Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. This 47-minute commentary on Heruka practice focuses on one essential element: using offerings of ritual cakes to protectors as protection against the mental obstacles and hostile forces that arise during intense meditation. The teacher walks through two offerings—one preliminary (seeking protection), one final (giving thanks)—and then guides practitioners through the visualization of nine skull cups that transform into nine offerings (water, flowers, incense, lamps, perfume, food, music). Considerable time is devoted to the mantra Om Ah Hum and its correspondence to the Buddha’s three vajras of body, speech, and mind. The commentary concludes with historical context on offering customs in India. Intended for practitioners who have already received Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-09-09 – 3A – KR.mp3
UUID: 98cc7084-3869-4f64-bf87-64a3a5b563c4
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 1989-09-09
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,905
Vehicle and especially this explanatory teaching on the practice of Heruka in order that we might able to quickly attain the perfect complete unsurpassable state of Buddhahood whereby to establish all sentient beings equal to space and complete happiness and bliss. And we’ll spend two minutes adjusting our motivation. And we’ll offer a short mandala. So we completed the blessing of the inner offering and this is done in order to for the elimination of obstacles, the purification, and for the transformation of increase. We recited the we placed the various seed syllables of the conquerors.
The five conquerors of the five families. Families. Then the consorts of the conquerors. And the consorts of the five conquerors, five consorts. So, Lam is the seat for the conquerors. Yama.
Yama. Mam is Māmakī. Pam is Lokeshvari. Tam is Tārā.
Is. Hum is Vajravārāhī. Dorje. These are the five consorts to the conquerors. So if we were to perform the ritual of the blessing of the offering in abbreviated fashion, then we would recite the mantra, with the appropriate hand gestures as Rinpoche demonstrated.
So the visualization is the same, but this is an extremely abbreviated method of offering. So reciting the mantra Om Ah Hum three times and then simply it increases into an ocean and becomes becomes blessed. And then comes the blessing of the self generation offering. So we’ve completed the blessing of the inner offering. And then what follows is an abbreviated ritual of blessing the self generated offering.
By self generated by self generation that oneself arises in the aspect of the deity and then makes offering to oneself as a deity. And these offerings are to be blessed. So, if we were to explain this in slightly more extensive fashion than it’s presented, and over and above that which is presented in the two traditions of Luipa and Ghantapa, then we would explain it in terms of the preliminary to the offering and the preliminary torma or ritual cake. In the abbreviated ritual of self generation offering, there is no preliminary offering of a torma or ritual cake. Whether in the explanation of offering a ritual cake, there is the offering of two ritual cakes, a direct and indirect.
Though the place where the ritual cake is, it’s the same place. But it is to be thought of as two ritual cakes being offered directly and indirectly. So as Rinpoche himself did initially at the beginning of our teaching session, he made an offering of a torma, right? I called it, can I call it torma rather than? He made offerings, he presented offerings and presented a torma, a ritual cake.
This is the preliminary offering. Now we ask where is he making the offering? So within the mandala of the deity there is the around the perimeter there is the protection wheel, around the mandala itself and within the protection wheel there are within that there is the eight cemeteries. And then, within these eight cemeteries, there are the protectors. There are the directional protectors and protectors of the place.
And, these are made we make offerings of a ritual cake to them in order to that they will eliminate obstacles. In carrying out our practice, there are going to be many hindrances and obstacles, and we must make offerings to protectors to help us to eliminate these obstacles. So the practice, the meditation on the deity of Heruka is an extremely profound practice of Dharma. And it is the nature of the profundity of the practice that in seeking to put it to actually meditate it to realize it there are many obstacles, hindrances. These are there are many benevolent spirits which seek to bring harm in the course of one’s practice.
So we make we make two offerings of ritual cakes. One initially as a preliminary asking for protection to eliminate these obstacles, and then having performed the practice, having meditated, we then offer another ritual cake in Thanksgiving for having helped you in your practice that you were able to carry out your meditation without any obstacles, without hindrances, and offering a final torma. So ritual cake. So, we make two offerings of ritual cakes. A preliminary asking to be rid of obstacles and hindrances, and a second one at the end of our practice as thanksgiving ritual cake offering.
So, the extensive ritual one would proceed what is presented here, the blessing of the self generation offering by by the blessing of the preliminary offering, the blessing of the offering of a preliminary offering, and the offering of a ritual cake. After preliminary, then this would the blessing of the self generation offering. So, the way of recitation making the offering is, if it’s presented in abbreviated form, exactly how it is presented here. That is to say, offering of the preliminary presenting the offering and the preliminary ritual cake would be done using the same recitation as is done for the blessing of the self generation offering if it were done in an abbreviated fashion. In a more extensive fashion, you would use there would be a different text that you might use.
But here, you would simply repeat these same words that you’re using again. So, again, with respect to the offering, there is the four parts of the elimination obstacles, hindrances, purification, the increase, and then the blessing. So, the initial part is the elimination of the hindrances. And this is as it was done before previously. One has generated oneself in the form of the deity and then with at the heart they’re surrounding the letter is the mantra, And then, emanates from one’s heart the goddess Dütsima Khandroma and eliminating all the malevolent spirits, enters into the ocean.
Then the goddess returns and is reabsorbed at the heart. And then purification and emptiness. So the mantra of purification and emptiness, Om is the entrance way into the mantra. Means nature, pure, all phenomena are naturally pure by their nature. Then everything is purified within this sphere of emptiness and then the I, this understanding of this purity, this wisdom of understanding this purity, the natural purity of all phenomena arises in the form of I.
One arises in the form of this wisdom is I, is you. So, all of the various offerings, the nectars, waters, flowers, etc, are transformed in emptiness and thereby purified. So, we’re going to now present nine different types of offerings. As I stated here, water for drinking, water for the feet, water for rinsing, the mouth, flowers, incense, lamps, perfume, food, and music. As this is in the offering of self generation, but in the preliminary offering, there is no offering of what it says here, it’s water for rinsing the mouth.
So this is not included in the prelim offering. Here it’s included. So, we’re going to imagine that before you, we’re going to create nine offerings. And these are first we imagine that there are nine letters KAM, nine KAM. And then each of these KAMs transforms into a skull cup.
So now we have nine skull cups imagined before us. So within the skull cups there is the letter HUM which is the letter at the heart of Heruka which is the wisdom of non differentiated bliss and emptiness. They’re not within the skull cups, of their nine skull cups and each of these is a letter HUM. And then Then we should imagine that these skull cups, and this is the top portion of the skull in the form of a cup, and that they’re very expansive. They’re not small, they’re very big and that they’re within the HUM in each one of these transforms into the appropriate offering.
The nine offerings as listed here, water for drinking, for the feet, for rinsing the mouth, flowers, incense, lamps, perfume, food, and music. So these all of these offerings that we’ve just created, they are they’re empty by nature. Their entity is emptiness. But they though their nature is empty, they still they appear in the aspect, in the form of all these various offering substances. And they have the function of objects arousing objects of enjoyment of the six senses which have the ability to arouse a special uncontaminated bliss.
So then there’s the actual blessing of the offerings. And it begins with mixture of the letters Om Ah Hum. The various offerings are interspersed between the mantra Om Ah Hum. Om Ah Hum as was explained before, Om represents the body, the Ah is speech, and the Hum is the mind of the Buddha. Then the offerings are interspersed with this blessing mantra.
So, each one of these offerings. And here in the English is going to as it’s presented in English language, then it’s going to be presented and we’re going to speak it, the actual blessing in Sanskrit, and here it’s in Tibetan, and then in Sanskrit. So there’s simply a correspondence between each of these nine. For example, water for drinking is argon, and water for the feet is padam, etcetera. So there’s a correspondence between what is presented in English here, these nine offerings, and the Sanskrit language in which we’re going to do the actual blessing.
So the offering term, which is in Sanskrit, is being placed between the mantra Om Ah Hum. And the Om represents the body of the Buddha. And then, mentioned the actual offering substance in Sanskrit, and then the remaining of the mantra Aum, and A is the Vajra speech, Hum is the Vajra mind. And so this is the what it’s called the blessing of the three Vajras of the conquerors that is to say the Buddhas, the three Vajras of body, speech, mind of the Buddhas. So here in this recitation of the blessing, this is simply a blessing.
It has not been offered at this point. So, at this point, it’s simply the blessing. When we actually make the offering itself, we add the offering terms of praticha vajra hoh. And praticha means please make use of. And hoh is there arises bliss.
So, we’re making offerings to the body and showing the Mudra or the hand gesture which accompanies the offering. So it’s traditional in India when an honored person comes to visit you. It’s a very hot country. So the first thing That you first, so you present him with three waters. And the first is to that they would take the water and they’d wash their hands, rinse their body, and then they’d wash their feet.
So, I’m not sure if these translations are quite right. Washing the hands, washing the feet, and then you would this is what this gesture was, splashing, sprinkle water, yeah, water in there. And this would also include, which he says, drinking the water. So the second is washing feet. The first is washing, you were given water to wash his hands, and then second the water to wash the feet, and then sprinkling water, the third, and then they’re also drinking, but included.
So, this isn’t, this isn’t, perhaps incorrect slightly around. And then the is the the butter lamps. Then the gandha is the application of some kind of scented water. It might be scented with sandalwood or camphor. And because it’s hot when we’re applied to the heart area, this would have a cooling effect.