Tantric Techniques (28 page)

In the term
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma, pr
āṇ
a
is taken to mean vitality, which means not just breath but also the wind (or energy) that enters and emerges through the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, navel, sex organ, anus, and hair-pores. The wind or energy on which consciousness rides moves through these openings, and thus to control the mind, the wind that moves through these pathways is to be reversed and held inside. Also,
y
ā
ma
e
is taken to mean “exertion,” which, in turn, is glossed as mindfulness, not in the good sense of keeping in mind a virtuous object but in the bad sense of distractedly taking something else to mind (it seems to me the tradition is enjoying playing with the vocabulary); distraction also must be restrained. Putting Buddhaguhya’s description of this process into his own words,

a
srog rtsol.

b
srog.

c
rtsol ba.

d
Deity Yoga,
112.

e
Ā
y
ā
ma
means stretching, extending, restraining, stopping, which yield etymologies for
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma
in other contexts as “extending life” (
srog sring ba
) and “stopping breath” (
srog dgag pa
); here, my guess is that the etymology is drawn from
y
ā
ma
as in
vy
ā
ma
(
rtsol ba
), “exertion.”

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Tantric Techniques

Tsong-kha-pa says:
a

Bind these two in this way: Stop the exhalation and inhalation of breath; withdraw inside movements of the breath throughout the body like a turtle’s retracting its limbs and like like drinking water drawn up with the tongue by means of the upwards-moving wind.
b
Also, withdraw inside the usual intense movement of the nonequipoised mind out through the senses. Nevertheless, leave your eyes a little open, raise your face a little, and set yourself in one-pointed meditative equipoise, observing your own body clarified as a deity. The observation should be done like that of a person dwelling in a cave and looking outside.

The meditator withdraws the winds that travel throughout and outside the body, like a turtle withdrawing its limbs or like drinking water with your tongue, sucking it inward—the images giving a sense of what it feels like to withdraw these energies. The meditator has the sense of being within the divine body, most likely at the heart region, viewing the divine body much like a person in a cave looking outside, not outside the body but at the insides of the body from a vantage point—the image of looking from a cave conveying a sense of containment but not utter withdrawal as into sleep.

This etymology of
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma
with
pr
āṇ
a
being taken as wind and
y
ā
ma
as mindfulness, with the implicit understanding that these are to be stopped, accords with a passage in the
Vairochan
ā
- bhisambodhi Tantra
that says:
c

“
Pr
āṇ
a
” is explained as wind, “
Y
ā
ma”
as mindfulness.

In another etymology, however,
pr
āṇ
a
is taken as wind, and
ā
y
ā
ma
is taken as meaning “stopping”; the compound
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma
is thus taken to mean “stopping wind,” or ceasing exhalation and inhalation.
d
Despite the different etymologies, the term comes to have the

a
Deity Yoga,
111.

b
gyen rgyu’i rlung.

c
Ibid., 56 and 192. The actual passage is cited in P3495, vol. 78, 78.3.3.

d
The term has, in general, been translated into Tibetan as
srog rtsol
in accordance with the first etymology. My usage of “vitality and exertion” as a translation equivalent can create difficulties in those instances when an author views it as meaning “stopping wind” (
srog dgag pa
).

The Path in Action Tantra: Divine Body
115

same meaning. In Highest Yoga Mantra, however,
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma
has a different meaning, for it refers to stopping the movement of the winds in the right and left channels in order to cause them to enter, remain, and dissolve in the central channel, whereupon subtler le-vels of consciousness dawn. The form of
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma
specific to Highest Yoga Mantra is performed during its second and last stage, the completion stage, whereas here in Action Tantra it is performed during the early stages of holding the mind on the divine body. This type of
pr
āṇā
y
ā
ma,
as opposed to that specific to Highest Yoga Man-tra, is also required during early phases of the practice of Highest Yoga Mantra when meditation on a divine body is performed.

Here in this Action Tantra practice, meditators hold the breath while observing one part of the divine body, and then when no longer able to hold the breath, let it out gently, relaxing by viewing their general divine body,
a
and then they return to viewing the same specific aspect within holding the breath. Viewing the general body when exhaling is a technique of resting within intense meditation; it differs from other forms of resting done when tired, a principal technique there being to repeat mantra
b
(though still not to be confused with later, more advanced phases of meditation in the concentration with repetition that call for repetition of mantra within specific visualizations). The process of holding the breath while viewing a specific part of the body and of exhaling while viewing the general body is continued until immovable clear perception of the divine body in all situations, both in and out of for-mal meditation, is gained along with the firm sense of the “pride” of being the deity. One is seeking to stop the “pride” of ordinariness—that is to say, taking pride in being ordinary, the sense of having an ordinary mind and body and the sense of being an ordinary person designated in dependence upon ordinary mind and body.

Imagination is used in order to replace limited and stultified mind and body with superior forms of these, whereby a new sense of selfhood develops—compassionate, wise, and pure. Realization of emptiness clearly is not seen as a way to obliterate the self; it is just the opposite; it is a means to unleash the innate capacity for pure

a
If the object of “meditative stabilization” has been the general divine body instead of a specific part, then with exhalation one views the general body more loosely. See the Dalai Lama’s explanation in
Deity Yoga,
26.

b
Ibid., 138.

116
Tantric Techniques

motivation and expression. This can only be done if the meditation is clear and steady, “a firm meditative stability free from laxity and excitement,” as Dül-dzin-drak-pa-gyel-tsen says. This requires a level of meditative one-pointedness called “calm abiding,”
a
which is achieved in complete form in the meditative stabilization of exalted speech, to be discussed in the next chapter, but is begun during the meditative stabilization of exalted body. As a technique aimed to-ward achieving calm abiding, meditators employ the stopping of breath and distraction, dwelling as much as possible on the appearance of divine form and the sense of being an ideal person.

From within prior approximation, we have now finished discussing cultivation of the meditative stabilization of exalted body, which comprises the first two of the four branches of concentration with repetition: other-base, self-base, mind, and sound.