Vimalamitra Practice from Zabmo Yangtik

The Stages of Accomplishment of Guru Vimalamitra

from the Zabmo Yangtik

by Longchen Rabjam

In devotion, I prostrate at the feet of the noble guru.

With their knowing wisdom and compassionate love,
Their enlightened activity a splendour to all beings,
Unique friends to all the world including the devas—
Homage to the hosts of glorious gurus!

In a place that is pleasing to the mind, the fortunate practitioner should arrange whatever offerings and tormas they can afford. If you have a statue of the guru, arrange it, offer a maṇḍala, and refine your mind-stream with the hundred-syllable mantra. Then, while seated on a comfortable seat, take refuge in the guru and the Three Jewels, and set your mind on supreme awakening. Instantly meditate on how all phenomena are empty and selfless like the centre of space.

From within that state, on a multi-coloured lotus and moon, a hūṃ completely transforms into yourself as white Vajrasattva with one face and two hands. He is smiling brightly in an expression of perfect joy. In his right hand he holds a golden vajra to his heart, and in the left a turquoise bell at his hip. He is seated in vajra posture. His upper body and head are adorned with various jewels, and his lower body is graced with a silken lower garment. His form is visible but lacking in true nature. He emanates rays of light in various colours.

At the crown of your head, visualize a multi-coloured lotus, moon, and sun, upon which is Guru Vimalamitra, in the attire of a paṇḍita and inseparable from the root and lineage gurus. Rays of light emanate and proceed from his heart centre, inviting Guru Vimalamitra from Wu Tai Shan in China, surrounded by an immeasurable host of ḍākinīs. They arrive in the sky above like a flock of geese.

Make mentally emanated offerings to him. Then, as you say "Jaḥ hūṃ bam hoḥ!" he dissolves into the Vimalamitra visualised above your head. Thereupon, the whole universe blazes with light and is filled with gods and goddesses, all singing vajra songs, reciting verses of auspiciousness, and sending down a great rain of offerings.

Then, light and drops of nectar descend from Guru Vimalamitra’s body. They enter your body at the crown of your head and fill it entirely down to the soles of your feet. This purifies all misdeeds of body, speech, and mind, and increases the experience of undissipating great bliss. Consider that you receive all the empowerments and spiritual attainments, and recite "oṃ āḥ hūṃ guru vimala vajrasattva dharmakāya siddhi hūṃ" as many times as you can.

At the end of the session, Guru Vimalamitra and his entire retinue and the whole outer environment and its inhabitants dissolve into you. You too then dissolve into the ground, the state of Great Perfection. Relaxed and at ease, rest in the co-emergent state that is inexpressible. To conclude, dedicate any sources of virtue for the benefit of sentient beings.

If, by practising this for five, seven, or twenty-one days, you encounter—in dreams or reality—rainbows, light-spheres, crystals, stūpas, relics, ringsel, boys, girls, the sun and moon, or gurus, that is a sign of accomplishment.

By this means, you will be empowered to explain the teachings of the Great Perfection, confer empowerment, and meditate. And all the ḍākinīs will offer their assistance. At all times, consider all the phenomena of appearance and existence, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, as the guru, and carry out the activity of the self-liberation of whatever appears. Offer to the guru whatever you eat and drink, and the finest clothes and ornaments. Whenever you walk, sit, sleep, stand, eat, drink and so on, do so within the state of self-liberated dharmatā.

In addition, place a torma on a clean plate, and multiply and purify it and so on in the usual way. Then imagine Guru Vimalamitra in the sky before you and recite five or seven times "oṃ āḥ hūṃ guru vimala baliṃ te kha kha khāhi khāhi!" Consider that light rays emanate from his tongue, so that he partakes of the torma and is pleased. Perform the dedication and aspiration, and imagine that the torma guests dissolve into the crown of your head.

If you perform this sequence four or three times, you will gain control over all appearances, and develop extraordinary longevity, glory, and meditative concentration. Eventually, you will gain the vajra-like form that is beyond birth and death.

The stages of accomplishment for Guru Vimalamitra was composed by Longchen Rabjam, a yogin of the vast expanse in which there is nothing to do, at the glorious hermitage of Chimphu. May this bring benefit to numerous sentient beings! Let it be virtuous! Virtuous! Virtuous!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Tsadra Foundation, 2023.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

klong chen rab 'byams. "gu ru bi ma la’i sgrub pa’i rim pa" In snying thig ya bzhi. 13 vols. Delhi: Sherab Gyaltsen Lama, 1975. Vol. 12: 51–56 (2.5 folios)

Version: 1.0-20231219