The presentation of entering inside the mandala has three parts: (1) entering inside and paying obeisance while circling it, (2) setting [the student] in a pledge [of secrecy], and (3) expressing the truth upon the descent of the wisdom being.
ENTERING INSIDE AND PAYING OBEISANCE WHILE CIRCLING THE MANDALA
Then, you actually take hold of the vajra in the hand of the lama and meditatively imagine that the Wrathful One at the eastern door, says:
Oṃ vighnāntakṛt hūṃ.
while leading you inside. Think that you arrive inside the mandala, [while the lama] says:
Āḥ khaṃ35-vīra hūṃ,
and you actually enter inside the curtain.
While I say the mantras, oṃ vighnāntakṛt hūṃ and āḥ khaṃ-vīra hūṃ, imagine that all three levels of doors open and that you enter the eastern door into the level of the exalted body mandala.
After that, while you repeat the following mantra, imagine that you circumambulate the mandala three times to the right [i.e., clockwise] inside the wall of the exalted body mandala but outside the white area where the deities of that level sit.
Then, saying:
Oṃ mahārata, sudriḍḍha sutoṣhyo, susuṣho, vajrasatva ādya-siddhya māṃ. [May great joy, thorough firmness, thorough happiness, thorough bliss, Vajrasattva, be established in me today.]
you either circumambulate the mandala three times or meditate such.
After circumambulating three times, you go out through the eastern door and, by the pillar of the eastern door, pay obeisance mainly to Akṣhobhya. You have been visualizing yourself as Kālachakra; now change into a blue Akṣhobhya.
You instantaneously turn into Akṣhobhya.
Imagining that you are bowing down, repeat this mantra:
Oṃ sarva-tathāgata-pūja-upasthānāya ātmānaṃ niryātayāmi, sarva-tathāgata-vajrasatva adhiti-ṣhṭhasva mām hūṃ. “Since I offer myself for the worship and service of all Ones Gone Thus, may Vajrasattva, the entity of all the Ones Gone Thus, please bless me into magnificence.” [321]
Think that you have been blessed in accordance with your supplication.
Through making supplication thus at the eastern door, you are blessed into magnificence such that you have the capacity of worshipping and serving all Ones Gone Thus.
You have been imagining yourself as Akṣhobhya; now turn into a black Amoghasiddhi.
You turn into Amoghasiddhi.
Imagining that you are bowing down mainly to the Amoghasiddhi lineage, repeat the mantra:
Oṃ sarva-tathāgata-pūja-karmaṇe ātmānaṃ nir-yātayāmi, sarva-tathāgata vajra-karma kuru mām. “Since I offer myself for the activity of worshipping all the Ones Gone Thus, may all the Ones Gone Thus please grant me the vajra activities.”
Think that you have been blessed in accordance with your supplication.
Through making supplication thus at the eastern door, you are blessed into magnificence such that you have the capacity of worshipping all the Ones Gone Thus as well as of sublime activities.
Now, enter the mandala through the eastern door; walk to and go back out through the southern door. Imagine that you have turned into a yellow Ratnasambhava. As before, bow down, repeat the mantra and its translation, and think that you have been blessed.
You turn into Ratnasambhava.
Oṃ sarva-tathāgata-pūja-abhiṣhekāya ātmānaṃ niryātayāmi, sarva-tathāgata vajra-ratna-abhi-ṣhiṃcha mām. “Since I offer myself for the worship of all Ones Gone Thus and for conferral of initiation, may all the Ones Gone Thus please confer on me the vajra jewel initiation.”
Through making supplication thus at the southern door, you are blessed into magnificence such that you have the capacity of worshipping all the Ones Gone Thus and conferring initiation.
Enter the mandala through the southern door; walk to and go out through the northern door. Imagine that you turn into a white Amitābha. As before, bow down, repeat the mantra and its translation, and think that you have been blessed.
You turn into Amitābha.
Oṃ sarva-tathāgata-pūja-pravaratanāya ātmānaṃ niryātayāmi, sarva-tathāgata vajra-dharma-pravarataya māṃ. “Since I offer myself to all the Ones Gone Thus for the thorough turning [of the wheel of doctrine], may all the Ones Gone Thus please thoroughly turn [the wheel of] vajra doctrine for me.”
Through making supplication thus at the northern door, you are blessed into magnificence such that you have the capacity of worshipping all the Ones Gone Thus and turning the wheel of doctrine. [322]
Then, enter the mandala through the northern door, and circumambulating to the right, go outside through the western door. Imagine that you turn into a yellow Vairochana. As before, bow down, repeat the mantra and its translation, and think that you have been blessed.
You turn into Vairochana.
Oṃ sarva-buddha-pūja-upasthānāya ātmānaṃ niryātayāmi, sarva-tathāgata-vajra-vairochana adhitiṣhṭha māṃ. “Since I offer myself to all the Ones Gone Thus for worship and service, may Vairochana, the entity of all the Ones Gone Thus, bless me into magnificence.”
Through making supplication in that way at the western door, you are blessed into magnificence such that you have the capacity of worshipping and serving all the Ones Gone Thus.
At these times, if initiation is being conferred on a student, at the four doors respectively you [the student] actually should in the east (1) stretch out the vajra palms and perform obeisance such that all the body descends to the ground and (2) joining the vajra palms at the heart, perform obeisance with the top of the head touching the earth; in the south (3) placing the vajra palms at the heart perform obeisance such that the forehead touches the earth; in the north (4) putting the vajra palms together at the forehead perform obeisance such that your mouth touches the earth; and in the west (5) stretch out the vajra palms and perform obeisance such that all the body descends to the ground.
Then enter inside the western door, and circumambulating to the right, go out through the eastern door. There, bow down mainly to the lama.
Then, at the eastern door, pay obeisance to the feet of the lama.
Repeat:
Oṃ guru-charaṇa-pūja-upasthānāya ātmānaṃ niryātayāmi, sarvasatva-paritrāṇāya ātmānaṃ nir-yātayāmi. [I offer myself for worship and service at the feet of the guru, I offer myself for the help of all beings.]
SETTING [THE STUDENT] IN THE PLEDGES
The student is set in a pledge of secrecy by way of indicating the benefits of maintaining secrecy, the dangers of not doing so, and both the benefits and the dangers. First is by way of the benefits.
Today you will enter into the lineages of all the Ones Gone Thus. Therefore, I will generate in you the exalted vajra wisdom. Through this exalted wisdom you will attain the feats of all Ones Gone Thus. Thus, what need is there to mention that you will attain other feats! You should not speak about this in front of those who have not seen a mandala; your pledges will deteriorate.
Then, the student is set in a pledge of secrecy by way of speaking of the physical dangers.
Again, setting the vajra on the [student’s] head, [the lama] says:
This is your pledge vajra. If you speak about this mode to anyone who is unfit, it will split your head.
Finally, the student is set in a pledge of secrecy by way of speaking of the mental dangers.
Placing the vajra at the [student’s] heart, [the lama says]:
Oṃ, today Vajrasattva himself
Has thoroughly entered into your heart. [323]
If you speak about this mode,
Immediately thereafter he will separate and leave.
Here “Vajrasattva” refers to the exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness.
Respectively, with these three [the student] is set in the pledges by way of the benefits, dangers, and both. In particular, [the student] is set in the pledge [to keep from] the root infraction of proclaiming the secret to immature humans.
This sets you in a pledge particularly not to speak [of the initiation and so forth] to those whose continuums have not matured [through practice of the path, initiation, etc.] Thus, it is particularly related with the seventh infraction of the Mantra vows – to proclaim the secret to the unripened – and is a pledge to keep from that infraction.
Then, the student is set in a pledge to keep from root infractions in general, by way of speaking of both the benefits and dangers.
Then, taking up water from the Mahāvijaya religious conch with the thumb and nameless finger, give the water into the student’s mouth and say:
If you transgress the pledges
This water of hell will burn.
If the pledges are kept, it will bestow feats.
Drink the water of vajra-ambrosia.
Oṃ vajra-udakaṭhaḥ. [Oṃ drink the vajra water.]
Pour the oath-water, and set [the student] in the pledges by way of the benefits of keeping them, dangers of not keeping them, and both. Thereby [the student] is set in the general pledges, root and secondary.
Next the student is set in a pledge to obey the word of the lama. This is related particularly with keeping from the first root infraction of the Mantra vows – to deride the lama.
Then, the lama grasps the right hand of the student and sets [the student] particularly in the pledge [to keep from] the first infraction:
From henceforth, I am your Vajrapāṇi. You must do what I tell you to do. You should not deride me, and if you do, without forsaking fright, the time of death will come, and you will fall into a hell.
Nevertheless, Ashvaghoṣha’s Fifty Stanzas on Guru Devotion (bla ma lnga cu pa, gurupañchāsika), which speaks on how to acquaint with and rely on a guru – lama – from the viewpoint of Highest Yoga Tantra, says that if from among what the lama says there is. something that does not accord with reason or something that you cannot do, you should explain the reasons and not do it.36 Therefore, it is necessary to discriminate between the general procedure and exceptions to it.37
EXPRESSING THE TRUTH UPON THE DESCENT OF THE WISDOM-BEING
The wisdom-being [actual deity] descends, and then there is an expression of the power of the truth [i.e., an oath based on true fact]. First, the student makes a supplication for the sake of the descent of the wisdom-beings:
[The student] makes a supplication:
May all the Ones Gone Thus bless me into magnificence.
May the glorious Kālachakra please descend into me.
Since this is for the sake of blessings into magnificence, it is important to know how blessings are received. First, you generate, or imagine, your body as a divine body, which in this case is that of the fierce deity, Vajravega. Then, in addition to this, you set the seed syllables of the four elements – earth, water, fire, and wind – in your body in a state of fluctuation; this affects your thought such that the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness is generated in your continuum. This is what you are to imagine.
First, everything is purified into emptiness. In the last deity generation while paying obeisance at the four doors, you became Vairochana; this dissolves into emptiness, and then from within emptiness a hūṃ appears; it turns into a vajra, which then transforms into Vajravega.
[The lama] clears away [obstructors] with water from the Mahāvijaya conch and the six syllables [oṃ āḥ, hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ].
Oṃ shūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāvātmako’ haṃ. [I have an essential nature of indivisible emptiness and wisdom.]
From within emptiness from hūṃ and [then] a vajra, you are generated as Vajravega,38 with a blue body, having three necks – black in the center, red to the right, and white to the left – and having four faces – blue in the center, red to the right, white to the left, and yellow to the back. Also, each of the faces has exposed fangs and is frightful. All of the faces have three orange eyes. The orange hair on the head is standing on end. The first set of shoulders is black, the second red, the third white; thus there are six shoulders, with twelve upper arms, and twenty-four lower arms. The first four lower arms [on each side] are black, the second red, the third white, and of the remaining two lower arms the right is black and the left is yellow. [On the outside] the thumbs of the hands are yellow, the index fingers white, the middle fingers red, nameless fingers black, and the little fingers green. [The inside of] the first joints of the fingers are black, the second red, and the third white. They are adorned with rings and emit light. The red right leg and white left leg, in a posture with the right one outstretched, press down on the hearts of a demonic god of the Desire Realm and an afflicted Īshvara. You have the snake and bone adornments and the lower robe of a tiger skin as well as a garland of heads and skulls hanging down and the full complement of nāga adornments and hand symbols.
When conferring initiation on students, identify these individually.
What is the purpose of meditating on such a deity with all these fantastic features? In general, the Form Body of a Buddha, as is said in Shāntideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds, appears variously to trainees – through the force of having collected the two accumulations of merit and wisdom – naturally, spontaneously and without striving, in accordance with the dispositions and interests of trainees. It is not that a Buddha has a particular form whether there are trainees or not.
The Form Bodies of a Buddha depend upon the situations and needs of trainees. Some even say that Form Bodies are included in the continuums of trainees; whether this position is literally acceptable or not, it prompts understanding of the nature of Form Bodies. The purpose of the appearance of a Form Body is as an object of observation of meditation by a womb-born being with the six constituents of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness; thus, the appearance of a particular Form Body is related with a meditator and accords with the situation of that practitioner.
Now, in the case of Kālachakra, the mode of practice of the Kālachakra Tantra is related with meditation of the cosmic factors of the external Kālachakra mentioned earlier. Therefore, the particular form of divine body upon which a practitioner meditates is related with such meditation. The number of faces, the number of arms, and so forth – their color and shape – from one point of view are related with the body of the meditator and from another point of view are related with the sun, moon, constellations, and so forth.
Then, with respect to visualizing the four elements:
At your navel39 is a laṃ, from which comes a yellow square earth mandala, marked by a wheel and on which, on a [yellow] kālāgni disc, is a yellow ho. [324] At your heart is a yaṃ, from which comes a black bow-shaped mandala of wind, marked by two waving banners and on which, on a [green] rāhu disc, is a black huṃ. At your neck is a raṃ, from which comes a red triangular mandala of earth marked by a jewel and on which, on a sun, is a red āḥ. At your forehead is a baṃ from which comes a round white mandala of water marked by a vase and on which, on a moon disc, is a white oṃ. The rays of light of the four syllables and the light rays of the hūṃ at the heart of the lama, who is not separate from the principal deity, invite the four Vajra Deities [i.e., body, speech, mind, and bliss consciousness], which dissolve into the four syllables. From a yaṃ under the feet comes a wind mandala that ignites a raṃ from which comes a red triangular mandala of fire marked by a raṃ and on which, on the two soles of the feet, red jhai come to emit light rays.
At this point, from outside yourself light rays from the heart of the lama enter inside your body and activate the four elements inside your body. Through these two conditions, an exalted wisdom of great bliss – a meditative stabilization of bliss and emptiness – is generated in your continuum. In this way, think that a special exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness in which a blissful consciousness ascertains the emptiness of inherent existence is generated in your continuum. In addition, all the Buddhas of the ten directions are drawn in and enter into your body, with all the blessings of the deities of exalted body, speech, mind, and bliss. This is the blessing.
Through being hit by light rays from the heart of the lama, who is not different from the principal deity, the wind is stirred up, whereby the fire is ignited, due to which the light rays from the jhai enter holes in the feet – the light rays agitate the four syllables from which light rays are emitted, filling the entire body. Light rays from the hum at the heart of the lama, who is not different from the principal deity, invite in all the Buddhas in the form of the Supramundane Victor Kālachakra and the King of Wrathful Ones. All of these, filling the realm of space, enter into your body.
Oṃ āḥ ra ra ra ra, la la la la, vajra-aveshaya hūṃ. [Oṃ āḥ ra ra ra ra, la la la la, may the vajras thoroughly descend hūṃ.]
Saying that with strong intonation, ring the bell. Fumigate with incense of the five fleshes and the five ambrosias and with saffron. If the master has previously done ten million repetitions of this [mantra] and performed burnt offering a tenth as many times, through merely turning the mind [to this, the deities] will descend. Then give a flower that has been mantrified with:
Oṃ āḥ hūṃ
[to be put] on the head. Even uncalm forms of descent are pacified by this. The signs of coming should be known in detail from the commentary on the tantra.40
[The descent] is made firm and guarded with the six lineages of method and wisdom.41
Then, with [the seed syllables of] the six lineages of method and wisdom make protection:
At the [student’s] forehead, a [white] oṃ; at the heart a [black] hūṃ; at the crown protrusion a [yellow] haṃ; at the navel a [yellow] hoḥ; at the throat a [red] āḥ; at the secret region a [blue] kṣhaḥ.
Next, the students are directed to remove the blindfold and look at intermediate space to see what color is appearing. The lama asks what you are seeing.
Then, if initiation is being conferred on students, have them [pull up the blindfold and] look at space above the mandala. Ask:
What appeared in your path of sight?
Through differences of the color of the sky [that appears to the individual students], the specific activities that [they should work at] achieving can be understood.
Sometimes certain colors are seen; other times, no particular color. This is for the sake of determining the type of feat at which you should work. Put the blindfold back on.
Next, as before, imagine that you are circumambulating the mandala three times as you repeat the mantra oṃ āḥ hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ.
Then, the Vajra Worker grasps the two thumbs of the students with his right hand that also [holds] a vajra; they do the vajra dance, and repeating the six syllables [oṃ āḥ hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ], they circumambulate the mandala three times.
Then, at the eastern door I make a supplication to the mandala so that when the students drop a flower onto a mandala [here a square board marked in sections], what their lineages are and what feats they will achieve will unmistakenly manifest.
At the eastern door of the mandala the master rings a bell and makes a blessing of truth:
May the level of divine lineage
Of these students whom I enter
Into this excellent mandala
Be shown in accordance with their merit.
May their feats be shown.
May the lineage of which they are vessels be shown.
May the measure of the power of their merit
Be shown as it is in the mandala.
ENTERING SUCH THAT ONE COMES TO HAVE THE NATURE OF SEEING THE MANDALA
Everyone has the Buddha nature and thus is basically fit to become enlightened as a Buddha; however, it is not clear which your lineage is from among the five lineages of Ones Gone Thus. That lineage is identified in dependence on casting a flower onto a mandala.
From the garland of flowers that you were given earlier, take one flower, and imagine that you have arrived inside the mandala. [The students or their representative drop the flower onto this small mandala to see in which section it falls.]
From among the garland of flowers given earlier, remove one flower, light and not old, and having mantrified it with trāṃ, imagine it as a jewel flower and give it into the student’s cupped palms. Imagining that it hits the head of the central deity of the mandala, have the student actually cast it on five signs on the top of the Vijaya vase. Utter:
Oṃ sarva-tathāgata-kula-vishodhani svāhā. [Oṃ the purification of the lineages of all Ones Gone Thus svāhā.]
For self-entry [into the mandala] imagining that it is cast while saying the mantra is sufficient; it is not necessary actually to cast it on the signs. Through the flower’s hitting a particular sign, the divine lineage of the student is identified.
Imagine that, when you drop it onto the mandala, you are offering the flower to the deities of the mandala, who bless it into magnificence and then give it back to you. Then, put it on your head; merely through this, the exalted wisdom of bliss and emptiness is generated in your continuum.
Then, have the students tie42 that flower into the earlier garland of flowers, and then tie it on their heads, or tie it on your own [if doing self-entry]. Say:
Oṃ pratigṛhnas tvaṃ imaṃ satva-mahābala.
[Great Powerful Being, take care of this (student).] [326]
Calling the deity hit by the flower, urge the student on the deity:
Powerful Heroic Being, take care of this student until enlightenment is attained.
When you have identified the lineage of the Conqueror as whom you will be enlightened, you are to take the deity of that lineage as your main deity and are to emphasize keeping mainly the pledges of that particular lineage. The determination of lineage depends upon the relative strength of the afflictive emotions in your mind as well as on many factors structured by your level of merit, which result in differences in sense faculties, disposition, and so forth.
Then, after tying the flowers on the head or simultaneous with casting the flower, [the lama] says:
Today, Kālachakra is making effort
To open your eyes.
Through being opened, all will be seen.
The vajra eye is unsurpassed.
Om divyendriyānudghataya svāhā. [Oṃ open the divine sense power svāhā.]
Open the blindfold.
Now, take off the blindfold; think that the darkness of ignorance has been removed.
Having taken off the blindfold, think that you are looking at the mandala.
[The lama] says:
Now through the power of faith
Look at just this mandala and that [symbolized by it].43
You have been born into the Buddha lineage
And blessed into magnificence by seal and mantra.
The fulfilment of all feats
Will accrue to you as the supreme [holder of the] pledges.
Through play at the tips of vajra and lotus
You will achieve the secret mantras.
He vajra-pashya. [O, look at the vajra (mandala).]
“Play at the tips of vajra and lotus” indicates that the Mantra path must be achieved by undifferentiable method and wisdom.
Then, [say]:
You are manifestly seeing the entire mandala.
Thinking that, generate strong faith. When conferring initiation on a student, identify the deities individually in accordance with the Means of Achievement (sgrub thabs, sādhana).
Now, while you look at a drawing of the mandala, I will introduce you to it. As I do this, think that you are seeing the respective parts of the actual mandala. First, on the very outside there is a series of colored lights [representing a mountain of fire surrounding the mandala]. Inside that, is a green section symbolizing space, most likely not uncompounded space but compounded space as found in holes. The vajras in it constitute a protective circle [surrounding the mandala]. Inside that are four layers – gray, red, white, and yellow, with swastikas in the last – representing wind, fire, water, and earth. Thus, the layers from the green to the yellow represent the five elements – space, wind, fire, water, and earth.
Then, inside those, look at the different colors of the underlying ground in the four directions. Since the east [which is the bottom as we look at the painting but is the front from the viewpoint of the deity sitting in the middle] is Amoghasiddhi, it is black. The south, being Ratnasambhava, is red; the north, being Amitābha, is white; and the west, being Vairochana, is yellow. The colors of the four directions are mainly imitating the colors of the four faces of Kālachakra in the middle.
On this ground is the square, fully adorned mandala of three levels with four doors each – the outermost being the exalted body mandala, then the exalted speech mandala, and the innermost being the exalted mind mandala. In the very middle is a green eight petalled lotus, at the center of which is the glorious Kālachakra and his consort, Vishvamāta. Kālachakra has four faces, twenty-four hands, two legs. I will not go into greater detail about Kālachakra now.
You should think that you have encountered and seen the entire mandala just as it appears in the painting – having a nature of light. Think that you are meeting manifestly with Kālachakra and consort.
On the eight petals surrounding Kālachakra and consort are the eight Shaktis. The place where the principal deity, consort, and the eight Shaktis reside is the mandala of great bliss. Just outside it there is a square area with sixteen sections; this is the mandala of pristine consciousness. In the four directions are the four male Ones Gone Thus, and in the intermediary directions are the four female Ones Gone Thus [depicted by lotuses]. The four male Ones Gone Thus embrace four female Ones Gone, and the four female Ones Gone Thus embrace four male Ones Gone Thus.
Now, let us identify all of the segments in one direction, the east. Just outside the mandala of exalted wisdom is a black area which is the floor of the exalted mind mandala. Then, the white area is where the six male and six female Bodhisattvas of the exalted mind mandala reside; it is the equivalent of a seat for these deities. Then, outside that is a very small black strip of the floor of the exalted mind mandala.
Inside each of the four doors are the four fierce deities [depicted by lotuses] that protect the doors. The fierce deity that protects the upper direction is indicated by a second lotus in the east. Then, just outside the black strip of floor is the three layered wall of the exalted mind mandala – white, yellow, and blue. Then, outside the wall is a white area that is the white apron where the goddesses of offering reside. There are also twelve protectors, two in each of the four directions and two above and below. That completes the exalted mind mandala. Think that you are meeting and seeing all seventy deities of the exalted mind mandala.
Then, you come down the stairs to the next level, to the floor of the exalted speech mandala [depicted by a black strip]. Just as in the exalted mind mandala, there is a white area where deities of the exalted speech mandala reside. On it are eight yoginis of exalted speech – one in each of the four directions and the four intermediate directions [depicted by lotuses]. They are embraced by male deities and surrounded by eight goddesses each. Thus, there are eighty deities.
Then, as before, there is a gray or black strip that is the floor of the exalted speech mandala, and next is the five layered wall of the exalted speech mandala. Outside the wall, on the white apron surrounding the speech mandala, are thirty-six goddesses; from the viewpoint of the corresponding face of the principal deity there are five to the right of the door and four to the left of the door. Thus, to this point there have been one hundred eighty-six deities; think that you are meeting and seeing all of them.
Next, coming down the stairs from the exalted speech mandala, you arive at the exalted body mandala. Again, there is the black floor, next to which is the white area where deities of the exalted body mandala reside. In each of the four directions there are two principal great deities of the days, and in each of the four intermediate directions there is one – making twelve [representing the twelve months]. Each of them is embracing a consort and is surrounded by twenty-eight deities [totalling thirty in each group and thus representing the days of the month]. These are the three hundred sixty deities of the days of a year.
Then, in each of the four doors of the exalted body mandala are protectors of the four doors, and there are also protectors above and below, depicted respectively at the top and bottom of the picture on a circle of water. Then, outside of the five layered wall of the exalted body mandala on the white apron, there are thirty-six goddesses, equivalent to those of the exalted speech mandala, five to the right and four to the left from the viewpoint of the corresponding face of the principal deity.
Next are the deities to the right and left of the doorways on the white outer apron: on the eastern side there are bow shaped spheres of wind; on the southern side, triangular shaped spheres of fire; on the northern side, round shaped spheres of water; and on the western side, square shaped earth mandalas. On each of these are eight nāgas, embraced by very fierce female deities. In total, there are ten nāgas – eight having lotus seats.
To the right of the eastern door is a mandala of space, and exactly opposite on the western side is a mandala of exalted wisdom; these two are above and below the mandala respectively. That finishes the exalted body mandala.
Then, on the circles of fire and wind are ten wheels in ten cemeteries – four in the primary directions, four in the intermediate directions, and above and below. On the eight spokes of those wheels are eight very fierce female deities – making ten sets of eight very fierce female deities embraced by nāgas. Then, between each of the eight cemeteries there are eleven principal spirits or elementals, totalling eighty-eight. These are the main among the millions of elementals.
Counting the eighty-eight elementals, the entire mandala has seven hundred twenty-two deities. Think that you actually have seen all of them.
The count of the main deities in the mandala is explained by a correspondence with the number of channel petals that a person has. The channel center at the crown protrusion has four channel petals; the channel center at the throat has thirty-two channel petals; the channel center at the heart has eight channel petals; the channel center at the crown of the head has sixteen channel petals; the channel center at the navel has sixty-four channel petals; the channel center at the secret region has sixty-four channel petals. In addition, there are the six channels of the six lineages as well as the right, left, and central channels above the navel – lalanā, rasanā and avadhūtī – and the same below the navel, the latter being the channels for urine, feces, and seminal fluid. Altogether, these amount to one hundred sixty-two.
Among the deities mentioned above, seventy-eight who are in union with consorts have lotus seats; counting the consorts separately, there are one hundred fifty-six. When the six deities that perform the seal-implanting are added, there are one hundred sixty-two. Thus, the one hundred sixty-two main deities in the Kālachakra mandala complement the one hundred sixty-two main channels in the body.
Think that you have actually met the full total of seven hundred twenty-two deities of the Kālachakra mandala having such significance in terms of external and internal factors.
Next is to raise up song in joy at manifestly seeing the deities.
Then, [the student] utters the pledge:
Oṃ I have entered the vajra mandala, the great mandala.
The “vajra mandala” is mentioned because in Highest Yoga Tantra, the Akṣhobhya lineage or vajra lineage is supreme among all of the lineages, whereby the vajra mandala is the great mandala.
I am seeing the yogic mandala, the great mandala.
The harmony of method and wisdom is said to be the meaning of “yoga”; here, method is immutable bliss, and wisdom is realization of the emptiness of inherent existence. The exalted wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness appears in the aspect of a mandala, and thus this is a yogic mandala. Since it is superior to material mandalas, it is great. You are seeing that.
I am being conferred initiation in the secret mandala, the great mandala.
It is secret because it is hidden from those initiated only into Yoga Tantra and so forth. Thus, this Kālachakra mandala of Highest Yoga Tantra is superior to mandalas of the lower tantras and hence is great. Since you are receiving initiation in such a mandala, you raise up happy song:
Samaya hoḥ hoḥ hoḥ hoḥ.
That finishes the topics involved in entering the mandala.
(End of the second day in Madison.)