“The great master of yoga, Je Milarepa, said: “When asked who is my Yidam? “My Yidam is Chakrasamvara.””
“The crown, throat, heart, and navel,
Transforms into vajra body, speech, mind, and primordial awareness,
From the root guru, male-female (yab-yum), inseparable in meditative union,
luminosity radiates, and again, Heruka
male-female consort, dissolves into one’s four places, and
Supreme realization of bliss-emptiness is born.” –from Chakrasamvara Practice by 8th Karmapa (tr. A Tomlin)
སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི། ། རྡོ་རྗེའི་བདག་ཉིད་གྱུར་པ་ཡི། ། རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་ཡབ་ཡུམ་ནི། ། འབྲལ་མེད་སྙོམས་འཇུག་མཛད་བཞིན་ལས། །སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི། ། རྡོ་རྗེའི་བདག་ཉིད་གྱུར་པ་ཡི། ། རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་ཡབ་ཡུམ་ནི། ། འབྲལ་མེད་སྙོམས་འཇུག་མཛད་བཞིན་ལས། ། འོད་འཕྲོས་སླར་ཡང་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ ། ཡབ་ཡུམ་བདག་གི་གནས་བཞིར་ཐིམ།། བདེ་སྟོང་མཆོག་གི་རྟོགས་པ་སྐྱེས། །
Introduction
Today, am happy to offer a new translation of a brief practice of an “Innate Chakrasamvara” by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, . The practice is poetically written, with a stunning description of the self-visualisation, four empowerments and four joys of Chakrasamvara (Cakrasaṃvara) in union with Vajrayogini as consort, and completion stage.
A couple of days ago, someone messaged me on the website to ask if I had translated the brief practice of Chakrasamvara by 8th Karmapa, which I had mentioned in my prior translation of the Clear Realisation Five Deity Chakrasamvara practice by 3rd (or 2nd) Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (published together with a transcript of oral instructions on it by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche).
As I mentioned in my Introduction to that translation, the first Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment I received (in this lifetime) was Chakrasamvara from the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje in Bodh Gaya, 2006/7. Since then, I have received two empowerments on the five-deity Chakrasamvara, and translated a few texts and commentaries on the Chakrasamvara practice and tradition in general that I have received empowerments and transmissions on.
There is no mantra recitation included in the 8th Karmapa’s practice text, unlike other Innate deity practices, such as Kālacakra (see my Ashoka Grant funded Innate Kālacakra project/e-book here). But the swift visualisation and four empowerments are vivid, and one could probably add in a mantra recitation like the 3rd Karmapa’s text, if one wished. For those with an empowerment from a qualified guru with a recognised lineage, contact me for the new translation.
The text’s source is from an edition of the 8th Karmapa’s Collected Works available on Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), “Demchog Drub-thab (bDe mchog sgrub thabs)” vol. 1, 2004, pp. 813–16. For my detailed article and research on the editions and content outline of the 8th Karmapa’s Collected Works, see here.
8th Karmapa’s visions of Vajrayogini and statements about Chakrasamvara
In his new text, Chakrasamvara Ritual for Guiding the Deceased text, 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (2025), the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa cited the 8th Karmapa as saying:
“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.”
“It is said that while traveling, Mikyo Dorje wrote many poetic accounts of his visionary experiences. One of the most significant was one in which he envisaged Cakrasamvara seated above the head of Vajrayogini. From the guru, in the form of Cakrasamvara, came the nectar of wisdom, which transformed the concepts of samsara and nirvana into wisdom of enlightenment. A vajra hook made the wisdom unshakeable. Then in the same vision he saw samsara burned away in a cooking pot, which rested on a vajra trivet.”
As an offering I have asked someone to help me create this sacred vision as a new artwork. I found this one online of a seated Vajrayogini for now!
For other research and translations on this website, see Chakrasamvara. For other research and translations on 8th Karmapa, see here. I have also included this new translation as an addition to my new website: https://Karmapascollectedworks.com
May it be of benefit to the Dharma, beings and may we all attain the bliss-emptiness, four joys state of the awakened state and nature of mind, Chakrasamvara!
Adele Tomlin, 31st March 2026.
Endnotes
[1] Karma pa 08 mi bskyod rdo rje. “bDe mchog sgrub thabs.” gSung ʼbum mi bskyod rdo rje, vol. 1, 2004, pp. 813–16. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8039_8FC39F. [BDRC bdr:MW8039_8FC39F]