Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, part 16 of his Heruka commentary, Kyabje Rinpoche walks through a single, intricate visualization: dressing the body with armor as protection against external interference. He explains the metaphor first—armor that both shields and enables penetration of obstacles—then guides step by step through placing seed syllables of the six Dhyāni Buddhas on six chakra points of the father form (Heruka), with specific colors, lunar and solar cushions, and covering rays of light. He repeats the visualization for the mother form (Vajravārāhī), then moves into the invocation ritual: the physical posture, hand gesture, and commanding Phat mantra that summons wisdom beings from all ten directions. He closes with instructions on offerings and absorption. For practitioners with prior Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-12-13 – 16A – KR.mp3
UUID: afe7221d-d2b9-4902-9dc5-ddbdfe19beb2
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 1989-12-13
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,905
I, in order to, or myself, in order to remove the suffering of all sentient beings equal to the expanse of space and also in order to lead all sentient beings to the excellent ultimate happiness. For those two purposes I must quickly, quickly attain the state of complete Buddhahood for which purpose I engage in the listening or study into the great vehicle path, especially in the secret mantra path and more particular Sri Chakrasamvara practices within the category of the mother tantra. So in this way with the motivation of bodhicitta, try to hold on to that and try to generate that motivation for listening to the teaching. Let’s meditate for about three minutes. The point of tonight’s teaching is on the part where it says so, the part that dealing with the raising the armor on the body.
So please look in the sādhana where that part is dressing the armor on the body. So regarding the armor, it is in the past historical events when there used to be battles and war. At that time, wears on one’s body things like armor, shields and so forth which works two ways. One, it is what I call a kind of protection through which one can penetrate into harms of others. And the other way it works is by having these one cannot be harmed by others.
Likewise, in the context meaning when one is to visualize and generate one’s being too deity, there would be a whole lot of hindrances and obstacles harms being inflicted by others. Therefore, to wear armor in the context works too in that one can eliminate outside external hindrances and interferes and also cannot work on, inflict you or you will be immune to others harm. So regarding the actual what called deities of the body mandala, they have already been visualized before. The 62 deities of the mandala has been visualized before and one star in the aspect of what’s called the Heruka father and mother. And now, dressing the armor in this context is on the six parts of one’s body, one arranges the seed syllable of the six Dhyāni Buddhas.
And in the extensive wearing of armor, those six parts of one’s body, in the extensive wearing of armor, one arranges the deity with consort and whereas here it is the the condensed or short one where instead of the deity with consort with mother one only arranges the seed syllables. So in the sādhana, it is on the point where it starts the wording starts like at one’s heart on at one’s heart on moon cushion. So ‘one’s’ refers to oneself as Heruka, at this point it doesn’t refer to the mother, so one as Heruka, and at one’s heart, so at that level on the moon. So this moon normally in the arrangement of the mantra garland, the moon is flat. Instead here, the moon has to be upright, upright position.
And at the center of the moon is Om, white in color. And the letters are in nature the prime wisdom or pure wisdom, pure transcendental wisdom. So it’s white and what I call upright position. From the previous one, I forgot to say, the the moon upright standing is in between the moon is in between the flesh and the skin So, Om and Hum. Om is the seed syllable of Heruka and Hum is the seed syllable of Vajravārāhī. So that’s what we call a short way of arranging.
And in the extensive one, Om has to be transformed into Vajravārāhī, three faces, six arms. And has to be transformed into Vajravārāhī, having three faces and six arms. And both father and mother are embracing. And father’s right hand holds So in the right hand of the father are the Vajra, Damaru, Brahma head, head of the holy god called Brahma. And in left hand side, the bells are bell, and katvanga.
And same is with the mother. That’s the extensive work of father and mother being generated from the two seed syllables. Same you can apply to the rest of the armor seed syllables being generated into deities. The brief one will be just seed syllables. Rinpoche will go into detail with the rest one.
If you think about doing it extensively, then just apply the same thing. Also, you can find in other what I call sadhanas. Anyway, here it is fine to do the condensed or short one where one only arranges the om and her. Om being thought, Om being visualized and thought with belief that it is in nature Vajrasattva and Her being thought with belief that it is in nature Vajravārāhī. And if one would visualize and think that way, there is no difference with actually arranging the deities because if one thinks that way then that itself is quite enough to function the two ways, to stop the enemy interference and to be immune from their harms.
It works both ways, even with the seed syllables. And then on one’s head, on the head here it literally says on the head is the sun and on that sun is the in the nature of Vairochana is the Nama and He. Nama and he syllables are yellow in color. So these are called syllables, Namah He, has to be thought of as in nature they are called pure transcendental transcendental wisdom and its color being yellow. And then on the crown, on the moon on the sun is in the nature of Padmagarbha, Padmeshvara, which refers to Amitābha.
Seed syllables ‘So’ of the father and ‘Hung’ of the mother, and in color. These two called syllables in nature have to be taught as pure transcendental wisdoms. And then on the two shoulder two shoulders on son in the nature of Shikhirottara, Bomkata Ha. So bomkata being the seed syllable of father and And then at the two eyes on sun, in the nature of Dorje Nima, are syllables being seed syllable of the father and ho of the mother, and color being literally called red, yellow, or orange. And then at the forehead on sun, in the nature of Trailokyavijaya, Parameshvara, is a Pet syllable which is of father and of mother and very much in the nature of pure transcendental wisdom and color being green.
So on the six parts of the father, I arrange the six seed syllables of the six Dhyāni Buddhas And now on the mother, starting from at the navel of the chief lady. So literally here as chief in a feminine form. So at the navel of the chief lady referring to mother of mother on sun and sun being as explained before like with the father standing upright and on it is in the nature of Vajravārāhī. Om being the seed syllable of the father and bum of the mother and in the nature of pure transcendental wisdom. And then at the heart on sun in the nature of Shyama, Yamini are two syllables, Yum and Hum, blue in color, being thought of as pure transcendental wisdom in nature. And then at the throat on moon, in the nature of Mohini are two syllables and white in color being thought of as pure transcendental wisdom in nature, the syllables.
And on the head on head on sun, in the nature of Kaumari, Shaubhagya are two syllables, Bhim Bhim, yellow in color, and in the nature of pure transcendental wisdom. And at the crown on sun in the nature of Tārā, Mahalakshmi are the syllables, green in color, and thought of as pure transcendental wisdom in nature. And at the forehead on sun, in the nature of Chandika are syllables Pet Pet, color being smoky, and in the nature of pure transcendental wisdom, and these being marked on each respective. So on the six parts of the father, of which five parts are on the the cushion of sun. And being on the cushion of sun, one visualizes the seed syllables being completely covered by sun rays.
And whereas at the heart of the father, Vajrasattva father and mother normally are on cushion of the moon. Therefore, at the heart of the father one visualizes the moon or called cushion. Therefore, the moon light covers the whole surrounding. And with the mother, the throat is quite distinct, where the throat is on moon cushion in the nature of Mohini or Mrigashima, father and mother, are the what we call syllables and covers. So, what we call a circle aura.
So light circle completely filling. And whereas the rest five parts of mother are cushion of a son completely filling with the sun light circle sun auras. Suppose we limit up to this much regarding the wearing of armor on And now at this point, what is finished is one has visualized oneself already into the 62 deities of mandala and also one has worn the armor. Now one has to invite the pure wisdom beings. So so far, one has visualized the pledged being or samaya being.
And samaya being or pledged being means oneself have been generated into the deities of the mandala, complete 62 deities. Now one has to invite the pure wisdom beings. Pure wisdom beings refers to those pure wisdom beings who are in the Pure Land like Tuśita, in the pure sky enjoying places and also the deities, 62 deities in the 24 places and also they realized in the enlightened residential places. So all the enlightened Buddhas and so forth are being visualized as inviting in the aspect of 62 deities. When one visualizes inviting the pure wisdom being into the form of 62 deities, along with them one also visualizes the inviting of the empowerment deities and also one visualized inviting the offering goddesses, so a set of three together.
So at the time when one is doing the work of invitation, one may not necessarily have to visualize oneself in the aspect of her father and mother. Instead, one can visualize oneself as her father alone. And at the heart is a full sun or full sun. And at the center of the sun, full sun is a Hum syllable blue in color. So And now before that, I already was in the cross legged posture.
Now, we can lose or unfold that cross legged posture. Have the right leg stretched a little bit and left also stretched. And the toe of the left leg, being turned or what call pressed being pressed pressed by the toe of the left left leg. Is that correct? The toe of the right leg being pressed by the toe of the left leg left leg.
And with the hands, the two fingers are have to be like that. Two terms joined together and two fingers, and the rest are like that. In Tsongkhapa’s tradition, Jetsunpa calls it the gesture of blazing, the blazing gesture. The gesture symbolizes a blaze fire. It looks like a ablaze fire.
Put on the on the forehead. Oh, it’s first and then bring it to right. First hole like that, and then Eyes focused on the ground. Alright. I have to shout.
I should be able to scare a crow who is on the roof. So I asked not to scare a crow on the roof. So it’s called Phat. You have to shout Phat. Phat with two stroke phonetics.
With in drop form. So along with that shouting from one’s Hum syllable at the heart, emit rays to all the 10 directions, and 10 directions are the four intermediate directions and the four main directions, and up and down. So to all the 10 directions rays having gone. Touches, just by the mere touch, sorry, having gone, rays having gone, rays are very much in the nature of hook. So having gone and in the nature of hook, just by mere touch, the rays completely draws or pulls the and of the 10 directions towards oneself.
So with this emitting of the rays, think that it along with those Viras and Viris who are in the aspect of what we call pure wisdom being, Along with that, one also visualized pulling or drawing the empowerment deities complete with the deities of Mandala, meaning the entire empowerment deities. Along with that, one visualized also inviting offering goddesses who make offerings of the outer inner secret and suchness offerings. And now all of them completely cover the whole expanse of the space. So if one has already because of race and having drawn all the beings, now when that is already finished, then one has to absorb the rays back into one’s heart. Normally, this blazing gesture is considered as the best means to invite.
Why that is so is the mantra is called Phat, and Phat carries the meaning, expressing that with this, all you have to come without your choice. And if you don’t come, all your brains will crack into pieces. So to elaborate on that, with this, all Viras and Viris, the empowerment deities and the dakini goddesses, all you have to come and if you don’t come, you all will have just by the mere calling, mere touch of it, you all will have your if you don’t come your brain will be cracked. So it indicates or it carries the meaning of the vast pull or drawing power. Whoever doesn’t come, whichever Vira or Viri it is, their brains will be cracked.
Would you have other expression for brains being cracked? Exploding. Exploding. Brain would be exploded. This is true in the case of a yogi practitioner who is constantly on the meditation of single pointed samadhi or concentration that when he utters this Phat mantra that somehow the beings have to come out of their choice without their choice and if they don’t their brains will be exploded.
So this is quite true because in this instance we see there are so many factors and conditions gathering and when factors such as the yogi’s power of the truth of his word and his concentration and the very meaning of the mantra. When all these are gathered, then it’s quite natural for the results to eventually. So in the, it is from the point where it starts So in the sādhana, it starts from the point where it says Phat. In the sādhana here, the wording goes like from the heart of all the deities on sun cushion. So all the deities, this because it has the wording all the deities, so this will have to be from the heart of all the deities on Sun cushion, resulting there is a Hung syllable from which the rays emit.
So according to that, what is to be visualized is from all the 62 deities of the body as well as of the 62 deities of the tikle or mandala. So from each of their heart, the countless rays from the respective Hung syllables are being emitted and even one ray also emit countless rays and thereby what we call invites the retinues or the circle of pure wisdom being from the 10 directions of world realm along with the empowerment as well as the dakini goddesses in this space before oneself. In the sādhana after that it goes like the rays are emitted back into or absorbed into one’s heart. And then after that there’s a Hung. So that syllable is to be recited because the time when one draws in the set of three, the pure wisdom being empowerment deities and dakini goddesses, one draws in from all the 10 directions which include those residing in the pure land and those residing in the impure realms of the universe.
Because that is the case therefore, especially with those residing in the impure, it is very definite that along with these beings which one is inviting the set of three empowerment deity pure wisdom beings and the dakini goddesses along with them there would be a whole lot of interference coming behind them along with them. So in order to what I call, drive them away, which at this point not to be invited, in order to drive them away one has to utter Hung so loud as a And after that in the sādhana, the lines go on saying, Om Argham Praticcha Svāhā. So this is what was short offerings being done among the three to the pure wisdom being and not to the other two, not to the empowerment deities and not to the offering goddesses. And if extensive offering is to be done then it has to be the whole set of offerings, and so forth. So here one does the short offering where only and one to whom made is the pure wisdom beings.
So at this point the wisdom beings are invited up in the front space before oneself. They are not absorbed and no one has to absorb them. For which the mantras to go along are Vajra Om Kusha Dza at which point one visualizes wisdom being coming on top of one’s crown and Jah at which point one visualized being absorbed into oneself or coming into one’s body. Anyway, I would refer that afterwards. And after that at which point becomes one or merged into one.
And becomes inseparable. So the first