A vajrayana empowerment is a kind of baptism or coronation. It is the coronation of the student as a would be king or queen. In Tibetan, an abhisheka is referred to as a wang, which means “power” or “strength.” By the time you receive abhisheka, you have already become a part of the royal family of vajrayana practitioners, as either a prince or a princess; and in the abhisheka ceremony itself, you are confirmed as a king or a queen. Royal in this case means victorious: you are victorious over the five skandhas, or components of ego, and victorious over the five kleshas, or elemental neurosis. That is the general abhisheka process.

From “Transmission,” in The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness, Volume Three of the Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, pages 380-381.

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