Willing to Transmit the Secret Kalachakra Practice to All Students Who Are Righteous Vessels

願傳時輪金剛祕密法給所有正器的弟子

Grand Master Lu's Dharma Talk at the Kalachakra Homa ceremony, to transmit the Genuine Kalachakra Vajrakila Tantra at Rainbow Villa (before it was re-named the Rainbow Temple) on September 9, 2007

(Translator's note: vajrakila could also be translated as "vajra dagger" which is a Vajrayana ceremonial implement)

Homage to Reverend Liao Ming, Vajra Acharya Sakya Zheng-kong, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa, Vajra Acharya Thubten Dargye, and all vajra acharyas who have given me empowerments.

Homage to the Principal Deity of the shrine mandala, Kalachakra Heruka, the multitude of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, herukas, dharmapalas, dakas and dakinis, and devas.

Fellow vajra acharyas, senior reverends, reverends, dharma assistants, fellow school members, honored guests, good afternoon (applause).

As soon as I sat down to perform the homa ceremony that just concluded, Kalachakra Heruka descended from emptiness and we became one being immediately. It was like I was not the one who was performing the homa. It was Kalachakra himself performing the homa. Additionally, Yamantaka, Acala, Hayagriva, all the five Vidyarajas of Hevajra, Chakrasamvara, Kalachakra, Yamantaka, and Guhyasamaja and their mandala all appeared during the homa ceremony. So, this homa was very special. At one moment, I felt very relax, and another moment, I felt very solemn. My entire body was transforming again and again. This homa was completely performed by these herukas. So, this homa was very extraordinary. I hope that everyone's hopes and wishes are fulfilled. (applause).

After completing the Amitabha Buddha Deliverance ceremony and giving out empowerment yesterday afternoon at the Seattle Lei Zang Temple, I went to my personal room in the True Buddha Tantric Quarter for a session of sitting mediation. While I was in samadhi, a very solemn pure white dakini wearing white celestial garments took me to a celestial palace. She told me that this pristine, radiant, and magnificent palace is the residence of vow-guarding dharma protector. At the time, I felt uncomfortable entering such a pristine palace because my feet hadn't been washed and my sandals were very dirty. But, the vow-guarding dakinis assured me that it would be okay and to go right on in. Several dakinis came and took my sandals away for cleansing. The dakinis also held my feet and washed it as well. Then, the vow-guarding deity appeared. He told me that I had vowed to transmit the sadhana which I was going to transmit the next day only on a one-to-one basis. Now, we have washed away the dirt, symbolizing that you are released from that past vow. So, you can transmit this practice tomorrow. When I emerged from samadhi, the dakinis had left. She accompanied me back to my private meditation room and left. Hence, I am able to transmit this practice today (audience applause).

One time, my Guru had taken me into a very private room that was completely hidden away. He gave me the secret instructions of the practice face-to-face. After finishing the instructions, he asked me to take an oath that I would only transmit this practice to those students with sufficiently advanced capacities. Also, I was only allowed to transmit this practice on a one-to-one basis and cannot transmit it publicly. I replied, "Okay!" Once I said, "Okay," that was equivalent to taking the oath. So, if I was not released from that oath, I cannot transmit this practice to a mass audience or I would have violated my oath. So, today, the humble monk Sheng-yen Lu from Taiwan is seeking understanding and forgiveness from all my past Gurus whom I have taken oaths under (audience applause).

The humble monk Sheng-yen Lu from Taiwan does not want to violate his oath. But this practice is extremely important, so I am willing to reveal this secret practice to all students who are good vessels (applause). I seek forgiveness from all vajra acharyas, dharma protectors, and principal deities. Please allow me to teach this practice. I hope everyone treasures this practice and holds it in high regard. You must receive empowerment from Grandmaster Lu personally before the Kalachakra shrine, only then will your cultivation yield results. If you did not receive the empowerment, if you cultivate this practice on your own without proper empowerment, then that is stealing the dharma. This authentic Vajrakila practice is in the category of secret practice. It can easily enable the cultivator to generate spiritual power. It was because I cultivated this practice, I was able to achieve siddhi in my cultivations and transmit the Dharma to so many sentient beings, and to propagate the Dharma so widely. This is how I was able to achieve siddhi in such a short time. If you want to achieve Buddhahood and rescue sentient beings, then you must learn this practice.

The shrine for Kalachakra Vajrakila needs to have offerings of flower, incense, light, tea, and fruits

Generally, there are several varieties of vajrakila. You must have a vajrakila to apply this practice, so you must have a vajrakila when cultivating this practice. The main face on the Kalachakra vajrakila is black. The other faces can be red, white, blue, etc. If the main face of your vajrakila is not black, you have to paint it black. If you don't want to paint the main face of vajrakila black, you can also visualize it as black.

Now, I will explain how to set up the shrine. Kalachakra is the five great elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. On the shrine, there is Mount Sumeru. Above Mount Sumeru are the twenty-eight heavens. The highest of the twenty-eight heavens is Mahesvara heaven. On Mahesvara heaven, there is a large black lotus flower. Inside the heart of the black lotus flower, there is the sun and moon disc. Kalachakra is standing above them.

You don't have to setup the shrine like this, but you must visualize according to this instruction. Visualize the earth, water, fire, wind, space, Mount Sumeru, twenty-eight heavens, Mahesvara heaven, the black lotus flower, sun and moon disc with Kalachakra standing above it. You can visualize him just having one black face, with both arms crossed, holding a vajra in one hand and a vajra bell in the other. One of his feet stands on the sun disc and the other foot is on the moon disc. His upper body is black or you can visualize it as blue. On his lower body, one of his legs is red and the other one is white. His feet stomp down on multitudes of gods and ghosts. The vajrakila must be inserted into a pile of rice before the shrine. The pile of rice should be surrounded in a circle with vajra sand. In the center of the pile of rice, it should be covered with white color sand; to the East of the pile of rice, the section of the circle is covered with yellow vajra sand; to the West, the section of the circle is covered with red vajra sand; to the North, the section of the circle is covered with black vajra sand; and to the South, the section of the circle is covered with green vajra sand. With the center as white, place the black, yellow, red, and green vajra sands in the four directions of the circle. Use a compass to find the four directions with respect to your shrine and place the sands accordingly in these four directions. Find the Eastern side of your shrine, and put down the yellow vajra sand; find the Western side, and put down the red vajra sand; find the Northern side, and put down the black vajra sand; find the Southern side, and put down the green vajra sand. The vajrakila is inserted in a bowl of rice, and the four sides are covered with vajra sands.

Next, use flowers to form a second concentric circle around the pile of rice and vajra sands. It doesn't matter what color the flowers are. Then, form another concentric circle with the incense. Then, form another concentric circle with lights. In the old days, they used a circle of oil lamps. Today, you can just go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of small light bulbs. Then, use the light bulbs to form a cirlce Find a way to arrange the light bulbs into a circle. Next, we come to the tea. Use the finest tea that you can buy and form a concentric circle. The last concentric circle is fruits. If you wish to request for wealth or enrichment, use yellow fruits. If you are performing subjugation, use black fruits. If you want to request magnetization, use red fruits. If you want to gain dharma jewels, then use green fruits. Does the offering need to be changed? Yes, the fruits need to be changed. If the flowers are wilting, you need to change that as well. The others don't need to be changed. This shrine needs to have flowers, incense, lights, tea, and fruits forming five concentric circles like a lotus flower. This forms the basic shrine.

To achieve success in cultivation you need to forge affinity Padmasambhava had cultivated in a Sitavana.

When Padmasambhava Mahasattva was mastering Vajrayana practices, he preferred to cultivate in sitavanas. What are sitavanas? They are cremation grounds or what we might regard as cemeteries. Has Grandmaster cultivated practices in graveyards before? If you paid attention when reading my early books, I had revealed that I had cultivated in graveyards before. The location was the large burial site near Tainan's Chihshanyan, in Taiwan. You must be wondering, "Why isn't Grandmaster afraid of ghosts?" What is there to be afraid of?! Ghosts are just a transformation of people. Why should you be afraid of them? Don't be afraid! Ghosts are everywhere. You just can't see them, that's all. In fact, you live amongst them everyday. You don't need to be afraid of the dark nor do you need to fear ghosts.

In the past, ghosts have tried to scare me. One ghost patted me on my shoulder and said "Hi! You see my tongue. You see how long [it is]." I was very calm and seized its tongue with my hand. I said, "This tongue is perfect for making ghost tongue soup." Then, that ghost vanished. If you are not afraid of it and want to cook a bowl of ghost tongue soup, it will run from you. Don't be afraid of the dark or graveyards. Don't be afraid of ghosts. Grandmaster is an expert at catching ghosts. When I was young, I set up a very simple vajrakila shrine in the large cemetery behind Chihshanyan at Tainan. To attain signs of accomplishment of accomplishment in this practice, to cultivate this practice to accomplishment, it require five major elements. Just now, I mentioned the basic preparation material of rice, vajrakila, four colors of vajra sands, and then white sands in the middle, for a total of five different colors. Then, we use flower, incense, lamps, tea, fruits to setup up a simplified shrine. But, my guru called me into his private meditation room instructing how to obtained five key elements needed to cultivate vajrakila practice. I will reveal three of the five keye elements. The last two elements will be revealed in Malaysia.

How did Guru Padmasambhava cultivate practices in the Eight Charnel Grounds? The dharma throne that he used was a pile of corpses. It is not like the dignified and wonderful dharma throne depicted in paintings. His throne was just a pile of human corpses with him seated on top. That was Guru Padmasambhava's throne. He ate the leftovers from the offerings the deceased's families made to the dead. His clothing was cloth that was used to wrap-up dead bodies. His walking staff, the one that he used in the Eight Great Charnel Grounds, is called khatvanga (a Vajrayana staff). It is a trident with three skulls on top. It is made up entirely of human bones. Why did he have to do this? This is because in order to achieve siddhi, your entire body has to be full of spiritual energy. This spiritual energy comes from forging affinity.

(Culture Note: In India, the custom is to cremate the remains and the area where bodies are cremeated are called charnel grounds. There were Eight Great Charnel Grounds where many yogic adepts stayed at to cultivate.)

Seriously, when you are cultivating this practice, you should eat a normal diet. I am not telling you to go scavenging for offering buns at a cemetery! In America, this kind of situation doesn't exist. American cemeteries are kept very clean and neat. There is a joke that goes like this: A Westerner poked fun at Asians for making offerings to their ancestors. He asked, "You put out bowls and bowls of chicken, duck, and the deceased's other favorite dishes as offering. Is it possible that the deceased would get up and eat this meal?" Actually, Westerners do the same thing. They customarily bring flowers to pay respect to their dead. Perhaps, we should ask them if the deceased would get up and enjoy these flowers? They should not laugh at us as they are doing the same thing too.

In Asia, we view food as a very important resource. All those offerings of food must be eaten and not be wasted. Westerners like to admire flowers. On Valentine's Day, they use flowers to express their love. Asians would invite the person out for a meal, or perhaps the second person treats the first person to a meal. Asian diplomacy or socializing often involves eating, inviting you out for a meal and all the business is conducted during dining and drinking. Westerners are a bit different. They would discuss business while they play golf.

If the tea that you offered is brewed tea, you have to drink it. If you make a fruit offering and there are a lot of fruits, you have to eat some of the fruits before you replace it. Other people can help you eat the extra fruits, but you must eat some of them yourself. If you only offer dry tea leaves that are not brewed, then you don't need to drink it. I am not asking you to eat dry tea leafs, but if you brew the tea, you have to drink it.

When Padmasambhava was cultivating at charnel grounds, he would only eat the bread and other food that were left from offerings to the deceased. Why did he only eat that food? This is because by eating that food, you forge affinity with the spirits, and then the spiritual energy in your body will increase. So, you have to understand the principle behind these practices. If you are only cultivating at home, you have to emulate Padmasambhava and eat the offerings you make to Kalachakra. You don't have to eat all of it. If you have a lot of fruit offerings, you just have to eat some of it. But every time you change fruits, you have to eat some. If you offer brewed tea, you have to drink them. This is an important insight. This is an extremely important aspect of the practice. This consumption increases your spiritual energy.

Setting up the Shrine Requires Human Bones, Charcoal from a Cemetery, and Yellow Tree Sap.

There are five items that you must obtain for this practice. The first item is white. Don't get scared. You have to get white-colored human bone and grind it into powder. If you can't grind it into powder, take it to a traditional Chinese medicine shop and ask them grind it into powder for you. The first item is human bone powder. You have to sprinkle it around the vajrakila. This vajrakila cannot be just nonchalantly inserted into the pile of rice. You have to rinse it with holy nectar or Great Compassion Dharani holy water. This first item is difficult to obtain. Where can you get human bone? It is actually pretty easy. Many of you have mala beads made out of human bones. Many of the Tibetan Vajrayana dharma implements are made out of human bones. Grandmaster has some of these implements. I have implements made from every bone in the human body, from the human skull to the feet bone. If I were to perform the greatest dharma ritual, I would wear all the human bone implements. There are the five skulls, five skull crowns, then the fifty-five skulls mala beads, my body would be covered with dharma implements made from human bones, hand bones, vertebrae columns, ribs, foot bones, ankle bones. If you are performing a great practice, this is how it is done. So, human bone is really easy to obtain. If you have one of those 108 beads bone mala, just give one to a fellow school member. Then, just take it and grind it to powder, then you have what you need! I am not telling you to become a grave robber. That is a criminal offense. Just go to Tibetan Vajrayana dharma implement shops that have human bone mala, or human bone horns [the musical instrument], buy some and grind it into powder and sprinkle it around the vajrakila. This is the first item.

The second item is black. This item is very easy to get. You know that they have cremations in India and Nepal. They put the body on the banks of the Ganges River on a wooden stand and then light it on fire. After the fire has finished burning, go pick up some of that burnt wood ash. In Taiwan, there is this "jian jin" (picking up dead people's bone) ritual. They take out the bones from the coffin and put them into a metal jar. They would put charcoal, black charcoal inside the metal jar. You need to get some of that black charcoal or the blacken ash of the wood used to cremate the dead, that is the second material. Sprinkle some of the black ash on the black vajra sand. In Taiwan, they also put charcoal on the side of the coffins. If you can get some of that kind of charcoal, then that is the best. Grind it into powder and sprinkle some on the black vajra sand.

Then, it is the yellow item. Where do you get the yellow item? It is very easy. Go inspect the trees at a cemetery. See if any of those trees have yellow sap. Use a pocket knife and make a cut on the tree bark. See if it oozes out yellow sap. If it is yellow, then you've found it. If the sap is white like milk, inspect another tree. You are looking for the yellow sap. Amber is one of the seven jewels and eight treasures and it is made of tree sap. But, it might not be from trees at a cemetery. You are looking for yellow tree sap from trees in a cemetery. Look to see if these trees have dried sap around its bark. Find the one with the yellow sap that has dried. Take the dried sap home with you and grind it into powder. Sprinkle it on the yellow vajra sand.

Have you heard of this kind of practice before? (audience response: No!). If you have, please raise your hand. You don't know how useful this practice is. You must have all five items of the five colors. I only revealed three of them today. The last two will be revealed in Malaysia. But you will receive the empowerment for the practice today. Even if you don't go to Malaysia, it is okay. Just buy the DVD for Grandmaster's Malaysia Kalachakra talk. When you have all five items, then you can start cultivating this practice. The simplest way to cultivate this practice is to use five colored chanting beads and join your palms chanting, "Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha, Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha, Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha, Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha, Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha." Just chant like this. Don't give up on this practice no matter how the cultivation is going. Keep performing this practice until you see the vajrakila emit light. When you see light coming out of the vajrakila, congratulations, you have achieved siddhi with this practice.

Grandmaster Stayed in Taiwan for Three Years During His Retreat, All the Hurricanes Changed Directions

Keep chanting. It doesn't matter how many times you have chanted this mantra, the more the better. When you see that the vajrakila is surrounded by fire, that the fire suddenly appeared, congratulations, you have achieved siddhi! (audience applause) If you keep chanting until you see the vajrakila turning into Kalachakra himself before you, then congratulations, you've attained siddhi! After you have achieved siddhi in cultivating this practice, how do you use it? Take a small portion of the yellow vajra sand and put it in a small yellow bag. Keep it in your pocket. Wherever you go, people will be willing to open their pockets for you. (applause) After Grandmaster achieved siddhi in this practice, Grandmaster put some yellow vajra sand in the pocket, and wherever Grandmaster went, people kept giving me money. I kept saying no, no more, yet they kept stuffing my pockets. Grandmaster has never asked for offerings even once in my life; every time it was up to them. Of course, it doesn't mean the monetary aid will only come in the form of people giving you money. When you succeed in this practice, put some of the vajra sand in your wallet, and all the money-making business deals will present themselves. Those money-losing deals will not come your way. If you open a store, just put some of the yellow vajra sand in the store, and your business will flourish beyond your imagination.

You can ask Vajra Acharya Lian-huo about the effect of this practice. There is a student by the name of Zhang Donghai. He owns a stewed-pork-on-rice restaurant. Every time Grandmaster goes to that restaurant, his business on that day will be tripled. When I don't go, his business goes back to normal levels. During the dharma ceremony yesterday, Mr. Sun said that whenever I visit his restaurant, HaiJingLou, the business will increase to several times its normal levels. He found it very strange. Every time it is like this, a lot of calls will come in reserving tables. The place will be jam-packed when I visit. When I don't go for a while, his place won't be packed. This is because all my gurus, principal deities, and dharma protectors are with Grandmaster at all times. The Three Roots are with you all the time. There is not a place that they are not with you. When your guru blesses you, principal deity accepts your invocation, dharma protector supports you, I tell you the truth, when you've attained siddhi in your practice, its effects are unimaginable.

During my retreat, I stayed in Taiwan for three and a half years. The other two and a half years, I was at different parts of the world. When I got off the plane at Taiwan, Typhoon Xangsane just departed. Then, I went into solitary retreat in Taiwan. This is because I grew up in Taiwan. I lived in Kaohsiung and Taichung for about 19 years each. So, that is about thirty eight years all together. Many typhoons hit Taiwan while I was living there in my younger years. While I was staying in Taiwan during the retreat, during those three and a half years, all of the typhoons changed their courses. If it turned north, it headed towards Japan. To the south, it headed towards the Philippines. In these three and a half years, all the typhoons changed directions. As soon as I returned to the US, typhoons hit Taiwan.

Think about it, chant "Om Ha Kamala Walaya, instructing the typhoon to change course, Soha." Then, the typhoon will change directions. "Om Ha Kamala Walaya, ordering the typhoon to change directions, Soha." Those three year and a half years is proof enough of the power of this mantra. That is sufficient. When you achieve yogic union in this practice, you will have the power to change a typhoon's direction. Like Indonesia's Surabaya is spewing volcanic ash non-stop. Chant "Om Ha Kamala Walaya, stop spewing the volcanic ash, Soha." Then, there is a mantra, "Om Ah-Mu, Soha, Om Ah-Mu ordering you to stop spewing volcanic ash, Soha."

You can use one vajrakila as the principle one and insert several vajrakilas to surround it. This way you can avoid losing the principle vajrakila. You can take one of the surrounding vajrakilas and to the volcano, chant the mantra and throw the vajrakila into the volcano. Then, the volcanic ash will stop coming out, and you have saved sentient beings. That's not the only way to use it. You can take the offering fruits and go to Mount Rainier and place these fruits in its cardinal four directions or eight directions. Then, order it to stop rumbling, and it will stop. Or you can place the offering fruits in the eight directions of Mount St. Helens and order it to stop rumbling. Then, it will not erupt. There are many other applications. Like if you are holding the vajrakila and facing a girl, Om Ha Kamala Walaya, ordering so-and-so to ... oh, no, you were slightly off and did not directly face the right girl but faced a rather obese girl. Oh, no, the obese girl will be after you every day... (Grandmaster and audience laugh). Originally, you were going to order the beautiful lady to love you. But, you faced the wrong direction and were facing a fat girl. You are in for it now. So, when you achieved siddhi in this Kalachakra Vajrakila practice, all that you wish for will be fulfilled. Even if there are people who wish to harm you, they would not succeed. Your dharma protector will be by your side. Your Guru and principal deity are seated on top of your head. This practice is truly extremely powerful. This is why my Guru strictly ordered me to only transmit this practice secretly to those students who possessed the right vessel.

When You See the Light, Fire, or the Principal Deity, You Have Achieved Yogic Union.

When you are performing this Kalachakra mantra recitation practice, if you cultivate and see the light, fire, or principal deity, you have achieved yogic union. At that time, if you apply this practice correctly, you will get good results. There was a time, Grandmaster had red vajra sand on me and accidently bumped into an old woman. This old woman immediately took out all the keys to her properties and offered them to Grandmaster. She told me, Grandmaster, this is the key to this-and-this property, and this is the key to that-and-that property. She was very wealthy. She wanted to give me all her keys, credit cards, everything that was valuable on her. She wanted to give them all to me. Then, she started to perm her hair, put on dark eye shadow, swaying her body while walking back and forth in front of me. During this whole time, I wanted to call her grandma! So, this red color vajra sand cannot be put on you nonchalantly. When you achieve accomplishment in this practice, you must remember it can only be used during some critical crisis or important matters. The white color is for pacifying disasters, the yellow vajra sand is for enrichment, the green vajra sand is for gaining dharma treasures, the black color sand is for subjugation, the red color sand is for magnetization. Within these applications are multitude of specific practices. I have only revealed a small portion. I will teach you one suppression mantra. What does suppression mantra mean? If there is an earthquake, you can use it to suppress it. "Om Ha Kamala Walaya, Soha, Om Ah-Mu order this area earthquake to cease, Soha." When there is a fire, use your vajrakila to face the fire, "Om Ha Kamala Walaya, Soha, Om Ah-Mu order the fire to go out, Soha." Suddenly a gust of wind will blow out the fire. If you summon rain, rain will come. Summon the temperature to drop, then the temperature will drop. Ask the wind to cease, and it will cease. Earthquake, fires, floods, order the flood water to quickly recede, and it will recede quickly and completely. Order the wind to change directions, and the wind will change directions. Order wind to come and it will come.

Today, I have revealed three of the five items needed. When you cultivate this vajra recitation method, you can just chant the mantra. "Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha, Om Ha Kamala Walaya Soha." Chant it while facing the shrine. Chant until you see the fire and light, and principal deity appear before you. This is yogic union. The other two items, red and green, I will reveal them in Malaysia. Another issue, I will reveal how to perform some of the application of this practice. I have already given you a general idea. It is like this. Remember, use the cleanest room, purify it with Great Compassion Dharani water. Then, setup the shrine. From now on, only you can enter this room. None of your pets, whether it is a cat, dog, pig, turtle, none of them can go into the room. Also, women who are pregnant cannot go in. Those people who have family that just passed away, they cannot go in for the first forty nine days after their family member's passing. It is absolutely forbidden for women to enter this shrine when they are menstruating. What about female cultivators? You should only go into the shrine when you are not menstruating. If you are near your period, you should not enter the shrine.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Chinese Transcription by Lan He
Translated by Lianhua Zhi-wei 
Edited by Jason Yu

Source: http://www.tbtts.org/translation_work/DT/DT.07.09.09.ENG.html 

Last edited June 11, 2009