Long Cakrasamvara Sadhana Footnotes_2010

༄༅། །བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་དཔལ་འཁོར་ལོ་སོམ་པ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་འཁོར་བཞུགས་སོ། CHOM DEN DE PEL KHOR LO DOM PA HLEN KYE HLA NGE DRUB KHOR ZHUG SO

Sadhana of the Five Coemergent Deities of the Glorious Bhagavān Chakrasamvara Footnotes and Mandala Drawing Instructions

This Guru Yoga is not part of the Tibetan Sadhana but practiced before, as done in Pyang monastery during the Chakrasamvara conference in May 2009 with HH Chetsang Rinpoche. It was translated by Rachel Dodds. 1

Yab is the father or masculine principle; yum is the mother or feminine principle; yab/yum are the masculine and feminine principles in (sexual) union. 2

གཅིག

With the vase empowerment one gets permission to meditate as yidams and on their mandalas (appearance and emptiness are inseparable). That is, we get permission to meditate on the generation stage. LC 3

The second empowerment purifies our speech, which becomes the same as the speech of all buddhas. We get permission to recite mantras (sound inseparable from emptiness). That is, we get permission to meditate on the recitation stage. LC 4

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‚From the throat of the guru and Chakrasamvara yab/yum red light rays and the stream of the mingled white and red bodhicitta of meditative absorption descend from their place of union and dissolve into the disciples’ throats.‛ Ganges Mahamudra Practice Instruction CD #2, track 12, translation by Ari Kiev of live commentary on the mahamudra upadesha given by Garchen Rinpoche in Tucson, Arizona, June 2005 5

With the fourth empowerment the mind-instruction empowerment is given, which is similar to the vajra master empowerment. LC

Vajratopa in this case (or in other texts it is Vajra Surya or Dorje Nyima) is the consort of Vajrasattva (in other occasions she is the consort of Ratnasambhava). LC 6

བདྐྱེ་མཆོག

2 This symbol is added into the text to indicate ringing of the bell according to practice at Phyang monastery. DK According to Lati Rinpoche, ‚*this part of the mantra+ has eight sections. While reciting this, ring the bell in the eight directions. This symbolizes the churning movement within the eight channels of the secret places of Heruka and Vajravarahi, which induces the experience of the serial and reversed joys‛ LR, p.95 7

In the Vajrayogini sadhana there appears an alternative prayer for the blessing of vajra and bell, which is much shorter, probably suitable for times when one cannot do the full puja. This short prayer is: ‚Om Mahavajra Hung‛ (blessing of vajra); ‚Om Vajra Ghanda Ah‛ (blessing of bell). 8

Footnotes with additional instructions from Drupon Lama Champa (LC) as taught during the 3 year retreat in Almora 2004-2007; HH Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche (DK) as taught during the Chakrasamvara conference at Phyang monastery in Ladakh in May 2009—most of his teachings come from the Tibetan commentary —most his teachings come from the commentary ‘bde mchog lhan skyes lha dril bu’i zhal lung’ (Instructions of Drilbupa) written by the previous Trichen Rinpoche; Drupon Thinley (DT); Gabe Lama (GL); Traga Rinpoche (TR); notes which derive from translations of the Chakrasamvara long sadhana text commentaries (LTCT = Long Text Commentary Translation); notes which derive from the mostly written Drikung Kagyu Oral Tradition (DKOT); Mantra translations from Elizabeth English’s Vajrayogini (EE); commentary by Lati Rinpoche (LR) in his Commentary and Sadhana of the Generation Stage Practice of Mahasiddha Ghantapa’s “Heruka Body Mandala”; visualizations on the Heruka Body Mandala by Lozang (LZ); comment from Robert Thurman’s (RT) Circling the sacred mountain. Footnotes are by Rachel Dodds and Manu Fernandez, participants in the 2004-2007 Drikung Kagyu Almora retreat, and Mark Riege.

Introduction Some kalpas ago, human beings first appeared on Earth. They came from the god realms. At that time, there was no Dharma—only god-being ways. Gradually, the concept of ‚I‛ and ‚mine‛ emerged and thus afflictive emotions arose. Life span became much shorter. Human beings needed a king [to rule them], so kingdoms arose. Then gradually the symbol of the male and the female arose. Then desire [and reproductive sex] began, and children were born. 9

གཉིས་

After some kalpas, the first buddhas appeared. Buddha Shakyamuni was the fourth buddha of this kalpa, so this kalpa is relatively new. In the human realm, in the region of the Indian subcontinent, two gods became prominent: Shiva and his consort, Uma. Shiva and Uma had a strong [sexual] desire toward each other. They made love four to five times a day. They always wanted to be together.

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Branching out from Shiva and Uma, there were other powerful beings who dwelt at certain places, like Mt. Kailash, Godavari, Kulu, Bangladesh, and so forth. People thought that the best, most powerful beings on Earth were Shiva and Uma. They prayed to them in all these different [power] places. But Shiva and Uma were too busy making love. A strong desire to have intercourse was in their nature. They did not have any time to go to other places, so they sent statues, lingams (phalluses), and yonis (symbols of vaginas) in lieu of themselves. Their followers were very impressed by this and thought these were very powerful symbols, so they put the lingams and yonis in several places of worship. Until today Hindus pray to them. Gradually, because of their strong desire and

Shiva, Uma, [and their followers] were always drinking blood, eating flesh, and so forth. It looks as if Chakrasamvara is also eating these [impure] substances, but what he is actually doing is transforming them into nectar (Skt. amrita, Tib. dutsi), by blessing them. That is why these substances are still used [symbolically] in the [tantric] Buddhist sadhana. LC (oral translations and explanations by Lama Chamspa during his English lectures of Chakrasamvara in December 2001) Preparation You should have a picture or thangka of Chakrasamvara in front of you. You should also have a bell (ghanda), thunderbolt scepter (vajra), hand-drum (damaru), and skullcup (kapala). The best place for the practice is in an isolated area. This sadhana was practiced by mahasiddhas such as, Luipa, Nagpo Chopa, and Drilbupa, who achieved realization through it. Chakrasamvara has many different forms, but this present Chakrasamvara sadhana is called The Five-Deity Chakrasamvara. It was Drilbupa’s main practice, also known as ‚Drilbupa’s Five-Deity Chakrasamvara.‛ 10

གསུམ་

This practice was introduced from India into Tibet and translated to Tibetan by mahasiddha Ga lotsawa. He gave its transmission to Phagmo Drupa, and Phagmo Drupa gave it to Jigten Sumgön. We have the unbroken mahasiddha realization lineage until today. Chakrasamvara remains the main practice of our lineage.

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བདྐྱེ་མཆོག

The practice is divided into different parts: Developing stage: Because sentient beings have four ways to take birth (miracle, humidity, egg, and womb), the developing stage is also divided into four parts as a way to [purify these births and] exercise the nirmanakaya: (1) Instantaneous developing stage (resembling the miracle birth). (2)Three steps (resembling the humidity birth). (3) Four steps (resembling the egg birth). (4) Five steps (resembling the birth through womb). (Numbers 3 and 4 (the four-step and five-step births) form the main part of our sadhana’s developing stage.)

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(1) Instantaneous developing stage is like wind agitating water. Instantly we can see some form arising, such as ripples on the surface of water. Likewise, some beings take up a form instantly (like a miracle). That is why we have an instantly developing stage. (2) Three steps is like taking birth by humidity. Rain and the conditions of the five elements and the power of the sun (heat), makes life grow in humidity. Beings’ consciousness gets caught in this humidity. The condition of the five elements gives way to their form. They do not have father or mother.

emotions, people started making offerings to the lingams and yonis. They did blood offerings, too. Many beings were killed [in the sacrifices]. Human beings also were sacrificed sometimes.

བདྐྱེ་མཆོག

Then buddha Vairochana (or according to other sources it was Vajradhara) manifested as Chakrasamvara in the sambhogakaya form. At that time also all five dhyani buddhas manifested as different deities. Out of his great compassion toward all the beings that were being killed in sacrifices, Chakrasamvara subdued Shiva and Uma by crushing them under his feet (when crushed under Chakrasamvara’s feet they are called Jigched or black Bhairava and Dutsen or Uma or Kalaratri). To show the power that Chakrasamvara [and Vajravarahi] had over Shiva and Uma, the former couple took the outfits of the latter, consisting of bone ornaments, tiger skin, and so forth. Immediately after that, Shiva and Uma became enlightened. They were not worldly beings any longer thanks to the compassion of Chakrasamvara. They do not propitiate blood sacrifices anymore. At the same time, the deities, which were emanations of the five dhyani buddhas, subdued the (beings in the 24) different places. Thus all the important places where lingams and yonis were worshipped have now the presence of the five-dhyani buddhas, always helping beings. That is why now some holy places are visited both by Hindus and Buddhists. For Hindus it is more significant, because their symbols (lingam and yoni) are still there. But Buddhists also go there because Chakrasamvara is there; e.g., Kulu, Rameshwaram, and so on.

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(3) (four steps) and (4) (five steps) [They constitute] the main part [of] the five-step developing stage. This corresponds to beings taking form either through egg or through womb. Copper in earth, by melting and molding it, takes some form, like a cup, for example. Egg is like copper, a stone, or a mineral, in the sense that because of the mother’s heat, a being develops (is molded) inside it. So there is a connection with the parents in the case of an egg as well. LC

བཞི་

Note on Purification by womb Birth by womb is purified by the ‚five preliminary practices‛ or five steps of the developing stage, which are: (1) place, (2) seed syllable, (3) instrument, (4) activity, and (5) complete body. Birth by egg is purified by the ‚four vajras‛ or four steps of the developing stage, which are: (1) emptiness, (2) seed syllable (mind), (3) Om Ah Hung (seed syllables of body, speech, and mind), and (4) complete body. Birth by humidity is purified by the ‚three sadhanas‛ or three steps of the developing stage, which are: (1) sun and moon, (2) seed syllable, and (3) complete body. Miracle birth is purified by the ‚one call‛ or instantaneous developing stage, which is: the complete body.

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According to Jamgön Kongtrul, (