The guide of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva, the gateway to purifying negativities and downfalls.
4 The guide of Guru yoga, the gateway to receiving blessings.
If an explanation of these four were given here, this text would become too long. Those who are seriously interested in practising Mahamudra should consult authentic explanations of these practices, such as the one given in The New Guide to Dakini Land, and apply these instructions conscientiously.
THE UNCOMMON PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
As was mentioned earlier, there are two parts to Highest Yoga Tantra meditation: generation stage and completion stage. The techniques of Secret Mantra Mahamudra belong to completion stage. This is preceded by the various yogas of generation stage, which are the uncommon preliminaries. There is a generation stage practice associated with each Highest Yoga Tantra Deity. These are explained in detail in Je Tsongkhapa’s Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path of Secret Mantra and in Khedrubje’s Ocean of Attainments.
There is more to the generation stage of Secret Mantra than merely generating ourself as a particular Deity. For a practice to be an actual generation stage practice, we must generate ourself as a Deity in conjunction with the yoga of bringing the three bodies into the path. If we wish to practise Secret Mantra Mahamudra, but cannot study the above-mentioned texts in which these yogas are extensively explained, we should at least receive brief instructions on generation stage from a qualified Tantric Master. To receive such instructions and put them into practice, we must first receive an appropriate Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment.
If, for example, we have received the empowerment of Heruka, we should practise the generation stage of Heruka Tantra before engaging in Mahamudra. If possible, we should try to practise the generation stage of Heruka according to the commentary, following a sadhana such as The Yoga of Buddha Heruka, which can be found in Appendix II. If this is not possible, we should at least try to practise according to the following extremely condensed method.
We begin by sitting on our meditation cushion and reciting three times:
Eternally I shall go for refuge
To Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
For the sake of all living beings
I shall become Heruka.
Then we visualize:
All worlds and their beings melt into blue light, which then dissolves into me. My body gradually melts into light simultaneously from below and above, gradually becoming smaller and smaller until it dissolves into the blue letter HUM at my heart. The letter HUM then gradually dissolves from the bottom up into the nada. Finally, even the nada disappears, dissolving into clear light emptiness.
At this point we think strongly that our mind and Heruka’s mind are indistinguishably mixed, like water mixed with water. We focus on this clear light Truth Body and generate divine pride by thinking:
This is me; I am the actual Truth Body Buddha Heruka.
This is the brief meditation on bringing death into the path to the Truth Body. It functions principally to prevent ordinary appearances, to purify ordinary death, to cause the ripening of the clear light of completion stage, and to sow the seed to accomplish the actual Truth Body of a Buddha.
Now we visualize:
From the state of emptiness of the Truth Body, my mind instantly transforms into a small beam of blue light, the height of a forearm, standing on a sun cushion in the centre of an eight-petalled lotus of various colours.
We think:
Now I have become the actual Enjoyment Body Buddha Heruka
and we develop the divine pride of being the Enjoyment Body. This is the brief meditation on bringing the intermediate state into the path to the Enjoyment Body. It functions principally to purify ordinary intermediate state, to cause the ripening of the illusory body of the completion stage, and to sow the seed to accomplish the actual Enjoyment Body of a Buddha.
We continue:
Instantly my mind, in the form of a beam of blue light, transforms into Heruka, blue in colour with one face and two arms, holding a vajra and bell, and embracing Vajravarahi.
We think:
Now I have become the actual Emanation Body Buddha Heruka
and we develop the divine pride of being the Emanation Body. This is the brief meditation on bringing rebirth into the path to the Emanation Body. It functions principally to purify ordinary rebirth, to cause the ripening of the completion stage practices of the mixings of the Emanation Body, and to sow the seed to accomplish a Buddha’s actual Emanation Body. At this point, we can meditate on Heruka’s body or we can recite his mantra. If we choose the latter, we focus on the letter HUM at our heart and visualize the mantra around it as we recite.
There is no shorter generation stage practice than this. We should attempt the following Mahamudra meditations only if we have, at the very least, previously performed this practice. If we have a different personal Deity, such as Vajrayogini or Yamantaka, we can still practise this condensed generation stage practice by making the appropriate changes with respect to the Deity, colours, implements, and so forth.
Je Tsongkhapa
Channels, Winds and Drops
THE ACTUAL PRACTICE
As explained in the introduction to the general paths of Secret Mantra, there are three parts to the practice of Mahamudra:
1 How to practise the Mahamudra that is the union of bliss and emptiness
2 How to practise the Mahamudra that is the union of the two truths
3 How to accomplish the Mahamudra that is the resultant Union of No More Learning, the state possessing the seven pre-eminent qualities of embrace
HOW TO PRACTISE THE MAHAMUDRA THAT IS THE UNION OF BLISS AND EMPTINESS
This, the first of the causal-time Mahamudra practices, is presented in two parts:
1 An explanation of the method for generating the object-possessor, spontaneous great bliss
2 An explanation of the method for correctly realizing the object, emptiness
AN EXPLANATION OF THE METHOD FOR GENERATING THE OBJECT-POSSESSOR, SPONTANEOUS GREAT BLISS
There are two methods involved in generating spontaneous great bliss:
1 Penetrating the precise points of one’s own body
2 Penetrating the precise points of another’s body
PENETRATING THE PRECISE POINTS OF ONE’S OWN BODY
This has four parts:
1 Identifying the ten doors through which the winds can enter the central channel
2 The reason why the winds can enter the central channel by penetrating the precise points through these doors
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