If you
meditate
on this for a long time, even though you don't reverse it right away, you will get the ability after a while.
Thurman-Robert-a-F-Tr-Tsong-Khapa-Losang-Drakpa-Brilliant-Illumination-of-the-Lamp-of-the-Five-Stages
" The meaning ofprattchha is explained as "specific acceptance.
" Here, the meaning of "repeat" is to "repeat again and again, and memorize.
" Further, in the context of the expression "I will repeatedly memorize firmly" other commentaries likewise explain it in the sense of "again and again.
" Therefore, it is not necessary to mention each and every different sense of "so so.
" Here, we are not postulating the explanation in the Extreme Illumination of the Lamp: "It functions in each-matter, and so on," and "It is withdrawn from the respective [ob-
jects]-form, and so on. " There are also many meanings for "withdraw," but here they have the sense of "retract" and "collected retraction. " Gath- ered things are said to be the five objects of desires, so the sense faculties enjoy five objects.
Furthermore, completing common familiarization practice-the four vajras, the sense faculties of the yogi/ni who enters the supreme familiarization practice do indeed enjoy objects, but just this alone is not the path of "retraction" meditation, because that must be posited as for the mental consciousness itself alone. Therefore, in the Illumination of the Lamp Fifteenth Chapter it is stated, [quoting the Root Tantra]:
"Eat the vow of excrement and urine! " Here, 'Excre- ment' means the sense objects, form, and so on. 'Urine' means the sense organs, eye, and so on. The 'vow' of those is the coming together of the object and subject. 'Eating' that is the gradual experience of the stages of retraction [97a l and so on.
Thus [Chandrakirti] says that the sense faculties enjoying the sense objects is what is to be eaten, and "retraction" is the process of eating. Therefore, as above explained, the expression "retraction" is used for some special methods of enjoyment of sense objects by a yogi/ni's sense faculties, but the "retraction" member of the six-branched yoga is, when the sense faculties are enjoying the sense objects, the yoga of enjoyment that is sealed by the bliss-void great bliss of meditatively entranced body isolation. Thus, "retraction" is body isolation as an aftermath practice.
Well, someone might ask, "What is the meaning of the statement in the Extreme Illumination of the Lamp which teaches the second branch [contemplation] for the purpose of purifying retraction? "
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 203
Even though retraction and contemplation are similar in taking the senses' enjoyment of desire objects as the path. the meaning [of the above statement] is that in retraction there is no enjoyment through realizing those [senses and objects] as deities as there is in the contemplation [branch]. Further, that being the case, there is no fault of them not coun-
ting as body isolation, because great bliss itself is the definitive meaning deity, and meditating as sealed by that [great bliss1 is the great art which isolates one from notions of ordinariness.
In the Further Tantra it is explained that:
In sum, the five desired [sense-objects]
Are connected to the five buddhas;
By this they are discerned and contemplated,
That contemplation becoming five-fold:
[A process of] examining, analyzing, being joyful, Having the great bliss of suchness,
And actualizing one-pointed mind- Contemplation is comprised of these five.
The Esoteric [Community] Tantra
Explains all [these] [97bJ in many different ways. Examining is the arisal of the three secrets,
Analyzing is the enjoyment of those;
Third is the touching ofjoy;
Fourth is being concentrated through bliss, Ending the arisal of subjects and objects; And knowing your own mind is the fifth. The actuality of all buddhas is peace, Which permeates everything desired. 67
As for the statement that "The five desired [sense objects], form, sound, and so on, are concentrated and made one with the sense faculties,"
67 This part of this verse resembles verse 41 of Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend (thanks to Dr. Lozang Jampal for this information).
? ? IVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"S"b,. - body isolation]
How contemplation is contained within
204 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
it means that both sense faculty and object are included as both faculty and object.
In the statement in the Illumination ofthe Lamp: "The five buddhas are the eye, and so on, in union with them, true union, by uniting with them as the five buddhas, thereby even form and so on are buddhas"; the phrase "The five buddhas are the eye etc. in union with them" though it is intelligible, the translation is a bit awkward.
As for the true uniting of the five [sense organs], eye, and so on, with the five buddhas, from Vairochana to Ak! ? hobhya, the five [sense ob- jects], form, sound, and so on are also connected to the five clans. Thus, to say that both the faculties and objects are buddhas is to designate them as totally purified deities; that is contemplation. That is [broken down] in- to five - examination and so on. In this context of explaining the general definition, when it is explained that the contemplation [branch] is that which meditates objects and faculties as deities, it is just for illustration. According to the context of the body isolation, one should understand that one also meditates the aggregates as deities. Therefore, do not think that it is only the body of the deity that one meditates on. One must also meditate the reality of the deity, as one can understand from the context
of the extensive explanation. [98aJ
In the Elixir Secret, there are the five desired [objects] and the five
aggregates, and each has [further] internal classifications, but that does not mean that they are classified as five for the sake of abbreviation. The sense faculty, the object, and the faculties' cognition are the three secrets; and the idea that "the three sets of five have the nature of the five buddha- clans" is [the contemplation component called] "examination. " The analy- sis [component] is that that these three sets of five are analyzed as of the nature of the five clans. Patsab and Chag translate "the three secrets are examination," which is appropriate, since there is no point in bringing this up further in the commentary. Then, one enjoys that examination, dwelling further on that object by analyzing it; and that is [the contempla- tion component of] analysis. Since the Elixir Secret explains that analysis is meditating through distinguishing, the components of examination and analysis are differentiated by fineness of discrimination, while both of
them are body isolations cultivated in aftermath states.
Thus, first on the occasion of retraction, you learn to view things
such as objects and senses as the transformations of bliss-void. As that
stabilizes, you learn contemplation wherein those bliss-void transforma- tions arise as deities.
Here, the Illumination ofthe Lamp says:
Thus having analyzed, when one confronts the entry into thatness, that having the nature of mental bliss is the contact with joy. Then, when one enters manifestly into thatness, that bliss which one attains with the nature of body fluency and so on, is comprised as bliss.
Joy is said to be mental bliss, and [pure] bliss is body fluency. "And so on" indicates the bliss of mental fluency. The former is attained by confronting entry into thatness, 198b1 and the latter is attained having entered into thatness. Patsab's translation says "while thus analyzing," and Chag's translation says "from thus having analyzed. " The two old translations say "thus having analyzed. " The meaning there is that both examination and analysis are referred to by saying "thus having ana- lyzed. " "By entering thatness, joy and bliss will be attained" indicates the future attainment of the latter [components of contemplation]. "Entering into" thatness and "confronting" thatness are similar in import, but as for the way in which joy and bliss are attained by that process; first you attain great bliss by the power of meditating the subtle [drop] in the lower door [of the central channel], and then you meditate with that
[bliss] being focused on the ascertainment of the import of thatness. Thereby you will attain contact with the distinctive mental bliss of realiz- ing voidness and you will attain the physical and mental fluency that arise from realizing voidness.
Actual physical fluency is a special kind of tangible experience which makes the body become extremely adept, but here it is not that [type]. This is the bliss of fluency which becomes the property that causes both body and mind to become extremely adept. It is a mental fun- ction which is a correlate of the previous mental bliss.
By practicing as previously explained or by becoming accustomed to that, thereby you terminate the six [subjective] consciousnesses, visual and so on, and the six objects, form and so on, and [you realize] voidness
with respect to the mind's perception of the subject-object dichotomy. Therefore, [such] one pointedness of mind, defined as primal wisdom. is called one's "nature of mind. " I'J9ul Here, the Chag translation ! of the
Illumination ofthe LampI says:
Chapter IV-Body Isolation ? 205
206 ? Brilliant lllumination of the Lamp
The nature of all buddhas is peace; all of them totally
and
abide in space. . .
Such a yogi/ni's mind is peace, the nature of all buddhas.
[The mind of contemplation] is said to be "peace" because it has eliminated the notions of objects and so on, and is merely vision. Previous statements, such as "This ultimately occurs in unity with universal voidness" are good, but the Patsab translation's "that cul- minates only in universal voidness" is better. As for that previous one-pointedness of mind, it means the entry into voidness, the nature of all buddhas, and the word "merely" means peace in that it cuts off all ideations at that time. "Space" means void, and "uni- versal void" is the fourth void. When you wholly abide there, you enter by going through the three previous voids. These two lines
explain one-pointedness of mind. Therefore, what Lan said:
If one interprets one-pointedness of mind as mind isola- tion, then, in short, by the expression "the actuality of all buddhas" one means the magic body, and by the rest of that one refers to clear light . . .
is incorrect. In the context of the body isolation of the elements, there is the cryptic explanation of the prologue of [of the Esoteric Community Tantra] in the Vajra Rosary:
Wind, fire, water, and earth,
Are the four, Lochana and so on,
Known as three types of natural primal wisdom, They grant the buddha enlightenment.
It states that the four elements - realized as Locana, and so on - should be understood as having the nature of the three wisdoms of the three voids, [luminance, radiance, and imminence]; 199bl and therefore the path-time three voids' primal wisdom is present during body isolation.
The previous mention of the fourth void is metaphoric clear light, and its arisal is never precluded from body isolation up to the magic body. However, the mention of the three voids being present before the magic body intends that metaphoric clear light be included in the great void of
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 207
imminence. Therefore, in these contexts, the entry of imminence into clear light should be understood as the imminence in which you become unconscious, after which you enter into the cloudless-sky-like absorption in universal voidness.
Well here you might think that the above general definition of con- templation seems to account for examination and analysis, but it does not seem to describe joy. bliss, and one-pointedness of mind; so would not those three become severed from that sort of contemplation?
This is not a problem, since that explanation of contemplation as the meditation of the senses and objects and so on as deities includes both the meditation of the deities with forms of faces and hands and also the meditation focusing on the thatness of the deities. In the Extreme Illumi- nation ofthe Lamp it is stated that when one engages objects, the idea that the senses and so on, the three, have the nature of the five clans, is "examination," the idea that those are the nature of the five primal wis- doms is ideational "analysis," the arisal of a distinctive joy from thinking "I am a realization of thatness" is "joy," and "bliss" is explained as physi- cal fluency coming from attaining that mental bliss. And examination and analysis are explained to be luminance, joy to be radiance, and bliss to be imminence. And this [text] does seem to claim the presence [here] of the three primal wisdoms of mind isolation.
In this regard, the meaning of the three primal wisdoms [tOOal as stated in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium is the objective explained in the Integrated Practices in the context of mind isolation, where there is the problem of not being thoroughly explicit about the way in which what sort of habit pattern holds that object. And Naropa's explanation of these two branches [retraction and contemplation] appears just to consist of his quoting of the Illumination of the Lamp.
Although one should explain in detail this six-branched yoga of the Noble system, since my predecessors did not seem to give the details, here I explained in detail, and will do so [even more] below.
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6" -
The sixth has three parts: [a"] How to concentrate the wind-energies by meditating the subtle; [b"] How melting bliss arises from that; and [c"] How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath [body isolations] when
? [bliss] arises.
How to put into practice the body isolation]
208 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6"a" - How to concentrate the wind-energies by
? meditating the subtle]
Having discovered the stable yoga which visualizes the subtle man- dala, you then become able to develop a distinctive melting bliss. Once that has emerged, then you already know how to produce joy, and you should cultivate it as will be explained. However, if you discover that, but [melting bliss] does not emerge, in the interim you should meditate abiding in the yoga of the lord and lady. If that also is not there, if you
practice the entry into the present, you should meditate after concluding a preliminary meditation of the yoga of the retinue of [the deities of] the mandala. As it is explained in the Concise Five Stages:
One should know the four kinds of essential points, Those of body, time, object, and wind-energy.
The essential point of the body will be explained in the speech isolation. The essential point of time in general is continuity, but in specific it is when awareness is clear and you meditate in the afternoon in the time of fire. The essential point of wind-energy is sufficiently [explained in] our own system. As for the essential point of object, the place where one aims one's perception, the sixth chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp says that (JOObJ "For the male, in the hole of the vajra there is a mere barley grain size hand symbol; and for the female there is the mere measure of a chickpea68 in her vagina. " The third chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp explains that one should meditate the superficial spirit of enlight- enment, the size of a grain of mustard, in the mouth of one's vajra, as having the nature of the five clans. And in the Personal Instruction [of ManjushrT] it says: "As previously quoted, one should meditate [it) in the center of the jewel"; so there is no disagreement with the statement "Meditate [it] in the hole of the vajra. " "Meditate in the mouth of the vajra" intends the lower opening of the dhati; those two are similar. The Personal Instruction explains that with the clear light of the seed at the
heart center one invites the mandala, melts those absorbed into the heart center, whence they descend as a drop and abide in the jewel.
68 Sanskrit ca{laka means chickpea.
? The Illumination of the Lamp explains that you should meditate in harmony with the process of birth in existence, as when the basic time male and female sexually unite and the fire of passion melts the drop and it falls into the lotus; which makes plain the meditation of the drop thus produced descending to the lower door. The Illumination of the Lamp in- tends that the color of the drop should be the color of your deity. If you hold the mind in the extremely subtle drop, it is easy to cut off concep- tual thoughts, because it is easy to terminate the evolutionary wind- energy which drives those [conceptions]. However, if it seems that you can not hold it like that no matter what you do, then let it be a little bigger, and when you can hold it, then make it subtler. This could be a problem of jumping a stage of meditation, not having stabilized [well enough] on the creation stage. If one makes it stable, then there is no problem of of not being able to hold the mind on such an object.
The distinctive way of holding the mind, the way of cultivating without depression and elation, not desiring the termination of the wind- energy even though the object is well-held, [ t O t al how to proceed when you are not ready to generate such an intense bliss and so on, and the way to dispel the arisal of some odds and ends of previous discomfort in desiring to terminate the energy, etc. -all these private instructions are explained in detail elsewhere. Thus, you meditate by aiming your vision towards the place of the great life-energy of the body, either the lower door of the dhati or the center of the channel wheel of the jewel, and you hold your mind there by means of the vital point of getting the energy
and mind to function in unity. At that moment, you terminate the wind- energies' movement in the rasana and lalana channels and move them into the dhuti. After that, it begins to dissolve there, and first the five signs will arise. In the Personal Instruction it is stated:
Thereupon [in] the great secret drop Very subtle, like a lump-
Hold your own mind - gently, gently -
And reach the place of thinglessness. There again, by cultivating this object, The deceptive earth disappears,
You perceive hallucinations
And you must know the first of the signs. Likewise, when water disappears,
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 209
2 1 0 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
You perceive the smoke-like [sign] ; You must know it as the second [sign]. When fire disappears in turn,
You have the third [sign] like fireflies. When wind-energy likewise disappears,
You perceive a butter-lamp-like flame, And you must know it as the fourth sign. Likewise deceptive consciousness is gone, The nonduality of depth and clarity
You see clear as a cloudless sky-
That sign you recognize as the fifth. With [the arisal of] those five signs You will attain non-located nirvana.
The yogi/ni thus should strive in this - This being the branch of endurance.
As for the Further Tantra statement that these five signs emerge in thecontextoftheyogabranchofendurance,69[tOtb) thefoursignsemerge before entering into clear light, and the fifth at the time of clear light. This intends that the entry into clear light is an entry by the power of meditat- ing the three life-energy-control practices. The Personal Instruction also says that the five signs emerge in the contexts of meditating the subtle [object] in the lower door and the indestructible [drop] in the heart; so you should understand that these signs emerge then by performing those
two [types of] vajra recitation.
As for the Illumination of the Lamp explaining the entry into clear
light through the door of the five signs, though it should be explained that the entry into clear light comes [only] after having attained mind iso- lation and the magic body by completing the three life-energy controls, nevertheless it is not that [Chandrakirti] does not accept the arisal of those signs on the lesser occasions of entering into the metaphoric clear light. So there is no contradiction in explaining the branch of endurance as an entry into the clear light which abides in insubstantiality by the
69 In the quote just given, "endurance" is spelled in Tibetan as gzung ba, perhaps old- fashioned way of spelling it, whereas Tsong Khapa correctly writes 'dzin pa in his gloss.
? Chapter JV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 1
progression of the signs on the occasion of meditation on the subtle [drop] in the lower door.
Tathagatavajra explains that by meditating the HOM letter at the heart center, you meditate the energy entering its drop, and holding that, you will attain clear light- it is explained just so. It is explained that you will achieve the clear light of endurance, either with the yoga of the subtle vowels and consonants abiding in the navel channel, or meditating the drop in the tip of the vajra, or meditating with the furor yoga, and so on, whichever [of these] are suitable. It is explained in agreement even in the Indian treatise of the six-branched yoga of the Jfianapada system. So this is excellent. Therefore, when one holds the mind in the point of the great life-energy of the channels of the body, it is not like other foci of the mind. The practice of meditating the subtle in the lower door I I02al exists up to there, but as explained above, if one doesn't know the advantages of meditating on that, then it seems one will not find certitude about the personal instructions. This is well explained depending on the Further Tantra and the statements of His Holiness Mafijushri. Thus, this path should be understood as the instruction that is an unerring, distinctive method of life-energy control. Therefore, it is said that the yogi/ni should make effort in this. Make a fierce effort in this meditation.
[VI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'A"6"b" - How melting bliss arises from that]
Second, there is a normal experience of joy that comes from the melted enlightenment spirit descending to the secret place of those both meditating and not meditating the path in general, and it can happen that a melting will emerge from the blazing of furor-fire both in the navel and the secret place. So, it is not necessary that the life-wind-energy dissolve
into the dhati for the furor-fire to burn and melt the spirit of enlighten- ment. Therefore, certain types of persons meditate as above and so expe- rience the bliss of the melting of the spirit of enlightenment, though their wind-energies do not dissolve into the dhati.
This kind of similar [experience] can happen to [people in general] , as [those that are achieved by yogi/nis] meditating other personal instruc- tions for penetrating the vital points in the body. When such a drop reaches the vajra jewel, it seems to be very difficult to retain. So one must first, by the outer and inner descending methods, forcefully reverse
? the descent of the enlightenment spirit from those places [higher in the
2 1 2 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
system] before it reaches the jewel. As soon as it reaches the vajra, if it cannot be diffused within the body, the many [redirecting] strains [needed] to instantly reverse it and the forceful methods of reversing it seem to produce sickness. And even if [some] have already implemented many procedures of such diffusion, J I02bl it does not seem that they know the systems of distinguishing the enlightenment spirit melting with the wind- energies dissolving into the dhati from its melting without [the wind- energies dissolving there], and thus how to determine the difficulty or ease of retaining the enlightenment spirit, the necessity of its forceful reversal or lack [of such necessity], and whether or not one will become
sick by not spreading the reversed [spirit] within the body.
About that, as for the necessity of the melting of the enlightenment spirit by burning the furor-fire by the power of meditating the path, it is for the sake for generating the orgasmic intuitive wisdom. In generating that [furor fire], the enlightenment spirit melts and falls; if it does not generally reach below the navel and particularly reach into the jewel and stay there somewhat without emitting, you can never develop the fully defined orgasmic [wisdom]. And to equate this orgasmic [wisdom] with the great bliss of the perfection stage, it must be one that abides by the power of dissolving the wind-energies. If the enlightenment spirit is melted by the power of dissolving the wind-energies into the dhati, then it will be held in the tip of the jewel and will not emit outward until the fully defined orgasmic [bliss] has been generated. This is because, when the enlightenment spirit descends from the crown [wheel] by stage after stage, as the wind-energies become weaker and weaker and it reaches the jewel, the wind-energy's function which would push that enlightenment spirit outside becomes calmed. At that point, it will not emit until one
arises from the orgasmic samadhi.
When you do arise, as the energy can become greatly agitated, you
must know the art of not emitting [the enlightenment spirit]. In that case, even if you do not practice the method of reversing [the spirit] at the first occasion when you are not accustomed [to the experience] and the method of reversing it later [when you are accustomed], again, when it goes back upwards [in the body] at both times of naturally going in reverse again, there is definitely no arisal of sickness by its not having spread out within the body. If you melt the enlightenment spirit by meditation on the subtle and so on, not by the power of dissolving the wind-energies, I I03al you cannot hold it more than a bit in the jewel, so you must reverse it
Chapter N-Body Isolation ? 2 1 3
right away, and you must understand the height of the place to reverse it to. If the melting is weak, it is easy to reverse it. If it is intense, it must be spread in the body.
If you meditate on this for a long time, even though you don't reverse it right away, you will get the ability after a while.
As for the fact that, in the Tantras and the great Indian treatises, these subjects do not occur as they do in other practical instructions, it is because of the essential point that the principle [jewel-like] disciple of this teaching will quickly generate the wind-energy-dissolving perfection stage, [and so] such practical instructions are not necessary.
As for the process of generating the four joys in descending order, as the enlightenment spirit melts and reaches from place to place, the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:
Then one should teach the emerging order: In the crown of the great bliss wheel,
It is said to be "joy";
In the wheel of beatitude it is "supreme joy"; In the Dharma wheel it is "ecstatic joy";
And in the emanation wheel "orgasmic joy" - All these are caused to be experienced.
Here, "joy" is assigned [to the movement] from the crown to the throat. 70 The other three should also be understood in that way.
As for the way of generating [the four joys] welling up from below, according to the same text [the Vajra Rosary] :
In the emanation wheel there is joy,
Supreme joy dwells in the Dharma wheel,
Ecstatic joy dwells in the beatific wheel, and
Orgasmic [joy in the] great bliss [wheel] ,
These are declared these are stages are the reverse order.
The places of this should be understood by the reasonings previously explained.
70 Here the movement down from each wheel to the next is where the joy etc. are experi- enced, not merely in the wheel itself. Tsong Khapa is here improving a bit on the original text. The genital wheel is not mentioned in this passage and the following. though the emerging order joys end in it and the reversing order joys begin in it.
? 2 1 4 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
This also agrees with the Great Seal Drop. I I03bl In that text also, it says that, by making each of them, upper and lower, have four parts, there are sixteen parts of the moon, and from the solar point of view in each there are three and [thus] there are twelve parts. To quote that same text:
These parts of the "rabbit-marked" moon Are the sixteen drops of joy
To be known as actually the ali [vowels]. From the stages in the four wheels
Just as has been explained,
We say there are twelve solar parts.
Here when the spirit of enlightenment streams up and down, it streams together with the blood. Here you experience a bliss in each of the sections which you made of the four parts of each of the four places. In each of the four places from the point of view of particles streaming in each of the four sections made into three parts, respectively, there are small, medium and great bliss discerned in one's experience, and one who has that should understand it, said to be [quite] subtle. In the Sheaf of Instructions it is explained that the four upward-surging orgasmic blisses are differentiated into small, medium, great, and intensely great.
The upward-surging four blisses are said to be more intense than the downward-falling four blisses. When surging from below, until the rever- sal has become firm at the crown, bliss is not stable. When it is firm in the crown, then it is stable, it is said. The same text [Sheaf of Instruc- tions] says:
Upon the life-energy [-wind] is mentality. Going against that, it will descend.
Abiding in the center of the navel of the lotus, It stabilizes outside of that.
At that time the savior will not go. Just as in a vessel with no holes Water will remain inexhaustibly. At that time bliss will be firm. When firm, there is orgasmic joy. Thus, buddha inexhaustible-
The yogT/nT will definitely [ I04a? l achieve.
The SheafofInstructions explains that here, "mentality" means "semen. " "Going against" means "the reverse order. " "Firm" means "reaching the crown. "
Here, Lakshmi explains that when the enlightenment spirit drips from the crown, it is luminance. When it descends into the joints of all the limbs, it is radiance. When the one drop emits from the tip of the vajra, it is imminence, and when it is firm in that very tip, then that is the arisal of clear light. Again, the first two [stages] are similar, but its going into the vajra tip or center being imminence, and abiding within the jewel being the arisal of clear light, are also explained as the four joys. There
are many [explanations] like this, [all of] which are similar.
Munishri explains that when it reaches the root of the vajra, it is luminance; when it reaches the center of the jewel, it is imminence, and when it reaches the tip of the jewel, it is clear light. This implies that he
must claim that when it reaches from the root of the vajra to the throat of the jewel, it is the arisal of radiance.
The Great Seal Drop explains that the four joys are the same as lu- minance, radiance, imminence, and clear light. The Root and Explana- tory Tantras of the Esoteric Community and treatises of the five Noble literatures do not contain explanations of the four joys as the four voids, and the five Noble father and sons do not say that when [the enlighten- ment spirit] melts and reaches this place, the four joys or the four voids arise, they just explain the arisal of luminance by dissolving the wind- energies and the arisal of radiance by the dissolving of mind, and so forth.
As for most of the other followers of the five Noble literatures, except for mentioning the four voids generated from the process of the descent of enlightenment spirit from the crown to the secret place vajra, they do not explain any other way in which the primal wisdom of the four voids is included in the path. [104bl Not to accept [the reticence ofthese sages] is a misunderstanding of the great vital point of this system, as will be ex-
plained below.
Here, someone says, "Which should be accepted among these ways
of generating the four joys by the process of the streaming of the enlight- enment spirit? "
The distinctive types of the four voids that will be taught emerge from penetrating the vital point in the heart center. Although these are not produced here, a simulation of the four voids is produced. If one practices like Munishri it is clear that there is a very important correspondence
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 5
2 1 6 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
here. Here, great bliss is the life of the path, and making it firm, as it depends on the upward-surging bliss, is the extremely important way to produce it. Again, the SheafofInstructions says:
With the arisal of that enlightenment-spirit, beginning from the jewel until it reaches the navel, it increases without emitting, and proceeds upwards.
Taking this literally, [we would think that] when it does not emit from the jewel, it is as if it naturally reversed itself; but it is not so. Even though it does not emit, it can happen that it goes indivisibly where it will, without entering the very same path as it came down. And it can happen that even if it reverses direction, there is no certainty it will reach straight to the
crown and it may spread out into the lower part of the body. Therefore, if it is necessary that it go to the crown by winding itself upwards, the yog1nimust do that purposefully. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:
By the preceding of the thatness
Of the wind-energies, it is driven upward. The yog1nicauses that achievement,
And therefrom in the emanation wheel One realizes what is called "joy. "
It [further] says that the yog1nimakes it go upon the [heart's] Dharma wheel [IOSaJ and then up to the beatific wheel.
Thus, by meditation on the subtle, as for all those processes-dis- solving the wind-energies, the arising of the signs, the melting the spirit of enlightenment by burning the furor and it coming downward, its rever- sal upward, and the production from both of those [processes] of the downward streaming and the upward firming joys in their sixteen [luner] portions and, from the solar perspective, twelve portions-they are all similar in involving the blazing and the dripping of the furor in the navel and the secret center, meditation by setting letters and drops there, and meditating there on vase breathing, and so on. All of those are very important, and especially they are methods which do not mistake the vital points of the path of the YoginiTantras; so you should understand them well.
This meditating of the subtle drop in the lower door is very powerful for burning the fury fire, as it easily reverses the evacuative energy up- ward, and can demonstrate well the downward streaming orgasmic joy.
In this it is necessary that the spirit of enlightenment abide for a long time in the jewel. Although there are many [other] necessities such as its long abiding there, I do not write about them for fear of getting too lengthy.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6"c" - How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath ( body isolations) when (bliss) arises !
When you are able to generate the orgasmic joys of the upward and downward order, it is necessary to unite them with the completely decisive view of selflessness, the purity of suchness. Therefore, you must generate this with the two minds functioning as one, and you must medi- tate in the equipoised trance on the union of voidness and great bliss as object and subject. When you arise from that [trance], moved by the force of wind-energies, the way you meditate is described in the Vajra Rosary Tantra :
As for the sense engaging the object [lOSbJ
Binding whatever abides there,
You should intensely engage the superficial relative, The magic [body] and so on, nondual with voidness. Such as the wisdom-intuition initiation,
It is the bliss of [that] experience.
By remembering great bliss,
Your senses reverse the objective body.
This means that "voidness" is clear light transparence; "nondual" is communion; the "superficial" is the magic body, and so on. Included in the "and so on" are also the ways of engaging sense objects in the con- text of less advanced [practices]. You should understand according to what is explained here that, in all the occasions of developing the four voids, from speech isolation on, whatever arises is sealed with bliss-void. Thus, when you enjoy an object, you seal it by remembering [both] the
bliss taken as the actuality of the third initiation and the previously explained great bliss according to the explanation of what is included in the "and so on. " You restrain any attitude that is in disharmony with that, and abide there with all objects appearing as bliss. After that, conditioned by the blazing of bliss the wind-energies that function through the doors of the senses are reversed within and the sense consciousnesses also are
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 7
? retracted, the wind-energies dissolve, and, as before, bliss arises.
218? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
In that regard, just as in first stage one must learn that everything outer and inner that arises, arises as divine, so in the second stage all that arises must [be experienced to] arise as a transformation of great bliss. But again, that is only after having discovered the orgasmic great bliss of the perfection stage, so here the statement that you should see everything that arises as the play of great bliss from the perspective of body isola- tion [I06al is made in order that all visions should arise as bliss.
In that regard, through determining the pure nature of all things, you first must understand all substantial things as transformations of voidness, and then through the process of uniting bliss and void, you must meditate them as transformations of great bliss. To explain those, in the Integrated Practices it says:
"I am pure by nature! " which means "My nature has been firmly created. " And as for having visualized your- self as the great Vajradhara, with the nature of the three vajras, it is explained as the "yoga of blessing. "
On this occasion of the single clan body isolation, yourself the yogi/ni develops a firm visualization that knows your natural purity, and are said to have meditated yourself as Vajradhara. And not only yourself, but also all the whole body which is to be isolated, and not only on the occasion of the one clan [body isolation], but likewise on the occasions of the hun- dred clan body isolation, and so on.
Therefore, when all things to be isolated [from routine ordinariness]
are primally determined to have the nature of the pure reality devoid of
taste, without any multiplicity of different voidnesses. Therefore, when such voidness is taken as the object by orgasmic bliss, then, even though subject and object may not [yet] merge like water poured in water, one can imaginatively practice that way. l l116bl At that time, by the vital point of imagining bliss-void as a single aesthetic experience, it is easy, by the
intrinsic identifiability, that very realityless voidness is known to arise as all those substantial things-and that is the meaning of things being the transformations of voidness. Although there are many different kinds of things, since they are no different in being void of truth[-status], the negandum of which they are devoid, they are all of a single aesthetic
power of visualization, to focus [on things] as the transformations of bliss just like they are the transformations of voidness. And this is the
real reason for sealing everything that arises [with great bliss] by remem- bering the bliss-void trance concentration.
Thus, in terms of seeing all substantial things as the transforma- tions of the uniform aesthetic experience of bliss-void, even the appear- ance of the life cycle. the effect. and of evolution and addiction, its cause, become the play of great primal wisdom, and so the routine life cycle and its cause have no place of origin. In the passage [from the Vajra. ? hrrvara King ofNondual Tanrras] quoted in the Integrated Practices in the con- text of the hundred clan body isolation:
The aggregates, elements and likewise the media, Having been divided into five classes and again five, Are blessed individually by the transcendent lords- Whence could the life cycle evolutions emerge? Likewise, each one of the five outer objects, Individually by the five bliss-lords,
Are always specially blessed,
Always truly standing as the three and five wisdoms.
Chag's translation in this way is excellent.
Seeing the implication of this, Saraha said [in an Enlightenment
Song]:
Don't take it as two, take it as one;
Don't distinguish the various specific clans. Transform all of the three realms - all of this - Into the color of the single great passion !
There there is no beginning, middle, or end. It is not existence, and it is not nirvana.
In this supreme great bliss
The self [ J 07a) and the other do not exist.
In the front and back, in the ten directions, Whatever you see is that itself.
That bliss itself your savior, right now ends all error.
Now, you need not go to ask for anyone else.
Here, "great passion" is primal orgasmic wisdom.
Thus, according to the explanation of the hundred clans and so on,
at first this is determined by learning and reflection. Then at the time of
Chapter IV- Body /so/arion ? 2 1 9
220 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
practice, you preliminarily learn the [yoga branch of] retraction wherein you see everything that appears as the play of bliss-void. Having learned that, then you learn the ultimate body isolation wherein all that arises as the single great secret Vajradhara, and you meditate yourself as bliss-void in the form of arising as Vajradhara. And again you there have union with your consort. The treatises of the Noble father and sons are not explicit
as to whether Vajradhara is blue or white.
If you cannot create the great bliss as just explained but can create
the melting bliss, then meditate on that. If even that is lacking, you should create it through understanding well the process of joining bliss and void and the process of cultivating the entranced and aftermath [samadhis]. In order to take great bliss as the path, there is no other art than, by the power of firm familiarization with this method of cultivating great bliss in trance and aftermath [samadhis], associating everything that arises with the blazing of bliss. And so there are many explanations of it in many Tantras and treatises. In this [Noble] system, it is clearly explained in the context of body isolation, so having thoroughly understood it, tum your mind toward it again and again. And this is how you should inherit the extraordinary ability of the class of [the practitioners of] this path. [1117b)
CHAPTER V
Speech Isolation in General
[107b. t-143b. lI
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB. ,
samadhi]
The second has six parts: [ 1 ") The order of body isolation and speech isolation; [2") Refuting the assertion that speech isolation is a creation stage path; [3") Teaching the reality of wind-energy, the know- able object of speech isolation; [4") Teaching the ultimate reality of mantra; [5") The way that speech isolation becomes a component of breath control; and [6") The way to put speech isolation into practice.
? ? isolation]
order of body isolation and speech
One might wonder, "What is the meaning of the statement that one should learn the speech isolation after learning the body isolation; [since] without the body isolation preceding, speech isolation will not succeed? "
The Integrated Practices states when one learns the gross and subtle creation stages, one abides in the beginner's samadhi, and when one learns the body isolation, one dwells in the body vajra samadhi. There is also a "body vajra samadhi" in the first stage, but what is called "body vajra samadhi" here is the body vajra of the perfection stage, where the body vajra is distinctive. Further, though the "vajra body" and "wisdom body" explained to be the magic body are not [yet] present here, this is a body vajra which arises as the play of the perfection stage orgasmic bliss one has [here] attained. Thus, "vajra" here has the meaning of insepara- bility from great bliss.
22 1
- How to learn the speech isolation speech vajra
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'B"1 " - The
Further, [the body isolation must be attained as] the prerequisite of speech isolation; because, since speech isolation is the special mantra reci- tation of the perfection stage, if that [deity] body is not present in the deity meditation of the reciter, the potency of that recitation will not develop. Further, [since speech isolation aims] to cause the wind-energies to collect
and dissolve in the distinctive place of wind
-
energy contraction, the dhati
222 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTI:l"2" - Refuting the assertion that speech isolation The Moonlight Commentary states:
As the vajra recitation also is a meditation of that [crea- tion stage] type, first mentioned as a component of that [creation stage], it is assigned to the creation stage. How- ever, the Integrated Practices locates it at the end of the speech isolation, as it abides in the speech vajra samadhi; and so [Aryadeva] says that one should seek the mind iso- lation, going beyond the creation stage. Now, the instan- taneous visualization [of oneself] as a fully developed deity body is the [procedure used on the] perfection stage; and since [speech isolation] depends on that [procedure], the Integrated Practices states, "The speech isolation is
not the province of the creation stage practitioner. "
Thus, it is explained that, when one abides in the speech vajra samadhi, one is seeking the mind isolation beyond the creation stage, and the speech isolation does not differ from that; and since the instantaneous perfection into the deity body is the referent of the designation "perfec- tion stage," which is not the gradual creation as a deity [of the creation stage], [the speech isolation] is not the province of the creation stage. That statement of the Integrated Practices is to show that dwelling in the speech isolation samadhi is beyond the creation stage, and not to show that the mind isolation is beyond the creation stage. (JOShi Thus, both translations [of the Integrated Practices], [the usual] "going beyond the creation stage," and of Chag, "having gone beyond. . . " are good.
? channel in the center of the heart complex, by the reason that I IIIKuJ in general such contraction is very easy when preceded by [body isola-
tion's] initial generation of bliss from contracting and dissolving into the central channel and is difficult when not so preceded, the order [of the
two isolations] is so [determined]. This is because, as the Vajra Rosary states that the releasing of the channel knot at the dhati of the heart com- plex is harder than the releasing of the other channel knots, first contract- ing [the wind-energies] into the central channel in other locations is easier
than doing so at the heart complex.
is a creation stage path]
Chapter V-Speech Isolation in General ? 223
Again, one should not think that [speech isolation] is creation stage because of the Integrated Practices statements that "the creation stage leads to attainment of the eighth stage," and that "one who abides in the speech vajra samadhi is lord of the eighth stage. " This is because, though both are placed on the eighth stage, as there are many [ways of arranging the] prior and later stages, it is not necessary to interpret them both as referring to only one state. I will explain [below] the layout of these stage s .
The Integrated Practices states :
Speech isolation is the primal wisdom of the yogT/nT; extremely subtle, it is not the object of the [exoteric] Universalists, nor is it the object of those who, though on the Vajra Vehicle, are practitioners of the creation stage; since it is extremely subtle.
As for the meaning of this Integrated Practices statement, it is not prop- erly cited to show that, while [the vajra recitation] is not the province of the creation stage of a gradually created deity, it is the province of the creation stage of an instantaneously created deity: because it is or is not equally the province of those two; and because, when the Integrated Practices explains separately, at the beginning of the speech isolation, the meaning of the [Root Tantra] Third Chapter's mention of the medita- tion of the five colored jewel at the nose tip for the two stages' subtle yogas, it explains the vajra recitation as the subtle yoga of the definitive meaning perfection stage; and because the Five Stages also states the explanation of the five stages such as vajra recitation for [the benefit] of those who have already practiced the creation stage and desire subse-
quently [to enter] the perfection stage.
As for the statement that it is "not the province of the [ I 09a] creation
stage practitioners," it does not mean that such a person can have no understanding of it, but that it is not such a person's path [of practice]. Therefore, one should not be confused by the fact that other authoritative treatises also explain the vajra recitation in the context of creation stage, since there is not any contradiction at all between explaining it in such a context and [holding that it] is not the path [of such a practitioner]. And this also refutes the assertion that Gad pa [kirti] accepted the vajra reci- tation of the wind-energy inhaling and exhaling as an instruction of the
creation stage.
224 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
[VJ. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB"3" - Teaching the reality of wind-energy, the
knowable object of speech isolation]
The third has seven parts: [a "] The import of gradually learning wind-energy, mantra, and vajra recitation; [b"] Advantages and disad- vantages of knowing and not knowing the reality of wind-energies; [c"] Analysis of wind-energies; [d"] Explanation of each type; [e"] How wind-energies transit; [f"] What sort of function the wind-energies per- form; [g "] Teaching how to know the vital key of practice relying on that.
[Nagarjuna] states in the Five Stages:
After [engaging] the reality of wind-energy One should fully enter the reality of mantra. Having realized the objective of mantra, One learns well the vajra recitation.
Thus, by the process of engaging the reality of the wind-energies, one enters the reality of mantra; and realizing that, one learns the vajra recita- tion.
Here, Kalden Drakpa explains the meaning of "engaging the reality of wind-energy" as the meditation by means of the yoga of the three vajras having the three poisons, the substance drop of enlightenment spirit at the nose tip of the secret place, the mantra drop at the nose tip of the heart complex, and the light drop that compresses the wind-energies into drop form at the nose tip of the face. The meaning of "entering the reality of mantra" is meditating by visualizing the compression process
nor are they seen as the meaning of the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices.
Therefore, as for the statement about "gradually entering into the three realities," it means, according to the interpretation of Master Go, that, beginning with the knowledge of the reality of wind-energy, one next
? ? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB"3"a" - The import of gradually learning wind-
energy
,
mantra, and vajra recitation]
of the crown OM into the throat A /:1, the throat A 1:1 into the heart HOM. the HOM's drop into the crescent, into the head, into the HA body, into the vowel hook, !
jects]-form, and so on. " There are also many meanings for "withdraw," but here they have the sense of "retract" and "collected retraction. " Gath- ered things are said to be the five objects of desires, so the sense faculties enjoy five objects.
Furthermore, completing common familiarization practice-the four vajras, the sense faculties of the yogi/ni who enters the supreme familiarization practice do indeed enjoy objects, but just this alone is not the path of "retraction" meditation, because that must be posited as for the mental consciousness itself alone. Therefore, in the Illumination of the Lamp Fifteenth Chapter it is stated, [quoting the Root Tantra]:
"Eat the vow of excrement and urine! " Here, 'Excre- ment' means the sense objects, form, and so on. 'Urine' means the sense organs, eye, and so on. The 'vow' of those is the coming together of the object and subject. 'Eating' that is the gradual experience of the stages of retraction [97a l and so on.
Thus [Chandrakirti] says that the sense faculties enjoying the sense objects is what is to be eaten, and "retraction" is the process of eating. Therefore, as above explained, the expression "retraction" is used for some special methods of enjoyment of sense objects by a yogi/ni's sense faculties, but the "retraction" member of the six-branched yoga is, when the sense faculties are enjoying the sense objects, the yoga of enjoyment that is sealed by the bliss-void great bliss of meditatively entranced body isolation. Thus, "retraction" is body isolation as an aftermath practice.
Well, someone might ask, "What is the meaning of the statement in the Extreme Illumination of the Lamp which teaches the second branch [contemplation] for the purpose of purifying retraction? "
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 203
Even though retraction and contemplation are similar in taking the senses' enjoyment of desire objects as the path. the meaning [of the above statement] is that in retraction there is no enjoyment through realizing those [senses and objects] as deities as there is in the contemplation [branch]. Further, that being the case, there is no fault of them not coun-
ting as body isolation, because great bliss itself is the definitive meaning deity, and meditating as sealed by that [great bliss1 is the great art which isolates one from notions of ordinariness.
In the Further Tantra it is explained that:
In sum, the five desired [sense-objects]
Are connected to the five buddhas;
By this they are discerned and contemplated,
That contemplation becoming five-fold:
[A process of] examining, analyzing, being joyful, Having the great bliss of suchness,
And actualizing one-pointed mind- Contemplation is comprised of these five.
The Esoteric [Community] Tantra
Explains all [these] [97bJ in many different ways. Examining is the arisal of the three secrets,
Analyzing is the enjoyment of those;
Third is the touching ofjoy;
Fourth is being concentrated through bliss, Ending the arisal of subjects and objects; And knowing your own mind is the fifth. The actuality of all buddhas is peace, Which permeates everything desired. 67
As for the statement that "The five desired [sense objects], form, sound, and so on, are concentrated and made one with the sense faculties,"
67 This part of this verse resembles verse 41 of Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend (thanks to Dr. Lozang Jampal for this information).
? ? IVI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"S"b,. - body isolation]
How contemplation is contained within
204 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
it means that both sense faculty and object are included as both faculty and object.
In the statement in the Illumination ofthe Lamp: "The five buddhas are the eye, and so on, in union with them, true union, by uniting with them as the five buddhas, thereby even form and so on are buddhas"; the phrase "The five buddhas are the eye etc. in union with them" though it is intelligible, the translation is a bit awkward.
As for the true uniting of the five [sense organs], eye, and so on, with the five buddhas, from Vairochana to Ak! ? hobhya, the five [sense ob- jects], form, sound, and so on are also connected to the five clans. Thus, to say that both the faculties and objects are buddhas is to designate them as totally purified deities; that is contemplation. That is [broken down] in- to five - examination and so on. In this context of explaining the general definition, when it is explained that the contemplation [branch] is that which meditates objects and faculties as deities, it is just for illustration. According to the context of the body isolation, one should understand that one also meditates the aggregates as deities. Therefore, do not think that it is only the body of the deity that one meditates on. One must also meditate the reality of the deity, as one can understand from the context
of the extensive explanation. [98aJ
In the Elixir Secret, there are the five desired [objects] and the five
aggregates, and each has [further] internal classifications, but that does not mean that they are classified as five for the sake of abbreviation. The sense faculty, the object, and the faculties' cognition are the three secrets; and the idea that "the three sets of five have the nature of the five buddha- clans" is [the contemplation component called] "examination. " The analy- sis [component] is that that these three sets of five are analyzed as of the nature of the five clans. Patsab and Chag translate "the three secrets are examination," which is appropriate, since there is no point in bringing this up further in the commentary. Then, one enjoys that examination, dwelling further on that object by analyzing it; and that is [the contempla- tion component of] analysis. Since the Elixir Secret explains that analysis is meditating through distinguishing, the components of examination and analysis are differentiated by fineness of discrimination, while both of
them are body isolations cultivated in aftermath states.
Thus, first on the occasion of retraction, you learn to view things
such as objects and senses as the transformations of bliss-void. As that
stabilizes, you learn contemplation wherein those bliss-void transforma- tions arise as deities.
Here, the Illumination ofthe Lamp says:
Thus having analyzed, when one confronts the entry into thatness, that having the nature of mental bliss is the contact with joy. Then, when one enters manifestly into thatness, that bliss which one attains with the nature of body fluency and so on, is comprised as bliss.
Joy is said to be mental bliss, and [pure] bliss is body fluency. "And so on" indicates the bliss of mental fluency. The former is attained by confronting entry into thatness, 198b1 and the latter is attained having entered into thatness. Patsab's translation says "while thus analyzing," and Chag's translation says "from thus having analyzed. " The two old translations say "thus having analyzed. " The meaning there is that both examination and analysis are referred to by saying "thus having ana- lyzed. " "By entering thatness, joy and bliss will be attained" indicates the future attainment of the latter [components of contemplation]. "Entering into" thatness and "confronting" thatness are similar in import, but as for the way in which joy and bliss are attained by that process; first you attain great bliss by the power of meditating the subtle [drop] in the lower door [of the central channel], and then you meditate with that
[bliss] being focused on the ascertainment of the import of thatness. Thereby you will attain contact with the distinctive mental bliss of realiz- ing voidness and you will attain the physical and mental fluency that arise from realizing voidness.
Actual physical fluency is a special kind of tangible experience which makes the body become extremely adept, but here it is not that [type]. This is the bliss of fluency which becomes the property that causes both body and mind to become extremely adept. It is a mental fun- ction which is a correlate of the previous mental bliss.
By practicing as previously explained or by becoming accustomed to that, thereby you terminate the six [subjective] consciousnesses, visual and so on, and the six objects, form and so on, and [you realize] voidness
with respect to the mind's perception of the subject-object dichotomy. Therefore, [such] one pointedness of mind, defined as primal wisdom. is called one's "nature of mind. " I'J9ul Here, the Chag translation ! of the
Illumination ofthe LampI says:
Chapter IV-Body Isolation ? 205
206 ? Brilliant lllumination of the Lamp
The nature of all buddhas is peace; all of them totally
and
abide in space. . .
Such a yogi/ni's mind is peace, the nature of all buddhas.
[The mind of contemplation] is said to be "peace" because it has eliminated the notions of objects and so on, and is merely vision. Previous statements, such as "This ultimately occurs in unity with universal voidness" are good, but the Patsab translation's "that cul- minates only in universal voidness" is better. As for that previous one-pointedness of mind, it means the entry into voidness, the nature of all buddhas, and the word "merely" means peace in that it cuts off all ideations at that time. "Space" means void, and "uni- versal void" is the fourth void. When you wholly abide there, you enter by going through the three previous voids. These two lines
explain one-pointedness of mind. Therefore, what Lan said:
If one interprets one-pointedness of mind as mind isola- tion, then, in short, by the expression "the actuality of all buddhas" one means the magic body, and by the rest of that one refers to clear light . . .
is incorrect. In the context of the body isolation of the elements, there is the cryptic explanation of the prologue of [of the Esoteric Community Tantra] in the Vajra Rosary:
Wind, fire, water, and earth,
Are the four, Lochana and so on,
Known as three types of natural primal wisdom, They grant the buddha enlightenment.
It states that the four elements - realized as Locana, and so on - should be understood as having the nature of the three wisdoms of the three voids, [luminance, radiance, and imminence]; 199bl and therefore the path-time three voids' primal wisdom is present during body isolation.
The previous mention of the fourth void is metaphoric clear light, and its arisal is never precluded from body isolation up to the magic body. However, the mention of the three voids being present before the magic body intends that metaphoric clear light be included in the great void of
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 207
imminence. Therefore, in these contexts, the entry of imminence into clear light should be understood as the imminence in which you become unconscious, after which you enter into the cloudless-sky-like absorption in universal voidness.
Well here you might think that the above general definition of con- templation seems to account for examination and analysis, but it does not seem to describe joy. bliss, and one-pointedness of mind; so would not those three become severed from that sort of contemplation?
This is not a problem, since that explanation of contemplation as the meditation of the senses and objects and so on as deities includes both the meditation of the deities with forms of faces and hands and also the meditation focusing on the thatness of the deities. In the Extreme Illumi- nation ofthe Lamp it is stated that when one engages objects, the idea that the senses and so on, the three, have the nature of the five clans, is "examination," the idea that those are the nature of the five primal wis- doms is ideational "analysis," the arisal of a distinctive joy from thinking "I am a realization of thatness" is "joy," and "bliss" is explained as physi- cal fluency coming from attaining that mental bliss. And examination and analysis are explained to be luminance, joy to be radiance, and bliss to be imminence. And this [text] does seem to claim the presence [here] of the three primal wisdoms of mind isolation.
In this regard, the meaning of the three primal wisdoms [tOOal as stated in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium is the objective explained in the Integrated Practices in the context of mind isolation, where there is the problem of not being thoroughly explicit about the way in which what sort of habit pattern holds that object. And Naropa's explanation of these two branches [retraction and contemplation] appears just to consist of his quoting of the Illumination of the Lamp.
Although one should explain in detail this six-branched yoga of the Noble system, since my predecessors did not seem to give the details, here I explained in detail, and will do so [even more] below.
[Vl. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6" -
The sixth has three parts: [a"] How to concentrate the wind-energies by meditating the subtle; [b"] How melting bliss arises from that; and [c"] How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath [body isolations] when
? [bliss] arises.
How to put into practice the body isolation]
208 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6"a" - How to concentrate the wind-energies by
? meditating the subtle]
Having discovered the stable yoga which visualizes the subtle man- dala, you then become able to develop a distinctive melting bliss. Once that has emerged, then you already know how to produce joy, and you should cultivate it as will be explained. However, if you discover that, but [melting bliss] does not emerge, in the interim you should meditate abiding in the yoga of the lord and lady. If that also is not there, if you
practice the entry into the present, you should meditate after concluding a preliminary meditation of the yoga of the retinue of [the deities of] the mandala. As it is explained in the Concise Five Stages:
One should know the four kinds of essential points, Those of body, time, object, and wind-energy.
The essential point of the body will be explained in the speech isolation. The essential point of time in general is continuity, but in specific it is when awareness is clear and you meditate in the afternoon in the time of fire. The essential point of wind-energy is sufficiently [explained in] our own system. As for the essential point of object, the place where one aims one's perception, the sixth chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp says that (JOObJ "For the male, in the hole of the vajra there is a mere barley grain size hand symbol; and for the female there is the mere measure of a chickpea68 in her vagina. " The third chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp explains that one should meditate the superficial spirit of enlight- enment, the size of a grain of mustard, in the mouth of one's vajra, as having the nature of the five clans. And in the Personal Instruction [of ManjushrT] it says: "As previously quoted, one should meditate [it) in the center of the jewel"; so there is no disagreement with the statement "Meditate [it] in the hole of the vajra. " "Meditate in the mouth of the vajra" intends the lower opening of the dhati; those two are similar. The Personal Instruction explains that with the clear light of the seed at the
heart center one invites the mandala, melts those absorbed into the heart center, whence they descend as a drop and abide in the jewel.
68 Sanskrit ca{laka means chickpea.
? The Illumination of the Lamp explains that you should meditate in harmony with the process of birth in existence, as when the basic time male and female sexually unite and the fire of passion melts the drop and it falls into the lotus; which makes plain the meditation of the drop thus produced descending to the lower door. The Illumination of the Lamp in- tends that the color of the drop should be the color of your deity. If you hold the mind in the extremely subtle drop, it is easy to cut off concep- tual thoughts, because it is easy to terminate the evolutionary wind- energy which drives those [conceptions]. However, if it seems that you can not hold it like that no matter what you do, then let it be a little bigger, and when you can hold it, then make it subtler. This could be a problem of jumping a stage of meditation, not having stabilized [well enough] on the creation stage. If one makes it stable, then there is no problem of of not being able to hold the mind on such an object.
The distinctive way of holding the mind, the way of cultivating without depression and elation, not desiring the termination of the wind- energy even though the object is well-held, [ t O t al how to proceed when you are not ready to generate such an intense bliss and so on, and the way to dispel the arisal of some odds and ends of previous discomfort in desiring to terminate the energy, etc. -all these private instructions are explained in detail elsewhere. Thus, you meditate by aiming your vision towards the place of the great life-energy of the body, either the lower door of the dhati or the center of the channel wheel of the jewel, and you hold your mind there by means of the vital point of getting the energy
and mind to function in unity. At that moment, you terminate the wind- energies' movement in the rasana and lalana channels and move them into the dhuti. After that, it begins to dissolve there, and first the five signs will arise. In the Personal Instruction it is stated:
Thereupon [in] the great secret drop Very subtle, like a lump-
Hold your own mind - gently, gently -
And reach the place of thinglessness. There again, by cultivating this object, The deceptive earth disappears,
You perceive hallucinations
And you must know the first of the signs. Likewise, when water disappears,
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 209
2 1 0 ?
Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
You perceive the smoke-like [sign] ; You must know it as the second [sign]. When fire disappears in turn,
You have the third [sign] like fireflies. When wind-energy likewise disappears,
You perceive a butter-lamp-like flame, And you must know it as the fourth sign. Likewise deceptive consciousness is gone, The nonduality of depth and clarity
You see clear as a cloudless sky-
That sign you recognize as the fifth. With [the arisal of] those five signs You will attain non-located nirvana.
The yogi/ni thus should strive in this - This being the branch of endurance.
As for the Further Tantra statement that these five signs emerge in thecontextoftheyogabranchofendurance,69[tOtb) thefoursignsemerge before entering into clear light, and the fifth at the time of clear light. This intends that the entry into clear light is an entry by the power of meditat- ing the three life-energy-control practices. The Personal Instruction also says that the five signs emerge in the contexts of meditating the subtle [object] in the lower door and the indestructible [drop] in the heart; so you should understand that these signs emerge then by performing those
two [types of] vajra recitation.
As for the Illumination of the Lamp explaining the entry into clear
light through the door of the five signs, though it should be explained that the entry into clear light comes [only] after having attained mind iso- lation and the magic body by completing the three life-energy controls, nevertheless it is not that [Chandrakirti] does not accept the arisal of those signs on the lesser occasions of entering into the metaphoric clear light. So there is no contradiction in explaining the branch of endurance as an entry into the clear light which abides in insubstantiality by the
69 In the quote just given, "endurance" is spelled in Tibetan as gzung ba, perhaps old- fashioned way of spelling it, whereas Tsong Khapa correctly writes 'dzin pa in his gloss.
? Chapter JV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 1
progression of the signs on the occasion of meditation on the subtle [drop] in the lower door.
Tathagatavajra explains that by meditating the HOM letter at the heart center, you meditate the energy entering its drop, and holding that, you will attain clear light- it is explained just so. It is explained that you will achieve the clear light of endurance, either with the yoga of the subtle vowels and consonants abiding in the navel channel, or meditating the drop in the tip of the vajra, or meditating with the furor yoga, and so on, whichever [of these] are suitable. It is explained in agreement even in the Indian treatise of the six-branched yoga of the Jfianapada system. So this is excellent. Therefore, when one holds the mind in the point of the great life-energy of the channels of the body, it is not like other foci of the mind. The practice of meditating the subtle in the lower door I I02al exists up to there, but as explained above, if one doesn't know the advantages of meditating on that, then it seems one will not find certitude about the personal instructions. This is well explained depending on the Further Tantra and the statements of His Holiness Mafijushri. Thus, this path should be understood as the instruction that is an unerring, distinctive method of life-energy control. Therefore, it is said that the yogi/ni should make effort in this. Make a fierce effort in this meditation.
[VI. 8. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'A"6"b" - How melting bliss arises from that]
Second, there is a normal experience of joy that comes from the melted enlightenment spirit descending to the secret place of those both meditating and not meditating the path in general, and it can happen that a melting will emerge from the blazing of furor-fire both in the navel and the secret place. So, it is not necessary that the life-wind-energy dissolve
into the dhati for the furor-fire to burn and melt the spirit of enlighten- ment. Therefore, certain types of persons meditate as above and so expe- rience the bliss of the melting of the spirit of enlightenment, though their wind-energies do not dissolve into the dhati.
This kind of similar [experience] can happen to [people in general] , as [those that are achieved by yogi/nis] meditating other personal instruc- tions for penetrating the vital points in the body. When such a drop reaches the vajra jewel, it seems to be very difficult to retain. So one must first, by the outer and inner descending methods, forcefully reverse
? the descent of the enlightenment spirit from those places [higher in the
2 1 2 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
system] before it reaches the jewel. As soon as it reaches the vajra, if it cannot be diffused within the body, the many [redirecting] strains [needed] to instantly reverse it and the forceful methods of reversing it seem to produce sickness. And even if [some] have already implemented many procedures of such diffusion, J I02bl it does not seem that they know the systems of distinguishing the enlightenment spirit melting with the wind- energies dissolving into the dhati from its melting without [the wind- energies dissolving there], and thus how to determine the difficulty or ease of retaining the enlightenment spirit, the necessity of its forceful reversal or lack [of such necessity], and whether or not one will become
sick by not spreading the reversed [spirit] within the body.
About that, as for the necessity of the melting of the enlightenment spirit by burning the furor-fire by the power of meditating the path, it is for the sake for generating the orgasmic intuitive wisdom. In generating that [furor fire], the enlightenment spirit melts and falls; if it does not generally reach below the navel and particularly reach into the jewel and stay there somewhat without emitting, you can never develop the fully defined orgasmic [wisdom]. And to equate this orgasmic [wisdom] with the great bliss of the perfection stage, it must be one that abides by the power of dissolving the wind-energies. If the enlightenment spirit is melted by the power of dissolving the wind-energies into the dhati, then it will be held in the tip of the jewel and will not emit outward until the fully defined orgasmic [bliss] has been generated. This is because, when the enlightenment spirit descends from the crown [wheel] by stage after stage, as the wind-energies become weaker and weaker and it reaches the jewel, the wind-energy's function which would push that enlightenment spirit outside becomes calmed. At that point, it will not emit until one
arises from the orgasmic samadhi.
When you do arise, as the energy can become greatly agitated, you
must know the art of not emitting [the enlightenment spirit]. In that case, even if you do not practice the method of reversing [the spirit] at the first occasion when you are not accustomed [to the experience] and the method of reversing it later [when you are accustomed], again, when it goes back upwards [in the body] at both times of naturally going in reverse again, there is definitely no arisal of sickness by its not having spread out within the body. If you melt the enlightenment spirit by meditation on the subtle and so on, not by the power of dissolving the wind-energies, I I03al you cannot hold it more than a bit in the jewel, so you must reverse it
Chapter N-Body Isolation ? 2 1 3
right away, and you must understand the height of the place to reverse it to. If the melting is weak, it is easy to reverse it. If it is intense, it must be spread in the body.
If you meditate on this for a long time, even though you don't reverse it right away, you will get the ability after a while.
As for the fact that, in the Tantras and the great Indian treatises, these subjects do not occur as they do in other practical instructions, it is because of the essential point that the principle [jewel-like] disciple of this teaching will quickly generate the wind-energy-dissolving perfection stage, [and so] such practical instructions are not necessary.
As for the process of generating the four joys in descending order, as the enlightenment spirit melts and reaches from place to place, the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:
Then one should teach the emerging order: In the crown of the great bliss wheel,
It is said to be "joy";
In the wheel of beatitude it is "supreme joy"; In the Dharma wheel it is "ecstatic joy";
And in the emanation wheel "orgasmic joy" - All these are caused to be experienced.
Here, "joy" is assigned [to the movement] from the crown to the throat. 70 The other three should also be understood in that way.
As for the way of generating [the four joys] welling up from below, according to the same text [the Vajra Rosary] :
In the emanation wheel there is joy,
Supreme joy dwells in the Dharma wheel,
Ecstatic joy dwells in the beatific wheel, and
Orgasmic [joy in the] great bliss [wheel] ,
These are declared these are stages are the reverse order.
The places of this should be understood by the reasonings previously explained.
70 Here the movement down from each wheel to the next is where the joy etc. are experi- enced, not merely in the wheel itself. Tsong Khapa is here improving a bit on the original text. The genital wheel is not mentioned in this passage and the following. though the emerging order joys end in it and the reversing order joys begin in it.
? 2 1 4 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
This also agrees with the Great Seal Drop. I I03bl In that text also, it says that, by making each of them, upper and lower, have four parts, there are sixteen parts of the moon, and from the solar point of view in each there are three and [thus] there are twelve parts. To quote that same text:
These parts of the "rabbit-marked" moon Are the sixteen drops of joy
To be known as actually the ali [vowels]. From the stages in the four wheels
Just as has been explained,
We say there are twelve solar parts.
Here when the spirit of enlightenment streams up and down, it streams together with the blood. Here you experience a bliss in each of the sections which you made of the four parts of each of the four places. In each of the four places from the point of view of particles streaming in each of the four sections made into three parts, respectively, there are small, medium and great bliss discerned in one's experience, and one who has that should understand it, said to be [quite] subtle. In the Sheaf of Instructions it is explained that the four upward-surging orgasmic blisses are differentiated into small, medium, great, and intensely great.
The upward-surging four blisses are said to be more intense than the downward-falling four blisses. When surging from below, until the rever- sal has become firm at the crown, bliss is not stable. When it is firm in the crown, then it is stable, it is said. The same text [Sheaf of Instruc- tions] says:
Upon the life-energy [-wind] is mentality. Going against that, it will descend.
Abiding in the center of the navel of the lotus, It stabilizes outside of that.
At that time the savior will not go. Just as in a vessel with no holes Water will remain inexhaustibly. At that time bliss will be firm. When firm, there is orgasmic joy. Thus, buddha inexhaustible-
The yogT/nT will definitely [ I04a? l achieve.
The SheafofInstructions explains that here, "mentality" means "semen. " "Going against" means "the reverse order. " "Firm" means "reaching the crown. "
Here, Lakshmi explains that when the enlightenment spirit drips from the crown, it is luminance. When it descends into the joints of all the limbs, it is radiance. When the one drop emits from the tip of the vajra, it is imminence, and when it is firm in that very tip, then that is the arisal of clear light. Again, the first two [stages] are similar, but its going into the vajra tip or center being imminence, and abiding within the jewel being the arisal of clear light, are also explained as the four joys. There
are many [explanations] like this, [all of] which are similar.
Munishri explains that when it reaches the root of the vajra, it is luminance; when it reaches the center of the jewel, it is imminence, and when it reaches the tip of the jewel, it is clear light. This implies that he
must claim that when it reaches from the root of the vajra to the throat of the jewel, it is the arisal of radiance.
The Great Seal Drop explains that the four joys are the same as lu- minance, radiance, imminence, and clear light. The Root and Explana- tory Tantras of the Esoteric Community and treatises of the five Noble literatures do not contain explanations of the four joys as the four voids, and the five Noble father and sons do not say that when [the enlighten- ment spirit] melts and reaches this place, the four joys or the four voids arise, they just explain the arisal of luminance by dissolving the wind- energies and the arisal of radiance by the dissolving of mind, and so forth.
As for most of the other followers of the five Noble literatures, except for mentioning the four voids generated from the process of the descent of enlightenment spirit from the crown to the secret place vajra, they do not explain any other way in which the primal wisdom of the four voids is included in the path. [104bl Not to accept [the reticence ofthese sages] is a misunderstanding of the great vital point of this system, as will be ex-
plained below.
Here, someone says, "Which should be accepted among these ways
of generating the four joys by the process of the streaming of the enlight- enment spirit? "
The distinctive types of the four voids that will be taught emerge from penetrating the vital point in the heart center. Although these are not produced here, a simulation of the four voids is produced. If one practices like Munishri it is clear that there is a very important correspondence
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 5
2 1 6 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
here. Here, great bliss is the life of the path, and making it firm, as it depends on the upward-surging bliss, is the extremely important way to produce it. Again, the SheafofInstructions says:
With the arisal of that enlightenment-spirit, beginning from the jewel until it reaches the navel, it increases without emitting, and proceeds upwards.
Taking this literally, [we would think that] when it does not emit from the jewel, it is as if it naturally reversed itself; but it is not so. Even though it does not emit, it can happen that it goes indivisibly where it will, without entering the very same path as it came down. And it can happen that even if it reverses direction, there is no certainty it will reach straight to the
crown and it may spread out into the lower part of the body. Therefore, if it is necessary that it go to the crown by winding itself upwards, the yog1nimust do that purposefully. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:
By the preceding of the thatness
Of the wind-energies, it is driven upward. The yog1nicauses that achievement,
And therefrom in the emanation wheel One realizes what is called "joy. "
It [further] says that the yog1nimakes it go upon the [heart's] Dharma wheel [IOSaJ and then up to the beatific wheel.
Thus, by meditation on the subtle, as for all those processes-dis- solving the wind-energies, the arising of the signs, the melting the spirit of enlightenment by burning the furor and it coming downward, its rever- sal upward, and the production from both of those [processes] of the downward streaming and the upward firming joys in their sixteen [luner] portions and, from the solar perspective, twelve portions-they are all similar in involving the blazing and the dripping of the furor in the navel and the secret center, meditation by setting letters and drops there, and meditating there on vase breathing, and so on. All of those are very important, and especially they are methods which do not mistake the vital points of the path of the YoginiTantras; so you should understand them well.
This meditating of the subtle drop in the lower door is very powerful for burning the fury fire, as it easily reverses the evacuative energy up- ward, and can demonstrate well the downward streaming orgasmic joy.
In this it is necessary that the spirit of enlightenment abide for a long time in the jewel. Although there are many [other] necessities such as its long abiding there, I do not write about them for fear of getting too lengthy.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTA"6"c" - How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath ( body isolations) when (bliss) arises !
When you are able to generate the orgasmic joys of the upward and downward order, it is necessary to unite them with the completely decisive view of selflessness, the purity of suchness. Therefore, you must generate this with the two minds functioning as one, and you must medi- tate in the equipoised trance on the union of voidness and great bliss as object and subject. When you arise from that [trance], moved by the force of wind-energies, the way you meditate is described in the Vajra Rosary Tantra :
As for the sense engaging the object [lOSbJ
Binding whatever abides there,
You should intensely engage the superficial relative, The magic [body] and so on, nondual with voidness. Such as the wisdom-intuition initiation,
It is the bliss of [that] experience.
By remembering great bliss,
Your senses reverse the objective body.
This means that "voidness" is clear light transparence; "nondual" is communion; the "superficial" is the magic body, and so on. Included in the "and so on" are also the ways of engaging sense objects in the con- text of less advanced [practices]. You should understand according to what is explained here that, in all the occasions of developing the four voids, from speech isolation on, whatever arises is sealed with bliss-void. Thus, when you enjoy an object, you seal it by remembering [both] the
bliss taken as the actuality of the third initiation and the previously explained great bliss according to the explanation of what is included in the "and so on. " You restrain any attitude that is in disharmony with that, and abide there with all objects appearing as bliss. After that, conditioned by the blazing of bliss the wind-energies that function through the doors of the senses are reversed within and the sense consciousnesses also are
Chapter IV- Body Isolation ? 2 1 7
? retracted, the wind-energies dissolve, and, as before, bliss arises.
218? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
In that regard, just as in first stage one must learn that everything outer and inner that arises, arises as divine, so in the second stage all that arises must [be experienced to] arise as a transformation of great bliss. But again, that is only after having discovered the orgasmic great bliss of the perfection stage, so here the statement that you should see everything that arises as the play of great bliss from the perspective of body isola- tion [I06al is made in order that all visions should arise as bliss.
In that regard, through determining the pure nature of all things, you first must understand all substantial things as transformations of voidness, and then through the process of uniting bliss and void, you must meditate them as transformations of great bliss. To explain those, in the Integrated Practices it says:
"I am pure by nature! " which means "My nature has been firmly created. " And as for having visualized your- self as the great Vajradhara, with the nature of the three vajras, it is explained as the "yoga of blessing. "
On this occasion of the single clan body isolation, yourself the yogi/ni develops a firm visualization that knows your natural purity, and are said to have meditated yourself as Vajradhara. And not only yourself, but also all the whole body which is to be isolated, and not only on the occasion of the one clan [body isolation], but likewise on the occasions of the hun- dred clan body isolation, and so on.
Therefore, when all things to be isolated [from routine ordinariness]
are primally determined to have the nature of the pure reality devoid of
taste, without any multiplicity of different voidnesses. Therefore, when such voidness is taken as the object by orgasmic bliss, then, even though subject and object may not [yet] merge like water poured in water, one can imaginatively practice that way. l l116bl At that time, by the vital point of imagining bliss-void as a single aesthetic experience, it is easy, by the
intrinsic identifiability, that very realityless voidness is known to arise as all those substantial things-and that is the meaning of things being the transformations of voidness. Although there are many different kinds of things, since they are no different in being void of truth[-status], the negandum of which they are devoid, they are all of a single aesthetic
power of visualization, to focus [on things] as the transformations of bliss just like they are the transformations of voidness. And this is the
real reason for sealing everything that arises [with great bliss] by remem- bering the bliss-void trance concentration.
Thus, in terms of seeing all substantial things as the transforma- tions of the uniform aesthetic experience of bliss-void, even the appear- ance of the life cycle. the effect. and of evolution and addiction, its cause, become the play of great primal wisdom, and so the routine life cycle and its cause have no place of origin. In the passage [from the Vajra. ? hrrvara King ofNondual Tanrras] quoted in the Integrated Practices in the con- text of the hundred clan body isolation:
The aggregates, elements and likewise the media, Having been divided into five classes and again five, Are blessed individually by the transcendent lords- Whence could the life cycle evolutions emerge? Likewise, each one of the five outer objects, Individually by the five bliss-lords,
Are always specially blessed,
Always truly standing as the three and five wisdoms.
Chag's translation in this way is excellent.
Seeing the implication of this, Saraha said [in an Enlightenment
Song]:
Don't take it as two, take it as one;
Don't distinguish the various specific clans. Transform all of the three realms - all of this - Into the color of the single great passion !
There there is no beginning, middle, or end. It is not existence, and it is not nirvana.
In this supreme great bliss
The self [ J 07a) and the other do not exist.
In the front and back, in the ten directions, Whatever you see is that itself.
That bliss itself your savior, right now ends all error.
Now, you need not go to ask for anyone else.
Here, "great passion" is primal orgasmic wisdom.
Thus, according to the explanation of the hundred clans and so on,
at first this is determined by learning and reflection. Then at the time of
Chapter IV- Body /so/arion ? 2 1 9
220 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
practice, you preliminarily learn the [yoga branch of] retraction wherein you see everything that appears as the play of bliss-void. Having learned that, then you learn the ultimate body isolation wherein all that arises as the single great secret Vajradhara, and you meditate yourself as bliss-void in the form of arising as Vajradhara. And again you there have union with your consort. The treatises of the Noble father and sons are not explicit
as to whether Vajradhara is blue or white.
If you cannot create the great bliss as just explained but can create
the melting bliss, then meditate on that. If even that is lacking, you should create it through understanding well the process of joining bliss and void and the process of cultivating the entranced and aftermath [samadhis]. In order to take great bliss as the path, there is no other art than, by the power of firm familiarization with this method of cultivating great bliss in trance and aftermath [samadhis], associating everything that arises with the blazing of bliss. And so there are many explanations of it in many Tantras and treatises. In this [Noble] system, it is clearly explained in the context of body isolation, so having thoroughly understood it, tum your mind toward it again and again. And this is how you should inherit the extraordinary ability of the class of [the practitioners of] this path. [1117b)
CHAPTER V
Speech Isolation in General
[107b. t-143b. lI
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB. ,
samadhi]
The second has six parts: [ 1 ") The order of body isolation and speech isolation; [2") Refuting the assertion that speech isolation is a creation stage path; [3") Teaching the reality of wind-energy, the know- able object of speech isolation; [4") Teaching the ultimate reality of mantra; [5") The way that speech isolation becomes a component of breath control; and [6") The way to put speech isolation into practice.
? ? isolation]
order of body isolation and speech
One might wonder, "What is the meaning of the statement that one should learn the speech isolation after learning the body isolation; [since] without the body isolation preceding, speech isolation will not succeed? "
The Integrated Practices states when one learns the gross and subtle creation stages, one abides in the beginner's samadhi, and when one learns the body isolation, one dwells in the body vajra samadhi. There is also a "body vajra samadhi" in the first stage, but what is called "body vajra samadhi" here is the body vajra of the perfection stage, where the body vajra is distinctive. Further, though the "vajra body" and "wisdom body" explained to be the magic body are not [yet] present here, this is a body vajra which arises as the play of the perfection stage orgasmic bliss one has [here] attained. Thus, "vajra" here has the meaning of insepara- bility from great bliss.
22 1
- How to learn the speech isolation speech vajra
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'd'i'B"1 " - The
Further, [the body isolation must be attained as] the prerequisite of speech isolation; because, since speech isolation is the special mantra reci- tation of the perfection stage, if that [deity] body is not present in the deity meditation of the reciter, the potency of that recitation will not develop. Further, [since speech isolation aims] to cause the wind-energies to collect
and dissolve in the distinctive place of wind
-
energy contraction, the dhati
222 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTI:l"2" - Refuting the assertion that speech isolation The Moonlight Commentary states:
As the vajra recitation also is a meditation of that [crea- tion stage] type, first mentioned as a component of that [creation stage], it is assigned to the creation stage. How- ever, the Integrated Practices locates it at the end of the speech isolation, as it abides in the speech vajra samadhi; and so [Aryadeva] says that one should seek the mind iso- lation, going beyond the creation stage. Now, the instan- taneous visualization [of oneself] as a fully developed deity body is the [procedure used on the] perfection stage; and since [speech isolation] depends on that [procedure], the Integrated Practices states, "The speech isolation is
not the province of the creation stage practitioner. "
Thus, it is explained that, when one abides in the speech vajra samadhi, one is seeking the mind isolation beyond the creation stage, and the speech isolation does not differ from that; and since the instantaneous perfection into the deity body is the referent of the designation "perfec- tion stage," which is not the gradual creation as a deity [of the creation stage], [the speech isolation] is not the province of the creation stage. That statement of the Integrated Practices is to show that dwelling in the speech isolation samadhi is beyond the creation stage, and not to show that the mind isolation is beyond the creation stage. (JOShi Thus, both translations [of the Integrated Practices], [the usual] "going beyond the creation stage," and of Chag, "having gone beyond. . . " are good.
? channel in the center of the heart complex, by the reason that I IIIKuJ in general such contraction is very easy when preceded by [body isola-
tion's] initial generation of bliss from contracting and dissolving into the central channel and is difficult when not so preceded, the order [of the
two isolations] is so [determined]. This is because, as the Vajra Rosary states that the releasing of the channel knot at the dhati of the heart com- plex is harder than the releasing of the other channel knots, first contract- ing [the wind-energies] into the central channel in other locations is easier
than doing so at the heart complex.
is a creation stage path]
Chapter V-Speech Isolation in General ? 223
Again, one should not think that [speech isolation] is creation stage because of the Integrated Practices statements that "the creation stage leads to attainment of the eighth stage," and that "one who abides in the speech vajra samadhi is lord of the eighth stage. " This is because, though both are placed on the eighth stage, as there are many [ways of arranging the] prior and later stages, it is not necessary to interpret them both as referring to only one state. I will explain [below] the layout of these stage s .
The Integrated Practices states :
Speech isolation is the primal wisdom of the yogT/nT; extremely subtle, it is not the object of the [exoteric] Universalists, nor is it the object of those who, though on the Vajra Vehicle, are practitioners of the creation stage; since it is extremely subtle.
As for the meaning of this Integrated Practices statement, it is not prop- erly cited to show that, while [the vajra recitation] is not the province of the creation stage of a gradually created deity, it is the province of the creation stage of an instantaneously created deity: because it is or is not equally the province of those two; and because, when the Integrated Practices explains separately, at the beginning of the speech isolation, the meaning of the [Root Tantra] Third Chapter's mention of the medita- tion of the five colored jewel at the nose tip for the two stages' subtle yogas, it explains the vajra recitation as the subtle yoga of the definitive meaning perfection stage; and because the Five Stages also states the explanation of the five stages such as vajra recitation for [the benefit] of those who have already practiced the creation stage and desire subse-
quently [to enter] the perfection stage.
As for the statement that it is "not the province of the [ I 09a] creation
stage practitioners," it does not mean that such a person can have no understanding of it, but that it is not such a person's path [of practice]. Therefore, one should not be confused by the fact that other authoritative treatises also explain the vajra recitation in the context of creation stage, since there is not any contradiction at all between explaining it in such a context and [holding that it] is not the path [of such a practitioner]. And this also refutes the assertion that Gad pa [kirti] accepted the vajra reci- tation of the wind-energy inhaling and exhaling as an instruction of the
creation stage.
224 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
[VJ. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB"3" - Teaching the reality of wind-energy, the
knowable object of speech isolation]
The third has seven parts: [a "] The import of gradually learning wind-energy, mantra, and vajra recitation; [b"] Advantages and disad- vantages of knowing and not knowing the reality of wind-energies; [c"] Analysis of wind-energies; [d"] Explanation of each type; [e"] How wind-energies transit; [f"] What sort of function the wind-energies per- form; [g "] Teaching how to know the vital key of practice relying on that.
[Nagarjuna] states in the Five Stages:
After [engaging] the reality of wind-energy One should fully enter the reality of mantra. Having realized the objective of mantra, One learns well the vajra recitation.
Thus, by the process of engaging the reality of the wind-energies, one enters the reality of mantra; and realizing that, one learns the vajra recita- tion.
Here, Kalden Drakpa explains the meaning of "engaging the reality of wind-energy" as the meditation by means of the yoga of the three vajras having the three poisons, the substance drop of enlightenment spirit at the nose tip of the secret place, the mantra drop at the nose tip of the heart complex, and the light drop that compresses the wind-energies into drop form at the nose tip of the face. The meaning of "entering the reality of mantra" is meditating by visualizing the compression process
nor are they seen as the meaning of the Five Stages and the Integrated Practices.
Therefore, as for the statement about "gradually entering into the three realities," it means, according to the interpretation of Master Go, that, beginning with the knowledge of the reality of wind-energy, one next
? ? [VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'dTB"3"a" - The import of gradually learning wind-
energy
,
mantra, and vajra recitation]
of the crown OM into the throat A /:1, the throat A 1:1 into the heart HOM. the HOM's drop into the crescent, into the head, into the HA body, into the vowel hook, !
