Tantric Techniques (12 page)

Tsong-kha-pa refers to the conception of sameness of ultimate nature as “pride”:
c

Just as the suchness of oneself is ultimately free from all proliferations [of inherent existence], so is the suchness of the deity. Therefore, create the pride of the sameness of oneself and the deity in terms of nonconceptual perception of the undifferentiability of those two, like a mixture of wa-ter and milk. Concentrate without appearance [of the two as different] until your knowledge is very definite. This is the ultimate deity.

Meditating thus on the emptiness of all [coarse and subtle] selves of persons and [other] phenomena is the same essential as when in other tantras, prior to meditating on a deity, one says a mantra, such as
svabh
ā
va
[that is,
o
ṃ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddh
āḥ
sarvadharm
āḥ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddho ’ha
ṃ
: “
O
ṃ
naturally pure are all phenomena; naturally pure am I”] , and meditates on its meaning.
d

a
See
Tantra in Tibet,
110.

b
dbu ma thal ’gyur pa, pr
ā
sa
ṅ
gikam
ā
dhyamika
.

c
Tantra in Tibet,
106.

d
Since both Tsong-kha-pa and Ke-drup speak of the ultimate deity as the

equivalent
of meditation on the meaning of the mantra in the higher tantra sets,

50
Tantric Techniques

That the meditator takes
pride
in ultimately having the same nature as the deity suggests that the meditator develops a conscious willingness to identify himself or herself with the deity in terms of their final nature. The word “pride” suggests the boldness of mak-ing the identification—a force of will being required to overcome the reluctance to make such a grand identification in the face of analytical unfindability which is commonly associated with diminu-tion in a beginning stage, since, as the Fifth Dalai Lama says (see 31), the initial experience of unfindability is of losing something.

This additional step of conscious identification of the sameness of final nature of oneself and of the deity drastically alters the space-like meditative equipoise which is a state of concentration solely on a nonaffirming negative, a mere absence of inherent existence. Now, one comes to meditate on an affirming negative
a
—that is, on the
sameness
in final nature of oneself and the deity as being without inherent existence. Even though this is done through the route of an initial space-like meditative equipoise meditating on the nonaffirming negative of first one’s own and then the deity’s inherent existence, the conclusion of the first step in self-generation is a positive affirmation of the
sameness
of oneself and the deity in terms of a pure final nature, itself a mere absence of inherent existence.

The relation between the emptiness realized and the being who appears subsequent to space-like meditative equipoise is made more explicit through this conscious identification. The passage from space-like meditative equipoise to taking cognizance of other objects is now no longer, as in the S
ū
tra system, a matter of merely letting other objects appear to the mind within the context of see-ing them as like illusions. The meditator now consciously takes the ultimate deity as the basic stuff of the appearances yet to come. A bridge is made between emptiness and appearance—going beyond realization of their compatibility as in the S
ū
tra systems.

that Dül-dzin-drak-pa-gyel-tsen puts the mantra at the head of this Action Tantra meditation is clearly a case of bringing a practice from other Tantras to this one. Still, since he claims in the title of his work,
Presentation of the General Rites of Action and Performance Tantra and Their Application to the Three Lineages, Set Down by Dül-dzin According to the Foremost [Tsong-kha-pa’s] Practice,
to be presenting Tsong-kha-pa’s system of practice, the suggestion is that Tsong-kha-pa advised him to use the mantra in the actual practice of Action Tantra, perhaps because of its familiarity.

a
ma yin dgag
,
paryud
ā
saprati
ṣ
edha
.

Tantric Mode of Meditation
51

Appearances are no longer just
allowed
to reappear; instead, the meditator deliberately reflects on her own final nature as being the stuff out of which they will appear.

The fact that emptiness (and the mind fused with it in realization) is called a deity is similar to calling the emptiness of the mind the Buddha nature, Buddha lineage, or naturally abiding lineage
a
in that it is all-powerful in the sense of being that which makes everything possible. As N
ā
g
ā
rjuna’s
Treatise on the Middle
says:
b

For whom emptiness is possible For that [person] all is possible.

Due to the emptiness of inherent existence, change and transformation are possible, whereas without it everything is frozen in substantial existence. Here in this first step of deity yoga the meditator identifies himself, in terms of ultimate nature, with this basic stuff.

Sound deity.
In the second through fifth steps the mind of wisdom, fused with and realizing emptiness, is used as a basis of emanation—the mind itself appearing in form. Rather than merely letting phenomena appear as is done after space-like meditative equipoise in the S
ū
tra system, the yogi uses the mind of wisdom as the stuff out of which and within which first sounds and then visible forms and so forth will appear. About the sound deity Dül-dzin-drak-pa- gyel-tsen says:

The tone or sound deity is the contemplation:

From within emptiness [the wisdom realizing the ultimate deity appears] in the aspect of the tones of the mantra resounding in space.

Within continuously realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, the mind of wisdom itself first appears as the sounds of the mantra of the deity whom the meditator will become, resounding in space. Ke-drup indicates that the sounds of the mantra are, in entity, the deity:

Then from within emptiness contemplate what, in entity, is just whatever deity is being meditated but, in aspect, is resounding in the aspect of the sounds of the mantra to be

a
rang bzhin gnas rigs, prak
ṛ
ti
ṣṭ
hagotra
.

b
XXIV.14ab.

52
Tantric Techniques

repeated. One-pointed mental observation of this is the sound deity.

Out of emptiness comes mantra—word—which itself is the deity. It is clear that the meditator is not to think of the deity as only appearing when the god with a face, arms, legs, and so forth manifests. Everything that appears from this point on is made from the ultimate deity and is essentially the deity.

Letter deity.
The meditator’s mind realizing the sameness of ultimate nature of oneself and the deity transforms into a white, flat moon disc shining in space on which the letters of the mantra ap-pear standing around its edge (facing inward, according to oral explanations). Dül-dzin-drak-pa-gyel-tsen says:

The letter deity is the contemplation:

My mind having the subjective aspect of [realizing] the undifferentiable suchness of myself and the de-ity becomes a moon disc. The aspects of the mantra tones resounding in space are set on it in the aspect of written letters like very pure mercury adhering to [or completely mixing with] grains of gold.

In an explanation of the example by Ye-shay-gyel-tsen,
a
the sounds of the mantra are compared to mercury that mixes with grains of the gold, the written letters. Hence, in his stimulating explanation, the upright letters are not just color and shape but are fused with their respective sounds.