Granting an empowerment in Vajrayana Buddhism.

Granting an empowerment in Vajrayana Buddhism. 

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.

Sanskrit Abhisheka, or granting an empowerment, refers to the Vajrayana ritual that awakens the special capacity for primordial wisdom (Tib. yeshe) to arise in the mind of the disciple. 

It is called 'empowerment' because when we receive it, we are empowered to follow a particular spiritual practice and so come to master its realization. 

It is said:

In the Secret Mantra Vehicle, there can be no accomplishment without empowerment.

For that would be like a boatman without oars.

And also: Without empowerment there's no accomplishment;

You can't get oil from pressing sand.

Empowerments can only be granted by qualified vajra masters and require the students receiving them to maintain the specific vajrayana precepts (Sanskrit: samaya) on the basis of the refuge and Bodhisattva vows. 

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche reminds us of the real meaning of 'empowerment':

"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 practice 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 and is a long way away from the true spirit of tantric initiation. 

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche writes: Abhisheka is a Sanskrit term, and its two fundamental meanings have been translated into Tibetan as torwa and lugpa. 

Torwa is usually translated as “dismantling” and refers to the cocoon of ignorance in which we are wrapped and that needs to be dismantled, and lugpa is translated as “pouring”—as in “pouring blessings”—and more obliquely, as “discovering our Buddhanature. 

The Function of Empowerment

Empowerment is to ripen or mature our Buddha nature. Even though all beings possess the Buddha nature, without receiving empowerment, it is not possible to receive blessings and accomplishments through a particular practice, just as it will never be possible to get oil by pressing sand.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama says:"When an empowerment is conferred on you, it is the nature of your mind—the Buddha nature—that provides a basis upon which the empowerment can ripen you. 

Through the empowerment, you are empowered into the essence of the Buddhas of the five families. In particular, you are ‘ripened’ within that particular family through which it is your personal predisposition to attain Buddha hood. 

In addition to these aspects, Patrul Rinpoche adds that empowerments:

1. Repair violated and broken samayas,
2. Enable you to meditate on all the paths of the generation phase, the perfection phase, and the Great Perfection,
3. Prevent obstacles and errors from arising, 

Allow all your attainments to develop more and more. 

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 *Footnote
Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods that, if practised in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. 

It is absolutely necessary to have pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practise is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power, or self-interest.

Thank you for reading. May you find peace and great bliss. With your support, it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turn the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta
For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen
May it arise and not decrease.
But increase further and further.
 
Dedication of Merit
By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience then.
Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings
May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.
With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death. 

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