Pema Lingpa Lineage

The Red Avalokiteśvara: Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering

The great tertön Pema Lingpa is also the lord of the Southern Treasures. This deity, Avalokiteśvara, the Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering, is an Avalokiteśvara accomplishment practice revealed by the great tertön Pema Lingpa. It is a Red Avalokiteśvara practice of Atiyoga within the Unsurpassed Secret Mantra.

The liturgy currently used in this lineage was composed by Terdak Lingpa, the throne-holder of Mindrolling Monastery, at the request of the Fifth Dalai Lama, based on the revealed treasure scriptures.

Within the liturgy, the qualities of this Avalokiteśvara are described as follows:

He completely dispels the darkness of suffering throughout the six realms;
The light of his compassionate activity is inexhaustible.
He is the brilliant jewel of the sacred Dharma,
Causing the supreme vehicle to flourish beyond the reaches of space.

This verse explains that this Avalokiteśvara practice can dispel the darkness of suffering for all sentient beings and bestow boundless benefit and happiness upon beings throughout the three realms. Like a wish-fulfilling jewel, it fulfills all aspirations; like radiant light, it dispels all obstacles, adversities, and darkness.

The Specific Benefits of Practicing This Dharma

Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ Hrīḥ
This is the approach mantra of Red Avalokiteśvara, the Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering.

It is taught that merely hearing or remembering the six-syllable mantra of Avalokiteśvara can bring liberation. How much more immeasurable and inconceivable, then, are the benefits of personally reciting and upholding it.

Through this mantra, Red Avalokiteśvara, the Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering, benefits all sentient beings. By reciting this mantra, all obscurations of body, speech, and mind are purified—especially the obscurations of the mind. Whether they are emotional obscurations, karmic obscurations, habitual obscurations, or cognitive obscurations, all can be purified without remainder through this mantra.

Thus, sentient beings are freed from the darkness of all suffering and swiftly realize the unchanging luminous dharmakāya of intrinsic awareness. Such are the extraordinary qualities and accomplishments of the approach mantra of Avalokiteśvara, the Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering.

The Maṇḍala of Red Avalokiteśvara, Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering

From emptiness and great compassion, the self-radiance of innate awareness appears as the seed syllable Hrīḥ.
White light radiates and gathers back, transforming into Avalokiteśvara:
One face and two arms, holding a lotus garland and a treasure vase,
Seated in vajra posture, embracing the deep-red secret wisdom consort.
United inseparably, adorned with the complete sambhogakāya ornaments,
Primordial innate awareness appears as the pure deity.

The body of Avalokiteśvara, the Lamp That Dispels the Darkness of Suffering, is deep red in color. He has one face and two arms. His right hand holds a lotus garland at his heart, while his left hand rests in the gesture of meditative equipoise, holding a treasure vase. His legs are crossed in vajra posture, and he embraces the secret wisdom consort, who is equal to himself.

Above his crown abides the lord of the family, Amitābha Buddha. At his heart abides Hayagrīva, with one face and two arms. On either side are self-emanated attendants: the Supreme Son Holding a Jewel and the Supreme Son of Secret Mantra.

Around him, upon the six petals of a lotus, are the sages of the six realms. Beyond them, upon four spiraling lotuses, abide the thousand and two Buddhas of the three times. At the four gates of the maṇḍala dwell the four classes of Herukas, who assist practitioners in accomplishing the four enlightened activities—pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and wrathful activity—both worldly and beyond worldly, and who avert all obstacles.