– Robert Beér
According to Tibetan medical tantras, the onset of puberty occurs around the age of twelve for a girl, and around sixteen for a boy. Symbolically these ages represent the solar aspect of wisdom for a girl, with the sun’s twelve months and zodiac houses; and the lunar aspect of compassion for a boy, with the moon’s sixteen digits or phases between new and full moon. For this reason, tantric deities in conjugal union are described as being like sixteen-year-old virgins in the full flush of their first sexual embrace, symbolizing the bliss that arises in their face-to-face union as consummate Father and Mother (yab yum). The swelling with the blood of the glans of the male regenerative organ represents an expansion into great bliss, and its vajra, form; the open lotus of the female regenerative organ represents wisdom, and its enclosing nature, emptiness. The three petals of this lotus symbolize the three lower openings of the three main channels. The ‘giving’ of the Mother to the Father, as a bride to groom, symbolizes the marriage of formlessness and form, the union of wisdom and compassion, and the consummation of emptiness and great bliss.
With the arising of the female menstrual cycle with its monthly release of stored ova and the continuous generation of semen in the male, the first two primary conditions for conception arise. When these two primary causes are in optimum fertility, the close proximity of the consciousness of a being seeking rebirth – which is the third primary cause for conception – may enter into their union. The secondary causes for conception are the balance of the five elements, without which physical development of an embryo would be impossible. The karmically driven and ‘disembodied’ consciousness of a being seeking rebirth enters on the breath of the father by the way of the mouth during copulation and exits through the male regenerative organ and into the mother’s womb. The other two ‘doors’ of conception are by way of the crown of the father’s head, and directly into the mother’s womb.
From the intermediate state of seeking rebirth, the incoming consciousness perceives only the dream-like vision of its future parents’ regenerative, which causes attraction and aversion to arise. If a boy is karmically destined to be born, the consciousness is attracted to the mother and experiences aversion towards the father, causing it to self-identify with the ‘white drop’ or shveta bindu of the father. The consciousness of a karmically predestined girl will experience the reversal of these emotional states and self-identify with the fertile ‘red drop’ or rakta bindu of the mother.
As it transmigrates through the three intermediate states (bar do) between death and rebirth, the consciousness of a being seeking rebirth can self-identify with any form throughout the six realms of existence, according to its karmic propensity. Human beings tend to speculate only on human rebirths, but the accounts of Buddha’s previous lives in the voluminous Jataka tales testify the importance placed on non-human rebirths in early Buddhist beliefs. In certain Buddhist doctrines, a human rebirth is said to be as rare as the chances of a turtle surfacing directly into the center of a cork ring floating somewhere on the surface of the great ocean. Rebirth is one of the six realms is karmically determined by the seeds of extreme pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, craving or miserliness, anger, and hatred, coming to fruition within the deva, asura, human, animal, preta, and hell realms respectively. These realms are also ‘visited’ in the bardo of dreaming by the movement of the psychic winds within the body during the dream state. On a psychological level, they may also be viewed as metaphors for the states of consciousness which beings experience in the bardo of waking life, but this is a simplistic understatement of the actual process involved.
The union of the three primary causes of conception – a flawlessly fertile sperm and ovum uniting with the consciousness of a being seeking rebirth – sets the chain of embryonic life in motion by forming the ‘indestructible drop’. This drop is believed to remain in the heart center of the body throughout conscious life until it departs at the time of death. Here the life force or the ‘subtle consciousness’, impelled by its karmic propensities or ‘causal body’, interacts with the indestructible drop to create a ‘blueprint’ of the embryo’s future development as the subtle body of the incarnating consciousness. The white drop of the father is described as giving rise to the creation of the solid white bone tissue, marrow, the brain, and spinal cord, whilst the red drop of the mother is described as generating the soft red matter of blood, muscle tissue, and the solid and hollow organs or viscera. The consciousness of the being seeking rebirth gives rise to the development and consciousness of the sense organs – the ‘door’s by which, ultimately, the mind will experience and interact with the external world.
The five subtle elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, originate the pattern of cell division into muscle and bone tissue (solidity); blood and humidity (liquidity); warmth and complexion (vital heat); breath (respiration); and the orifices of the body (space). Soon after conception, the central channel, with its two subsidiary channels, arises at the heart; and the umbilical cord, with its right and left channels, connects with the uterus to facilitate the development of the embryo. In the first four weeks after conception, the embryo passes through the stages of ‘mingling, clotting, solidifying and rounding’. In the fifth week, the umbilical cord and placenta are formed. In the sixth week, the channel of life arises just behind the central channel itself and parallels in its ascent the less subtle physiological energy winds of its ethereal and extremely subtle precursor. The ‘essences’ of the merged white and red drops in the indestructible drop begin to migrate from the heart center at the midpoint of the central channel. The upper white essence moves up to establish the brain or crown center at the top of the head, and the lower red essence moves downwards to the navel center. The indestructible drop, as the seat of consciousness, remains at the heart center; even though we intellectually conceive of the brain as being the nucleus of the mind and its thoughts, it is actually only the receiver. Primal thought as ‘mind’ arises from the heart center and becomes conceptual in the brain. Our involuntary indication in pointing to ourselves or ‘I’ is to touch the center of the breast and not the forehead. Some modern Tibetan philosophers believe that if brain transplants were possible, the personality of the recipient would still dominate, reinstating its original mind into the confines of a new brain.
Within the conceptual framework of the Tibetan medical tradition, the human embryo continues its development, passing through the stages of fish, turtle, and pig, or the periods described respectively as limbless, limbs and head, and consuming impure food. The male fetus is believed to be positioned on the right side of the mother’s womb, a female fetus on the left, and a hermaphrodite in the middle. Twins occupy both sides of the womb, and like triplets are conceived by a karmically driven psychic wind that divides the original indestructible drop. Just before birth, certain psychic winds, which have remained static in the heart center of the central channel, begin to dissolve into the two subsidiary channels via the navel center and pass out through the nostrils. At the moment of birth and the taking of the first breath, prana – which is the vital energy of the breath – vitalizes the winds within the subtle body, causing the mind to identify with the sensory consciousness of ‘being in the world’. prana, which carries the essence of ‘mind’, is said to occur in five primary and secondary forms as ‘winds’, which ride on the delicate framework of psychic channels or nadis and give rise to an infinite array of manifestations of physical, emotional, mental, psychological, philosophical and spiritual consciousness.
Throughout life, the indestructible drop remains contained within the ‘knot’ at the heart center. It is described as being about the size of a mustard seed, white on its upper half and red on its lower half, and enclosing the very subtle mind and wind of the life force or consciousness within it. The migration of a part of the ‘essence’ of the white and red drops to the crown and the navel centers continues as the child grows. At puberty, these white and red drops reach full maturity, with the onset of the female menstrual cycle around the age of twelve, and the male generation of semen around the age of sixteen. These refined essences of semen and menstrual blood are known as the white and red bodhichittas, and from their respective centers at the crown and navel, they spread throughout the body’s network of nadis.
At the time of natural death, the five inner elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space gradually begin to dissolve into one another. As the earth dissolves into water, the body becomes weaker, and a vision like a shimmering mirage arises. As water dissolves into the fire and bodily fluids are experienced as dehydrating, and an internal vision like smoke arises. As fire dissolves into the air, the heat from the body’s extremities withdraws into the heart, and an internal vision like sparks arises. As air dissolves into space, breathing ceases and a vision like a dying butter lamp arises. Then space itself dissolves into wisdom, as the gross conceptual mind along with its pervasive winds becomes extremely refined and withdraws into the heart center of the ‘life holding’ wind.
The knots in the central channel – which throughout conscious life have restricted the entry of winds into the central channel – now unravel, allowing the white bodhicitta at the crown to descend within the central channel. As this white bindu or bodhichitta drop slowly descends towards the indestructible drop at the heart center, a white appearance like the vision of moonlight on a clear autumn evening arises. When the white appearance dissolves, there next arises the red increase as the red bodhichitta drop at the navel slowly ascends towards the indestructible drop, producing a vision like a clear autumn sky illuminated by the red glow of sunlight. As the white and red drops approach and completely enclose the indestructible drop, the stage of black near-attainment arises, which is experienced as the vision of complete darkness, like a black and empty sky.
Finally, the indestructible drop at the heart center opens, revealing the extremely subtle consciousness and its wind as the ‘clear light of death’, which arises as an exceedingly clear and bright vision, similar to the sky at dawn. After the breaking open of the indestructible drop, the consciousness of the deceased, riding on the very subtle wind which serves as its vehicle, departs through one of the nine apertures of the body into its karmically predestined next realm of rebirth.
If the consciousness escapes through the anus, it signifies a rebirth in the hell realm; through the sexual organ, the animal realm; through the mouth, the hungry ghost or preta realm; through the nose, the human or spirit realm; through the ears, the asura realm; through the navel, the desire god realm; through the eyes, the form god realm; through the top of the head, the formless god realm; and through the aperture of Brahma at the crown of the head, directly into the paradise realm of Amitabha buddha known as Dewachen.
Deprived of its sustaining life force or consciousness, the white and red bodhichitta at the heart center now separate, with the white bindu usually descending and leaving the body through the sexual organ and the red drop ascending and leaving through the nostrils. Clinical death has now reached its conclusion.
There are said to be six different ‘intermediary states’ (bardo), three of which are experienced in life, and three in death. The first is that of waking life; the second is that of the dream state; the third is that of meditative experience; the fourth is that of the death process as described above (the eight visionary appearances described above mark its eight stages); the fifth is that of the after-death intermediary state, and the sixth is that of seeking rebirth.
The eight visionary appearances of the death process are also said to arise daily on the transition from the waking state into the state of deep sleep, although they are not recognized by most human beings due to their lack of awareness of the more subtle levels of consciousness. Since this process occurs every day and is not recognized, it follows that during the actual death process the consciousness of the deceased will have little or no control over the death process, intermediary visionary state, and future rebirth.
A specific aspect of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism which is not found in other forms of Buddhism is that of reincarnate lamas (sprul sku) who can consciously control the death experience in order to take human rebirth in the most beneficial and continuing conditions. This implies complete control over the three bardos of the death process, intermediary state, and future rebirth, within the context of a bodhisattva’s altruistic aspiration to attain the highest enlightenment for the compassionate benefit of all beings.
Vajrayana meditation techniques are essentially composed of ‘formless’ practices which are utilized to develop the awareness of emptiness or shUnyatA or as the ‘visualized form’ branches of Deity Yoga. Deity Yoga employs highly refined techniques of creative imagination, visualization, and photism in order to self-identify with the divine form and qualities of a particular deity as the union of method or skillful means and wisdom.
In the practices of the Highest Yoga-tantra (anuttarayoga tantra), two stages of meditational practice are employed in order for the practitioner to attain supreme enlightenment by the process of actual transformation into the form of the deity. The first stage is known as the ‘generation stage’ or ‘creation stage’, which is perfected by dissolving one’s mind into emptiness and generating the vivid form of the particular meditational deity, with the visualized ‘clear appearance’ of the deity and the quality of the ‘divine pride’ of actually being the deity.
The second stage is known as the ‘completion stage’, which is perfected by causing the psychic winds to enter, abide and dissolve into the central channel of the subtle or vajra body, and release the indestructible bindu at the heart center. With the opening of the indestructible bindu and the dawning of the ‘clear light’, emptiness is consciously realized as the ‘blissful mind of clear light’. This gives rise to the illusory body which manifests in the form of the deity. The union of clear light and illusory body – as the pure empty form of the deity meditating on emptiness – rapidly results in the accumulation of wisdom and method which leads directly to Enlightenment. The sign which indicates the transition from the generation stage to the completion stage is the practitioner’s ability to draw the winds into the central channel. Highest Yoga Tantras are divided into ‘mother tantras’ (yoganiruttara tantras) and ‘father tantras’ (yogottara tantras), which emphasize respectively the development of ‘clear light’ (wisdom) and ‘illusory body’ (method or skillful means), yet each of tantric systems leads to the same goal of full enlightenment. The Six Yogas of Naropa – consisting of the yoga of the vital heat (gtum mo), illusory body yoga, dream yoga, clear light yoga, transference of consciousness, and the yoga of the intermediate state – also employ techniques for controlling the winds and drops within the vajra body.
In the advanced practices of Highest Yoga Tantra, the three bardos or stages of the death experience – the stage of the death process with its eight visionary appearances, the stage of the intermediate state, and the bardo of seeking rebirth – are ‘brought into the path’ by consciously simulating the death experience and transforming it into the three kAyas or bodies of the Buddha. The eight visionary appearances of the generation stage culminate in the dissolution of the winds into the indestructible drop at the culmination stage. The resultant body attained at this stage of ‘clear light’ is the dharmakAya or the formless ‘truth body’ of the Buddha. Arising from emptiness in the symbolic form of a seed-syllable (bIja mantra) in the generation stage culminates in the attainment of the illusory body in the completion stage, and the resultant body attained is the sambhogakAya or ‘enjoyment body’ of the Buddha. Arising as the deity in the generation stage culminates in the attainment of nirmANakAya or ‘emanation body’ of the Buddha in the completion stage. The nirmANakAya is known as tulku in Tibetan, a term which is also applied to reincarnate lamas who have consciously taken rebirth as the physical ‘form body’ of the Buddha.
The three bardo states of the death process, intermediate state, and rebirth are thus transformed into the three divine bodies of the Buddha as the dharmakAya, sambhogakAya, and nirmANakAya. The three kAyas also correspond to the three states of deep sleep, dreaming, and awakeness throughout conscious life. With the attainment of the three kAyas, death itself is transformed into a state of full enlightenment.
Most of the completion stage practices of anuttarayoga tantra, such as those of chakrasamvara, vajrayoginI, vajrabhairava and hevajra tantras, follow the pattern of the early guhyasamAja system; although there are variations in the emphasis placed on certain channel-wheel centers in specific practices, and in knots, drops and winds which arise from the three main channels. The kAlachakra tantra describes an alternative system an account of which is given later.
In the guhyasamAja system, the central channel, known in Sanskrit as the avadhUtI or suShumnA, ascends like a vertical pole from the tip of the regenerative organs to the crown of the head. From the crown, it arches over the skull and forehead to its point of origination between the two eyebrows. Its vertical location within the body is described as being slightly in front of the thicker ‘channel of life’, which ascends in front of the spinal column. The central channel is very straight, subtle, clear, transparent and delicate, and is often described as being blue or white on the outside and blood-red in its interior. In many practices, the central channel is visualized as extending only from the crown of the head to a point which is located four finger-widths below the navel center.
Running parallel and in contact with the central channel in its vertical ascent, are the right and left channels of the sun and the moon. Both of these channels arise at the two nostrils, arch over the crown of the head, and descend adjacent to the central channel until the navel. From here the right solar channel curves slightly away from the central channel and terminates at the anus where its function is to control defecation. The left lunar channel curves away slightly to the right and terminates at the tip of the regenerative organ, where its function is to control urine, semen, and menstrual fluid. The white left lunar channel corresponds to the iDA nadi in the kundalini yoga system, and in Vajrayana is known as lalanA or ‘caressing woman’. The red right solar channel corresponds to the pingalA nadi, or rasanA meaning ‘tongue’. The three main channels – left, right, and center – are also known as the channels of body, speech, and mind.
In the rosary of Sanskrit seed syllables (bIja), the white vowel sounds arise in the white drops of the lunar channel, the red consonants in the red drops of the solar channel, and the non-dual union of the crescent moon dot, placed above the seed syllables, arises in the fire of the central channel. The rosaries of the sixteen white vowels and forty red consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet are commonly visualized circling in both clockwise and anti-clockwise motions; their doubling symbolizes the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks of an enlightened buddha or bodhisattva. The white lunar channel is male – representing the vajra, method (upAya), and semen (shukla). The red solar channel is female – representing the lotus, wisdom (prajnA), and blood (rakta). The central channel, which is empty and of the nature of fire, unifies the polarities of male and female, vajra and Padma, method and wisdom, semen and blood, as the enlightened consciousness of the deity in the indestructible drop within the heart center.
At various points along the central channel, the white lunar and red solar channels cross and coil around the central channel, forming constricting knots. These knots occur at the five main channel-wheel centers, with a single knot formed from the double coiling of the left and right channels at the genitalia, navel, throat, and crown centers and a triple knot at the heart center. The six overlapping coils of the triple knot of the heart center enclose the indestructible drop in a constricting cage. The dawning of the clear light at the last stage of death when the indestructible drop opens, releases the most subtle consciousness from this cage into its future rebirth. In the guhyasamAja system, the two openings of the central channel at the forehead and tip of the sexual organ are also closed by constricting knots which effectively seal the central channel.
The channel wheels are the five main plexuses of constriction along the central channel, where the knots arise and where various nadis emanate like petals or the spokes of a wheel. They are visualized like the spokes of an umbrella, which alternatively arch towards each other along the central channel. The four upper channel wheels of crown, throat, heart, and navel are the ones most commonly visualized in meditation practices. At the crown is the wheel of great bliss; it arches downwards with thirty-two white spokes. At the throat is the wheel of enjoyment, which arches upwards with sixteen red spokes. At the heart is the wheel of phenomena, with its eight white spokes arching downwards in the eight directions. At its center is a circle of space enclosing the indestructible drop within the six coils of its triple knot. At the navel is the wheel of emanation; it arches upwards with sixty-four red spokes and a triangular center. The channel wheel located in the sexual area is known as the wheel of the preservation of bliss and has thirty-two red spokes which arch downwards.
These five channel-wheels at the crown, throat, heart, navel, and genitalia are sealed by the syllables Om AH hum svAhA , and represent the body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities of an enlightened being.
There are many variations in different Vajrayana practices, which makes it impossible to present a definitive system of the three main nadis, channel wheels, and knots. The four main channel-wheels of crown, throat, heart, and navel are only employed in specific practices; whereas up to seven – including the forehead, genitalia, and tip of the regenerative organ, are visualized in others. Many traditions assert that the solar and lunar channels should be reversed for male and female practitioners, with the lunar channel being on the right ‘method’ side for men, and on the left ‘wisdom’ side for women. In the vajrabhairava tantra system, a double knot is formed at the navel center, and here all three channels are white in their interiors. In the practice of inner heat (gtum mo), the central channel is often visualized with the thickness of an arrow shaft, and the right and left channels, with the thickness of wheat stalks running parallel to it, but with a separation of around half an inch on either side. The crown center may also be located at the upper back of the head, as the aperture at the top of the head is held to be the doorway into the formless god realm.
Common to most Buddhist traditions, however, is the belief that the subtle body is permeated with 72000 nadis as in the Hindu kundalini yoga system. These 72000 nadis are derived from the eight nadi petals or stokes of the heart channel wheel. Each of these eight main nadis have a name, a function, and a supporting wind. From the end of each arise three branching nadis colored white, red, and blue – representing body, speech and mind – and which carry the white bodhichitta drops, the red bodhichitta drops, and the supporting winds. These twenty-four nadis travel to different parts of the body and outwardly form the twenty-four sacred places of the heruka maNDala wherein reside the twenty-four vIras and yoginIs. The twenty-four sacred pilgrimage sites (pIThasthAna) of the Chakrasamvara Tantra are derived from the legend of Shiva’s first wife Sati, whose dismembered body was divided into twenty-four parts by Vishnu, and scattered across India. Each of these twenty-four nadis again divide into three, making a total of seventy-two channels, which likewise carry white and red drops and winds. These seventy-two channels then divide into a thousand branches, giving a final total of 72000 nadis. These nadis carry impure winds of the conceptual mind which dissolve into the central channel at the time of death, and which are brought under control during the generation stage of practice. During the completion stage of anuttarayoga tantra, their refined energy winds enter the central channel and release the constricting knots.
The drops or bindu (thig le) are spread throughout the channels in their gross form and within the indestructible drop in their subtle form. The white bodhichitta bindu at the crown is the source of white seminal fluid and the red bodhichitta bindu at the navel is the source of all fecund blood. The equally abiding wind, which has its seat in the navel center, creates the vital heat of the body which is responsible for warmth and digestion. In the yogic practice of inner heat, a technique known as vase breathing is employed to compress the air at the navel center, causing it to ignite and blaze upwards through the central channel like a twisting needle of fire and to melt the white bodhichitta at the crown, causing great bliss to arise in the blazing and melting. chaNDAlI in Sanskrit means ‘female outcaste’, and a physical by-product of its accomplishment is the yogin’s ability to withstand bitter cold, to melt snow, or dry wet blankets on his naked body.
The melting of the gross drops and their movement through the channels creates the experience of ordinary bliss. Sexual intercourse agitates the motion of the downward-voiding wind, creating the experience of sexual pleasure. This agitation ignites the ordinary fire and causes the gross drops in the lower body to melt, descend and flow through the sexual organ during orgasm. The temporary bliss of orgasm does not, however, arise in the central channel; yet it forms a metaphor for the enduring great bliss created by the actual melting of the bodhichitta in the practice of inner heat or other anuttarayoga tantra practices.
The Kalachakra Tantra channel-wheel system presents an alternative inner cosmology of the three main channels, winds, bindus, and channel-wheels to the guhyasamAja, hevajra and chakrasamvara model described above. Here, the central channel arises between the eyebrows, arches to the crown, and then descends vertically to the tip of the genitalia. The left, white lunar channel and the right, red solar channel arise at the two nostrils, and following the path of the central channel terminate one finger width below the central channel in kanda. From here the left channel controls the release of urine and regenerative fluids and the right channel the function of excretion. At each of the six channel-wheel centers of crown, forehead, throat, heart, navel, and genitalia, constricting knots are formed by the coiling of the lunar and solar channels. At the navel center, the single knotted loops of the two side channels create a specific plexus that corresponds to the sixfold scheme of kAlachakra’s six elements. Here the central channel above the navel chakra is identified with the energy of the eclipse planet rAhu, and below the navel chakra with the energy of kAlAgni. Rahu represents the green element of space and carries wind in the central channel above the navel. KAlAgni represents the sixth blue element of wisdom and carries semen below the navel center. The lower extent of the left lunar channel below the navel represents the black eastern element of air, and carries urine; above the navel, it represents the white northern element of water and carries semen. The right solar channel below the navel represents the yellow western element of earth, and carries excrement; above the navel, it represents the red southern element of fire and carries blood. This sixfold scheme creates a maNDala of kAlachakra’s six elements of earth, water, fire, air, space, and wisdom. Kalachakra’s left and right legs are colored white and red to represent the lunar and solar channels. His three necks are colored white, black, and red to symbolize the lunar, central and solar channels; and his four faces are colored black at the front (rAhu), yellow at the back (kAlAgni), white on the left (moon) and red on the right (sun). These four also arise as four stacked discs of the moon, sun, rAhu and kAlAgni on which kAlachakra stands.
The constricting knots along the central channel allow a minimal movement of energy winds to pass within the central channel, unlike the guhyasamAja-related systems where the central channel is normally empty. Like the guhyasamAja-model the eight spokes of the heart channel-wheel branch into twenty-four, seventy-two, and finally 72000 nadis.
Unlike the guhyasamAja system, with its two drops of white and red bodhichitta, the kAlachakra tantra describes four kinds of bindus. These arise in the crown, throat, heart, and navel centers and correspond to the four states of existence. The body drop is located in the crown center and gives rise to the waking state; the speech drop arises in the throat center and gives rise to the dream state; the mind drop is located in the heart center and gives rise to the state of deep sleep; and the awareness drop arises in the navel center and gives rise to the state of bliss and ecstasy. This concludes some differences between the two channel-wheel systems.
The esoteric symbolism of the two wind energies of the lunar channels entering, abiding, and dissolving into the central channel, forms a potent polarity symbol in Vajrayana. The dualities of male and female, sperm and egg, vajra and lotus, moon and sun, method and wisdom, bliss and emptiness, all merge into the non-dual union which is the pristine ‘unborn’ state of enlightenment. The moon represents relative bodhichitta which is the spontaneous aspiration towards enlightenment, and the sun represents ultimate bodhichitta, or the ripening effect of discriminating awareness (prajnA) which directly realizes shUnyatA. In the completion stage of anuttarayoga tantra, the moon represents the attainment of the illusory body, and the sun the realization of clear light. As for colors, the white and red bodhichitta drops of moon and sun arise as the silver and gold metal ornaments, and the pearl and coral mineral ornaments, which adorn the forms of peaceful deities.
The goddess Palden Lhamo is depicted with a blazing sun at her navel and the moon at her crown. Shaivite-related deities such as chakrasamvara have a one-day-old crescent moon at their crown, symbolizing the increase of white bodhichitta. The goddess Troma Nagmo is described as having a red sun disc as her right eye, a white moon disc as her left eye, and as her third or wisdom eye, the reddish-white union of sun and moon. The familiar tantric symbol of a white skull-cup filled with blood represents the union of great bliss and emptiness as the father and mother’s bodhichitta drops creating the bone and blood at the crown and navel chakras. In ancient Indian alchemical tradition, the white bodhichitta symbolizes the vIrya of shiva as mercury, and the red bodhichitta the regenerative fluid of pArvatI as cinnabar or sulfur. The crucible is the navel chakra, the distillation flask the central channel, the fire is chANDAlI, and the bellows is the vase breath.
The visualization of deities that arise at the heart center is generated from a bIja or seed syllable, which arises from a moon and sun disc placed above an eight-petalled lotus. Here the eight-petalled lotus is the heart-channel wheel of phenomena, the moon and sun discs are the two halves of the indestructible drop, and the bIja which transforms into the deity is the pure consciousness that resides in the indestructible drop. In peaceful deity visualizations, the dominant color scheme is of a white male deity in a conjugal embrace with his red female consort. This represents the union of the red and white creating a new life as pure consciousness. In wrathful forms the predominant colors are of a blue-black male embracing a red consort, this represents the blue-black poison and red sacrificial blood of ego-death, selflessness, and the death or cessation of conceptualization.
Numerically the nadis of the channel wheels are derived from doubling of the base number four, which produces the eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and sixty-four spokes of the various chakras. In the geometric maNDala layout, which forms a common design in most deity practices, this numerical sequence is expressed in the placement of deities in the body, speech, mind, great bliss, and emanation wheels which occur in the lotus circles and protection wheels of the mandala. The eight-petalled lotus which is usually placed at the mandala’s center represents the eight spokes of the heart chakra as the mind wheel of dharmakAya. The sixteen petals of the surrounding lotus circle – which may embody eight directional deities with their consorts, the sixteen offering goddesses, or the sixteen arhats – represent the throat chakra as the speech wheel of sambhogakAya. The sixty-four variegated lotus petals on the innermost of the outer protective circles represent the sixty-four spokes of the navel chakra as the emanation wheel of rUpakAya. The thirty-two golden vajras which encircle the next protective circle of the black vajra-tent, symbolize the thirty-two major marks of an enlightened being. The thirty-two variegated colored flame-banks of the fire mountain in the outermost protective circle, symbolize the thirty-two spokes of the crown chakra as the body wheel of great bliss of the nirmANakAya.
The eight great charnel grounds, which frequently form a fourth protective circle of the mandala, encapsulate the complex symbolism of both the sUtra and tantra paths. The main channel wheels are also numerically illustrated in the six bone ornaments worn by wrathful forms and semi-wrathful deities. At the crown is a netted bone chain with thirty-two loops that encircle the top hair-knot. At the throat is a bone necklace with sixteen hanging net loops. At the heart is an eight-spoked bone wheel, with four double strands of two hundred bone heads that form a cross around the upper body, symbolizing the 72000 nadis which emanate from the eight spokes of the heart chakra. Around the waist is a bone belt with sixty-four net loops, representing the sixty-four spokes of the navel channel wheel. Bone bracelets, armlets, and anklets form the fifth bone ornament; and a pair of bone earrings, representing the lunar and solar channels, forms the sixth. These six bone ornaments are shaped to correspond with vajrasattva and the Five Buddhas: with jewel-shaped pendants on the upper torso, lotus-shaped bones at the heart, a vajra-shaped bone at the center of the back, crossed vajras at the navel, noose-shaped loops at the waist, and wheel-shaped bones on the bracelets, armlets, and anklets.
To conclude, here is a passage from David Snellgrove’s translation of the Hevajra Tantra – “Of the actual method of controlling the physical functions, the text tells nothing directly. They are, however, clearly implied in the more general statements. The Taoists treating of similar practices are certainly more explicit. The various processes are here described explicitly, whereas in the Indian texts one is presented primarily with schemes and patterns. Nor is any distinction made between an imagined and an actual physical process, because no such distinction is recognized. One surmises that the real process was elaborated to confirm with a theoretical scheme, just as the master’s responsibility towards his pupil is elaborated into the theory of the five families. This has the effect of concealing what is actually involved, and I doubt whether this particular problem is soluble. To ask what may appear to us an all-important question: Are the chakras within the body conceived of as real psychic centers, or are they imagined devices like the external mandala? – is to bring contradiction into the whole basic theory from the standpoint of the texts. For them, the whole process, internal and external, is bhAvanA (mental production), and the mandala, although imagined (bhAvita), exists on a higher plane of reality than the phenomenal world it represents. Likewise, the idealized representation of the body, consisting of the nadis and chakras, exists on a higher plane than the normal physical structure of the body. Then, finally, these higher stages themselves are dissolved. The same applies to the divine forms. They are not a pure symbol as we might interpret them. We regard them as unreal in the beginning. The Buddhists, however, regard them as real in the beginning, more real than flesh and blood. Hence arises the need of insisting that the divine form too consists of just something that comes into existence. In fact, the very power of these gods as means of purification resides in the initial belief that they instilled. They are the essence of samsAra, and one must learn to conceive them in terms of their non-existence. To call such use symbolic is not adequate, for as pure symbol they would be powerless. Nor is any distinction to be made between an esoteric and exoteric interpretation, between the few who know all these things are symbols, and the many who place faithful trust in them. They all, Siddhas and prthagjanas alike, believe in these deities. The Siddhas have, however, trained themselves to regard them as though they were non-existent. It clearly only becomes possible to understand these texts thoroughly by accepting their Weltanschauung complete, and this is probably an impossibility for a modern European. To think one has done so is not sufficient. One is then placed in the predicament of explaining away much that is unacceptable, and one manner of doing this is an appeal to symbolism and esoteric interpretation, but these are notions that have no meaning in a genuine tradition. A distinction is made, it is true between an inner (adhyatmika) and outer (bahya) interpretation with regard to the actual rites, but they remain rites nonetheless, and the distinction arises from no embarrassment with regard to them, or desire to explain them away. On the contrary, the outer sense is usually commended as necessary to lead men to the inner, which is precisely their use. The position is completely reversed by certain European and modern Indian exponents of these doctrines, who commend them to us for their esoteric significance, as though one could dispense with all else. Such an interpretation is historically inaccurate.