Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche walks practitioners through the body mandala visualization central to Guru Puja, mapping the precise arrangement of 32 deities throughout the guru’s body in the form of Guhyasamāja. He systematically places the five lineage Buddhas within the aggregates, the four mother consorts embodying the elements, deities representing the internal and external sense faculties and their objects, and wrathful protectors at the joints and limbs. Each figure receives its specific color, location, and directional orientation—a meditation requiring careful, exacting visualization. Intended for practitioners who have received Guhyasamāja initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-07-31 – 8A – KR.mp3
UUID: bab40481-73ad-4770-a827-f1d033658370
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Date: 1992-07-31
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,776
To space. I will quickly, quickly attain the purest complete perfect state of Buddhahood. Okay. I know I’m not. Having attained that state I will lead all living beings to that same fearless complete perfect state.
In order to achieve that end from amongst the two vehicles of the universal vehicle mainly within the context of the secret mantra and within secret mantra are the four levels of tantra, the supreme of those four levels, the highest yoga tantra, the essential practice of that level of tantra within the context, the source of the Guhyasamāja tantra, I will practice the Guru Puja of the union with the spiritual master. With respect to the actual practice, we’ve been discussing the source of the object of refuge in terms of the is the tree field of collection and this was upon a bodhi tree, 11 tiered lotus, Upon that is a lion throne upon which sits our root guru in the aspect of the the Lord, Vajradhāra, in the aspect of Guhyasamāja and as it is pictured. So we should imagine as we have explained previously that the central figure is in the nature of one’s root lama, that individual has bestowed empowerment upon you, but in the aspect of Guhyasamāja. At the heart of Guhyasamāja is the Lord, Śākyamūni Buddha, with one face, two hands holding an alms bowl. At his heart is Vajradhāra, blue in color with radiating light.
And then the 32 deities as practiced within the Guhyasamaja Tantra are situated on the body of Tsongkhapa. It’s necessary to meditate on the body mandala which is situated within Guhyasamāja, that is to say the Lama and this is constituted of 32 deities as according to the practice of Guhyasamāja. So the Lama’s aggregates are five deities. There are the four elements, the are earth, water, fire, and air, are four deities. The six external internal sense faculties, eye, ear, and other, body, and mental sense faculties, six deities.
Then the external, sources, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects of touch are five. Then the sinews and muscles are one deity and channels, that’s one and then the limbs are the 10 protectors, 10 wrathful protectors and this constitutes hopefully 32 deities which are the generation of the body mandala according to Guhyasamāja. Now how many was that? As it says in in the Guru Puja text, says, That is the the five Buddhas gone to bliss. So these five Buddhas that are going to bliss are the five lineage Buddhas and these are situated throughout the body at the crown of the head.
It’s symbolic of the aggregate of form is Vairochana. At the throat, symbolic of the aggregate of perceptions is Amitābha. At the heart symbolic of the aggregate of consciousnesses is Akṣobhya. At the navel symbolic of the aggregate of feelings is Ratnasambhava and at the secret place symbolic the formations is Amoghasiddhi, which are symbolic of the five lineage Buddhas. Akṣobhya is blue, Ratnasambhava is yellow, Amitābha is red, Vairochana is white, and Amoghasiddhi is green. Three three face, six arm. All the deities in Guhyasamāja have three faces and six arms.
They’re facing outwards just in in the same position as we are facing outwards. So that is that that so this refers to this or let us say the aggregates are the five Buddhas gone to bliss. So then the text goes on to say that the which means the four elements are the are the four mother consorts. We’re going to discuss the four consorts which are transformed out of the four elements and at the navel is the earth element, at the heart is the water element, at the throat is the fire element, and the crown is the wind energy element. So at the transforming from the earth element at the navel is white Lochana.
Do you She’s white in color since she’s the transformation of the earth element and she is facing inward toward Ratnasambhava at the navel. Is it Ratnasambhava? Yeah. And then at the heart transforming from the water element is mamaka, blue in color facing inward toward Akṣobhya. And then at the throat transformation of the fire element is Pāṇḍaravāsinī is red and is transformation of the fire element, and Tārā, transformation of the air element, is therefore green in color, facing inward toward.
Vairochana. And Tārā is Karmadakini. Karma dakini is a bit. Yeah. So Karmadakini at the throat is red and tara is green facing inward toward Vairochana and all of these deities have three faces and six arms. So that’s nine.
That’s five that’s nine yet is transformations of the five aggregates and four elements making nine. Yes. Then it says in the actual text it says come to the line and then So is the four elements of the four consorts. And then means sources. It’s translated here as the bliss of your senses.
But anyway, it’s the easiest to translate as sources. And generally there are 12 sources. There are six internal and six external. So, the six internal sources will be transformed into six deities but only five of the six external sources are going to be transformed into deities. So the body mandala is being formed within the lama Guhyasamāja and his six sources will transform into deities.
That is to say eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental sources. So at the two eyes, so at the two eye sources or I the two bodhisattvas one at each eye, white in color. The the two are facing outwards? So are what is called the five external sources. So the form, so there are five external sources, external sources: form, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects of touch and the form source of Namkhai Nyingpo it transforms into Zuk Dorjema.
Zuk means form. Vajra. Dorjema means vajra, feminine. Ma means feminine in Tibetan. So we just keep it Tibetan.
Zuk, Dorje, Zuk means form. Dorje is Vajra. Ma is feminine in Tibetan. So it means a vajradakini. And So in Sanskrit, Zuk is rupa form.
Okay, I don’t know what the ma is in Sanskrit. So she is embracing Sa Nyingpo. She’s the consort of Sa Nyingpo at each of the eyes. She’s the eye source and just as Heruka embraces Vajravārāhī or Guhyasamāja embraces his consort, Sangye Nyingpo is embracing Zuk Dorjema. So that’s two deities.
There’s Sa Nyingpo and his consort Zuk Dorjema but there’s one in each eye. Yeah. They only count as one. There’s one in each eye, but it only counts as one. So at the ear source is Vajrapāni.
Yellow? His his consort is called So at each of the ears there is Vajrapāni and having and that is the transformation of the inner ear source, the transformation of the outer ear source which is sound, so that’s meaning sound, And also embracing this male and female concept. Is the just one. The Namkhe Nyingpo is yellow in color and as a transformation of the odor source is Dri means smell, so Dri Dorjema and she is red color. He is yellow in color.
Then the tongue source, the internal tongue source transforms into red in color. Embracing his consort, Ro, which means taste, Ro Dorjema, who is green in color. And then the body source transforms into red Mañjuśrī, Mañjuśrī. So then the body source, we just had the body. Mañjuśrī is transformation of the mental source at the heart, located at the heart.
Mental source is transformed into manjushri and situated at the heart. And then the mental source transforms into Mañjuśrī who is located at the heart. And then the body source transforms into Drukpa Namse who is green in color situated at the secret place. So the body source transforms into Drugpa Namse in color, is located at the secret place. And then, and his consort is Rekcha.
Rekcha means the object of touch. She is blue in color. Then the joints in general although it is enumerated as one deity you can visualize that at each of the joints so that is there each of the there is three joints joints on the arm, one, two, three, three on this arm, three on the leg, the ankle, knee, and hip, not the hip, yeah, hip, So that’s yeah. So there’s a there’s a 12 joint that you can you can you could visualize the deity at these 12 joints but it’s enumerated as one and the name of the deity is Kuntu Zangpo who is green in color. At the crown is the transformation of the central channel, so the transformation of the psychic channel but visualized at the crown is Maitreya, white in color.
Yeah. I’m sorry. So, okay, so it says this following, let’s go through that line, it says means the four elements, means the four consorts, your four elements are the four consorts. Means source. So the is, I mean source and there are the six inner sources, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental sources and then the five objects of those sources and the five external sources.
That’s 11. So there are 11 sources. Then rtsa means the central channel and this was transformed into appearing at the crown of your head Maitreya. Six means joint. So we say that those are which is though there are 12 joints it just numerates as one.
So we’ve gotten up to our jangchub sempa, ngön, actual jangchub sempa means bodhisattva, ngön means actually. So you’re saying that all of these are in reality bodhisattva. So we’ve we’ve we’ve enumerated 22 deities. So there’s 12. So the 12 wrathful protectors, you mean?
And the text as it says is So Rinpoche is just going through the text and it says that the hairs of your pores, the hairs of your head are the 21,000 wrathful protectors or Hayagrivas. Hayagrīva means wrathful ones. And your limbs are the it says your limbs are the 10 protectors. It doesn’t say 10 there, but limbs are the 10 wrathful protectors. It will be 10.
So your your right hand is so the forearm is is black in color. Harmers are demonic forces which seek to harm our life force, etc. And shame means that which destroys them. So the destroyer of harm. Guhyapada, black in color.
Left Left forearm is I just have to give you the Tibetan words for these. Then the mouth is Hayagrīva, actually Tamdin or in Sanskrit is Hayagrīva, red in color. So that’s the third of the wrathful protectors. Red color. Red Color?