6o The Main Commentary

The third visualization is called pung-de. Here, the emphasis is on light

instead of the,white kundalini energy. Limitless blissful radiant light emanates
from Heruka Vajrasattva's heart in a powerful beam that bursts through his
sex chakra and your crown chakra and enters your central channel. It is white
but has a rainbow-like quality with red, yellow, green, and blue in it as well.
The instant this brilliant light enters your body it completely dispels the dark-
ness of your doubt-wracked, indecisive mind and your ignorance, attach-
ment, and aversion; all of these disappear forever. It is like switching on a light
in a dark room, where the darkness vanishes instantly and no longer exists
anywhere. It doesn't go out the window, does it? It simply vanishes. Thus,
there is no space for darkness or impurity anywhere in your brain, throat, or
any other part of your necvous system. You are as clear as crystal. Feel that you
have been completely purified, especially of the most subtle negativities.
When you are in retreat, you can do each of these purifying techniques in
each session by dividing the period for mantra recitation into three, or spend
an entire session on each method separately, using the next technique in the
following session.
When you are not in retreat, it is highly beneficial for you to practice this
meditation every day, reciting the Heruka Vajrasattva mantra twenty-one
times with each of the three techniques. The best time to do it is at night, just
before you go to bed. During the day you are so busy that you are likely to
meditate distractedly. Therefore, as the last thing at night, you completely
purify all the nonvittues you created during the day and go to sleep feeling
free and liberated instead of sad and bothered by the day's negativities.
Because we are constantly involved in so much activity, we need a powerful
yoga method such as this. There is so little time to purify.
The weight of unpurified negative karmic imprints increases exponentially,
but if we recite the Vajrasattva mantra just twenty-one times at the end of
each day, even the negative karma of tantric vows broken that day will not
increase. If this method has the power to prevent from increasing the nega-
tive karma that results from broken tantric root vows-which are the high-
est vows and most serious transgressions of all-of course it can stop the
increase of negativities from actions that are nonvirtuous by nature (natural
negativities), such as killing and so forth, and other broken vows. Moreover,
if we recite this mantra properly one hundred thousand times, all negativities
whatsoever can be completely purified.
While you recite the mantra, it is essential that you remain in single-
pointed concentration; do not allow any samsaric thoughts to interrupt your
 The Purification 6r

meditation. If you can do your practice with good concentration and stable
penetrative insight, it will be tremendously effective in eradicating impure
concepts and the darkness of emotional obstacles. That purification comes
from the power of your concentrated meditation, but the mantra too has
power of its own. Sometimes it brings you telepathic visions of things that are
happening on the other side of the planet. When you purify the obstacles of
narrow emotional concepts, you will discover a whole new world.
Mantra can also enable you to read the minds of others. That can cause you
pleasure or pain; it depends what the other person is thinking! Many other
things can happen too-it all depends upon the individual; when people
retreat, they have different experiences and receive different realizations. It is
very difficult for us to tell who has realized what. Some become American
Vajrasattvas, some Asian Vajrasattvas, some European Vajrasattvas, some
Australian Vajrasattvas ... who knows!