A Sadhana of

Senghe Dongma
the Lion-Face Dakini
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 Lion-Face Dakini 3

A Sadhana of
Senghe Dongma
the Lion-Face Dakini

Refuge and Bodhichitta

I go for refuge until I am enlightened
To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.
By this practice of giving and other perfections,
May I become a buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings.
(3x)

Four Immeasurables
May all sentient beings have happiness and its cause.
May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its cause.
May all sentient beings be inseparable from sorrowless bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, both
greed and hatred.

Continual Confession
I go for refuge to the Three Jewels.
All negativities I confess.
I rejoice in all the merits of migrators.
I keep in mind enlightenment.
4 Lion-Face Dakini

To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly

I go for refuge until I am enlightened.
To realize my own and others’ benefit
I shall generate bodhichitta.

Having produced the thought of supreme bodhi,

I shall look after all sentient beings as guests,
And practice the pleasing, supreme bodhi conduct.
For sentient beings’ sake, may I realize buddhahood.

Self-generation
From the state of emptiness, from EH [arises] a blue-black trian-
gular reality source, extensive and deep, surrounded by a violent
garland of flames. In the middle of the reality source from PAM
[arises] a large lotus and from RAM, a sun upon which [appears],
on the heart of a human corpse, a sky-blue HUM, the entity of
one’s mind.

From that [HUM] light radiates, annihilating all enemies, hinder-

ers, wrong teachers, and black magic curses, and burning up all
evil tokens, omens, and harms.

The light again collects, absorbing into the HUM. From its com-
plete transformation, [I arise] as Lion-face Wisdom Dakini, dark
blue, [my] huge body pervading the three realms. [My] limbs and
body parts are robust and strong, and [my] lion face [is] extremely
wrathful with gaping mouth, curled up tongue, bared fangs, and
poisonous breath billowing like fog. With three round red eyes
and [my] red-yellow facial hair, eyebrows, and top mane blaze like
fire, some hanging down.

[My] right hand brandishes a vajra curved knife in space while

[my] left holds a skullcup of blood at the heart. In the crook of
 Lion-Face Dakini 5

[my] elbow is a khatvanga, from which hangs a damaru and a

three-pointed banner. [I stand in] the half vajra dancing posture
with left leg extended and wear a tiger-skinned lower garment,
and an upper garment of joined human and elephant skins. [My]
head is adorned by dry skulls. [I wear] snake and bone ornaments
and a necklace of human heads, and [am] adorned by drops of
human blood, lines of grease, and lumps of ashes.

[I am standing] in the midst of blazing lights of transcendental

wisdom fire. Surrounding [me] are an assembly of trillions of da-
kinis, all of whom hold various weapons in their right hands and
like the principal [hold skullcups] in the left.

From the lion mouth resounds the roar of the wrathful mantra. At
[my] forehead is OM, at [my] throat, AH, at [my] heart, HUM. The
HUM radiates light invoking Lion-face Dakini together with her
retinue from the dakini palace of Uddiyana, saying PHEM PHEM
and radiating the blazing mudra.
JAH HUM BAM HO

Offerings
Cleanse the offerings with:

OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT

Purify them into voidness with:

OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA

SHUDDHO HAM

All becomes voidness. Out of the void [appears] KAM, whence

skullcups. In them, from HUM, [appear] offering substances,
whose nature is voidness, whose aspect is as the distinct offering
6 Lion-Face Dakini

substances, and whose function is to give special uncontaminat-

ed bliss as objects of the six senses.

Visualize OM AH HUM sinking into each skullcup (kapala).

OM ARGHAM AH HUM
OM PADYAM AH HUM
OM VAJRA PUSHPE AH HUM
OM VAJRA DHUPE AH HUM
OM VAJRA ALOKE AH HUM
OM VAJRA GANDHE AH HUM
OM VAJRA NAIVEDYA AH HUM
OM VAJRA SHABDA AH HUM

Then offer:

OM SINGHA MUKHA DAKINI SAPARIVARA BHYA ARGHAM

PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

Then:

PADYAM to SHABDA

Inner offering
OM SINGHA MUKHA DAKINI SAPARIVARA BHYA OM AH HUM

Praise
Glorious vajra dakini,
Ruler of the dakinis,
Who found five wisdoms and three kayas:
Homage to the refuge of migrators!
 Lion-Face Dakini 7

Empowerment
Again light radiates invoking the empowering deities.

VAJRA SAMAJAH

They empower saying:

OM VAJRI BHAVA ABHIKHINJA HUM

The holy body is filled and stains purified. From the excess nectar
the crown is adorned by Vairochana.

Mantra Recitation
AH KA SA MA RA / TSA SHA DA RA / SA MA RA YA PHAT

Recite [the mantra] wrathfully together with visualization. Then

[recite] the 100-syllable mantra. At the end visualize your right
thumb as a golden ax and your left thumb as a silver chopping-
block. As you clap at the end of each line, all hinderers and so on
are cut to pieces.

O you assembly of blazing wrathful ladies (1x)

Pulverize into dust the bodies and speech (1x)
Of all enemies and hinderers (1x)
And release their consciousness into the sphere of Dharma. (3x)

Offering the torma

(Last session only.)
Arrange a torma ornamented with meat and blood. After bless-
ing the inner offering [as before] (OM VAJRA AMRITA...), sprin-
kle the torma with it to dispel hindrances. Then purify them into
voidness (OM SVABHAVA...).
8 Lion-Face Dakini

From the state of voidness, from AH comes a vast and expansive

skullcup within which from the letters OM AH HUM arises the tor-
ma, a great ocean of nectar marked by the three letters OM AH
HUM. Light [radiates] from [the syllables and] hooks the exalted
wisdom nectars, which absorb into the three syllables. They melt
into a great inexhaustible ocean of nectar.

OM AH HUM HA HO HRIH (3x)

Invoke the exalted wisdom beings as above. Then offer the torma
as follows:

To the principal dakini:

OM SINGHA MUKHA DAKINI IDAM BALIMTA KHA KHA KHAHI

KHAHI SVAHA (7x)

To the retinue:

OM AH KARO MU KHAM SARVA DHARMA NAM ADYANUTPAN

NA TVATA NAMA SARVA TATHAGATA AVALOKITE OM
SAMBHARA SAMBHARA HUM (7x)

Offerings
OM SINGHA MUKHA DAKINI SAPARIVARA BHYA ARGHAM …
to … SHABDA PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

OM SINGHA MUKHA DAKINI SAPARIVARA BHYA OM AH HUM

Praise
O bhagavati wisdom dakini,
Great heroine with a frightful body,
 Lion-Face Dakini 9

Your lion body subdues the vicious:

Homage and praise before your furious face.

Holding a drigu [in] your right hand,

Please severe the life nerve of enemies and hinderers without
exception.
Female dispeller of disharmonious interruptions,
Homage and praise to the powerful wrathful one.

Holding a skullcup of blood [in] your left hand,

Enjoy the heart blood of the four maras of the ten evil spheres.
Eliminate completely the continuity of samsara’s blood.
Homage and praise to the liberator from curses.

You liberate from the three poisons holding a khatvanga;

Your frightful body has a skull garland.
Two legs centered upon lotus, moon, and sun.
Homage and praise to you amidst a blaze of fire.

The reality source purified of poisons –

Dark blue, triangular, blazing fires –
Is the fully complete three doors of liberation.
Homage and praise to the wrathful activator arisen from EH.

By accomplishing the approximation, doing offerings and praise,

May interruptions of the stages and paths be pacified,
May life and wealth increase, and
May I quickly attain the knower of aspects, buddhahood.

Conclusion
Saying:

VAJRA MU
10 Lion-Face Dakini

the deities depart.

At the end dedicate the merit within the state of non-referential

awareness of the body of the deity (e.g., after absorbing into the
heart HUM and then into voidness).

Dedication
Then make dedication prayers and auspicious verses as much as
possible.

During the session break keep yourself inseparable from the di-
vine pride of the deity.

Colophon:
Translated from the Tibetan by Ven. Thubten Jampa and Ven. Thubten Tsultrim
(George Churinoff). Reformatted by Murray Wright, FPMT Central Office, August
1993. Additional editing by Ven. Constance Miller, FPMT Education Services, Au-
gust 1999. All phrases that appear within brackets [ ] are editorial additions for
clarity.

May all interferences be dispelled.

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