as a Tantric Buddha endowed with the seven pre-eminent qualities of embrace.
According to some Tibetan commentaries to Offering to the Spiritual Guide we should generate ourselves as Yamantaka at this point, but according to the first Panchen Lama we should generate ourself as our personal Deity. Thus, if we usually practise Yamantaka Tantra we should generate as Yamantaka at this point, but if we usually practise Heruka Tantra we should generate as Heruka, and so on.
As already explained, when we practise Offering to the Spiritual Guide it is very beneficial to try to receive the blessings of the three principal Deities: Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, and Heruka. One way to do this is to regard Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang as the same nature as Yamantaka, visualize the thirty-two Deities of Guhyasamaja within his body, and generate ourself as Heruka. Even if our normal practice is Vajrayogini, we can still generate ourself as Heruka for the purposes of this sadhana because Heruka and Vajrayogini are the same nature, and if we visualize ourself as Heruka we necessarily visualize ourself as Vajrayogini.
There now follows a brief explanation of how to perform self-generation as Heruka. If we have the time we can practise a more extensive self-generation according to the sadhanas entitled The Yoga of Buddha Heruka, which can be found here, and Essence of Vajrayana; but if we do not have much time or if we are performing Offering to the Spiritual Guide as a group puja, we can practise instantaneous self-generation as follows.
Having dissolved the objects of refuge and mixed our mind with our Guru’s mind we strongly imagine that our mind has transformed into spontaneous great bliss mixed with emptiness, and we meditate on this for a while. Then we imagine that our whole body is pervaded by blissful blue light, the nature of our mind. This light slowly spreads outwards from our body, dissolving the entire universe and its inhabitants into light. Gradually, from the outer edges of the universe everything then dissolves inwards, leaving behind only emptiness, until everything has dissolved into our body. Then our body slowly dissolves from below and above until it completely disappears. Now everything has become emptiness. At this point we imagine that our mind of spontaneous great bliss, which is completely unified with our Guru’s mind, mixes with emptiness like clear water mixing with clear water. Without losing this experience of bliss and emptiness, one part of our mind identifies this experience as the clear light of a Buddha’s Truth Body, and we develop divine pride of being the Truth Body, thinking ‘I am Truth Body Heruka.’ We meditate on this for a while.
During this meditation one part of our mind is experiencing bliss, another part is perceiving emptiness, another part is meditating on emptiness, and another part is generating divine pride of being the Truth Body. This meditation is called ‘bringing death into the path of the Truth Body’. It is a very powerful meditation that performs many functions simultaneously. It purifies the mind, it helps to reduce and eventually to eradicate our self-grasping, it is a powerful method for overcoming ordinary appearance and ordinary conception, it functions to prevent ordinary death, it causes the ripening of the completion stage realization of clear light, it sows the seed to attain the actual Truth Body of a Buddha, and it is a collection of wisdom. When we train in this meditation, we are training in ultimate bodhichitta. Previously we generated conventional bodhichitta by developing the wish to become a Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings; now without losing this motivation we train in mixing our mind with emptiness. This is training in ultimate bodhichitta.
We meditate like this for a while and then one part of our mind thinks:
Even though I have attained the Truth Body of a Buddha, if I remain like this I will not be able to benefit sentient beings because they are unable to see me. Therefore I must arise from this state as a Buddha’s Form Body.
With this motivation we imagine that our mind of inseparable bliss and emptiness transforms into an oval-shaped beam of blue light, about one cubit in height, standing vertically on a lotus and sun cushion. Without paying too much attention to the actual form of our body we should generate the thought ‘Now I have attained the subtle form of a Buddha’, and in this way meditate for a while on the divine pride of being the Enjoyment Body. This meditation is called ‘bringing the intermediate state into the path of the Enjoyment Body’.
After a while, one part of our mind thinks:
Even this form is too subtle to be seen by most sentient beings. If I am to help all sentient beings I must arise in a more visible form.
With this motivation, we imagine that our mind in the form of blue light gradually expands in size and assumes the form of Heruka, with one face and two hands and embracing Vajravarahi. We then develop divine pride thinking ‘I am Emanation Body Heruka’, and meditate on this. This meditation is called ‘bringing rebirth into the path of the Emanation Body’. Then, while maintaining the divine pride of being Heruka, we recite the line from the sadhana:
From the state of great bliss I arise as the Guru-Deity.
When we practise self-generation in this way we forget our ordinary, gross body and mind and identify with the completely pure body and mind of Heruka. In this way, our mind remains calm and peaceful and our delusions gradually diminish. We never generate anger, attachment, or other impure minds, but see everything purely as a Buddha does. If we are able to maintain divine pride of being Heruka at all times, there will be no basis for self-grasping or self-cherishing to arise, and we will have attained a ‘perfectly pure mind of great virtue’.
These three meditations are called ‘bringing the three bodies into the path’ because they are a special method for bringing the three resultant bodies of a Buddha into the present path and using them right now as a means to attain enlightenment. Through regular training in these meditations our ordinary appearance and ordinary conception diminish and we gradually purify ordinary death, intermediate state, and rebirth, and transform them into the three bodies of a Buddha. Eventually we become the actual Guru-Deity.
PURIFYING THE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS INHABITANTS
A fully qualified Tantric practice must include the four complete purities:
(1) Complete purity of place
(2) Complete purity of body
(3) Complete purity of enjoyments
(4) Complete purity of deeds
The second of these, complete purity of body, is included within the practice of self-generation; the first and fourth, complete purity of place and complete purity of deeds, are included within this preliminary practice; and the third, complete purity of enjoyments, is included within the next preliminary practice, blessing the offerings.
As already explained, from the point of view of Highest Yoga Tantra the root of samsara is ordinary appearance and ordinary conception. The reason why we see faults in our environment, our friends, and even our Teachers is that we have ordinary, impure appearances. Someone who is free from impure appearances sees everything purely. A pure mind experiences a pure world and an impure mind experiences an impure world. A Buddha, for example, has no impure appearance. He or she has a completely pure body and a completely pure mind. He experiences his environment as a Pure Land and all the beings who inhabit it as Heroes and Heroines; and he experiences all enjoyments as pure enjoyments. Whatever a Buddha eats or drinks, for example, is experienced as nectar; he or she never experiences anything as unpleasant. Why is this? It is because his mind is completely pure, like a radiant sun unobscured by clouds.
According to the Highest Yoga Tantra method of bringing the result into the path, we have to train right now in experiencing complete purity of place, body, enjoyments, and deeds. By training ourself to see the world in a pure way we will develop pure minds, and as we develop pure minds we will naturally see the world in a pure
