Tantric Techniques (70 page)

“Vehicle” as the goal of the path—Buddhahood—“proceeds” most likely in the sense of being able to carry or bear the welfare of limitless sentient beings.

The imagination of oneself in the body of a Buddha in an inestimable mansion with divine companions and articles and emanating radiance that purifies lands and the persons therein is
mantra,
which is understood as “mind-protection.” With
man
meaning “mind” and
tra
(taken to be
tr
ā
a
with the final long vowel
ā
being dropped in the compound) meaning “protection,”
mantra
means to protect the mind from ordinary appearances and apprehension of oneself and one’s surroundings as ordinary. Clear appearance of the divine figure and so forth protects the mind from ordinary appearances of a usual body, house, resources, and activities, for the men-tal consciousness is involved in divine appearances to the point where the factors necessary to generate an eye consciousness, for instance, deteriorate for the time being and the sense consciousnesses do not operate. With clear appearance of pure mind and body there is a sense of being the divine “I” designated in

a
Or also as
tr
ā
ya.

292
Tantric Techniques

dependence upon them; this counters the conception of ordinariness,
a
that is to say, being an ordinary person with an ordinary im-pure body of flesh, blood, and bone and with an ordinary impure mind.

This practice is found in all four tantra sets and occupies a significant place in the path as an enhancement of method. Since it is not found in S
ū
tra systems, it can serve as the central differentiator between the two Great Vehicles, S
ū
tra and Mantra, or Perfection Vehicle and Mantra Vehicle.

Tsong-kha-pa’s style of exposition is as an appeal to the intellect, a carefully constructed argument based on scriptural sources and reasoning, with the emphasis on the latter. Consistency, coherence, and elegance of system are the cornerstones. His procedure is that of a thorough-going scholar, analyzing sources and counter-opinions with careful scrutiny and determining the place of the pillars of his analysis in the general structure of a system. By extending the scope of analysis beyond that seen in Bu-tön, his adju-dication of conflicting systems of exposition establishes a radically new one.

Still, this new mode of exposition of Mantra did not carry the day with the other orders of Tibetan Buddhism. For instance, with respect to whether Action Tantra actually does involve deity yoga, the sixteenth-century Druk-pa Ka-gyu
b
master Padmakar-po
c
in his
Presentation of the General Tantra Sets, Captivating the Wise
d
first cites the explanation in an authoritative Highest Yoga Tantra, the
Wisdom Vajra Compendium
(see below, page 303), that there is no self-generation in Action Tantra and then after citing Buddhaguhya’s and Varabodhi’s opinions (see 304) disposes of them:
e

One need not take this to be very important, for if it is treated that way, one must deny the tantras as well as texts by many adepts, whereby it would be very sinful.

a
tha mal pa’i zhen pa
.

b
’brug pa bka’ rgyud
.

c
padma dkar po,
1527-1592.

d
rgyud sde spyi’i rnam gzhag mkhas pa’i yid ’phrog,
18b.6.

e
Ibid., 20a.5.

Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure
293

The implicit characterization of Tsong-kha-pa’s approach to this topic as sinful highlights the innovation of his exposition, a radical departure from the approach of the other Tibetan orders on such topics, a turn from maintenance of tradition to critical analysis.

We more than glimpse here a different picture from that painted by Herbert Guenther who declares that Tsong-kha-pa “was not an independent thinker.”
a
Far from being an uneventful repeater of Indian Buddhism, Tsong-kha-pa’s
Great Exposition of Secret Mantra
is a dramatic development through subjecting sources to wide-ranging critical examination. The change indicates the liveli-ness and development of Buddhist thought in Tibet, as does Long-chen-pa’s highly creative presentation, dispelling any notion that Tibetans merely blindly repeated the conclusions of their Indian predecessors.

Some have suggested that Long-chen-pa has less concern with Indian sources; however, the claim of authenticity in terms of lineage of source-teachings from India is as strong in Long-chen-pa as in Tsong-kha-pa. Rather, a salient difference between the two approaches may rest in a difference of style that stems from a difference in the mode of procedure of the path (though I make this suggestion with considerable trepidation as it is likely overblown). Tsong-kha-pa’s presentations are often more intellectually evocative, the place of the intellect in the long process of finally generating the subtler levels of consciousness being emphasized. For Long-chen-pa, the chief technique for uncovering fundamental mind is to identify it in the midst of any sort of consciousness; thus, the texts, though certainly as long as others, tend to use psychologically evocative terminology, a special language that even immediately evokes glimpses of deeper states. For instance, Long-chen-pa’s
Precious Treasury of Tenets
on the difference between the S
ū
tra and Mantra Great Vehicles (above on page 253) says:

In Mantra the secrecy of mind is that memories and conceptions dawn as the sport of the noumenon, whereby the mind dawns as self-illuminating self-arisen pristine wis-dom, due to which meditative stabilization is established in the yoga of the flow of a river, through which the mind is spontaneously established as a ma
ṇḍ
ala of nonconceptual

a
Herbert Guenther, “Buddhism in Tibet,” in M. Eliade, ed.,
Encyclopedia of Religion

(New York: Macmillan, 1986), vol. 2, 411.

294
Tantric Techniques

shine.

The song of the text itself contributes to the immediately evocative terminology, whereas in Tsong-kha-pa’s presentation—as well as those by his followers—the style is that of methodical conceptual construction. Though Tsong-kha-pa’s texts also can eventually be-come highly evocative, one would have to cite a lengthy passage, if not a complete book or several books, and ask the reader to study it over months if not years to experience it, for it is often only through extensive conceptual familiarity with his overall system that glimpses of profound experience begin to dawn.

In terms of immediately evocative style, the intellectual intri-cacy of Tsong-kha-pa’s presentation is no match for Long-chen- pa’s; however, when the principles of his position have been so internalized that the reader can supply the unspoken interstices, the experience of re-reading the text can evoke palpable glimpses into the experience of deity yoga. The argument itself becomes an exercise moving the mind toward developing the ability to combine profound realization of emptiness and manifestation as an ideal being such that one senses the possibility of consciousness itself appearing as form—the union of method and wisdom that, for Tsong-kha-pa, is at the heart of Mantra.

Tsong-kha-pa is often criticized, both in Tibet and beyond, for being overly verbal, overly abstract, but I would suggest that this criticism often is due to not having put sufficient time into first ascertaining the positions of Ge-luk scholars and then allowing the metaphysical imagination to be stimulated. The danger of over-abstraction in some areas of Tsong-kha-pa’s thought is great, but the intricately woven arguments, when probed over time, lead to an internalization of knowledge and palpable experience of principles that are then the basis for verbalization. In the beginning, the words seem to use the reader, but later a changed person uses the words.

We need both patience to go through this process as well as willingness to become absorbed in these complex systems. The dilemma posed by such openness and the need for discrimination is certainly not solved by refusing to spend the time needed to probe the material or by an affectation of either closeness or distance from a tradition that prevents actual involvement. Tsong-kha-pa seems to have conquered this dilemma within his own culture through startlingly refreshing reasoned analysis of traditional

Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure
295

accounts that functions as an expository method, bringing all the more focus to a pivotal practice in Mantra, deity yoga which itself is founded on the reasoned analysis performed in emptiness yoga.
a
The lesson may be that the type of mind needed to follow his argument is also needed in this central practice of deity yoga founded on the necessarily analytical approach of emptiness yoga. Seen in this light, there is a harmony between the form of Tsong-kha-pa’s elaborately reasoned argument on the difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra and the content, the identification of deity yoga—the first step of which is reasoned meditation on emptiness—as the central tantric feature. The style itself makes the point that this type of reason is not cast aside in Mantra.