Tantric Techniques (78 page)

Even though the path of the Mantra Vehicle is quicker and easier, a practitioner cannot seek it out of fearing the difficulties of the longer S
ū
tra path. Rather, the quicker path is sought from being particularly moved by compassion; a Mantra practitioner wants to achieve enlightenment sooner in order more quickly to be of service to others.

a
lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje,
1717-1786.

b
grub pa’i mtha’i rnam par bzhag pa gsal bar bshad pa thub bstan lhun po’i mdzes rgyan

(Sarnath: Pleasure of Elegant Sayings Press, 1970), 529.18-530.8.

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Tantric Techniques

In a similar vein, the present Dalai Lama has said
a
that proper contemplation of the difficulties and length of the S
ū
tra path generates greater determination and courage. I surmise that this is because contemplating one’s own altruistic activity over great periods of time undermines the thresholds of impatience, anger, and discouragement. We can extrapolate from this that those who are frightened by the length of the S
ū
tra Vehicle path or are incapable of being tamed by it are outside of the province of the Great Vehicle in general, let alone the Mantra Vehicle in particular.

From this perspective, far from being taught for those who are unable to proceed on the Perfection Vehicle, the four tantras were expounded for persons of particularly great compassion, and Jang-kya emphasizes that, in addition, the person must be
capable
of its practice. The position that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by different types of afflictive emotions such as desire or hatred is thereby rendered impossible. That the trainees of Mantra, who are supposed to be the sharpest of all Bodhisattvas, would be discouraged in the face of a long path and—from that depression— seek a short path is raucously ridiculous, for the altruism of M
ā
ntrikas, in this view, is even more intense than that of practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle.

One can perceive the ever-widening gulf between those in Tibet who accepted traditional views of Mantra (or who repeated them without much attention) and those who sought to incorporate Mantra in a consistent way into a high Great Vehicle tradition. I detect a reserve of criticism in Bu-tön’s catalogue of traditional views—in this case, his citing it in quotation without the slightest comment—but Tsong-kha-pa takes it much further, launching a critical attack that, despite its negative style, communicates confi-dence in an overall view of Tantra as consistent within a grand tradition; this vision is what gradually comes to the fore with patient reading and re-reading.

Tsong-kha-pa’s stark critique stands in bold contrast to many tradition-oriented perspectives of his time that also have come to constitute much of the knowledge of Tantra outside Tibet. For instance, Mircea Eliade, who contributed greatly to our understanding of many fields of intellectual endeavor and had much to do with creating an atmosphere of appreciation for the multifaceted a

a
In public lecture.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
335

ppearance of world and local religions, describes Tantrism as suited for persons of lower sensibilities than those practicing Great Vehicle Buddhism. He says:
a

For Buddhists…the Vajray
ā
na represents a new revelation of Buddha’s doctrine, adapted to the much diminished capacities of modern man.

Though Eliade’s view contrasts even with that of Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la, who held that the top rank among the highest tantric practitioners did not need to use sexual union in the spiritual path, it is somewhat similar in that Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la viewed the use of consorts mere-ly as a technique suited for those of limited capacity distracted by desire, and so forth.

Numerous contemporary scholars describe Tantrism as a fru-strated attempt to turn away from monastic celibacy and prolonged practice of the path to immediate gratification in sexual ritual. Though echoing some trends within traditional views of Tantrism, these opinions obviously do not take into account the exactly opposite view of Tsong-kha-pa and his Ge-luk followers, whose school of exposition, important throughout a vast region of Central Asia, of-fers a diametrically opposite view of Tantra. A more rounded view needs to present both of these perspectives.

Bu-tön
b
reports at length a tradition that divides the four tantras by the type of desire that is utilized and purified in the path. The tradition stems from presentations in Highest Yoga Mantra, a principal source being the one that Bu-tön cites first, the
Sa
ṃ
pu
ṭ
a Tantra:
c

The four aspects of smiling, gazing, Holding hands, and the two embracing Reside as the four tantras

In the manner of insects.

Based on such descriptions of the four tantra sets found in Highest Yoga Tantras and their commentaries, it is said that in Action

a
Mircea Eliade,
Patañjali and Yoga,
translated by C.L. Markmann (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1969), 179.

b
Extensive
version, 32.7-35.7.

c
rnal ’byor ma bzhi’i kha sbyor kyi rgyud, caturyogin
ī
-sa
ṃ
pu
ṭ
atantra;
P24, vol. 2.

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Tantric Techniques

Tantra the desire involved in male and female gazing, or looking, at each other is used in the path; in Performance Tantra the desire involved in male and female smiling at each other is used in the path; in Yoga Tantra the desire involved in male and female embracing and touching each other is used in the path, and in Highest Yoga Mantra the desire involved in sexual union is used in the path. When desire arising from gazing, smiling, holding hands or embracing, and sexual union is used in the path in conjunction with emptiness and deity yogas, desire itself is extinguished. Specifically, in Highest Yoga Mantra, desire for sexual union leads to sexual un-ion and generation of a blissful consciousness withdrawn from the usual myriad objects; a practitioner uses this consciousness to realize emptiness. The realization of the emptiness of inherent existence, in turn, destroys the possibility of desire since it is built on

the misperception that phenomena inherently exist.

The process is compared to a bug being born from moist wood and then eating the wood. In this ancient example (formed at a time when it was assumed that this type of bug, or worm, was generated only from wood and heat), the wood is desire; the bug is the blissful consciousness; the consumption of the wood is the blissful consciousness’s destruction of desire through realizing emptiness. The reason why a blissful consciousness is used for this process is that it is more intense, and thus realization of emptiness by such a consciousness is more powerful. As the First Pa
ṇ
-chen Lama, Lo-sang-chö-kyi-gyel-tsen, says (see also 382):
a

A wood-engendered insect is born from wood but consumes it completely. In the same way, great bliss is generated in dependence upon a causal motivation that is the desire of gazing, smiling, holding hands or embracing, or union of the two organs. The wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness, which is this great bliss generated undifferentiably with a mind realizing emptiness at the same time, consumes completely the afflictive emotions—desire, ignorance, and so forth.

The process is clearly explained in Ge-luk commentarial literature on Highest Yoga Mantra, where consciousnesses are divided into

a
Presentation of the General Teaching and the Four Tantra Sets,
Collected Works, vol. 4, 17b.5-18a.1.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
337

the gross, the subtle, and the very subtle.
a
According to the system of
Guhyasam
ā
ja Tantra,
the very subtle level of consciousness is the mind of clear light, called the fundamental innate mind of clear light; the subtle are three levels of consciousness called the minds of vivid white, red (or orange), and black appearance; and the gross are the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness, when the latter is not manifesting one of the above subtler levels. When the grosser levels of consciousness cease as is said to occur in the process of orgasm, going to sleep, fainting, sneezing, and dying, the more subtle become manifest. The first to manifest is the mind of vivid white appearance that is described as like a clear night sky filled with moonlight, not the moon shining in empty space but space filled with white light. All conceptuality has ceased, and nothing appears except this slightly dualistic vivid white appearance, which is one’s consciousness itself.

When that mind ceases, a more subtle mind of vivid red or orange increase dawns; this is compared to a clear sky filled with sunlight, again not the sun shining in the sky but space filled with red or orange light. When this mind ceases, a still more subtle mind of vivid black near-attainment dawns; it is called “near-attainment” because one is close to manifesting the mind of clear light. The mind of black near-attainment is compared to a moonless, very black sky just after dusk when no stars shine; during the first part of this phase one remains aware but then becomes unconscious in thick blackness. Then, with the three “pollutants”—the white, red, and black appearances—cleared away, the mind of clear light, the most subtle level of consciousness, dawns.

Because the subtler levels of consciousness are considered to be more powerful and thus more effective in realizing the truth of the emptiness of inherent existence and in overcoming obstructions, the systems of Highest Yoga Mantra seek to manifest the mind of clear light by way of various techniques. One of these techniques is blissful orgasm because, according to the psychology of Highest Yoga Mantra, orgasm, like dying, going to sleep, and fainting— involves the ceasing of the grosser levels of consciousness and

a
The material on the levels of consciousness is drawn from a text by Yang-jen-ga-way-lo-drö (
dbyangs can dga’ ba’i blo gros, a kya yongs ’dzin,
c. 1750), which is translated in Lati Rinbochay and Jeffrey Hopkins,
Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism
(London: Rider, 1980; reprint, Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1985).

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Tantric Techniques

manifestation of the more subtle. The intent in using a blissful, orgasmic mind in the path is to manifest the most subtle mind, the fundamental innate mind of clear light, and use it to realize the emptiness of inherent existence. In this way, the power of the path-consciousness realizing emptiness is enhanced such that it is more effective in overcoming the obstructions to liberation from cyclic existence and obstructions to the altruistic omniscience of Buddhahood.

A consciousness of orgasmic bliss is put to use in the spiritual path because when the sense of pleasure is powerful, one’s consciousness is totally involved with that pleasure and thus completely withdrawn; this is the reason why the subtler levels of consciousness manifest during the intense bliss of orgasm, even if they are not noticed, never mind utilized, in common copulation. Without desire, involvement in bliss would be minimal, and thus Highest Yoga Mantra employs the arts of love-making, and so forth, to enhance the process. This is ordinary desire used in an extraordinary way.

The usage of desire in the path is, therefore, explicitly for the sake of making the mind of wisdom more powerful by way of accessing a subtler level of consciousness. The difficulty of using an orgasmic consciousness to realize anything indicates that it would take a person of great psychological development to be able to utilize such a subtle state in the path. Since other, not so intense, levels of bliss are used in a similar way in the other tantra sets, actual practitioners of Tantra in general and Highest Yoga Mantra in particular must, in this presentation by Tsong-kha-pa and his followers, be more highly developed than the practitioners of the S
ū
tra version of the Great Vehicle. Through this, it can be seen that there are good reasons why they say that the tantric systems are for persons of a high level of development, quite a contrast to traditions holding that Tantra is superior because it has more powerful techniques for grosser personality types.