Abhiṣeka

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abhiṣeka (P. abhiseka; T. dbang bskur; C. guanding; J. kanjō; K. kwanjŏng 灌頂). Translated as “empowerment,” “initiation,” etc. A tantric ceremony that empowers a disciple to perform specific tantric practices.

Generally speaking, once a student has requested permission to begin a particular tantric practice and the teacher has consented, the first steps are to receive the appropriate empowerment, reading transmission, and instruction.[1] "These three are known in Tibet as wang, lung, and tri."[1] The empowerment the student receives will depend on the particular practice he or she intends to engage in.[1]

Cortland Dahl and Andreas Doctor state:

In the Buddhist tradition, scripture is typically studied under the guidance of a spiritual teacher. Texts are therefore meant to be accompanied by the oral instructions of a qualified master. This is especially true in the case of the Vajrayana, where the direct guidance of a teacher is considered a mandatory prerequisite to study and practice, along with the preliminary steps of receiving empowerment and reading transmission. Vajrayana literature continually warns against engaging in tantric study and practice without having taken these critical steps.[2]

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche states:

When we go through the initiation process of an empowerment, we become authorized to practice the mandala of a particular deity. This is the traditional way of introducing students to the nature of mind. The deities we are introduced to, however, do not represent external entities but are representations or reflections of the non-conceptual wisdom nature of our own minds. By working with such a reflection through visualization, we are working toward the recognition of our own mind.[3]

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche states:

The most common description of abhisheka is that it is a transfer of power during a ceremony to give recipients the authorization to hear, study and practise the teachings of the vajrayana; we therefore “receive an empowerment.” But the problem is that receiving an empowerment suggests someone is giving us a power we previously lacked, in the same way Queen Elizabeth invests a subject with the title "Night of the Realm," and is a long way away from the true spirit of tantric initiation.
During an initiation we are introduced to an aspect of ourselves that already exists within us but that we have yet to recognize, and it is the activation of this recognition that we call 'empowerment' or 'initiation'. This is the real meaning of abhisheka.[4]

Divisions

Four levels of empowerment within an empowerment ceremony

In general, there are four levels or stages within an empowerment ceremony.[5][6] These stages are commonly referred to as the "four abishekas" (T. dbang bzhi) or the "four empowerments".

The Treasury of Precious Qualities (Vol 1) states:

In general, there are four levels of tantric empowerment.
The first is the Vase Empowerment, which purifies the defilements and obscurations associated with the body, grants the blessings of the vajra body, authorizes the disciples to practice the yogas of the generation stage, and enables them to attain the Nirmanakaya.
The second is the Secret Empowerment. This purifies the defilements and obscurations of the speech faculty, grants the blessings of vajra speech, authorizes disciples to practice the yogas of the perfection stage, and enables them to attain the Sambhogakaya.
The third empowerment is the Wisdom Empowerment. This purifies the defilements and obscurations associated with the mind, grants the blessings of the vajra mind, authorizes disciples to practice the yogas of the “Skillful Path,” and enables them to attain the Dharmakaya.
The final empowerment, which is often simply referred to as the Fourth Initiation, is the Precious Word Empowerment. This purifies the defilements of body, speech, and mind and all karmic and cognitive obscurations; it grants the blessings of primordial wisdom, authorizes disciples to engage in the practice of Dzogchen, and enables them to attain the Svabhavikakaya.[5]

These four types of empowerments are first received from a vajra master in an empowerment ceremony. They can then be visualized by the practitioner as self-empowerments during tantric practice.

Three types of empowerment according to the stages of the path

The three types of empowerments that describe the stages of the path are called the ground, path, and fruition empowerments.

Patrul Rinpoche states:

The empowerment that we receive when we are first introduced into the mandala by an authentic Vajra Master is the ground empowerment.
The fourfold empowerment that we take by ourselves when we practise Guru Yoga, without depending on anyone or anything else, is the path empowerment.
The empowerment that we obtain at the moment of the ultimate fruit, called the "great ray of light empowerment" or the "empowerment of indivisible profundity and radiance," is the fruit empowerment, perfect and total buddhahood.[7]

Dudjom Rinpoche states:

First we have to be admitted to the mandala and given empowerment by a qualified diamond master. This is the ground empowerment. Then, using the Guru Yoga and the mandala of the yidam, we receive the four empowerments by ourselves without depending on other conditions. This is the path empowerment. As the ultimate result, we receive the great rays of light empowerment or empowerment of indivisible profundity and radiance, and we attain Perfect Buddhahood. This is the result empowerment. It is therefore extremely important, on account of its inconceivable and profound significance in purification, completion, and maturation,aa to receive the path empowerment daily.[8]

Tulku Thondup states:[9]

  1. empowerments given to disciples who have not been initiated before are called causal empowerment;
  2. the empowerment given to students for developing their maturation or restoring the broken precepts are classified as empowerment of the path; and
  3. empowerments given to those who are ready to achieve the final attainment and which cause the disciple to attain the ultimate fruition are classified as empowerments of result because they bring the final result.

Samaya

Main article: Samaya

The commitments that are conferred when a disciple receives in an empowerment (abhiṣeka) are referred to as samaya, samaya vows, tantric vows, etc.

Jamgön Kongtrül states:

Though your stream-of-being has been ripened by empowerment, this samaya is the life-force that preserves the nature of that empowerment within your being.
That is to say, you obtain the samaya vows and precepts simply by having had empowerment conferred, and therefore must carefully maintain them.[10]

The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text states:

The samaya vows are the life-force of empowerment.
With the pledge to not transgress the discipline of mantra,
Keep purely, in the outer, inner, and secret ways,
The samaya vows comprised of the general, special, and supreme types.[10]

Origin and other uses of the term

The Princeton Dictionary states:

... a term originally used to refer to the anointment of an Indian king or the investiture of a crown prince, which by extension came to be applied to the anointment of a bodhisattva as a buddha. Just as a wheel-turning monarch (cakravartin) invests the crown prince by sprinkling the crown of his head with fragrant water from all the four seas, so too do the buddhas anoint the crown of a bodhisattva when he makes his vow to achieve buddhahood. The Chinese translation, lit. “sprinkling the crown of the head,” conveys this sense of anointment. In the Mahāvastu, an early text associated with the Lokottaravāda branch of the Mahāsāṃghika school, the tenth and last stage (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path is named abhiṣeka, rather than the more commonly known Dharmameghābhūmi, indicating that the bodhisattva has then been initiated into the lineage of the buddhas.[11]

Gyurme Dorje states:

Within the sūtra traditions, the term empowerment (Skt. abhiṣeka) is also used to describe the conferral of blessings in the form of rays of light which the buddhas bequeath to bodhisattvas of the tenth level. On this consecration, which is likened to the coronation of a monarch, see bDud-'joms Rin-po-che's description in NSTB, pp. 911-913.[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dahl 2009, Introduction.
  2. ↑ Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche & Getse Mahapandita 2006, Introduction.
  3. ↑ "Pointing Out Ordinary Mind". 15 August 2018. 
  4. ↑ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse 2012, p. 192.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jigme Lingpa & Kangyur Rinpoche 2010, Glossary, s.v. "abhiṣeka".
  6. ↑ Four empowerments, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
  7. ↑ Patrul Rinpoche 1998, p. 332.
  8. ↑ Dudjom Rinpoche 2011, Chapter 13.
  9. ↑ Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey (Boston: Shambala, 1995), page 113.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Padmasambhava & Jamgön Kongtrül 1998, p. 45.
  11. ↑ Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. abhiṣeka.
  12. ↑ Empowerment, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki

Sources

External links

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