Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines
—principles and all inherent natures is emptiness.1 Vajrasattva is emptiness embodied. Vajrasattva, Vajradhara, Vajrapani, and Tathagata are names of that same emptiness. Vajradhara is the guru of all Buddhas.2
The principal support of the human body is the spine, or Mount Meru. Vital wind moves within it through three channels. From the left nostril runs the wind-bearing channel called Lalana, and from the right the channel called Rasana. The former is wisdom and moon; the latter skilful means and sun. Wisdom and means correspond to the Nath tradition's powers of will and action. The middle channel, Avadhuti, corresponds to the Naths' suṣumṇā.
When vital wind ascends through this channel, awareness of object and subject ceases. Avadhuti is therefore said to be free of object and subject.3
At the summit of Mount Meru stands the abode of great bliss, where there is a sixty-four-petalled lotus. It rests upon four stalks; each stalk has four stages, and each stage four petals. The lotus thus has sixty-four petals: four by four by four. There the Vajradhara yogi enjoys the lotus as a bee enjoys a fully opened flower.
The petals upon the four stalks are the abodes of emptiness, extreme emptiness, great emptiness, and total emptiness. This is called the uṣṇīṣa lotus. Here is the summit of mighty Mount Meru, called Mount Jalandhara and formed as the network of Dakinis; here lies the abode of great bliss.4 Upon reaching this summit—
Footnotes
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Guḍe madhuratā cāgner uṣṇatvaṃ prakṛtir yathā / śūnyatā sarva-dharmāṇāṃ tathā prakṛtir iṣyate //—“As sweetness is the nature of jaggery and heat the nature of fire, emptiness is held to be the nature of all principles.” ↩
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For further detail, see Bhadanta Shanti Bhikshu's article in Viśva-Bhāratī Patrikā, vol. 4, no. 1. ↩
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Saroruhapada says: Lalanā prajñā-svabhāvena rasanopāya-saṃsthitā / avadhūtī madhya-deśe tu grāhya-grāhaka-varjitā //—“Lalana has the nature of wisdom and Rasana is established as skilful means. Avadhuti in the middle region is free from object and subject.” Compare Bauddha Gāna o Dohā, p. 124. ↩
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The cited commentary explains that four sets of petals resting upon four stalks correspond to emptiness, extreme emptiness, great emptiness, and total emptiness. Because great bliss dwells there, it is the abode of great bliss; it is the uṣṇīṣa lotus, the dwelling of all forms of emptiness, the Dakini network, and the summit of Mount Meru called Jalandhara. Bauddha Gāna o Dohā, p. 124. ↩