Root Lineage Guru (Padmakumara) Practice
Start by praying for the root lineage blessing: First empty the mind. Next, visualize the Root Lineage
Guru appearing above your crown and radiating light on everyone present. Chant the Root Lineage
Guru Heart Mantra 7 times. Pray to the Root Lineage Guru to empower you so that the practice will
be auspicious. Visualize your parents, children, relatives, friends, and enemies join you in this
practice.
Wake Up Call: Clap twice, then cross hands and snap thumbs and middle fingers.
1. Recite the Purification Mantras and Earth God Mantra
2. Recite the Invocation Mantra
Om Ah Hum, So-Ha. (3 times)
We sincerely invoke:
Namo Root Lineage Guru Living Buddha Lian-sheng,
Namo White Mahapadmakumara,
Namo Lotus Light Self-Mastery Buddha,
Namo the lineage gurus of True Buddha School,
(In the place of this note, each local chapter may invoke the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and dharma
protectors enshrined at its altar accordingly. When practicing at home, one may invoke the deities
present at one’s shrine.)
Namo all Buddhas of the Ten Directions and Three Periods,
all Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas,
Namo Maha Prajna Paramita.
3. Tender the Great Homage with Visualization
4. Mandala Offering
5. Fourfold Refuge
6. Armor Protection
7. Recite the High King Avalokitesvara Sutra
8. Recite the Rebirth Mantra (7 times)
(One may also chant the True Buddha Sutra.)
9. Invocation of Padmakumara (Mudra and Visualization)
Padmakumara Mudra: Place the right hand before the right
side of the chest, with the palm facing outward and fingers
together, pointing up. Now bend the thumb and middle finger so
that their tips meet, forming a circle. (This is the Dharmateaching
Mudra.)Place the left hand before the left side of the
chest, with the palm facing inward and fingers together, pointing
up. Now bend the thumb and index finger so that their tips meet,
forming a circle. Then bend the middle and ring finger in to touch
the center of the palm. The small finger remains pointing up.
(This is the Lotus-holding Mudra)
Chant the Invocation Verse:
Lotus is the nature of your Dharmakaya essence.
Your right hand displays the Dharma-teaching Mudra,
Your left hand displays the Lotus-holding Mudra.
Your Nirmanakaya manifests in myriad realms.
Celestial garments and exquisite jewels reveal your magnificence.
By merging the lineages of your transmissions,
Taoism, Sutrayana, and Tantrayana,
A supreme and precious teaching was born.
True Buddha Tantric Dharma guides the sentient beings
And liberates all, without omission!
Zi-xing lian-hua fa-xing-sheng.
You-shou shuo-fa zuo-chi-lian.
Hua-sheng bian-man qian-wan-jing,
Tian-yi bao-shi miao zhuang-yan.
De-cheng dao-xian-mi yi-sheng,
Rong-he chuan-cheng zui-shang-zhen.
Zhen-fo mi-fa zhong-sheng dao,
Pu-du qun-sheng er wu-yu.
Visualization: First empty the mind.
Chant the Emptiness Mantra:
Om, si-ba-wa, su-da, sa-er-wa, da-er-ma, si-ba-wa, su-do-hang. (3 times)
(1) Above an expanse of ocean is a stretch of clear sunny sky. A moon
disc rises from the ocean into the sky. Inside the moon disc is the
white Tibetan seed syllable “hum,” emitting great white light.
(2) The seed syllable inside the moon disc revolves and transforms into
the Root Lineage Guru, smiling and sitting majestically on a great
white lotus seat.
(3) From the brow point of the Root Lineage Guru, a beam of white light shines onto one’s brow
point. From the throat of the Root Lineage Guru, a beam of red light shines onto one’s throat.
From the heart of the Root Lineage Guru, a beam of blue light shines onto one’s heart. The
three lights of white, red, and blue merge completely into one’s body and mind.
10. Recite the Root Lineage Guru (Padmakumara) Heart Mantra
Visualization: Hold mala beads in front of the chest and move each bead with the thumb during
chanting. Visualize the left hand transform into a vajra bell and the right hand into a vajra scepter.
The mother bead or emblem transforms into the Many-Jewels Buddha’s Stupa and the four
“divider beads” transform into the Four Heavenly Tutelaries. The tassel transforms into a “lotus
hand” while the string threading through the beads transforms into a circle of inherent white light
of Vajrasattva. During mantra chanting, when a bead is moved, visualize the Root Lineage Guru
appear inside the bead and come to the forefront.
Padmakumara Long Mantra:
Om ah hum, gu-ru-bei, ah-ha-sa-sa-ma-ha, lian-sheng sid-dhi, hum. (108 times)
Or chant Padmakumara Short Mantra:
Om, gu-ru, lian-sheng sid-dhi, hum. (108 times)
11. Nine Cycle Breathing and Entering Samadhi
Nine Cycle Breathing:
(1) Visualize white light enter the right nostril. Here it becomes red light and descends the right
channel to enter the left channel at the dan-tien; then, still as red light, it ascends the left
channel to exit the left nostril as dark light.
(2) Visualize white light enter the left nostril. Here it becomes red light and descends the left
channel to enter the right channel at the dan-tien; then, still as red light, it ascends the right
channel to exit the right nostril as dark light.
(3) Visualize white light simultaneously enter both nostrils, transform into red light, descend
down both side channels and enter the central channel at the dan-tien, ascend to the top
[crown chakra], then return to dan-tien to enter both side channels, exiting as dark light at
both nostrils.
(4) Breathe in through left nostril and out at the right (as in 2).
(5) Breathe in through right nostril and out at the left (as in 1).
(6) Breathe in and out through both nostrils (as in 3).
(7) Breathe in and out through both nostrils (as in 3).
(8) Breathe in through right nostril and out at the left (as in 1).
(9) Breathe in through left nostril and out at the right (as in 2).
Entering of the Deity into Oneself (Ru-wo Guan):
(1) Visualize the Deity (in this practice, Root Lineage Guru or Padmakumara) sitting atop one’s
crown opening.
(2) Inside one’s body, the lotus located at the central channel at the heart chakra opens up to
reveal a moon disc. On the moon disc is the Deity’s seed syllable radiating light.
(3) Visualize the Deity at one’s crown transform into a light pearl the size of a grain of rice.
This light pearl enters through the crown opening to descend down one’s central channel.
Upon reaching the heart chakra, the light pearl rests atop the lotus at one’s heart chakra.
(4) The Deity on the heart chakra lotus gradually enlarges until becoming exactly the same size
as one. Visualize one becoming the Deity. There is no separation between one and the Deity.
Release of Oneself into the Cosmic Consciousness (Wo-ru Guan):
Visualize oneself as the deity, ascending the central channel and entering into the Void and
merging into the cosmic ocean of great light. Release the self completely by entering and
merging with the Void, the cosmic consciousness, and the ocean of light.
The cosmic consciousness is one’s own consciousness. Both the shrine and the universe are
radiating great light. If one is not able to release the self, immediately visualize oneself as the
Deity again. After achieving a clear visualization, release the self and enter the Void again. This
process is known as “alternating cessation with visualization/observation” or “dual deployment
of cessation and visualization/observation.”
Breath Counting Method:
Mentally count one’s own inhalation and exhalation until arriving at the “stillness” condition of
“no-thought.” Then, release oneself into the cosmos.
(For a detailed description of the Three Lights Empowerment, Chanting of Heart Mantras, Nine
Cycle Breathing, Entering into Samadhi, and Breath Counting, refer to pp. 78-130 of A Complete
and Detailed Exposition on the True Buddha Tantric Dharma.)
12. Emerging from Samadhi
The procedure for emerging from Samadhi is a reversal of “Entering of the Deity into Oneself”
and “Release of Oneself into the Cosmic Consciousness” as described in step 11. Visualize
oneself emerge from the Void to return to one’s body. The Deity then contracts to rest on the heart
chakra lotus and transforms into a light pearl. The light pearl ascends the central channel to exit
through the crown opening and transforms back into the Deity. One emerges from Samadhi.
13. Recite the Principal Heart Mantras
14. Recite the Buddha’s Name (3 times)
15. Dedication
With reverence I practice the yoga of Holy Root Lineage Guru Lian-sheng,
The True Buddha School helps all beings.
The Padmakumara Mantra delivers one to the Maha Twin Lotus Ponds,
Where the Eighteen Lotuses have manifested.
Such a supreme and rare secret transmission,
I now practice and make a universal offering.
By engendering a deep and sincere vow,
May I soon ascend to this Buddha Land.
Also:
May the Holy Root Lineage Guru bless
And empower me to attain a lotus-birth.
May I attain perfection and self-mastery,
Liberating oneself and others to the Buddha Land.
May all who uphold the name of Amitabha Buddha
Be born together in the Pure Land of His Western Paradise.
Recompense the Fourfold Generosity from above,
And aiding those who suffer in the Three Paths below.
Upon seeing the Buddha,
May I be liberated from the cycle of birth and death,
And may I develop the qualities of Buddhahood,
And thus free all who suffer.
I, ________ (your name), dedicate the merits of this practice to the Root Lineage Guru. May the
Root Lineage Guru always be healthy, remain in samsara, never enter nirvana, and forever turn
the dharma wheel. May everyone be healthy, free of hindrances, strong in cultivation, and may
all circumstances become auspicious.
May all supplications be completely fulfilled.
May all hindrances be removed. Wun!
(For a detailed description of Dedication, refer to page 165 of A Complete and Detailed
Exposition on the True Buddha Tantric Dharma.)
16. Recite the Hundred Syllable Mantra (3 times)
17. Tender the Great Homage with Visualization (same as step 3)
18. Recite the Completion Mantra
Om, Bu Lin. (3 times)
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Dismissal: Clap twice, then cross hands and snap thumbs and middle fingers.
End of Practice: May all endeavors be auspicious.
Xiu-fa yuan-man, ru-yi ji-xiang.