The Tree of Enlightenment

course of the initiation, light and water are used as a way of identifying
the disciple with the tutelary deity and with the sacred
universe. Light is used as a medium for identifying the disciple
with the preceptor, who, in the context of the initiation, is identical
with the tutelary deity. Similarly, water is used as a symbol
for identifying the disciple with the various levels of understanding
of the sacred universe. In the initiation, both light and
water form a kind of bridge by means of which the two initially
different modes of being – namely, the distinction between the
disciple and the preceptor in the form of the tutelary deity, and
that between the experience of the disciple and the experience
of the sacred universe – are identified and made one. e disciple
is asked to participate in the process by visualizing light and
water as media of identification with the purified universe portrayed
in the Vajrayana initiation.
e initiation is a vehicle for transformation or, to put it more
crudely, for rebirth, or regeneration. is is indicated by the fact
that in a major initiation the disciple is given a new name, just
as a new name is given when one becomes a Buddhist in the
ceremony of the taking of refuge, or when one is ordained. e
bestowal of the new name stands for the regeneration of the disciple
in a new form, by virtue of his introduction to and identification
with both the form of the tutelary deity and the experience
of the sacred universe.
e initiation is important not only because it is itself an
introduction to and identification with the sacred universe, but
also because it supplies the disciple with the methods, or keys,
with which he can later reintroduce, re-identify, and reintegrate
himself with the sacred universe first encountered during the
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