Tantric Techniques (22 page)

Actual concentration with repetition

“Concentration with repetition” refers to meditation that eventually involves repetition of mantra but does not necessarily do so at all times. Repetition is performed within continuous and intense concentration on oneself as a deity and a similar deity in front of oneself. As was mentioned earlier, it is called “four-branched” because it requires maintenance of four factors:

1. imagination of a deity in front of oneself, called “other-base”
   

2. imagination of oneself as a deity, called “self-base”
   

3. imagination of a moon disc sometimes at the heart of the deity in front and sometimes at one’s own heart, called “mind”
   

4. imagination of the written letters of the mantra, set upright around the edge of the moon disc, called “sound.”
   

The forms of the mantra letters standing around the edge of the moon are not sounds but are called “sound.” The Action Tantra that Buddhaguhya uses as the prime source for the mode of meditation, the
Concentration Continuation
(which Ke-drup
a
says is called this because it is a continuation of or supplement to the Action Tantra called the
Vajro
ṣ
h
ṇīṣ
ha
),
b
refers to these four by condensing the two

a
Lessing and Wayman,
Mkhas Grub Rje’s Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras,

136.18.

b
Buddhaguhya (P3495, vol. 78, 73.2.5) also says that it is called “
Concentration Continuation
” because of presenting the later concentrations, that is, those following the initial practices explained earlier in the
Vajro
ṣ
h
ṇīṣ
ha
(
rdo rje gtsug tor gyi rgyud
). Thus, in my translation of the title, the word “Continuation” can refer either to

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Tantric Techniques

“bases” into one and reversing their order, most likely for the sake of euphony: “Flow to sound, mind, and base.”
a
The
Concentration Continuation
itself does not explain what these four are, since they were explained earlier in the
Vajro
ṣ
h
ṇīṣ
ha Tantra
(which is no longer extant in the original and was not translated into Tibetan but is known through Buddhaguhya’s commentary on the
Concentration Continuation
). As Buddhaguhya says:
b

The characteristics of the branches of repetition and so forth, such as sound, mind, and base, are not explained here because they were explained in this Tantra [the
Vajro
ṣ
h
ṇīṣ
ha
] at the beginning. The characteristics that were explained there are these: “Sound” is [the forms of ] mantra letters. “Mind” is the manifestation of a moon disc that is the base of the mantra. One “base” is the entity of a One-Gone-Thus’s body. The second base is one’s own [appearance in the] form of a deity.

The same format of four branches is used in what has come to be considered the chief Performance Tantra, the
Vairochan
ā
bhisambodhi
:
c

“Letter” is the mind of enlightenment [appearing as a moon].

The second [“letters”] are called “sounds” [the forms of the letters on the moon].

“Base” is to imagine one’s own body As that of one’s deity.

That called the second base

Is a perfect Buddha [imagined

this tantra’s being a continuation of the earlier tantra or to the concentrations that are continuations of those explained in the earlier tantra; the two meanings are indeed compatible. According to the latter etymology, it could be translated as the “
Later Concentrations
.” As Buddhaguhya says (
Deity Yoga,
55), the
Vajro
ṣ
h
ṇīṣ
ha
explains the four branches, and the
Concentration Continuation
explains the remaining steps.

a
sgra dang sems dang gzhi la gzhol;
P430, vol. 9, 55.3.4. Buddhaguhya’s commentary is P3495, vol. 78, 73.2.7 and 73.4.1. In
Deity Yoga
(55 and 141), I have made the line more accessible by translating it in the order of meditation, “Flow to the bases, mind, and sound.”

b
Deity Yoga,
55.

c
Ibid., 56 and 192. Buddhaguhya cites the passage in his commentary on the
Concentration Continuation,
P3495, vol. 78, 73.3.3.

The Path in Action Tantra: Divine Body
93

In front], the best of the two-legged.

The deity imagined in front and the deity as whom one imagines oneself are called “bases” because they are the places where the mantra letters are imagined on a moon disc—they are bases for the moon and the mantra letters.

When the central activity is meditation, the imagination of a deity in front is performed first, at least by beginners. This is because it involves a
variety
of activities related with inviting the dei-ty and thus would be distracting to
one
-pointed meditation on one’s own divine body that is to be done within stopping even the breath.
a
As the
Concentration Continuation Tantra
says:
b

The intelligent who dwell in yoga

Contemplate the presence of a One-Gone-to-Bliss
c
Only having first made offerings

To the image of a deity’s body.

First, offerings and so forth are made to a deity imagined in front of oneself, and then one meditatively imagines oneself to be a deity, that is to say, contemplates oneself as being a Buddha. “Offerings” are just illustrative; all of the other preliminary practices are to be done prior to self-generation by those “intelligent,” that is to say, competent, practitioners who are fully capable of deity yoga.

First branch: other-base—a deity in front
d

A principal reason for inviting a deity is to serve as a recipient of virtuous activities such as making offerings, praising, and worshipping the deity as well as to witness the virtuous activity of one’s cultivating an altruistic attitude. Thus, the external deity—not oneself imagined as a deity—is called a field, or basis, for the accumulation of merit, that is to say, a context for the development of internal power producing beneficent effects. A basic Buddhist perspective is that all pleasurable and painful circumstances and feelings are produced through the force of internal potencies established by former actions; here one is exerting influence on one’s own future experiences by intentionally engaging in positive activities of body,

a
Tsong-kha-pa’s explanation in
Deity Yoga,
113.
b
Stanza 8; P430, vol. 9, 53.3.2; see
Deity Yoga,
103.
c
bde bar gshegs pa, sugata
.

d
In
Deity Yoga,
this stage is described on 19-20, 115-138, and 215.

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Tantric Techniques

speech, and mind. To heighten the force of these activities, one imagines that they are done in the presence of a divine being, the enhanced force probably coming both from increased attention (such as when receiving a high official) and also from the fact that the deity subsists in accordance with reality, and thus the deity’s existence is founded, not on the distortions of desire, hatred, and ignorance, but on wisdom and compassion. Also, imagining a deity separate from oneself aids in the process of imagining oneself with divine body, speech, and mind, much as merely perceiving our companions (or actors in a movie) has an influence on how we perceive ourselves.

Neither the
Concentration Continuation Tantra
nor Buddhaguhya’s commentary on it describe the practices involved in imagining a deity in front of oneself; therefore, Tsong-kha-pa draws his explanation of these from the
Susiddhi Tantra
and Varabodhi’s formulation of it into a rite of daily practice called a Means of Achievement.
a