Tantric Techniques (62 page)

When the nature of the stainless expanse Having the three bodies, wisdom, and land Is purified, it manifestly appears

In self-illumination. This which takes A similitude of that as the path

Is correctly called the Vehicle of Effect.

Therefore, [in Mantra] knowledge of the nature abiding primordially in the sacred inherent effect of the expanse is taken as the foundation and trained in, due to which it is called the Effect Vehicle.

Moreover, in terms of clearing away defilements, through training in suchness within meditatively cultivating [the stages of] generation and completion, adventitious defilements are purified.

a
padma rtse mo.

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Tantric Techniques

Therefore, the gods, ma
ṇḍ
alas, and so forth that are meditated mentally are projections of one’s own mind, but this is not meditation taking actual gods and ma
ṇḍ
alas—effects of the expanse—as the path; nevertheless, because it is close to the meaning of the expanse, it is to be viewed as a profound nondelusive path.

Though the Mantra Vehicle is similar to the Cause Vehicle in not being able to take the expanse as the actual path, there is a great difference in the closeness or distance of the paths [to the fruit] due to differing in having or not having a similarity of feature [with the fruit]. For example, a jewel and an oil lamp are next to each other at night; of two robbers, the dull one apprehends the light as a jewel and, taking it, gets the lamp, whereas the unobscured skillful one gets the jewel. In the same way, there is a great difference with respect to the vehicles causing quick attainment of the desired aim or not. This is as explained in Dharmak
ī
rti’s
Ascertainment of Valid Cognition
:
a

Those who run with the thought of jewels To the light of a jewel and the light of a lamp Are not different in terms of wrong idea
b

But different in terms of functionality.

Therefore, here the effect is the body, speech, and mind [of a Budd-ha], and also with regard to actualizing a similitude of them:

Initially when initiation is bestowed, a qualified master—having performed the preliminary familiarization [with the deity], the rite for the area, and the preparation [of the student]—has the ma
ṇḍ
ala drawn, activates it, and makes offerings, after which he/she assumes self-entry [into the ma
ṇḍ
ala] and then causes the student to enter, and having given the pledges and vows, causes pristine wisdom manifestly to descend, this being actualization of exalted mind.

Upon having scattered flowers, covering and uncovering the face [by having the student put on and take off a blindfold], the

a
tshad ma rnam par nges pa, pram
āṇ
avini
ś
caya,
stanza II.5; P5710, vol. 130; Toh. 4211,
sde dge, tshad ma,
vol.
ce,
168a.4. Long-chen-pa cites Dharmak
ī
rti’s
Ascertainment;
the same verse also appears in Dharmak
ī
rti’s
Commentary on (Dign
ā
ga’s) “Compilation of Prime Cognition”
:
tshad ma rnam ’grel, pram
āṇ
av
ā
rttika,
stanza III.57 (Miyasaka’s II.57).

b
Both are mistaken in that both the light of a jewel and the light of a lamp are not a jewel.

Long-chen-rap-jam’s Dramatic Evocation
259

master reveals the ma
ṇḍ
ala, this being actualization of exalted body.

After bestowing initiation, the master bestows the subsequent permissions of mantra and seal, this being actualization of exalted speech.

Through bestowing the four initiations on the three—body, speech, and mind—their defilements are cleansed, and the three—exalted body, speech, and mind—are actualized. Thus, initially initiation is received, and then during the path of release its continuum is meditatively cultivated, and [all phenomena] are known as of the nature of the Three Bodies and the five pristine wisdoms.

Hence, this is called “taking the effect as the path.” The
Secret Oceanic Tantra
says:
a

All without exception of the circle of objects of knowledge Are thoroughly established as the three bodies.

This is Great Vehicle Secret Mantra, causing entry Into the three bodies, the Effect Vehicle,

Without the coming together or separation of the Three Bodies, the Vajra Vehicle.

Question:
How are the exalted body and pristine wisdom [of a Buddha] taken as the path?

Answer:
From between the two—the generation stage and the completion stage—in initial meditation, meditation on emptiness is the Body of Attributes; meditating on the body of a deity within meditation on emptiness is the Enjoyment Body; emitting and withdrawing rays of light promoting the welfare of sentient beings is the Emanation Body; the five afflictive emotions purified through skillful means are the five aspects of pristine wisdom. The
Guhyasam
ā
ja
says:
b

Through this, the great nature of the doctrine, The thoroughly adorned ocean of wisdom Arisen from the indivisible Three Bodies,

Is attained in just this lifetime.

a
gsang ba rgya mtsho’i rgyud;
THDL, Ng1.6.144.

b
gsang ba ’dus pa zhes bya ba brtag pa’i rgyal po chen po, guhyasam
ā
jan
ā
mamah
ā
kalpa-r
ā
ja;
P81, vol. 3; THDL, Ng3.1.3.1.3.1.

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Tantric Techniques

and the
Cemetery Adornment
says:
a

In the Body of Attributes of manifest emptiness,

The blissful Enjoyment Body with marks and beauties,

And the sporting Emanation Bodies…

and the
Tantra of Oceanic Spontaneous Pristine Wisdom
says:
b
From the great pristine wisdom of the element of

attributes

Is the marvelous Body of Complete Enjoyment, entity of great bliss.

Arisen from great compassion,

The marvelous Emanation Bodies dawn as [its] sport.

Question:
If even the Mantra Vehicle partakes of a path purifying defilements, what does it mean that it takes the effect as the path? Since the Cause Vehicle is generated as a means of purifying defilements, it would be similar.

Answer:
Though the Definition Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle are the same in achieving Buddhahood upon simultaneously cleansing the defilements of the basic constituent, there is a difference of temporal proximity and distance [in relation to accomplishing Buddhahood], and the mere warmth of the path for which the Definition Vehicle strives over a long time is taken as the path in one instant of Mantra, but due to cultivating in meditation a similitude of how it is to abide in the ma
ṇḍ
ala of the expanse of reality, even objects of abandonment shine as aids. Thereby, the effect is taken as the path; however, the exact final fruit is not actually taken as the path; hence, it is necessary to cultivate the profound and vast paths in meditation.

In general, [the vehicles] are posited in the aspects of cause and effect to make known conventions. Hence, a path that purifies obstructions by completing the collections of the effects through meditative stabilizations and so forth generated by the cause of very arduous work is designated “cause,” this being the Definition Vehicle. That which purifies defilements by [completing] the collections through meditative stabilizations attained with little hardship, and is posited as the effect due to not being produced by

a
’khor sdom pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po dur khrod kyi rgyan rmad du byung ba, cakrasa
ṃ
baratantrar
ā
j
ā
dbhuta
ś
ma
śā
n
ā
la
ṃ
k
ā
ra;
P57, vol. 3.

b
ye shes rgya mtsho lhun gyis grub pa’i rgyud.

Long-chen-rap-jam’s Dramatic Evocation
261

causes involving striving, is called the “Effect Vehicle.”

Also with respect to their forms of doctrine, [the Definition Vehicle] initially teaches mainly the path of the presentations of caus-es and conditions and then teaches the final effect, whereas [the Mantra Vehicle] initially teaches mainly the presentation of the effect, the ma
ṇḍ
ala of the purified expanse, uncompounded, with adoption and discarding of equal taste, primordially buddhafied.

It is fitting that when [Mantra] is divided into the likes of cause and effect, the three bodies—as well as pristine wisdom—are taken as the path, whereby an effect similar to it is produced. Through the force of having purified the defilements of the basic constituent, propitious qualities newly appear, whereupon finally perfect Buddhahood adorned with bodies and pristine wisdom is most certainly attained. In the Definition Vehicle, aside from only the two collections, there is no meditation [of phenomena] as [Buddha] bo-dies and pristine wisdoms. Hence, the aspect of the cause and the aspect of the effect are mutually exclusive; therefore, nonattain-ment for a long time also is due to the internal contradiction in their own tenets about cause and effect. For that reason, Secret Mantra is established as superior.

10. Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure

Having highlighted the plurality of approaches to explaining the difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra by Bu-tön and Long-chen-pa, let us now turn to contrast these with Tsong-kha-pa’s emphasis on a single feature, deity yoga. His system has thereby been put into historical context; the radical nature of his distilling the distinctive essence of Mantra down to the single central feature of deity yoga stands out in juxtaposition to the earlier multifaceted approaches of Bu-tön and Long-chen-
p
a.

In the first of fourteen sections in his
Great Exposition of Secret Mantra,
a
Tsong-kha-pa, 1357-1419, founder of the Ge-luk-pa (Virtuous Way or Joyous Way)
b
sect of Tibetan Buddhism, presents his view on the difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra in his highly rationalistic style. The section is a long, involved argument in which, although Indian sources are cited, the central appeal is to reasoning. Typical of much of Tsong-kha-pa’s writing, the argument is so involved and the principles behind the steps so taken for granted that an introduction presenting the same material in a more straightforward manner is needed. Through translating and editing

a
sngags rim chen mo
. The longer title of Tsong-kha-pa’s text is
Stages of the Path to a Conqueror and Pervasive Master, a Great Vajradhara: Revealing All Secret Topics
(
rgyal ba khyab bdag rdo rje ’chang chen po’i lam gyi rim pa gsang ba kun gyi gnad rnam par phye ba
). In the Peking edition it is P6210, vol. 161 (Toh. 5281), but I mainly used the Dharmsala (Shes rig par khang) edition of 1969, despite flaws, because of its legibil-ity, checking questionable passages against the Ngawang Gelek edition (New Delhi, 1978), which is a retouched version of the 1897 Hla-sa old Zhol blocks.

The first part of this chapter is adapted, in part, from my article “Reason as the Prime Principle in Dzong-ka-ba’s Delineating Deity Yoga as the Demarcation Between S
ū
tra and Mantra,”
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
7, no. 2 (1984): 95-115, and has appeared in my introduction to His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso and Jeffrey Hopkins,
The K
ā
lachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation
(London: Wisdom Publications, 1985; second revd. edition, Boston, 1989), 23-30. For a detailed discussion of the distinction between S
ū
tra and Mantra, see

H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-kha-pa, and Hopkins,
Tantra in Tibet,
and Jeffrey Hopkins,
The Tantric Distinction
(London: Wisdom Publications, 1984). Since the presentation closely follows Tsong-kha-pa’s argument in and the Dalai Lama’s introduction to
Tantra in Tibet,
detailed page references are given in the notes.

b
dge lugs pa
. Several Tibetan scholars have reported that
dge
(virtuous) was originally
dga’
(joyous).

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Tantric Techniques