Essence of Vajrayana. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Spiritual Guide sitting on a throne. We visualize him or her as radiant and youthful, without any physical imperfections. His right hand is in the gesture of expounding Dharma, indicating that he dispels the ignorance of his disciples. His left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise holding a life vase, indicating that he destroys the power death has over his disciples. These two, ignorance and death, are the greatest obstacles to our spiritual development. Ignorance prevents us from understanding Dharma, especially the instructions on superior seeing, which is the antidote to ignorance; and death destroys the very life that is the basis for practising Dharma. Surrounding our main Spiritual Guide, we visualize all the other Spiritual Guides who have taught us pure Dharma directly in this life.

      In front of these groups of Gurus, we visualize the Deities of Highest Yoga Tantra. On the right is the assembly of Vajrabhairava, on the left the assembly of Guhyasamaja, and in the centre the assembly of Heruka. In front of these in successive rows are: Deities of Yoga Tantra, such as the assembly of Sarvavid, the main Deity of Yoga Tantra; Deities of Performance Tantra, such as the assembly of Vairochana Deities; Deities of Action Tantra, such as Amitayus, Green Tara and White Tara; Buddhas of Sutra, such as the one thousand Buddhas of this Fortunate Aeon, the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas and the seven Medicine Buddhas; Sanghas of Sutra, including Bodhisattvas such as the eight Great Sons, Emanation Solitary Realizers such as the twelve Solitary Realizers, and Emanation Hearers such as the sixteen Foe Destroyers; Sanghas of Tantra such as the Heroes and Heroines of the twenty-four auspicious places, and supramundane Dharma Protectors such as Mahakala, Dharmaraja, Dorje Shugden, Vaishravana and Kalindewi.

      We should believe that all these holy beings are actually present before us and that they are the manifestation of definitive Heruka. They are called the ‘Field of Merit’ because they are like a field from which we can harvest inner crops of merit and realizations.

      To begin with we should not expect to perceive the Field of Merit clearly or in detail. We should be satisfied with simply perceiving a general image of the whole assembly of holy beings. Through meditating on this with strong faith again and again, our faith and merit will increase and we will receive the blessings of the holy beings. As a result our mind will become purer, and when our mind is very pure we can receive a direct vision of these enlightened beings. We will then have no doubt that we too will become a pure being.

      At this point we can practise three special meditations: (1) meditation on the assembly of the eight Heroines of the doorways at the places of the eight sense doors of Guru Heruka; (2) meditation on the assembly of the twenty-four Heroes and Heroines of the twenty-four places of Heruka’s body; and (3) meditation on the assembly of the Deities of the great bliss wheel. To do these meditations we simply concentrate on the assemblies of Deities while remembering their significance. The first meditation is especially auspicious for the inward gathering of the winds that flow through the channels of our eight sense doors. The second meditation is especially auspicious for the inward gathering of the winds that flow through the channels of our twenty-four places. The third meditation is especially auspicious for all the inner winds to gather at the heart and dissolve into our indestructible drop. When this happens, we experience the clear light of bliss. In the extensive dedication prayer from the sadhana it says:

      Through meditating on the Goddesses of the doorways at the doors of the senses,

      May I reverse the winds through the doors of the senses;

      Through meditating on the Heroes and Heroines at the twenty-four places,

      May I gather the winds into the twenty-four channels;

      Through meditating on the Deities of the great bliss wheel on the petals of the Dharma Wheel,

      May I gather the winds into the eight channels

      Of the cardinal and intermediate directions at my heart,

      And then may I gather them into my central channel at the heart.

      INVITING AND ABSORBING THE WISDOM BEINGS

      The three places of the holy beings are marked as follows. The crown, the place of the body, is marked by a white letter OM, the seed of the body of all Buddhas; the throat, the place of the speech, is marked by a red letter AH, the seed of the speech of all Buddhas; and the heart, the place of the mind, is marked by a blue letter HUM, the seed of the mind of all Buddhas. This indicates that each being in the Field of Merit is the synthesis of all Buddhas.

      From the letter HUM at Guru Heruka’s heart, infinite rays of light radiate and invite all the Buddhas from their natural abode, the Dharmakaya, each in the aspect of the assembly of the entire Field of Merit. When we recite ‘DZA’ an entire assembly of wisdom beings comes above the crown of each commitment being; when we recite ‘HUM’ they dissolve into the commitment beings; when we recite ‘BAM’ they mix with the commitment beings; and when we recite ‘HO’ they are delighted to remain with the commitment beings.

      Tantric practitioners have a commitment to visualize the Field of Merit, and so the visualized Field of Merit is called ‘the commitment being’. The Field of Merit that we invite from the Buddha Lands is called ‘the wisdom being’. The first is an imagined Field of Merit and the second is a naturally abiding Field of Merit.

      OFFERING THE PRACTICE OF THE SEVEN LIMBS

      One of the main purposes of visualizing the Field of Merit is to accumulate merit, purify negativities and receive blessings. We do this by practising the seven limbs. The seven limbs are: (1) prostration, (2) offering, (3) confession, (4) rejoicing, (5) beseeching the Spiritual Guide not to pass away, (6) requesting the turning of the Wheel of Dharma, and (7) dedication. These are called ‘limbs’ because they support meditation, the main body of our practice. Just as our body is powerless if not supported by arms and legs, so our meditation has no power to produce authentic Dharma realizations unless it is supported by an accumulation of merit, purification of negativities and blessings.

      PROSTRATION

      The practice of prostrations is a powerful method for purifying negative karma, disease and obstacles, and for increasing our merit, our happiness and our Dharma realizations. Temporarily, prostrations improve our physical health, and ultimately they cause us to attain the Form Body of a Buddha. Generating faith in the holy beings is mental prostration, reciting praises to them is verbal prostration, and showing them respect with our body is physical prostration. We can make physical prostrations by respectfully prostrating our whole body on the ground; by respectfully touching our palms, knees and forehead to the ground; or by respectfully placing our palms together at the level of the heart with the tips of the fingers touching and the thumbs tucked inside so that our hands form the shape of a jewel.

      To make prostrations to our root Guru, we begin by contemplating his or her pre-eminent qualities and kindness, and with a mind of wishing faith we recite the following prayer:

      Vajra Holder, my jewel-like Guru,

      Through whose kindness I can accomplish

      The state of great bliss in an instant,

      At your lotus feet humbly I bow.

      Although our Spiritual Guide is likened to a jewel, no matter how precious external jewels may be, they have no power to give us true happiness or protect us from suffering. There is nothing in the external world that can compare with our Spiritual Guide. In the sadhana, the words ‘jewel-like Guru’ simply reveal that our Spiritual Guide is very precious. ‘Vajra Holder’ means that he or she is a manifestation of Buddha Vajradhara.

      Compared to the lives of beings in the god realms, a human life is very short, like an instant. However, if we sincerely rely upon our Spiritual Guide, through his or her kindness we can accomplish the great bliss of Buddha Heruka and become an enlightened being in this short human life.

      According to Highest Yoga Tantra, placing our hands together at the heart when we prostrate shows that we want to experience great bliss by dissolving the ten inner winds into the central channel at our heart. In this context, our ten fingers symbolize our ten inner winds, while placing the fingers together and tucking the thumbs inside symbolizes the inward gathering of the ten inner winds. Touching the point at the level of the heart symbolizes