Principal Deities of the Five Tantras

Introduction

This set of three texts again centers on the deities of the Five Tantras, but here the visualization involves only the main deities, without the full complement of deities in each of the five mandalas. This seems more “doable.” Tāranātha’s short sadhāna, Practice of the Past Gurus, is styled as an esoteric instruction (man ngag), an appropriate description for this simplified and yet profound meditation based on practical advice from the lineage. The main self-visualization in this case is presented as Coemergent Cakrasaṃvara, that is, Cakrasaṃvara and Vajravārāhī. Brief instruction on how to change it to Coemergent Hevajra is touched upon; however, that was more than covered in the earlier section on the Five Tantras’ Deities. As one visualizes oneself as the Cakrasaṃvara couple, the Guhyasamāja couple appears in the head chakra (body), the Mahāmāya couple in the throat chakra (speech), the Hevajra couple in the heart chakra (mind), and the Vajrabhairava couple in the perineum chakra (activity). With this relatively simple visualization, the practitioner trains in the “five culminations” that Khyungpo Naljor mastered and manifested in his own body.

Tāranātha relates that one can also do the practice with the deities in an external configuration rather than in one’s own divine subtle body. In that form, one can visualize taking the empowerment from them as a “selfinduction,” or an entering of oneself into the mandala to receive it. That is the purpose of Jamgön Kongtrul’s Essence of Maturing and Liberating. Much of this liturgy is taken from the sadhāna, with many offerings and supplications from other sources to fill it out.

In The Heart of Profound Meaning, Kongtrul lays out a complete practice for this system. The term practice manual (bsnyen yig) in the title suggests the stages of approach and attainment of a deity practice, usually in four stages of ever closer relationship with the deity. A simpler understanding of nyenpa (bsnyen pa) is the amount of mantra recitation necessary to accomplish or complete (sgrub) the practice. This is generally meant to be done in an uninterrupted retreat, and this text may be considered a retreat manual.

The ultimate source is, again, Jewel Ocean Tantra, and a commentary by Bodhisattva Lodrö Rinchen that is alluded to, though not located. Lodrö Rinchen would be Ratnamati in Sanskrit, but though clearly he is an Indian, this Tibetan translation of a name is always used. A little more traceable is Khyungpo Naljor’s connection, which, as mentioned before, was transmitted to him by Niguma and again by Vajrāsana. Kongtrul refers to Khyungpo Naljor’s root source text, which appears in the Shangpa texts under the title Five Tantras’ Direct Realization and Tormas. This is a concise description of the deity visualization in seven-syllable verse. He also cites a passage found only in a similar-sounding title, Five Tantras’ Direct Realization, also attributed to Khyungpo Naljor, which appears to be an expanded prose commentary of the former. The Heart of Profound Meaning seems to be based on these two sources rather than on the Jewel Ocean and Ratnamati texts, to which Kongtrul may not have had access.