Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute commentary, Kyabje Rinpoche guides practitioners through preparation and daily practice for a Heruka sādhana. He establishes proper motivation—seeking Buddhahood to liberate all sentient beings—then outlines essential preliminaries: cultivating refuge, understanding karma and renunciation, developing bodhicitta, and realizing emptiness. The core teaching covers the daily practice sequence: setting up the shrine with nectar-blessed altar, morning visualizations, taking refuge with a detailed visualization of Heruka and the Luipa lineage, and self-generation as Heruka with consort. He explains how the inner offering removes obstacles and generates bliss and emptiness, while emphasizing the importance of divine pride and clear appearance as the deity. Intended for practitioners who have received Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-09-02 – 1A – KR.mp3
UUID: efd6b3e6-6d1a-4118-81fe-93fdada8602f
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 1989-09-02
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,201
So we should adjust our motivation such that we are going to listen to this profound teaching on the great vehicle. This teaching which is the explanation of the practice of Heruka with the motivation of the precious awakening heart, seeking perfect unsurpassed complete Buddhahood as quickly as possible in order to place all sentient beings, all mother sentient beings equal to space space in complete happiness and peace. We will spend two minutes developing such a motivation. So the the ex So as we explain each day the practice, then you should continually maintain this practice daily. As it is explained, as each day we explain the practice, then you should try to keep up this continual practice in this way.
Practice of Tantra we should carry on the attitudes bringing us to this practice in an orderly fashion, you know, developing refuge, developing the understanding of the law of cause and effect, the disadvantages of cyclic existence which leads to renunciation developing the awakening heart which seeks to attain Buddhahood for the sake of others, coming to an understanding of the correct view in the sense of understanding that all phenomena are merely imputed by names, and that having done this to come to each of these points as a way of approaching one’s tantric practice. So in addition to approaching the practice of Tantra, it’s necessary to cultivate the master of the great vehicle, the spiritual friend, to develop a stable faith, to having done that, to actually receive the proper empowerment of in this case the Chakrasamvara. Having done that then one should conduct oneself in accordance with the explanation which is given, cultivating what is necessary, abandoning what is necessary. Morning when the Yogin takes off his practice of mantra, then he imagines that it’s a place where he is carrying on his practice, his home, his house, is the place where the peak of a mountain in which it is surrounded by the ocean and the four continents.
Then the place of practice in room should be cleaned thoroughly, placing a nectar pill in water and then taking the water sprinkling it about in order to purify the area, to cleanse the area. Then a proper altar should be set up with a photograph or a picture of some sort of Heruka or an image of Heruka should be placed along with various texts. Also one should have what are called the commitment substances, samaya substances such as vajra and bell, a Then having set up a picture of Heruka, offerings should be placed, offering to the deity of Heruka, then by means of self generation, generating oneself in the form of the deity, the offerings should be made to oneself, inner offerings, then actual substances of offerings, offerings of tormas, offerings of light, incense, various types of offerings. Sleep within the sphere of emptiness, in the manner of emptiness, and upon rising, one imagines as if one is being awakened by playing, making Four Dakinis, you are awakened by the sound of the four Dakinis playing bell and drum, and with the recitation of the mantra, Om Khandroha, and this is when it rises out of emptiness, that is to say, waking up.
If possible, this should be done about four or five o’clock or whenever you’re able to get up. In general, upon waking we should wash our body, but in addition, within the practice of mantra, we should having dissolved a nectar pill into the inner offering that we recite in with the recitation of the mantra Om Ah Hum, tasting the inner offering. As a consequence, we purify various inner types of obstacles, hindrances, and we experience bliss and this bliss is qualified by emptiness and remaining in this bliss emptiness meditative equipoise. Then we should prepare our seat in the, Heruka stands upon a corpse and this is the, we can sit upon a corpse but we can sit on an ordinary seat and then it’s necessary to prepare our motivation for the practice. This would involve taking refuge and reviewing the Three Principal Aspects of the path, developing renounced mind, awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness.
Then we should imagine in the space in front of it that there is an expansive throne supported by eight lions. Upon this throne is a smaller throne in which is seated our root lama in the aspect of Heruka with an embracing consort. Then behind the lama is the Tantric lineage and surrounding in circular fashion, the root lama are the various deities, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the heroes, the Dakinis. This is the generation of the object of refuge. Then additionally, respect to the visualization of refuge, your right side, your male relatives, on your left side, imagine your female relatives, that you’re surrounded by, completely surrounded by a vast assembly of sentient beings who are all in the form of humans.
Then we take heartfelt refuge in the precious Lama by generating a fear of cyclic existence and a faith that it is the object of refuge which has the ability to protect us from these fears. And then having this mind of going for refuge, we can simply recite the formula. Then having gone through refuge, we develop mind generation, that is to say the awakening heart, developing the attitude that in order to establish all sentient beings as quickly as possible in complete happiness and peace, I must attain attain as quickly as possible the state of Buddhahood. In order to do that then I am going to take up this practice. And we should do this one, two or three times, as many as it takes to transform our mind, to change our mind, to develop this attitude or motivation for our practice.
So we’re going to refer to the actual method of achievement, which you have the first few pages in English? So to actually proceed with the method of achievement, we call it Sadhana. Then it begins with the prostration to the inseparability of Heruka, here it’s referred to as Chakrasamvara. And then before us is the Lama inseparable from the deity, Heruka, and with the various lineage Lamas, and we are making requests to them, and his consort, and then here it says, or in Sanskrit, This is not the lineage of Drikungpa, it’s the lineage of Luipa. So we should substitute, I don’t know what the Sanskrit is, rather than we can just use the Tibetan word, rather than that, we should substitute Luipa.
This is the initiator of the lineage that we are going to be studying. He gave the first explanation and therefore when it says etc, then this is the lineage of the practitioners who have carried on this transmission of this practice. So it’s Luipa, etcetera. And then we are going to make requests to this lineage and the deity, and we should do this as many times as we feel necessary. We do it three times, seven times, eight times.
Having made requests to the Lama deity and the lineage, in response to this request, white nectar coming from each but condensing into one stream of white nectar comes down and melts and flows down into the crown of our head. Additionally, red nectar flows down condensing from all the various objects of refuge into one stream flowing down into our neck, throat. Then a blue stream of nectar condensing into one stream flows down and flows into our heart. Having, as these nectars flow down within one’s body, one’s body, speech, and mind are purified, that they become the same entity as the body, speech, and mind of the objects of refuge, then all things become, are transformed into emptiness. The appearance of emptiness arises the body disappears becomes non existent.
All things become empty. Then there arises within the mind through the purification of having become one with the body, speech, mind of the Lama deity. There arises in the mind bliss in response to this emptiness. Within this blissful mind, there arises this blissful mind observes all objects, all phenomena as merely being imputed by names that they do not exist at all objectively, naturally, or truly, and then one remains in this equipoise. So we are presently in a state of emptiness, that we should remain in this state for perhaps five minutes.
At this time everything is empty. You have no body. There is nothing there where your seat is. There is only the, your mind is emptiness, there is only the emptiness of your mind. Then at that place where your seat is, there appears, which, imagine in front of you where your seat is, that there appears a blue light.
Our mind is transformed into the entity of light. This is a blue light, about one cubit or one, from the tip of the elbow to tip of the finger. We’re calling it a cubit, about one cubit in height. It has no particular shape. The blue, this is the transformation of your mind into a blue light.
So there is this blue light. This This is you. Blue light is you. You should think, I am this blue light. You should think in this way for one or two minutes.
Then this blue light wavers and begins to move. And in that instant, one arises in the form of a simple blue, that is to say one face, two arms, one head Your seat is an eight petal lotus. It’s not your seat now. You are standing on an eight petal lotus upon which is a sun disk, a flat sun disk You are now embracing your consort, you are now Heruka embracing your consort Vajravārāhī. So then we should simply meditate in accordance with the ritual as it is translated here.
In one instant arising as a blue with one face, two arms, holding Vajra and Bell, standing with right leg extended, holding, embracing your consort, and try to imagine, meditate, cultivate this visualization. So we should imagine that we appear in the same aspect as in your photograph that many of you have with all the various six ornaments with the skirt, with the skin, the bracelet, head ornaments, and you’re completely trying to imagine yourself with all these aspects. So should, at this time we should try to develop both the clear appearance as the deity but also the divine pride of the deity. That you will be transformed upon your future Buddhahood into the entity of Heruka and you are assuming this form presently. This is the form that you will assume upon the actual attainment of Buddhahood and developing the divine pride that I am, this is my form that I will attain Buddhahood in.
This is taking pride in the integrity of being that deity and developing these two aspects, the divine pride and the clear appearance as deity. Then comes the blessing of the inner offering, and this takes the form of actual liquid substance that we make use of as a base and within the tradition of Ganden, in the case of a monk or nun, one would use black tea and in this black tea dissolves a nectar pill. In the case of a lay person they could either use tea and a nectar pill or they could substitute alcohol for the tea, some kind of beer or whiskey. So we should place in this liquid whether it’s tea or alcohol, a blessed nectar pill dissolve it in this liquid. If you need a nectar pill then I’ll give you one.
So, you know, what is the meaning of this inner offering? Why is it being blessed? It has, there are two meanings which are assigned to the blessing of the inner offering. One is in general, we make the inner offering in order to, such as we do for example, ritual cakes, we offer them in order to eliminate obstacles to get rid of harm. So there is this aspect of the inner offering which we offer this in order to get rid of obstacles to eliminate harm.
But also the various types of offerings to receive the blessings that we make, we bless the offering in order to make an offering to be given to our Lama, to the Buddhas. There are three types of offerings. There are external, internal and secret offerings and this is the internal offering. Additionally, as we mentioned previously, in washing where there is external cleansing and internal cleansing, and we, the inner offering is used as a means of inner cleansing to the purification of diseases, obstacles, and as a means of generating bliss and emptiness. Okay then.
Then we have generated ourselves in the aspect of Heruka with consort, developed the divine pride of Heruka. Then imagining at our heart is a sun mandala, a sun disc, called a sun mandala disc. On top of this sun disc is the dark blue syllable Hum and then this is surrounded in a counter clockwise fashion around the edge of the sun disc by the mantra, This mantra is is red in color.