Dakini Land through the practice of generation stage. The eleven yo gas of generation stage are:
2 The yoga of rising 3 The yoga of experiencing nectar
4 The yoga of immeasurables
6 The yoga of self-generation
7 The yoga of purifying migrators
8 The yoga of being blessed by Heroes and Heroines
9 The yoga of verbal and mental recitation
10 The yoga of inconceivability
The instructions that follow explain how to practise each of these eleven yogas. We first need to study these instructions carefully to ensure that we understand clearly each of the yogas. Then, when we feel ready to put them into practice, we should begin with the yoga of sleeping and continue through to the eleventh yoga, the yoga of daily actions. If we repeat this cycle of practices every day all our actions will be included within the eleven yogas.
