The New Guide to Dakini Land. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
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necessary to disappear from this world to reach it.
Pure appearances are experienced only by realized practitioners. It is generally accepted in both Sutra and Tantra that the world appears to our mind as faulty, imperfect and unsatisfactory because our mind is impure – polluted by the delusions and their imprints. In Ornament for Clear Realization Venerable Maitreya says that when the minds of sentient beings become completely pure, their environment becomes a Buddha’s Pure Land.
A Pure Land can be attained only by purifying the mind. Even when we have attained outer Dakini Land through a firm realization of generation stage we will still appear to others as an ordinary, impure being. Ordinary people cannot recognize that another person is in a Pure Land because they cannot perceive that person’s Pure Land and cannot share their experience of it. Someone once asked Milarepa in which Pure Land he had attained enlightenment and Milarepa pointed to his cave. The questioner could see only a cold, empty cave, but for Milarepa that cave was a Pure Land.
Because the minds of ordinary beings are impure, whatever appears to them is seen as ordinary. As ordinary beings with ordinary appearance we cannot experience anything as totally pure and perfect. Even an emanation of Buddha appears to us to have faults. It is because we have ordinary appearance that we view ourself and others as imperfect – subject to faults such as sickness and ageing.
According to Sutra teachings the root of samsara is self-grasping and the delusions that arise from it. However, according to Secret Mantra teachings the root of samsara is ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. The self-grasping recognized by Sutra practitioners is only a gross ordinary conception.
In this context, any being who is not a Buddha, and any environment, enjoyment, body or mind that is not a Buddha’s, is ordinary. Perceptions of these objects as ordinary due to impure minds are ordinary appearances, and the minds that conceive of objects in this way are ordinary conceptions. According to Secret Mantra teachings, ordinary appearances are obstructions to omniscience and ordinary conceptions are obstructions to liberation. Both ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions have many levels of subtlety.
One of the main purposes of practising generation stage meditation is to overcome ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. We can overcome ordinary appearances by developing clear appearance of being Vajrayogini, and we can overcome ordinary conceptions by developing divine pride of being Vajrayogini.
Because of our ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions we experience an endless cycle of ordinary death, ordinary intermediate state and ordinary rebirth. This endless cycle, known as ‘samsara’, must be broken. Through generation and completion stage practice we can purify the three ordinary states of death, intermediate state and rebirth, and thereby attain the three bodies of a Buddha.
When we gain a full realization of the generation stage of Vajrayogini we experience our environment as Dakini Land; and when we attain the illusory body in the aspect of Vajrayogini our body becomes the actual body of the Deity. When we attain full enlightenment in the form of Vajrayogini we become a newly born Buddha Vajrayogini, our place of residence becomes a newly developed mandala of Vajrayogini, and our world becomes a newly developed Dakini Land.
With a superficial realization of generation stage meditation we will attain only a similitude of Dakini Land. By gradually increasing the power of our generation stage meditation this similitude will be strengthened and stabilized and we will move closer to attaining actual Dakini Land. By practising the generation stage and completion stage meditations con-tinuously and enthusiastically we will complete the spiritual path by relying upon Vajrayogini.
At first we may doubt the existence of Dakini Land or doubt that it is possible to reach it. To overcome such doubts we can consider dreams. Sincere practitioners familiar with Vajrayogini practice may dream of reaching a Pure Land. In their dream they will see all places as pure and themselves as Vajrayogini. At that time they do not think they are dreaming; they believe they are in a Pure Land and therefore experience great joy and happiness. If they were to remain in that happy state without ever waking up it would be valid to say that, according to their experience, they were in Dakini Land.
Through studying the correct view of emptiness we can understand that everything is merely an appearance to the mind and, like a dream, merely imputed by conceptual thought. This understanding is extremely helpful for developing conviction in the existence of Pure Lands. Clear and deep understanding of the nature of outer Dakini Land will help us to gain a firm faith in Buddhadharma. Through this we will practise with greater power and enthusiasm.
Inner Dakini Land is meaning clear light. We attain this only through completion stage meditation. Through completion stage meditation we develop spontaneous great bliss, and when this mind meditates on emptiness and gains a direct realization it is called ‘meaning clear light’. This is the fourth of the five stages of completion stage. When we attain inner Dakini Land through Vajrayogini practice we also attain outer Dakini Land. This is explained more fully later in this book.
The way to train in the two stages of Vajrayogini Tantra is explained in the instructions that follow. First there is an explanation of how to train in generation stage, and then there is an explanation of how to train in completion stage.
The instructions on generation stage are in two parts: an explanation of how to practise the eleven yogas of generation stage, and an explanation of how to attain outer Dakini Land through the practice of generation stage. The eleven yogas of generation stage are:
1 The yoga of sleeping
2 The yoga of rising
3 The yoga of experiencing nectar
4 The yoga of immeasurables
5 The yoga of the Guru
6 The yoga of self-generation
7 The yoga of purifying migrators
8 The yoga of being blessed by Heroes and Heroines
9 The yoga of verbal and mental recitation
10 The yoga of inconceivability
11 The yoga of daily actions
The instructions that follow explain how to practise each of these eleven yogas. We first need to study these instructions carefully to ensure that we understand clearly each of the yogas. Then, when we feel ready to put them into practice, we should begin with the yoga of sleeping and continue through to the eleventh yoga, the yoga of daily actions. If we repeat this cycle of practices every day, all our actions will be included within the eleven yogas.
The Yogas of Sleeping, Rising, and Experiencing Nectar
The first three of the eleven yogas, the yogas of sleeping, rising, and experiencing nectar, are methods for purifying our body, speech and mind. Collectively they are known as the ‘yogas of three joys’ or the ‘yogas of the three purifications’. The latter title is more correct as it is the one given in the sadhanas of Heruka. The yogas of sleeping and rising purify our mind and body, transforming them into the mind and body of Vajrayogini, and the yoga of experiencing nectar purifies our speech, transforming it into the speech of Vajrayogini.
THE YOGA OF SLEEPING
In general, the yoga of sleeping is included within the eleventh yoga, the yoga of daily actions, along with the yoga of eating and other daily activities. However, there are good reasons why the practice of Vajrayogini begins at night, with the yoga of sleeping considered as a separate practice. One reason is that during the night the Dakinis of the twenty-four places visit sincere Vajrayogini practitioners and bestow their blessings. In Vajradaka Tantra it says:
The Ladies of these places
Bestow attainments upon practitioners.
They always come at night,
They always go at night.
Here ‘The Ladies of these places’ are the Dakinis of the twenty-four holy places of Heruka and Vajrayogini, which are listed in the extensive sadhana of Heruka body mandala. We can visit these places today.