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Vajrakilaya: A Complete Guide with Experiential Instructions
A thorough guide to Vajrakīlaya, from a master of the Drigung Kagyu lineage.
In Kyabje Garchen Rinpoche’s first major collection of tantric teachings, he offers a complete manual for the visualization and supplication of the deity Vajrakīlaya. This ancient tantric practice centers on familiarizing oneself with the wrathful deity as a method for traversing the path to enlightenment. With clear instructions and insightful commentary, Garchen Rinpoche highlights the cultivation of bodhicitta at every stage of the path. This comprehensive guide to deity practice by one of the greatest living Tibetan meditation masters will support practitioners of all experiential levels in reuniting with their own awakened nature.
In Kyabje Garchen Rinpoche’s first major collection of tantric teachings, he offers a complete manual for the visualization and supplication of the deity Vajrakīlaya. This ancient tantric practice centers on familiarizing oneself with the wrathful deity as a method for traversing the path to enlightenment. With clear instructions and insightful commentary, Garchen Rinpoche highlights the cultivation of bodhicitta at every stage of the path. This comprehensive guide to deity practice by one of the greatest living Tibetan meditation masters will support practitioners of all experiential levels in reuniting with their own awakened nature.
- GenresBuddhism
500 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 8, 2022
26 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Garchen Triptrul
13 books4 followersHis Eminence Kyabjé Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche (1936–, Tibetan: མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: mgar chen rin po che) is a lama of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and the founder and spiritual director of the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona, the Drikung Mahayana Center in North Potomac, Maryland and Gar Drolma Choling in Dayton, Ohio. Sometimes referred to as Könchok Gyaltsen (Tib. དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, Wyl. dkon mchog rgyal mtshan), he is held to be the 8th Garchen Rinpoche, a line of incarnations tracing back to the siddha Gar Chödingpa, a heart disciple of Drikung founder Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 22, 2022
This is a wonderful book! Truly and obviously a labor of love – both in the original teachings it presents and the way it is presented/published. And to think I could have so easily missed it! I say that because I canceled my pre-order once, because, i) I have never met Garchen Rinpoche and knew nothing about him, ii) Vajrakilaya is not my main practice, or anywhere close (at least as far as I knew up until just recently), and iii) what connection I do have to this practice is within a different lineage (the Dudjom Tersar, and not the Ratna Lingpa revelation this teaching is based on), but then I reordered (due to persistent unconscious urgings), and I’m so glad I did!
So I may not be the typical intended audience for this book, but maybe as well, that gives me a slightly “outsider” perspective, which perhaps makes my first impression upon getting this book worth a little something more than two cents (let’s say at least 4 cents worth!). To explain, I have been having all sorts of Vajrakilaya inspiration recently after buying an old phurba in September of 2021 on Ebay, and having it turn out, against all odds, to be a genuine power object. It’s really like it’s had the effect of discovering a terma (hidden treasure) for me, as all sorts of appreciation for teachings I received (and teachers I received them from) over 30 years ago was reawakened. So now here I am with this new book that I almost thought I didn’t need, and opening it, again it’s like a terma opening up regions of my heart I sure didn’t expect to see reflected in its pages
First off I read Rinpoche’s short bio on the last page, and learning of his experience (at about 21 years of age) of going from an interrupted (almost completed) strict 3-year retreat to being a guerrilla resistance fighter in the mountains for 2 years, to his eventual capture and time as a labor camp prisoner (and survivor!) for the next 20, to finally becoming a free man and for the past 40+ years working enthusiastically (and fearlessly) to reestablish the dharma first in Tibet and eventually in the wider world, all made me think this man is heroic, showing the kind of life I could imagine living, or at least aspiring to.
So with that generation of respect and faith (from a glimpse of the Lama’s faith) I then read the translator’s introduction, which has to be the finest such intro I have ever had the pleasure to read. I mean it; Ari Kiev hit the ball out of the park in just a few succinct and completely genuine pages of explaining the process of how this book came to be. Seriously, I have never been so moved by so few words. Again, this is an expression of faith, this time a reflection of the translator’s.
Then I went back and read the earlier couple of pages of “Notes to Practitioners” about what kind of restrictions publishers of such a profound and secret texts should impose, with the bottom-line being Rinpoche says, this is not the time to hold back (it’s time to let the Mantrayana blaze!), and that it’s up to each of us to be mature individuals and decide for ourselves how to study and practice (as our karma for such things is surely in the winds of fate and not for the lama to decide). And I thought, who is this man? I love him!
After all that I began to read the text starting at the beginning, as is appropriate, and was delighted to discover that right from the very start he begins with a sense of humor, and a sense of deep appreciation for what it means to be someone on the path with all the mixed aspirations we bring (wanting the best because of having both a bodhisattva heart and a selfish grasping one), and again I thought this man has me in the palm of his hand. It doesn’t matter if I ever utter one recitation of the mantra, I’m sure to benefit from whatever he has to say about this heart practice of his.
And so I begin, utterly delighted it’s a long book sure to take months to finish, and years, if not lifetimes, to put into practice. Delighted also it is so well translated and artfully illustrated, and now, just in time for Losar (a traditional time of intensive Vajrakilaya practice), but also just in time for whatever time and place we find ourselves in opening this wonderful text…
“… to meditate on the guru is to recollect the guru’s mind, not his or her form. Thus, the thing to be revealed is the inner, ultimate, actual guru, who is one’s own mind. The essence of one’s mind is buddha nature. Whenever it is seen, one has seen the inner guru.
If this key point of the guru as the mind’s nature is not habituated by meditating again and again, even though one may visualize many deities, they will be lifeless. Every deity’s life force is the nondual union of emptiness-compassion.” (p. 14-15)
So I may not be the typical intended audience for this book, but maybe as well, that gives me a slightly “outsider” perspective, which perhaps makes my first impression upon getting this book worth a little something more than two cents (let’s say at least 4 cents worth!). To explain, I have been having all sorts of Vajrakilaya inspiration recently after buying an old phurba in September of 2021 on Ebay, and having it turn out, against all odds, to be a genuine power object. It’s really like it’s had the effect of discovering a terma (hidden treasure) for me, as all sorts of appreciation for teachings I received (and teachers I received them from) over 30 years ago was reawakened. So now here I am with this new book that I almost thought I didn’t need, and opening it, again it’s like a terma opening up regions of my heart I sure didn’t expect to see reflected in its pages
First off I read Rinpoche’s short bio on the last page, and learning of his experience (at about 21 years of age) of going from an interrupted (almost completed) strict 3-year retreat to being a guerrilla resistance fighter in the mountains for 2 years, to his eventual capture and time as a labor camp prisoner (and survivor!) for the next 20, to finally becoming a free man and for the past 40+ years working enthusiastically (and fearlessly) to reestablish the dharma first in Tibet and eventually in the wider world, all made me think this man is heroic, showing the kind of life I could imagine living, or at least aspiring to.
So with that generation of respect and faith (from a glimpse of the Lama’s faith) I then read the translator’s introduction, which has to be the finest such intro I have ever had the pleasure to read. I mean it; Ari Kiev hit the ball out of the park in just a few succinct and completely genuine pages of explaining the process of how this book came to be. Seriously, I have never been so moved by so few words. Again, this is an expression of faith, this time a reflection of the translator’s.
Then I went back and read the earlier couple of pages of “Notes to Practitioners” about what kind of restrictions publishers of such a profound and secret texts should impose, with the bottom-line being Rinpoche says, this is not the time to hold back (it’s time to let the Mantrayana blaze!), and that it’s up to each of us to be mature individuals and decide for ourselves how to study and practice (as our karma for such things is surely in the winds of fate and not for the lama to decide). And I thought, who is this man? I love him!
After all that I began to read the text starting at the beginning, as is appropriate, and was delighted to discover that right from the very start he begins with a sense of humor, and a sense of deep appreciation for what it means to be someone on the path with all the mixed aspirations we bring (wanting the best because of having both a bodhisattva heart and a selfish grasping one), and again I thought this man has me in the palm of his hand. It doesn’t matter if I ever utter one recitation of the mantra, I’m sure to benefit from whatever he has to say about this heart practice of his.
And so I begin, utterly delighted it’s a long book sure to take months to finish, and years, if not lifetimes, to put into practice. Delighted also it is so well translated and artfully illustrated, and now, just in time for Losar (a traditional time of intensive Vajrakilaya practice), but also just in time for whatever time and place we find ourselves in opening this wonderful text…
“… to meditate on the guru is to recollect the guru’s mind, not his or her form. Thus, the thing to be revealed is the inner, ultimate, actual guru, who is one’s own mind. The essence of one’s mind is buddha nature. Whenever it is seen, one has seen the inner guru.
If this key point of the guru as the mind’s nature is not habituated by meditating again and again, even though one may visualize many deities, they will be lifeless. Every deity’s life force is the nondual union of emptiness-compassion.” (p. 14-15)
September 28, 2023
This book offers valuable and pretty clear explanation of the practice and it's context. Recommended for people who are specifically pursuing this practice with commitment.
His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche is also offering numerous group practices and empowerments online, which when complemented with this book, offer a wonderful opportunity that many would not have had otherwise.
Vajrakilaya, or Dorje Phurba, is emphasised by some Western Occult authors, who sell courses. I whole-heartedly recommend getting this book and visiting Garchen Rinpoche's website instead.
His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche is also offering numerous group practices and empowerments online, which when complemented with this book, offer a wonderful opportunity that many would not have had otherwise.
Vajrakilaya, or Dorje Phurba, is emphasised by some Western Occult authors, who sell courses. I whole-heartedly recommend getting this book and visiting Garchen Rinpoche's website instead.
June 8, 2025
This is an absolutely indispensable book for every practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. If you've received the Vajrakilaya empowerment, this guide contains everything you need to know about the sadhana and how to prepare and accomplish a retreat along with it. Garchen Rinpoche is a great bodhisattva of our time--He regularly displays miracles to his followers, and has devoted his life to practicing the dharma after spending 20 years in a Chinese prison/labor camp. This book will certainly be of benefit to you even if you're only casually interested. Om ah hung
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews