Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 23-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche provides detailed instruction for visualizing the 24 deities of the Heruka mandala, mapping specific body locations—fingers, knees, armpits, genitals—to corresponding divine forms. He guides practitioners through generating Heruka and Vajravārāhī in union at the heart, surrounded by eight mind deities (blue), eight speech deities (red), and eight body deities (white). The core teaching centers on how to regard these deities: not as inert clay statues, but as actual, living presences generated from your body’s channels, actively engaged in teaching and benefiting others. Approaching the practice with this understanding—combined with meditation on their bliss-empty, illusory nature—multiplies the blessing and fruition exponentially. For practitioners who have received Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-11-25 – 14A – KR.mp3
UUID: d5d2134f-d16c-4d78-ba78-951a6a7c37c1
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 1989-11-25
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,012
# Heruka Commentary 14a 1989-11-25
**Collection:** Rinpoche Recordings — Heruka Commentary (1989)
**Duration:** 22.9 minutes
**Words:** 1,032
**Model:** Deepgram Nova-3
**Corrections applied:** 0
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-27 17:29
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The two calves, the place is Suvarnadvīpa, and the constitution, form constituent becomes Namkha Dorje, Ākāśagarbha, and the channel becomes Vairochaniye. And then on the 12 fingers, the 12 fingers. So on the 12 fingers are the what I call the place Nagara, and the constituent becomes Maitreya and the channel becomes Khandarohi. So the 16 fingers means excluding the two thumbs and two toes. And then another interpretation is the two what called two times eight. So we come back to the top of the two feet, which is in those two, the place is called Sindhura, and the what I call the constitution become Ākāśagarbha, and the channel become Drumaze.
So that part is somewhere where they were called knuckles, we can say. Because the four toes now come after that. Four toes, so this, they do, so what called, what called covers, in Tibetan, bow tours. So four times, four toes, the place is Devikoti and the constituent becomes Maitreya and the channels become Airavati.
And then the two knees, the place is Kuluta, and the constituent becomes Vajrapāni and the channels become Sundari Chenmo, Mahavira. And thus, we have the deities of the body white in color, and they’re residing in the manner of enjoying union. So on the 24 places, the 24 deities of body, speech, and mind have been generated. I will stop here and do meditations for some time, for some minutes. Do the meditation this way, that at the heart from the white constituent becomes Heruka father, and at the navel, the red constituent becomes Vajravārāhī, and Vajravārāhī comes up through the central channel and the father and mother are in union, and father and mother are at the hub of the what I call lotus with eight petals at one’s heart.
So lotus of channels. And at this point, the deity, at this point, the deity, the father, mother and retinue may be quite difficult to visualize them in the required sets of hands and faces. Therefore, we can — it’s very easy to meditate — they being both one face, two arms. And then visualize the four dakinis on the four directions, in the East, Dakini, in the North, Lama, in the West, Khandarohi, in the South, Rūpiṇī, and just the difference of color. Otherwise, they are all like Vajravārāhī.
And these four are generated from the four channels of the heart, and now from the four sub-channels of the heart, which are visualized as being generated, what are called four skull cups filled with the five nectars. And then visualize the set of the eight father and mother mind deities, and they are starting from the hairline and on the crown, right ear, left ear, at the back of the neck, on the two shoulders. And I think that they are in a half-like, nearly circular placement, facing inward to the principal father and mother, think that they have been generated from the four sub-channels together with their flowing constituents within those. And then from the places downward, the armpits, visualize the eight sets of deities of the speech, thinking that from the channels together with the constituents of the speech deity, the constituents becoming the eight fathers, the eight father deities of the speech, and the channels becoming the eight mother deities of the speech, and think that they are there residing in the respective eight places. And then starting from the organ.
So in the translation, it says ‘sex organ’, which is perhaps what I call a little bit biased. So it starts from organ, whichever. So starting from the organ, on the places like Jalandhara and so forth, do the visualization of the eight father and mother body deities such as the father called Mahabala and the mother called Chakravartini and so forth, and think that they are there in their respective places. So I think that those 24 places are really the 24 external places and those 24 heroes and heroines, they are actually real heroes and heroines, are residing in those places.
Occasionally, you meditate and think that the external 24 places actually become transformed into one’s what I call, transforms into one’s channels and constituents. And the 24, what called 24 sets of heroes and heroines, just don’t think that they are just there implied, don’t think it’s just abstract there, but think they are actually there, and with belief, thinking that they are actually there, in this way the meditation has to be done. So the eight deities of the mind are blue, eight deities of the speech are red, eight deities of the body are white, and just do not have a thinking that they are there immobile like clay statues, instead think that they are actually there moving and very much engaged in the act of giving teachings and so forth, in doing welfare to others. There’s enormous difference between the statues which are out there made of clay and other matters, and whereas the what called deities which are actually generated from the parts and constituents of your body.
And the difference is so enormous like the difference between earth and the space. Difference so enormous in the sense of what called preciousness, blessing, fruitfulness, and so forth. Blessings in being able to generate deities within one’s body rather than having hundreds and thousands of what I call deities and so forth out there. And on top of that, if you do meditation thinking that these 24 deities are in the aspect of bliss, and because of being bliss, they are empty, therefore they are in the aspect of bliss-empty inseparable, and also thinking that although they do appear, but as they appear they are not existent from their own side, they are not established as they appear, therefore they’re like illusions. So with these combined, if one does the meditation, then the benefits and importance is much more.