The state of great bliss in an instant,
At your lotus feet humbly I bow.
Although our Spiritual Guide is likened to a jewel, no matter how precious external jewels may be, they have no power to give us true happiness or protect us from suffering. There is nothing in the external world that can compare with our Spiritual Guide. In the sadhana, the words ‘jewel-like Guru’ simply reveal that our Spiritual Guide is very precious. ‘Vajra Holder’ means that he or she is a manifestation of Buddha Vajradhara.
Compared to the lives of beings in the god realms, a human life is very short, like an instant. However, if we sincerely rely upon our Spiritual Guide, through his or her kindness we can accomplish the great bliss of Buddha Heruka and become an enlightened being in this short human life.
According to Highest Yoga Tantra, placing our hands together at the heart when we prostrate shows that we want to experience great bliss by dissolving the ten inner winds into the central channel at our heart. In this context, our ten fingers symbolize our ten inner winds, while placing the fingers together and tucking the thumbs inside symbolizes the inward gathering of the ten inner winds. Touching the point at the level of the heart symbolizes the dissolution of the ten inner winds into the central channel at our heart, and the jewel-like shape symbolizes the great bliss of Buddhahood. It is in order to receive these attainments that we prostrate to our root Guru.
To make a special prostration to Guru Heruka Father and Mother, we begin by contemplating his pre-eminent qualities through concentrating on the meaning of the following prayer:
As times become ever more impure
Your power and blessings ever increase,
And you care for us quickly, as swift as thought;
O Chakrasambara Father and Mother, to you I prostrate.
Now we make prostrations to the entire assembly of the Field of Merit by concentrating on the meaning of the following prayer:
To the Gurus who abide in the three times and the ten directions,
The Three Supreme Jewels, and all other objects of prostration,
I prostrate with faith and respect, a melodious chorus of praise,
And emanated bodies as numerous as atoms in the world.
We generate deep faith that sincerely wishes to attain the great bliss experienced by all the holy beings, which arises through the dissolution of the inner winds into the central channel at the heart. Then we imagine that from every pore of our body we emanate another body, and that from every pore of these bodies we emanate yet more bodies, until our emanated bodies fill the entire world. While reciting the prayer from the sadhana, we strongly believe that all these countless bodies make prostrations to our root Guru, who is inseparable from the assembly of Guru Heruka and all the lineage Gurus, Yidams, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dakas, Dakinis and Dharma Protectors.
Shawari
OFFERING
This has five parts:
1 Outer offerings
2 Inner offering
3 Secret offering
4 Thatness offering
5 Offering our spiritual practice
OUTER OFFERINGS
This has two parts:
1 The eight outer offerings
2 Offering the five objects of desire
THE EIGHT OUTER OFFERINGS
The eight outer offerings are water for drinking, water for bathing the feet, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food and music. The purpose of making these offerings to the Gurus, Yidams, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is to increase our collection of merit, or good fortune, and thereby create the main cause for our wishes to be fulfilled. In particular, by offering food and nectar we will gain freedom from the suffering of poverty and experience the enjoyments of the Buddhas. By offering bathing water and perfume we will become free from samsaric rebirths and attain the Form Body of a Buddha. By offering beautiful flowers we will become free from sickness, ageing and other bodily ailments, and we will attain the special attributes of the body of a Buddha. By offering incense we create the cause to keep pure moral discipline and attain pure concentration. By offering lights we will become free from the inner darkness of ignorance and attain omniscient wisdom. By offering beautiful music we create the cause never to have to hear unpleasant sounds but only to hear pleasant sounds, especially the sound of Dharma; and to receive only good news. Offering music is also a cause of attaining the speech of a Buddha. Knowing these benefits, we should try to make outer offerings every day, at least mentally.
To make water offerings we imagine that all the rivers, pools, lakes and oceans throughout infinite worlds appear in the aspect of water for drinking, water for bathing and perfume. As we do so, we recall that they are manifestations of their emptiness, their ultimate nature, inseparable from the wisdom of uncontaminated great bliss; that their function is to cause the holy beings to experience spontaneous great bliss; and that their aspect is that of the individual offering substances. In a similar way, when we offer all the flowers, incense, lights, food and music that exist throughout infinite worlds we maintain the same recognition of their nature, function and aspect. With this special knowledge we make the eight outer offerings.
From the letter HUM at our heart, we emanate infinite offering gods and goddesses, who are the nature of the exalted wisdom of uncontaminated great bliss and emptiness. They make infinite offerings of water for drinking, water for bathing the feet, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food and music to the assembly of Guru Heruka and to all the other holy beings in the Field of Merit.
OFFERING THE FIVE OBJECTS OF DESIRE
We offer these special offerings by concentrating on the meaning of the verses from the sadhana, beginning with:
All forms that exist throughout infinite realms transform into a vast assembly of Rupavajra Goddesses,
With smiling faces and beautiful bodies, pervading the whole of space.
I offer these to you Guru Father and Mother and to the assembly of Deities;
Please accept, and through the force of all forms that exist appearing as Rupavajras,
May I and all living beings receive unchanging great bliss
And complete the supreme concentration of the union of great bliss and emptiness.
OM RUPA BENZ HUM HUM PHAT
We recall that not even the smallest atom of form exists from the side of the object and, by concentrating on this firm knowledge, we dissolve all appearances of form into emptiness, the ultimate nature of form. In the same way, we recall that sounds, smells, tastes and tactile objects do not exist from their own side and, by concentrating on this firm knowledge, we dissolve all appearances of sounds, smells, tastes and tactile objects into emptiness, their ultimate nature.
We then imagine that the ultimate nature of
