The uncommon commitments of Mother Tantra

It was explained before that the karmic effect of keeping our refuge vows purely is to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Buddhist practice in this and all our future lives.  The karmic effect of keeping our pratimoksha vows purely is to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Buddhist path to at least liberation in this and all of our future lives.  The karmic effect of keeping our bodhisattva vows purely is to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Mahayana Buddhist path from now until we attain enlightenment.  The karmic effect of keeping our Tantric vows purely is to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Vajrayana Buddhist path until we become a Tantric deity.  In exactly the same way, the karmic effect of keeping our uncommon commitments of Mother Tantra is to maintain the uninterrupted continuum of our Heruka and Vajrayogini Vajrayana practice between now and our very swift enlightenment.  If we have understood how rare and hard it is to find such an opportunity, we will become extremely motivated to practice these and all of our vows very purely.

When you think about all the effort people put into making money or securing a partner, especially when you consider how a successful outcome is quite uncertain, you have to wonder why we do not put even a fraction of the effort into keeping our vows when the outcome is certain.  If somebody called and said, “I have a MegaMillions winning lottery ticket here for you, this is no joke it is the real deal, all you need to do is come down to the store and pick it up,” what would we do?  We would run straight to the store.  We should be the same with our vows.  If we practice our vows purely, the results are guaranteed.  And the results are far more valuable than winning the lottery.  We have the potential to solve all of our problems for all our future lives, and to gain the ability to help others do the same.  What could possibly be more meaningful than this?

Maintaining the continuum of our Heruka and Vajrayogini practice is particularly extraordinary good fortune.  First, as times become more degenerate, the power and blessings of Heruka and Vajrayogini increase.  This is not so of other Buddhas, where the power of their blessings in this world taper off as the karmic obstructions in the minds of living beings increase.  There is no doubt times are becoming increasingly degenerate, so we should count ourselves as particularly lucky to be Heruka and Vajrayogini practitioners.

Second, it is said that if we practice Heruka or Vajrayogini to the best of our ability in this life, even somebody of the least good fortune will create enough good karma so that within seven lifetimes it is 100% guaranteed that we will take rebirth in Keajra pure land, even if we find ourselves in the deepest hell.  If we knew there are only at most seven lives left in samsara, we would find we could accept pretty much anything and everything.  We know it is coming to an end, and we are definitely on our way out.  And who knows, perhaps we are not somebody of the least good fortune and it might be sooner still.

It is important to remember, this effect does not come about only if we reach a certain internal attainment in this life.  Rather, it comes about in dependence upon our effort in this life alone – even if no results whatsoever ripen in this life.  Ordinary, samsaric life is about harvesting results; Dharma practice is about creating causes.  Simply doing our best to practice highest yoga tantra in this life is the equivalent to walking to the store to pick up our winning lottery ticket.  It will take some effort, but it is surely worth the trip.