[Translator’s note: In most old Sanskrit texts, VAM is written the same as BAM. Since the Tibetan language lacks the character VA, both VA and BA are written in Tibetan with the same character and pronounced as BA, for example with the Sanskrit word “vajra,” pronounced “bendza” in Tibetan. Throughout all Vajrayogini practice, the Tibetans write Vajrayogini’s seed syllable as BAM/VAM, but when pronouncing it, they say “BAM.” Since most translations of Vajrayogini materials are based on oral explanations by Tibetan masters, translators have written the syllable in accord with the transcription of how these masters pronounce it: “BAM.”
Despite this precedent, it would be far clearer to transliterate the way the syllable is written – VAM – rather than how the Tibetans pronounce it – BAM. The reason is that in many verses and aspects of her practice, Vajrayogini’s seed syllable goes together with E, the seed syllable for her reality source. Taking her seed syllable to be VAM and not BAM, we find that together, the two syllables form EVAM, the Sanskrit word for “thus.” EVAM is a technical term explained extensively in numerous commentaries of many anuttarayoga tantra systems in the context of it being the first word in innumerable sutras: “evam maya shrutam – thus have I heard.” In these tantra commentaries, E is explained, for instance, as deepest truth and voidness, while VAM is conventional truth and simultaneously arising blissful awareness. Taken together, then, EVAM represents the two truths as well as simultaneously arising voidness and bliss. Because of these reasons, I have transliterated the syllable here as VAM.]
Immeasurable Yoga
Safe Direction and Bodhichitta
[Visualize in the space before you a throne of precious substances. On it is an eight-petalled variegated lotus, and on its seed-head is a flat moon disc. An eight-petalled variegated lotus has red petals in the four cardinal directions – with east taken as the direction of the petal in front of the figure sitting on it. The petals in the southeast and northwest are yellow, in the southwest green, and in the northeast black. The seed-head is green, and the circle of stamens around it is yellow. Visualize your root guru sitting on this moon-disc in the form of a red Vajradharma, having one face and two arms, with his hands crossed in front of his chest and holding a vajra and bell. He incorporates all the Three Precious Gems: his mind the Buddhas, his speech the Dharma, and his body the Sangha. You are in the form of a Vajrayogini. Imagine all males to your right, all females to your left, your enemies in front of you, and your friends behind you. Include in this assemblage all six classes of limited beings, with all of them assuming a human form.]
I and all limited beings equal to the extent of space, from this time forth until we’ve evolved to the essence of a purified state, take safe direction from the glorious hallowed gurus; we take safe direction from the fully enlightened Triumphant Buddhas Surpassing All; we take safe direction from their hallowed Dharma teachings; we take safe direction from the highly realized arya Sangha. [3x or 7x]
Requesting Inspiration
[With palms pressed together.]
We prostrate and take safe direction from the gurus and the Three Precious Gems, and request you to brighten our mind-streams with your uplifting inspiration.
[Imagine that rays of light and nectars, white for body, red for speech, and dark-blue for mind, emanate from the objects for safe direction to yourself and all the limited beings visualized around you. You and they all become purified, brightened and inspired, and transform into Vajrayoginis. Imagine that the beings around you fly off to Khechari, the pure land of the dakinis.]
Meditation on the Four Immeasurables
Once I’ve attained the topmost state of a fully enlightened Buddha, and have freed all limited beings from their sea of samsaric suffering, I shall secure them all in the bliss of the fully purified state of a Buddha. And so to this end, I now shall practice the stages of Vajrayogini’s path. [3x]
[Include meditation on the four immeasurable attitudes in the above verses. With “I and all limited beings equal to the extent of space,” in the first verse of the sadhana, meditate on immeasurable equanimity. In the verse immediately above, with “And have freed all limited beings from their sea of samsaric suffering,” meditate on immeasurable compassion; with “I shall secure them all in the bliss of the fully purified state of a Buddha,” immeasurable love; and with the feeling of joy at having fulfilled your bodhichitta intention, immeasurable joy.” At the conclusion, imagine that your root guru dissolves into you.]
Guru Yoga
Generating the Field for Growing Positive Force
In the space before me, on a jewelled throne supported by lions, on a variegated lotus and moon-disc seat, sits my root guru in the aspect of the ennobling, impeccable Vajradharma. With body red in color, one face and two arms, playing with his right hand a damaru-drum, reverberating with the sound of voidness and bliss. His left hand holds up to his heart a skullcup filled with nectar, while he cradles in his left elbow a khatvanga-staff. Sitting cross-legged with legs held like a vajra, he’s bedecked with the mudra-seal of six ornaments of bone and is vibrant in the prime of his youth.
Merging of the Sources of Safe Direction from Their Natural Abodes
[Visualize that all the sources for safe direction – the gurus, yidams, Buddhas, bodhisattvas, heroic viras, dakinis and Dharma protectors come from their natural abodes and merge with your root guru before you.]
He has come to have an essential nature that incorporates all sources of safe direction.
Making Prostration and Requests for Inspiration
To my precious guru having the essential nature of all the Buddhas of the three times, I make prostration and take safe direction from you. Please brighten my mind-stream with inspiration. [3x]
Dissolution of the Field for Growing Positive Force
My guru melts into light and dissolves into me through the crown of my head.
[Meditate that your root guru Vajradharma dissolves into a ball of red light, which enters you through the crown of your head and merges with a red syllable VAM in your heart. The VAM expands to be the size of the universe, dissolving all appearances. Meditate on your mind as having become inseparably mixed with your root guru’s nondual deep awareness of simultaneously arising blissful awareness and voidness. According to the Sakya tradition of this short sadhana, this meditation purifies the death that immediately preceded this lifetime. The VAM disappears into voidness, and you then reappear as Vajrayogini.
In the Gelug adaptation of this Sakya sadhana, the VAM then contracts in stages, until it disappears into its voidness. According to the Gelug tradition, this meditation is taking death as a pathway for Dharmakaya.]
The Yoga of the Generation of Oneself as the Deity
Generation of Oneself as Vajrayogini
In my heart, from E (and E), comes a double tetrahedral (red) reality source, inside it, from an A, comes a moon mandala, with a red syllable VAM standing in its center and a mantra-garland set around its edge, encircling counter-clockwise:
OM OM OM SARVA BUDDHA DAKINIYE VAJRA VARNANIYE VAJRA VAIROCHANIYE HUM HUM HUM PHAT PHAT PHAT SVAHA
[The reality source consists of two upside-down tetrahedrons, made of light and superimposed upon each other, such that the cross section of the top is a six-pointed star. The cross sections going downward become increasingly narrower, so that it ends with a single tip at its bottom. The syllables of the mantra are red and stand upright on the flat white moon.]
From this, light-rays emanate, filling my entire body, purifying my body, my speech and my mind of all sickness, harmful spirits, and negative karmic forces and obstacles. My body becomes a ball of (red) light and completely transforms.
[According to the Sakya tradition of this sadhana, this meditation purifies the bardo that immediately preceded this lifetime. According to the Gelug tradition, visualization of oneself as a red syllable VAM in space is taking bardo as a pathway for Sambhogakaya. The above visualization follows that and is part of taking rebirth as a pathway for Nirmanakaya and does not occur within our body.
According to the Sakya tradition of this sadhana, the following visualization of ourselves as Vajrayogini purifies our present rebirth. According to the Gelug tradition, it is the final step of the meditation on taking rebirth as a pathway for Nirmanakaya.]
(Inside a double tetrahedral red reality source,) I arise in the bodily form of the ennobling, impeccable Vajrayogini, standing on (an eight-petalled variegated) lotus and a sun-disc cushion. With my outstretched right leg, I tread on the breasts of red Kalarati, with my bent left leg, I tread on the back of black Bhairava who (is on his stomach) with his head facing backwards. My body is red in color, with a brilliance like the fires at the time of the eons of destruction.
I have one face, two arms and three eyes, which look up toward Khechari, the Pure Land of Dakinis. With my right hand, I hold outstretched a cleaver facing downwards and marked with a vajra. With my left, I hold up in the air a skullcup filled with blood, which I partake of with my upturned mouth. With my left shoulder, I support a khatvanga-staff, marked with a vajra (at its tip) and from which hangs a damaru-drum, a bell, and a triple banner. My glistening, black hair covers my back down to my waist.
In the prime of my youth, my desirous nipples full (and erect), I experience ever-enhancing bliss. I wear a crown of five dried human skulls and a long hanging necklace of fifty dried human skulls. Naked, I’m bedecked with the mudra-seal of the five bone-ornaments, as I stand in the center of a blazing fire of deep awareness.
Donning the Body Armor
At my bodily places, there arise moon-disc mandalas, on top of which, at my navel, a red OM VAM, in essential nature:
- Vajra-varahi, at my heart, a blue HAM YAM – Yamini.
- At my mouth, on a moon-disc, a white HRIM MOM – Mohini.
- At my forehead, a yellow HRIM HRIM – Kshobini.
- At the crown of my head, a green HUM HUM – Trasini.
- On all my limbs, a smoke-colored PHAT PHAT – Chandika.
[According to the Sakya tradition of this sadhana, the white HRIM MOM is standing on our tongue. According to the Gelug tradition, it is at our Adam’s apple.]
Yoga of Purifying Wandering Beings
From the mantra-garland at my heart, light-rays go forth, streaming out from the pores of my skin. Striking all limited beings of the six realms of rebirth, they cleanse them of their negative karmic forces and obstacles, together with their instincts, and transform them all into the bodily form of Vajrayoginis.
Ennobling Brightening of Oneself through the Heroic Viras and Virinis
Invoking and Merging of the Deep Awareness Beings and the Three Types of Messenger-Dakinis
PHEM!!
From the syllable VAM at my heart, light-rays emanate; and from Akanishta, the Pure Land of the Dakinis “Beneath Nothing,” they bring back Vajrayogini, encircled by all the heroic viras and yoginis of the ten directions, and all limited beings transformed into yoginis. They dissolve into me.
JAH HUM BAM HOH.
[Visualize that all the deep awareness being Vajrayoginis and all the messenger-dakinis merge and become inseparable with you.]
OM YOGA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA YOGA SHUDDHO ‘HAM.
[Meditate on the deep awareness of inseparable blissful awareness and voidness as the secret messenger-dakini.]
Yoga of Verbal and Mental Mantra Recitation
Verbal Mantra Recitation
Inside a double tetrahedral (red) reality source at my heart is a moon mandala, with a red syllable VAM standing in its center, and a mantra-garland set around its edge, encircling counter-clockwise (and facing inwards). From these, emanate immeasurable rays of red light, cleansing all limited beings of their negative karmic forces and obstacles, and making offerings to all the Buddhas. They bring back before me their inspiration, abilities and strength in the form of rays of red light, which dissolve into the mantra-garland, thus brightening my mind-stream with uplifting inspiration.
OM OM OM SARVA BUDDHA DAKINIYE VAJRA VARNANIYE VAJRA VAIROCHANIYE HUM HUM HUM PHAT PHAT PHAT SVAHA [7, 21 or 100x]
Mental Mantra Recitation
[Imagine that the double tetrahedral reality source, with its moon-disc, VAM and mantra-garland, descend to the level of your navel. Hold your breath in a vase at your navel by gently drawing your upper winds downwards and your lower winds upwards to the level of your navel. With your mind as the VAM, read the letters of the mantra three times silently, without having the VAM swivel round. After this mental recitation, release your breath and imagine the double tetrahedral reality source returns to the level of your heart.]
Inconceivable Yoga
Light-rays emanate from the syllable VAM together with the mantra-garland at my heart and pervade all three planes of samsaric existence.
The plane of formless beings dissolves into the upper part of my body, in the form of rays of blue light. The plane of ethereal forms dissolves into the middle part of my body, in the form of rays of red light. And the plane of sensory desires dissolves into the lower part of my body, in the form of rays of white light.
I, as well, melt in stages from above and below and dissolve into the reality source. That dissolves into the moon (disc mandala), that dissolves into the mantra-garland, that into the syllable VAM, that into the head of the VAM, that into the crescent moon, that into the drop, and that into the nada squiggle. That shrinks smaller and smaller and disappears from focal aim (into voidness).
[Remain focused on clear-light deep awareness of inseparable voidness and bliss. According to the Sakya tradition of this sadhana, this meditation is taking death as a pathway for Dharmakaya.]
Yoga of Activities
Arising Once More as Vajrayogini
Within a state of voidness, I arise in the bodily form of the ennobling, impeccable Vajrayogini, at my bodily places, there arise moon-disc mandalas, on top of which, at my navel, a red OM VAM, in essential nature:
- Vajra-varahi, at my heart, a blue HAM YAM – Yamini.
- At my mouth, on a moon-disc, a white HRIM MOM – Mohini.
- At my forehead, a yellow HRIM HRIM – Kshobini.
- At the crown of my head, a green HUM HUM – Trasini.
- On all my limbs, a smoke-colored PHAT PHAT – Chandika.
Warding off Interferences
OM SUMBHANI SUMBHA HUM HUM PHAT; OM GRIHNA GRIHNA HUM HUM PHAT; OM GRIHNAPAYA GRIHNAPAYA HUM HUM PHAT; OM ANAYA HO BHAGAVAN VAJRA HUM HUM PHAT. [2x]
Dedication of Positive Force
By the positive force of this, may I achieve the actual dakini attainment, and then lead all wandering beings to that state, without any exception.
At the time of my death, may I be offered flowers, umbrellas and victory banners, the music of cymbals and voices, and so forth, by guardians, heroic viras, yoginis and more, and be led to Khechari, Pure Land of Dakinis.
Yogas Done between Sessions
Ennobling Consecration of the Torma Cake
OM AH HUM HA HO HRIH [3x]
Within a state of voidness, comes a large skull cup with five meats and five nectars (inside), which transform into a great ocean of nectars of deep awareness.
Invocation of the Guests for the Torma
PHEM!!
From Akanishta, the Pure Land of Dakinis “Beneath Nothing,” Vajrayogini, encircled by all the heroic viras, yoginis, Dharma protectors and worldly protectors, are called forth before me.
Offering the Torma
OM OM OM SARVA BUDDHA DAKINIYE VAJRA VARNANIYE VAJRA VAIROCHANIYE HUM HUM HUM PHAT PHAT PHAT SVAHA. OM AKARO MUKHAM SARVA DHARMANAM ADYA NUTPANNA TVATA OM AH HUM PHAT SVAHA [3, 5 or 7x]
Outer Offering
OM VAJRA YOGINI SAPARI-VARA, ARGHAM [water to drink], PADYAM [water for washing the feet], PUSHPE [flowers], DUPE [incense], ALOKE [butter lamp], GANDHE [cologne water], NAIVIDYA [food], SHABDA AH HUM [music]
Inner Offering
OM VAJRA YOGINI SAPARI-VARA OM AH HUM
Offering Prostration
I prostrate to you, glorious Vajra-dakini. You wield the wheel of authority over all dakinis. Having gained the five types of deep awarenesses and the three Buddha Bodies, you provide safe direction to wandering beings.
I prostrate to as many Vajra-dakinis (as you manifest in), who, as ladies engaged in worldly affairs, cut off the bondage of our conceptual thought.
[If offering a feast of tsog offerings, insert here the sections starting with: Ennobling Consecration of the Feast of Tsog Offerings. Include the section: Invoking the Elemental Spirits to Partake of Leftover Tsog. After the section: Offering a Small Portion of Leftover Tsog, Together with Requests, return to the sadhana, starting with Departure of the Guests.]
Departure of the Guests
VAJRA MUH.
The deep awareness beings depart (to their abodes), while the beings for close bonding dissolve into me.
Concluding Verses
Dedication of the Positive Force
By the positive force of this, may I achieve the actual dakini attainment and then lead all wandering beings to that state, without an exception.
Verse for Propitiousness
When I remember you, you remove the torment from my heart, and when I’ve meditated with endeavour toward you, you easily and quickly bestow in this lifetime the mahamudra great seal (of enlightenment). O Powerful Lady of Khechari, Pure Land of Dakinis, may all be propitious for achieving your supreme and common actual attainments.