No More Learning

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.
And "Then, earth element dissolves into water. . . " from there up to "the triple existence is thus concealed" as already quoted above. 120
Thus from the beginningless,
One enters in the life cycle of existence.
As long as by the samadhi of the magical ,
One does not experience one's own self-eminence, Then, as for the self-realization of the magical,
It is beyond the sphere of the dogmatist,
Even though it abides in one ' s own body,
Those small in merit will not discover it.
These statements clearly teach the basis for achieving the magic body.
As long as you have not experienced your own nature by means of the magical samadhi, that long will you be engaged in the life cycle; f209aJ
and in this engagement in the life cycle, there are both the wandering in the life cycle and the uninterrupted engagement with the instincts of the life cycle. To eliminate the first, the magical samadhi is necessary, this referring to the magical samadhi common to Mantra and Transcendence Vehicles. In regard to the magical samadhi needed to eliminate the latter [instincts for the life cycle], there are both common and uncommon [sama- dhis]; and in regard to the uncommon again, there are the two [samadhis],
l20 See above, p. 373 (Tib 189b). Note that the final phrase cited here ('"the triple existence is thus concealed") occurs in the Self-Consecration immediaely after the last line Tsong Khapa cited above; so that line does not appear in the current text.
? 404 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
other than the mere wind-energy-mind: which [shows Nagarjuna's] claim that, while the wind-energy-mind is not the [real] referent for the desig-
being's subtle body.
According to the Vajra Rosary:
Than your life-energy vital essence,
There is nothing other in the three realms;
By the magical wind-energy, the three realms
Are seen as like dreaming [in] a dream.
Thus the vital essence of beings is their own life-energy, there being no other body of [beings of the] three realms than wind-energy; hence the magically illusory body of the three realms achieved by wind-energy is stated to be like a dream body. Here in the verbal expression mostly there is indication of the foundation for achieving the magic deity body; never- theless one can also apply it to the [magical] body itself; therefore [Chan- drakirti] in the Illumination of the Lamp quotes [this verse] as a source for the fact that the magic deity body is produced from the mere wind- energy-mind.
Therefore, as the Vajra Rosary states:
Birth, living, 1209bJ and dying,
And abiding in the between existence, Whatever [states] the world constructs, Are the emanations of the energy of mind.
Beings' births, lives, deaths, and between states are the emanations of mere wind-energy-mind. And as the Revelation of the Hidden Intention state s :
? that is intended. In the context of explaining the basis for achieving the magic body, it is declared that there is no person living in the life cycle
nation of the term "person,"121 the designative base is identified as the
the union of bliss and void and the magic body. And here it is the latter
the extremely subtle bodymind, etc. , care is taken to avoid reifying this deepest level of
121 This very subtle point shows how even in the esoteric area of the indestructible drop, personal continuity as any sort of intrinsically identiable "person" or "thing. "
Chapter V//1- 1\vo Realiry Perfection Stage ? 405
Conscious or unconscious, all those designated 'beings' are arisen from wind-energy; and again they are termi- nated by wind-energy. While the unrealized mind abides in the ocean of the life cycle. it goes in the wrong direc- tions, and as dog, fox, and elephant. that mind continues thus.
-the wind-energy and mind both progress in various states of being. Now this teaching that all beings have this body of wind-energy-mind. [indi- cates] the subtle body that serves as designative base of the term "being. " amounting to no more than the body of mere wind-energy-mind, indicat- ing that there is no other subtle body substantially different from that; which is not to indicate that there are no external objects or that the coarse evolutionary bodies are not beings' bodies. Thus, the bodies of beings are of two types; the temporary and the subtle. The first of these is the evolu- tionary, elemental, coarse and so forth body other than the body of mere wind-energy-mind; and the second is the body established from mere wind-energy-mind. Though the coarse body is not produced in the con- texts of first connecting into conception and so forth, it is not that it is not the body of a being. Likewise, 12IOaJ though at death the elemental body is eliminated, the being's body is not eliminated, hence [such an elemental body] is not the subtle body; [it rather stays only temporarily imposed upon the subtle body,] like salt in water. The wind-energy-mind body is never eliminated in all of those occasions, and so it is the subtle body; like wetness in water. Now even in this present occasion of the coarse matter body, the subtle body is a body of just wind-energy and mind, with the coarse body being like its residence. And although there might be other purposes for so stating that fact [in other contexts], the main reason [here] is in order to identify the subtle body that is the foundation from which the magic deity body is achieved. Its mind is not the sense- consciousness [mind], but is just the mental consciousness; and its energy also is not the other four root wind-energies and the five branch wind- energies, but is the life-energy wind; and of its forms, coarse and subtle,
it is the subtle.
Basis time beings have bodies achieved from just that, having the
forms of legs and arms and so forth, appearing as the separate bodies of the between and dream states. And bodies achieved from just that which does not appear having the forms of arms and legs and so forth are as
406 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
previously explained. Intending the existence of such a foundation, [Arya- deva in the Self-Consecration above] said "even abiding in one ' s own body. "
As such a supportive embodiment of consciousness, there are both extremely coarse, elemental matter body and subtle energy body; and so one must understand that there are not two continua [of the person] , there is no need for the subtle body to abide after abandoning its location in the coarse body, and that although the main designative base of the term "person" is both the wind-energy and the mind [2tObJ that does not contra- dict the coarse body also being [the person's] life-support.
Relying on that, explanation
The second has three parts: [a'") Explaining how it is expressed in the treatises of the father and sons; [b'"] Explaining very clearly the way it is achieved, along with its excellences; and [c'"] Explaining what comes from the mentors' precepts.
Explaining how it is ex- pressed in the treatises of the father and sons]
Here you might wonder, "If such is the basis time condition of the foundation on which the magic body is achieved, in what way is it achieved at the path time, produced upon that foundation? "
The Five Stages declares:
Again that same threefold consciousness, Endowed with wind-energy,
Arises as the yogi/ni's form,
Called "magic body. "
Thus all beings here
Are said to be like magic illusions; Staying in the magical samadhi,
One sees everything as just like that. "
The Chag translation here is better, saying "That very threefold con- sciousness endowed with energy, again . . . . "
The first verse states the magic body as arising from the art of the outer and inner life-energy control as the yogT/ni's body, being both the
? ? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"B'"2"' -
of the way to attain the magic body]
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"a"ii"B"'2"'a"' -
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 407
foundational mental consciousness' mind isolation [subtle] mind of lumi? nance, radiance, and imminence and the wind-energy carrying it. "Again" means that the yogi/ni does not only take a body of wind-energy-mind at the time of first taking birth. The next two lines, on account of such an interpretation of how to achieve the magic body, in explaining all beings as illusory in this unexcelled vehicle, 1211111 indicate that here there is a distinctive meaning of "magical" not shared with the Transcendence Vehicle, the lower Tantras, and the creation stage. As for that explanation of "magical," the Vajra Angel [Further Tantra] states the same similes used in the Five Stages:
One is taught to be the Lord,
Who sees [things] to be like mirror images, Dreams, magical illusions, bubbles,
And hallucinations;
and this shows that here one must interpret according to the uncommon elucidations the import as explained even in other Unexcelled Tantras. Then, two lines state that the yogi/ni achieving the magic body sees all beings as just like that; as already explained, seeing them as their subtle bodies; and that even the inanimate world is experienced as like his or her own magic body, all of it as emanations of energy and mind. As for the way it is expressed in the Integrated Practices, it states:
"The thorough realization of one's mind's reality" does not exist in the aggregates, elements, and media, but appears as mere wisdom-intuition, apprehended as the deity body fully endowed with signs, as illustrated by the twelve similes such as magic and dream-being the body of the nature of the mentality of buddhas.
The "realization of one's mind's reality" refers to mind isolation. Its not existing among aggregates, elements, and media [21lb] precludes the magic body being produced from any body other than the mere wind- energy-mind of mind isolation. The first "mere" excludes the achieving [of the magic body] from mental construction and the latter excludes its achievement from a coarse body, saying that the magic body endowed
408 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
with signs and marks, illustrated by the twelve similes, is achieved from the mere intuitive wisdom of mind isolation. 122
Here there is an inquiry [in the text], as follows:
"As without a body support there is no nature of mind, and without mind also, body is not apprehended," this is stated in an expression of the scripture; so then how can a deity body with arms and legs and so on, endowed with all signs, be completed from mere mind alone? Those having discriminating views will not believe it without scriptural reference and realization. Therefore, as a method of easily making perceptible the unappre- hendable deity reality of those, 0 Divine Lord, Vajra
Master, Teacher, please explain it!
Here, if one understands the "mere" word, used in the statement above that the sign-endowed deity body was achieved from mere wisdom, as excluding any other cause not the mind, then it is incorrect for the mind alone to complete a deity body endowed with arms and legs and so on; since the Sotra states that, [as concerns] the supporting body and the supported mind, if one is missing the one, the other does not exist. "Having discriminating views" refers to those thoughtful doubters, and "reference and realization" to [the fact that] those [persons] will not gain trusting certitude free of doubts without good reasons. "Unapprehend- able" refers to the signless reality [212a] of the deity, which must be realized as the magic body - as a method of doing so, please teach [us] to remove all doubts.
As the answer to that, [Aryadeva] states that:
122 It occurs here that the experience of those who uphold the view of "other-voidness" - that ultimate reality voidness is not itself devoid of the buddha-qualities, that therefore the buddha matter bodies of beatitude and emanation come from the non-void absolute itself and so do not require a laboriously developed over aeions causal store of bodhi- sattva merit-are devotionally absolutizing an absolute activity for the role of the real, relative "other" of the Unexcelled Tantras, who is the father-mother mentor him or her self, whose "word" of consecration transmits the laboriously evolved compassionate bliss power of the timeless tradition that implants the relative buddha material qualities that
enable the buddha embodiments.
? Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 409
Those engaged in the way of the Sotras and those medi- tators abiding on the creation stage, though they may in- tensely imagine and use the similes of all things as being magical, dream-like, and reflection-like, they will not understand by these similes the self-consecration precept by which sheer intuitive wisdom completes the deity body of the nature of mentality. Therefore, I, following the Yoga Tantra, will let you understand the cause and condition for perfecting Vajrasattva[hood] .
He states that [though] Sotra followers express all things as "illu- sory," they reflect on its meaning and imagine its reality, but still cannot understand the magic body self-consecration. This refutes that the magic body can be identified by those who understand penetratingly the import of superficiality and illusoriness as taught in the central way, who medi- tate on that, and who attain freedom from truth insistence. Although such is a general illusory samadhi, it does not have the import of the hidden meaning third stage magic body and the ultimate [meaning] fifth stage magic body. Creation stage meditators do visualize all things as illusory, yet they are still declared to not thereby understand the magic body self- consecration precept; [212bl which refutes the possibility that the magic body self-consecration can be identified by detached contemplation of the apparent deity body as abiding in the actuality of realitylessness. In the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantra] creation stage, though one might experience many extremely stable samadhis wherein [deities] appear transparent, very vivid, unobstructed like a rainbow, and simultaneously many free-
doms from truth habits connected with the view of voidness, just by that, he declares, one does not know the perfection of the deity body by sheer wisdom, [through] the instruction of the self-consecration of the magic body. [To judge] from this, what need is there to mention the practitio- ners of the three lower Tantras who have not received any instruction?
If one understands those well, one will completely get rid of errors of holding the self-consecration magic body as being actualized in the experience of detachment at the time of the samadhi developed when holding one's mind on the reflection of a deity body in a mirror, meditat-
ing it ultimately as dissolving into one's body, and focusing on just that much vividness and clear light.
4 10 ? Brilliant Illum ination of the Lamp
Thus. having taught that the realization of superficial illusoriness apart from contemplating a deity body. the deity body of the creation stage where one meditates everything connected with deity body meditation, and not only those but also even the deity body of the occasion of the
three isolations which discovers great bliss in the perfection stage; none of these are the self-consecration magic body ; based on that, he mentions the "Yoga Tantra'' wherein one comes to know the [magic body] precept, meaning the Root and Explanatory Tantras of the glorious Esoteric Com- munity.
As for the way of making completely understood the cause and condition of completing the magic body vajradhara body, f213al the same [Integrated Practices] states:
In truth, the mind is just luminance apart from shape and color, its reality like space, hard to touch like ultimate reality. That being granted, the three luminances of mere luminosity come to depend on wind-energy, and becom- ing common become light; therefore, the wind-energy binds the consciousness. Then the two luminances of wisdom and art, endowed with light rays, come to arise as the illusory deity body endowed with all variety and excellence. What is its mount? It is [subtle wind-]energy, which the mind vajra rides like a horse, traveling wher- ever it wishes.
In the Commentary of this same text, the word "truly" occurs, and,
so one questions if the illusory cause and condition is ultimately estab-
lished. Here the answer is that though the mind is not ultimately estab- lished, superficially the three luminances coordinate with wind-energy, the wind-energy binds the consciousness and causes it to wander. But
this answer is in terms of the two realities, which does not help at all to resolve the above doubts, and that "wind-energy causes it to wander" is an irrelevant answer, and so useless. Therefore, the mind being free of color and shape and equal to space means that it is not a body. Like ultimate reality it is hard to touch or understand. "In truth" means "truly. " One can understand these expressions easily as they resemble those given [from the Integrated Practices] in the context of the mind isolation. Granted that it is so that the mind is not embodied, [213bl the three lumi- nances of the mind isolation rely on wind-energy, and so wind-energy
Chapter VIII-Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 41 1
binds consciousness, or holds it. Most of the old translations are as above. But some of them say "becoming common, they mingle. . . " and the Chag translation says the threefold luminance uses wind-energy as its element, and so its support is lightness. " Some say that the meaning of the above is that since wind-energy and consciousness mingle, and wind-energy is lightness, so consciousness becomes lighter and lighter. But the meaning of "light" is that wind-energy is much subtler than the other elements and so has a common quality that makes it fit to mingle with consciousness. This fits with the Integrated Practices' section on mind isolation. From that merging of wind-energy and mind, wisdom luminance and art radi- ance, being endowed with fivefold light rays, arise as the magic deity body
endowed with the excellence of signs such as arms and legs and so on.
To summarize their meaning, although if the mind were alone without wind-energy, it could not be made into a deity body with faces and hands and so on, since the five-light-rayed wind-energy and mind exist as one actuality, there is no problem in producing the deity body. This indicates that if it was exclusively a consciousness that perceived the aspect of a deity, the aspect of form would exist, but it could not directly achieve the magic body. Though "wisdom and art both" are mentioned, just before all three luminances are mentioned, its theory on the foundation of the magic body is like that of the Five Stages. "Cause and condition" here refer to the material cause of the mind achieving the
magic body-the previous mind-and the coordinating [214al condition- the wind-energy; while of that body [itself], the material cause is wind- energy and the coordinating condition is the previous mind. "The mind vajra which is the three wisdoms mounts its mount like a horse and goes where it wants" means that, at the time when the subtle body of mind isolation wind-energy-mind is made into the magic body, it separates apart from the coarse body and goes where it wishes either outside or inside. As for this meaning, the Integrated Practices states that "the Con- sciousness Migrating Satra also states it very clearly. " In that Sotra, it is stated that the arms and legs and so on of the between being, achieved just after death, are like the shadow of a man on the water, having no sensation of cold and heat, pleasure and pain, fatigue and rest and so forth, without flesh and so forth, as if unable to be destroyed by ele- ments. The Chag translation says, "after having quoted such statements as 'this consciousness abandons the interior of the body of the previous migration and becomes the shape of another body ' ; and ' thus the between
? 4 1 2 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
existence of the childish alienated individual, etc. ' becomes the cause of the life cycle"; thus it explains [the between body functions] as in the above quotes. [Aryadeva] states that, though that Sutra does not describe the magic body clearly, it does describe clearly its intention of how a com- plete body with limbs and so on is made from just wind-energy-mind, how the magic body splits from the old body and so forth as made very clear in the similes that define it, how that wind-energy-mind becomes a cause of the between for one who does not have the art, and how the magic body arises for one f214bl skilled in that art.
The Vairochana Enlightenment statement that "the pure body like a rainbow will be attained by meditating reality" is quoted in the Integrated Practices in the magic body context, which, though not teaching the way of achieving the magic body, is still suitable to quote as being useful to confirm generally that meditating the import of reality one achieves a rainbow-like body, and to confirm specifically that if one meditates the reality of mind isolation one achieves the rainbow-like magic body.
[VI. B. 3. h. ii. C'3'd'ii'A"1"a"ii"B'"2"'b'" - Explaining very clearly the way it is achieved, along with its excellences]
Thus, in order to achieve the magic body, it is necessary to be able to separate the coarse and subtle bodies by force of meditation.
Further, regarding the art of separating those two through the yogas of transferring consciousness heavenward and taking possession of the body [city] of another, as the Sheaf of Instructions explained the import of the Sampufa [Tantra], one must preliminarily practice the wind-energy yogas such as
? vase-breathing and one must visualize again and again consciousness
mounted on wind-energy emerging from the heart center seat of con- sciousness. But here, one does not do such [practice]; one does it with
another, distinctive, art. As for that, for example, when the death sequence occurs, from earth dissolving into water up to the death clear light, those stages naturally serve to separate the coarse and subtle bodies. Likewise, when the necessary preliminaries of the mind isolation, such as vajra reci- tation and so forth, the inner and outer life-energy control meditations, have been consummated, that very same complete [215aJ generation of mind isolation, from the perspective of generating earth dissolving into water and so on as in the process of death, itself separates the two bodies, and the self-consecration magic body is achieved from the mere wind-
Chapter VIII-Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 413
energy-mind of the voids. The self here is the wind-energy-mind that serves as base of the designation thinking "1. " That very thing is created as the vajradhara body, which is the consecration.
When one separates apart [into another body] the wind-energy- mind body through the power of body-possession, it is extremely different from creating [oneself] in the vajradhara body by imaginative attention. This is not just mere imaginative mind, but the wind-energy-mind itself is created as a deity body, which is dissimilar from the deity body of meditation where the mind is just envisioned in that form. Once one has attained the magic body of the learner ' s communion, as its homogeneous continuity is uninterrupted, one is said to "live in reality," and the charac- teristics of the "vajra body" are complete.
The third stage magic body proceeds purifying itself by realizing objective clear light; so though it is called "vajra body," it is not full- fledged, [with characteristics complete]. Hence there is no contradiction in calling it "a wisdom body" which abides according to the yogi/ni's experience, intending that i t does not abide a s i n the previous case. How- ever, except for using the expression "third stage magic body" without differentiating actual and virtuaP23 one should not hold that the actual self- consecration magic body is a deity body which is a mental state alone perceived as distinctly apart from the coarse body. Except for explaining that the magic body is achieved from the wind-energy-mind of the mind isolation three luminances, 1215bl it is not clear from the treatises of the five father and sons as to at which point in forward and reverse voids the magic body is achieved. Lak? hmi and so forth explain an art of a sudden process where one arises in the vajradhara body suddenly from clear
light like a fish from water, and an art of a gradual process through immi- nence and so on where one arises in the vajradhara body from the point of entering luminance, having gone from clear light to imminence and from imminence to radiance. I will explain my own interpretation in the section [below] on communion.
In regard to separating from the old body, it is understood from the above explanation that having abandoned the position of the old body it does not follow that it must abide [therein], and from the Illumination of
123 dngo! l dang rje! J mthun pai ! lgyu lu! J.
? 4 1 4 ? Brilliant Illumination (? f the Lt1mp
tht' Lamp explanation that the pure magic body dwells in the jewel sack of the body and so forth.
If the magic body were achieved by the yogi/nT who has achieved mind isolation by a procedure of preserving both the subtle and coarse bodies. the father and son treatises' explanation that the magic body is achieved from just the wind-energy-mind would be incorrect; for example, if cloth were made from the whole ball of yam, the explanation that the cloth is made by specially picking out two separate threads from the ball of yarn would be inappropriate. Although at the first time of achieving it, it must be achieved from the wind-energy-mind of the voids, when one
abides in it after achieving it, there are many occasions when the magic body exists even when the three wisdoms of luminance, radiance, and imnminence are not manifestly realized; hence it does not follow that the magic body is eliminated when those three are eliminated, or that those three [216al are present when the magic body is present.
As for the way to achieve the magic body by what sort of will- projection, as it is not explicit in other treatises of the father and sons, one must know to apply the reasoning given by the Integrated Practices expla- nation that one should project the will that "Uust as] on the occasion of attaining buddhahood in the between, one dwells in clear light, rejecting the ordinary body, I should resurrect [myself] by the process of self- consecration! " This should be applied also in the case of those things con- forming to the magic body pattern. Such a body is said by the Wisdom Vajra Compendium to be illuminated by the twelve similes of magic. These twelve are magic, water-moon, hallucination, mirage, dream, echo, fairy city, illusion, rainbow, lightning, water-bubble, and mirror-reflection. They are called the "twelve similes of magic" even though "magic" is used only once as a simile, intending that the first simile stands for the rest, or that they are similes for the magic body.
In that regard, as the vajradhara body is created just from wind- energy and mind, it is like a magic human, as it is just wind-energy-mind even though limbs and members are complete. As it pervades everywhere, it is like the moon in water. As it is devoid of flesh and bone and so on, it is an hallucination, like a body of human shadow. As it moves in an instant, it is like a mirage. As it is a body made ofjust wind-energy-mind, it is like a dream body separate from the evolutionary [coarse] body. [216b] Though included in one continuum with the evolutionary body, it appears as other, like an echo. The habitat and inhabitant mandalas of that body are
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 4 1 5
like the fairy city. Though it is one, it appears as many, like an illusion. As the body's five colors appear unmixed and unobstructed, it is like a rainbow. As it abides within the aggregate of the evolutionary body, it is like lightning flashing within the thick of a thundercloud. As it arises sud- denly from the experience of voidness, it is like a bubble bursting forth in very clear water. As its limbs and members are perfect, it is like the image
of Vajradhara arising in a mirror.
Now these are how the learner's magic body is iluminated [by the
similes]. When used to illuminate the master's magic body, the sixth and the tenth similes are used in a similar way. The Self-Consecration mentions "shadow" in the meaning of "hallucination," and uses "cloud" in place of "illusion. " As for its various synonyms, it is according to the statements [in the Five Stages:]
It is explained as "self-consecration," With its nature taught as magical. This same thing is designated, Superficial reality, magicality,
And the perfectly beatific body. That same becomes the fairy being, The vajra body is that same thing, Vajrasattva, the eminent personage.
As for the excellence of attaining that magic body, it is said that one definitely will attain buddhahood in that same life. Again from the Five Stages :
Gone into that [magic body] state, [one becomes] A lord, great spiritual hero, made of every bliss, And one gets home, clothes, [217al food, and so on Instantaneously, just from space.
Static living is cut off,
One is teacher, supreme person, Worshipped by all, including the gods, And is saluted again and again.
The Integrated Practices also states that one will obtain the consecration of the Buddha. And the Root Tantra also declares:
4 1 6 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Meditate vajra gentle
In body, speech, mind vajras, Elaborating body, speech, and mind, Become like vajra gentle.
By lights of blazing vajras,
To the extent of a hundred leagues, You shine, the personification ofjoy, Adorned by every ornament;
And gods like Brahma and Rudra
Are never able to behold you.
In comment on which the Illumination ofthe Lamp says:
"Vajra gentle" refers to the magic body with its mental nature; and not only does one meditate that as one's body, speech, and mind, but also when one meditates having elaborated it into the body, speech, and mind of the three realms, it all becomes like vajra gentle. Vajras blazing to the magnificent extent of hundred leagues and through countless world realms indicate the illumination by your body's light, adorned by the ornaments such as the thirty-two signs. And if the discovery of such a wis- dom body is never even experienced by deities such as Brahma, what need to mention others; since it is the sphere of irreversibility. That great seal of Mafijushri 1217hl is not experienced or touched by [even the greatest] alienated individual beings; and so this samadhi is called
"unperceivable. "
And just after that it also says, "that very magic nature body, because it is achieved by purification by means of clear light. . . . " Thus it explains this [impure magic body] entering into clear light by means of the two contemplations, and does not explain the communion magic body enter- ing clear light by means of the two contemplations; therefore this refers to the third stage magic body. Since it will not be explained that the noble stage is not attained by abiding in that, here the mention of "not beheld by alienated individual beings" refers to [alienated individual beings] other than oneself; and that accords with the above explained "not beheld by
ChapterV/11-'lWoRealityPerfectionStage? 417
Brahma and so forth," [meaning that it] is not beheld by alienated indi- vidual beings who have not attained the magic body.
In regard to a certain samadhi that does not even have the partial tendency to such excellences as these, as for the [false] sense of relief from identifying it as the actual attainment of the wisdom body magic body, it has the fault of not knowing the criterion of attaining this body, the way of attaining this body, and the excellences belonging to the attain- ment. Since other treatises are not clearly explicit about the two proce- dures of creating the deities of the creation stage mantra body and the perfection stage wisdom body, all explanations of the procedure of deity creation in the perfection stage context are claimed by many who hold other systems to be [only] pertaining to the creation stage. As for those who do practice this system also, though they have differentiated the two [kinds of] deity bodies, it appears that their precise differentiation is extremely rare. Therefore, thinking that this very 12t8aJ greatly secret issue should not be lost, I have made it explicitly clear.
Explaining what comes
The third has two parts: [i'"] How it is given in the personal instruction tradition; and [ii'"] Explaining that import in connection with the treatise[s] .
How it is given in the
personal instruction tradition]
From the way mentor Serdingpa gives the Marpa tradition instruc- tions, as for the way to identify the actuality of the magic body, the Four Point explains:
As for the magic body, the Noble father and sons claim that the "magic" is that it appears without intrinsic reality, and the "body" is the deity body; so it is a deity body that appears without intrinsic reality. As for its originating cause, the creation stage deity-body medita- tion and the creation stage deity-body-upholding habit are purified by the three voids, and hence the art and wisdom deity body freshly arises uninterruptedly like a
? ? ? lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"s"'2'"c"' -
from the mentors' precepts]
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"a"ii"s"'2"'c'"i'" -
4 1 8 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
bubble bursting forth in water or like a fish leaping from a clear stream. Further, the four neuter syllables dissolve into the indestructible drop, causing the drop to arise as the deity body. The mother symbolizes void, the father symbolizes vision; their mutual kiss is the taste of vision- void arising as bliss. Like the linear short A that abides endowed with the five light rays; it is the wind-energy- mind body, hence one meditates by compressing down to that. Further that magic body deity body is meditated within a reality source triangle white outside and red
inside.
Again, in the Wheel Endowed, [Serdingpa] explains that:
It is meditated as the drop, which has been compressed into the indestructible drop in the center of the inner lotus, which arises as the father-mother deity body like a mirror reflection.
In the Five Stages Single Session, there is an error which seems inconsis- tent with that tradition ' s two great and [several] lesser precepts, namely:
One should aim the mind to the drop [2t8bl and meditate, that being the learner's clear light; and, when that is stable, one should engage in the paths of the conduct when one arises from the void drop as the deity body. 1 24
Again the Five Point explains:
That abiding with five light rays like the linear "A" is the reality condition, the wind-energy-mind body, and one meditates compressing the mind to that. It does not exist apart from that identification, yet is not non-existent as it appears even without intrinsic reality - that is the identi- fication of "magic. " "Body" is explained by Aryadeva as
124Th' .
? I'h1 f.
IS IS s Ig t y con usmg, as very subtle. The error may be that one, presumably the yogJ/nl, is here described as arising from the "void drop" as if "one" were something other at this point than the drop itself, with is wind-energy-mind indivisible, bliss-void-
indivisible, etc.
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 4 1 9 the deity body, and so that "magic body" is interpreted
as that deity body. unidentifiable, so vivid and void,
In that source, though it is written that the magic body is actually the indestructible drop, one can also understand that it is really that drop arisen as the deity body. Therefore one can also understand the explana- tion in the two lesser private precepts of the short A and the HOM letter as the magic body. The Five Point explains:
In the magic body practice, there are the magic equi- poise and the magic liberation. The first of these: in the southwest of your dwelling place make a skylight, sus- pend a sword above a copper kettle filled with lac-water; and place a mirror before you which reflects a painting of Vajrasattva; thus aim your mind and meditate. Since truth insistence [2t9aJ will not emerge toward these things, they identify magic illusion. This is said to be the instruction for purification in the creation stage.
This is accepted as corresponding to the meaning of the Five Stages explanation: "A well-shaped Vajrasattva," and so on. As for the way to terminate truth-insistence based on that, Serdingpa explains in the Per- sona/ Instruction ofthe Triple Continuum oJMagical lllusion:125
Of the three magic illusions, explain those of equipoise, dream, and between: as for the former, the first of the three solely purifying activities; holding magical illusion one should sit before a mirror image and, examining whether pleasure or displeasure, attachment or anger arise there from praise and blame, one should see to it that they do not. One should contemplate just like that. Again, look to see [in the mirror] whether attachment or anger
1 25 This text has not been identified among the works of Serdingpa: it may be lost.
? apparent without intrinsic reality. It is said to be illus- trated by the twelve similes of magic illusion; thus iden-
tifying it as like a mirror-reflection and so on identifies
that magic body. "
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Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
arise from praise or blame. When they do not arise, [the reflection] should merge into one and one should medi- tate oneself as like a magical deity body. One should prac- tice not being happy and attached when one is praised, anointed with sandalwood unguent from the right, and offered wealth and so on. And one should practice not being unhappy and angry when one is blamed, poked with an axe from the left, and one's wealth is robbed.
Some people who uphold the personal instruction of this system, having set apart the designation "magic illusion" for equipoise, set up the way of meditating as holding the mind, having set the mind immobile by strict body-vital-point [penetration] and gaze; by holding it, energy is held; from that, experience develops. Earth, water, fire, wind, mind,
mental events, misknowledge, and universal void-the former dissolves into the latter [219bl with the signs of mirage up to darkness. Then, from the cloudless sky-like universal voidness in reverse order up through the three luminances, the mind along with its energy-mount arises immeas- urably with the vivid vision of the experience of the magical deity body and so forth. Even though you meditate that way, if it does not develop that intensely, there is a method to develop the impact, extensively described in the Five Point. Or if that doesn't work, by meditating aiming one-pointedly at the heart center of the deity body reflected in the mirror, the first vividness of the image is luminance. Then, when the image seems to split apart, it is luminant radiance. Then its disappearance into darkness is luminant imminence. Then its total sky-like clear light transparence experience gives rise to a variety of experiences as above
explained.
Concerning this [outlook], as for the former [instruction], it seems
as if these people are considering the "self-consecration" explained as the visions of various luminance experiences in the space of the retraction [yoga branch], cited previously from the Stainless Light and the Supreme Bliss Eulogy Commentary to be the same as this "self-consecration" of the occasion of magic body. As for the method of intensifying the impact, it seems to be based on some former Tibetans' explanation of the process of looking at any object, wherein the first vividness is luminance, its refinement is radiance, and its final unclear approach to termination is imminence.
Chapter Vlll-1\. vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 421
In the learning of the magical liberation, the Five Point explains its daytime waking practice and its night-time dreaming practice. As for the first 1220a1, within the experience of deity body vividness, one meditates integrating energy and mind by the experience of bliss-void in the throat center, thus generating the experience of engaging in the vital point of life-energy control; this develops the magical liberation. In sleep, dreams come, but here they do not, so these two are dissimilar. As for the tran- scendent liberation, one goes to Akanishta heaven and is blessed by the
mentor, and one has visions of many emanation bodies and listens to the Dharma and so on. As for learning the mundane liberation, it is said that one sees heavens such as the Thirty-three, the [joyous] Tu? hita, and the [highest] Akani? hta, one goes to them, one is worshipped by gods and goddesses, one holds the drop from such as those, and it happens that one manifests various miracles. It is claimed that such things happen as if in a dream, caused by meditating the vase-breath-holding in the throat center preceded by focusing the will to engage in those liberations.
The Equipoise Magic Illusion Instruction explains that one medi- tates the energy-kiss, aiming one's visualization at the heart center drop along with its short "A," thus developing the experiences such as flying in the sky which generate the magical illusion liberation, thus cultivating direct experiential voidness without glee and pride and so on and without obstructions such as deep ravines and precipices and so on.
The Four Point explains that the liberations happen as above explained relying on worshipping the victors by radiating lights from the uma hair-tuft of one's vivid deity body, purifying the two obscurations by manifesting embodiments as needed to tame beings and then com- pressing the lights back into oneself 1220bJ, then having melted one's self- creation into a deity body into light one collects the light within by the two contemplations.
! YI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"J"a"ii"B"'2,,c"'ii,-Explaining that import in conncl:tion with the treatise( s)]
As for that short A with its five-colored light-rays in the Five Point and the Four Point being called the "wind-energy-mind body. reality of
,"
? things
appears to the mind's eye in meditation; it is rather the wind-energy- mind subtle body consisting of the subtle life-energy wind indicated by
it is not properly considered just that form of the short A which
422 ? Brilliant lllumination of the Lamp
that [short A] and the mental awareness adhering to that [short A]. And that [short A] is also explained as generating the magic body from the experience of bliss-void in the arisal of the [four] voids unobstructed by anything else, which means that the totally unobstructed magic body is generated from the wind-energy-mind of the three voids. Thus, the intent of the instructions that explain the drop arising as deity body to be the creation of the magic body, and the drop and the syllable to be the magic body should be understood as meaning that the magic body is created from the subtle wind-energy-mind body indicated by those [drops and syllables]; so the magic body should not be interpreted as the mere deity body creation from the transformation of the drop and syllable appearing
in the mind's eye.
If one understands it like that [avoiding such misinterpretation],
[one can rightly understand] the Concise Five Stages [passage], just after its explanation of doing the vajra recitation once the mantra wheel is established:
Ordinary conception-instincts
Are visualized as the mind of mantra itself. Purifying the body purifies conceptions,
Purifying wind-energy, one becomes taintless,
And manifests the wisdom superficial magic [body].
This teaches 1221al the procedure of creating the magic body by purifying the energy by means of vajra recitation preceded by visualizing the mantra wheel. Concerning that, the forms of the mantra-letters set on the petals of the wheel are the means of indicating the mind of the eighty ordinary conceptions and the wind-energies that move them. The bodies or forms of those indicative syllables are serially collected and purified, which purifies the conceptions and their attendant wind-energies. When the conception-mobilizing wind-energies are purified, that means the reali- zation of the intuitive wisdom body, the superficial reality magic body. As the same text states:
The magic body, along with its luminance, Arises from mere wind-energy and mind
which accords with the explanation that the magic body is made from mere wind-energy and mind purified of its eighty conceptions and their
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 423
wind-energies. And that procedure seems to agree in import with the Root and Explanatory Tantras and the treatises of the father and sons.
Further, as for the twelve similes of magic illusion characterizing the magic body, I will explain a few of the correspondences between simile and referent, as it is said that ;'by recognizing them one recognizes the magic body. " I approve the explanation that the ascertainment of the correspondence between simile and referent here is the means of deter- mining the magic body, and also, the personal instructions' explanation that such [ascertainment] is also the means of empowering the clarity of creation stage practice when it is unclear. In the magic body section of the Five Stages, if one so interprets the meaning of the passage beginning with "A well-formed Vajrasattva appears,"126 and if one meditates while perceiving a mirror image, then one sets the mind for a while having moved mentally out [of the mirror]; and [22tbl finally one takes the creation stage deity body merged into oneself as the magic body. This then contradicts the [author's own previous] statement that "from one's experience of bliss-void by intuitive wisdom of voidness one generates the magic body without interference by any other," and it disagrees with all authoritative treatises, and also appears to contradict [the author's] own root verse. The mentor Marpa had many different private instruc- tions from many mentors, among his instructions on each Tantra, so it is not sure that all of his instructions come from Naropa.
Well then, one asks, what is the meaning of the Five Stages' statement:
Free from existence and non-existence, A well-formed Vajrasattva appears,
As if reflected clearly
In a flawless mirror.
Endowed with all the best forms, This body that always fascinates
Should be shown to the good disciple; That is called "self-consecration. "
l26 The full verse is cited just below.
? 424 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
This means that it is a body like the accurately drawn image of Vajradhara, free of two extremes, dawning in clear vision in the pure sur- face of a mirror, which is superior in all aspects and always delightful to the beholder. And the meaning shown to the disciple by connecting the simile and the meaning of the reflected image and the magic body is explained as "self-consecration. " It is not that one meditates while visu- alizing oneself as reflected in a mirror or that the magic body is shown to
be the deity body extracted from the mirror and drawn into oneself. Otherwise, one would have to literally follow [as meditation instructions] the other similes.
As for the "reflection" simile, [222al among the three out of twelve similes mentioned in the Five Stages, it is the reflection of a vajradhara image and not reflections in general. And it is a simile for the body's parts all being completed simultaneously. The rainbow simile indicates unobstructedness and the non-mixture of colors. The water-moon simile indicates the singularity of the magic body itself, being nevertheless
capable of creating multiple emanations to accord with the disciples. And as for the Self-Consecration's statement-"By them one meditates the body! "-that one meditates on the magic body through those three similes, it means that one should meditate on the magic body as ascer- tained according to the description by those [similes].
According to the two ways of achieving the magic body by medi- tating visualizing a mirror reflection, it does not mean that one must complete the creation stage and the three isolations to achieve it. As for advocating the magic body depending on the explanations in the Stain- less Light and so on that the luminance of the experience of retraction is
body, and that the explanation of the deity body only arising during the
self-consecration, it would force you to claim that the eight [signs] from mirage up to the Rahu-like black luminant [imminence] are the magic
reverse order [of the signs] after that as the magic body is incorrect. The Time Machine mentions the [eight death] signs such as mirage in the con- text of retraction as the signs of the time of approaching [initial] reversal
and [final] inward reversal of the sense faculty wind-energies engage- ment with ordinary objects. The four signs such as mirage which arise in the context of mind isolation and so on are the signs which arise immedi- ately after those [reverse order] four voids, since it has already been often stated 1222bl that the wind-energies must have entered and dissolved into the dhati channel for them [to have arisen]. Therefore, the visions of
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 425
the aspects of moon, sun, and Rahu in the context of retraction do not amount to the same thing as the moonlight and so on of the three voids. In short, if you know well the samadhi wherein the sense conscious- nesses proceed to dissolve well before the natural instincts, and their motor wind-energies dissolve at the time of generating the mind isolation voids after completing the vajra recitation, then you will not feel any doubt such as "will there be any meditating while seeing with the eyes when the magic body is achieved? "
In general, as for the aftermath arisal of whatever appears as false magical illusion, if you develop great bliss on the occasion of the three isolations and the magic body, it should be a source of intensifying your meditation itself by combining it with penetratingly understood voidness. There is little importance [of using such bliss] in the aftermath context [to direct] the notions and so on of liking or not liking or being or not being reflections to terminate the truth insistence habit. Here, if you develop certainty through the rationally aware wisdom that has com- pletely eliminated the truth-habit-objectification pattern concerning inner and outer things, subsequently the process of objective appearances arising as magical illusions by their own momentum depends on the excellent understanding of the centrist reasonings. And the Five Stages' pronouncement [to the effect] that, after attaining the magic body, one sees everything as illusion no matter in what activities refers both to the vision of illusion that is common with the Transcendence [Vehicle] and to the previously explained vision of the extraordinary magical illusion [body] wherein the subtle bodies of all beings are seen as no more than mere wind-energy-mind and so on.
By meditating on the wind-energies and becoming pure fluency, while accepting the arisal of all objects of the buddhaverses and realms and so on, !