Insight Editions · No. 446
Great Accomplishment
Teachings on Drubchen, the Ritual of Great Accomplishment
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
A study guide to Great Accomplishment: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's introductory teachings on drubchen, Padmasambhava and Jamgön Kongtrül's Light of Wisdom on the path of accomplishing, Jokyab Rinpoche's notes, Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche's practical overview, and Lama Putse Pema Tashi's commentary on the Ngakso Drubchen, Ocean of Amrita: refuge, buddha nature, three samadhis, recitation, the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities, mending and purification, feast, the four empowerments, concluding rituals and receiving the siddhis, with tables, diagrams and practice notes.
A study guide to Great Accomplishment: Teachings on the Drubchen Ceremony, with teachings by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Padmasambhava and Jamgön Kongtrül, Jokyab Rinpoche, Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche and Lama Putse Pema Tashi; compiled by Marcia Dechen Wangmo; translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Erik Hein Schmidt) with Gyurme Avertin; edited by Michael Tweed and Marcia Binder Schmidt (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2013). Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the publishers. Please read the original book, and practise with proper transmission.
CORE CLAIM
A drubchen, "great accomplishment," is a group practice in which development, recitation and completion run day and night until signs of accomplishment appear. Its ritual is acknowledgment, not transformation: samaya is mended, the empowerments are retaken, and practitioners rest in the purity that was always there.
SCOPE
A compilation by Marcia Dechen Wangmo (Marcia Binder Schmidt): introductory teachings by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche; Padmasambhava's root verses with Jamgön Kongtrül's Light of Wisdom and Jokyab Rinpoche's notes; Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche's practical overview; and Lama Putse Pema Tashi's commentary on the Ngakso Drubchen, Ocean of Amrita, from Chokgyur Lingpa's Tukdrub Barchey Künsel. Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang with Gyurme Avertin (Rangjung Yeshe, 2013).
KEY FIGURES
Padmasambhava; Chokgyur Lingpa; Jamgön Kongtrül; Jokyab Rinpoche; Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche; Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche; Lama Putse Pema Tashi; Vajrasattva; Samantabhadra; Rudra; Hayagriva; the Twelve Manifestations.
BEST FOR
Practitioners attending or preparing for a drubchen, students of the Barchey Künsel and its Ngakso, anyone with Vajrayana commitments who wants to understand mending and purification, and readers curious why a ritual takes nine days.
The Book on One Page
Great Accomplishment is built in layers: why drubchen matters (Tulku Urgyen), the doctrine of accomplishment (Padmasambhava and Kongtrül), the logistics (Orgyen Topgyal), then a step-by-step walk through the Ocean of Amrita (Lama Putse). The commentary follows the ritual from refuge to the final verses of auspiciousness.
The Argument in Brief
- Group practice multiplies power. In a drubchen practice never stops, and the blessings of many practitioners together ripen faster than solitary effort.
- Pure perception is the ground. The mandala, the deities and the participants are seen as they already are, not imagined into being.
- Three excellences frame everything. Bodhichitta at the start, a main part beyond concepts, dedication at the end.
- The three samadhis come first. Without suchness, illumination and seed-syllable, development stage is mere construction.
- Recitation is the life-force. Approach, full approach, accomplishment and great accomplishment bring the four activities.
- The hundred deities are bardo training. The forty-two peaceful in the heart and fifty-eight wrathful in the skull are one's own nature, so they can be recognized after death.
- Samaya is mended, not merely kept. The Ngakso works through apologies, purification of the six realms and the three doors, and the twenty-eight samayas.
- Empowerment is restored four times. Each of vase, secret, wisdom-knowledge and word is mended with its own substance and received again.
- Practice continues after the ritual. "Sights, sounds, and awareness are deity, mantra, and wisdom."
The single idea beneath the whole book: purity is not produced by the ritual; the ritual removes what hides it.
Map of the Chapters
| No. | Chapter | Payload |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preface | The compiler's turn from avoiding drubchens to loving them |
| 2 | Introductory Teachings | Tulku Urgyen on what drubchen is and why it works |
| 3 | The Path of Accomplishing | Padmasambhava and Kongtrül on four yogas and perfections |
| 4 | Notes to Section 1 | Jokyab's notes: signs, siddhis, teacher, vessel |
| 5 | Drubchen Arrangement | Orgyen Topgyal on land, boundaries, seating and days |
| 6 | Drubchen Introduction | Putse on motivation, conduct and the swift vehicle |
| 7 | Bodhichitta | Refuge, its rules, and the bodhisattva resolve |
| 8 | Seven Branches | Gathering merit with and without reference |
| 9 | Four Immeasurables | Gektor and the protection circle |
| 10 | Buddha Nature | The sugata essence, covered but never changed |
| 11 | The Main Part | Three samadhis, palace, deities, offerings, praise |
| 12 | Mantra Recitation | Ten faults, the mala, the four activities |
| 13 | Special Mandala | Hundred peaceful and wrathful deities as bardo training |
| 14 | Dissolving Duality | Empowerment, outer, inner and secret offerings |
| 15 | Chanting | Praises and recitation for the hundred deities |
| 16 | Mending | Mandala offering, fourteen downfalls, vows retaken |
| 17 | Purifying | Six realms, three doors, the twenty-eight samayas |
| 18 | Feast | Four gatherings, one biscuit, liberation of ego-clinging |
| 19 | Opening the Eyes | Entering the mandala, flower and golden scalpel |
| 20 | Acknowledging the Purity | Four empowerments mended and retaken; the crystal |
| 21 | Sowing the Seeds | Body, speech and mind empowerments; torma |
| 22 | Concluding Rituals | Pledge, gift, song, lamps, protectors, horse dance |
| 23 | Receiving the Siddhis | Siddhis, dissolution as death, fish leaping |
| 24 | Appendixes | Twelve Manifestations and the full zhitro iconography |
Ways Through the Book
| Reader | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| First drubchen | Introductory Teachings and Drubchen Arrangement | Drubchen Introduction, then the ritual chapters as they occur |
| Sadhana practitioner | The Main Part and Mantra Recitation | Buddha Nature, Receiving the Siddhis |
| Worried about broken samaya | Mending and Purifying | Concluding Rituals on how breaches harden |
| Interested in empowerment | Opening the Eyes | Acknowledging the Purity, Sowing the Seeds |
| Preparing for death | Special Mandala | Receiving the Siddhis on dissolution |
| Voice | Register | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche | Plain, warm, spoken | Why drubchen works; pure perception |
| Padmasambhava and Kongtrül | Doctrinal verse and commentary | The framework of accomplishment |
| Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche | Practical and direct | What happens, in what order |
| Lama Putse Pema Tashi | Line-by-line liturgical | The meaning of every gesture in the Ocean of Amrita |
Key Terms
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Drubchen | "Great accomplishment": an intensive group sadhana, practised continuously |
| Ngakso | "Mending of Secret Mantra": the Ocean of Amrita purification drubchen |
| Samaya (damtsig) | Tantric commitment; "sublime" or "burned" |
| Three samadhis | Suchness, illumination, seed-syllable |
| Approach and accomplishment | The four stages of recitation |
| Zhitro | The hundred peaceful and wrathful deities |
| Tsok | Feast offering; four gatherings |
| Mendrub | Consecrated medicine carrying the five meats and five nectars |
| Torma | Ritual offering cake, also a support for empowerment |
| Four empowerments | Vase, secret, wisdom-knowledge, precious word |
| Bakchak | Habitual tendencies, subtler than thoughts |
| Three seats of completeness | Aggregates and elements, senses, body and faculties as the mandala |
| Trekchö and tögal | Cutting through and direct crossing, the Dzogchen paths |
| Siddhi | Accomplishment: common powers and supreme enlightenment |
| Vidyadhara | Awareness-holder; also the Twelve Manifestations |
How the Book Reads
The early chapters are talks and doctrine; from Chapter 6 on, the book becomes a liturgical commentary that quotes long verses of the Ocean of Amrita and glosses mantras syllable by syllable. Putse is practical and frank: a single biscuit makes a feast, a restaurant meal can be an offering, and "who practices with such dedication these days?" The content assumes empowerment and transmission; it explains what one does but is not a substitute for the lama who leads the ritual.
Preface
Compiler Marcia Dechen Wangmo admits she long avoided the annual drubchens of Nepal's monasteries, with their crowds, noise and jostling for blessings. Working with Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche on the Light of Wisdom series turned a burden into a joy.
From Burden to Joy
She practiced sadhanas daily, yet in the crowded mandala her destructive emotions abounded, so she retreated to the mountainside. The contradiction stung: "My mind is in both places." Masters like Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche presided over drubchens unmoved from rigpa, proof it can be done.
"The Vajrayana path is basically achieving enlightenment while having fun."
When serious practitioners gather, the power of the gathering is magnified. Joining a drubchen, she writes, "will be one of the best choices you will ever make."
Introductory Teachings
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche explains what drubchen, "great accomplishment," is: a nine-day group practice of development, recitation and completion built on pure perception. He walks through the ritual from boundaries to empowerment and ends on the bardo deities as one's own nature.
Pure Perception Is Not Make-Believe
Drubchen joins three stages, development, recitation and completion, with the four aspects of approach, full approach, accomplishment and great accomplishment. During it, the world is a celestial palace, beings are pure, all sounds are mantra and every thought is vajra mind. This is not superimposing something unreal: "the true nature of things actually is primordially pure." Our habitual thinking hides vajra body as flesh and blood, vajra speech as ordinary voice and vajra mind as constant conceptualizing.
| Ordinary | Pure aspect |
|---|---|
| Earth, water, fire, wind, space | Lochana, Mamaki, Pandaravasini, Samayatara, Dhatvishvari |
| Form, sensation, conception, formation, consciousness | Vairochana, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi, Akshobhya |
| Sense bases and objects | Eight male and eight female bodhisattvas |
| Four views and four times | The male and female gatekeepers |
| Six poisons | The six munis |
The enlightened essence is pure gold covered in dirt. "If we weren't already endowed with this pure gold, but instead possessed mere brass, we could polish and clean all we wanted, but the brass would never turn into gold." Development, recitation and completion act like a polish.
The Shape of the Nine Days
Because there are one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities, at least one hundred people should take part. Each morning begins with the lineage supplication, refuge (holding all of Hinayana) and bodhichitta (holding all of Mahayana): "we never practice 'only Vajrayana.'" A gektor torma goes to obstructers, who are "fabricated by our own dualistic concepts." Offerings are multiplied by emanated goddesses to fill the skies; the inner offerings amrita, rakta and torma stand for aggression, passion and delusion; the secret offering is the experience of the enlightened essence.
- Outer boundary: four poles remind the four guardian kings of their promise to the Buddha.
- Inner boundary: a torma is buried and stepped on; ignorance is pressed into oblivion, with the wish that this force be reborn in the Buddha's first assembly.
- Secret boundary: liberating rudra, the force that obscures body, speech and mind, into the expanse of wisdom.
- Mandala: best of colored sand, next canvas, then heaps of grain; sand recalls that the world arose from particles.
Nine days: one day of preparation, seven of main practice, one for taking the siddhis. Chanting correctly raises the merit a thousandfold; purity of concentration raises it a hundred thousandfold.
The Main Practice
The three samadhis open the day: suchness (all dissolves into emptiness), all-illuminating (compassion for those who have not realized it) and seed syllable, here a white HRIH. Element syllables build Mount Sumeru; the HRIH becomes a golden vajra, then Guru Rinpoche. In The Ocean of Amrita, the guru holds fifty-eight wrathful deities in the skull, five vidyadharas at the throat, forty-two peaceful deities in the heart, Tröma Nagmo at the navel and Vajra Kilaya at the secret center.
Recitation stresses great accomplishment, pictured as a beehive breaking open, a constant buzz kept up day and night. The four-part apology and the four elements of mending use what we already have: rakta for attachment (mother's blood), amrita for aggression (father's white bindu), torma for delusion (flesh), and the butter lamp for pure awareness. Sojong then restores pratimoksha, bodhisattva and samaya vows. A feast follows, offered like a fire puja to the deities of one's body, and finally the four empowerments: vase by drinking vase water, secret and wisdom-knowledge from the skull cup, and word, introducing self-existing wisdom.
| Empowerment level | Who gives it |
|---|---|
| Ground | The vajra master in the ritual |
| Path | Oneself, in practice |
| Fruition | Light from the ushnika of all tathagatas, at the end of the bodhisattva path |
Why the Short Path Needs Mending
The Buddha gave extensive teachings (Mahayana) and profound ones (Vajrayana). This does not mean superior and inferior; it reflects people's varying capacities. Vajrayana is shorter, has "many techniques and few difficulties," and is meant for people of higher capabilities. Yet because each of us has the enlightened essence, a group gathers many enlightened essences in one place, and practice is more effective: even those who have not recognized benefit by staying within the environment.
Enlightenment in Vajrayana comes from means and knowledge as a unity: development stage is skillful means, completion stage is knowledge. The main obstacles are breaches of commitment, which is why purifying samaya sits at the heart of the short path. Practice freely, mend breaches, and one reaches dharmadhatu, "from which we have actually never been separated for even an instant."
The Deities Are You
Some say deities are just mind and mind is empty, but mind "also has a lucid knowing quality." Its emptiness is dharmakaya; its luminosity is sambhogakaya, like the spectrum shining from a crystal. At death, like a house dismantled, the body, speech and mind separate and what was always present is revealed: forms from Sumeru to a mustard seed, sounds like a thousand thunderclaps, light like a hundred thousand suns.
"If we are totally unprepared, we will suffer tremendously from our fear." Best is stable recognition of the view; next best is remembering at death, "These are my own deities, they are none other than me." Then the panic and misery dissolve.
For those who cannot follow the text, the peaceful and wrathful mantra OM BODHI CHITTA MAHA SUKHA JNANA DHATU AH OM RULU RULU HUNG BHYO HUNG is enough, or the short OM VAJRA SATVA AH. The lama holds the five-colored dharani cord from heart to vase, sending light to offer, purify beings and subdue negative forces.
Whatever we see is the deity's form, whatever we hear is mantra, and whatever we think is self-existing wisdom. A drubchen trains this without interruption so it becomes natural.
The Path of Accomplishing and Commentary
The doctrinal backbone: Padmasambhava's root verses from the Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo on how a sadhana is brought to complete accomplishment, with Jamgön Kongtrül's Light of Wisdom commentary. It moves from the four yogas to the five perfections and the full drubchen structure, ending with the signs of accomplishment.
A Path with a Complete Body
Kongtrül says all that has been taught on the two siddhis, supreme and common, must be carried by "a path that has a complete 'body.'" Its first layer is four yogas, mapped onto approach and accomplishment.
| Yoga | Main reading | Alternative reading |
|---|---|---|
| Great emptiness | Approach: suchness samadhi | Approach |
| Compassionate magic | Approach: illuminating samadhi | Full approach |
| Single mudra (syllable and single deity) | Full approach: stable vivid presence | Accomplishment, with the seed samadhi |
| Elaborate mudra | Full approach: the whole mandala | Accomplishment |
Heat, Signs and Indications
Practice yields temporary results in three kinds. Heat, per the Magical Stages of the Path, is "free from doer and deed": outwardly the body feels light, inwardly the breath is barely discernible, innermost one arrives at the nature itself. In short, blissful body, clear voice, thought-free mind.
- Outer signs: the field of vision filled with tiny attributes of the deity, the "smoke-like" and other signs, the elements dissolving into five colors, or lotus lights, particles, stars and crescents in the sky.
- Inner signs: ease in body and speech; the five emotions naturally decrease; the eight worldly concerns are evened out.
- Innermost signs: slight control over the energies, minor superknowledges, and dreams of purification, bhumis or siddhis.
- Indications of siddhi: the six siddhis that are the source of qualities, the five siddhis of the elements and the eight minor activities; the Ratnakuta calls them "inconceivable."
The Framework Scripture: "'Assembly' is the threefold gathering. 'Group' is of one, three, or five." A small gathering has one, three or five chief figures with consorts (two, six or ten); a medium one matches the number of mandala deities; a great one is larger. The three gatherings are fortunate people, joyful deities and the fivefold articles, with the group assembly as main part and great accomplishment as activity application, carrying practitioners to the end of the four vidyadhara levels.
The Five Perfections
- Place: remote, free of enemies, thieves, carnivores and vicious spirits, and blessed by past vidyadharas.
- Time: the "divine day" when the sun moves north, a waxing moon, or a conjunction such as Jupiter, Naksatraraja and the eighth day.
- Articles: shrine objects, offerings, food, medicine and methods to keep adversity at bay.
- Teacher: a vajra master with eight qualities, bearer of the triple treasury of development and completion.
- Retinue: consort, regents "down to the cook and sweeper," free of the three defects of the vessel.
The method itself must be correct: free of the four causes of transgression, without "duplicating the easier parts, or omitting the difficult ones."
The Drubchen Structure
Preparation means requesting the site, from a visible owner with payment and words of truth, from local gods with torma and serkyem. Then take possession, cleanse and guard it with the ten wrathful ones' daggers and dance. Purify your being outwardly with apologies and offerings, inwardly with the four great apologies, innermost with Overturning the Depths of Narak.
| Boundary | How it is drawn |
|---|---|
| Outer | Entrusted to the four great kings |
| Intermediate | Suppressing damsi demons born of broken Mantrayana samayas |
| Inner | Gate placards of Dharma King and Amrita Kundali |
| Secret | Protection circle of fivefold weaponry, and the view of suchness |
Matram Rudra, king of obstructers, is delivered and suppressed, his body imbued as charnel grounds and celestial palace so that "he turns into the vajra sphere." After the preparatory consecrations, the mandala is drawn with action and wisdom lines and practitioners are seated, dressed and marked with the three glorious signs; beginners are made suitable vessels with the ritual for inclusion.
| Third of the practice | Purifies | Result |
|---|---|---|
| First: approach | The world into the celestial palace | Clears conceptual obscuration |
| Second: full approach | The inhabitants into deities | Gathers the wealth of siddhis |
| Third: accomplishment | The mindstream into self-existing wakefulness | Takes possession of the two siddhis |
Across six periods feasts please and mend; at twelve intervals kilaya substance subdues the spying nyuley spirits. Practitioners keep threefold vividness and never break the continuity of deity, mantra and the samadhi of emanation and absorption, giving up sleepiness, torpor, laziness, attachment and aversion.
At best in reality, next in experience, at least in a dream: the painted image smiles, the amrita boils with sound and vapor, the butter lamp lights by itself, nectar flows from the torma, or one has a vision of the deity. The special sign is that experience and realization blaze forth with mastery of original wakefulness.
The Last Night
After the signs, the concluding deeds: at dusk, siddhis are received from the deity using mamsa, dagye, tsegal and madana; at midnight, the ritual of deliverance in the inner shrine; at dawn, for a yogi with the capacity, union as the path structured by the four aspects of approach and accomplishment. Those whose training is "merely an aspiration" receive the siddhis from the deity instead. Then come the residual torma, the zor, requesting forgiveness, dissolving the mandala, the samadhi for daily activities, and dedication.
A drubchen is the four yogas performed by a group under five perfections. Every element, from site request to dissolution, exists so that sights, sounds and thoughts stay deity, mantra and dharmata.
Notes to Section 1
The notes by Jokyab Rinpoche, with remarks by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and others, unpack the root text's lists: ten signs, siddhis, the teacher's eight qualities, vessel defects, the nyuley spirits and the devas who bestow siddhi. They read as a glossary to Chapter 3.
Signs and Siddhis Explained
The ten signs are four daytime signs, smoke, mirage, firefly and clear space, then sun, moon, eclipse, comet, sky image and a five-colored sphere of light, mostly at night. Jamdrak cautioned that these resemble proficiency in the three fields but are not a vision of the deity. Kongtrül adds that perfected development stage purifies ordinary clinging "into being the deity's mandala" and can bring the vidyadhara level of maturation in this life.
| List | Contents |
|---|---|
| Six siddhis, source of qualities | Poison turned nectar; curing 404 diseases; enjoyments via a TRAM syllable; lower realms purified; anything transformed into its opposite |
| Five siddhis of the elements | HUNG: space solid as vajra stairs; RAM: fire that burns fire; KHAM: purifying water; YAM: wind that disintegrates; A: emptying the worlds |
| Eight minor activities | Summoning, expelling, binding, releasing, curing, killing, defeating, bringing victory |
| Five path articles | Samaya, view, samadhi, bodhichitta, compassion |
Four types of disease, imaginary demonic forces, momentary circumstances, aggregated elements and previous actions, each with 101 subtypes, make 404. "Dissolution and stifling" means seed syllables such as RAM, YAM, KHAM mixed into substances to "tame" poison and impurity.
The People in the Practice
- Eight qualities of the teacher: holds the treasury of teachings, has perfected empowerment, has responsibility, knows tantras and rituals, holds pith instructions and has warmth in practice.
- The assembly: powerful yogis eliminate obstacles, timekeepers mark the times, the observer knows obstacles coming, with caretakers, cooks and sweepers, from a hundred to a hundred thousand.
- Four causes of transgression: Jamdrak calls them the four doorways of downfall.
Boundaries, Rudras and Spirits
Downfalls after the sutra pitakas produce demons held at the outer border by the four kings; samaya-breakers of the three outer tantras become damsi, suppressed at the intermediate border. Breakers of the inner tantras give birth to rudras, of eternalist, nihilist and wrong views, or of self-grasping in body, speech and mind. Delivering them brings realization of identitylessness and, since the greater force is tamed, the lesser are tamed too.
Self as samaya being, deity as wisdom being, and rays emanating and returning. Three things must not be interrupted: offerings to the victorious ones, purifying beings' obscurations, and receiving siddhis for oneself.
| Time of day | Nyuley obstructer (Chokling Tersar) |
|---|---|
| Sunset | Shatring daughters, cawing like crows |
| Midnight | Ranus of desire |
| Dawn | Hedö daughter of the sun |
| Midday | Four families of naga seals |
| Early evening | Maras and damsi of samaya-breakers |
Twelve messengers, among them Ekadzati and the Hundred-Headed She-Wolf, are their antidotes. The devas who bestow siddhi arrive in turn too, from Korisidha with Brahma and Indra at sunrise to the seven ishvaris and the vidyadharas by the millions, each granting siddhis at their specific time. The feast foods include mamsa (meat), dagye (yogurt), tsegal (food), madana (alcohol) and khurwa (fruit), and old temples had outer, inner and secret shrines.
One endnote was moved to a restricted volume, and the passages on deliverance and union presuppose inner-tantra empowerment and a qualified master. These notes describe a living ritual system; they are not instructions for self-taught practice.
Every list in the root verses has a practical referent: who does what, at which hour, against which obstacle. The notes turn dense verse into a working map of the ritual.
Drubchen Arrangement and Overview
Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche, teaching at a Tukdrub Barchey Künsel drubchen at Lerab Ling in 2010, gives the practical sequence: securing the land, three boundaries, three preliminaries, seating, seven days of main practice and dissolution. His refrain: appearances are deity, sounds mantra, thoughts samadhi.
Seven Days Equal Seven Years
Receiving empowerment and then ripening it in a drubchen is rare fortune; "if it were easy, everybody would already avail themselves of such." Yeshe Tsogyal called the chance to practice terma the result of aspirations made before Guru Rinpoche, and Guru Rinpoche said seven days of drubchen equal seven years of retreat. Each day one should bathe, dress well, recite the Hundred Syllables and pay homage, wearing the best clothing at the descent of blessings, and stay wide awake to bring out the clarity of rigpa: "Everything originates interdependently."
Boundaries and Preliminaries
Boundaries are not only Dharma; there are borders between countries and between nirvana and samsara.
| Boundary | Practice |
|---|---|
| Outer | Visit the four guardian kings, remind them of their vow, erect four poles; at the door Yamantaka faces out, Amrita Kundali faces in; all enter purified with water and smoke |
| Inner | The Matram mantra dispels ego-clinging; Matram Rudra, "the original ego demon," is delivered, and the palace visualized in his place |
| Secret | The vajra master rests in samadhi: all obstacles come from mind, mind is empty, so no obstructing forces exist |
Three preliminaries follow. For the deity, wisdom lines are drawn in space, karmic lines on the ground, then merged. For the vase, water with blessed substances is the deity; best is one vase per deity, middling an activity vase and a main vase. For the students, empowerment or blessing introduces aggregates, elements and sense faculties as vajra body, speech and mind, with teaching on samaya.
Body: a kutsab statue from Kunsang Tuktig. Speech: the Sheldam Nyingjang. Mind: King Trisong Deutsen's vajra and bell, revealed by Chokgyur Lingpa. Qualities: a skull cup used in over a hundred drubchens. Activity: a terma of Nyang Ral Nyima Özer. The mendrub mixed thirty kinds of pabta with old genuine mendrub.
The vajra king sits on a lion throne, his consort on a throne of flowers, with thrones for the regent and the four families; women to the left, men to the right. Each participant is requested to sit as a deity and must practice the vajra confidence of being that deity.
The Three Statements
For seven days the sadhana runs three times by day and three by night, and the mantra, "the actual life-force of the practice," never stops.
| Statement | What it asks |
|---|---|
| All appearances are deity | Continually recognize you are the deity; clear visualization, remembering purity and vajra confidence as one |
| All sounds are mantra | Hear sound as mantra; rays offer, purify and return with siddhis |
| All thoughts are samadhi | Do not let thoughts of past, present and future invade |
Moon with a garland of stars, whirling firebrand, king's emissaries, and the broken beehive. In drubchen the last matters most: each of the twelve syllables of OM AH HUNG BENDZA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG buzzes at once in a droning swarm.
Do not let body, speech and mind fall under the influence of delusion. Beginners cannot be wholly free of it, but can diminish deluded appearances. Clothing is the deities' ornaments; meals are ganachakra. If everyone "from the vajra king down to the vajra sweeper" sustains the deity, an incredible power is generated.
After the siddhis, mandalas are dissolved one by one; the placards come down, the phurbas are raised with milk poured on their tips, and lamp aspirations and dedication close the rite.
"The Dharma is not just a bunch of theory." A lifetime of teachings without practice brings little; seven diligent, joyful days benefit all beings everywhere.
Drubchen Introduction
Lama Putse Pema Tashi opens his commentary on the Ngakso Drubchen, Ocean of Amrita, a tantric mending and purification practice from Chokgyur Lingpa's Tukdrub Barchey Künsel. He sets out motivation, conduct, the risk of the swift vehicle, and why samaya is broken constantly and must be mended constantly.
Motivation and Conduct
The wrong motivation is the musk hunter, who "chase[s] the musk deer just for the musk" and leaves the rest. The right one sees oneself as sick, the Dharma as medicine, the teacher as doctor. Basic etiquette applies: no hats, umbrellas or sticks for show, unless one is ill, and no weapons.
| Paramita | While receiving teachings |
|---|---|
| Generosity | Providing a seat, putting out flowers |
| Discipline | Tidying without harming insects |
| Patience | Bearing heat, cold and long sessions |
| Diligence | Being fully present |
| Concentration | Not letting attention stray |
| Knowledge | Clearing up doubts about the meaning |
Vajrayana teaching presumes the ripening empowerment first, then liberating instructions. Dharma "is not all fun and games"; changing habits is plain hard work, and Milarepa shows the dedication required.
Early Kadampa meditators kept two heaps of pebbles. A negative thought moved a black pebble to one pile, a positive one a white pebble to another. At first the black pile was large; with training, "eventually the pile would be all white."
A gentler practice needs no hardship: let "this great magician called 'mind'" work with the breath. Breathe out happiness and merit to all beings; breathe in their suffering, and let it land on the hard lump of ego-clinging to melt it.
Why Mending Comes First
Even on the short road of Tantra, Hinayana and Mahayana are included. When vehicles seem to conflict, follow the higher one, in the proper way: shravakas abstain from meat and wine, while Vajrayana consecrates them as nectar in feasts. The main focus of Ocean of Amrita is mending vows, and attitude decides merit: a hunter who vows not to kill gains merit; one who simply fails to kill gains none.
The vase empowerment affirms that the universe is a buddha field and beings are deities. "The very moment we form any concept based on clinging to the notion of a concrete reality, such as, 'This is a rock. That is a man. That is a dog', we have broken the samaya of the first empowerment." So sojong, like washing and mending clothes, must be regular.
Kept pure, Vajrayana brings awakening in this life, merging at death with the vastness of the innate nature. It is not the easy option: pratimoksha governs speech and action, Vajrayana governs mental attitude, so merely harboring revenge breaks root samaya even if one never acts.
"I have kept all 253 monks' vows pure... I always restored the bodhisattva vow on the same day that I broke it. But I cannot count the number of times that I have violated my samayas in regard to the Vajrayana."
Five Causes of Negative Karma
Ordinary people find it "practically impossible" to keep any of the three levels of precepts, and the habit of breaking promises strengthens itself. Since we still get attached, dull, angry, conceited and jealous, pretending otherwise only perpetuates samsara. The ritual text sits in chapter seventeen of the Sheldam Nyingjang, the Essence Manual of Oral Instructions.
- Ignorance: not knowing right from wrong; a stepped-on insect is still killed.
- Lack of respect: for the ever-present yidams and one's own and others' qualities.
- Carelessness: losing vigilance and slipping into patterns.
- Selfish emotion: being caught up in self-centered feelings.
- Forgetfulness: losing what one was introduced to, falling into old habits.
"There is only one thing good about karmic wrongdoing; it can be cleared up." In this nine-day ritual one is Padmasambhava, wrathful deities in the skull, peaceful in the heart, but "the bottom line" is fully mending Vajrayana commitments.
Excellent Preparation of Bodhichitta
Every practice needs the three excellences: bodhichitta as preparation, a main part beyond concepts, and dedication as conclusion. Lama Putse begins with refuge, its three prohibitions and three obligations, the bodhisattva resolve, lay genyen precepts, and Dharma in daily life.
Refuge as the Setting for the Jewel
Without knowing Buddha, Dharma and Sangha there is "no basis for enlightenment." The Buddha here is the supreme nirmanakaya, Shakyamuni; Dharma is the teachings passed on orally or written down; for ordinary people four pure ordained monks suffice to represent the noble Sangha. We take refuge like a prisoner who needs rescue, since only a buddha can lead us out, "until arriving at the essence of supreme enlightenment."
| Practitioner | What they fear |
|---|---|
| Shravaka | Continuing suffering in samsara; seeks personal freedom |
| Bodhisattva | Self-concern; still holds "I" and "other" while exchanging self for others |
| Vajrayana practitioner | Clinging to attributes; suspends concepts in purity and equality |
Vajrayana adds guru, yidam and dakinis, with dakas and protectors, to the Three Jewels. Refuge must be stable.
Winter ice can bear a house, "but when spring comes the foundation will crack and the whole house will sink." Profound practice without refuge eventually collapses. The test of stability: if someone offers great wealth or threatens death to make you give up the Three Jewels, and you still refuse in your heart.
"The essential practice is the actual jewel, and the setting for this gem is taking refuge." Palace, offerings and stages are the fine handiwork that frames it.
Three Prohibitions, Three Obligations
| Refuge in | Avoid | Adopt |
|---|---|---|
| Buddha | Trusting mundane spirits such as mountain gods; they too are in samsara, "the blind leading the blind" | Respect every image, even a stupa fragment or tsa-tsa, and every letter of every alphabet |
| Dharma | Harming any being; do not kick a warm dog into the cold | Treat books in all languages as precious |
| Sangha | Living with those who hold contrary views, who would make us timid or doubtful | Respect anything representing the Sangha, even a scrap of robe, whatever its color |
"In the future, for those who have not met me, I will appear in the form of writing. Written language will be my emanation, my substitute." Since we cannot pick up every scrap of paper, Putse advises imagining a volume of scripture on top of your head, so even an accidental step is simultaneously respect.
The Bodhisattva Resolve
Bodhichitta is the dividing line between Hinayana and Mahayana. Even one circumambulation or one rosary of mani should be for all beings. The Ocean of Amrita verse promises to imitate the victorious ones of the past. Beings are "all my mothers" from countless lives; we fail to recognize them as friends, enemies or strangers, yet none want to suffer and none make the causes of happiness. "I myself will work to liberate all sentient beings" is the resolve. Formally, one takes refuge before a master, chooses one of the seven sets of pratimoksha, then takes the vow; informally, with the Three Jewels imagined as witness, "one becomes a bodhisattva at that moment."
Higher vehicles contain the lower, never the reverse, so a Vajrayana practitioner should never belittle Hinayana or Mahayana. The four empowerments make one a vidyadhara, and they always include refuge and bodhichitta. The highest Vajrayana practitioner is a bhikshu vidyadhara, a fully ordained monk who is also a vajra practitioner.
Genyen, from gewa la nyenpa, "approaching goodness," are lay Buddhists who give up killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying about superhuman attainment, and intoxicants. Keeping one makes a one-precept genyen; all five, a complete-precept genyen; giving up sex entirely, a celibate genyen.
Dharma Through the Day
- Falling asleep: "May I dissolve into dharmakaya."
- Waking: "May I and all beings rise above the three realms."
- Climbing stairs: up the staircase to liberation; going down, to the lower realms to help beings.
- Eating and drinking: an offering to the peaceful and wrathful deities in this body, since the body is their palace.
These are "not just rules to follow blindly." You must walk the walk, not just talk the talk, using every moment and activity to apply the teachings.
Seven Branches
With refuge and bodhichitta set, the bodhisattva perfects the two accumulations, merit with reference and wisdom without reference. The seven-branch prayer of the Ngakso holds every way of gathering merit: bowing, offering, apology, rejoicing, requesting, beseeching and dedication.
Bowing and Offering
We picture all objects of refuge in the ten directions, from the seven buddhas before Shakyamuni to the thousand buddhas of this aeon, and pay homage physically by bowing, verbally with the text and mentally by complete trust.
Palms form a hollow like a lotus bud about to open, touching crown, throat and heart; the sutra style touches five points to the ground, the Vajrayana style stretches out flat in surrender. Do it in a dignified way, emanating replicas of yourself as many as atoms, with all beings bowing together. Each atom your body covers, down to the center of the earth, yields the enjoyment of a universal monarch.
Bowing is the antidote to conceit: however consumed by the five emotions, "we all still think that we are special."
Offerings are "actually present" or "mentally created." The seven general offerings are rinsing water, flowers, incense, perfume, drinking water, light and music. Lavish displays can breed pride, which destroys the merit; envy of silver and gold bowls, thinking "Enlightenment is the luxury of rich people," is pointless.
"It's hard to be stingy about water." One simple bowl, poured and later tossed out the window, can represent all offerings. Light works the same way: sun, moon, stars and even streetlights you never paid for, multiplied a million times. Putse calls this a men-ngak, a pith instruction that is effective and easy, "just the kind of instruction one needs when living a hectic modern life."
Apology and Rejoicing
The apology covers three levels of precept: pratimoksha (the Vinaya; a monk keeps 253), bodhisattva trainings, and tantric samayas, here mainly of Mahayoga. Ngari Panchen's Perfect Conduct is recommended for detail.
| Wrongdoing | Includes |
|---|---|
| Pledge wrongdoing | Doing what one has vowed not to do |
| Natural wrongdoing | Ten unvirtuous actions, four heinous crimes, the five associated ones |
| Body | Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct |
| Speech | Lying, harsh words, divisive talk, gossip |
| Mind | Ill-will, covetousness, wrong views |
Rejoicing in noble beings (the path of seeing and above) and ordinary ones (the path of accumulation) shares their virtue; "How wonderful!" earns merit equal to doing it oneself, provided there is no envy or competitiveness. It cuts both ways: rejoicing in harm earns its full karma.
Requesting, Beseeching, Dedicating
- Requesting the wheel: beings and their emotions are endless as space. After enlightenment the Buddha intended to "remain here, silent in the jungle" until Indra and Brahma offered a thousand-spoked golden wheel and a right-turning conch; then he taught the four noble truths at Varanasi. Enlightened beings are clairvoyant and will respond.
- Beseeching them to stay: when a disciple begged the aging Buddha to stay, he blessed his body to remain a few years more. No elaborate ceremony is needed: "Please don't leave, remain for countless aeons."
- Dedication: offer all virtue of the three times, one's own and others', to enlightenment for all. Since ordinary people cannot truly dedicate, wish to dedicate exactly as the buddhas have.
The seven branches turn small acts into vast merit through multiplication, non-attachment and dedication. A bowl of water offered freely outweighs a thousand lamps offered with pride.
Four Immeasurables
Aspiration bodhichitta is the vow; application bodhichitta is training in love, compassion, joy and impartiality. Putse then covers dissolving the field of accumulation, the gektor that clears obstacles, and the protection circle, whose ultimate form is nondual wakefulness.
Aspiration and Application
Wanting to go to Bodhgaya is not enough; you must save money, pack and travel. So too with enlightenment.
| Immeasurable | Ngakso line | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Love | "May all beings possess happiness" | Happiness and its causes, the ten virtues |
| Compassion | "May it ripen upon me instead" | Taking on suffering of all six realms |
| Joy | "Never part from happiness devoid of misery" | Wishing countless beings, not just friends, free of misery |
| Impartiality | "The equal nature of all things" | No near and far; love embraces everyone |
The "me" in "ripen upon me" is the hard lump of ego-clinging, made of thoughts; even asleep we dream of being chased, slandered or robbed and suffer all because of this ugly lump. In practice, exhale virtue to all beings and inhale their pain: this is mind training.
Ordinary minds are like land uncultivated for years, "with dirt so hard that no seed can take root." Mind training softens and tills it, so the seed of enlightenment can grow. Caring only for family is not enough: "even vicious beasts actually care for their own offspring."
With JAH HUNG BAM HO, the field of accumulation dissolves into OM AH HUNG at the crown, throat and heart of oneself and all beings; feel confident that the two obscurations are purified.
Clearing Away Obstacles
All Vajrayana practice has two principles: clearing unfavorable circumstances and providing conducive ones, just as one clears stones and trees before buying bricks and cement. Clearing requires the vajra pride of the deity, here the lotus heruka Hayagriva.
The torma appears to each spirit as whatever it desires, three whites and three sweets or flesh and blood, like inviting guests to dinner. OM SARVA BHUTA AKARSHAYA JAH means "all spirits are summoned here, right now!"; the sky treasury mantra is like saying grace. Stubborn ones are told that a rain of vajra weapons will reduce them to dust, while one casts the torma out, throws mustard seeds, burns gugul and plays awesome music.
Outwardly the obstructers are tsen, gyalpo and mamo. Inwardly, "I myself am that evil spirit": they arise from dualistic fixation on self and other, good and bad. "Our own concept of self, our ego is the evil spirit." Letting be in equanimity dissolves it, which is what "dispersing into its own place" means.
The Protection Circle
Having chased out a thief, you lock the door. As the lotus king, one visualizes a great vajra cross on the ground, a fence and dome of vajras so tight that not even the cosmic wind at the end of the kalpa can enter, a dome of the five families' weapons, and blazing fire with tiny herukas flying like sparks.
"In the nondual wisdom state of deity, mantra, and dharmakaya, the boundary mandala is naturally self-perfected." Since "I" has no true existence, there is nothing to be harmed, and threats lack true existence too. Even generosity never becomes perfect unless embraced with the genuine experience of emptiness.
Love softens the ground, the gektor clears it, the boundary seals it, and thought-free wakefulness is what makes all three perfect. A mantra works even if you don't know every syllable's meaning.
Buddha Nature
The preliminaries turn on buddha nature, the sugata essence identical in every being and every buddha. Putse explains why it is covered but never changed, then walks through the Ngakso's apology to buddha nature, vajra pledge, showering of resplendence, consecration of offerings and confirming natural awareness.
The Same Essence, Covered
The third turning, "the final dharma wheel of the complete uncovering," teaches that every being's nature is identical with a fully enlightened buddha's. It lies beyond confusion and liberation and does not grow closer or more distant in samsara or nirvana.
| Turning | How it names buddha nature |
|---|---|
| First | Everyone belongs to the family of the potentially enlightened |
| Second | Suchness free of constructs, the emptiness of all phenomena |
| Third | The sugata essence with all qualities present; named differently in outer and inner tantras |
Being moved to tears by teachings on emptiness or by beings' suffering proves the potential, like smoke on a mountainside proves fire. Present already are the fourfold fearlessness, ten powers, eighteen unique qualities, thirty-two marks and eighty signs, and sixty-four qualities of abandonment and realization.
A buddha sees past, present and future in one instant and frees countless beings each moment; we, born in the hell of incessant torment, could not even free ourselves. "It seems like all these qualities that one possesses are kind of useless." The answer lies in nyingpo, "essence," which also means "kernel" or "seed": present but unseen, veiled by coemergent ignorance. "Whether covered by a skin, peel, or not, a seed still remains a seed."
What purifies: in the sutras, the two accumulations; in Vajrayana, the two stages. The outcome: no temporary obscurations. So buddhahood is "the twofold purity", original purity plus freedom from temporary veils. The real buddha is not Shakyamuni's body but the dharmakaya.
Clouds hide the sun, but the sun itself is not affected, and when they part it is not improved. "The unconditioned can never be achieved through conditioned practice, nor can the unformed be formed." Yet "since we are already buddhas, why bother?" fails too: gold ore already contains gold, but the dross must be refined.
Apology and Pledge
The apology admits exaggerating or denigrating the luminous essence. We exaggerate by believing forms and sounds truly exist; we denigrate by labeling and missing its real qualities. The ultimate apology is "rest evenly in the state in which the one who apologizes and the object of apology are not conceptualized." SAMAYA SHUDDHE means "commitment utterly pure."
The vajra pledge follows. "Brothers and sisters" who received empowerment from the same master are close family. The "yidam deity beyond beginning and end" is buddha nature itself, and Padmakara's essence "does not differ in the slightest from our own." Since our nature is dharmakaya, the essential samaya cannot actually be transgressed.
Reading the Pledge Line by Line
The pledge reads as a short map of the whole path. "Practicing one-pointedly" is the shared promise of everyone who received empowerment and pith instructions from the same master, which is why breaking with them breaks the chain. "The profound samadhi of approaching and accomplishing" is development and completion: gaining confidence that you are the deity and resting in the natural state. "Padmakara, Ever-Excellent" is Guru Rinpoche also called Samantabhadra Padmakara. And "right now without separation, though diverse is of one taste" means the many deities and the one nature are not two, all "within the original state that is inherent to me." The closing BODHICHITTA VAJRA SAMAYA HUNG names it the indestructible commitment of awakened mind.
Resplendence and Consecration
With music, dance and waving banners, the assembly calls down the trikaya guru deities: Amitayus (dharmakaya), Avalokiteshvara (sambhogakaya), Padmakara (nirmanakaya). Practitioners, shrine and surroundings become identical with the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain. JNANA ABESHAYA means "shower down wisdom."
- Manifest ground: "the world is the torma plate and the beings are the torma", the great natural torma offering.
- Eight offerings: ARGHAM (feet water), PADHAM (face water), PUSHPE (flowers), DHUPE (incense), ALOKE (lamp), GANDHE (perfume), NAIVENTE (food), SHABTA (music).
- Amrita, rakta, torma: brief in Nyingma, since practitioners hold this attitude from the beginning. A skull cup on three skulls, the three emancipations, holds the five meats and five nectars, melted by wind and fire into bodhichitta, capped with the Ali-Kali lid.
- BALINGTA, torma, means "that which produces strength."
Natural awareness (rang rig) is rigpa, unlike sem, which clings to subject and object. Longchenpa: byang is "purified," chub is "perfected," chitta is "mind." The three roots "do not exist anywhere but in the state indivisible from myself."
The seal mantra means "the original wakefulness of my awakened mind is the bond with all the gurus, yidams and dakinis." The whole preliminary sequence simply reminds us of what we already are.
The Main Part
The heart of the sadhana: the three samadhis, the celestial palace, the deities, then consecration, empowerment, invoking wisdom beings, offerings and praise. Putse insists the three samadhis come first in any yidam practice, or development stage strays into solidity.
Why the Three Samadhis Are Indispensable
Paltrül Rinpoche and many masters stressed that every yidam practice needs the three samadhis so development stage does not become ordinary concreteness.
A woman visualized herself as a tigress so intensely that other people saw her as a tiger: mass delusion. One skilled in development but not completion usually takes rebirth as a powerful spirit, a mamo, tsen or gyalpo, often needing a highly realized master to subdue it.
| Samadhi | Purifies | Practice | First thought on emerging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suchness | Death | Recognize unconstructed emptiness, the nature of mind | At death, recognize dharmakaya |
| Illumination | The bardo | Compassion inseparable from emptiness, like wetness from water | The bardo is pure sambhogakaya |
| Seed syllable | Rebirth | Unity of both as a syllable like a full moon, here white HRIH | The universe is a buddha field; rebirth is nirmanakaya |
At death the elements dissolve and the inner breath ceases; mind is then identical to unfabricated dharmakaya. The difference is whether we recognize it, and a glimpse will not suffice. Unrecognized, one faints for three and a half to four days, wakes disoriented, visits family who do not answer, and may wander up to forty-nine days, reliving death each week.
In group chanting "there doesn't seem to be much time to just let be." The words are reminders for someone already familiar. Alone, read one line and rest in luminous wakefulness until compassion arises, then go on. Train the seed syllable with a drawing: look, close the eyes, reopen when the image fades.
How the Samadhis Feel in Practice
Putse describes each samadhi as a stage of letting the next one arise. Suchness opens with AH, a reminder that our nature has never arisen; the line "Dharmakaya's space of suchness is the sphere of luminous wakefulness" points to an identity that "cannot be formulated, and is totally impossible to manufacture with thoughts." The more one simply acknowledges things as they are and remains in equanimity, the more one refines the experience of death.
Illumination is not an added emotion. "Just like wetness is inseparable from water and heat is inseparable from fire, compassion is an intrinsic quality of emptiness." When mind's nature is recognized, unobstructed compassion arises by itself toward every being who does not recognize their own nature. Stay in it as long as possible.
The seed syllable is the unity of the first two, rising "like the full moon on the fifteenth day." Its shape and color change with the deity, white HRIH for a peaceful one like Guru Rinpoche, HUNG for a wrathful one, always the color of the chief figure, but the three samadhis themselves never change.
The Palace
As a world forms environment first, then beings: from E, space; from YAM, a vajra cross of wind; from RAM, a triangle of heat; then an ocean churned like cream on milk into Mount Sumeru, four continents and eight subcontinents. On the summit a vajra protection circle, a four-petaled lotus, and BHRUNG becoming the palace: four sides, four gates, three stories. It is transparent, made of rainbows; inside, eight lions hold a 100,000-petal lotus with sun and moon disks. RAM, YAM and KHAM first burn, scatter and wash away the notion of a concrete universe.
The Three Principles of Development
| Principle | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Vivid presence | All details complete and clear |
| Stable pride | Not conceit but unshakeable confidence that all enlightened qualities are intrinsic |
| Pure symbolism | One face is the single sphere; two arms, means and knowledge; white skin, freedom from subject and object; red glow, love for beings |
Wrathful deities' six arms are the six paramitas, three faces the three kayas; the dakinis of four families are lords of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing and subjugating and embody the eight emancipations. The simplest visualization has ten deities: oneself, OM AH HUNG or Vairochana, Amitabha, Akshobhya at the three places, five crown buddhas, and the wisdom being in the heart. For more, study the Guhyagarbha.
The Deities
The HRIH is my rigpa appearing as Padmasambhava, which acknowledges one's identity with all buddhas. Clarity is familiarity: a friend's name brings their face, and eventually the mantra alone brings the whole visualization. Use a statue or painting, stare at it, then close your eyes.
| Story of the palace | Deity |
|---|---|
| Ground | Padmasambhava, white with a red glow, lotus crown, golden vajra, skull cup with long-life vase, consort hidden as the khatvanga, royal posture, in five-colored light |
| Second | White four-armed Avalokiteshvara with jewel, crystal rosary and white lotus |
| Top | Red Amitabha holding the vase of longevity |
| Around | Twelve manifestations: four inner on the petals, eight outer on a jewel's facets |
| Gates | Four dakas with consorts: white vajra (east, pacifying), yellow ratna (south, enriching), red padma (west, magnetizing), green karma (north) |
A god among humans would hear, "You're a different species." We believe enlightenment possible when others like us have attained it, so buddhas take forms we can relate to, in all six realms, "even in excrement" among tiny bugs; peaceful, enticing or wrathful as needed.
Protectors: Dorje Lekden (male), Ekajati (female), Maning (neuter). All are "magical wisdom forms of united appearance and emptiness," like the moon in water and rainbows in the sky. They are not figments: "we are actually composed of them."
Building the Mandala on the Shrine
The shrine mandala mirrors the visualization: colored sand is best, a painting next, heaps of grain third. In the mind the three kaya gurus stand one above another like a three-story building, but on the plate three heaps go in a line from the center outward, with the twelve manifestations, four dakas and dakinis placed around. Putse admits "words can't really describe" the palace and advises looking at a model or rendering with someone pointing out the details.
Development stage "is called development stage" because it is developed slowly by training; nobody sees themselves as Padmasambhava from the first day. Work on the unclear details until they are clear. For those confident in primordial purity, uniting the stages gives the ultimate development stage: all that is seen is a strand in the magical web of deities, all heard is mantra, all mental activity is the five wisdoms, and all phenomena are the compassionate influence of the awakened state.
Consecration and Empowerment
The white OM on a wheel, red AH on a lotus, blue HUNG on a vajra send light and draw back blessings, becoming Vairochana, Amitabha and Akshobhya. Then OM HUNG TRAM HRIH AH with mudras: nectar overflows as the five-family crown, "being crowned with the lord of the family," which purifies clinging to caste and ancestry. In Ocean of Amrita white Vairochana is lord, so OM sits at the top. Abhidharma calls the aggregates impure; Vajrayana sees five fingers of each hand as male and female buddhas.
The body itself is a mandala of the five families: one tradition maps head to Vairochana, right arm to Akshobhya, left arm to Ratnasambhava, right leg to Amitabha, left leg to Amoghasiddhi. "The buddhas are not elsewhere, but part and parcel of your very being." As the samaya being in Padmasambhava's form, one wears the lotus crown with the five-buddha sambhogakaya crown inside it.
Wisdom Beings, Offerings, Praise
Hooked light rays from every deity invite Guru Padma Tötreng Tsal from the Glorious Palace of Lotus Light; bound by their vow, they must come. JAH HUNG BAM HOH, and they stay "unwaveringly and permanently." Servants numerous as dust in sunlight pay homage: ATIPU HO, the deities reply PRATICCHA HO.
| Offering | Content | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Outer | Eight: drinking water, foot water, flowers, incense, lamp, perfume, food, music | Purify our habits of eating and pleasure; deities don't get thirsty |
| Inner: amrita and rakta | Eight major and a thousand minor ingredients | Unconditioned great bliss; taste the siddhi at forehead, throat, heart and vajra tongue |
| Inner: torma | The universe the tray, beings the torma | Deity, sense pleasure, siddhi or repelling force, by context |
| Innermost | Means and knowledge indivisible | Free of offering, offerer and recipient: "I am that" |
When someone practices development stage yet still remains in his or her own house, it is ineffective. The surroundings must be a pure land. Praises then extol Padmasambhava's body containing all buddha fields, speech of sixteen modes of purity, mind unimpeded, and effortless activity, and the servants dissolve into the heart.
The main part rebuilds the world from emptiness in the order death, bardo, rebirth, so every element of ordinary existence is retrained as deity. Vivid presence, stable pride and pure symbolism keep it from hardening into a tigress.
Mantra Recitation
Recitation is the life-force of the drubchen. Putse covers the ten faults, the mala, opening the wisdom mandala, the approach through Amitayus, Avalokiteshvara and Padmasambhava, the great bliss recitation, the four activities, mending omissions, apology and self-empowerment.
Reciting Properly
The tantras list ten faults: chanting too loudly, too quietly, too quickly or too slowly, or interrupting by talking, coughing, yawning or sighing, hiccupping, dozing off or mental distraction. "You shouldn't sip tea while reciting mantras either." Involuntary lapses are made up by adding one-tenth to the total. Leaning back and letting the mind wander gives "little more effect than providing you with a little rest." So when you pick up the mala, set your mind on the visualization and a set number.
Tibetans chant without decoding each syllable, "knowing that they mean something." Even with explanation you would not remember it all. "Put your minds at ease." Over time new meanings come to light, and what you thought you understood reveals hidden depths.
| Activity | Mala material |
|---|---|
| Pacifying | Conch or crystal |
| Increasing | Yellow: sandalwood or amber |
| Magnetizing | Red, such as rubies |
| Subjugating | Raksha seeds |
| All activities | Bodhi-tree seeds |
The retreat mala should be new, its string the activity's color, its guru bead in three parts for the three kayas, its knot tight and neat. Afterward nobody else should see or touch it. Walking about with a mala is Tibetan custom but not according to the tantras; keep the practice mala in a little bag and use another in public. Consecrate it with saffron water, see each bead as a deity in the first session, and reconsecrate it daily.
Opening the Recitation Mansion
Ocean of Amrita divides recitation into approach (with the three-kaya gurus), accomplishment (all deities) and activities (the four). First, with BHRUNG VISHVA VISHUDDHE HRIH HUNG PHAT JAH, "the root mandala detaches a second wisdom mandala" in the sky before you, an identical replica. Peaceful manifestations arise from HRIH, wrathful ones like Dorje Draktsal from HUNG. The invocation then asks the deities, bodies apparent and empty, speech resounding and empty, mind aware and empty, not to forget: "the time for your great heart samaya has come!"
The Approach of the Three Kayas
| Kaya | Deity and mantra | Visualization | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dharmakaya | Amitayus, OM AMARANI JIVANTIYE SVAHA | Red HRIH gathers buddhas' qualities and the five elements' essences into the long-life vase, which overflows through the crown | For oneself: purifies sickness and obscuration |
| Sambhogakaya | Avalokiteshvara, OM MANI PADME HUNG HRIH | Light through six colored syllables like tinted glass reaches six realms | For others: purifies six emotions |
| Nirmanakaya | Padmasambhava, the Vajra Guru mantra | HRIH in a vajra in a jewel dome at the heart | Nondual benefit: unity of development and completion |
Long life is sought not from ordinary fear of death but because a life of practice helps others; cut short, one may go astray in the bardo. So Padmasambhava gave medicines, mantras and yogas for longevity.
| Syllable | Color | Wisdom | Purifies |
|---|---|---|---|
| OM | White | Pride, the god world | |
| MA | Green | All-accomplishing | Jealousy, the asuras |
| NI | Red | Discriminating | Attachment, the human world |
| PA | White | Dharmadhatu | Dullness, the animals |
| DME | Yellow | Equality | Miserliness, the hungry ghosts |
| HUNG | Deep blue | Mirror-like | Anger, the hells |
Finally all beings become forms of the Great Compassionate One, luminous and empty like reflections.
Samaya sattva (adorned), jnana sattva (here a golden five-pronged vajra), samadhi sattva (HRIH ringed by the mantra), resounding "like the full moon surrounded by a garland of stars." For a thousand recitations: first three rosaries on the syllable alone; next three on light offering and gathering blessings; then the rest on the universe as Lotus Light, beings as deities, sounds as mantra, thoughts as wakefulness.
Great Bliss and the Activities
The accomplishment recitation may go through all twelve manifestations' mantras or the single Tötreng Tsal "great vase" mantra. You and the wisdom mandala emanate replicas, one, then hundreds, then thousands, filling space and roaring like thunder, while the mind stays changeless luminosity. It is sung as a song with its own tune: the broken beehive, where "there is no longer any difference between here and there." The song of HUNG and vajra recitation of great bliss belong to formal accomplishment and may be omitted in occasional practice; details are in the Dzapkyi Köljang.
HA RI NI SA are the four dakinis' syllables, RA TSA HRIH YA the four dakas'; HRING HRING DZA performs all activities. Pacifying removes sickness and fear; increasing grows life, merit and wealth; subjugating destroys the seven violators and ten objects.
Closing the Recitation
Omissions are skipped words; duplications are added syllables, though reciting a hundred and two instead of a hundred is fine. Remedies: Ali-Kali, OM YE DHARMA to stabilize, offerings and praises, and the Hundred Syllables.
You "don't apologize to some deity on high, perpetuating your own sense of inferiority." You remain Guru Rinpoche and emanate a being like you who apologizes to you, for poor visualization, the ten faults, being dull, agitated or hesitant. Then rest in threefold purity, with no apologizer, object or act, saying A three times.
Self-empowerment is not like kriya yoga, where someone higher grants power to someone lower. You acknowledge you are the chief figure, with deities indivisible from you as the four vajras: "the unity of samaya and original wakefulness." The mantra means "I have the indestructible samaya of being the nature of the body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities of all the buddhas."
The wisdom beings are always indivisible from you; development, recitation and completion only stabilize that fact. Recitation is the visualization set to sound, carried without break for the whole drubchen.
Special Mandala
The second mandala of the drubchen: the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities, the forty-two peaceful in the heart and fifty-eight wrathful in the skull. Putse frames it as bardo training, so that the deities appearing after death are known as one's own radiance.
Why Train for the Bardo
With tögal training and stability in the nature of mind, one can recognize the deities in the bardo; otherwise "each deity will be just like a flash of lightning." Recognized as the natural radiance of buddha nature, they bring complete liberation; unrecognized, they seem to come from elsewhere to haunt or torture you, and fleeing them is when "the real trouble starts."
Unrecognized dreams feel like drowning, being crushed by rocks, chased by animals. Recognize your nature in dreams and it becomes possible in the bardo. Visualizing the hundred deities and training in the unity of development and completion builds that stability now.
| Guhyagarbha version | Who has three faces and six arms |
|---|---|
| Extensive | Five buddha pairs (peaceful and wrathful) and the eight bodhisattva pairs |
| Medium | Only the male and female buddhas |
| Condensed | Only the central couples: Samantabhadra (peaceful), Chemchok Heruka (wrathful) |
"Don't worry if it seems too complex." The abbreviated form, one face and two arms, is fine; then one needs only locations, colors and implements. Appendix 2 gives the full Ocean of Amrita detail.
The Peaceful Palace in the Heart
DHRUNG, maroon, in five-colored light at Padmasambhava's heart, melts into a square palace on a wheel; "square" means four corners. Eight pillars, eight interlaced beams, a golden spire; on a platform with a four-spoked golden wheel sit six thrones. Forty-two seed syllables, "the root mantra of unmistaken seed syllables," become the deities. The central face is the deity's color; the right face is named first, then the left. Male buddhas' six arms are the six paramitas; consorts' two arms are means and knowledge.
| Throne | Syllables | Couple | Family emblem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central lion | OM, AH | Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri, dark and lighter blue | |
| Second lion | HUNG, MUM | Vajrasattva and Dhatvishvari | Vajra |
| East, elephant | OM, LAM | Vairochana and Lochana | Wheel |
| South, horse | SVA, MUM | Ratnasambhava and Mamaki | Jewel |
| West, peacock | AH, PAM | Amitabha and Pandaravasini | Lotus |
| North, shangshang | HA, TAM | Amoghasiddhi and Samaya Tara | Sword |
Around them: eight bodhisattva pairs on the rim and corners, a second Samantabhadra couple east and west, six munis for the six realms, and four gatekeeper couples in charnel-ground attire amid flames. Total: forty-two.
The Wrathful Palace in the Skull
"The fifty-eight blood-drinking herukas are nothing more than the compassionate transformation of the peaceful deities," taking wrathful form for beings whom peaceful methods do not help.
BHRUM in a flaming sphere becomes a double mansion: five layers of skull walls outside, three of fresh dry skulls within, windows of severed hands and feet, beams of corpses, and Mahadeva's skull cap as the dome, topped with a beating heart. The wheel is square; thrones rest on crossed gandharvas, yamas, rakshas and yakshas. Herukas have three faces (the three emancipations), four legs (the four miraculous legs), six arms (the paramitas), dance in "the nine dance postures," wear tiger skin (male) or leopard skin (female), and each consumes one of the five poisons.
| Heruka couple | Color | Devours |
|---|---|---|
| Ngöndzog Gyalpo and Dhatvishvari | Dark blue, center | |
| Vajra Krodha and Krodhishvari | Blue | |
| Buddha Krodha and Krodhi | Maroon, east | |
| Ratna Krodha and Krodhi | Yellow | Pride and arrogance |
| Padma Krodha and Krodhi | Red | Attachment |
| Karma Krodha and Krodhi | Green | Envy |
Around them, eight mamos of the sacred places (HA), eight tramen of the sacred valleys (HE), "hybrid" for their animal heads, four gatekeepers (PHAT), and in a moat of blood and fat twenty-eight ishvaris (BHYOH), oath-bound to the four activities.
Although the hundred deities appear in distinct forms, colors and emblems, all are of one indivisible nature. Learning their places now means recognizing them later, when they flash past like lightning.
Dissolving Duality
The hundred deities now receive empowerment, consecration and wisdom beings, then homage and offerings: outer, inner and the secret offering of union and liberation, read as rigpa and dharmadhatu. Each step exists to loosen the split between self and other.
Empowerment with the Five Wisdoms
Zoom into any deity and its heart holds a wisdom being, an unadorned replica; inside that, the deity's emblem; inside that, the seed syllable ringed by its mantra, all the deity's own color. Their light calls the five buddha couples to our crown, and nectar from each union purifies one disturbing emotion. Every one of the hundred deities is then crowned with five solitary buddhas, its own family lord in the center: a lotus-family male wears Amitabha in the middle, a lotus-family female Pandaravasini.
| Buddha | Aggregate purified | Wisdom | Mudra and place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vairochana | Form | Great emptiness | Middle fingers, top of head |
| Akshobhya | Consciousness | Mirror-like | Index fingers, forehead |
| Ratnasambhava | Sensation | Equality | Ring fingers, right side |
| Amitabha | Perception | Discriminating | Thumbs, back of head |
| Amoghasiddhi | Formation | All-accomplishing | Little fingers, left side |
Each mantra ends SVABHAVA ATMA KOH HANG, "I am the nature of" that wisdom.
Consecration and the Wisdom Beings
A white OM on a moon in the skull, a red AH on a lotus at the throat and a blue HUNG on a sun at the heart, just in front of the existing seed syllable, invoke the jinas of the ten directions. Their syllables dissolve into our three places and those of all forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathful deities, becoming Vairochana with a wheel, Amitabha with a lotus, Akshobhya with a vajra. The three mantras instill confidence: "I am the great vajra nature of the body of all buddhas", and likewise of speech and mind.
A blue HUNG in every deity's heart pervades to the ends of dharmadhatu, so unmanifest dharmakaya buddhas appear as rupakaya, the form bodies of sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Perfected merit and wisdom are rupakaya and dharmakaya. "The 'resplendent lord,' Vajrasattva, is none other than our own buddha nature."
JAH HUNG BAM HOH are the four immeasurables in the form of female gatekeepers with hook, lasso, shackles and bell, enticing the buddhas to remain indissolubly part of us. VAJRA HERUKA TISHTHA SAMAYA LHAN: "Indestructible blood drinkers, please remember your oath and please be seated."
Homage and Outer Offerings
Like one flame lighting countless others, vajra servers resembling Amoghasiddhi pay homage with AH LA LA HO, "how wonderful!" This recalls the enlightened body and purifies attachment to home, body and pleasure.
Wisdom beings "honestly don't exist separate from you." Even if they did, they feel no hunger or thirst. "If there were some kind of being that was pleased by receiving offerings and displeased if they don't get any, they would not be a wisdom being, but some sort of a mundane being, maybe even an evil spirit." Offerings train the offerer.
The welcome bde bar gshegs so doubles as sugata, "one who has reached bliss," so the greeting names the path. With the Sky Treasury mantra one snaps the fingers twice: once to multiply the offering infinitely, once so each sense enjoys it. The deities, already pure, are offered water for hands and feet with a two-conch mudra, then seated.
| Offering | Mudra |
|---|---|
| Dhupe, incense | A censer: top and bottom fingers as lid and base |
| Pushpe, flowers | Stamen and four petals |
| Aloke, lamp | The lamp's foot, thumbs as flames |
| Gandhe, perfume | Applying perfume after bathing, a cooling rain |
While chanting the lines one presses the base of the ring fingers, where the channel of the disturbing emotions touches, pressing on the left thigh: we carry both the breath of emotion and the breath of wisdom. The old Nyingma style turns the revolving lotus mudra five times, perhaps for the five satisfactions. "Continue with whatever tradition we ourselves were taught." These terma offerings match the Nyingma Kahma in intent.
Inner and Secret Offerings
Amrita is made from mendrub, with eight main and a thousand secondary natural ingredients from Padmasambhava's own recipe, able to pacify the five emotions and five major diseases. A few drops become an ocean, raining on Samantabhadra, Vajrasattva, the peaceful and wrathful deities and one's root guru; then one anoints forehead, throat and heart and drinks. Rakta, "the great redness," is liberation from the attachment of the three realms, offered as nonattachment. The torma here embodies the five wisdoms and five sense pleasures.
Union: the lord is nondual self-existing rigpa, the consort dharmadhatu; recognizing their natural unity is the offering. Liberation: deluded thoughts dissolve when one lets be with no offerer, recipient or offering. The secret offering is not a deed but the recognition of rigpa and space as one.
From crowns to finger snaps, the sequence keeps inviting what is already within to appear as if outside, then dissolving the gap. That is what dissolving duality means.
Chanting
Praises and then recitation for the hundred deities in five parts: peaceful, wrathful, purifying breaches with Vajrasattva, stirring the depths of hell and samsara, and offering and praise, followed by apology, the vase recitation and the torma for protectors.
Praise and the Three Types of Mantra
The twenty-five never-ending adornment wheels, body, speech, mind, qualities and activities, each fivefold, are praised in verses for each peaceful buddha and each wrathful heruka, with a mudra for each line made with vajra and bell. The invocation declares "Is me, the yidam deity!"
| Mantra type | Essence |
|---|---|
| Vidya | Skillful means; "knowledge speech" on the tip of the tongue |
| Dharani | Discriminating awareness |
| Guhya (secret) | Nondual pristine cognition |
The vajradhatu mandala is perfected within the aggregates, elements and sense factors, and they within vajradhatu. Some traditions, like the Karling Shitro or Chokgyur Lingpa's Narak Dongtruk, recite each deity's mantra; Ocean of Amrita uses only the Bodhichitta mantra (peaceful) and the Rulu mantra (wrathful), though one visualizes every deity's own syllable and mantra. The detail gives the mind something to hold instead of drifting off.
Three Thirds of a Session
| Third | Image | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| First | Moon with a garland of stars | Syllables shine and resound, standing still, like a calm summer night |
| Second | Firebrand | The garland spins and radiates, like a burning stick twirled in the dark |
| Third | King's messenger | Light becomes offerings to all buddhas, who return blessings and siddhis |
Then sight, sound and samadhi: beings are deities, sounds mantra, thoughts original wakefulness. For the wrathful ones, the manifest herukas, seed syllables are simpler: HUNG for the heruka couples, HA for the sacred places, HE for the valleys, PHAT for the gatekeepers, JO for the ishvaris.
Purifying with Vajrasattva
Every male deity's wisdom being becomes Vajrasattva, every female's Vajratopa. At their hearts the life letter HUNG is ringed by the Hundred Syllables plus OM HUNG PHAT, written counterclockwise in males and clockwise in females, and spinning the opposite way. Light pleases all buddhas; their blessings dissolve into you and all beings, so that "even the deepest hells become the buddha sphere of knowledge-holders."
Stirring the depths of hell: light from the deities' mouths lifts all beings, "headed by the person concerned," whether a sponsor, someone who has died or someone in trouble. Three lines are added for hells (DAHA), pretas (PACA) and animals (MATHA), and Vajrasattva promises that the reciter "will become the chief child of all the sugatas." Stirring the depths of samsara adds lines for humans, demigods and gods; wisdom light from the deities' place of union burns the six seed syllables AH, SU, NI, TRI, PRE, DU, so all beings become sugatas of the six classes.
Apology and the Vase
The apology starts from purity: "whatever appears, whatever exists, since the very first is one overarching unity of the single sphere of dharmakaya." Ignorance grants concrete existence to what doesn't exist, giving rise to emotion, karma, pleasure and pain. We took samayas to reverse that flow but, careless and inattentive, broke them; a replica of oneself asks forgiveness, followed by the Hundred Syllables.
| Empowerment | When |
|---|---|
| Causal | Four empowerments from a lineage master |
| Path | Self-conferred in practice, replenishing them |
| Fruition | Complete enlightenment, the four fully realized |
Two vases, since a container is cleaned before anything special is poured in: the action vase rinses impurities, the main vase replenishes the four aspects of wakefulness. Light travels through the dharani cord; the deities in the vase, like the moon on water, unite and nectar fills it as the combined mantras of the three kayas and the hundred deities are chanted. The action vase fills with white, red and blue nectar from the deities' three places, and an element mantra purifies E, YAM, BAM, LAM, RAM.
When the rite benefits another person, living or dead, the empowerment verses are chanted after the giver first takes the empowerment: "whatever is given to others is first practiced by the one who is going to give it." In general practice they are unnecessary; one simply affirms the wisdom beings are indivisible from oneself, and the session ends, often before lunch.
The Torma for Protectors
Chokgyur Lingpa's own Lama Yidam chant includes all the protectors, so practitioners with many terma commitments can make a single torma offering. A king's treasury needs guards; the Three Roots are a treasury, guarded by dharmapalas. They look like haughty drekpas but "are not mundane beings but rather wisdom beings," and with each empowerment one is entrusted to them and promises a torma in return.
Recitation is never just repeating syllables: it is light, offering and purification moving in a pattern. The Hundred Syllables are the hinge, mending samaya and emptying the six realms.
Mending
Now one of the primary purposes of the drubchen: mending and purification of breaches. The preliminaries are visualizing the objects of apology, mandala offering and supplication, apologizing for downfalls, retaking the vows and pledging the samayas, sealed by the water of the vajra samaya.
Mandala Offering
Though indivisible from one's own nondual awareness, the guru, lineage, Three Jewels and Three Roots are visualized in the sky and invited with Om Yeshe Kuchok from the Tantra of Apology: like the full moon, without complexity, yet appearing to all like the sun's light.
The mandala plate may be gold, silver, bronze or copper, but wood or stone is fine; the heaps are best precious stones, next natural medicines, third fresh, clean grain. The verse is King Trisong Deutsen's, offered to Padmasambhava in Tibet and "considered very blessed."
| Paramita | In one mandala offering |
|---|---|
| Generosity | Sprinkling "cow nectar," moisture of the enlightened mind |
| Discipline | Wiping the plate with the bare wrist, purifying obscuration |
| Patience | Not harming insects; accepting hardship |
| Diligence | Exerting oneself in the offering |
| Concentration | Staying undistracted |
| Knowledge | Threefold purity of giver, recipient and act |
Center: Mount Meru, where Shakra and thirty-two vassal gods live; four continents in the directions; sun and moon. Multiply them by ten, a hundred, a thousand, until identical Merus fill space. The Tukdrub verse Khamsum nöchü paljor dang offers the three realms, world, beings and all their glory, plus one's own body, wealth and virtue of the three times. In a drubchen, the shrine mandala serves as the mandala of accomplishment.
The General Apology
First, any severe transgression must be confessed to the person from whom one took the precepts: "I have done such-and-such, and I am really deeply sorry." Then, three times before the assembly, with one's name, the litany: the ten unvirtuous deeds, the five with immediate result and the five associated, acts against all three levels of vows, damage to the Three Jewels, disparaging parents and disrespecting masters. It ends: "I openly admit them all! I remorsefully apologize! I don't conceal! I don't hide!"
The Fourteen Root Downfalls
| No. | Downfall | Putse's gloss |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disparaging one's vajra master | All siddhis depend on this relationship |
| 2 | Violating the Buddha's words | e.g. "I needn't bother with ordinary precepts" |
| 3 | Anger at vajra siblings | Master as father, mandala as mother |
| 4 | Forsaking any being's welfare | "I don't care about that person!" also breaks the bodhisattva vow |
| 5 | Neglecting bodhichitta | The root of the Dharma |
| 6 | Disparaging any belief system | Buddhist or not; "My way is the right way" |
| 7 | Divulging secrets | To those without empowerment or preparation |
| 8 | Disparaging the body | The aggregates are the five buddhas |
| 9 | Doubting phenomena's purity | Inanimate matter slights the five female buddhas |
| 10 | Befriending enemies of the teachings | Includes not stopping someone bent on immense harm |
| 11 | Conceptualizing the nameless | Labels on what is beyond constructs |
| 12 | Causing others to lose faith | A practitioner represents the teachings |
| 13 | Refusing samaya substance | In a feast; outside it, not a drop of alcohol |
| 14 | Criticizing women | Women are knowledge, men means; criticizing men breaks it too |
The Way of the Bodhisattva blames women in its concentration chapter, but only because it was taught to monks for whom desire distracted concentration. "If the teaching were being given to a group of women, then the same criticisms would have been made of... men. So it goes both ways." In brief, being sexist is to break the fourteenth root precept of Vajrayana.
Retaking the Vows
With a clean slate, one retakes vows in four parts.
- Individual liberation: a layperson keeps them like a monk or nun for twenty-four hours: no killing, stealing, intercourse (if celibate) or misconduct, no lying about powers, no alcohol, no high seats over one cubit, no eating after noon, no perfume, jewelry, singing or dancing.
- Bodhisattva vow: first before a teacher, then retaken daily before a representation of body, speech or mind. Two lineages, vast conduct and profound view, match aspiration and application; the applied resolve needs genuine insight into emptiness.
- Secret Mantra: call the buddhas and their children of body (shravakas), speech (pratyekabuddhas) and mind (bodhisattvas), then pledge the five families' samayas.
- Abiding: drink the vajra samaya water.
| Family | Samaya |
|---|---|
| Buddha | Three disciplines and refuge |
| Vajra | Vajra and bell mudras |
| Ratna | Four kinds of giving: material, fearlessness, relative truth, ultimate truth |
| Lotus | Uphold all nine vehicles |
| Karma | All precepts, offerings and worship |
Damtsig joins dampa, "sublime," and tshig, "burned." "This is the water of the vajra samaya. It will burn me if I violate the samayas." The drops rest in the wisdom being at the heart; broken, it becomes "an iron scorpion that will eat you from within," a self-imposed suffering that is the hell realms.
Why Specific Naming Matters
Putse's sequence moves from the general to the specific. The general apology covers all three levels of vows in one sweep, while the fourteen downfalls make the practitioner look at concrete relationships: with the master, with vajra siblings, with other traditions and with one's own body. Several downfalls are about view, not behaviour. Treating the body as mere matter, holding phenomena as inanimate, or putting labels on the nameless are all failures to remember natural purity. Several more concern social trust: causing others to lose faith matters because a practitioner now represents the teachings, and should behave in whatever way gradually guides beings.
Mending is honest accounting: admit the general faults, name the fourteen specifically, then recommit. A ngakpa who avoids the fourteen "will definitely attain both the supreme and common accomplishments."
Purifying
The main mending has six parts; this chapter covers the first two, purifying the six realms and general cleansing for yogis in body, speech and mind, ending with the Apology of the Twenty-Eight Samayas. The four empowerments are lion's milk, so the vessel must be cleansed first.
Lion's Milk Needs a Proper Vessel
Vajrayana runs from receiving the four empowerments to perfecting their wisdom in enlightenment; acting against the four wisdoms in between is a breach of samaya. "The four empowerments are said to be like lion's milk, which cannot be poured into a normal vessel, as a normal vessel will just break." General purification washes away the seeds of samsara and restores one as a suitable vessel.
Purifying the Six Realms
Each emotion causes one world: anger, hell; stinginess, hungry ghosts; dullness, animals; desire, humans; envy, demigods; pride, gods. Another view: the strength and frequency decide; strong anger, hell; medium, hungry ghost; mild, animal. Either way, the body of karmic ripening carries six seed syllables that must be burned, scattered and washed away.
| Syllable | Place | World | Washing water's quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black DU | Soles of the feet | Hell | Patience against anger |
| Pale red PRE | Secret place | Hungry ghosts | Generosity against stinginess |
| Green TRI | Navel | Animals | Intelligence against dullness |
| Light blue NRI | Heart | Humans | Discipline against unethical conduct |
| Reddish-green SU | Larynx | Demigods | Diligence against laziness |
| White A | Forehead | Gods | Concentration against distraction |
Right fingertips bear HUNG OM SVA ANG HA, the five male buddhas on suns; left fingertips MUM LAM MAM PAM TAM, five female buddhas on moons. OM SURATA SATVAM, BENZA ANDZALI, BENZA BANDHA BAM unite them. The truth invocation calls on the Three Jewels, dharmata, cause and effect and the peaceful and wrathful display: NARAKA SHUDDHE, "may the hell realms be totally purified." Grinding the palms, wisdom fire from the vajra master and the buddhas' union consumes the black DU; consecrated sand and mustard seeds are the wind of dharmata; then "Kyema kyehü, Vajra Holder!", the master's "Child of a noble family, come here!", and the water of awakened mind.
Purifying Body
One stretches out flat before the Three Roots and the hundred deities, with countless replicas and all beings bowing together, reciting homage verses if one knows them. White light and nectar then purify the body's samaya: KAYA ABHISHEKATE SAMAYA SHRI YE HUNG, "may my body be totally purified of any breaches of samaya," followed by the Hundred Syllables and the element mantra.
Purifying Speech: Vajrasattva and Rudra's Lament
Support: visualizing Vajrasattva. Remorse: regret as if you had swallowed a deadly poison. Resolution: never again, even at the cost of your life. Antidote: the Hundred Syllables with nectar pouring down. 108 recitations with a pure mind make one "a pure child of all the buddhas." Chanting also purifies lying, harsh words, slander and gossip.
Vajrasattva sits above the head, immaculate like the autumn moon, with vajra and bell, embracing Vajratopa, "simply his own light." Light goes out to the buddhas (benefit for oneself) and to beings (benefit for others), returns, and melts into nectar flowing from his pores, union and big toe through "the aperture of Brahma." Out of us flow wrongdoing as liquid coal, disease as pus and rotten blood, negative influences as scorpions, snakes and tadpoles, into the opened earth where those we owe karmic debts wait with open mouths, and are satisfied. The body ends like hollow crystal filled with white nectar, "much like a bottle of milk."
Meshak, "lamenting apology," is the song Rudra sang after the buddhas subdued him. Do not sing along with someone from aeons ago; "you actually are Rudra," the ignorant mind clinging to a self. Lines like "The mountain of intense pride has pressed me down into the lower realms" and "How can the river of karmic power be immediately reversed?" end begging for liberating activity "right this moment." Red light from the deities' throats becomes nectar; one asks to hear all sounds as mantra, empty yet resounding, and recites with VAKA.
Purifying Mind: The Apology of the Expanse of the View
Ordinary apology is dualistic: "I am sorry; I was wrong." This one dispenses with all concepts, even right and wrong, since misdeeds, apology and witnesses do not truly exist. Each verse names a mistake and apologizes in the expanse free of it:
- Dharmadhatu is devoid of fabrication; how mistaken to see it as good and bad.
- Equality is devoid of large and small; how tiring to call it buddha or sentient being.
- Bodhichitta is devoid of birth and death; how deluded to hold it as now and later.
- Self-existing wisdom is not to be sought; how deluded to hold effort and attainment.
- The celestial palace is devoid of outside and inside; how tiring to hold it wide or narrow.
Blue light from the deities' hearts purifies mind's samaya: "By conceptual thinking arising as wisdom, may vajra mind be accomplished!" The mantra now uses CHITTA.
The Twenty-Eight Samayas
The Apology of the Twenty-Eight Samayas belongs to mahayoga: three root samayas of the guru's body, speech and mind, plus twenty-five branches in five groups.
| Group of five | Content |
|---|---|
| Not to be discarded | Desire, anger, stupidity, arrogance, envy as the five wisdoms |
| To be adopted | Mamsa, zhang, chi, kuwa, rakta as the five nectars |
| To be engaged in | Deliverance, union, taking what is not given from the avaricious as light, and the wrathful mantras |
| To be known | Aggregates, consciousnesses, elements, sense pleasures, colors as the five families |
| To be practiced | All that appears and exists as the five buddhas |
The verse confesses weak devotion to the master, lacking affection for vajra siblings, interrupting mantras through laziness, divulging secrets, and "neglecting feast-offering for months and years." It does not soften the stakes: Vajra Rakshasa drinking one's heart-blood and the Hell of Incessant Pain. The apology works because it names, specifically, how the view was failed.
White, red and blue lights from the deities' three places strike our forehead, throat and heart: "May all appearances arise as deities, all sounds as mantra, and all thoughts as wisdom." The combined KAYA VAKA CHITTA mantra, the Hundred Syllables and the element mantra close the purification.
The Mantra Wheels and the Two Purposes
Inside the HUNG at Vajrasattva's heart, the mantra is written counterclockwise and revolves clockwise; in Vajratopa's heart it is written clockwise and revolves counterclockwise. Putse names this detail because the image carries means and knowledge in balance. At first, he admits, "your visualization may not be so clear, but it will improve with practice." The point is not a perfect picture but the four powers applied together: knowing them "is not enough, you actually need to apply them."
How the Three Doors Line Up
| Door | Method | Light from deities | Mantra word | Result asked for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Body | Full prostrations with countless replicas | White from the forehead | KAYA | All appearances as deities |
| Speech | Vajrasattva and Rudra's lament | Red from the throat | VAKA | All sounds as mantra |
| Mind | Apology of the Expanse of the View | Deep blue from the heart | CHITTA | Thought arising as wisdom |
| All three | Twenty-Eight Samayas | White, red and blue together | KAYA VAKA CHITTA | The three vajras |
Each door has the same rhythm: apologize, receive light, become nectar, recite. Each round closes with the Hundred Syllables and the mantra for Purifying the Elements, OM E HO SHUDDHE SHUDDHE through RAM HO, so the elements themselves are cleansed alongside the three doors.
More Lines from the Expanse Apology
The verses keep turning the same key on new locks. "The great sphere is devoid of sides and corners." "Awareness wisdom is devoid of permanence and interruption." "The pure dharmadhatu is devoid of center and edge." "Dharmakaya is devoid of divisions," so it is tiring to split it into objects and mind, world and beings. Later verses turn from the nature to the person who misses it: "How sad is this ignorant and deluded mind!"; one "apprehends the nonarising phenomena as ego and self" and is "deceived by mundane distractions." The final verse asks the wisdom deities and samaya-holding protectors to forgive a yogin who practices the samayas correctly yet still "happens to have the delusion of not realizing the view."
"Rather than holding on to concepts and feeling, may everything be seen to be the nonarising nature of dharmadhatu, the expanse of emptiness." Putse's gloss on the mind verse.
Reading the Twenty-Eight Samayas
The five groups state mahayoga's transformative view in ritual language. The five poisons are not discarded because they are, from the beginning, "the adornment of the supreme display of Samantabhadra." The five substances are "the sadhana substance of all the buddhas"; refusing them comes from concepts of pure and impure. The things to be engaged in include deliverance, the union of means and knowledge, and "telling lies because the view and conduct of secret mantra are not understood by others." These are tantric technical terms within a ritual and contemplative frame, read as the tradition reads them, not as licence in ordinary life. The apology's admitted fault is always the same: "I did not realize this," "out of feeble intelligence," "a feeble power of understanding and awareness."
Vajrasattva and Vajratopa, the purification couple. Rudra, the subdued figure whose lament the practitioner sings as one's own ego-clinging. Vajra Rakshasa, the enforcer of broken samaya. The vajra master, who leads the group into the place of empowerment.
Purifying proceeds world by world, door by door, from burning seed syllables to apology beyond concepts. By its end the practitioner is a vessel fit for lion's milk.
Feast
The third part of the main mending is the feast offering (tsok), which makes sure every breach is purified. Putse explains the four gatherings, consecrating the articles, inviting the deities, and the three offerings: the pure portion, mending and apology, and the liberation offering.
Four Meanings of Tsok
Tsok literally means "many," a gathering or accumulation; tsoknyi is the two accumulations. In the feast it means four gatherings.
| Gathering | What is gathered |
|---|---|
| Deities | The delighted assembly invited to partake |
| People | Yogis and yoginis who share the same samaya |
| Articles | Food and drink consecrated as wisdom nectar |
| Accumulations | Merit through offering, wisdom through the seal of emptiness |
Forms differ by who is present: the basic tsok chop-pa; a daka feast of men; a dakini feast of women. A full ganachakra (tsok kor-lo) needs over one hundred people, one per deity, and someone with power to revive the dead.
Consecrating the Articles
Gather as much good food and drink as you can. The five meats and five nectars are present through mendrub, sacred medicine consecrated by masters such as Padmasambhava, added to the wine. Everything receives sacred names, part of "courageous" or "yogic discipline" beyond clean and unclean.
The articles must be free of the eight worldly concerns and of the conceit "I am sponsoring a great feast." Meat is pure when not normally eaten and from beings that died naturally; meat from animals slaughtered against their will cannot be used. Equality "doesn't mean to indiscriminately eat everything, like a dog or a pig," nor to eat like a rishi by scripture. Purity and impurity are not found in the meat itself, but rather within our own concepts and attachments.
If there will be a liberation offering, set aside a portion before consecration; otherwise absorb the offering goddess's essence into your heart first. As Guru Rinpoche, send out RAM YAM KHAM to burn, scatter and wash any concreteness, acknowledging things are "naturally empty already." Then OM AH HUNG become white, red and blue nectar, turning the articles into a cloud bank of offerings filling the sky.
Inviting the Guests
Invite the three kayas: Padmasambhava (nirmanakaya), Avalokiteshvara (sambhogakaya), Amitabha (dharmakaya), with the twelve Manifestations, dakas and dakinis. Ask them not to remain as basic space but to appear as wisdom magic, the unity of appearance and emptiness. Close with VAJRA SAMAYA JAH JAH.
"Purifying obscurations and gathering the accumulations... depend primarily on our attitude, not the objects." Free of showing off and stinginess, "even a single biscuit will suffice." Add a little mendrub in one cup and clean water in another. Never think you cannot make a feast because you lack this or that.
Three Offerings
The pure portion is offered with SARVA GANA CHAKRA PUJA HOH, "May you joyfully partake," and placed on the shrine. The mending first sees the body as a bhandha of aggregates and the dhuti as a lotus vessel of rakta, then chants for each Barchey Künsel deity and each peaceful and wrathful deity. Tukdam kangwa also means "to be fulfilled," like receiving a lovely present. The deities cannot be pleased or displeased, but offering clears our sense of separation.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Digpa, misdeeds | The ten nonvirtues |
| Drip-pa, veils | Obscurations |
| Nyepa, faults | General precepts |
| Tungwa, failings | Root and branch samayas |
| Gyalwa / nyampa | Acting contrary / breaking |
As Lotus Heruka (PADMA MAHA SHRI HERUKA KOH HAM), one summons beings "fit to be liberated" into the linga; gingkara from Palchen Heruka's heart arrest and "deliver" them. Putse is explicit: what is liberated is "our own dualistic fixation," the "lump of ignorant ego-clinging." "No enemy can do worse to you than what your own ignorant ego-clinging has already made you suffer." SHATRUN: flesh (dullness), blood (attachment), bones (anger), offered to the deities. This is a symbolic rite within an empowered practice, ending in resting in the natural state.
Opening the Eyes
With the vessel mended, it can be filled. Putse explains what empowerment is, ground, path and fruition empowerments, and the five steps of entering the mandala: supplication, bringing down resplendence, tossing the flower, opening the eyes and revealing the mandala.
A Prince Enthroned
Empowerment means becoming authorized to take charge of your own situation, like a prince enthroned as king. Without it one may not even glance at the tantras, and practice "yields no result, like trying to squeeze oil out of dry white sand."
Till the field with the four mind changings, fertilize with refuge and bodhichitta, sow with the four empowerments (vase, secret, wisdom-knowledge, precious word), then nurture through practice. "With proper care and diligence, one is sure to become a perfect buddha."
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ground empowerment | From the root guru, points out qualities already present, from Samantabhadra to the tiniest insect |
| Path empowerment | Received again in daily practice, as in guru yoga |
| Fruition empowerment | Confirms one as a fully manifest buddha |
Putse adds that all beings have the exact same buddha nature, which "never differs in size or quality." Simply having it does not help much if it is not acknowledged; without knowing it, one clings to erroneous assumptions, so a technique is needed to reintroduce us to our own nature.
Entering the Mandala
Supplication. Offer the thirty-seven-point mandala, put on a blindfold (CHAKSHU BHANDHA VARMANAYA), because though already in the natural mandala, you are still blind to it. Hold a flower for pure motivation and ask to "enter the sublime sphere of great liberation."
Bringing down resplendence. You are Hayagriva, deep red, horse head atop his own, curved knife and skull cup; at your heart Vajra Varahi dances on a counterclockwise swastika. The master is Padma Tötreng Tsal. Red light from devotion invokes the buddhas, who rain deities, mantras and emblems that soak into you "like a sponge soaking up water."
Vajrayana combines substance, mantra and samadhi: here special frankincense, the fierce mantra with damaru and thighbone trumpet, and the visualization. Signs: involuntary dance, spontaneous Sanskrit syllables, and bliss, clarity and nonthought blazing up. TISHTHA VAJRA, with the vajra at the crown, seals the blessing until enlightenment.
Tossing the flower. At the eastern gate, toss "with no concern whatsoever" to find your family of previous connection. Center is best, inside the palace next, the wall least; blown away means breaches remain unmended. The master places it on your head.
Opening the eyes. "Just as the royal optician opened eyes," the master removes the blindfold with the golden scalpel of wisdom-awareness: JNANA CHAKSHU PRABESHAYA PHAT.
"This is the example illustrating the mandala; the real meaning of the mandala abides within oneself." The real mandala is ineffable, nothing whatsoever, yet arising in every possible way. Becoming reacquainted with one's own buddha nature purifies aeons of misdeeds.
Acknowledging the Purity
The heart of the empowerment section. After supplicating as Vajrabodhi did, each of the four empowerments is restored in three steps: apology, mending with a specific substance, and receiving. Putse ends with why habitual tendencies need the fourth, and how many lifetimes each path takes.
One Pattern, Four Times
Receiving empowerment is introduction to four levels of wisdom; habitual tendencies erode the commitment, so each is mended and restored. The vase empowerment belongs to development stage, the preparation; the other three, "the three supreme empowerments," are completion stage, the main practice.
Today all four come in one session. In India a disciple took only the vase empowerment, mastered the three fields of development stage, then received the secret empowerment with three nadis, five chakras and tsa lung trul khor; only after mastering their own body's skillful means came the third, with another's body. "Who practices with such dedication and diligence these days?"
| Empowerment | Apology for | Mending substance | Purifies | Path authorized | Fruition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vase | Ordinary perception | Torma of sense pleasures for body and channels | Body | Development stage | Nirmanakaya |
| Secret | Speech and prana | Rakta of the great redness | Speech | Own body's bliss, tummo | Sambhogakaya |
| Wisdom-knowledge | Mind and bindu | Nectar medicine | Mind | Path of the phonya | Dharmakaya |
| Precious word | Not keeping the Dzogchen view | Illuminating lamp for all-ground wisdom | Habitual tendencies | Trekchö and tögal | Svabhavikakaya |
The Vase Empowerment
It blesses three fields: mind (seeing the whole mandala clearly and distinctly), senses (truly seeing your dwelling as a celestial palace), and objects (being able to touch the palace, others seeing you as a deity). The perspective is of critical importance: "we are not training in transforming something impure into a state of purity; we are training in acknowledging that everything already is in a state of purity."
The apology admits seeing stones, mountains, men and women as ordinary, the body as flesh and blood, and falling into materialism or nihilism. Its verses apologize for not bringing the five aggregates as five families onto the path, for dying unrealized, and for not seeing the nadis as nirmanakaya. Light hooks from the master summon the empowerment deities (VAJRA SAMAJAH); the vase, its deities packed "as densely as sesame seeds," is placed on the crown and drunk. Abhishencha means "to scatter" and "to pour": nectar anoints and scatters the emotions; the five aggregates become the five buddhas, crowned with the five families.
The Secret Empowerment
The master reveals his own body as the mandala, with a skull cup of wine or beer and mendrub, which came from Guru Rinpoche and is made using the original as starter. It points out three channels and five chakras, how to ignite blissful heat, recognize bliss as emptiness, and draw twenty-one thousand karmic wind circulations into the central channel.
Mending offers five skull cups at the five chakras filled with rakta, here meaning passion: of suffering and thoughts at the head, myriad thoughts at the throat, mind's thoughts at the heart, emotions at the navel, blissful essence at the secret place. Then nectar on the tongue (VAKA VAJRA) fills the nadis, halts thoughts of the three times, and brings the four blisses. One sees the central channel "like a pillar in an empty room" and everything like the moon in water.
The Wisdom-Knowledge Empowerment
Today the master shows an icon of a consort or a mirror with sindhura, marking a spot on the chest. One imagines Vajra Varahi as consort and the four joys with three notions: the couple are deities, union produces the major mantra, and sensation is original wakefulness, bliss and emptiness indivisible. Putse says one "must abandon ordinary concepts." This is visualized, symbolic and within empowerment; the tradition stresses that the physical yogas need a qualified master and gradual mastery, as the Indian sequence shows. The mantra says "I am the indestructible wakefulness which is the passion of all the buddhas."
The Precious Word Empowerment
"Word" means the nature is pointed out through a few words or a gesture; "the fourth empowerment is also like that," the same nature as the third, but the real thing, not the example. The apology admits failing in the Dzogchen view, perfected through trekchö and tögal, and in mastery of the prana-winds.
Mending uses lamps, "the most eminent way of mending breaches."
"The vessel of the indestructible bindu is filled with the oil of nonarising wakefulness. The flame of self-existing awareness burns on the wick of twelve minor nadis." Later verses: the vessel of the vast all-ground, oil of dharmadhatu, flame of the five kayas, wick of awakened mind. DIPAM PRATICCHA SVAHA.
"One can't do much except simply show a crystal." Its transparency is primordial purity, trekchö. Held in sunlight, it throws five colors, the display that tögal works with through the four visions. Gazing at it, one rests briefly in self-existing wisdom, "cognizant yet thought-free." Like sugar is sweet and water is wet, the nature of bliss is emptiness.
Why Pure Perception Is Not Pretending
Putse returns several times to one point. All enlightened beings see reality as a buddha field with deities; only confused beings, "through their own projections," experience it otherwise. The vase empowerment is training in seeing things as they actually are, not adding a pleasant overlay. The deities and buddha fields are qualities of buddha nature, "spontaneously and originally present," and "if you practice faithfully and diligently, it is only a matter of time" before one perceives them and actualizes these qualities in one's own life. That is why the apology treats ordinary perception itself as the breach: it is a disharmony between things as they are and things as they seem.
The same reasoning runs through all four. The ground empowerment introduced the qualities; the path empowerments in the drubchen restore them; each restoration names one defilement (body, speech, mind, tendencies), one authorized path and one kaya. The structure lets a practitioner check which level has slipped and mend that one specifically, rather than apologizing vaguely.
Vajrabodhi, whose lavish offering to the Buddha models the supplication. Padmasambhava, the chief figure, inseparable from the vajra master. Vajra Varahi, consort in the third empowerment. Lama Putse Pema Tashi, the commentator, who keeps translating each ritual gesture into its meaning for view.
Why the Fourth Is Needed
Bakchak, habitual tendencies, are subtler than thoughts. Development stage purifies coarse concepts; the three supreme empowerments remove subtler ones; trekchö and tögal remove the last. Tendencies keep even great bodhisattvas from buddhahood.
- Musk: a jar keeps a faint, invisible smell after the musk is gone; that is a tendency.
- The sun in cloud: "being an obscured buddha does not help much."
- The jewel: "You already possess it. Why don't you just clean off the dirt, rinse it, and polish it?"
| Path | Time to enlightenment |
|---|---|
| General sutra teachings | Thirty-seven incalculable aeons |
| Pure samaya, no practice | No more than sixteen lifetimes |
| Kriya yoga | Seven lifetimes |
| Upa yoga | Five lifetimes |
| Yoga tantra | Three lifetimes |
| Dzogchen | This very body and life, without hardship |
Each empowerment is acknowledgment, not transformation: "our basic nature always has been pure and never changes." The ritual peels obscuration from coarse to subtle, ending with the crystal's simple display.
Sowing the Seeds
After the four empowerments come further empowerments of enlightened body, speech and mind, one for mending the ultimate view of emptiness, and the torma empowerment. The body empowerment re-installs the forty-two peaceful deities in the heart and the fifty-eight wrathful ones in the "bone mansion" of the skull.
Empowerment of Body
The master is the chief figure, peaceful deities in his heart, wrathful ones in his skull. "Just like holding an unlit wick to flame," a new set of one hundred deities appears, crosses the space and enters your crown, merging with those already present, dwelling "brilliantly, vividly, and unobscured."
| Group (peaceful) | Seed or mantra | What the empowerment frees |
|---|---|---|
| Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri | Two AH | Perceiver and perceived subside into basic space |
| Five buddhas and consorts | OM HUNG TRAM HRIH AH; MUM LAM MAM PAM TAM | They dissolve into their places in your body |
| Male and female bodhisattvas | HUNG, SARVA BODHICHITTA | Appearance (nangwa) and mind (sem) |
| Four pairs of gatekeepers | JAH HUNG BAM HOH | The enemy of dualistic fixation |
| Six munis at the throat | HRIH, OM SARVE MUNI | Taming activity perfected |
Samantabhadra is rigpa, "the unceasing," and Samantabhadri "the nonarising," emptiness; their union empties subject and object alike. The bodhisattvas are already awakened but, by "the vow of great compassion," act as if on the bhumis. Gatekeepers appear wrathfully to tame forces untouched by ordinary methods, and their real target is clinging to a "here" and a "there" and comparing one thing with another.
The Three Realms and the Bee in a Jar
The munis' verse prompts a survey of the three realms.
- Desire world: six realms, from hell to the gods of the four kings, the thirty-three under Shakra, up to gods "who enjoy the creations of others."
- Form world: seventeen abodes reached only by samadhi, not merit; twelve match the four dhyanas at three levels, plus five pure abodes topped by Akanishtha; bodies of rainbow light.
- Formless world: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing whatsoever, neither presence nor absence of conception; not "above," but wherever such samadhi is cultivated, lasting up to eighty major aeons, "like a battery that has lost its charge."
Samsara is "like a bee trapped inside a jar: it can fly up and hover near the top for a while, but sooner or later it must fly down again," and "it never escapes its prison." The six munis appear as humans among humans, as animals among animals, in "whatever form is necessary," from the tiniest insect to a radiant sambhogakaya.
The Wrathful Mandala
| Group (wrathful) | What it purifies or unfolds |
|---|---|
| Chemchok Heruka and consort, "Truly Perfected King," with five herukas | The five emotions subside into basic space |
| Eight yoginis of places, eight mamos of valleys (HA, HE) | Natural purity of objects and senses; awareness display "fully unfolded" |
| Four inner gatekeepers: bell, hook, noose, shackles | The four immeasurables; prana and wandering mind brought under control |
| Twenty-eight ishvaris (HUNG BHYO) | Animal-headed thought forms, "freed into basic space" |
Speech: mantra garlands, the peaceful OM BODHICHITTA MAHASUKHA JNANA DHATU AH and wrathful OM RULU RULU HUNG JOH HUNG, enter the throat so all sounds, animate and inanimate, are "the audible and yet empty voice of the victorious ones." Mind: the master holds up a mirror and says "Look!" A mirror has no intention to reflect anything, and yet a reflection appears. So thoughts are "self-arising and self-liberated."
Mending the Ultimate View and the Torma Empowerment
Resting free of the three spheres of mender, addressee and act, one chants: "May concreteness be mended in the expanse of dharmata! May perception be mended in the expanse of original wakefulness!... May it be mended in the expanse beyond both arising and ceasing!"
The torma carries fourfold significance: offering, deity, nectar, accomplishment. It sits on a round plate, since dharmadhatu is free from "the sharp corners of mental constructs," and is awareness with the five wisdoms. With BALINGTA ABHIKHENCHA HRIH, then tasting the dough, the nadis fill with nectar and one gains ordinary and supreme siddhis.
The body empowerment re-seeds all hundred deities; speech hears everything as mantra; mind sees thought as a mirror's reflection. The seeds are sown; practice must make them grow.
Concluding Rituals
The main part closes with taking the pledge, offering the gift, showing gratitude through feast, song and dance, and aspirations in a chain of lamps. Then come the seven concluding activities, from residual offerings and protector tormas to Hayagriva's horse dance.
Taking the Pledge
"The four empowerments introduce the very life force of the Vajrayana, but it is their related samayas that sustain that life." All samayas fall within the three levels of precepts: individual liberation, bodhisattva and vidyadhara. Putse maps the fourteen root downfalls onto the empowerments.
| Empowerment | Root downfalls |
|---|---|
| Vase | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 (master, words, siblings, beings, beliefs, secrets, body, enemies, faith) |
| Secret | 5 (bodhichitta) and 13 (samaya substances) |
| Wisdom-knowledge | 14 (disparaging women) |
| Word | 9 (doubting purity) and 11 (concepts about the nameless) |
Pratimoksha precepts are "like a pot of clay or porcelain: once broken, they cannot be repaired," so they are given "skillfully and very compassionately." Vajrayana precepts are "like a vessel of pure gold: if they are dented, they can easily be straightened out." One returns to a master as preceptor, apologizes, mends, and receives the empowerments again.
| Time unmended | Becomes | Repair |
|---|---|---|
| One day | Infraction | A feast offering |
| One month | Violation | All one's possessions |
| One year | Transgression | Offering children and spouse |
| Three years | True break | One's own life |
| Beyond three years | Irreparable |
"The most important thing is to acknowledge it immediately." Even minor infractions, like not finishing the recitation in a fire puja, are breaches.
The stakes explain the drubchen's value: "Guru Rinpoche in his infinite wisdom provided us with the means to easily repair any breaches," from daily feasts to the Ocean of Amrita, where samaya is mended and retaken. And one must know the samayas, "otherwise you won't be aware when you violate them."
The Gift and the Reply
Before the master one offers children, spouse, wealth and even one's body. "You may not have the courage to actually do this," but since attitude is the key, imagining it is fine. The master answers: "My child, henceforth, I will be your Vajrasattva... you must therefore obey whatever precept I give you." The disciples accept with body, speech and mind.
Feast, Song and Dance
Swallowing food feeds the flames of tummo; offerings dissolve into nectar that delights the deities in the body. "A LA LA HO!" The body's "three seats of completeness": aggregates and elements (five buddhas and consorts), senses (bodhisattvas), body and abilities (the wrathful ones). So "all movement is the great bliss."
The natural purity verses pair each deity with a component: Vairochana with form, Lochana with earth, Ratnasambhava with sensation, Mamaki with water, Amitabha with conception, Pandara Vasini with fire, Amoghasiddhi with formation, Samaya Tara with wind; bodhisattvas with the six consciousnesses, the offering maidens with past, now, future and indefinite, and wrathful females with permanence, nihilism, ego and characteristics. Then "The Song of the Vajra" from the Union of the Sun and Moon, one of the Seventeen Dzogchen Tantras: "Unborn, it is unceasing, neither coming nor going, all-pervasive... Primordial Great Perfection!"
The Chain of Lamps
All attendees are vajra siblings with the same father (vajra master) and mother (mandala). Each holds a lamp in the right hand and joins left hands in a chain, praying not to "roll into the hellish copper cauldron of wrong view," never to be separated from teachers, siblings and consorts, and to reach the vidyadhara levels: Great Lotus, Great-Assembly Wheel, Universal Illumination and the Braided World.
Seven Concluding Activities
- Residual offerings: sprinkled with amrita and rakta, given to Palchen Heruka's servants; KHAHI, "help yourself."
- Protector tormas: consecrated with RAM YAM KHAM and OM AH HUNG; the dharmapalas and eight classes of drekpas are reminded of the oath Guru Rinpoche bound them to at Sitavana: "This is what you promised before, now please do it!" Tormas for Tseringma and the Three Kunkyil brothers stay inside.
- Twelve tenma goddesses: first given samaya nectar in the Asura Cave by Dorje Drakpo Tsal and Vasudhara.
- Horse dance: the torma vessel upside down with a vajra-cross stops the four activities from reverting.
The four activities the dance seals each have a reason not to reverse. Pacifying makes the eight and sixteen fears, sickness and disturbance subside so they don't return. Increasing develops merit, life span, splendor and prosperity. Magnetizing gains control over appearances, mind, samsara and nirvana. Subjugating crushes enemies of the teachings and masters, preventing their return. The three lineages invoked over the protectors are the buddhas' mind transmission, the vidyadharas' symbolic transmission and the great masters' oral transmission; as successors of "Lord Padma," practitioners remind the protectors that they belong to the same family as the beings he bound.
The "samaya violators" suppressed by Hayagriva's dance and neighing are "superficial dualistic fixation," the sense that "I am here, you are there, that is such-and-such." The mantra means "I am the great Hayagriva that stamps down all concepts of self into basic space." The protector language is ritual drama for an inner point, best understood with the teacher's transmission.
Receiving the Siddhis
The last chapter of the commentary: receiving the siddhis, dissolving the mandala as a rehearsal for death, re-emerging like a fish leaping from water, carrying deity, mantra and wisdom into daily life, and dedication with the threefold purity.
When and How
Siddhis are received whenever a special object is on the shrine; in a drubchen, when signs appear, or else on the last day. One chants for the deities "reveling in wisdom magic" to remember the vajra samaya: GURU DHEVA DHAKINI KAYA VAKA CHITTA JNANA KARMA SARVA SIDDHI PHALA HUNG, "please bestow the siddhis of body, speech, mind, wisdom, and activities."
"A day may come when all the fish leave the ocean, but there will never be a day when the enlightened ones don't act in a timely manner." Buddha nature shines like sunlight pervading space; the deities are indivisible from it, and their vows ensure they appear when needed.
Touch the sadhana representation to your crown and drink the nectar: "My nadis and dhatus are filled with the essence of nectar. I have realized the supreme siddhi." Light fills the three channels and chakras; the eight common masteries come effortlessly. Rest a minute in your true nature.
Within Your Means
After OM SUPRA TISHTHA VAJRAYE SVAHA consecrates the images, any sand or grain mandala is dismantled. "You don't need a fancy thangka painting or an elaborate mandala." "The main point is always the inner samadhi."
A meal in a restaurant can be a feast offering: others see a nice dinner, while you enjoy "a lavish feast offering with all the deities and gurus." Likewise, thinking "I have no chance to practice generosity" because you have not taught crowds, saved lives or given away family is "a totally wrong attitude." You can give everything mentally, at any moment.
Dissolving as Rehearsal for Death
| Stage | Corresponds to |
|---|---|
| Visualizing the mandala (development) | Birth |
| Dissolving into luminosity (completion) | Dying: earth into water, water into fire, fire into wind, white and red meet, blackout, ground luminosity |
| Re-emerging as deity | Guarding against nihilism |
"Unless you dissolve the development stage into the completion stage, you can easily fall into the extreme of eternalism." Then, after PHAT three times: "like a fish emerging from water," you are instantly Guru Rinpoche with white OM, red AH, blue HUNG. "A fish doesn't slowly rise from the water; it bursts forth in a single leap." OM AH HUNG VAJRA KAVACHI RAKSHA HANG protects the three doors.
"Keep the view that sights, sounds, and awareness are deity, mantra, and wisdom, and make all your daily activities meaningful." You should not feel that the practice is now all over and you can just stand up, go home, and carry on with your regular business. Keep vajra pride in the breaks.
Dedication
"The dedication of the complete purity of the three spheres" means no notion of merit, recipients or dedicator. Dedication is "like throwing a few drops of water into the great ocean": they last and increase; undedicated, "a moment of anger" can destroy virtue. Aspiration needs no prior good deed; dedication does. The rain of mandarava blossoms dispels war, famine, sickness and disharmony, and the four lines the Buddha's retinue chanted close the drubchen: "swiftly attain the state of the Lotus King."
The ending is a full cycle: receive, dissolve, re-emerge, dedicate. It trains for death and for ordinary life at once.
Appendixes
Two reference appendixes support visualization. The first details the Twelve Manifestations (vidyadharas) of Guru Rinpoche in their three-storied palace. The second gives every peaceful and wrathful deity of the Ocean of Amrita, colors drawn from Chokgyur Lingpa's copper-plate terma.
How to Use These Appendixes
These pages are a reference, not a narrative. The main commentary already explained what each group of deities means; the appendixes give colors, faces, hands, thrones and implements for practitioners who want "a more detailed visualization." The text itself warns that "the precise list can differ from one sadhana to another, so you should stick to the list particular to the practice that you are doing." The tables below condense the descriptions so a reader can see the patterns that make a hundred figures memorable.
Appendix 1: The Twelve Manifestations
The palace is square, with a gate centered on each side and a portal over each gate. Eight pillars, two near each gate, carry eight main beams, so the center is open through all three stories. In the middle a jewel platform with eight sides rests on eight lions, holding a four-petalled lotus for the four inner manifestations; the other eight sit around the lotus on the platform's eight sides.
| Position | Manifestation | Appearance and implements |
|---|---|---|
| Inner east | Gyalwey Dungdzin, protector of beings | White, half-vajra posture, sword and hook, tiger skin, crown of dry skulls |
| Inner south | Mawey Senge, lion of speech | Radiant white, teaching mudra, two lotuses with books: Tripitaka right, Vajra Kilaya "Supreme Knowledge" left |
| Inner west | Kyechok Tsülsang | Yellow, vajra and casket, red pandita hat |
| Inner north | Dukyi Shechen, slayer of mara | Light brown, striding; recitation kilaya on the thigh, action kilaya stabbing |
| East | Dzamling Ghenchok, ornament of the world | Blue, wrathful, a dagger in each hand and one in the sash |
| South | Pema Jungney, the lotus-born | Clear blue, vajra and bell, with the white princess |
| West | Kyepar Phakpey Rigdzin | White, standing, vajra and khatvanga as staff |
| North | Dzutrül Tuchen | Reddish-maroon, dressed like a monk with garland of heads |
| Southeast | Dorje Drakpo Tsal | Red, vajra and scorpion, embraced by dark-blue Vajra Varahi |
| Southwest | Kalden Drendzey (Chemchok Heruka) | Dark blue, flames, vajra wings, with Namshelma |
| Northwest | Raksha Tötreng | Maroon, with light-blue Ting-Ö Barma, stomping a corpse |
| Northeast | Dechen Gyalpo, king of great bliss | Clear red, dancing, crossed vajra and bell; consort with vase and damaru |
The inner four lean toward teaching and monastic forms: Mawey Senge's books pair sutra with tantra, and Kyechok Tsülsang wears pandita robes. The outer eight grow more wrathful toward the corners, from Pema Jungney's peaceful union to Raksha Tötreng stomping a corpse. Dorje Drakpo Tsal reappears in Ch22 as "vidyadhara Wrathful Vajra" who first fed the tenma goddesses.
Appendix 2: The Seven Profound Cycles
Chokgyur Lingpa's Seven Profound Cycles (Zab pa skor bdun) were each decoded from dakini script on a different material, and named after it.
| Material | Character |
|---|---|
| Iron | The most extensive |
| Copper | The most profound; source of this zhitro's colors |
| Turquoise | Very profound |
| Silver, gold | Further cycles |
| Chong | A deep-red gemstone, "probably a special kind of agate" |
Jamgön Kongtrül included this copper-plate zhitro in the Treasury of Profound Termas (Rinchen Terdzo), which is how it reached the Ocean of Amrita drubchen as practised today.
The Peaceful Mandala
The center is a square platform with a four-spoked golden Dharma wheel. On a lion throne, OM and AH become dark-blue Samantabhadra and a lighter-blue Samantabhadri. Here Samantabhadra has three faces (blue, white, red) and six arms: vajra and bell above, the teaching mudra in the middle and the mudra of equanimity below.
Each male buddha has three faces and six arms holding the same six attributes; only the family emblem moves to the top right hand. If you memorize the order for Vajrasattva, then for each of the others, it is simply a matter of swapping the vajra and the symbol appropriate to the respective family. Each consort sits in lotus posture on her partner's lap, holding a bell in the right hand and her family attribute in the left as she embraces him.
| Direction | Throne | Seeds | Buddha and consort | Top right emblem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East, inner | Lion | HUNG MUM | Vajrasattva (blue) with Dhatvishvari | Vajra; also wheel, jewel; left bell, lotus, sword |
| East, rim | Elephant | OM LAM | Vairochana (white) with Lochana (Sangye Chenma) | Dharma wheel |
| South | Horse | SVA MUM | Ratnasambhava (yellow) with Mamaki | Jewel |
| West | Peacock | AH TAM | Amitabha (red) with Pandaravasini | Lotus |
| North | Shangshang | HA TAM | Amoghasiddhi (green) with Samayatara | Sword |
Bodhisattvas, Munis and Gatekeepers
The sixteen bodhisattvas sit on lotus, sun and moon, each holding an attribute right and a bell left, the female a lighter shade of the seed's color. Four pairs sit on the rim at the intermediate spokes, four in the platform's corners.
| Pair | Male holds | Female holds |
|---|---|---|
| Ksiti Garbha and Lasya (white) | Jeweled seedling | Mirror |
| Akasha Garbha and Malema (yellow) | Sword | Jewel garland |
| Avalokiteshvara and Girtima (red) | White lotus | Lute |
| Vajrapani and Nirti (blue) | Vajra | Dance mudras |
| Maitreya and Dhupa (white-yellow) | Naga branch | Incense holder |
| Nirvirana Viskambin and Pushpa (yellow-red) | Jeweled wheel | Flower |
| Samantabhadra and Aloka (red-green) | Jewel | Lamp |
| Manjushri and Gandha (green-white) | Blue utpala | Perfume conch |
A second, sky-colored Samantabhadra and consort sit on the east and west sides of the hall in the samadhi mudra. Six munis stand in Dharma robes, from seven syllables because the asura muni has two (HUNG TRUM).
| World | Muni | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| Gods | Indra (white, KRIM) | Vina |
| Humans | Shakyamuni (yellow, SRUM) | Staff and begging bowl |
| Hungry ghosts | Jvalamukhadeva (dark yellow, KSHAM) | Casket, fire from the mouth |
| Animals | Shravasingha (dark red, BRAM) | Book |
| Demigods | Vemachitra (dark blue) | Armor |
| Hells | Dharmaraja (black, YE) | Flame and water conch |
The peaceful gatekeepers wear charnel-ground attire amid flames, skull cups in the left hand: Yamaraja with a human-head club and hook goddess Chakyuma (east); Mahabala with a spear and lasso goddess Zhakpama (south); Hayagriva with a snake-entwined skull club and shackles goddess Chakdrokma (west); Amrita Kundali with a vajra cross and bell goddess Drilbuma (north).
The Wrathful Mandala
The palace's beams are corpses of Brahma, the pillars corpses of Mahadeva, on eight Rahulas, with naga banners. On a bear throne, Ngöndzog Gyalpo holds nine-, five- and three-pronged vajras and three skull cups, his four feet on Ishvara, embraced by Dhatvishvari.
| Heruka | Throne | Faces (center) | Devours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vajra Heruka | Bear | Dark blue | Passion and desire; holds a tiny Mount Meru |
| Buddha Heruka | Bull | Dark brown | Ignorance and delusion |
| Ratna Heruka | Ox | Dark yellow | Pride; holds battle-ax |
| Padma Heruka | Leopard | Dark red | Attachment; plays a damaru |
| Karma Heruka | Tiger | Dark green | Envy; holds a ploughshare |
The eight goddesses of the places (Gauri, Chauri, Pramoha, Vitali, Pukassi, Ghasma, Smeshva, Chanda) and eight of the valleys (lion, tiger, fox, wolf, vulture, bird, crow and owl faces) eat corpses, brandish entrails and tear bodies apart. Ch21 gave their meaning: "the natural purity of objects and senses" and thought forms "freed into basic space." This imagery is meant to be visualized after empowerment, with instruction, not read as literal violence.
The Twenty-Eight Ishvaris
Inside the walls stand four animal-headed inner gatekeepers: blue Horse-head with hook, black Sow-head with lasso, red Lion-head with shackles, dark-green Wolf-head ringing a bell. In the moats between inner and outer walls dance the ishvaris (wangchukmas), all from one BHYOH, "twenty-eight identical seed syllables superimposed," with an iron vajra on the head.
| Side | Activity | Six goddesses |
|---|---|---|
| East | Pacifying | Rakshimi, Bhrami, Mahadevi, Tokdo, Kumari, Shakri |
| South | Increasing | Vajri, Amrita, Chandri, Bechön, Rakshi, Zawa |
| West | Magnetizing | Mudita, Mahabali, Vajri, Raga, Norsung, Vayudevi |
| North | Subjugating | Soje, Mimo, Sow-faced one, Genje, Hastini, Water Devi |
| Outer gates | Four Vajris | Hook, lasso, shackles, bell |
The same four implements recur at every gate, peaceful and wrathful, inner and outer. As Ch21 put it, the bell woman summons, the hook pulls, the noose binds, the shackles tether, and they stand for the four immeasurables bringing prana and wandering mind under control. Learning this one pattern makes all twelve gate pairs easy to hold in mind.
The appendixes turn the hundred deities into learnable patterns: swap the family emblem, follow the directions clockwise, repeat the four gate implements. Detail serves stability of visualization, the "field of mind" of the vase empowerment.
Master Takeaways
Across four voices and twenty-four chapters, Great Accomplishment keeps making one move: every gesture of the ritual points back to a purity already present. These are the points to carry out of the shrine hall.
Twenty-Two Takeaways
- Drubchen is continuous practice: day and night, until signs appear.
- Many practitioners together create a field of blessing no one creates alone.
- Pure perception is not pretending; it is seeing things as they are.
- The three excellences frame every session: bodhichitta, nonconceptual main part, dedication.
- Refuge has rules: three prohibitions and three obligations.
- Buddha nature is covered, never changed, like a seed in its husk.
- The three samadhis come first, or development stage has no basis.
- Recitation is the life-force, avoiding the ten faults.
- The hundred deities are one's own aggregates and thoughts, and bardo training.
- Mandala offering holds all six paramitas, from sprinkling to threefold purity.
- Name the fourteen downfalls specifically; sexism breaks the fourteenth.
- Damtsig means sublime or burned; the samaya water cuts both ways.
- Burn, scatter, wash: the six seed syllables of the six realms.
- Sing as Rudra, because Rudra is your own ego-clinging.
- The deepest apology is beyond concepts, in the expanse of the view.
- One biscuit is a complete feast when free of showing off and stinginess.
- What is "liberated" is dualistic fixation, not anyone else.
- Empowerment authorizes, like a prince enthroned; without it, oil from dry sand.
- The crystal shows trekchö in its clarity and tögal in its colors.
- Vajrayana samaya is a golden vessel: dents can be straightened, but repair it within a day.
- Dissolution rehearses death; re-emergence prevents nihilism.
- Practice does not end at the door: deity, mantra, wisdom all day.
Frameworks in the Text
| Framework | Content | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Three excellences | Preparation, main part, dedication | 7 |
| Seven branches | Homage, offering, apology, rejoicing, requesting, beseeching, dedication | 8 |
| Four immeasurables | Love, compassion, joy, impartiality | 9, 21 |
| Three samadhis | Suchness, illumination, seed-syllable | 11 |
| Four stages of recitation | Approach to great accomplishment | 12 |
| Hundred deities | Forty-two peaceful, fifty-eight wrathful | 13, 24 |
| Fourteen root downfalls | Mapped to the four empowerments | 16, 22 |
| Four remedial powers | Support, remorse, resolution, antidote | 17 |
| Twenty-eight samayas | Three roots, twenty-five branches | 17 |
| Four gatherings of tsok | Deities, people, articles, accumulations | 18 |
| Five steps of entry | Supplication to revealing the mandala | 19 |
| Four empowerments | Vase, secret, wisdom-knowledge, word | 20 |
| Breach timeline | Infraction, violation, transgression, true break | 22 |
| Seven concluding activities | Residual offerings to auspiciousness | 22 |
| Four activities | Pacifying, increasing, magnetizing, subjugating | 12, 22 |
The book is frank about tantric imagery: five meats and five nectars, union and liberation, charnel-ground goddesses, and severe consequences for broken samaya. Putse consistently reads them as inner meaning: liberation is of ego-clinging, the consort is bliss and emptiness, the stomping horse is suppressing self-concepts. Yet a reader without empowerment, transmission and a qualified master could easily take the language literally or anxiously. The breach timeline, with repairs measured in possessions, family and one's life, belongs to tantric rhetoric about seriousness, and the text itself softens it: imagining the gift is enough, and the Ngakso exists to make repair easy. Read it alongside a teacher and an actual drubchen, not as a self-initiation guide.
Common Misreadings
| Misreading | Correction in the text |
|---|---|
| "Drubchen is just a crowded ceremony" | It is continuous practice with pure perception |
| "Visualization creates the deity" | It acknowledges what is already pure |
| "Feast needs lavish food" | "Even a single biscuit will suffice" |
| "Samaya substances mean eating anything" | Not "like a dog or a pig," nor "like a rishi" |
| "The liberation offering harms beings" | It frees "our own dualistic fixation" |
| "After the ritual, life returns to normal" | "That is never the case in Vajrayana" |
Practice Notes
- Start every session with refuge and bodhichitta, end with dedication of the three spheres.
- Rest in suchness before building any visualization.
- Mend breaches the same day, at least with a short feast.
- Offer mentally whenever material offerings are not possible.
- Hold the four gate implements as a key to all the gatekeepers.
- After dissolving, re-emerge instantly, like a fish leaping.
A Day of Drubchen at a Glance
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Dawn | Refuge, bodhichitta, seven branches; protection circle |
| Morning | Main sadhana: three samadhis, palace, deities, offerings |
| Midday | Recitation sessions, mala in hand, approach and accomplishment |
| Afternoon | Hundred deities: praises, recitation, Vajrasattva |
| Evening | Feast, mending and apology |
| Night | Recitation continues in shifts so practice never stops |
| Final day | Empowerments, siddhis, dissolution, auspiciousness |
Who's Who
| Person or figure | Role |
|---|---|
| Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche | Introductory teachings on why drubchen works |
| Padmasambhava | Root verses of the Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo; central deity |
| Jamgön Kongtrül | Light of Wisdom commentary; Rinchen Terdzo compiler |
| Jokyab Rinpoche | Notes on the root text |
| Chokgyur Lingpa | Revealer of the Barchey Künsel and the copper-plate zhitro |
| Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche | Practical overview at Lerab Ling, 2010 |
| Lama Putse Pema Tashi | Line-by-line commentary on the Ocean of Amrita |
| Marcia Dechen Wangmo | Compiler and preface writer |
| Rudra | Figure of ego-clinging whose lament is sung |
| Hayagriva | Horse-headed heruka of resplendence and the closing dance |
As It Is gives Tulku Urgyen's view of development stage as gold seen as gold; Skillful Grace covers Tara practice from the same Chokgyur Lingpa tradition; the Light of Wisdom volumes carry the full Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo; Ocean of Amrita is the liturgy itself. Read together, they show one tradition moving from view to ritual and back to view.