Part Two: Ritual Texts Taken from The Innermost Essence of the Master

These texts are principally the rituals for the four special empowerments of the Great Perfection: elaborate, unelaborate, extremely unelaborate, and supremely unelaborate. Composed by Longchen Rabjam, they are taken from The Innermost Essence of the Master of The Four Parts of the Heart Essence but are very similar to the corresponding empowerments contained in The Heart Essence of Vimalamitra. They contain a great deal of explanatory material in the form of rubrics for the rituals and prescribed discourses to be given by the vajra master. Therefore, although as empowerment rituals they are probably of limited use to Western readers, they nevertheless remain extremely interesting on the doctrinal level.

The first, third, and fourth empowerments are each followed by rituals of mandala offering designed to enable students to accumulate the merit necessary for the reception of empowerment. The second empowerment on the other hand is followed by two supplementary texts: a ritual for the “descent of primordial wisdom” and an explanation of the symbolism of the ritual vases used in the empowerment mandala. The entire section concludes with an elaborate gaṇacakra feast offering ritual.