1   Motivation and Internal Initiation

           ADJUSTING MOTIVATION AND CONFERRING THE INTERNAL INITIATION

           The substances for the preparation [that is, the articles to be used] are kept away from [the student’s] sight by a curtain. Outside of that, analyze well [the students]; the qualified² students – twenty-five or less, not an even number-having washed, offer mandala.

Secret Mantra is a case of using imagination as the path; thus, one imagines that the entire world system appears in glorified aspect as the sport of the exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness – a union of method (immutable great bliss) and wisdom (realization of emptiness). These appearances having the nature of being the sport of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness are the offerings.

Also, the area should be considered not just to be this beautiful place in Wisconsin but to be the complete inestimable mansion and environment of the Supramundane Victor, Kālachakra, having the very nature of exalted wisdom. Imagine that it is present in just the way that I am meditating on it and that you are in front of it. Imagine that the doors of the inestimable mansion are closed and that you are outside the doors, making offering to the glorious Kālachakra:

To the lama, personal deity, and Three Jewels I offer in visualization

The body, speech, mind, and resources of myself and others,

Our collections of virtue in the past, present, and future,

And the wonderful precious mandala with the masses of Samantabhadra’s offerings.

Accepting them through your compassion, please bless me into magnificence.

Idaṃ guru-ratna maṇḍalakaṃ niryātayāmi. [I offer this jewelled mandala to the guru.]

The first step in the preparation, or enhancement, of the students is for the students to adjust their motivation so that it is properly qualified. Most of you know the importance of kindness – the special kind of altruism, called bodhichitta in Sanskrit – and of wisdom, called prajñā. These two mental developments are the ground or foundation without which we cannot perform any tantric practice. Therefore, both myself as well as you listeners must develop at least some experience of these two minds.

With regard to wisdom, things appear as if independently existent but in reality do not exist that way; we should understand that things do not exist in accordance with their solid mode of appearance. Then, with regard to altruism, human society could not survive, could not exist, without kindness. If we think properly, the entire human society is based on kindness; all human relations are essentially centered in kindness. In the field of religious practice, the feeling of kindness is the key point.

Also, it is very important to realize the nature of suffering. As long as we have this type of physical body under the influence of contaminated actions (las, karma) and afflictive emotions (nyon mongs, klesha), something will be wrong – this will be wrong or that will be wrong. It is important to realize that the phenomena of cyclic existence have a nature of suffering.

Another important realization is that of impermanence. Things are always changing. You should understand that this is their nature. With these thoughts in mind, we will proceed with the initiation.

The most important factor is good motivation. We have already attained a good, useful human body; we have an opportunity to accomplish something of great impact. You should think that you will do something meaningful with this human body already attained. To do something meaningful with it, you should not be selfish but should generate as much as possible an altruistic attitude. Altruism is most important.

Now, the next question is how to serve other people, how to help other beings – not just humans but all sentient beings. According to Buddhist teaching, events depend upon our own karmic force; for the wanted happiness to occur and the unwanted suffering not to occur, persons need an unmistaken mode of accumulating karma. Therefore, helping others is mainly in terms of explaining to others what is to be adopted in practice and what is to be discarded from our behaviour. As a sūtra says:

The Subduer [Buddhas] neither wash ill-deeds away with water,

Nor remove beings’ sufferings with their hands,

Nor transfer their realizations to others.

Beings are released through the teachings of the truth, the final reality.

Furthermore, to be able to teach unmistakenly what is to be adopted in practice and what is to be discarded, these topics cannot be obscure to oneself. As Dharmakīrti’s Commentary on (Dignāga’s) “Compendium of Valid Cognition” (tshad ma rnam ‘grel, pramāṇavarttika) says:3

In order to overcome suffering [in others]

The merciful manifestly engage in methods.

When the causes of what arise from those methods are obscure [to oneself],

It is difficult to explain them [to others].

If what is to be taught is beyond your ken, you cannot possibly teach it. All possible techniques of practice must be known.

In addition, you need to know, exactly as they are, the various dispositions and interests of those whom you would teach. If you do not know their dispositions and interests, even though your attitude is good, it is nonetheless possible to do harm due to the teaching’s not being appropriate. Therefore, as long as your mind is polluted by the obstructions to omniscience such that you are prevented from knowing all objects of knowledge, you cannot fully bring about others’ welfare.

This being the case, Bodhisattvas consider their real enemy to be the obstructions to omniscience. If Bodhisattvas had a choice either to get rid of the afflictive obstructions preventing liberation from cyclic existence or to get rid of the obstructions to omniscience, they would choose the latter. However, since the fact is that the obstructions to omniscience are predispositions left by the afflictive obstructions, without removing that which deposits these predispositions there is no way to remove the predispositions; thus, it is necessary to remove first the afflictive obstructions and then the obstructions to omniscience. Hence, to bring about others’ welfare, it is necessary to remove entirely both obstructions – to liberation and to omniscience. That level, or ground, at which the afflictive emotions as well as their predispositions have been removed forever is called Buddhahood, a state endowed with the exalted wisdom knowing all aspects of objects of knowledge.

The purpose is to bring about sentient beings’ welfare; the means to accomplish this is your own Buddhahood. This sequence of thought is how you come to determine that you must attain Buddhahood for the sake of others. The attitude generated is called bodhichitta, the altruistic intention to become enlightened, and it must be cultivated continually, at least in a fabricated way. You should think, “I will rely upon the path of unified Sūtra and Mantra and, within that, on Highest Yoga Tantra – specifically the path of the Kālachakra Tantra – as a technique for easily achieving such Buddhahood. Thereby I will achieve highest enlightenment for the sake of others, and for this reason I am requesting initiation.”

In the ritual, the words in the rite that represent the adjustment of motivation are taken from the General Secret Tantra (dkyil ‘khor thams cad kyi spyi’i cho ga gsang ba’i rgyud, sarvamaṇḍalasāmānyavidhiguhyatantra), which is a general Action Tantra in that it applies to all lineages of practitioners. The quotation is used in many initiations, not just Kālachakra.

           [The students] place their knees [on the ground] and bring their palms, with flowers, together at the heart. With them sitting in front [of the lama, the lama] says:

           Some seeking to achieve Secret Mantra

           For this [life] enter the mandala.

This describes the mistaken motivation of seeking the happiness of this life, such as entering a mandala in order to prevent disease or to achieve success in a certain venture. A request for initiation with this motivation is mistaken.

           Those wishing for merit are other than them.

There are those who, seeking a future lifetime of high status within cyclic existence, want merit and therefore seek to enter a mandala. This, too, is mistaken. The line also can be interpreted as referring to those who, seeking liberation from cyclic existence for themselves, want merit and therefore enter a mandala; this also is mistaken.

           Others seek the welfare of others in the world.

           The intelligent should enter the mandala

           With many acts of faith

           Seeking the aim of what transcends the world.

Those altruistic persons who have the faith seeking that which transcends the world, the state of the Three Buddha Bodies, are fit to enter a mandala and should be allowed to do so.

The reason why you should seek Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings is indicated by the remainder of the passage:

           They should not wish for effects in this life.

           Those wanting this life

           Do not accrue the aim of what transcends the world.

           Those generating a seeking for what transcends the world

           [Gain] expansive fruits [even] in this world.

Having ascertained the meaning of these words, consider as I recite the passage that the principal deity, Kālachakra, is telling you from inside the mandala that you should think this way.

At this time consider in meditation that the lama and the principal deity of the mandala are not different. I am not saying that you should consider me to be God. When doing Mantra practice, one meditates on oneself as a deity and on one’s lama also as a deity.

           Identify well the meaning of those words so that the students generate awareness of the need to enter the mandala with a thought seeking the non-abiding nirvana [not abiding in the extremes of either cyclic existence or solitary peace] – that which transcends the world – the best of the three motivations.

In accordance with these precepts for motivation, all of us should not be primarily concerned with our own welfare but should mainly become concerned with others’ welfare.

           [CONFERRING THE INTERNAL INITIATION]

           Then [the lama says]:

           It is meditated that:

           Rays of light from my heart, clarified as Kālachakra – Father and Mother – draw in the students individually; they enter my mouth and dissolve in the Mother’s lotus.

This is like taking birth as a child of one’s special deity, Kālachakra.

In imagination, visualize the lama as Kālachakra in Father and Mother aspect, that is to say, in union with his consort. Rays of light, spreading out from the hūṃ at the heart of the lama who appears as Kālachakra, draw each of the students into the mouth of the lama, passing down through his body into the womb of the Mother. There, the students turn into emptiness.

Do not just withdraw all appearances; also become mindful of the emptiness of inherent existence of all appearing and occurring objects of knowledge, as illustrated by yourself. The altruistic intention to become enlightened, which was earlier cultivated, still remains, and now, in addition, you are thinking, “All phenomena, as illustrated by myself, are empty of inherent existence.” This mind itself serves as the “substance” of your appearance as Kālachakra with one face and two arms. The mind, impelled by compassion and realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, transforms into a hūṃ that itself transforms into a vajra that in turn transforms into a Kālachakra, not with all the faces and arms of the principal deity of the mandala but with just one face and two arms.

           From hūm and a vajra they are generated as Kālachakras with one face and two hands.

Then, light rays at the heart of the lama as Kālachakra draw in all the Ones Gone Thus – Buddhas – who have the nature of the exalted wisdom of non-dual bliss and emptiness. They enter the lama’s mouth, dissolve into light at the heart of the lama, called the mind of enlightenment; that descends into the Mother’s womb, conferring initiation on the students who are visualizing themselves as Kālachakras in the Mother’s womb. The students, in addition to their wisdom realizing emptiness appearing as Kālachakra, also are experiencing the special exalted wisdom of great bliss. Think that such bliss is generated through the internal initiation.

           The light from the seed syllable at my heart invites in all Ones Gone Thus; they enter my mouth, and at my heart the fire of attraction [i.e., their mutual joy in each other] melts [their bodies into light called] the mind of enlightenment, which emerges through the vajra path. [296] Through this, the students dwelling in the Wisdom Woman’s lotus are conferred initiation [whereupon the exalted wisdom of emptiness and bliss, the entity of the internal initiation, is generated].

Then, you emerge from the Mother’s womb and are again set by the pillar outside the eastern door of the mandala, all the while maintaining visualization of yourself as a Kālachakra with one face and two arms.

           They emerge from the Mother’s lotus and are set on their individual places.

There are three levels of doors within the mandala, corresponding to the three levels related with exalted body, speech, and mind. At this point, you are outside the outermost set of doors at the level of the exalted body mandala. Earlier it was explained that prior to initiation you are not allowed to meditate on yourself as a deity, but now that you have received the internal initiation, the process of meditating on yourself as a deity has begun.

The procedure of this imaginative meditation accords with the type of social structure in earlier India so that it easily could appear to their minds. It has connection with the later initiation of a vajra master, in which the student becomes like a representative or royal replacement of the lama.

That concludes adjustment of the motivation and conferral of the internal initiation.