Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour commentary on Heruka tantra, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the Six Yogas of Naropa, focusing on the nine mixings—practices for recognizing the mind’s subtle dissolutions in waking, dream, and death states. He details visualization of inner fire, element dissolutions (mirage, smoke, fireflies, butter lamp), the movement of white and red drops in the central channel, and the mother clear light. The key practice is recognizing this process through meditation so the wisdom realizing emptiness can meet the mother clear light at actual death. For advanced practitioners he covers practices with the eight blisses; for beginners, consciousness transfer relying on a spiritual guide. Intended for those who have received Heruka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2010-04-07 – pt1 – KR.mp3
UUID: 78149622-2988-4c2c-9754-0fd604c245a5
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heruka Commentary
Date: 2010-04-07
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,917
So we should listen to this profound teaching of the six yogas of Naropa, which represent the inseparable union of sūtra and tantra with a good motivation. This is a most profound Dharma. And when it is said that it is a profound Dharma, we must first establish the criteria for its depth. The criteria for its depth are the preliminary generation of initiation in bodhicitta without which from its own standpoint, no Dharma can actually be said to be profound. And then we should engage in the respective activities of listening and teaching this Dharma with the motivation of benefiting others through an awareness that our foremost enemies life after life have been the afflictions.
And that the afflictions have not the slightest component of worth or goodness within them. They are completely evil, and they have only been the source of suffering to us for countless lives. The great Kadampa, Vishnu Abhors, said that the measure of Dharma is that it is the antidote to the afflictions. So this is what Dharma is. Dharma is an antidote to the afflictions.
If we were to listen to this Dharma, the eightfold vase breathing and gripping. From within the formerly generated fire at one’s own navel, one visualizes that this fire pervades all one’s body and all one’s bodily pores all the way to the tip of one’s hair and to the boundary of one’s forehead. And then after it has penetrated into the three circles and all of the aggregates, it leaves one’s own body to the point between the two eyebrows and slightly above as well as from the right nostril. And akin to a lightning flash, it pervades all 10 directions. And all of the aforementioned as well as the previously established rulers of the 24 sites enter within our left nostril and passing from the crown to the throat, to the heart, and to the navel, generate within one’s mind stream bliss, which is the uncontaminated bliss generated within the mind stream in the aspect of the white drop.
And this is the profound means for following the path of all of the enlightened beings as well as the bodhisattvas. And jumping onwards to page 126 in the Tibetan. Should one wish, nonetheless, to conjoin this with the practice of the vase breathing in dependence on meditating on the channels as was explained previously with the visualizations of the vase breathing and of the bindus, one can engage in this practice. Should one, however, wish to perform this practice without the vase breathing, then one visualizes rays of light akin to hooks emanating from the short ‘a’ syllable, which is the object of meditation at the navel.
And these emanate into all of the directions, and then gather the lower and upper winds within the central channel. And specifically within the short ‘a’ syllable visualized at the navel in which they dissolve, softly upon which one places one’s mind without any movement, any mental agitation on this again and again. This is an approach with lesser interferences. The newly created wind enters within the lower extremity of the central channel. And under the cover of that, the inner fire blazes.
In dependence on this, the inner fire rises all the way up to the crown. The letter ‘ham’, which is in the nature of the chakra of the throat, it gives rise to joy. And then when it flows downward from the chakra of the throat to the heart, it gives rise to supreme joy. Flowing quietly downwards from that until it reaches the navel chakra, it gives rise to the specific sensation of joy. And then flowing downwards slowly until it reaches the tip of the jewel organ, moving from the bottom.
When the movement upwards from the tip of the jewel to the navel occurs, joy is generated. Then from there to the heart, the heart to the throat, during that process, this is the specific joy. And then from that, in other words, the throat to the center of chakra at the crown. It is extremely important for beginners such as ourselves to practice this by means of bringing to mind whatever experience of bliss we may have and reconnecting the view of the noninherent existence of all phenomena, training thereby by the force of conviction in the union of bliss and emptiness.
Generally speaking, within the eight blisses which were mentioned, from within the four downward moving and the four upward moving blisses, the four upward moving blisses are more stable and more powerful. So those are the ones we should try to use. The presentation of the manner of meditating on the mixing. This refers to the nine mixings.
The three mixings in the waking state, the three mixings in the dream state, and the three mixings of the death state, which refers to training in the waking state in taking or generating the dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya, and the nirmanakaya, transforming death, the intermediate state, and rebirth respectively. Entry into the central channel is that the flow of breath in both the nostrils becomes completely even over a period of time. Which is generally speaking, if we check the flow of breath, the entry into the central channel is not merely the interruption of the flow of breath within the nostrils, but as well the absence of any abdominal movement, any movement of the diaphragm.
So the sign of the dissolutions, which begin with the dissolution of the earth element into water. When the earth element dissolves into water, an appearance of a mirage, as he says, is an illusion which appears when the sun strikes down. And one gets, in turn, when the water element dissolves into the fire element and the term of dissolution of the water element into the fire element, first of the fact that the potency of the water element decreases. And then the potency of the fire element by that factor alone becomes more evident. At this point, an appearance akin to smoke occurs. And here, as he said, we have to distinguish between the appearances which are generated at the time of the path, in other words, through meditation, and the appearances which are generated at the time of death. So one trains in the appearances at the time of the path to recognize the appearance at the time of death.
And moving onwards with Losang Dondrup’s commentary. When fire in turn dissolves into wind, in other words, when the potency of the fire decreases, then one experiences an appearance akin to the appearance of fireflies flying in space. The light of fireflies is dim but erratic. Right? This is what one experiences. And when wind begins to dissolve into appearance.
Appearance here refers actually to the first of these three. The white appearance will increase in rapid increase. Then one experiences an appearance akin to a burning butter lamp. In other words, a lamp burning steadily. There are two different explanations here.
One is that this experience of a burning butter lamp is experienced at this point, the other is it is experienced slightly before. Then when the wind actually dissolves completely into appearance, one experiences the completely empty white appearance in which space akin to an autumn space seems to be pervaded by the light of the moon. So this is an extraordinarily quiet appearance of space to oneself. And then according to the appearances, they dissolve into increase. The appearances here in parentheses, the term appearances refers to the 80 conceptions.
So these are conceptual minds, as conceptions are understood in this context. At the time of the actual increase, one experiences a completely red appearance. And here, at the time of the appearance, all of the 80 conceptual minds are dissolved. Now there is an explanation which is coming from Pabongka Rinpoche that there is a process of dissolution of the 80 conception minds starting with the dissolution of the 33 first and that they dissolve in sequence through with the appearance of the mind of white appearance where they are completed at the near attainment. This one is a dialogue. I said that this is actually an incorrect explanation.
And that all of the 80 conception minds will have completely disappeared at the time of the dawning of the mind of white appearance. What happens in this context is that the white drops which have been received from the father, which were at the crown, start moving downwards within the central channel, and that this gives rise to the mind of white appearance. And after this, the red drops received from the mother, which abide at the navel, start moving upwards within the central channel, and this in turn will give rise to the mind of black near attainment endowed with recollection. And when they actually fuse, enter literally into an embrace, arises the second part of the mind of black near attainment, which is bereft of recollection. And Losang Dondrup says, actually, in this context, this mind is asserted to be without an object.
In the context of secret mantra, there is the assertion of these objectless minds, which is not asserted within the sūtra system. Then the drops separate, the white drop moving downwards and the red drop moving upwards. And at this point, the mind of clear light dawns. This mind of clear light is the most subtle mind which exists. There is no more subtle mind than this.
It is manifest here because the coarse winds and the coarse minds have totally subsided. And this mind itself is called the primordial mind or the primordial innate mind of clear light because it is a mind which has been with us primordially since beginningless time. Now returning to Losang Dondrup’s commentary, when the mind of red increase has dissolved into the mind of a black near attainment. One experiences a space-like mind, which is completely empty, akin in its darkness to the darkness of the first part of the night. The mind of black near attainment has two parts.
Its earlier part is endowed with recollection. Its latter part is bereft of recollection. And at the end of that, the end of the mind of black near attainment, there dawns the mind of clear light, which is free from all other conceptions. This refers here to the 80 conceptions, which I referred to previously, and which is free of the three minds which have been taken on. This refers here to the three minds which are generated previously, the mind of white appearance, of red increase, and of black near attainment.
This mind of clear light from the standpoint of its appearance is completely empty. This one is none other than the mind of the clear light of death, which is also known as the mother clear light. And then from within this mind of clear light, one should know how to induce the four joys in the reverse order. So here’s what he says. This mother clear light must actually be conjoined with the child clear light.
If through training of the past, we are able to generate a not fully qualified mind of clear light, which realizes emptiness, then at the time of the manifestation of the mother clear light, mother and child clear light can be conjoined. This is called the mixing of the mother and child clear light. And at this point, the mother clear light transforms into the child clear light. Now from the standpoint of the mother clear light, which he says, one can probably assert that even though the mother clear light does not realize emptiness, one should bring back to mind whatever realization of emptiness one has had previously. Should one be able to do this, then one will not lose awareness.
One must, it is important to impel the motivation to recognize through repeated familiarization a similar process at the time of the dream state and death state. They are similar in aspect to the aforementioned. The aforementioned referred to the mixing of the dharmakaya at the time of waking. When one arises from the mind of clear light, in the aspect of a deity with consort in this specific case, Yamāntaka, adorned with the minor and major marks, and one turns away from the aspect of one’s own aggregates in the form of a tutelary deity with both the supporting and supported mandala. One generates a strong motivation to dwell in this form.
And at the same time as one arises from the state of clear light in that aspect, and arises in the aspect of the complete supporting and supported mandala of the tutelary deity with consort, white in color who turns away from the old aggregates. One also gives rise to the mind of black near attainment in the reverse sequence. And at that time, the totally black appearance dawns through the mind and must be recognized. One must also generate the strong motivation to recognize these manifestations at the level of the dream state and at the level of the death state. And then in sequence, in the reverse order, when one is arising from the mind of clear light after attaining the mind of black near attainment, the mind of pure redness and pure whiteness, in other words, red increase and white appearance dawn.
Then the blazing of a butter lamp’s appearance dawns, then the appearance of fireflies, of smoke, and of a mirage. All of these must be understood, must dissolve, and this producing body generated here refers to the transformation of the illusory body into an illusory body. And this process is known as the mixing of the sambhogakaya in the waking state. When one arises from that meditative equipoise, one enters one’s own aggregates seen as the pledge body of the deity. And simultaneously, with this process of reentering the old aggregates, breath flows through the nostrils.
The five sense consciousnesses are reacquired, since objects, and everything which appears. So these are the three mixings of the waking state. One wants to train in the three mixings of the sleep state where the sleep state is taken on the path and transformed into the dharmakaya. The state of the dream state is taken on the path and transformed into sambhogakaya, and the waking state is transformed into the nirmanakaya. And finally, one performs these at the time of death.
So this process of the nine mixings of waking, sleep, and death is the most important training here. And a fundamental preliminary for this is meditation and realization of emptiness. Therefore, this is what we have to put effort into. Since as was explained, emptiness does not appear to the mother clear light, and the child clear light which realizes emptiness is actually the wisdom which realizes emptiness.
So this is a concise explanation of the nine mixings, which we should read about in greater detail and which we should really also practice in due course. And in addition to this, all of us in the West experience the hardship of disease and death. Disease, we have good hospitals, and there is very little to add to that.
However, at the time of death, it is important for us to know how to practice. And for those of us who are beginners, the simplest way to practice at the time of death is to perform consciousness transference, relying on the spiritual friend. This consciousness transference practice can be performed. Lhundup and your translator who sponsored the teaching. So we should put effort into these teachings, and we should also pray that all of the prayers of Rinpoche, the Dharma, and specifically the prayers be fulfilled. And for all of you who are sponsoring this teaching, it is also possible.
So I would like to thank everyone, and enjoy dinner and lunch. Thank you. And, of course, behind the scene, there’s quite a few people I’d like to thank, you know, Carol Armstrong and Donna and Elizabeth Watson and Marion, who contribute. And, you know, without their effort and working at the back behind the scene, again, you might be starving. So I’d like to thank them. You know? And that’s it, really.
Thank you very much, and we will hope, you know, to see you again in the future and very soon. Much of this would be impossible without the event, the sponsors, the people who have contributed their work to the event and the translator, and would like to thank them and ask us to pray that all their goals be achieved. As well as all those who have contributed in any way to this event, may their wishes be accomplished. Moreover, those of you who are able to recite the long sādhana of Heruka, that would be extraordinary since Heruka has uncommon characteristics with respect to the other deities. His blessings are said to be greater and swifter. Therefore, if you are able, it would be good if you recite the Lama Chopa as well.