– Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Compassion and Practice of Tantra
Somewhere in Tibet in a cave, there was a very good Lama in retreat. He was practicing, when suddenly something appeared in front of him. He saw it as a negative, obstructing spirit. So he tried to say some mantras to drive it away. But it did not go away. It said mantras back. Then he visualized himself as a very strong, wrathful deity and again said mantras. In return, that spirit became even more strong and wrathful and said mantras back. After that, the lama realized that this was a spirit of someone who had practiced all those wrathful deities and mantras. When he understood that, he became very sad, and genuine concern and compassion arose for the person who had become this evil spirit after practicing the Vajrayāna methods. Within this genuine concern and compassion, he forgot about his visualization of the wrathful deity, the mantras, and all those things, and his compassion overtook him. At that moment, the spirit began disappearing in front of him. It became smaller and smaller, until in a very weak voice it said, “That I did not have,” and disappeared.
Empowerment and Initiation
Without having received empowerment, one is not allowed to practice any Vajrayāna teaching. It is not that easy to illustrate the meaning of the four empowerments. Empowerment is a teaching, a very direct way of instruction, which conveys the very essence of all teachings simultaneously. It is also an introduction to the mind itself. During empowerment, a strong condition is created such that the conceptualizations of the student are cut completely, and he or she can obtain a glimpse of the truth. For this reason, it is said that when a highly realized teacher grants empowerment to a highly developed disciple, the disciple can reach realization within that very moment.
Empowerment involves many different aspects. It involves the quality of the teacher’s lifetime of preparation and practice, as well as the quality of the student’s own preparation. This latter aspect is most important. Empowerment depends upon the relationship between the master and the disciple. It relies on the firmness and completeness of their trust and confidence since it is a transmission from mind to mind. It requires a very strong understanding and trust from both sides; this is called “blessing” in English, though this word is not a sufficiently accurate translation. The Tibetan is jin gyi lab pa and means to be transformed through a certain environment and influence. This is the meaning of “blessing” from the Buddhist point of view. It denotes a total transformation from the core of our being, which is induced by different things happening around us. Empowerment, in its actual sense, should lead us to receive this blessing and to undergo a genuine and complete transformation. The same is true for each of the different methods provided within the Vajrayāna: mantra, meditation practices, visualization techniques, and so forth. They all have the same objective: the total transmutation of our body, speech, mind, and our entire being. Because empowerment involves all four of these, there are four empowerments.
The four empowerments are called “vase empowerment,” “secret empowerment,” “wisdom empowerment,” and “word empowerment.” The basic constituents that the empowerments work on are the channels, winds, and the essence called tsa, lung, and tiglé in Tibetan. These three are used in connection with the mind. Thus, the first empowerment is related to the channels, the second to the essence, the third to the winds or energies, and the fourth to the mind. The purpose of the first empowerment is to awaken and reveal the Nirmāṇakāya aspect of the disciple. In the same way, the second empowerment is meant to initiate the manifestation of the Sambhōgakāya; the third, the manifestation of the Dharmakāya; and the fourth, the recognition of the Svābhāvika-kāya aspect of our own being. When these four empowerments or initiations are received for the first time, they are called “seed initiations,” since the teacher plants a seed, which is then cultivated by the disciple to gain an initial understanding and experience.
After that, the teacher will give all the instructions necessary to arrive at an actual and genuine realization. In Tibetan, these are called tri. Generally speaking, the entirety of the Vajrayāna teachings divides into three methods of instruction, called wang, lung, and tri. These are “empowerment,” “reading transmission,” and “explanation.” Of these three, empowerment is the shortest and most direct manner of instruction. Thereafter, one should ask for the reading transmission, which is the means conveying the permission to practice. The teacher bestows this transmission by reading the text that is to be practiced to the disciple, who is supposed to listen carefully and one-pointedly. Finally, explanation consists of a very detailed, experiential, and word-by-word elucidation of the particular transmission. Once these three have been received, one can proceed to the application of the actual practice.
In the course of application, the four empowerments are employed again and again. They are the heart of every Vajrayāna practice and one applies them in the form of visualization. This is called lam wang, “the path empowerment.” This term indicates that, in the context of the Vajrayāna, empowerment actually constitutes the path. Practice is nothing other than the application of the four empowerments through which we purify the body, speech, mind, and our entire being. We do this in order to realize the true nature of everything and to reveal the true self, which emerges as the four kāyas.
We may wonder what kind of preparation is needed to be able to receive empowerment in its actual sense. The first and most important prerequisite is to find a teacher we can trust completely and unwaveringly. In this context, blind trust is of no avail. Our confidence needs a foundation. The teacher has to be fully qualified, and the disciple’s trust must be based on the recognition of this. In addition to that, every aspect of our previous Dharma activity—be it study, purification practice, accumulation of merit, or any other type of exercise—is part of our preparation. Even empowerment belongs to our preparation, as long as it has not led us to see the true nature of everything. The aspect of study plays an especially important role at the beginning. In order to be able to practice properly, a correct and clear understanding of the Buddhist teachings is required. We need to know how they relate to and build upon each other and where each instruction belongs. If we endeavor to gain this knowledge first, our practice will have a sound basis.
Everything is a preparation. In this context, we cannot single out certain points. Whatever contributes to our total development—any understanding we gain, any study, purification, and so forth—is part of our preparation. This is even true of empowerment itself, as a practitioner will normally receive more than one. It is extremely rare that one’s first empowerment results in total transformation. Especially in the view of the Tibetan tantric tradition, it is thought that one’s first empowerment is usually not received in a complete way—it is obvious that most people do not become enlightened in the course of that same evening. According to this understanding, empowerment plants a seed that has to be cultivated through practice. In this way, empowerment is also preparation, as is every aspect of our practice and activity in daily life.
The more we gradually gain understanding, the more our way of seeing things will be transformed. As we incorporate genuine experience and realization into our stream of being, as we become more mature, we will derive greater benefit from the next initiation. For this reason, we may receive a hundred or more empowerments before we reach the maturity required to be able to receive initiation in its actual and final sense. When this happens, all the preceding initiations, as well as all the other aspects of our practice, will manifest within it. Empowerment, in this true and ultimate sense, is not something that the teacher gives to the disciple. It comes from within and is equivalent to full realization.
Empowerment is transmitted in four different ways, described as “elaborate,” “non-elaborate,” “very non-elaborate,” and “extremely non-elaborate.” This indicates that empowerment does not necessarily involve a great deal of ritual. For those who have an affinity for the ceremony and who attach great importance to outer form, empowerment can be conveyed in a very elaborate and ritualized manner. For a disciple who does not have this tendency or has an adverse affinity, the teacher can just use the environment, or even no outer support at all. No matter which kind of empowerment we receive, the most important points are our own preparation and state of mind.
The lineage of the Guru is of crucial importance. A reliable ground is needed to evaluate the genuineness of a teacher and see whether an instruction is right or wrong. Anyone can turn up and claim, “I am truly great! I know everything!” But if we have connected with an authentic lineage, we will not fall into traps. Knowing where an instruction comes from enables us to judge its validity. Once we make a decision to pursue the serious practice, we will not want to accept everything that comes our way and waste our time on fantasies. Instead, we will look for quality, for something that is pure and authentic and sustained by genuine realization.
In modern terms, we might say that a teacher should have a good reputation and proper references so that we are able to trace the origin of his or her teaching. When a pure and authentic lineage is present, we will find instructions that stem from a truly experienced great master who has received them from an equally accomplished teacher, and so forth. Then, we can have justified confidence that we are practicing the right kind of teaching. Confidence is essential since doubts can arise anytime. Doubt is a very common phenomenon—everybody has doubts. In the course of our Dharma practice, we will fall into doubts again and again until we reach the first bhūmi or level of enlightenment. This is the point at which the truth of cessation is seen directly to a certain extent—no longer in terms of a passing experience but in terms of stable realization.
The Creation Stage Practices
In Vajrayāna practice the process of birth and death is exercised through the visualization of a deity. Which deity is visualized will depend on each students’ personal affinity and need, and therefore will depend on the individual instruction of his or her spiritual teacher. Depending upon different sadhanas, or meditation texts, the deity is either visualized in front of oneself, or above the crown of one’s head, or one visualizes oneself as the deity.
Any visualization is preceded by three types of samādhi. During the first samādhi, the mind is left in its suchness in order to allow the mind to manifest in its natural state, which is the union of emptiness and compassion. This manifestation is the second samādhi, from which birth takes place in the form of a seed syllable or a color. This initial creation forms the third samādhi, which then transforms into the particular deity to be visualized.
The purpose of any visualization practice is to purify the four modes of birth that we may have undergone countlessly during our various preceding lifetimes. Each of these has left kārmic imprints in our minds that need to be cleared away. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that one thorough purification will take care of everything. Every Vajrayāna practice is complete in itself. It is therefore not necessary to practice all the different forms of the creation stage that the old yogi describes. These are mainly due to different sadhanas. Which of these is used individually again depends on the personal relationship between master and disciple.
The creation stage practice itself has seven parts, of which the first five are preliminaries, which will give rise to five experiences, those of movement, attainment, familiarization, stability, and final accomplishment. The preliminaries are: focusing on the deity, curing defects in the visualization, separating from the deity, bringing the deity onto the path, and mixing the mind with the deity. In their course, eight signs of clarity and stability will manifest, which are the sign that the highest stage of shiné meditation is achieved.
When these signs are present, one is prepared for the sixth point, the actual creation stage practice, called “Actualizing the Deity.” It is carried out within the framework of “the four nails,” which are the nails of samādhi, of mantra, of irreversible understanding, and of manifestation and absorption. These nails again form four stages, called the “approach” practice, the “close approach” practice, the “accomplishment” practice, and the “great accomplishment” practice. It is important to understand that the practice of the creation stage is not something that is mastered easily. It may take a lifetime or even many lifetimes until the meditative capacity described as its result is achieved, being in fact the capacity of an enlightened being. Nevertheless, the Vajrayāna takes the fruit as the path. For this reason, one trains in the full content of the sādhanā to be practiced right from the beginning, thereby mastering the different aspects of creation step-by-step.
The seventh aspect of creation stage practice involves the way to carry its impact into every aspect of life. It teaches the view of utter purity and how to practice in light of this view during the daytime, during sleep, and during dreams.
During the first samādhi, “the samādhi of suchness,” the mind is allowed to be in its actual uncreated state without making any changes or modifications. The mind is left the way it is, in its present state. It is allowed to abide in the present moment without putting any concept onto it. This is the ground samadhi that stands at the beginning of any creation stage practice. One always starts with leaving one’s mind in its suchness, in complete nowness, in its true uncontrived nature without adding anything to it.
When doing so, the nature of our mind itself proves to be radiant with goodness and warmth, with all-encompassing compassion that manifests in spontaneous bliss. This is the second samādhi, the samadhi of overall appearance. Here the term “compassion” is to be understood in light of the Vajrayāna. It is not compassion in the sense of feeling sad and full of pity upon seeing something negative happen. In the experience of the Vajrayāna, compassion manifests within spontaneous bliss. This is ultimate Bodhichitta, the expression of the deep insight into the true nature of our mind and everything else. Once everything is seen as it is, it is also seen that every being suffers unnecessarily. Suffering is not the nature of sentient beings. Their nature is the union of emptiness and bliss. Nevertheless, as long as this is not understood, sentient beings suffer tremendously in various ways. Upon seeing this, great compassion arises in someone who understands the true nature of the mind. This compassion is completely uncontrived and free from any artifice, such as thinking, “I should be kind to my fellow beings.” This is called “the samadhi of overall appearance or manifestation.” For a beginner, though, who does not realize the nature of mind and of everything else, this means to give rise to the feeling of compassion using the methods taught in the Mahāyāna system.
The foregoing is to say that there are two aspects, completely inseparable from each other. The first is emptiness, the experience of our own true nature or of the way everything really is. This is totally unchanging and cannot be altered. The second is compassion, the radiance native to the nature of mind. The manifestation of their union appears in the form of the seed syllable, which can be visualized as a letter like Hung, or Hri, or it can be visualized as a color. This is the third samādhi, called “the samādhi of the seed.”
The three samādhis described above are the essential points within any visualization or creation stage practice. “Emptiness” can be spoken of in the context of the three samādhis, but this term should not be understood in its literal sense. It stands for the true nature of the mind. The mind is allowed to rest in its natural state without adding or removing anything. Then, there is the flow of its natural spontaneous compassion and bliss. From this union of our ultimate nature and its radiance, also called the union of wisdom and compassion, the first birth takes place. The first thought that comes up is taken as the working material to create the visualization. When a thought appears in our mind, we usually think of something: a sound, color, or anything else. Instead of following our habitual pattern, we try to create something that is related to the deity and the visualization we intend to do. This is the seed syllable which then transforms into or gives birth to something else.
The Completion Stage Practices
The purpose of all creation stage practices is to dissolve our attachment to the solidity and independent existence of ourselves and the phenomenal world around us. We create the image of a deity in our mind that stands out clearly in all its features, and yet is neither solid nor real. It comes into the mind like a rainbow and is not graspable in any way. At the same time, it radiates all goodness and any perfect quality, thus being an image of the true nature of mind. Nevertheless, it is still an image, a further creation of our mind, and we may easily develop an attachment to this pure and radiant manifestation that we have created. This is a more subtle attachment, but still an attachment.
The purpose of the completion stage is to cut this attachment as well. We come back to the state of mind from which the first creation of the deity arose, to the samādhi of suchness. Thus the wheel comes full circle: the mind is left in complete emptiness. From this emptiness the pure and vivid manifestation of the deity arises, which while present is not different from emptiness, and which then dies—dissolving back into emptiness.
In the context of the Vajrayāna, emptiness is to be understood as “emptiness endowed with all perfect aspects.” This refers to the fact that the nature of mind—when realized—proves to be not just empty. It has a radiance and displays appearance, manifesting in unceasing play. Thus it is the inseparable union of emptiness and appearance, or of emptiness and clear light.
The stage of completion practice that the old yogi points out refers to this understanding and therefore requires a very high level of insight into the true nature of mind. It is presented here to give an impression, and an inspiration to aspire to the final goal. Completion stage practice, when carried out in this light, has a more elaborate and totally unelaborate aspect, the first involving a focus and the second being without focus. The former consists of different practices commonly called “yogas,” such as the “six yogas of Naropa.” They are usually practiced in a retreat situation and involve working with the subtle aspects of the psycho-physical body, which are the channels, chakras, bindus, and winds. Although these methods involve a great amount of techniques, such as very detailed visualizations and so forth, they are considered as completion stage practices. The completion stage practice without focus means resting in the true nature of the mind itself. This is called “Mahāmudra” in the Kagyü tradition and “Mahā Ati” in the Nyingma tradition.