The Ladder to Akanishta: A Presentation on Guidance for Deity Yoga By Jigme Lingpa Translated at the request of Tharchen Rinpoche

(Draft in Progress Nov. 26, 2012) By Chris Wilkinson, working with Mindoling Kenchen Tsewang Rigdzin I am posting this in memory of Lama Tharchin, who discussed these teachings with me daily as I translated Khenpo Tsewang Rigdzin's explanation of them for the long retreats at Pema Osel Ling in Nov. 2012. There are many people around the world who revere Lama Tharchin. I am posting this here so that all may quickly have access to this. Any errors of any kind here are entirely my own. Sorry. CW I bow to the Blessed One, Glorious Vajrasattva. I will speak to you on guidance for deity yoga meditation So that you will find the pristine domain of natural purity Where there are no shadows, The magical illusion where wisdom is an interaction Between appearance and emptiness, The happy circumstance That comes with the status of the Trikaya. Now the domain of sentient beings is just a hustle on the wheel of illusion, a faade of impure karma. I promise to give you an explanation that will outline guidance for deity yoga. It is called The Ladder to Akanishta. It will position you within the inconceivable dominion of the secret body, speech, and mind of the Tathagata. There are three general topics: 1. The error-free cause, our basis for engaging in the generation stage 2. The confusion-free conditions, how to meditate on the path 3. The proper result, the techniques for linking on the interactive level First, The Path of Stages says: The teacher Holds the treasury His river is full He takes care He is wise in tantra and its work He has upadesha He is warm He is the holder of these eight.

Serve a Vajra Master that has these eight qualities. Please him in these ways: Mature your spirit by thoroughly completing the stages of empowerment: external benefits, internal powers, and profound secrets. Remain pure in your samaya and vows. On the topic of engaging in deity yoga, the Glorious Net of Magic Illusion says: The four states of birth must be made pure. Accordingly, there are also four kinds of generation: The very complicated, The complicated, The uncomplicated, And the entirely uncomplicated. Those of acute senses use a generation stage that is entirely uncomplicated. They use the royal perspective of the supreme vehicle as a force to propel themselves into a mentality that glows in its overall comprehension. They do not observe the functioning of words. The minds nature has obviously been the deitys mudra from the start, and this is its completion. An example of this is that the image in a mirror appears there in strict conformity [with what is reflected]. This is why generation and completion are indivisible in this meditation. This is how it is: The god is you and you are the god. You are born at the same time. The samaya beings and the wisdom beings Are not two things. Invitations and requests to remain are not necessary here. They emanate from you and you grant them empowerment. Your own awareness stays with the three roots. The deitys nature has, from the start, been a perfect wisdom that is inside the illusion, so this generation stage is linked to miraculous birth. The Omniscient One said: A Miraculous birth is an instant manifestation. This is a technique where there is no need to meditate On generation and completion As they progressively emerge from nothing. The truth is that wisdom and its dominion are not two things, so those with acute senses engage themselves instantaneously in a generation stage that is not complicated. They do not use words to generate the deity, but use a

memory of the heart-spell for the completion. Those who apply themselves to this gradually develop their wisdoms domain into the magnificently open space of Samantabhadra, the deitys mudra. It appears by itself. The radiance of the deitys body is an interactive non-duality that resembles an illusion. The Self Arising says: What is it to engage in this instantaneously? You may ask. You do not generate the deities. You use a memory of the heart-spell for the completion. What is to engage in this gradually? You may ask. You engage yourself in wisdom and its dominion step by step. In following with this, the generation stage, where we cleanse habitual patterns we get from being born in warm moisture, is fully completed when we enunciate the individual names of the frame, which is the crystal palace, and what it supports, which is the deitys person, or when we simply remember the heart-spell. This is a recognition that bliss and emptiness are not separate. For those who have ideas, there is the egg-born cleansing. It is a very extensive generation stage. It is extremely complicated. We use Heruka as a causal force and climb to Vajradhara as the result. Then there are the Eight Pronouncements: The Grand Divisions of the Practice (sgrub sde chen po bka brgyad). These are refined meditations on ourselves as a child and on someone else as a child. Taking someone else as our own child has five parts: 1. Sending out and bringing in from the causal seed [syllable], where the Primary is generated as Yab/Yum. 2. Summoning the Buddhas of the ten directions and dissolving them into the sky. 3. Summoning sentient beings and cleansing them of their obscurations. 4. Enunciating the magnificence of non-duality. 5. When they emerge from the sky we position them in the mandala. Taking oneself as someone elses child has eight parts: 1. The Primary Yab/Yum melts and turns into the causal seed. 2. The Yab/Yum is generated out of this. 3. A Syllable is generated out of the Yabs collective embellishments 4. Light pours out of the Yum and makes solicitations to the deity. 5. The entire mandala melts into ourselves, the Yab/Yum, and we generate the pride of the wisdom beings. 6. The Yab and Yum unite and generate a mandala in the sky. 7. Our own concepts, of two sorts, turn into deities and we send them out into the external.

8. We summon the wisdom beings and affix the seal. This is in agreement with The Great Net of Magical Illusion: After we go for refuge and generate Bodhicitta, those that are born from eggs resemble the twice-born. We instantaneously establish a clarity in which we are the Primary Yab/Yum. We summon the mandala that we will meditate on into the sky before us, make offerings and praises, and present our solicitations. We perform The River of Confession (rgyun bshags) and related practices. Then we continue, using Vajra Mu, and simply remain with equanimity in the state of emptiness. We consolidate ourselves in the specifics of this Dharma. It is ordinary to do an extensive cleansing of birth by womb. When we apply this in an average generation stage it represents a methodical (thabs) generation stage, primarily. Now there are methods for controlling mad elephants and wine induced intoxication, so there appear to be both ornamental controls (rgyan dul) and market controls (khrom dul). The world that holds these structures that we have created out of our multi-faceted ingrained patterns is a crystal palace, and the real cravings of our body are what it supports. We use the deitys form to purify these things, and when our true mind (sems nyid) goes out toward an object we maintain our understanding of profound samadhi as a method for bringing it to rest. When we apply this to the essential trinity of purity, completion, and maturity we continue to accommodate samsara. We also accommodate techniques for cleansing and purifying the world while we remain in the state of nirvana. This how the result is complete within the base. Secondly, we move toward the maturity of the completion stage. The overarching thing we need to know is that we are fond of our torment (lhongs pa). Now we begin at the gate of admission. There are three kinds of Samadhi: The first is the samadhi of how it is (de bzhin nyid). Our true mind, which is the base we rely on and the root of our generation, does not abide by the limitations of masculine, feminine, neuter, color, size, shape, or other material things. We remember that naturally clear light does nor fall anywhere that it will not land (gtan). This is wisdom about reality just as it is. It purifies the world of death into the Dharmakaya. It cleanses our eternalistic perspectives as well as the formless realms. That is why it is called the samadhi of how it is. The self-luminous clear light of magnificent emptiness interacts with magnificent compassion, our equality with every sentient being. It liberates us from nihilistic perspectives and from the realms of form. The playful radiance of this inconceivable loving wisdom rolls the world of the bardo out

onto the basic ground of the perfected Sambhogakaya. This is called the Samadhi of total illumination. Pure awareness shines out from this as a syllable, the letter A: or H or Hi for example, so this is known as the causal or root method. We go to our dwelling and purify the knowledge [we have] that is associated with the world of Kama, which includes the realms of desire. This samadhi causes one who has been born as a nirmanakaya (sprul sku) to mature into a divine body. This is the causal samadhi. Now for the ways we use the three samsadhis to get to the gut (khog phug) of what our generation is based on. These techniques of generation fit in with the substance of the structure and what it supports. These are the causal or root methods we find in the early translations of the magnificent Tantric literature dealing with the trinity of generation, completion, [and the great perfection], including the Essence of Secrets. A crystal palace with a throne in it shines forth from the Dhamataa. This is our method for the base. There are descriptions of broad minded methods for meditating through to the completion of the mandala that is supported [by this base], among other things, where the container is naturally impure and we bless it into becoming Akanista. It is appropriate to meditate here that the crystal palaces structural form is as broad as the ends of the sky. Not only that, the thirty seven Dharmas of Enlightenment are a trinity of base, path, and result, and are essential to the application of purification. This subject is presented in the commentary, in the ninth chapter of The Great Charioteer. In the present case, the primary feature of the generation stage is presented as the thing that is supported. In our techniques for achieving a Vajra body during the generation stage we use this as the basis for purification and the act of purification. The Heruka Galpo says: First, the Bodhicitta is empty Second, the seed-syallable appears Third, the body is fully formed Forth, the letters are positioned The world of death and the bardo are enlightened emptiness. The consciousness, maintaining itself as a gandharva enters into the midst of the semen and blood. This completes the seed. The ten winds (rlung) gradually generate the body until the body is fully formed. After it has grown our senses depart from their objects. Then the letters are positioned. These are the specific teachings about the signs (brda) for the four true awakenings (mngon byang). In the empowerments of the gradualists, however, they are presented in conformity with Tantric literature as a whole, so in keeping with the Father Tantras techniques we do the generation with the three Vajra rituals. The Mother Tantras techniques use the five true

awakenings for the generation. I will explain how to do the purification of the base of purification and the act of purification in both [the Father and Mother Tantras]. First, we do the three rituals. For the act of purification we actually meditate on the symbols form, a five pointed Vajra for example. The thing to be purified is the manas mind (yid). It is purified into being the Heart Vajra. Our meditation is that this symbol changes place with the thing that does the purification (sbyong byed), from top to bottom, or else that it becomes marked with a letter like H. The base of purifications speech is thus completed in being the Speech Vajra. Then we meditate that the thing to be purified sends out and brings in a mass of light rays. They fulfill the purposes of both [ourselves and others] and completely transform into the deitys body in full form, with all the jewelry and poses. The base of purifications body is purified into a Vajra Body. These are the three Vajra rituals. Now to apply them to birth through a womb. First, the consciousness from the bardo enters into the white and red mass. Second, the trinity of semen, blood, and mind (sems) mix together and we experience a transformation into an embryonic mass that goes through five stages of development. Third, the elements multiply their mass until our body is fully formed and our senses are complete. When the time comes for the result to be manifest in its maturity on the outside, the Tathagatas ride take control of the nirmanakaya and ride it into the vagina of the Vajra queen, going on into her womb. Then they lock in (sgrig pa) the connections they will use to demonstrate the act of being born. The second one is that according to the Yogatantras there are five external true awakenings (mngon byang). According to the Mahayoga we use techniques on the substance of the inner five true awakenings to achieve a result that is within the cause, and link up at the stomach. The Clear Space (klong gsal) explains this: We enter the womb in the five forms of enlightenment. The ten months go the way of the ten levels. We are born naturally as nirmanakayas. I am the Trikaya manifest in whole. Our search for a body while we are in the bardo is the path of accumulation. The path of application is our genuine engagement in taking on a body in a womb. Once we have entered the womb we are on the stages of the five enlightenments (byang chub lnga 151.4 are these the same as the five mngon byang? ASK), which we take to be the paths of seeing and meditation. The ten [levels] are identified with the conditions of the ten months, after which we use our interaction with no-learning as a technique to attain the natural Dharmakaya. So we fit this in with the four abodes of birth, applying our convictions

regarding the trinity of purity, completion, and maturation. We meditate on the moon mandala as the first true awakening. The basis for purification is our form conglomeration (skanda). The element is the sky. The base-consciousness is our body. Our emotional problem is stupidity (gti mug). Womb birth is the domain of the father (phai khams). The act of purification is to clean the moisture from a warm moist birth, the father from an egg birth, the empty aspect from a miraculous birth, and so on. At the completion stage the substance of our method gives us a wisdom that brings about the descent of sixteen delights. First, our mind turns our individual understanding into a pathway that is a perfect essence. We transform it into a moon mandala and meditate. When it is time for the result, we mature into the thirty two fine markings [of a Sambhogakaya Buddha] and become truly enlightened into the mirror like wisdom. The second true awakening is the sun mandala. The basis for purification is the feeling conglomeration. The element is the earth. The emotional problems are jealousy and pride. These are what we cleanse and purify. For those born from a womb it is our mothers red element. For the egg born it is the mother side. For those born from warm moisture it is the heat. For those born miraculously it is the clear side. When it is time for the completion stage the semen and blood are cleansed by the twin-born essence of bliss and emptiness. The female emits form and the rest of the five conglomerates as a foundation (brtan) that has wisdom as its substance. The second wisdom occurs to us on the path of the twenty emptinesses, taking on a form of perfected Bodhicitta, making a pathway that transforms into a sun mandala. We divide the elements by four to get twenty. The five wisdoms, starting out with the Dharmadhatu [wisdom], are divided by the four immeasurables. Then we meditate. When it is time for the result we mature into the substance of the eighty exemplary features (dpe byed) and we are truly enlightened into the wisdom of equality. The third true awakening is the seed [syallable], which is associated with the symbol. The mind, in gandharva form, enters the bardo consciousness between the semen and the vaginal fluids. The conglomeration is our conceptions (du shes). The element is fire. The consciousness is speech and manas mind (yid). The emotional problem is desire. We purify and cleanse the bardo consciousness as we enter into the four abodes of birth. When it is time for completion both the semen and the vaginal fluids are purified as they reverse direction (lugs ldog) and then the winds of karma, associated with temporal applications, cease. The third wisdom is complete. This is the Teaching Vajra (bstan pai rdo rje). We use symbolic techniques to create a pathway on which we transform the seed syallable. Then we meditate on that. When it is time for the result we mature into someone who understands

all dharmas without mixing them. We are truly enlightened into the wisdom of individuated understanding. The forth real awakening is the seed [syallable], associated with the symbol as it is blended to a single flavor. The semen, vaginal fluids, and mind are blended into a single flavor. The conglomeration is conclusion (du shes). Wind is the element. The consciousnesses are the five doors of action. The emotional problem is jealousy. We enter into the four domains of birth: In the womb birth and egg birth the bardo consciousness mixes with the semen and vaginal fluid. In a warm moist birth the consciousness mixes with the warmth and moisture. For miraculous birth a simple perception of clarity purifies and cleanses the things that confuse the world for the luminous. When it is time for the completion stage, the work we have done with the semen, vaginal fluids, and winds is purified into an essence that is the causal Vajrasattva. The four wisdoms, in whatever number, encompass everything there is to know. This completes our form as Vajra Persons (rdo rje bdag nyid). The path we create is a blended essence. We transform it into a drop (thig le) of light or a single sphere (gong bu). Then we meditate on that. When it is time for the result we mature into a person (bdag nyid) who combines the deeds of all the Buddhas into a single flavor, and we are truly enlightened into the wisdom that does what must be done. Now for the total completion of our body through the five real awakenings: When we have completely finished with our womb-born situation and are ready for the outside, the conglomeration is consciousness (rnam shes). The element is water. The manas mind is the thing that maintains the integrity of the eight types of consciousness. The emotional problem is anger. The situation is that our bodys sensory associations (skye mched) are complete. We take birth among the four domains of birth, and are cleansed and purified to be a Nirmanakaya (sPrul sku). These are the techniques for moving into a mature completion stage, where the trinity of semen, vaginal fluid, and wind, associated with our mind (sems), become a highly purified essence, the Result Vajradhara. The fifth is the natural result, total freedom, a wisdom that is just like the Buddhas, a Tathagata identity (bdag nyid) that is perfectly formed into our own spirit (rgyud). We create our path, meditating on our divine body, complete with the jewelry and the poses. When it is time for the result, we mature into a dimension of wisdom that is free from every shadow, an identity that is naturally indivisible. We are truly enlightened into the wisdom of the dharmadhatu. The Tantra says: The moon is mirror wisdom. The seventh seven is equality. The seed symbol for the deity we are being Must be described as individuated understanding. They all turn into one. This is true exertion.

Completion is the purity of the dharmadhatu. This is how we use four meditation techniques for the generation stage, with four stages for the four abodes of birth, but you should do them primarily in keeping with your own imbedded patterns (bag chags) and whether the strength of your acclimation (goms) is great or small. The Lord of Jinas Longchenpa said something to this effect: The four meditative techniques are in fact so, But our primary meditation is on the birth in which we are involved. All of us meditate this way to cleanse our ingrained patterns. To be specific, At first we resemble the egg born. After we are a little stable We meditate as if we were womb born. With great stability We meditate as if we were born from heat and moisture. When we are indeed steadfast We use the correct stability to instantly become born in a flash (dkrong bskyed) As if we were being born miraculously. [156.3]