Tantric Techniques (7 page)

a
VI.120ab.

S
ū
tra Mode of Meditation
31

Realization of selflessness

With such conviction, the decision reached is that the “I” cannot be found under analysis. The decision is not superficially intellectual but a startling discovery of a vacuity upon having sought such an “I.” This vacuity shows not that the “I” does not exist, but that it does not inherently exist as it was identified as seeming to in the first essential. This unfindability is emptiness itself, and realization of it is realization of emptiness, selflessness.

Incontrovertible inferential understanding, though not of the level of direct perception or even of special insight,
a
has great im-pact. For a beginner it generates a sense of deprivation, but for an experienced meditator it generates a sense of discovery, or recovery, of what was lost. The Fifth Dalai Lama conveys this with examples:

When the “I,” which previous to now seemed to be perceiv-able by the eye and graspable by the hand as truly existent, is not found and is just vacuous, this is said to be the initial finding of the view of the Middle Way.

Moreover, as was explained before on the occasion of calm abiding, you should practice—with the wisdom arisen from thinking—what was found initially by the wisdom ari-sen from hearing, and eventually you will attain the wis-dom arisen from meditation. Therefore, this initial generation of the Middle Way view is not actual special insight; however, like a moon on the second day of the month, it is a slight finding of the view. At that time, if you have no predispositions for emptiness from a former life, it seems that a thing that was in the hand has suddenly been lost. If you have predispositions, it seems that a lost jewel that had been in the hand has suddenly been found.

The perception of this vacuity, the absence of inherent existence, carries emotional force—first of loss, since our emotions are built on a false sense of concreteness, and then of discovery of a lost treasure that makes everything possible. From a similar point of view, the emptiness of the mind is called the Buddha nature, or Buddha lineage, since, like a valuable jewel, it is what allows for development of the marvelous qualities of Buddhahood. However,

a
lhag mthong, vipa
ś
yan
ā
.

32
Tantric Techniques

unless the meditator has predispositions from practice in a former life, the first experience of emptiness is one of loss; later, its fecundity and dynamism become apparent.

Space-like meditative equipoise

The realization of the absence of inherent existence needs to be increased through a process of alternating analytical meditation and stabilizing meditation. If the meditator has developed the pow-er of concentration of the level of calm abiding, the analysis of the status of the “I” can be done within the context of this highly stable mind. However, too much analysis will induce excitement, reducing stabilization, and too much stabilization will induce an inability to analyze. Thus, analytical and stabilizing meditation must be alternated until the two are in such harmony that analysis itself induces even greater stabilization which, in turn, enhances analysis. At the point of harmony and mutual support between analysis and stabilization, special insight, which is necessarily a union of calm abiding and special insight, is achieved.

Leading to this state are several levels or stages; the Fifth Dalai Lama speaks of these with the technical vocabulary of the Buddhist delineation of the stages of meditation:

After having settled the analysis of the four essentials through hearing and thinking, there arises during meditation distinct ascertainment that the “I”—as apprehended by the conceptual consciousness that conceives of “I” tightly, so tightly, in the center of the heart—does not inherently exist in the context of the mental and physical aggregates. When such ascertainment has arisen, the absence of inherent existence of the “I” is the actual object of meditation, and thus, retaining mindfulness of it, you should not forget it. Also, through introspection you should distinguish whether conceptuality conceiving an inherently existent “I” is interrupting or not. If it becomes necessary to revivify [realization of ] the mode of the absence of inherent existence of the “I,” then by means of a little analysis you should set [again] in meditative equipoise, thinking, “It does not exist that way.”

At this time, due to the force of past great familiarity with the conception of self [that is, inherent existence], the

S
ū
tra Mode of Meditation
33

mind conceiving [an inherently existent] “I” is stronger and more frequent [than the realization of selflessness] even though you forcibly practice in accordance with [the initial among] the nine states of mind of calm abiding.
a
Therefore, the thought that the “I” does not truly exist comes only at intervals. Then, when you gradually become familiar [with selflessness], the conception of inherent existence [only] occasionally interrupts the consciousness of the view that the “I” does not truly exist. Then, just after the generation of a thought conceiving true existence, it can be overcome through just a little mindfulness; thereby, [the realization of selflessness] becomes uninterrupted. Then, in accordance with the ninth state of mind [preceding] calm abiding you no longer rely on any application [of antidotes to laxity and excitement] and relax the exertion [of introspection]; your meditation becomes a similitude—or small portion—of a union of calm abiding and special insight.

The four levels of increasingly steady realization correspond to four levels in the development of calm abiding called the four mental engagements
b
—forcible, interrupted, uninterrupted, and spontaneous engagement. Even though the meditator has previously passed through these four levels in developing calm abiding, at that time they were merely in the context of stabilizing, or fixating, meditation, and thus now that analytical mediation has been introduced, another progression through versions of these four (not as gross as before) must be made.

At the point when meditators have not yet reached the level of special insight but are close to it, they attain a similitude of special insight and a space-like meditative equipoise.

Now you have one-pointed uninterrupted meditative equipoise on a nonaffirming negative.
c
This negative of the object negated [in the view of selflessness] is like, for example, the fact that “space” is posited as simply the absence of its object negated—obstructive contact—in the context of the clear appearance between things. This

a
For a discussion of the nine levels leading to calm abiding see Hopkins,
Meditation on Emptiness,
80-86.

b
yid byed bzhi, catv
ā
ramanask
ā
ra
.

c
med dgag, prasajyaprati
ṣ
edha
.

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Tantric Techniques

meditative equipoise [on the absence of inherent existence] is the actual way to sustain a space-like meditative equipoise. Just this is identified as the non-mindfulness of nonconceptuality that occurs when calm abiding is induced by the strength of analysis itself.

This meditative equipoise is called “space-like” because just as uncompounded space
a
is a mere absence—a mere negative—of obstructive contact, so emptiness is a mere absence, a mere negative, of inherent existence. Such steady reflection on emptiness, therefore, is called space-like meditative equipoise. Brought to the level of direct perception, it serves as the antidote to both the artificially acquired and innate afflictive emotions (though not all at once, ex-cept in Highest Yoga Mantra
b
).

Through prolonged training, the meditator develops a harmonious working of stabilizing and analytical meditation with the one increasing the other, such that the pliancy initially attained with mere calm abiding is exceeded by that induced by analysis at the level of special insight. The Fifth Dalai Lama describes the progression: