THE CHAKRASAMVARA (DEMCHOK: WHEEL OF BLISS) FOR GUIDING THE DECEASED (LHO-GO) RITUAL: New composition by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

“The great master of yoga, Je Milarepa, said: “When asked who is my Yidam? “My Yidam is Chakrasamvara.””

“Also, Je Mikyo Dorje [8th Karmapa] said: “May I in all my lives have only the supreme, sacred spiritual guide, wearing the black hat ornament, and may the heart-essence yidam, glorious Chakrasamvara, always protect me.”  –Introduction Chakrasamvara Ritual for Guiding the Deceased text, 17^th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (2025)

“Although Chakrasamvara is the main yidam of the Karma Kamtsang lineage, there was no ritual for guiding the deceased. Last year, when the father of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Karma Dondrup, passed away, due to a dream, the Gyalwang Karmapa composed a concise Lhoga ritual based on the Chakrasamvara Five-Deity empowerment composed by the 8th Karmapa.” Publisher’s introduction

Introduction

Recently due to speaking at the Vesak 2025 event in Ho Chi Minh City, and attending HE 7^th Gyalton Rinpoche’s course in Hanoi, I have had a bit of a break from supporting and promoting the supreme head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa’s activities and teachings.

After summarising and transcribing up to day ten of the 17th Karmapa’s  Fifty Verses on the Guru teachings, there are four more days to do, which I hope to do at some point, so watch this space! A kind and generous Dharma friend has also asked me to compile all these transcripts on the Fifty Verses (2024 and 2025) into a downloadable e-book.

Several e-books composed by the 17^th Karmapa have been published recently, two of which were on or about Noble Tara.  I have already translated the substantive introductions/historical sections of both those texts which can be freely downloaded as pdf files. The ritual parts of both the above texts I have yet to do though, as they are quite lengthy.:

• The Karma Kagyu Tradition of Four-fold Mandala Offering here and
• The Five-deity Tara of 1^st Karmapa

Chakrasamavara, Karma Kagyu and the 17th Karmapa

However, yesterday a Chakrasamvara ritual applied to guide the deceased was published. This was interesting to see, as I kept having visions of unions with Chakrasamavara during the 7th Gyalton Rinpoche course.

Also, I have always felt close to Chakrasamvara, as it was the first and only highest yoga tantra empowerment I received from the 17^th Karmapa (and the first one I received from any teacher) in 2006/7 in Bodh Gaya under the Bodhi tree (before the Kagyu monlam tent had been set up).  I remember this empowerment well as I had recently taken refuge with the 17^th Karmapa in a private audience alone in 2005, after meeting him for the first time at his then residence, Gyuto Monastery. Dharamsala, India (I speak about that meeting and the impact he had on me then and in my life generally, in this video interview here (2022) about my life, work and inspirations).

Also, after the empowerment, the deity came to see my (so to speak) in my small hotel room in Bodh Gaya and went into lots of unions (I had no idea what was happening at the time) but it was very blissful and I remember feeling a bit “freaked out” by it, and told no-one.However, now I am older (and hopefully a little bit wiser ha ha), without revealing any secrets, I have a better understanding of what was happening and why.

The 17th Karmapa gave the Chakrasamvara empowerment again in 2017 and said: “Usually I do not give many empowerments, only two or three a year, and a grand empowerment from the unexcelled yoga tantra I have only given once before in this lifetime. It was when Tenga Rinpoche was still with us, and he assisted me in giving the vase empowerment from this same Great Empowerment of Chakrasamvara.” (that was the empowerment I also attended).

I have done a little research and translations on Chakrasamvara, which can be read on the website section here. One of these texts is a short daily generation and mantra sadhana of the five deity Chakrasamvara, composed by the 3^rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, see here.

Here below, I translate the Introductory section of this new Chakrasamvara text, as composed by the 17th Karmapa. The publisher’s  introduction (also in Tibetan) released with the e-text says:

“The main source for the ritual for guiding the deceased, or the Lhoga ritual, according to our kind teacher, is the purification of the lower realms.

It is also clearly explained in the Kalachakra Root Tantra, and the explanatory tantras of Hevajra, as well as the Ghuyasamaja tantra, and scholars and masters of India and Tibet have traditionally applied it not only to the four classes of tantra but also to sutra rituals. In particular, the glorious Sakyapa, the Gelugpa, and the Rechung Whispered/Close Lineage (Nyengyu) traditions also have the practice of applying it to Chakrasamvara.

However, although Chakrasamvara is the main yidam of the Karma Kamtsang lineage, there was no ritual for guiding the deceased. Last year, when the father of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Karma Dondrup, passed away, due to a dream, the Gyalwang Karmapa composed a concise Lhoga ritual based on the Chakrasamvara Five Deity Abhisheka composed by the 8th Karmapa. Following that, due to the requests of many interested parties, we have had the opportunity to publish this blessed ritual as an e-book.”

Chakrasamvara Ritual for guiding the deceased: Lho-go (Southern Door) (2025)

The Introduction by 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa

“I prostrate with reverence and take refuge in the feet of the Dharma Lord, the glorious Dusum Khyenpa, of the Three Times, inseparable from the glorious Chakrasamvara. Grant your blessings!

In addition, the king of translators, the sovereign Marpa Lotsawa, stated that among the Father Tantras, Guhyasamaja; the Mother Tantras, Mahamaya; the Essence, Hevajra; the Quintessence, Chakrasamvara; and the Four Seats with Protectors, Chakrasamvara is the quintessence of all Mother Tantras.

Similarly, the great master of yoga, Jetsun Milarepa, said:

“When asked what my Yidam is: “My Yidam is Chakrasamvara.”

Likewise, the Yidam of the general practice lineage of Jetsun Milarepa is Chakrasamvara itself. From the mouth of the Lord of Dharma, Incomparable Gampopa:

“Glorious Chakrasamvara and Jetsun Vajrayogini,
The three Jetsun red dakinis,
are the three deities of the generation stage meditation.”

དཔལ་འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པའི་བདེ་མཆོག་དང་། །རྗེ་བཙུན་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ། །
མཁའ་འགྲོ་རྗེ་བཙུན་དམར་ཆུང་གསུམ། ། འདི་བསྐྱེད་རིམ་བསྒོམ་པའི་ལྷ་གསུམ་ཡིན། །

In particular, Jetsun Mikyo Dorje [8th Karmapa]  said:

“Chakrasamvara in union is the main practice of the generation stage yoga of the master himself. Among the five sets of five deities, which are known as the five heart-mandalas of Chöje Dusum Khyenpa, who is the sixth Buddha to come, an emanation of a lion, the previous lamas gave great importance to the Chakrasamvara five-deity mandala, and the Vajravarahi five-deity mandala.

Also, Jetsun Mikyo Dorje [8th Karmapa] said:

“In all my lives may I have only the supreme, sacred spiritual guide, wearing the black hat ornament, and may the heart-essence yidam, glorious Chakrasamvara, always look after me.”

སྐྱེ་བ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཡོངས་འཛིན་དམ་པ་མཆོག ། ཞྭ་ནག་ཅོད་པཎ་འཛིན་པ་ཁོ་ན་དང་། ། ཡི་དམ་སྙིང་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་བདེ་བ་མཆོག ། འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་གྱུར་ཅིག །

In particular, in the last chapter of the Chakrasamvara root tantra, the fifty-first, it says:

“When yogis pass away,
blood-drinking deities and yoginis,
holding various flowers in their hands,
various banners and flags,
with various sounds of music,
and with offerings of various songs,
lead this concept called death
to the realm of the Dakinis.”

Thus, it is said that when the practitioners of mantra pass away, heroes and dakinis lead them to the realm of Khechara, and it is undoubtedly very beneficial to perform purification rites for the deceased through this method.

Here, there are two parts to explaining the southern gate (Lho-Go) ritual for guiding the deceased, based on the five-deity Chakrasamvara, the heart yidam of the glorious Dusum Khyenpa: the preliminary practices and the actual activities.

First, the practitioner must have received empowerment in the mandala of this chosen deity and have completed the preliminary recitation.  In general, before performing the Southern Gate ritual, one must accomplish the mandala of the chosen deity, including the self-generation, front-generation, and vase-generation, and make offerings.

In particular, if empowering the deceased, it is essential to enter oneself and receive empowerment. Even if not empowering, the practitioner performing this Southern Gate ritual must be pure in vows and commitments. Due to circumstances of time and place, root downfalls are very likely to occur, so taking empowerment to restore broken vows and commitments is indispensable. However, if a sudden exception must be made, one must first perform self-generation meditation as in the Hevajra Five-Deity Visualization composed by the Eighth Jamyang Shepa, as well as accomplish the Victorious Vase and the Action Vase.”

The next section of the text goes into the ritual itself. The colophon at the end of the text states that:

“The one with the name Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley, completed this on the 6th of the month of Chu-stod in the year of the Dragon (July 12, 2024). Again, on the 25th day of the black month of the year of the wood snake (May 22, 2025), during the gathering of the dakinis, confessing my mistakes to the guru and the yidam. May all the virtues of my father be the cause of the quick attainment of the state of the Bhagavan Chakrasamvara! Sarva Manga Lam.”