No More Learning

. " up to "the Buddha enters" - and after that:
In and out breathing of the yogi/ni,
The reality of uniting is sameness.
Wisdom abiding in art,
Recite without losing the limbs [23 J bJ of mantra. Knowing the yoga in the actuality
Of all activities, lying down and so on, [As the] nameless, the inexpressible, Transcending three times, always recite.
The first six lines here state that in the vajra recitation of Pandara and so on, the clear light of the actuality of the eighteen voidnesses abides like fresh butter emerges from the milk; thereby explaining the develop- ment of the four voids through vajra recitation. From "matter and so on. . . " up to "enter the buddha. . . " the aggregates are explained as enter- ing into clear light, the meaning of which also applies to the sleep clear light, as I have already explained. "The yoga" and so on the four lines decribes the recitation uniting energy and mantra indivisibly. The next four lines teach one to perform the recitation also at the time of lying down. Thus, it teaches that at the time of lying down at night, doing the vajra recitation develops the four voids, since that also means that vajra recitation can develop the sleep clear light. In short, whichever art devel- ops the four voids during waking time must be merged to develop the
? Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 439
four voids at the time of going to sleep. The supreme art during waking time is the meditation of the indestructible at the heart and the vajra reci- tation, as I have already extensively explained.
Those two arts of holding the clear light of sleep come from the per- sonal instructions of Master Marpa and must be understood as the instruc- t i o n s o f t h e R o o t a n d Ex p l a n a t o r y Ta n t r a s a n d t h e u n e x c e l l e d i n t e n t i o n o f the father and sons. It is of crucial importance to distinguish the mutually intermingled, scattered personal instructions. 1232nl lf you understand this, when the Integrated Practices states that sleep emerges as the actuality of the four voids. you can fully eliminate the arisal of the doubt that wonders "where was this art of holding the clear light of sleep stated? "
In general, in regard to whichever path, if you know how to tum with methodical skill whatever exists in the basis reality into the path. it is swift[er]. Thus in this time of sleep also, the base reality is that the wind-energies naturally withdraw and a void is produced. So if you know how to turn it into a path through the instructions of merging, it is extremely swift. Though there are voids in the base reality, since there is no void of very great intensity and sleep has a great tendency to destroy mindfulness, you will not be able to develop a certitude of recognition [of the four voids] until you can tum the process into a path. Here, if there is no diminishing at all of the force of mindfulness, sleep will not come; and if the loss of mindfulness is too severe you just fall asleep and never ascertain the four voids of sleep. Thus you must practice through the personal instruction, when going to sleep, doing it without losing mind-
fulness and so losing ability to ascertain the void.
The obstruction of this virtuous practice through not falling asleep
is rather weak in intensity; and among the personal instructions there are many ways to dispel that [insomnia] and too deep a sleep, as well as other methods not explained there. After the arisal of the voids of light, moder- ate, and deep sleep, at the time of clear light, having remembered the [realistic] worldview, you must cultivate it for a long time. Thus, quick waking and quick dream arisal become obstacles; so I will give a definite explanation of the basic way of dispelling those. The yogi/ni who inserts and dissolves the wind-energies in the dhuti [232bl can produce the four joys and the four voids; but if s/he does not know such an instruction of merging, when s/he meditates by merging sleep with those experiences s/he will not develop intense understanding of the path in this life and will not attain the supreme [accomplishment]. And at the time of death,
440 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
not only will s/he not be able to be immune from the suffering of death by having taken the four voids of death as the path but s/he will not know how to intensify the understanding of the path. Therefore, you should become expert in the instructions of merging. If you know them well, though you won't develop the power [to accomplish these things] just by that, by applying them to your mind again and again you will develop a marvelous strong instinct.
Thus, this thorough explanation of, even when you can not create sleep as an actual samadhi, having or not having the ability to ascertain the corresponding voids of sleep of the base reality, of, even when you can create that, producing or not producing it in the reality of the voids of sleep, and of the genuine and spurious methods of creating that-this is a
method of developing a rough understanding that is not misled about the key of the instruction of holding the clear light of sleep. The rest of them I will explain elsewhere in fine detail.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. C'3'd'ii'A"1"b"ii"A'"2"'-The dream merger]
Thus, one who can merge the voids of sleep, having held the dream by the force of energy, when the voids of sleep arise in sequence, s/he can ascertain "this and this is the luminance and so on of sleep. " Thus, from the perspective of understanding the process of arisal of dreams after the clear light of sleep, you should well distinguish the boundary between the void of sleep and the arisal of dream. In that regard, [233al there is no need for any other method of recognizing dream as dream, and so Aryadeva did not state any other method of holding the dream than
? cannot hold the dream through the door of previously ascertaining the four voids of sleep, other methods of holding are explained from the personal instructions. Here, without requiring meditation on the path, from the base reality time itself, there are many times it happens that one recognizes dream as dream. Whatever activities one concentrates on with intense will repeatedly in the daytime usually come out also in the dream. By the key of that, it is not that difficult to develop the knowledge that the dream is a dream, and it is recommended that the cultivation of in- tense will in the daytime can lead to holding [consciously] the dream. In
the method of holding the clear light of sleep. As for holding the dream, not being able thus to hold the dream by the force of energy, since one
this regard, since if there is no sleep, dreams will not come, though it is
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 44 1
possible to carry over [the intention to another] day, still this [problem] will only cause a slight obstruction of the virtuous practice of merging the dream [with the magic body]. When sleep does come, if it is too deep, the dream will not emerge. In some cases where there is excessive habituation to mind focusing only in the daytime, there are no dreams. Or it can happen that even if there are dreams, one does not remember to say at the time of waking, though that is also less intense [as an obstruction]. If such problems should occur, one should use the methods to dispel them as given in the personal instructions, which will be easy if you
know how to apply the reasoning behind them.
Now, to hold the dream when it is not the case that sleep does not
come and it is not the case that even with sleep coming dreams do not come, thinking that "the current perceptions in the day [233h l are a dream," and especially creating the instinct that projects the strong intention "I will recognize the dream as a dream," these are crucially important in order to awaken [to consciousness] within the context of the dream. In that case, if things do not bcome clear even when there are many dreams and they are enduring, that kind of instinct cannot have been awakened, so it is crucial that the dreams are clear. If the dreams are clear from the beginning, it is easy to hold them; if they are not clear there must be a method to make them clear. These are to aim the mind and so on at drops in the throat and mid-brow and so on. If one awakens [completely] when the dream had just been recognized or not long after it has been recog- nized, this obstructs the virtuous practice of merging the dream. One needs to know a method for prolonging the dream. Many of these are not taught, [but] the main one depends on the statements from other Tantras that drops at the heart and jewel-tip centers cause deep sleep, at the throat and secret center below the navel cause dreams, and at the forehead and navel cause wakefulness. When you go to sleep, due to the intensity of the wind-energies collecting at the heart, the jewel sleep without dreams occurs, which stays that way as long as the drops stay there. When the binding of the wind-energies there opens up a bit, they go to the throat and the secret place, and the Community says the dream emerges. which lasts as long as they stay there or as shortly as they stay there. When the binding of the wind-energies there opens up a bit, they go to the other two places, and one begins to awaken. Upon that 1 2. \4u l, if you know how to prolong softly the awakening. that serves as the key point. Thereby
442 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
you can understand the method of prolonging the not long remaining (in the dream], once you have identified the sleep clear light.
In the instructions of the mentor Marpa, the heart center is the vital point for holding the clear light of sleep and the throat is the vital point for holding dream. As for the explanation of how greatly vital are these two vital points during sleep time and the meditation of the navel in
furor-fire meditation while waking, it must be understood relying on the explanations above. As for the emphasis on the throat as the vital point for holding dreams, it intends the holding of the dream for one who cannot hold the dream that unholdable by the force of the wind-energies. At the time of equipoise, one aims the mind at the drop in the crown, explained [among the] two vital points for waking time. By that one who holds the dream by the force of will, though one cannot ascertain the sleep voids before the dream, when one practices by confirming the recogni- tion of dream, one can find in the Marpa system a special instruction for holding the four sleep voids during that occasion of dreaming. And if you can do that, having stabilized long familiarity with it during the sleep time, it gets easier to collect the wind-energies during waking time; this is a powerful side-effect for developing the four voids during waking time, which should enable you to understand this as a special exception of the above explanations. Thus, in the best case, you first develop the four sleep voids by the force of wind-energy and then you arise in the dream beatific body. Or in the worst [case], by the above-explained method you might develop [234bJ the sleep four voids, but if you do not know an instruction to merge the dream body with the dream arising in the beatific body, you don't have the superior essence of the instructions of the dream. The statements about the way the dream body arises in the beatific body from the experience of the sleep truth body, and once that happens, [the teaching] that you can definitely merge with the between, occur in the Five Point instruction of the Marpa system. The vital point here is extremely great. The later [teachers] engage with this without en- gaging the fine distinctions; and once they do engage, it is very hard for them to understand that there are the two distinctive systems of arisal; and that, especially, there is a system providing a distinctive certainty through the instruction of merging the [magic body with] the dream and
merging the [magic body with the] between.
That is the supremely holy among instructions about merging the
[magic body with the] dream; and its common distinctiveness emerges
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 443
from the personal instructions about emanative transformation and view- ing visions of pure and impure objects and so on. As for viewing visions of pure and impure objects, when you recognize the dream by some means other than recognizing the dream by force of dissolving wind-energies into the dhati channel, among good visionary experiences in waking time occur visions of pure lands and deities and so on. However, those are not the real deities, but merely virtual simulations of them, and the pure land visions are not real either but only simulations. As for the scriptural ref- erence establishing that, though they are stated in the Samadhi of Direct Experience ofthe Present Buddhas and so forth, 1235? ? 1 fearing prolixity I will not recite them. Although visionary objects seen in a dream recog- nized though the force of wind-energy are very much different from the above visions, until you reach a high degree of forceful ability of merger, though you might see the mere forms of pure lands and their inhabitants, it is [only simulation] as in the above case. Thus, though occasional unerr- ing clairvoyances about past and future might occur, many erroneous
ones will also occur, it is hard to rely on them one-sidedly.
As for stabilizing your habituation to recognizing the dream by force of wind-energy, it seems after a certain stage to be an excellent method for developing unerring clairvoyances about past and future. These non- principal distinctions about merging with the dream, though they are not explicit in the great authoritative treatises, seem to be helpful to contem- porary persons. As for thus holding dreams by force of wind-energy, it is the principal thing, so you must strive in that procedure. And as it seems very hard to develop this even if you strive, you should hold the dream
with other procedures; and then strive further to stabilize those by holding it through the force of energy, and not rest content with just that [pro- gress made with the other procedures]. If you do not know the uncom- mon instructions of merging [the magic body] with the dream, you will not know how to achieve the realization of the metaphoric magic body which illustrates it in waking time. Or else, even if you know about it, your realization does not intensify and does not become supreme, and you won't know the distinctive procedures of merging [the magic body] with the between at the time of death. Thus, [235bJ you should become
expert in that, as explained above.
In holding [or recognizing] the dream, if you begin to comprehend
the two times of base and path, and in the latter both what is common and what is uncommon with other vehicles, and in that latter again both what
444 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
is principal and what is commonplace and so on, having then well distin- guished the main and accessory points in the dream and magic body mer- ger. you won't get confused about the rough vital points of personal instruction. As for the fine details that remain unexplained about the [nine] mergers here, I must explain them elsewhere. 128
mergers]
The second has three parts: [1'"] The way ofmerging buddhahood in the between; [2'") The way of merging buddhahood after becoming reborn; and [3"'] Demonstrating the analysis and the synthesis of the mergers .
hood in the betweenJ
In general, in developing a path according to the base reality proc- esses of death, forming the between, and taking birth, there are the expres- sions, "the conversion of birth, death, and the between into the three bodies" and "merging with birth, death, and the between. " Thus, you set up as the paths of the three mergers the attainment of buddhahood in this
life, in the between, and after being reborn in another life; and that path again is set up in terms of both creation and perfection stages.
As for the merger of clear light with actual death, the Integrated Practices and the Illumination ofthe Lamp explain it as attaining buddha- hood in the between. You might wonder, "Well, just how much realization of the path does that person attain here in this life? "
The Integrated Practices says, "seeing the truth, realizing the per- fection stage, and understanding reality," and the Illumination ofthe Lamp says, "realizing the process of perfection. " The followers of Go explain [236aJ that the person [who attains buddhahood in the between] is one who has attained communion but not practiced it, calling such [a person] "one who has abandoned birth but not death. " However, the Third Stage [chapter of the Five Stages] states that if you attain the magic body you
.
? ? ? 128Thi .
s mtention may h
.
Zhol, Vol. cha, no. 34.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"b"ii''B, , -Explaining the death and between
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"b"ii''s"'l'" - The way of merging buddha-
ave resulted m Tsong Khapa's bsre ba dgu'i gdams pa, TKSB,
Chapter V/ll- 1\. vo Reality Perfection Stage ? 445 will surely attain buddhahood in this very life, and the Second Stage
[chapter] states:
Having attained manifest enlightenment, [One] proceeds to the pure abodes,
Not turned back from the buddhaverses,
In this very life [one will become] omniscient.
-that when you attain the fourth stage [manifest enlightenment, or clear light transparence], you will become a buddha in this life, [but] when you attain buddhahood in the between, magic body and clear light are not attained [in this life].
Further, it is said that attaining the fourth stage [of clear light], you purify the three luminances, which is to realize reality in intuitive experi- ence. If, as the Ultimate Continuum [by MaitreyaniUha] states:
The noble one eradicates the miseries
Of death, aging, and sickness;
No longer born under power of evolution and addictions, He lives free of [the miseries ofthe life cycle].
-the Transcendence Universal Vehicle noble one abandons death under the power of evolution, what need is there to mention the Mantric Uni- versal Vehicle noble one's abandoning it? [And after all,] this [Transcen- dence Vehicle noble] one has not even [fully] abandoned death [itself] underthe power ofevolution. 129 However, the Integrated Practices states that, of the two kinds [of noble ones] mentioned, one of them has no wealth of possessions for performing the [Tantric] conducts; but that [statement] is refuted by the statement [by Nagarjuna] that "once you attain magic body, food and clothing are instantaneously obtained from the sky. " The Bodhisattva Stages says that once you have attained the joy- ous stage you will never lack for possessions, and so a Universal Vehicle noble being cannot be lacking in possessions, then that also refutes [the possibility that a noble one can be poor]. [Thus, the mind-isolation- realized mantric] practitioner cannot have attained either of the last two
dominated death itself is still driven by untamed instincts even in the noble one.
? 129 Although Maitreya states that the miseries of death etc. are abandoned, evolution-
446 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
[perfection] stages. Therefore, the meaning of saying "seeing the truth" [during mind isolation] [236bl is that, at the perfection of vajra recitation, one realizes the reality of thatness by the intuitive wisdom of mind iso- lation; since it does not follow that any experience of reality is a direct
experience. 1 30
Here again, the Integrated Practices explains that some are dis-
tracted by farm work, trade, and devotional practices, and are not able to perform the conduct; others lack sufficient wealth and cannot perform the procedures according to the prescriptions in the Tantra, and [it further] explains by implication that since the conduct has not been performed those [persons] attain buddhahood in the between. This shows that if one can perform the conducts, one attains buddhahood in this life, so it is clear you must be ready to perform the conducts of the occasion of the perfection stage, and for that you must have at least the definite attain- ment of mind isolation. This [person] ready to perform the conducts, if slhe does not attain the magic body, knows that s/he must perform the conducts in order to attain the magic body. And if s/he does, the Vajra
Rosary quote is pertinent:
Knowing to separate instincts from luminance, Then [you] should perform the conducts. Abandoning the evolutionary body,
[You] will attain the vajra body.
Since this states that such a [person], if s/he does not perform the conducts, s! he won't attain buddhahood in this life, it shows that to attain buddhahood in this life, the conducts are definitely necessary and that to represent the conduct which is the art of achieving this magic body. you should perform [it] by taking the four voids of this life and the four voids of death to be the same. Therefore, in general. as in the case of the per- formance of the yogas of soul-ejection and body-possession, though the conducts are not needed to separate the coarse and subtle bodies by the force of meditation, the separation of the two bodies by habituation to the
1 30 Tsong Khapa uncharacteristically takes issue with Aryadeva's statement that one out of the two types of noble ones (attainers of the third path and first bodhisattva stage, and of the mind-isolation realization of the mind objective but not yet the magic body, respec- tively) lacks the wealth to pursue one of the three types of Tantric conduct.
? Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 447
samadhi that develops the four voids through the dissolving process by compressing the wind-energy-mind at the heart center, l 2-'7al and the crea- tion of that separated subtle body again into the magic vajradhara body adorned with all the signs, are extremely difficult to achieve; and so you must engage in the conducts for the sake of that achievement.
Since such is the case, in regard to the merger of [clear light with] death, the Integrated Practices does not teach more than the mere trans- mitting of the projected will for the merger of death and ultimate reality. The followers of Go very appropriately recommend merger through vajra recitation at the time of death, also using the visualization of the heart center indestructible and the arts of compression through the two con- templations. In regard to such performance, except that the actual process of dissolution, such as earth dissolving into water etc. , developed from samadhi, becomes the dissolution process of the compression process of death, there is no other sort of death process [performance]. Therefore, at the time of the death clear light, the import of reality is not [yet] directly realized; because the magic body has not been realized up until then, and because the magic body definitely must be attained in a supporting em- bodiment that has the experiential realization of the objective clear light. And because the Five Stages states:
The samadhi of self-consecration
And likewise the state of clear light, Distinguished as effect and cause, Indicate the two realities.
By the process of self-consecration, The clear light transparence is attained.
And also because the Integrated Practices states:
Apart from realizing superficial reality, you cannot directly
realize ultimate reality. [237bl
Here, the Integrated Practices mention of "superficial reality" - used in the expression of [the yogi/ni's] projected will "This life is to be superfi- cial reality! "-refers to the third stage magic body. And the Illumination
of the Lamp statement:
44M ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
At that time. having taken the time in the very con- tinuum of the being. one arises, and realizes the magical samadhi . . .
also supports this point. since there is no magic body [creation] prior to [realizing] the objective clear light.
As for the way the magic body is realized, flrst you arise in the char- acteristic between state; it is not done after that. That very wind-energy- mind of the death clear light is what is born as the magic body; in another [procedure-a this-life magic body procedure-] it is that [very] wind- energy-mind that would have gone into the between that here [in this life] emerges as the magic body vajradhara body. 1 3 1
Here some people think, first one achieves the full between state, then you meditate and transform the between body and it becomes the communion body. Others think that when you achieve the between, you
meditate it as the vajradhara body. These both are at fault by not under- standing well the way of achieving the magic body. Here the Integrated Practices states:
Truly understanding "dying is ultimate reality and birth is superficial reality," at some point you develop a deter- mined mind, "having entered clear light and abandoned the ordinary body, I shall arise by the stage of self- consecration! " Put that in your mind and stay with it, and that impression will not quit even in another life; then you will become omniscient. Therefore it is said [in a Sotra]:
By which and which intention, L238a] Humans truly apply their minds,
131 This discussion clearly presents the view that Tantric enlightenment is finally not about "powering one's way" to buddhahood, as it has often been misrepresented. In order to attain the special cause that accelerates the material buddha body to full evolutionary perfection, the practitioner has to fully go through death, either virtual or actual, which means a complete surrender of all egocentrist will, with the only ticket forward being a strongly projected will to emerge as embodying the universal love and compassion for all living beings, transmitted with determination in the time of complete surrender to the experiential annihilation of any controlling subjectivity.
? Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 449 That becomes their nature;
Just as the varied [colors tinge the crystal] jewel.
Thus, [Aryadeva] supports with a Sntra reference his contention that whatever willpower concerning the two realities is projected at the time of death, one will develop in that way. Since this does not refer to birth in coarse existence, "birth" in regard to the wind-energy-mind which be- comes the between in the case of another person, there is the projected will "I must resurrect in the superficial magic body," and it is said one will achieve according to that projected will. So this must undoubtedly be accepted as the very wind-energy-mind of clear light not being born as a between being but being born as the superficial [reality] magic body vajradhara body.
"Well then," you might ask, "if there is no between here, is it not unsuitable to refer to this as 'buddhahood in the between? "'
Ifthat were [wrong], since there is no [real] clear light present in the imaginative visualization of compressing [wind-energy-mind] into clear light, and there is no [real] vajradhara in the creation of the primal savior through the five enlightenments, it would be wrong to use those expressions for those states; and there are many such parallel reasonings. Therefore, since just as there is a [kind of] between at the end of the death clear light, one attains buddhahood creating it from the mere wind- energy-mind, there is no contradiction in designating that as "buddha- hood in the between. " If you claim that buddhahood in the between is a practicing of the path after having achieved a full-fledged between after
the clear light of death, you are in disagreement with both this system and the personal instructions.
Further, by that vital key of attaining the third stage magic body at the end of the death clear light, since this person does not directly realize the reality of thatness at the time of the death clear light, s/he [231! bl attains buddhahood after having achieved the [third stage] magic body, and then
[achieves] the two last stages in that embodiment.
This way of achieving the magic body gives a great certainty also about the way of achieving the magic body in the process of buddhahood in this life.
"Well, in this case," [you might further object,] "there is a connec- tion with the previously existent coarse body, so there is no such certainty about buddhahood in this life. "
450 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
In such a case, even if one cannot last the measure of the between of forty-nine days, there is no point counting them, as, going into the pres- ence of the buddhas, one can listen to [their] personal instructions. The Personal Instruction [ofMaiijushrr] states that performing as a yogi/ni of the self-consecration stage, one should be taught for several aeons. Then it states that having propitiated a mentor and attained well the initiation, pledges, and vows, having fully attained the suchness discovered from the speech of the mentor and having understood the secret and the supremely secret, if you cannot meditate by means of the ritual activities as explained, you should meditate thatness through this stage. According to that state- ment, if you practice the private instruction of [soul-]ejection again and
again, conditioned by such aspiration, it is stated [further in the Personal Instruction]:
When the self enters the mind-reality-realm,
You realize clear intense delight like the sky;
Then having the force of magical manifestation,
You achieve the form of a five year old boy,
And you realize incomparable perfect bliss.
Then when you project [your will] toward other births, You will truly realize an emanation [body] form.
Thus, by whatever wishes beings have,
Truly joining with the minds of humans,
You become just like what [they need],
Like the variegated jewel of the Siitra.
You will experience a truth body like the sky
Of intense delight, like death, fainting, [239aJ Falling asleep, yawning, or the moment of orgasm;
Intensely meditating on it, you cultivate The mentalities of embodied beings.
"You enter the mind-reality-realm" here means entering the death clear light, and realizing the thatness reality at that time. "When you achieve the form of a child" here means the time when you would other- wise achieve the [ordinary] between. "Then you realize incomparable perfection bliss" means that you attain the beatific body as previously explained. ? ? when you take another birth existence you attain an emana- tion body," indicates the two bodies of the path. Although this latter [point]
Chapter VIJJ- 1Wo Reality Perfection Stage ? 45 1
is not stated in the Integrated Practices, this fills in its intention. The one who achieves the magic body is capable of maintaining an emanation body that is perceived by the fleshly eye. "Therefore," [and following] is similar to the Integrated Practice. 'i' [quote above]. And the five lines from "truth body. . . " teach the taking as the path of the arisal of the ground clear light in the previous context of the ground reality. In this case where otherwise you would attain the between, as for this attain- ment of the beatific body, it refers to assuming the magic body without taking up the full-fledged between. Again from that same text, [the Per- sona/ Instruction ofMafljushrT]:
If you do not attain the three bodies,
You will [at least] become the chief of scientists, And gradually achieve the universal seal.
Thus, it states that, even if you do not attain the three bodies of the path, you will achieve a body of the chief of scientists, a distinctive em- bodiment for the mantric conduct; and it does not explain that one who does not achieve the three bodies then has a way of practicing the path in the between. Further, it is clear that such an embodiment [of chief scien- tist], without needing to take any further rebirth in another existence, is going to be born in a [celestial] buddhaverse. 1 32
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"l"b"ii"B"'2"' - The way of merging buddha- hood after becoming reborn]
Although the Root and Explanatory Tantras and the treatises of father and sons ! 239bl do not clearly explain the way of merging death and the between [with truth and beatific bodies] for one who attains buddha- hood after taking rebirth, that explanation of the Integrated Practices and
132 This whole section is fascinating in the context ofTsong Khapa's biography, as the Buddhajiianapada quote from the Maiijushrr Persona/ Instruction describes in a startlingly precise way the account given of Tsong Khapa's death in 1419, when his assembled disciples witnessed him transform into a small boy amid a dazzling explosion of light and energy. It is said he postponed his full body (as well as mind) buddhahood in his life for twenty-one years from his profound realization of 1398, because he could not engage in the Tantric conducts without resigning as a monk. So he then attained the magic body, clear light transparence, communion buddhahood at the time of death, 25th day of tenth
lunar month of 1419.
? ? 4? . :! ? Brilliant lllumination (? f the Lamp
the /1/umination ofthe Lamp can be applied to those two mergers illustra- tively [by interpolationl. and in this tradition, such an explanation from the private instructions of the mentors is excellent; just as in the case of the sleep and dream mergers.
If you wonder here. "in order to merge [the clear light with] the actuality of death, what sort of realization must you have right now? "
As for this. taking as a base the proper obtainment of initiation and the keeping of the vows and pledges, you then establish the foundation through practice of the creation stage. This is of extremely crucial impor- tance in all three of the patterns of buddhahood, in this life, in the between, and in the next life. Then by meditating on the methods of penetrating the vital points in the body, you compress the wind-energies into the dhuti and dissolve them, and then stabilize the development of the four voids. Then, if you are capable of applying the view that accurately realizes the import of selflessness, you are capable of merging [the clear light with] the voidnesses of death. Remembering the view at the time of the death clear light, you can also realize the import of the reality of thatness. If you have the former ability without the view, though you can merge the death voids, there is no realization of thatness. So there are two ways. If you can merge as in the former way, it develops with extremely great
effectiveness that you cut off the elaborations of coarse dualistic percep- tions, and the realization of the thatness reality develops with extremely great intensity. And if it is [only] as in the latter case, there is a very great difference. As for not gaining the ability even as much as that, if you from now remember in your mind again and again the stages that happen at death and constantly meditate on them, [240a] the force of such famili- arity clearly will enable you to recognize the death voids by being able to remember [the stages] on the point of death; since it is stated in the Stages of Yoga Practice that whatever you emphasize in mental habitua- tion in this life, you again will engage with the same thing on the point of death. In this regard further, by the influence of whether or not there is a connection with the [realistic] view, one does or does not realize the thatness reality when one recognizes the base clear light. And in regard to these again, as for the private instruction about the time of death, through the dissolving processes such as earth dissolving into water, you have the impressions from mirage up to candle-flame, then you should remember the private instructions about the three voids, and then you should meditate the private instructions about the two life-energy controls
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 453
the path.
As Loyipa's Art ofAchievement, {Clear Realization ofthe Divine
Lord}, states:
the Qakinis.
This means that the yogi/nis at time of death are visited by heroes and heroines carrying various symbols in their hands and are led into the <;lakini paradise; that is, are plunged into the clear light, according to the three commentaries such as the Lawapa Commentary,133 stating that later [240bJ one should employ the arts of entering the clear light through such conditions. As to the meaning of the first two lines, "nirvana" refers to an ultimate death, which this is not, explaining that this is a restoration of the mind like going from house to house. Here the statement from the Supreme Bliss {Tantra} is just as an example; it is visibly evident in this life that being greeted by one's own chosen deity at the time of death is a benefit of those who have the intense devotion of keeping vows and pledges pure, revering the mentor, and meditating as archetype deity the creation stage of the chosen patron deity.
Here you might object, "If one who gets lost in the full-fledged between without attaining the magic body after the clear light of death does not attain buddhahood in the between, then what about the Concise Five Stages explanation? [As follows:]
Attaining the abode ofclear light, manifest buddhahood, The diligent will reach the supreme in this very life,
The indolent [will reach it] on the point of death,
And the worst one, in the existence between;
133 The three commentaries are by Tath! igatavajra (Toh. 1509); VIravajra (TOh. 4577); and
? The yogi/ni who restores the mind does not rely on
nirvana. At the time of migration, these yogi/nis, greeted
various flowers in their hands and various standards and banners, with the sound of cymbals and various delight-
and the two contemplations, the methods of developing the voids through
by such as the Glorious Heruka and the yogi/nis, carrying ful songs, recognize death, and are led to the paradise of
the one mentioned here by Lawapa (Toh. 4578).
454 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
And their supreme [emanation] bodies will accomplish the
aims of others.
[To answer,] this refers to attaining the supreme through that clear light of buddhahood from realizing clear light, realized at best in this life, at medium realized at the time of the death clear light, and at worst real- ized in the between. It does not refer to attaining buddhahood at the same time as the clear light of death or to attaining buddhahood in the actual between state; since the "worst" case must be interpreted as the one who attains buddhahood after another birth. Thus, as for the merging [the bea-
tific body] with the between, when you get the ability to merge [the truth body] with death, you will also get the ability to merge the between by the force of projecting the will as above explained in the between. How- ever, in that case one is practicing by using the imagination of self as a deity body after attaining the full-fledged between. [24tal As for the special method of recognizing the between, it can be developed properly by the force of meditating the four voids during the waking and sleep states. After that, there is the personal instruction for developing the illus- trative, metaphoric magic body; and even without that much ability, there is a good method in holding the dreams by will-power. Without any of those, when you impress in mind the private instruction of death, you must habituate yourself to impressing in mind the ways of achieving the
between after death and the meditations on the form of the magic body.
IVI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"1"b"ii"s" '3, , - Demonstrating the analysis
As the Concise Five Stages explains "you should merge the three kinds of between," by that example you should understand the three deaths and the three births. Though these mergers' designations do not occur clearly in the treatises of father and sons, they are meaningful.
The three betweens are the existence between, the corresponding dream between, [and the path between]-and here many persons in the Marpa tradition interpret the meaning of the expression "birth-death between" as this present body from birth until death-however, taking the two base reality betweens and the one path betweenl34 as the third,
134This seems to be the third stage magic body itself.
? ? and the synthesis of the mergers]
Chapter VIII- Two Reality Perfection Stage ? 455
corresponds better with the father and sons' treatises. Further, in the Five Stages there are mentionings of the magic body as a between, in regard to which there are both actual and virtual understandings. As for the three deaths, there is the well-known death, there is the sleep-death, which is the sleep voids prior to the key explanation of the dream body as a between, and in the perfection stage there is the path death which is developed according to the base reality death dissolution process. 124lbJ Thus there are two base reality deaths and one path death. As for the three births [or lives], there is the birth maintained as womb-birth from the existence between, there is the waking-time birth when the dream betweener again enters into the coarse body, and there is the birth when the magic body betweener [re-enters and] maintains the coarse body. Thus there are two base births and one path birth.
As for the first of those sets of three, the merger of between and beatific body is the magic body merger. As for the middle three, the mer- ger of death and the truth body is the clear light merger. And as for the final three, the merger of birth and the emanation body [is the magic body entering the coarse body or any other emanation for the sake of beings]. 135 In regard to those, if you synthesize them, they are called "the three merger cycles. " If you separate them, they are called "the nine mergers. "
Here, relying on the explanation of the Concise Five Stages:
By the energy of the furor-fire yoga, The mind objective is great bliss. Uniting dream and magic as one;
You should merge the three betweens. Addictions become the path of wisdoms. The path of swift cutting is ejection,
And body-possession is a branch.
Serdingpa connected the furor meditation in the private instruction lit- erature of the Community with the five stages and also gave the private instructions of ejection and body possession. As for the explanation in
1 35 As TMJng Khapa out of reticence did not maintain the parallel of the previous two sets of three by equating a line of mergers (death-truth body etc. ) with a path. I supplied the bracketed emanation path from his immediately previous listing of the lhird hirth merger.
? 456 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
the Concise Five Stages, in regard to meditating the furor-fire taught in the Yogini Tantras, it is claimed that it is taught in the terms substituted in the five stages of the Father Tantras. Doing it that way is in order to show how to synthesize all the paths of both types of Tantras, the actual five stages or their analogous [six branches or other stages]. Interpreting that way, the analogue of developing mind isolation by the wind-energies in vajra recitation [242al is the very same yoga of furor-fire. The analogue of mind isolation itself is the four joys of the great bliss derived from dissolving the wind-energies into the dhati channel depending on the meditation of furor-fire. Both of those do occur in the Mother Tantras. Thus the meaning <;>f that treatise is that one constitutes the five stages by adding [to the isolations' analogues] the Father Tantras' magic body, clear light, and communion; and it does not mean to explain things otherwise.
"Uniting dream and magic as one" means that the personal instruc- tions about dreams should be combined with the personal instructions about the magic body. "Between" refers to the three mergers of the magic body. As for this very merging of the two base reality time betweens with the path between, it is in order to purify the impure, the latter referred to as "addictions. " If you do not attain the supreme in this life or in the between, then, having attaining a distinctively excellent embodiment for practicing Mantra in another life, the way of not prolonging that path is soul-ejection yoga, and body-possession is a distinctively excellent branch of soul-ejection yoga. Those two are clear in the Yogini Tantras. Or else, body-possession is the branch of swift cutting the path by exchanging in
this life one's own embodiment with another's embodiment because of differences of their qualities of good and bad. The reason for mentioning these two here, is to say, "add those two to the Father Tantra. " Or, since, once you are capable of creating the illustrative, metaphoric magic body of the Father Tantra, if you meditate the personal instruction of body- possession, you can develop a specially excellent ability, [the two are mentioned] in order to make that understood.
Many ways of merging the nine mergers have been explained. Yet there seem to remain some vital points [242bl which are very hard to under- stand, and they seem to require some further determination.
CHAPTER /X
Ultimate Clear Light Transparence
I 242b. l -263b. J I
Second, the perfection stage of ultimate clear light, has two parts: [a"] The import explained in the Five Stages and the Integrated Prac- tices: and [b"] The import explained in the endurance branch statement of the Further Tantra.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd 'ii 'A "2 "a " -
and the Integrated Practices]
The first has three parts: (i"] Procedure to ascertain the sequence, along with how to become eligible; [ii "] Explaining the practical instruc- tion in clear light to such a person; and [iii"] The way that stage also reaches the end of other paths.
Procedure to ascertai n the sequence, along with how to become eligible]
Here you might wonder, "As previously explained in the context of confirming the sequence [of the stages] , what is the reason for the state- ment that you cannot attain the clear light of this stage if you do not previously create the superficial reality magic body? "
In general, since according to the system of the Noble father and sons the direct realization of the import of the thatness reality which is objective selflessness is shared in common with the noble disciples and hermit buddhas, what need is there to mention that there is a direct reali- zation of that ultimate reality on the joyous stage of the Transcendence Vehicle? Since the achievement of the magic body is the uncommon dis- tinctive excellence of the unexcelled Mantra Vehicle, it is not claimed that
such a magic body must be achieved merely as a prerequisite of the direct realization of the ultimate reality clear light. However, the claim is that the achievement of the magic body must precede that objective clear light
457
? ? ? IYI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"2" -
The perfection stage of ultimate dear lightI
The import explained in the Five Stages
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'A"2"a"i" -
458 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
In that regard, according to the systems of other vehicles, the reali- zation of voidness, chief cause of the wisdom truth body, serves as an interactive condition for the matter body, and the infinite store of merit, chief cause of the matter body, (243a] serves as an interactive condition for the truth body. Nevertheless, you do not travel the path by taking these two chief causes as art and wisdom indivisible in actuality and combining them into one in a concentrated samadhi. In the context of this unexcelled vehicle, I have already explained the unerring union of bliss and void and their union in one actuality with the magic body. And I have also already
explained the import of how, though there is the similarity here in the mere general outline of the path of learning the six transcendences, having conceived the spirit of enlightenment, there is a distinctive way of learn- ing each of the separately categorized types of merit stores and there is a distinctive process wherein the realization of voidness is able to purify the objective obscurations.
According to that vital key point: the quickest Individual Vehicle [practice] causes the exhaustion of the addictions with their seeds in three lifetimes; and in the Transcendence Vehicle, there are very different long
and short timespans, such as the statements that it takes much time to attain the joyous stage where you directly realize the nature of reality, that the addictive obscurations are exhausted on the eighth stage, and that there are many different ways of abandoning and not abandoning addictions. Thus, in this path, the magic body is not created [only] in order to produce the intuitive wisdom which is just the direct realization of the reality of thatness by the orgasmic bliss. It is developed [also] in order to master the distinctive ability to purify the objective obscurations by the intuitive wisdom of objective clear light; since it is the chief cause of the uncommon matter body. Although when orgasmic (243b l bliss takes voidness as its object, there is a door for developing a distinctive ability to purify objective obscurations through that subjectivity, in this context of the perfection stage, the magic body is the substitute of the infinite stores of merit of the other vehicles. Recognizing the combination of those two is the ultimate vital key point.
Thus, though the [various ways of] achieving the matter body are similar in the sense of enhancing the distinctive ability of the chief cause of the wisdom truth body to purify the objective obscurations, there is a
which consists of the orgasmic bliss's direct realization of the extremely
subtle import of thatness. This will now be explained in detail.
Chapter IX- Ultimate Clear Light Transparence ? 459
very great difference in regard to what you take as the chief causes of the two bodies. Thereby you can understand the difference between how on the other vehicles you attain the body adorned with signs and with that support you meditate only voidness in concentrated samadhi, and then, aroused by the buddhas, you engage in gathering the magnificent stores in the aftermath; and how in this context when you attain the magic body you do not have to proceed in that way. In regard to these reasons for confirming the sequence, without easily being satisfied, you must deeply investigate the general arrangement of the procedures of the path in the other vehicles, in the other Tantra classes, and in the two [categories of Unexcelled] Tantras, and all the subtle vital key points of those. For, due to the extreme difficulty of understanding it, there are many likely but spurious explanations about the magic body such as "to purify the taints of holding magical illusion you must plunge it into the clear light! " and so on.
Therefore, the Fourth Stage [chapter of the Five Stages] states:
This self-arisen Divine Lord,
Alone is just the greatest of divinities;
The vajra master is even greater,
Since s/he bestows the personal instructions.
Having truly pleased him or her, Over years or also months, Having satisfied that mentor, Worship [244al as much as you can.
Having well instructed the consort
With whom you join, she should be given away, And you should make offerings with proper rites Amid the mandala of the host.
It declares that, since s/he bestows the personal instructions about this. you should view the mentor as greater than the Buddha, and you should propitiate him or her for a long time. After that you should make offer- ings with the secret and other offerings to the mentor who teaches this. And [Aryadeva also in] the Lamp of Integrated Practices says that you will not realize clear light without the personal instruction of the mentor. and that, having obtained the verbal transmission from the mentor who teaches indivisibly the causal and the fruitional teachings. you should
460 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
make offerings to that mentor as before. Though this is said [previously] in the context of receiving initiation, it is just the same in the context of receiving the practical instructions. You should understand that these, even if you perform them by mental imagination, are praised as the causes of arranging the favorable auspicious conditions for the distinc- tively excellent path.
After that, as for the the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices declaration that the mentor confers the secret and third initiation pre- ceded by the nine initiations [of the vase initiation], if you have previ- ously attained once the initiation that makes you a fit vessel, a second initiation to become fit is not necessary. In the Fourth Stage [chapter of the Five Stages] statement that, in the pre-dawn twilight136 of the night when the initiation was conferred at midnight, the disciple propitiates the
mentor by offerings and praise, the offerings are as before. The praises are the four and a half verses beginning with "Liberated from the three realms . . . " After that praise, it is stated that the disciple petitions the men- tor with the three verses from "Liberated from evolution and birth. . . . " [244b]
As for the reason behind the statement that you should praise and invite the mentor in harmony with the personal instructions in the con- texts of magic body and clear light, it is good to assert that you should meditate the mentor yoga, having also used it in the contexts of the other stages, and that you should pray with those procedures. Therefore, you should pray in that way not only on just the occasion of hearing the practical instructions but also on other occasions. Therefore, in general in all vehicles and in specific in this vehicle, you should not break your commitments to the mentor, you should make offerings while consider- ing him or her as a buddha, you should please him or her with all methods of propitiation and abandon all unpleasing things; this seems to be the superior vital point.
136 Here the PK verse Ch. IV, 7 mentions the pre-dawn twilight (Skt.