Tantric Techniques (80 page)

• To return to explaining this fourfold schema: The four forms of desire correspond to four types of satisfaction of desire found in the various levels of the Desire Realm in Buddhist cosmology. Bu-tön
  a
  cites Vasubandhu’s
  Treasury of Manifest Knowledge
  b
  and explains that:
  

• the gods of the Land of the Thirty-three
  c
  and all beings below them, including humans, gain desirous satisfaction through sexual union
  

• the gods of the Land Without Combat,
  d
  through embracing
  

• the gods of Joyous Land,
  e
  through holding hands
  

• the gods of the Land of Liking Emanation,
  f
  through smiling
  

• the gods of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations,
  g
  

through gazing.

Bu-tön goes on to explain that gods in the Form and Formless Realms dwell without desire for Desire Realm attributes, that is to say, attractive objects of the five senses:
h

The Perfection Vehicle was taught for the sake of taming persons free from desire, whereas Secret Mantra was

a
Extensive
version, 33.1.

b
chos mngon pa’i mdzod, abhidharmako
ś
a,
stanza III.69cd; Leo M. Pruden,
Abhidharmako
ś
abh
āṣ
yam,
vol. 2 (Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1988), 465; Toh. 4089, 9b.2-9b.3; Sanskrit in
Bonpon Z
ō
-Kan-Ei-Wayaku gappeki Abidatsuma kusharon honsh
ō
no kenky
ū
(Kyoto: Nagata Bunsh
ō
d
ō
, 1977), 454:
dvandv
ā
li
ṅ
ganap
āṇ
y
ā
ptihasi-tek
ṣ
itamaithun
āḥ
//.

c
sum cu rtsa gsum, trayastri
ṃś
a.

d
’thab bral, y
ā
ma.

e
dga’ ldan, tu
ṣ
ita.

f
’phrul dga’, nirm
āṇ
arati.

g
gzhan ’phrul dbang byed, paranirmitava
ś
avartin.

h
Extensive
version, 33.3.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
343

taught for those desirous persons who could not be tamed by a path devoid of desire. As an antidote to desire that is satisfied through gazing—of those of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations and so forth—Action Tantras that use in the path the bliss of joy that is satisfied through the god and goddess gazing at each other were set forth. The
Detailed Rite of Amoghap
ā
sha
a
[an Action Tantra] says, “The Supramundane Victor faces Bh
ṛ
ku
ṭī
,” and:

He aims his eye to the right at the goddess T
ā
r
ā
, bashful and with bent body, [displaying] the seal of bestowing the supreme. On the left, Sundar
ī
of the lotus lineage—bashful, according with the ways of Secret Mantra—aims her eye at Amoghap
ā
sha.

Notice that Bu-tön cites only one tantra in the Action class that speaks of gazing, thereby begging the question of whether such occurs in a significant number of tantras classified as Action Tantras. Tsong-kha-pa,
b
obviously relying on Bu-tön, repeats his citations, as he does for the other three tantra sets, saying:
c

Furthermore, not only does Highest Yoga speak of smiling and so forth [as a way of identifying the four tantras], but so are individual instances [of these] in the lower tantra sets.

Tsong-kha-pa cites two Action Tantra passages from a single tantra, two Performance passages, and two Yoga (all taken from Bu-tön), and adds as a final comment, “These are only illustrations [of instances in these tantra sets that mention looking, and so forth],” thereby suggesting that there are a great many more. However, he neither cites them nor mentions such a practice in any way whatsoever during his presentation of the paths of Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras.

Though Tsong-kha-pa repeats the longer passage from the
Detailed Rite of Amoghap
ā
sha,
given just above, that Bu-tön cited, he does not repeat Bu-tön’s explanation of it, presumably because he sees it to be faulty. (On the difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra

a
don yod pa’i zhags pa’i cho ga zhib mo’i rgyal po, amoghap
āś
akalpar
ā
ja
; P365, vol. 8 (Toh. 13).

b
Tantra in Tibet,
159.

c
Ibid., 159.

344
Tantric Techniques

and the difference between the four tantra sets Bu-tön is both his chief source and his chief object of criticism.) One problem is that Bu-tön apparently considers the gods of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations, and so on,
themselves
to be the chief trainees of the four tantra sets. Tsong-kha-pa,
a
on the other hand, in comment-ing on Abhay
ā
kara’s statement, “A tantra of smiling is, for instance, the bliss of those of the [realm of gods called] Liking Emanation,” says:

Such statements merely cite gods as examples; they do not teach that these gods are the chief trainees of the tantra sets.

For Tsong-kha-pa, persons who are able to use desire in the path in this way are the chief trainees of Action Tantra and so forth, whereas it seems that, for Bu-tön, the inhabitants of these godly realms themselves are the chief trainees.

Another problem is that Bu-tön associates the usage of the four joys—joy, supreme joy, special joy, and innate joy—with the four tantras, whereas, for Tsong-kha-pa, the four joys are associated with subtler levels of consciousness and thus are found only with the practice of Highest Yoga Mantra. As he says in his
Lamp Thoroughly Illuminating the Five Stages:
b

Using desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path for the purpose of generating a special subject [that is, a subtler consciousness] meditating on emptiness does not exist elsewhere than in Highest Yoga Mantra.

For Tsong-kha-pa, the four joys are a topic limited to Highest Yoga Mantra, and he finds nothing equivalent to them in the three lower tantras. Again, Bu-tön,
c
based on an explanation by Abhay
ā
kara, approvingly reports a tradition that cannot bear much analysis.

About Performance Tantra and so forth Bu-tön continues:

As an antidote to desire that is satisfied through smiling—of those of the Land of Liking Emanation—Performance Tantras that use in the path the bliss of supreme joy satisfied

a
Ibid., 161.

b
As cited in Ngawang-pel-den’s
Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Tantra Sets: Illumination of the Texts of Tantra,
14.5.

c
Extensive
version, 35.4.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
345

through god and goddess smiling at each other were set forth. The
Vairochan
ā
bhisambodhi
[a Performance Tantra] says:

On the right the goddess called Buddhalochan
ā
, one with

A slightly smiling face.

With a circle of light a full fathom, Her Unequalled body is most clear. She is the consort of Sh
ā
kyamuni.

Or:

Draw an Avalokiteshvara,

Like a conch, a jasmine, and a moon, Hero, sitting on a white lotus seat. On his head sits Amit
ā
bha,

His face is wonderfully smiling. On his right is the goddess T
ā
r
ā
Of wide renown, virtuous,