No More Learning

Here, you might argue as follows: "Is the communion body achieved immediately upon arising from the objective clear light of the fourth stage? Or is it not? If it is, then it contradicts the previous quote 1 27 1 a l that states that the three voids arise in the reverse order from the clear light of the occasion of achieving communion; for if the communion body were not achieved from the wind-energy-mind of the three voids arising in the
reverse order, then there would be no point in such an explanation. And the explanation of the magic body as achieved from the three luminances along with their wind-energies during the third stage would be incorrect; since the three luminances are required as the cause of achieving that, and a distinction of not requiring them would be incorrect. [On the other hand], if [the communion body] is not achieved in that way, and, not being achieved immediately upon arising from the fourth stage objective clear light, but only after the three voids in the reverse order have already arisen, it necessarily means that it is achieved from the mere wind-energy-mind
? 06 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
of the first void: and so what is the point of mentioning that "it is achieved from the three voids? " The Integrated Practices statement that the "four voids become one" would become meaningless: since the objective clear light does not exist during the first luminance or its immediate aftermath, the attainment of union would become incorrect; and the process of purifying the achieved between state without any other obstruction after the clear light of death would be contradicted. If you claim that commu- nion is achieved at the time of once again entering clear light after the
last luminance, it contradicts the Five Stages' statement: Arising from the truth limit
One will attain the nondual intuition;
and also the many statements of the Integrated Practices and the Illumi- nation ofthe Lamp that communion is achieved upon arising from clear light. And if it is achieved upon arising from that, then the previous many faults obtain. Thus, you must explain what is this transition where the communion body f27Ibl is achieved from clear light.
[To respond:] In order to understand well the communion [stage], the chief subject of the Glorious Community, you must first understand conclusively the process of achieving the learner's communion. To that end, by having set forth the above doubts, you can eliminate doubts that could possibly arise concerning other final points-this being necessary, [this inquiry] is very good.
In regard to this, the followers of the father and son, commentators on the Five Stages and so on, do not seem to make such a determination. However, Master Go, relying on the above-taught explanation of the voids in the reverse order, explains that the communion body is achieved from the three luminances along with their wind-energies arising from the clear light in the reverse order, and Lak? hmi also explains a procedure wherein the magic body is achieved from the voids arising in the reverse order. Accordingly I have set it forth in that way in another treatise. 145
However, we should determine this difficult point in fine detail.
145 The Great Stages ofthe Mantric Path, its final chapter on the perfection strage.
? The Five Stages states:
Chapter X- Communion ? 507
The aim of beings may sometimes be [realized] By the process of the self-consecration,
Which yokes consciousness with wind-energy. And releases corresponding light rays.
Just as from clear stream water,
The fish leap up so swiftly,
So from the universal void clear light The net of magic expresses itself.
Thus, this body also emerges from the mere wind-energy-mind through the process of self-consecration. As for the meaning of the example wherein the pure magic body emerges like a fish suddenly leaping from clear light transparence like clear stream water, it is employed to illus- trate that it arises from clear light [272aJ without being obstructed by any- thing else. As the Integrated Practices states that, as for the sleep used in the example taught of awakening suddenly from deep sleep, it illustrates clear light, and the awakening is the example for the emergence of the communion body. This also highlights non-obstruction. And as for the four voids becoming one, this fits with the fact that at the emergent order time, the former dissolves into the latter and finally all go into the clear light as one, and does not fit with the reverse order. This is extremely in agreement with the process of the purified base reality, wherein immedi- ately after the death clear light transparence the between is achieved together with the [reverse order] imminence. Hence the communion body is achieved immediately after resurrecting from the fourth stage objective clear light. This still does not contradict the above birth of imminence and
so on from clear light. So, though it is stated that in the time of achieving the communion body the three voids emerge in the reverse order, that is not stated for the purpose of achieving that body.
Here one might object that "Is not communion the simultaneous combination of the objective clear light mind and the pure magic body? Though it is posited that the pure magic body is achieved immediately
after arising from the fourth stage clear light, how can it be posited as the [perfect] communion, since at that time there is no direct realization of the clear light intuition? "
True enough! In this regard one must understand the many Five Stages explanations of the process of attaining communion, which explain twenty-one communions, running from:
508 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
up to:
Abandoning the two notions
Of life cycle and liberation, When all becomes one reality - That is said to be communion . . .
Having abandoned the two notions
Of material and immaterial,
The f272bl lord of yogi/nis who realizes peace- Thereby attains communion.
Here taking the verse "the holistic contemplation . . . " to indicate two com- munions, and the verse "equipoise. . . " to indicate two communions, it is also correct to interpret these passages as teaching twenty-three commun- ions. As for the main communion thus explained, as the Chag translation reads:
The knower of thatness sequentially Understands self-consecration and clear light; And when just those become united,
This is the stage of communion.
the pair here is self-consecration and clear light, and their coming together is explained to be communion. Further, his translation reads:
Having critically understood apart,
The superficial and the ultimate,
When you truly commingle the two, That is pronounced to be "communion. "
indicating that the pair here consists of the superficial and the ultimate, and their mingling is explained to be the communion.
In that regard, before attaining objective clear light, when the magic body achieved from the five energies' light rays is present, the mind is not the clear light of the same taste as ultimate reality. Before attaining communion, when the clear light of the same taste as the bliss- mind ultimate reality is present, there is no superficial reality body that serves as the magic body. Thus there is no communion since these two [realities] are merely alternating. When the body is consummated as the superficial reality magic body called "self-consecration," and the mind is
consummated as the "clear light" ultimate reality, and these combine at one time in one continuum, coming together equally without alternation, then communion is attained. 146 When the main communion of that kind [273a] is first attained, though it is required that those two be combined, there are still other ways of positing it as communion; so any kind of communion attainment need not be posited as achieved by that way of positing. The Sanskrit for communion is yuganadva, where yuga is a pair and adva is nondual;147 interpreting that as meaning that the two mates [of the pair] are not separate through a process of alternation but are complete at one time- [such] is the above-explained communion.
This will be attained when once again entering clear light after arising from the final luminance of the reverse order. The Five Stages often mentions the communion that becomes nondual undisturbed by any ideas, having abandoned dualistic instinctual notions in regard to dual- isms such as life cycle and liberation - this is an example of another way of positing a communion different from the previous way. Taking it that those dualistic ideas subside in the face of the direct realization of the import of thatness, it is already attained from the time of the fourth stage clear light. Thus it is incorrect to say that it is inevitable that this kind of communion must be achieved relying on that being previously present. If you take it that one must have totally abandoned whatever kinds of notions, then that would not be attained until one attained the nonleamer's communion, and that does not fit with the learner's communion. There- fore, communion in this context is just the nondual intuition that abandons
146 This explanation so much reminds me of Tsong Khapa's explanation of the realistic view in the Three Principles ofthe Path, I cannot resist quoting it as an example of how Tsong Khapa's understanding of these profound perfection stage attainments influences the way he teaches the exoteric Dialecticist Centrist view: "Appearance inevitably relative, and voidness free from all assertions-as long as these are understood apart, the Victor's intent is not yet known. But when they coincide not alternating. mere sight of inevitable relativity secures knowledge beyond objectivisms-and investigation of the view is perfect. More, as experience dispels absolutism, and voidness clears away nihilism, you know how voidness dawns as cause and effect-then you will not be deprived by
extremist views. "
147 Here Tsong Khapa seems to mistake the Sanskrit naddha (deriving from naddha "binding") for nadva or even adva (deriving from nondual). Meaning-wise, it is a good play, though I have not yet found anything in the Sanskrit Tantri? : literature to support it.
Chapter X- Communion ? 509
? 5 1 0 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
all ideas that adhere to truth-status perceived in persons and objects, along with their instinctual propensities.
Here you might object, "Well then, since communion is achieved just after [273b] resurrecting from the first realization of this fourth stage objective clear light, how can such a single session of objective clear light have the power to conquer all the unconscious addictions? "
As for the cause of such an achievement of objective clear light intuition acquiring the mighty power to abandon [addictions], it comes from the force of the frequent contemplation of the magic body and the exemplary clear light, while engaging in the conduct of that occasion. And that is not abandoned at the time of the fourth stage. At the time of the first attainment of the learner's communion, it is posited as abandon- ing unconscious addictions. When such a clear light is realized, one can
remain evenly entranced for a long time - it is not like you get no [water] from the first water-scoop;148 since, if even before that one can focus for a long time on the exemplary clear light, what need is there to discuss [one's ability to focus on] the objective clear light?
The Persona/ Instruction fofMafijushrr] says:
Not perceiving passion, dispassion, and neutrality, The wisdom deity becomes clear in that instant- You should experience that wisdom for eight hours, A day, a month, a year, an aeon, or a thousand aeons.
That is, that a person should meditate the orgasmic wisdom-intuition for as long as his or her strength endures. Here also, the Concise Five Stages explains it very well:
Having attained the abode of clear light, One will cross beyond the life cycle. For the time of one session, one day, One fortnight, one month, or one year, One aeon or a thousand aeons,
One abides there moment by moment-
And wisdom-intuition yoga keeps on coming.
? 148 Khyem pa c1g las med ?
?
b, pa mm - not too sure about what th1s means. Perhaps a prover
?
sort of like "a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step! "
nonlearner's communion. Among the Integrated Practices' and the Five Stages' mentions of communion, there is need of [both] common and specific explanations of both [learners' and nonlearner's communions]. As for the [communion bodies'] lack of [further] soul-migration, having attained that body, its homogeneous [further emanations] can manifest without interruption; [since] this is the attainment of the fully character- ized vajra body [of a buddha]. As for its being uncontaminated and so on, it is the abolition of all addictions.
The Illumination ofthe Lamp states that for the nonleamer's [com- munion] there is no coming back from clear light in the three voids of the reverse order; hence here these things explained in the context of arising in the reverse order should be interpreted as referring to the Ieamer's communion.
In accord with the Chag translation's comment on the line "as for the name that has the nature of matter," "who has the nature of name and matter, that is great Vajradhara," [274bJ the Moonlight Commentary states that "name" is the remaining four processes, and "matter" is the material process. Since that again shows that the communion vajradhara has the nature of merely the wind-energy-mind, it is the answer to the previous "Who is liberated? " As for the lines "the life cycle" and so on, it is
Chapter X- Communion ? 5 1 1
? I have already explained the meaning of the Integrated Practices
the passage from "the store of luminance" up to "having illuminated,'' the light rays of the body achieved from the clear light wind-energy-mind fill the world-realm, just as the sun illuminates the realm of space. As is stated in the Illumination of the Lamp Fifteenth Chapter - in the context
The answer to the fourth and sixth
statement about the four voids 1274al becoming one. As for the meaning of
of elucidating the achievement of communion as previously explained, after manifesting the objective clear light of the predawn twilight - the Tantra's statement that the light rays shine only a hundred leagues around is merely for illustration, and so it is said that light illuminates the world even throughout the billion world universe. As for the statement that there is where one obtains the ten strengths and so on, this should be
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'ii'B"l "b"iv" -
interpreted appropriate! y as intending the simulation [of the attainment] during the learner's communion and the actual attainment during the
questions, along with some remaining thoughts]
5 1 2 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
explained as meaning the liberation that abolishes all addictions that cause bondage, in answer to the question "What is the meaning of libera- tion? " And both these teach that the perfect abolition of the addictions begins from the first attainment of the learner's communion. When you first attain this communion body, you attain it by way of living in a dif- ferent locus than the previous body. [So,] as for the Illumination of the Lamp Eleventh Chapter statement that, past the attainment of commun- ion, you maintain an emanation body that is visible to the ordinary eye, though there are other ways of maintaining an emanation body, a main- taining of an emanation body that enters into the old body is hard to understand as being [just] like a between being's entering the womb and being seen by everyone after being born outside. Hence, it should be understood as something [built up] upon that [old gross body]. That is what is meant by the Illumination of the Lamp First Chapter 's statement, "Having attained communion, entering into the processes and so forth, you maintain [the old body as] the emanation body. " Because, the Illumi- nation of the Lamp also states that "the totally pure deity body abides in
the jewel sack of the body"; and Nagabodhi also states:
The true savior, striving
In thatness, stays hidden
In the jewel sack of the body.
Therefore, [275al though the ordinary person does not perceive the range of an irreversible communion body bodhisattva such as Nagarjuna, [such] ordinary persons can see their former [gross] body. That being the case, the magic body also is achieved at the end of arising in the reverse order from the metaphoric clear light. As for the statement that "it is attained from the three minds," it is attained indirectly through the upper
and middle [sectors] of imminence and the other two luminances, and directly attained from the lower part of imminence.
You should understand according to this previous explanation the way in which the beatific body is at first achieved in a separate locus than the old body and then maintains an emanation body by re-entering into the old body. If you understand it well, you will discover the great certainty about the definitive meaning of meditating the triply nested spiritual heroes and will dispel many doubts about all such things as how the magic-bodied person and the communion-bodied person perform deeds by mounting upon their old bodies and how the vajra recitation
accomplishes activities. In regard to the statement about how the communion-bodied person abides in the beatific body and accomplishes such things as the meditation of the mandala triumph of the emanation body, it is not that you meditate having purified the perception of the beatific body, and it is not that thereby having realized clear light you proceed away from those bodies; and this reasoning should be under- stood [as applicable] also to all not included in the occasion when the magic-bodied person enters into the objective clear light.
Though the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices say that once you attain communion there is no more new learning on your own path, it is not that you do not meditate on what you have already learned. The Five Stages says:
The great yogi/ni, while still learning, Abiding in the state of communion, Should meditate it as communion, [275bl Also nondual with his or her conduct.
-that is, that you should perform the conduct while meditating com- munion and abiding within it. Nagabodhi also says:
Nonconceptual, profound,
Magnificent, the body of buddhas;
This is explained as the two realities,
The superficial and the ultimate in import; Having analytically known them separately, Having then merged them into one,
You should meditate the uncontaminated place.
And he also says, just after the above-cited passage:
Therefore, striving, you should realize, By the kindness of the foot of the mentor, When mentality comes clear by thatness, Then you should engage in the conduct.
As for the nominal synonyms of Ieamer' s and nonleamer's com- munions, the Five Stage. ? and the Integrated Practices mention them extensively, by such as "perfect buddhahood through the magic net. " "transcendence of the ocean of the life cycle," "the great yoga that has done its duty," and "living the way of the two realities. "
Chapter X- Communion ? 5 1 3
? 1 4 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
frlml the Further TantraI Explanation of the two hrandc? coming
As for the same way that the Five Stages and the Integrated Prac- tices explain the way of achieving communion, the Community Further Tantra teaches it in terms of the [last two of the six yoga] branches, mindfulness and samadhi. As it states:
When you meditate on mindfulness, You should delight like that !
Thus "mindfulness is explained- Individual illumination is born of that !
By uniting together the art and the wisdom, All things gathered into an epitome
Are concentrated in the pattern of a lump; Meditate the form in the middle.
In an instant, intuition is made perfect, And that is called "samadhi. "
Thus, the eminent person meditates, having entered into clear light. [276a] Having manifestly perceived it, then by the forms previously mind- fully recollected, the mirage-like [vision] and so on, it is like that attain- ment of clear light as the reality limit. Hence by the stages of thatness you should create delight. Those things just explained should be understood
as explaining the fifth branch known as mindfulness. Chag's translation:
Having meditated who remembers mindfully, Should delight in that way;
That should be understood as mindfulness.
here accords with the sequence of the commentary. Previously at the time of entering into clear light in the emerging order, like entering through the forms such as mirage and so forth, it is explained that one resurrects again with the same kind of process in the reverse order, which begins from creating imminence from clear light, and, after luminance, creating the signs of lamp-flame, fireflies, smoke, and mirage-likeness. "Individual illumination" refers to true endurance, "from which the mindfulness branch is produced, and not elsewhere. " This is how the two old translations translate it and also the Chag translation. Though the Patsab translation here translates, concerning "created from that individual illumination,"
? I \"1. 8. 3. b. ii. c . _, ? d 'ii 'K . ,2 "
Chapter X- Communion ? 5 1 5
"'from that' means that from the mindfulness branch, true insight, that is true experience, will be created"; the three previous translations are better, since this is the context of showing how the mindfulness [branch itself] is created from clear light.
In case you wonder, "well, since it is said 'mindfulness is thus explained,' and that completes the mindfulness branch, does this show how communion is produced from mindfulness? "
order of meaning, the third line follows the fourth.
Further, if you wonder, "Therefore, as for the insistence that the
true insight of mindfulness is produced from clear light, and not else- where, as there is emergent order and reverse order in the entering into clear light, in the context of which is mindfulness discussed? "
It must be that since it is explained in the order of resurrecting in the reverse order from clear light, [the phrase "it is not elsewhere"] is explained in order to make certain that this does not occur otherwise in the emergent order. So one must explain this instruction of the Illumina- tion of the Lamp in conformity with the explanation of the Integrated Practices.
"Art" is the magic body which is the purity of the superficial reality, and "wisdom" is stated to be the ultimate reality, it being the clear light intuition that is of one taste with that [reality]. "Uniting together" is uniting indivisibly in actuality. All things are stable and moving. Their epitome in the form of a lump is, having made them one in the form of the great seal deity body, in the center of that vessel and essence you should meditate the form of the communion vajradhara.
By this process, in a moment, that is a mere split second, the intui- tion body is made complete, which is explained as the samadhi branch, the sixth [yoga branch] , according to the intention of the Illumination of the Lamp. The two realities being the pair, and the indivisible uniting of
their actualities the communion-this is the main communion, which gives meaning to the other communions. As for the way in which all vessel and essence worlds are condensed into the single communion body, the root of all animate and inanimate things is no more than mere wind- energy and mind, 1277aJ and that is what arises as the single communion body. "This process" refers to resurrecting from clear light like a fish leaping from the water. The "mere" of "a mere split second" excludes
That (276bl is just the sequence of explanation; but if you follow the
5 1 6 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
any obstruction by any other thing [in arising] from clear light. This process of [universal] communion has already been explained.
By really understanding the commentarial explanations in this way, you can understand the incorrectness of the different explanations in such works as the Elixir Secret, since they do not explain this way. Here the Illumination of the Lamp cites the Magic Net as the source of the state- ment of the three deity yogas of blessing, constructively imagining, and completing the form, the first two being [constituted by] the means of instantaneous arisal in the deity body, the sequential arising by means of the seed-syllable and so on, and the intuition three bodies arising in the
communion body. Though Kunga Nyingpo 149indeed elucidates this Tantra as [authority for this interpretation of the Unexcelled] Yoga [form of communion], here that is not acceptable, according to the Esoteric Community. The first two of those, as above explained, are deity body arisals by means of mere imaginary mental formations, and are not deity body arisals like the [arisal of the] two forms of the magic body. Though the latter, [the third of the above,] is indeed the main pure magic body and also the third stage magic body, it still does not seem best to assert that all instantaneous arisals in deity bodies by those perfection stage practitioners capable of meditating the orgasmic great bliss have the meaning of the instantaneous completion of the intuition body stated by those two Tantras, [Magic Net and Esoteric Community,] and other Tantras like them. Rather, you should recognize that, although one can take as source the Vairochana Enlightenment statement about pure [277bl and impure deity bodies and interpret that they thus resemble the mantra and intuition bodies mentioned in the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, insofar as they are impure and pure deity bodies; or one can posit that the Per- formance Tantras mention deity bodies intending with hinting intention
the deity bodies of the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras]; the way of meditating the deity body of that [Esoteric Community] Tantra is not accessible from the literal meaning [of those other categories of Tantra], as previously explained.
? 149Presumably, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), a great scholar and one of the five great patriarchs of the Sak. ya Order, especially known and appreciated as a practitioner
and commentator on the Mother Tantras.
CHAPTER XI
The Conduct, the Art ofHeightening Impact on the Two Stages
(277b. 2-. '\. 12a. 6]
[VI. B. 3. c. -
the two stagesI
Third, in explaining the conduct as the art of developing impact on the two stages, there are two: [i. ] The general arrangement of conducts; and [ii. ] Specific explanation of Unexcelled [Yoga Tantric] conduct.
[VI. B. 3. c. i.
- The general arrangement of conducts]
The first has two parts: [A'] Explaining the divisions of conduct in general; and [B'] Eliminating scriptural contradictions with the distinc- tive conduct.
[VI. B. 3. c. i. A' - Explaining the divisions of conduct in general]
The Teacher descended to the human realm from Tushita heaven. Manifesting the four, continuum, context and so on, he emanated the dispassionate body. He caused those with aspirations for the Individual Vehicle to understand the four noble truths and [he manifested] the dis- passionate conduct. As for those with broader aspirations on the Universal Vehicle, he caused them to understand objective selflessness by teaching the eightfold assemblage of consciousness and so forth, manifesting the
conduct of the stages and the transcendences.
realities.
All paths going to liberation and omniscience that do not employ
passion for the objects of sense maintain the conduct that is dispassion- ate. The Integrated Practices' statement that the dispassionate conduct
517
? ? ? The conduct which is the method of heightening impact on
Additionally, he emanated himself in the form of an imperial chakra- varti monarch, and for those with intense aspiration toward the profound, he employed the passionate conduct, manifesting the conduct of the teaching of passion right up to the above-explained realization of the two
5 I 8 ? Brilliant lllumination ofthe Lamp
[27RaJ was taught for the Individual Vehicle person is just by way of example. Though the three lower Tantra categories do not teach union with the evolutionary consort or the visualized goddess, in general they do just use as the path the passion that perceives the five sense objects of the goddess visualized as present in front of you, and so their paths are included in just making a path of passion for sense objects.
For those disciples who totally engage with all objects of the extra- ordinary two realities and who delight in the supreme fruition of the great bliss, the dispassionate conduct appropriate for those of the Disciple Vehicle and the transcendence Siitras is not taught. The disciple tamed by those [vehicles] does not understand the perfection stage of great bliss of taking as the path the passion for sense objects, and though by means of the hard conduct of the twelve ascetical practices and so forth they may seek enlightenment for a long time, they have a conduct which cannot attain ultimate enlightenment without relying on another path.
Therefore, the Vajra Angel states:
To one who is an actual mendicant,
To anyone who likes various ideologies, To one who has become old,
Do not teach thatness to them.
A renunciate who is tamed by the dispassionate path is not capable of aspiring to the passionate path. An old person whose seeds have weakened is not capable of uniting bliss and voidness. A devotee of outsiders' ideolo- gies does not enter this teaching. Therefore, the text explains they are not vessels of the supreme path. [278bl Thus the distinctive fruition must arise from a distinctive cause, and the great bliss of the fruitional occasion should be understood as achieved from the distinctive bliss of engage- ment with the sense qualities in the occasion of the cause. Those who are ascetical, engaging with other things, will not obtain the one-pointedness of great bliss, since the melting bliss comes from the flourishing body, and those ascetical activities punish the body which has the five senses and their supports.
Thus again, the Vajra Angel says:
Illusory things
May create the distinctive enjoyment.
Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ?
5 1 9
While that bliss i s transforming.
One will attain the distinctive fruition - Why should one not desire it?
There are no animate or inanimate things, Their nature is mere appearance.
Who has that distinctive meditation,
The fruition of pleasurable bliss.
The power of the unexcelled clear mind Achieving the cause of ambition for fruition - There, who would turn away a goddess?
Therefore, by all efforts,
Make offerings of the ubiquitous. By intolerable ascetical vows The body dries out and suffers.
That suffering distracts the mind,
Causing accomplishments to go elsewhere. Having stabilized body and mind,
Always strengthen your bliss.
And the Root Tantra says:
You won't achieve by relying On unbearable ascetic vows - Relying on enjoying all desires, Very soon you will achieve.
As for asceticism, by yogas that wear out and tire the body one practices in a[n abandoned] temple, and so on. As for vows, [279aJ they are the twelve ascetical practices such as living at the foot of a tree, and so on. As for unbearable, it refers to hanging from cliffs and entering fire and so on. As for not attaining enlightenment while suffering by relying on those things, those things dessicate the body, oppress it and torment it. weaken the jasmine-like enlightenment spirit, divert the mind from great bliss samadhi to other states, and make sure that the supreme accomplish- ment will not be attained in this lifetime.
As for the meaning of the Integrated Practices quote of the Glori- ous Supreme Prime statement similar to the above, it should be taken as the meaning of the statement that intended a general explanation or an
520 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
explanation like the foregoing; since it is not explained as having a ver- bally literal meaning.
Again from the Root Tantra:
Keeping body, speech, and mind
In happiness, enlightenment is attained. Otherwise one will surely die an untimely death And will [eventually] be burned in hell.
Here the meaning of the previous [lines] , the benefits of blissful conduct, is implicitly shown by the last two [lines], while they explicitly indicate the dangers of maintaining ascetical conduct.
As for that, some part explains the faults of the ascetical conduct of the fundamentalists, and some part explains the faults of incurring the eighth root transgression of maintaining an ascetical conduct, abandon- ing what one understands of the reality, [after] having received initiations and taking vows.
As for the unexcelled path's affording enlightenment in this life- time, it depends on the union of bliss and void, and that bliss comes from the flourishing of the enlightenment spirit in one's body, and for that one must take care of one's body along with the senses and their supports. For that purpose is taught the conduct 1279bl wherein the five senses rely on the five objects as one desires.
The Illumination ofthe Lamp Seventeenth Chapter states that what- ever commitments exist, [are fulfilled through] women [or male] consorts such as the "lotusful," and so on. They are [essential] for the commit- ment of the three vajras, and you should respect and delight in them by all activities of body, speech, and mind. "Don't despise the mind vajra" intends that their minds should not separate from passion, since the mind is the root of the body, and since the body is the root of the spirit of enlightenment.
Relying on the body of the "lotusful," and so on, one's enlighten- ment spirit increases; and since the root of the body of that one is the mind of that, if that mind is eradicated, the cause of the root of great bliss is injured, and the text thus intends that this causes obstruction to the increase of the great bliss samadhi. Therefore it states that one should protect such a mind. And the infraction of the fourteenth root transgres- sion intends that same thing. By that reason you should understand not to
harm your body but to make it thrive. The two new translations of the
Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ? 52 1
Illumination of the Lamp are correct in explaining that the mind is the root of the body and the body is the root of the spirit of enlightenment. Should it be translated in the reverse it would be incorrect.
Thus, as stated, one should follow the conduct of the six transcen- dences, though there are statements that one's conduct should accord with one's path. Here, "conduct" refers to conduct from the perspective of knowing the nature of the five sense objects as the cause of great bliss. Therefore, if you do not live blissfully in body speech and mind through sense-enjoyments, you will not attain one-pointedness of mind, and your mentality will not become evenly entranced, and so you must keep [. :! . llllnJ a conduct of bliss for that purpose. And that statement is not just for achieving a mere stability of one-pointed mental equanimity, but is for the purpose of achieving the samadhi of orgasmic great bliss.
[VI. B. 3. c. i. B' - Eliminating scriptural contradictions with the distinctive conduct]
The second has two parts: [1 ') Setting forth the Integrated Prac- tices statements and explaining their meaning; and [2'] Rebutting others' objections to that.
I VI. B. 3. c. i. n 'l ' - Setting fmth the Integrated Practices statements and explaining their meaning]
Well, then, [someone objects,] if it is said that you attain buddha- hood by relying on sense objects as much as you want, how does it not contradict the statement [from the Glorious Supreme Prime] that passion for the five sense objects is a poison to be avoided:
Desire, hatred, and delusion,
These are the world's three poisons!
and the explanations from the Sotras that show the dangers of desire as the cause of the horrible migrations, since relying on the sense objects causes the production of addictions?
In answer to this objection, [Aryadeva] in the Integrated Practices says:
The addictive energies serve as condition for the addictions of those with objectifying views such as the disciples, since they do not understand the reality of the
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addictions. If they know the reality, those energies could
become the cause for enlightenment. The Glorious Supreme Prime says:
Desire, hate, and delusion,
Holding them they become poisons. When the poisons are eradicated, Poison has been made poisonless. Relying on them with an elixir process, They become elixir itself.
The Jewel Heap Satra says that just as the city's manure enriches the fields of sugar cane, the manure of the bodhisattvas' addictions enrich their becoming enlightened. And [it also says that] just as poison com- bined with medicine and mantra is no longer able to kill, 1280b] so addictions combined with art and wisdom are not able to cause wrong downfalls. The Discipline Amoghasiddhi Tantra also says:
"That which binds the foolish person, Fully liberates the wise. "
When the bodhisattva meditates on this, All these wrong things,
Which imprison the confused,
Sending them to the howling hell,
The same things liberate [the bodhisattva] Who attains bliss by the power of wisdom.
By this reason, one enters into a delightful situation where there is a dis- tinctive incentive, a distinctive transformation, and a distinctive fruition, and one can achieve the goal of the fruition of the unexcelled great bliss-and not any other way. For the sake of that, by that very one, the pleasures of eating and living and so on cause the realization of omnis- cience that includes the eight masteries of excellent qualities and so on. The Magic Supreme Bliss [Tantra] also says:
Therefore, by bliss there is bliss itself And all buddhas thus attain themselves.
As for "serve as conditions for addictions," the two new transla- tions of the Integrated Practices are correct to translate "become the
Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ? 523
cause for the horrid states. " Concerning that, to the argument that "rely- ing on the five objects, addictions are produced, and that again leads to the bad migrations," he answers that in regard to the addictions produced by relying on sense objects, they are analyzed into two, a cause of bad migrations for those who do not understand reality, such as the disciples, and a cause of buddhahood for those who understand reality. He does not
answer that relying on sense objects 12Htal will not produce addictions.
In general as above explained, the person free from attachment to sense objects is not precluded from taking interest in getting desire ob- jects such as food and clothing. In regard to pleasant, unpleasant, and indifferent sense objects, they do not become addictive just by the five senses experiencing them or just by the mental sense's having an interest in sense objects. However, in this case, the main point is made in terms of not separating from passion for sense objects, and from among sense objects this is examining whether or not it is correct that one can take the passion for the union of the two sex organs as the path. If you are not free of passion for the desired, you do not have the realization of reality, and you still rely on sense objects as much as you want, you will feel the passionate addictions. Those [addictions] will also become the cause of your going to horrid migrations; thus the addictions will not at all be transformed into the cause even of liberation, and therefore they are not allowed. Neither does the individualist who does possess the understand- ing of reality have the ability to transform any addiction into a cause for enlightenment: since such a person does not have the art element of such a transformation which is taught in either the [exoteric] Transcendence or
the secret Mantra Universal Vehicle; and since such transformation requires both the distinctive art and [distinctive] wisdom. Therefore, the statement that understanding the thatness of addictions serves as the cause of enlightenment shows that in such a case the addictions can become a cause of enlightenment (28lbl and does not show that for all those who understand thatness, the addictions that rely on sense objects become the cause of enlightenment; otherwise the many statements of the necessity
of elements of art beyond the view of voidness would be meaningless. The reference quoted from the Glorious Supreme [Prime] shows that the three addictions can become either poisons or elixirs, which shows that the one-sided statements that the three addictions are only poisons to be eliminated are for the sake of a certain type of person and not for every- one. The previous reference from the Jewel Heap shows that some of the
524 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
addictions of bodhisattvas create the buddha qualities, which teaches that not all addictions obstruct the attainment of enlightenment. The second reference [from the Jewel Heap] shows that addictions combined with the distinctive art and wisdom cannot lead one into the wrong downfalls into the horrid migrations, showing that the same addictions that obstruct the higher rebirths for those not expert in [the distinctive] art cannot obstruct those who are so expert. As for the meaning of that Jewel Heap reference, it states that just, while the Transcendence Vehicle bodhi- sattvas could eliminate craving for the addictions that cause rebirth in existence, when they purposefully leave them uneliminated, those addic- tions become a cause of buddhahood by driving them to take rebirth with the ability to complete the magnificent bodhisattva deeds.
Elsewhere, there is the story about the addictive desire to commit sexual misconduct in the case of the distinctive embodiment of the brah- min boy "Star," where the point is that if he did not pursue his desire [for a certain woman] it would have the preventable consequence of [her] death; and if he did pursue his desire he could uphold virtue [282al as he wished. 150 This is completely different from such addiction becoming the cause of enlightenment and the system of making passion into the path in this [Tantric] path. Nevertheless, as this is a source for certain addictions combined with expertise in art becoming a cause of enlightenment, you can rebut the criticisms argued against [this path] that producing addictions from relying on sense objects must [inevitably] lead to horrid migrations, must become obstacles to enlightenment, and that various references are
mutually contradictory.
In the Dialogue with the Householder Ugra, while the Buddha did
recommend the deeds of the bodhisattva householder to one who could not eliminate the household desires, since there was no aspiration there to follow the path with the vehicle of passion, that [householder] was told to engage [in those deeds] with the idea of the dangers of relying on desires, which is different from the passionate discipline of the path of the unexcelled. The reference from the Yoga Tantra Glorious Supreme {Prime] is suitable for support here since, though it does not show that there is no fault [at all] in making passion into the path, [as it can be a
150 Have not yet been able to trace the source of this story about Bram ze? i khye'u skar rna.
? Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ? 525
problem for an ordinary person,] it does show in general that it is possible in certain cases to take as a path the three addictions, relying on sense objects combined with expertise in the arts in order to increase one's spirit of enlightenment relying on the body of another and to increase the spirit of enlightenment of one ' s own body.
Here you might wonder: "Well it might be conceded that it can be permitted to use desire, but how can there be permission for hate and delusion? "
As for hatred, when you practice fierce activities such as killing or banishing, there is no anger at the time of the causing motivation, yet it is said that a rough mind is developed [282bJ on the occasion of the continu- ing motivation. In the context of the initial [creation stage performance] meditation of the defense wheel and so on, compassion is developed in the time of the causal motivation, but in the time of the continuing moti- vation it is explained that a hateful mind and so forth is developed toward the obstructive demons. So there is some allowance for hatred and its associated patterns. Further, since every passion or hatred occurs in coor- dination with addictive delusion, delusion is permitted as incidental to the permitting of other addictions, though it is not by itself permitted expressly. As for "by what," it is the stupidity through passion for sense objects and specially passion for the union of the two sex organs; being a confusion about the meaning of thatness, it binds in the life cycle.
By that very passion that leads to the hells such as the howling hell, the expert in art can become liberated in great bliss by the power of wisdom that realizes thatness. Thus, when you meditate the enlighten- ment spirit of bliss-void[-indivisible], the artistically inept find a cause of bondage and the artistically expert become liberated.
The Hevajra Tantra says:
By passion the worldling is bound,
But by passion one becomes liberated.
Therefore there is cause both for bondage and for liberation in the same
addiction of passion for sense objects. As the Vajra Rosary says:
Abandoning duty and deviance,
But performing the prohibited,
Like the lotus unsullied by the mud. Understanding reality one is not infected.
526 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Even though there is passion for the desire objects, one is "not infected," that is not crushed by its faults; it is not that passion does not arise.
Here you might wonder: "Well, [283aJ if there is a way as that above in which other vehicles make addictions into a cause of enlightenment, and if the other types of Tantras make it into a path, making into a path
just the passion of visualizing the five objects in the goddess who is meditated without [actual] union, then what about the way of making passion for sense objects the path in the Unexcelled [Tantras] ? "
When your mind is attracted by intense faith from seeing clearly the exceptional excellence of the path that meditates on the decisively understood meaning of thatness by means of the intuition of the orgasmic bliss of melting, you then desire to develop the great bliss for the sake of meditating on thatness. That is to make a path out of the passion for the sense objects [involved in] uniting with the outer evolution consort or the [inner] intuition consort, as a means of developing that [great bliss] ; and
that is not only for that [purpose,] but is also in order to achieve the magic body. These I have already explained many times.
As for making a path out of passion for desire objects for the sake of developing the distinctive subjectivity for meditating on voidness, it does not exist in any other vehicle than [that of] the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras]. "By this reason" and so forth is translated by Patsab as "By this way, [there is] a distinctive presumption, and," which conforms to the [related passage in] the Reality Accomplishment. The "meaning" is the creation of the deity as [desire-] object and support. "Abiding" is well [translated] as "transforming. " And all those [expressions] concisely
express the path of the [advanced Tantric] conduct.
By the art of penetrating the vital points in the outer and inner
body, one melts the spirit of enlightenment and produces the distinctive textures of the body as inner object, and by that serving as an objective condition you create a distinctive bliss of sensation in the body con- sciousness. With that serving as the immediately preceding condition, (283hl the mental consciousness then develops a superlative experiential bliss. At that time, just by remembering the meaning of the reality of thatness that has been ascertained, bliss and void become united. That is declared to be the meditation on voidness by the art of creating the men- tality as the experience of bliss. Relying on that, the discerning person can understand the key point of this path as being the distinctive subjec- tivity that [focuses on the] nondifferent [object of] voidness.
Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ? 527
As for that process of generating bliss in the sense consciousness and mental consciousness. it can be understood from the reasonings stated by the Lord of Reasoning [Dharmakirti, in his Treatise on Validat- ing Cognition]:
And :
When passions etc. , expanding, increase, They are produced from pleasure and pain; And again, elements being equal, and so on, From approaching the inner object. . . .
Because a mind arising from a special inner object, Can also be made to change it.
Therefore, you should understand that the sense consciousnesses arise in the actuality of bliss from the immediately preceding condition of the mentality becoming the actuality of great bliss. 1 5 1
[VI. B. 3. c. i. B'2' - Rebutting others' objections to that]
[Someone here might object,] "Since the Integrated Practices states that "disciples and so on, by being convinced about the object," and "causing those who aspire to the magnificent to realize objective selflessness," doesn't it contradict the [Dialecticist Centrists' distinc- tively special] statement that the followers of the Individual Vehicle can understand objective selflessness? "
Since among disciples there are both those who understand that- ness and those who do not, here mention of the "convinced about the object" disciple specifies which among them is being considered. As the Noble [Nagarjuna]'s statement was quoted [by Chandrak. Irti] in the Intro- duction [to the Central Wayj Commentary:
1 5 1 Tsong Khapa seeks the backing of the great epistemologist Dharmakirti to show how a mind that is dominated by the inner object of subliminally enlightenment-spirit-grounded deep bliss perception becomes a bliss-subjectivity that can transmute any sense experience into bliss, whether ordinarily pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral; a compelling epistemology of sublimation.
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You said that without understanding signlessness, One will not attain liberation;
Therefore you completely taught [284aJ
That in the Universal Vehicle . . .
he was thinking that, although objective selflessness is explained in both canons, it is more extensively explained in the Universal Vehicle; thus he states that it is in the Universal Vehicle that one is caused to understand objective selflessness. Likewise, from the Disclosure of the Spirit of En- lightenment, [Nagarjuna] says:
Those who desire to benefit,
Explain to the disciples the five aggregates Of matter, sensation, conception,
Volition, and consciousness.
The supreme human always says That matter is like a ball of foam, Sensation like a water bubble, Conception like a mirage, Volition like a plantain tree,
And consciousness like an illusion. Teaching the aggregates in such a way, He explains them to the bodhisattvas.
Thus, he was intending that there are many explanations to the bodhi- sattvas of the intrinsic realitylessness of the aggregates by means of such examples, and not so many similar recitations in the Individual Vehicle canon. But, [he was] not [intending] that the Individual Vehicle follower was never taught the applicability of those five examples; since in the Introduction [to the Central Way] Commentary those five examples for the aggregates are stated, quoting from a Sotra taught to the disciples.
If it was the interpretation of [Nagarjuna] that the Individual Vehicle lacks the understanding of voidness as intrinsic realitylessness, he would have been incorrect in stating in that same [Disclosure ofthe Spirit ofEn- lightenment] text:
Who do not understand voidness, They do not approach liberation,
Chapter XI- Conduct Heightening Impact ? 529 And those confused persons will wander
In the prison of existence through the six migrations.
-since followers ofthe Individual Vehicle 1211-'hl do have liberation from the prison of existence. Likewise, the Integrated Practices statement that by teaching those aspiring to the magnificent they are made to understand the eightfold aggregate of consciousness and so on, is merely referring to what was stated in the Sotras, since in [Aryadeva's] own system he does not accept a fundamental consciousness apart from the sixfold aggregate of consciousness. According to the Noble system of the Esoteric Com- munity, the mind of death clear light universal voidness is the death mind and the mind of imminence arising therefrom in the reverse order is the birth mind, neither of which is suitable as the fundamental consciousness. Though [Nagarjuna] mentions the mere name "fundamental conscious- ness" in the Disclosure of the Spirit of Enlightenment, it is only for the sake of declaring that the mental consciousness is the root and founda- tion of all purifying things, as I have already explained extensively in my Wisdom Vajra Compendium Commentary.
One may here object, "By meditating on the import of thatness with the bliss from relying on the consort using passion for sense objects as a cause, are all addictions terminated or not? If it is the latter, then there is a contradiction between the realization of voidness progressing to the ex- treme ultimate and some addictions not being terminated. This is because, having terminated all truth habits, it is not appropriate that the termina- tion of the cause, the truth habits of misknowledge, would not eliminate the effect, passion and so forth; and because it is contradictory for libera- tion to be attained without terminating all addictions. If it is the former, [it is contradicted] since, as you need the passions as the cause of the path that terminates the passions, there is the absurd consequence that light serves as the cause of darkness; f2115aJ and it is contradictory for passion
to serve as the cause of that path's radical elimination of the truth habit misknowledge. This is because is it contradictory for the cause of radical termination of a cause to be affected by the effect of that [cause]; and all other addictions are made to arise by the truth habit mis-knowledge. "
This I have already explained extensively elsewhere. 152
152 Tsong Khapa has refuted this argument earlier in the context of self-consecration.
? 530 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Furthermore, you may wonder: "The 'passion' concerned in the con- text of wishing to make passion into a path, if [on the one hand,] it is just a matter of attaching the name 'passion' to some other virtuous quality, it contradicts the Integrated Practices proof with evidence of something serving as basis of addiction either becoming or not becoming a cause of enlightenment, and it makes the statement that for some other person such a passion serves as the cause of going to bad migrations. A virtuous quality will not become the cause of bad migrations and will be the cause of enlightenment, so where is the excellent artistic skill distinctive from other vehicles? If [on the other hand,] it is real passion involved here, you would have to clearly pronounce how it becomes a path; [which you cannot do,] since you cannot express how a means of destruction elimi-
nates its target from the perspective of being discordant in habit pattern, as for example, 'This becomes the remedy of this kind of addiction. ' Therefore, the artistic skill of the Unexcelled Vehicle is no more than a mere object of [unfounded] faith ! "
Here I should speak plainly. I do not accept the second alternative, but do accept the gist of the first.