Great Treasury of Merit. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
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and generate a strong wish to become the Guru-Deity. Then we can lead all other sentient beings to that state, just as our Guru is presently guiding us.
GENERATING ENGAGING BODHICHITTA
With the previous prayer we generated a simple wish to become enlightened for the sake of others. Now, with the next two verses, we transform this wish into engaging bodhichitta by generating a determination to engage in the actual method for becoming enlightened, the profound path of Guru yoga.
For the sake of all mother sentient beings I shall attain as quickly as possible in this very life the state of the Guru-Deity, the primordial Buddha.
I shall free all mother sentient beings from their suffering and lead them to the great bliss of the Buddha grounds. Therefore I shall practise the profound path of the yoga of the Guru-Deity.
When we generate bodhichitta according to Highest Yoga Tantra we generate a special wish to become enlightened as quickly as possible in this very life. This is not because we are impatient, but because our compassion is so strong that we cannot bear sentient beings to suffer for a moment longer.
Another feature of Tantric bodhichitta is expressed by the words the ‘primordial Buddha’. This shows the uncommon Tantric method of attaining enlightenment. Since beginningless time all sentient beings have had a very subtle body and a very subtle mind. At present these are obscured by the two types of obstruction: delusion-obstructions and obstructions to omniscience. When through training in the two stages of Highest Yoga Tantra this very subtle body and mind are completely freed from the two obstructions, they become the body and mind of a Buddha. Because the substantial causes of this Buddha’s body and mind, our very subtle body and mind, have existed since beginningless time, this Buddha is called the ‘primordial Buddha’.
Some people misunderstand the term ‘primordial Buddha’ and think that all sentient beings have been Buddhas since beginningless time. This is obviously mistaken because if it were true it would follow that ignorance and enlightenment would exist in the same mind at the same time, or that Buddhas experience the sufferings of hell! Je Tsongkhapa explained very clearly that because all sentient beings have a very subtle body and mind they all have Buddha nature – the potential to become a Buddha in the future – but for as long as their very subtle body and mind remain covered by obstructions they are not actual Buddhas.
The second of these two verses also includes the practice of the four immeasurables. The words ‘all mother sentient beings’ indicate immeasurable equanimity, completely free from discrimination; the words ‘I shall free . . . from their suffering’ indicate immeasurable compassion; and the words ‘and lead them to the great bliss of the Buddha grounds’ indicate immeasurable love and immeasurable joy. Finally, the words ‘Therefore I shall practise the profound path of the yoga of the Guru-Deity’ indicate the special determination of engaging bodhichitta. We should contemplate all this while reciting this verse.
After going for refuge and generating bodhichitta, if we have time we can visualize white lights and nectars flowing from our Guru and all the holy beings in front of us and dissolving into our body. We imagine that our entire body and mind are pervaded by blissful white lights and nectars, which purify all the negative karma we have created since beginningless time, all obstacles to our Dharma practice, all our mental and physical problems and, in particular, all the negative karma we have created with respect to our Spiritual Guide and the other holy beings. We feel completely clean and purified, and pervaded by bliss. Then we visualize yellow lights and nectars flowing from the holy beings and dissolving into us. In this way we receive their blessings to increase our Dharma realizations such as compassion and wisdom realizing emptiness, as well as our life span, merit, and wealth.
After this we imagine that lights radiate from Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang and pervade all the holy beings around him. They melt into light and gradually dissolve into Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang. Then Je Tsongkhapa dissolves into Buddha Shakyamuni, who in turn dissolves into Conqueror Vajradhara. Finally, Guru Vajradhara, who is the very nature of our Spiritual Guide and all objects of refuge, comes to the crown of our head and, entering through our crown, dissolves into our root mind at our heart. We feel that our mind mixes with our Guru’s mind of spontaneous great bliss, like water mixing with water, and as a result our mind also transforms into spontaneous great bliss. Because our Guru’s mind is a mind of spontaneous great bliss, and because we have mixed our root mind with our Guru’s mind, we have a perfect reason for thinking that our mind has actually become a mind of spontaneous great bliss. We should develop strong conviction that this fusion of minds has actually taken place and try to generate a special feeling of bliss. The essence of Highest Yoga Tantra is to generate spontaneous great bliss and then to meditate on emptiness with this mind so as to remove the subtlest obstructions from our mental continuum and thereby attain Buddhahood. At the moment we are not able to generate actual spontaneous great bliss, but by mixing our mind with our Guru’s mind we attain a similitude of it, and with this we can engage in actual Highest Yoga Tantra practices.
SELF-GENERATION AS THE DEITY
As already mentioned, Offering to the Spiritual Guide is primarily a preliminary practice for Vajrayana Mahamudra. The meaning of ‘Mahamudra’ is as follows: ‘maha’ means ‘great’, and refers to spontaneous great bliss; and ‘mudra’ here means ‘non-deceptive’, and refers to emptiness. Thus the actual Mahamudra is the union of spontaneous great bliss and emptiness that is accomplished in dependence upon the completion stage practices of Highest Yoga Tantra. In Clear Light of Bliss, three types of Mahamudra are explained, of which the union of spontaneous great bliss and emptiness is the first. In dependence upon this union we attain the union of the two truths, which is the union of illusory body and clear light; and in dependence upon this union we attain the union of body and mind, which is the resultant Mahamudra, or enlightenment. More details on Mahamudra can also be found in Mahamudra Tantra and The Oral Instructions of Mahamudra.
Khedrub Sangye Yeshe
Before we can engage in the completion stage practices of Mahamudra, we must first practise generation stage. With generation stage practices we generate ourself as a Buddha primarily through the force of correct imagination, and then with completion stage practices we transform that imagined body of a Buddha into an actual body of a Buddha.
According to Secret Mantra, the root of samsara is not just self-grasping but also ordinary conception and ordinary appearance. The purpose of generation stage is to overcome ordinary conception and ordinary appearance by generating ourself as the Deity. Therefore, at this stage in the sadhana we practise self-generation as the Deity. Moreover, during the sadhana we have to perform certain rituals such as blessing the inner offering and making the secret offering, and to perform these rituals we must first generate ourself as the Deity.
As already explained, when we practise Highest Yoga Tantra we have to generate a special motivation of bodhichitta, wishing to become the Guru-Deity as quickly as possible in this very life. In particular, we need to generate the wish to become a Tantric Buddha. This is sometimes referred to as ‘the resultant Mahamudra, the state possessing the seven pre-eminent qualities of embrace’. These seven qualities are:
(1) A Form Body endowed with the major signs and minor indications
(2) Continuously in embrace with a wisdom knowledge consort
(3) A mind always abiding in a state of great bliss
(4) This mind of bliss always mixed with emptiness, lack of inherent existence
(5) Endowed with great compassion that has abandoned the extreme of attachment to solitary peace
(6) Uninterruptedly manifesting Form Bodies that pervade the whole world
(7) Unceasingly performing enlightened deeds
Any being who possesses these seven qualities is a Tantric Buddha. When we generate Tantric bodhichitta, we generate the wish to become a Buddha possessing these seven qualities.
Tantra is characterized by bringing the result into the path, that is,