Ngawang Dorje
Ngulchu Dharmabhadra
Yangchen Drubpay Dorje
Khedrub Tendzin Tsondru
Je Phabongkhapa Trinlay Gyatso
Dorjechang Trijang Rinpoche Losang Yeshe
Dorjechang Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche
In recent times, this lineage was held by Trinlay Gyatso, more widely known as Phabongkha Rinpoche, who was an emanation of the Tantric Deity Heruka. This great Lama was like the sun of Dharma, illuminating the hidden meaning of both Sutra and Secret Mantra. He passed the Mahamudra lineage to his heart Son, Dorjechang Trijang Rinpoche, and it is through the kindness and authority of this holy Spiritual Guide that this present text appears.
Prayers of Request to the Mahamudra Lineage Gurus can be found in Appendix II. If we are sincerely interested in studying and practising the meditations explained in this book, we should receive the blessings of the Mahamudra lineage Gurus by offering a mandala and reciting this prayer. Because successful practice depends to a large extent upon the blessings and inspiration of the Spiritual Guides, the wise student will not neglect this advice.
THE ACTUAL EXPLANATION OF THE INSTRUCTIONS POSSESSING THIS LINEAGE
These instructions are given under three headings:
1 The preliminary practices
2 The actual practice
3 The concluding stages
THE PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
To perform the practices of Mahamudra successfully, we must accomplish two sets of preliminaries:
1 The common preliminary practices
2 The uncommon preliminary practices
THE COMMON PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
These practices prepare us for the more advanced techniques of Secret Mantra. They purify the various obstacles and defilements of body, speech, and mind and thereby eliminate hindrances that would interfere with successful practice. They also serve to generate a store of positive energy, or merit, that will enable realizations of the more advanced practices to ripen in our mind.
This process of purifying and accumulating merit can be compared to the way in which a farmer prepares a field for cultivation, first removing the rocks and weeds that would obstruct growth and then nurturing the soil with water, fertilizer, and the like. Just as such preparations ensure a successful crop, so the proper practice of the preliminaries ensures successful Secret Mantra meditation.
There are four common preliminaries:
1 The guide of going for refuge and generating bodhichitta, the gateway to the Buddhadharma and the Mahayana.
2 The guide of mandala offerings, the gateway to accumulating a collection of merit.
3 The guide of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva, the gateway to purifying negativities and downfalls.
4 The guide of Guru yoga, the gateway to receiving blessings.
If an explanation of these four were given here, this text would become too long. Those who are seriously interested in practising Mahamudra should consult authentic explanations of these practices, such as the one given in The New Guide to Dakini Land, and apply these instructions conscientiously.
THE UNCOMMON PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
As was mentioned earlier, there are two parts to Highest Yoga Tantra meditation: generation stage and completion stage. The techniques of Secret Mantra Mahamudra belong to completion stage. This is preceded by the various yogas of generation stage, which are the uncommon preliminaries. There is a generation stage practice associated with each Highest Yoga Tantra Deity. These are explained in detail in Je Tsongkhapa’s Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path of Secret Mantra and in Khedrubje’s Ocean of Attainments.
There is more to the generation stage of Secret Mantra than merely generating ourself as a particular Deity. For a practice to be an actual generation stage practice, we must generate ourself as a Deity in conjunction with the yoga of bringing the three bodies into the path. If we wish to practise Secret Mantra Mahamudra, but cannot study the above-mentioned texts in which these yogas are extensively explained, we should at least receive brief instructions on generation stage from a qualified Tantric Master. To receive such instructions and put them into practice, we must first receive an appropriate Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment.
If, for example, we have received the empowerment of Heruka, we should practise the generation stage of Heruka Tantra before engaging in Mahamudra. If possible, we should try to practise the generation stage of Heruka according to the commentary, following a sadhana such as The Yoga of Buddha Heruka, which can be found in Appendix II. If this is not possible, we should at least try to practise according to the following extremely condensed method.
We begin by sitting on our meditation cushion and reciting three times:
Eternally I shall go for refuge
To Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
For the sake of all living beings
I shall become Heruka.
Then we visualize:
All worlds and their beings melt into blue light, which then dissolves into me. My body gradually melts into light simultaneously from below and above, gradually becoming smaller and smaller until it dissolves into the blue letter HUM at my heart. The letter HUM then gradually dissolves from the bottom up into the nada. Finally, even the nada disappears, dissolving into clear light emptiness.
At this point we think strongly that our mind and Heruka’s mind are indistinguishably mixed, like water mixed with water. We focus on this clear light Truth Body and generate divine pride by thinking:
This is me; I am the actual Truth Body Buddha Heruka.
This is the brief meditation on bringing death into the path to the Truth Body. It functions principally to prevent ordinary appearances, to purify ordinary death, to cause the ripening of the clear light of completion stage, and to sow the seed to accomplish the actual Truth Body of a Buddha.
Now we visualize:
From the state of emptiness of the Truth Body, my mind instantly transforms into a small beam of blue light, the height of a forearm, standing on a sun cushion in the centre of an eight-petalled lotus of various colours.
We think:
Now I have become the actual Enjoyment Body Buddha Heruka
and we develop the divine pride of being the Enjoyment Body. This is the brief meditation on bringing the intermediate state into the path to the Enjoyment Body. It functions principally to purify ordinary intermediate state, to cause the ripening of the illusory body of the completion stage, and to sow the seed to accomplish the actual Enjoyment Body of a Buddha.
We continue:
Instantly my mind, in the form of a beam of blue light, transforms into Heruka, blue in colour with one face and two arms, holding a vajra and bell, and embracing Vajravarahi.
We think:
Now I have become the actual Emanation Body Buddha Heruka
and we develop the divine pride of being the Emanation Body. This is the brief meditation on bringing rebirth into the path to the Emanation Body. It functions principally to purify ordinary rebirth, to cause the ripening of the completion stage practices of the mixings of the Emanation Body, and to sow the seed to accomplish a Buddha’s actual Emanation Body. At this point, we can meditate on Heruka’s body or we can recite his mantra. If we choose the latter, we focus on the letter HUM at our heart and visualize the mantra around it as we recite.
There is no shorter generation stage practice than this. We should attempt the following Mahamudra meditations only if we have, at the very least, previously performed this practice. If we have a different personal Deity, such as Vajrayogini or Yamantaka, we