Sun, 01 Jun 2008
The Four Empowerments
As I've mentioned, the Spring Retreat is currently underway in Frederick at the Tibetan Meditation Center. Sometimes when I listen to a teaching, I get the feeling that it's meant especially for me. I know that I'm not the only one who has had this feeling, as other people have told me in the past that they've felt the same way. I'm going to include several excerpts from Khenpo Tsultrim that I found helpful. Khenpo Tsultrim is a real treasure and the Tibetan Meditation Center is lucky to have him. Here's the first excerpt, an explanation of the four empowerments.
To enter the practice of tantra the ripening empowerment and actualizing instructions in practice are required. It is not allowed to practice without an empowerment. You cannot achieve realization without empowerment. It is like playing a fiddle without strings or trying to squeeze oil out of sand. To enthrone someone as king, the king must have a royal lineage. And achieving enlightenment is only possible because we have the tathagatagarbha. The wisdom of the four empowers are intrinsic in us. To make them manifest we need the ripening empowerment and the actualizing instruction. A tantra says sentient beings possess buddha nature, the mind whose nature is clear light. But without the empowerment it cannot be made manifest. Empowerment transforms what is impure to purity. It ripens what is unripe. The real empowerment is not the ceremony, but the meaning. Abhisheka, the Sanskrit for empowerment, has the meaning of cleaning impurities and receiving wisdom.
When you receive the vase empowerment, you are authorized to visualize the body as a deity. In the secret empowerment you are authorized to practice the winds and channels. The wisdom empowerment authorizes you to meditate on the union of bliss and emptiness. The word, or fourth empowerment authorizes you to meditate on the union of clarity and emptiness.
There are four empowerments because there are four impurities to be purified. To purify physical impurities, there is the vase empowerment. To purify speech, which is an aspect of wind, there is the secret empowerment. The purify the ordinary drops, or bindu, there is the wisdom empowerment. To purify the mind, there is the fourth empowerment. Relative bindu is purified by the the third empowerment and ultimate bindu is purified by the fourth empowerment. In the jenang empowerment, the third and fourth empowerment are combined into a single empowerment.
So the vase empowerment should purify your perception of yourself and others. That is the most important aspect of the vase empowerment. But the other aspects of the visualization are also helpful as they are part of the method aspect of the path. Without first receiving the vase empowerment you cannot receive the other empowerments, as it purifies the body. Without it, the experience of bliss would not be possible. The secret empowerment purifies one's speech. All sounds are heard as echoes or mantras. The recitation of mantra works because you hold his pure view of speech. All sounds are transformed into vajra speech. The secret empowerment purifies one's subtle energy, which makes the practice of tummo possible. One can practice tummo and through the generation of the four joys, realize the union of bliss and emptiness. This makes you ready for the third empowerment, which is the control of the drops. This is the conveyance of the example wisdom which is actualized through the fourth empowerment. Through the fourth empowerment you are introduced to what mahamudra calls the ordinary mind and dzogchen calls pristine awareness. This is the mind that is not the result of contrivance. The empowerments purify one's channels, winds, and drops. This transforms the ordinary perception of body, speech, and mind into pure perception. This actualizes the three bodies of a buddha. So empowerment introduces you to the three bodies, which are innately yours.
