Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche’s Heruka Statue
Pastor David has been a student of His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche for over 15 years and within the ‘Tales With My Lama’ series of articles, he explores his spiritual relationship with Rinpoche, sharing anecdotes, stories, observations and little Dharma nuggets. It is all told to inspire others for their own spiritual relationship with their teachers.
Tales with My Lama: Rinpoche’s Heruka Statue
“At his heart is Great Bliss King Heruka,
Colour of lapis, embracing his Consort.
With expression of majesty, four faces, twelve arms,
Hand-symbols such as vajra, bell, he wears dry skulls,
A necklace of wet skulls, and tiger skin skirt.
His two feet, extended and bent, trample extremes of samsara and nirvana.”
In reference to his Guru Yoga prayer, His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche’s main yidam was the “Great Bliss King” Heruka Chakrasamvara. This prayer was composed by Venerable Lama Thubten Phurbu on the behest of His Eminence Kyabje Gangchen Rinpoche who was extremely clairvoyant; upon sight, Gangchen Rinpoche had verbally recognised Tsem Rinpoche’s incarnation line.
The Tibetan word ‘yidam’ literally means ‘one who holds your mind (from ego, delusion and samsara)’. It refers to your primary deity, whose meditational practice you engage in every day. Rinpoche received the Heruka initiation prior to receiving the Vajra Yogini initiation from His Eminence Kensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin in New Jersey. Just a young boy at the time, Rinpoche from that moment on engaged in the practice until his parinirvana. It is common for Gelug lamas, especially of His Holiness Kyabje Pabongka’s lineage, to combine the practice of Heruka and Lamrim in order to gain high attainments.
In the past, Rinpoche explained that Heruka is a special Buddha and his meditational method of gaining enlightenment is through the path of transforming desire. Rinpoche also explained that Heruka’s four faces represent the ‘four moods of Heruka’:
- the green ‘peaceful’ face;
- the yellow ‘increasing’ face;
- the red ‘desirous’ face and
- the dark blue ‘wrathful’ face.
Each mood is based on an emotion and also a method that a master practitioner of Heruka can employ towards influencing deluded beings and place them on the path towards liberation. In addition, Heruka is also known for his divine laughter that is said to subjugate the most negative of beings.
H. E. Tsem Rinpoche’s personal Heruka Cakrasamvara statue. Click on image to enlarge.
Over the years, Rinpoche was very discreet about his main practice and never revealed it. Sometimes, Rinpoche playfully asked his students to guess that it was but in the end, Rinpoche continued to be silent about it. I remember one of my earliest answers to Rinpoche’s question about his yidam was actually “Heruka”, because I felt Rinpoche exuded the energy of the deity. At that time Rinpoche was modelling and had attracted a lot of friends and students to the Dharma. When it came to his yidam, Rinpoche was a stickler for the old traditions of maintaining humility and not revealing one’s practice.
Rinpoche had very few thangkas and statues of Heruka, and the particular statue featured in this article was one of the few that belonged to Rinpoche. A while ago, Rinpoche told me that this statue caught his eye in a shop in Singapore and he described it to several students. Word got out that Rinpoche loved this sacred image, and a student actually acquired it and offered it to Rinpoche. Made in Nepal, this Heruka statue is around 2 feet in height and many years ago, Rinpoche had this sacred statue on his altar. I recall that I admired the statue for its intricate detail and life-like expression but before I knew it, Rinpoche kept the statue away.
Over the years, I saw it from time to time stored away somewhere and in hindsight, I realise that Rinpoche was actually hiding his practice from our prying eyes. Later, Rinpoche would even playfully tell us that we could guess all we wanted but his yidam was nowhere to be seen in his residence, or even throughout the entire Kechara organisation. That was how Rinpoche would lead us away from ever finding out who his yidam was – a testament to Rinpoche’s humility, just like the Kadampa masters of old. The Kadampa tradition was founded based on Atisha’s teachings and traditions, and has since been absorbed into the Gelug tradition after the time of Lama Tsongkhapa.
Several years later before Rinpoche entered parinirvana, Rinpoche held a number of flea market sales, which included items from his personal collection of statues and offerings items that Rinpoche acquired as gifts from students over the years. Rinpoche always ensured that proceeds from the sale of Buddha images were strictly not for personal gain, as this accrues heavy negative karma. That is why Rinpoche directed the proceeds towards Dharma projects in dire need of funding. At that time, a senior student acquired this statue in one of those flea market sales and offered it to me. I was overjoyed since I really admired this statue, so I grabbed it and brought it home. It has since been placed on my altar at home. It was only recently that I realised the auspiciousness of possessing the sacred statue of my lama’s yidam, since it was revealed in Rinpoche’s Guru Yoga prayer.
The statue is alive with Rinpoche’s practice and just looking at it plants blessings of Heruka in our mindstreams. However, Rinpoche did not recommend most people to practise Heruka and actually advocated the practice of Vajra Yogini. Heruka and Vajra Yogini are actually emanations of the same enlightened being but from the side of practitioner, Vajra Yogini’s sadhana (daily meditational manual) is a lot shorter and easier as compared to Heruka’s thicker sadhana and more complex meditations. Nevertheless, Vajra Yogini’s practice has the same attributes as Heruka’s practice. This makes Vajra Yogini ideal for the modern practitioner.
For more interesting information:
- Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche on a ‘Holiday’
- Tales With My Lama: Dorje Shugden on The Head
- Tales With My Lama: What is the New News?
- Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche Felt He Was More Indian
- Tales With My Lama: What Does Rinpoche Like About Liz Taylor?
- Tales With My Lama: Daily Practice
- Tales With My Lama: Laugh Away Your Ego
- Tales With My Lama: Why Rinpoche Has To Suffer
- Tales With My Lama: Larger Than Life
- Tales With My Lama: Manjushri
- Tales With My Lama: Audience With Tsem Rinpoche
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Great master, great yidam i pay homage to you. May you tame all my negativities, elusion and samsara. May all beings have your holy presence in their lives always.
Very interesting read, thank you Pastor David for sharing this and also the beautiful picture of Heruka statue. So fortunate to be able to view even the picture of Heruka.
Was ady looking forward and hoping for this write up!..Lol!😆. I love this personal Heruka statue of Rinpoche. You are really very fortunate to own this beautiful Heruka statue 😍So very blessed to even see it .🌈🔥 Thank you very much Pastor David for putting up so much effort for this wonderful sharing on this article and the practice as well. Hope Rinpoche comes back soon to give us more Dharma teachings and practice. 🙏🌈🔥
Given a chance to look at H. E. Tsem Rinpoche’s personal Heruka Cakrasamvara statue paints a thousand words. We are so fortunate been able to have a glance at this beautiful and powerful divine statue of Heruka Cakrasamvara. Its so real and merely looking at it is a blessing.
Thank you Pastor David for sharing this post with the stories behind it.
How auspicious and fortunate to have one’s beloved guru’s blessings with you.
I always like to read the story that Pastor David has wrote. Thanks for sharing