In the last post, we left off absorbed in the clear light Dharmakaya.  But if we are to help living beings we must manifest ourselves in forms they can connect with and relate to.  So out of compassion for the beings of our karmic dream, we arise from the Dharmakaya. 

We should recall that all living beings are the beings of our mind, they abide within our mind and their conventional nature is being of our karmic dream and their ultimate nature is the emptiness of our own mind.  Out of compassion wishing that these beings are able to inhabit a pure world, we then imagine that from our Dharmakaya we appear all living beings in the aspect of the guru deity in the Pure Land.  We see each being as an aspect of our own mind of bliss and emptiness, like a kaleidoscope of complete purity in the vajra palace of the indestructible drop at our heart.

In the post on the bodhisattva vows, we talked about the rotating mirror, and how once we get the mirror stable, we still need to purify the mirror of its distortions through the meditation on emptiness.  This is primarily accomplished through Mahamudra meditation.  A Hinayanist does not need as elaborate a meditation on emptiness, because it suffices to absorb into space-like emptiness and stay there.  But for a Mahayanist, it is not enough to just absorb into emptiness because they wish to free all other living beings.

We need to look deeper into the mirror of emptiness so that we may likewise purify all conventional appearances and see them as “not other than emptiness.”  We see the world of conventional appearances as our own mind reflected in the mirror of our own mind.  It is my world, my dream.  What I do with my mind determines what appears and happens in my dream.  When I look at others, I see them as reflections of aspects of my own mind.  Conventional appearances arise within the space of emptiness, like a dream, or hologram, as reflections of my own mind.

Looking even deeper, we find the union of the two truths.  Namely, that others’ minds are the same entity as our own mind of great bliss and emptiness.  My mind is the collection of others’ minds, and the collection of others’ minds is my mind.  Looking even deeper still, we find that the conventional and the ultimate are nominally distinct.  When I look at my mind, I understand I am looking at a reflection of all others’ minds.  When I look at others’ minds, I understand I am looking at a reflection of my own mind. We train in both of these views, until these two collapse into one.  They are just two different angles on the same thing.  The conclusion of this for the meditation break is, with this understanding, we should purify our own mind by working on it from both angles of viewing others as ourself and our self as others.

Through this view, the entire great scope collapses into one.  Bodhichitta is an obvious – we need to become a Buddha for the benefit of all living beings because we are all living beings.  Renunciation and great compassion become one  – our wish to free ourself from all suffering is our great compassion because we see no difference between ourself and all others.  Conventional and ultimate bodhichitta collapse into one – all living beings are projections of our own mind, and our mind is a reflection of all living beings.   During the meditation break, we then naturally take responsibility for removing the faults we perceive in others because we correctly see them as the faults of our own mind.  We view others as completely pure emanations of our spiritual guide.  Pure View is the essence of tantric moral discipline.

In the very first post of this series, I encouraged those who are reading to consider all of this in the context of overcoming whatever is their biggest delusion.  According to conventional appearance there may be 100 people reading this each applying it to whatever is their own biggest delusion.  On the surface, it may seem we are each working on a different delusion, so it would seem as if we are all separate.  But actually the biggest delusion in my mind may show up as pride, whereas it will show up as attachment in somebody elses’ mind, and jealousy in somebody elses’ still, etc.  By us each working on overcoming our biggest delusion in our own mind, we are, in effect, all working on each others’ biggest delusions in their mind.  Together we are doing a systematic assault on the same delusion, just from different angles – just like the fish tank described in the post on mantra recitation.  By weakening our biggest delusion from one angle, we are weakening everybody elses’ biggest delusion from their angle.

With this, we can make everything we do a ‘just as’ practice according to ultimate bodhichitta.  The normal ‘just as’ practice is when we take the things we normally do and make it an analogy for something related to your bodhichitta training.  For example, when we give somebody a glass or orange juice, we can mentally think, “just as I give this person a glass or orange juice, may I one day give all living beings the nectar of Kadam Dharma.”  The ‘just as’ practice according to ultimate bodhichitta is we imagine that everything we do reflects into the minds of all living beings in a particular way.  For example, when we open the door to the gompa in the morning, we can think this action is reflecting in my mind as opening a door to the gompa, but it is reflecting in everybody elses’ mind as the door of Dharma opening for them, etc.  This mental action creates the karma which will later appear as this actually happening for them.  We can transform all of our daily activities in exactly this way, making them all infinitely powerful.

I would be remiss in doing a series of posts on spiritual power without talking about Vajrapani.  Vajrapaini is the synthesis of the spiritual power of all of the Buddhas.  Most Kadampas will not practice daily the sadhana of Vajrapani, even if they have received the empowerment.  But this does not mean we cannot practice Vajrapani every day.  In practice, how should we engage in the practice of Vajrapani?

When we recite the Migtsema prayer as part of our Heart Jewel practice, we can invoke Vajrapani to accomplish his function.  When we are having trouble with our biggest delusion, we can make faithful requests to him that he help us dislodge it.  The Vajrapani at our heart will adapt to whatever our biggest delusion is, so if we overcome our current biggest delusion, we can then employ him to help us overcome our next biggest delusion, and so forth until we have eliminated all our delusions.  Whenever we are having difficulty with a particular delusion, we can recall Vajrapani at our heart and request him to help us.  We can also do the same with others when we see them suffering from a given delusion.

For those readers who have already received the highest yoga tantra empowerments we can primarily engage in our Heruka or Vajrayogini practice, but we view them them as the same nature as Vajrapani.  So it is as if you add the function of Vajrapani into our self-generation object.  This is like adding an ‘add-in’ to a software, or adding a new feature or function to a car.

I dedicate all of the merit I have accumulated by doing this series of posts so that all living beings may be infused with infinite spiritual power which enables them to cease their samsara immediately.  May all beings realize the inter-relationship between the delusions that arise in their mind and the delusions of all other living beings, understanding that they are by nature the same delusions just viewed from different angles.  May all beings realize that by overcoming the delusions in their own mind they are freeing all living beings from the delusions in their mind, and thereby we each diligently strive to free everyone else.  Through our collective efforts doing this, may samsara quickly end and we then all abide in the eternal bliss of full enlightenment.

After engaging in mantra recitation, in many of our sadhanas we then have the opportunity to engage in Mahamudra meditations.  The entire Kadampa path to enlightenment can be summed up in one phrase:  “relying upon Guru, Yidam and Protector, I travel the path of Lamrim, Lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.”  What does this mean?  Guru is the spiritual guide who explains to us what we need to do.  Yidam is who we are trying to become.  Protector is our personal spiritual trainer who provides us with all of the conditions necessary to travel the path and become the Yidam according to the Guru’s instructions.  What is the path for becoming the Yidam?  It is Lamrim, Lojong and Vajrayana Mahamudra.  The main function of Lamrim is to make our desires spiritual, and in particular to give us the most powerful of all desires bodhichitta – the wish to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings.  Lojong teaches us how to transform the experience of unpleasant feelings into the enlightened qualities of a Buddha, and Vajrayana Mahamudra teaches us to how to transform the experience of pleasant feelings into the enlightened qualities of a Buddha. Of all the pleasant feelings possible, none is more pleasant than the clear light mind of great bliss.  In reality, our practice of self-generation is really a preliminary practice for our main practice of Vajrayana Mahamudra.

We can engage in meditation on Vajrayana Mahamudra by thinking as follows:

1.  My mind is nothing other than a synthetic reflection of the minds of all living beings.  In this context, because we are engaging in this meditation from the perspective of exchanging self with others, we are viewing ‘our’ mind as the synthesis of ‘others minds’, so we are meditating on the emptiness of the very subtle mind of all living beings.  The ultimate nature of my mind is without form, like an infinite vast universe of immaculate clear light.

2.  Our mind has an absence of form.  We imagine that all conventional forms have dissolved, and the only thing appearing is the clear light Dharmakaya.  Mentally, it is very calm and silent, like a tranquil and transparent pond at dawn.  Our mind has an absence of ordinary mental activity.  There is no mental activity whatsoever of our ordinary mind.  We ‘listen to the silence of our ordinary mind.’

3.  My mind is completely empty of inherent existence, like a drop of water that has mixed inseparably with the ocean of great bliss.  Our mind has an absence of inherent existence.  We view this clear light as our very subtle mind, and we consider its lack of inherent existence.  We feel as if we are ‘underneath’ the conventional, very subtle mind inside its emptiness.

4.  Realizing the complete purity of my mind functions to purify all of my contaminated karma, which is like a holographic film which gives rise to the appearance of a world of suffering and all of the suffering beings who inhabit that world.  This has the effect of completely purifying my contaminated dream of samsara so that it finally ceases altogether.  Not only am I freed into the clear light, all the beings who I had previously imprisoned in my contaminated dream of samsara are now free.  When we meditate on the emptiness of our very subtle mind, it functions to purify our mind of the two obstructions, so we can purify all contaminated karma from our mind.  Therefore, this meditation functions to purify the contaminated karma on the minds of all living beings.  Karma is like holographic film, when we shine the mind through it, it reflects a being. So we should feel like moment by moment our concentration on this clear light functions to free all living beings from the samsaric dream we have created for them. When we become distracted, we feel as if you have accidentally re-imprisoned them in contaminated appearance, and so out of compassion we re-dissolve everything into the clear light and free them once more.

5.  On the feeling of doing all of this, we think, I am the Dharmakaya guru deity.  On the basis of accomplishing this function, we impute our I.

The benefits of this meditation are countless:  We directly bless the minds of all living beings.  Wherever you imagine a Buddha, a Buddha actually goes.  In this case, we bestow upon them the spiritual power of the guru deity and bestow upon them the realization of the union of great bliss and emptiness.  We create an indestructible karmic link between ourself, all living beings, and definitive guru deity, which will ripen in the future in the form of having these beings as our disciples for the practice of whatever deity we are practicing.  By meditating in this way, we will karmically reconstruct all the beings of our dream into Buddhas.  Imagining that they are perceiving directly the Dharmakaya karmically reconstructs them to do so in the future.  When we meditate in this way, we create infinite karma for ourself to receive all of this benefit as a karmic echo of our own actions.

Is there any point doing anything else with our life?

All of our deity practices include some form of mantra recitation.  What is a mantra?  A mantra can be understood as a subtle emanation of the deity we are practicing.  In our Kadampa books, we have the main text and we have the condensed meaning of the text.  The condensed meaning of the text contains everything, but it is presented in a more concise form.  If we understand the main text, then by recalling the condensed meaning we can recall all of the meanings of the whole book.  In exactly the same way, a mantra of a deity is like the condensed meaning of that deity.  The self-generation is like the main text, and the mantra is like the condensed meaning. 

Mantras also have a very important function.  Kadam Bjorn explains that all of our bodily sickness actually comes from the mental sickness of our delusions.  Our delusions themselves arise from impure winds.  If we can purify our winds, it will purify our mind of our mental sickness of delusions, which will also heal our body of all physical sickness.  There is actually no limit to this process.  Through this we can completely purify our body and winds so that they become the immortal pure body and winds of the deity.  So how do we purify our winds?  Through mantra recitation.  We imagine that all of our inner winds assume the completely purified aspect of the mantra, and by reciting the mantra we are purifying our winds entirely.  In effect, mantra recitation is a practice of self-generation of our winds as the mantra.  Just as the self-generation primarily purifies our body and the meditation on the clear light Dharmakaya primarily purifies our mind, so too mantra recitation functions to purify our speech.

During mantra recitation, we should feel like we are engaging in the actions of the guru deity.  Engaging in the actions of the guru deity enables us to strengthen our divine pride and enables us to accumulate the same karma as if we actually were the guru deity engaging in his enlightened actions.  This will swiftly take us to enlightenment.  When we recite the mantra, with deep faith we request the guru deity to accomplish his or her function, either on our own mind or on the minds of others.  We strongly believe that through our request, the light rays and nectars accomplish the requested function.  When we do mantra recitation, it is good to do so from the perspective of having exchanged self with others.

If we want to do mantra recitation for the sake of others we can think as follows:  “others” are nothing more than a reflection or aspect of our own mind.  Their biggest delusions are actually the different mental sicknesses which haunt the different aspects of my own mind.  When we look at others, we should see them as aspects of ourself.  We are looking into the mirror of our own mind, and each being is an aspect of our own mind.  Each being is how the purity of the Dharmakaya is reflected off of a particular contaminated karmic seed on our own mind.  But by purifying the minds of others, we are purifying the parts of our mind which are not enlightened.

When we recite the mantra, we can pray, “please bless me with the spiritual power necessary to completely eradicate the biggest delusions from the minds of others, so that the totality of the fabric of my mind can be free from all delusions.”  The key here is to make this request with a pure motivation, understanding how delusions are the causes of the problems of all these beings, and understanding how their minds are different aspects of our own mind.

We should recite the mantra with great faith and imagining that light rays and nectars radiate out and completely eradicate others’ biggest delusions from their mind, which are in reality just aspects of our own mind.  We should strongly believe that this is actually happening and generate a profound feeling of joy believing that we have actually purified the minds of others.  We sometimes object to this type of meditation thinking we are just playing make believe.  Others minds are not really completely freed.  But this objection completely misunderstands the purpose of the practice.  We do not strongly believe that all the minds of all living beings have been purified because it is somehow objectively true (nothing is), rather we believe this because the mental action of believing this functions to plant the karma on our mind which will ripen in the future in the form of others appearing to be free.  The mental action of believing this functions to complete the karma which will ripen in the future in this way.  In short, the stronger you believe this is actually happening, the more it will actually happen in the future.

Sometimes we may want to recite the mantra for the sake of ourself.  This is not selfish, rather this is part of our bodhichitta.  We wish to heal our mind completely so that we are then in a position to help others.  If we want to recite the mantra for the sake of ourself, we can think to ourself as follows:  My mind is nothing more than a synthetic reflection of the minds of all living beings.    Our mind is like a magic mirror reflecting what is happening in everybody else’s minds.  Because the whole is reflected in each bit, what is happening in others’ minds is happening in my mind.  The biggest delusion in my own mind is the same entity as the biggest delusion in the minds of all these beings, simply viewed from another angle.  It seems like different things are happening in each mind only because it is reflecting off of different karmic facets, like different sides of a fish tank or different facets of the diamond.

The fish tank analogy is worth elaborating on.  If we saw four different televisions, and in one television we saw a fish swimming right, one swimming left, one swimming towards us and one swimming away from us, it would be easy to conclude that these are four different fish doing four different things.  But in reality it is the same fish being filmed from four different angles of the same fish tank.  In the same way, it may appear that some beings have one delusion going in one way and others have other delusions going in another way and we might conclude that these are different delusions in the minds of different beings.  But in reality, all delusions are ultimately the same nature as our own biggest delusion.  We know this to be true because everything is empty, and therefore created by our own mind.  Since the world we perceive is the nature of our own mind and our mind is the nature of our biggest delusion, in reality our biggest delusion is by nature the biggest delusion of everyone else.  It only appears to be different people and different delusions due to our ignorance grasping at the inherent existence of others’ minds.  So by overcoming delusions in my mind directly, I am overcoming all the delusions in others minds indirectly for them.   With this view, we completely break our identification with our own delusions, because we view them as other’s delusions reflected into our own mind.  In this way, what manifests in our mind has no power over us.

We can then pray, please bless me with the spiritual power necessary to completely eradicate the biggest delusion in my own mind so that in doing so I may completely eradicate the biggest delusion in the minds of others.  We then recite the mantra with great faith and imagine that light rays and nectars radiate out, and we strongly believe that they eradicate completely the biggest delusion in our own mind and in doing so, all living beings are now free from their own biggest delusion.  We then meditate on a strong feeling of joy that this has actually happened.

With time and experience, we will feel as if these two ways of engaging in mantra recitation eventually collapse into one:  self is other, other is self.  These are just two different angles on the same thing, just like the fish tank.  It is useful to explore the karmic implications of this.  If I work on somebody else’s mind, it will reflect back on my mind.  For example, by me generating others as the guru deity, it will karmically reflect back on the mirror of my mind in the form of a karmic imprint.  If I generate all living beings as the guru deity, it will karmically reflect back on my mind countless times.  If I work on my own mind, viewing it as the synthesis mind of all living beings, by working on my own mind, I create the karma of working on the minds of all living beings.  Now that is power!

After we have generated ourselves as the guru deity, we typically train in divine pride.  We first typically make offerings and praises to ourself as the self-generation.  It may seem a bit strange to make offerings to ourself, but this practice actually has deep meaning.  We are not making offerings and praises to our ordinary self and our ordinary contaminated aggregates.  That is the job of our pride, and it is foolish to do so.  Our contaminated aggregates are our samsara and they are to be completely abandoned. 

Here the feeling should be exactly the same as when we are making offerings and praises to the field of merit during our guru yoga practice.  We are making offerings to our guru in the aspect of the deity.  The difference is two-fold:  first, the guru is all around us instead of in-front; and second, there is no us there at all!  There is just the guru.  We should have no sense of our ordinary self at all.  We should hardly have any sense of self at all either.  Rather, we have the feeling that there is just the guru deity in our mind.  If the only object in our mind is the guru and we naturally identify with our mind, then through the backdoor we can feel as if we are the guru deity.  But in the beginning, we should place our primary emphasis on thinking there is only the guru deity in our mind, with no other objects whatsoever.

When we make the offerings, we imagine that countless offering goddesses emanated out from the HUM at your heart and make offerings to yourself as the guru deity, giving rise to a feeling of great bliss.  This enables you to accumulate the merit necessary to attain the vajra body of the guru deity.  When we make the praises, we should feel like we are invoking the guru deity of the self-generation to accomplish his function for both ourself and for all living beings.

When we engage in the actual self-generation meditation, I find it helpful to maintain the following recognitions.

1. The things that I normally see do not exist at all and they have completely disappeared into the clear light of my very subtle mind.  We imagine that all conventional phenomena dissolve into the clear light emptiness of our very subtle mind, which is understood to be inside the hearts of all living beings
2. The self-generation is occurring inside the “sphere of emptiness.”  Geshe-la says we should engage in our meditation ‘inside emptiness.’  It should feel that everything is taking place ‘inside emptiness.’
3. I appear myself as the guru deity.  The wording here is very precise.  We appear ourselves as the guru deity.  It is an active process of appearing ourself, not a passive statement of fact that we appear in a particular way.
4. I am complete with all the details.  Here we engage in a brief checking meditation of ourself as the guru deity, recalling all of the different functions indicated by the the meaning of each aspect of the self-generation.  We can find the explanations of the symbolism of the different aspects of the self-generation in our various Kadampa books.  In particular, we should view each aspect of the self-generation as the guru deity’s ability to perform a particular function.  For example, the tiger skin around the waist of Heruka symbolizes his ability to pacify all conflict and anger.  So when we do this part of the checking meditation, we should think, “this tiger skin is my ability to pacify all conflicts and help all beings overcome their anger.”  In particular, the main function of every deity is to bestowg the realization of the union of bliss and emptiness.  We should think that we wish to plant an immovable vajra of the realization of great bliss and emptiness into our karmic world.  Since this vajra is unmovable, it will eventually transform and purify the entire world, like putting a light saber into a metal wall that gradually destroys the wall.
5. The mandala is my body of great bliss.  We should feel like the entire mandala is our body, not just the guru-deity in the middle.  We experience everything as our body of great bliss.
6. The mandala is the same nature as my indestructible drop, wind and mind in my heart.  We see the protection circle as our indestructible drop in our heart, the guru deity as our indestructible wind and the seed letter of the guru deity as our indestructible mind.  These recognitions transform our practice of self-generation into practices of completion stage, and they cause our winds to absorb in this way.
7. I have the power to accomplish the three functions.  I have the spiritual power necessary to overcome my biggest delusion and those of others.  Moment by moment, I am in the process of purifying the minds of living beings of the two obstructions with my realization of the union of great bliss and emptiness.  Moment by moment, I am in the process of karmically reconstructing my karmic dream into a pure world.  We can understand the three functions from the earlier posts in this series.  Here we mainly train in the self-confidence of ourselves having the power to accomplish the various functions of the guru deity explained earlier.  In reality, the different Buddhas are different aspects of our own pure potential, so whatever they can do, we can do.  Here we are recalling that and generating the feeling that we can do these things.  In this way, our training in faith and self-generation is a meditation for improving our self-confidence. 
8. I am the guru deity.  The most important recognition for developing a qualified divine pride is the feeling that you are accomplishing the function of the Buddha.  The clear appearance of ourself as the deity is a reminder of all of the different functions we can accomplish as the deity.  We should strongly feel as if moment by moment we are accomplishing all of these functions inside the minds of all living beings.  On the feeling of accomplishing this function, we impute I am the guru deity.

After the clear light Dharmakaya, we usually then arise as an Enjoyment Body of a Buddha.  When we do so, we can, if we wish, adopt a special recognition that the entire self-generation is actually taking place inside of our indestructible drop at our heart.  The entire universe is inside our indestructible drop without the drop becoming any bigger or the universe becoming any smaller.  This recognition enables our self-generation practice to have more or less the same karmic effect as the practice of completion stage.  It is also a powerful way to help cause our inner energy winds to gather and dissolve into our central channel at our heart.  Normally, most self-generations come with a protection circle of wisdom fire.  We can imagine that the wisdom fires are the outside of your indestructible drop, and the vajra protection circle is the inside.  The indestructible drop is our celestial palace.  We are the seed letter of the deity in the middle.  We should feel like our root mind, our Buddha nature, assumed the form of the seed letter.  We should feel like this seed letter is ourselves. 

We then typically imagine that from the seed letter infinite light rays radiate out to each and every living being, and they completely purify the obstructions on the mind of each and every living being.

We then typically do the actual self-generation.  As before, there are some special recognitions we can adopt.

1. The entire self-generation arises out of the emptiness of our very subtle mind.   Geshe-la says we should imagine everything takes place ‘inside of emptiness.’  It should feel like emptiness is this infinitely vast container, and everything is taking place within it.  The most important emptiness is that of our very subtle mind.  This is the ultimate nature of our true self, the most profound level of our being.  The very subtle mind stores all of our contaminated karma. 
2. The self-generation is the living guru deity, complete with all of the details.    Buddhas have the ability to manifest their mind as form.  So by mixing our mind with the form, we are mixing our mind with the quality of their mind which the form represents.  Through mixing our mind in this way, we receive the special blessings of each aspect of the guru deity, and this function gets accomplished within our mind. This is a tantric technology for ‘downloading’ the qualities of the guru’s mind into our own and receiving his care and blessings.  This also plants the karma on our mind to eventually have this qualities ourselves.  The most important recognition is that your living Guru deity is actually inside your mind. 
3. The self-generation has all the power necessary to accomplish the three functions mentioned before.  Ourselves as the guru deity has all of the spiritual power necessary to overcome our biggest delusion and that of others, he has the power to purify the two obstructions of our mind and to realize the union of great bliss and emptiness, and he has the power to karmically reconstruct a new pure world for ourself and for others.  Here we primarily train in the believing faith of his function.  We strongly believe that he can accomplish these functions.  This believing faith functions to purify the obstructions preventing us from him becoming fully manifest within our mind.  It also functions to construct a guru deity with these powers within our mind.  The guru deity, like any Buddha, does not exist from his own side, but needs to be constructed with faith and correct imagination.  How can we understand these three different functions:  He has the power to help us overcome our greatest delusions through his powerful blessings.  He principally bestows the realization of the union of great bliss and emptiness, which functions to purify our very subtle mind of the two obstructions.  Moment by moment as we concentrate on this, it plants a karmic potentiality on our mind, which will later ripen as this as a reality.
4.  It is absolutely fantastic to have a body, speech and as powerful as this. Here we primarily train in admiring faith. So we generate an admiring faith thinking, ‘how amazing that he can do that and that such a being is within my mind.’
5. Please help me to mix my mind completely with you.  Here we primarily train in wishing faith.  On the basis of admiring his function and power, we generate the strong wish to receive this power into our own mind and become the guru deity ourself.  This wishing faith induces us to train sincerely in the practice.
6. My mind is now completely pure.  Here the main idea is to strongly believe that we have received within our mind the purifying nectar of the empowerment and it functions to completely purify our mind of the two obstructions, in particular those related to our biggest delusion.   The conventional aspect of the self-generation itself is the same nature as the Dharmakaya.  We think the gold of the Dharmakaya has assumed the aspect of the self-generation, like play dough.  We can consider how we have attained the completely purified aggregate of consciousness, in other words, our consciousness is now completely purified of all contaminated karma.

In virtually all of our sadhana practices, there is some form of self-generation practice. Self-generation practice, in short, is training in dying and being reborn as the deity.  One of the most common definitions of samsara is “uncontrolled rebirth.”  Without freedom or control, we are thrown from one samsaric rebirth to another.  Attaining liberation from samsara, therefore, is taking control of the death process so that we can take rebirth in a controlled way as a deity in a pure land.  Our training in self-generation as the deity is the method for gaining such control.  If we learn how to die and take a pure rebirth in our practice there is a high probability we will be able to actually do so at the time of our actual death.  There are two reasons for this.  First, every time we train in self-generation, we create new karmic pathways in our mind from our present state to the pure land.  It is like the constant flow of water along the same path will gradually form a canyon.  It is like a path that having been travelled many times is easily followed.  We, in essence, dig our escape tunnel out of the prison of samsara.

Before we engage in self-generation, the first step is always the same:  we dissolve the guru into our heart.  We find this in many sadhanas.  This can be likened to us having a mind transplant.  The mind of the guru deity becomes our own.

After we dissolve the guru into our heart and mix his mind inseparably with our own, we usually then dissolve all phenomena into the clear light Dharmakaya.  I have found it helpful to maintain the following recognitions as I do so.

We can understand this as follows:

1. The things that I normally see do not exist at all, and they have completely dissolved into the clear light of my very subtle mind.  The things that we normally do not exist at all and are actually just illusions, or holograms within our mind.  We should imagine that all conventional phenomena dissolve into the clear light emptiness of our very subtle mind, like a dream that ceases.
2. This completely purifies all of the contaminated karma that gives rise to my personal samsara.  All appearances arise from karma.  Our samsara is a mere karmic appearance to mind.  When we connect with the emptiness of a phenomena, it functions to purify the contaminated karma giving rise to that phenomena.  Here we are meditating on the emptiness of our samsara.  In particular, by meditating on the emptiness of our very subtle mind, it functions to purify our very subtle mind of all karmic obstructions.  When our mind is completely purified of the two obstructions, we become a Buddha.
3. My samsara is itself the nature of my biggest delusion.  The world our mind projects is the nature of our biggest delusion.  For example, a mind of attachment will project a world filled with objects of attachment that are beyond your reach and never provide any satisfaction.  A mind of anger will project a world of people in constant conflict inflicting harm on others.  A mind of ignorance will project a world pervaded by darkness, confusion and mistaken actions.  A mind of jealousy will project a world without any good qualities, or at least none within our reach.  A mind of doubt projects a world of great uncertainty and feelings of helplessness. 
4. I am now dying.  I am leaving behind my contaminated life created by my biggest delusion, and I am going to take rebirth as the guru deity who has the specific power to help all beings overcome this delusion in their mind.   We should strongly believe that we are now actually going to die.  The stronger we believe this, the more qualified will be our practice and our preparation for the real moment of our death.  The self that has this specific delusion is now going to be left behind.  We are now going to take rebirth as the guru deity who has the specific power to help living beings overcome this delusion.  This is the essence of tantric renunciation and bodhichitta.  Samsara can be understood as uncontrolledly identifying with the contaminated aggregates of samsaric beings.  Our “I” is uncontrolledly projected onto contaminated aggregates which suffer from birth, aging, sickness and death.  We see how the pure aggregates of the guru deity are so much better than the contaminated aggregates of our ordinary self.  Geshe-la said that if we die with a mind of compassion it is definite we will take rebirth in a pure land.  So we consider how if we are to be able to help living beings, we must take rebirth into the pure aggregates of the guru deity.  With this compassionate intention, we should strongly believe our old self has now completely died.  The appearances of our former life will never arise again.  There is no turning back, there is only going forward, rebuilding out of the clear light our pure land.  By training in this way, we create powerful potentialies to be able to practice in exactly the same thing at the time of our death, and in this way you take rebirth in a pure land.
5. I am the truth body of the guru deity.  We should Recognize this clear light as the truth body of the guru deity.  The Truth Body is the definitive guru deity.  He is the ultimate nature of all phenomena from which everything arises.  We should generate the divine pride of being Truth Body of the guru deity.   When we die, we want to die with our mind mixed with the Dharmakaya.  We train in life so that we can do this at the time of our death.  If we do, we will definitely be reborn in the pure land.  Geshe-la guarantees it!

Within the Kadampa tradition, we put a lot of emphasis on receiving empowerments.  We do not receive empowerments just when we go to festivals, but virtually all of our sadhana practices include a section on receiving empowerments.  More broadly, anytime we receive blessings we are, in effect, receiving an empowerment.

In the context of this series of posts, I want to explain how we can put the “power” in our receiving of empowerments.  Once again, what is spiritual power?  It is the ability to move one’s own or other’s minds powerfully and substantially in the direction of enlightenment.  With spiritual power, we are able to easily oppose even the strongest delusions (such as anger, attachment, jealousy, ignorance, doubt, self-cherishing, and so forth) and make rapid progress along the path.  Even if we practice every spiritual stage of the path, if we lack spiritual power, our practices will remain weak and ineffectual.  But with spiritual power, all of our spiritual practices bring about great results.  Spiritual power is like the ‘horsepower’ of our spiritual practice that moves us quickly along the path.  With spiritual power, everything on the spiritual path becomes easy and effective.

What is an empowerment?  When we receive an empowerment, we receive the special blessings of a Buddha which then function to ripen within our own mind the specific power of the specific Buddha (for example, Compassion with an Avalokiteshvara empowerment, wisdom for a Manjushri empowerment, etc.).  During an empowerment we receive within our mental continuum the body, speech and mind of an enlightened being, then subsequent to the empowerment, we learn how to use this body, speech and mind as our own.  Specifically when we receive empowerments we should strongly believe that we are receiving within our mental continuum a Buddha that specializes in helping us overcome whatever we consider to be our biggest delusion, such as anger or attachment.  If we maintain this recognition, it is guaranteed that everytime we receive an empowerment we will receive our own personal deity who can help us specifically overcome whatever is our greatest delusion.

Regardless of what deity we are practicing, all deity practices share three main functions.  First, our reliance upon them helps us to overcome our biggest delusion.  Why should we overcome our biggest delusion?  It was explained in an earlier post how our delusions create problems and suffering for ourself and for all living beings in this and our future lives.  If we receive empowerments with this special recognition, the deity that we receive during the empowerment will have as a special function the ability to help is overcome our biggest delusion.

Second, they help us purify our mind of the two obstructions by bestowing the realization of the union of great bliss and emptiness.  This realization is the principal realization of the tantric path.  All other practices are like rivers that empty into the ocean of this meditation.  This meditation functions to purify our mind of the two obstructions, taking us to Buddhahood.  This realization eventually transforms into the omnsicient mind of a Buddha, the Dharmakaya.  So the main function of any deity is to bestow upon us the Dharmakaya.

Third, they help us to karmically reconstruct a new, pure world.  On one level, we can say that every time we engage in a negative action, we condemn a being of our mind to the lower realms; every time we engage in a positive action, we bring somebody into the upper realms; and every time we engage in a pure action, we deliver somebody out of samsara altogether.  This is due to the effect similar to the cause and to the ripened effect.  In this way, through our actions, we populate the different realms of samsara and nirvana.  On a deeper level, every time we assent to ordinary appearance, we plant karma on our mind which will ripen in the future in the continuation of this world of suffering.  But by mentally imagining ourselves, our environment and others as completely pure, this mental action plants the karma which will ripen in the future in a new pure world.  In particular, because every deity helps us overcome our ordinary appearance and ordinary conception, they help us to construct a new pure world.

When we receive empowerments, we normally receive four empowerments:  an empowerment of the body, speech, mind and the body, speech and mind together.  To receive the empowerment of the body of any deity with an aim of increasing our spiritual power, we can generate a wish to the power to have all of our actions of body accomplish the three functions mentioned above for yourself and for others.  The three functions again are the ability to overcome our own or others’ biggest delusions, to purify our own and others minds of the two obstructions with the realization of great bliss and emptiness, and the power to karmically reconstruct a new, pure world.  When we receive a body empowerment, we receive within our mental continuum the body of the guru deity that we can call upon to accomplish these functions, and eventually through reliance upon this body, we will attain the body of the guru deity ourself.  When we receive a body empowerment, we should generate a strong wish to receive the body of the guru deity within our mental continuum so that we can accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others with our body.

To receive the empowerment of the speech of the guru deity means to receive the power to have all of our actions of speech accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others.  With the empowerment, we receive within our mental continuum the speech of the guru deity that we can call upon to accomplish these functions, and eventually we will attain the speech of the guru deity ourself.  So once again, we generate the strong wish to receive the speech of the guru deity within your mental continuum so that we can accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others with our speech.

To receive the empowerment of the mind of the guru deity means to receive the power to have all of our actions of mind accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others.  As before, we generate the strong wish to receive the mind of the guru deity within our mental continuum so that we can accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others with our mind.

To receive the empowerment of the body, speech and mind of the guru deity together means to receive the power to have all of our actions of body, speech and mind work flawlessly together to accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others.  As before, we generate the strong wish to receive a flawless harmonization of the body, speech and mind of the guru deity within our mental continuum so that we can accomplish the three functions for ourself and for others with our body, speech and mind together.

If we do this every day with our daily practice, and we especially do it when we have the opportunity to receive empowerments at Kadampa centers, there is no doubt our spiritual power will increase quite quickly.  The guru deity already has all of the spiritual power of all of the Buddhas.  All we need to do is, in effect, download his power into our mind.  This is the essential meaning of an empowerment.

Very often in our deity practices, we retake the bodhisattva vows in front of the guru deity imagined in the space in front of us.  Here, I would like to explain how we can do this with the specific intention to increase our spiritual power.

To help us generate a pure motivation for taking the bodhisattva vows, it might be helpful to consider an analogy.  When I look at the world, I am looking into the mirror of my own mind.  This is how the purity of the Dharmakaya is reflecting in my own mind due to my contaminated karma.  The same is true for everyone else.  Everyone is looking at the Dharmakaya, but seeing their own reflection of it depending on their karma. In this sense, we are all looking at the same thing, just different angles on it.  Buddhas have the angle where they see the whole universe as completely pure.

My mirror is spinning out of control.  This is my samsara.  When I look into the mirror of my mind, it reflects a given world.  For example, the world of Ryan.  When the mirror rotates away, a new world or a new life gets reflected in the mirror.  Right now the mirror is rotating uncontrolledly, and I never have any idea what will be reflected next in the mirror.  I have no idea what my next rebirth will be.  This is also the samsara of others, because they have no existence other than that my mind projects for them.  My job is to align my mirror in such a way that I see directly the Dharmakaya, beyond samsara.

The spinning of the mirror around the vertical axis represents my motivation.  If my motivation is positive, it causes it to rotate upwards, so that the world reflected in the mirror resembles more the upper realms.  If my motivation is negative, it causes it to rotate downwards, so that the world reflected in the mirror resembles more the lower realms.  If my motivation is a pure, spiritual motivation, then the mirror is perfectly aligned, and the world that is reflected in the mirror resembles more the pure land.

The spinning of the mirror around the horizontal axis represents my faith.  If I have faith in samsara, viewing it as the source of my refuge, then it cause the mirror to rotate left or right.  If I have faith in the Spiritual Guide, viewing him as the source of my refuge, then it causes the mirror to be perfectly aligned.  Through this, no matter what we are looking at, we are always looking straight at the exit of the guru.  The rate of spin of the mirror is a result of our concentration.  The more our mind is unfocused, the faster the mirror spins.  When our mind is resting single-pointedly in the concentration on great bliss, then the mirror ceases spinning and is aligned perfectly.

Once the mirror is aligned, I need to remove the distortions in the mirror itself.  Our mind is a repository of all our karma, most of it contaminated.  This karma creates distortions in the mirror producing samsaric appearances.  The meditation on emptiness functions to smooth out the distortions in the mirror until it is completely clear.  Understanding this, when we take bodhisattva vows, we should generate a pure motivation to bring the mirror of our mind into alignment by improving our motivation, faith, concentration and realization of emptiness.  Specifically, we should generate a specific bodhichitta wishing to overcome our biggest delusion so that we can free ourself and others from the problems it creates for us.

The prayer for taking the bodhisattva vows is as follows:

I go for refuge to the three jewels.
And confess individually all my negative actions.
I rejoice in the virtues of all beings.
And promise to accomplish a Buddha’s enlightenment.

By reciting these very blessed words three times a day while intending to their meaning, we have the opportunity to take our bodhisattva vows.  These function like a safety net so that we never take another rebirth without access to the Mahayana path and they function to fully ripen our Buddha seed.  Specifically, we should try to renew our bodhichitta motivation of wanting to overcome whatever is our greatest delusion for the benefit of all living beings.  With the first line, we go for refuge to the three jewels with the intention to overcome specifically whatever is our greatest delusion.  With the second line, we confess and purify all the negative karma we have accumulated as a result of this delusion, including the breaking of our vows.  With the third line, we rejoice in all the efforts of all living beings to overcome this specific delusion.  With the fourth line, we promise to become a Buddha that has the specific power to help people overcome whatever is our biggest delusion.  After the third recitation, we should imagine that all the transgressions of our bodhisattva vows are purified and we receive fresh bodhisattva vows on our mental continuum.

If we have not yet formally taken bodhisattva vows, we should request that they be granted at our local Kadampa center.  We can ask our teacher to give a day course on how to skilfully practice the bodhisattva vows.  Moral discipline is the cause of higher rebirth, and ultimately it is the cause of happiness.  Normally, we think of moral discipline as something that restricts our freedom and enjoyment, but that is only because we are deeply confused about what are the causes of happiness and what are the causes of suffering.  In reality, it is our delusions which make us unfree.  We are slaves to our delusions and have no choice but to do what they say.  Our vows help us directly and indirectly counter all of our delusions.  Our delusions want to go in the opposite direction of our vows.  But our delusions will take us deeper into samsara whereas our vows will take us out.  The practice of vows is very extensive, but it is one of our most precious Kadampa jewels.  Nobody can force vows upon us, we take them from our own side voluntarily.  Generally, we vow only to try our best to go in the direction of the vows.  We should work gradually and progressively with all of the vows until we can keep them all perfectly.  This will take a long time, but if we understand the importance of vows and we are persistent with our effort, we will eventually get there.

All of our spiritual practices include some form of Guru yoa.  Guru yoga is a special recognition where we view all of the different deities as being by nature our own spiritual guide.  Guru yoga increases the power of our spiritual practices beyond comprehension.  Why is this?  The reason is simple:  The spiritual guide functions as the synthesis of all of the Buddhas, so any action directed towards the spiritual guide with this recognition is karmically equivalent to engaging in this same action individually to each of the countless Buddhas.  So just as bodhichitta increases the power of our virtuous actions by the number of living beings, so too guru yoga increases the power of our virtuous actions by the number of Buddhas, which is also countless.  Bodhichitta and guru yoga together, in other words engaging in a virtuous action towards the spiritual guide motivated by bodhichitta is karmically equivalent to engaging in that same action individually a countless-squared number of times (countless living beings times countless Buddhas).  Understanding this, we should put just as much effort into our practice of guru yoga as we do in generating bodhichitta.

Before I explain the actual practice of guru yoga, I would like to address some popular misunderstandings related to this practice.  Some people object that the practice of guru yoga sounds cult-like.  They say, it means we are in effect worshipping a human being in this world as if they were the ultimate deity.  This can then lead to all sorts of cult-like behaviour.  But this is a completely wrong understanding.  The little Tibetan guy we affectionately refer to as Geshe-la is not our Spiritual Guide.  Geshe-la is an ordinary emanation body of our actual Spiritual Guide the Truth Body of Vajradhara.  Conventionally, Buddha Vajradhara sends various emanation bodies into the karmic dreams of living beings (otherwise known as their lives and worlds) to help lead them to freedom.  But from our own side we don’t have the karma to be able to see Buddha Vajradhara as Buddha Vajradhara.  Instead, he appears to us in the aspect of our spiritual teachers.

This is not at all different than the example given in Joyful Path how we might see water, but a hungry ghost will see pus and a god will see nectar.  The same thing appears differently depending upon the karmic glasses we have on.  If I put on orange tinted glasses, the whole world will appear to me to be orange.  If I didn’t realize that I was wearing such glasses and I had always been wearing such glasses, I might mistakenly conclude that the entire world is orange.  In the same way, if I have the glasses of an ordinary contaminated mind I will see all things as being ordinary and contaminated.  But if I didn’t realize I was just wearing such karmic glasses, I might mistakenly conclude that the entire world is actually ordinary and contaminated.  But just as if I took off the orange tinted glasses I would see the world in all of its myriad colors, so too if I remove my karmically ordinary and contaminated glasses I will see all worlds and beings as rainbow-like vajra light in an infinite dance of pure deeds.  In other words, the Buddhas appear to us in ordinary aspects not because they are ordinary but because we can’t see anything any differently.  Conventionally, we can say that Geshe-la is an emanation of Je Tsongkhapa, who himself is an emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni, who himself is an emanation of Buddha Vajradhara.

It is important to understand this notion of emanation.  Sometimes we think of emanations like we think of Avatars in on-line computer games.  In some respects, this is a helpful analogy, but it is not entirely accurate.  A better analogy is to think of emanations as facets on a multi-faceted diamond.  Each facet of such a diamond is completely inseparable from the underlying diamond.  The facet itself is by nature the diamond.  By nature in a Kadampa context can roughly be understood as “made of.”  Just as a coin is by nature gold, and the facet of a diamond is by nature the diamond, so too every Buddha is by nature the diamond of our spiritual guide.  If you look carefully into one facet of a diamond, you can see all of the other facets.  Anything you do to a facet of a diamond, you inescapable do the diamond itself.  Guru yoga, quite simply, realizes that just as you can’t have a facet without the diamond, so too you can’t have an emanation without the diamond of the spiritual guide.  Any action you do to one emanation with the recognition that they are by nature the spiritual guide, you inescapable do that action towards all the Buddhas.

In short, guru yoga does not say we view all Buddhas as emanations of the little Tibetan guy we call Geshe-la, rather we say the little Tibetan guy is himself an emanation of our actual Spiritual Guide, Buddha Vajradhara.  He is a facet of the diamond of our Spiritual Guide.

When we engage in any practice of guru yoga, the most important thing is to imagine that the actual deity is in front of us inside our mind.  Believing this functions to purify the karmic obscurations which prevent you from directly feeling and perceiving the guru deity in the space in front of you.  We should maintain the recognition that the deity we are visualizing is by nature our Spiritual Guide in the apsect of the deity. We do this for two main reasons:  First, the extent to which we can receive blessings depends on the strength of our karmic connection with a given Buddha.  Karmically speaking, the Buddha we are closest to is our Spiritual Guide.  So with this recognition, we receive more powerful blessings.  Second, the Spiritual Guide has a specific function of acting as the synthesis of all the Buddhas.  Wherever you imagine a Buddha, a Buddha actually goes.  Wherever you imagine your spiritual guide, ALL the Buddhas actually go.  So this multiplies the power of your practice by the number of Buddhas, which is countless.

After we visualize a deity, we usually make some form of offerings.  Here we imagine that countless offering goddesses emanate from the letter HUM at our heart and fill the entire universe making offerings to the guru deity.  We strongly believe that this gives rise to a feeling of great bliss within the guru deity.  We do not make offerings because guru deity needs them, rather because we need to accumulate the merit associated with making these offerings.  Specifically, making the offerings in this context enables us to accumulate the merit we need to be able to overcome our greatest delusion.

Every sadhana begins in the same way, by first going for refuge and generating bodhichitta.  So how can we do these practices from the perspective of increasing our spiritual power to overcome our greatest delusion?  The short answer is our faith and our motivation are two of the most important components of spiritual power. 

Before we go for refuge, there are several things we can do.  First, we need to adopt the correct meditation posture and be completely relaxed physically.  I think most of the people reading this blog already have experience with this, so there is no need for me to provide extra explanation.

Second, we should imagine that all conventional phenomena dissolve, like a dream, into the clear light nature of our mind.  It is as if our entire reality is made of holograms of light, which dissolve and reveal the clear light nature of our mind.  We should identify this clear light as the same nature as the omniscient mind of all the Buddhas, which is itself the same nature as the omniscient mind of our Spiritual Guide.  Doing this enables us to let go of our distractions and tune into the mind of the spiritual guide to be able to receive his blessings.

Third, we should imagine around us are our friends, our family, our colleagues, the people of our region, and finally all living beings.  We should strongly believe that they are actually with us in the clear light Dharmakaya.

Fourth, we should develop a strong desire to overcome our greatest delusion.  The first ingredient of spiritual power is our motivation or desire.  Kadam Bjorn said that our practices are powerful not in terms of how well we know the methods, but rather by how strongly we wish to overcome our delusions.  To help us increase our desire to be free from our delusions, we can view our delusions as demons or devils dwelling within our mind.  Would we allow a demon into our home or to remain?  They are not actual demons, since there is no such thing (there is also no such thing as you, but that is a different story…).  Much of Christianity, for example, can be correctly understood from a Dharma perspective if the devil is understood to simply be the personification of self-cherishing abiding in the minds of living beings; and God is the personification of the union of wisdom and compassion in the minds of spiritual practitioners.  To help us generate the specific desire to overcome our greatest delusion, we can consider how it creates countless problems for ourself and for others.

For ourself, we should consider how does our specific greatest delusion create problems for ourselves in our life.  We can consider how it has created countless problems for ourselves in this life.  All delusions are deceptive, they promise us one thing but give us the opposite.   We can think, “as a result of this delusion, I have engaged in many negative actions, which will later throw me into the lower realms.  If I do not get rid of this delusion now, it will assert itself at the time of my death, and I will be forced to return to samsara again.  In the end, I face a choice between remaining with this delusion or attaining enlightenment.  I can’t have both.”

For others, we can consider how our biggest delusion creates problems and suffering for the others around us?  We can think, “as a result of this delusion, I project a world filled with beings who suffer from similar delusions, which create countless problems for them in their lives.  When I engage in negative actions as a result of this delusion, I create the cause for others to engage in negative actions towards me in the future, and as a result of their actions, they later fall into the lower realms themselves.  When the karma I create from this delusion ripens, it will create a world which is the same nature as this delusion, and all the beings who abide in my dream world will suffer as a result.  For as long as I have this delusion, I cannot become a Buddha.  If I cannot become one, then it will be impossible for others to do so since they are my spiritual creation.  Because they are empty, they are ultimately the beings of my karmic dream.  Thus, for as long as I remain with this delusion, countless beings will remain trapped in the prison of samsara.”  We can consider these points to develop a heart-felt desire to overcome this delusion, indeed we need to make the firm decision that we will do whatever it takes to overcome our greatest delusion.

Fifth, we imagine that in response to this decision, from the Dharmakaya, the guru-deity spontaneously appears in the space in front of us in the conventional aspect of whatever deity we are practicing (Vajrayogini, Heruka, Je Tsongkhapa, Tara, Vajrapani, etc.).  His arising is the response to our desire.  The most important thing is for us to to have the conviction that the guru-deity is actually in front of us, inside our mind.  We then try generate faith in him by considering how he can help us overcome our biggest delusion.  For now, we just believe he has all the power necessary.  So we strongly believe that through relying upon the guru-deity in this way, we can gain all of the realizations necessary to overcome our greatest delusion. On the basis of this strong desire/decision and deep faith in the guru-deity, we are ready to go for refuge.

When we recite the refuge prayers, the most important thing is to imagine that we are leading all these beings around you in the practice of going for refuge to the guru-deity to overcome their own greatest delusion.  Each being is, ultimately, an aspect of your own mind.  They are a wave on the ocean of your mind.  By imagining each being is going for refuge with you, you literally karmicly reconstruct the beings of your dream into beings who will, in the future, actually go for refuge.  This is very profound.  This correct imagination plants the karma on your mind to have all of these beings actually go for refuge to the guru-deity in the future.

When we recite the prayers for generating bodhichitta, the most important thing is to generate a specific bodhichitta:  I must overcome my greatest delusion so that I can free all these beings from the suffering that flows from it.  Bodhichitta multiplies the power of our spiritual practices by the number of living beings.  Why is this?  When we engage in an action motivated by bodhichitta, we are seeking to attain enlightenment so that we may benefit countless living beings.  So our intention is to benefit countless others.  To engage in one virtuous action for the benefit of 1,000 beings has the same karmic effect of engaging in that same one virtuous action 1,000 times for the sake of one being each time.  Since the object of bodhichitta is the nearly infinite number of living beings, actions motivated by bodhichitta are karmically equivalent to engaging in a virtuous action nearly an infinite number of times for the sake of one being each time.  This is one of the most effective and direct ways of increasing the power of our virtuous actions.