PRELIMINARY EXERCISE 3: VISUALIZING THE PROTECTIVE CIRCLE

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

~ TIBETAN SECRET DOCTRINES (BOOK III) 

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE 3: VISUALIZING THE PROTECTIVE
CIRCLE

(23) In the third of the preliminary exercises, Visualizing
[or Meditating upon] the Protective Circle, there are three
parts: the Art of Posturing the Body; the Art of Breathing;
and the Art of Directing Thought [or Mental Imagery].

(24) The first of these three, the art of posturing the body,
consisteth of the seven methods of making manifest all 
[psychophysical] processes [or things].

(25) In the Art of Breathing, one is to exhale the dead air
thrice, then to press down the inhalation [to the very bottom
of the lungs], then to raise the diaphragm a little so as to
make the distended chest conform to the shape of a closed
vessel [like an earthen pot] and to hold it thus as long as
possible.

(26) In the Art of Directing Thought [or Mental Imagery],
one is to imagine, when the expiration is going out, that
innumerable five-colored rays are issuing from each of the
hair-pores of the body and radiating over the whole world
and filling it with their five-colored radiance, and that when
the inspiration is coming in they are re-entering the body
through the hair-pores and filling the body.

(27) Each of these [two complementary exercises] is to be
performed seven times.

(28) Then imagine that each of the rays is changed into
the syllable HUM vari-colored; and that while the expiration
is going out the world is being filled with these HUMS,
and that when the inspiration is coming in, that one's body is
being filled with them. Do this seven times.

(29) Next imagine that the HUMS are changed into
Wrathful Deities each having one face and two hands; the
right hand held aloft, flourishing overhead a dorje; the left
hand held in a menacing posture against the heart; the
right leg bent and the left leg held tense; of very angry
and fierce mien and of five colors none of them larger than
a sesame seed.

(30) As the expiration is going out, think of them as going
out with it and filling the world.

(31) As the inspiration is being drawn in, and held, imagine
them as coming in with it and filling the body.

(32) Perform these two complementary exercises seven
times each, making, in all [with the above], twenty-one exercises.

(33) Then think that each of the hair-pores of thy body
is filled with one of these Wrathful Deities, with his face
turned outwards, and that all of them taken together constitute
a coat of mail which thou art wearing protecting your being.

By Raz Iyahu