No More Learning

It is [subtle wind-]energy, which the mind vajra rides like a horse, traveling wher- ever it wishes.
In the Commentary of this same text, the word "truly" occurs, and,
so one questions if the illusory cause and condition is ultimately estab-
lished. Here the answer is that though the mind is not ultimately estab- lished, superficially the three luminances coordinate with wind-energy, the wind-energy binds the consciousness and causes it to wander. But
this answer is in terms of the two realities, which does not help at all to resolve the above doubts, and that "wind-energy causes it to wander" is an irrelevant answer, and so useless. Therefore, the mind being free of color and shape and equal to space means that it is not a body. Like ultimate reality it is hard to touch or understand. "In truth" means "truly. " One can understand these expressions easily as they resemble those given [from the Integrated Practices] in the context of the mind isolation. Granted that it is so that the mind is not embodied, [213bl the three lumi- nances of the mind isolation rely on wind-energy, and so wind-energy
Chapter VIII-Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 41 1
binds consciousness, or holds it. Most of the old translations are as above. But some of them say "becoming common, they mingle. . . " and the Chag translation says the threefold luminance uses wind-energy as its element, and so its support is lightness. " Some say that the meaning of the above is that since wind-energy and consciousness mingle, and wind-energy is lightness, so consciousness becomes lighter and lighter. But the meaning of "light" is that wind-energy is much subtler than the other elements and so has a common quality that makes it fit to mingle with consciousness. This fits with the Integrated Practices' section on mind isolation. From that merging of wind-energy and mind, wisdom luminance and art radi- ance, being endowed with fivefold light rays, arise as the magic deity body
endowed with the excellence of signs such as arms and legs and so on.
To summarize their meaning, although if the mind were alone without wind-energy, it could not be made into a deity body with faces and hands and so on, since the five-light-rayed wind-energy and mind exist as one actuality, there is no problem in producing the deity body. This indicates that if it was exclusively a consciousness that perceived the aspect of a deity, the aspect of form would exist, but it could not directly achieve the magic body. Though "wisdom and art both" are mentioned, just before all three luminances are mentioned, its theory on the foundation of the magic body is like that of the Five Stages. "Cause and condition" here refer to the material cause of the mind achieving the
magic body-the previous mind-and the coordinating [214al condition- the wind-energy; while of that body [itself], the material cause is wind- energy and the coordinating condition is the previous mind. "The mind vajra which is the three wisdoms mounts its mount like a horse and goes where it wants" means that, at the time when the subtle body of mind isolation wind-energy-mind is made into the magic body, it separates apart from the coarse body and goes where it wishes either outside or inside. As for this meaning, the Integrated Practices states that "the Con- sciousness Migrating Satra also states it very clearly. " In that Sotra, it is stated that the arms and legs and so on of the between being, achieved just after death, are like the shadow of a man on the water, having no sensation of cold and heat, pleasure and pain, fatigue and rest and so forth, without flesh and so forth, as if unable to be destroyed by ele- ments. The Chag translation says, "after having quoted such statements as 'this consciousness abandons the interior of the body of the previous migration and becomes the shape of another body ' ; and ' thus the between
? 4 1 2 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
existence of the childish alienated individual, etc. ' becomes the cause of the life cycle"; thus it explains [the between body functions] as in the above quotes. [Aryadeva] states that, though that Sutra does not describe the magic body clearly, it does describe clearly its intention of how a com- plete body with limbs and so on is made from just wind-energy-mind, how the magic body splits from the old body and so forth as made very clear in the similes that define it, how that wind-energy-mind becomes a cause of the between for one who does not have the art, and how the magic body arises for one f214bl skilled in that art.
The Vairochana Enlightenment statement that "the pure body like a rainbow will be attained by meditating reality" is quoted in the Integrated Practices in the magic body context, which, though not teaching the way of achieving the magic body, is still suitable to quote as being useful to confirm generally that meditating the import of reality one achieves a rainbow-like body, and to confirm specifically that if one meditates the reality of mind isolation one achieves the rainbow-like magic body.
[VI. B. 3. h. ii. C'3'd'ii'A"1"a"ii"B'"2"'b'" - Explaining very clearly the way it is achieved, along with its excellences]
Thus, in order to achieve the magic body, it is necessary to be able to separate the coarse and subtle bodies by force of meditation. Further, regarding the art of separating those two through the yogas of transferring consciousness heavenward and taking possession of the body [city] of another, as the Sheaf of Instructions explained the import of the Sampufa [Tantra], one must preliminarily practice the wind-energy yogas such as
? vase-breathing and one must visualize again and again consciousness
mounted on wind-energy emerging from the heart center seat of con- sciousness. But here, one does not do such [practice]; one does it with
another, distinctive, art. As for that, for example, when the death sequence occurs, from earth dissolving into water up to the death clear light, those stages naturally serve to separate the coarse and subtle bodies. Likewise, when the necessary preliminaries of the mind isolation, such as vajra reci- tation and so forth, the inner and outer life-energy control meditations, have been consummated, that very same complete [215aJ generation of mind isolation, from the perspective of generating earth dissolving into water and so on as in the process of death, itself separates the two bodies, and the self-consecration magic body is achieved from the mere wind-
Chapter VIII-Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 413
energy-mind of the voids. The self here is the wind-energy-mind that serves as base of the designation thinking "1. " That very thing is created as the vajradhara body, which is the consecration.
When one separates apart [into another body] the wind-energy- mind body through the power of body-possession, it is extremely different from creating [oneself] in the vajradhara body by imaginative attention. This is not just mere imaginative mind, but the wind-energy-mind itself is created as a deity body, which is dissimilar from the deity body of meditation where the mind is just envisioned in that form. Once one has attained the magic body of the learner ' s communion, as its homogeneous continuity is uninterrupted, one is said to "live in reality," and the charac- teristics of the "vajra body" are complete.
The third stage magic body proceeds purifying itself by realizing objective clear light; so though it is called "vajra body," it is not full- fledged, [with characteristics complete]. Hence there is no contradiction in calling it "a wisdom body" which abides according to the yogi/ni's experience, intending that i t does not abide a s i n the previous case. How- ever, except for using the expression "third stage magic body" without differentiating actual and virtuaP23 one should not hold that the actual self- consecration magic body is a deity body which is a mental state alone perceived as distinctly apart from the coarse body. Except for explaining that the magic body is achieved from the wind-energy-mind of the mind isolation three luminances, 1215bl it is not clear from the treatises of the five father and sons as to at which point in forward and reverse voids the magic body is achieved. Lak? hmi and so forth explain an art of a sudden process where one arises in the vajradhara body suddenly from clear
light like a fish from water, and an art of a gradual process through immi- nence and so on where one arises in the vajradhara body from the point of entering luminance, having gone from clear light to imminence and from imminence to radiance. I will explain my own interpretation in the section [below] on communion.
In regard to separating from the old body, it is understood from the above explanation that having abandoned the position of the old body it does not follow that it must abide [therein], and from the Illumination of
123 dngo! l dang rje! J mthun pai ! lgyu lu! J.
? 4 1 4 ? Brilliant Illumination (? f the Lt1mp
tht' Lamp explanation that the pure magic body dwells in the jewel sack of the body and so forth.
If the magic body were achieved by the yogi/nT who has achieved mind isolation by a procedure of preserving both the subtle and coarse bodies. the father and son treatises' explanation that the magic body is achieved from just the wind-energy-mind would be incorrect; for example, if cloth were made from the whole ball of yam, the explanation that the cloth is made by specially picking out two separate threads from the ball of yarn would be inappropriate. Although at the first time of achieving it, it must be achieved from the wind-energy-mind of the voids, when one
abides in it after achieving it, there are many occasions when the magic body exists even when the three wisdoms of luminance, radiance, and imnminence are not manifestly realized; hence it does not follow that the magic body is eliminated when those three are eliminated, or that those three [216al are present when the magic body is present.
As for the way to achieve the magic body by what sort of will- projection, as it is not explicit in other treatises of the father and sons, one must know to apply the reasoning given by the Integrated Practices expla- nation that one should project the will that "Uust as] on the occasion of attaining buddhahood in the between, one dwells in clear light, rejecting the ordinary body, I should resurrect [myself] by the process of self- consecration! " This should be applied also in the case of those things con- forming to the magic body pattern. Such a body is said by the Wisdom Vajra Compendium to be illuminated by the twelve similes of magic. These twelve are magic, water-moon, hallucination, mirage, dream, echo, fairy city, illusion, rainbow, lightning, water-bubble, and mirror-reflection. They are called the "twelve similes of magic" even though "magic" is used only once as a simile, intending that the first simile stands for the rest, or that they are similes for the magic body.
In that regard, as the vajradhara body is created just from wind- energy and mind, it is like a magic human, as it is just wind-energy-mind even though limbs and members are complete. As it pervades everywhere, it is like the moon in water. As it is devoid of flesh and bone and so on, it is an hallucination, like a body of human shadow. As it moves in an instant, it is like a mirage. As it is a body made ofjust wind-energy-mind, it is like a dream body separate from the evolutionary [coarse] body. [216b] Though included in one continuum with the evolutionary body, it appears as other, like an echo. The habitat and inhabitant mandalas of that body are
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 4 1 5
like the fairy city. Though it is one, it appears as many, like an illusion. As the body's five colors appear unmixed and unobstructed, it is like a rainbow. As it abides within the aggregate of the evolutionary body, it is like lightning flashing within the thick of a thundercloud. As it arises sud- denly from the experience of voidness, it is like a bubble bursting forth in very clear water. As its limbs and members are perfect, it is like the image
of Vajradhara arising in a mirror.
Now these are how the learner's magic body is iluminated [by the
similes]. When used to illuminate the master's magic body, the sixth and the tenth similes are used in a similar way. The Self-Consecration mentions "shadow" in the meaning of "hallucination," and uses "cloud" in place of "illusion. " As for its various synonyms, it is according to the statements [in the Five Stages:]
It is explained as "self-consecration," With its nature taught as magical. This same thing is designated, Superficial reality, magicality,
And the perfectly beatific body. That same becomes the fairy being, The vajra body is that same thing, Vajrasattva, the eminent personage.
As for the excellence of attaining that magic body, it is said that one definitely will attain buddhahood in that same life. Again from the Five Stages :
Gone into that [magic body] state, [one becomes] A lord, great spiritual hero, made of every bliss, And one gets home, clothes, [217al food, and so on Instantaneously, just from space.
Static living is cut off,
One is teacher, supreme person, Worshipped by all, including the gods, And is saluted again and again.
The Integrated Practices also states that one will obtain the consecration of the Buddha. And the Root Tantra also declares:
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Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Meditate vajra gentle
In body, speech, mind vajras, Elaborating body, speech, and mind, Become like vajra gentle.
By lights of blazing vajras,
To the extent of a hundred leagues, You shine, the personification ofjoy, Adorned by every ornament;
And gods like Brahma and Rudra
Are never able to behold you.
In comment on which the Illumination ofthe Lamp says:
"Vajra gentle" refers to the magic body with its mental nature; and not only does one meditate that as one's body, speech, and mind, but also when one meditates having elaborated it into the body, speech, and mind of the three realms, it all becomes like vajra gentle. Vajras blazing to the magnificent extent of hundred leagues and through countless world realms indicate the illumination by your body's light, adorned by the ornaments such as the thirty-two signs. And if the discovery of such a wis- dom body is never even experienced by deities such as Brahma, what need to mention others; since it is the sphere of irreversibility. That great seal of Mafijushri 1217hl is not experienced or touched by [even the greatest] alienated individual beings; and so this samadhi is called
"unperceivable. "
And just after that it also says, "that very magic nature body, because it is achieved by purification by means of clear light. . . . " Thus it explains this [impure magic body] entering into clear light by means of the two contemplations, and does not explain the communion magic body enter- ing clear light by means of the two contemplations; therefore this refers to the third stage magic body. Since it will not be explained that the noble stage is not attained by abiding in that, here the mention of "not beheld by alienated individual beings" refers to [alienated individual beings] other than oneself; and that accords with the above explained "not beheld by
ChapterV/11-'lWoRealityPerfectionStage? 417
Brahma and so forth," [meaning that it] is not beheld by alienated indi- vidual beings who have not attained the magic body.
In regard to a certain samadhi that does not even have the partial tendency to such excellences as these, as for the [false] sense of relief from identifying it as the actual attainment of the wisdom body magic body, it has the fault of not knowing the criterion of attaining this body, the way of attaining this body, and the excellences belonging to the attain- ment. Since other treatises are not clearly explicit about the two proce- dures of creating the deities of the creation stage mantra body and the perfection stage wisdom body, all explanations of the procedure of deity creation in the perfection stage context are claimed by many who hold other systems to be [only] pertaining to the creation stage. As for those who do practice this system also, though they have differentiated the two [kinds of] deity bodies, it appears that their precise differentiation is extremely rare. Therefore, thinking that this very 12t8aJ greatly secret issue should not be lost, I have made it explicitly clear.
Explaining what comes
The third has two parts: [i'"] How it is given in the personal instruction tradition; and [ii'"] Explaining that import in connection with the treatise[s] .
How it is given in the
personal instruction tradition]
From the way mentor Serdingpa gives the Marpa tradition instruc- tions, as for the way to identify the actuality of the magic body, the Four Point explains:
As for the magic body, the Noble father and sons claim that the "magic" is that it appears without intrinsic reality, and the "body" is the deity body; so it is a deity body that appears without intrinsic reality. As for its originating cause, the creation stage deity-body medita- tion and the creation stage deity-body-upholding habit are purified by the three voids, and hence the art and wisdom deity body freshly arises uninterruptedly like a
? ? ? lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"s"'2'"c"' -
from the mentors' precepts]
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"s"'2"'c'"i'" -
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Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
bubble bursting forth in water or like a fish leaping from a clear stream. Further, the four neuter syllables dissolve into the indestructible drop, causing the drop to arise as the deity body. The mother symbolizes void, the father symbolizes vision; their mutual kiss is the taste of vision- void arising as bliss. Like the linear short A that abides endowed with the five light rays; it is the wind-energy- mind body, hence one meditates by compressing down to that. Further that magic body deity body is meditated within a reality source triangle white outside and red
inside.
Again, in the Wheel Endowed, [Serdingpa] explains that:
It is meditated as the drop, which has been compressed into the indestructible drop in the center of the inner lotus, which arises as the father-mother deity body like a mirror reflection.
In the Five Stages Single Session, there is an error which seems inconsis- tent with that tradition ' s two great and [several] lesser precepts, namely:
One should aim the mind to the drop [2t8bl and meditate, that being the learner's clear light; and, when that is stable, one should engage in the paths of the conduct when one arises from the void drop as the deity body. 1 24
Again the Five Point explains:
That abiding with five light rays like the linear "A" is the reality condition, the wind-energy-mind body, and one meditates compressing the mind to that. It does not exist apart from that identification, yet is not non-existent as it appears even without intrinsic reality - that is the identi- fication of "magic. " "Body" is explained by Aryadeva as
124Th' .
? I'h1 f.
IS IS s Ig t y con usmg, as very subtle. The error may be that one, presumably the yogJ/nl, is here described as arising from the "void drop" as if "one" were something other at this point than the drop itself, with is wind-energy-mind indivisible, bliss-void-
indivisible, etc.
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 4 1 9 the deity body, and so that "magic body" is interpreted
as that deity body. unidentifiable, so vivid and void,
In that source, though it is written that the magic body is actually the indestructible drop, one can also understand that it is really that drop arisen as the deity body. Therefore one can also understand the explana- tion in the two lesser private precepts of the short A and the HOM letter as the magic body. The Five Point explains:
In the magic body practice, there are the magic equi- poise and the magic liberation. The first of these: in the southwest of your dwelling place make a skylight, sus- pend a sword above a copper kettle filled with lac-water; and place a mirror before you which reflects a painting of Vajrasattva; thus aim your mind and meditate. Since truth insistence [2t9aJ will not emerge toward these things, they identify magic illusion. This is said to be the instruction for purification in the creation stage.
This is accepted as corresponding to the meaning of the Five Stages explanation: "A well-shaped Vajrasattva," and so on. As for the way to terminate truth-insistence based on that, Serdingpa explains in the Per- sona/ Instruction ofthe Triple Continuum oJMagical lllusion:125
Of the three magic illusions, explain those of equipoise, dream, and between: as for the former, the first of the three solely purifying activities; holding magical illusion one should sit before a mirror image and, examining whether pleasure or displeasure, attachment or anger arise there from praise and blame, one should see to it that they do not. One should contemplate just like that. Again, look to see [in the mirror] whether attachment or anger
1 25 This text has not been identified among the works of Serdingpa: it may be lost.
? apparent without intrinsic reality. It is said to be illus- trated by the twelve similes of magic illusion; thus iden-
tifying it as like a mirror-reflection and so on identifies
that magic body. "
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Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
arise from praise or blame. When they do not arise, [the reflection] should merge into one and one should medi- tate oneself as like a magical deity body. One should prac- tice not being happy and attached when one is praised, anointed with sandalwood unguent from the right, and offered wealth and so on. And one should practice not being unhappy and angry when one is blamed, poked with an axe from the left, and one's wealth is robbed.
Some people who uphold the personal instruction of this system, having set apart the designation "magic illusion" for equipoise, set up the way of meditating as holding the mind, having set the mind immobile by strict body-vital-point [penetration] and gaze; by holding it, energy is held; from that, experience develops. Earth, water, fire, wind, mind,
mental events, misknowledge, and universal void-the former dissolves into the latter [219bl with the signs of mirage up to darkness. Then, from the cloudless sky-like universal voidness in reverse order up through the three luminances, the mind along with its energy-mount arises immeas- urably with the vivid vision of the experience of the magical deity body and so forth. Even though you meditate that way, if it does not develop that intensely, there is a method to develop the impact, extensively described in the Five Point. Or if that doesn't work, by meditating aiming one-pointedly at the heart center of the deity body reflected in the mirror, the first vividness of the image is luminance. Then, when the image seems to split apart, it is luminant radiance. Then its disappearance into darkness is luminant imminence. Then its total sky-like clear light transparence experience gives rise to a variety of experiences as above
explained.
Concerning this [outlook], as for the former [instruction], it seems
as if these people are considering the "self-consecration" explained as the visions of various luminance experiences in the space of the retraction [yoga branch], cited previously from the Stainless Light and the Supreme Bliss Eulogy Commentary to be the same as this "self-consecration" of the occasion of magic body. As for the method of intensifying the impact, it seems to be based on some former Tibetans' explanation of the process of looking at any object, wherein the first vividness is luminance, its refinement is radiance, and its final unclear approach to termination is imminence.
Chapter Vlll-1\. vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 421
In the learning of the magical liberation, the Five Point explains its daytime waking practice and its night-time dreaming practice. As for the first 1220a1, within the experience of deity body vividness, one meditates integrating energy and mind by the experience of bliss-void in the throat center, thus generating the experience of engaging in the vital point of life-energy control; this develops the magical liberation. In sleep, dreams come, but here they do not, so these two are dissimilar. As for the tran- scendent liberation, one goes to Akanishta heaven and is blessed by the
mentor, and one has visions of many emanation bodies and listens to the Dharma and so on. As for learning the mundane liberation, it is said that one sees heavens such as the Thirty-three, the [joyous] Tu? hita, and the [highest] Akani? hta, one goes to them, one is worshipped by gods and goddesses, one holds the drop from such as those, and it happens that one manifests various miracles. It is claimed that such things happen as if in a dream, caused by meditating the vase-breath-holding in the throat center preceded by focusing the will to engage in those liberations.
The Equipoise Magic Illusion Instruction explains that one medi- tates the energy-kiss, aiming one's visualization at the heart center drop along with its short "A," thus developing the experiences such as flying in the sky which generate the magical illusion liberation, thus cultivating direct experiential voidness without glee and pride and so on and without obstructions such as deep ravines and precipices and so on.
The Four Point explains that the liberations happen as above explained relying on worshipping the victors by radiating lights from the uma hair-tuft of one's vivid deity body, purifying the two obscurations by manifesting embodiments as needed to tame beings and then com- pressing the lights back into oneself 1220bJ, then having melted one's self- creation into a deity body into light one collects the light within by the two contemplations.
! YI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"J"a"ii"B"'2,,c"'ii,-Explaining that import in conncl:tion with the treatise( s)]
As for that short A with its five-colored light-rays in the Five Point and the Four Point being called the "wind-energy-mind body. reality of
,"
? things
appears to the mind's eye in meditation; it is rather the wind-energy- mind subtle body consisting of the subtle life-energy wind indicated by
it is not properly considered just that form of the short A which
422 ? Brilliant lllumination of the Lamp
that [short A] and the mental awareness adhering to that [short A]. And that [short A] is also explained as generating the magic body from the experience of bliss-void in the arisal of the [four] voids unobstructed by anything else, which means that the totally unobstructed magic body is generated from the wind-energy-mind of the three voids. Thus, the intent of the instructions that explain the drop arising as deity body to be the creation of the magic body, and the drop and the syllable to be the magic body should be understood as meaning that the magic body is created from the subtle wind-energy-mind body indicated by those [drops and syllables]; so the magic body should not be interpreted as the mere deity body creation from the transformation of the drop and syllable appearing
in the mind's eye.
If one understands it like that [avoiding such misinterpretation],
[one can rightly understand] the Concise Five Stages [passage], just after its explanation of doing the vajra recitation once the mantra wheel is established:
Ordinary conception-instincts
Are visualized as the mind of mantra itself. Purifying the body purifies conceptions,
Purifying wind-energy, one becomes taintless,
And manifests the wisdom superficial magic [body].
This teaches 1221al the procedure of creating the magic body by purifying the energy by means of vajra recitation preceded by visualizing the mantra wheel. Concerning that, the forms of the mantra-letters set on the petals of the wheel are the means of indicating the mind of the eighty ordinary conceptions and the wind-energies that move them. The bodies or forms of those indicative syllables are serially collected and purified, which purifies the conceptions and their attendant wind-energies. When the conception-mobilizing wind-energies are purified, that means the reali- zation of the intuitive wisdom body, the superficial reality magic body. As the same text states:
The magic body, along with its luminance, Arises from mere wind-energy and mind
which accords with the explanation that the magic body is made from mere wind-energy and mind purified of its eighty conceptions and their
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 423
wind-energies. And that procedure seems to agree in import with the Root and Explanatory Tantras and the treatises of the father and sons.
Further, as for the twelve similes of magic illusion characterizing the magic body, I will explain a few of the correspondences between simile and referent, as it is said that ;'by recognizing them one recognizes the magic body. " I approve the explanation that the ascertainment of the correspondence between simile and referent here is the means of deter- mining the magic body, and also, the personal instructions' explanation that such [ascertainment] is also the means of empowering the clarity of creation stage practice when it is unclear. In the magic body section of the Five Stages, if one so interprets the meaning of the passage beginning with "A well-formed Vajrasattva appears,"126 and if one meditates while perceiving a mirror image, then one sets the mind for a while having moved mentally out [of the mirror]; and [22tbl finally one takes the creation stage deity body merged into oneself as the magic body. This then contradicts the [author's own previous] statement that "from one's experience of bliss-void by intuitive wisdom of voidness one generates the magic body without interference by any other," and it disagrees with all authoritative treatises, and also appears to contradict [the author's] own root verse. The mentor Marpa had many different private instruc- tions from many mentors, among his instructions on each Tantra, so it is not sure that all of his instructions come from Naropa.
Well then, one asks, what is the meaning of the Five Stages' statement:
Free from existence and non-existence, A well-formed Vajrasattva appears,
As if reflected clearly
In a flawless mirror.
Endowed with all the best forms, This body that always fascinates
Should be shown to the good disciple; That is called "self-consecration. "
l26 The full verse is cited just below.
? 424 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
This means that it is a body like the accurately drawn image of Vajradhara, free of two extremes, dawning in clear vision in the pure sur- face of a mirror, which is superior in all aspects and always delightful to the beholder. And the meaning shown to the disciple by connecting the simile and the meaning of the reflected image and the magic body is explained as "self-consecration. " It is not that one meditates while visu- alizing oneself as reflected in a mirror or that the magic body is shown to
be the deity body extracted from the mirror and drawn into oneself. Otherwise, one would have to literally follow [as meditation instructions] the other similes.
As for the "reflection" simile, [222al among the three out of twelve similes mentioned in the Five Stages, it is the reflection of a vajradhara image and not reflections in general. And it is a simile for the body's parts all being completed simultaneously. The rainbow simile indicates unobstructedness and the non-mixture of colors. The water-moon simile indicates the singularity of the magic body itself, being nevertheless
capable of creating multiple emanations to accord with the disciples. And as for the Self-Consecration's statement-"By them one meditates the body! "-that one meditates on the magic body through those three similes, it means that one should meditate on the magic body as ascer- tained according to the description by those [similes].
According to the two ways of achieving the magic body by medi- tating visualizing a mirror reflection, it does not mean that one must complete the creation stage and the three isolations to achieve it. As for advocating the magic body depending on the explanations in the Stain- less Light and so on that the luminance of the experience of retraction is
body, and that the explanation of the deity body only arising during the
self-consecration, it would force you to claim that the eight [signs] from mirage up to the Rahu-like black luminant [imminence] are the magic
reverse order [of the signs] after that as the magic body is incorrect. The Time Machine mentions the [eight death] signs such as mirage in the con- text of retraction as the signs of the time of approaching [initial] reversal
and [final] inward reversal of the sense faculty wind-energies engage- ment with ordinary objects. The four signs such as mirage which arise in the context of mind isolation and so on are the signs which arise immedi- ately after those [reverse order] four voids, since it has already been often stated 1222bl that the wind-energies must have entered and dissolved into the dhati channel for them [to have arisen]. Therefore, the visions of
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 425
the aspects of moon, sun, and Rahu in the context of retraction do not amount to the same thing as the moonlight and so on of the three voids. In short, if you know well the samadhi wherein the sense conscious- nesses proceed to dissolve well before the natural instincts, and their motor wind-energies dissolve at the time of generating the mind isolation voids after completing the vajra recitation, then you will not feel any doubt such as "will there be any meditating while seeing with the eyes when the magic body is achieved? "
In general, as for the aftermath arisal of whatever appears as false magical illusion, if you develop great bliss on the occasion of the three isolations and the magic body, it should be a source of intensifying your meditation itself by combining it with penetratingly understood voidness. There is little importance [of using such bliss] in the aftermath context [to direct] the notions and so on of liking or not liking or being or not being reflections to terminate the truth insistence habit. Here, if you develop certainty through the rationally aware wisdom that has com- pletely eliminated the truth-habit-objectification pattern concerning inner and outer things, subsequently the process of objective appearances arising as magical illusions by their own momentum depends on the excellent understanding of the centrist reasonings. And the Five Stages' pronouncement [to the effect] that, after attaining the magic body, one sees everything as illusion no matter in what activities refers both to the vision of illusion that is common with the Transcendence [Vehicle] and to the previously explained vision of the extraordinary magical illusion [body] wherein the subtle bodies of all beings are seen as no more than mere wind-energy-mind and so on.
By meditating on the wind-energies and becoming pure fluency, while accepting the arisal of all objects of the buddhaverses and realms and so on, ! 223aJ letting the momentum of that precede, if you practice the kiss-union of wind-energies, although such and such appearances will arise iJlusorily, the explanation about meditating in such a way in the
Noble literature will not have taken effect. They do not explain the retrac- tion of objective appearance by means of the two contemplations in the context of meditating on magical illusion, and in fact that is not the goal to be attained.
42ft ? Bril/i(lnl lll11mination ofthe Lamp
Providing the context for explaining
If one wonders, "Are these explanations in this system of the instructions of sleep, dream, death-point, and between, made in reliance on the Tantras and the treatises of the father and sons? "
Here, Master Go explains both the merger with death and the mer- ger with the between in order to attain buddhahood in the between, and explains the merger with sleep in order to attain buddhahood indirectly through rebirth; the merger with dream is lacking in his private instruc- tion. He does not explain those mergers in order to attain buddhahood in this life, though they are explained quoting the texts of the Integrated Practices. These mergers are not there [either] in the private instructions from Naropa transmitted through Nagtso, though many instructions on all four of them are there in those transmitted through Marpa, explaining sleep and dream mergers in attaining buddhahood in this life, [explain- ing] sleep, death, and between mergers in attaining buddhahood in the between, and [explaining] all four of them in attaining buddhahood in the
next life. This treatise, except for mentioning a mere portion of the teach- ing, [223b], does not seem to express them clearly.
The Concise Five Stages gives the dream instruction:
To purify the dream body,
From the time characterized as magical, All apparent superficial objects one sees Are the stage of superficial reality magic . . .
and:
Cultivate the dream as solely magical . . .
and it teaches just briefly the sleep, death, and between merger instructions:
Merge with the three forms of the between!
I! ]JI. 3. b. ii. l'? ? "? d'jj? . \? ? 1? 'b? ? - Thl? assol"iatcd instrm:tionsI
There are two pans in explaining the instructions connected with
? that: (i
tions: and [ii and so forth.
) Providing the context for explaining the sources of the instruc- ) The actual explanation of the instructions of sleep, dream,
"
? '
? ! \"1. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"b"i" -
the sourl? es of the instmctions]
ChapterVIII-TWoRealityPerfectionStage? 427
single day.
In Savior Nagarjuna's treatises, the mergers are not literally clear,
except for the explanation in the Five Stages of the magic body as the between and the suitability of explaining the merger of those two. Naga- bodhi doesn't mention utilizing the between, sleep, and dream, except for mentioning the use of the death process in the perfection stage, and the use of birth, death, and between in the creation stage. Chandrakirti explains the death and between mergers in attaining buddhahood in the between, and, except for the context of explaining the dreamlikeness of all things in the fifteenth chapter, where he quotes a reference from the Integrated Practices to establish the equality in truthlessness of the things of dream and waking, he does not openly explain the sleep and dream mergers. Thus, this does not mean that one can claim that this system gives the instructions of holding the dream and so on in the fifteenth chapter expla- nation of the dreamlikeness. Therefore, the explanation of merging sleep and the four voids is not in any other treatise of the father and sons [224aJ except for the Integrated Practices. The Integrated Practices states:
Having familiarized from birth to birth and having learned the teaching of selflessness, understanding the yoga of merging, one should merge together with the natural luminance; and through this process one should perceive it in the ultimate reality. The process is as follows: Plunge the aggregates and so on into the subtle element. Plunge the subtle element into the mind. Plunge the mind into mental functioning. Plunge mental func- tioning into misknowledge. Thus uniting things, fall into sleep. At this time, awareness is forgotten in the instant of mind, mental function, and misknowledge. Afterward, the reality of intuitive wisdom free from unconsciousness also is clear light transparence. There being liberation, through wind-energy, natural instincts are discovered, whereby other things emerge in one's dream. As long as consciousness does not move, one sleeps and beholds clear light; that is called "the interior manifest enlighten-
ment, introspectively realized ultimate reality free of
and, as mentioned above, it says to meditate the five stages, connecting existence, birth, and death [between] stages with [the processes of] a
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Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
body, speech, and mind. " Through this process, the tran- scendent buddha hosts abiding in the mandala of the body are to be killed and merged into suchness, and one attains the accomplishment of the well-destined; and without relying on either the elaborated or unelaborated activities one totally exchanges one's form. This is what it means. [224bJ
Chag's translation here is better, saying "energy moves the natural instincts, if other dreams do not arise. . . . "
Just after the above quote, [the Integrated Practices] states: This very meaning, from the Great Yoga Tantra called
Revelation ofthe Hidden Intention, is expressed:
Seeing inner things such as form
Is pronounced to be "critical insight," While counting Ak? hobhya and so on, Abide in quiescence of all notions.
These are explained as peace,
The suchness of insubstantiality; And the yogi/ni merges the buddhas In the mandala of suchness.
Thus the yogi/ni who generates sleep into the experience of the samadhi of the four voids is one who lives with the extremely unelaborated con- duct. Such an embodiment has two procedures of developing the four voids, at the times of falling asleep and waking from sleep; here the first is not described. When that [procedure] develops the four voids, it is said to develop them thus. Again, the Integrated Practices states, "By this process one engages in just the acts of bhu su ku," meaning that one simply lives by eating and drinking, urinating and defecating, and other- wise merely meditating clear light by constant sleeping. If one understands the point of this explanation to be that there is no meditation of clear light other than by falling asleep, one will come to understand the ulti- mate points of the other mergers.
Well then, while the Revelation of the Hidden Intention teaches that the yogi/ni should plunge the buddha-aggregates and so on into the clear light mandala of suchness, [225aJ how can that be interpreted as
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 429
substantiating the plunging of the aggregates and so on into clear light by the process of the four voids of sleep?
Though the yogi/or's producing the experience of the four voids of sleep is not explicitly stated in the Tantra's words, it can be understood by Aryadeva's elucidation that uses the personal instruction by Nagar-
juna. Thus, concerning such a process of plunging into clear light, the meaning of the Revelation of the Hidden Intention statement about the aggregates and so on being plunged into clear light completely serves as a means of understanding [that process]. For example, the expression that states that the definition of a pot is "round-bellied" does not explicitly show, mixing up round-belliedness and that specific object, that a jade's round-belliedness is [also a kind of] pot; nevertheless it does show com- pletely the round-belliedness of that specific object.
As for the statement that "the well-destined accomplishment will be achieved when one kills the hosts of transcendent buddhas," it is the same as the Root Tantra statement that
Killing the hosts of transcendent buddhas,
One will attain the very supreme accomplishment!
And that quote, by its similarity of character, is also properly applied to the clear light of sleep. Relying on that personal instruction of Aryadeva, that mention of which scriptural text the [practice of the] clear light of sleep relies on, can make other [points] understandable. As for such hold- ing of the clear light of sleep, it seems to be part of the activities of attaining buddhahood in that life. Thus the supreme of merging sleep and clear light intends the buddhahood in this life of the most developed person. Attaining buddhahood in the between or after rebirth in another life require that [instruction only] according to the personal instructions of the mentors (22SbJ. Thus, if such explanations in personal instructions and the process of generating the four voids of sleep depending on them do not have effect, when one sees that the Integrated Practices states that the extremely unelaborated practitioner should use them, one can under- stand that they are teachings accessible [only] for such a person. So such a person nowadays should not neglect such teachings, or the great import will be lost. The Integrated Practices' stated process of merging sleep and the four voids, though it is beyond the ability of the inferior person. it is not that they cannot develop the merely general samadhi merging sleep and the four voids. So one must accurately distinguish the differences of
? 430 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
the paths. Therefore, that source in the Integrated Practices can be applied by contemporary persons to the holding of the voids of sleep.
Well, what is the source for the instructions of dreams?
That also, since it is not explicated in the Tantra and in the other texts of the father and sons, must be understood from the Integrated Practices, as follows:
Why? Sleeping a long time. Why? One abandons the body's interior, and in the dream one goes to the Thirty- three Heaven or to other countries and regions, experi- encing the five sense-experiences. Again, coming here into the body, one will attain the fruition of experiencing virtuous and unvirtuous dreams.
One should thus inquire into dreams, "Are nonsleeping states the same or different from sleep-states? " As for "Why? Sleeping a long time," it inquires into the cause of long sleep without dreams arising. l226al As for "Why? Abandoning the interior of the body," it means as above, at the time of dreams arising after falling asleep, a dream body separates from the interior of the previous body, and going to other countries and places it comes again to this body. "Why does it come back? "-again inquires into the cause of its entering there.
According to the wording in the Chag translation, "in the dream, with all senses, to the abode of the Thirty-three, or. . . " it means that the separate dream body seems to have a complete life-support for all senses. As for the meaning of "Why? Dreams virtuous and. . . ," it inquires into the cause of experience, at the time of awakening, of the fruits of the good or bad signs of the dream. As for "Is sleep different or not from the waking? " it inquires into whether there is the difference that the objects seen in dreams are false and those seen on waking are real. In answer to that, it is said to be excellent to inquire into the nature of dreams, in order to eliminate doubts about perceptions viewed as substantial in the body that has the nature of beginninglessness, and in order to illuminate the
explanations of the self-consecration. And so [The Integrated Practices] state s :
Therefore, from the perspective of dream[likeness], you should introspectively realize all deity bodies explained as mirror-reflections, you should thoroughly understand
Chapter VIII- 1\m Reality Perfection Stage ?
43 1
Aggregates. elements. media. faculties and so on, Collecting here both those awarenesses.
Who becomes the great void and falls asleep. 1 :! 26h l Experiences the dream by the power of wind-energy. Desirous of fruition in the dream,
Noting no difference between dream and waking, Beings fall asleep all day and night.
Dense as earth, they sleep so long.
By acts performed with effects undeveloped, Their energies engage them again in this life.
As effects develop, this very wind-energy
[Makes] people die and swiftly go elsewhere.
The victor lords of the ten directions,
Though their bodies have no marrow, flesh, or bones, They enter the elements to benefit sentient beings, Performing deeds with emanation bodies.
To a mind awake from sleep through such a process, Though caught in the net of thoughts desiring fruits, Thereby all things are like a dream,
And true and false do not exist.
Here, [the task is] to dispel the "doubts about perceptions held as substantial in the body," namely the doubts about whether one can or cannot achieve the magic body like a rainbow, not understanding the coarse and subtle bodies separately, but holding the mere coarse body as substantial and depending on it as life support. The Chag translation has "like a mirror-reflection. " As for how the Tantras cause realization by means of the dream simile, it is expressed from "aggregates" up to the "mind awakened. " And as for how the Siitras cause realization, it is
explained quoting the Purification of Evolutionary Obstructions Sarra regarding differentiating true and false in regard to the waking and dream states. ! 227aJ As for gaining realization through the Tantras, the magic body is taught relying on the Root Tantra and the Wisdom Vajra Compendium.
As for the meaning of the first line, according to the Vajra Rosary statement, [beyond] the first four aggregates, the four elements such as earth, the four objective media, the four faculties such as eye, the words
following the Tantras and Sotras. and you should attend
with a single-pointed mind.
432 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
"and so forth" include all the rest. As for them being included here in the body, one gradually collects consciousness [normally] involuntarily engaged with objects. Thus collected, the two consciousnesses arise, those of luminance and radiance. Of those two, the former collects into the latter and dissolves into imminence, and one becomes a great void and falls into deep sleep. As for "dense earth," from the Community Explanatory Tantra the Four Goddess Dialogue, when it establishes the four mandalas in the body, the heart center is called "earth. " Other Tantras also assign earth to the heart center. Collecting the wind-energies in the heart center it becomes dense, and on strength of that, dreams do not arise and one sleeps long. These express in general the cause of going to sleep and in specific the cause of long remaining sleeping. When the imminence unconsciousness after dream experience begins to clear, a sleep clear light will dawn; and when that is released dreams arise, so that clear light is included in imminence. In the old translations, "beings [going]" here refers to sleep, and the Chag translation has "persons expe- rience dreams day and night. " As for "wind-energies," it should be understood by the key of inquiring into the dream body made of mere wind-energy-mind going to other places. [227bJ As for effects developing and not developing, it has to do with the power of evolution being exhausted or not exhausted when that wind-energy-mind is separate and not separate from this coarse body. Thus, when it is not exhausted, it says
"again one engages here," expressing the cause of repeated engagement. As for the answers to the third question, one can understand that the separated dream body still has one continuum with that shown func- tioning in the previous body. And the second "awakening from the dream" and the third "desiring fruition" show the non-differentiation of the truth and falsity of dream and awakeness. The Chag translation says "all those things are dream-like. " By the five lines "just as" and so on it shows that the beatific body has no flesh and bone and so on, yet it dwells in a body of coarse elements in order to be seen by beings, and the emanation body performs deeds for the sake of beings, and this enables one to understand how the dream body goes to other places when one sleeps, and how the waking mind functions again in the old body. Thus
since the dream body is like the beatific body, one understands [it as like] the magic body, and that body entering in the coarse body is understood as like [the beatific body entering] the emanation body, and this shows how to understand the magic body beatific body upholding the coarse
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 433
body emanation body. The Chag translation says, "the mind waking from sleep by that process. "
Therefore, since the three voids that precede the magic body are exemplified by the three voids of sleep that precede the dream [body], [228al the actual magic body is exemplified by the dream body, and the [waking in the coarse body] after the dream exemplifies the magic body incorporating the emanation body.