Part 4c - The accompanying samaya and action/practice

1) The instruction to keep pure samaya

Now as accompaniments to the practice of secret mantra:

Let us purely keep our root and branch samayas.
Know and accept them purely. Do not give up, but act.
Five times five samayas are meant to be accomplished.
These twenty-five can be summarized under body, speech, and mind.
Let us try to keep our minds completely pure.

As explained before, guard the three root samayas and the five times five branch samayas. In brief, train in mind being pure and faultless as the chief samaya. The Tantra of the Array of Samaya says:

What is often talked about
As “samaya blah blah blah”
Is keeping one’s own mind
In a state of purity.
Samaya is a great wonder.
So all the buddhas have taught.

The Individual Enlightenment says:

Performing no evil deeds,
Acting in perfect virtue,
The mind is completely tamed.
Thus it is taught by the buddhas.

That is enough for a brief summary, but for the extended version, there should be as many samayas as the assembly of thoughts of sentient beings. The Secret Essence says:

As for this samaya
It is most wonderful.
In the ten directions
In each of the six lokas,
As many as thoughts of beings
Inhabiting the three realms,
There are that many samayas
For the purpose of taming them.

Accountable samayas exist in relation to relative truth. In relation to absolute truth all dharmas are inexpressible, beyond any limits that could be guarded, the great suddenness, the unestablished samaya of Samantabhadra. The same text says:

As the unestablished ultimate,
The mudra of supremacy,
The King Samantabhadra,
Everything is established.

The All-Creating King says:

Kye! As for the samaya of me the doer of all,
It is unborn like the sky, beyond all partiality.
Without the duality of guarding and non-guarding,
Realize the samaya of the King, the doer of all.

2) Delineating the particular times of practice and accomplishing

Moreover to complete the two accumulations, pacify all hindrances, accomplish siddhi and therefore remedy all violations:

On the fifteenth day of the month and the time of the new moon,
And also on the feast days of the eighth and twenty-ninth,
And the tenth day and night of the waxing and waning moon,
Perform the proper approaching and accomplishing
With feasts and offerings, confession and amending.

There are six times for accomplishing siddhi and the remedy of confessing. These are the fifteenth day of the month, the time of the empty sky of the new moon, and the eighth, twenty-fifth, tenth, and twenty-ninth days of the month. On these days externally dakinis are abroad, and internally the pranas are especially well-gathered in the nadis. These are called “the times of close gathering.”

In particular, the night of the tenth day of the waxing moon and the night of the twenty-fifth, the tenth day of the waning moon, in the places of practice, those who have the dakini practices gather to accomplish whatever karmas they want to attain. They should exert themselves in the four, approaching and so on, and make feast offerings and confessions. By that, on these days of the month, all transgressions will be remedied. The supreme and ordinary siddhis are quickly accomplished. Moreover in single trees, rock mountains, islands in lakes and, so forth there are gatherings of the dakinis at the auspicious times. These are therefore called places of “gathering near.”

The four inner chakras are always included in the dhatu and wisdom. This is called “gathering at the auspicious time at the place of drawing near.”

The external places are the twenty four places and so on. The “near” place, is any place where the dakinis are. Internally they are the twenty four places of the petals of the nadis, the crown of the head and so on. Secretly the great bliss is the ground of offering. This is the “place of drawing near.”

3) How from the virtues the fruition manifests

Since on all these days the supreme level is chiefly established, arising from the secret individual

tantras and oral instructions:

Let us earnestly try to reach the profoundest piths
Of the yoga of prana and mind, of nadi and bindu.
By meditating on the path that unifies,
The experiences of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought,
Let us be vajra-holders within this very life.
Let us attain the state of perfect enlightenment.

As for the supported, the samadhi mandala, yogins familiar with the upaya of the developing and completion stages always train in the completion stage of the great wisdom, knowing how to meditate on the above-taught nature of prana, nadi, and bindu as it is and in its ultimate arising.

When we abide in non-dual wisdom, by the tummo fire of the navel, drops of the melting element at the crown of the head, the great essence, fall from the throat into the heart center. They activate the secret center and the downward-moving prana is reversed. By its essence going into the heart, the support of the above-mentioned bodhicitta, mixed with light, is touched by that, so that the luminous nature of mind is pervaded by mahasukha even more than before.

When the nature of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought arises, rest in the subtle light of the heart center. By the arising of inconceivable wisdom whose body is space, this is called “treading on the level of the great dhyana.” At that time, body, speech, and mind become one and inseparable, and it is said that the three realms are not separate.

Also as for the nadi petals of the heart center and their essences, the Commentary of the Secret Drop

says:

“Whoever has that absorption” and so forth, means that whoever has that absorption has the essential nature. If it so exists, as for the white silk essences of the nadis which are like twined cords, their producing the essence of the skandhas from non-obstruction is the essence of arising. It appears as earth. This is the consort who illuminates the buddhas’ eyes, Buddhalocana. That is the wisdom of the great emptiness. It produces the support of everything not being other than the state of complete purity.

These white silk cords, are vibrated by the vermilion sound essence. As for its being like the essence of the mother, since it has made the skandhas primordially pure, that arising essence appears as water. This is the consort Mamaki. The wisdom of equality is the nature that combines all these in a single space without separation.

The breath-essence, gold, existing under the earth ??? as mere vapor, producing the primordial support of the rising and motion of the skandhas, appearing as the air element, is Tara and all-accomplishing wisdom. This nature produces the essence of great bliss.

Moreover, the primordial heat-essence, like the sun resting in a mirror, existing as a mere fragrance, ripens as the apparent element fire. This is Pandaravasini and discriminating awareness wisdom. It is the wisdom lamp of realizing everything as the space of the great bliss.

In the center of that light, consisting of the great bindu, bodhicitta is the great essence. It produces the support of the primordial luminosity of the skandhas. It is the essence of arising, appearing as space and the nadis. That is the wisdom of the great pervasiveness, the consort Samantabhadri revealing the luminous state of everything as the space of authenticity, appearance/emptiness.

Her essence like a flower of molten gold is prajña, the nature of all the consorts. What is like precious saffron anthers is the essence of the king of upaya, Samantabhadra, and so forth, the father deities. Moreover, like the precious white stone kekeru, ??? seemingly filling all gaps, is the mirror-like wisdom. By that the essence of bodhicitta is seen as if unseen, without a seer, and with nothing to see. That which is the father is the mother. That which is the mother is the father. They are seen as radiance without difference. That should be viewed as that having that itself. That is called bindu. What exists in that way is the union of upaya and prajña. Not only that, but it exists as all the three realms. That nature of bodhicitta is viewed. It should be continuously viewed and magnetized.

In the center of the eight nadis of the heart, are the essence nadis, divided like ten hairs of a horse’s tail and no bigger. Within them, the blood essence is the breath. The essence of breath is luminous like light. For example, like the oily wick of a blazing lamp, self-arising wisdom is luminous with the brilliance of the five lights. The essence of the elements goes up and down, since they abide

there like many oils. Like the blazing up of a luminous lamp, self-arising wisdom also produces a great light within the body, and in all the nadi petals. Since bliss increases, it arises as the wisdom of self-awareness.

Here appearance is the five fathers. All the solid earth of the nadis and so forth is Buddhalocana. Moisture and water are the great essence Mamaki. Bliss and heat are Pandaravasini. Lightness and movement are Tara. Since simple space is inseparably united with these ladies, this is called the great union.

At that time, the body, speech, and mind syllables of the nadis blaze with light. When the syllables of the basis of purification have been burned, no karma and habitual patterns are conceptualized. Liberation of samsara into dharmata is produced. This is supported by the nadis. By breath bliss is moved. By heat bliss is ripened. By space, the space of equality/equanimity of the great perfection is produced. Realization of the complete liberation of the three worlds as Samantabhadra is produced. The same text says:

If it is asked, “If one meditates like that, what happens, and from what does it arise?” What is being talked about is the wisdom of buddhahood. It is the arising of space as form. The great yoga is not different from the three realms. From what does it arise? From the great essence, profound and unbroken, from that it arises. If it is asked from whence it arises, from that that arises. That itself arises, so it is said.

When bindu-bodhicitta has just become workable and radiant, above and below OM are SU and TRI and above and below HUM are AH and NRI. Above and below AH are PRE and DU blazing with light. The bindu drops of the essence become natureless.

Since bindu is natureless, in the nadis, like white silk cords no bigger than ten hairs of a horse’s tail, ??? only the vibrating vermilion essence of the mother exists, producing desire within the great bliss. By that blazing with light, the breath essence like gold in a brocade, abiding as a mere vapor produces movement within the great bliss. That blazes with light. Within it the essence of heat, like the sun in a mirror, existing as a mere fragrance, ripens the great bliss. Blazing with light, it becomes the natureless great essence.

Arising only in forms of space, all the three worlds spontaneously rise as non- individuated wisdom, it is said. This bindu-bodhicitta arising as forms of space is dharmakaya. That is called “just so.”

Then within the navel the nadi petals blaze, and regarding how the heart bodhicitta is illumined by that The Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury (mi zad pa’i gter mdzod man ngag) says:

Sometimes abiding in charnel grounds the “lamps” are practiced.
With fearless mind, we sleep in places haunted by ghosts.
Associating with outcasts brings forth the wheel of taste.^[1]
There is no “who does what” and no grasping of proper rules.

With songs and dances and flutes, there is a feast of music.
With The dances of heruka and six activities ???
By the songs of the people who are assembled there
Our minds are so uplifted that there is no sadness at all.

With woolen cloth on our backs, our limbs adorned with copper,
With wheels adorning our topknots, and fragments of bone our limbs,

The secret prajña bindu is called space and so forth. This secret prajña is called the
bindu having the nature of Samantabhadri. This is Dharmadhatu.

Where does it dwell? In the navel. In the center of sixty-four nadis dwells the sun.

What is its nature like? It is like prajña and upaya. Arising from that bindu, all marks being grasped is the fathers. It is upaya. As for this natureless bindu being Dharmadhatu, this is prajña, the mothers. Thus bindu consists of inseparable prajña and upaya.

From that bindu form and the three realms arise. All these elements in a mandala of forty-two do not become many Becoming a mandala, since all these are the bindu of Dharmadhatu, they are said to develop or be sealed as everything. Here the five wisdoms are spontaneously present. They exist and are seen as five and so-called.

As the above essences become radiant from the power of heat, their heat descends. This is the bindu of the nature of Samantabhadri. Its dissolving downward is called “descending.” The bindu of the nature of Samantabhadri blazes with light. This is called the blaze of dissolving into the essence of the heart center. By this the great essence brilliant gold, until then existing under a covering, having existed as a mere vapor, blazes up with light, having become the radiant drops of the essence.

Without the ground of breath, it becomes ever weaker until it is motionless. If that motion is absent, its causeless fruition existing as the great bliss is called the great-bliss offering. That heat of great bliss dissolving into the above bindus is called “inciting the bindus to blaze with light.”

Moreover, by the heat of the heart center the bindus descend. By their touching the bliss heat in the center of the nadi petals, again that heat becomes the essence. When it dissolves into the heart-center essence, by the ceasing of the cause of coarse prana, bindu rests without coming and going in the heart. Existing motionlessly, it is dharmata, absolute truth.

Then by the heat of the heart center, touching the essence in the center of the nadis of the throat, the essence proliferates in the heart. Also, by the ceasing of prana it rests in dharmata, about which the same text says:

This light of the great essence dissolving into the bindu of the throat, is called union. Where does it dwell? In the center of sixteen nadis, as a lotus blossom, it is said to be in a nadi mandala of two fives and six. Energized by the heat below, it blazes with light. Existing as the great bliss, this is called the great bliss. The great bliss is spontaneously present. After this it does not move back. The great rejoicing should be offered. By what is called “the merit of the arising place of knowables” and so forth, knowables are objects, and arisings^[2] are thoughts. Exhaustion is radiant bindu. This is called “the wisdom of exhausting thoughts through light and luminous bindu.” Bindu itself without nature appears as the great bliss. This is called “the music of the play of bliss.” That is also called “bindu entering into and dwelling in the place of great bliss.”

Moreover, when the heat of the heart center dissolves into the throat-bindu, prana and thoughts do not wander. This is the virtue of breath dissolving into bindu. As for heat, at the time of non- identification, or non-grasping at essences, when passion has been exhausted, there is the wisdom of great bliss. As for breath, at the time of non-identification, when aggression is exhausted, it is the wisdom of luminosity/emptiness. When the empty hollows of the nadis are not identified, that is the time of exhausting ignorance, the wisdom of the simplicity of Dharmadhatu.

Now the heat of the throat enters the essence at the crown of the head. Regarding how the wisdom of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought is produced, the same text says:

“In a mandala of three tens and two” and so forth having come into the center of thirty- two, having come into the center of space, it exists as moon-bindu-bodhicitta.

That same bindu is the substance of buddhahood, dharmakaya, the main point. The perfection of the mandala of the ten directions and four times is this itself. Body, speech, mind, quality, and action are this same bindu.

But after the bindu of the great bliss has been touched by the light of that throat bindu, dissolving into light, it becomes a coronation vase of the nature of the great bliss. The three realms become non-different.

After wisdom has arisen in the form of space, it becomes dharmakaya pure of all things. In this sense, the yogin who becomes dharmakaya will see the faces of all the buddhas at once.

Moreover, that great essence in the center of the space chakra at the crown of the head, blazing with light because of that heat, is the mahasukhakaya. Having reached that, by enlightenment we tread on the level of the great ushnisha. If the four stages of this are briefly summarized, first in the center of the navel, the aspect of heat, the bindu having the essence of the sun, in the center of sixty-four nadis, is made into a condition by touching the heat in the essence of the heart center. Then the wisdom of nirmanakaya is realized.

When the heat blazes upward touching the great essence of the heart center, the prana and breath essence subsides. False conceptions are pacified. This is the wisdom of sambhogakaya.

Since the essence of this mode of dharmas is free from producing movement, prana and mind dissolve back into luminosity as the great wisdom. However, as for the essences increasing in the nadi petals being the wisdom of bliss-emptiness, it is not so. These essences are collected back into the essences in the center of the four essence chakras. A non-supreme luminosity arises. The bliss- heat-desire aspect is the wisdom of bliss. The moving-breath-prana-dissolving aspect is the wisdom of luminosity. Mixed with the space element aspect within the nadis, these arise as the three wisdoms of non-thought. This is called the circle of the three wisdoms.

As for the fruition of all these, incidentally one has mastery over life and is established as a rigdzin of mahamudra. By attaining the virtues of the paths of seeing and meditation, as signs of that level one sees many buddha fields, accomplishes great samadhis and miracles, and benefits beings with inconceivable emanations and dharmas. Finally, by buddhahood, the spontaneous presence of wisdom manifests. The same text says:

“This is the ultimate empowerment.” As for this and so forth, the yogin who is capable of this is empowered with mastery of life and so forth, whatever is desired. There is no other empowerment than this. By existing as the mandala, as above in the supreme samadhi, we become the mandala. Here by this self-existing buddhahood in which the two accumulations are perfected, since we become all mandalas, their many enjoyments and ornaments do not fail to occur, this is called the ornament.

“By the dual perfection, the union of bindu...,” Since bindu is workable, there is dharmakaya. This arises from perfecting the two accumulations. Such a yogin, by the great compassion for sentient beings of the ten directions and four times, does benefits like dream or illusion and liberates them from samsara.

By these passages the teaching of extraordinary completion stage is completed. Now as for the summary of the developing and completion stages:

By having the single yoga,
All mandalas are accomplished.
Therefore this itself
Develops as well as perfects
The realm of Samantabhadra.

Moreover as above,
In regard to elaboration,
There are complex and very complex,
And also supremely complex.

Inconceivable to thought,
The limitless mandalas
Become spontaneous presence.

These are incidental verses. Here first is the presentation from the viewpoint of those who are not able to enter into the extensive developing stage or only devote themselves to the completion stage with little elaboration. As for the explanation that all will be meditated upon by meditating on the single deity, after going to refuge and arousing bodhicitta, as it says in the Secret Essence:

This rootless nature of mind
Is the root of all the dharmas.
The nature of the mind
Is the nature of the syllables,
The precious wishing clouds.

Also:

A is the middle way
Of having no conceptions
In between emptiness
and a non-empty reality,

All is just a name,
A whirling syllable garland
Abiding as all the buddhas.

By reciting A A A, all dharmas in a state without one and many are unobscured in the center of a sky free from clouds. In the center of the sun and moon shining brilliantly with rays of light, glorious Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri are non-dual. Having the mudra of meditation, as the nature of dharmakaya they are without the customary ornaments. Meditate on them in the midst of encircling light rays of the five colors, and that by the light of the palaces of Akanishta all the space of the sky is filled, so that the phenomenal world blazes with light.

OM AH HUM A A. Saying this as many times as possible, rest in the ultimate space of the sky. By this meditate on all the mandalas of the buddhas, since this is their source. The Secret Essence says:

On a sun and moon in the limpid center of space,
Meditating on the king of wisdom,
Seated cross-legged, in meditation posture,
We meditate on all the mandalas
Of the victorious ones without remainder.

Then as for how meditating in a single completion stage is meditating on them all, visualize that in the heart of the one meditating like that, brilliantly blazing globes of light, having the radiance of the five wisdoms of non-thought. Take hold of the mind and render it immovable. When prana becomes immovable, whatever is perceived will not exist. We can rest for a day and night in wisdom without one and many. Lights and rainbows appear. Buddha fields are visibly seen. By mixing day and night the mind rests in self-awareness wisdom with no rising or setting. Except for making clear that one’s mind has been like that primordially, in attaining buddhahood no other nature is attained. The Secret Essence says:

In the four times and in the ten directions
No other perfect buddha will be found.
Mind itself is perfect buddhahood.
Do not search for any other buddha.

This kind of developing and completion stage unites all the mandalas of developing and completion. All the siddhis are accomplished. Little omissions and additions to rituals are no hindrance to siddhi. There are measureless benefits. The same text says:

By completely uniting all mandalas,
All mandalas are accomplished.
Now there will be no transgressions
Of additions or omissions.

Now, as explained above in the brief teaching and the details of the extensive meditation on the mandala, the details should also be trained in. First, train successively in the three samadhis, the suchness samadhi and so forth until the signs are attained. Then from a white A by emanating and gathering fine A’s, emanate and gather the vowels and consonants. Do the same from the seed syllable of the deity. The same text says:

A
From white A, which is completely stable,
Other very fine A’s are emanated.
Having filled and illumined the directions,
Even when they are gathered back again,

They are stable without increase and decrease.
From these the brightly blazing assembly of names
Is similarly emanated and gathered back.

Meditate on the seed syllables of the deities until they are clear. The virtues of this are long life, freedom from disease, not being harmed by obstacles of obstructing spirits and döns, accomplishing the four karmas, and uniting with the supreme level. The same text says:

This dependent arising Of the vajra siddhi
Becomes the cause of wisdom.

Then meditate successively on the body of the deity, the ornaments, the syllable at the heart center, and the consort. Then while meditating on the retinue, Akshobhya and so forth, one after another, meditate on development and completion as one. At this time the signs of perfecting the path of accumulation arise.

Then on a rise in front visualize the retinue with Akshobhya as the principal one. Perfectly visualize behind the mandala the retinue with Amitabha as the principal one. This is the mandala of three groups. Train in these as body, speech, and mind.

Then on a rise to the south and north visualize the mandalas of Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi. These are quality and action. This is the mandala of five groups.

Then with the gate-keepers in union with their consorts, this is the root of all mandalas. There is no need to meditate on any other, since this is the mandala in which all others are included. These gatekeepers of the four directions are the gatekeepers of the four directions of all mandalas. For example, below the rise in the east are Ankusha and consort as gatekeepers. To the right below Ratnasambhava are Pasha^[3] and consort. The west and north are similar. The faces of all these deities are seen from whatever direction they are viewed. The same text says:

From every direction their faces are clear and vivid.

Meditate on them facing in the direction of the principal deity. At that time, the virtues of the four stages of the path of preparation are perfected.

Then in the four directions above and below meditate on the mandalas of the five families. In the east is the mandala of Vajrasattva, like that there are 5 x 5. In the south, west and north too, are three more, with 5 x 5. In the center is the mandala of Vairochana with 5 x 5. Within the 25 mandalas, the number of deities of the root mandala is 42 2.??????. The rises 38 8 ?? these 170 x 5 = 850, ??? by meditating on those the virtues of the path of seeing are perfected. Sorry, I am not sure how these numbers work

Then the 1000 and 20,000 appearance-producing buddhas of the lower seven bhumis are perfected. Then meditating on those as limitless as space, there are limitless self-existing mandalas. The

virtues of the three pure levels are perfected. These very numerous teachings are established. This style is explained in the Great Net of Illusion. Some deities are deities of blessing body, speech, and mind. Some are crown-ornament deities. Some are heart syllable jñanasattvas. These divisions should be understood from the Secret Essence and so forth. By that the explanation together with the subsidiary points is completed.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The one taste of emptiness and great bliss. Wheel means something like sphere or mandala.

[2]:

‘byung ba.

[3]:

noose.