Essence of Vajrayana. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

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СКАЧАТЬ Now you come drunk and with a wine-seller. What a bad example of a Buddhist and a monk!’ When they had finished, Ghantapa appeared to become angry and threw his bowl to the ground. The bowl sank into the earth, splitting the ground and causing a spring of water to appear. Ghantapa immediately transformed into Heruka and the woman into Vajrayogini. The boy transformed into a vajra which Ghantapa held in his right hand, and the girl into a bell which he held in his left hand. Ghantapa and his consort then embraced and flew into the sky.

      The people were astonished and immediately developed deep regret for their disrespect. They prostrated to Ghantapa, begging him and the emanation of Vajrayogini to return. Ghantapa and his consort refused, but told the people that if their regret was sincere they should make confession to Mahakaruna, the embodiment of Buddha’s great compassion. Through the deep remorse of the people of Odivisha and the force of their prayers, a statue of Mahakaruna arose from the spring water. The people of Odivisha became very devoted Dharma practitioners and many of them gained realizations. The statue of Mahakaruna can still be seen today.

      Because of Ghantapa’s pure practice of Heruka and Vajrayogini in the forest, Vajrayogini saw that it was the right time for him to receive her blessings and so she manifested as the wine-seller. Through living with her, Ghantapa attained the state of enlightenment.

      KRISHNAPADA

      Krishnapada received empowerment and teachings on Heruka from Mahasiddha Dzalandarapa. He attained enlightenment in the intermediate state after attaining ultimate example clear light during the clear light of death. Before he passed away he attained extraordinary miracle powers by relying upon the generation stage of Heruka. He could cause wild animals or attackers to freeze just by staring at them, and could tame wild animals with a glance. He could cause fruit to fall from trees just by looking at it, and could walk without touching the ground. When he wanted to cross a river he would simply take off his upper garment and float across on it while sitting in the vajra posture.

      All the lineage Gurus of these instructions, from Ghantapa up to my root Guru, Vajradhara Trijang Losang Yeshe Rinpoche, are actual examples of practitioners who have attained the union of Buddha Heruka through the practice of Heruka body mandala. The instructions in this book are the instructions given direct from Heruka to Ghantapa. If we practise them sincerely, we can accomplish all the attainments and become a pure holy being just like Mahasiddha Ghantapa.

      THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A SINCERE HERUKA PRACTITIONER

      By practising the generation and completion stages of Heruka we can attain enlightenment in one life. However, for this to happen we must be a sincere practitioner with the following five qualifications:

      (1) Having experience of renunciation, bodhichitta and the correct view of emptiness.

      (2) Having received the empowerment of Heruka.

      (3) Keeping our vows and commitments purely.

      (4) Having a clear and unmistaken understanding of how to practise both generation stage and completion stage of Heruka.

      (5) Having indestructible faith in the Deity Heruka, and in the Spiritual Guide from whom we received the empowerment and commentary to the practice.

      Anyone possessing these five qualifications who meditates continually on the generation stage and completion stage of Heruka will definitely attain enlightenment in one life. If we do not yet possess these qualifications, we should strive gradually to attain them.

      Once we have received the empowerment, we have a commitment to meditate on the two stages and, if we fail to do so, we will lose the blessing of the empowerment. Furthermore, our progress will be hampered if we do not also put effort into attaining the other four qualities. Most importantly, we need to develop deep and unchanging faith in Heruka and our Spiritual Guide. We should try to overcome ordinary appearance of our Spiritual Guide and develop faith in him or her. In this way we will accomplish great results. Even if we give our Spiritual Guide an expensive present, if we lack faith in him or her it will have no meaning. On the other hand, if we develop pure faith in our Spiritual Guide we will be making a great offering to him even if we never give him presents. Without faith we are like a burnt seed; just as a burnt seed cannot produce any fruit, so a Tantric practitioner without faith cannot accomplish any results.

      Tantric realizations depend upon faith and imagination. No matter how much we investigate, it is difficult to prove that our Spiritual Guide is a Buddha, so, rather than developing doubts, we should use our powers of imagination to regard our Spiritual Guide as a Buddha and cultivate a pure mind of faith in him or her. Gradually our mind will become purer and purer until eventually we will directly see our Spiritual Guide as a Buddha.

      Vajrayogini

      Training in the Basic Practices

      These instructions are explained under two headings:

      1 Generation stage

      2 Completion stage

      The effectiveness of Heruka body mandala practice depends upon receiving the empowerment. There are two ways to receive the empowerment of Heruka body mandala. The first is a common instruction, and the second is an oral instruction. According to the first instruction practitioners first receive the empowerment of the five Deities of the outer mandala and then receive the empowerment of Heruka body mandala. According to the second instruction practitioners receive the empowerment of the Heruka body mandala without receiving the empowerment of the five Deities of the outer mandala. This oral instruction is the main intention of Mahasiddha Ghantapa.

      In general, Buddha explained four mandalas – the sand mandala, drawing mandala, body mandala and concentration mandala – in which practitioners receive the empowerments. However, Mahasiddha Ghantapa said that the first two, the sand mandala and drawing mandala, are not real mandalas but just creations. The reason why Buddha explained them was to temporarily benefit those who believe these two mandalas to be so important.

      GENERATION STAGE

      The explanation of the Heruka body mandala is based on the sadhana Essence of Vajrayana, which can be found in Appendix II. This explanation has two parts:

      1 How to practise during the meditation session

      2 How to practise during the meditation break

      HOW TO PRACTISE DURING THE MEDITATION SESSION

      This has three parts:

      1 The preliminary practices

      2 The actual practice of generation stage

      3 The concluding practices

      THE PRELIMINARY PRACTICES

      Before engaging in the meditation session, we prepare offerings in front of our shrine, which should contain statues or pictures of Buddha Shakyamuni, Je Tsongkhapa, Heruka, our root Guru, and Dharmapala Dorje Shugden. Buddha Shakyamuni is the founder of Mahayana Buddhism. Je Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden are manifestations of the wisdom of all the Buddhas, and Heruka is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. Maintaining faith in these holy beings causes us to increase our wisdom and compassion, which are the most important practices of Mahayana Buddhism. Faith in our Spiritual Guide is the root of all spiritual realizations.

      We set out three tormas, which can either be made in the traditional СКАЧАТЬ