Tantric Techniques (48 page)

MEDITATIVE STABILIZATION OF EXALTED MIND

3. Concentration Bestowing Liberation at the End of Sound

1. Focus not on appearance in a divine body, whispered repetition, mental repetition, or the concentrations of abiding in fire and abiding in sound but on the emptiness of inherent existence. Although there are still divine appearances to the
   appearance
   factor of your consciousness, they no longer appear to the
   ascertainment
   factor, which is concerned only with the emptiness of inherent existence, which is now the focus. Because of the previous training, these other factors remain appearing without effort, and you simultaneously and explicitly realize their absence of being established from their own side.
   
2. Alternate analytical and stabilizing meditation on the emptiness of inherent existence in order to make them of equal strength.
   

1. Gradually the power of analysis itself is able to induce physical and mental pliancies similar to those of calm abiding, but to a greater degree. Thereby, special insight, which is a union of calm abiding and special insight, is attained.
   

1. Effecting the achievement of yogic feats
   

   Feats are in three categories:
   

   1. pacification,
      such as avoiding untimely death, illnesses, epidem-ics, harmful influences, and contagion
      

   2. increase,
      such as enhancing life span, youthfulness, magnificence, power, qualities of realization, and resources
      

   3. ferocity such as killing, expelling, or confusing harmful beings.
      

      202
      Tantric Techniques
      

      

      These feats—which also include clairvoyance, invisibility, the capacity to understand all treatises immediately upon reading them, swift footedness, and empowering pills for youthfulness and so forth—are sought in order to enhance the power of the very yoga that comprises prior approximation. Thus, although the triad of prior approximation, effecting achievement of feats, and engaging in altruistic activities suggests a movement from the first to the last, the yoga that constitutes the first phase is the most important. The feats that allow a practitioner to perform special activities for the benefit of others bring about merit further enhancing the capacity of this same yoga so that Buddhahood can be achieved.
      

      1. Analyzing dreams
         

         See
         Deity Yoga,
         176-177.
         

      2. Performing the above meditation in modified form and burnt offerings or repetitions of mantra and so forth
         

      See
      Deity Yoga,
      177-179.
      

2. Activities
   

Using the yogic feats of pacification, increase, and ferocity for your own and others’ temporary and final aims.

Part Two:
The Difference Between S
ū
tra and Mantra

8. Bu-tön Rin-chen-drup’s Stimulating Catalogue

The distinctiveness of the tantric practice of deity yoga and Tsong-kha-pa’s choosing it as the sole central distinguishing feature of Mantra is put into perspective through considering his prime source, the encyclopedic presentation of the difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra by the “omniscient”
a
Bu-tön Rin-chen-drup
b
(1290-1364), who is reported to have been first a Nyingma and then a Sa-kya
c
but is more appropriately identified by the sect named after him, Bu-luk (Bu System). All presentations of the distinctiveness of Mantra, except that by Tsong-kha-pa and his followers, em-ploy multiple formats for demonstrating its greatness through its central features, and Bu-tön in his
Extensive Presentation of the General Tantra Sets: Ornament Beautifying the Precious Tantra Sets ,
d
drawing from Atisha’s
Compilation of All Pledges,
cites nine Indian scholars’ varying descriptions of the multiple ways in which the Mantra Vehicle surpasses the Perfection Vehicle:

1. Tripi
   ṭ
   akam
   ā
   la as well as Vajrap
   āṇ
   i’s commentary, 4 ways
   

   1. being for the nonobscured
      

   2. having many skillful methods
      

   3. no difficulties
      

      

      a
      “Omniscient” is a Tibetan epithet for an accomplished scholar versed in many topics, a polymath.
      

      b
      bu ston rin chen grub.
      

      c
      Reported orally by the Nyingma lama and biographer, Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, who himself studied at a Ge-luk-pa monastic university, Drepung, before pursuing the Nyingma path.
      

      d
      rgyud sde spyi’i rnam par gzhag pa: rgyud sde rin po che’i mdzes rgyan,
      Collected Works vol. 15 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1969), 6.1-32.5, hereafter referred to as “
      Extensive
      version.” The very same presentation, with mi-nor printing differences, is repeated in Bu-tön’s middling version called the
      Me-dium-Length Presentation of the General Tantra Sets: Illuminating the Secrets of All Tantra Sets
      (
      rgyud sde spyi’i rnam par gzhag pa rgyud sde thams cad kyi gsang ba gsal bar byed pa
      ), Collected Works vol. 15, 614.7-641.7, hereafter referred to as “
      Medium-Length
      version”; it has been used for text comparison. A considerably abbreviated version of the same is given in his
      Condensed Presentation of the General Tantra Sets: Key Opening the Door to the Precious Treasury of Tantra Sets
      (
      rgyud sde spyi’i rnam par gzhag pa rgyud sde rin po che’i gter sgo ’byed pa’i lde mig
      ), Collected Works vol. 14, 845.1-859.1, hereafter referred to as “
      Condensed
      version
      .
      ”
      

      206
      Tantric Techniques
      

      

   4. being created for those with sharp faculties.
      

1. Jñ
   ā
   nashr
   ī
   , 11 ways
   

   1. observing an unsurpassed object of observation
      

   2. unsurpassed achieving
      

   3. unsurpassed pristine wisdom
      

   4. unsurpassed effort
      

   5. ability to take care of all trainees without exception
      

   6. blessing afflictive emotions into a magnificent state
      

   7. swifter blessings into magnificence
      

   8. quick emergence
      

   9. abandonment of afflictive emotions
      

   10. unsurpassed contemplation
       

   11. unsurpassed deeds.
       

1. Ratn
   ā
   karash
   ā
   nti, 3 ways
   

   1. very pure objects of observation
      

   2. power of aids
      

   3. deeds
      

   4. N
      ā
      g
      ā
      rjuna, 6 ways
      

      1. implanting of everything with the seal of the all-good
         

      2. blessing into a magnificent state
         

      3. faster achievement of feats
         

      4. separation from the frights of cyclic existence and bad transmigrations and becoming rested
         

      5. lack of interference
         

      6. nondeterioration of pledges, and natural restoration if deteriorated
         

   5. Indrabh
      ū
      ti, 7 ways
      

      1. guru
         

      2. vessel
         

      3. rite
         

      4. activity
         

      5. pledge
         

      6. view
         

      7. behavior
         

   6. Jñ
      ā
      nap
      ā
      da, 3 ways
      

      1. practitioner
         

      2. path
         

      3. fruit
         

         Bu-tön Rin-chen-drup’s Stimulating Catalogue
         207
         

         

   7. Ḍ
      ombh
      ī
      heruka, 5 ways
      

      1. vessels
         

      2. doctrine making vessels (initiation)
         

      3. texts
         

      4. paths
         

      5. fruits
         

   8. Vajragha
      ṇṭ
      ap
      ā
      da, 4 ways
      

      1. persons who are the bases
         

      2. paths that are the means of entry
         

      3. fruit which is the finality
         

      4. definite emergence
         

   9. Samayavajra, 5 ways
      

      1. guru
         

      2. initiation
         

      3. pledges
         

      4. quintessential instructions
         

      5. and effort
         

Bu-tön begins with Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s
Lamp for the Three Modes,
a
quoting his stanzas on each of the four features and paraphrasing Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s own prose explanations, after which he expansive-ly describes Jñ
ā
nashr
ī
’s eleven ways, and then quotes Atisha’s brief accounts of the remaining seven. He occasionally explains and defends the positions of these nine scholars.

a
tshul gsum gyi sgron ma
,
nayatrayaprad
ī
pa;
P4530; Toh. 3707, Nying ma edition of

sde dge,
vol. 62.

208
Tantric Techniques