Well here we're talking primarily about Vajrayana,
about the uncommon Mahayana,
the teachings that derive from the esoteric teachings
known as the tantras given originally by the Buddha.
So, in fact the only way of practicing the Vajrayana,
of beginning to practice
the skillful means of Vajrayana,
is to receive what we call initiation or empowerment.
Abhisheka in Sanskrit.
The understanding taught in
the Varjayana is that in a sense,
the qualities of a Buddha,
of wisdom and compassion, and so on,
are actually present right now in the stream of our mind.
But they are of course completely obscured
by the disturbing emotions and ignorance,
but nevertheless that is the basis,
the basis of the path,
that understanding that what we seek to achieve,
buddhahood, is in a sense present within us already.
And how do we realise that?
And how do we make those qualities manifest?
For that we need to enter the path,
but we cannot enter the path without receiving
the appropriate initiations that will allow us
to engage in those practices.
Because an initiation is not merely
the imparting of a certain set of techniques,
a certain set of techniques for practicing visualization,
or recitation of mantras and so on.
But it is actually, so to speak, a ripening
of the seeds of enlightenment within us.
The seeds of enlightenment that are present
but completely obscured right now
even within our ordinary body, speech, and mind.
Or to put it another way,
that are present, but are right now obscured
within our five aggregates.
So initiation is the ripening of those aggregates,
of the body, speech, and mind,
so that it's like, begins to,
the intrinsic potentiality begins to manifest.
So, in the ritual of an initiation,
a lama makes a connection, establishes a connection,
between the enlightened state,
the nirvana state if you like,
the state symbolised by the Buddhas,
and our present, unawakened state.
Unawakened but still as it were,
containing the seeds of enlightenment.
Those two are kind of connected by the ritual of initiation.
In a ritual of initiation, a lama formally introduces
us to the environment of a deity,
the mandala of a deity, and that deity itself.
Now to talk of deities makes it sound like we
are about talking something theistic.
But actually Vajrayana is just, a deity in Vajrayana
is just like a kind of code word
for the qualities of enlightenment.
So in the tantras, many, many such deities
and their mandalas are taught.
And the power to be able to meditate on one,
or fully realise one, and therefore achieve enlightenment,
is conferred upon us by the ritual of initiation.
So only those who themselves have followed this path
and achieved results on this path,
are lamas who are capable of giving such initiations,
and them being effective.
So initiation is not a ritual
that somebody just makes up or invents as it were.
It is something based upon the templates
that were established by the Buddhas
in the tantras.
So every initiation and the practices that come from initiation,
belongs to a lineage, a lineage of transmission,
which ultimately goes back to the enlightened sources
from which those tantras came.