general, completion stage has various objects of meditation, such as the channels, the winds, the drops, inner fire, or the letters located within the precise points of the various channel wheels; and whether a particular practice is a direct or an indirect inner fire meditation depends upon the actual object of meditation. As explained above, inner fire is the clear, red drop inside the navel channel wheel. It is called ‘inner fire’ because it is the nature of heat. If a practitioner visualizes this red drop as a flame and meditates on that, he or she is practising a direct meditation on tummo.
The Tibetan term ‘tummo’ means ‘Fierce One’ and is generally used to refer to Heroines, who are slightly wrathful in appearance and who bestow spontaneous great bliss on their consorts, the Heroes. The red drop at the navel in the nature of fire is also called tummo because its function is similar to that of the fierce Heroines. In this text, however, it will be referred to simply as ‘inner fire’.
When practising the yoga of inner fire, we visualize the red drop in the form of the letter short-AH (see Appendix III). This letter is called the ‘short-AH of inner fire’ and, in the practice of Mahamudra, meditation on this letter is recognized as a supreme method for initially bringing the winds into the central channel. In his teachings, Milarepa frequently referred to this letter as ‘my short-AH’. One day his disciple Gampopa told him that when he practised single-pointed concentration he could remain for seven days in one uninterrupted session. ‘So what?’, replied Milarepa, ‘You sit for seven days but do not experience the clear light. If you meditated on my short-AH of inner fire you would experience the clear light very quickly.’
By meditating on inner fire, we will quickly be able to attain the realizations of tranquil abiding and superior seeing and, on the basis of these, we will be able to attain both example clear light and meaning clear light. Thus, the fruits of inner fire meditation are manifold. To compare other methods to inner fire is like comparing a donkey to a fine horse.
Baso Chokyi Gyaltsen
The practice of inner fire was first taught by Conqueror Vajradhara in Hevajra Root Tantra. From there it was incorporated into other practices, such as those of Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, Heruka, and Vajrayogini. Thus, all Tantric meditators look upon Hevajra Tantra as an especially blessed scripture. Because the inner fire practices come directly from Vajradhara, they are practised within all Tibetan Buddhist traditions. As the first Panchen Lama stated in his autocommentary to the root text of the Mahamudra:
If we can bring the winds into the central channel through the force of habits formed in previous lives, this is very good; otherwise we should perform the yoga of inner fire as explained in the Six Yogas of Naropa.
This has been a general introduction to the practice of inner fire. What follows is a detailed explanation of the methods used to ignite the inner fire and cause it to blaze.
If we have a strong wish to follow the path of inner fire, we should practise every day the methods explained below, beginning each session with the following brief preliminaries. We visualize our root Guru in the form of Vajradhara surrounded by the Mahamudra lineage Gurus, who in turn are surrounded by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Heroes, Dakinis and Dharma Protectors. This visualization is similar to that of the Field for Accumulating Merit in Offering to the Spiritual Guide, which is described in detail in Great Treasury of Merit. After visualizing this Field for Accumulating Merit, we make a long or short mandala offering and then recite the following prayer three times while concentrating strongly on its meaning:
I prostrate and go for refuge to my Spiritual Guide
And the sublimely precious Three Jewels.
Through the force of your blessings, may I meet with success
In my practice of inner fire,
And through the force of completing the practice of inner fire,
May I quickly attain the Union of the Mahamudra.
Please make my channels both pliant and smooth,
And make my winds and drops supple.
Through your blessings, may I swiftly accomplish the attainments
Without the slightest difficulty or discomfort.
The last four lines are recited to eliminate the causes of physical hindrances that can impede our progress and prevent success in our practice. To perform completion stage meditations, we must be healthy, with pliant and smooth channels, supple winds, and flexible white and red drops. Otherwise we may develop wind diseases (Tib. lung) or other physical illnesses.
After reciting this prayer three times, we should generate a special motivation of bodhichitta – a mind that wishes to attain perfect Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. We do this while reciting the following prayer three times:
For the sake of all living beings I must become
A perfect Buddha in this life.
Therefore I will now practise the yoga of inner fire
To attain my goal as swiftly as possible.
Both aspiring bodhichitta and engaging bodhichitta are included in this prayer, the first two lines referring to the former and the last two to the latter. The precious mind of bodhichitta is absolutely essential if our practice of inner fire is to be a Mahayana practice, not to mention a Vajrayana one. If our meditation on inner fire is not conjoined with the minds of refuge and bodhichitta, it will become a non-Buddhist path, and a yoga of inner fire performed for worldly purposes is not a path to full enlightenment. Because there is a great difference in motivation between worldly practices and Dharma practices, their paths and fruits are also very different.
After reciting and meditating on the meaning of these prayers, we imagine that the Field for Accumulating Merit and the lineage Gurus all dissolve into our root Guru, Vajradhara. Then, with our palms pressed together at our heart in a gesture of supplication, we request our root Guru to come to the crown of our head. When he arrives there, we feel that our crown channel wheel opens. Our Guru then gradually diminishes to the size of a thumb, enters through our crown, and descends through our central channel. Finally he dissolves into the indestructible wind and indestructible mind inside the indestructible drop in the centre of our heart channel wheel. We contemplate very strongly that our subtle body, speech, and mind have been blessed. Our subtle body is the very subtle wind upon which our very subtle mind is mounted. The combination of these two possesses the potential to communicate, and this is our subtle speech.
In addition to these meditations on refuge, bodhichitta, and receiving the blessings of our Spiritual Guide, it is important at the beginning of our practice of inner fire to generate clear appearance and divine pride of ourself as the Deity. During generation stage, the Deity may be visualized as having many arms, legs, and faces, but during completion stage meditations the Deity is always visualized as having only one face and two arms. For example, if our personal Deity is Heruka, during completion stage practices we visualize ourself as Heruka with one face and two arms and embracing Vajravarahi.
During completion stage meditation, our posture should be impeccable. If possible, we should sit in the seven-point posture of Buddha Vairochana, realizing that each of the seven features has a specific purpose. For some people, however, the vajra posture – in which the feet are placed upon the opposite thighs – is difficult to hold comfortably. If this is the case, we should
