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Checking Meditation on the Mandala and Basis Heruka

Checking meditation on the mandala and basis Heruka has two parts:

1 Checking meditation

2 The symbolism of Heruka’s body

CHECKING MEDITATION

To familiarize ourself with our new environment and new identity, we now do analytical meditation on the mandala and on ourself as basis Heruka. At the very edge of our new world, surrounding the protection circle, are the eight great charnel grounds. These are very similar to those described in the book The New Guide to Dakini Land except that in Vajrayogini practice they are inside the protection circle whereas in Heruka practice they are outside.

In each charnel ground there is a tree, at the foot of which there sits a directional guardian. Each directional guardian has four arms. With their first two hands they embrace their consort, and with their second two hands they hold aloft various objects and a skullcup. They each sit on a different mount and wear a silken scarf. Except for the guardians in the south and south-west, who wear a crown of three skulls, they all wear a golden five-lineage crown. At the top of each tree there is a regional guardian with the upper half of his body emerging from the branches. They each have the same face as the mounts of the directional guardians at the foot of their tree, and they hold a torma and a skullcup.

In each charnel ground there is a lake, in which there lives a naga holding a jewel. The nagas have half-human, half-serpent bodies, with a canopy of snakes behind their head. They are of different colours, wear silken garments, and are adorned with jewelled ornaments. Above each lake there is a cloud. There is a mountain, at the summit of which there is a white stupa, and at the foot of which a wisdom fire blazes.

Throughout the charnel grounds are corpses in varying states of decay. Some are lying down, some standing up, some walking and some crouching. Some are headless, some being eaten by animals, some impaled on stakes, some hanging by their hair from trees, and some half-consumed by fire. Wild birds and animals such as ravens, owls, vultures, wolves, jackals and snakes inhabit the charnel grounds. Spirits, such as yellow givers of harm in tiger skins holding clubs, zombies, and terrifying naked cannibals, wander around uttering the sound ‘Kili Kili’. Tantric practitioners such as Siddhas, Knowledge Holders, Yogis and Yoginis also abide in the charnel grounds, keeping their commitments purely and single-pointedly practising Heruka’s path. They are naked, with freely hanging hair, and are adorned with five mudras. They hold hand-drums, skullcups and khatangas, and they wear crowns adorned with skulls.

The eight directional guardians are: Indra, Vaishravana, Varuna, Yama, Agni, Kardava, Vayuni and Ishvara. In addition to these there are two other directional guardians – Brahma, who protects the upper regions, and Bhumi, who protects the lower regions. We can sometimes include another five directional guardians – Surya, Chandra, Bhadra, Ganesh and Vishnu – making fifteen in all. All fifteen directional guardians residing in the charnel grounds are emanations of Heruka appearing in mundane aspects; and whenever we offer the torma to the mundane Dakas and Dakinis we invite these guardians together with their retinues from the eight charnel grounds to receive it. All the beings abiding in the charnel grounds face the central Deity and instil the place with a sense of wonder.

The charnel grounds have great meaning. They are the nature of Heruka’s omniscient wisdom, and all their features are emanated by Heruka to teach us how to practise the stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra. The corpses symbolize impermanence and the faults of samsara, particularly sickness, ageing and death. The lake symbolizes conventional bodhichitta, the naga the six perfections and the ten perfections, and the jewel held by the naga the four ways of gathering disciples. Because corpses are ownerless they also symbolize selflessness. These features remind us to practise renunciation, bodhichitta, profound view and the six perfections.

The wild animals symbolize generation stage realizations, and their eating the corpses teaches us to destroy our ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions through the power of our generation stage practice.

The tree symbolizes the central channel, which is the basic object of completion stage meditation. The directional guardian at the foot of the tree symbolizes the downward-voiding wind just below the navel, and the regional guardian at the top of the tree symbolizes the life-supporting wind at the heart. The fire at the base of the mountain symbolizes the inner fire of tummo at the navel, and the cloud symbolizes the white bodhichittas in the crown chakra. The eight charnel grounds themselves, four in the cardinal directions and four in the intermediate directions, symbolize the four joys of serial and reverse order. The mountain symbolizes the immovable equipoise of spontaneous great bliss mixed with emptiness, and the stupa at the top of the mountain symbolizes the three bodies of a Buddha.

Completion stage meditation on tummo, or inner fire, causes the downward-voiding wind below our navel to reverse and flow up through the central channel, which in turn causes all our inner winds to gather into the central channel and dissolve into the life-supporting wind at our heart. This causes the white bodhichitta in our crown chakra to melt and descend through our central channel, giving rise to the four joys of serial and reverse order. The final joy, the mind of spontaneous great bliss, then mixes inseparably with emptiness and gradually abandons the two obstructions. When our mind is completely purified in this way, we attain the three resultant bodies of a Buddha – the Truth Body, Enjoyment Body and Emanation Body. Thus, these aspects of the charnel grounds teach us how to attain full enlightenment by training in the yogas of completion stage. Milarepa once said, ‘I have no need of books because everything around me teaches me Dharma.’ In the same way, through simply contemplating the features of the charnel grounds, sincere Heruka practitioners develop a deep understanding of the phenomena of the basis, path and result, and strong enthusiasm for practising the stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra.

Inside the circle of eight great charnel grounds is the protection circle of the vajra ground, fence, tent and canopy, surrounded by five-coloured wisdom fires swirling counter-clockwise. In the centre of these are the four elements, Mount Meru, the lotus and the crossed vajra, all of which have been described previously.

Standing on the centre of the huge crossed vajra is the celestial mansion, which is constructed like a large square house with an elaborate entrance on each side. It is approached from the four directions by stairways that lead up through the prongs of the vajra to its ground floor. The jewelled walls have five layers, which from the outside in are coloured white, yellow, red, green, and blue. Around the top of the wall and overhanging it is a red jewelled moulding studded with rectangular, triangular, circular, and half-moon-shaped jewels. Upon this are four layers of golden bands, each separated by a series of supports made from six precious substances. Upon these, and extending beyond, are parallel rafters whose ends form the shape of sea-monsters, with full-length and half-length strings of pearls hanging from their mouths. Overhanging these are ‘sharpu’, special jewelled decorations, suspended from the eaves. Around the edge of the roof runs a white parapet in the shape of half-lotus petals. This is adorned with eight victory banners embellished with beautiful creatures, and eight other banners, all set in golden vases. At all four corners of the roof monkeys sit on the parapet, holding parasols adorned at the top with a jewel, crescent moon and blue half-vajra.

Around the outer foot of the wall runs a red ledge upon which stand sixteen offering goddesses of various colours and postures, each with three eyes and four arms. Each of the four entrances has an open porch, with a high double door leading into a short hallway that leads into the main chamber. At the outer corners between the doorways and entrance halls, as well as at the four outer and four inner corners of the mansion, stand half-moons, upon which rest red jewels adorned at the top by vajras.

At the front of each entrance, upon square pedestals, four pillars set in vases support an eleven-tiered archway. Above each archway is a Dharma Wheel flanked right and left by a male and a female deer. Each archway is adorned with both types of banner, and with monkeys holding parasols. The eastern archway is decorated with white Dharma Wheels, the southern archway with yellow jewels, the western archway with red lotuses, and the northern archway with green swords. To the right and left of each archway, set in golden vases, are wish-granting trees bearing the seven precious possessions of a king. In the space around the celestial mansion are Siddhas, two on each side; and emerging from clouds are offering gods and goddesses holding garlands of flowers, making everything exquisitely beautiful.

Inside the celestial mansion are four concentric rings of eight pillars, which support the circular vajra beams underneath a four-stepped ceiling. On the very top of the mansion is a square lantern adorned with a golden roof and surmounted by an eight-faceted jewel and a five-pronged vajra. Inside this is a precious jewelled case containing the scriptures of the Heruka root Tantra.

The ceiling and floor of the mansion are white in the east, green in the north, red in the west, yellow in the south, and blue in the centre. On the floor is a four-tiered circular platform, each tier smaller than the one below it. Each of the three lower platforms is in the shape of a large wheel with eight petal-shaped spokes. On the lowest platform are the sixteen Deities of the body wheel, on the second platform are the sixteen Deities of the speech wheel, and on the third platform are the sixteen Deities of the heart wheel.

At the four inner corners of the mansion, and at the doorways to each hallway, stand the eight Deities of the commitment wheel. In the very centre of the top platform is an eight-petalled lotus of various colours. Upon the petals in the cardinal directions stand the four Yoginis of the great bliss wheel, and upon the petals in the intermediate directions are skullcups brimming with five nectars. At the very centre of the lotus, standing on a sun mandala, we appear as the Blessed One Heruka, with a dark-blue body and four faces. We contemplate as follows:

My principal face is dark blue, the left face green, the back face red, and the right face yellow. Each face has three eyes and a rosary of five-pronged vajras on its forehead. My right leg is outstretched and treads on the head of black Bhairawa, who has four hands. His first two hands are pressed together, the second right hand holds a damaru, and the second left a sword. My bent left leg treads on the breast of red Kalarati, who has four hands. Her first two hands are pressed together, and the other two hold a skullcup and a khatanga. Both the beings beneath my feet have one face and three eyes, and are adorned with five mudras.

I have twelve arms. The first two embrace Vajravarahi, with my right hand holding a five-pronged vajra and my left hand a bell. The next two hands hold a bloody, white elephant skin stretched across my back; my right hand holds the left foreleg, and my left the left hind leg. Both these hands are in the threatening mudra with the tips of the outstretched fingers at the level of my eyebrows. My third right hand holds a damaru, the fourth an axe, the fifth a curved knife, and the sixth an upright three-pointed spear. My third left hand holds a khatanga marked with a vajra, the fourth a skullcup brimming with blood, the fifth a vajra noose, and the sixth a four-faced head of Brahma.

My hair is tied up in a topknot marked with a small crossed vajra of various colours. Each head is adorned with a crown of five human skulls strung together top and bottom with a rosary of black vajras. On the left side of my crown is a half moon, slightly tilted. My facial expressions change, and my four sets of four fangs are bared and terrifying. I display nine moods. The three physical moods of majesty, heroism and menace are expressed by my body maintaining an air of majesty, my feet treading on Bhairawa and Kalarati, and the frown at the centre of my brow. The three verbal moods of laughter, wrath and ferocity are expressed by the slight smile on my lips, my bared fangs, and my tongue curled back. The three mental moods of compassion, attentiveness and serenity are expressed by my long almond-shaped eyes, my wide-open eyes, and my looking at the Mother from the corner of my eyes.

I wear a lower garment of a tiger skin, and a long necklace of fifty shrunken moist human heads strung together with human entrails. I am adorned with six bone ornaments: a crown ornament, ear ornaments, a necklace, bracelets and anklets, a heart ornament, and ashes of human bone smeared over my entire body. My hair is woven through the eight spokes of the crown ornament and gathered into a topknot, which is surmounted by a a nine-faceted jewel. The necklace, bracelets and anklets are made of fragments of human bone embossed with vajras. I wear my heart ornament, the seraka, just below my Brahmin’s thread, a three-knotted string hanging over my left shoulder. The front and back of the seraka consist of bone squares embossed with vajras, which are connected by strings of bone that go over the shoulders and under the arms.

The Father is embracing the Blessed Mother Vajravarahi, who has a red-coloured body, one face, two hands and three eyes. She is naked with freely hanging hair and wears a lower garment made from fragments of skull. Her left hand, embracing the Father’s neck, holds a skullcup brimming with the blood of the four maras. Her right hand in the threatening mudra brandishes a curved knife, opposing the malignant forces of the ten directions. Her body shines with a brilliance like that of the fire at the end of the aeon. Her two legs are clasped around the Father’s thighs. She is the nature of blissful great compassion. Adorned with five mudras, she wears a crown of five shrunken human skulls and a necklace of fifty shrunken human skulls. Father and Mother abide in the centre of a fiercely blazing fire of exalted wisdom.

THE SYMBOLISM OF HERUKA’S BODY

Heruka’s body, a manifestation of his omniscient wisdom, reveals all the phenomena of the basis that we need to abandon, the path that we need to practise, and the result that we need to accomplish. The dark-blue colour of his body symbolizes the Wisdom Truth Body, the head of Brahma the Nature Body, the skulls the Enjoyment Body, and the crossed vajra of various colours the Emanation Body. Thus, these features of Heruka’s body teach the phenomena of the result, showing that Heruka has attained the four bodies of a Buddha and that we should strive to do the same. For this we need to abandon all objects to be abandoned, the phenomena of the basis, and practise all the stages of the path to enlightenment, the phenomena of the path.

Heruka’s twelve arms teach us to abandon the cycle of twelve dependent-related links, samsara; the elephant skin to abandon the ignorance of self-grasping; and the lower garment of a tiger skin to abandon hatred. The axe teaches us to abandon all faults of body, speech and mind; the curved knife to abandon conceptions grasping at extremes; and the three-pointed spear to abandon all imprints of the delusions of the three realms. The long necklace of fifty human heads teaches us to abandon ordinary appearances and conceptions by purifying the fifty inner winds; and the bared fangs teach us to overcome the four maras. Heruka’s changing facial expressions teach us to turn away from wrong views and adopt correct views; and his treading on Bhairawa and Kalarati teaches us to abandon the two extremes of existence and non-existence, and the two extremes of samsara and solitary peace. Encouraging us to abandon the extreme of solitary peace implicitly teaches us to attain great compassion and practise the stages of the Mahayana path. Indeed, Heruka himself is the embodiment of Buddha’s compassion. His six mudra-ornaments teach us to train in the six perfections, and his four faces teach us to realize emptiness by meditating on the four doors of perfect liberation – emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness and non-production. Emptiness, in this context, refers to the emptiness of the nature of all functioning things, signlessness to the emptiness of their causes, wishlessness to the emptiness of their effects, and non-production to the emptiness of all non-produced phenomena.

It is not enough simply to realize emptiness; we need to realize emptiness with a mind of spontaneous great bliss. This is symbolized by the skullcup brimming with blood. The blood symbolizes great bliss and the skullcup emptiness; together they symbolize the union of the two. The half moon on the left side of Heruka’s crown symbolizes the white bodhichitta in the crown melting and descending through the central channel, giving rise to the experience of the great bliss of the four joys. The ashes smeared all over his body symbolize this bliss pervading his entire body. To complete our training in great bliss, we need to meditate with a consort, first with a visualized wisdom mudra and then with an actual action mudra; and this is symbolized by Heruka embracing Vajravarahi. Buddha’s omniscient mind is the indivisible union of bliss and emptiness – his bliss appears as Heruka and his wisdom of emptiness as Vajravarahi. Heruka and Vajravarahi, therefore, are the same nature, and not two different people. Heruka holds a vajra symbolizing method and a bell symbolizing wisdom; together these teach us that we need to accomplish the union of method and wisdom.

In general, attachment is the source of our daily problems and thus an object to be abandoned, but in Highest Yoga Tantra, instead of abandoning it straightaway we transform it through the power of meditation. Therefore, Heruka wears an elephant skin teaching us to abandon ignorance and a tiger skin teaching us to abandon hatred, but there is nothing on his body teaching us to abandon attachment. We need some slight attachment in order to develop great bliss. When we develop bliss we mix this bliss with emptiness and use this mind to abandon all delusions, including attachment. If with a pure motivation we train sincerely in Highest Yoga Tantra, the power of our meditation will be stronger than the power of our attachment, and so even though we do not abandon attachment right away, it will have no power to cause us problems.

We all have the seed of Herukahood, but without receiving the blessings of the Buddhas we will not be able to ripen this seed. The sound of the damaru invokes all the Buddhas so that we can receive their blessings. The damaru itself symbolizes the blazing of the inner fire, and is played at the level of the navel; whereas the bell symbolizes clear light, and is played at the level of the heart.

The vajra noose teaches us that our mind should always be bound by bliss, and the khatanga teaches us to recognize that the ultimate bodhichitta of inseparable bliss and emptiness appears as Heruka’s mandala and Deities. Whenever we practise Heruka generation stage meditation, we should always remember that everything is the nature of bliss and emptiness. In this way our meditation becomes an actual antidote to self-grasping.

Heruka’s hair tied up in a topknot teaches us that the realizations of generation stage and completion stage, and all other good qualities, are accomplished gradually; we should not hope to gain all these realizations immediately. By training continually and sincerely, cherishing even our smallest insights, we will gradually accomplish all realizations. Eventually we will attain all Heruka’s good qualities, such as his omniscient wisdom knowing all objects of the three times, symbolized by his three eyes, and his five exalted wisdoms, symbolized by the rosaries of five-pronged vajras.

By contemplating the symbolism of the features of Heruka’s body, we should strive to improve our divine pride and clear appearance of ourself as Heruka. In the auspicious prayers in the sadhana it says: ‘In the precious celestial mansions as extensive as the three thousand worlds’. This means that we should visualize the celestial mansion of Heruka as large as the entire universe, therefore it is without measurement. However, when we are drawing or building the mandala of Heruka we need to make it a specific size. This commentary explains how to accomplish the outer and inner mandala of Heruka through meditating on generation and completion stage, but it does not explain how to draw and build the mandala of Heruka.

Ghantapa