Essence of Vajrayana. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

completion stage realization of isolated body.

      Qualified practitioners of Highest Yoga Tantra have experience of the common paths of renunciation, bodhichitta and the profound view of emptiness. If we have deep knowledge of emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena, it is not difficult to offer these eight outer offerings and five objects of desire. Even if we are not qualified at the moment, we can still train in these practices continually so that sooner or later we will become a qualified practitioner.

      Although this way of accumulating merit is a very special, higher practice, it is not a good sign if, despite the fact that we are making these mental and verbal offerings, we continue to have a miserly attitude towards our money and possessions, holding them very tightly and having no intention of using them to accumulate merit. We must have the intention to use our money and possessions to accumulate merit for the benefit of others and, every day if possible, offer actual water for drinking, water for bathing, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food and music. We should always dedicate all our activities to the happiness of all living beings.

      INNER OFFERING

      From our heart we emanate countless Rasavajra Goddesses and imagine that from the huge skullcup containing the inner nectar, as vast as an ocean, they scoop up nectar with their skullcups and offer it to the countless holy beings in the Field of Merit. At the same time, we recite the offering prayer from the sadhana: OM GURU HERUKA VAJRAYOGINI SAPARIWARA OM AH HUM. We hold the inner offering container in our right hand, around the level of our forehead, and then, as we say OM AH HUM, we dip our left ring finger into the nectar, flick a drop into space, and imagine that Guru Heruka Father and Mother and all the Field of Merit experience spontaneous great bliss.

      SECRET OFFERING

      We make this offering by concentrating on the essential meaning of the following prayer:

      And I offer most attractive illusory mudras,

      A host of messengers born from places, born from mantra and spontaneously born,

      With slender bodies, skilled in the sixty-four arts of love,

      And possessing the splendour of youthful beauty.

      By making this offering we create the cause to generate spontaneous great bliss ourself in the future by relying upon a consort, or mudra. The essence of Secret Mantra is to generate spontaneous great bliss by dissolving the inner winds within the central channel. This can be done to a limited extent through meditation alone, but to complete the practice in this life we need to accept an action mudra. Through completion stage meditation we can completely loosen the knots in the channel wheels at the crown, throat, navel and secret place; and by relying upon vajra recitation we can partially loosen the knots at the heart channel wheel. However, we cannot completely loosen these knots by meditation alone. These will naturally loosen completely at death, but, if the practitioner wants this to happen before death, he or she must accept an action mudra. Through the force of the two central channels uniting during embrace, the downward-voiding wind of the consort will enter the practitioner’s central channel, causing the knots at the heart channel wheel to loosen completely. The practitioner can then complete the path to enlightenment in that life.

      The correct time to rely upon an action mudra is after having gained the experience of dissolving some of the inner winds within the central channel at the heart channel wheel. When through this practice we are able to perceive clearly the eight signs of dissolution from the mirage-like appearance to the clear light, and we have attained the experience of isolated body, isolated speech and isolated mind, it is appropriate to enter into union with an action mudra.

      A mudra is called a ‘messenger’ because he or she fulfils our wishes by bringing great bliss. There are three types of messenger: outer, inner and secret. These are explained in detail in the book The New Guide to Dakini Land. In this context, an outer messenger is a knowledge consort. The verse from the sadhana mentions three types of outer messenger: those born from places, those born from mantra, and those who are spontaneously born. The first are Dakinis from the twenty-four holy places of Heruka, the second are messengers with realizations of generation stage or the first stages of completion stage, and the third are messengers with a realization of the union of clear light and illusory body that is either the union that needs learning or the Union of No More Learning.

      We visualize countless action mudras of all three types emanating from our heart, merging into one, and dissolving into Vajravarahi, who is embracing Father Heruka. We imagine that through the force of this offering our Guru generates spontaneous great bliss. From his or her side, our Guru has no need of this offering because he or she already abides immovably in a state of great bliss; the purpose of making this offering is to create the cause for us to generate spontaneous great bliss in the future.

      We should visualize all the knowledge women as youthful and extremely attractive. According to the words of the sadhana, these consorts are ‘skilled in the sixty-four arts of love’. In the Sutras, Buddha explains sixty-four arts in connection with sports such as archery, but in the Tantras he explains sixty-four arts of love as methods for inducing spontaneous great bliss. There are eight basic arts: embracing, kissing, biting, scratching, enticing walking, whistling, performing the actions of a man, and lying on top. Each of these can be performed in eight different ways, making sixty-four arts in all.

      In Guhyasamaja Tantra Vajradhara stresses how important it is for Tantric practitioners to make the four types of offering every day, and he places special emphasis on the secret offering as a method for generating great bliss.

      Luyipa

      THATNESS OFFERING

      We make this offering by concentrating on the essential meaning of the prayer from the sadhana:

      I offer you the supreme, ultimate bodhichitta,

      A great exalted wisdom of spontaneous bliss free from obstructions,

      Inseparable from the nature of all phenomena, the sphere of freedom from elaboration,

      Effortless, and beyond words, thoughts and expressions.

      ‘Thatness’ is emptiness, the ultimate nature of all phenomena. Strictly speaking we offer not emptiness but ultimate bodhichitta, which is a mind of spontaneous great bliss mixed inseparably with emptiness. We imagine that Guru Heruka generates this mind as a result of entering into union with the mudra offered to him during the secret offering. Although our Guru already has ultimate bodhichitta, we imagine that he or she generates it anew, as an auspicious cause for us to gain this realization in the future.

      In Secret Mantra, the red and white drops that flow through the channels are sometimes called ‘bodhichittas’ because they are the basis for developing actual ultimate bodhichitta, spontaneous great bliss realizing emptiness directly. Without these drops, we would have no means of gaining any completion stage realization, let alone ultimate bodhichitta.

      According to the words of the sadhana, Guru Heruka’s exalted wisdom of spontaneous great bliss is ‘free from obstructions’, which means that it has completely abandoned both the delusion-obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience. Not all spontaneous great bliss is free from obstructions. When we first generate spontaneous great bliss our mind is still covered by obstructions, but by training in the five stages of completion stage these are gradually removed. When the mind is finally freed from both obstructions we attain enlightenment. Thus, the words of the sadhana indicate that Guru Heruka is a Buddha because his ultimate bodhichitta is free from obstructions.

      The phrase, ‘Inseparable from the nature of all phenomena, the sphere of freedom from elaboration’, is very profound and difficult to understand without some experience of Secret Mantra. The term ‘sphere’ refers to emptiness, and the term ‘elaboration’ refers to inherent existence, so the meaning is that ultimate bodhichitta is inseparable from emptiness, lack of inherent existence. Once we have a rough understanding of emptiness, we should try to generate spontaneous great bliss by training in completion stage meditation. When our inner winds are gathered and dissolved within the central channel at our heart, our gross