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Avalokiteshvara Empowerment

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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Avalokiteshvara Empowerment


What is an Empowerment ?


An empowerment is a ritual which initiates a student into a particular tantric deity practice. The Tibetan word for this is wang which literally translates to power. The Sanskrit term for this is abhisheka which literally translates to anointing.

A tantric practice is not considered effective or as effective until a qualified master has transmitted the corresponding power of the practice directly to the student. There are three requirements before a student may begin a practice:


1. the empowerment (Tibetan: wang)

2. a reading of the text by an authorized holder of the practice (Tibetan: lung)

3. instruction on how to perform the practice or rituals (Tibetan: tri).

An individual is not invited to engage in a deity practice without the empowerment for that practice.


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.

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 buddhahood.


Visualisation of Avalokiteshvara

Upon a white lotus and moon above my head and crowning each sentient being throughout space, is HRI from which Noble, Supreme Avalokiteshvara appears, gleaming white and radiating five-colored light.

Lovely and smiling, he gazes with eyes of compassion. The first two of his four hands are held in prayer, the lower two hold a crystal rosary and white lotus.

Adorned with silk and jewel ornaments, his upper body is clothed with a deerskin. He is crowned by Buddha Amitabha, and seated in the adamantine posture, with an immaculate full moon as his backrest. In essence he is the union of all sources of refuge.


Mantra


The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching.

When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Pad, the fourth

syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.

So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom.

The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times. What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections? »

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in Heart Treasure of the Enlightened One



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