Gdams ngag mdzod Shechen Printing/Volume 11/Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara

Introduction

Cakrasaṃvara practices derive ultimately from the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, also called The Great Sovereign of Yoginī Tantras Called the Glorious Cakrasaṃvara (Śrīcakrasaṃvara-nāma-mahāyoginī-tantrarājā). As the full title indicates, it is one of the most important tantras in the Indian classification of Yoginī Tantras (along with the Hevajra Tantra), corresponding to the Tibetan classification of mother tantras (ma rgyud) within the broader category of highest yoga tantra. The so-called root tantra is said to be an appendix of a mythic root text that was an enormous work of one hundred thousand or even three hundred thousand verses, which would make this extant tantra a tiny fraction of the original. It is therefore best known in its current form as Cakrasaṃvara Tantra: The Short One (Laghusaṃvara). But this is compensated for by at least nine major explanatory tantras and hundreds of commentaries. The following overview from David Gray’s introduction to the tantra provides some background:

The texts and practices associated with the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra collectively constitute one of the most important contemporary traditions of esoteric or tantric Buddhism, still practiced in distinct lineage traditions by Nevārī Buddhists in Nepal as well as by Tibetan Buddhists of three of the four major schools, namely the Sa-skya, bKa’-brgyud, and dGel-lugs. It was also evidently quite popular in India, at least in Northern India during the late tenth through late thirteenth centuries when the second transmission of Buddhism to Tibet took place, as is attested by the hundreds of texts associated with the Cakrasaṃvara tradition that were translated into Tibetan during this time.

In the Shangpa tradition, the practice was introduced early on by Niguma herself and received by Khyungpo Naljor. There are two texts attributed directly to Niguma found in the Peking Tengyur: an empowerment text called Mandala Ritual of Glorious Cakrasaṃvara and a sadhāna, Swift Accomplishment of Glorious Cakrasaṃvara. In the colophon of the former, the two usual unavailable sources are mentioned: Jewel Ocean Tantra, the source of so much Shangpa material and yet never translated into Tibetan, and Ocean of Vows Tantra. Khyungpo Naljor recorded the two Niguma texts based on her transmissions in his biography of the completion phase of the Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara. According to Tāranātha, he was also initiated into that and the sixty-two-deity and thirteen-deity Cakrasaṃvara mandalas at that time, along with many tantras and sādhanas.

The name Cakrasaṃvara is represented in Tibetan either as Khorlo Dompa (’khor lo sdom pa, “Binder of the Wheels”) or Khorlo Demchok (’khor lo bde mchog, “Supreme Bliss Wheel”), popularly known simply as Demchok. “Binder of the Wheels” refers to the process of meditation in which the visualization of the central mandala of Cakrasaṃvara and Vajravārāhī with the four ḍākinīs is further surrounded by three concentric wheels or mandalas representing awakened body, speech, and mind. Cakrasaṃvara practice binds the wheels of the network of the ḍākinīs in this triple-wheel configuration, and simultaneously controls the chakra wheels within one’s subtle energy body. These elements can be seen clearly in the two Niguma texts, which emphasize completion phase. Supreme Bliss, then, expresses the experience felt as a result of those practices.

As is often the case, the ancient source texts are not the ones employed in practice. Rather, the collection here by Tāranātha and Jamgön Kongtrul or those by Tangtong Gyalpo are utilized. All Shangpa practices require the serious practitioner to first receive a major empowerment, either the Five Tantras’ Deities or Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara. One of each was included in the original Treasury of Precious Instructions, as well as in the series of “Ten Permissions” by Losal Tenkyong found later in this volume. There is a detailed discussion in Tāranātha’s commentary known as Tangdalma on some problematic issues with the main Cakrasaṃvara empowerment, and why the intended custom is often not maintained. Nevertheless, Cakrasaṃvara remains the primary tantric deity in almost all Shangpa practice, including even the Five Tantras’ Deities, even though the texts in the previous section describe Hevajra as the principal figure. As Tāranātha states, “The practice of the lineage since the time of the incomparable Rinchen Tsöndru (Khyungpo Naljor) has been to meditate on Coemergent Cakrasaṃvara.”

Therefore, Tāranātha was diligent in composing the necessary texts on Cakrasaṃvara. Jamgön Kongtrul added some edits and liturgies to those texts wherever he felt it was needed. The first brief text here provides necessary liturgies from the lineage for going for refuge, arousing the awakening mind, and consecrating the activity vase that is used throughout the empowerment. It is not signed, so its authorship is uncertain.

Tāranātha’s short means of accomplishing the practice, Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara Sādhana in the Tradition of Niguma, provides the basic visualization practice. It also includes the famous eight-line Sanskrit praises to both Cakrasaṃvara and Vajravārāhī from the original tantra that one finds reproduced in so many of the practices. And though the sadhāna is rather short, Tāranātha generously describes how to expand it with more liturgy. His empowerment ritual, Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara Mandala Ritual in the Tradition of Niguma, is rather extensive and loaded with beautiful praises and lineage prayers. It would be lovely to include those in one’s practice of the sadhāna. The mandala ritual includes all the necessary parts for a full four-part highest yoga tantra empowerment, and it draws on the sadhāna for some of the liturgy. So once again, a talented preceptor with a good memory or a good assistant would be required to fill in the appropriate parts in order to confer the empowerment.

The next text, Increasing Awakened Activity, is a liturgy for a communal feast or gaṇacakra in connection with Cakrasaṃvara, either added to the sadhāna or after the empowerment, or as a stand-alone practice. The colophon cites no fewer than five would-be authors, with Guṇa ( Jamgön Kongtrul) being the editor-in-chief and having the last say. It also contains some beautiful offering liturgies and lineage supplications.

Finally, the masterpiece is Jonang Tāranātha’s Clarifying the Profound Meaning. Many texts carry similar titles, but in this case it is actually true. This is an extensive commentary on the sadhāna, both expanding and expounding on all the sections as well as commenting on specific phrases. No practitioner should attempt the practice without this. If there is one text to study in this collection, it is this one.

The detailed outline has been extracted and added to the beginning for convenience.