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Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition of Secret Mantra - Tantra in Tibet Introduction
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I
THE DALAI LAMA
TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
It is essential to settle the meaning of the scriptures with stainless reasoning. The meaning of passages that are spoken only for certain trainees must be interpreted and the meaning of extremely subtle passages must be penetrated; this is difficult, and some are in danger of misunderstanding. Also, for many the countless books of sūtra and Tantra do not appear as instructions for practice, and they are satisfied with seeing only a fraction of the path. Others are able to analyze a great many points but are unable, even though they are learned, to discern the important ones. They know, in general, how to practice but do not make any effort at practice. Those in these three situations cannot practice Tantra properly.
Tsongkhapa saw that if the meanings of the countless scriptures were collected, settled with stainless reasoning, and set forth in the sequence of their practice, many sentient beings who had come under the influence of these bad circumstances would be helped. Captivated by the good explanations of the Indian and Tibetan tantrics such as Nāgārjuna, his spiritual sons, and the omniscient Butön, Tsongkhapa was enthused to gather together these explanations in order to rectify the faults and omissions existing in the presentations by earlier lamas.
Writing a book on Secret Mantra is not like writing a book on the Middle Way School or on the teachings of the paths contained in the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras (Prajñāpāramitā). The topics of Secret Mantra are not to be displayed like merchandise but practiced secretly. If they are not, instead of helping, there is a danger of harming many people due to generating misunderstanding. For instance, some who are unable to practice the four Tantras in general and Highest Yoga Tantra in particular merely wish to play with Mantra. Some, although they have faith, do not accurately know the Buddhist presentations of view, meditation, and behavior. Others know these topics accurately but do not have an ability to maintain vows, sustain faith, and be strong of mind. Without this knowledge and this ability, practice of the Mantra Path is impossible.
In India fully qualified gurus taught the doctrines of Secret Mantra to only a few students, whose karma and aspirations were suitable and whom they knew well. The gurus passed the doctrines directly to their students, and when the students were able to practice with great effort the teachings that they received, the corresponding spiritual experiences and realizations were generated. In just that measure the Victor's teaching was furthered and the welfare of sentient beings was achieved. However, in the snowy country of Tibet these factors were largely absent. Secret Mantra was disseminated too widely, and people sought it because of its fame, without considering whether they had the capacity to practice it or not.
One is wise if, though wanting the best, one examines whether the best is fitting. The Tibetans wanted the best and assumed that they could practice the best. As a result of this, Secret Mantra became famous in Tibet, but the mode of practice was not like the proper hidden practice of the Indians, and thus we were unable to achieve the feats of Secret Mantra as explained in the Tantras; the imprint of Secret Mantra practice did not appear. As it is said in the Tibetan oral tradition, “An Indian practices one Deity and achieves a hundred; a Tibetan practices a hundred Deities and does not achieve even one.”
It is not good to begin many different works, saying “This looks good; that looks good,” touching this, touching that, and not succeeding in any of them. If you do not generate great desires but aim at what is fitting, you can actualize the corresponding potencies and become an expert in this. With success, the power or imprint of that practice is generated.
Especially nowadays, Secret Mantra has become a topic of interest, but merely as an object of inquiry. From the view[[point of a practitioner, it seems to have become an object of entertainment and to have arrived at a point where one cannot know whether it will help or harm. Many of the secrets have been disseminated; many lecturers are explaining Tantra, and books are being translated. Even though Secret Mantra is to be achieved in hiding, many books have appeared that are a mixture of truth and falsity.
I think it would be good if the means and circumstances appeared which could clear away these wrong ideas. In general, translating a book of Mantra for sale in the shops is unsuitable, but at this time and in this situation there is greater fault in not clearing away wrong ideas than there is in distributing translations. Much falsely ascribed information about Secret Mantra has wide repute nowadays, and, therefore, I think that translating and distributing an authoritative book may help to clear away these false superimpositions. This is the reason for my explanation of Tsongkhapa's work.
If Secret Mantra is practiced openly and used for commercial purposes, then accidents will befall such a practitioner, even taking his or her life, and conditions unfavorable for generating spiritual experience and realizations in his or her continuum will be generated. With other books it is not too serious to make an error, but with books of Mantra it is very serious to err either in explanation or in translation. Furthermore, if the fault of proclaiming the secret to those who are not ripened is incurred, there is danger that instead of helping, it will harm. There are many stories of people who have begun treatises on Mantra but have been unable to complete their lifespan and of others whose progress was delayed through writing a book on Mantra.
A person who has practiced the stages of sūtra and wishes to attain quickly the state of a blessed Buddha should enter into the Secret Mantra Vehicle that can easily bestow realization of Buddhahood. However, you cannot seek Buddhahood for yourself, engaging in Mantra in order to become unusual. With a spiritual guide as a protector, you need to train in the common paths, engaging in the practices of beings of small and middling capacity — realizing suffering and developing a wish to leave cyclic existence. Then you must train in the compassion that is the inability to bear the sight of suffering in others without acting to relieve it. Beings want happiness but are bereft of happiness; they do not want suffering but are tortured by suffering. You must develop Great Compassion and empathy from the very orb of your heart for all sentient beings traveling in cyclic existence in the Three Realms — desire, form, and formless. You need to have a very strong mind wishing to free all sentient beings from suffering and its causes.
Through the force of having accumulated predispositions over many lifetimes, some persons have a good mind even when young; they have unbearable compassion for insects who are in danger of dying and for humans stricken with suffering; they have a keen sense of altruism. Such persons should enter the Mantra Vehicle in order to Attain Buddhahood quickly.
Not all persons can practice Tantra, but those who have performed good actions over many lifetimes, who even as children possessed a strong thought to help, and who have good predispositions should seek the aid of a spiritual guide. Through his or her quintessential instructions, these students should, with effort and over a period of months and years, raise this good mind to higher and higher levels. Finally, whether going, wandering, lying down, or staying still, they have a strong force of mind seeking to do whatever can be done to help others. They wish very strongly to bring vast help to others in a spontaneous manner, effortlessly, as a Buddha. Such persons are suitable to enter and should enter Secret Mantra in order to Attain Buddhahood quickly.
If you are seeking a mere temporary sufficiency of food and clothing for yourself and others, seeking only the temporary purposes of this lifetime, avoiding temporary disease, attaining affluence of resources or a temporary good name or a great deal of money, certainly there are means for the temporary achievement of great wealth, for temporarily relieving sickness and disease, and for achieving temporary fame. You can be greedy and deceptive, sometimes being honest and at other times lying, sometimes fighting and at other times not. These are temporary means, and nowadays many people are proceeding in this way. If this is your intention, you have no need for Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition of Secret Mantra.
If, on the other hand, you do not take this system of the elders of the world to be sufficient, if you view such activities as senseless, pithless, if you know that these do not help future lives or higher aims, if you know that even in terms of this life no matter how wealthy you become, it is difficult to have peace of mind, and if you are seeking peace of mind for yourself and others, it is very important to improve your mind.
Many have given advice for this purpose, but we say that only the teacher Buddha taught forcefully that we should cherish others more than ourselves and that we should develop an intention definitely to establish sentient beings in a state free from suffering and the causes of suffering. All of the world's religious systems teach a means of bringing a little peace to the mind and cleansing coarser aspects of the mental continuum. They either directly or indirectly create improvement in terms of a good mind and of altruism, but among them it seems that only Buddhism presents, by way of a vast number of reasonings, scriptures, and views, the means of transforming the mind into ultimate goodness. I am not saying that Buddhism is best because I am a Buddhist. I think that if it is considered honestly one would think so, but even if it is the best, this does not mean that everyone should be a Buddhist. All do not have the same disposition and interest. All should have the best, but since not all are capable of practicing the best, it is necessary for each person to observe a path that accords with one's own disposition, interest, and ability.
If it were true that everyone should be a Buddhist, that everyone should be a Tantrist, and that everyone should follow Highest Yoga Tantra because it is the best, then Vajradhara would have taught only Highest Yoga Tantra. He would indeed have done so if everyone were capable of practicing it. But for those for whom Highest Yoga Tantra was not suitable he taught Yoga Tantra. For those for whom Yoga Tantra was not suitable he taught Performance Tantra. For those for whom Performance Tantra was not suitable he taught Action Tantra. Those for whom Action Tantra was not suitable he taught by way of sūtra in which not even the name of “Secret Mantra” occurs.
Within sūtra he taught the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras setting forth the Middle Way (madhyamaka) view, and for those for whom this was not suitable, he taught sūtras presenting the view of Mind Only (cittamātra). He set forth the Vehicle of Solitary Realizers which could help even more persons, and again, to help even more, he set forth the Hearer Vehicle, and within that there are vows for monks, nuns, novices, and two types of vows for laypersons. Within the lowest type of layperson's vow there is assumption of all five precepts or four or three or two or just one, or even just maintaining Refuge; there are many who can do this.
Buddha set forth, in accordance with the dispositions and interests of those who could not practice the most profound]] aspects of his path, limitless forms of stages beginning from a layperson's vow of Refuge and going through to training in the Vajra Vehicle of Highest Yoga Tantra. From the view[[point of number of reasons, vastness, and depth, Buddhism has the most paths and techniques for the transformation of the mind into ultimate goodness.
In order to enter the profound vehicle of Secret Mantra one must know the essentials of the Vajra Vehicle, and for this reason Tsongkhapa explains the stages of its path. Among the eighteen volumes of his collected works, the Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path Common to the Vehicles and the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra are the most important. Many of his books are about selected topics in Tantra — the stage of generation, the stage of completion, granting initiation, achieving special activities, and so forth — but that which presents in an ordered fashion the important essentials of all four Tantras is his Great Exposition of Secret Mantra [the first section of which comprises Part Two of this volume.
When an oral transmission explaining the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra is given, listeners should have the initiations to the four Tantras — for instance, of Mahākaruṇika for Action Tantra, of Vairochana for Performance Tantra, of Sarvavid for Yoga Tantra, and of Saṃvara, Guhyasamāja, or Bhairava in a maṇḍala of colored powders for Highest Yoga Tantra. At the least, one should have an initiation of Highest Yoga Tantra in a maṇḍala of colored powders or painted cloth. Also, when an oral transmission is bestowed, the lamas who form the continuum of the lineage should be identified. The full title of the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra is The Stages of the Path to a Victor and Pervasive Master, a Great Vajradhara: Revealing All Secret Essentials. It indicates the contents of the book. “Victor” generally means one who has conquered over coarse and subtle demons, and on this occasion of Mantra “Victor” refers to conquest over mistaken dualistic appearance. Extremely subtle obstructions to omniscience [which is the simultaneous and direct knowledge of all phenomena and their mode of being are mentioned only in the teaching of Highest Yoga Tantra, the fourth and highest Mantra Path. These are the stains of mistaken dualistic appearance that are called appearance, increase, and near attainment. Those who have conquered such sources of error by means of their antidotes are Victors. These beings have completely overcome the coarse and subtle obstructions both to Liberation and to omniscience in their own continuum and are also capable of causing the conquest of these obstructions in other sentient beings, thereby overcoming the causes of suffering by which those beings are stricken.
A Victor is “pervasive” in that the emanator of all Buddha lineages, the Original Protector, Vajradhara, pervades all the lineages, such as those of Vairochana, Akṣhobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi. The excellent hundred, five, and three lineages are all included into one basis of emanation, the Body of Enjoyment, the great secret Vajradhara, who is therefore called the “Master.” Because of pervading and being the master of all lineages, Vajradhara is the “Pervasive Master.”
A “vajra” is the best of stones, a diamond; there are external symbolic vajras, as in the case of the vajra and bell used in ritual, and there are vajras that are the meanings symbolized. With respect to the latter, a vajra common to all four sets of Tantras is an undifferentiability in one entity of method and wisdom. Method is observation of the vast — the body of a Deity — conjoined with an altruistic aspiration to highest Enlightenment. Wisdom is the knowledge of the suchness of phenomena just as it is. Also, according only to Highest Yoga Tantra, a vajra is the undifferentiability in one entity of method — Great Bliss — and wisdom — realization of emptiness. Because of bearing (dhara) such a vajra in his continuum, he is called “Vajradhara.” He is “great” because there is none higher. Tsongkhapa's text is a presentation of the paths leading to the state of a great Vajradhara, not of assorted essentials of the path in unrelated groups but an arrangement in the order of practice. Since these essentials must be practiced in secret, hidden from persons who are not suited for them at this point, these are called the secret essentials of the Secret Mantra Vehicle.
Tsongkhapa gave this title to his book because it accurately presents in summary, through citing reasoning and scripture, the stages of the path by which one progresses to the ground of a great Vajradhara, pervasive master over all lineages.
THE HOMAGE
At the beginning Tsongkhapa pays homage in general to his vajra lamas — the chief of whom was Khaydrub Khyungpo Lhaypa (mkhas grub khyung po lhas pa) — and in particular to the revered Mañjushrī in dependence on whose kindness he realized the essentials of sūtra and Tantra. The Sanskrit word for homage etymologically means “seeking the indestructible” and involves physical, verbal, and mental activities; it means, “I am placing my hope in you.” He pays homage over his continuum of lives to the compassionate lamas who know the essentials of the path and then to his special guru, Mañjushrī.
Because Mañjushrī is the natural form of the wisdom of all Victors, one relies on him as one's special Deity in order to increase the wisdom discriminating the truth. Discriminating wisdom thereby increases as it otherwise would not. Tsongkhapa and Mañjushrī met directly, like two people. Originally, Tsongkhapa meditated at Gawadong (dga' ba gdong) in central Tibet in order to achieve a meeting with Mañjushrī. At Gawadong there was a Khampa (khams pa) lama named Umapa Pawo Dorjay (dbu ma pa dpa' bo rdo rje) who had been under Mañjushrī's care for many lifetimes and who had repeated Mañjushrī's mantra, oṃ a ra pa tsa na dhīḥ, even in his mother's womb. He had been born into a poor shepherd family, and one day when he was out herding sheep he encountered a black Mañjushrī, after which his intelligence increased. When Tsongkhapa met Lama Umapa at Gawadong, he was able to ask Mañjushrī questions about the profound emptiness and the vast deeds of compassion of sūtra and Tantra through Lama Umapa.
There was a painting of Mañjushrī on the wall of Tsongkhapa's Gawadong retreat, and upon improvement of his meditation a great light emitted from Mañjushrī's heart. That was the first time Tsongkhapa saw Mañjushrī, and thereafter at his wish he met with Mañjushrī, who taught him the difficult points of the stages of the path. Therefore, Tsongkhapa pays homage to the lowest part of Mañjushrī's body, his feet.
In ordinary Refuge, once our temporary purpose has been satisfied, we no longer need that source of Refuge. Here, Tsongkhapa takes Refuge not for a trifling superficial purpose, but for the ultimate purpose of attaining the fruit of complete Liberation from suffering and the causes of suffering, and, since this is not usually done in a few years or even in one lifetime, he pays respectful homage in all his lifetimes. This indicates that the path must be practiced within the context of Refuge from lifetime to lifetime until becoming a Buddha.
THE EXPRESSION OF WORSHIP
Books are generally divided into three parts, expression of worship, body of the text, and conclusion. Having paid homage to his lamas in general and Mañjushrī in particular, Tsongkhapa begins the expression of worship to spiritual guides. Usually expressions of worship are made to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; however, Chandrakīrti took compassion as his object of worship in his Supplement to the Middle (madhyamakāvatāra), and Maitreya took the Mother, the Perfection of Wisdom, as the object of worship in his Ornament for the Clear Realizations (Abhisamayālaṃkāra). Here, Tsongkhapa takes the lamas as his object of worship. This is because it is necessary to depend on a lama (guru) in order to complete the progression through the grounds and paths, and in particular it is extremely important to rely on a qualified spiritual guide in order to train in the paths of Mantra. If one relies on a lama over a long period of time with a union of faith and respect, one can learn quickly and easily the paths that are free from error and from the taints of seeking only one's own welfare. The spiritual guides teach out of Great Compassion, not out of desire for fame or wealth; they teach without confusion exactly as those paths were taught by Buddha.
Tsongkhapa next praises and pays homage to Vajradhara, the Original Protector. Vajradhara, without stirring from the state of the expanse of suchness, which is the extinguishment of all conceptual and dualistic proliferations, appears through his physical sport like a rainbow, emanating collections of Deities to countless lands, pure and impure, in many forms, whatever is suitable for taming trainees. A Buddha's Truth Body has two aspects, a Wisdom Truth Body and a Nature Truth Body. Vajradhara's mind, the original innate wisdom, is the Wisdom Truth Body, remaining continuously in meditative equipoise on the expanse of suchness as long as space exists. The final expanse of suchness, the state of extinguishment of all proliferations — both naturally pure and purified of adventitious stains — is the Nature Truth Body.
A Bodhisattva generates a wish to Attain Buddhahood for the sake of others; therefore, the purpose of actualizing the Truth Body is the welfare of others. However, that which directly appears to trainees is not the Truth Body but Form Bodies; thus, it is necessary to help migrators by way of Form Bodies, which a Buddha emanates without stirring from the nonconceptual, nondualistic Truth Body and without exertion, effort, or thought. Form Bodies appear spontaneously in accordance with the need of trainees.
The subtler of Form Bodies is the Body of Complete Enjoyment, and the coarser are Emanation Bodies, among which there are physically obstructive and nonobstructive types. Thus, this expression of worship indicates the Three Bodies: Truth Body, Complete Enjoyment Body, and Emanation Body, or Four Bodies: Nature Body, Wisdom Body, Complete Enjoyment Body, and Emanation Body. According to Highest Yoga Tantra, the Nature Body can also be considered compounded and not necessarily uncompounded, as it is considered in the sūtra systems, because the Clear Light wisdom of Great Bliss that is a Wisdom Truth Body is also said to be a Nature Body. The Complete Enjoyment Body is the sport of mere wind and mind. Emanation Bodies appear in countless pure and imPure Lands, sometimes with a coarse form. Tsongkhapa praises and makes an expression of worship to such a Vajradhara, the lord or principal of the maṇḍalas.
He next makes obeisance to Vajrapāṇi, master of the secret, leader of the bearers of knowledge mantras, and caretaker of the Tantras. Vajrapāṇi collected all the secret essentials, the many and various teachings that Vajradhara set forth from the view[[point of his exact knowledge of the trainees' disposition, interest, and potential. Tsongkhapa pays homage to Vajrapāṇi, arousing his compassion and suggesting that inner and outer demons beware.
Then Tsongkhapa takes Mañjushrī, who is the mother, father, and child of all Victors, as a special object of worship. He is the mother of all Victors in that he is the essence of All-Wisdoms; the father of all Victors in that he takes the form of spiritual guides and causes beings to generate an altruistic aspiration to highest Enlightenment; and the child of all Victors in that he assumes the form of Bodhisattvas as he did within Shākyamuni Buddha's retinue.
When a trainee pleases him, Mañjushrī can, with merely a glance, bestow the wisdom discriminating the truth in the sense of quickly increasing realization, like lighting a flame. Tsongkhapa says that having heard such a marvelous account, he has relied on Mañjushrī as his special Deity over a long time and will not forsake him in the future, there not being another Refuge for him. Tsongkhapa pays homage to Mañjushrī as a treasure of wisdom, arousing his compassion through praise and asking him to bestow the fruition of his wishes.
PROMISE OF COMPOSITION
At the request especially of Kyabchog Palsang (skyab mchog dpal bzang) and Sönam Sangpo (bsod nams bzang po), Tsongkhapa promises to compose the text for the reasons described above. To do this, he arouses the compassion of the Field-Born, Innate, and Mantra-Born Sky-Goers for the sake of bestowing feats on him, like a mother to her child. Field-Born Sky-Goers are born with bodies of flesh and blood; Innate Sky-Goers have attained realization of the stage of completion in Highest Yoga Tantra; Mantra-Born Sky-Goers have not yet generated the stage of generation. According to another explanation, Field-Born Sky-Goers have attained the subjective Clear Light [the third of five levels in the stage of completion]; the Innate have lesser realization but are still within the stage of completion; and Mantra-Born Sky-Goers are said to abide in the stage of generation. Tsongkhapa requests these feminine caretakers of Tantra to be affectionate to him and overcome all obstacles to clear presentation of tantric doctrine and, seeing the purpose of his deeds, to grant the feats and activities benefiting all beings.
We live in an ocean of cyclic existence whose depth and extent cannot be measured. We are troubled again and again by the afflictions of desire and hatred as if repeatedly attacked by sharks.
Our mental and physical aggregates are impelled by former contaminated actions and afflictions and serve as a basis for present suffering as well as inducing future suffering. While such cyclic existence lasts, we have various thoughts of pleasure and displeasure: “If I do this, what will people think? If I do not do this, I will be too late; I won't make any profit.” When we see something pleasant we think, “Oh, if I could only have that!” We see that others are prosperous, and we generate jealousy, unable to bear their prosperity. We see an attractive man or woman, and we want a relationship. We are not satisfied with a passing relationship but want it to last forever. And then, once staying together with that person, we desire someone else. When we see someone we do not like, we become angry and quarrel after a single word; we feel we cannot remain even for an hour near this hated person but must leave immediately. Day and night, night and day we spend our lives in the company of the afflictions, generating desire for the pleasant and anger at the unpleasant, and continue thus even when dreaming, unable to remain relaxed, our minds completely and utterly mixed with thoughts of desire and hatred without interruption.
To what Refuge should we go? A source of Refuge must have completely overcome all defects forever; it must be free of all faults. It must also have all the attributes of altruism — those attainments which are necessary for achieving others' welfare. For it is doubtful that anyone lacking these two prerequisites can bestow Refuge; it would be like falling into a ditch and asking another who is in it to help you out. You need to ask someone who is standing outside the ditch for help; it is senseless to ask another who is in the same predicament. A Refuge capable of protecting from the frights of manifold sufferings cannot also be bound in this suffering but must be free and unflawed. Furthermore, the complete attainments are necessary, for if you have fallen into a ditch, it is useless to seek help from someone standing outside it who does not wish to help or who wishes to help but has no means to do so.
Only a Buddha has extinguished all defects and gained all attainments. Therefore, one should mentally go for Refuge to a Buddha, praise him or her with speech, and respect him or her physically. One should enter the teaching of such a being.
A Buddha's abandonment of defects is of three types: good, complete, and irreversible. Good abandonment involves overcoming obstructions through their antidotes, not just through withdrawing from those activities. Complete abandonment is not trifling, forsaking only some afflictions or just the manifest afflictions, but forsaking all obstructions. Irreversible abandonment overcomes the seeds of afflictions and other obstructions in such a way that defects will never arise again, even when conditions conducive to them are present.
Tsongkhapa's intention in praising Buddhism is not to insult other teachers such as Kapila. Statements of the greatness of Buddhism are made in order to develop one-pointedness of mind toward practice, because those who are able to practice Buddhism must generate effort to do so. It is necessary for them to have confidence in Buddha's teaching from the round orb of their heart. There is a Tibetan saying that one cannot sew with a two-pointed needle or achieve aims with a two-pointed mind. Similarly, if practitioners are hesitant, they will not put great force into the practice of any one system. Tsongkhapa states that Buddhism is the best in order that persons who would be helped more through engaging in the Buddhist path than through another system might not be diverted to another path.
Mere belief in a source of Refuge is not firm; unless there is valid cognition, you are going only on the assertion that Buddhism is good. Refuge is not an act of partisanship but is based on analyzing what scriptures are reasonable and what scriptures are not. In order for the mind to engage one-pointedly in practice, there must be reasoned conviction that only the Buddhist path is nonmistaken and capable of leading to the state of complete freedom from defects and possession of all auspicious attainments. One should engage in honest investigation, avoiding desire and hatred and seeking the teaching that sets forth the means for fulfilling the aims of trainees.
The fruit of practice is the achievement of two types of aims: the temporary fruit of high status and the final fruit of definite goodness. High status refers to a life as a human or a god rather than as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell-being. Definite goodness is complete Liberation from cyclic existence and the attainment of a Buddha's omniscience. Buddhism has teachings based on each as well as the means of achieving them. High status is achieved first, and definite goodness is achieved later because the attainment of Liberation from cyclic existence and the attainment of the omniscience of Buddhahood depends on having a favorable life-support within cyclic existence; however, the validity of scriptures with respect to achieving definite goodness should be proven first. When the validity of scriptures presenting Liberation and the means to achieve it has been proved with reasoning and when the conviction of valid cognition has arisen, it is possible to gain conviction with respect to the incontrovertibility of scriptures that teach high status and its means.
Buddha's teachings on nonmanifest phenomena, such as the extremely subtle presentations of actions and their effects — which are very hidden phenomena — cannot be proved with reasoning. How then can they be verified?
There is no need to verify manifest phenomena through reasoning because they appear directly to the senses. The slightly hidden, however, can be proved with reasoning that generates inferential understanding, and since emptiness is very profound but only slightly hidden, it is accessible to reasoning. Therefore, when conviction is generated in the incontrovertibility of Buddha's teaching on the very profound emptiness, conviction is gained in the validity of his teachings on very hidden phenomena that are not accessible to reasoning but are not so important.
For instance, with respect to accounts of the effects of actions that Buddha gives in sūtras such as the Wise Man and the Fool (damamūkonāmasūtra), we may wonder how it could possibly be so. Since these are very hidden phenomena, they cannot be proved with reasoning, and it seems that Buddha might say whatever he likes. However, through our own experience we can confirm Buddha's teachings on more important topics such as emptiness, the altruistic mind of Enlightenment, love, and compassion, for no matter who analyzes — Buddhist or non-Buddhist — or how much one analyzes, if the person is not biased through desire or hatred, these teachings can bear analysis and serve as powerful sources of thought. When you see that Buddha does not err with regard to these more important phenomena, you can for the first time accept his other presentations.
Some wrongly think that the afflicted phenomena of cyclic existence and the purified phenomena of nirvāṇa cannot be proved by reasoning and that since Liberation and omniscience cannot be directly seen, and are not manifest, they can be proved only through citation of scripture. They believe only in scripture and are displaying their own lack of foundation. Such a statement of Refuge is only a proclamation of the weakness of that Refuge. However, the process of cyclic existence and the eradication of it can be proved by the reasoning that establishes the misconception of inherent existence as its root cause and establishes the wisdom Realizing emptiness as its antidote.
Even scriptures that present very hidden phenomena, inaccessible to both direct perception and inference, are proved to be valid through three modes of analysis. The three modes are establishment (1) that the passage is not damaged by direct valid cognition in its teaching of manifest phenomena, (2) that the passage is not damaged by evidential inference in its teaching of slightly hidden phenomena, and (3) that the passage is not damaged by scriptural inference in its teaching of very hidden phenomena in the sense of containing internal contradictions and so forth. Thus, even this process derives from reasoning.
Buddhist scriptures do not have inner contradictions whereas non-Buddhist scriptures do. This is not to say that non-Buddhist scriptures will not be valid with respect to certain meanings, but they do have contradictions with respect to the phenomena included within the afflicted realm and with respect to phenomena included within the realm of purification. The Forders' scriptures have nonmistaken explanations of how to generate the four concentrations and the four formless absorptions as well as small achievements of altruism; however, with respect to the chief aims of persons, their scriptures contain inner contradictions. For example, they assert that the creator of the world is permanent and then assert that the cyclic existence created by this permanent creator can be overcome. If the cause were permanent, the effect would have to remain permanent. However, since the effect is impermanent, the cause must be impermanent. It is the nature of things that if the cause is not overcome, the effect cannot be overcome; thus, there could not be an end to cyclic existence. As Dharmakīrti says:
Because the permanent cannot be overcome,
It is impossible to overcome its force.
It is necessary first to prove that the root of cyclic existence is the conception of inherent existence. Then it can be shown that a system asserting a view of self and thereby rejecting the view of selflessness would be self-contradictory when it asserts the attainment of Liberation from cyclic existence.
This implies that from the view[[point of the highest Buddhist philosophical system, the Middle Way Consequence School, the views of the lower systems — Autonomy School, Mind Only School, Sūtra School, and Great Exposition School — also seem to contain inner contradictions. According to the system of the Middle Way Consequence School, the root of cyclic existence is the conception of the inherent existence of phenomena and the consequent misconception of the inherent existence of the “I,” called the view of the transitory collection as a real “I.” The other Buddhist systems assert an inherent existence of phenomena whereas the Consequentialists assert that inherent existence is the referent object of a mistaken consciousness conceiving self. Thus, the lower schools' assertion of Liberation from cyclic existence involves a seeming inner contradiction which is resolved only through considering this teaching a nonfinal doctrine given to those who could not comprehend the highest view.
The path of Liberation removes the adventitious defilements from the expanse of suchness which itself is intrinsically pure, and Liberation is the state in which these adventitious defilements have been removed. It seems that some teachers did not know this Liberation or the path to it and set forth systems in ignorance. The Kālachakra Tantra (kālacakra), after setting forth the various systems of Buddhist and non-Buddhist tenets and presenting with reasoning their relative superiority and inferiority, says, “It is not suitable to despise another system.” The reason given is that often non-Buddhist systems have been taught through the empowering blessings of Buddhas.
There are cases of teachers' explaining paths in ignorance, but other teachers were emanations of Buddhas, free from all defects and endowed with all attainments. They knew the difference between the mistaken and nonmistaken paths, but because at that point there was no purpose in teaching the nonmistaken path, they set forth a nonfinal path, pretending not to know another.
One who has the ability should proceed on the nonmistaken path; however, in relation to one for whom another path is suitable, that path is right. For instance, for a person who can practice the Mind Only view but not the Middle Way view, the Mind Only view is unmistaken. The same is also true with regard to non-Buddhist teachings. Therefore, other teachers, their doctrines, and practitioners can be Refuges, but not final Refuges.
When conviction in the sources of Refuge is generated through unbiased investigation and proper reasoning, faith is firm and powerful. Such faith cannot be generated in reliance on scripture alone. The means for generating such conviction are set forth in Dharmakīrti's Seven Treatises — three main works and four works of elaboration. Of the three main works, the extensive one is his Commentary on (Dignāga's) “Compilation of Valid Cognition” (pramāṇavarttika); the one of medium length is his Ascertainment of Valid Cognition (pramāṇaviniścaya), and the condensed is his Drop of Reasoning (nyāyabindu). The four works of elaboration are his Drop of Reasons (hetubindu), Analysis of Relations (sambandhaparīkṣā), Principles of Debate (vādanyāya), and Proof of Other Continuums (saṃtānāntarasiddhi). Inner conviction arises from reasoned investigation.
LESSER VEHICLE AND GREAT VEHICLE
A Hearer's mode of practice accords with that of the Lesser Vehicle discipline, one-pointedly viewing the desire realm attributes of pleasant forms, sounds, odors, tastes, and tangible objects as faulty. Āryadeva says that those who engage in this practice which is free from desire have “an interest in the lowly” because this path accords with the nature of a mind lacking the strength of the unusual attitude that bears the burden of all sentient beings' welfare. Since they are unable to practice using the great power of desire in the path, they are taught a mode free from desire.
As long as you cannot use desire in the path there is a danger of coming under its influence, in which case it is better to proceed only on a path that is free from desire. Otherwise, if you attempt to use desire in the path, you will be harmed instead of helped. Prohibition is the only course. This is the mode of Lesser Vehicle practice.
For those having an interest in the vast, the Sūtra Great Vehicle practices of the grounds and the perfections are taught; these comprise the causal Perfection Vehicle. Those who, in addition to having an interest in the vast, have a special interest in the ultimate profundity, are taught practices wherein desire is used in the path. This is Tantra Great Vehicle.
The Indian scholar Tripiṭakamāla also includes all Buddha's teaching into these three modes, the Lesser Vehicle mode of the Four Noble Truths, the Sūtra Great Vehicle mode of the perfections — giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom — and the Tantra Great Vehicle mode of Secret Mantra. Thus, Buddha's word is divided into the two scriptural divisions of Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle; the vehicles or paths that are the subjects of expression by Buddha's words are also divided into the two, Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle.
The Lesser Vehicle is further divided into Two Vehicles, Hearer Vehicle (śrāvakayāna) and Solitary Realizer Vehicle (Pratyekabuddha Yāna). Solitary Realizers are of two types, congregating and rhinoceros-like. Congregating Solitary Realizers are a little more social, staying in a group or community for a longer period than the rhinoceros-like, who find it unsuitable to stay in society and therefore live alone. Hearers and Solitary Realizers equally abandon the conception of inherent existence, but Solitary Realizers amass more merit than Hearers and thus, when they actualize the fruit of their vehicle, are capable of becoming Foe Destroyers — destroyers of the foe, the afflictions, the principal of which is the conception of inherent existence — without depending on a teacher in that lifetime. They actualize the fruit of their vehicle “independently” through the force of accumulating merit for a hundred eons. Solitary Realizers are said to be very proud and independent-minded. They mostly attain their Enlightenment in a dark age when no Buddhas appear — perhaps so that they will not be outshone by a Buddha's presence but more likely in order to be of greater benefit to others. As Nāgārjuna says in his Treatise on the Middle (madhyamakaśāstra, XVIII.12):
Though the perfect Buddhas do not appear
And Hearers have disappeared,
Both Hearers and Solitary Realizers seek the wisdom realizing the absence of inherent existence of all phenomena — persons and other phenomena. This is because the chief bond binding one in cyclic existence is the conception of inherent existence, the other bonds being the afflictions such as desire, hatred, and ignorance that depend on the conception of inherent existence. According to Mantra, the causes binding one in cyclic existence are two, ignorance and winds currents of energy, and among them the chief is the ignorance conceiving inherent existence. The winds that serve as the mount of afflicted conceptual thought are cooperative causes in the process of cyclic existence.
Hearers and Solitary Realizers understand that without the wisdom realizing selflessness it is impossible to overcome cyclic existence. They understand that they need this wisdom and seek it in company with ethics, meditative stabilization, and so forth. Through this path all afflictions are extinguished.
There are four schools of Buddhist tenets:
1. Great Exposition School (bye brag smra ba, vaibhāṣika)
2. Sūtra School (mdo sde pa, sautrāntika)
3. Mind Only School (sems tsam pa, cittamātra)
4. Middle Way School (dbu ma pa, Mādhyamika)
The highest of these is the Middle Way School which is further divided into a Middle Way Autonomy School (dbu ma rang rgyud pa, svātantrika-Mādhyamika) and Middle Way Consequence School (dbu ma thal 'gyur pa, prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika). The Middle Way Consequence School is considered to be the highest philosophical view, its teachers having been Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Buddhapālita, Chandrakīrti, Shāntideva, Atisha, and so forth. According to the Consequentialist system, those of the Lesser Vehicle — who are unable to bear the burden of all sentient beings' welfare but seek only their own Liberation from cyclic existence — and those of the Great Vehicle — who are able to bear the burden of the welfare of all sentient beings throughout space — equally realize the subtle emptiness of both persons and other phenomena. They realize that both persons and other phenomena, such as mind and body, do not inherently exist, or exist in their own right.
However, the non-Consequence schools all say that those of the Lesser Vehicle — Hearers and Solitary Realizers — realize only a selflessness of persons which is a person's absence of substantial existence in the sense that a person does not have a character different from the character of mind and body. From the view[[point of the Consequence School, however, this wisdom is not sufficient as a means of Liberation from cyclic existence, and furthermore, the other schools have described not the innate form of the misconception of persons as substantially existent entities, but the artificial misconception. According to the Consequentialists, the innate form of this coarse misconception of self is the apprehension of a person as a controller of mind and body, like a master over servants, but it does not involve an apprehension of the person as having a character different from mind and body. Apprehension of the person as having a character different from mind and body occurs only through the intellectual acquisition of tenets of non-Buddhist systems and thus is called “artificial,” not “innate.” From the view[[point of the system of the Middle Way Consequence School, the selflessness of persons that is set forth by the lower schools is thus only a coarse selflessness and is merely the negative of self as misconceived by an artificial misconception of the nature of a person.
The non-Consequentialist systems — Autonomy School, Mind Only School, Sūtra School, and Great Exposition School — assert that Hearers and Solitary Realizers do not realize a selflessness of phenomena other than persons; they realize only the selflessness of persons — that the person is empty of substantial existence, or self-sufficiency. They assert that merely through this Hearers and Solitary Realizers attain Liberation. Tsongkhapa's position is clear that according to the systems of the non-Consequence Schools, Hearers and Solitary Realizers attain Liberation in this way. When he describes the type of selflessness that they realize, he says that they do not realize that persons are empty of establishment by way of their own character but realize that persons are empty of a substantial existence as is imputed by the non-Buddhists. He seems to be saying that according to the systems of tenets of the Great Exposition School and Sūtra School themselves, one need only realize that persons are empty of being a permanent, unitary, independent entity. However, we have to say that the Autonomists, Proponents of Mind Only, Proponents of Sūtra, and Proponents of the Great Exposition do not assert that realization of a person's emptiness of being permanent, unitary, and independent opposes the innate misconception of self. In their own systems the conception of the person as permanent, unitary, and independent is only artificial, intellectually acquired, not innate.
The innate misconception of self — not involving reasoned affirmation — binds beings in cyclic existence, and according to these systems it is the conception that a person is a substantially existent or self-sufficient entity. The non-Consequentialist systems themselves say that no matter how much one meditates on a person's not being permanent, unitary, and independent, this cannot harm the conception of substantial existence or self-sufficiency. Therefore, according to them, Hearers and Solitary Realizers realize a selflessness which is the person's absence of a substantial or self-sufficient nature. They must train in such a path and proceed by this means.
Tsongkhapa here and in other places seems to say that in the lower systems themselves the subtle selflessness of the person is described as a person's not being permanent, unitary, and independent. Many scholars say that Tsongkhapa's reference is to the implications of the lower systems as seen from the view[[point of the Consequence School. This means that when Consequentialists consider the reasons proving selflessness that are set forth in the lower systems, they find that persons' inherent establishment or establishment by way of their own character is taken for granted and that their reasoning for refuting self has the ability only to refute the existence of a person that has a character different from the character of mind and body.
According to the Consequentialist system, if one does not realize the absence of inherent existence of the person, one cannot eliminate the conception of a self of persons. Also, if the conception of inherent existence with regard to the mental and physical aggregates is not overcome, the conception of the inherent existence of the person cannot be overcome. Cyclic existence is achieved through the power of actions, and actions are achieved through the power of afflictions. Since this is so, ceasing actions meets back to ceasing afflictions. Ceasing afflictions, in turn, meets back to ceasing conceptions. Ceasing conceptions meets back to ceasing the proliferations of the conception of inherent existence which are ceased only by a mind Realizing emptiness.
According to the final thought of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras, Liberation from cyclic existence definitely involves realization of the selflessness of both persons and other phenomena. This is taught not only in the Great Vehicle but also in the Lesser Vehicle scriptures, though not in the Lesser Vehicle systems, the Great Exposition School and the Sūtra School. However, various ways of proceeding on the path are presented in the scriptures of both vehicles, and these must be distinguished to determine which scriptures require interpretation and which are definitive. For instance, it is taught that merely through realizing the coarse selflessness — the person's lack of substantial or self-sufficient existence — Liberation can be attained whereas this realization, as well as that of impermanence, can only train the mental continuum, not liberate it.
In general, we are under the strong influence of the conception of inherent existence, and due to it we do not wish to be liberated from cyclic existence. However, when we see that all products are impermanent, this helps to advance us to the point where we can overcome the conception of inherent existence. Those who are vessels only for such paths, training the mental continuum but not liberating it, are trainees of dull faculties. Those who are also vessels for the path of Liberation are suitable for the teaching of the selflessness of phenomena. Thus, among Lesser Vehicle trainees there are two types, dull and sharp, the latter being the main or special trainees of Lesser Vehicle, but not the majority.
The Mother, the Perfection of Wisdom, is the common cause of all four children, Hearer, Solitary Realizer, Bodhisattva, and Buddha Superiors; thus, Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle are not differentiated by way of view but by way of accompanying methods. In particular, these are the aspirational and practical minds of Enlightenment and the deeds of the six perfections, found in the Great Vehicle but not in the Lesser Vehicle.
“Vehicle” (yāna) has two meanings: the means by which one progresses and the destination to which one is progressing. Great Vehicle in the sense of the vehicle by which one progresses means to be motivated by the mind of Enlightenment — wishing to attain highest Enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, one's objects of intent — and means to engage in the six perfections. These paths of training are the paths of the Great Vehicle in general, and even though the Middle Way School and the Mind Only School have different views, these two are not different vehicles because the vehicles are differentiated by way of method, and the method — the altruistic mind of Enlightenment and its attendant practices — is the same in the Mind Only School and the Middle Way School. Still, those who are able to penetrate the subtle selflessness of phenomena, as presented in the Middle Way School, are the main trainees of the Great Vehicle. The Mantra division of the Great Vehicle, including all four Tantra sets, has exactly the same motivation — altruistic mind-generation — and deeds — the six perfections.
Seeing reason and need, Buddha set forth many systems and vehicles, but these did not arise due to his being intimate with some and alien to others. The trainees who were listening to his teaching had various dispositions, interests, and abilities, and thus he taught methods that were suitable for each of them. For those who temporarily did not have the courage to strive for Buddhahood or who did not at all have the capacity of obtaining Buddhahood at that time, Buddha did not say, “You can attain Buddha hood.” Rather, he set forth a path appropriate to the trainees' abilities. Buddha spoke in terms of their situation, and everything that he spoke was a means of eventually attaining highest Enlightenment even though he did not always say that these were means for attaining Buddhahood.
Since the purpose of a Buddha's coming is others' realization of the wisdom of Buddhahood, the methods for actualizing this wisdom are one vehicle, not two. A Buddha does not lead beings by a vehicle that does not proceed to Buddhahood; he establishes beings in his own level. A variety of vehicles is set forth in accordance with temporary needs.
Question: Maitreya has taught that if those bearing the Great Vehicle lineage came temporarily to abide in a hell, this would not interrupt their progress to stainless Enlightenment; however, if they were attracted to Lesser Vehicle practices, leading solely to peace, seeking to bring help and happiness only to themselves, this would greatly interrupt their progress to Buddhahood. Thus, according to Maitreya, generating a Lesser Vehicle attitude is a greater obstacle than taking birth in a hell; so, how can it be said that the Lesser Vehicle is a means leading to Buddhahood?
Answer: If those who have the ability to practice the Great Vehicle do not practice it, and instead assume Lesser Vehicle practices, this action will interrupt their progress to Buddhahood. It is not said that with respect to all people generation of a Lesser Vehicle attitude is an obstacle to Buddhahood. It is so only for those capable of practicing the Bodhisattva Path. It depends on the individual.
Nevertheless, the Lesser Vehicle is not part of the Great Vehicle. Lesser Vehicle paths are subsidiaries of the path to Buddhahood but not actual Great Vehicle paths. The Great Vehicle has the complete paths for the attainment of Buddhahood; thus, there is a difference of incompleteness and completeness, and hence inferiority and superiority, between the Lesser Vehicle and the Great Vehicle. The Lesser Vehicle is a separate but not final vehicle because everyone has the Buddha nature that makes full Enlightenment possible.
The teaching that the Buddha nature is present in all sentient beings, providing the “substantial cause” for the attainment of Buddhahood, inspires courage. This is the Buddha lineage of which there are two types, natural and transformational. The natural Buddha lineage is the emptiness of the mind, and, according to Mantra, the transformational Buddha lineage is the defiled mind of Clear Light which serves as the cause of Buddhahood.
In the Nyingma school of the earlier translations, it is said that Buddhahood exists primordially in oneself. This teaching refers to the very subtle mind of Clear Light that we presently have in our continuum; it is not different from the mind of a Buddha in terms of the entity of the basic innate mind. The continuum of our basic innate mind will become a Buddha's Wisdom Body; therefore, we presently have all the substances for achieving Buddhahood, and we should not seek for Buddhahood elsewhere. This is a very famous and meaningful instruction in the religious language of the Nyingma order.
If we think of the Buddha nature merely in terms of an emptiness of inherent existence, it is not so meaningful, for then it could be said that a pot's emptiness would be a Buddha nature because it is an emptiness of inherent existence. Here in this Nyingma teaching there is the strong suggestion that a positive phenomenon — the mind of Clear Light — is the Buddha nature.
Since the substances that make Enlightenment possible are present in all sentient beings' continuums and since a Buddha knows the means of leading all these trainees through the stages of the path, if he hid that means from them, he would have the fault of miserliness. His mind would be biased. His compassion would not be unimpeded. On the contrary, the various vehicles that Buddha taught out of his unlimited compassion are all methods for achieving omniscience.
Shāntideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra) says that the truthful Buddha taught that even bees and donkeys can Attain Buddhahood if they generate effort. Therefore, since we now have attained a human body and have met with the doctrine, if we generate the power of courageous effort, why could we not Attain Buddhahood?
VAJRAYĀNA
The Secret Mantra Vehicle is hidden because it is not appropriate for the minds of many persons. Practices for achieving activities of pacification, increase, control, and fierceness, which are not even presented in the Perfection Vehicle, are taught in the Mantra Vehicle but in hiding because those with impure motivation would harm both themselves and others by engaging in them. If one's mental continuum has not been ripened by the practices common to both Sūtra and Tantra Great Vehicle — realization of suffering, impermanence, Refuge, love, compassion, altruistic mind-generation, and emptiness of inherent existence — practice of the Mantra Vehicle can be ruinous through assuming an advanced practice inappropriate to one's capacity. Therefore, its open dissemination is prohibited; practitioners must maintain secrecy from those who are not vessels of this path.
The word “mantra” means “mind-protection.” It protects the mind from ordinary appearances and conceptions. “Mind” here refers to all six consciousnesses — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental consciousnesses — which are to be freed, or protected, from the ordinary world. There are two factors in mantra training, pride in oneself as a Deity and vivid appearance of that Deity. Divine pride protects one from the pride of being ordinary, and divine vivid appearance protects one from ordinary appearances. Whatever appears to the senses is viewed as the sport of a Deity; for instance, whatever forms are seen are viewed as the emanations of a Deity and whatever sounds are heard are viewed as the mantras of a Deity. One is thereby protected from ordinary appearances, and through this transformation of attitude, the pride of being a Deity emerges. Such protection of mind together with its attendant pledges and vows is called the practice of mantra.
In another way, the syllable man in “mantra” is said to be “knowledge of suchness,” and tra is etymologized as trāya, meaning “compassion protecting migrators.” This explanation is shared by all four Tantra sets, but from the specific view[[point of Highest Yoga Tantra, compassion protecting migrators can be considered the wisdom of Great Bliss. This explanation is devised in terms of a contextual etymology of the Sanskrit word for “compassion,” karuṇā, as “stopping pleasure.” When anyone generates compassion — the inability to bear sentient beings' suffering without acting to relieve it, pleasure, peacefulness, and relaxation are temporarily stopped. Thus, in Highest Yoga the word “compassion” (karuṇā) is designated to stopping the pleasure of the emission of the vital essence and refers to the wisdom of Great Bliss (mahāsukha). It is the mantra of definitive meaning and the Deity of definitive meaning.
“Compassion protecting migrators” can be construed in a way common to all four Tantras as an undifferentiable union of the wisdom Realizing emptiness and Great Compassion, or a union of wisdom and method — wisdom conjoined with method and method conjoined with wisdom.
“Vehicle” can be considered in two aspects, an effect vehicle — the object to which one is progressing — and a cause vehicle — the means by which one progresses. Even though the Vajra Vehicle has both cause and effect vehicles, it is called the Effect Vehicle because a path of imagination is practiced wherein one believingly assumes the aspects of the four thorough purities — the abode where a One-Gone-Thus (Tathāgata) resides after full Enlightenment, the body that is a manifestation of the Wisdom Truth Body in the form of a residence and residents, the resources that are enjoyed in the high status of Buddhahood, and the supreme activities of a Buddha's ripening sentient beings. Similitudes of these four factors of the effect state are cultivated in meditation.
According to Highest Yoga Tantra the effect — the Mantra mode — is the wisdom of Great Bliss, and the cause — the Perfection mode — is the wisdom Realizing emptiness as presented in the Middle Way scriptures. The indivisibility of these two is the meaning of “indivisibility of bliss and emptiness.”
According to the Kālachakra Tantra, the cause is emptiness, but this emptiness is not a negation of inherent existence; it is a negation of physical particles. This is called “form of emptiness,” form empty of physical particles, form beyond matter. This form of emptiness, adorned with the marks and beauties of a Buddha in father and mother aspect, is the cause, and the supreme immutable bliss, which is induced in dependence on various empty forms, is the effect. A union of these two is the Cause-Effect Vehicle. Such an indivisibility of the totally supreme form of emptiness and the supreme immutable bliss in the continuum of a learner is a vehicle in the sense of being the means by which one progresses. In the continuum of a nonlearner, a Buddha, it is a vehicle in the sense of being that to which one is progressing. Thus, there are two unions of the totally supreme form of emptiness and supreme immutable bliss.
This way of presenting the undifferentiability of method and wisdom is only from the view[[point of Highest Yoga Tantra, and specifically that of the Kālachakra Tantra. Such an explanation does not apply to the three lower Tantras — Action, Performance, and Yoga — because they do not have the means of generating the immutable Great Bliss. The Kālachakra Tantra has six branches: withdrawal, concentration, vitality and exertion, retention, mindfulness, and meditative stabilization. During the branch of mindfulness a form of emptiness is achieved, and in dependence on it, supreme immutable bliss is generated — this being the branch of meditative stabilization. The three lower Tantras do not have all the factors included in the first five causal branches and thus, of course, do not have the sixth.
Indivisibility of method and wisdom indicates the necessity of proceeding with inseparable method and wisdom in order to attain the fruit of definite goodness, which is Liberation from cyclic existence as well as omniscience. This mode of progress is common to all vehicles, Cause and Effect. In the Perfection Vehicle “inseparable method and wisdom” refers to method conjoined with wisdom and wisdom conjoined with method. When the altruistic mind of Enlightenment is manifest, the mind actually Realizing emptiness is not present, and when an actual realization of emptiness is manifest, an altruistic mind of Enlightenment is not present. According to the Perfection Vehicle, it is unsuitable merely to stay in meditative equipoise on emptiness without also engaging at other times in the perfections of giving and so forth, and it is also unsuitable merely to engage in the practices of giving and so forth without engaging at other times in meditation on emptiness. Since this is the case, yogis of the Perfection Vehicle must cultivate a mind Realizing emptiness and then, within nondiminishment of the force of reflection on all phenomena as a magician's illusions, train in giving, ethics, patience, and so forth. Also, within nondiminishment of the force of the altruistic aspiration, they must train in Realizing emptiness. This is the inseparability of method and wisdom in the Perfection Vehicle.
In Mantra it is even deeper. Here, the inseparability of method and wisdom does not mean that wisdom and method are different entities conjoined in the sense of affecting each other; rather, method and wisdom are included in one entity. In Mantra these two are complete in the different aspects of one consciousness.
If, as in the Kālachakra Tantra, one posited method as the totally supreme immutable bliss, then this would not apply in general to all four Tantras. Therefore, what is the meaning of inseparable method and wisdom, or “Vajra Vehicle,” that applies to all four Tantras? The six perfections are included in method and wisdom, and in Mantra, method and wisdom are considered as the one entity of the Vajrasattva meditative stabilization. This is a consciousness taking cognizance of appearance — the body of a Deity — and realizing its emptiness of inherent existence. The yoga of nondual profundity and appearance is the Vajrasattva meditative stabilization. Being an indivisibility of method and wisdom, this is a vajra in the sense of being that to which one is progressing — in the continuum of a nonlearner — and in the sense of being the means by which one progresses — in the continuum of a learner.
Because the Mantra Vehicle has more varieties of methods or skillful means than the Perfection Vehicle, it is also called the Mantra Vehicle. Because the effect itself is taken as the path in the sense that one presently cultivates the four thorough purities — abode, body, resources, and activities of the effect state — it is called the Effect Vehicle. Because it must be practiced in extreme secrecy, it is called the Secret Vehicle. Because it contains the topics of training of Knowledge Bearers, it is also called the Scriptural Division of the Knowledge Bearers.
The Tantras can be considered as a fourth scriptural division beyond the three scriptural divisions of sūtra — discipline, sets of discourses, and manifest knowledge — or as included in the three divisions. However, there is good reason to consider them as included in the sets of discourses. From among the three trainings, ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom, the Tantras' feature of profundity is mainly concerned with the training in meditative stabilization. The discipline section of the scriptures mainly teaches the training in ethics; the sets of discourses mainly teach the training in meditative stabilization; and the manifest knowledge section mainly teaches the training in wisdom. Since the Tantras contain extraordinary means for achieving meditative stabilization, the Tantras that express these can be included in the sets of discourses.
In Tsongkhapa's miscellaneous works there is a question concerning this, to which he answers that the difference of profundity in the Tantras occurs through meditative stabilization. There is also a difference with respect to the training in wisdom in terms of the type of consciousness Realizing emptiness, but the main difference is found in the meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight. Let us discuss this.
As presented in the Perfection Vehicle, the achievement of Buddhahood involves at least three countless eons of practice; the first accumulation of merit over countless eons occurs on the paths of accumulation and preparation. The second occurs on the first seven Bodhisattva grounds, which are called impure because the conception of inherent existence has not yet been fully abandoned. The third accumulation of merit over countless eons occurs on the eighth, ninth, and tenth grounds, which are called pure because the conception of inherent existence has been totally abandoned.
The three lower Tantras present yoga with signs and yoga without signs which possess a special method for quickly generating a union of calm abiding and special insight that is a wisdom “arisen from meditation” Realizing emptiness. Thereby, the first accumulation of merit over countless eons is accomplished in a shorter period of time. Then, from the first Bodhisattva ground on through to Buddhahood the three lower Tantras present the path much as it is presented in the Perfection Vehicle.
A special trainee of Mantra initially generates an altruistic aspiration to highest Enlightenment and then trains in the Mantra Paths. For instance, according to Action Tantra, which is the lowest among the four Tantra sets, a yogi engages in such practices as the four-branched repetition and subsequently practices the three concentrations — abiding in fire, abiding in sound, and bestowing Liberation at the end of sound. During the concentrations of abiding in fire and abiding in sound, the capacity of meditative stabilization becomes powerful. Through this, a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight is achieved in the course of the concentration that bestows Liberation at the end of sound. This is a quicker path for the achievement of calm abiding and special insight than that found in the Perfection Vehicle.
Performance Tantra, the second of the four Tantras, also has this distinguishing feature with regard to achieving meditative stabilization, while Yoga Tantra and Highest Yoga Tantra have even more profound techniques of meditative stabilization for achieving a union of calm abiding and special insight. Thus, even though there is a difference between the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles with regard to the training in ethics, the outstanding difference occurs with respect to the training in meditative stabilization.
CLEAR LIGHT
“Tantra” means “continuum,” like a stream, of which there are three types: base, path, and fruit. The base Tantra is the person who is practicing. According to the Secret Union Tantra (guhyasamāja), a Highest Yoga Tantra, there are five lineages of persons — white lotus, utpala, lotus, sandalwood, and jewel, the last being the supreme person. The base continuum is also the naturally abiding lineage, the element, the Buddha nature, the One-Gone-Thus essence. It is called the base because it is the basis of the activity of the path.
The path Tantras are the paths purifying that base. According to the lower Tantras, these are the yogas with and without signs and, according to Highest Yoga Tantra, the stages of generation and completion that purify the defilements related with the suchness of the mind.
The fruit Tantra is the state of the effect, the Truth Body, the state of complete extinguishment of all defilements as a Vajradhara. The three Tantras — base, path, and fruit — contain the subjects and meanings of all Tantra sets, and the continuums of words texts] that express these subjects are called expressional word Tantras that are divided into sets or groups.
The Perfection Vehicle is just the training in the altruistic mind of Enlightenment and the six perfections; it does not clearly present any other mode of progress on the path. Mantra takes these as its basis but has other distinguishing paths. Since the Mantra Vehicle also has the practice of the altruistic mind of Enlightenment and training in the six perfections, Tsongkhapa says that the Perfection Vehicle only has these paths.
There is no difference between the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles with regard to the two objects of altruistic mind-generation — the field of intent which is the welfare of other sentient beings and the object of observation which is one's own attainment of Buddhahood. Trainees of Sūtra and Mantra wish for highest Enlightenment for the sake of others and take cognizance of the same fruit, Buddhahood that is an extinguishment of all faults and endowment with all auspicious qualities.
There is also no difference in view, for Mantra does not explain a view of the Middle Way which exceeds that presented in the Perfection Vehicle by Nāgārjuna. Even if there were a difference in view, this could not serve to differentiate the Two Vehicles since the Mind Only School and the Middle Way School, which have different views, are compatible in one vehicle.
The difference in vehicles must be determined through either wisdom or method. Because the wisdom Realizing emptiness is the Mother common to all four children — Hearer, Solitary Realizer, Bodhisattva, and Buddha Superiors — Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle are differentiated by way of method, not by way of wisdom. For the same reason, the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles are differentiated by way of method, not wisdom.
Tsongkhapa says that there is no difference in view between the Lesser Vehicle and the Great Vehicle and, within the Great Vehicle, between the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle. He is referring to the “view” in terms of the object, emptiness — the objective Clear Light — not in terms of the wisdom Realizing emptiness — the subjective Clear Light. Sakya Paṇḍita of the Sakya Order also held that Secret Mantra does not have a view different from the Perfection Vehicle and that if it did, that view would involve dualistic proliferations. Since the Middle Way view has passed beyond the limits of proliferations, a view different from it would have to involve such.
In the Old Translation School of Nyingma there is said to be a difference in view between Sūtra and Mantra, but this difference is primarily concerned with the subject. Nyingma does not make a clear distinction between the subject — wisdom — and the object — emptiness — because on the higher stages of the path, subject and object are mixed undifferentiably in one entity and can only be differentiated verbally. At the time of meditative equipoise on emptiness, subject and object become one inseparable entity, and since our ordinary expressions and conceptions cannot convey this state, it is called “unthinkable” and “inexpressible.” This is an undifferentiability of method and wisdom passed beyond all limits of the proliferations of thought, an undifferentiability of bliss and emptiness, an indivisibility of the two truths, union. These are the best words of description and must be understood; without these most profound]] expressions any verbalization is insufficient. Within the context of not distinguishing between the objective Clear Light and the subjective Clear Light, Nyingmapas emphasize this undifferentiability when they speak of the view. Thus, in terms of this view there is indeed a difference between the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle.
As the Gelugpa Jamyang Shaypa says, the objective Clear Light — emptiness, the principal object — is taught in sūtra just as it is in Tantra, but the subjective Clear Light — the extremely subtle fundamental innate mind of Clear Light — is taught only in Highest Yoga Tantra, not even in the three lower Tantras and, of course, not in the Perfection Vehicle. Therefore, the view free of the proliferations of thought which is so frequently mentioned in the Old Translation School of Nyingma refers to the element of Clear Light without any differentiation of subject and object. This is called the essential purity, which is an affirming negative, not a nonaffirming negative as emptiness is.
In the books of the New Translation Schools this Clear Light is called the completion stage of ultimate Clear Light and is even called the ultimate truth. For example, in the Perfection Vehicle, the Middle Way Autonomists present a metaphoric ultimate truth referring to a mind that has emptiness as its object. Similarly, when Highest Yoga Mantra presents the conventional stage of completion — illusory body — and an ultimate stage of completion — Clear Light — the word “ultimate” does not refer to the object, emptiness, but to the subject Realizing emptiness. The reason for this is that the mind has become undifferentiable from its object, emptiness, and thus is called an ultimate truth or a metaphoric ultimate truth. In this way the term “ultimate truth” is also used frequently in the books of the New Translation Schools to refer to more than just emptiness.
Within this context there is a difference in view between Sūtra and Mantra. Therefore, when Tsongkhapa says that with regard to the view of the Middle Way there is no presentation surpassing that of Nāgārjuna's Treatise on the Middle, he is referring to the objective Clear Light, emptiness. It is free of all dualistic proliferations, and, as Sakya Paṇḍita says, there can be no difference between Sūtra and Mantra with respect to this.
The Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle also cannot be differentiated through practice of the six perfections. In Mantra it is necessary to train in giving, ethics, patience, and so forth during six sessions daily, dividing the day into six portions. Failure to do this is considered an infraction. Therefore, the presence or the absence of practicing the six perfections cannot differentiate the Two Vehicles.
The basic path for achieving a Buddha's Form Body is method — the altruistic mind of Enlightenment induced by love and compassion. The basic path for achieving a Buddha's Truth Body is the wisdom Realizing emptiness. In Sūtra and Mantra there is no difference with respect to these basic paths. Thus, from the view[[point of the path that is practiced, its basis — altruistic mind-generation — and its deeds — the six perfections including the wisdom Realizing emptiness — there is no difference. Also, small differences in path cannot be the differentiators of the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles.
The Two Vehicles cannot be differentiated by way of practitioners from the view[[point of gradations in sharpness and dullness because if so, the Perfection Vehicle itself would have to be divided into many vehicles. The swiftness or slowness of practitioners' progress on the path also cannot serve as the differentiator since many differences in speed are set forth in the Perfection Vehicle.
How, then, are the Two Vehicles differentiated? Some say that the difference between Sūtra and Mantra is that Mantra was taught for those who can use desire as an aid in the path whereas the Perfection Vehicle was taught in order to tame beings within the context of separation from desire. This opinion is wrong because both the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle have modes of advancing on the path without having abandoned desire and both have modes of progress by cultivating paths to abandon desire. For, in Sūtra it is said that just as the filth of a city is helpful to the field of a sugarcane grower who knows how to utilize a substance which itself is not helpful, so the afflictions can be useful in the path. If one knows how to use the afflictions for the welfare of others, they can serve as aids in amassing the accumulations of merit, and in this sense desire is not one-pointedly to be avoided although, from the view[[point of the entities of the afflictions, they are indeed to be abandoned. Sūtra Bodhisattvas who have not yet thoroughly abandoned the afflictions of desire and hatred can use them for the benefit of others, as in the case of Bodhisattva kings who have fathered many children in order to further the welfare of the country through the work of their children. Here the afflictions act as secondary causes in the aiding of others.
Just as within Sūtra practice there are occasions when Bodhisattvas intentionally do not abandon afflictions but use them as aids, so in Mantra practice, according to the time and the situation, Bodhisattvas use the afflictions. However, on the occasions when there is no purpose for desire or hatred, a Mantra practitioner must intentionally seek to abandon them. If in order to be a practitioner of Mantra one necessarily had to have not abandoned desire and hatred, there would be no opportunity to become a Buddha through the Mantra Path.
Others hold the more refined position that the division between Sūtra and Tantra is determined by the special or main trainees initially engaging in those vehicles who either cannot or can use desire as an aid to the path. In general, it is true that using four types of joy arising from four types of desire — gazing, laughing, holding hands and embracing, and union — as favorable circumstances for cultivating the path occurs in the four Tantra sets. Thus, with regard to initial practitioners of the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles it can be said that the one is not able and the other is able to use such desire in the path. However, this cannot be posited as the differentiator between the paths of the Two Vehicles. Although it indicates a difference in the capacities of the two types of persons, it is not the profound and complete distinction between the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles.
Others say that the bliss arising from concentration on the channels, winds, and drops see note 81, section II] differentiates the Two Vehicles, but this is a feature only of Highest Yoga Tantra, not of Mantra in general. Thus, it cannot serve as the distinction between the Two Vehicles.
GREATNESS OF MANTRA
The difference between the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles must apply to one of the two meanings of “vehicle”: the means by which one proceeds or the fruit to which one proceeds. There is no difference in the fruit, Buddhahood; hence, the difference rests in the sense of “vehicle” as the means by which one progresses to that fruit.
The Great Vehicle surpasses the Lesser Vehicle in terms of method, the altruistic aspiration to highest Enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, and the division of the Great Vehicle into a Perfection Vehicle and a Mantra Vehicle is also made by way of method. In general, the paths included within the factor of method are the means for achieving a Buddha's Form Body, whereas the paths included within the factor of wisdom are the means for achieving a Buddha's Truth Body. To achieve a Truth Body one needs to cultivate a path similar in aspect to a Truth Body, and both the Perfection and the Mantra Vehicles have a path of wisdom in which one cultivates a similitude of a Buddha's Truth Body: the realization of emptiness in space-like meditative equipoise.
In order to achieve a Form Body, one needs to cultivate a path that is similar in aspect to a Buddha's Form Body. Only Mantra has the special method for achieving this feat by cultivating paths that are similar in aspect to a Buddha's Form Body. The presence of meditation that utilizes a similitude of a Form Body is the greatness of the Mantra method; such is not set forth in Sūtra.
In order to remove mental defilements it is necessary to meditate on emptiness, but this is not a complete method for achieving Buddhahood because meditation on emptiness only removes the conception of inherent existence and all the afflictions that are based on it; other practices are needed in order to achieve the physical perfection of a Buddha. The complete method capable of bestowing Buddhahood quickly is the cultivation of a path of Deity Yoga in which the pride of being the Deity of the effect state is established.
The attainment sought is the state of a Buddha endowed with the marks and beauties. To achieve this state one must train in the path of a divine body similar in aspect to the body of a Buddha. Therefore, cultivation of a divine body is not used merely for the achievement of common feats but is essential for achieving the uncommon feat of a Buddha's Form Body.
According to the Perfection Vehicle, in order for the wisdom Realizing emptiness to serve as an antidote to the obstructions to omniscience, it must be conjoined with altruistic mind-generation and practice of the perfections. The vast methods such as giving, ethics, and patience help limitless sentient beings, and their imprint at Buddhahood is the achievement of Form Bodies which perform limitless altruistic activities.
The wisdom penetrating the depth of the suchness of phenomena is the means for actualizing the nonconceptual wisdom of a Buddha. Thus, the special imprint of the collection of wisdom is the attainment of the Wisdom Truth Body coupled with the abandonment of all contaminations.
Neither a Truth Body nor a Form Body is attained singly because they both depend on completion of these causal collections of method and wisdom. The two collections act as cooperating cause and special cause of the Truth and Form Bodies. For example, an eye consciousness is generated in dependence on three causes, an object, an eye sense, and a former moment of consciousness; the ability of an eye consciousness to apprehend color and shape rather than sound is the imprint of the eye sense; its being a conscious entity is the imprint of an immediately preceding moment of consciousness; and its being generated in the image of a particular object is the imprint of the object. Just as each of the three causes is said to have its own individual imprint in the generation of the eye consciousness, the imprint of wisdom is a Truth Body and the imprint of method is a Form Body.
Because the Perfection Vehicle sets forth a method for achieving the nonconceptual Wisdom Body of a Buddha and the Form Bodies effecting limitless maturations of other beings' minds, it is said to have unsurpassed method. However, in the path of the Perfection Vehicle, the causes of highest Enlightenment are explained as only the six perfections. These are not sufficient because through cultivating causes such as giving, ethics, patience, and so forth — that are different in aspect from Form Bodies, the fruit — one cannot actualize the Enlightenment of a Buddha. One would be attempting to actualize an effect that is different in aspect from the causes. The effect of Buddhahood, which has a nature of profundity — a Truth Body — and vastness — a Form Body adorned with the marks and beauties — in one undifferentiable entity, is achieved from causes that have a similar nature. Just as one meditates on the meaning of selflessness that is similar in aspect to a Truth Body, so one should cultivate paths of vastness that are similar in aspect to a Form Body.
In the Mantra Vehicle the “vast” refers to the appearance of a divine body. There is a vastness at the time of the path — cultivation of the vivid appearance of a divine body coupled with divine pride — and a vastness at the time of the fruit — an ultimate vastness that achieves the welfare of others. Deity Yoga is “vast” because Deities such as Vairochana, who are qualified by emptiness and included within the factor of appearance, are inexhaustible, continual, limitless, and pure. Even though both pure and impure phenomena are qualified by emptiness, there is said to be a difference due to the phenomena qualified by it.
In Mantra, conjunction of method with wisdom and vice versa means not that method and wisdom are individual entities which are merely compatible with each other but that they are complete within the entity of one mind. Based on cultivating this union of method and wisdom, at Buddhahood the Truth Body of nondual wisdom itself appears as the features of a Deity. Therefore, prior to meditating on a divine body it is necessary to establish through reasoning the absence of inherent existence of oneself; then, within the context of meditating on this emptiness, just that mind which has one's own emptiness as its object serves as the basis of appearance of the Deity.
Induced by ascertaining the emptiness of one's own inherent existence, this consciousness itself appears in the form of the face, arms, and so forth of a Deity. Wisdom vividly appears as a divine body and at the same time ascertains its absence of inherent existence. These two — wisdom realizing the absence of inherent existence and the mind of Deity Yoga — are one entity, but posited to be different from the view[[point of their imprints. Thus, from a conventional point of view method and wisdom are different within the context of being one entity. They are said to be different in that method is the exclusion of nonmethod and wisdom is the exclusion of nonwisdom.
Based on the appearance of a divine body, the pride of being that Deity develops, having ultimate and conventional aspects. Some scholars say that the appearance of a mind ascertaining emptiness in the form of a Deity means that this one mind has emptiness as its referent object and a divine body as its appearing object. Thus, the consciousness has a factor of ascertainment — the understanding of a negative of inherent existence — and a factor of appearance — the vivid reflection of a divine body. In this way, divine pride has two aspects, observing the ultimate — emptiness — and observing the conventional — a divine body.
Among the sūtra explanations there are two systems with regard to whether a phenomenon qualified by emptiness appears to a mind that inferentially realizes that emptiness. Some say that an object qualified by an empty nature appears during inferential realization of its emptiness, and others say that the appearance of the object is no longer present when its emptiness is being understood. In Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path Common to the Vehicles, it seems that the phenomenon qualified by emptiness does appear to an inferential consciousness Realizing emptiness, but in some monastery textbooks the opposite is held. In any case, initially one meditates on an emptiness, and then, within the context of the mind's continuous ascertainment of emptiness, meditators believe that they are using this mind as the basis [or source of appearance. At that time, the sense of a mere “I” designated in dependence on the pure resident — the Deity — and residence — the palace and surroundings — is a fully qualified divine pride. As much as one can cultivate such pride, so much does one harm the conception of inherent existence that is the root of cyclic existence.
This composite of method and wisdom — the appearance of a Deity empty of true existence, like an illusion — is an affirming negative, an absence of inherent existence as well as a positive appearance. One gradually becomes accustomed to this mind, and finally when one arrives at high levels on the stage of completion as explained in Highest Yoga Tantra, the union of a learner is attained in which a continual similitude of a Form Body and a Truth Body is actualized. These are a “Form Body” on the occasion of the path and a wisdom of Clear Light, which are the actual substantial causes of Buddhahood.
Thus, Mantra is distinguished from the Perfection Vehicle through its superior method for the achievement of a Form Body. Mere meditation on a divine body that is not related with meditation on emptiness is not sufficient. On the other hand, mere meditation on emptiness is also not sufficient. Even though it is not possible to Attain Buddhahood in dependence on the paths of the Perfection Vehicle alone, the Perfection Vehicle does set forth paths for the achievement of Buddhahood. If one engages in these paths, meditating on emptiness and cultivating the features of method as explained in the Perfection Vehicle, then it is said that one will Attain Buddhahood only after many countless eons; one cannot Attain Buddhahood quickly. Actually, one cannot Attain Buddhahood through causes that do not have an aspect similar to the effect, a Form Body. In brief, the Body of a Buddha is attained through meditating on it. One should meditate on a divine body until its features appear clearly and steadily, until it seems that one can touch it with one's hand and can see it with one's eye.
Someone might think that in the Perfection Vehicle one cultivates a Buddha's Form Body through meditation involving prayer petitions to attain such. However, if that were the case, one would not need to meditate on emptiness in order to attain a Truth Body; planting prayer petitions would be sufficient. However, Buddhahood is attained through the nondual yoga of the profound and the manifest; without it Buddhahood is impossible.
This is established not only in Highest Yoga Tantra but also in the other three Tantras. In Action and Performance Tantra a Truth Body, which is said to be thoroughly pure in the sense of being free of all dualistic proliferations, is achieved through the yoga of signlessness — meditation on emptiness — and a Form Body, which is said to be “impure” in the sense that it is involved in duality, is achieved through the yoga with signs — Deity Yoga. In Yoga Tantra Deity Yoga is presented in conjunction with five factors, called the five manifest Enlightenments.
This yoga of the union of the profound and manifest is the path of all the chief trainees of the Vajra Vehicle but not necessarily of all trainees of the Vajra Vehicle. For those who cannot imagine themselves as Deities, the practice of contemplation of a Deity in front of oneself is set forth in conjunction with repeating mantra, making petitions, and so forth. The chief trainees in terms of whom the Vajra Vehicle was taught are those capable of practicing the full Mantra Path, and generating oneself as a Deity is definitely taught for all chief trainees. The modes of meditation for the achievement of feats, such as the techniques for meditating on the winds (prāṇa), are all for the sake of either making Deity Yoga more firm or enhancing realization of suchness.
CLARIFICATION
Mantra uses the effect as the path in the sense that a path similar in aspect to the effect is cultivated. In both the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles one cultivates a path similar in aspect to a Truth Body, but in the Mantra Vehicle one also cultivates a path similar in aspect to a Form Body. In this way, the Mantra Vehicle surpasses the Perfection Vehicle.
WRONG IDEA: DEITY YOGA IS UNNECESSARY
Someone might object: To achieve a body adorned with the auspicious marks of a Universal Monarch, it is not necessary to cultivate a path of meditation that is similar in aspect to the body of a Universal Monarch see note 69, section II]. Thus, it is not established that in order to achieve an effect one must cultivate a cause that accords in aspect with that effect. What is the reason for singling out Buddhahood as requiring a cause similar in aspect to the effect?
Answer: According to the Perfection Vehicle, in general a Form Body is achieved through the amassing of merit. In particular, when Bodhisattvas arrive on the eighth among the ten grounds, they newly achieve a mental body that has similitudes of a Buddha's marks and beauties and that arises in dependence on the stage of latent predispositions of ignorance [the motivation of wishing to assume a mental body and noncontaminated action [the mental factor of intention which is the subtle exertion involved in the motivation of wishing to assume a mental body. This body gradually improves and eventually turns into the Form Body of a Buddha. Thus, even the Perfection Vehicle does not say that merely amassing the collections of merit is sufficient, or that at Buddhahood one newly achieves a Form Body, the continuum of which did not exist before. In the systems of both Sūtra and Tantra it is necessary to achieve a similitude of a Form Body prior to attaining Buddhahood.
According to Highest Yoga Tantra, some persons Attain Buddhahood in one lifetime, and because these persons are not born with a body adorned with the marks and beauties they must achieve such a body through the practice of Deity Yoga. These are not cases of taking birth as a Form Body and thus are not similar to the accumulation of causes that impel one into a rebirth as a Universal Monarch or as an animal, hungry ghost, or hell-being. In the case of rebirth it is not necessary to accumulate causes that are similar in aspect to the particular type of rebirth being impelled. There is a great difference between a cause projecting rebirth and a cause of similar type.
Meditation on oneself as undifferentiable from a Deity is the special cause of similar type for attaining Buddhahood. If one meditated only on emptiness and did not cultivate any method — either that of the Perfection or that of the Mantra Vehicle — one would fall to the fruit of a Lesser Vehicle Foe Destroyer. In order to attain the definite goodness of the highest achievement, Buddhahood, Deity Yoga is needed. Also, in order to attain the common achievements, the eight feats and so forth, one must view one's body clearly as a divine body and train in the pride of being a Deity. Without Deity Yoga the Mantra Path is impossible; Deity Yoga is the essence of Mantra.
Meditating on oneself as having a divine body seems to be childish play, like telling a story to a child to stimulate his or her imagination. However, in conjunction with the view of emptiness, altruistic motivation, and knowledge of its purpose, it is a very important psychological training — viewing one's body in the form of a Deity, generating the pride of being a Deity, temporarily performing the activities of pacification and so forth, and ultimately achieving Buddhahood. There is a difference in force between merely repeating a mantra and repeating that mantra within the context of Deity Yoga; there may in time be a scientific explanation of this difference.
WRONG IDEA: THE BUDDHAHOOD OF THE PERFECTION VEHICLE AND THE BUDDHAHOOD OF THE VAJRA VEHICLE ARE DIFFERENT
Although there is a difference between the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles in terms of method and many forms of paths, there is no difference in the fruit, the Buddhahood that is sought by both. In some scriptures Buddhahood and Vajradharahood seem to be different, and thus some have thought that the fruits of the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles must be different and that Vajradharahood is higher than Buddhahood. This confusion sometimes arises because tenth ground Bodhisattvas are often referred to as a “Buddha” although they are not yet an actual Buddha.
Although practice of only the Perfection Vehicle is not sufficient to achieve Buddhahood, the Buddhahood described in the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles is the same. It is incorrect to say that Buddhahood can be achieved solely though the paths of the Perfection Vehicle and that upon attaining Buddhahood one must enter into the Mantra Vehicle to achieve an even higher fruit. Even though one must finally engage in Mantra in order to become a Buddha, it can be said in general that the Perfection and Mantra Paths achieve the same fruit, with their difference lying in the speed with which the fruit is attained.
It cannot be said that in general Buddhahood can be achieved through Mantra in the one lifetime of this degenerate age without depending on practice over countless eons because this cannot be done following the paths of the lower Tantras alone. One must finally enter Highest Yoga Tantra in order to achieve Buddhahood without practicing for countless eons. According to Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition of Secret Mantra the attainment of Buddhahood in one lifetime is a distinguishing feature of Highest Yoga Tantra.
The paths of the three lower Tantras are faster than the Perfection path in that the paths of accumulation and preparation do not require one period of countless eons of practice in the three lower Tantras, but their mode of procedure on the paths of seeing and meditation is similar to that of the Perfection Vehicle. However, it must be taken into account that Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras say that Buddhahood can be achieved in one lifetime. For instance, the continuation of the VairochanābhiSaṃbodhi Tantra (vairocanābhiSaṃbodhi), a Performance Tantra, says, “Those Bodhisattvas engaging in practice from the approach of Secret Mantra will become completely and perfectly Enlightened in just this lifetime.” Such statements that Enlightenment can be achieved in one lifetime by means of the three lower Tantras should be taken as an exaggerated expression of the greatness of that particular Tantra.
Practitioners of the three lower Tantras attain many common feats through which they see Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, hear their teachings, and under their care complete the practices for Enlightenment quickly, but aside from proceeding faster on the paths of accumulation and preparation, the rest of the path is still protracted. According to the oral tradition, attainment of Buddhahood in the one short lifetime of this degenerate era [which nowadays is roughly sixty years] is a distinguishing feature of Highest Yoga Tantra but the attainment of the Enlightenment of Buddhahood in one lifetime is also a feature of the three lower Tantras. The latter is not the one short lifetime of the degenerate era but refers to the ability gained by yogis through the practice of Deity Yoga, repetition of mantra, and so forth to extend their lifetime over many eons. During such a lifetime one can attain highest Enlightenment, relying on the paths of the three lower Tantras and eventually engaging in Highest Yoga. The passage in the VairochanābhiSaṃbodhi Tantra may refer to such a long lifetime.
WRONG IDEA: THE STAGE OF GENERATION IS JUST DEITY YOGA
Shāntideva says in his Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds that when Bodhisattvas who have attained a ground give away their own body they have no physical suffering and thus no mental suffering and thereby can easily give away even their body if needed. Also, the Meeting of Father and Son Sūtra (pitāputrasamāgama) says that Bodhisattvas can maintain a blissful feeling in all situations, even during torture. Based on such teachings, Ratnarakṣhita mistakenly propounds that the Great Bliss generated in the Perfection Vehicle is the same as that generated in Highest Yoga Tantra. Nevertheless, he correctly asserts that both the Mantra and Perfection Vehicles involve meditation on emptiness and also correctly points out that in the Perfection Vehicle Bodhisattvas on certain occasions use the desire realm attributes of pleasant forms, sounds, odors, tastes, and tangible objects and that, therefore, the usage of desire in the path is not a distinguishing feature of the Mantra Vehicle. He cites the Kāshyapa Chapter Sūtra (kāśyapaparivarta):
Just as the filth of city-dwellers
Helps the field of a sugarcane grower,
So the manure of a Bodhisattva's afflictions
Assists in growing the qualities of a Buddha.
He also correctly notes that an altruistic aspiration to highest Enlightenment, induced by love and compassion, is common to both the Perfection and Mantra Vehicles. However, he mistakenly concludes that the distinctive feature of Tantra is the stage of generation. He wrongly assumes that the stage of generation in Highest Yoga Tantra is primarily Deity Yoga and that the stage of completion is primarily meditation on emptiness, whereas the very foundation of Deity Yoga is meditation on emptiness, and Deity Yoga also occurs in the stage of completion.
WRONG IDEA: USAGE OF DESIRE IN THE PATH IS FOR LOW TRAINEES
Tripiṭakamāla says that even though the aim of the Two Vehicles — Buddhahood — is the same, the Mantra Vehicle surpasses the Perfection Vehicle by way of four features:
The first feature is that practitioners of Mantra are not obscured whereas those of the Perfection Vehicle are obscured. Practitioners of Mantra realize that the completion of a perfection is a fruit of meditative stabilization and that one cannot complete a perfection through actually giving away one's own body and so forth. Practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle do not realize this and thus are obscured.
This explanation is wrong because in the Perfection Vehicle itself Shāntideva says that since we see that there are still beggars in the world and since we know that the earlier Buddhas and Bodhisattvas achieved a perfection of giving, the perfection of giving could not involve eliminating all poverty in the world. Rather, the perfection of giving is the full development of an attitude of generosity — the completion of the attitude to give away all of one's possessions, along with all effects that might arise from them, to all sentient beings. According to Shāntideva, a perfection depends on the mind. Therefore, Tripiṭakamāla's explanation of the feature of nonobscuration is not feasible.
The second feature is that the Mantra Vehicle has many methods whereas the Perfection Vehicle does not. In the Perfection Vehicle one proceeds only by peaceful means, but the Mantra Vehicle has four divisions which each have many techniques to counter one problem. For instance, for the desirous and the proud Mantra has many methods such as imagining oneself as any of a great number of Deities.
Tripiṭakamāla's explanation of this feature appears to be correct, but it cannot serve as a reason for dividing the Great Vehicle into a Perfection Vehicle and a Mantra Vehicle because Highest Yoga Tantra, for instance, has many techniques which the other three Tantras do not have, but these do not make it a separate vehicle.
The third feature is that the Perfection Vehicle involves asceticism whereas the Mantra Vehicle does not. Jñānakīrti and Tripiṭakamāla explain that Mantra has two types of trainees: those without desire for a Knowledge Woman see note 86, section II] and those with desire. Those without desire for a Knowledge Woman are the highest trainees, and they meditate on the actual great seal which is a union of method and wisdom. Those with desire are divided into two groups: those without desire for an external Knowledge Woman and those with desire for an external Knowledge Woman. The former meditate on an imagined Knowledge Woman, and the latter use an actual Knowledge Woman.
This explanation is wrong because among the trainees of Highest Yoga Tantra those having the sharpest faculties use desire for an external Knowledge Woman in the path. It is through this means that “jewel-like persons” achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime. Since both vehicles have cultivation of paths free of desire and paths using desire, this feature cannot distinguish the Two Vehicles.
Tripiṭakamāla's explanation of the fourth feature, sharpness of faculties, is also incorrect because if he means nonobscuration with respect to method his explanation of the difference in method has already been shown to be inadequate. If he means that in Mantra desire for the attributes of the desire realm is used in the path, then he is also wrong because according to his faulty explanation the best of sharp trainees do not have such, whereas they actually do.
WRONG IDEA: THE FOUR TANTRA SETS CORRESPOND TO THE FOUR CASTES
There are four Tantra sets: Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga. Some also divide Highest Yoga into father Tantra, mother Tantra, and nondual Tantra, making six. According to Tsongkhapa, “nondual Tantra” refers to a nonduality of method and wisdom — Great Bliss and emptiness; therefore, he says that all Highest Yoga Tantras are nondual Tantras. The translator Tagtshang, however, asserts that the Kālachakra Tantra is a nondual Tantra because it emphasizes the fourth initiation which is concerned with a union of supreme immutable bliss and totally supreme emptiness. For him dualistic Tantras emphasize either of these two.
Practitioners of the four Tantras have the same intention in that they all are seeking others' welfare. The object of attainment — Buddhahood, which is the extinguishment of all faults and fulfillment of all auspicious attributes — is the same for all. Therefore, the four Tantras cannot be divided from the view[[point of field of intent or object of attainment. All four have Deity Yoga, and variations of Deity Yoga are not sufficient to serve as the difference between them because each of the four also has many forms of Deity Yoga. Although there are sources in Indian texts that say that the four Tantras are for the four castes or those dominated by particular afflictions, these cannot serve as the differentiators of the four Tantras or even indicate a predominance among their trainees.
The Tantras were mainly expounded for those of the desire realm and specifically for those seeking Enlightenment by way of using desire in the path. The Tantra sets are differentiated by way of four modes of practice and four types of trainees whose abilities correspond to these four types of practice; these are four ways of using desire in the path based on differing capacities for generating the emptiness and Deity Yogas.
Among the seven branches — complete enjoyment, union, Great Bliss, absence of inherent existence, compassion, uninterrupted continuity, and noncessation — three are found only in Tantra — complete enjoyment, union, and Great Bliss — and the other four are common to both sūtra and Tantra although the absence of inherent existence can also be put in the group specific to Tantra when it is considered as the object ascertained by a bliss consciousness. The three lower Tantras do not set forth the branch of union; also, in the lower Tantras one does not take cognizance of an external Knowledge Woman and then use desire in the path, but takes cognizance only of a meditated Knowledge Woman. In Yoga Tantras the bliss arising from holding hands or embracing is used in the path; in Performance Tantras, from laughing; and in Action Tantras, from gazing. In brief, the four Tantras are similar in that they all use desire for the attributes of the desire realm on the path.
In Action Tantras external activities predominate. In Performance Tantras external activities and internal yoga are performed equally. In Yoga Tantras internal yoga is predominant. In Highest Yoga Tantras a path unequalled by any other is taught. These etymological descriptions of the names of the four Tantras apply to their main trainees but not to all of their trainees, because, for instance, it is said that even some Yoga Tantras were taught for those frightened by meditation on oneself as a Deity.
The four Tantras are distinguished by way of their main trainees' abilities and not by way of those who merely have an interest in them, because, as is the case nowadays, there are many who take an interest in a path for which they have no capacity.
INITIATION
A maṇḍala is said to be extremely profound because meditation on it serves as an antidote, quickly eradicating the obstructions to Liberation and the obstructions to omniscience as well as their latent predispositions. It is difficult for those of low intelligence to penetrate its significance.
There is a difference between entering a maṇḍala and receiving initiation. In order merely to enter a maṇḍala it is sufficient to have faith; it is not necessary to have generated the altruistic mind of Enlightenment. Also, one may enter a maṇḍala and receive initiation without having fully generated the altruistic mind of Enlightenment, but it is necessary for one who is training in the two stages of Highest Yoga Tantra to have done so.
In the past, entrance into a maṇḍala and granting initiation were used very carefully, discriminating between the two, but nowadays Tibetans tend to initiate anyone. Vajradhara set forth a complete system with different levels — those who could just enter a maṇḍala, those who could also receive the water and head-dress initiations, and so forth. When it is done systematically, the lama, prior to granting initiation, analyzes the student to determine whether he or she can engage in the three trainings ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom and keep the vows. The lama allows those who are not qualified but who have great faith to enter a maṇḍala but does not allow initiation. These systematic restrictions, which when followed make initiation effective and practical, are often not followed nowadays, causing trouble for both lama and initiate.
There is a story about Drugpa Kunleg who was visiting an area where a lama was bestowing initiation. When the lama passed by, all thereabouts rose and paid him respect, but Drugpa Kunleg did not. The lama playfully asked him what he was doing. “When I pass by, other people pay respect. Why are you displaying this ill behavior?” Drugpa Kunleg answered by asking, “Are you giving many initiations? Are you causing many to fall from their vows and pledges? Are you opening the way to hell for many?”
If you are able to think about the meaning of cyclic existence in general and human life in particular, then it is possible to discipline the mind through religious practice which is the process of becoming peaceful and anxiety-free. Otherwise, if too much emphasis is put on the sufferings of the hells and the imminence of death, there is a chance of falling into paralyzing fear. There is a story in Tibet about an abbot of a monastery who went to give a discourse. A fellow asked the abbot's servant where the abbot had gone, and the servant said, “He has gone to frighten old folks.” If you fulfil the value of a human lifetime through engaging in religious practice, then there is no point in worrying about death.
Initially, you should Take Refuge in the Three Jewels from the round orb of your heart, then take a vow of individual emancipation, and after that generate the aspirational and practical minds of Enlightenment. Then, when you arrive at the point where it is suitable to hear Tantra, you should receive teachings on Ashvaghoṣha's Twenty Stanzas on the Bodhisattva Vow (Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃśaka) and Fifty Stanzas on the Guru (gurupañcāśikā). Then you may receive initiation.
The Buddhist Monk, Tenzin Gyatso 2518 B.C.E., 1974 C.E., the Tibetan year of the Fire Tiger
“ (GrExSM1)
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