No More Learning

? ? 1 30 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
perspective of its being the extraordinary key of the base of purification; [c'1 The proof relying on the key of the way to create the deity; and [D") The proof relying on the key of [its being] the actuality of the indivisibility of art and wisdom.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'1'b'ii'A,- The proofthrough the perspective of its being the extraordinary cause of the [buddhas"] material body]
The Ornament ofRealizations states:
The spiritual conception is for the sake of others,
Desiring the utterly perfect enlightenment.
Thus, as for example one suffering from thirst mainly aims at getting [something to] drink but may [also] aim at [obtaining] a vessel as a means of getting it, so the [messianic] Universalists, while they mainly aim to fulfill the interests of others, forced by their minds being moved by uni- versal compassion which cannot tolerate beings tormented by sufferings and bereft of happiness, they further see that if they do not attain [the vessel of] buddhahood, there is no other method for them to achieve that fulfillment of [others' needs]. So for one with such an ambition for perfect enlightenment as a method of that [fulfillment of others' needs], the two Universal Vehicles, of Mantra and of Transcendence, are similar;
since they do not differ in their spiritual conceptions.
Thus, since among the two buddha-bodies, that which accomplishes
beings' needs through direct manifestation is the material body [55bl and not the truth body. the material body is the main objective. Thus, a dis- tinctive cause homogeneous with that art which is the means of attaining the material body-an unexcelled distinctive specialty lacking in other vehicles, other Tantras, and the first stage [of Unexcelled Yoga] - is necessary in the context of the perfection stage. In that light, if there is no wisdom realizing voidness, one cannot attain freedom of liberation from the bonds of the life cycle. Such wisdom also exists for the Individual Vehicle; but if the aspect of the art which causes the [buddhas'] material body is lacking, however much you meditate on voidness, you only attain freedom liberated from identity-bound existence, and do not attain omniscience. Therefore, among the arts which produce the material body, while realization of voidness is indispensible, the system of both Univer- sal Vehicles requires meditation [additionally] certain of the complete art
? Chapter II-Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 3 1
aspect, even though still carrying this distinctive realization of voidness all the way up to the truth body. However, in the Transcendence Univer- sal Vehicle, though there is meditation on a path conducive to the truth body, there is no meditation on the deity body, which is conducive to the material body. Here, as for the detailed explanations of such [topics] as the two vehicles' ranking in terms of their arts of [creating] the material body, the way in which the two paths conducive to the two bodies are the same in terms of requiring meditation, and the necessity to accept this in the path of all four Tantras, and so on, I will not elaborate them here, as I have already done so in the Stages ofthe Path of[Great] Vajradhara.
Further, as for the deity yogas of the three lower Tantras, compared
tinctive from those, must serve in general as the [main] cause of the
[32] signs and [80] marks which serve as the immediate cause of the material body, which is the fruition at the end of the learning path of the perfection stage.
In this context, as for the Transcendence Vehicle cause of the material buddha-body, in general there are the many stores of merit, and in particular, through the causes of the physical signs - such as the escort- ing of mentors [being the evolutionary cause of the light-webbed fingers] , and so on, one attains the stages in [the process of] accumulating these
stores over many lifetimes. One [thus gradually] attains a body condu- cive to the fruitional signs and marks, further getting better and better on higher and higher stages, and at the time of the final existence, one will attain the ultimate signs and marks of the learning path of that [transcen- dence] path. Thereupon, at the time of buddhahood, the homogeneous preceding [causes] of the signs and marks of that body are taught to serve as the homogeneous causes of the fruitional signs and marks; and it is not claimed that there is any sudden transformation without attaining the prior body with signs and marks. Likewise, on the attainment of buddha- hood in a single lifetime through the path of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantra, it is not stated that one must achieve the body adorned with signs and
marks just by achieving a body ; if one does not attain a certain type of
to the Unexcelled Yoga Tantra, they are extremely remote [in their serv- ing] as causes of the [buddhas ' ] material body. [56a] And the deity yogas of the first stage of Unexcelled Yoga Tantra are merely the means of developing the roots of virtue that prepare for the realizations of the perfection stage. But the perfection stage deity yoga, so extremely dis-
material body, and particularly must be a cause homogeneous with the
132? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
body adorned with signs and marks on the learning path, there will be no homogeneous cause, and there cannot be any sudden transformation.
Therefore, from the occasion of the perfection stage learner's path, [56b1 one must attain the body adorned with the signs and marks. One cannot create the body adorned with the signs and marks by meditating deity yoga with this gross evolutionary body. It is insufficient to use only the body meditated in the mind as the deity body, as in the occasion of
the creation stage. One needs a distinctive deity yoga that attains the body adorned with signs and marks other than those [above meditational bodies]. And since no material cause of that other than the neural wind- energies is appropriate, the process of achieving the magic body from the wind-energies is definitely necessary. Furthermore, as I will later prove, relying on the Explanatory Tantras Vajra Rosary and Revelation ofthe Hidden Intention, there are two types of bodies among basic reality sen- tient beings; the temporary gross body and the neural-wind-energy-mind- created subtle body. Then I will explain how, just as the subtle orgasmic mind is accepted as the material cause of the intuitive wisdom truth buddha-body, the same applies in all respects as necessary in the achiev- ing of the material buddha-body from the material cause of the subtle
body made only of neural-wind-energy-mind.
1 VI. B. 3. b. ii. u 'I 'b 'ii 'u " - The proof through the perspective of its being the extraordinary key of the base of purification]
The Unexcelled Tantras teach a stage of the new creation of both the distinctive habitat of the environment of the measureless mansion and the distinctive inhabitants of the living deities. The Tantra intends that the process of creating the environment should be accepted as corresponding to the creation and destruction of the universe which is the basic reality environment. By the key of that reasoning, the process of the creation of the living deities and so on 157uJ must be structured according to the basic reality sentient beings' birth, death. and between stages. And this must be done not only on the creation stage but also on the perfection stage. At that time, it is understood that, at the end of the realization of clear light, taken as the process of death. one must create a magic body from mere neural-wind-energy-mind at the end of the clear light, in keeping with the process of creating the between state from mere neural-wind-energy- mind, separate from the old body of the gross aggregates. I am not going
? Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 33
to expand on this here, as I have extensively already exlained it in my Stage ofArrangement Commentary [on] the treatise of the Glorious Naga- bodhi. But I will explain the Vajra Rosary statements how the arrange- ments of the perfection stage should be made in the same way.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'l'b'ii'c"-The proof relying on the key of the way to create the deityI
Beginning from the Action Tantra, when the yogr/nr practices the methods of deity creation, it is taught in some way that one rises in a deity body after each immersion in the void. Finally in the context of the perfection stage, the yogi/nr does not just do that as merely a focused imagination, but must actually arise in the deity body after entering the void. The key here is that if one knows how to create the magic body one can do that, and not otherwise; thus after entering into clear light as in the process of death one must create a deity body made from neural wind-energy-mind as in the [basic reality] between.
On this point, in the Integrated Practices,53 [Aryadeva] answers the question "How is the wisdom body created, since the deity body does not appear from the creation stage to body isolation, nor in speech or mind isolation? " [57b] His answer gives the import of the statement of the way to create the magic body from neural-wind-energy. Further, as for the teachings-beginning from the creation stage-of arising in a deity body after entering the void, they do not include the way to create the
deity body which is not just creating it through an imaginative visualiza- tion. Thus, to answer the question about the way to create the deity body,
[A ryadeva] teaches the magic body.
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. B'1 'b'ii'n" - The proof relying on the key of [its being] the
Having completed the creation stage, learning thoroughly the per- fection stage, at the time of activity when ready for the [Tantric] conduct, with the exception of the conceptual duties explained in the elaborated conducts, such as salutations and response to salutations and so on, and
53 This refers to chapter VI of the Integrated Practices (CW, pp. 243-252; 427-437; 581- 589).
? ? ? actuality of the indivisibility of art and wisdom]
1 34 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
in the investigation of realitylessness of things in the aftermath periods, and so on, one is prohibited from the merit-accumulating activities taught for the aftermath periods in the Transcendence Vehicle and in the lower Tantras, such as making stupas, reading So tras, offering mandalas and so forth. Many other Tantras make this kind of statement, along with the Esoteric Accomplishment:
Do not salute deities
Made of wood, stone, or clay; Worship the body itself!
Venerate it as a mentor and bow to it!
Don't make stupas, etc. , from earth and stone,
Do not delight in books,s4
And don't make hand gestures in mandalas, and so on, Even in your dreams !
And don't prostrate yourself
To those engaged in the three vehicles !
Especially in the context of the extremely non-elaborated conduct, it is taught that one should abandon all elaborations 158aJ other than during eating, urinating, and defecating, and one should meditate on clear light alone by the process of immersion in the clear light.
In the Ten Stages Sarra [the Buddha stated]:
At the time of terminating addictions with their seeds, when one meditates exclusively on the tolerance of the ultimate which is equipoised on the import of thatness, you will not have my measureless body, wisdom, and land and so on; so you must make efforts to create them, without abandoning this door of tolerance !
Here he does not just urge meditation on equipoised nonconceptual wisdom alone. but exhorts [the bodhisattvas] in the aftermath state to accumulate the store of merit, the cause of the material buddha-body. If a discerning person examines those two procedures [of the So tras and of
54 From the Skt. ratim. It would be hard lo make a So trll in eanh or stone!
? C h a p t e r // - L e a r n i n g t h e Ta n t r i c P a t h ? 1 3 5
the perfection stage], it is clear that there are distinctive homogeneous causes of the two bodies within the orgasmic joy and fourth void clear light meditations taught in Unexcelled Yoga Tantra. Though according to the Transcendence Vehicle, the eighth stage equipoised nonconceptual wisdom provides a coordinating condition for the matter body, it is clear that the material cause is incomplete. And as for how it is complete in the former [Tantric] case, while it is easy to understand how that orgasmic joy clear light wisdom is the material cause of the wisdom truth body, as for what serves as the material cause of the [compassion] matter body, it is clear that it is the magic body made of the five light ray neural-wind- energies engaged with as being [nondually] the same in actuality as the void wisdom. Taking it that way, ! 58hl [the magic body] serves as the indivisible actuality of art and wisdom in terms of its being [nondually] the material cause of both bodies; and otherwise it is very difficult.
Now, it is taught in the context of performing the conduct that de- velops the impact of the perfection stage, after, as already explained, one has purified one's spiritual process through the ordinary path, has well maintained one's initiation and vows, and has completed the creation stage. It is not taught elsewhere. Thus, if you obstruct the [bodhisattva] deeds that accumulate extensive stores, saying "there is a quick path through non-attachment to any of those arrangements," you will ruin both yourself and others. The Enlightenment Songs and so on of the Great
Brahmin teach the way that must practice the essential concerning orgas- mic wisdom, abandoning other elaborated deeds in those contexts of the advanced path as already explained. It is an error to think that "he is teaching here the path of sudden attainment which the most intelligent practitioner must implement from the first entering of the path. " So the essential adept literature requires investigation with a fine intelligence.
Relying on those key points just explained, as for the bliss-void- indivisible art and wisdom explained in other treatises, if you understand this explanation of the import of the Communion interpreted by the system of the Noble father and sons as part of the pair of the two-reality-
indivisible communion as the import of EVAM, it is very crucial for com- plete understanding of the systems of other Tantras. The essence of the hidden meaning explanation-among the four [explanatory] procedures
-taught as the meaning of the Esoteric Community ofAll Realized Lords IS9al is the third stage magic body. And the essence of the ultimate expla- nation [explanatory procedure] is the communion body. And this point
1 36 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
which is the most greatly secret among the most extremely esoterically secret. is not taught clearly anywhere other than in this system. And it seems that even if you doggedly inquire into this system, it is hard to discover correctly even the rough general meaning. Therefore, those of intelligence should make intense efforts to realize it through the kindness
of long propitiated. expert, spiritual friends.
? The second has two parts: [a') The way one must penetrate the vital points in the body to generate the orgasmic [intuition] of bliss-void-
) The way one must penetrate the vital points in the [VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'a' - The way one must penetrate the vital points in the
indivisible; and [b
body to generate the two-reality-indivisible communion.
'
? body to generate the orgasmic [intuitionI of bliss-void-indivisibleI The first has two parts: [i'] Teaching the two arts in general; and
[ii'] Explaining them separately.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B '2 'a T - Teaching the two arts in general]
? As already explained, Tantra has no system of seeking the ultimate understanding of the import of the thatness of selflessness beyond that of the Transcendence Vehicle. For, if you just withdraw the mind within, without destroying the truth habit orientation via precise rational nega- tion of the conceptual object held by the truth habit, your [meditation] will not constitute a [new] habit pattern counter to the truth habit, and will not dislodge the truth habit in the slightest. And, if you seek selfless- ness as the negatee negated to discover the import of selflessness at a level coarser than that taught by the Dialecticist Centrists, you will not negate the truth habit orientation [59bf on the subtle level, and so the truth habit will remain. And finally, even if you negate it at a more subtle level, since you will not have a footing on which to develop by force of reason the certitude of relativity within that import, your negation will become a nihilistic void. Therefore, although there is no difference [be-
tween vehicles] in their ways to determine the import of thatness, when you meditate on it, no other subjectivity than the great bliss of enlight- enment spirit melted by the blazing furor kindled by the left and right
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B '2 ' - Showing how. to produce that, one must penetrate the vital points in the body through the entry of the sign EVAM]
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 137
channel wind-energies entering and dissolving into the dhati [central channel] has an equal power to swiftly purify the obscurational instincts with the orgasmic [wisdom] of its meditation on its ascertainment of the import of voidness. Therefore, that bliss must certainly be generated.
Further, thinking that it could not be generated without piercing the vital points in the body, [the B uddha] taught two arts ? of penetrating the vital points in the body, one art relying on the science consort and one art of meditating on the inner channels, wind-energies, and drops. As for the first of these, he did not mention in the lower Tantras [the need] to work with the mind of lust from arousal and gazing and so on, having openly looked at the evolutionary consort, but taught arousal, gazing, and hand- holding toward the goddess meditated as not being in sexual union with one. And so those Tantras are called "arousal Tantras. " The Unexcelled Yoga Tantras teach the art of uniting with both the evolutionary consort and the wisdom consort; so they are called "union Tantras. " Those Tantras that do not teach the art of developing great bliss by uniting with the consort [60aJ, also do not teach the union with the wisdom consort, nor do they teach the art of developing bliss from melting enlightenment spirit through the meditation of inner channels, wind-energies, and drops. Tantras wherein the former is taught teach the latter two as well; [that is,] Tantras which teach the art of piercing the vital points in the inner body also teach the union with the two consorts. Those arts are all similar in
their development of great bliss by the force of gathering and dissolving [right] rasana and [left] /a/ana [channel] wind-energies into the dhiiti [central channel]. That they are all necessary means that they generate the previously ungenerated orgasmic joy which is the distinctively excel- lent subjectivity for ascertaining voidness, they maintain the continuity of the already generated (joy], and they cause its increase from full to full.
Explaining them separately]
The second has two parts: [A ") The art of the science consort; and
[8"] The art of meditating the inner channels, wind-energies, and so forth. 1Vl. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii'A, - The art of the science consort I
Here one might protest that "if those arts of piercing the vital points in the body are arts for injecting the rasana and /a/ana wind- energies into the dhati ! channel], the arts of meditating the inner channels.
? ? IVI. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii' -
1 3 8 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
wind-energies, and drops can allow them to be so; but [just] by uniting with the two [kinds of] consort, they cannot [function] like that; therefore it is incorrect that all those arts should function in that way. "
In regard to being able [to function] in that way [just by] depending on the evolutionary consort, you must have both an objective [evolution- ary consort] and a support [wisdom consort] with full qualifications as explained in the Tantras. Since that is very extremely rare, it is not stated for persons [other than the jewel-like disciple].
In regard to the full qualifications [for such a consort], the Sheafof Instructions states:
Art [beings] possessing wisdom [consorts], [60bJ by sexually uniting, inject the wind-energies of lalanii and rasanii channels into the central dhati and make the furor blaze. Further, they burn up the aggregates and so on, and cause the melting of the moon.
Thus it explains that, by uniting with the consort, the left and right wind- energies enter the dhati channel, furor blazes and the spirit of enlighten- ment melts. Tathagatavajra explains that at that time the wind-energies moving in the nostrils cease, [signifying that] the wind-energies have entered the dhari channel. That art is the external life-energy control. It is not that this path of life-energy control is not explained in the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras - the explanations are many. Though the key of the reason that this art compresses the wind-energies into the dhati channel seems very hard to understand, if you get a rough idea of it, it seems to be very excellent for understanding the many imports of the Tantras. The usual reflection of what happens when you depend on the evolutionary consort is just what happens when you depend on the wisdom consort; and when you depend on the wisdom consort, there is also an occasion when the left and right wind-energies penetrate the channel. This depends on know- ing the personal instruction of the life-energy control of the lower door
explained in the Further Tantra among the three types of life-energy control.
Chapter 11- Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 39 [VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii'B" - The art of meditating the inner channels. wind-
? energies,andso forthI
As for the art of meditating the inner channels, neural-wind-energies, and drops and so on, in the center- there in whichever vital point of the body, of the channel wheel of the avadhati central channel wound up with the rasanil and lalanil-there are some doors for injecting the rasanil and lalanil wind-energies into the dhati. As for the way of injecting, there are many approaches; such as Vajra recitation and the wind-energy yogas such [61al as vase-breathing in the two Community systems, the many drop yogas such as occur in the treatise of GhaQtapada,55 and the furor meditations such as those in the treatises of 0 ombi Heruka and Kr? hQa- charya and so forth. Further, in the Time Machine literature one injects the two wind-energies into the central channel by meditating the vase- like wind-energy-union in the place of the navel wheel, and 0 ombi Heruka and Kr? hQacharya accomplish it by meditating the furor visualization in the navel. Hence, first you penetrate the vital point in the navel wheel. The Jnanapada system prefers to penetrate the vital point first in the heart center, then in the secret place, and again in the heart center. The Noble system accomplishes the vital point penetration first in the place of the secret wheel and then in the place of the heart center wheel.
In this context, it is incorrect to claim, as some definitely do, that the Yogini Tantras ' system accomplishes it from the navel : since GhaQta- pada first meditates on the drop in the heart center; Kukuripa, [in his Heruka Sadhana] following the Mahtimtiyti Tantra, first practices life- energy control and vajra recitation in the heart center; and Saroruha in the Hevajra Stidhana explains that you enter the clear light by withdraw-
ing all elaborations into the heart center. Therefore, the authoritative masters state their individual approaches, and the Tantras themselves also speak accordingly, and each of them have their own distinctive specialties.
In regard to them again, although such and such a treatise sometimes explains clearly "that is the art of injecting the rasanti and lalanti wind- energies into the central channel," [61 bl most of the explanations are usually unclear. So, at the time of meditation, by means of the explanations of
55 Presumably his Supreme Bliss Five Stages text, Srr-cakrasam vara-pancakrama(Toh. 1433; Derge Suppl. 4544).
? 140 ?
BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
the meditation and so forth on the visualization of the three channels and so forth, having, by a few keys, set drops and letters and so forth in the center of whichever channel wheel, it is hard to understand the art of injecting the rasana and /a/ana wind-energies into the dhati. Therefore, it is necessary to know this from detailed investigation of the clear expla- nations, and [also from] comparative evaluation of the many treatises of
the Tantras and the authorities.
Thus, though there are many different doors for injecting the two
wind-energies into the dhati, those arts cause the furor to bum, melt the enlightenment spirit, and give the fruition of the wisdom of the four joys or the four voids. And, having identified the wisdom of orgasmic joy, or of clear light, both [Father and Mother] Tantras are similar on the topic of the art of cultivating its continuum. However, by reason of the fact that among them there are many different causal specifics, there are many dif- ferent inner specifics even among the fruitional orgasmic [bliss intui- tions] and clear lights. 56
By meditating through knowing the extraordinary meditation sys- tems which [teach you to] meditate by focusing visualization of letters, drops, and so on at the major vital points of the body such as the center of the body's channel wheels or the lower aperture of the dhati, when the mind is held in those spots, by the key of wind-energy and mind being functionally coordinated, though one is not overtly practicing energy meditation, it serves as an art of injecting the two wind-energies into the dhati. If you know this reason well l62ul, you will understand the key of many authentically reliable perfection stage treatises, and you will obtain certainty about them.
In such a way, if you understand individually without confusion the tendencies to emphasize distinctive potencies of those individual doors of injecting the two wind-energies into the dhati, though those treatises are by no means synonymous, their signatures emerge in their holding in unison as the essence of the path the cultivation of the continuum of the union of the bliss-void of the orgasmic [intuition] and the clear light through ascertaining the pattern of the arisal of the wisdom of the four
? 511 Even at the t"ruitional level, there nre many fine distinctions to be made, and so the com- plexity of the causal processes relates to the inner ditlerences of fruitional experiences.
Chapter //-Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 4 1
joys and the four voids as the fruition of the injection of the two wind- energies into the dhati. And, since this unerringly nails down the final summation of the personal instruction, you will attain full confidence about the definitive meaning of the Tantras. Thinking of that pattern, Saraha said [in an Enlightenment Song] :
Eating and drinking, enjoying sexual union, Again and again fill the circle !
By such teaching as this,
You will achieve transcendence of the world; Here we have triumphed,
Hitting the world of ignorance on the head!
Where energy and mind no longer move,
And sun and moon no longer function,
Ignorant ones, in that place the mind will be relieved! The arrow maker has herein taught all personal
instructions.
Thus, he says that, by relying on the art of penetrating the vital points in the outer and inner body, injecting the sun and moon wind-energies into the dhati channel and dissolving them, burning the furor and melting the enlightenment spirit, and filling the body and uniting bliss and void, you eradicate ignorance and encompass all personal instructions. 1 62b l If you do not understand according to the above explanations, you might think that "since the individual doors of generating the orgasmic [intuition] do not emerge as synonymous, they must be mutually contradictory"; or some might meditate on the praise of their own instructions and think
that all other synonymous explanations are incorrect in the context of that one instruction; and others, having great attachment only to their own instructions, make invidious comparisons with any others.
IYI. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'b' - The way one must penetrate the vital points in the body to generate the two-reality-indivisible communion]
The second has two parts: [i'] Explaining how the perfection stage
? paths must be generated according to the processes of birth, death, and between; and [ii '] explaining the art of penetrating the vital points in the
? body relying on that.
1 42 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
gencral\. 'd a\. ? \. ? ordin? tll the prtK"csscs of hirth, death, and hctwecnI
Due to the intention of all the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, the creation of the habitat and inhabitant mandalas on the first stage is effected in cor- respondence with the processes of creation and destruction of the inani- mate and animate worlds. And this does not happen in the lower Tantras.
Creating [these worlds] in such a way is in order to create the paths through such stages. And further, the creation stage, being meditated to correspond to the aspects of the perfection stage path, is just the means of developing the root of virtue that generates the perfection stage. Thus, the main thing is that [the creation stage] has the purpose of developing the paths of the perfection stage in correspondence to the processes of beings' birth and death. This procedure is clearly explained in the Com-
munity literature. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra states:
Just as there is no thing left after being burned by fire, So without cause, one goes on after dissolving.
Again, when the energy of life arises,
The various wind-energies of the body,
Consciousness together [63aJ with them,
Again abide in the triple world;
From that there is action, and from that birth; And from that the instincts of lust, and so on; And from that again death and birth.
Thus, it is like the turning of a wheel.
As above, it is to be manifested [and mastered] By the stages of vajra recitation and so on.
This quote is the answer to the question about the destruction of the neural-wind-energy at the time of death. And it says that, just as there is no substance of the wood left after being burned by fire, so at the time of death the wind-energies gradually dissolve into the life-energy-wind and one dies. Again from the death clear light the energy of evolution arises, and it and consciousness together take birth and abide in the three worlds. From that evolutionary energy again the instinctual notions such as lust
are produced, thereby accumulating good and bad evolutionary momen- tum, dying, being born again, and so going on like the turning of a wheel. And as for the above-explained five stages such as the vajra recitation,
? I\"I. B? ? ? . b. ii. B'2'b'j? - Explainin? hmv the pcrfcdion sla{. ! e paths must be
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 143
they serve as parallel to the divisions of the processes of birth and death in natural [basic] time.
As for the way they so serve: The continuous action of the energy inhaling and exhaling is the natural vajra recitation, as the same [text, the Vajra Rosary Tantra] says:
The beings of the three realms
Depend on life-energy and control,
As the king of secret mantra reciting
Abandons unknowing, meditation, and reading.
Thus at the end of the wind-energies having repeated [their move- ments] all day and night, the wind-energies' movement out and in stops, and the elements gradually dissolve. The experiences of luminance, radiance, and imminence arise, [63b] and it is the mind isolation stage. After imminence, the death clear light arises at the stage of clear light, which is called the "natural clear light. " At the end of the death clear light, the between body is developed separate from the old body from just the neural-wind-energy and mind abiding in the complex of the old aggregates; this being the magic body stage, it is called the "natural beatific body. " In the natural time, there are not two separate stages of the magic body, the impure and the pure; and yet I will explain below how this [natural sequence] can represent the two types of magic body of
the path time. Now the natural between beatific body is not perceived as the object of the ordinary fleshly eye, but when it takes birth in the birth state it becomes the object of that eye, as the natural emanation body.
In regard to this pattern, the Five Stages states:
That very magic is superficial reality, And also the body of full beatitude, Its very self becomes the fairy being,
And itself indeed the vajra body.
Thus it explains the third stage magic body as the fairy being in the between, whereby you can understand both tendencies, to call the path magic body "the between" and to call the natural between the "path magic body. " Such expressions arise by reason of the fact that the very same wind-energy-mind which goes into the between for one who lacks the personal instruction in skill in liberative art arises as the magic body
144 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
of full beatitude for one who has the personal instruction in liberative
artistry. As the Integrated Practices states:
So doing, the alienated individual enters the existence between which causes the life cycle. And the same thing, for those who have obtained the personal instruction of all transcendent buddhas through the process of the mentor's transmission, is called the "self-consecration. " Thus, f64al just as walls and paintings appear in a mirror, so the reality of the vajra body emanates the being itself as the body endowed with all supreme aspects, which one can never get enough of seeing, a body adorned with
the thirty-two signs of a great being.
By the key of both father and sons explaining thus about the be- tween, you will attain understanding about how-since death and birth are the spinning on the wheel of the life cycle as the impulsive birth and death of the person who lacks the personal instruction, and yet for one who has the personal instruction, what becomes death arises as the truth body and what becomes impulsive birth-taking arises as the emanation body-[authors] might indicate the natural processes with the names of the two path-time bodies, and indicate the two path-time bodies with the names of the two natural processes. In the Stage of Arrangement, it is clearly taught that, having understood both stages of the mind objective through abiding in the vajra recitation-as it is explained that one real- izes the clear light in the processes of death by means of the two [holistic and dissolving] contemplations-one must generate in one's process the perfection stage paths according to the processes of death. Those follow- ing the system of the translator Go, though they explain the processes of
existential birth and death as the basis of purification of both stages, they do not employ the schemes of the three bodies and the five stages in the context of basic time. But those who follow the Marpa system, depend- ing on the Concise Five Stages quote:
The experience of becoming, [death,] and birth
Is taught to be combined in a single session in a day.
very excellently employ the terms of the three bodies for birth, death, and between, and the terms of the five stages for the basic time vajra recita- tion and so on. 164bl Such usage is necessary since it is for the purpose of
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 145
generating the path in one's process according to the processes of birth and death in natural existence.
Even though you use such terms, it will not be good if you do not know the purpose, and explain that the instructions about death as the truth body and so forth are to be practiced only at the time of death and the between, or if you use the terms of the ground time five stages in some way other than the above-explained. As for the meaning of imple- menting the five stages in a single day. a certain Marpa system follower says that one day's inhalation and exhalation is vajra recitation, the instinctual notions dissolving in the heart center is the mind objective, sleep is clear light, dream arisal is magic body, and waking is communion. As for his interpretation of the general sleep and dream instruction as the personal instruction of the Noble system, except for knowing how to explain depending on the Integrated Practices, a clear explanation is not explicit anywhere in the Noble system texts. Although the Illumination of the Lamp quotes one reference from that context in the Integrated Prac- tices, it is merely quoted [and not explained]. If we interpret according to the intention there, one can call the vajra recitation as above, the first three of the four voids that arise between the start of sleep and the arisal
of dream are called the mind objective, and this basic clear light is called the sleep truth body. Here not the mere arisal of dream but the existence of a specific body in the dream is the stage of magic body, called the dream beatific body. And this can represent the third stage and fifth stage magic bodies. Then, waking is the [6SaJ emanation body, this not being just mere waking but a specific kind of awakening. As for Indian [masters] other than the above mentioned followers of the five Noble father and sons, they don't explain the five stages of becoming, birth, and death, the
ground three bodies, and the single day five stages. Still, as for what emerges from the personal instructions of Naropa, it is definitely neces- sary, as being the intention of the above-explained texts. And I have explained them here since, if you know well such a way of determining the five stages in the natural, basic context, then you can discover a great
certainty about the keys of the personal instruction of the [nine] mergers.
146? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'b'ii' - Explaining the art of penetrating the vital points
? in the body relying on that!
Such attainment of the two magic bodies from mere neural-wind- energy-mind, as it is attained in coorespondence with the [basic natural] between, the four voids preceding it must be achieved according to the four voids of the death time. In that regard, the Tantric Vajra Rosary states:
As for the wind-energies' supreme decline, Who truly understands it,
Knows the nature in an instant of death, And mutually truly condenses them, Dissolving [them] as in the process of birth.
Thus, according to the stages of emergence in the time of birth, at the time of death one dissolves through the ascending process. 57 Again the text [the Vajra Rosary] continues:
The addictive mind, the life-energy itself, Will always truly proceed.
First, at the time of transit,
It becomes like the form of a fish.
Thus, at the time of first transition, the life-energy-holding wind is created, and from it, gradually, there develop the nine [other] wind-energies, such as the evacuative energy. and so forth. "The life-energy wind abides in the heart center," it is said. I6SbJ Thus, as the life-energy wind is said to abide in the heart center, at the time of death the neural-wind-energy- mind dissolves into the heart center. This Tantra agrees with A rya Asanga also, in explaining that the heart center is the first place of entrance of the consciousness in the center of the father's and mother's semen and ovum, that the body develops from there up and down, and that finally at the time of death the consciousness exits from the heart center. This does not contradict the statements from the Samputa {Tantra} and so forth that at the time of death the consciousnesses transits from the nine doors such as
S7 Tib. mul' rim, i. e. " stages from below," i. e. ascending, though one thinks of the dissolu- tion at death as being a process of descending energies down from the brain and sense doors located in the head.
? Chapter //-Learning the Tantric Path ? 147
eye and ear. For, since the heart center is the chief support of the mind, consciousness cannot transit from any other door until it has emerged from the abode of the heart center indestructible [drop] ; and the personal instructions for death-transition in those sections of those Tantras are stated in the Sheaf of Instructions to require training in the yoga of eject- ing consciousness from the heart center.
Therefore, you should proceed according to the basic [natural] five stages. By meditating the indestructible in the heart center and by doing vajra recitation by inhaling, holding, and exhaling the energy while visu- alizing the heart center, finally you can stop the in and out of the energy and gradually dissolve it into the heart center and experience the dawn of the four voids, after which you will achieve the extremely subtle magic body from just the wind and mind abiding within the gross body. Then, you will achieve the magic body after the metaphoric clear light, and the communion body after the objective clear light. Since that beati-fic body cannot be seen by the ordinary eye, but can be seen by the flesh eye [only] when it upholds the body of gross aggregates, it then [can make itself into] an emanation body.
Thus in the Noble system the best spot [66aJ for penetrating the vital points in the body is the center of the channel wheel at the heart center; and so you should hold this as the import of "vital point. " And this ultimate personal instruction of expert liberative artistry for transforming this turning the wheel of the life cycle by the rosary of birth, death, and between of the natural basic time into the death truth body, between
beatific body, and birth emanation body-its liberative arts being such as this king of life-energy[-breath]-controls sufficiently [practiced by remem- bering to] identify the personal instruction within the very inhalation and exhalation of the energy through which each living being abides auto- matically. This is the personal instruction identifying the three bodies of the great Vajradhara, the noble Nagarjuna. I will explain below the way of penetrating the vital points in the body by practicing according to the
single-day-five-bodies.
CHAPTER [[/
Explanation ofthe Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra in Particular
( 66a. 3-83b. 6]
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c' -
The third, explaining the perfection stage of this Tantra in particular, has three parts: [ 1 '] Explanation of the way of thorough evaluation of the ultimate private instruction; [2'] The need to reconcile the other private instructions of the ancient mentors with this [ultimate private instruction] ; and [3'] The actual explanation of the stages of the path of the perfection stage .
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'l ' - Explanation of the way of thorough evaluation of the ultimate private instruction I
The ultimate location of the private instruction of the five stages is the Esoteric Community Root Tantra, so that is the ultimate treatise of that instruction. However, within that Tantra the five perfection stages are sealed, or [kept] inexplicit and concealed, and the Explanatory Tantras make statements that release those seals and explicate that hidden import. That being the case, it is declared that, if you do not [receive] personal explanation from a qualified mentor who knows how to fully explain the
meaning of the Tantra by connecting the Root and Explanatory Tantras, even the jewel-like person will not fully f66bl understand the import of the Tantra. Therefore, it must depend on the private instruction of the mentor. As the Five Stages states:
That truth stands well sealed
In the glorious Community Tantra; Following the Explanatory Tantras, Realize it from the mentor's speech.
Such is the import of the statement that one must understand from the mentor's speech the import sealed or concealed in the Root Tantra, which should not be interpreted as [condoning] the accepting of any oral tradi- tion of the mentors which, by their avoiding writing, is not established in
? ? 149
Explaining the perfection stage of this T:mtra in pm1icularl
1 50 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
the Tantra. If you do interpret it in that way, it becomes an obstacle to gen- erating the unexcelled reverence for the Root and Explanatory Tantras. You will not discover the import of the Tantra and you will persist in the same tendency during future lives as well.
Such a type of concealment is one in which the import concealed is taught in the Tantra where it is hidden, but concealed by not being ex- plicit. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra states:
The very clear truth of Mantra,
That truth is supremely secret;
I do not explain it wheresoever, Considering those who lack the destiny; But what I have hidden in all the Tantras, Listen and that will I explain.
Thus, such a topic as the vajra recitation is concealed in the lower Tantras by not being taught at all, which is the type of concealment of not being taught [at all] in such a Tantra. In such a case, as the private instruction cannot be found therein at all, one must seek it elsewhere. One must un- derstand the difference between these two ways of concealment.
So, the Vajra Rosary declares:
Some people who do not know [the way], And who very much want to go
To the far shore of the four oceans,
Yet who do not inquire into the path I67al -
How are they going to get there?
In the same way, the practitioner
Who lacks the private instruction
Gotten with great difficulty,
Will remain without fruition.
Again even the wise practitioner
Can get angry ; that moment of anger
Destroys fruition and sends him to the Raurava hell.
Therefore, with all efforts, and with respect. One should learn the private instructions, From the lineage of mentors.
Here one might imagine that ''this declares the drawbacks of lack- ing the mentor's private instructions, even though one might be skilled in
Chapter Ill-Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra ? 151
the Root and Explanatory Tantras; so it is not correct to accept the Root and Explanatory Tantras as the ultimate private instruction. " But the "wise" [person] mentioned here is a person learned in the other sciences and lacking in the mentor's private instruction, and is not a person skilled in the Root and Explanatory Tantras. This is because lacking that private instruction precludes being skilled in the two [kinds of] Tantras; because the statement occurs in a context in that Tantra where, in response to Vajrapal)i's question about what is the private instruction, the Buddha clearly states that private instruction; and because there is no contradic- tion at all between the necessity of the instruction of the mentor who teaches connecting Root and Explanatory Tantras and the Root and Ex- planatory Tantras [themselves] being the supreme instruction.
In regard to those Tantric texts, it is shown that, after having sought the understanding which is thorough knowledge of the paths to be trav- eled from the beginner's stage up to buddhahood, if one then does not put into practice the instructions, but travels the path by sitting in stolid confusion, it is like the person who wants to cross over the ocean without learning the way from one who knows the way, but proceeding in total confusion. 167bl Thus, you should understand this reference as a source
[for the fact] that, before practicing the private instruction, you must develop a full insight about it. And the Noble father and sons, seeing that the above explained mentor's knowledge of teaching by connecting Root and Explanatory Tantras would be hard to find in the future, and that writing down the mentor's precept discovered by such mentors' connect- ing the Root and Explanatory Tantras would [cause it to] remain even for a long time, wrote many treatises on the instruction in the two stages such as the Five Stages and the Lamp of Integrated Practices. And those con- tain the ultimate keys of the precept that must be known from the mouth
of the mentor who has discovered the import of the Tantra.
As for their not being able to take much effect in contemporary persons even though in actuality they are the ultimate instructions, it is because of the key point that the powers of the mind in later times have been gradually diminished from [their level] in previous times, and is not because the ultimate keys of the precepts are not clear in those texts. I n
those texts, it is not only just that the import is not concealed and unclear. as it is in the Root Tantra, but also- 1out of awareness that I even though they explained the concealed meaning clearly. their treatises' would become unclear as the passage of time would make the persons minds
152? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
unclear-as a method of generating such realization [in the minds of future disciples], they made commentaries which elucidated the verbal meaning extremely clearly. Also, as a way of providing realization of the import of that, even if they did not directly [write a commentary] they
wrote extra notes on the precept as well.
? in these two stages, and nowadays we see sixteen oral traditions of Naro- pa's instructions, descended through Master Marpa. Among these, there is the manual of the five stages [falsely] attributed to the mentor Marpa called Lama's Speech Light Rays Teaching, which takes as authority the apparitional Nondual Triumph Tantra, and agrees with the interpretations of that Tantra alone. Since it seems to disagree with the verifiable instruc-
Now the root word on this precept of the Marpa tradition is the Concise Five Stages Elucidation, as above explained, and it appears that Serdingpa also relied on that. In the writings of Serdingpa on the personal instruction of the Community, there are things from the Yogini Tantra such as the meditations of body-invasion, soul-ejection, and furor, which seem to have been put forth on some sort of a basis in the Concise Five Stages Elucidation. And the reason why that treatise teaches those things will be explained below.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c '2 ' - The need to reconcile the other private instructions of the ancient mentors with that (ultimate private instruction)]
If you thoroughly evaluate the stages of the manuals composed by the Tibetan saints in the light of the instructions of this [Noble tradition], you must do it by long study of the way properly to connect I6SaJ Root
and Explanatory Tantras, of the treatises of the five father and sons along with their accessory [texts], and also by thorough study of all the addi- tional private instruction [texts]. The Master Go wrote a work known as the Great Voidness Session, which extensively elucidated the instructions
tions of the Marpa tradition, it would not seem to have been authored by that mentor. Of the manuals written by Serdingpa, who witnessed the two traditions in the succession from Tsurton to Geypawa, the contents are in agreement with the explanations of the Concise Five Stages Elucidation
of other lineages.
Chapter Ill-Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra ? 153
Although there seem to be many other gross and subtle (68hJ pre- cepts of the Community, the principal ones are the four [by Serdingpa (12th c. )],58 the Five Point Treatise on the Five Stages,59 the Four Point Treatise,60 the Five Stages Single Session, and the Wheel Endowed. These are manuals teaching completely the imports of the five stages of this tradi- tion. Thus it is not the case that the ancient mentors did not write com- plete manuals [of the private instructions] and only transmitted them orally.
Now, the first four subjects of the Five Point exist in the written annotation of the precepts, and so are not explained in that treatise except in subject outline. Thus the Five Point teaches just that instruction of meditating the two stages in a single session, in connection with the signs of the path. Therefore, it is the precept of meditating the five stages in a single session.
The Four Point teaches four subjects, the practitioner, the place, the companion, and the actual instruction, the content of which actual instruction is the same as in the above work.