Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. This 47-minute session offers detailed instruction on the visualization and mantra recitation practices central to Heruka sādhana. Kyabje Rinpoche walks through the generation stage step-by-step: beginning with the outer eight great cemeteries and bringing the visualization progressively inward until the complete mandala—Heruka and consort at the center, surrounded by multiple circles of attendant deities—appears vividly at the heart. A key theme is maintaining continuity: the earlier outer landscapes should remain vivid in mind even as attention moves inward, so the whole mandala holds together. He then explains the rosary (materials, blessing, visualization), the proper manner of recitation, and the path of the mantra as it circulates from one’s heart through the consort and back. Directed at practitioners who have received Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-12-14 – 18A – KR.mp3
UUID: 06fdb419-76b0-4ef4-a2c2-86036da3a04a
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 1989-12-14
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,566
Quickly, quickly attain the state of Buddhahood in order to lead all sentient beings to the complete sublime state of excellent happiness where there is no suffering. For which purpose I will engage in the activity of listening to the performed great vehicle teaching, especially within the great vehicle teaching, the secret Vajra vehicle, and more particularly the mother tantra of which the particular context one would be Chakrasamvara and I will listen to these instructions by which I will do the practice as well. So in this way try to listen to the instructions with the precious bodhicitta motivation and in trying to generate the motivation let’s meditate together for about three minutes. So tonight’s explanation will be about the mantra mantra recitation and offering. So so far before one actually recites one actually does the mantra recitation.
What normally the practices has to be done is while one recites the sādhana, the good words are being recited through one’s mouth and through one’s mind. The good meaning has to be thought about, has to be meditated on. Through that way good words being recited by mouth and good meaning being taught by the mind. Through that way when it comes to the point to the mantra recitation, at that point one comes to the point where one has to do actual meditation and actual meditation being referred to the actual meditation on the generation stage. So how one has to do the meditation on generation stages, one can start from the most distant extreme.
So one starts meditating from the outer eight great cemeteries and then the five mountains and then the protection wheel, and then the four elements piled upon one another, and then the Mount Meru, and on top of that, the the external mandala of Shri Heruka, father and mother. And Then in the outer mandala which is the celestial mansion, inside that is the principal father and mother. On the four directions are the four goddesses or four dakinis and then the four eight deities of the body or body circle and eight deities of the speech circle, eight deities of the mind circle and then the eight deities of the door and sub direction guards. And after that one comes to the visualization or visualized meditation of the, what is called the close or lesser mansion, and after that at one’s heart on the lotus with eight petals, one at the center one which is very small, father and mother, and along with that are surrounding them are the four dakinis of the directions and then starting from the point of one’s upper part of body, the eight deities of the mind. And then from the shoulder downward, the eight deities of speech and then the lower part of the body, the eight deities of the body and along after that, the eight deities of the doors and subdirection guards.
So all this one has to visualize and meditate. So in this way, one has started the meditation starting from the most distant outer eight cemeteries and then bringing inner and inner and bringing up till the mandala deities. And after one is finished, then again one has to start visualizing the meditating form, the mandala to outer outer to the distant eight great cemeteries. And at the time of meditation, while one does the later part of the meditation, it often happens one may perhaps forget or keep on forgetting the previous part of the meditation. This shouldn’t be.
Instead, while one is doing the latter part of meditation, one has to have the previous part of meditation along with. So in this way, when one has done the distant, close to distant, there will come a time one will have the whole deities appearing very clearly. And in that state, has to remain in meditation for a while. So remain in meditation for a while. I literally call it equipoise in equal balance.
So, remain in that for a while and after a while, if you get tired, then start the actual point of mantra recitation. So the time when one recites the rosary, one has to have normally the recommendations of the rosary has to be material of human bone or of precious gems or of what we call bodhicitta seeds or what we call bodhi tree seeds. And anyway, it is quite good to have of human bone and especially of bodhi tree seeds because bodhi tree seed has been recommended as being permissible for all four kinds of tantric activities and it has to be number 108 beads. And regarding the string, it can be alright or it’s fine to have the string made of the material of wool or of fabric. And in the case of wool, if it is woven or string has been woven out of wool, then it is considered good to have the weaver a virgin girl.
So with rosary, first one recites what is called emptiness mantra and have it melted into emptiness and from the sphere of emptiness arose the deity of Vajra’s speech nature called the deity Padmanarteśvara and then having generated the deity from the sphere of emptiness into Padmanarteśvara who is the Vajra’s speech nature after that one, one face, four arms. And after that one visualizes inviting the wisdom being being merged and becoming inseparable with him and then make offering. And again after that one recite Padmanarteśvara’s mantra for a while and after it’s recited then half the deity Padmanarteśvara melted into light and emptiness. And from that sphere of emptiness, came the rosary has arisen. That’s what call an extensive one of doing.
And the brief one, as in the sādhana it says, the rosary becomes unforeseeable or unfocusable, meaning just what call disappears. The rosary becomes unforeseeable or unfocusable into the sphere of emptiness and from that sphere of emptiness instantaneously it becomes the nature of vajra speech. So that is fine. So regarding the mantra, how it is to be recited as in the it starts with the mantra to be recited, what comes out from one’s heart from the Hung syllable. So oneself is of course at the point here is Heruka and at the heart is the the Hung syllable.
So from there the whole mantra which one is to be recited, the mantra comes from that Hung syllable and having come from the Hung syllable it goes downward and exits through the tip of one’s vajra. Once vajra goes out and enters into the bhaga, bhaga lotus of the seal which is the mother in this context. So enters into mother’s bhaga lotus and goes up and comes out of mother’s face or mouth, mother’s mouth and again enters into one’s self. So in this way have it rotating. Means the mantra exit out of oneself, enters into mother, and comes out of her mouth, and again enters into oneself.
And mantra is being recited by Heruka as having four phases. The mouth of each of the four phases are reciting the mantra, also the mouth of the whole entire all the deities already generated before. They all are reciting the mantras together. So with the while holding the rosary, the thumb is considered or thumb is visualized as a hook and the beads of the rosary as already before has been blessed in the sense of having been generated out of a deity. Therefore, when one recites, one thinks each of the beads, which is each of the deity are being, what I call, pulled by the hook like being pulled, and each of them absorbs into one’s heart.
In the mantra recitation, it shouldn’t be too loud to be heard by others and too vocal, too low not to be heard by oneself. And, also, it shouldn’t be too fast and be too slow. Too fast in the sense too fast that even the syllables or words of the mantra are not spelled or pronounced properly. And too slow in the sense of singing and too long. That’s I’ve got too slow.
And now are the four actual mantras, four mantras of great Heruka or in another rendition can be called the four precious mantras. And those four precious mantras are the root mantra of the father and mother, the heart or essence mantra of the father and mother, and the close essence or close heart mantra of the father and mother, and the armor or mantra of father and mother. So these four are being recited and they are called the mantra, the four precious mantras in Tibetan. And with the mantra here in this sādhana, it’s a short version where it starts just straight away from Om Kara Kra and so forth. Whereas in the root commentary which it should have been the tradition of Luipa, in there before these mantras are recited, the line praise of the father is recited.
And how it is recited is the first line starts with OM as usual, but the first line wouldn’t have Hung Hung. And the last line will have the last line, the eighth one, will have And the second to the seventh, so it means the in-between lines, second to the seventh, they don’t have Hung Hung. They are just the bare lines in between ones.