The New Guide to Dakini Land. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
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offer us pure nectar that induces spontaneous great bliss. We can transform the enjoyments of the other senses in a similar way.
Another way to transform our experience of pleasant objects into the spiritual path is to consider them to be by nature indivisible spontaneous great bliss and emptiness. We should regard every visual form, sound, smell, taste and tactile object as having this nature.
Among the many Tantric methods for transforming pleasant experiences into the spiritual path, the yoga of experiencing nectar is a method for transforming our enjoyment of food and drink, thereby enhancing our practice of Secret Mantra. There are three ways to practise the yoga of experiencing nectar. The first is to taste and swallow a nectar pill that has been made in the traditional way, the second is to taste nectar that has been made by dissolving a nectar pill into inner offering, and the third is to regard our daily food and drink as nectar.
We should try to obtain a genuine nectar pill that has been blessed by our Spiritual Guide. There are various types of nectar pill that are produced according to the different traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. In all traditions the ingredients are first blessed through meditative concentration and mantra recitation and then they are made into pills. A meditation similar to that for blessing the inner offering is then used to consecrate the pills, and the mantra OM AH HUM is recited many times with strong concentration until certain signs of accomplishment occur.
At the beginning of the consecration the ingredients of the pills are visualized as five ‘meats’ and five ‘nectars’. The five meats that are visualized are the corpses of a cow, a dog, an elephant, a horse and a human; and the five nectars that are visualized are excrement, brains, sperm, blood and urine. These base ingredients are then transformed into precious nectar.
A highly realized meditator can transform the actual five meats and five nectars into the substance of precious nectar pills. When the first Panchen Lama, Losang Chogyan, made nectar pills, there were clear signs of this transformation. Through the power of his concentration, fire blazed beneath the container and the ingredients boiled. However, only someone of exceptional accomplishment can transform impure substances such as urine and excrement into precious nectar pills; it is impossible for an untrained person with few realizations to do this. It has been known for some practitioners to make pills from actual meats and nectars and to distribute them even though they have received no signs that the ingredients have been transformed. We are warned in various Tantric texts not to accept such pills, otherwise we may find ourself eating excrement! Instead we should try to obtain pills made from medicinal herbs by a qualified Tantric Master who is known for his or her accomplishment and integrity. We can then be confident that the pills we are given are both wholesome and genuine.
If possible we should try to obtain blessed pills that originate from those of the first Panchen Lama. These pills are known as ‘fire-blessed nectar pills’. Nowadays it is difficult to find pills that are entirely made by the first Panchen Lama. However it is possible to obtain pills that have been made by later accomplished meditators who mixed a portion of a pill made by the Panchen Lama with fresh substances, and continued doing this with all subsequent pills so that each pill contains part of a pill blessed by the Panchen Lama. If we obtain one of these pills we can use it as the basis of our practice of the yoga of experiencing nectar, and also for making more pills.
If we are unable to make new nectar pills ourself, we should pour some alcohol or tea into a skullcup, or some other small, clean container, and into this dissolve a pill blessed by a qualified Master. Every morning we should bless this nectar as an inner offering, as explained on pages 57-63, and then taste it. To do this we dip our left ring finger into the inner offering nectar and draw a triangle counter-clockwise on the palm of our right hand, with one point towards our wrist. We then dip the same finger into the inner offering three times, each time placing a drop in the centre of the triangle so that they coalesce to form a single drop. We bless this nectar by reciting the mantra OM AH HUM three times. We imagine that the blessed nectar now has three qualities: it is medicine nectar that prevents sickness, it is life nectar that overcomes death, and it is wisdom nectar that purifies all delusions. We then taste the nectar, regarding it as an offering to ourself, the Deity Vajrayogini. As we taste the nectar we imagine that we experience spontaneous great bliss and with this mind we meditate on emptiness, or at least remember emptiness briefly.
If neither a nectar pill nor inner offering is available, as may be the case for instance when we are travelling, we can use our first drink of the day as the nectar offering. We lift the cup with our left hand and bless the contents by reciting OM AH HUM three times. We imagine that the drink transforms into nectar with the three qualities and we offer this to ourself generated as Vajrayogini. As we drink we imagine that we experience great bliss and then we meditate on emptiness, or recall emptiness according to our own understanding.
We should practise the yoga of experiencing nectar first in the morning and then throughout the day whenever we eat or drink. In this way all our daily actions of eating and drinking become the yoga of experiencing nectar. When practising this yoga, practitioners of the body mandala of Vajrayogini should recall the thirty-seven Heroines at their heart and offer the nectar to them.
There are many benefits from practising this yoga. For example, even if we are old we will retain a youthful vitality because every time we eat or drink we accumulate great merit and create the cause to enjoy a long and happy life. Furthermore, the practice of the yoga of experiencing nectar is a cause to gain Tantric realizations such as spontaneous great bliss. Tasting nectar pills and inner offering reminds us that all eating and drinking is to be transformed into the yoga of experiencing nectar. If we meditate on bliss and emptiness every time we eat or drink, our experience of the essential point of Secret Mantra, the union of spontaneous great bliss and emptiness, will rapidly increase.
An explanation of how to practise the yogas of sleeping, rising and experiencing nectar in a simple manner can be found in Part Two of Modern Buddhism.
The Yoga of Immeasurables
This fourth yoga and the remaining seven yogas should be practised in conjunction with the precious sadhana called Quick Path to Great Bliss, which can be found in Appendix II. This sadhana was composed by Je Phabongkhapa who is a manifestation of Buddha Heruka. It contains the essential practices of all the Highest Yoga Tantra Deities in general and the practice of Je Tsongkhapa’s oral instructions of Sutra and Tantra in particular. We should rejoice in our great good fortune at having met this precious Buddhadharma.
The main practices of the yoga of immeasurables are going for refuge, generating bodhichitta, and meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva. Going for refuge is called ‘immeasurable’ because during this practice we concentrate on an immeasurable number of objects of refuge; cultivating the altruistic mind of bodhichitta is called ‘immeasurable’ because we focus our mind of compassion on immeasurable living beings; and meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva is called ‘immeasurable’ because it purifies the non-virtuous actions we have accumulated over an immeasurably long period of time.
The commentary to the yoga of immeasurables is presented under the following seven headings:
1 Going for refuge
2 Generating the supreme good heart, bodhichitta
3 Receiving blessings
4 Instantaneous self-generation as Vajrayogini
5 Blessing the inner offering
6 Blessing the outer offerings
7 Meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva
Venerable Vajrayogini
Within the eleven yogas, the fourth yoga – the yoga of immeasurables – and the fifth yoga – the yoga of the Guru – contain the practices of the four great preliminary guides: the great guide of going for refuge and generating bodhichitta, the great guide of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva, the great guide of Guru yoga, and the great guide of making mandala offerings. The first two