No More Learning

And what are these "secrets" of which Vajradhara/VajrapaQi is the "Lord? " These are the esoteric teachings of the Tantras, which are the "continua" of person, reality, and teaching, that are the highest technolo- gies of transforming the meaningless, purposeless, and miserable world of cyclic living - wherein misknowing egocentric beings struggle futilely and endlessly against an overwhelming infinite universe - into a buddha- verse of mutual love, compassion, and blissful pleasure energizing the inconceivable positive evolution of interconnected self and other.
Why are they "secret? " They are not secret from anyone who needs them, just as the formulas and procedures of sub-atomic quantum physics are not intrinsically secret from anyone, but are as good as secret for any- one who is unprepared by a complex and sustained education. For such persons, they are incomprehensible and useless. Moreover, there is an
additional element in the need for secrecy in the context of Tantra; the need to protect such unprepared persons, as they can hurt themselves in profound evolutionary ways if they misuse the powerful technologies of Tantra.
A cardinal Tantric technique is the art of purifying perception: to visualize and gradually learn to perceive the universe as a buddhaverse or mandalic paradise, with all beings as divine "buddhine" beings and all environments as perfected divine abodes. If this were to be employed
with sustained concentration by persons who have not first had some level of experiential realization of voidness and its inevitably entailed aware- ness of the relativity and constructedness of all things, it would lead such practitioners into the trap of psychosis, getting them stuck in an alternate reality far more pleasant and seemingly secure than the jarring and dangerous ordinary reality. A second cardinal art of Tantra is purifying self-conception: cultivating a divine buddha-identity to replace the ordi- nary, habitual self-identity of the ignorant person. If that were to be
practiced by someone without at least some level of the realization of
16 ? Introduction
selflessness and its entailed insight into the constructedness of relational self. it would lead to megalomania. Thirdly, if a practitioner does not have at least some degree of detachment from primal subconscious drives of eros and thanatos. and some degree of universal compassion toward others. the powerful energies of the deeper mind and body, when aroused within the Tantric atmosphere, are likely to carry the person still perceiv- ing those energies as lust and hostility into dangerous areas of manipulat- ive exploitation of others, which would prove enormously destructive to
both self and others.
Therefore the guardian of the secrets of the Tantras is the fierce
Vajrapag. i, who appears occasionally in the exoteric Sotras as a yak? ha- like fierce protector of the Buddha, who dwells under his teaching throne. I recall the Surra ofthe Wise and the Fool account where several Vajra- pag. is come out from under Shakyamuni's throne to ward off the six false teachers .
ANCESTRAL MENTORS
This term "ancestral mentor" (Tib. brgyud pa 'i bla rna), usually translated "lineage lama," is translated this way to reveal the feeling of a practicing great adept, who is not identified in her or his mind with his blood lineage and does not look back to great grandparents and so on as the most important ancestors. We can see in the case of Tibetan culture that the common institution of ancestor worship or preoccupation with bone (father) and blood (mother) lineage is almost completely neglected, having been thoroughly eroded by the commonsensically accepted, cul- turally embedded, biological theory of karmic evolution. That is, persons so acculturated consider their own past existences to have been in other families, nations, genders, races, even species, and so there is not a very strong connection with the blood or bone of the parents of this life and their forebears. Further, a dead parent or great grandparent is considered more likely to be reincarnated as one's neighbor than to be in some ances- tral happy hunting ground awaiting veneration and the offerings of tea and
cookies from successive generations.
However, in past generations, those who provided and preserved
precious Dharma teachings and practices are the spiritual ancestors who engendered the good qualities and liberating realizations in oneself that really enhance one's "spiritual gene" (gotra, rigs); so they are considered the real ancestors. Spiritual adepts - and, by their conscious and subliminal
Introduction ? 1 7
example. all Tibetans-are acculturated to view their Dharma ancestors as more important than their clan forebears. The rituals of offering drops of elixir to them in one's daily prayers and performances are in effect substitutes for the more usual ancestor rituals we find in other Asian societies. Every ritual performance (sadhana) written by lamas such as Tsong Khapa and his successors. and performed by hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns over the centuries, includes an invocation of these ancestral mentors at the beginning and makes offerings to them during a later section of the performance.
THE PATH OF THE ESOTERIC COMMUNITY TANTRA
From among the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, the Esoteric Commu- nity Tantra (Guhyasamaja) is considered by Tsong Khapa the paradig- matic "Father Tantra. " I say "paradigmatic" rather than "supreme," as is often said, since every Tantra proclaims itself to be "supreme. " Indeed, each of them can assist the practitioner to the supreme achievement of buddhahood if properly implemented. The special virtue of the Esoteric Community is said to be that it has five Explanatory Tantras taught by Vajradhara Buddha which complement the originally revealed Root
Tantra. It therefore provides all the materials needed for a student and practitioner to understand all Tantras, many of which are less complete in their teachings.
The "Father" category of Tantras is critically defined by Tsong Khapa as characterizing those Tantras that emphasize the methodology for attaining the magic body (mayadeha, sgyu Ius), a subtle body like a dream body. The practitioner learns to release this subtle body from within
his or her meditatively entranced coarse body, which subtle body can then act in the universe to accelerate the accumulation of the stores of merit and wisdom that are required for buddhahood, gathering lifetimes of merit and wisdom in a single lifetime dedicated to such meditation.
The "Mother" category of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras emphasizes the arts of deepening the wisdom of either a coarsely or a subtly embodied practitioner by plunging her or him again and again into the clear light transparence realms within the infinite event horizon of deep voidness. With all due respect, Tsong Khapa critiqued those venerated mentor
scholars, such as Buton Rinpochey, who argued for a third category of "nondual" Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, on the principle that all of them are nondual; the "Mother" and "Father" categories simply describe their
1 8 ? Introduction
dominant emphasis, not an exclusive focus. These most advanced Tantras are all called "unexcelled" (anuttara), rather than "highest" (parama), because they reveal and make accessible the innermost core of nondual reality, and nothing can go beyond them since they contain everything within their matrix; "highest" implies a hierarchy in which the goal is somehow above and away from the "lower" things, which would carry a trace of dualism. Unexcelled Yoga Tantra teaching is not "higher" than the four noble truths, the eightfold path, the ten transcendences, and so forth. It is the matrix in which all of those teachings are nested, and where
they are fulfilled to the subtlest and most complete degree.
Although Tsong Khapa was an adept practitioner of a number of Tantras other than the Esoteric Community-he quotes from many of them-he usually based his analytic commentaries such as this one on the Esoteric Community literature and its commentaries developed in the
noble (Skt. arya) tradition of Indian Buddhist Tantrism.
Tsong Khapa goes o n to mention outstanding examples o f the spiri-
tual ancestors he reveres as having brought the Esoteric Community Tantra teaching forward in history from the initial revelation of the Buddha to Tsong Khapa's day.
INDRABHOTI
Indrabhiiti was a great adept said to have been a high king of U<;l<;li- yana. Contemporary scholars identify this land with the Swat valley pres- ently in Pakistan, but in ancient times it possibly represented the entire country now known as Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. It is said that he was fortunate enough to have received the original revelation of the Eso- teric Community Tantra directly from Shakyamuni as Vajradhara. It is said that the reason the Esoteric Community mandala universe has no charnel grounds (shmashana) around it (representing samsaric existence), as do
other Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, is that since lndrabhoti was a king, he liked things clean and orderly. He would have been repelled by any graphic display of the decay and putrefaction elemental in ordinary life. Upon re- ceiving the teachings, Indrabhoti put them into practice and within twelve years attained perfect buddhahood as a great adept. He spread the teach- ing so widely within his kingdom, it is said, that even the fish in the lakes attained communion (yuganaddha), the orgasmic embrace of personal one- ness with all nature and all beings that describes Tantric buddhahood.
NAGAOAKINI
It is interesting that the second ancestor is a female. the Dragon Angel (klu'i mkha 'gro ma), who figures in the tradition's history as hav- ing received the Esoteric Community Tantra teachings and precepts from King lndrabhOti and passed them on in turn to the southern Indian king, Visukalpa.
VISUKALPA
Apparently a king from southern India who received the teachings
from the Naga<;lakini and passed them on to Saraha.
GLORIOUS SARAHA
There is a bit more information about Saraha, who was a Brahmin, but who was attracted by a female arrow-maker when strolling through a bazaar. humbled, and then taught how to make a straight arrow. To take up such a profession was to abandon his status as a high caste Brahmin and to live among the lowliest castes, typical behavior of the great adepts. He became enlightened as a great adept and eventually taught the great Nagarjuna.
VAJRIN NAGARJUNA
The life of Nagarjuna is fraught with historical uncertainty. He is said by his own highly philosophical, scientific, and critical tradition to have lived over six hundred years. He was given by his Brahmin parents to a monastery in his youth, as he was afflicted early on with an appar- ently incurable disease which a sage told them would prove fatal if he remained a householder. He was a good monk, also a doctor and alche-
mist, and works on medicine and alchemy are attributed to him. Once he had become a teacher of the Individual Vehicle clear science (Abhi- dharma) tradition, he was approached by nagas, under-ocean benevolent serpent- or dragon-like beings, and given a library of Universal Vehicle (Mahayana) Sutras which they had been keeping safe since Shakyamuni Buddha's time. He revealed these texts in several batches, the first being the Transcendent Wisdom and Flower Garland Siitras and the second being the Elucidation of the Intention, the White Lotus, and the Shrrmala- devr Siitras. He left India for around 250 years between these revelations
and spent time in the northern continent, Uttarakuru, the continent on the
lmroduction ? 19
20 ? Introduction
other side of the axial mountain Sumeru, which would correspond on the round earth geography to the Americas. This "legendary" account would place his dates around 50 BCE to 550 CE. During this extraordinary lifespan (not quite up to Methuselah's standards to be sure), he was a Buddhist monk and teacher of the Individual Vehicle, a doctor and alche- mist, author of several medical tomes, a discoverer of lost Universal Vehicle texts and a revealer of their philosophical and spiritual meanings in two phases, and an explorer who traveled across oceans and visited other continents. Finally, he was a mystic adept, upholder of the esoteric teachings and attainer of vajradharahood, replete with its omnipresent buddha bliss-void transparence body of truth. with its magic body time- less ability to manifest wherever and whenever it would be helpful to
disciples.
I will return below to the problems this legendary richness poses
for the contemporary materialist and historicist scholarship. For these short vignettes, I am presenting these ancestral masters according to the way Tsong Khapa and his colleagues perceived them.
ARYADEVA
Aryadeva was born as the son of the king of Shri Lanka in ca. 3rd century CE. miraculously appearing in a lotus in the garden. According to his legend, like Nagarjuna, he lived for several centuries. Although placed on the throne at an early age, he felt dissatisfied with royal life and soon renounced his role in society and wandered off into South India to study the Dharma, taking ordination from Nagarjuna himself. He soon became the Master's foremost disciple, even surpassing his Master in some re- spects, as conveyed in the legends of his Tantric persona, Kal"(laripa. This is only startling if we fail to recognize the basic anti-authoritarian and progressive stance of Buddhism, even in those ancient times.
The most fumous story about Aryadeva is his debate with the great Pao4it Mlttche\a, a great Shaivite logician, as well as a great adept. No one could withstand him in disputation. and so he conquered the great monastic university of Nalanda. In those days. you had to defend your philosophical positions against all comers, if you were to retain your endowment and control over your own college. Aryadeva was sent from South India by Nagarjuna to recover the Buddhist curriculum of the uni- versity. and after many shenanigans. Aryadeva succeeded in doing so, converting Mltrchela to becoming an important writer in the Buddhist
Introduction ? 21
tradition. Aryadeva, like Nagarjuna, is claimed as a patriarch by the Ch'an/ Zen school of the Far East.
Aryadeva's principal philosophical works show that he did indeed take on the various Brahmin schools of thought, whereas Nagarjuna had mainly confined himself to refuting the Individual Vehicle Abhidharma masters who had fallen into too rigid a spiritualistic dualism to open up to the profound teaching of wisdom and compassion indivisible.
Aryadeva's greatest work of critical philosophy was the Four Hun- dred on Yoga Practice, which begins with a systematic arrangement of the Universal Vehicle path, and continues with a devastating critique of all the extremist ideologies existent in India during his time. His major work in the Tantric field, the Lamp of Integrated Practices, is remarkable for its lucidity and comprehensiveness. It is very extensively quoted by Tsong Khapa in the present work, which some consider as much a commentary on Aryadeva's Lamp as an independent treatise. What is specially inter- esting about it is its attempt to integrate exoteric and esoteric Universal Vehicle practices, even though its main focus is the perfection stages prac- tices of the noble tradition.
NAGABODHI, SHAKYAMITRA, MATANGIPA
These three important disciples of Nagarjuna were key figures in the noble tradition of the Community. Nagabodhi wrote a number of im- portant works, Shakyamitra a chapter of the Five Stages as Nagarjuna's transmitter, and Matangipa various works in the Tengyur collection.
CHANDRA[KIRTI]PADA
Chandrakirti was also from South India, born probably in the latter part of the 6th century CE in a place called Samanta, according to Tibetan sources. He was ordained and studied under Buddhapalita's disciple Kamalabuddhi. After becoming an expert himself, he went to Nalanda in
the north, and eventually became an abbot there. At the time, the ruling post-Gupta monarch was somewhat unfavorable to the Buddhist scholars, so they were restricting their teaching activities to the monastic univer- sity proper. Chandrakirti changed that, and began to teach the Universal Vehicle and the Centrist philosophy widely again. He had a famous debate that lasted for seven years with the master grammarian and ideal- ist philosopher, Chandragomin. It was later revealed that Chandragomin managed to stand up to Chandrakirti only through daily consultations
22 ? lntmJuctit>n
with the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. through a famous statue standing in a courtyard at the monastery. When Chandraklrti complained that the bodhisanva was showing favoritism he was told, "You don't need me, you have Maiijushri helping you ! So I just thought to help this fellow
along a linle. ? ?
According to the Tibetan tradition, Chandrakirti was the "ultimate"
disciple of Nagarjuna himself. At the end of his long life, Nagarjuna taught him his "ultimate" teaching, that of the uncreated. Whatever else this may mean. it indicates a sense of Chandrakirti ' s destiny as elucidator of the essence of Nagarjuna's message, as does the legendary connection with Maiijushri. Other legendary events of his life are his milking of the picture of a cow to feed the monks of Nalanda during a famine, and his riding of a stone lion to frighten away a Tajik army that was threatening the monastery. He is also said to have survived a forest fire while meditat- ing in retreat. His rescuers found him in the middle of an unburnt circle on his grass mat, saying, "My master Nagarjuna burnt entirely the fuel of phenomena with the fire of the uncreated. My master has done so, and I have done so; so how can the phenomenal fire burn me? " Many other
such miraculous signs are recounted.
A final interesting story about him was his last interaction with
Avalokiteshvara, after he discovered that the bodhisattva had been help- ing his adversary Chandragomin in their debate. Avalokiteshvara said that he was always there to help everyone, but that people couldn't see him. Chandra carried him around town on his head, but most people saw nothing, some saw a dead dog, and one prostitute saw a foot of the Lord Avalokiteshvara, whereby she instantly attained numerous siddhi powers. It is highly interesting that a story so similar to the legend of Asailga should be attached to this paragon of the deep wisdom lineage.
Chandrakirti's greatest works were his Stages of the Enlightenment Path work, Introduction to the Middle Way, his commentary on Nagar- juna's Wisdom, the Lucid Exposition, and his commentary on the Esoteric Community Tantra, the Illumination of the Lamp. These latter two are known as the sun and moon, lighting up the earth of Sutra and Tantra, respectively. Finally, the Tibetans consider him also to be one of the "Eighty-four Great Adepts . "
Introduction ? 23 ABOUT THESE LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS
The attitude and hardened opinion among modem Buddhist studies scholars is that the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholars (and perhaps some members of the Shingon Buddhist tradition of Japan) could not manage to notice the difference between Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, and Chandrakirti - the philosopher sages of early and middle first millennium Buddhism-and the adepts by the same names listed here in the ancestral lineage of the Esoteric Community Tantra teachings. This disrespectful opinion about the naivete, or fundamentalism, or whatever else, on the part of the many great intellects to whom it is applied will simply no longer do. It goes along with the long-established, and now perhaps sub- liminal, "Westerners'" chauvinist idea and racial prejudice that "Eastern" people are to be lumped together with "primitive" people (not to mention that the so-called "primitives" don't fit the caricature either). The idea is that since "Eastern" people have no sense of linear time, no interest in history, and so live in the eternal now of endless cycles, this explains their lack of progress in the sciences and their general social backwardness and economic underdevelopment. Therefore, quite naturally, modem scholars would think that such "backward" people would be so unrealistic, unsci- entific, and unhistorical as to think that the two Nagarjunas, Aryadevas,
and Chandrakirtis could be the same persons. And they think the same about the many other Indian master authors who also wrote both philoso- phical and exoteric works of solid repute as well as works on the esoteric Tantras (actually most of the great ones did) .
The evidence for this truism of contemporary scholars is exclusively the presumed existence and nonexistence of texts. There is absolutely no "hard" evidence at all. The only dating used by modem scholars for these
individuals comes from the recorded timing of Chinese or Tibetan transla- tions of texts attributed to them, built upon by a certain amount of inter- textual referencing. Texts in India were hand-written on palm leaf pages and never printed until recent times. They would not last too long and would be re-copied over and over, usually every few generations. Root texts and commentaries were often intermingled, so intertextual reference is sometimes an unreliable guide. Spiritual texts in particular were con- sidered more importantly memorized than written, a tradition that came from Vedic practices. Additionally, esoteric texts were kept strictly secret,
if committed at all to some handwritten pages. The tradition says that the
24 ? Introduction
Tantric traditions were kept hidden without being written down in the human realm for over 700 years.
This is the place to put this contentious issue into a new light (as I will do more in detail below), in the context of this work on the perfection stage of Unexcelled Yoga Tantra, considered by the Indo-Tibetan Univer- sal Vehicle Buddhists to be the most advanced possible scientific and spiritual teaching. Since there is no hard evidence either way as to the dating, life-spans, and historical activities of these eminent personalities,
it is more respectful and logical to accept the critical scholarship of the traditional analysts than it is to presume to know better and dogmatically follow our various modern, "Western," and "scientific" prejudices.
The basic presumption is that, since there are no such (we are cer- tainly not) extraordinary, miracle-producing, highly enlightened beings with far-beyond-though-not-dissimilar-to-Einstein genius, no one ever could have been such a person, especially not a "pre-modern," Asian, spiritual person. Indeed the very concept of the enlightenment of buddha- hood as the complete and accurate knowledge of the exact nature of reality is preposterous to us on its face. However, we must here confront the fact that the only evidence we have for the rigid opinion that there are no other extraordinary persons up to the inconceivably extraordinary person of a buddha is our own failure to be enlightened in that way. We cannot even
say we have the evidence of never having met any such person, since they have the tradition of most often hiding their enlightenment, perhaps to avoid arrest, intrusive dissection, and lethal examination such as the E. T. in the film was about to undergo when he escaped. So we might have met one or two, but were unfortunately unable to recognize them. I do not say I am so enlightened, or that I know I have met any who are, but I am open to the fact that I wouldn't have recognized one if I saw her or him. So at least I maintain an open mind.
To summarize this argument so far:
1) The presence or absence of texts in the climate of India cannot
provide ironclad dating evidence. All the claims of contemporary scholars that there must be two of everybody are just speculation grounded in pre- conceived ideas.
2) The Tibetan scholars who accept that the two Nagarjunas, two Aryadevas, etc. , are the same persons in different eras and contexts is a perfectly good hypothesis until something non-speculative arises to dis-
Introduction ? 25
prove it. A "modernist" presumption of superior perspective is no better than a racist, nationalist, religious, or culturalist one.
3) The whole program of disproving everything "traditional" people think and believe, based on the assumed superiority of our modernist knowledge and culture, is itself obsolete in the postmodern era. A key part of our critical scholarship's quest of objective truth has to be to question the rigidity of our conditioned subjectivities and their biases and blindnesses. Through global warming (over-heating), pollution, popula- tion explosion, etc. , we are driving the world into extinction with our diseased, ignorance-driven, objectivist science and technology-magnified egocentrist culture. This cannot rationally be considered superiority in knowledge and culture. It will not do to proclaim like the late Richard Rorty that we are ethnocentric, and then just honor that fact by refusing to learn anything about any other culture or look at the world through other eyes and languages and worldviews.
4) The essence of the noble tradition of the Esoteric Community and other Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, as opposed to the Jiianapada tradi- tion and perhaps others, is that the dialecticist centrist worldview goes along with the Unexcelled Yoga lifestyle. It is inner scientific and techno- logical and not merely nonrational and mystical.
Tsong Khapa bows with powerful faith not because he is a funda- mentalist-not at all-but because he has met these ancestral adepts personally, he has talked with them. They are immortal on the magic body (miiyadeha) plane, like George Lucas's jedi masters, who can walk back and forth through time. So therefore, we need not be over-obsessed with
ancillary issues of historicism. My only purpose in even bringing it up myself-in the face of the sharp teeth of all my colleagues' and even students' modernist presuppositions - is only as part of helping the reader break through for a moment their habitual intellectual and even uncon- scious entrapment in a horizon of preconceptions wherein everything explored in this work of Tsong Khapa and other Tibetan master scholar- adepts is some sort of quaint pseudo-magical thinking, primitive supersti- tious twaddle, perhaps of some interest historically that people were ever
so crazy.
This means that Tsong Khapa himself, if he were engaged with us,
would be delighted if someone were to find a brass plate engraved with a note from Vajrin Nagarjuna that he is not the Acharya Nagarjuna, but his
26 ? Introduction
successor in philosophy and institution, his reincarnation, his namesake, his inspired descendant, or whatever.
Once in a taped interview, the present Dalai Lama of Tibet, himself a scholar and adept of this type (though he would certainly disclaim the latter honorific), once was asked the following hypothetical question by
the late Carl Sagan: "Your Holiness, what would you do if we set up a careful experiment and conclusively disproved the possibility of personal reincarnation? " After a moment of thought, the Dalai Lama said, "Why I would cease to believe in it! We no longer consider the earth to be a flat continent projecting outward from an axial mountain. " Sagan caught his breath from the surprise and cognitive dissonance he was experiencing from this response. After another moment, the Dalai Lama asked enthusi- astically, "Now how would we go about setting up such an experiment? " Needless to say, Sagan was speechless, and looked quite relieved as both
broke into hearty laughter.
So we should certainly continue to look for evidence to support,
refine, or disprove the current set of scholarly historicist theories about the dating and meaning of the Buddhist Tantras. But until we do find some- thing as concrete as the brass plaque disclaimer by Vajrin Nagarjuna, we should not avoid looking into the Tantras on the terms of those who looked into them before, over centuries, scholastically as well as yogically. These masters were highly intelligent, rational, scientific-minded people. After much study and practice they came to accept the human possibility of the full enlightenment of body as well as mind via the esoteric evolu- tionary acceleration that uses a virtual reality subtle bodymind to develop the three bodies of buddhahood in one lifetime or two. Therefore, whether or not they had attained such a fulfillment personally, they came to accept as scientific fact that their great adept ancestors had broken the biological imperatives of our era's maximum hundred year lifespan and could have continued their studies und teachings over centuries. Even after physical death. such spiritual ancestors could appear concretely and enduringly to
disciples of later times who required their direct instruction.
.
us myself u product of our modernist culture, would
I personally
be immensely astonished were Nagarjuna or Tsong Khapa etc
to me to resolve my doubts or give me encouragement. as my cullural conditioning and pen:eptuul h? tbit is still bound in materialism due to my
own lack of attainment
no convincing disproof of the possibility, just prejudiced and dogmatic
.
But intellectually, I have to admit that I have seen
.
to appear
Introduction ? 27
dismissals asserted without evidence. So I have to remain open-minded, even though skeptically so.
If anyone has concrete evidence of the impossibility of the super- normal attainments proposed in the great adept tradition, they should bring it forth.
If they cannot, yet still assert the "massive facticity" of the materialist canons of possibility, they are not a scholar, a true seeker of knowledge, but a dogmatic defender of some unexamined preconception about the innate superiority of the scientific materialist worldview, the modern academic institution, and the postmodern industrial lifestyle of the crumbling, late great Euro-American empire.
3. Who is the Inspiration of this Author?
My mentor Mafijugho$ha elucidates precisely Thepath ofthe Community, which grants to one who
understands,
The supremefearless eloquence concerning all Sutras- 1 bow with constant devotion to his lotus foot!
I need not elaborate the history of Tsong Khapa's special devotion to and mentor relationship with Maii. jushri, which I have already done in detail in my Central Philosophy of Tibet. Suffice it to say that, as hard- headed a logician and critical philosopher as he was, he did experience himself as in direct dialogue with the divine bodhisattva, day in and day
out, discussing where to go, what to do, how to develop insight into the nature of reality, and how to practice accordingly. That is to say, his pri- mary mentor in exoteric Centrist philosophical studies, and simultane- ously his root guru in the esoteric practice sense, was thought by him to be the divine bodhisattva himself-in short, his main teacher was what
might be called an angelic being.
What is interesting here is that the salutation to the bodhisattva of
wisdom in this context indicates the Tibetan tradition that the study of Dialecticist Centrism and Unexcelled Yoga Tantra are two sides of the same coin. That is, the philosophical view of Tantrism is Dialecticist relativism-the view that all things are purely conventional, illusory, and dream-like in their reality. Therefore, their nature and structure are power- fully controlled by language, relatively ultimately in the form of mantra. This view entails that the relational, conventional self is a work in pro- gress, and that it can be shaped and accelerated in its evolution through
28 ? Introduction
subtle and extremely subtle mental and physical creativity as well as by coarse-reality mental. verbal. and physical activities.
This full entanglement of Siltra and Tantra is further indicated by Tsong Khapa's statement above that it is through mastery of the Esoteric Community Unexcelled Yoga Tantra that one attains the enlightenment that bestows full explanatory eloquence about the exoteric Sotra teachings. Why does he refer to the goal of enlightenment as "supreme eloquence" about Buddha's Sotras? It must be because the first thing an enlightened being feels like doing is to share her or his happiness by expressing it in ways that will be effective in enlightening others. Tsong Khapa himself
wrote in his enlightenment poem, "Of all a buddha' s deeds, his speech is supreme. Therefore the wise praise buddhas for their speech. "
4. Who Are His Honored Tibetan Predecessors and Mentors?
Those who. driven by great waves of their store of virtues, Such as their vows to uphold the Victor's Holy Dharma, Endured so many hardships to visit the Noble Country And spread this path all over this snowy mountain land- Rinchen Zangpo, who was the eye ofour world,
Marpa ofHlodrak, keeper ofthe treasury ofsecrets, And 'Gos ofrTa Nag, the best translator, expert in
amazing texts- To their feet I bow!
Although the lineage of Tibetan generation masters of the Esoteric Community literature and practice instruction is long, Tsong Khapa singles out for special recognition three famous translators. Rinchen Zangpo (958- 1055) was a Nyingmapa when it was all of Tibetan Buddhism, before it was organized into a more formal "order" to distinguish itself from the Kadam, Kagyu, Sakya orders, etc. Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097) was the teacher of Milarepa, and Tibetan founder of the Kagyu order. Go Lotsawa (11th century) was a very important translator among the early Kadampa lamas.
The Indo-Tibetan lineage as seen by the Esoteric Community prac- titioners after Tsong Khapa runs as follows: Lord Vajradhara himself, of course; LodrO Rinchen (*Ratnamati), a tenth stage bodhisattva on the exo- teric level who attained communion on the esoteric; the Savior Naga. rjuna (ca. 100 BCE to 500 CE), who is praised for his exoteric achievement, as
having "gained the supreme exaltation of the eight masteries and having made openly visible extreme-free relativity, the sole eye for seeing the ocean ofSotras"; ". . . Matangipa, who gained supreme powers with ritual deeds in the great burning ground of Begara, heart-son sustained by the supreme noble one; . . . Tilopa, Shri Ji'Uina (ca. 988-1069), who, attaining powers, went to the Pure Land of bliss, and blessed by the Holy I;>akini, performed more deeds than a thousand buddhas; . . . Narotapa (ca. 956- 1041), in whose heart was born the magical samadhi, as the I;>akini prophesied; . . . Marpa, the skiiJed yogi who attained powers, . . . and touched the feet of hundreds of Indian masters; . . . Wangi Dorjey (aka. 'Tshur, 11th-12th century); . . . Sonam Rinchen (Jakhangpa, 12th century), a full vessel of wondrous virtues, with distinctive marks such as crown u? hr:ti? ha, and secret vajra ensheathed, stallion-like; . . . Tsultrim Kyab (disciple of Sonam Rinchen, 12th-13thcentury); . . . Zhonu b of Serding (Serdingpa, 12th-13th century), the treasury of the two tantras, identify- ing the bardos, the three illusion tantra, and the messenger's swift trans- ference to the pure land; Ozer of Deding (Choku Ozer, 13th century) holder of the treasure of limitless virtues, who at once beheld the wisdom mandala, just entering the mandala of Shri Kalachakra; . . . Pakpa b of Lake Jo, omniscient one who conquered the darkness of ignorance with the light rays of wisdom knowing reality, surpassing all ordinary percep- tions and conceptions; Buton Choje Rinchen Drub ( 1 290-1 364), who
understood the words and meanings of all Siitras and Tantras, the second Victor of the dark age, who upheld the victory banner of the non-decline of the Buddha's teachings"; and finally ". . . Khyungpo Lhaspa (14th cen- tury}, supreme master, principal of mantra holders, with immeasurable strength of merit and wisdom, whose youthful body was unstained by
flaws of lust. "3
Introduction ? 29
? 3 This lineage comes from the Community performance (sadhana) script originally written by Tsong Khapa and embellished by his successors.
30 ? Introduction
5. Who Most Needs the Esoteric Community?
Since those whose eye is prejudiced about Satra and Tantra texts,
For whom the teachings have not dawned supreme as practices,
Who do not know exactly the subtle paths of the philosophies
Ofthe world ornaments, which are the only doorway
To seek the meaning ofthe profound buddha-statements,
And who thus take refuge in mere literal expressions, And sit content with random personal instructions in the
subtle,
Cannot, even with great effort, find the good path of the
Community-
/ am going to explain itfor their sake.
To be "prejudiced" about exoteric or esoteric texts is to take one aspect or session of Buddha's teaching (Tsong Khapa considers Shakya- muni, as Vajradhara, to be the author of the Tantras) and b? come attached to it. Then, since there are inconsistencies between Sotras, and since each was taught for a specific set of disciples, if one is literalistic about the meanings and holds that the others do not measure up, are not correct, are for inferior students, and so forth, one is considered prejudiced. When all the teachings "dawn as practices" (this line drawn from the famous four-square path elaborated by Atisha), then this kind of partiality will
not prevail, and the practitioner can fulfill the aim of any teaching. Still, there are those whose studies and practice of the subtleties of logic, ethics, and critical philosophy have not prepared them to enter the Tantric path. There needs to be a basis of at least a solid inferential understanding of voidness, a firm vow of the spirit of enlightenment, and a degree of tran- scendence of being dominated by instinctual drives for power and fame.
Students not properly prepared tend to take some simplistic version of initiation or teaching and think "Ah, I am perfect! I have the perfect teaching! My teacher gave me the inner secret precept! I'm all set, and don't need all that other stuff! " So such types of aspirants for the pro- found and subtle path of the Community will fail to find their way. Their plight motivates Tsong Khapa to write this treatise.
6. Who Are the Lucky Students of this Text?
But those who are ambitiousfor the personal instruction, That comesfrom the path ofreason and reference
That well combines all Root and Explanatory Tantras
By means of the secret precept of the second great
Va j r a d h a r a ,
Should think to themselves
"How lucky am I to enter here ! "
Into this path ofgreat secrets,
Traveled by millions ofheroes and heroines, Such as lndrabhati, Sukhanatha [Padmavajra], Saraha, Nagarjuna, and Nagayoginr!
On the positive side, there are those who don't get stuck in preju- dice and sectarianism, have the right preparation and do not think that access to the esoteric obviates the need to understand the profound tran- scendent wisdom and cultivate the magnificent spirit of enlightenment. These easily recognize that the esoteric teachings also need extensive and penetrating study as well as powerful motivation to practice, and so confi- dently and wholeheartedly enter the miraculous path of Unexcelled Yoga.
Though in a previous verse Tsong Khapa has already mentioned the ancestral mentors, in this verse he selects the mentors who are more re- vered for their heroic deeds than for their profound writings. He addition- ally mentions Mahasukhanatha, who is usually recognized as Padmavajra, a great adept identified with Avalokiteshvara (in the 84 adepts' histories he is the mentor of the adept Shavari, the hunter).
7. How to Study this Text
Think it over well, yourfaces aglow with joy, Allowing yourself the feelings of the brightest smile, And, abandoning all distractions
And the three faults of vessels -
Listen [to me well]!
Finally, Tsong Khapa encourages us to be happy and proud, now that we have been fortunate enough to encounter this teaching. We should approach it with proper preparation and suitable respect. His own delight
in being able to share this quintessential clarification of the deepest points
Introduction ?
3 1
32 ? Introduction
of the most advanced practices is infectious, and he urges the reader, student, or disciple to allow herself or himself the luxury of a great big smile. He then gets down to business, admonishing us to avoid covering the vessel of our minds with arrogance, the false idea that we already know everything there is to know about this and so seal off our receptiv- ity and the possibility of us coming up with new insight and experience (the fault of the covered vessel): to avoid poisoning the elixir of the teaching poured into the vessel by nursing within our attitudes the dis- torting motivations of greed for power or fame or wealth, hateful com-
petitiveness with rivals thinking how our new knowledge will enable us to dominate them. or delusions about how we can possess and manipu- late these treasure teachings of the heart and use them to bolster our egotism and status (the fault of the poisoned vessel); and to avoid losing the teachings by being forgetful and distracted, rushing on to other things. looking for shortcuts and easy ways out, being taken in by seduc- tive but superficial "easy" approaches and so missing the essence, the value of these supreme instructions (the fault of the vessel with holes in it which loses its contents immediately, however bountifully they are poured into it).
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF TSONG KHAPA ' S BRILLIANTILLUMINATION OF THE LAMP
OF THE FIVE STAGES
CHAPTER [
Introductory
(2b. 5-34h. 31
I bow reverently to the lotus foot of Lord Maiijugho? ha, the mentor of all the Lords of Bliss !
Ablaze in the glory of wondrous signs and marks, Forever playing in the taste of the bliss-void kiss, Recklessly compassionate, free of the calm extreme - I bow to the Victor with the seven super-factors.
To the Lord of Secrets, collector of all secrets combined, And to the ancestral mentors who achieved supremacy Through the path of the Community, King of Tantras - Indrabhuti, Naga<Jakini, Visukalpa, glorious Saraha, Vajrin Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Nagabodhi, Shakyamitra, Matangi, Chandra[kirti]pada and the others -
I bow with the mind of ferocious faith !
My mentor Maiijugho? ha elucidates precisely
The path of the Community, which grants to one who
understands,
The supreme fearless eloquence concerning all Sutras- I bow with constant devotion to his lotus foot!
Those who, driven by great waves of their store of virtues, Such as their vows to uphold the Victor's Holy Dharma, Endured so many hardships to visit the Noble Country And spread this path tall over this snowy mountain land- Rinchen Zangpo, who was the eye of our world,
Marpa of Hlodrak, keeper of the treasury of secrets, And 'Gos of rTa Nag, the best translator,
Expert in amazing texts - to their feet I bow !
35
Brillitmt Illumination ofthe Lamp
for those whose eye is biased among SOtra and Tantra texts.
For whom the teachings have not dawned supreme as practices,
Who do not know exactly the subtle paths of the philosophies
Of the world ornaments, which are the only doorway
To seek the meaning of the profound buddha-statements, And who thus take refuge in mere literal expressions, And sit content with random personal instructions in the
subtle ,
And cannot, even with great effort, find the good path of
the Community-
! am going to explain it for their sake.
As for those who are ambitious for the personal instruction,
That comes from the path of reason and reference [2bl That well combines all Root and Explanatory Tantras By means of the personal precept of the second great
Vajradhara,
Should think to themselves
"How lucky am I to enter here! "
Into this path ofgreat secrets,
Traveled by millions of heroes and heroines, Such as Indrabhuti, Sukhanatha [Padmavajra], Saraha, Nagarjuna, and NagayoginL
Think it over well, your faces aglow with joy, Allowing yourself the feelings of the brightest smile, And, abandoning all distractions
And the three faults of vessels -
Listen [carefully to me now] !
Here the sole lamp of the three worlds, the best leader of humans and gods, and the source ofall true eloquence is the divine lord Buddha. The supreme, the consummation, and the chief principle of whatever he taught of true eloquence in accordance with the needs of the disciples, is this Glorious Esoteric Community (Shrr Guhyasamiija), the precious
? 6 ?
Chapter /-Introduction ? 37
jewel of the three worlds. Based on that, the subject to be explained here is the stages of the path on which the fortunate person may progress to supreme enlightenment.
[*******]
To explain this there are six parts: [1. ] Arrangement of the two
[kinds of] Tantras; [II. ] Expression of the greatness of the Community; [III. ] The process of elucidating its inner intention; [IV. ] Enumeration of the treatises in the Noble (arya) literature; [V. ] The way its personal instructions were transmitted in Tibet; [VI. ] The import of the actual precious jewel of personal instruction.
The first has three parts: [A. ] History of the origin of the various names of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras; [B. ] Showing the difference of the two Tantras according to the meaning of their names; [C. ] Explaining in particular the art Tantras.
[I. A. - History of the origin of the various names of the Unexcel led Yoga Tantras]
There are many ways of naming the two l3aJ divisions of the Un- excelled Tantras. The Vow Arisal calls them "Yoga Tantra" and "Yogini Tantra," as in:
Six million is ascertained
As the number of the Yoga Tantras, And sixteen million are counted Of those known as Yogini Tantras.
The Buddha Skull-bowl and the Vajra Pavilion also employ similar ex- pressions. Here, for example, while "child" is the basis of differentiating
into "boy" and "girl," a boy [alone] can be generally called a
while " Yoga Tantra" as a general name can be used for both "art" and "wisdom Tantras," "Yoga Tantra" is [also] given to "art Tantras" [alone ] . Many sources also use "Oakini Tantra" for "Yogini Tantra. " Such sources
? ? as the Stainless Light use the expressions "art Tantra" and
Tantra," while Nagabodhi and Chandraklrti use "wisdom SOtra" for Mother Tantra. The mentors of Tibet, when citing terms paired with
"
child
''
; so
"
wisdom
[I. - Arrangement of the two (kinds of) Tantras]
38 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
"Yogini Tantra," use the expressions "Father Tantra" and "Mother
Tantra," in agreement with the Vajra Essence Ornament Tantra:
The Vajra Essence Ornament Tantra Is the grandmother of all Tantras,
Of mother c;fakinis and father c;fakas.
of their names]
The second has two: [1. ] Setting forth the points of doubt; and
[2. ] Explaining the individual positions concerning them.
[I. B. l. - Setting forth the points of doubt]
One may doubt as follows: If the Unexcelled Tantras are divided into "art" and "wisdom" Tantras, then is it or is it not the case that they are Tantras of the nonduality of art and wisdom? If the former, [Jbl it is incorrect, as the meaning of the given names "wisdom" and "art" is that they are Tantras partial to wisdom or to art, and nondual Tantras should be Tantras equally applied to wisdom and art. If the latter, it is incorrect, since the meaning of "yoga" in "Unexcelled Yoga" corresponds to what is stated in the Community Further Tantra:
The union of art and wisdom Is called "yoga. "
This means that art and wisdom are evenly integrated, and not favored separately. Therefore, the Unexcelled Tantras of evenly integrated art and wisdom are rightly called "nondual Tantras. " Therefore, you should declare whether you think that the expressions "art Tantra" and "wisdom Tantra" are or are not contradictory to "nondual Tantra. "
? ? ? ? ? [I. B. - Showing the difference of the two Tantras according to the meaning
llB. 2. - Explaining the individual positions concerning them I
The second has two: [a. ] Others' systems: and (b. ) Our own system.
I I. B. 2. a.
Some Tibetan mentors divide the Unexcelled Tantras into three sepa-
- Others' systemsI
rate categories: art, wisdom, and nondual Tantras: [they] use the criterion
Chapter /- Introduction ? 39 that the two former are partial toward art or wisdom and the latter teaches
both. They take the Hevajra as nondual, since it calls itself A Tantra whose nature is art and wisdom,
which [supposedly] does not contradict the fact that that Tantra also calls itself a "Yogini" Tantra, since they say that a nondual Tantra must contain a wisdom Tantra. But according to that, the definitive position is that Un- excelled art and wisdom Tantras are both ultimately nondual Tantras. Hence they must say how their own position, that the Unexcelled Tantras 14al have three kinds-which are differentiated by the criterion of whether they teach the two separately or both together-is not contradictory to that.
Some Tibetan mentors say Kr? hQ. acharya stated that a Tantra begin- ning with "Thus have I heard . . . " is an art Tantra, and a Tantra beginning with "Delighted by the supreme esoteric . . . " is a Mother Tantra. They allow that the Hevajra is set up according to its own expressions: the [Hevajra] Root Tantra using the former [beginning], the [Vajra] Pavilion Explanatory Tantra [of the Hevajra] using the latter [beginning] , and the Samputa [Tantra] using both kinds, therefore being nondual. The Root Tantra of the Supreme Bliss Tantra has the latter [beginning], while its Explanatory Tantras such as the Unexcelled Clear Articulation begin
with "Thus have I heard. . . . " Still, considering that both types of expres- sions are used elsewhere in the [Unexcelled Clear] Articulation, they posit the Supreme Bliss Tantra also as a nondual Tantra. When one criti- cizes them by saying, "In that case what will ever be a Mother Tantra? " -they say their system is that although each Tantra teaches both magni- ficent art and profound wisdom, the category is determined by which is
less emphasized. These [mentors] consider that the two other kinds of Tantras and the nondual Tantras are mutually contradictory, and thus seem never to have examined the natures of the art and wisdom involved in the two kinds of Tantras and the art and wisdom involved in the non-
dual Tantras .