In general, if we're skillful and mindful, we can combine the four opponent powers of purification practice in conjunction with the emptiness of the 3 spheres with our entire day as well as particular virtuous actions throughout the day. When we do purification practices it is important to activate these opponent powers.
Kangso is a sort of self-initiation in relation to Dharma Protectors. ‘Kang’ means 'fulfilling', and ‘so’ means 'repairing'.
The sections of confession and offering the fulfilling substances are the most important parts of the Kangso. With confession we call upon the three vajras - Vairochana, Amitabha, and Akshobya to the space before us. In particular, this means they are stacked above the Protector/s and their retinue. At the hearts of the three vajras is the 100-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva. The mantra can be broken into sections - after a portion of reciting the mantra white nectar descends from Vairochana into the holy beings and ourself etc cleansing/purifying negative actions of body, especially those in relation to our samaya with the Guru-Protector. Then the red and blue nectars for speech and mind in the same way. This is the 'so' part of Kangso and is like self-initiation.
We are confessing our broken samayas. It is crucial to make sure the 4 opponent powers are alive for you in this for it to have the greatest impact. So, don't forget to conclude this section with a promise or strong determination to keep particular samaras...be skillful with what you commit to.
In the 'kang' section of Kangso, we are offering substances that fulfill our commitments to the Protectors. This is not different from the section in Lama Chopa when we offer our spiritual practice in the aspect of substances. It is important at this point in the sadhana to really feel that your spiritual practice and commitments are appearing as these substances. And remember, the special meaning of wrathful offerings is that because the holy beings experience uncontaminated great bliss when delighting in these offerings, we ourselves are creating the cause to transform the most wretched and horrific aspects of our samsara (our contaminated aggregates) into the experience of uncontaminated great bliss.
There are different degrees of help that we receive from the Protectors, and in a way this goes for all the holy beings. The purity of our samaya, the stronger our concentration, the power of our correct intentions such as renunciation and bodhichitta, the strength of our wisdom realizing emptiness, the power of our divine pride and clear appearance - the quality of all these things determines the power of our practice, of what karma will ripen, of how quickly realizations will ripen, of how much the holy beings can help us, and especially to what degree the Protectors can assist us (because they have special oaths regarding this).
Dorje Shugden helps everyone, and the more directly he is propitiated and the more qualified the disciple, the more powerfully he will manifest the power. His real samaya purification is the transformation of your mind into the living lineage through blessings. Ultimately, the most special help you will receive is the union of your mind with Dorje Shugden's mind of enlightened lineage.
It is important to keep our commitments to the best of our ability. If we are always breaking things that are definitely within our capacity to keep all the while we keep propitiating the Protectors, what nonsense. We need to not have this idea that 'its ok to break this commitment again because I can just purify the mistake'....that is missing the point of purification altogether. If we really appreciated the serious predicament we're in, we would be alot more careful, especially when it comes to propitiating the Protectors for their help.
A brief note on tantric samaya: I once heard someone say that certain tantric commitments only apply when you're a certain level practitioner. O really? This incorrect. If we take the vows and commitments of tantra, we are meant to keep all of them. Why? Because the purer our discipline, the purer our mind, the purer our realization, the more quickly we will approach the highest realizations. Even though Masters such as Drubchen Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche have said to try our best, this isn't saying it's ok to break samaya. Of course it is impossible to keep everything perfectly until we are a perfect Buddha, but we must identify within our own mind how our self-cherishing uses this advice as an excuse to break samaya, especially samaya we are capable of keeping. For example, even if we are not ready to rely upon an action mudra, we still need to strive to keep the vows related to such a practice as they apply to reliance on the wisdom mudra as well. Yes, we need to keep the intention to maintain samaya, but this means our intention is to actively strive to keep them to the best of our ability and to keep refining our ability. Otherwise, our laziness gets the best of us, the vibration of our realizations and abilities do not increase, and then suddenly its time to die.
