Today you are to enter the mandala, and initiation is to be conferred. In general, there are conferral of the seven initiations in the pattern of childhood, conferral of the higher initiations, and conferral of the vajra master initiation. Among these, those to be conferred here are the seven initiations in the pattern of childhood.
First, the students offer mandala, after which they make a supplication for all seven initiations. Then, the lama clears away any inauspiciousness and confers the seven initiations individually. In offering mandala, imagine that, as before, you are outside the eastern door of the exalted body mandala. Since today is the time of actually receiving initiation, you should be careful to perform the necessary imaginations for each part as I identify them.
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.]
MAKING A SUPPLICATION FOR ALL [SEVEN INITIATIONS] AND PURIFYING INAUSPICIOUSNESS
Having offered mandala, set the right knee on the ground, [327] place your cupped palms together at your heart, holding a flower in them, and make supplication three times:
Just as Bodhivajra bestowed
The great offering [of initiation] on the Buddhas,
Today bestow such on me, O Space Vajra,
So that I may be thoroughly released.
Kālachakra is called “Space Vajra” because Kālachakra is an appearance – in the aspect of a body with a face, arms, and so forth – of the space-like exalted wisdom of clear light, which is of an undifferentiable entity with the space-like reality of the emptiness of inherent existence. Thus Kālachakra is a final Form Body that has the capacity of serving as a means of purifying trainees’ suffering as well as its causes. You are asking such a Kālachakra to bestow the seven initiations on you today. The supplication is to be repeated three times within reflecting on such meaning.
[PURIFYING INAUSPICIOUSNESS]
When we wash, we need materials for washing; similarly, here various substances are used in connection with cleansing and purifying obstructors, ill-deeds, and obstructions. As I make the gesture of circling these materials in front of me while reciting the mantra, think that these inauspicious factors are being taken away.
When doing self-entry, [the following] is meditated or actually done by an Action Vajra; when conferring initiation on a student, the lama does it. Grasp with the fists of both hands mustard seed into which the six syllables [oṃ āḥ hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ] have been repeated seven times and circle it twice to the left, saying:
Oṃ sarva-pāpaṃ dahana-vajrāya vajrasatvasya, sarva-pāpaṃ daha svāhā. [Oṃ burn away all ill deeds for the sake of Vajrasattva’s vajra burning all ill deeds svāhā.]
Cast the mustard seed forcefully into fire. Likewise, also circle it twice to the right. Then, take up water with the fists, and do likewise. Then, do such four times with white camphor, then four times with extrusions of cow manure together with shoots of sward grass, four times with extrusions of pap, and four times with pieces of white cloth,44 circling as before to the left and right. However, the camphor and below are not cast into the fire.
That is followed by an ablution, a washing of the ears, nose, mouth, and body, this being done through my making a gesture of touching these places with a special fluid thereby symbolizing such cleansing.
Then, do the ablution.
Next an offering, similar to the one during the preparation of the student, is made to the student.
Utter the mantra of the principal deity [Kālachakra], and having made offering [to the student] of perfume at the heart, flowers at the head, and oblation in front, circle [the student] with a butter lamp.
Then, a censer is used for infusing incense.
Infuse with white incense together with butter into which the six syllables [oṃ āḥ hūṃ hoḥ haṃ kṣhaḥ] have been repeated seven times.
BESTOWING THE SEVEN INITIATIONS INDIVIDUALLY
This section has seven parts.
The seven initiations are now conferred in order, beginning with the water initiation. In the general mode of procedure of the path in Highest Yoga Tantra, the way that highest enlightenment is achieved is not through an external substance but through taking as the basis of achievement a phenomenon – subtle consciousness – that we naturally have [but do not utilize] in the ordinary state. With this as the basis, Highest Yoga Tantra sets forth techniques for perfecting the Buddha qualities of exalted body, speech, and mind.
In the Kālachakra system there is reference to four factors – body, speech, mind, and bliss.45 It also speaks of four drops in a person’s body. With respect to the four drops in the upper part of the body, at the crown of the head is the drop that produces the waking state; at the throat is the drop that produces the dream state; at the heart is the drop that produces the deep sleep state; and at the navel is the drop that produces the fourth, or bliss, state.
The drop at the crown of the head that produces the waking state has the capacity of causing various appearances of objects. In our ordinary state as a sentient being, that is to say, as a non-Buddha, it produces appearances of impure objects. Through the process of the path, one makes use of this capacity for the mere appearance of objects by activating it and overcoming the factor that brings about impure appearances; when this is done, various pure forms – subtle and gross – appear by way of the activated capacity of the drop that produces the waking state. Thus, at the time of the path, it is through utilizing the capacity of this drop that various empty forms are achieved, and in dependence upon these, one achieves the Form Bodies of the time of the fruit of Buddhahood.
The drop at the throat that produces the dream state has the capacity of causing various appearances of mere sounds. It is what brings about the various manifestations of impure sounds. At the time of the path, it is utilized to achieve invincible sound, in dependence upon which, at the time of the fruit of Buddhahood, exalted speech in all aspects is achieved.
The drop at the heart that produces the deep sleep state has the capacity of causing non-conceptual consciousness – impure and pure. In the ordinary state, it produces impure or unclear non-conceptuality, whereas at the time of the path its capacity to produce very luminous and clear awareness is utilized. Then, in dependence upon that, at the time of the fruit of Buddhahood, the non-conceptual Truth Body – the factor of complete pacification of the elaborations of conceptuality at Buddhahood – is achieved.
The drop at the navel that produces the fourth state has the capacity of producing mere bliss. At an impure level, it produces the bliss of emission – the predispositions for emission being a cause of travelling in cyclic existence. Through the power of the techniques in the path of Highest Yoga Tantra, the capacity for producing mere bliss is utilized and enhanced, whereby at the time of the path twenty-one thousand six hundred periods of immutable bliss are generated. Then, at the time of the fruit of Buddhahood, the Nature Body (ngo bo nyid sku, svabhāvikakāya) of great bliss is achieved; Highest Yoga Tantra speaks of a compounded Nature Body, not just uncompounded.
In this way, the entire structure of the Kālachakra path revolves around the defilements of the four types of drops and the predispositions for emission of the essential constituent. Emission of the essential constituent does not just refer to the emission of coarse semen but refers mainly to predispositions, for even those of the Formless Realm are said to have predispositions for emission. Indeed, this is a type of desire. Through the predispositions for emission one moves in cyclic existence; hence those of the Formless Realm are said to have the predispositions for emission. Those of the Formless Realm are said also to have “semen” [or essential stuff]; the “semen” of those of Desire Realm has five qualities; the “semen” of those of the Form Realm has three qualities; the “semen” of those of the Formless Realm has two qualities. Hence, “emission” and “semen” have a more subtle meaning.
In brief, to achieve a Buddha’s exalted body, speech, and mind in terms of subtle consciousness, it is necessary first to purify our gross mental and physical aggregates, constituents, and sources of consciousness [the sense fields and sense organs]. The seven initiations – the water initiation and so forth – are associated in gradual order with purifying these grosser impure factors. The water initiation purifies impure factors of the five constitutents; the crown initiation purifies impure factors of the five mental and physical aggregates, and so on.