Read Tantric Techniques Online
Authors: Jeffrey Hopkins
Tags: #Health & Fitness, #Yoga, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Meditation, #Religion, #Buddhism, #General, #Tibetan
Pleasant essences of the forest. Receiving them, be pleased with me.
Ā
hara
ā
hara sarvavidy
ā
dhari p
ū
jite sv
ā
h
ā
.
With the seal of divine food (seal 34), offer food, saying:
With faith I offer
Ā
hara
ā
hara sarvavidy
ā
dhari p
ū
jite sv
ā
h
ā
.
With the lamp seal (seal 35), offer lamps, saying:
With faith I offer these dispellers
Ā
lok
ā
ya
ā
lok
ā
ya vidh
ā
dhare p
ū
jite sv
ā
h
ā
.
Praise the Three Jewels—Buddha, his doctrine, and the spiritual community:
Praise the lords of the three lineages—Mañjushr
ī
, who is the physical manifestation of the wisdom of all Buddhas; Avalokiteshvara,
198
Tantric Techniques
who is the physical manifestation of the compassion of all Buddhas; and Vajrap
āṇ
i, who is the physical manifestation of the power of all Buddhas:
Ask for forbearance for not having the circumstances to perform the rite exactly according to the tantra:
Request Avalokiteshvara to depart together with his inestimable mansion, saying:
O
ṃ
may you bestow yogic feats
From the seal of invitation (seal 20), make the seal of requesting departure (seal 37), and say:
Ā
rolik gaccha.
Together with his inestimable mansion he has gone to his natural abode.
Free the directions and intermediate directions that were bound earlier by making the seal of unequal limbs (seal 38), circling it from the left, and saying:
The Practice
199
O
ṃ
hulu hulu ca
ṇḍ
ali-mata
ṃ
givi sv
ā
h
ā
.
Between sessions
Between sessions remain within deity yoga, albeit not as complete as before, going about daily activities.
a
CONTINUATION OF MEDITATIVE STABILIZATION OF EXALTED SPEECH
Concentration Without Repetition
Concentration of Abiding in Fire
(Because mantra is heard as if recited by someone else, it is said to be without repetition.)
2. Concentration of Abiding in Sound
(Because mantra is heard as if recited by someone else, it is said to be without repetition.)
a
For more on this, see
Deity Yoga,
152-153.
200
Tantric Techniques
Gradually, calm abiding, which is a state of meditative stabilization conjoined with the bliss of mental and physical pliancy, is achieved. The final stages of achieving calm abiding are:
The “winds” (currents of energy) involved in unhealthy physical states are calmed and leave the body through the top of the head, where a tingly sensation is felt.
Then, a
mental pliancy,
which is a pacification of unhealthy states making the mind heavy and preventing its usage in virtue according to will, is generated; this makes the mind serviceable.
Through its force, a “wind” of serviceability moves throughout the body, inducing a
physical pliancy
that causes separation from physical states of roughness and heaviness, whereupon you are able to use the body at will in virtuous actions without any sense of hardship. Your body is light like cotton and as if filled with this serviceable wind.
Experiencing this special internal sense of smoothness, you have a
bliss of physical pliancy
.
a
A far simpler alternative version of the concentration of abiding in sound replaces the first four steps with first observing the written letters of the mantra around the edge of the moon disc at one’s heart and then leaving the written letters and contemplating only the sounds.
The Practice
201
Due to the mental consciousness paying attention to this bliss accompanying the body consciousness, a
bliss of mental pliancy
is generated. Your body seems to have dissolved, and nothing but the object of meditative observation appears.
Your mind is so buoyantly joyous that it now seems almost unable to remain on its object, but the excessive buoyancy is gradually removed, and you attain an
immovable pliancy,
remaining stably and joyously on the object of observation. This is calm abiding.