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THE BODYLESS DAKINI DHARMA: THE DAKINI HEARING LINEAGE OF THE KAGYUS THE ORIGINAL VAJRA VERSES, SADHANA, AND PADMA KARPO’S THOROUGH EXPLANATION BY TONY DUFF PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE THE BODYLESS DAKINI DHARMA: THE DAKINI HEARING LINEAGE OF THE KAGYUS THE ORIGINAL VAJRA VERSES, SADHANA, AND PADMA KARPO’S THOROUGH EXPLANATION BY TONY DUFF PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE Copyright © 2010 Tony Duff. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher. Janson typeface with diacritical marks and Tibetan Classic Chogyal typeface Designed and created by Tony Duff First edition, June 2005 Second edition, February 2010 ISBN Paper: 978-9937-824-48-4 ISBN E-book: 978-9937-572-16-3 Produced, Printed, and Published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee P.O. Box 4957 Kathmandu NEPAL Committee members who worked on this book: translation and composition: Lama Tony Duff; editorial, James Vitale; cover design Christopher Duff. Web-site and e-mail contact through: http://www.pktc.org/pktc or search Padma Karpo Translation Committee on the web. CONTENTS Introduction ................................ v The Root Vajra Verses ......................... 1 The Sadhana Of the One Called “Bodyless Dakini” ................................... 9 “Tincture of Dharma”, A Thorough Explanation of the Bodyless Dakini Dharma by All-knowing Padma Karpo .............. 17 Glossary ................................... 131 Supports for Study ......................... 147 Index ...................................... 151 iii INTRODUCTION THE MEANING OF DAKINI Dakini is a word with a wide range of meaning. The Illumi- nator Tibetan-English Encyclopaedic Dictionary1 gives this information: I. In general. The literal meaning “space goer” refers to female energy that travels through space and conveys messages or connects others with some principle or meaning. The term denotes female energy that moves and conveys messages like this at all levels from the most vicious worldly beings, through helpful worldly beings, on up to feminine embodiments of wisdom. Each of these has a male counterpart, the general name for which in Sanskrit is “vira”. 1) In Tibetan colloquial language it indicates the wife of a practitioner, a yogin. 2) In Buddhist tantric language, it is used to indicate a woman practitioner who has attained some realization. These 1 By Tony Duff, published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee. vi INTRODUCTION women are important in the tantric world because they actually carry the power of the wisdom-space. Meeting such a woman can have a profound effect on the journey of a tantric practitioner, let alone an ordinary person, so these wisdom-embodiments are regarded as very special. 3) It is used to refer to female energies of worldly type. It covers a whole range of these energies through the ranges of harmful to helpful. This is not a Buddhist usage but one that was used throughout Indian religion and culture in general. Similarly, it was used in Tibetan culture in general. 4) It is used to refer to some goddesses of the higher realms. These are goddesses still in cyclic existence but they have a pure quality to them because of their god-realm birth. In this usage, it is equivalent to the word “devi”. 5) It is used to refer to the goddesses of the various pure realms, buddha-fields, and so on. For example, the various dakinis in the retinue of a male yidam. II. In Buddhist tantric language, it is especially used to indicate the feminine principle that is an expres- sion of ultimate wisdom. In this case, the literal name “space goer” means “she who travels through wisdom space” where space does not mean emptiness as a mere emptiness but as the positive space in which all phenomena manifest. These dakinis, as the feminine principles of enlightenment, interact with the world in many ways, for example, they bring messages from the wisdom space to practitio- ners of all levels … INTRODUCTION vii VAJRA DAKINIS, VAJRA YOGINIS, AND THE BODYLESS DAKINI In this book, “dakini” is mainly used in reference to manifes- tations of the female energy mentioned in the dictionary under heading II just above. These dakinis are called “wisdom dakinis” because they are connected with the wisdom or nirvanic side of existence; they are not part of the deluded or samsaric side of existence. Moreover, all the wisdom dakinis mentioned in this book are connected with a path that leads from delusion back to wisdom, the Buddhist Vajra Vehicle, and therefore are vajra dakinis. There are many vajra dakinis in the Vajra Vehicle, each with her own level of importance. The most important one from a practitioner’s perspective is the main yidam or deity of the higher tantras, Vajrayogini. As above, “vajra” refers to the vajra-like—meaning indestructible and unchanging—inner reality of every being which the Vajra Vehicle takes and uses as the path back to enlightenment. The word “yogini” comes from the word “yoga”. Yoga in general means “a practice for joining with reality” and in the Vajra Vehicle it means a practice for joining back with one’s own vajra reality. A yogi is a male connected with the practice of yoga and a yogini a female. In other words, Vajrayogini is the vajra dakini through whom one practises the path of re-unification with one’s own vajra reality. The Thorough Explanation commentary in this book gives a similar explanation of how the name “Va- jrayogini” comes about, an explanation which will further help to understand the name. viii INTRODUCTION Vajrayogini is the name of a vajra dakini who is a principal deity in the practice of the Vajra Vehicle. There are many forms of Vajrayogini, each with her own name and character- istics. This book is about a particular one who has a feature of being strongly connected to the dharmakaya. She is called the “Bodyless Dakini” where “bodyless” is a synonym for dharmakaya in Buddhist terminology. Several forms of Vajrayogini were brought into Tibet from India during the early days of Tibetan Buddhism. The Thorough Explanation commentary in this book mentions a number of them as it carefully identifies the Bodyless Dakini. The names of these various forms of Vajrayogini might not be well-know to non-Tibetan readers but they are all well- known within Tibetan tradition. There is another form of Vajrayogini who is mentioned fre- quently in this book. She has a small sow’s head on her head. “Sow” in Sanskrit is “varahi” so this form of Vajrayogini is called “Vajravarahi”. Pigs are symbols of ignorance and the sow’s head of Vajravarahi is a symbol of vajra ignorance. In this case, the sow does not represent that the ignorance of samsara per se has been overcome but represents the vajra ignorance of reality. Vajravarahi is regarded as the inner aspect of the more general Vajrayogini, an aspect which is more closely connected with both sambhoga and dharma- kayas. The Bodyless Dakini is similar to Vajravarahi in this respect but not the same. Vajravarahi is part of the general iconography of Vajrayogini where the Bodyless Dakini is a specific form of Vajrayogini used for practice.