Tantric Techniques (38 page)

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someone else or reverberating of their own accord.

These four are left in the sense that even though they may still ap-pear to the
appearance
factor of the meditator’s consciousness, they no longer appear to the
ascertainment
factor of that consciousness, which is concerned only with the emptiness of inherent existence.

The meditator has so trained in these appearances that it is possible for them to remain appearing without effort; this allows the meditator simultaneously and explicitly to realize the absence of these same factors’ being established from their own side, their emptiness of inherent existence.

Realization of emptiness was cultivated earlier at the time of the ultimate deity, the first of the six deities in self-generation, at the point of meditating on the suchness of self—one’s own emptiness of inherent existence—and on the suchness of the deity, after which one reflected that one’s own and the deity’s final nature are the same. Also, a sense of the emptiness of inherent existence was maintained throughout the subsequent phases of meditation; however, the main focus of these meditations was on developing the ability to cause these various elements to appear and thus it was impossible for the meditator to focus on emptiness. Instead, the realization of emptiness, though not manifestly present,
affected
the practices in the sense that those yogas were conjoined with the force of emptiness yoga. Now, however, emptiness itself becomes the main object of a powerfully focused mind that is so trained that these various appearances continue even while focusing on emptiness.

The description of such a state is facilitated by making a distinction between what appears and what is being ascertained—a divine body and so forth appear, but what is being ascertained is the emptiness of inherent existence. In his
Terminology Arising in Secret Mantra, the Scriptural Collections of the Knowledge Bearers
,
a
L
ong-döl Ngawang-lo-sang
b
(1719-1794) uses the evocative example of a double moon appearing to someone with defective eyesight (such as nearsightedness) who, all the while, understands that the moon is single. Similarly, to the appearance factor of the

a
gsang sngags rig pa ’dzin pa’i sde snod las byung ba’i ming gi grang,
The Collected Works of Longdol Lama, Part 1 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1973), 101.3.

b
klong rdol ngag dbang blo bzang
.

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consciousness forms and so forth appear, but to the ascertainment factor only emptiness appears and is realized. The Dalai Lama, in commentary on Action Tantra, speaks clearly to this point:
a

One is no longer mainly concerned with developing clear appearance but is mainly meditating on emptiness. Still, this does not mean that the divine body, sounds, and so forth necessarily no longer appear. Rather, to the
ascertainment factor
of the concentration on the end of sound only emptiness—a negative of inherent existence—appears. However, sounds and so forth may still appear to what is called the appearance factor of that consciousness. This means that although the sounds and so forth may appear, the mind is ascertaining or realizing only emptiness. This is the union of the two truths in Mantra—one consciousness appearing in the form of divine body or speech and simultaneously realizing emptiness.

Thus, the difference between the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound and all those preceding is that the earlier deity yoga was merely
affected
by the force of previously realizing emptiness, whereas now the one consciousness that appears as the mantra sounds, divine body, and so forth also actually and explicitly realizes emptiness. When one consciousness is capable of these two activities, the yoga of the nonduality of the profound (realization of the emptiness of inherent existence) and the manifest (compassionate appearance) is complete. Until this point, the meditator has only been imitating such an ability, and thus the deity yoga of nondual profundity and manifestation, which according to Tsong-kha-pa is the central distinctive feature of tantra (see chapter 10), begins only from this point.

Through gradually cultivating the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound by alternating analytical and stabilizing meditation, the capacity of the mind increases to the point where analysis itself induces an even greater calm abiding than experienced previously. This enhanced calm abiding, in turn, serves as a basis for even greater penetration of the nature of phenomena. This state is called special insight, which necessarily is a union of calm abiding and special insight.

a
Deity Yoga,
34.

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It is evident from this progression of practices that the use of rationality to undermine the appearance of objects as if they inherently existed or existed under their power is aimed at overcoming the sense that phenomena, mental and otherwise, exist un-der their own power, autonomously. Autonomous complexes are being undermined, not just weakened or accommodated as was Jung’s aim. This Buddhist division of the mind of deity yoga into an appearance factor appearing as an ideal being and an ascertainment factor realizing emptiness suggests how discrimination is maintained in the face of a profoundly different type of appearance, an ideal being, despite identification with that appearance. Identification has assumed a different meaning, for the meditator merely is identifying himself or herself as that pure person designated in dependence upon purely appearing mind and body and not findable either among or separate from mind and body. This may be how the tantric procedure of deity yoga can go beyond Jung’s emphasis on the conscious mind’s adapting a posture of confrontation of feeling-toned complexes.

In sum, we have seen how the transmutation sought through deity yoga involves development of positive moral qualities, confrontation with neurotic contents and gradual education of them, identification with the sublime, and de-autonomizing objects, consciousnesses, and dysfunctional tendencies through realization of the status of phenomena and through taking emptiness and wis-dom as the stuff of appearance. In particular, Jung’s brilliant descriptions of positive and negative inflation have provided an ave-nue for appreciating the possibility that in deity yoga:

identification that one’s final nature is an absence of inherent, or autonomous, existence may counteract positive inflation, and

appearance of the wisdom of emptiness itself as an ideal pure being may counteract negative inflation.

However, as mentioned earlier, his cautions need to be heeded; his insights make it clear that deity yoga,
if
it is possible, is no easy matter. Given its built-in safeguards and moral tone, deity yoga may actually succeed in overcoming double-edged inflation, despite the enormity of the task. Nevertheless, I will try not to fall into the trap of claiming to have found the universal panacea.

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In order to illuminate how the path procedure of Action Tantra fits into the course of spiritual training, the Mongolian scholar Ngawang-pel-den juxtaposes the standard Great Vehicle way of presenting the path in terms of five levels—the paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more learning—with these Action Tantra meditations.
a
His relating these two systems is typical of the synthetic nature of the religious culture in the Tibetan cultural region. Such juxtaposition not only absorbs a particular system into a grand world-view and thus fulfills a need for coherence and harmony but also enriches understanding of a particular system by intertwining it with a familiar set of vocabulary. Although the fitting together of the two systems can at times become mechanistic, it is both challenging in terms of the attempt to align the two as if they seamlessly were that way from the start and revealing in the sense that, when seen in the context of the larger system, the emphasis of this particular system becomes apparent.

Ngawang-pel-den explains that, related to those practicing Action Tantra, the first, the path of accumulation, is attained when

(1) the practitioners generate a nonartificial aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of others, thinking to accomplish this in dependence upon the path of Action Tantra, (2) enter an Action Tantra ma
ṇḍ
ala, and (3) receive initiation. At that point, practitioners become Mantra Bodhisattvas. Then, during the path of accumulation, they achieve calm abiding by way of the four-branched repetition and the concentrations of abiding in fire and abiding in sound and begin training in the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound. When, in dependence upon this, they generate special insight realizing emptiness, they pass to the Action Tantra path of preparation. In this way, the attainment of a full-fledged concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound—a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight realizing emptiness—marks the beginning of the second of the five paths, the path of preparation.

The
Concentration Continuation Tantra
itself says nothing more about the remainder of the path, and thus the remainder of Ngawang-pel-den’s description enriches the path-procedure of this tantra through superimposing the remainder of the S
ū
tra path on

a
Ibid., 229-234.

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the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound. He explains that on the four levels of the path of preparation—called heat, peak, forbearance, and supreme mundane qualities—through further cultivation of the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound, the sense of duality between the mind of wisdom and its object, emptiness, gradually diminishes, eventually culminating in direct perception of emptiness, this marking the beginning of the third path, the path of seeing, and the first of the ten Bodhisattva grounds. The mind of meditative equipoise on the path of seeing is totally nondualistic, devoid of the five types of dualistic appearance:
a

1. There is no conceptual appearance.
   

2. There is no sense of subject and object; subject and object are like fresh water poured into fresh water, indistinguishable.
   

3. There is no appearance of inherent existence.
   

4. There is no appearance of conventional phenomena; only emptiness appears.
   

5. There is no appearance of difference; although the emptinesses of all phenomena in all world systems appear, they do not ap-pear to be different.
   

Because of the utterly nondualistic nature of this state, it is impossible for a divine body or any appearance other than emptiness to occur. However, it is not that emptiness blots out or cancels phenomena; rather, the limitations of the unenlightened mind make it impossible for emptiness to be
directly
realized and for phenomena qualified by emptiness to appear at the same time.

At this point, practitioners begin to overcome obstructions from the root. The initial period of the path of seeing acts as the antidote to intellectually acquired afflictive obstructions, these be-ing (1) forms of ignorance conceiving inherent existence gained by way of incorrect teachings and scriptures and (2) resultant afflictive emotions. Innate afflictive emotions begin to be overcome when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as an antidote to the grossest level of innate afflictive emotions, at which point the fourth path, the

a
The source for this list is the late Kensur Yeshi Thupten, abbot of the
L
o-sel-ling College of Drepung Monastic University, re-established in Mundgod, Karnataka State, South India. The contents of the list are common knowledge among Ge-luk- pa scholars.

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path of meditation, begins. During this period, Action Tantra Bodhisattvas pass through the remaining nine Bodhisattva grounds, gradually purifying the mind of the innate afflictive emotions and the obstructions to omniscience. The innate afflictive emotions are divided into three levels—big, middling, and small—which in turn are divided into big, middling, and small, making a total of nine le-vels. When the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the big of the big innate afflictive emotions, the second Bodhisattva ground is attained. Then, when it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the middling of the big innate afflictive emotions, the third Bodhisattva ground is attained. When it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the small of the big innate afflictive emotions, the fourth Bodhisattva ground is attained. Similarly, when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the three levels of middling innate afflictive emotions, the fifth, sixth, and seventh Bodhisattva grounds are attained. This pattern is broken with the next step, since the eighth ground is attained when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound
simultaneously
becomes capable of acting as the antidote to all three grades of small innate afflictive emotions. (It surely seems that numerological concerns and devotion to round-ness of system dictate the breaking of the pattern.)

Then, during a second phase of the eighth ground, the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the first of four degrees of obstructions to omniscience, these being the “big” level. Then, when it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the middling level of obstructions to omniscience, the ninth Bodhisattva ground is attained. Similarly, the tenth is attained when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the coarse small level of obstructions to omniscience. Dur-ing a second phase of the tenth ground, it becomes capable of act-ing as the antidote to the subtle of the small obstructions to omniscience, immediately after which Buddhahood and the last of the five paths, the path of no more learning, are simultaneously attained.

Since through cultivating the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound over a long period of time a meditator is eventually freed from the afflictive obstructions preventing

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liberation from cyclic existence and from the obstructions to omniscience, earlier the
Concentration Continuation Tantra
said that “The end of sound bestows liberation.” When put in the context of such a path-structure, “liberation” here is seen to refer not just to release from cyclic existence but also to the great liberation of Buddhahood, free from what prevents simultaneous cognition of all objects of knowledge—both phenomena themselves and their final nature, emptiness.

For the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound to accomplish the task of removing the obstructions to omniscience, it must be enhanced in force, this being accomplished not only through the usual Great Vehicle means of activities of compassion but also through the particularly tantric means of utilizing special feats in order to promote others’ welfare.
a
Ge-luk-pa scholars explain that this process of abandoning the innate afflictive emotions and obstructions to omniscience takes two periods of countless eons.