Receiving an empowerment, or abhisheka, is proclaiming that, in the future, you will be “So-and-so Tathagata,” or “Lord or Lady of the Universe So-and-so.” Those who receive abhisheka are the future candidates for being “Lord or Lady of the Universe” of the various buddha families. Because these students are completely unified, and because they have given their complete devotion, understanding and service to affirming the teacher’s wish, therefore the will of vajrayana power has been fulfilled. In other words, receiving an empowerment, or abhisheka, means that you have become, finally and completely, one with the will of the vajrayana. You have become a part of the vajrayana altogether.

From “Surrendering,” in The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume Three: The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness, page 390.

Offered on the recent occasion of the Abhisheka of Vajrayogini in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Friday, May 31st.

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