All the corpses lie on their backs and are marked at the heart by their respective letters. The human corpse lies in the urine with its head pointing away from us. All the other corpses lie with their heads pointing towards the centre of the skullcup.
In summary, from inside the vast skullcup arise the ten letters – the seed-letters of the five Buddha Fathers and the five Buddha Mothers. These ten letters transform into the ten inner substances that constitute the basis of the inner offering.
Those with no understanding of emptiness should not try to visualize the ten substances too clearly or they might feel that they are visualizing real excrement and urine, and instead of being able to transform it into nectar they will feel disgusted!
TRANSFORMATION
This has three parts:
1 Purifying faults
2 Transforming into nectar
3 Increasing
PURIFYING FAULTS
We contemplate:
Light rays radiate from the letter BAM at our heart and strike the two banners of the wind mandala, causing them to flutter. This causes the wind mandala to blow, which in turn causes the fire mandala to blaze. The heat from the fire mandala causes the ten seed-letters that mark the substances and the ten substances themselves to boil. They all melt together into a hot, orange liquid. As the letters mix with the ten substances, the unpleasant colours, tastes, and smells of the substances are purified.
TRANSFORMING INTO NECTAR
We contemplate:
Above the orange liquid appears a white letter HUM, which is the nature of Heruka’s mind, the wisdom of indivisible great bliss and emptiness. The HUM transforms into a white upside-down khatanga. The substance of the khatanga is white bodhichitta and its nature is Heruka’s mind.
Due to the heat of the boiling liquid below, the white khatanga begins to melt and drip into the skullcup, as butter melts when it is held close to steam. The melted white khatanga swirls three times counter-clockwise inside the skullcup and then mixes completely with the liquid. The liquid becomes cool and sweet, and takes on the colour of mercury. Due to the mixing of the khatanga, the liquid transforms into nectar possessing three qualities: medicine nectar that prevents all diseases, life nectar that destroys death, and wisdom nectar that eradicates all delusions.
While we are imagining that the liquid is transforming into nectar with the three qualities we need very firm and strong concentration.
INCREASING
Directly above the nectar we visualize a row of Sanskrit vowels and consonants, which are white in colour. In the centre is the letter OM. Starting from the right of the OM and extending from right to left are the vowels in the following sequence: A AA I II U UU RI RII LI LII E AI O AU AM AH. Starting to the left of the OM and extending from left to right are all the consonants in the following sequence: KA KHA GA GHA NGA CHA CHHA JA JHA NYA DA THA TA DHA NA DRA THRA TRA DHRA NA BA PHA PA BHA MA YA RA LA WA SHA KA SA HA KYA.
Above this row of white letters is a similar row of red letters, and above this is a row of blue letters. The letters of each row are the same, differing only in colour. All three rows of letters are made of radiant light.
We imagine that the row of white vowels and consonants gradually dissolves from both ends towards the centre and transforms into a white OM. In the same way, the row of red letters transforms into a red AH, and the row of blue letters transforms into a blue HUM. Now there is a white letter OM, a red letter AH, and a blue letter HUM, one above the other, above the nectar.
These three letters radiate brilliant light rays to the Buddha Lands of the ten directions, invoking the enjoyments of all the Buddhas, Heroes and Yoginis, and drawing back all their wisdom nectars into the three letters. The blue HUM turns upside-down, descends, and dissolves into the nectar, followed in the same way by the red AH and the white OM. The three letters mix with the nectar, causing it to become inexhaustible. To stabilize the transformation of the nectar we recite OM AH HUM three times.
We do all these inner offering practices while reciting the appropriate words from the sadhana. At the conclusion of the blessing we should develop a strong conviction that in front of us there is a special wisdom nectar possessing the three qualities. This nectar can now be used either for our own purposes or to benefit others.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INNER OFFERING
When advanced meditators bless their inner offering they visualize the various stages as external transformations, but at the same time internally they engage in completion stage practices that correspond to the stages of the blessing. Knowing the symbolism of the inner offering, they use the process of blessing it to greatly enhance their completion stage practice.
The wind mandala symbolizes the downward-voiding winds that are located below the navel. The triangular-shaped fire mandala symbolizes the inner fire, or tummo, at the navel. The three human heads symbolize the minds of white appearance, red increase and black near-attainment – the fifth, sixth and seventh of the eight signs that occur when the winds have dissolved within the central channel. The skullcup symbolizes the mind of clear light, the eighth sign. The skullcup is white outside and red inside, symbolizing emptiness and great bliss respectively. The skullcup itself symbolizes the indivisible union of bliss and emptiness. The five nectars inside the skullcup symbolize the five contaminated aggregates, and the five meats symbolize the five elements – earth, water, fire, wind and space, as well as the five principal delusions – confusion, miserliness, attachment, jealousy and self-grasping. The contaminated aggregates and elements are the principal basis to be purified during completion stage practice. Their generation inside the skullcup of bliss and emptiness symbolizes their purification and transformation.
In general, meat symbolizes the flesh of the four maras that are slain by Tantric practitioners with the weapon of their wisdom. Each of the five meats also has a special significance. Cows are very dull and stupid, so the meat of the cow symbolizes confusion. Dog meat symbolizes miserliness because dogs are very possessive and miserly. Although a dog usually cannot enjoy its owner’s possessions it will nevertheless guard them diligently and attack anyone who threatens them. Elephant meat symbolizes attachment. Horse meat symbolizes jealousy because horses are very competitive. When they run together and one horse moves ahead, the others jealously chase after it. Human flesh symbolizes self-grasping because most humans have an inflated sense of their own importance. These delusions must be purified because they are the main cause of developing both contaminated aggregates and contaminated elements.
The fluttering of the banners on the wind mandala symbolizes the downward-voiding winds ascending. The blazing fire symbolizes the blazing of the inner fire. Through the blazing of the inner fire the winds gather and dissolve within the central channel, inducing the three signs symbolized by the three human heads on top of the fire mandala. When the energy winds have completely dissolved within the central channel the mind of clear light arises. This is symbolized by the skullcup on top of the three heads. Through meditating on the clear light the five contaminated aggregates are purified and transform into the five Buddha Fathers, and the five contaminated elements are purified and transform into the five Buddha Mothers. This is symbolized by the ten substances transforming into wisdom nectar.
In summary, blessing the inner offering indicates the basis that needs to be purified, the path that purifies and the results of purification – the basis, path and result of completion stage practice. When we have understood this and can combine our understanding with the practice of blessing the inner offering, we will begin to appreciate the real significance of this profound practice. Marpa Lotsawa said that tasting the nectar of his inner offering was more powerful than receiving a hundred initiations