Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche provides detailed guidance on visualizing the field of merit for Lama Chöpa practice. He traces the two lineages — the vast path through Maitreya and the profound path through Mañjuśrī — from the Buddha to Atisha to Tsongkhapa, who synthesized them into the Gelug tradition. He then covers the practical visualization: four main meditation deities positioned on an eleven-tiered lotus (Heruka front-center, Guhyasamāja right, Yamāntaka left, Vajrapāni back), explaining the placement logic and how to adjust based on one’s primary practice. He clarifies how the visualization differs from thangka paintings — three-dimensional depth in meditation versus a flat arrangement. The instruction emphasizes building the complete mandala gradually across sessions rather than attempting it all at once.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-08-07 – 9A – KR.mp3
UUID: 6c947db0-7ccd-40c1-8182-3332491593e5
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Date: 1992-08-07
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,116
In order to lead both myself and all living beings equal to space to a state of perfect complete, fearless enlightenment. I will practice, listen to the essence of the universal vehicle that is the practice of Guru Yoga for the sake of being able to vastly benefit both myself and others. Surrounded by the various other lamas and deities, and we are going to proceed from there. So as we’ve explained from the heart of Samantabhādra Vajradhāra, who is in the nature of one’s own lama, that lama has been of such great kindness to you and has been of such great benefit to you, one’s direct lama who has given you teachings directly in this life that radiating out from the heart of Lama Lobsang Dorje Chang Vajradhāra to the ray of light goes to the right and upon this ray which spreading out is a lotus and moon disk upon which is Maitreya and surrounded by the various lineage masters of the of the vast, vast teachings, such as Asaṇga. Then a ray of light extends to the left, spreading out upon that ray of light is the lotus and moon disc upon which sits Mañjuśrī, and the various masters of the of the profound lineage such as Nāgārjuna.
So these these lamas represent the lineage coming down from the Buddha himself who in in a direct succession first the the lamas of the vast the vast path of the bodhisattva that is to say the practices of the six perfections coming down through Maitreya, down through the direct lineage from the Buddha himself, and to the left the vast path of the profound that is the path of not the vast but the path of the profound that is the teachings on emptiness coming down through Mañjuśrī. So these represent the lineage of the Indian masters. And to the right, bringing to consummation the path of the best deeds, comes down to finally Atisha, the master Atisha. So coming from Atisha, so Atisha was invited to Tibet to teach the Dharma and having come to Tibet and taught the Dharma, his students then became what was known as the old Kadampas and they were divided into three sects. Those whose principal practice centered around the graduated path, that is to say the Lam Rim or the practitioners of the Lam Rim, those whose practice centered around the extensive text or the textual Kadampas, and finally those whose practice was meditating on the precepts of the master, of the teacher.
Therefore these are the precept holders. So these three sects of old Kadampa masters originated, they extend from Atisha. So these three groupings are called the old Kadampa. Within these the old Kadampas are included the three sects of Sakya, Kagyu, and Nyingma. Then the master Tsongkhapa appeared in Tibet and he received teachings from all of the various sects and the groups of Kadampas.
He received teachings from Sakya, Nyingma and Kagyu masters and also the graduated of the old Kadampas, the sect of the Lam Rim pa or the graduated path, the textural and the precept holders. And he condensed, he synthesized all of these teachings into what became known as the new Kadampas or as we know it the Gelug tradition. Then extending from the, again a ray of light extends from the heart of Lama Lobsang Dorje Chang and extends to the rear, so it’s extending from behind, and upon this is a the ray expands out upon which there appears a lotus, moon, and upon which is the lineage of the blessings of the the practice and this first the the near lineage of the Mahāmudrā lineage, the near lineage of the Mahāmudrā lineage. So initially before Tsongkhapa had a vision of Mañjuśrī, a direct vision of Mañjuśrī, one of his teacher who was Lama Umapa had a vision of Mañjuśrī, and so Lama Umapa would act as translator between Mañjuśrī and Tsongkhapa. So, Tsongkhapa would put questions through Lama Umapa and these would be given to Mañjuśrī and Mañjuśrī would give various precepts and answers and these would pass through to Tsongkhapa.
So at this at this lineage of the Mahāmudrā, the initial teacher was Vajradhāra himself, so he is the topmost figure and coming from Vajradhāra the next in the lineage would be Lama and then eventually Je Tsongkhapa through his accumulation of creative potential by offering various by offerings of prostration, mandalas, etc, gained realization of the view and had a direct vision of Mañjuśrī and received precepts directly from Mañjuśrī. So the lineage follows first. This is the near lineage of Mahāmudrā and it begins with Vajradhāra and from Vajradhāra to Mañjuśrī and then from Mañjuśrī to Lama Umapa. Lama Umarpa is said to be an emanation of Mañjuśrī and so from Lama Umapa to Tsongkhapa and then the various lineage of Lamas within that tradition following down from there. So this is there’s a 11 tiered lotus, 11 tiered lotus.
The topmost lotus upon which the the throne of Lama Lobsang Dondrup Vajradhāra sits has four large petals in each of the four directions. So So this is is. So it’s facing this way, facing toward Rinpoche. Okay? So on this on this on the front low front pedal is and the right pedal is.
And the and the back pedal is. And the left pedal is. So why are they positioned in this position, in this order? Now one explanation is that is in front. This is because of the two method and wisdom, the practice of Yamāntaka is equally balanced, equally emphasizes both method and wisdom therefore it is placed in front in the middle.
Then to the right is Guhyasamāja and Guhyasamāja emphasizes the method side for the attainment of Buddhahood and the method is associated with the right. On the other hand, on the left is Heruka and Heruka emphasizes wisdom and wisdom is associated with the left therefore is positioned on the left. And then behind is Vajrapāni and Vajrapāni is not specified as to any emphasis of method and wisdom just the general practice of secret mantra therefore simply placed behind. That’s the general explanation. On other hand, if you were mainly practicing Guhyasamāja, then Guhyasamāja would take the main, would take the main most important position and therefore you would swap the position of Yamāntaka for Guhyasamāja.
So Yamāntaka would go to where Guhyasamāja is on the right and Guhyasamāja would go to the central front position. And again, if one if one were mainly practicing Heruka as one’s meditational deity then you would again swap the position of Yamāntaka with Heruka. Heruka would then take the central front position according to one’s individual wishes. So you place the in the central front position, the the the meditation deity in accordance with your main practice. So extending, so in the position in a course with the present explanation, Heruka is placed in the front central position, and to the left is, Yamāntaka.
So the so then visualize the lineage of each of these respective meditation or deities. So the initial teaching of lineage begins with the root is Vajradhāra and then coming down from Vajradhāra the various lineage masters such as, you know the Vajradhāra was the first to teach secret mantra so the lineage begins with him coming down in terms of the lineage, the various lineage masters coming all the way down to then extending to Heruka himself. And the same for Then the same holds true for each of the other meditation deities, that the initial teacher being Vajradhāra in the case of Guhyasamāja is the lineage who passes through Indrabhuti and down through the various lineage masters, and the same beginning with Vajradhāra passing down through the lineage masters to and. So, for the purposes of visualization practice, this is the way it is set up that the coming straight down to Lama Lobsang Dondrup Vajradhāra is the lineage of Mahāmudrā and then in front would be the lineage of Heruka, Guhyasamāja, Vajrapāni, and Yamāntaka. So that’s the way we should visualize it.
But when it’s painted, when it’s painted, then it’s not placed in front. Know, one would be in front is in front of the other, so when it’s painted they are spread out flat. So you have you have the central central of these five lineages, the central one is the Mahāmudrā lineage, then then to the next to the right is Heruka and then on the outside is Guhyasamāja, and then to the left is Yamāntaka and to the outside is Vajrapāni. So the lineages and when they’re painted depicted and then they’re spread out in this in five rows flat, but in visualization then they would be have three-dimensional depth. So when it’s painted, it’s flat.
But in meditation, it would it would be given the proper positioning with the depth. So in general, all of the various meditation or deities, masters, etcetera, would be facing inward toward Lama Lobsang Dondrup Vajradhāra, but for this and is facing you, you are facing but for the in order to make it, for the purpose of facilitating meditation and to for the ease of meditation, then it is they are visualized as if they’re all facing you, facing outward towards you. So in in teaching in teaching, when I when I give when I teach you the Dharma, we all we face one another. It makes it easier that way. So if it’s not if it doesn’t feel, if you’re not comfortable with the all the masters and the deities facing inward toward the central figure, then you can just imagine them all facing you.
With respect to these, these, meditational deities, we if we can then in in the front most deity being Heruka we should imagine we should visualize the entire celestial mansion of Heruka with the 62 deities complete and the same holds to Guhyasamāja and the 13 deities of Yamāntaka, so the complete mandala of each of these. But if we can’t do that, then we can just imagine that each of the deities with their consort. So listen, if we can if we can meditate in this way, this is extremely vast and profound practice with great blessings. So, we it would be difficult to to meditate all of this in one session of the practice of Lama Chöpa, completely. One has to build this up.
Take if one tried to meditate all of this, it would the the sun it would be sunrise before you finish. So these four main meditational deities are on the first petals of the petals of the first lotus. So the lineage masters to both the right and left of the two traditions of Sūtra and Tantra, those on the right and left, that is to say those masters surrounding Maitreya and Mañjuśrī are the masters of Sūtra or discourses that are to say the various practices of the six perfections of the Lam Rim, graduated path, etcetera. Whereas the five columns of lineage masters visual visualized above are the masters of the lineage of mantra, a secret mantra or a tantra. So there there are there are both the the the lineage the lineage lamas of Sūtra and Tantra.
So of these two traditions of Sūtra and Tantra or Sūtra and Mantra, the mantra is placed in a higher position. So and we’re going to place Mantra in terms of mantra, the four levels of tantra and the the first two lotuses, you know, we’ve already, positioned the meditation on the first lotus tier, Heruka, etc, etc, and then the next lotus tier, such also includes highest yoga tantra, the highest level of tantra, highest yoga tantra. So the first and second lotus tiers are high are the meditation deities of the highest yoga Tantra. For example, on the second lotus are the meditation deities such as Chakrasamvara, Hayagrīva, Vajrayoginī. So we’re going to populate the four levels of tantra with the various meditation of deities.
But the first two tiers of lotuses are the meditation deities of the highest level of tantra, that is the highest yoga tantra. Then there’s going to be three, there are three lower levels of tantra. There’s yoga tantra, performance tantra, and action tantra. And so the next tier which be the third tier down of the lotus is yoga tantra or Kriyā Yoga Tantra. And the third, coming from the top, the third tier, third lower tier is the yoga tantra and then the next fourth is performance tantra and up on that would action tantra.