A Prayer Wheel Containing All Scriptures

Yet another interesting non-Vajra Recitation post. Someone asked me how should a prayer wheel that would contain all the scriptures be designed. I thought for a while and came up with a design idea.

Since it's quite implausible to gather all the scriptures and sacred texts of Buddhism from all traditions into a single prayer wheel or a set of prayer wheels due to constraints of physical resources and maybe technology as well, I have thought of a simple way around it that would allow traditional prayer wheel of all shapes and sizes to contain the essence of all scriptures, sacred texts and meanings of Buddhism into a small package.

The seed syllable of AH represents the enlightened mind in it's primordial state and represents Prajnaparamita which is the manifestation of all the Buddha's wisdom mind. It is from this wisdom mind of all Buddhas that all the different methods and skillful means are developed to train the minds of all beings of the six samsaric realms.

All scriptures and sacred texts are the written or oral form of these skillful means and methods in an attempt to liberate all sentient beings who possess different afflictions and different karmic conditions. The AH syllable which is the Mother of All Buddhas in the personified form of the Buddha Mother Prajnaparamita and the essence of Vajrayogini herself is the one single syllable that reveals the unnoticed Buddha's wisdom mind in oneself and others and the source of all sutras, tantras and sacred works.

If one wants to condense all the sutras, tantras and sacred works of the three times into the scrolls of prayer wheels or onto the prayer wheels as decoration, it would be this AH syllable that will represent it.

One could draw the AH syllable within a beautiful candle flame surrounded by a rainbow halo which represents the mind's nature.

So, the answer to a prayer wheel containing all these sacred works is the printing and decorating of the AH syllable.

Machig Labdron's Chod Offering Chant - Offering the Three Gestures

This post will be an off-topic post that is not related to Vajra Recitations. In fact, this post will be related to Chod practice. My heart have an unusually strong resonance to this particular vajra chant of Chod. I personally believe that practicing this simple chant by repeating it with mindfully and wholeheartedly even for a single repetition would help one's progress on purifying one's mind and karma and eventually see the clear light of the mind when there are no more obscurations.

The wholehearted repetition of such powerful chants and songs that clears away one's ego would allow the mind to quickly rest in it's own nature and with little hindrances in place, one could more effectively focus on one's practice (e.g. the Vajra Recitation).

The result of a clearer and settled mind in regards to the Vajra Recitation is that the channels appear to be clearer to the mind's eye without much effort and the fire would burn brighter with more vigour.

Below is the Chod Offering Chant:

TONG SUM RAB JAM JIG TEN THAM CHE DU / ZUG SU NANG WA THAM CHE KÜN
/ KU CHOGCHAG GYA'I CHÖ PA BÜL / KU GYUR BA ME PA'I NGÖ DRUB TSÖL

All forms appearing in the vast three thousand worlds I offer as the supreme mudra of body. Please grant the siddhi of unchanging form.

TONG SUM RAB JAM JIG TEN THAM CHE DU / DRA RU DRAG PA THAM CHE KÜN/ SUNGCHOG CHAG GYA'I CHÖ PA BÜL / SUNG GAG PA ME PA'I NGÖ DRUB TSÖL

All sound, and sources of sound, appearing in the vast three thousand worlds. I offer as the supreme mudra of speech. Please grant the siddhi of unimpeded speech.

TONG SUM RAB JAM JIG TEN THAM CHE DU / YI CHYI DREN TOG THAM CHE KÜN/ THUGCHOG CHAG GYA'I CHÖ PA BÜL / THUG THRÜL PA ME PA'I NGÖ DRUB TSÖL

All the mind’s discursive thought in the vast three thousand worlds. I offer as the supreme mudra of mind. Please grant the siddhi of undeluded mind.

TONG SUM RAB JAM JIG TEN THAM CHE DU / DE DANG DUG NGEL THAM CHE KÜN / TA ZHICHAG GYA'I CHÖ PA BÜL / DE NA DE WA TSHOG SU NGO/

All happiness and suffering in the vast three thousand worlds. I offer as the mudra of auspiciousness. May all the sky be pervaded by great bliss

DE WA CHEN PÖ NAM KHA CHYAB PAR SHOG / DUG NA DUG NGEL DAG GI KHUR/ KHORWA DUG NGEL GYI GYA TSHO KEM PAR SHOG /

If suffering, I bear the suffering of all beings. May the ocean of samsara’s suffering dry up.

I am not the most skilled in explaining profound concepts but here's my take. This chant is simply reminding you the empty nature of all things, to lay down one's ego by offering all that is good and to take on all that is not good. Ego is always a huge hindrance in any kinds of mundane or spiritual activity.

The ability to offer the three thousand worlds is actually something innate within us. We are no different to anything and we are everything. If the true nature of the mind is so huge, what can we not manifest and offer ? Since all phenomena are just perceptions and are the subject of the mind, thus all these phenomena of the three thousand worlds can easily be manifested by the mind. That is how great and limitless one's mind actually is.

If the mind is so huge, one's mind can create infinite amount of possibilities. We can create all the sufferings and happiness in the world with a single thought. By actively offering all the happiness one can imagine, wouldn't it become a chain reaction for the cause of bringing more happiness ? 

By the thought of taking on all sufferings of the world, instead of rejecting suffering, one acknowledges it exists, one takes suffering into oneself and wish happiness for everyone including oneself but what would happen to oneself if one takes on all the suffering of the world ? One should not become miserable and think oneself as pitiful to take on all the pain of others. One should think that the taking on of all sufferings of the world is to start a conscious chain reaction of wishing happiness to everyone and to make one mindful of not creating anymore sufferings of others.

Because the essential nature of suffering does not truely have a basis (suffering is empty in nature) and as I have said above, all the sufferings are the creation of the mind and the mind's nature is enlightened in essence, your partaking of everyone's suffering is like breathing, it just happens without much worries whether one would become sick if one takes on the suffering of others as suffering is empty and your empty nature dissolves it.

By practicing this offering chant, one's grasping ego would be lessened and finally dissolved into the nature of one's mind.

Offering Chant source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/93037840/Offering-Chant

Watching the fire

I noticed that it's quite soothing to put the mind at the navel's fire and watch it while at the same time not forgetting about the three channels. A mental peace and mindfulness would begin to develop when I simply place my attention at the navel's fire and also the three channels (with more emphasis on the central channel). For simplicity's sake and easy of executing, I don't usually think of the three channels when putting my attention at the navel's fire. I would simply think of the central channel and the fire to keep everything simple because I am still a beginner.

Whenever I think of the central channel and the fire, my tensions and discursive thoughts in my mind would fade away and become very quiet and blissful.

It's not easy to go around daily life trying to do Vajra Recitation at every waking moment so I decided to simply habituate my thoughts on the central channel and the navel's fire to make myself familiarize with them which would actually make the Vajra Recitation practice easier due to your mind becoming more familiar with the channels and flame.

Properties of the Fire at the Navel

Here is what the Fire at the Navel meant in regards to the Om Ah Hung Vajra Recitation practice:

The above image is taken from H.E. Garchen Rinpoche's Facebook page. Do note that Rinpoche doesn't personally manage the page. His staff manages the page for him. The above image is taken from this page:

• https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=398579093598897&set=a.130378693752273.21343.100003404294928&type=1&theater

Reciting Om and Ah with irregular variations

Recently, when I am reciting the Om while taking in a breath, I noticed that the Om recitation that I do mentally would be of irregular length and duration. I may be reciting the Om when I just breathed in, when I am breathing in half way or when the wind have already reached the navel just about to enter the central channel. The Om recitation can be long or short in length.

The Ah recitation can be a long Ahhhhhh or a short Ah.

I personally feel that the Ah should be a short Ah but my mind keeps following the breath instead of focusing on the flame at the navel therefore causing the Ah to be long. If the mind is transfixed onto the flame, one will have more awareness and mindfulness and the Ah will be short.

The vajra recitation practice is slowly being integrated into my life and I am getting better at it.

I just need to remind myself to constantly habituate my thoughts on the flame and recite the syllables at the right time. I have been experiencing heat (not the blissful heat of tummo) arising more frequently. I maybe able to summon this non-blissful heat sometimes to warm myself up temporarily.

The Vajra Recitation (Om Ah Hung Breathing)

I have recently been introduced into the Vajra Recitation method by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche during a short personal consultation session where he gave me a quick teaching on the Vajra Recitation and suggested I should practice it frequently together with other practices he prescribed.

Essentially, the Vajra Recitation is a method that brings the winds (energy) into the central channel which will result in a blissful sensation when successfully executed after a while of practice.

I will attempt to summarize the practice of the Vajra Recitation into a single format while referring to three sources I have found online for Vajra Recitations method description which are all given by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche himself during various seminars and short teachings. There are other sources regarding Vajra Recitation and a lot of these sources originates from H.E. Garchen Rincpoche's teachings. The attempt to unify all the sources is to allow beginners to have a consistent and uniform piece of practice that the practitioner can utilize.

Sources:

1. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=404959232886854&p=0
   
2. https://www.facebook.com/garcheninstitute/posts/468999119816198
   
3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/97588236/Garchen-Rinpoche-Vajra-Recitation

Executing the Vajra Recitation:

1. Get into a comfortable position with a straight spine while binding the lower wind upwards and pressing the upper wind downwards (Union of the Winds) called the Vase Breathing by gently squeezing the anus.
   
2. Settling the mind at the navel and visualizing a flame the size of a lentil seed and also think of the three channels. (The mind should be pinned onto the flame all the time with 70% of the focus on the fire and 30% of the focus on the wind.)
   
3. Breath in while reciting OM mentally. The wind you breathed in flows into the left and right channel, descending to the junction point where the three channels meet just below the navel and enters the middle channel while slightly fanning the flame (the flame becomes brighter and hotter).
   
4. Once the wind has entered the middle channel (do not need to direct the wind consciously into the channels) hold the breath while mentally reciting AH and observing the nature of the mind while keeping your mind on the flame. Hold the breath within a comfortable time frame.
   
5. Breath out while mentally reciting HUNG. The wind reverses by traversing the left and right channel to both nostrils to be breathed out.

Notes:

1. As H.E. Garchen Rinpoche described in the above sources, one can visualize or do not visualize the channels and that is up to one's choice. The exact locations of the channels are immaterial and cannot be found in the physical body thus one does not need to be totally exact of their locations. One just needs a rough idea to be able to execute this practice.
   
2. Heat arising from the above practice should be blissful. Heat that arises immediately is usually unstable and unreliable.

That's all for the practice on the Vajra Recitation (Om Ah Hung Breathing) as summarized from the three sources above.

If there are any mistakes in the above practice I have consolidated from multiple sources, do email me (usnisasitatara@gmail.com).

Reason I create this post

Vajra recitation is one of the "simplest" looking practices related to Tibetan Tsalung tantra and yet there are a few variations (even from the same sources). The reason I created this blog-diary is an attempt to document my research on the Vajra Recitation practice and to use this blog as a diary to store my experiences while attempting to master this particular Tsalung technique - the Vajra Recitation.

For those who have no prior knowledge of the Tibetan's style of energy system (Wind, Channels & Drops), please read them up and approach an authentic Tibetan practitioner (who is able to name his root guru or tsawai lama and the lineage he belongs to) for a beginner's course on the energy systems that the Tibetans use.

Please always seek advise and confirmation (if you have a lama / guru / vajra siblings) who have the knowledge whenever the need arises or when changes manifest during your practice of Vajra Recitation since this stuff meddles with one's innate energy system and can be complex and confusing at times.