Toh 1252A Sādhana of the Solitary Hero Form of Glorious Hevajra

Commentary on the Sadhana of the Solitary Hero Form of Hevajra

Context

This scripture belongs to the Vajrayana tantric tradition and is recorded in the Kangyur, the collection of Buddhist scriptures translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan around the eighth to twelfth centuries. Sadhana (སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་, sgrub-thabs) means “method of accomplishment,” concrete instructions for practice intended to carry out tantric meditation rites.

Hevajra (གེ་རྡོ་རྗེ་) is a yidam, a chosen Buddha-deity whom tantric practitioners take as their principal sacred object. The name “Solitary Hero” (ika-vira) refers to the solitary form of practice of the practitioner, distinct from the paired form (yuganaddha) in other sadhanas. Hevajra symbolizes the union of wisdom and means, transforming all Buddha nature through a powerful form with eight arms, fundamentally restoring the eight modes of cognition or eight consciousnesses (vijnana).

Main Content

This sadhana guides the practitioner in carrying out the process of completing the three main stages of Tantra: the preliminaries, the main practice, and the conclusion.

The preliminary stage includes recollection, arousing resolve, and taking refuge, the steps that prepare the mental continuum. The practitioner must be clear about the motivation to fulfill the bodhisattva cause and to perform virtue so that all beings may be liberated.

The main practice is the process of visualization. The practitioner visualizes himself or herself transforming into Hevajra. This is not elementary imagination but the actualization of one’s own mind as Buddha nature. Through this, the vital winds (prana), the energy channels (nadi), and the essence (bindu) are directed in order to digest the deep-seated natures of ignorance. The form of this “solitary hero” Hevajra, every element from the beginning, selection, and form to contact and feeling, is transformed into qualities of Buddha nature.

The concluding stage (dissolution) includes dissolving the form into emptiness (shunyata), as consciousness encounters the Buddha mind, originally pure, unborn, and unceasing.