Tantric Techniques (79 page)

Tsong-kha-pa relates the usage of desire in the path to the general Great Vehicle process of heightening—through altruism and altruistic deeds (called “method” in the basic path-structure of wis-dom and method)—the power of the wisdom-consciousness realizing emptiness so that it can overcome the obstructions to omniscience. Such relation of tantric practices to broader principles of spiritual development is an organizing feature of his exposition; it

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is what creates a sense of a unified system, replete with purpose and consistent in aim. He says:
a

As was explained before, the special cause of a form body is deity yoga, which is the main method [in Mantra]. That methods act as heighteners of the wisdom realizing emptiness is the system of both Great Vehicles. Sh
ā
ntideva’s
Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds
[IX.1] says:

The Subduer said that all these branches [of giving, Ethics, and so forth] are for the sake of wisdom.

In the system of both the Perfection and the Mantra Vehicles, factors of method (altruistic motivation and the deeds that it induces) enhance the mind of wisdom realizing emptiness in order to strengthen it to the point where it can abandon the obstructions to omniscience. The early nineteenth-century Mongolian scholar Ngawang-pel-den
b
explains that in the Perfection Vehicle, this is done through training in “limitless varieties of giving and so forth for a limitless time”—“limitless” referring to at least three periods of countless (that is, a very high number) great eons. In Mantra also, there is intense training in the perfections of giving and so forth but not in limitless varieties for a limitless time, since deity yoga speeds up the process. Tsong-kha-pa continues:

The way that the path of wisdom is heightened through de-ity yoga is this: The special method and wisdom is deity yo-ga, that is, the appearance of one’s chosen deity in the as-pect of a father and mother union. Though Highest Yoga has many distinctive features in its path, it is called “tantra of union of the two” from this point of view, and in these tantras themselves there are a great many descriptions of deities in the aspect of union. From this approach one uses desire in the path and develops the essential of the meeting and staying together of the two minds of enlightenment [that is, drops of essential fluid of male and female that in-duce powerful bliss and subtler levels of mind]. In dependence on this, realization of emptiness is heightened.

a
Tantra in Tibet,
157.

b
ngag dbang dpal ldan
, born 1797;
gsang chen rgyud sde bzhi’i sa lam gyi rnam bzhag rgyud gzhung gsal byed
(rgyud smad par khang edition, no other data), 13.3.

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Tsong-kha-pa goes on to speak of all four tantra sets as using desire in the path:
a

Because the lower tantras lack this special method of using desire in the path, among the seven branches [complete enjoyment, union, great bliss, absence of inherent existence, compassion, uninterrupted continuity, and noncessation] the one of union is not taught in the three lower tantras. Still, because the lower tantras do use joy arising from smiling, gazing, and holding hands or embracing in the path, in general they do use desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path.

By relating the practice of using desire in the path to the larger schema of method and wisdom, Tsong-kha-pa’s exposition establishes coherence with the overall path structure.

However, it is not that all parts of his presentation are fused together in a totally coherent picture, although one is certainly beckoned to such a perception. For instance, in this case it is clear how desire for sexual union is used in the path in Highest Yoga Mantra through the route of creating a blissful state in which grosser levels of consciousness cease and subtler ones are manifested, but it is not clear
how
or
when
desire is used in the path in the three lower tantras. Tsong-kha-pa himself says that subtler le-vels of consciousness are not generated from the desire involved in gazing, smiling, and touching/embracing, and even though he affirms that desire is used in the path in Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras, he does not say how this practice serves to heighten wisdom.

Ngawang-pel-den reports a tradition among Tsong-kha-pa’s followers that holds the blissful consciousnesses that are generated through the desirous activities of gazing, smiling, and embracing are used in realizing emptiness, even though they are not subtler levels of mind. In his
Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Tantra Sets: Illumination of the Texts of Tantra
he says:
b

The three lower tantras involve using in the path the bliss

a
Tantra in Tibet,
158.

b
7b.4ff. This passage is cited in my brief explication of this point in
Deity Yoga,
211; I have taken the passage out of the debate format in order to present the material more directly.

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341

that arises upon looking at, smiling at, and holding hands or embracing a meditated Knowledge Woman [consort]; however, this is not done for the sake of generating a special subject [a subtle consciousness] realizing emptiness, for such is a distinguishing feature only of Highest Yoga Man-tra. Nonetheless, most of [Tsong-kha-pa’s] followers explain that this does not mean that the bliss [consciousness] that arises upon gazing, smiling, and so forth does not realize emptiness. Still, it must be examined whether or not there is a source clearly stating such in the eloquent eluci-dations of the great Foremost One [Tsong-kha-pa] himself.

It makes a great deal of sense that Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras would call for using desire in the path in generating a blissful consciousness that realizes emptiness, since such a mind would be powerful even if not more subtle. However, it does not appear that any of these tantras or any of the Indian scholars who commented on the actual procedure of the path (as distinct from those who commented on Highest Yoga Tantras’ depictions of the other tantra sets) or even Tsong-kha-pa in his
Great Exposition of Secret Mantra
ever details the procedure for doing this. In his expositions of the yogas of Action, Performance, and Yoga tantras, Tsong-kha- pa does not even hint at when such would be done; indeed, it is much to his credit that, despite having accepted this explanation from Highest Yoga Mantra that four types of desire are used in the path, when it comes actually to presenting their paths, he does not interpolate such practices into their expositions.

Nevertheless, the lack of such a practice in the source texts casts doubt on the usefulness of this system of ordering the four tantras by way of how desire is used in the path. Though there are many references to embrace in Yoga Tantras such as the
Compendium of Principles,
there seems to be little emphasis on gazing and smiling in Action and Performance Tantras, and the presentations of the paths of all three of these tantra sets by competent Indian scholars, as well as Tibetans, do not speak of a level of the path when such practice is enacted. Since this technique is the very means used in Ge-luk and other Tibetan traditions for ordering the four tantras sets, its absence in their path-structures is an unavoid-able statement of the inadequacy of the schema, revealed thereby to be only an attempt by Highest Yoga Tantras—which do indeed employ such a technique—to create a hierarchy assigning the top

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rung to themselves.

This schema is indeed useful in drawing attention to the Highest Yoga Mantra claim to greatness through utilizing a more subtle and more powerful level of consciousness in the path, but I am suggesting that to understand and appreciate the paths of the other three tantras there is little evidence to warrant adoption of this interpretive grid from Highest Yoga Tantra, for it obscures their features by suggesting that they have as a principal feature a practice that they actually lack.