c'3'd'i'c"4"c"ii"B'"2"' -
Here you may wonder, "Well, when one accomplishes the three
wisdom-intuitions, 1202bl where does the metaphoric clear light come in?
Here you may wonder, "Well, when one accomplishes the three
wisdom-intuitions, 1202bl where does the metaphoric clear light come in?
Thurman-Robert-a-F-Tr-Tsong-Khapa-Losang-Drakpa-Brilliant-Illumination-of-the-Lamp-of-the-Five-Stages
Though it teaches you to compress the deity body, lotus petals, drop, and short A one into another, its not setting the dissolving process of those as [equivalent to] the three voids can be understood as an error, by the key of the other two versions.
You should produce the three voids through the
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 379
from the letter of the first lotus petal, cultivating vessel and essence, and collecting that into the consonants"; and again, "collecting them into the vowels"; and so on-many different instructions appear, but the real
position is clearly as above.
380 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
three dissolutions as in the previous versions. It seems that the intention here is that you should do vajra recitation until the five signs such as mirage arise, which is excellent.
By the system of these extensive and concise instructions, in devel- oping the mind isolation, it is accomplished by bringing together two arts, the holding of the wind-energies in kiss connection and the compression process of the visualizations. The development of the mind isolation relying on the consort is explained in the Five Stages, not being stated expicitly in the Concise Five Stages or among the personal instructions of Serdingpa, but obvious in the instruction that appears there is the
general way to develop bliss relying on the great seal consort.
Some others who follow Marpa's tradition assert that, without holding the wind-energies in kiss-connection, visualizing the three kinds of letters, practicing vajra recitation in order and purifying the three kinds of instinctual natures, the three wisdoms are created. From the private instructions of Naropa transmitted through Nagtso, in regard to the condition of the mind needing to be realized by combining with bliss, there are two ways; the first is the passionate relying on the lower door, which involves relying on a consort, and [the second] is the dispassionate
relying on the upper door. [ 194bJ
Then there are the three methods to develop bliss, relying on a
garland of letters, on a mere letter, and on no letter. In terms of the first of these, you meditate that, by the light rays radiated from the three kinds of letters in the heart center, the crown HAM melts and fills the heart center, and when bliss develops the energy is taught to be held only for brief intervals; and otherwise there does not seem to be the instructions as before to hold the wind-energies in kiss connection and to visualize the compression process.
Setting forth the correct opinions
The second has two parts: [A'"] Analyzing how are those systems; and [B'") Setting forth the enduring opinion.
? 'VI 8
?
I
? -
AnaIyzmg
ow are t 1ose systems hI
As for the wind-energies, to first collect them in the central dhati and dissolve them, you must have the definite vital key of the body.
among thcmj
lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"c"ii" -
b00 o'J'd'o' ""noon . ,, . . J. . n. c 1 c 4 c 11 A
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 381
Having meditated the art of penetrating the vital points in the body through vajra recitation and so on, you inject the wind-energies into the dhati and they dissolve, and you practice by developing the four voids and joys, and then visualize whatever objective and hold the mind [there; then] the wind-energies collect and those experiences as appropriate seem to arise. That occurs by the force of the previous, and it is not certain that there is any imprint of that later objective. Therefore, [though you may] have learned well the vajra recitation, once having learned [a bit about the mind objective], if you hold the visualizations as above explained and those experiences happen to develop, by that reason [alone] one cannot prove that that instruction is the [full] import of those treatises. As for the Five Stages' and Integrated Practices' explanations of the three letters and moon, sun, and vajra as synonyms of the three luminances, they mean that those names are designated to the three lumi- nances of the perfection stage, and that "you should meditate imagining those, as in the creation stage [19. 5aJ you cannot develop the three lumi- nance wisdoms. " Therefore what the mentor Abhijfia asserted is correct, that it does not mean that [you can reach the mind objective just] by meditating through the perfection stage, having set up letters on moon and sun and so on. Even if you cause it to be produced, you must do it in the heart center; if you do it in the navel center, you do not understand the key point of this system. As for statement that "they originate from the intuition of luminance and from radiance. . . ," it indicates that the instinctual natures originate from those [luminance states], and does not teach that the intuitions originate from meditating on letters and so on. By making effort to meditate the letters and the white, red, and black colors of the light rays the objective perceptions arise in those colors; but that is not the way of the arisal of the colors explained in the treatises. Though the Concise Five Stages explains the three sets of letters in order, as illustrative of luminance, radiance, and imminence, it does not need to teach that the intuitions are produced by holding the mind in front of
those letters set up [in visualization). As that text says:
Bind the mind in equanimity,
You will evenly see the wisdom
Of the hub of the wheel in equipoise, And imminence is great void
? 382 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
-it does not agree with the explanation that you bind the mind from distracting to other objects while visualizing the letter set in the wheel, equilibriating the mind as if it dwelt in the letter; from habituating to that equilibrium. l t95hl the mind enters into the indestructible along with its short A in the hub of the wheel. and the great void is produced from that turning into uniformity of experience.
Therefore. even if you compress the wheel, once you have reached stabilized vivid vision in the letter, first visualize the outer, then com- press into the intermediate, then compress into the inner, and then com- press into the indestructible, and then become habituated to visualizing
that. Or, setting up the letters as above, if you alternate doing that, the compression into the dhati is quick. Whereas if you do not compress into the interior of the dhati but habituate on the outside, the definitive paths of void will not arise, since they emerge from compressing and dissolv- ing into the dhati. From the Concise Five Stages, there is no explanation of holding the wind-energies in kiss connection beyond those of the meditation on the letters and the vajra recitation. Though the Vajra
Rosary often states that "you achieve by the reality of mantra alone ! " - if you meditate knowing the vital points of that, it has the meaning that you achieve even though you do not combine it with any other energy connection .
Here, not having realized the complete vital points of vajra recita- tion, if you think that "if there is no holding the wind-energies in kiss- connection, I won't be able to accomplish the dissolving of the wind- energies into the dhati"; [you are right, as] it is so explained that if if you hold them in kiss-connection it seems you do not realize the key point of this practical instruction; but this does not mean in general that the vajra recitation meditator is at fault if s/he holds the wind-energies in kiss- connection. Here [in mind isolation context,] [ 1 96a] holding in kiss- connection requires that you perform the vase-pressure at the heart center. What is stated in the Vow Arisal, "in first meditating energy- connection, heart-center vase-pressure is a great hindrance," is a message for those who are inexpert in that yoga; if you know what you're doing it is not a big hindrance.
By that explanation of the wind-energy compression process taught in the Wheel Endowed, you can understand also the compression process of the three wheel-less [instructions]. Though it is not sure that the three wisdom-intuitions will be produced immediately in front of the set up of
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 383
the letters, the voids are not posited as occurring from the stages of the descending of the enlightenment spirit from the crown to the jewel. And as for the Marpa tradition personal instruction that the voids are pro- duced from the stages of compression in the heart center, it is the vital point of the word, "consciousness is the support of the compression of life-energy. meditate the wheel of mantra in the heart center"; and this seems to be the unexcelled vital point also of the father and son personal instruction.
[Chandrak. Irti] states in the Illumination of the Lamp that the four signs from mirage to burning candle flame arise from the dissolution one into another of earth, water, fire, wind, and consciousness. It has been explained above how when wind dissolves luminance is produced, which
does not mean that those many signs arise at the time of the three lumi- nances, and so it should be accepted according to [Aryadeva's] explana- tion in the Integrated Practices as expressed in the Concise Five Stages passage :
First the mirage-like experience
Arises with its five light-rays,
Second there is the moon-like luminance,
And third there is embrace by the light of sun; And from the night luminance there is imminence.
[196bl Herenotmentioningthethreesignsotherthanmirageisforthesake of brevity; it can be understood more extensively according to the Further Tantra and other contexts in the Illumination ofthe Lamp. In short, as the previous various systems did not add newly visualizations such as medi- tating letters here in the context of the mind isolation, it is not good to newly add visualizations as arts of developing mind isolation, without examining whether, having first achieved body isolation, you are or are not able to develop how much of the four voids in general by the speech isolation vajra recitation. This is because it would seem to be a case of explaining subtle arts while leaving out the principal of penetrating the vital points in the inner body where mind isolation is developed. The things explained above in the category of the arts of generating bliss through the visualizations given in the private instructions descending from Nagtso seem to be rendered in view of the need of the swift genera-
tion of bliss; nevertheless, they do not seem to convey the import of the authoritative treatises.
384 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"c"ii"B"'l'" - The way the wisdoms are pro- duced from outer and inner conditions]
[Nagarjuna states] in the Five Stages:
The mantri/ni staying in vajra recitation
Will attain the mind objective . . .
-that the vajra recitation develops the mind isolation void, but is not explicit about how it develops. [Aryadeva], in the Integrated Practices, states that you will attain mind isolation by abiding in speech isolation and that mind isolation will not arise without speech isolation, but in this context is also not explicit about how that mind isolation arises. However, [197al if you know how to investigate the statements that explain the three [experiences] which you enter in the context of the detailed explanation of speech isolation and those about the arisal of clear light at the conclu- sion when the wind-energies enter the indestructible, you can comprehend how the voids are produced from the vajra recitation's compressing and dissolving the wind-energies into the indestructible; which I have already explained. Further, the Vajra Rosary states often and explicitly how the mind isolation voids are generated from the perspective of the vajra reci-
tation's blocking the circulation of the wind-energies:
By strong application of vajra recitation Having known the nature of wind-energy,
You cut off the instinct-driving wind-energies, And will attain the objective in the mind.
I have already explained how in general the vajra recitation develops the voids. As for the particular boundary whence the mind isolation voids are developed, it is from when, having well released the heart center channel knot, you are able to compress the wind-energies into the heart center indestructible, and it is not before that.
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"4"c"ii"o"' -
The second has two parts: [1'"] The way the wisdoms are pro- duced from outer and inner conditions; [2'"] The way such bliss and
Setting forth the enduring opinion]
void are united, and so forth.
Since, from the above quote from the third chapter of the Illumina- tion of the lAmp, "you should meditate always day and night with the yoga of entry, abiding, emergence, and compression," the "yoga of emer- gence, entry, and abiding" is the vajra recitation, the "compression yoga" clearly must be taken to apply to being able to develop the four voids by means of vajra recitation and the indestructible. Naropa's [197bJ private instructions also sometimes mention the development of the voids as "compression yoga. " As for the way of compression, according to the Five Point statement "it is the practice by means of the two contempla- tions," it should be practiced by means of the holistic holding and serial dissolving [samadhis]; since the Lawapa Commentary on Luyipa's Arts ofAchievement explains the compression by serial dissolving from the lower part of the perfection stage, the Personal Instruction also explains through binding the compression by serial dissolving into the heart center indestructible, and there seems to be no difference about that here in this context. Also the private instructions from Naropa as inherited from Nag- tso explain the way to generate mind isolation without any letters, and mantra wheel letters do not appear in the three Concentrated Personal Instructions of the Marpa tradition; thus even in that tradition mantra wheel letters are not indispensable.
If you wonder, "If we take the method of developing the mind iso- lation to be the meditation of the three life-energy controls and the com- pression yoga, will that be sufficient? "
Here the Wisdom Vajra Compendium states:
Uniting the vajra and the lotus serves as the method of mind and mental functions. Uniting mind and mental functions serves as the art of the great bliss samadhi. That is indicated by the simile of magical illusion.
And:
Just as, without thoroughly combining milk and sesa- mum you won't get butter and sesame butter 1 1 "? 1111 ), so. without uniting vajra and lotus which thoroughly com- bine mantrt'/nT and consort, you cannot approach the three
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 385
Well then, you may wonder, are any other visualizations for the compression process needed to develop [the voids] from that boundary,
or are there not?
. ? M6 ? Brilliant Illumination of thr Lamp
consciousnesses. Through such inability to unite vagina
and phallus. the samadhi of great bliss is not discovered.
Here the positive inference is that the three luminances are produced from the union with the consort and the negative inference is that those three are precluded when that union is eliminated. In regard to the "great bliss" mentioned where wisdom is the art of great bliss, [Aryadeva] says in the Integrated Practices that it is the magic body; therefore you need the external consort in order to fully generate the three intuitive wisdoms of mind isolation which are the base for achieving the magic body. As for that import. it is stated in the Five Stages:
Of all magics, woman's magic is most excellent. This clearly marks the distinct three wisdoms- Attachment, detachment, and that between -
All three come from the union of two organs, The connection of vajra and lotus.
Thus, this does not mean that, in order to generate mind isolation, the specifying of the lustful and the lust-free refers to the practice of the lower door and the upper door. Bearing in mind that statement in the Five Stages, [Aryadeva] in the Integrated Practices did not mention the exter- nal art for generating mind isolation. As for Lak? hmi' s explanation of this marking of the three wisdoms from the consort in the time of the third initiation, though in general such does apply in the time of the third initiation, this is the context of the path of learning [198bJ the mind isolation.
Here you might wonder, "If in the case of a properly qualified person, if the actual anointment with the third initiation is preliminary to meditating the path of the two stages, is it necessary or not that in this context the three wisdoms are marked through relying on the evolution- ary consort? "
Previously, in that initiation the four joys are there from the per- spective of the outer life-energy control which dissolves the energy into the dhati. In this context [of mind isolation] , it is taken as referring to the proper discovery of the ability [to dissolve the wind-energies] by medi-
tating the three life-energy controls. Thus here it concerns the generation of the mind isolation three wisdom-intuitions, much more distinctively
excellent than the former; so it is not unnecessary that again it be marked [in that way] here.
You may then wonder, "Here, is that generating of the three wis- doms relying on the evolutionary consort a matter of generating it from the enlightenment spirit melting from the crown and falling to the tip of the phallus at the secret center? Or is it a matter of compressing the melted enlightenment spirits from the upper and lower parts of the body into the heart center? "
[Chandrakirti says] in the Illumination ofthe Lamp that the mandala triumph is generated from the enlightenment spirit melting and falling into the path of the vajra. However, other treatises' clear explanation that when the enlightenment spirit melts and reaches this center in the body, this joy and void are produced, does not appear in the treatises of the five father and sons. Nevertheless, it is explained that when wind dissolves there is mind luminance, when mind dissolves there is mental function radiance, when mental function dissolves there is imminence, and when that dissolves clear light arises. As [Aryadeva explains] in the Integrated Practices:
From the union of the vajra and the lotus, beginning from the crown, the enlightenment spirit melts from the 72,000 channels [199a] and descends gradually through the lustful, lustfree, and their medium states.
By force of the melting of the enlightenment spirit the three wis- doms are produced. Thus the four voids arise by the force of both the process of dissolving the wind-energies and the melting and falling of the enlightenment spirit. In that regard, I have already explained that the best place for dissolving the energy of this system is the interior of the heart center dhati; and I will explain it further. Thus, through vajra recitation and
so forth, the fury-fire blazes and the enlightenment spirit melts, and the place wherein compressing it produces the four voids is the heart center. Again, it is not that the four joys cannot be produced in the emergent order through the falling of the melted enlightenment spirit to the sensi- tive tip of the secret place and the reverse order of its reversing back up to the head crown. That does indeed take place as already explained in the context of the body isolation. Here you are developing the four voids of extremely great impact according to the death process, and so it is an emergent order coming from the process of compressing the wind-energies
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 387
388 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
hither into the heart center and a reverse order coming from a process of expanding back out from the heart center. Thus, by the inner condition of the method of meditating life-energy control however you do it, and by an outer condition of relying on union with the consort, the wind-energies and enlightenment spirits are both compressed into the heart center from the top and bottom of the body. As [Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices :
Together with your consort, by the process of the holis- tic holding or serial dissolving, you enter into ultimate reality.
Thereby, he explains that by uniting with the outer consort [199bl you enter into ultimate reality by the process of the four voids, using the compres- sion yoga of whichever of the two contemplations, which amounts to compression in the heart center; because, when you rely on previous habituation to the compression process in the heart center, when you unite with the consort and practice the yoga of the two contemplations, the union with the outer consort serves as a condition for the compres-
sion of the wind-energy-mind into the heart center.
As for the arisal of the voids from compression of the enlighten-
ment spirits melted down [and up] from upper and lower body through the vajra recitation's ignition of the furor-fire, it can be understood as applying from the boundary of being able to generate the voids from the dissolving process compressing the wind-energies into the heart center through vajra recitation, even though it is not yet perfected. Thus, you can understand correctly the generation of the voids by melting the en- lightenment spirits through the condition of the outer consort, serving as the condition of compressing [wind-energies and enlightenment spirits] into the heart center from the top and bottom of the body. By this you should understand also how by uniting with the wisdom consort you can compress wind-energy and enlightenment spirit into the heart center. If you can generate the voids through the process of compressing the wind- energy and enlightenment spirit in the heart center, you can also be able to practice either way to develop the distinctive voids, through the process of the joys of downward descending and upward stabilizing, or the process
of compressing into and expanding out from the heart center.
Some others who follow the father and sons do not grasp the vital point of generating the distinctive four voids of this system, since they
interpret according to the explanation that in general the voids emerging from melting the enlightenment spirits and especially the voids emerging from union with the outer consort, all of them are the same as the four joys, [200aJ whether of falling from crown to secret place sensitive tip or of rising back up to the crown. They have made the mistake of not deter- mining precisely the need to achieve the magic body according to the between [process] and the need to generate the voids systematically according to the processes of death. Here, [Nagarjuna states] in the Five Stages :
Who finds not vajra-lotus union
Even superficially,
Will [still] achieve [mind objective] once by experience, Due to the potency of the yoga.
Through the actuality of the wisdom function, Understanding accurately the distinctions, The yogi/ni should always discern that
Just that also is the instinctual nature.
In regard to the meaning of this, [Viryabhadra' s] Clear Meaning explana- tion is not correct in saying that this refers to the precept holders and the hermaphrodites who have no union of two sex organs yet can generate the three wisdoms from the vivid contemplative stabilization. Damtsig Dorjey explains that if the devotee vajra experiences [this deep dissolv- ing] one time [already] at the time of initiation, it will be achieved on the strength of his/her inner yoga; such also are the positions of the Moon- light and of Lak? hmi. The explanation of Master Go [of this] as the Tsun- mojen system, that the yogilni, even without uniting with the outer con- sort in constant reliance, if s/he recognizes [the mind objective] naturally a single time, afterwards s/he learns in other ways; that is the meaning of the treatise. ["Not finding even] superficially" is claimed by some to refer to not finding according to common knowledge. However, the meaning is that, I200bl just as the "superficial" nose tip refers to the facial nose-tip, even though there is no continuous union of the superficial [outer consort's] lotus and vajra, by experiencing [such union] even once [imaginarily], depending on that, by accustoming yourself to a wisdom
consort and so on, you can develop the mind isolation.
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 389
JQO ? Brilliant lll11minotion of the u1mp
Here. one might wonder. "If reliance on the outer consort begins from the boundary of perfecting the vajra recitation, then the Esoteric: Accmrpr li. 'ihment statement:
Having an evolutionary consort, Through the union of vajra and lotus, A truth speaker can experientially Proclaim such a meditation.
A beginner practitioner
Who gives up such an evolutionary consort,
[Even] showing [mastery of] the enlightenment spirit,
By other-shown [arts] will not see [the mind objective] - As should be understood from the beginner's case.
and the Five Stages also will be in contradiction; since from that [text above] it states that in the case of the beginner, if s/he abandons the method of the outer consort, s/he will not be shown [the goal] by other methods, and so s/he must be shown by that [method]. And here the beginner is defined as the yogi/ni who cannot inject the wind-energies into the dhuti by the force of meditating the inner life-energy control.
There is no such contradiction, since the explanation in the Five Stages intends the generation of the three wisdoms of mind isolation, and the intention of the Esoteric Accomplishment is the generation of the orgasmic wisdom of the four joys. As for a fully qualified embodied person as stated in the definition of such a beginner, it is extremely rare; so since the object is like that, you should not make a mistake in regard
to what is a "beginner. " [20la] In regard to that embodied person as a vehicle of bliss, though there seem to be other arts of developing it up to the secret center, "if you abandon the above-explained art other [methods]
will not show [the objective]" intends its serving as an art for injecting the wind-energies into the dhuti. Further, as for the reason for that, though you can develop a little assurance if you apply the references from the Vajra Rosary, the Great Seal Drop, and the Personal Instruction, a deci- sive assurance is extremely difficult. As for the art for such an embodied person to be able to hold [back the wind-energy and spirit of enlighten- ment] without emission until the orgasmic [bliss] is shown, it is the medi- tation of the reversal of wind-energy and the [placement of the] PHAT
syllable, and so on.
Here you might wonder, "it is not necessary to reverse the wind- energy in relying on an outer consort, since the Vajra Angel, the Red Yamdri Tantra eighteenth chapter, and the Achala Unexcelled Tantra and
so on state many techniques . for arresting the substance seed. "
Such statements are for the general purpose of causing one not to emit the enlightenment spirit. If you apply them to the context of the outer consort, statements such as "if enlightenment spirit falls after hav- ing held the showing of orgasmic wisdom, take it with the tongue," are for the propose of not allowing enlightenment spirit to be emitted, and are neither stated when one cannot inject the wind-energies into the dhati and dissolve them nor stated when one can dissolve the wind-energies in the dhati by the force of meditating vajra recitation and so on. As for this, for many who can hold [enlightenment spirit] without emission, there is no fault, and though [the practice] can be claimed to produce great excel-
lent qualities, if there is no art of uniting this [practice] with the view of voidness that decisively ascertains reality, the purpose for generating bliss is lost. Hence, [20JbJ there are very many statements that it [can] become a cause of endless horrible migrations; but I do not recite them, fearing prolixity. Further, since it is not enough either, just to have such a view of voidness, you must realize with precision the purposes for fulfilling many other qualifications.
In terms of the objective [consort] mentioned, you should under- stand, from the Personal Instruction and the Vow Arisal and so on, the mention in general of the three yoginis, the orgasmic, the local, and the mantric, and chiefly the latter; those of the buddha-clans such as Lochana, who are of four types, the "lotus-possessing," the "conch- possessing," the "elephant-possessing," and the "deer-possessing"; and who individually have general and specific characteristics and so forth of body and mind. Just as in inner life-energy control there are many ways of developing distinctive qualities from the procedures of penetrating the
vital points in the different channel wheels, there are the same [variety of ways] in the outer life-energy control. As for the reason why such an art must mark such a special beginner, the remembering and cultivating that bliss-void in the context of the creation stage has served as a special means of developing the roots of virtue that generate the realizations of the perfection stage; and when s/he meditates the arts of penetrating the vital points in the body of the perfection stage, there arc many purposes.
such as [giving] an extreme ease of compressing the wind
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 391
-
energies
.
392 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp are united, and so forth]
Thus, in relying on an outer consort, you must unite the bliss developed by that method and the void you have precisely understood. As for the bliss developed by meditating vajra recitation and so on, if your voidness view is well developed, you must meditate uniting it with that. [202al In this regard, in other Tantras when the four joys are gener- ated, they usually do not teach uniting the first three joys with the voids, but often mention uniting [universal voidness] with the fourth, orgasmic joy. Here, as above explained, mind isolation is generated as a means of realizing the reality of the mind, and therefore it is a union of bliss and void in the context of all four voids. Since you will not realize selfless- ness if you do not unite the bliss and void of the three wisdom-intuitions, they will not arise in the mode of nonelaboration, and only the luminances themselves of white, red, and black will arise. If you do unite the bliss and void of those three, in the actuality of the certain knowledge of the view you must eliminate the subject-object dichotomy in the three lumi-
nances. Thus, though the three luminances arise in that awareness, they do not arise in the experiential actuality of the conceptual differential of certainty. For example, when the noble equipoise arises in the mode of nonelaboration in conceptual consciousness, though it arises as having the form of the decline of dualistic perception in the experience of certainty, in general there is no decline of dualistic perception in that conceptual consciousness.
Here you may wonder, "Just after having recovered from the un- consciousness of imminence with its aspect of darkness, if there is at the least the arisal of the void like the clear pre-dawn sky, why in the context of mind isolation is the procedure for developing the three wisdoms taught and the universal void not taught? "
This is true. Intending the non-production of objective clear light wisdom anywhere short of the magic body, [only] the three voids are explained; but it is not that the metaphoric clear light is not generated.
It is compressed into imminence. Thus, in the first part of immi- nence there is a dark-like aspect but awareness is not lost, in the middle part you lose awareness, and in the end that unconsciousness is cleared
? IVI. B. 3. b. ii.
c'3'd'i'c"4"c"ii"B'"2"' -
Here you may wonder, "Well, when one accomplishes the three
wisdom-intuitions, 1202bl where does the metaphoric clear light come in? "
The way such bliss and void
away and a seeming clear sky happens, free of the three causes of decep- tion. If you interpret metaphoric clear light as universal void, in terms of the four voids the first two parts of imminence are interpreted as great void. In general in the first three voids. by just the proportion of how great is the momentum of termination of wind-energies, just so dense and long are the clarity and nonconceptuality of the clear light. Especially in the occasion of imminence unconsciousness, by just how great is the momen- tum of the loss of consciousness. just so much is the elimination of the mind's ability to distract itself to other objects and the development of immersion into clear light itself. As [Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices:
By that very iron hook-like ignorance itself you do not cause there to be any mixture in consciousness, but openly reacting to clear light itself, there is the immacu- late actuality.
At the time of the arisal of clear light, except for remembering the view of voidness and focusing one-pointedly on the import of reality, you must concentrate consciousness completely, unmoved by wind-energies, without any thinking about other objects. As [Aryadeva says] in the Inte- grated Practices, "as long as consciousness is unmoved, even sleeping you behold the clearly luminous. " He mentions here the sleep clear light just as an example. When your mental consciousness develops into the great bliss, by then remembering the import of selflessness, [203aJ you achieve the subject-object union of bliss and void, without requiring any other way of union. As for the bliss-void-union of the three wisdoms as explained, that is the "mind" which is the basis to be isolated; and the elimination of [both] the sign habit [holding] that apart and any non-
immersion in the experience of universal bliss is the meaning of "isola- tion. " And as for these explanations of the arrangement of the voids in the occasion of mind isolation, you should understand it also [as appli- cable] to other occasions higher and lower.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"S" - Showing the dangers and the advantages of not knowing and knowing that (import ) correctly]
If you do not realize correctly the true nature of your mind in terms of the eighty instinctual natures and the three luminances, relying on the
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 393
? ? CM ? Brilliant 11/umirratinn n. fthf' Lamp
Tantras that explain them in that way. you will be bound like a silkworm by the evolution and addictions stemming from egoism and possessive- ness. and finally. having experienced the fruition of the two kinds of evo- lutionary momentum previously accumulated, by the process of entering the ultimate reality clear light of death you will abandon your old body- mind complex. you will adopt a between body of mere energy-mind as the homogeneous effect of the truth-realm death clear light, and, driven into the five migrations by whichever of the two kinds of evolutionary momentum in the pattern of the rattling buckets on a water-wheel, again and again you will be reborn and suffer the miseries of the egoistic life cycle. [On the other hand, Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices that, if you possess the intuitive wisdom of realizing mind isolation through the process of [knowing] the instinctual natures and the three luminances, at the time of the homogeneous [emergent] order, you will dissolve the wind-energies that move the virtuous and nonvirtuous natural instincts and the voids will dawn in sequence and you will enter into the clear light transparency. [2113bJ At the time of the reverse order, relying on the strong movement of the luminance wind-energies, you will realize the movement of the instinctual natures, you will orient yourself at the
door of the self-consecration, and you will achieve liberation.
To abbreviate the import, understanding the self habit as the cause of migrating in the egoistic life cycle and as the means of supporting the instinctual cognitive obscurations, you decisively determine the view of
selflessness that eradicates the objective of the self habit. You see that if you do not develop that view into the experiential actuality of great bliss you will not have completed the extraordinary c ause of the wisdom truth body, so you generate bliss by dissolving the wind-energies that drive the instincts. You see that if you do not develop that bliss into the experien- tial actuality of the four voids that come from the wind-energies dissolv- ing according to the process of death, you will not complete the magic body which is achieved like a between [embodiment] as the extraordinary cause of the beatific body; so you achieve the generation of the mind iso- lation through such procedures. This explains that very statement above, that if you do not enter this path, even over limitless eons you will not discover the extraordinary realization of the reality of the mind, and you will not be able to manifestly actualize the superficial magic body.
CHAPTER VIII
Two Reality Perfection Stage
[203b. 5-242b. l)
severally]
The first has two parts: [1"] The perfection stage of superficial magic: [2"] The perfection stage of ultimate clear light.
lVI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1 " - The perfection stage of superficial magic] The first has two parts: [a"] The actual instruction of the magic
body; [b") The associated instructions. [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"-The actual instruction ofthe magic bodyI
The first has two parts: (i "] What should what sort of disciple do; and [ii"] The teacher's teaching process. [204al
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1 ,a"i" - What should what sort of disciple do]
[Nagarjuna says] in the Five Stages that, in order to obtain instruc- tion in the magic body, a disciple with four qualifications should first praise the mentor and then petition him [or her]. The four qualifications are: [ 1 ] that one has obtained initiation suitable for the creation stage and has practiced it; [2] that one possesses the wisdom that knows the intention of the four kinds of Tantras, having the wisdom of experience of all four
kinds ofTantras; [3] that one should be learned about the three isolations, having well practiced the path of the three vajras; and [4] that one should have intense aspiration for the two realities, with a very firm ambition for the separate and indivisibly combined two reality perfection stages.
395
. J. li. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd 'ii ' -
? . . . ;. .
perfection stage of the two realities severally: and [B"] The perfection
The second, the two reality perfection stage, has two parts: [A") The stage of the two realities inseparably.
? ? ? ? How to learn the samadhis of the two realities]
lVI. B. J. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A, - The perfection stage of the two realities
396 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Such a person should first long propitiate a mentor, and after pleas- ing him [or her], should make host offerings and offer the mentor a sixteen year old consort. One then should praise, "There is no hollowness in your body! " and then petition, "Omniscient one with a wisdom body. . . . " Here the Five Stages old translation says that, after obtaining the private teach- ing on the magic body, one gets the nine initiations such as garland initia- tion along with the secret initiation, and then one praises and petitions. Nevertheless, the Chag translation says that in order to attain magic body instruction one gets the secret initiation with the nine initiations [Z04bl and then one praises and so on; this translation is better, as the Lak? hmi com-
mentary is similar.
The early [scholars] were greatly unreasonable in their claim that
the ancient treatises taught that since one learned in the three isolations should receive the secret initiation, if one gets the vase initiation fully even without getting the higher initiations, it is alright to meditate the three isolations. [They are wrong] because, without getting the higher initiations to make one eligible for the perfection stage, one should not properly be taught the perfection stage secrets, and also because the treatise seems to mean that one learned in the three isolations should praise and petition in order to get the magic body instruction. Otherwise, to say that one learned in the three isolations would petition upon [only then] receiving the secret initiation along with the nine [vase] initiations has the fatal flaw of considering such a one eligible to meditate the three isolations without having received the rosary and so forth initiations. It is Naropa's explanation that one is eligible for magic body [instruction] once
one has received the secret initiation; and this is this treatise's meaning. Having already obtained initiations, when one requests this instruc- tion, having pleased the mentor and so on, [having performed] the three things [mentioned above], one should praise and petition [again], as that is required in common for both initiation and request for instruction. Having thus petitioned, the procedure through which the disciple petitions the mentor for the magic body instruction should be understood according
to [Aryadeva's] explanation in the Lamp ofIntegrated Practices:
Beginning from the creation stage IZOSuJ up until the completion of the body isolation, one just aspires to the nature of the three vajras and so forth. Thus in the body isolation there is no form of the deity, as the body is only
Chapter Vlll- 1\. vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 397
a mass of subtle atoms. The culmination of speech iso- lation also, by the process of entering and so forth, is acknowledged as just the vajra recitation, wherein there is no deity aspect either, as sounds are just like echoes. The culmination of mind isolation also amounts to just mere recognition of natural luminance, wherein one does not discover the actuality of the deity body supreme in all respects, since that mind is pure luminance. By this reasoning, relying on the superficial, one will not discover the abode. Therefore, one should seek to understand the creation of the deity from mere wisdom, [conveyed] from the presence of the mentor.
As for this inquiry: from the time of the creation stage, within the experience of purging all ordinary concepts and percepts within clear light, while it seems to be explained that your mind must be generated within a deity's body, when the discerning investigate, it must be [only] from a certain boundary on the path that there is [the actual] creation from pure wisdom in a deity body, and not just in [your] wishful imagi- nation. There is a reason that from the start of the creation stage up to complete mind isolation it does not happen, or that by this 1205bJ process, one does not arrive at reliance on the superficial magic body and at abiding in that samadhi on those occasions. For that reason, [Aryadeva] said that for the actual creation - not mere imaginative deity body visu- alization - of the magic body from sheer wisdom, one must realize it from the live speech of the mentor.
To prove the [three] reasonings [for why body, speech, and mind isolations are not the magic body] in order: from the beginning of the creation stage until one reaches the great secret single clan [body isola- tion], and the three body vajras etc. -"etc. " here including the merely imagined visualization creation of the five and hundred clan deity bodies
-[there is no actual deity body]. Thus, in body isolation there is no magic body deity body, "because the body is a mere mass of atomic particles. " This means that, when the mind imagines one's deity body. the measure of its objectively becoming such [a body] - the form which is imagined and about which one generates one ' s deity-body pride - is no more than just that former body of aggregates and elements which are [now visual- ized as deities infused in] the masses of subtle atoms. This also shows
398 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
that mere visualization of that magic body deity body does not create the divinity, and that the yogi/ni needs a deity form other than the coarse body form as a basis for generating pride. Not only that, the magic body deity form is not a body even up to the culmination of the speech isola- tion, as the word "also" shows that there is no deity creation by the above "mere imagination. "
Well then, what does the vajra recitation accomplish?
By the process of entry, abiding, and exiting, [206al words are just caused to be known as echo-like, by settling the wind-energy, the vajra recitation base, to become extremely serviceable. The Integrated Prac- tices explains in the procedure section that the vajra recitation causes one to recognize the life-energy wind; and the Vajra Rosary also says that it makes the wind-energies known. The word "just" in that context excludes any deity body creation other than mere imaginary visualization. Even up to mind isolation culmination one does not discover the magic body deity
body endowed with all supreme aspects of signs and marks; the word "also," as above, including the previous reasons.
Well then, what does [mind isolation] accomplish?
One must understand "natural luminance" as the name of lumi- nance and the name of the natural instincts of the luminance [state] , and so [mind isolation] amounts to knowing natural luminance as just the three voids; since on that occasion the yogilni comes to know his [or her] own mind as mere luminance devoid of instinctual constructs.
Here a certain ancient Community practitioner,119 explaining the
? lack of a deity body as a lack of the communion deity body, does not understand the meaning in context and does not see the import of the explanation of the last three reasons as proof of the lack of a deity body in body, speech, and mind [isolations, and of the fact] that the superficial,
artificial, conceptual mind does not reach the communion body relying on meditating on the three isolations. Although the Chag translation says "not relying on the superficial," here the previous translation was better.
If one does not know how to decide the meaning of the Integrated Practices [20f? bl inquiries, one will not understand the meaning of the
1 19 Buton Rinpochey?
Chapter Vlll- 1\vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 399 answer teaching the keys of the magic body of this noble tradition. So
one should understand them well.
The teacher's teaching processI
The second has two parts: [A"'] How to explain the preliminaries to the actual magic body; and [o'"] Explaining the actual stage of magic body.
to the actual magic body]
When the mentor hears the petition to teach the magic body, he feels compassion for the student and [so] teaches, and this precept is one not found elsewhere than in the mentor' s personal instruction. According to the Five Stages:
The so-called "stage of self-consecration,"
The teaching of the reality of the superficial,
That is obtained by the grace of the mentor's foot; And not in any other way.
And the Integrated Practices:
The inconceivable deity reality is explained by all the buddhas; coming from the sequence of the lineage of mentors - that which is beyond the scope of even the lords of the tenth stage - ! should come to realize it !
And [Aryadeva states] in the Self-Consecration:
The Dharma like a dream and magical, Proclaimed by all the Buddhists, Though true, thereby is not understood.
Looking away from the self-consecration,
Your own wisdom does not see
The bow-like nature of mentality,
Being consciousness endowed with wind-energy.
If you are confused about the simile of magic, Even though you have perfected learning
? ? (VI. B. J. b. ii. c'J'd'ii'A"l "a"ii" -
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"a"ii"A"' -
How to explain the preliminaries
Brilliant Illumination ofthe u1mp
For immeasurable eons.
Without the holy word of the mentor,
You cannot experientially realize that magic.
Thus, if you wish the fruit of buddhahood, Having totally let go of your arrogance, You should mount the Vajra Vehicle, [207aJ And strive to propitiate the mentor.
According to the Integrated Practices' and the Five Stages' state- ments that attaining mind isolation brings one to abide on the tenth stage, one cannot experience [magic body] even on that occasion. Or, if one interprets it as referring to one who attains the tenth stage on the Tran- scendence Vehicle, one cannot realize it on that stage ofone's own path.
According to the Illumination ofthe Lamp:
The totally pure deity yoga surpasses all notions, is indi- vidually realized, is the sphere of the buddhas, abides in the jewel sack of the body, is beyond tendencies of exis- tence and non-existence, is beyond the scope of literalists and dogmatists, and should be known exclusively from the mentor's precept.
Here [Chandrakirti] declares that the magic body, which is beyond the scope of those literalistic textual scholars who have not been taught well the Tantric import by means of the six parameters, must be understood only from the mentor's precept; and that such [a teaching he received] from the personal explanation of the Savior Nagarjuna. It is necessary to realize the pure magic body from the mentor's precept itself; and the third stage magic body is just the same. The ultimate of the instruction of the need to understand the magic body from the mentor's precept, is in the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices; but it also comes up a bit in the other instructions given by the [other] sons [of Nagarjuna]. And further, what is unclear in the Five Stages is clearly taught in the Integrated Practices; so it must be realized L207bl from the Integrated Practices.
Though there are many details not included in those treatises, the main imports are what they contain. So if you know well just as many points as they do contain, you will not mistake any of the crucial keys. If you do not work at them long, but work at other smaller precepts, your
400 ?
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 40 1
notion that you have come to see the thrust of the key of the instruction that states that you must know [the magic body] from the mentor's precept will not work out. However, if you know how to investigate connecting the greater and smaller instructions, that will make a great difference; so those [smaller keys] also are necessary. From among the difficult points of mantra, most of which are stated to require reliance on the mentor's precept, the reliance on the mentor's precept in the case of the magic body instruction seems to have an extremely great impact completely different than other [instructions] .
Now here you might wonder about the need to realize it exclu- sively from the mentor's precept, as well as about what are the benefits of realizing that and the dangers of not realizing that.
According to the Five Stages:
The practitioner not finding
The self-consecration stage,
His [her] trouble over
Sutras, Tantras, and rites is in vain.
Who obtains the self-consecration stage,
He [or she] is the chief, personification of all buddhas, And doubtless will attain buddhahood
In this very life.
It is as [Nagarjuna] declares, that, if you do not discover the way to attain this body from the mentor, you will not achieve the buddhahood which is the point of all your trouble? and if you do know that compellingly, and then you practice it, you will definitely, in this very life, [208aJ attain buddha- hood. In regard to the supreme distinction of the speed of attaining buddha- hood in a single life, of the two, the path of bliss-void-indivisible and the magic body, the latter is very much more difficult to realize. And if you investigate it through this supreme system [of Nagarjuna etc. ], you will
necessarily know how to apply it to other [traditions of Tantric practice].
? magil: body I
Explaining the actual stage of
The second has two parts: II"'I How to establish the basis of the magic body precept; and 12'") Relying on that, explanation of the way to attain the magic body.
(VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"I"a"ii"B"' -
402 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp the magic body precept I
In order to attain the magic body, you must know how to abide on the foundation on which it is achieved. According to the Five Stages:
All beings are powerless,
Not born voluntarily.
The cause of that is clear light, Universal void, transparency.
The mind that serves
To bind fools in the life cycle, That same mind takes yogi/nis To the bliss-lord exaltation.
Here there is no birth at all,
There is no death at all;
So should you understand the life cycle itself, Constituted [only] by instincts of the mind.
The first verse teaches that beings do not arise independently without depending on their prior descent into the clear light of death, and so are born [involuntarily] from the clear light of universal voidness. The second verse shows that the very mind by power of which the being takes birth, the death clear light wind-energy-mind, that very life cycle-involving mind arises for the yogi/ni skilled in liberative art as the magic body [with which s/he] becomes a buddha. Although some Five Stages' commentators explain the meaning of that [208b1 verse otherwise, that the meaning is as I have explained it is known from the Integrated Practices ' statement that "the existence-between, the cause of the alienated individual' s life cycle, becomes the magic body for one who has the private instruction. " The third verse teaches how just that [wind-energy-mind] cycles in the life cycle, since there is no agent causing birth and death except for just the natural instincts of wind-energy-mind.
The Self-Consecration clearly teaches the foundation for achieving the magic body:
The elements such as earth And the four voids
? l\'1. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"n"'l"' -How
to establish the basis of
Chapter VIII- Th? o Reality Perfection Stage ? 403 Should be known as the eight things,
Causes of birth and destruction.
From clear light, great void; From that art truly arises;
From that wisdom is born;
From that wind-energy emerges;
From wind, fire truly comes; From fire, water originates; From water, earth arises - Such is the birth of beings.
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 379
from the letter of the first lotus petal, cultivating vessel and essence, and collecting that into the consonants"; and again, "collecting them into the vowels"; and so on-many different instructions appear, but the real
position is clearly as above.
380 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
three dissolutions as in the previous versions. It seems that the intention here is that you should do vajra recitation until the five signs such as mirage arise, which is excellent.
By the system of these extensive and concise instructions, in devel- oping the mind isolation, it is accomplished by bringing together two arts, the holding of the wind-energies in kiss connection and the compression process of the visualizations. The development of the mind isolation relying on the consort is explained in the Five Stages, not being stated expicitly in the Concise Five Stages or among the personal instructions of Serdingpa, but obvious in the instruction that appears there is the
general way to develop bliss relying on the great seal consort.
Some others who follow Marpa's tradition assert that, without holding the wind-energies in kiss-connection, visualizing the three kinds of letters, practicing vajra recitation in order and purifying the three kinds of instinctual natures, the three wisdoms are created. From the private instructions of Naropa transmitted through Nagtso, in regard to the condition of the mind needing to be realized by combining with bliss, there are two ways; the first is the passionate relying on the lower door, which involves relying on a consort, and [the second] is the dispassionate
relying on the upper door. [ 194bJ
Then there are the three methods to develop bliss, relying on a
garland of letters, on a mere letter, and on no letter. In terms of the first of these, you meditate that, by the light rays radiated from the three kinds of letters in the heart center, the crown HAM melts and fills the heart center, and when bliss develops the energy is taught to be held only for brief intervals; and otherwise there does not seem to be the instructions as before to hold the wind-energies in kiss connection and to visualize the compression process.
Setting forth the correct opinions
The second has two parts: [A'"] Analyzing how are those systems; and [B'") Setting forth the enduring opinion.
? 'VI 8
?
I
? -
AnaIyzmg
ow are t 1ose systems hI
As for the wind-energies, to first collect them in the central dhati and dissolve them, you must have the definite vital key of the body.
among thcmj
lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"c"ii" -
b00 o'J'd'o' ""noon . ,, . . J. . n. c 1 c 4 c 11 A
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 381
Having meditated the art of penetrating the vital points in the body through vajra recitation and so on, you inject the wind-energies into the dhati and they dissolve, and you practice by developing the four voids and joys, and then visualize whatever objective and hold the mind [there; then] the wind-energies collect and those experiences as appropriate seem to arise. That occurs by the force of the previous, and it is not certain that there is any imprint of that later objective. Therefore, [though you may] have learned well the vajra recitation, once having learned [a bit about the mind objective], if you hold the visualizations as above explained and those experiences happen to develop, by that reason [alone] one cannot prove that that instruction is the [full] import of those treatises. As for the Five Stages' and Integrated Practices' explanations of the three letters and moon, sun, and vajra as synonyms of the three luminances, they mean that those names are designated to the three lumi- nances of the perfection stage, and that "you should meditate imagining those, as in the creation stage [19. 5aJ you cannot develop the three lumi- nance wisdoms. " Therefore what the mentor Abhijfia asserted is correct, that it does not mean that [you can reach the mind objective just] by meditating through the perfection stage, having set up letters on moon and sun and so on. Even if you cause it to be produced, you must do it in the heart center; if you do it in the navel center, you do not understand the key point of this system. As for statement that "they originate from the intuition of luminance and from radiance. . . ," it indicates that the instinctual natures originate from those [luminance states], and does not teach that the intuitions originate from meditating on letters and so on. By making effort to meditate the letters and the white, red, and black colors of the light rays the objective perceptions arise in those colors; but that is not the way of the arisal of the colors explained in the treatises. Though the Concise Five Stages explains the three sets of letters in order, as illustrative of luminance, radiance, and imminence, it does not need to teach that the intuitions are produced by holding the mind in front of
those letters set up [in visualization). As that text says:
Bind the mind in equanimity,
You will evenly see the wisdom
Of the hub of the wheel in equipoise, And imminence is great void
? 382 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
-it does not agree with the explanation that you bind the mind from distracting to other objects while visualizing the letter set in the wheel, equilibriating the mind as if it dwelt in the letter; from habituating to that equilibrium. l t95hl the mind enters into the indestructible along with its short A in the hub of the wheel. and the great void is produced from that turning into uniformity of experience.
Therefore. even if you compress the wheel, once you have reached stabilized vivid vision in the letter, first visualize the outer, then com- press into the intermediate, then compress into the inner, and then com- press into the indestructible, and then become habituated to visualizing
that. Or, setting up the letters as above, if you alternate doing that, the compression into the dhati is quick. Whereas if you do not compress into the interior of the dhati but habituate on the outside, the definitive paths of void will not arise, since they emerge from compressing and dissolv- ing into the dhati. From the Concise Five Stages, there is no explanation of holding the wind-energies in kiss connection beyond those of the meditation on the letters and the vajra recitation. Though the Vajra
Rosary often states that "you achieve by the reality of mantra alone ! " - if you meditate knowing the vital points of that, it has the meaning that you achieve even though you do not combine it with any other energy connection .
Here, not having realized the complete vital points of vajra recita- tion, if you think that "if there is no holding the wind-energies in kiss- connection, I won't be able to accomplish the dissolving of the wind- energies into the dhati"; [you are right, as] it is so explained that if if you hold them in kiss-connection it seems you do not realize the key point of this practical instruction; but this does not mean in general that the vajra recitation meditator is at fault if s/he holds the wind-energies in kiss- connection. Here [in mind isolation context,] [ 1 96a] holding in kiss- connection requires that you perform the vase-pressure at the heart center. What is stated in the Vow Arisal, "in first meditating energy- connection, heart-center vase-pressure is a great hindrance," is a message for those who are inexpert in that yoga; if you know what you're doing it is not a big hindrance.
By that explanation of the wind-energy compression process taught in the Wheel Endowed, you can understand also the compression process of the three wheel-less [instructions]. Though it is not sure that the three wisdom-intuitions will be produced immediately in front of the set up of
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 383
the letters, the voids are not posited as occurring from the stages of the descending of the enlightenment spirit from the crown to the jewel. And as for the Marpa tradition personal instruction that the voids are pro- duced from the stages of compression in the heart center, it is the vital point of the word, "consciousness is the support of the compression of life-energy. meditate the wheel of mantra in the heart center"; and this seems to be the unexcelled vital point also of the father and son personal instruction.
[Chandrak. Irti] states in the Illumination of the Lamp that the four signs from mirage to burning candle flame arise from the dissolution one into another of earth, water, fire, wind, and consciousness. It has been explained above how when wind dissolves luminance is produced, which
does not mean that those many signs arise at the time of the three lumi- nances, and so it should be accepted according to [Aryadeva's] explana- tion in the Integrated Practices as expressed in the Concise Five Stages passage :
First the mirage-like experience
Arises with its five light-rays,
Second there is the moon-like luminance,
And third there is embrace by the light of sun; And from the night luminance there is imminence.
[196bl Herenotmentioningthethreesignsotherthanmirageisforthesake of brevity; it can be understood more extensively according to the Further Tantra and other contexts in the Illumination ofthe Lamp. In short, as the previous various systems did not add newly visualizations such as medi- tating letters here in the context of the mind isolation, it is not good to newly add visualizations as arts of developing mind isolation, without examining whether, having first achieved body isolation, you are or are not able to develop how much of the four voids in general by the speech isolation vajra recitation. This is because it would seem to be a case of explaining subtle arts while leaving out the principal of penetrating the vital points in the inner body where mind isolation is developed. The things explained above in the category of the arts of generating bliss through the visualizations given in the private instructions descending from Nagtso seem to be rendered in view of the need of the swift genera-
tion of bliss; nevertheless, they do not seem to convey the import of the authoritative treatises.
384 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"c"ii"B"'l'" - The way the wisdoms are pro- duced from outer and inner conditions]
[Nagarjuna states] in the Five Stages:
The mantri/ni staying in vajra recitation
Will attain the mind objective . . .
-that the vajra recitation develops the mind isolation void, but is not explicit about how it develops. [Aryadeva], in the Integrated Practices, states that you will attain mind isolation by abiding in speech isolation and that mind isolation will not arise without speech isolation, but in this context is also not explicit about how that mind isolation arises. However, [197al if you know how to investigate the statements that explain the three [experiences] which you enter in the context of the detailed explanation of speech isolation and those about the arisal of clear light at the conclu- sion when the wind-energies enter the indestructible, you can comprehend how the voids are produced from the vajra recitation's compressing and dissolving the wind-energies into the indestructible; which I have already explained. Further, the Vajra Rosary states often and explicitly how the mind isolation voids are generated from the perspective of the vajra reci-
tation's blocking the circulation of the wind-energies:
By strong application of vajra recitation Having known the nature of wind-energy,
You cut off the instinct-driving wind-energies, And will attain the objective in the mind.
I have already explained how in general the vajra recitation develops the voids. As for the particular boundary whence the mind isolation voids are developed, it is from when, having well released the heart center channel knot, you are able to compress the wind-energies into the heart center indestructible, and it is not before that.
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"4"c"ii"o"' -
The second has two parts: [1'"] The way the wisdoms are pro- duced from outer and inner conditions; [2'"] The way such bliss and
Setting forth the enduring opinion]
void are united, and so forth.
Since, from the above quote from the third chapter of the Illumina- tion of the lAmp, "you should meditate always day and night with the yoga of entry, abiding, emergence, and compression," the "yoga of emer- gence, entry, and abiding" is the vajra recitation, the "compression yoga" clearly must be taken to apply to being able to develop the four voids by means of vajra recitation and the indestructible. Naropa's [197bJ private instructions also sometimes mention the development of the voids as "compression yoga. " As for the way of compression, according to the Five Point statement "it is the practice by means of the two contempla- tions," it should be practiced by means of the holistic holding and serial dissolving [samadhis]; since the Lawapa Commentary on Luyipa's Arts ofAchievement explains the compression by serial dissolving from the lower part of the perfection stage, the Personal Instruction also explains through binding the compression by serial dissolving into the heart center indestructible, and there seems to be no difference about that here in this context. Also the private instructions from Naropa as inherited from Nag- tso explain the way to generate mind isolation without any letters, and mantra wheel letters do not appear in the three Concentrated Personal Instructions of the Marpa tradition; thus even in that tradition mantra wheel letters are not indispensable.
If you wonder, "If we take the method of developing the mind iso- lation to be the meditation of the three life-energy controls and the com- pression yoga, will that be sufficient? "
Here the Wisdom Vajra Compendium states:
Uniting the vajra and the lotus serves as the method of mind and mental functions. Uniting mind and mental functions serves as the art of the great bliss samadhi. That is indicated by the simile of magical illusion.
And:
Just as, without thoroughly combining milk and sesa- mum you won't get butter and sesame butter 1 1 "? 1111 ), so. without uniting vajra and lotus which thoroughly com- bine mantrt'/nT and consort, you cannot approach the three
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 385
Well then, you may wonder, are any other visualizations for the compression process needed to develop [the voids] from that boundary,
or are there not?
. ? M6 ? Brilliant Illumination of thr Lamp
consciousnesses. Through such inability to unite vagina
and phallus. the samadhi of great bliss is not discovered.
Here the positive inference is that the three luminances are produced from the union with the consort and the negative inference is that those three are precluded when that union is eliminated. In regard to the "great bliss" mentioned where wisdom is the art of great bliss, [Aryadeva] says in the Integrated Practices that it is the magic body; therefore you need the external consort in order to fully generate the three intuitive wisdoms of mind isolation which are the base for achieving the magic body. As for that import. it is stated in the Five Stages:
Of all magics, woman's magic is most excellent. This clearly marks the distinct three wisdoms- Attachment, detachment, and that between -
All three come from the union of two organs, The connection of vajra and lotus.
Thus, this does not mean that, in order to generate mind isolation, the specifying of the lustful and the lust-free refers to the practice of the lower door and the upper door. Bearing in mind that statement in the Five Stages, [Aryadeva] in the Integrated Practices did not mention the exter- nal art for generating mind isolation. As for Lak? hmi' s explanation of this marking of the three wisdoms from the consort in the time of the third initiation, though in general such does apply in the time of the third initiation, this is the context of the path of learning [198bJ the mind isolation.
Here you might wonder, "If in the case of a properly qualified person, if the actual anointment with the third initiation is preliminary to meditating the path of the two stages, is it necessary or not that in this context the three wisdoms are marked through relying on the evolution- ary consort? "
Previously, in that initiation the four joys are there from the per- spective of the outer life-energy control which dissolves the energy into the dhati. In this context [of mind isolation] , it is taken as referring to the proper discovery of the ability [to dissolve the wind-energies] by medi-
tating the three life-energy controls. Thus here it concerns the generation of the mind isolation three wisdom-intuitions, much more distinctively
excellent than the former; so it is not unnecessary that again it be marked [in that way] here.
You may then wonder, "Here, is that generating of the three wis- doms relying on the evolutionary consort a matter of generating it from the enlightenment spirit melting from the crown and falling to the tip of the phallus at the secret center? Or is it a matter of compressing the melted enlightenment spirits from the upper and lower parts of the body into the heart center? "
[Chandrakirti says] in the Illumination ofthe Lamp that the mandala triumph is generated from the enlightenment spirit melting and falling into the path of the vajra. However, other treatises' clear explanation that when the enlightenment spirit melts and reaches this center in the body, this joy and void are produced, does not appear in the treatises of the five father and sons. Nevertheless, it is explained that when wind dissolves there is mind luminance, when mind dissolves there is mental function radiance, when mental function dissolves there is imminence, and when that dissolves clear light arises. As [Aryadeva explains] in the Integrated Practices:
From the union of the vajra and the lotus, beginning from the crown, the enlightenment spirit melts from the 72,000 channels [199a] and descends gradually through the lustful, lustfree, and their medium states.
By force of the melting of the enlightenment spirit the three wis- doms are produced. Thus the four voids arise by the force of both the process of dissolving the wind-energies and the melting and falling of the enlightenment spirit. In that regard, I have already explained that the best place for dissolving the energy of this system is the interior of the heart center dhati; and I will explain it further. Thus, through vajra recitation and
so forth, the fury-fire blazes and the enlightenment spirit melts, and the place wherein compressing it produces the four voids is the heart center. Again, it is not that the four joys cannot be produced in the emergent order through the falling of the melted enlightenment spirit to the sensi- tive tip of the secret place and the reverse order of its reversing back up to the head crown. That does indeed take place as already explained in the context of the body isolation. Here you are developing the four voids of extremely great impact according to the death process, and so it is an emergent order coming from the process of compressing the wind-energies
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 387
388 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
hither into the heart center and a reverse order coming from a process of expanding back out from the heart center. Thus, by the inner condition of the method of meditating life-energy control however you do it, and by an outer condition of relying on union with the consort, the wind-energies and enlightenment spirits are both compressed into the heart center from the top and bottom of the body. As [Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices :
Together with your consort, by the process of the holis- tic holding or serial dissolving, you enter into ultimate reality.
Thereby, he explains that by uniting with the outer consort [199bl you enter into ultimate reality by the process of the four voids, using the compres- sion yoga of whichever of the two contemplations, which amounts to compression in the heart center; because, when you rely on previous habituation to the compression process in the heart center, when you unite with the consort and practice the yoga of the two contemplations, the union with the outer consort serves as a condition for the compres-
sion of the wind-energy-mind into the heart center.
As for the arisal of the voids from compression of the enlighten-
ment spirits melted down [and up] from upper and lower body through the vajra recitation's ignition of the furor-fire, it can be understood as applying from the boundary of being able to generate the voids from the dissolving process compressing the wind-energies into the heart center through vajra recitation, even though it is not yet perfected. Thus, you can understand correctly the generation of the voids by melting the en- lightenment spirits through the condition of the outer consort, serving as the condition of compressing [wind-energies and enlightenment spirits] into the heart center from the top and bottom of the body. By this you should understand also how by uniting with the wisdom consort you can compress wind-energy and enlightenment spirit into the heart center. If you can generate the voids through the process of compressing the wind- energy and enlightenment spirit in the heart center, you can also be able to practice either way to develop the distinctive voids, through the process of the joys of downward descending and upward stabilizing, or the process
of compressing into and expanding out from the heart center.
Some others who follow the father and sons do not grasp the vital point of generating the distinctive four voids of this system, since they
interpret according to the explanation that in general the voids emerging from melting the enlightenment spirits and especially the voids emerging from union with the outer consort, all of them are the same as the four joys, [200aJ whether of falling from crown to secret place sensitive tip or of rising back up to the crown. They have made the mistake of not deter- mining precisely the need to achieve the magic body according to the between [process] and the need to generate the voids systematically according to the processes of death. Here, [Nagarjuna states] in the Five Stages :
Who finds not vajra-lotus union
Even superficially,
Will [still] achieve [mind objective] once by experience, Due to the potency of the yoga.
Through the actuality of the wisdom function, Understanding accurately the distinctions, The yogi/ni should always discern that
Just that also is the instinctual nature.
In regard to the meaning of this, [Viryabhadra' s] Clear Meaning explana- tion is not correct in saying that this refers to the precept holders and the hermaphrodites who have no union of two sex organs yet can generate the three wisdoms from the vivid contemplative stabilization. Damtsig Dorjey explains that if the devotee vajra experiences [this deep dissolv- ing] one time [already] at the time of initiation, it will be achieved on the strength of his/her inner yoga; such also are the positions of the Moon- light and of Lak? hmi. The explanation of Master Go [of this] as the Tsun- mojen system, that the yogilni, even without uniting with the outer con- sort in constant reliance, if s/he recognizes [the mind objective] naturally a single time, afterwards s/he learns in other ways; that is the meaning of the treatise. ["Not finding even] superficially" is claimed by some to refer to not finding according to common knowledge. However, the meaning is that, I200bl just as the "superficial" nose tip refers to the facial nose-tip, even though there is no continuous union of the superficial [outer consort's] lotus and vajra, by experiencing [such union] even once [imaginarily], depending on that, by accustoming yourself to a wisdom
consort and so on, you can develop the mind isolation.
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 389
JQO ? Brilliant lll11minotion of the u1mp
Here. one might wonder. "If reliance on the outer consort begins from the boundary of perfecting the vajra recitation, then the Esoteric: Accmrpr li. 'ihment statement:
Having an evolutionary consort, Through the union of vajra and lotus, A truth speaker can experientially Proclaim such a meditation.
A beginner practitioner
Who gives up such an evolutionary consort,
[Even] showing [mastery of] the enlightenment spirit,
By other-shown [arts] will not see [the mind objective] - As should be understood from the beginner's case.
and the Five Stages also will be in contradiction; since from that [text above] it states that in the case of the beginner, if s/he abandons the method of the outer consort, s/he will not be shown [the goal] by other methods, and so s/he must be shown by that [method]. And here the beginner is defined as the yogi/ni who cannot inject the wind-energies into the dhuti by the force of meditating the inner life-energy control.
There is no such contradiction, since the explanation in the Five Stages intends the generation of the three wisdoms of mind isolation, and the intention of the Esoteric Accomplishment is the generation of the orgasmic wisdom of the four joys. As for a fully qualified embodied person as stated in the definition of such a beginner, it is extremely rare; so since the object is like that, you should not make a mistake in regard
to what is a "beginner. " [20la] In regard to that embodied person as a vehicle of bliss, though there seem to be other arts of developing it up to the secret center, "if you abandon the above-explained art other [methods]
will not show [the objective]" intends its serving as an art for injecting the wind-energies into the dhuti. Further, as for the reason for that, though you can develop a little assurance if you apply the references from the Vajra Rosary, the Great Seal Drop, and the Personal Instruction, a deci- sive assurance is extremely difficult. As for the art for such an embodied person to be able to hold [back the wind-energy and spirit of enlighten- ment] without emission until the orgasmic [bliss] is shown, it is the medi- tation of the reversal of wind-energy and the [placement of the] PHAT
syllable, and so on.
Here you might wonder, "it is not necessary to reverse the wind- energy in relying on an outer consort, since the Vajra Angel, the Red Yamdri Tantra eighteenth chapter, and the Achala Unexcelled Tantra and
so on state many techniques . for arresting the substance seed. "
Such statements are for the general purpose of causing one not to emit the enlightenment spirit. If you apply them to the context of the outer consort, statements such as "if enlightenment spirit falls after hav- ing held the showing of orgasmic wisdom, take it with the tongue," are for the propose of not allowing enlightenment spirit to be emitted, and are neither stated when one cannot inject the wind-energies into the dhati and dissolve them nor stated when one can dissolve the wind-energies in the dhati by the force of meditating vajra recitation and so on. As for this, for many who can hold [enlightenment spirit] without emission, there is no fault, and though [the practice] can be claimed to produce great excel-
lent qualities, if there is no art of uniting this [practice] with the view of voidness that decisively ascertains reality, the purpose for generating bliss is lost. Hence, [20JbJ there are very many statements that it [can] become a cause of endless horrible migrations; but I do not recite them, fearing prolixity. Further, since it is not enough either, just to have such a view of voidness, you must realize with precision the purposes for fulfilling many other qualifications.
In terms of the objective [consort] mentioned, you should under- stand, from the Personal Instruction and the Vow Arisal and so on, the mention in general of the three yoginis, the orgasmic, the local, and the mantric, and chiefly the latter; those of the buddha-clans such as Lochana, who are of four types, the "lotus-possessing," the "conch- possessing," the "elephant-possessing," and the "deer-possessing"; and who individually have general and specific characteristics and so forth of body and mind. Just as in inner life-energy control there are many ways of developing distinctive qualities from the procedures of penetrating the
vital points in the different channel wheels, there are the same [variety of ways] in the outer life-energy control. As for the reason why such an art must mark such a special beginner, the remembering and cultivating that bliss-void in the context of the creation stage has served as a special means of developing the roots of virtue that generate the realizations of the perfection stage; and when s/he meditates the arts of penetrating the vital points in the body of the perfection stage, there arc many purposes.
such as [giving] an extreme ease of compressing the wind
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 391
-
energies
.
392 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp are united, and so forth]
Thus, in relying on an outer consort, you must unite the bliss developed by that method and the void you have precisely understood. As for the bliss developed by meditating vajra recitation and so on, if your voidness view is well developed, you must meditate uniting it with that. [202al In this regard, in other Tantras when the four joys are gener- ated, they usually do not teach uniting the first three joys with the voids, but often mention uniting [universal voidness] with the fourth, orgasmic joy. Here, as above explained, mind isolation is generated as a means of realizing the reality of the mind, and therefore it is a union of bliss and void in the context of all four voids. Since you will not realize selfless- ness if you do not unite the bliss and void of the three wisdom-intuitions, they will not arise in the mode of nonelaboration, and only the luminances themselves of white, red, and black will arise. If you do unite the bliss and void of those three, in the actuality of the certain knowledge of the view you must eliminate the subject-object dichotomy in the three lumi-
nances. Thus, though the three luminances arise in that awareness, they do not arise in the experiential actuality of the conceptual differential of certainty. For example, when the noble equipoise arises in the mode of nonelaboration in conceptual consciousness, though it arises as having the form of the decline of dualistic perception in the experience of certainty, in general there is no decline of dualistic perception in that conceptual consciousness.
Here you may wonder, "Just after having recovered from the un- consciousness of imminence with its aspect of darkness, if there is at the least the arisal of the void like the clear pre-dawn sky, why in the context of mind isolation is the procedure for developing the three wisdoms taught and the universal void not taught? "
This is true. Intending the non-production of objective clear light wisdom anywhere short of the magic body, [only] the three voids are explained; but it is not that the metaphoric clear light is not generated.
It is compressed into imminence. Thus, in the first part of immi- nence there is a dark-like aspect but awareness is not lost, in the middle part you lose awareness, and in the end that unconsciousness is cleared
? IVI. B. 3. b. ii.
c'3'd'i'c"4"c"ii"B'"2"' -
Here you may wonder, "Well, when one accomplishes the three
wisdom-intuitions, 1202bl where does the metaphoric clear light come in? "
The way such bliss and void
away and a seeming clear sky happens, free of the three causes of decep- tion. If you interpret metaphoric clear light as universal void, in terms of the four voids the first two parts of imminence are interpreted as great void. In general in the first three voids. by just the proportion of how great is the momentum of termination of wind-energies, just so dense and long are the clarity and nonconceptuality of the clear light. Especially in the occasion of imminence unconsciousness, by just how great is the momen- tum of the loss of consciousness. just so much is the elimination of the mind's ability to distract itself to other objects and the development of immersion into clear light itself. As [Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices:
By that very iron hook-like ignorance itself you do not cause there to be any mixture in consciousness, but openly reacting to clear light itself, there is the immacu- late actuality.
At the time of the arisal of clear light, except for remembering the view of voidness and focusing one-pointedly on the import of reality, you must concentrate consciousness completely, unmoved by wind-energies, without any thinking about other objects. As [Aryadeva says] in the Inte- grated Practices, "as long as consciousness is unmoved, even sleeping you behold the clearly luminous. " He mentions here the sleep clear light just as an example. When your mental consciousness develops into the great bliss, by then remembering the import of selflessness, [203aJ you achieve the subject-object union of bliss and void, without requiring any other way of union. As for the bliss-void-union of the three wisdoms as explained, that is the "mind" which is the basis to be isolated; and the elimination of [both] the sign habit [holding] that apart and any non-
immersion in the experience of universal bliss is the meaning of "isola- tion. " And as for these explanations of the arrangement of the voids in the occasion of mind isolation, you should understand it also [as appli- cable] to other occasions higher and lower.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"S" - Showing the dangers and the advantages of not knowing and knowing that (import ) correctly]
If you do not realize correctly the true nature of your mind in terms of the eighty instinctual natures and the three luminances, relying on the
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 393
? ? CM ? Brilliant 11/umirratinn n. fthf' Lamp
Tantras that explain them in that way. you will be bound like a silkworm by the evolution and addictions stemming from egoism and possessive- ness. and finally. having experienced the fruition of the two kinds of evo- lutionary momentum previously accumulated, by the process of entering the ultimate reality clear light of death you will abandon your old body- mind complex. you will adopt a between body of mere energy-mind as the homogeneous effect of the truth-realm death clear light, and, driven into the five migrations by whichever of the two kinds of evolutionary momentum in the pattern of the rattling buckets on a water-wheel, again and again you will be reborn and suffer the miseries of the egoistic life cycle. [On the other hand, Aryadeva says] in the Integrated Practices that, if you possess the intuitive wisdom of realizing mind isolation through the process of [knowing] the instinctual natures and the three luminances, at the time of the homogeneous [emergent] order, you will dissolve the wind-energies that move the virtuous and nonvirtuous natural instincts and the voids will dawn in sequence and you will enter into the clear light transparency. [2113bJ At the time of the reverse order, relying on the strong movement of the luminance wind-energies, you will realize the movement of the instinctual natures, you will orient yourself at the
door of the self-consecration, and you will achieve liberation.
To abbreviate the import, understanding the self habit as the cause of migrating in the egoistic life cycle and as the means of supporting the instinctual cognitive obscurations, you decisively determine the view of
selflessness that eradicates the objective of the self habit. You see that if you do not develop that view into the experiential actuality of great bliss you will not have completed the extraordinary c ause of the wisdom truth body, so you generate bliss by dissolving the wind-energies that drive the instincts. You see that if you do not develop that bliss into the experien- tial actuality of the four voids that come from the wind-energies dissolv- ing according to the process of death, you will not complete the magic body which is achieved like a between [embodiment] as the extraordinary cause of the beatific body; so you achieve the generation of the mind iso- lation through such procedures. This explains that very statement above, that if you do not enter this path, even over limitless eons you will not discover the extraordinary realization of the reality of the mind, and you will not be able to manifestly actualize the superficial magic body.
CHAPTER VIII
Two Reality Perfection Stage
[203b. 5-242b. l)
severally]
The first has two parts: [1"] The perfection stage of superficial magic: [2"] The perfection stage of ultimate clear light.
lVI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1 " - The perfection stage of superficial magic] The first has two parts: [a"] The actual instruction of the magic
body; [b") The associated instructions. [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"-The actual instruction ofthe magic bodyI
The first has two parts: (i "] What should what sort of disciple do; and [ii"] The teacher's teaching process. [204al
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1 ,a"i" - What should what sort of disciple do]
[Nagarjuna says] in the Five Stages that, in order to obtain instruc- tion in the magic body, a disciple with four qualifications should first praise the mentor and then petition him [or her]. The four qualifications are: [ 1 ] that one has obtained initiation suitable for the creation stage and has practiced it; [2] that one possesses the wisdom that knows the intention of the four kinds of Tantras, having the wisdom of experience of all four
kinds ofTantras; [3] that one should be learned about the three isolations, having well practiced the path of the three vajras; and [4] that one should have intense aspiration for the two realities, with a very firm ambition for the separate and indivisibly combined two reality perfection stages.
395
. J. li. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd 'ii ' -
? . . . ;. .
perfection stage of the two realities severally: and [B"] The perfection
The second, the two reality perfection stage, has two parts: [A") The stage of the two realities inseparably.
? ? ? ? How to learn the samadhis of the two realities]
lVI. B. J. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A, - The perfection stage of the two realities
396 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Such a person should first long propitiate a mentor, and after pleas- ing him [or her], should make host offerings and offer the mentor a sixteen year old consort. One then should praise, "There is no hollowness in your body! " and then petition, "Omniscient one with a wisdom body. . . . " Here the Five Stages old translation says that, after obtaining the private teach- ing on the magic body, one gets the nine initiations such as garland initia- tion along with the secret initiation, and then one praises and petitions. Nevertheless, the Chag translation says that in order to attain magic body instruction one gets the secret initiation with the nine initiations [Z04bl and then one praises and so on; this translation is better, as the Lak? hmi com-
mentary is similar.
The early [scholars] were greatly unreasonable in their claim that
the ancient treatises taught that since one learned in the three isolations should receive the secret initiation, if one gets the vase initiation fully even without getting the higher initiations, it is alright to meditate the three isolations. [They are wrong] because, without getting the higher initiations to make one eligible for the perfection stage, one should not properly be taught the perfection stage secrets, and also because the treatise seems to mean that one learned in the three isolations should praise and petition in order to get the magic body instruction. Otherwise, to say that one learned in the three isolations would petition upon [only then] receiving the secret initiation along with the nine [vase] initiations has the fatal flaw of considering such a one eligible to meditate the three isolations without having received the rosary and so forth initiations. It is Naropa's explanation that one is eligible for magic body [instruction] once
one has received the secret initiation; and this is this treatise's meaning. Having already obtained initiations, when one requests this instruc- tion, having pleased the mentor and so on, [having performed] the three things [mentioned above], one should praise and petition [again], as that is required in common for both initiation and request for instruction. Having thus petitioned, the procedure through which the disciple petitions the mentor for the magic body instruction should be understood according
to [Aryadeva's] explanation in the Lamp ofIntegrated Practices:
Beginning from the creation stage IZOSuJ up until the completion of the body isolation, one just aspires to the nature of the three vajras and so forth. Thus in the body isolation there is no form of the deity, as the body is only
Chapter Vlll- 1\. vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 397
a mass of subtle atoms. The culmination of speech iso- lation also, by the process of entering and so forth, is acknowledged as just the vajra recitation, wherein there is no deity aspect either, as sounds are just like echoes. The culmination of mind isolation also amounts to just mere recognition of natural luminance, wherein one does not discover the actuality of the deity body supreme in all respects, since that mind is pure luminance. By this reasoning, relying on the superficial, one will not discover the abode. Therefore, one should seek to understand the creation of the deity from mere wisdom, [conveyed] from the presence of the mentor.
As for this inquiry: from the time of the creation stage, within the experience of purging all ordinary concepts and percepts within clear light, while it seems to be explained that your mind must be generated within a deity's body, when the discerning investigate, it must be [only] from a certain boundary on the path that there is [the actual] creation from pure wisdom in a deity body, and not just in [your] wishful imagi- nation. There is a reason that from the start of the creation stage up to complete mind isolation it does not happen, or that by this 1205bJ process, one does not arrive at reliance on the superficial magic body and at abiding in that samadhi on those occasions. For that reason, [Aryadeva] said that for the actual creation - not mere imaginative deity body visu- alization - of the magic body from sheer wisdom, one must realize it from the live speech of the mentor.
To prove the [three] reasonings [for why body, speech, and mind isolations are not the magic body] in order: from the beginning of the creation stage until one reaches the great secret single clan [body isola- tion], and the three body vajras etc. -"etc. " here including the merely imagined visualization creation of the five and hundred clan deity bodies
-[there is no actual deity body]. Thus, in body isolation there is no magic body deity body, "because the body is a mere mass of atomic particles. " This means that, when the mind imagines one's deity body. the measure of its objectively becoming such [a body] - the form which is imagined and about which one generates one ' s deity-body pride - is no more than just that former body of aggregates and elements which are [now visual- ized as deities infused in] the masses of subtle atoms. This also shows
398 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
that mere visualization of that magic body deity body does not create the divinity, and that the yogi/ni needs a deity form other than the coarse body form as a basis for generating pride. Not only that, the magic body deity form is not a body even up to the culmination of the speech isola- tion, as the word "also" shows that there is no deity creation by the above "mere imagination. "
Well then, what does the vajra recitation accomplish?
By the process of entry, abiding, and exiting, [206al words are just caused to be known as echo-like, by settling the wind-energy, the vajra recitation base, to become extremely serviceable. The Integrated Prac- tices explains in the procedure section that the vajra recitation causes one to recognize the life-energy wind; and the Vajra Rosary also says that it makes the wind-energies known. The word "just" in that context excludes any deity body creation other than mere imaginary visualization. Even up to mind isolation culmination one does not discover the magic body deity
body endowed with all supreme aspects of signs and marks; the word "also," as above, including the previous reasons.
Well then, what does [mind isolation] accomplish?
One must understand "natural luminance" as the name of lumi- nance and the name of the natural instincts of the luminance [state] , and so [mind isolation] amounts to knowing natural luminance as just the three voids; since on that occasion the yogilni comes to know his [or her] own mind as mere luminance devoid of instinctual constructs.
Here a certain ancient Community practitioner,119 explaining the
? lack of a deity body as a lack of the communion deity body, does not understand the meaning in context and does not see the import of the explanation of the last three reasons as proof of the lack of a deity body in body, speech, and mind [isolations, and of the fact] that the superficial,
artificial, conceptual mind does not reach the communion body relying on meditating on the three isolations. Although the Chag translation says "not relying on the superficial," here the previous translation was better.
If one does not know how to decide the meaning of the Integrated Practices [20f? bl inquiries, one will not understand the meaning of the
1 19 Buton Rinpochey?
Chapter Vlll- 1\vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 399 answer teaching the keys of the magic body of this noble tradition. So
one should understand them well.
The teacher's teaching processI
The second has two parts: [A"'] How to explain the preliminaries to the actual magic body; and [o'"] Explaining the actual stage of magic body.
to the actual magic body]
When the mentor hears the petition to teach the magic body, he feels compassion for the student and [so] teaches, and this precept is one not found elsewhere than in the mentor' s personal instruction. According to the Five Stages:
The so-called "stage of self-consecration,"
The teaching of the reality of the superficial,
That is obtained by the grace of the mentor's foot; And not in any other way.
And the Integrated Practices:
The inconceivable deity reality is explained by all the buddhas; coming from the sequence of the lineage of mentors - that which is beyond the scope of even the lords of the tenth stage - ! should come to realize it !
And [Aryadeva states] in the Self-Consecration:
The Dharma like a dream and magical, Proclaimed by all the Buddhists, Though true, thereby is not understood.
Looking away from the self-consecration,
Your own wisdom does not see
The bow-like nature of mentality,
Being consciousness endowed with wind-energy.
If you are confused about the simile of magic, Even though you have perfected learning
? ? (VI. B. J. b. ii. c'J'd'ii'A"l "a"ii" -
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"a"ii"A"' -
How to explain the preliminaries
Brilliant Illumination ofthe u1mp
For immeasurable eons.
Without the holy word of the mentor,
You cannot experientially realize that magic.
Thus, if you wish the fruit of buddhahood, Having totally let go of your arrogance, You should mount the Vajra Vehicle, [207aJ And strive to propitiate the mentor.
According to the Integrated Practices' and the Five Stages' state- ments that attaining mind isolation brings one to abide on the tenth stage, one cannot experience [magic body] even on that occasion. Or, if one interprets it as referring to one who attains the tenth stage on the Tran- scendence Vehicle, one cannot realize it on that stage ofone's own path.
According to the Illumination ofthe Lamp:
The totally pure deity yoga surpasses all notions, is indi- vidually realized, is the sphere of the buddhas, abides in the jewel sack of the body, is beyond tendencies of exis- tence and non-existence, is beyond the scope of literalists and dogmatists, and should be known exclusively from the mentor's precept.
Here [Chandrakirti] declares that the magic body, which is beyond the scope of those literalistic textual scholars who have not been taught well the Tantric import by means of the six parameters, must be understood only from the mentor's precept; and that such [a teaching he received] from the personal explanation of the Savior Nagarjuna. It is necessary to realize the pure magic body from the mentor's precept itself; and the third stage magic body is just the same. The ultimate of the instruction of the need to understand the magic body from the mentor's precept, is in the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices; but it also comes up a bit in the other instructions given by the [other] sons [of Nagarjuna]. And further, what is unclear in the Five Stages is clearly taught in the Integrated Practices; so it must be realized L207bl from the Integrated Practices.
Though there are many details not included in those treatises, the main imports are what they contain. So if you know well just as many points as they do contain, you will not mistake any of the crucial keys. If you do not work at them long, but work at other smaller precepts, your
400 ?
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 40 1
notion that you have come to see the thrust of the key of the instruction that states that you must know [the magic body] from the mentor's precept will not work out. However, if you know how to investigate connecting the greater and smaller instructions, that will make a great difference; so those [smaller keys] also are necessary. From among the difficult points of mantra, most of which are stated to require reliance on the mentor's precept, the reliance on the mentor's precept in the case of the magic body instruction seems to have an extremely great impact completely different than other [instructions] .
Now here you might wonder about the need to realize it exclu- sively from the mentor's precept, as well as about what are the benefits of realizing that and the dangers of not realizing that.
According to the Five Stages:
The practitioner not finding
The self-consecration stage,
His [her] trouble over
Sutras, Tantras, and rites is in vain.
Who obtains the self-consecration stage,
He [or she] is the chief, personification of all buddhas, And doubtless will attain buddhahood
In this very life.
It is as [Nagarjuna] declares, that, if you do not discover the way to attain this body from the mentor, you will not achieve the buddhahood which is the point of all your trouble? and if you do know that compellingly, and then you practice it, you will definitely, in this very life, [208aJ attain buddha- hood. In regard to the supreme distinction of the speed of attaining buddha- hood in a single life, of the two, the path of bliss-void-indivisible and the magic body, the latter is very much more difficult to realize. And if you investigate it through this supreme system [of Nagarjuna etc. ], you will
necessarily know how to apply it to other [traditions of Tantric practice].
? magil: body I
Explaining the actual stage of
The second has two parts: II"'I How to establish the basis of the magic body precept; and 12'") Relying on that, explanation of the way to attain the magic body.
(VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"I"a"ii"B"' -
402 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp the magic body precept I
In order to attain the magic body, you must know how to abide on the foundation on which it is achieved. According to the Five Stages:
All beings are powerless,
Not born voluntarily.
The cause of that is clear light, Universal void, transparency.
The mind that serves
To bind fools in the life cycle, That same mind takes yogi/nis To the bliss-lord exaltation.
Here there is no birth at all,
There is no death at all;
So should you understand the life cycle itself, Constituted [only] by instincts of the mind.
The first verse teaches that beings do not arise independently without depending on their prior descent into the clear light of death, and so are born [involuntarily] from the clear light of universal voidness. The second verse shows that the very mind by power of which the being takes birth, the death clear light wind-energy-mind, that very life cycle-involving mind arises for the yogi/ni skilled in liberative art as the magic body [with which s/he] becomes a buddha. Although some Five Stages' commentators explain the meaning of that [208b1 verse otherwise, that the meaning is as I have explained it is known from the Integrated Practices ' statement that "the existence-between, the cause of the alienated individual' s life cycle, becomes the magic body for one who has the private instruction. " The third verse teaches how just that [wind-energy-mind] cycles in the life cycle, since there is no agent causing birth and death except for just the natural instincts of wind-energy-mind.
The Self-Consecration clearly teaches the foundation for achieving the magic body:
The elements such as earth And the four voids
? l\'1. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"n"'l"' -How
to establish the basis of
Chapter VIII- Th? o Reality Perfection Stage ? 403 Should be known as the eight things,
Causes of birth and destruction.
From clear light, great void; From that art truly arises;
From that wisdom is born;
From that wind-energy emerges;
From wind, fire truly comes; From fire, water originates; From water, earth arises - Such is the birth of beings.
