And then there would be the extreme incongruity of positing perceivability for
luminance
and
lVI.
lVI.
Thurman-Robert-a-F-Tr-Tsong-Khapa-Losang-Drakpa-Brilliant-Illumination-of-the-Lamp-of-the-Five-Stages
1413 (lndrabhOti, Cakrasamvara-vrtti, fol.
1 15a.
3-.
4); Toh.
1427 (Loyipa, Bhagavad-abhisamaya, fol.
187a.
4-.
6); Toh.
1449 (Vanaratna, Vasantatilaka-tika, fol.
336a.
7-b.
4).
These tests identify this term as referring to the bow-shaped wind-energy- disc that forms the base of the mandala universes of various Tantras, which can only be visualized or projected by the yogT/nT after having dissolved the ordinary universe by melting all energies into the central channel via its lower door, either navel or genital wheel.
I am indebted to Paul Hackett for these references.
107 Jalandhara is one of the twenty-four holy places of the Chakrasamvara Tantra and also is the crown center of the yogic nervous center; the idea here being that the fire from the wind energy at the closing of the lower door of the central channel causes the furor fU"e from the navel center to blaze up and melt all heroes and yoginTs into the moon disc of hindu drops at the crown center.
? Chapter VI-Speech Isolation in Practice ? 347
I no longer see them at all.
When the planet [Rahu] seizes sun and moon,
The mind and the Bera[m]pa do not proceed.
When all notions fully melt and dissolve,
The mind becomes pure experience of the [reality] realm.
l175aJ Here he declares the distinctive art of injecting the energy into the Drop :
By closing and opening [the lower doors] , The energy encompasses the fire.
With the wood of the organ of the truth, Thereby the furor-fire bums,
Consuming the body entirely,
And all materials of the heap of notions. And by the true burning of that fire. . .
So it declares just as before.
This enables you to understand that there is a [vajra-]recitation of
the exit and entry [of the wind-energy] through the path of water, and although the upper [body] vajra recitation accomplishes both these pur- poses, if you want to take it in terms of singling out the evacuative wind energy of the lower parts, you should perform it relying on your attain- ment of the already present base of personal instructions. If you perform the reversal of the evacuative energy by forceful methods, there are great hindrances such as the blocking of excrement and urine. But if you perform the gentle yoga with the skill in the vital points taught in the oral instruction and reverse the movement [of the energy], you need not lessen excrement and urine and have to eliminate them time and again. You will not experience the slightest discomfort, your furor fire will bum with much greater power, you will have a superlative bliss, and however intense your melting of the element, you will have no need of caution
about emission, and so on-such are the signs that will occur.
You might say, "Well, by meditating the heart indestructible and the vajra recitation etc. , and the spirit of enlightenment melts by the blazing of furor-fire, as is explained by the Yogini Tantras, and falls down to the jewel-relying on that, are the four joys developed? Or else
dhati channel. This same meaning is also expressed in the Great Seal
348 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
do you generate the four voids compressing [all wind-energies and drops] into the heart center from above and below? "
This I am going to explain ! 17Sbl in the section on mind isolation.
Here, many [yogi/nis] have performed the yoga of blocking the energy etc. with intense force, seeing that to be a bit quicker and not knowing how to discern well the differences of how the immediate and long term advantages are generated from gentle and rough yogas. Once they perform the arts of penetrating the vital points in the body, they meditate considering that they must practice with very intense force.
Now, some of them experience extremely great hindrances, and they then stop meditating those [methods]. Others, although their hindrances are also very great, accept the need to meditate with skill in the methods of dispelling them.
As for the way of dispelling hindrances, some might say "Well, when you compress the energy and it generates shooting pains before it becomes peaceful, you should meditate the yoga of many holes and thus expell them outside. And many others alleviate the shooting pains of energy compression with other methods. "
To that someone says, "When striving in order to compress the wind-energies, if you then quiet them without performing the method of entering them into the central channel, your efforts will be pointless, as you lack the personal instruction. " But our own system is that you enter
the [wind-energies] into the central channel by the yoga of the art of squeezing the two waves of enjoyment;108 and this is recommended also for pacifying shooting pains. Everyone seems to agree about using a forceful yoga at the beginning of meditation.
? 108 I have not previously encountered this expression longs spyod kyi rlabs gnyis 'tshir bai thabs kyi sbyor bas, and cannot quite yet figure it out.
Once you have meditated combining channels and wind-energies etc. , it is not certain that a great hindrance will arise which either will
deprive one's life-energy or come close to doing so. Such would the fault of not knowing decisively well how to cultivate at first, because if you do know [well the key points], [such dangers] will just not occur. Thus if you know well how to practice, ll76al and how to avoid great hindrances through meditating, you are an expert. If you stubbornly produce great
Chapter VI-Speech Isolation in Practice ? 349
not expert.
When you compress the wind-energies with gentle yoga, in general,
hindrances are less. And if at first you compress the wind-energies with- out having first purified them, there is a way of clearing away slight shooting pains that may arise-I will explain this elsewhere. 109 Do not think that [these concerns] just have to do with pacifying the shooting pains. Rather they are to make sure that you know how not to let the compression of the wind-energies become difficult somewhat later, and moreover how to dispel any failure to inject the previously compressed wind-energies into the central dhati channel - this is then to be an expert.
Therefore if you practice according to the two former systems, it seems that while it might happen that you might alleviate the shooting pains of compressing wind-energies, it will not benefit your injecting the previously compressed energies into the dhati channel.
The third method of dispelling [obstructions] can still work well with the forceful yoga, but our own system is that you must perform [the practice] with the gentle yogas as the [best] method of dispelling [obstruc- tions], not using the forceful yogas at all.
Thus, as for [my composing] this detailed explanation of the vital points of the vajra recitation: though there seem to be very many ways to perform vajra recitation given in the oral instructions, nevertheless, since the literature of the Esoteric Community explains vajra recitation exhaus- tively in ways which are not present in other Tantras or treatises, since it seems that good explanations of the system of the Esoteric Community are rare, and since the Noble father and son do not explain the other
wind-energy yogas but explain this one quite a lot, [I have written this] in order to interpret decisively [their explanations] .
109One place in Tsong Khapa's Collected Works where this is somewhat explained is in the Zhu Lan bDud rTsis Snying po, a text recording the 1 399 CE conversations between Tsong Khapa and Lhodrak Namkha Gyaltsen, wherein the dispersal of the neuralgic pains that can come from some kinds of wind-energy meditations is extensively discussed. I translated this long ago and published in the Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa, LTWA,
Dharamsala, 1982.
? hindrances, even though you know ways of getting rid of them, you are
CHAPTER VII Mind Isolation
[ 1 76a. 6-20Jb. 5)
? samadhi l
The third has five parts: [ l
) The reason you must understand the reality of the mind; [ 176bl [2"] The way the natural pattern of that mind is
"
) Demonstration that the especially excellent ) Showing the dangers and the advantages of not
declared in the Sotras; [3
art for realizing the nature of the mind is the Unexcelled [Yoga] Tantra; [4") Teaching the Tantra's import, the three luminances and the instinc-
tual natures; and [5
knowing and knowing that [import] correctly.
"
of the mind]
The reason you must understand the real ity
"
? If you desire buddhahood, generally staying on the Vajra Vehicle and specifically learning and practicing the vajra recitation, you must seek to discover the actuality of your own mind. According to the Inte- grated Practices, the Reality Compendium states:
Noble child, with meditative absorption, you should intro- spectively realize your own mind.
The Vairochana Enlightenment states:
Enlightenment is the total understanding of the reality of
And;
your own mind.
Even as stated in Three Baskets ' Way, "Going alone, one wanders far,
Living in the cave of the bodiless Lord;
35 1
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc" -
How to learn the mind isolation mind vajra
[VI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"l , -
-'? . :! ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
But taming the mind so hard to tame-
[I say such a one is a Brahmin! ] 1 10 Who will be freed from the devil's chains. "
And then. [the Integrated Practices concludes, in words to the effect that]:
Wanting to realize the magic body, you abandon all five obstructions such as vacillation and sleep, you propitiate the teacher who has truly obtained the personal instruc- tion of all transcendent buddhas, you follow the Explana- tory Tantras such as Wisdom Vajra Compendium, and you should then experience the three consciousnesses of natural luminance.
All three references, cited as reasons why one who wants to learn the [I77aJ mind isolation must seek the reality of the mind, teach the need to experience the reality of the mind. Thus they refute certain Tibetan and Indian [scholars] who claim that the mind isolation wisdom knows the subjective mind and does not know the reality of the mind, since if it did, it would become indistinguishable from [the later stage of] clear light [wisdom]. While the fourth stage clear light wisdom directly experiences
the reality of the mind, mind isolation [wisdom] knows that ultimate reality without fully experiencing it; hence they are not indistinguishable. Although the [above] three supporting references from a Sutra and the two lower Tantras do not indicate the three mind isolation wisdoms, they still serve as reasons for the need to realize the reality of the mind.
You may wonder, "If I must investigate the reality of the mind, just what is it like? "
Here the Integrated Practices explains both Transcendence and Tantra Vehicle types of statement. First, it quotes the Mission to Lanka to
1 10 This seems to be a case of a Tantric commentary quoting a Sotric verse, perhaps one similar to one from the Dhammapada (Ch. 3, v. 5): "[The mind] travels far, moves alone, has no form, sleeps in a cave - those who restrain the mind will escape the bonds of evil. " (Thanks to Dr. Lozang Jamspal for noticing this. )
? ? The way the natural pattern of that mind is
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd Tc "2 " -
declared in the Sotras]
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 353
the effect that your mind desires to know subject-object-constructed appearance as the sphere of buddhas, [then it] teaches that the obscura- tions such as gregariousness and sleep must be abandoned, and [finally] that mind, mentality, and consciousness are the root of the whole world of beings and environments. Though the old translation of the Integrated Practices says "sphere of mental construction," the Chag translation is better, translating "mental construction the sphere of buddhas. " [177b]
[The Integrated Practices] goes on to quote the Inquiry ofBhadra- pala, [the Consciousness Migrating Satra], showing that consciousness, even when taking a body and entering lower birth-places, is not polluted by their faults; that wherever consciousness migrates, its evolutionary fruition, the sensations of pleasure and pain, also migrates; and that one who does not see the truth does not know that consciousness, abbreviat- ing the meaning by saying that:
Thus consciousness has a nature free of color, sign, and shape, said to be sheer introspective wisdom in the Uni- versal Vehicle Siitras.
"The sphere of buddhas" refers to the ultimate reality of mind. The dem- onstration of its being the root of all refers to its natural pattern of sub- jectivity. It is taught as entering various birth-states without change in its reality, and as not experientially knowable by any non-noble person. Thus, that mind is declared ultimately to be devoid of all signs, conven- tionally colorless, shapeless, not depending on other means of knowing, and sheer knowledge, itself knowing its object.
As for the way it is described in the Vajra Vehicle, the same text [the Integrated Practices] continues:
The Divine Lord declared in words found in all the Tan- tras, "That mind investigated as the buddha-sphere is in reality rootless, placeless, groundless, signless, shapeless, colorless, transcending the senses, and beyond the scope of the dogmatists. "
This refers to ( J7tlal an import shared with the Transcendence Vehicle about the actuality of that mind, investigated in the context of learning mind isolation, and not to mind isolation [itself].
354 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp [Nagarjuna] states, in the Reason Sixty:
The world seems to be illusory, Placeless, imperceivable,
Rootless, non-enduring,
Originated from the cause of ignorance, Abandoning beginning, middle, or end, Coreless like a plantain tree,
Like a city of fairies,
An intolerable city of delusion.
And in the Commentary, [Chandrak. Irti] explains that "place" refers to the six media such as eye, "perception" refers to all things, "root" refers to the seed patterns of causal conditions, and "illusory" refers to its lack of intrinsically real existence by reason of its relativity. "Groundless" refers to its [ultimate] unperceivability.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"3" - Demonstration that the especially excellent art for realizing the nature of the mind is the Unexcelled (Yoga) Tantra)
The Integrated Practices states:
Without entering the great Yoga Tantras such as the Com- munity, you cannot realize the actual condition of your own mind, even if [you try] for as many eons as there are grains of sand in the Ganges riverbed; nor will you see even the superficial reality.
I have already explained that this does not teach that you cannot deter- mine the [authentic] view of the ground [reality] without entering into the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras] ; nor does it mean that, having determined it and meditated on it, you cannot experience it. No reasonable person says that the Transcendence Vehicle does not enable you to attain the stage of nobility; 1 17HbJ because if you can attain that (stage], it precludes your not realizing actuality experientially. Nor does (Aryadeva] teach the ultimate actuality of the mind intending the truth body; since this is the context of the analysis of realizing the true import of the mind in terms of mind isolation, which you can also understand from the statement "nor can you see even the superficial reality. "
? Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 355
Therefore, the meaning is that the main subjectivity realizing the reality of the mind is orgasmic bliss, and, as for such intuitive wisdom realizing that object, it cannot be realized if you do not enter the door of
the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras], but enter any other door of the transcen- dences or the lower Tantras. This exaltation must be attained through other paths [only] after many immeasurable eons, but is attained in a single lifetime on the path of the Unexcelled. As for this special distinctive speed, is because of [this path's] being practiced after orgasmic great bliss has ascertained the import of reality. As the Samputa [Tantraj states:
Thus what need is there for lengthy explanations. In brief, buddhahood is [usually] gained
After millions of immeasurable eons ;
[But] you, by means of noble bliss,
Will attain it in this very life.
As for the mere termination of addictive obscurations, it can be attained by some [Individual Vehicle] disciples in three lifetimes, and the experiential realization of the import of reality is common to both vehicles. Thus, this distinction of speed does not just concern the speed of liber- ation from the life cycle through the speed of experientially realizing voidness. Therefore, this path requires an extreme speed in terminating cognitive obscurations.
Inthatregard,[179a] accordingtotheTranscendenceVehicle,ifyou lack the dimension of art in practicing the infinite different clear catego- ries of the infinite stores [of merit and wisdom], even if you understand penetratingly the view of voidness and meditate however so much, except for becoming free from the life cycle, you cannot terminate the cognitive
obscurations. Hence, Universal Vehicle persons' developing such infinite stores over long times is for the sake of turning that realization which understands voidness into the means for terminating the cognitive obscu- rations. On the Unexcelled path, though you do not, as in the case of the Transcendence Vehicle practitioners, develop the infinite different clear categories of the stores, it is declared that your [progress] is extremely swift, since you meditate on the incisive import of voidness by means of the orgasmic bliss. Thus it is by the key point of the distinctive subjectiv- ity of great bliss that you can understand that the purification of the cognitive obscurations, which constitute the instinctive dualistic error about the realization of voidness, is so very accelerated. Therefore, in
356 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
this path's initiation and first stage with their auxiliary rites, the declara- tions of great praise about its excellence, distinctive from other paths, are not just gratuitous, but aim to establish receptivity for the path of the union of bliss and void and serve as means of developing the fulfilment ofthat [union].
Now the proof of the supreme distinctiveness of speed on the path of bliss and void in union turns on the understanding that venturing upon it provides an extraordinary cause of attaining the buddha matter body, which [extraordinary cause] is recognized as a substitute for the infinite different clear categories of the store of merit. [ 1 79bJ Further, that [extra- ordinary cause] is none other than the magic body, hence you will not find the keys of both [Father and Mother] Tantras completely until you
become expert in both perfection stages, that of the void-side great bliss and that of the vision-side magic body.
[Here,] the Community explains:
Formerly, before as many eons as subatomic particles in incalculably many buddhaverses, from the time when the Buddha Diparilkara passed away until the time of the Buddha Kashyapa, the great secret was not taught, since the beings during those times had no fortune to learn the import of the great secret.
However, that enlightenment which is not attained by those bodhi- sattvas, even though they strive and seek for as many eons as grains of Ganges' sand, is attained in one single lifetime by those bodhisattvas who
delight in the Community. As for the meaning of the reason for that, the Illumination ofthe Lamp states:
During that time, the beings aspired for the inferior goal, they educated themselves by means of the passionless teaching, giving gifts, being moral and so forth, and their minds were afraid of the teaching of the profound. Thus they had no fortune, and [the buddhas] did not explain the import of the great secret during those times. At this present time, exclusively the Transcendent Lord knows that beings are involved with passion and their inclina- tions are overwhelmed by the five corruptions, [and so he] visits the world and teaches [the secret teaching].
According to this, it depends on whether or not [a bodhisattva] has an aspiration for the outer 11811al art of developing the great bliss. If you unite bliss and void by the art that fully incorporates void and bliss, you can [still] feel fear about its bestowing enlightenment in this life, though you have no fear about voidness alone. As for the cause of fearing that conduct that is passionate and skilled in art, granted that it is also a weak- ness of passion, mainly [that cause] is the [erroneous] idea that since the fruit of buddhahood has boundless excellence, it is suitable [to attain] after infinite different clear categories of stores and time, and is not suitable without them; and that. since the great treasures of excellence who reside on the high stages are required to spend a long time, a statement about attainment in a short time. a lifetime or so, is in order to attract certain disciples, and is not to be taken literally. Even among those who have great faith in this path and in voidness, two ways of proceeding must be distinguished, beneficial and faulty; you must get clear the arrangement of the two paths, seeing the distinctive means of attainment, and then, with intense aspiration, it is very important that you firmly determine [yourself to wield] the extraordinary ability of the type of person suited for this path.
The teaching-that the mind isolation wisdom's realization of the reality of the mind and its experience of the superficial magic body are extremely difficult to find on any other path-is put forth from the wish to teach as an extraordinary path the process in which the mind isolation of great bliss-derived from meditating the above-explained three life- energy controls-meditates the reality of the mind and achieves the magic body. 1180bl As for the statement that, without entering upon the great Yoga Tantras such as the Community, you will not see the superfi- cial reality even for many eons, it rejects the claim that the superficial
magic body is a samadhi that realizes the nonreality in apparent things, and the claim that it is the mere nonreality of the appearance of the deity body. I will explain below how other paths do or do not bring you ulti- mately into this process and the reasons for those [results].
lVI. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd 'i 'c "4 " -
The fourth has three parts, explaining: [a") Luminance; [b") The instinctual natures; and [c "] How to generate luminance intuition.
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 357
? Teaching the Tantra's import, the three lumi-
nances and the instinctual natures]
358 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp .
l v l . 8 . 3 . b . n. . . c - ? ,;, ? ' d " 1 ' ( ' . " 4 " a " - L u m m a n c e The first has two parts, explaining: [i
? luminances; and [ii
"
"
]
) Synonyms of the three ) Definitions of each of the three luminances.
? The Integrated Practices mentions two kinds of synonyms of the three luminances, those in common with the Transcendence Universal Vehicle, and those uncommon, of renown in the Vajra Vehicle only.
[Synonyms in Common with the Transcendence Universal Vehicle]
The first are the synonyms "art" and "wisdom," clearly mentioned by the Teacher, and the third, "neuter," which is implied. Also "mind," "mentality," and "consciousness"; and "imaginary," "relative," and "perfect"; and "lust," "hate," and "delusion"; and the "three realities. " Here, "art" is "radiance," "wisdom" is "luminance," and "neuter" is the concentration of both [in] "imminence. " In regard to bliss and void, it is said that luminance has the stronger [ISla] awareness of void, radiance the opposite, and imminence has a balanced proportion. However, this does
not indicate that all sets of art, wisdom, and their combination refer to those three. That also is in terms of the three luminances of the path, the three basic reality luminances also being termed the same, from [the fact of] their aspects being similar.
As for calling luminance "mind," radiance "mentality," and immi- nence "consciousness," there is no indication that those three correspond [directly] to these three. And further, "mind," "mentality," and "conscious- ness" are not considered mutually exclusive as are the three luminances. In some other treatises, based on equating "mind" with fundamental con- sciousness, "mentality" with addictive mentality, and "consciousness" with the sixfold functioning consciousness, they seem to explain lumi-
nance as functioning consciousness, radiance as afflictive mentality, and imminence as the fundamental. But this seems incorrect. For, if you claim that radiance and imminence are the afflictive mentality and the funda- mental consciousness, then the two [claims] would have the imperative consequences that an alienated individual could ascertain as manifest a fundamental consciousness and an afflictive mentality as different from the sixfold consciousness; [which is] not [possible].
And then there would be the extreme incongruity of positing perceivability for luminance and
lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"a'T' - Synonyms ofthe three luminances]
lack of perceivability for the other two. And then it would contradict the frequent explanations of the new generation of the luminances by the path of outer and inner life-energy control. Finally, if you adopt [this theory] because there are occasional reasons to apply the 'name "fundamental" [to the luminances etc. ]. then, as that also is not taught, 118thJ it is also
incorrect.
Well then, how is it?
In general, in the discourses it is stated that mind, mentality, and consciousness in general are the root of all purificatory practices. Thus, as he wished to teach a special set of the three, mind, mentality, and con- sciousness, as serving as the root of all purificatory practices, [Nagarjuna etc. ] applied the terms of those three to the three luminances. As Arya- deva quotes the Wisdom Vajra Compendium in the Integrated Practices:
Consciousness emerges from clear light. That very thing is called "mind" and "mentality"; and it has the root of all things whose nature is afflictive and purificative.
As the Vajra Rosary states:
Having the nature of the three luminances, Who here learns of the three consciousnesses, This is the root nature
Of the entire realm of living beings.
As for calling the three luminances "consciousness," as "mind" and "mentality" are similar, each of the three luminances can be called by all three names. But as for calling the three luminances individually by one of those three terms, they should be assigned in terms of temporal
sequence corresponding to the homogeneity of mental consciousnesses. As for the verbal meaning, [luminance] is called "mind" because of its accumulating, [radiance] "mentality" because of its serving as support, and [imminence] "consciousness" because of its dependence. Those [three functions] are completely present in all three luminance minds, they do not differ in intensity, nor can they be differentiated according to such etymologies.
From the Five Stages, [Nagarjuna] states that luminance is the rela- tive, radiance is the imaginary, and imminence is the perfect. [ 182a J Such an explanation realizes [luminance as] the apparent ground of perception of dichotomous subject and object, as the relative; the reification of
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 359
360 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
substantial subject-object-dichotomy as the imaginary, and the changeless as the perfect. And in the face of that, one should analyze, thinking "Is it luminance that is the ground of the beginning of the voids as isolated from both the imaginary and dualistic appearance? Is it radiance that emerges as based on that? And is it imminence when both the above are abandoned? Are they [so designated] depending on such corresponding
properties of the interpenetration of art and wisdom? "
As for calling luminance "anger," radiance "lust," and imminence
"delusion," it is from the perspective of their functions as slight bliss, big bliss, and medium bliss; and their states at times of basis and path are as above.
As for the names of the three realities, as the three natures are already explained, it is not that [same set of] the three realities. Thus the reality of the void side and that of the vision side, and the reality of the two in equality [is referred to] as above explained.
In the Transcendence Vehicle, there is no assignation of such names to the three luminances; so while the names designated are common [to both vehicles], such designation of the three luminances by those names is not common.
[Uncommon Synonyms, of Renown only in the Vajra Vehicle]
Second, [they are called in the Integrated Practices] luminance, luminance-radiance, and luminance-imminence; voidness, extreme void- ness, and great voidness; mind, mental functions, and misknowledge; dispassion, passion, and medium passion; (J82bJ and:
And:
OM is the cause of confirming [luminance intuition,] the seed using the door of speech; since those beings of little faith will not understand the Transcendent Lord's inten- tional statements, they will visualize it as "the form of a moon disc," and as "the clear form of the superficial reality of the mind in the actuality of "softness," or "lotus," "female form," "left," and "night. "
A/;1 is the cause of confirming [radiance intuition,] the seed using the door of speech; since those beings of little faith will not understand the Transcendent Lord's inten-
tional statements, they wiJl visualize it depending on a solar disc, in the form of the superficial reality of mental function in the actuality of "roughness," as a "five point vajra," "jewel," "day," "male form," and "right. "
[HOM,] the perfect, [as the cause of] confirming [luminance-imminence intuition,] the seed using speech, is luminance-imminence.
And:
Thus, it is incorrect to take the three voids as the realities of the three luminances but not as the three luminances themselves, just because it is said that "the three voids are the serial dissolutions of the three lumi- nances. " For, the Integrated Practices states that the three luminances themselves are the three voids, and that very fact is clear in the Wisdom
Vajra Compendium.
Therefore, the three luminances are called: "luminance," since it is perceived as like moonlight after the dissolving of the imaginative thought moving wind-energy, ( l 83a] and that same [luminance] being void, devoid of the eighty imaginations together with their wind-energies; "luminance-radiance," since it is very brilliant like sunlight, being extreme void, devoid of luminance with its wind-energy; and "luminance- imminence," since it is perceived extremely indistinctly like a [night-] between-time dark fog, close to clear light, and is a great void devoid of radiance with its wind-energies, or "ignorance," since it is not clear,
["ignorance"] naming an aspect of imminence.
Here, "the door of speech" refers to the path through which speech
emerges; the seed produced depending on that constitutes the three syllables. The "cause that confirms them" [means] that the three terms cause the ascertainment of the three intuitions.
From the Five Stages:
The name of the left is that very one. Having the moon disc and lotus, Serving as cause of the confirmed, The first letter with a drop [OM].
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 361
So it is stated. In the Chag translation it is stated: "Depending on
[short] A, the seed of speech. "
362 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp And also:
Likewise. with the name of vajra, Adorned by two drops [AH], Know that very thing in that part.
Thus the luminances have meanings illustrated by the verbal signs of those letters.
As for "those of little faith," coming to perceive them depending on sun and moon, it refers to the creation stage person, who cannot accomplish the development of the magic body from the three intuitions as can the perfection stage person who has attained the mind isolation. So here the symbol "moon" means luminance, "vajra" means radiance and so forth, and imminence, the union of mind and mental functions of luminance and radiance, [is symbolized by] the union of moon and vajra
etc. , which means [it causes] the creation of the deity body. From the
Five Stages:
Just this reality of wisdom, l183b]
Is imagined as a pure moon disc;
The mind just sees itself,
Just itself in the form of a moon.
Then perceiving the moon,
Imagine [there] the vajra sign, Symbolizing the liberative art
Of the yogi/nis who create the vajra etc. The moon and vajra etc. in union, Combine mind and mental functions. By uniting wisdom and art,
The deity form is born.
Here the fifth line is better in the Chag translation: "From perceiving the full moon, etc. "
As for referring to the first two luminances by the words "moon" and "sun," "day" and "night," it comes from the sky appearing to be filled with moonlight and sunlight. Referring to them by "lotus" and "vajra," "female" and "male," "left" and "right," is in terms of their referring to art and wisdom. As for "soft" and "rough," it relates to inferior and not inferior blisses, and to objective appearance being exten- sive and not extensive.
As for "superficial form" expressing the moon etc. , being symbols of the two intuitions, it is the nature of the "artificial. " As for luminance- imminence, it is signified by names such as "neuter," "day-night- boundary," "left-right-between," "soft-rough-between," "wisdom-art- commingled," and "moon[-sun] and day-night-combined. "
nances ]
[Aryadeva states] in the Integrated Practices that:
The concise definition of the three luminances stated in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium is to be taught as the mentor' s precept.
Regarding that statement [in the Tantra, Aryadeva says]:
If you ask "What is the definition of luminance? " [we reply:] its nature is formless, [I84a1 without body or speech; it is like a taintless autumn sky filled by the illumination of light rays from the moon disc, perceived in the form of natural clarity in all things-this is the ultimate spirit of enlightenment, the first void, the wisdom-luminance.
"What is the definition of luminance-radiance? " That has the form of freedom from subject and object, and is without body and speech; being the perception of all things in the reality of extremely brilliant taintlessness, like the autumn sky flooded with sun rays, it is the second spirit of enlightenment, the total goodness, hav- ing the character of the second stage, that of extreme void.
And,
And,
"What is the definition of luminance-imminence? " It has the form of nothingness, the character of space, lacking body and speech; as if pervaded in a state of fog- bound-midnight, subtle and selfless, motionless, with no
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 363
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"a"ii'' -
Definitions of each of the three lumi-
364 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
movement of life-energy control; without mind, un-
wavering and . . .
In this system, a proper determination of the four voids is very im- portant, yet although the Root Tantra and the other four Explanatory Tantras frequently mention just their names, their identifications are very unclear. And the Wisdom Vajra Compendium does not describe them otherwise than just mentioning them as "ignorance-darkness," "mental- function-sunlight," and "mind-moonlight. " Further in the other treatises
of the other four [of the Noble] father and sons, the identification is very [184bl unclear. So it must be understood relying on the Integrated Prac- tices itself.
While the Wisdom Vajra Compendium explains the three voids as the stages of the reverse process from the clear light of death, the Inte- grated Practices explains the voids of path-time in common [with the luminances].
Thus, the four voids are shown as symbolized by the example of clear sky, and since the autumn is the time when there are many condi- tions, such as the summer rains having controlled the earth's dust from rising into view and such as the lack of obscuring clouds, the autumn sky is taken as the example. In daytime that clear sky is filled with sunlight; it is filled with thick, black darkness from evening until the night dark- ness clears [at dawn]; it is filled with moonlight from moon-rise until dawn; and it is free of these three causes of deviation from the sky's own color in the pre-dawn when moonlight is gone and sunlight is not yet arisen. These are the four occasions.
As the latter of them is the example of the fourth void, universal void, [let us] leave it aside for the moment. The first of the three examples applies to radiance, the second to imminence, and the third to luminance. When those three intuitions arise, experiences like those three skies dawn.
In the context of the third, in place of "having the form of nothing- ness," the Chag translation is better "in the nature of formlessness," as corresponding to the first definition. And that has the same meaning as the "free from I IK! ial subject and object" in the second definition. Further, except for the dawning as in the three modes of perception explained above, it means that all other coarse, dualistic perceptions have declined in that state. In all three, "without body and speech" refers to the lack of physical movement and verbal expression in that time. From "just as. . . "
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 365
up to "like. . . " is already explained. "The character of space. . . " applies to "like dark fog filling the sky. " "Perceived in the form of natural clarity" refers to the clear arisal of that objective appearance [of luminance]. and "extreme clarity" refers to even greater clarity than before. "Perceived in all things" means that the objective luminance pervades all directions and quarters; and the scope of the perception comes out as appropriate.
"Actual ultimate spirit of enlightenment" refers to the intuition of path-time bliss-void-union, metaphorically designated also upon other paths and also basis-time. As imminence becomes unconscious, it does not experience bliss-void-union, but it is not that imminence lacks that in general. "Subtle" refers to difficulty of realization, and "selfless" to having the form of intrinsic realitylessness. "Life-energy control not occurring" refers to the lack of respiration. Although those traits are present in all three, they are mentioned about imminence by predominance. For "free of mind" the Chag translation of "samadhi unmoved by unconsciousness itself' is preferable.
Thus, when the wind-energies that move the imaginations dissolve, the sign of lamp-flame occurs, and [185bJ the luminance that arises next is a pure voidness, very clear like a clear night autumn sky pervaded by risen moonlight, arising in the form of a white luminance of light; and no extra coarse dualistic perception arises there at all. For example, though the sky is filled with moonlight, one sees without the sky being obscured by that; so in that state, the form of white light luminance arises without obscuring that clear, void-like pure space.
When that luminance withdraws, luminance-radiance dawns, like the clear autumn sky filled with sunlight, even much more transparent pure voidness than the previous, arising with a red or orange color; and the rest are as above.
Then, after that radiance has withdrawn, imminence begins, the stopping of wind-energies becomes great, and the object perception arises in the form of black[ness] like night-fog pervading void perception; the subjective consciousness declines and becomes unconscious; it is not a
weakening of a faulty consciousness.
Those signs completely arise at the time of death, but only partially
similar states arise at sleep, as the nostril respiration does not cease.
In the time of the path, the energy is injected into the heart center dhati channel and dissolves there, and the signs completely arise; when
they dissolve elsewhere their mere suggestion does not arise.
366 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
By influence of practice of those three and the intensity of the con- centration and dissolution of the wind-energies, many different degrees of extensiveness and solidity and duration of the object perception can occur. [J86aJ In the context of energy meditations and so on, if a black-out unconsciousness arises without being preceded by the first two lumi-
nances, then it is not imminence.
As for such kinds of three voids, granted they can arise between
magic body attainment and objective clear light realization, on the occa- sion of arising in reverse order from objective clear light, and between attaining the learner's communion and attaining the non-learner's com- munion; and yet they are not mind isolation. Likewise, even before attaining mind isolation there is an occurrence of the wisdom of the three voids, so you should differentiate the three void wisdoms and the mind
isolation void wisdoms by their degrees of pervasiveness.
Some former Tibetans advocated all nonconceptual cognitions such as sense cognitions as whichever of the three luminances, claiming that luminance was such a cognition's first apprehension of an object, radi- ance was the progressive clarification of its seeing the details of the object, and imminence was the final approach to obscurity in its termina- tion. This interpretation is not explained in Root or Explanatory Tantras or in any of the treatises of the Noble father and sons; and it seems to contradict the Integrated Practices' above explanation of the definitions
of the three luminances.
Now, as for the previous mention of "mind, mentality, and con-
sciousness" and the "three realities" and so forth as synonyms of the three luminances, it is because there is some reason for the attaching of each of their names to the three luminances; but it is not that all of them indicate the three luminances. If it were, there would be many inconsis- tencies, such as that the eighty instinctual natures would also become luminances.
Well, but how about the Five Stages' statement:
With the nature of twilight, 1 1 86h l day, and night, There are luminance, luminance-radiance,
And likewise luminance-imminence;
Thus the mind is said to be threefold,
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 367
And thereby its basis is explained. 1 1 1
The wind-energies, in their subtle form
Having become fully mixed with consciousness, Emerging through the paths of the senses,
Thus cause the perception of [all] objects.
-that consciousness, mingling with the subtle wind-energies emerging from the sensory doors such as the eye and so perceiving objects, is what constitutes the three luminances?
As for the meaning of that, in place of the statement that "after explaining the three [forms of ] mind, I must announce their attainment," the Integrated Practices translations of the Great Translator [Rinchen Zangpo] and [the translator] Chag read "their basis," meaning "let us express the wind-energies which support those three minds. " Further, "the three minds having mingled with the wind-energies," they mingle or are moved by the wind-energies, which means that such movement pro- duces cognitions apprehending objects through the sense doors and also the instinctual natures. Just after the above reference, [the Five Stages] continues :
When you have luminance
Mounted on wind-energies,
Then all the instinctual natures
Fully arise without remainder. Wherever the wind-energies remain, There the instinctual natures function.
111 An ambiguity emerges here with the use of Tib. mtshams (usually "boundary") to translate Skt. samdhya, "twilight," aligning it with luminance-imminence, the third of the three luminance intuitions, the state at the boundary between the subtle mind and body and the extremely subtle bodymind, between the dualistsic universe and the nondual clear light. The simile used to convey the experience of imminence is that of the dark night sky, opposite to the moonlit and sunlit skies of luminance and radiance. Then. the pre- dawn morning twilight (Skt. pratyu[iha, Tib. tho rangs) is used as a simile for the clear light transparence, being a state of inconceivable nonduality of dark and light, mind and body, self and other, etc. So the "twilight" aligned with imminence is to be connected with evening twilight which is when light of day merges into dark of night. This ambi- guity comes up again below (p. 46 1 ), in dicussions of the fourth stage clear light clear
enlightenment. (Thanks to David Kittay for focusing my attcntiuon on this issue. )
? 368 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
This is quoted in the Integrated Practices along with the previous
quote, with the statement that the concise meaning of these is that:
Having entered the subtle realm, luminance moves in a second, a moment, an instant, an eye blink, a hand-clap, and in that same 1187aJ second, moment, instant, eye blink, and hand clap the instinctual natures also function.
Further, this is mentioned for the sake of repeatedly merging [the cogni- tions arising] from the voids of sleep with those that are gradually pro- duced from the arisal of the three voids in the reverse order at the time of taking birth. And this does not indicate that the occasional arisals of instinctual natures in conjunction with functioning cognitions are directly produced from the three voids. Though one can exhaustively divide cog- nitions into conceptual and nonconceptual, there is no need to exhaus- tively divide them into luminance and instinctual nature, and therefore it is not necessary for sense cognitions to be instinctual natures since they
are n o t l u m i n a n c e s . 1 1 2
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"b" - Instinctual natures]
If such are the luminances, how do the eighty instinctual notions become instinctual natures? And how are they produced from the lumi- nances?
112
? ? In the context of considering the arguments that support the idea of the coordination
of Sotra and Tantra (mdo sngags ;:ung 'brei), dear to the heart of Tibetan scholars, I am attracted to the theory that the four "formless" or "immaterial" realms (arapyadhatu) described in basic Abhidharma and universally accepted in the cosmology of exoteric Buddhisms are Shakyamuni Buddha's way of providing a hint of what is scientifically
and technically taught to be the four luminances and four voids in Unexcelled Tantra. Thus infinite space hints at luminance, infinite consciousness at radiance, absolute nothingness at imminence, and beyond consciousness and unconsciousness hints at clear light transparence. Of course, outsider and non-Tantric insider yogi/nrs who attain these
immaterial states through advanced samadhis without deep knowledge of voidness. with- out unraveling the heart knot, and without awakening the great bliss mind, experience them as objective realms, and hence can get stuck in them without realizing the workings of their subliminal conceptualities. And Buddha was clear that these states are not n irvana - but he taught their existence as a hint of what everyone passes near at every death, and
what he discovered when he attained communion.
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 369 There are thirty-three instincts in the first luminance. The Five
Stages states:
Its natures arise distinct -
Now I should clearly explain.
They are known as dispassion,
[Small], medium, and great,
Internalizing and externalizing;
[Small, medium, and great] sorrows;
Peace, and mental construction;
Fear, small, medium, and great;
Craving, medium craving, great craving; Appropriation, nonvirtue, hunger, thirst, Sensation, medium, intense sensation moments, Knower, knowing, knowable,
Discernment, conscience, compassion,
Love, small, medium, and great,
Anxiety, greed, and envy; [t87bJ
these are the thirty-three natures, introspectively known by embodied beings.
As for those, "dispassion" has the aspect of not desiring objects, with three degrees of small, medium, and intense. The mentality "exter- nalizing" is going out to objects and "internalizing" is engaging with internal objects. The followers of the Go tradition claim "this applies in general to all. " "Sorrow" is the mental pain of lacking pleasurable objects, with degrees of slight, medium, and intense. "Peace" is explained in the Clear Meaning as the mind abiding peacefully, previous [Tibetan com- mentators] explaining it as the leisure of the mind staying within its essence. "Construction" is explained by the Clear Meaning as abiding in
agitation, previous [Tibetans] explaining it as the construct of combative mind. "Fear" is the mind's fright when encountering the unpleasant, "craving" is longing for an object, and each has three degrees. "Appropria- tion" is the appetitive holding to sense objects. "Nonvirtue" is explained in the Clear Meaning as indecisive hesitation about virtuous action, previous [Tibetans] explaining it as depression in one's mind. It can also be translated as "ignorance. " Previous [Tibetans] explain "hunger" and "thirst" as desire for food and drink. The Chag translation condenses hun- ger and thirst into one [instinctual nature]: but the previous [Tibetans']
370 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
interpretation is better. . . Sensation" includes pleasure, pain, and indiffer-
As for the forty instinctual natures [of radiance], the Five Stages calls them:
Desire, attachment, pleasure, Medium pleasure, intense pleasure, Delight, indulgence,
Amazement, excitement, Satisfaction, embracing,
Kissing, sucking,
Stability, zeal, pride,
Activity, covetousness, aggressiveness,
Enthusiasm, natural [boldness],
Small, medium, and great,
Hostility, charm,
Resentment, virtue,
Lucid truthfulness,
Untruthfulness, certitude,
Non-appropriation, generosity,
Initiative, heroism,
Shamelessness, deceitfulness, sharpness, wickedness,
113Tsong Khapa does not reduce lhe thirty-five instinctual functions here to the thirty- three lhat should be here, though his comment, wilhout approval or disapproval, that lhe translator GO considered "internalizing and externalizing" not to be instinctual functions but properties of all lhirty-three of them may be a hint that he might agree.
? ence, and there are three degrees depending on the object. . . Knower," . . knowing," and .
107 Jalandhara is one of the twenty-four holy places of the Chakrasamvara Tantra and also is the crown center of the yogic nervous center; the idea here being that the fire from the wind energy at the closing of the lower door of the central channel causes the furor fU"e from the navel center to blaze up and melt all heroes and yoginTs into the moon disc of hindu drops at the crown center.
? Chapter VI-Speech Isolation in Practice ? 347
I no longer see them at all.
When the planet [Rahu] seizes sun and moon,
The mind and the Bera[m]pa do not proceed.
When all notions fully melt and dissolve,
The mind becomes pure experience of the [reality] realm.
l175aJ Here he declares the distinctive art of injecting the energy into the Drop :
By closing and opening [the lower doors] , The energy encompasses the fire.
With the wood of the organ of the truth, Thereby the furor-fire bums,
Consuming the body entirely,
And all materials of the heap of notions. And by the true burning of that fire. . .
So it declares just as before.
This enables you to understand that there is a [vajra-]recitation of
the exit and entry [of the wind-energy] through the path of water, and although the upper [body] vajra recitation accomplishes both these pur- poses, if you want to take it in terms of singling out the evacuative wind energy of the lower parts, you should perform it relying on your attain- ment of the already present base of personal instructions. If you perform the reversal of the evacuative energy by forceful methods, there are great hindrances such as the blocking of excrement and urine. But if you perform the gentle yoga with the skill in the vital points taught in the oral instruction and reverse the movement [of the energy], you need not lessen excrement and urine and have to eliminate them time and again. You will not experience the slightest discomfort, your furor fire will bum with much greater power, you will have a superlative bliss, and however intense your melting of the element, you will have no need of caution
about emission, and so on-such are the signs that will occur.
You might say, "Well, by meditating the heart indestructible and the vajra recitation etc. , and the spirit of enlightenment melts by the blazing of furor-fire, as is explained by the Yogini Tantras, and falls down to the jewel-relying on that, are the four joys developed? Or else
dhati channel. This same meaning is also expressed in the Great Seal
348 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
do you generate the four voids compressing [all wind-energies and drops] into the heart center from above and below? "
This I am going to explain ! 17Sbl in the section on mind isolation.
Here, many [yogi/nis] have performed the yoga of blocking the energy etc. with intense force, seeing that to be a bit quicker and not knowing how to discern well the differences of how the immediate and long term advantages are generated from gentle and rough yogas. Once they perform the arts of penetrating the vital points in the body, they meditate considering that they must practice with very intense force.
Now, some of them experience extremely great hindrances, and they then stop meditating those [methods]. Others, although their hindrances are also very great, accept the need to meditate with skill in the methods of dispelling them.
As for the way of dispelling hindrances, some might say "Well, when you compress the energy and it generates shooting pains before it becomes peaceful, you should meditate the yoga of many holes and thus expell them outside. And many others alleviate the shooting pains of energy compression with other methods. "
To that someone says, "When striving in order to compress the wind-energies, if you then quiet them without performing the method of entering them into the central channel, your efforts will be pointless, as you lack the personal instruction. " But our own system is that you enter
the [wind-energies] into the central channel by the yoga of the art of squeezing the two waves of enjoyment;108 and this is recommended also for pacifying shooting pains. Everyone seems to agree about using a forceful yoga at the beginning of meditation.
? 108 I have not previously encountered this expression longs spyod kyi rlabs gnyis 'tshir bai thabs kyi sbyor bas, and cannot quite yet figure it out.
Once you have meditated combining channels and wind-energies etc. , it is not certain that a great hindrance will arise which either will
deprive one's life-energy or come close to doing so. Such would the fault of not knowing decisively well how to cultivate at first, because if you do know [well the key points], [such dangers] will just not occur. Thus if you know well how to practice, ll76al and how to avoid great hindrances through meditating, you are an expert. If you stubbornly produce great
Chapter VI-Speech Isolation in Practice ? 349
not expert.
When you compress the wind-energies with gentle yoga, in general,
hindrances are less. And if at first you compress the wind-energies with- out having first purified them, there is a way of clearing away slight shooting pains that may arise-I will explain this elsewhere. 109 Do not think that [these concerns] just have to do with pacifying the shooting pains. Rather they are to make sure that you know how not to let the compression of the wind-energies become difficult somewhat later, and moreover how to dispel any failure to inject the previously compressed wind-energies into the central dhati channel - this is then to be an expert.
Therefore if you practice according to the two former systems, it seems that while it might happen that you might alleviate the shooting pains of compressing wind-energies, it will not benefit your injecting the previously compressed energies into the dhati channel.
The third method of dispelling [obstructions] can still work well with the forceful yoga, but our own system is that you must perform [the practice] with the gentle yogas as the [best] method of dispelling [obstruc- tions], not using the forceful yogas at all.
Thus, as for [my composing] this detailed explanation of the vital points of the vajra recitation: though there seem to be very many ways to perform vajra recitation given in the oral instructions, nevertheless, since the literature of the Esoteric Community explains vajra recitation exhaus- tively in ways which are not present in other Tantras or treatises, since it seems that good explanations of the system of the Esoteric Community are rare, and since the Noble father and son do not explain the other
wind-energy yogas but explain this one quite a lot, [I have written this] in order to interpret decisively [their explanations] .
109One place in Tsong Khapa's Collected Works where this is somewhat explained is in the Zhu Lan bDud rTsis Snying po, a text recording the 1 399 CE conversations between Tsong Khapa and Lhodrak Namkha Gyaltsen, wherein the dispersal of the neuralgic pains that can come from some kinds of wind-energy meditations is extensively discussed. I translated this long ago and published in the Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa, LTWA,
Dharamsala, 1982.
? hindrances, even though you know ways of getting rid of them, you are
CHAPTER VII Mind Isolation
[ 1 76a. 6-20Jb. 5)
? samadhi l
The third has five parts: [ l
) The reason you must understand the reality of the mind; [ 176bl [2"] The way the natural pattern of that mind is
"
) Demonstration that the especially excellent ) Showing the dangers and the advantages of not
declared in the Sotras; [3
art for realizing the nature of the mind is the Unexcelled [Yoga] Tantra; [4") Teaching the Tantra's import, the three luminances and the instinc-
tual natures; and [5
knowing and knowing that [import] correctly.
"
of the mind]
The reason you must understand the real ity
"
? If you desire buddhahood, generally staying on the Vajra Vehicle and specifically learning and practicing the vajra recitation, you must seek to discover the actuality of your own mind. According to the Inte- grated Practices, the Reality Compendium states:
Noble child, with meditative absorption, you should intro- spectively realize your own mind.
The Vairochana Enlightenment states:
Enlightenment is the total understanding of the reality of
And;
your own mind.
Even as stated in Three Baskets ' Way, "Going alone, one wanders far,
Living in the cave of the bodiless Lord;
35 1
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc" -
How to learn the mind isolation mind vajra
[VI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"l , -
-'? . :! ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
But taming the mind so hard to tame-
[I say such a one is a Brahmin! ] 1 10 Who will be freed from the devil's chains. "
And then. [the Integrated Practices concludes, in words to the effect that]:
Wanting to realize the magic body, you abandon all five obstructions such as vacillation and sleep, you propitiate the teacher who has truly obtained the personal instruc- tion of all transcendent buddhas, you follow the Explana- tory Tantras such as Wisdom Vajra Compendium, and you should then experience the three consciousnesses of natural luminance.
All three references, cited as reasons why one who wants to learn the [I77aJ mind isolation must seek the reality of the mind, teach the need to experience the reality of the mind. Thus they refute certain Tibetan and Indian [scholars] who claim that the mind isolation wisdom knows the subjective mind and does not know the reality of the mind, since if it did, it would become indistinguishable from [the later stage of] clear light [wisdom]. While the fourth stage clear light wisdom directly experiences
the reality of the mind, mind isolation [wisdom] knows that ultimate reality without fully experiencing it; hence they are not indistinguishable. Although the [above] three supporting references from a Sutra and the two lower Tantras do not indicate the three mind isolation wisdoms, they still serve as reasons for the need to realize the reality of the mind.
You may wonder, "If I must investigate the reality of the mind, just what is it like? "
Here the Integrated Practices explains both Transcendence and Tantra Vehicle types of statement. First, it quotes the Mission to Lanka to
1 10 This seems to be a case of a Tantric commentary quoting a Sotric verse, perhaps one similar to one from the Dhammapada (Ch. 3, v. 5): "[The mind] travels far, moves alone, has no form, sleeps in a cave - those who restrain the mind will escape the bonds of evil. " (Thanks to Dr. Lozang Jamspal for noticing this. )
? ? The way the natural pattern of that mind is
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd Tc "2 " -
declared in the Sotras]
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 353
the effect that your mind desires to know subject-object-constructed appearance as the sphere of buddhas, [then it] teaches that the obscura- tions such as gregariousness and sleep must be abandoned, and [finally] that mind, mentality, and consciousness are the root of the whole world of beings and environments. Though the old translation of the Integrated Practices says "sphere of mental construction," the Chag translation is better, translating "mental construction the sphere of buddhas. " [177b]
[The Integrated Practices] goes on to quote the Inquiry ofBhadra- pala, [the Consciousness Migrating Satra], showing that consciousness, even when taking a body and entering lower birth-places, is not polluted by their faults; that wherever consciousness migrates, its evolutionary fruition, the sensations of pleasure and pain, also migrates; and that one who does not see the truth does not know that consciousness, abbreviat- ing the meaning by saying that:
Thus consciousness has a nature free of color, sign, and shape, said to be sheer introspective wisdom in the Uni- versal Vehicle Siitras.
"The sphere of buddhas" refers to the ultimate reality of mind. The dem- onstration of its being the root of all refers to its natural pattern of sub- jectivity. It is taught as entering various birth-states without change in its reality, and as not experientially knowable by any non-noble person. Thus, that mind is declared ultimately to be devoid of all signs, conven- tionally colorless, shapeless, not depending on other means of knowing, and sheer knowledge, itself knowing its object.
As for the way it is described in the Vajra Vehicle, the same text [the Integrated Practices] continues:
The Divine Lord declared in words found in all the Tan- tras, "That mind investigated as the buddha-sphere is in reality rootless, placeless, groundless, signless, shapeless, colorless, transcending the senses, and beyond the scope of the dogmatists. "
This refers to ( J7tlal an import shared with the Transcendence Vehicle about the actuality of that mind, investigated in the context of learning mind isolation, and not to mind isolation [itself].
354 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp [Nagarjuna] states, in the Reason Sixty:
The world seems to be illusory, Placeless, imperceivable,
Rootless, non-enduring,
Originated from the cause of ignorance, Abandoning beginning, middle, or end, Coreless like a plantain tree,
Like a city of fairies,
An intolerable city of delusion.
And in the Commentary, [Chandrak. Irti] explains that "place" refers to the six media such as eye, "perception" refers to all things, "root" refers to the seed patterns of causal conditions, and "illusory" refers to its lack of intrinsically real existence by reason of its relativity. "Groundless" refers to its [ultimate] unperceivability.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'c"3" - Demonstration that the especially excellent art for realizing the nature of the mind is the Unexcelled (Yoga) Tantra)
The Integrated Practices states:
Without entering the great Yoga Tantras such as the Com- munity, you cannot realize the actual condition of your own mind, even if [you try] for as many eons as there are grains of sand in the Ganges riverbed; nor will you see even the superficial reality.
I have already explained that this does not teach that you cannot deter- mine the [authentic] view of the ground [reality] without entering into the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras] ; nor does it mean that, having determined it and meditated on it, you cannot experience it. No reasonable person says that the Transcendence Vehicle does not enable you to attain the stage of nobility; 1 17HbJ because if you can attain that (stage], it precludes your not realizing actuality experientially. Nor does (Aryadeva] teach the ultimate actuality of the mind intending the truth body; since this is the context of the analysis of realizing the true import of the mind in terms of mind isolation, which you can also understand from the statement "nor can you see even the superficial reality. "
? Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 355
Therefore, the meaning is that the main subjectivity realizing the reality of the mind is orgasmic bliss, and, as for such intuitive wisdom realizing that object, it cannot be realized if you do not enter the door of
the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras], but enter any other door of the transcen- dences or the lower Tantras. This exaltation must be attained through other paths [only] after many immeasurable eons, but is attained in a single lifetime on the path of the Unexcelled. As for this special distinctive speed, is because of [this path's] being practiced after orgasmic great bliss has ascertained the import of reality. As the Samputa [Tantraj states:
Thus what need is there for lengthy explanations. In brief, buddhahood is [usually] gained
After millions of immeasurable eons ;
[But] you, by means of noble bliss,
Will attain it in this very life.
As for the mere termination of addictive obscurations, it can be attained by some [Individual Vehicle] disciples in three lifetimes, and the experiential realization of the import of reality is common to both vehicles. Thus, this distinction of speed does not just concern the speed of liber- ation from the life cycle through the speed of experientially realizing voidness. Therefore, this path requires an extreme speed in terminating cognitive obscurations.
Inthatregard,[179a] accordingtotheTranscendenceVehicle,ifyou lack the dimension of art in practicing the infinite different clear catego- ries of the infinite stores [of merit and wisdom], even if you understand penetratingly the view of voidness and meditate however so much, except for becoming free from the life cycle, you cannot terminate the cognitive
obscurations. Hence, Universal Vehicle persons' developing such infinite stores over long times is for the sake of turning that realization which understands voidness into the means for terminating the cognitive obscu- rations. On the Unexcelled path, though you do not, as in the case of the Transcendence Vehicle practitioners, develop the infinite different clear categories of the stores, it is declared that your [progress] is extremely swift, since you meditate on the incisive import of voidness by means of the orgasmic bliss. Thus it is by the key point of the distinctive subjectiv- ity of great bliss that you can understand that the purification of the cognitive obscurations, which constitute the instinctive dualistic error about the realization of voidness, is so very accelerated. Therefore, in
356 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
this path's initiation and first stage with their auxiliary rites, the declara- tions of great praise about its excellence, distinctive from other paths, are not just gratuitous, but aim to establish receptivity for the path of the union of bliss and void and serve as means of developing the fulfilment ofthat [union].
Now the proof of the supreme distinctiveness of speed on the path of bliss and void in union turns on the understanding that venturing upon it provides an extraordinary cause of attaining the buddha matter body, which [extraordinary cause] is recognized as a substitute for the infinite different clear categories of the store of merit. [ 1 79bJ Further, that [extra- ordinary cause] is none other than the magic body, hence you will not find the keys of both [Father and Mother] Tantras completely until you
become expert in both perfection stages, that of the void-side great bliss and that of the vision-side magic body.
[Here,] the Community explains:
Formerly, before as many eons as subatomic particles in incalculably many buddhaverses, from the time when the Buddha Diparilkara passed away until the time of the Buddha Kashyapa, the great secret was not taught, since the beings during those times had no fortune to learn the import of the great secret.
However, that enlightenment which is not attained by those bodhi- sattvas, even though they strive and seek for as many eons as grains of Ganges' sand, is attained in one single lifetime by those bodhisattvas who
delight in the Community. As for the meaning of the reason for that, the Illumination ofthe Lamp states:
During that time, the beings aspired for the inferior goal, they educated themselves by means of the passionless teaching, giving gifts, being moral and so forth, and their minds were afraid of the teaching of the profound. Thus they had no fortune, and [the buddhas] did not explain the import of the great secret during those times. At this present time, exclusively the Transcendent Lord knows that beings are involved with passion and their inclina- tions are overwhelmed by the five corruptions, [and so he] visits the world and teaches [the secret teaching].
According to this, it depends on whether or not [a bodhisattva] has an aspiration for the outer 11811al art of developing the great bliss. If you unite bliss and void by the art that fully incorporates void and bliss, you can [still] feel fear about its bestowing enlightenment in this life, though you have no fear about voidness alone. As for the cause of fearing that conduct that is passionate and skilled in art, granted that it is also a weak- ness of passion, mainly [that cause] is the [erroneous] idea that since the fruit of buddhahood has boundless excellence, it is suitable [to attain] after infinite different clear categories of stores and time, and is not suitable without them; and that. since the great treasures of excellence who reside on the high stages are required to spend a long time, a statement about attainment in a short time. a lifetime or so, is in order to attract certain disciples, and is not to be taken literally. Even among those who have great faith in this path and in voidness, two ways of proceeding must be distinguished, beneficial and faulty; you must get clear the arrangement of the two paths, seeing the distinctive means of attainment, and then, with intense aspiration, it is very important that you firmly determine [yourself to wield] the extraordinary ability of the type of person suited for this path.
The teaching-that the mind isolation wisdom's realization of the reality of the mind and its experience of the superficial magic body are extremely difficult to find on any other path-is put forth from the wish to teach as an extraordinary path the process in which the mind isolation of great bliss-derived from meditating the above-explained three life- energy controls-meditates the reality of the mind and achieves the magic body. 1180bl As for the statement that, without entering upon the great Yoga Tantras such as the Community, you will not see the superfi- cial reality even for many eons, it rejects the claim that the superficial
magic body is a samadhi that realizes the nonreality in apparent things, and the claim that it is the mere nonreality of the appearance of the deity body. I will explain below how other paths do or do not bring you ulti- mately into this process and the reasons for those [results].
lVI. B. 3. b. ii. c '3 'd 'i 'c "4 " -
The fourth has three parts, explaining: [a") Luminance; [b") The instinctual natures; and [c "] How to generate luminance intuition.
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 357
? Teaching the Tantra's import, the three lumi-
nances and the instinctual natures]
358 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp .
l v l . 8 . 3 . b . n. . . c - ? ,;, ? ' d " 1 ' ( ' . " 4 " a " - L u m m a n c e The first has two parts, explaining: [i
? luminances; and [ii
"
"
]
) Synonyms of the three ) Definitions of each of the three luminances.
? The Integrated Practices mentions two kinds of synonyms of the three luminances, those in common with the Transcendence Universal Vehicle, and those uncommon, of renown in the Vajra Vehicle only.
[Synonyms in Common with the Transcendence Universal Vehicle]
The first are the synonyms "art" and "wisdom," clearly mentioned by the Teacher, and the third, "neuter," which is implied. Also "mind," "mentality," and "consciousness"; and "imaginary," "relative," and "perfect"; and "lust," "hate," and "delusion"; and the "three realities. " Here, "art" is "radiance," "wisdom" is "luminance," and "neuter" is the concentration of both [in] "imminence. " In regard to bliss and void, it is said that luminance has the stronger [ISla] awareness of void, radiance the opposite, and imminence has a balanced proportion. However, this does
not indicate that all sets of art, wisdom, and their combination refer to those three. That also is in terms of the three luminances of the path, the three basic reality luminances also being termed the same, from [the fact of] their aspects being similar.
As for calling luminance "mind," radiance "mentality," and immi- nence "consciousness," there is no indication that those three correspond [directly] to these three. And further, "mind," "mentality," and "conscious- ness" are not considered mutually exclusive as are the three luminances. In some other treatises, based on equating "mind" with fundamental con- sciousness, "mentality" with addictive mentality, and "consciousness" with the sixfold functioning consciousness, they seem to explain lumi-
nance as functioning consciousness, radiance as afflictive mentality, and imminence as the fundamental. But this seems incorrect. For, if you claim that radiance and imminence are the afflictive mentality and the funda- mental consciousness, then the two [claims] would have the imperative consequences that an alienated individual could ascertain as manifest a fundamental consciousness and an afflictive mentality as different from the sixfold consciousness; [which is] not [possible].
And then there would be the extreme incongruity of positing perceivability for luminance and
lVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"a'T' - Synonyms ofthe three luminances]
lack of perceivability for the other two. And then it would contradict the frequent explanations of the new generation of the luminances by the path of outer and inner life-energy control. Finally, if you adopt [this theory] because there are occasional reasons to apply the 'name "fundamental" [to the luminances etc. ]. then, as that also is not taught, 118thJ it is also
incorrect.
Well then, how is it?
In general, in the discourses it is stated that mind, mentality, and consciousness in general are the root of all purificatory practices. Thus, as he wished to teach a special set of the three, mind, mentality, and con- sciousness, as serving as the root of all purificatory practices, [Nagarjuna etc. ] applied the terms of those three to the three luminances. As Arya- deva quotes the Wisdom Vajra Compendium in the Integrated Practices:
Consciousness emerges from clear light. That very thing is called "mind" and "mentality"; and it has the root of all things whose nature is afflictive and purificative.
As the Vajra Rosary states:
Having the nature of the three luminances, Who here learns of the three consciousnesses, This is the root nature
Of the entire realm of living beings.
As for calling the three luminances "consciousness," as "mind" and "mentality" are similar, each of the three luminances can be called by all three names. But as for calling the three luminances individually by one of those three terms, they should be assigned in terms of temporal
sequence corresponding to the homogeneity of mental consciousnesses. As for the verbal meaning, [luminance] is called "mind" because of its accumulating, [radiance] "mentality" because of its serving as support, and [imminence] "consciousness" because of its dependence. Those [three functions] are completely present in all three luminance minds, they do not differ in intensity, nor can they be differentiated according to such etymologies.
From the Five Stages, [Nagarjuna] states that luminance is the rela- tive, radiance is the imaginary, and imminence is the perfect. [ 182a J Such an explanation realizes [luminance as] the apparent ground of perception of dichotomous subject and object, as the relative; the reification of
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 359
360 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
substantial subject-object-dichotomy as the imaginary, and the changeless as the perfect. And in the face of that, one should analyze, thinking "Is it luminance that is the ground of the beginning of the voids as isolated from both the imaginary and dualistic appearance? Is it radiance that emerges as based on that? And is it imminence when both the above are abandoned? Are they [so designated] depending on such corresponding
properties of the interpenetration of art and wisdom? "
As for calling luminance "anger," radiance "lust," and imminence
"delusion," it is from the perspective of their functions as slight bliss, big bliss, and medium bliss; and their states at times of basis and path are as above.
As for the names of the three realities, as the three natures are already explained, it is not that [same set of] the three realities. Thus the reality of the void side and that of the vision side, and the reality of the two in equality [is referred to] as above explained.
In the Transcendence Vehicle, there is no assignation of such names to the three luminances; so while the names designated are common [to both vehicles], such designation of the three luminances by those names is not common.
[Uncommon Synonyms, of Renown only in the Vajra Vehicle]
Second, [they are called in the Integrated Practices] luminance, luminance-radiance, and luminance-imminence; voidness, extreme void- ness, and great voidness; mind, mental functions, and misknowledge; dispassion, passion, and medium passion; (J82bJ and:
And:
OM is the cause of confirming [luminance intuition,] the seed using the door of speech; since those beings of little faith will not understand the Transcendent Lord's inten- tional statements, they will visualize it as "the form of a moon disc," and as "the clear form of the superficial reality of the mind in the actuality of "softness," or "lotus," "female form," "left," and "night. "
A/;1 is the cause of confirming [radiance intuition,] the seed using the door of speech; since those beings of little faith will not understand the Transcendent Lord's inten-
tional statements, they wiJl visualize it depending on a solar disc, in the form of the superficial reality of mental function in the actuality of "roughness," as a "five point vajra," "jewel," "day," "male form," and "right. "
[HOM,] the perfect, [as the cause of] confirming [luminance-imminence intuition,] the seed using speech, is luminance-imminence.
And:
Thus, it is incorrect to take the three voids as the realities of the three luminances but not as the three luminances themselves, just because it is said that "the three voids are the serial dissolutions of the three lumi- nances. " For, the Integrated Practices states that the three luminances themselves are the three voids, and that very fact is clear in the Wisdom
Vajra Compendium.
Therefore, the three luminances are called: "luminance," since it is perceived as like moonlight after the dissolving of the imaginative thought moving wind-energy, ( l 83a] and that same [luminance] being void, devoid of the eighty imaginations together with their wind-energies; "luminance-radiance," since it is very brilliant like sunlight, being extreme void, devoid of luminance with its wind-energy; and "luminance- imminence," since it is perceived extremely indistinctly like a [night-] between-time dark fog, close to clear light, and is a great void devoid of radiance with its wind-energies, or "ignorance," since it is not clear,
["ignorance"] naming an aspect of imminence.
Here, "the door of speech" refers to the path through which speech
emerges; the seed produced depending on that constitutes the three syllables. The "cause that confirms them" [means] that the three terms cause the ascertainment of the three intuitions.
From the Five Stages:
The name of the left is that very one. Having the moon disc and lotus, Serving as cause of the confirmed, The first letter with a drop [OM].
Chapter VII-MindIsolation ? 361
So it is stated. In the Chag translation it is stated: "Depending on
[short] A, the seed of speech. "
362 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp And also:
Likewise. with the name of vajra, Adorned by two drops [AH], Know that very thing in that part.
Thus the luminances have meanings illustrated by the verbal signs of those letters.
As for "those of little faith," coming to perceive them depending on sun and moon, it refers to the creation stage person, who cannot accomplish the development of the magic body from the three intuitions as can the perfection stage person who has attained the mind isolation. So here the symbol "moon" means luminance, "vajra" means radiance and so forth, and imminence, the union of mind and mental functions of luminance and radiance, [is symbolized by] the union of moon and vajra
etc. , which means [it causes] the creation of the deity body. From the
Five Stages:
Just this reality of wisdom, l183b]
Is imagined as a pure moon disc;
The mind just sees itself,
Just itself in the form of a moon.
Then perceiving the moon,
Imagine [there] the vajra sign, Symbolizing the liberative art
Of the yogi/nis who create the vajra etc. The moon and vajra etc. in union, Combine mind and mental functions. By uniting wisdom and art,
The deity form is born.
Here the fifth line is better in the Chag translation: "From perceiving the full moon, etc. "
As for referring to the first two luminances by the words "moon" and "sun," "day" and "night," it comes from the sky appearing to be filled with moonlight and sunlight. Referring to them by "lotus" and "vajra," "female" and "male," "left" and "right," is in terms of their referring to art and wisdom. As for "soft" and "rough," it relates to inferior and not inferior blisses, and to objective appearance being exten- sive and not extensive.
As for "superficial form" expressing the moon etc. , being symbols of the two intuitions, it is the nature of the "artificial. " As for luminance- imminence, it is signified by names such as "neuter," "day-night- boundary," "left-right-between," "soft-rough-between," "wisdom-art- commingled," and "moon[-sun] and day-night-combined. "
nances ]
[Aryadeva states] in the Integrated Practices that:
The concise definition of the three luminances stated in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium is to be taught as the mentor' s precept.
Regarding that statement [in the Tantra, Aryadeva says]:
If you ask "What is the definition of luminance? " [we reply:] its nature is formless, [I84a1 without body or speech; it is like a taintless autumn sky filled by the illumination of light rays from the moon disc, perceived in the form of natural clarity in all things-this is the ultimate spirit of enlightenment, the first void, the wisdom-luminance.
"What is the definition of luminance-radiance? " That has the form of freedom from subject and object, and is without body and speech; being the perception of all things in the reality of extremely brilliant taintlessness, like the autumn sky flooded with sun rays, it is the second spirit of enlightenment, the total goodness, hav- ing the character of the second stage, that of extreme void.
And,
And,
"What is the definition of luminance-imminence? " It has the form of nothingness, the character of space, lacking body and speech; as if pervaded in a state of fog- bound-midnight, subtle and selfless, motionless, with no
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 363
? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"a"ii'' -
Definitions of each of the three lumi-
364 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
movement of life-energy control; without mind, un-
wavering and . . .
In this system, a proper determination of the four voids is very im- portant, yet although the Root Tantra and the other four Explanatory Tantras frequently mention just their names, their identifications are very unclear. And the Wisdom Vajra Compendium does not describe them otherwise than just mentioning them as "ignorance-darkness," "mental- function-sunlight," and "mind-moonlight. " Further in the other treatises
of the other four [of the Noble] father and sons, the identification is very [184bl unclear. So it must be understood relying on the Integrated Prac- tices itself.
While the Wisdom Vajra Compendium explains the three voids as the stages of the reverse process from the clear light of death, the Inte- grated Practices explains the voids of path-time in common [with the luminances].
Thus, the four voids are shown as symbolized by the example of clear sky, and since the autumn is the time when there are many condi- tions, such as the summer rains having controlled the earth's dust from rising into view and such as the lack of obscuring clouds, the autumn sky is taken as the example. In daytime that clear sky is filled with sunlight; it is filled with thick, black darkness from evening until the night dark- ness clears [at dawn]; it is filled with moonlight from moon-rise until dawn; and it is free of these three causes of deviation from the sky's own color in the pre-dawn when moonlight is gone and sunlight is not yet arisen. These are the four occasions.
As the latter of them is the example of the fourth void, universal void, [let us] leave it aside for the moment. The first of the three examples applies to radiance, the second to imminence, and the third to luminance. When those three intuitions arise, experiences like those three skies dawn.
In the context of the third, in place of "having the form of nothing- ness," the Chag translation is better "in the nature of formlessness," as corresponding to the first definition. And that has the same meaning as the "free from I IK! ial subject and object" in the second definition. Further, except for the dawning as in the three modes of perception explained above, it means that all other coarse, dualistic perceptions have declined in that state. In all three, "without body and speech" refers to the lack of physical movement and verbal expression in that time. From "just as. . . "
Chapter VII-Mind Isolation ? 365
up to "like. . . " is already explained. "The character of space. . . " applies to "like dark fog filling the sky. " "Perceived in the form of natural clarity" refers to the clear arisal of that objective appearance [of luminance]. and "extreme clarity" refers to even greater clarity than before. "Perceived in all things" means that the objective luminance pervades all directions and quarters; and the scope of the perception comes out as appropriate.
"Actual ultimate spirit of enlightenment" refers to the intuition of path-time bliss-void-union, metaphorically designated also upon other paths and also basis-time. As imminence becomes unconscious, it does not experience bliss-void-union, but it is not that imminence lacks that in general. "Subtle" refers to difficulty of realization, and "selfless" to having the form of intrinsic realitylessness. "Life-energy control not occurring" refers to the lack of respiration. Although those traits are present in all three, they are mentioned about imminence by predominance. For "free of mind" the Chag translation of "samadhi unmoved by unconsciousness itself' is preferable.
Thus, when the wind-energies that move the imaginations dissolve, the sign of lamp-flame occurs, and [185bJ the luminance that arises next is a pure voidness, very clear like a clear night autumn sky pervaded by risen moonlight, arising in the form of a white luminance of light; and no extra coarse dualistic perception arises there at all. For example, though the sky is filled with moonlight, one sees without the sky being obscured by that; so in that state, the form of white light luminance arises without obscuring that clear, void-like pure space.
When that luminance withdraws, luminance-radiance dawns, like the clear autumn sky filled with sunlight, even much more transparent pure voidness than the previous, arising with a red or orange color; and the rest are as above.
Then, after that radiance has withdrawn, imminence begins, the stopping of wind-energies becomes great, and the object perception arises in the form of black[ness] like night-fog pervading void perception; the subjective consciousness declines and becomes unconscious; it is not a
weakening of a faulty consciousness.
Those signs completely arise at the time of death, but only partially
similar states arise at sleep, as the nostril respiration does not cease.
In the time of the path, the energy is injected into the heart center dhati channel and dissolves there, and the signs completely arise; when
they dissolve elsewhere their mere suggestion does not arise.
366 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
By influence of practice of those three and the intensity of the con- centration and dissolution of the wind-energies, many different degrees of extensiveness and solidity and duration of the object perception can occur. [J86aJ In the context of energy meditations and so on, if a black-out unconsciousness arises without being preceded by the first two lumi-
nances, then it is not imminence.
As for such kinds of three voids, granted they can arise between
magic body attainment and objective clear light realization, on the occa- sion of arising in reverse order from objective clear light, and between attaining the learner's communion and attaining the non-learner's com- munion; and yet they are not mind isolation. Likewise, even before attaining mind isolation there is an occurrence of the wisdom of the three voids, so you should differentiate the three void wisdoms and the mind
isolation void wisdoms by their degrees of pervasiveness.
Some former Tibetans advocated all nonconceptual cognitions such as sense cognitions as whichever of the three luminances, claiming that luminance was such a cognition's first apprehension of an object, radi- ance was the progressive clarification of its seeing the details of the object, and imminence was the final approach to obscurity in its termina- tion. This interpretation is not explained in Root or Explanatory Tantras or in any of the treatises of the Noble father and sons; and it seems to contradict the Integrated Practices' above explanation of the definitions
of the three luminances.
Now, as for the previous mention of "mind, mentality, and con-
sciousness" and the "three realities" and so forth as synonyms of the three luminances, it is because there is some reason for the attaching of each of their names to the three luminances; but it is not that all of them indicate the three luminances. If it were, there would be many inconsis- tencies, such as that the eighty instinctual natures would also become luminances.
Well, but how about the Five Stages' statement:
With the nature of twilight, 1 1 86h l day, and night, There are luminance, luminance-radiance,
And likewise luminance-imminence;
Thus the mind is said to be threefold,
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 367
And thereby its basis is explained. 1 1 1
The wind-energies, in their subtle form
Having become fully mixed with consciousness, Emerging through the paths of the senses,
Thus cause the perception of [all] objects.
-that consciousness, mingling with the subtle wind-energies emerging from the sensory doors such as the eye and so perceiving objects, is what constitutes the three luminances?
As for the meaning of that, in place of the statement that "after explaining the three [forms of ] mind, I must announce their attainment," the Integrated Practices translations of the Great Translator [Rinchen Zangpo] and [the translator] Chag read "their basis," meaning "let us express the wind-energies which support those three minds. " Further, "the three minds having mingled with the wind-energies," they mingle or are moved by the wind-energies, which means that such movement pro- duces cognitions apprehending objects through the sense doors and also the instinctual natures. Just after the above reference, [the Five Stages] continues :
When you have luminance
Mounted on wind-energies,
Then all the instinctual natures
Fully arise without remainder. Wherever the wind-energies remain, There the instinctual natures function.
111 An ambiguity emerges here with the use of Tib. mtshams (usually "boundary") to translate Skt. samdhya, "twilight," aligning it with luminance-imminence, the third of the three luminance intuitions, the state at the boundary between the subtle mind and body and the extremely subtle bodymind, between the dualistsic universe and the nondual clear light. The simile used to convey the experience of imminence is that of the dark night sky, opposite to the moonlit and sunlit skies of luminance and radiance. Then. the pre- dawn morning twilight (Skt. pratyu[iha, Tib. tho rangs) is used as a simile for the clear light transparence, being a state of inconceivable nonduality of dark and light, mind and body, self and other, etc. So the "twilight" aligned with imminence is to be connected with evening twilight which is when light of day merges into dark of night. This ambi- guity comes up again below (p. 46 1 ), in dicussions of the fourth stage clear light clear
enlightenment. (Thanks to David Kittay for focusing my attcntiuon on this issue. )
? 368 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
This is quoted in the Integrated Practices along with the previous
quote, with the statement that the concise meaning of these is that:
Having entered the subtle realm, luminance moves in a second, a moment, an instant, an eye blink, a hand-clap, and in that same 1187aJ second, moment, instant, eye blink, and hand clap the instinctual natures also function.
Further, this is mentioned for the sake of repeatedly merging [the cogni- tions arising] from the voids of sleep with those that are gradually pro- duced from the arisal of the three voids in the reverse order at the time of taking birth. And this does not indicate that the occasional arisals of instinctual natures in conjunction with functioning cognitions are directly produced from the three voids. Though one can exhaustively divide cog- nitions into conceptual and nonconceptual, there is no need to exhaus- tively divide them into luminance and instinctual nature, and therefore it is not necessary for sense cognitions to be instinctual natures since they
are n o t l u m i n a n c e s . 1 1 2
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTc"4"b" - Instinctual natures]
If such are the luminances, how do the eighty instinctual notions become instinctual natures? And how are they produced from the lumi- nances?
112
? ? In the context of considering the arguments that support the idea of the coordination
of Sotra and Tantra (mdo sngags ;:ung 'brei), dear to the heart of Tibetan scholars, I am attracted to the theory that the four "formless" or "immaterial" realms (arapyadhatu) described in basic Abhidharma and universally accepted in the cosmology of exoteric Buddhisms are Shakyamuni Buddha's way of providing a hint of what is scientifically
and technically taught to be the four luminances and four voids in Unexcelled Tantra. Thus infinite space hints at luminance, infinite consciousness at radiance, absolute nothingness at imminence, and beyond consciousness and unconsciousness hints at clear light transparence. Of course, outsider and non-Tantric insider yogi/nrs who attain these
immaterial states through advanced samadhis without deep knowledge of voidness. with- out unraveling the heart knot, and without awakening the great bliss mind, experience them as objective realms, and hence can get stuck in them without realizing the workings of their subliminal conceptualities. And Buddha was clear that these states are not n irvana - but he taught their existence as a hint of what everyone passes near at every death, and
what he discovered when he attained communion.
Chapter VII- Mind Isolation ? 369 There are thirty-three instincts in the first luminance. The Five
Stages states:
Its natures arise distinct -
Now I should clearly explain.
They are known as dispassion,
[Small], medium, and great,
Internalizing and externalizing;
[Small, medium, and great] sorrows;
Peace, and mental construction;
Fear, small, medium, and great;
Craving, medium craving, great craving; Appropriation, nonvirtue, hunger, thirst, Sensation, medium, intense sensation moments, Knower, knowing, knowable,
Discernment, conscience, compassion,
Love, small, medium, and great,
Anxiety, greed, and envy; [t87bJ
these are the thirty-three natures, introspectively known by embodied beings.
As for those, "dispassion" has the aspect of not desiring objects, with three degrees of small, medium, and intense. The mentality "exter- nalizing" is going out to objects and "internalizing" is engaging with internal objects. The followers of the Go tradition claim "this applies in general to all. " "Sorrow" is the mental pain of lacking pleasurable objects, with degrees of slight, medium, and intense. "Peace" is explained in the Clear Meaning as the mind abiding peacefully, previous [Tibetan com- mentators] explaining it as the leisure of the mind staying within its essence. "Construction" is explained by the Clear Meaning as abiding in
agitation, previous [Tibetans] explaining it as the construct of combative mind. "Fear" is the mind's fright when encountering the unpleasant, "craving" is longing for an object, and each has three degrees. "Appropria- tion" is the appetitive holding to sense objects. "Nonvirtue" is explained in the Clear Meaning as indecisive hesitation about virtuous action, previous [Tibetans] explaining it as depression in one's mind. It can also be translated as "ignorance. " Previous [Tibetans] explain "hunger" and "thirst" as desire for food and drink. The Chag translation condenses hun- ger and thirst into one [instinctual nature]: but the previous [Tibetans']
370 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
interpretation is better. . . Sensation" includes pleasure, pain, and indiffer-
As for the forty instinctual natures [of radiance], the Five Stages calls them:
Desire, attachment, pleasure, Medium pleasure, intense pleasure, Delight, indulgence,
Amazement, excitement, Satisfaction, embracing,
Kissing, sucking,
Stability, zeal, pride,
Activity, covetousness, aggressiveness,
Enthusiasm, natural [boldness],
Small, medium, and great,
Hostility, charm,
Resentment, virtue,
Lucid truthfulness,
Untruthfulness, certitude,
Non-appropriation, generosity,
Initiative, heroism,
Shamelessness, deceitfulness, sharpness, wickedness,
113Tsong Khapa does not reduce lhe thirty-five instinctual functions here to the thirty- three lhat should be here, though his comment, wilhout approval or disapproval, that lhe translator GO considered "internalizing and externalizing" not to be instinctual functions but properties of all lhirty-three of them may be a hint that he might agree.
? ence, and there are three degrees depending on the object. . . Knower," . . knowing," and .
