Tantric Techniques (77 page)

Bu-tön,
a
most likely merely to fulfill an intention to thoroughly catalogue all the varieties of means for dividing the tantras, reports a tradition that the four tantra sets were spoken by the four faces of K
ā
lachakra, the principal deity of one of the main Highest Yoga Tantras. Obviously an attempt to subsume all tantras under the tan-tra of a single deity, this tradition aligns the four faces, four groups of tantras, and four appearances arisen from four types of predispositions, the latter being a topic central to the
K
ā
lachakra Tantra
.
b
Namely, Action and Performance Tantras were set forth by the left face of K
ā
lachakra for the sake of purifying adherence to gross external objects that appear due to predispositions for the waking state. Yoga Tantras were set forth by the right face for the sake of purifying adherence to mere mental appearances that occur due to predispositions for the dream state. Yogin
ī
Tantras were set forth

a
Extensive
version 40.4-40.7.

b
rgyud kyi rgyal po dpal dus kyi ’khor lo, k
ā
lacakran
ā
matantrar
ā
ja;
P4, vol. 1.

328
Tantric Techniques

by the front face for the sake of purifying adherence to a nonconceptual state in which all external conceptuality has disappeared and which occurs due to predispositions for the deep sleep state. Yoga Noble Class Tantras
a
are set forth by the back face for the sake of purifying adherence to bliss that occurs due to predispositions for the state of sexual absorption called the fourth state.

In this system, the four tantra sets become grist for creative reformulation around topics central to the
K
ā
lachakra Tantra.
Tsong-kha-pa does not even mention this means of classification, most likely because of its obvious inadequacy to the task, whereas Bu-tön includes it without comment.

Bu-tön
b
also reports a statement in Kalk
ī
Pu
ṇḍ
ar
ī
ka’s commentary on the
K
ā
lachakra Tantra,
the
Stainless Light,
c
that four tantra sets were spoken in order to purify four periods of the day—tantras of smiling in order to purify the first period, tantras of gazing in order to purify the third period, tantras of touching the breast in order to purify the fifth period, and tantras of holding hands in order to pu-rify the seventh period. Bu-tön says no more; Tsong-kha-pa does not mention the tradition; and the First Pa
ṇ
-chen Lama, Lo-sang- chö-kyi-gyel-tsen (see 382),
d
explains it away as merely aligning techniques of purification—groups of tantras—with objects to be purified, which here are periods during the day. This tradition again evinces a wish to absorb a highly diverse corpus of tantric literature under a rubric that leaves one’s own system at the top as the most inclusive.

Another tradition reported by Bu-tön
e
divides the four tantras by way of four eras in the history of this world-system. Citing

a
rnal ’byor rje’u rigs kyi rgyud: Extensive
version, 40.7.

b
Ibid., 40.7-41.2.

c
dus kyi ’khor lo’i ’grel bshad rtsa ba’i rgyud kyi rjes su ’jug pa stong phrag bcu gnyis pa dri ma med pa’i ’od, vim
ā
laprabh
ā
n
ā
mam
ū
latantr
ā
nus
ā
ri
ṇī
dv
ā
da
ś
as
ā
hasrik
ā
laghuk
ā
lacakratantrar
ā
ja
ṭī
k
ā
;
P2064, vol. 46.

d
Presentation of the General Teaching and the Four Tantra Sets,
Collected Works, vol. 4, 40.1.

e
Extensive
version, 41.2-41.3.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
329

K
ṛṣ
h
ṇ
ach
ā
rin’s
Illumination of the Secret Principles,
a
he explains that Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga tantras were set forth in relation to eras during which the afflictive emotions of beings became progressively more coarse, presumably requiring more powerful means to conquer them. Tsong-kha-pa, again, does not mention this tradition, most likely because it reflects a familiar theme that he has handled in his earlier criticisms.

Bu-tön
b
reports a tradition that says that the four tantra sets are for persons following particular non-Buddhist deities. He attributes the tradition to his predecessor Sö-nam-tzay-mo, who actually only reports it without endorsing it.
c
In this tradition, the desirous who are followers of
Ī
shvara are taught Highest Yoga Tantra; the hateful who are followers of Vi
ṣ
h
ṇ
u are taught Performance Tantra; the ignorant who are followers of Brahm
ā
are taught Action Tantra; and those who are indefinite in the sense that they take up the te-nets of any deity they encounter are taught Yoga Tantra.

Tsong-kha-pa criticizes this view with devastating reason. Simply put, his view is that it is not necessary before entering into the Mantra Vehicle to take up a non-Buddhist system that has what, for Buddhism, is a wrong view on the status of persons and other phenomena. Also, absurdly, someone who initially assumed N
ā
g
ā
rjuna’s view of the emptiness of inherent existence could not be a main trainee of any tantra set if it were necessary first to as-sume a wrong view. He says:
d

Even if this is taken as meaning that there are instances of these types being trained by these tantras, such cannot identify the different features of those who engage in Mantra through the four tantra sets. This is because some persons of all four types are tamed by each of these tantras. It would be most unreasonable to assert that such persons are needed as the chief trainees of these tantra sets. Since the main trainees of the Mantra Vehicle are the superior among trainees engaging in the Conqueror’s teaching,

a
gsang ba’i de kho na nyid gsal ba, guhyatattvaprak
āś
a;
P2167, vol. 51.

b
Condensed
version, 895.2-895.7.

c
Presentation of the General Tantra Sets,
27a.4-30b.4.

d
Tantra in Tibet,
153-154.

330
Tantric Techniques

they do not have to assume a wrong view before engaging in Mantra. Also, there would be the fault that those who initially engaged in correct instead of wrong tenets would not be chief trainees of these tantras.

Tsong-kha-pa’s refutation is so devastating that it provokes laughter at such a simple-minded assertion. His open dismissal of these traditions is a conscious attempt to assimilate tantric traditions into a highly evolved style of critical examination.

Others, seeing that Mantra involves the usage of desire, hatred, and ignorance in the path in order to overcome them and seeing that practices are geared for persons having a particular predominant afflictive emotion, say that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by specific types of afflictive emotions. Without comment, Bu-tön
a
reports this tradition, citing the
Very Brilliant Lamp:
b

Concerning this, in consideration of those having the lineage of great and middling obscuration, Action Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of low obscuration, Performance Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of low and of medium desire, hatred, and obscuration, Yoga Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of great desire, hatred, and obscuration, Highest Yo-ga Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of the great of the great desire, hatred, and obscuration, the Yogin
ī
Tantras were taught.

In this tradition, the higher tantra sets are superior because they offer a path that can tame even lower types of trainees; the power of their techniques is so great that beings severely afflicted with desire, hatred, and obscuration can attain Buddhahood through their path. This mirrors Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s view that Tantra, in general, is superior to S
ū
tra because it has more methods. As Bu-tön summarizes Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s position (cited earlier, 210):

In the other systems [that is, the S
ū
tra approaches], asceticism, vows of restraint, and so forth are described as

a
Extensive
version, 39.4-39.6.

b
rab tu sgron gsal
.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
331

methods for [achieving] high status [within cyclic existence] and liberation [from cyclic existence], but all sentient beings cannot practice these. Since some course in very peaceful actions, [these practices] were set forth in terms of them, but these cannot take care of all.

However, Secret Mantra was set forth in order to join all sentient beings to virtue. Concerning this, either oneself or a lama determines one’s nature; this is done through analyzing dreams, dropping a flower [on a ma
ṇḍ
ala divided into quadrants that indicate temperament], the descent of wisdom,
a
constructing seals and so forth, and by way of [noticing predominant styles of ] behavior. Having recognized the afflictive emotion, such as desire, in which one predominantly courses, one also identifies [the deity who is] one’s lord of lineage [in that each lineage is associated with a particular afflictive emotion]. If desire is predominant, one generates [the minds and mental factors of desire]
b
as Amit
ā
bha and, having made offerings [to that deity], en-ters—by way of mindfulness of his mantra and seal [that is, hand-gesture]—into the meditative stabilization that has the mode of great desire. With a nature of joy pervaded by compassion, all conceptions are abandoned.

If Mantra, in general, is superior due to having more techniques that are capable of taming a wider scope of trainees, it is consistent to hold that the higher tantra sets are superior to the lower due to being able to tame ever grosser afflictive emotions.

Tsong-kha-pa’s criticism is, again, scathing. In refuting Ala
ṃ
kakalasha’s similar position that the
Guhyasam
ā
ja Tantra
is taught to those in the merchant caste whose desire and hatred are great but whose ignorance is slight, he says:
c

In general, the chief trainees of the Great Vehicle must have strong compassion. In particular, the chief trainees of

a
This probably refers to a method of divination through the appearance of confi-gurations on a mirror, and so forth. The meaning of “constructing seals,” which would seem to mean the construction of hand-gestures (
phyag rgya
,
mudr
ā
), is obscure.

b
The bracketed material is added in accordance with Bu-tön’s own explanation in the next section on obscuration.

c
Tantra in Tibet,
156-157.

332
Tantric Techniques

Highest Yoga wish to attain Buddhahood extremely quickly in order to accomplish the welfare of others due to their being highly moved by great compassion. Therefore, it is nonsense to propound that they must have very great ha-tred.

His point is that although a certain afflictive emotion in a tantric practitioner may be predominant in the sense of being stronger than the other afflictive emotions, tantrists are simply not dominated by afflictive emotions. Rather, they are especially motivated by compassion, intent on the quickest means of attaining highest enlightenment in order to be of service to others.

In this vein, with regard to trainees of Highest Yoga Mantra, the Seventh Dalai Lama Kel-sang-gya-tso
a
in his
Explanation of the Ma
ṇḍ
ala Rite of the Glorious Guhyasam
ā
ja Ak
ṣ
hobhyavajra: Illumination Brilliantly Clarifying the Principles of the Meaning of Initiation: Sacred Word of Vajrasattva
says that practitioners of Mantra are especially motivated by compassion, intent on the quickest means of attaining highest enlightenment in order to be of service to others:
b

Some see that if they rely on the Perfection Vehicle and so forth, they must amass the collections [of merit and wis-dom] for three periods of countless great eons, and thus it would take a long time and involve great difficulty. They cannot bear such hardship and seek to attain Buddhahood in a short time and by a path with little difficulty. These people who claim that they, therefore, are engaging in the short path of the Secret Mantra Vehicle are outside the realm of Mantra trainees. For, to be a person of the Great Vehicle in general one cannot seek peace for oneself alone but from the viewpoint of holding others more dear than oneself must be able, for the sake of the welfare of others, to bear whatever type of hardship or suffering might arise. Secret M
ā
ntrikas are those of extremely sharp faculties within followers of the Great Vehicle, and, therefore, persons who have turned their backs on others’ welfare and want little difficulty for themselves are not even close to the quarter of Highest Secret Mantra.…One should engage

a
bskal bzang rgya mtsho,
1708-1757.

b
gsang ’dus dkyil ’khor cho ga’i rnam bshad
(New Delhi: Tanzin Kunga, 1972), 17.2-18.2.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
333

in Highest Yoga Mantra, the secret short path, with the motivation of an altruistic intention to become enlightened, unable to bear that sentient beings will be troubled for a long time by cyclic existence in general and by strong sufferings in particular, thinking, “How nice it would be if I could achieve right now a means to free them!”

Similarly, the Mongolian scholar-yogi Jang-kya Röl-pay-dor-jay,
a
lama to the Ch’ien-lung Emperor during the Manchu domination of China in the eighteenth century, emphasizes that the practitioners for whom Tantra was specifically taught are even more compassionate and of a higher type than the practitioners of the S
ū
tra version of the Great Vehicle. In his
Clear Exposition of the Presentations of Te-nets: Beautiful Ornament for the Meru of the Subduer’s Teaching
, he says:
b

In the precious tantras and in many commentaries it is said that even those trainees of the Mantra Vehicle who have low faculties must have far greater compassion, sharper faculties, and a more superior lot than the trainees of sharpest faculties in the Perfection Vehicle. Therefore, those who think and propound that the Mantra Vehicle was taught for persons discouraged about achieving enlightenment over a long time and with great difficulty make clear that they have no penetration of the meaning of Tantra. Furthermore, the statement that the Mantra Vehicle is quicker than the Perfection Vehicle is in relation to trainees who are suitable vessels, not in terms of just anyone. Therefore, it is not sufficient that the doctrine be the Mantra Vehicle; the person must be properly engaged in the Mantra Vehicle.