Kālachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation

ENTERING AND SEEING THE MANDALA

The students are outside the closed doors on the eastern side of the mandala – the doors in front of the main, black face of Kālachakra. Wanting to go inside, they request admission and ask again to take refuge, the Bodhisattva vows, and the Mantra vows. The lama (Kālachakra) responds by first giving the students articles of clothing and a head-piece that symbolizes the crown protrusion. These are given to make the students feel more like a deity.

As was discussed earlier, in the practice of the stage of generation, the appearance to the mental consciousness of an ordinary body composed of flesh, blood, and bone is to be stopped and replaced with an appearance of pure mind and body. Designated in dependence upon such pure mind and body is a deity, an ideal person. To increase this sense of a not inherently existent but designatedly existent, ideal, altruistic person, the students, even externally, are made to look like a deity by putting on a deity’s clothing. It is said that many persons fear imagining themselves in divine form;¹⁰⁹ thus, playfully putting on a deity’s attire must help participants not only in identifying the attire of a deity but also in getting over the sense of oddness.

Since the students are to be let into the mandala but are not yet ready to see it, blindfolds are distributed by the lama’s assistants. Then the students re-imagine themselves as Kālachakras, and the lama addresses them, asking them who they are and what they want. The students answer by declaring their altruistic nature as Bodhisattvas or those aspiring to become Bodhisattvas and by declaring their interest in using in the path of Secret Mantra the bliss that arises from desire.

The students supplicate the lama/Kālachakra as a great being who can show the path out of suffering; the lama responds by conducting the ceremonies of going for refuge, taking the Bodhisattva vows, and taking the Mantra vows in the same way as these were done during the enhancement ritual. The altruistic nature of the endeavor is illustrated by the students’ repeating:

I will liberate those not liberated [from the obstructions to omniscience].

I will release those not released [from cyclic existence].

I will relieve those unrelieved [in bad transmigrations]

And set sentient beings in nirvana.

Consonant with this altruism, the students declare their intention to practice the all-encompassing yoga, which has two aspects: (1) the conventional altruistic intention to become enlightened, which is all-encompassing in that it is concerned with establishing an altruistic relationship with all sentient beings, and (2) the realization of the ultimate nature of all persons and phenomena, their absence of inherent existence. In this practice, the conventional mind of enlightenment – the aspirational intention to become enlightened, which is the thought, “I will attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings,” substantializes in the form of a white, round, flat moon disc at the heart. Similarly, the ultimate mind of enlightenment, in which the emptiness of inherent existence of all phenomena and one’s own mind are of one taste, that is to say, of one undifferentiable entity, substantializes as a five-pointed vajra standing on the moon.

As we will see, the students are led again and again through exercises in which the deepest affective attitude, compassion, and the deepest intellectual realization, the wisdom of emptiness, are used as the basis of appearance in form. The suggestion is that in ordinary life attitudes of selfishness, jealousy, enmity, desire, and so forth are the stuff of our appearance. To get control over this process of appearance and to reform it in the healthiest possible way, students are again and again instructed to generate compassion and to reflect on the nature of phenomena and then reappear with those attitudes – consciousnesses, in Buddhist vocabulary – as the bases out of which they or, as in this case, pure objects appear. The objects are then symbols, not in the sense of referring to something else, but in the sense of manifesting what they symbolize within constant exhibition of what they symbolize. Compassion and wisdom do not disappear with their appearance as moon and vajra; rather, they continue within appearance in form. This is the extraordinary feature of tantra.

In the ritual text, these activities are said to be done “outside the curtain”. Since the mandala has no curtain, the reference here is to the curtain that surrounds the model of the mandala drawn with colored sands. The drawn mandala is kept inside a curtain out of sight of the students just as, in imagination, the students are outside the closed doors of the mandala.

The doors now open, this being illustrated by the assistants’ opening the curtain around the sand mandala. Since the students are still blindfolded, they are led inside by the lama who has come down from the fifth level of the mandala and is holding a vajra in his hand. Each student imagines that he or she takes hold of the vajra and is led into the mandala.

Still blindfolded, the students circumambulate the mandala three times and then go back outside through the eastern door. Obeisance is paid in series to Akṣhobhya, Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Vairochana. For Akṣhobhya, who is fused with Kālachakra, the student turns into Akṣhobhya and makes a supplication; the same is done for Amoghasiddhi, again at the eastern door. Upon going to the corresponding doors by entering the mandala and then going back out at the proper door, obeisance is paid to the other three. Having become similar to the principal deities of the five lineages, the students are sworn to secrecy, sworn to keeping the vows, and to keeping the word of the lama as long as it accords with the doctrine (see p. 242).

By this time, the students have imagined themselves in divine form several times. A different version of this practice is now done. The students imagine themselves in the fierce form of Kālachakra, called Vajravega, and then imagine syllables at important places in their bodies that are stirred into greater radiance and activity by light rays from the lama. Light rays from the heart of the lama also extend out to all the Buddhas in all world-systems who appear, filling all of space, as Kālachakras and Vajravegas. These, in turn, all enter into the student – each student imagining that all dissolve into himself or herself.

Such imaginations suggest that ordinary consciousness is split into a thousand parts that need to be drawn together. Even imagination of fully enlightened beings elsewhere is to be drawn into oneself; energy is to return to its source. Tantra is described as using imagination as the path, and the tremendous reinforcement of personality traits that is accomplished through imagining and identifying with an ideal being and then drawing all such ideal beings in all world-systems into oneself is obviously built on a very active and creative use of imagination. One cannot half-heartedly imagine oneself as composed of compassion and wisdom, thinking that there are real incarnations of compassion and wisdom elsewhere, for those very beings are drawn into oneself. One has to face up to the identification. The power of positive thinking, of imagining situations of supreme success, is basic to the process. It is obvious that Buddhahood, the goal corresponding to this process, is not withdrawal into nothingness, as it often is described in the West, but is a dynamic expression of knowledge, compassion, and power.

Such intense combination into oneself of all ideal beings can be too exciting; thus, it is followed with a calming. This is accomplished by putting a flower, mantrafied with oṃ āḥ hūṃ on the student’s head. Then, a protective ritual of syllable imagination at important points in the body is done; again, the need for protection suggests that the heightened state is subject to interference from autonomous complexes that have to be thwarted.

Then, in what could only seem to be anti-climactic if it was not kept in mind that deity imagination is to be performed in a multitude of ways in connection with permutations of the path structure, the students lift their blindfolds to see if any particular color appears in the line of sight the first moment after lifting the blindfold. Through the association of activities of pacification, increase, subjugation, and so forth with certain colors, the lama is able to read the type of activity that the student should work at achieving.

Then, the lama, ringing the bell that is in his hand, speaks from within the power of the truth, calling on the students’ lineages to be shown when they drop a flower on the mandala board, through which the lineage of the student is known.

The students take off the blindfold and manifestly see the mandala, described in chapter six of the Introduction. The students celebrate what they have seen in song, “Samaya hoḥ hoḥ hoḥ hoḥ.”

INITIATION

Now the students are ready for initiation. First, they make a request for all seven initiations, after which the lama clears away interferences (as was just said, the frequency of this activity suggests the perniciousness of the autonomous complexes that undo attempts to live within a heightened psychological state). Then, the lama performs an ablution, cleansing the students’ ears, nose, mouth, and body, makes an offering to the now cleansed students, and fumigates the area with incense.

As explained earlier (see pp. 72-73), the seven initiations authorizing practice of the stage of generation are in four groups, corresponding to the four faces of Kālachakra and the four groups of factors to be purified. The structure of all the initiations is the same, with the exception that the second initiation at each face does not require an internal initiation. Roughly there are nineteen steps:

1 the student, at the appropriate door, faces the appropriate face of Kālachakra and makes offering, called “offering mandala”.

2 a request for the initiation is made.

3 internal initiation (required for the first, third, fifth, and seventh initiations):

a) the student is drawn into the mouth of the lama, passes through his body into the womb of the Mother, and melts into a drop that dissolves into emptiness.

b) a seed syllable appears and transforms into a symbol, which transforms into a deity corresponding to the face of Kālachakra toward which the student is facing – the deity being embraced by the appropriate consort.

c) the actual deity is drawn by the lama into the body of the student imagined to be that deity, who thereby becomes the actual deity. (The actual deity is called a “wisdom-being” and the imagined deity is called a “pledge being”.)

d) Light from the heart of the lama/Kālachakra draws in all of the male and female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions.

e) The lama makes offering to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who are now nearby.

f) The lama asks them to bestow initiation, and the male and female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas respond by entering into absorption with their respective mates, whereupon they melt into ambrosia-light that enters the lama through his crown protrusion.

g) The ambrosia-light passes through his body and emerges into the womb of the consort, the Mother Vishvamātā, anointing the student, thereby conferring initiation.

h) The student emerges from the womb and is set back on the initiation seat at the respective door.

4 Obstructors are cleared away from both the students and the initiation substance – the water, crowns, etc. – with a mantra, oṃ āḥ hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ and by scattering water from a conch.

5 The appropriate factors of the students – the five constituents, five aggregates, and so forth (see chapter six of the Introduction) – as well as the initiation substance are purified in emptiness by way of reciting and reflecting on the meaning of the mantra oṃ shūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāvātmako ’ham, “I have the essential nature of indivisible emptiness and wisdom.”

6 The corresponding factors of the students and the initiation substances each appear from within the emptiness of inherent existence as syllables, which transform into symbols, such as vajras, which transform into deities, usually embraced by their respective mates.

7 The actual deities are drawn into these imagined beings, whereby the latter become the actual deities.

8 The deities into which the initiation substances have transformed are conferred initiation by the five Mothers from within the mandala. This is done by pouring water from vases into their bodies through the top of their heads; when their bodies are filled, a little water at the crown of their heads transforms into a deity – the latter process being called “seal-impression”.

9 Offering is made to the deities which were the initiation substances, whereupon they become absorbed with their partners, due to which they melt, turning again into the initiation substances – the fluid of the vases, the crowns, and so forth. What started out as the initiation substance and turned into a deity now turns back into the initiation substance but in a heightened, glorified form.

10 Light rays from the heart of the lama draw into the surrounding area the initiation deities – the male and female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; he makes offering to them.

11 The lama requests the initiation deities in space to confer initiation on the students.

12 The initiation deities in space thereby develop an intention to confer initiation, but the actual conferral in the Kālachakra system will be done by deities from the mandala itself – the five female Buddhas, the five male Buddhas, and so forth. Each initiation will be conferred in its respective way – by touching the student with water, by putting on a crown, and so forth.

13 Since initiation is about to be conferred, a poetically thrilling expression of the auspiciousness of the occasion is made.

14 A rain of flowers falls on the students.

15 The lama/Kālachakra declares that initiation will be conferred and does so through appropriate deities from within the mandala by touching the students’ crown protrusion, right and left shoulders, upper arms, thighs, and hips with the respective initiation substance – water, crown, and so forth. Through the touch of these special initiation substances, a special bliss consciousness realizing the emptiness of inherent existence is generated in the student; this exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness is the entity of each initiation.

16 A water initiation is conferred as an appendage to each initiation (except the first, which is, itself, a water initiation). The same declaration of conferring initiation is made, and the same five places are touched with water, thereby generating an exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness.

17 The initiation is completed by the respective factors of the students – constituents, mental and physical aggregates, and so forth – actually turning into the corresponding deities. Doubles from the same deities in the mandala separate from them and dissolve into those deities, and all of the initiation deities assembled in space dissolve into those same deities which are purified appearances of the students’ constituents, aggregates, and so forth.

18 Offering is made to the students in their divine state.

19 The meaning of the initiation and the purification that the initiation has either effected or established predispositions for effecting in the future are announced.

Basically, each initiation has three phases: (1) the cleansing and purifying of the students and initiation substances by clearing away obstructors and dissolving them into emptiness, (2) the heightening of the initiation substance through its re-appearance as a deity who melts and then transforms back into the initiation substance, and (3) the heightening of the students through their re-appearance as deities who then, by being touched with the initiation substance, engender a special bliss consciousness realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, after which doubles of the corresponding deities dissolve into the students to whom offerings are made. (The offerings have a nature of bliss and emptiness; they appear in the aspect of offering; and their function is as objects of use of the six sense powers in order to generate special uncontaminated bliss.110 The bliss, in turn, is used to realize the emptiness of inherent existence. Rather than being suppressed, the senses are fulfilled with pleasant objects so that a blissful consciousness realizing emptiness can be produced. Not only is a blissful consciousness stronger, but also a ripening of the mental continuum has undoubtedly occurred through allowing the power latent in sensuous desire to become manifest.)

Through imagination, body, speech, and mind are acculturated to a process of purification that centers around generation of a blissful, and thus powerfully withdrawn, consciousness that is used to realize the nature of phenomena. The students begin from their position in cyclic existence with abject supplications to the supramundane Kālachakra and in the end become Buddhas themselves. The lama/Kālachakra even makes offerings to the students. The process is reminiscent of a Tibetan scholar’s description of why Shākyamuni Buddha’s teachings are called “wheels of teaching”: “Shākyamuni turned down to students just those teachings of practices by which they could revolve upward to his state.”

CORRESPONDENCES AND ALIGNMENTS OF THE SEVEN INITIATIONS

Each of the seven initiations is compared to a specific activity or stage in childhood.

Water Initiation

The first two initiations purify body; the water initiation, conferred by the five Mothers (also called the five female Ones Gone Thus or five female Buddhas) purifies the five constituents – earth, water, fire, wind, and space – and is compared a mother’s washing her just born child. The correspondences are easy to see: the five constituents are compared to a just born child; the five Mothers are compared to a mother, and the activity of the water initiation is compared to washing a baby.

For the sake of clarity, let us list for the water initiation the five seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the five Mothers with their consorts, the deities that are on their crowns as “seal-impressions”, and the constituents that they cleanse:

Of the five Mothers, four – Tārā, Pāṇdarā, Māmakī, and Lochanā – reside on the fourth level of the mandala, the pristine consciousness mandala, in the intermediary directions. The fifth, Vajradhātvīshvarī, is fused with Kālachakra’s consort, Vishvamātā.

Crown Initiation

The crown initiation, conferred by the five male Ones Gone Thus, also called the five male Buddhas, purifies the five aggregates – forms, feelings, discriminations, compositional factors, and consciousnesses – and is compared to fixing up the hair on the top of a child’s head. Just as the crown that is used in the initiation is put on the head, so a child’s hair is bound on top of the head. Though in the water initiation, the five Mothers are comparable to the mother who first washes her baby, here a correspondence with the five male Buddhas is unclear unless the father traditionally first ties the hair of a male child on top of his head.

For the crown initiation, the five seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the five Buddhas with their consorts, the deities that are on their crown as “seal-impressions”, and the aggregates that they cleanse are:

Of the five Buddhas, four – Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Vairochana – reside on the fourth level of the mandala, the pristine consciousness mandala, in the four primary directions. The fifth, Akṣhobhya, is fused with Kālachakra.

Silk Ribbon Initiation

The third and fourth initiations purify speech, the basis of which is wind, or inner currents. The silk ribbon initiation, conferred by the ten Shaktis, purifies the ten winds (inner currents) and is compared to piercing the ears of a child and hanging on adornments. The silk ribbons are long adornments hung from the crown that was put on during the second initiation; thus they are somewhat similar to ear-rings that hang from the ears. There seems to be nothing in the initiation similar to piercing the ears, and there seems to be no particular correspondence with the Shaktis unless a female servant pierces the ears of a child.

The ten seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the ten Shaktis (who are all seal-impressed with Vajrasattva), and the winds that they cleanse are:

Of the ten Shaktis, eight reside on the fifth, or top, level of the mandala, the mandala of great bliss, on the eight lotus petals surrounding Kālachakra and Vishvamātā. Presumably, of the two Shaktis remaining, Vajradhatvīshvarī and Vishvamātā, the former is fused with Kālachakra’s consort, Vishvamātā, and is the same as the fifth female One Gone Thus mentioned above with respect to the water initiation, and the latter is Vishvamātā herself.

The ten Shaktis are also called by the names of the ten perfections: Dānapāramitā, Shīlapāramitā, Kṣhāntipāramitā, Vīryapāramitā, Dhyānapāramitā, Prajñāpāramitā, Upāya-pāramitā, Praṇidhānapāramitā, Balapāramitā, and Jñānapāramitā. They represent the perfections of giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration, wisdom, method, prayer-wishes, power, and exalted wisdom.

Vajra and Bell Initiation

There are three main channels in the body; the central channel runs from the forehead to the top of the head, down the body near the backbone, and ends in the sexual organ. Above the navel, mainly wind flows in the central channel, and below the navel, mainly semen. The right and left channels are on the two sides of the central channel; above the navel, mainly blood and semen flow in the right and left channels respectively; below the navel, mainly feces and urine.111 The wind that flows through all three channels is the basis of speech, and thus the vajra and bell initiation, conferred by Kālachakra and his consort Vishvamātā, which purifies the left and right channels, is associated with purifying speech. This initiation cleansing the avenues through which the wind that is the basis of speech moves is compared to a child’s laughing and talking. Perhaps, Kālachakra and Vishvamātā can also be compared with the parents with whom the child first talks.

For the vajra and bell initiation, the two seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the two principal deities and their consorts, the deities that are on their crowns as “seal-impressions”, channels that they cleanse are:

Conduct Initiation

The fifth and sixth initiations purify mind. The conduct initiation, conferred by the twelve male and twelve female Bodhisattvas, purifies the six sense powers – eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental sense powers – as well as their respective objects – visible forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and other phenomena.^111a It is compared to a child’s enjoying the five attributes of the Desire Realm – pleasant visible forms, sounds, odors, tastes, and tangible objects.

For the conduct initiation, the twelve seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the twelve Bodhisattvas and their consorts, the deities that are on their crowns as “seal-impressions”, and the sense powers and objects that they cleanse are:

The twenty-four Bodhisattvas reside on the third level of the mandala, the mind mandala, to the right and left of the four doors and in the corners.

Name Initiation

The name initiation, conferred by the twelve male and twelve female Wrathful Deities, purifies the six action faculties – mouth, arms, legs, anus, urinary faculty, and regenerative faculty – and their respective activities – speaking, taking, going, defecating, urinating, and emitting regenerative fluid. It is compared with naming a child. Since, at the end of the initiation, the lama gives names to the students in accordance with their lineage, the initiation is like naming a child; the giver of the name, being the lama, might also be compared with a parent who names a child.

For the name initiation, the twelve seed syllables, the symbols which those syllables become, the twelve Wrathful Deities and their consorts, the deities that are on their crowns as “seal-impressions”, and the sense powers and objects that they cleanse are:

The twenty-four Wrathful Deities are (1) the four male Wrathful Deities with their four consorts residing in the doorways of the third level of the mandala, the mind mandala, (2) Uṣhṇīshachakravartī with Atinīla who are above the mind mandala, (3) Sumbharāja with Raudrākṣhī who reside in the body mandala, and (4) all of these same deities but with the females predominant.

Permission Initiation

The seventh, and last, initiation purifies bliss. The permission initiation, conferred by Vajrasattva and Prajñāpāramitā, purifies the pristine consciousness aggregate and pristine consciousness constituent, both of which refer to blissful and non-conceptual states. The initiation, in which the students are told to teach doctrine to the various types of sentient beings, is compared to a father’s telling a child what to read and so forth. Just as a father gives reading to a child, so the lama gives the Kālachakra Tantra to students but for them to teach others.

For the permission initiation, the two seed syllables, the symbols that those syllables become, the two deities, the deities that are on their crowns as “seal-impressions”, and the factors that they cleanse are:

In the mandala, Vajrasattva resides on Kālachakra’s head, and Prajñāpāramitā is fused with Kālachakra’s consort, Vishvamātā.

TRANSFORMATION

With each internal initiation, the students are reborn in an ideal fashion. The internal initiations purify stages of development in the womb.111b The first internal initiation, received from the northern, white, very peaceful, body face of Kālachakra, corresponds to the development of the students’ physical constituents and aggregates in the womb. These are the bases of purification to be purified by three activities of the lama (who is in the Vajra Body aspect of Kālachakra):

1 generating the students as Vajra Body deities

2 making them indivisible from the actual Vajra Body Deity, called a Wisdom-Being

3 conferring initiation with the mind of enlightenment which is the melted form of all the Buddhas of the ten directions.

In this way, the first internal initiation purifies the process of the initial development of the students’ physical constituents and aggregates in the womb and establishes seeds that serve as antidotes to such uncontrolled development.

In the same pattern, the second internal initiation, received from the southern, red, desirous, speech face of Kālachakra, corresponds to the development of the students’ winds and channels in the womb – the winds and channels being the foundation of speech. The third internal initiation, received from the eastern, black, fierce, mind face of Kālachakra, corresponds to the development of the students’ sense powers and action faculties in the womb. The fourth internal initiation, received from the western, yellow, meditatively stabilized, pristine consciousness (bliss) face of Kālachakra, corresponds to the development of the students’ aggregate of pristine consciousness and constituent of pristine consciousness in the womb. (A wind of pristine consciousness is said to circulate in the womb immediately after conception). These four internal initiations purify, or establish potencies for purifying, the respective development of the students’ body, speech, mind, and bliss in the womb-state.

The seven initiations themselves are modelled on important events in childhood, after emergence from the womb. The water initiation corresponds to a mother’s washing her newborn child; the crown initiation corresponds to fixing up the hair on the top of a child’s head; the silk ribbon initiation corresponds to piercing the ears of a child and hanging on adornments; the vajra and bell initiation corresponds to a child’s laughing and talking; the conduct initiation corresponds to a child’s enjoying the five sense objects of the Desire Realm; the name initiation corresponds to naming a child; the permission initiation corresponds to a father’s giving reading and so forth to a child.

Just as conception and birth are re-lived in each internal initiation, so in the seven initiations significant or even peak childhood events are re-enacted. Of the seven comparisons, at least four – washing the newborn child, fixing up the hair on the top of a child’s head, piercing the ears of a child and hanging on adornments, and naming – are so important in the development of a child as to be marked by rites of passage.112 The other three events are also transitional; a child’s first laughing and first talking (which do not occur at the same time) are pivotal events in the development of a child as experienced by the child, for the gaining of sufficient control to laugh autonomously and then to utter words under one’s own control are events of enormous proportions for a child. With the initial experience of such control is a sense of wonder, of completely being involved in these activities. Also, a child’s enjoying the five sense objects of the Desire Realm, whether it be the first occasion (which then would be five occasions corresponding with the five objects) or whenever such enjoyment occurs, is a time of interested fascination and non-conceptual enjoyment. A father’s giving reading to a child also marks an introduction to the activities of one’s lineage; a child approaches the first enactment of the family duties with the wonder of entering a new world.¹¹³

These events are cited as comparisons for the seven initiations so that, in reinvoking and reenacting them, the wonder, non-conceptuality, and absorption integral to them can be reexperienced. Then, the wondrous, non-conceptual, absorbed consciousness is to be experienced in a new context of using it to realize the emptiness of inherent existence. The power and focus of such a consciousness is put to use in penetrating the nature of persons and other phenomena. Also, these childhood experiences, still pivotal in our adult experience of ourselves and the world around us, are reframed away from unclear non-conceptuality to clear non-conceptuality that understands, realizes, and comprehends the nature of objects. When a practitioner can use such happily non-conceptual consciousnesses in the path, the consciousnesses become exalted wisdoms of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness. This means that a blissful consciousness and a consciousness realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, which are usually separate, come together in one consciousness; the bliss consciousness (not consciousness of bliss but bliss itself) realizes emptiness.

From the viewpoint of the substances used in the seven initiations, the freshness and enjoyment of being touched with water, a crown, a silk ribbon, vajra and bell, a thumb ring, a bracelet, and the five hand-symbols are used to develop a powerful consciousness realizing the nature of phenomena. The comparison with important events in childhood and the usage of a happy, enjoying consciousness in the path suggest that peak experiences of childhood need to be re-evoked and that such happy, fresh minds need to be reframed so that they are endowed with a capacity to realize the nature of phenomena, the emptiness of inherent existence, rather than just being caught up in unclear non-conceptual happiness.

The Four Drops

Basic to this process of utilizing pivotal states and cleansing transformation of them into path-consciousnesses is a presentation, in the Kālachakra system, of four drops that are bases of potential and of defilement, and hence bases to be utilized and purified. There are two sets of four drops; the first set is located at (1) the forehead (or crown), (2) throat, (3) heart, and (4) navel; the second set is located at (1) the navel, (2) secret place (the base of the spine), (3) center of the sexual organ, and (4) tip of the sexual organ.114 The drops themselves are material, the size of a mustard seed and composed of the basic white and red constituents.

The two sets of drops are coordinated in that (1) the drops at the forehead and the navel produce the state of wakefulness, (2) the drops at the throat and the base of the spine produce the state of dreaming, (3) the drops at the heart and the center of the sexual organ produce the state of deep sleep, and (4) the drops at the navel and the tip of the sexual organ produce the state of absorption (bliss). One drop at the navel contains within it two different predispositions producing the waking state as the fourth of the upper set of drops and producing the state of absorption as the first of the lower set of drops.

At the time of wakefulness, the winds – upon which consciousness is mounted as on a horse – of the upper part of the body collect at the forehead, and the winds of the lower part of the body collect at the navel. Due to the collection of the winds in those places and due to each drop’s containing pure and impure potencies, mere appearances of objects and appearances of impure objects are respectively produced.

At the time of dreams, the upper winds collect at the throat and the lower winds collect in the secret region, whereby mere sounds and mistaken speech are produced. At the time of deep sleep, the upper winds collect at the heart and the lower winds collect at the center of the head of the sexual organ, whereby non-conceptuality and unclarity are produced. At the time of absorption of male and female, the upper winds collect at the navel and the lower winds collect at the tip of the sexual organ, whereby bliss and emission (of semen for men and “arousal fluid” for women) are produced.

As is evident, the drops produce effects respectively with regard to body, speech, mind, and pristine consciousness (non-conceptuality and bliss) and hence are called drops of exalted body, speech, mind, and pristine consciousness and drops of body, speech, mind, and pristine consciousness, respectively. The organization of the seven initiations into the four groups of body, speech, mind, and pristine consciousness or bliss is, therefore, done in terms of cleansing the impure factors of these four.

Through cleansing, that is, removing, the capacity in the drops at the forehead and the navel to produce the appearance of impure objects, the mere appearance of objects can be utilized in the path, whereby there come to be appearances of empty forms. Through cleansing the capacity in the drops at the throat and the base of the spine to produce mistaken speech, mere sounds can be utilized in the path, whereby they become invincible sound. Through cleansing the capacity in the drops at the heart and the middle of the head of the sexual organ to produce unclarity, non-conceptuality can be utilized in the path, whereby it becomes non-conceptual exalted wisdom. Through cleansing the capacity in the drops at the navel and the tip of the sexual organ to produce emission, bliss can be utilized in the path, whereby it becomes immutable great bliss. Through developing these in higher and higher forms, they become the exalted vajra body, speech, mind, and pristine consciousness (bliss) of a Buddha.

In the Kālachakra system, all obstructions are included in the obstructions of these four types in the sense that the very subtle wind and mind that abide in these drops are bases of infusion of the predispositions for the respective obstructions. In other words, the material of the drops does not constitute the obstructions and does not serve as the basis for the karmic infusion of the obstructions. Rather, the very subtle wind and mind that are located in these two sets of four places are the bases infused by our deeds with karmic potencies.

In Highest Yoga Tantra, the potencies that produce impure environments and beings by way of the very subtle wind and mind that exist in the basic or ordinary state are purified by paths of skill in means, whereby they are transformed into the Form Body and the Truth Body of Buddha. In particular, in the Kālachakra system, the potencies producing impure states through the four types of drops serve as causes for the vajra body, speech, mind, and bliss of a Buddha through being purified by the path. Initiation is an introduction to this process of purification of defilement and utilization of what is basically present.

OTHER CORRELATIONS

Entities Of The Initiation

In the water initiation, the students’ crown, right and left shoulders, upper arms, thighs, and hips are touched with water, and the students drink the water.114a Thereby, physical defilements of their five impure constituents are cleansed, and great bliss is generated in mind and body. The bliss consciousness ascertains emptiness such that a special exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and realization of emptiness is generated in the students’ continuums. That exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness is the entity of the water initiation; all of the other steps are causal factors producing it, not the actual water initiation.

In the crown initiation, the students’ five places are touched with the crown which is also worn, whereby all defilements of the appearance and conception of the five mental and physical aggregates as being ordinary are cleansed, and great bliss is generated in mind and body. The bliss consciousness ascertains emptiness such that a special exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness is generated in the students’ continuums. That exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness is the entity of the crown initiation. It can be imagined that when the crown is put on the head, ambrosia streams forth from it filling the body, cleansing it and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness.

In the silk ribbon initiation, the students’ five places are touched with silk ribbons which are also tied on their forehead. From them, ambrosia streams forth, filling the body, cleansing defilements of the ten winds and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness that is the entity of the silk ribbon initiation.

In the vajra and bell initiation, the students’ five places are touched with vajra and bell which are also set on their head and then given into their hands. From vajra and bell, ambrosia streams forth, filling the body, cleansing defilements of the two channels and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness that is the entity of the vajra and bell initiation.

In the conduct initiation, the students’ five places are touched with a thumb ring which is also worn on the thumb. From it, ambrosia streams forth, filling the body, cleansing defilements of the sense powers and their objects and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness that is the entity of the conduct initiation.

In the name initiation, the students’ five places are touched with bracelets which are also worn on the arms. From them, ambrosia streams forth, filling the body, cleansing defilements of the action faculties and their activities and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness that is the entity of the name initiation. It is called a “name initiation” because through the purification of the action faculties and their activities, one becomes suitable to be a basis for the name Akṣhobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, Amitābha, or Vairochana.

In the permission initiation, the students’ five places are touched with five hand-symbols – vajra, sword, jewel, lotus, and wheel – which are also given into their hands. From them, ambrosia streams forth, filling the body, cleansing defilements of pristine mind (bliss) and generating the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness that is the entity of the permission initiation.

Then, just as a universal monarch controls all four continents through a jewelled wheel, a wheel is given to the student as a causal factor for turning the wheel of doctrine. A conch is given for the sake of proclaiming the sound of doctrine. Also, a book of the Kālachakra Tantra is given so that the students can fill themselves with its meaning and thereupon turn the wheel of Kālachakra doctrine for others. Then, a bell representing the emptiness of inherent existence is given as a reminder of the realization of the status of all persons and all phenomena within which the teaching of doctrine is to be done. Just as a father gives reading and so forth in accordance with the family lineage, so the lama/Kālachakra calls on the students to teach the Buddhist doctrine. That this is to be done in accordance with the dispositions and interests of trainees is indicated by giving the five hand symbols representing the five lineages.

Just as the four internal initiations are concerned with purifying the process of development of body, speech, mind, and bliss in the womb, so the corresponding four groups into which the seven initiations are divided are concerned with purifying the process of development of body, speech, mind, and bliss in childhood after leaving the womb. Since it is explained that the bliss constituent is completed at age sixteen,114b the period of childhood development that is the focus of these seven initiations presumably is to age sixteen.

The seven initiations also are correlated with the first seven Bodhisattva grounds, each one establishing potencies for achieving the respective level. Just as each of the seven initiations is an entity of the exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness, so each Bodhisattva ground is a higher and higher level of meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness, the wisdom consciousness serving as a basis, or ground, for the flowering of numerous, beneficial qualities. Nevertheless, to achieve any of the seven Bodhisattva grounds, practitioners must receive the higher initiations and practice the stage of completion.

The first six initiations also authorize practitioners to work at achieving feats respectively by way of the five Mothers, the five Buddhas, ten Shaktis, the principal Father Deity and Mother Deity, the male and female Bodhisattvas, and the male and female Wrathful Deities. They also establish potencies in the mental continuum for achieving the five Mothers, the five Buddhas, and the ten perfections, as well as for binding the wind from the right and left channels in the central channel, achieving vajra sense powers and sense fields, and overcoming the four demons through the four immeasurables.

The first two initiations establish potencies for vajra body; the next two, for vajra speech; the next two, for vajra mind; and the last (although unmentioned) for vajra bliss. All seven initiations together cleanse defilements of ill-deeds, authorize cultivating the stage of generation and the achievement of the final worldly feats of the Highest Pure Land, set potencies in the continuum for the collection of merit, and bestow practices and releases related with the stage of generation.

Practitioners who have received the seven initiations in the pattern of childhood cultivate a stage of generation that is able to purify both the external and internal bases of purification. The bases of purification are the external worldly environment and the channels, winds, and drops of a person; these are called, respectively, the external Kālachakra and the internal Kālachakra. For this, meditative cultivation of either a complete mandala of body, speech, and mind, or of just the mind mandala (which here means the top three levels of the mandala), or of a mandala of five or more deities is needed. A simple meditation of just Kālachakra or of just Kālachakra with consort is not sufficient to fulfill the stage of generation. This meditative cultivation of the path, the means of purification, is called the alternative Kālachakra as is initiation also. Such a stage of generation is said to serve as a means of ripening roots of virtue for fully generating the stage of completion.

ALTRUISTIC TRANSMUTATION

Through being introduced, during the initiation, to utilizing the Buddha nature – the luminous and knowing nature of the mind and the emptiness of inherent existence of the mind – as a basis of physical, verbal, and mental manifestation, practitioners make a transition to a new mode of life, away from being driven by afflictive emotions and to a state of validly founded freedom that is in the service of altruistic expression. Practitioners have been authorized to practice and have been introduced to the practice of deity yoga, the very appearance of altruistically motivated wisdom in physical form, mimicking a Buddha’s manifestation in numerous Form Bodies from within the Truth Body.

Tantric practice, although using the model of the goal – Buddhahood with Truth and Form Bodies – in the path, is still in process toward the goal of altruistic perfection. In other words, that the model of the final state is used in the path does not mean that the goal is conceived as actually being fully manifest in the present state. Rather, the process of the path is modelled after the goal-state. Also, despite using desire in the path, it is clear from the numerous cleansings that have occurred in this ritual that tantric practice is still aimed at cleansing the afflictive emotions of desire, hatred, and so forth as well as the entire process of cyclic existence through mimicking its processes in a profoundly different context. There are “upward mimickings” of Buddhahood and “downward mimickings” of the uncontrolled processes of cyclic existence. A prime technique in both of these is to evoke blissful, non-conceptual experiences that are usually associated with unclarity and to utilize those powerful consciousnesses in a clear, insightful way penetrating the nature of phenomena so that afflictive emotions are impossible. Also, that altruism is at the very heart of the process is clear from the fact that the initiation begins with an adjustment of motivation toward altruism and ends with authorization to teach by way of the wise altruism that takes account of individual predispositions and interests.

APPENDAGES

Of the two appendages to the permission initiation, the main is the second, the vajra master initiation. It is preceded by four branches – giving mantra, eye medicine, mirror, and bow and arrow; let us discuss these first.

Mantra is given because both common feats and the uncommon feat of Buddhahood depend upon mantra practice. Common feats of pacification of illness, etc., increase of intelligence, lifespan, etc., subjugation, and ferocity are accomplished based on the usage of mantras during the stage of generation. These are called provisional mantras in relation to the definitive mantra, an actual exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness, through which the supreme feat of Buddhahood is accomplished.

Then, since the view of the emptiness of inherent existence is essential to mantra practice, both provisional and definitive, eye medicine, mirror, and bow and arrow are given to establish predispositions in the mind, respectively, for realizing emptiness conceptually, for realizing that all appearing and occurring phenomena are like illusions in that they appear to exist inherently but do not, and for realizing emptiness directly. The dramatic experience of realizing emptiness through the medium of an internal image (not just discursively putting together words about emptiness but incontrovertibly realizing it) is like the experience of seeing after having cataracts removed. The experience of phenomena as like illusions is like seeing objects in a mirror. The totally non-dual experience of emptiness in which the emptiness of inherent existence and the wisdom consciousness realizing it are fused is like an arrow piercing its target deeply. These analogs are given so that students will imaginatively enact states that are similar to the wisdom experiences being sought, thereby conditioning the mind in those directions. The metaphors bring home some sense of what it would be like to see without a film of ignorance, what it would be like to see everything as discordant with its appearance, and what it would be like for the mind to pierce into emptiness. The students are directed to imagine that they have attained the “eye” seeing the reality of the emptiness of inherent existence, that they have attained realization – subsequent to meditative equipoise on emptiness – of phenomena as like reflections, and that they have attained direct realization of emptiness. Imagining such establishes potencies for actually doing so.

In the vajra master initiation, the main appendage, the initiation substances are a vajra and a bell. These, along with the students, dissolve into emptiness. The students and the vajra reappear as Vajrasattvas, and the bell reappears as the goddess Prajñāpāramitā (“Perfection of Wisdom”). All of them become the actual deities by drawing the Wisdom Beings (the actual deities) into themselves. The deities are conferred initiation, whereupon those that are the new appearances of the initiation substances melt and turn into vajra and bell.

The vajra is first given to the student as a symbol of the exalted wisdom of great bliss, and then the bell is given as a symbol of the wisdom realizing emptiness. These two – great bliss and the wisdom realizing emptiness – are to be generated as one consciousness, the great bliss consciousness itself realizing emptiness.

That great bliss wisdom consciousness itself appears as a divine body, called a great seal divine body. Technically speaking, the “apprehension aspect” (bzung rnam) of the great bliss consciousness appears as a body, but this is explained as meaning that the consciousness itself appears as a deity. The appearance factor of the great bliss consciousness appears as a divine body, and the ascertainment factor continues to realize the emptiness of inherent existence. In this way, the factors of altruistic method and wisdom of the final nature of phenomena are contained in one consciousness. This is the one undifferentiable entity of method and wisdom in tantra – deity yoga. The entity of the vajra master initiation is just this appearance of the blissful wisdom consciousness realizing emptiness in divine form. As a master initiation at this point, it authorizes students to teach Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantra. (The initiation authorizing students to teach Highest Yoga Tantra comes after the four high and four greatly high initiations).

The vajra, representing bliss, is associated with mind. The bell, although representing the wisdom realizing emptiness, is associated with speech in that the wisdom realizing emptiness is the dominant condition giving rise to a Buddha’s effortlessly and spontaneously teaching whatever is appropriate to whatsoever trainees. Also, the emptiness of inherent existence is the main topic taught through the speech of all Buddhas since it must be realized (and that realization must be enhanced with altruistic method) to bring about the state of perpetual help and happiness of Buddhahood. The sound of the bell is considered to proclaim the meaning of the emptiness of inherent existence. The great seal, representing a divine body, is associated with body. Thus, the three pledges of vajra, bell, and seal are concerned with body, speech, and mind. By taking the initiation, the students pledge to be mindful of such great bliss, realization of emptiness, and its appearance in divine form through holding vajra and bell and crossing them at the heart.

In this context, “great bliss” does not refer to the bliss arising from embracing a consort, etc., for those bliss consciousnesses realizing emptiness are the entities of the four high and four greatly high initiations that authorize practice of the stage of completion. The harmony between the stage of generation and the stage of completion is that in both blissful consciousnesses are utilized to realize the mode of being of phenomena and to become the stuff of new appearance. However, in the stage of completion more intensely blissful, and thus more withdrawn and more subtle levels of consciousness, are manifested, whereby, eventually, reappearance as a deity can be done in actuality.

That the seven initiations introducing the basic tantric procedure and authorizing their practice end with emphasis on deity yoga and on teaching others illustrates the distinctive feature of tantra – the composite in one consciousness of compassion and wisdom embodied in pure altruistic activity. The seven initiations show that tantra, far from being a divergence from the basic principles of sūtra practice, is a reformulation of those very principles within utilizing many subtle techniques to enhance their incorporation in the body, speech, and mind of practitioners.