Introduction to the Ritual Instruments of the Vajra Master

I’m going to give an introduction of the ritual instruments in front of the vajra master. Having these instruments completes the Five Dhyani Buddhas. The Five Dhyani Buddhas must be complete.

In the new tantra, the inner offering has only one kapala. In the old tantra, there are two kapalas representing medicine and blood, both placed on the shrine.

For the inner offering in the new tantra, the liquid inside the kapala represents Akṣobhya (མི་བསྐྱོད་ པ།). The damaru represents Ratnasaṃbhava (རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན།). The dorje represents Amitābha (སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ ཡས།), the bell represents Amoghasiddhi (དྐྱོན་ཡྐྱོད་གྲུབ་པ།).

While giving an empowerment, it is conferred with the dorje. The dorje is Amitābha, and the bell is Amoghasiddi. Placing the dorje and the bell (crossed) together like this represents Vairocana (རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད།). During the “name” empowerment, place the dorje and the bell above one’s head like this.

Placing the dorje and the bell (crossed) like this in front of the vajra master represents Vairocana. In this way, the Five Dhyani Buddhas are complete. This is my introduction today.

Translated by the GDI Translation Group and edited by Greg Bell in Oct 2018.