No More Learning

Relying on those key points just explained, as for the bliss-void- indivisible art and wisdom explained in other treatises, if you understand this explanation of the import of the Communion interpreted by the system of the Noble father and sons as part of the pair of the two-reality-
indivisible communion as the import of EVAM, it is very crucial for com- plete understanding of the systems of other Tantras. The essence of the hidden meaning explanation-among the four [explanatory] procedures
-taught as the meaning of the Esoteric Community ofAll Realized Lords IS9al is the third stage magic body. And the essence of the ultimate expla- nation [explanatory procedure] is the communion body. And this point
1 36 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
which is the most greatly secret among the most extremely esoterically secret. is not taught clearly anywhere other than in this system. And it seems that even if you doggedly inquire into this system, it is hard to discover correctly even the rough general meaning. Therefore, those of intelligence should make intense efforts to realize it through the kindness
of long propitiated. expert, spiritual friends.
? The second has two parts: [a') The way one must penetrate the vital points in the body to generate the orgasmic [intuition] of bliss-void-
) The way one must penetrate the vital points in the [VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'a' - The way one must penetrate the vital points in the
indivisible; and [b
body to generate the two-reality-indivisible communion.
'
? body to generate the orgasmic [intuitionI of bliss-void-indivisibleI The first has two parts: [i'] Teaching the two arts in general; and
[ii'] Explaining them separately.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B '2 'a T - Teaching the two arts in general]
? As already explained, Tantra has no system of seeking the ultimate understanding of the import of the thatness of selflessness beyond that of the Transcendence Vehicle. For, if you just withdraw the mind within, without destroying the truth habit orientation via precise rational nega- tion of the conceptual object held by the truth habit, your [meditation] will not constitute a [new] habit pattern counter to the truth habit, and will not dislodge the truth habit in the slightest. And, if you seek selfless- ness as the negatee negated to discover the import of selflessness at a level coarser than that taught by the Dialecticist Centrists, you will not negate the truth habit orientation [59bf on the subtle level, and so the truth habit will remain. And finally, even if you negate it at a more subtle level, since you will not have a footing on which to develop by force of reason the certitude of relativity within that import, your negation will become a nihilistic void. Therefore, although there is no difference [be-
tween vehicles] in their ways to determine the import of thatness, when you meditate on it, no other subjectivity than the great bliss of enlight- enment spirit melted by the blazing furor kindled by the left and right
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B '2 ' - Showing how. to produce that, one must penetrate the vital points in the body through the entry of the sign EVAM]
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 137
channel wind-energies entering and dissolving into the dhati [central channel] has an equal power to swiftly purify the obscurational instincts with the orgasmic [wisdom] of its meditation on its ascertainment of the import of voidness. Therefore, that bliss must certainly be generated.
Further, thinking that it could not be generated without piercing the vital points in the body, [the B uddha] taught two arts ? of penetrating the vital points in the body, one art relying on the science consort and one art of meditating on the inner channels, wind-energies, and drops. As for the first of these, he did not mention in the lower Tantras [the need] to work with the mind of lust from arousal and gazing and so on, having openly looked at the evolutionary consort, but taught arousal, gazing, and hand- holding toward the goddess meditated as not being in sexual union with one. And so those Tantras are called "arousal Tantras. " The Unexcelled Yoga Tantras teach the art of uniting with both the evolutionary consort and the wisdom consort; so they are called "union Tantras. " Those Tantras that do not teach the art of developing great bliss by uniting with the consort [60aJ, also do not teach the union with the wisdom consort, nor do they teach the art of developing bliss from melting enlightenment spirit through the meditation of inner channels, wind-energies, and drops. Tantras wherein the former is taught teach the latter two as well; [that is,] Tantras which teach the art of piercing the vital points in the inner body also teach the union with the two consorts. Those arts are all similar in
their development of great bliss by the force of gathering and dissolving [right] rasana and [left] /a/ana [channel] wind-energies into the dhiiti [central channel]. That they are all necessary means that they generate the previously ungenerated orgasmic joy which is the distinctively excel- lent subjectivity for ascertaining voidness, they maintain the continuity of the already generated (joy], and they cause its increase from full to full.
Explaining them separately]
The second has two parts: [A ") The art of the science consort; and
[8"] The art of meditating the inner channels, wind-energies, and so forth. 1Vl. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii'A, - The art of the science consort I
Here one might protest that "if those arts of piercing the vital points in the body are arts for injecting the rasana and /a/ana wind- energies into the dhati ! channel], the arts of meditating the inner channels.
? ? IVI. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii' -
1 3 8 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
wind-energies, and drops can allow them to be so; but [just] by uniting with the two [kinds of] consort, they cannot [function] like that; therefore it is incorrect that all those arts should function in that way. "
In regard to being able [to function] in that way [just by] depending on the evolutionary consort, you must have both an objective [evolution- ary consort] and a support [wisdom consort] with full qualifications as explained in the Tantras. Since that is very extremely rare, it is not stated for persons [other than the jewel-like disciple].
In regard to the full qualifications [for such a consort], the Sheafof Instructions states:
Art [beings] possessing wisdom [consorts], [60bJ by sexually uniting, inject the wind-energies of lalanii and rasanii channels into the central dhati and make the furor blaze. Further, they burn up the aggregates and so on, and cause the melting of the moon.
Thus it explains that, by uniting with the consort, the left and right wind- energies enter the dhati channel, furor blazes and the spirit of enlighten- ment melts. Tathagatavajra explains that at that time the wind-energies moving in the nostrils cease, [signifying that] the wind-energies have entered the dhari channel. That art is the external life-energy control. It is not that this path of life-energy control is not explained in the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras - the explanations are many. Though the key of the reason that this art compresses the wind-energies into the dhati channel seems very hard to understand, if you get a rough idea of it, it seems to be very excellent for understanding the many imports of the Tantras. The usual reflection of what happens when you depend on the evolutionary consort is just what happens when you depend on the wisdom consort; and when you depend on the wisdom consort, there is also an occasion when the left and right wind-energies penetrate the channel. This depends on know- ing the personal instruction of the life-energy control of the lower door
explained in the Further Tantra among the three types of life-energy control.
Chapter 11- Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 39 [VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'a'ii'B" - The art of meditating the inner channels. wind-
? energies,andso forthI
As for the art of meditating the inner channels, neural-wind-energies, and drops and so on, in the center- there in whichever vital point of the body, of the channel wheel of the avadhati central channel wound up with the rasanil and lalanil-there are some doors for injecting the rasanil and lalanil wind-energies into the dhati. As for the way of injecting, there are many approaches; such as Vajra recitation and the wind-energy yogas such [61al as vase-breathing in the two Community systems, the many drop yogas such as occur in the treatise of GhaQtapada,55 and the furor meditations such as those in the treatises of 0 ombi Heruka and Kr? hQa- charya and so forth. Further, in the Time Machine literature one injects the two wind-energies into the central channel by meditating the vase- like wind-energy-union in the place of the navel wheel, and 0 ombi Heruka and Kr? hQacharya accomplish it by meditating the furor visualization in the navel. Hence, first you penetrate the vital point in the navel wheel. The Jnanapada system prefers to penetrate the vital point first in the heart center, then in the secret place, and again in the heart center. The Noble system accomplishes the vital point penetration first in the place of the secret wheel and then in the place of the heart center wheel.
In this context, it is incorrect to claim, as some definitely do, that the Yogini Tantras ' system accomplishes it from the navel : since GhaQta- pada first meditates on the drop in the heart center; Kukuripa, [in his Heruka Sadhana] following the Mahtimtiyti Tantra, first practices life- energy control and vajra recitation in the heart center; and Saroruha in the Hevajra Stidhana explains that you enter the clear light by withdraw-
ing all elaborations into the heart center. Therefore, the authoritative masters state their individual approaches, and the Tantras themselves also speak accordingly, and each of them have their own distinctive specialties.
In regard to them again, although such and such a treatise sometimes explains clearly "that is the art of injecting the rasanti and lalanti wind- energies into the central channel," [61 bl most of the explanations are usually unclear. So, at the time of meditation, by means of the explanations of
55 Presumably his Supreme Bliss Five Stages text, Srr-cakrasam vara-pancakrama(Toh. 1433; Derge Suppl. 4544).
? 140 ? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
the meditation and so forth on the visualization of the three channels and so forth, having, by a few keys, set drops and letters and so forth in the center of whichever channel wheel, it is hard to understand the art of injecting the rasana and /a/ana wind-energies into the dhati. Therefore, it is necessary to know this from detailed investigation of the clear expla- nations, and [also from] comparative evaluation of the many treatises of
the Tantras and the authorities.
Thus, though there are many different doors for injecting the two
wind-energies into the dhati, those arts cause the furor to bum, melt the enlightenment spirit, and give the fruition of the wisdom of the four joys or the four voids. And, having identified the wisdom of orgasmic joy, or of clear light, both [Father and Mother] Tantras are similar on the topic of the art of cultivating its continuum. However, by reason of the fact that among them there are many different causal specifics, there are many dif- ferent inner specifics even among the fruitional orgasmic [bliss intui- tions] and clear lights. 56
By meditating through knowing the extraordinary meditation sys- tems which [teach you to] meditate by focusing visualization of letters, drops, and so on at the major vital points of the body such as the center of the body's channel wheels or the lower aperture of the dhati, when the mind is held in those spots, by the key of wind-energy and mind being functionally coordinated, though one is not overtly practicing energy meditation, it serves as an art of injecting the two wind-energies into the dhati. If you know this reason well l62ul, you will understand the key of many authentically reliable perfection stage treatises, and you will obtain certainty about them.
In such a way, if you understand individually without confusion the tendencies to emphasize distinctive potencies of those individual doors of injecting the two wind-energies into the dhati, though those treatises are by no means synonymous, their signatures emerge in their holding in unison as the essence of the path the cultivation of the continuum of the union of the bliss-void of the orgasmic [intuition] and the clear light through ascertaining the pattern of the arisal of the wisdom of the four
? 511 Even at the t"ruitional level, there nre many fine distinctions to be made, and so the com- plexity of the causal processes relates to the inner ditlerences of fruitional experiences.
Chapter //-Learning the Tantric Path ? 1 4 1
joys and the four voids as the fruition of the injection of the two wind- energies into the dhati. And, since this unerringly nails down the final summation of the personal instruction, you will attain full confidence about the definitive meaning of the Tantras. Thinking of that pattern, Saraha said [in an Enlightenment Song] :
Eating and drinking, enjoying sexual union, Again and again fill the circle !
By such teaching as this,
You will achieve transcendence of the world; Here we have triumphed,
Hitting the world of ignorance on the head!
Where energy and mind no longer move,
And sun and moon no longer function,
Ignorant ones, in that place the mind will be relieved! The arrow maker has herein taught all personal
instructions.
Thus, he says that, by relying on the art of penetrating the vital points in the outer and inner body, injecting the sun and moon wind-energies into the dhati channel and dissolving them, burning the furor and melting the enlightenment spirit, and filling the body and uniting bliss and void, you eradicate ignorance and encompass all personal instructions. 1 62b l If you do not understand according to the above explanations, you might think that "since the individual doors of generating the orgasmic [intuition] do not emerge as synonymous, they must be mutually contradictory"; or some might meditate on the praise of their own instructions and think
that all other synonymous explanations are incorrect in the context of that one instruction; and others, having great attachment only to their own instructions, make invidious comparisons with any others.
IYI. 8. 3. b. ii. B'2'b' - The way one must penetrate the vital points in the body to generate the two-reality-indivisible communion]
The second has two parts: [i'] Explaining how the perfection stage
? paths must be generated according to the processes of birth, death, and between; and [ii '] explaining the art of penetrating the vital points in the
? body relying on that.
1 42 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
gencral\. 'd a\. ? \. ? ordin? tll the prtK"csscs of hirth, death, and hctwecnI
Due to the intention of all the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, the creation of the habitat and inhabitant mandalas on the first stage is effected in cor- respondence with the processes of creation and destruction of the inani- mate and animate worlds. And this does not happen in the lower Tantras.
Creating [these worlds] in such a way is in order to create the paths through such stages. And further, the creation stage, being meditated to correspond to the aspects of the perfection stage path, is just the means of developing the root of virtue that generates the perfection stage. Thus, the main thing is that [the creation stage] has the purpose of developing the paths of the perfection stage in correspondence to the processes of beings' birth and death. This procedure is clearly explained in the Com-
munity literature. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra states:
Just as there is no thing left after being burned by fire, So without cause, one goes on after dissolving.
Again, when the energy of life arises,
The various wind-energies of the body,
Consciousness together [63aJ with them,
Again abide in the triple world;
From that there is action, and from that birth; And from that the instincts of lust, and so on; And from that again death and birth.
Thus, it is like the turning of a wheel.
As above, it is to be manifested [and mastered] By the stages of vajra recitation and so on.
This quote is the answer to the question about the destruction of the neural-wind-energy at the time of death. And it says that, just as there is no substance of the wood left after being burned by fire, so at the time of death the wind-energies gradually dissolve into the life-energy-wind and one dies. Again from the death clear light the energy of evolution arises, and it and consciousness together take birth and abide in the three worlds. From that evolutionary energy again the instinctual notions such as lust
are produced, thereby accumulating good and bad evolutionary momen- tum, dying, being born again, and so going on like the turning of a wheel. And as for the above-explained five stages such as the vajra recitation,
? I\"I. B? ? ? . b. ii. B'2'b'j? - Explainin? hmv the pcrfcdion sla{. ! e paths must be
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 143
they serve as parallel to the divisions of the processes of birth and death in natural [basic] time.
As for the way they so serve: The continuous action of the energy inhaling and exhaling is the natural vajra recitation, as the same [text, the Vajra Rosary Tantra] says:
The beings of the three realms
Depend on life-energy and control,
As the king of secret mantra reciting
Abandons unknowing, meditation, and reading.
Thus at the end of the wind-energies having repeated [their move- ments] all day and night, the wind-energies' movement out and in stops, and the elements gradually dissolve. The experiences of luminance, radiance, and imminence arise, [63b] and it is the mind isolation stage. After imminence, the death clear light arises at the stage of clear light, which is called the "natural clear light. " At the end of the death clear light, the between body is developed separate from the old body from just the neural-wind-energy and mind abiding in the complex of the old aggregates; this being the magic body stage, it is called the "natural beatific body. " In the natural time, there are not two separate stages of the magic body, the impure and the pure; and yet I will explain below how this [natural sequence] can represent the two types of magic body of
the path time. Now the natural between beatific body is not perceived as the object of the ordinary fleshly eye, but when it takes birth in the birth state it becomes the object of that eye, as the natural emanation body.
In regard to this pattern, the Five Stages states:
That very magic is superficial reality, And also the body of full beatitude, Its very self becomes the fairy being,
And itself indeed the vajra body.
Thus it explains the third stage magic body as the fairy being in the between, whereby you can understand both tendencies, to call the path magic body "the between" and to call the natural between the "path magic body. " Such expressions arise by reason of the fact that the very same wind-energy-mind which goes into the between for one who lacks the personal instruction in skill in liberative art arises as the magic body
144 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
of full beatitude for one who has the personal instruction in liberative
artistry. As the Integrated Practices states:
So doing, the alienated individual enters the existence between which causes the life cycle. And the same thing, for those who have obtained the personal instruction of all transcendent buddhas through the process of the mentor's transmission, is called the "self-consecration. " Thus, f64al just as walls and paintings appear in a mirror, so the reality of the vajra body emanates the being itself as the body endowed with all supreme aspects, which one can never get enough of seeing, a body adorned with
the thirty-two signs of a great being.
By the key of both father and sons explaining thus about the be- tween, you will attain understanding about how-since death and birth are the spinning on the wheel of the life cycle as the impulsive birth and death of the person who lacks the personal instruction, and yet for one who has the personal instruction, what becomes death arises as the truth body and what becomes impulsive birth-taking arises as the emanation body-[authors] might indicate the natural processes with the names of the two path-time bodies, and indicate the two path-time bodies with the names of the two natural processes. In the Stage of Arrangement, it is clearly taught that, having understood both stages of the mind objective through abiding in the vajra recitation-as it is explained that one real- izes the clear light in the processes of death by means of the two [holistic and dissolving] contemplations-one must generate in one's process the perfection stage paths according to the processes of death. Those follow- ing the system of the translator Go, though they explain the processes of
existential birth and death as the basis of purification of both stages, they do not employ the schemes of the three bodies and the five stages in the context of basic time. But those who follow the Marpa system, depend- ing on the Concise Five Stages quote:
The experience of becoming, [death,] and birth
Is taught to be combined in a single session in a day.
very excellently employ the terms of the three bodies for birth, death, and between, and the terms of the five stages for the basic time vajra recita- tion and so on. 164bl Such usage is necessary since it is for the purpose of
Chapter 11-Learning the Tantric Path ? 145
generating the path in one's process according to the processes of birth and death in natural existence.
Even though you use such terms, it will not be good if you do not know the purpose, and explain that the instructions about death as the truth body and so forth are to be practiced only at the time of death and the between, or if you use the terms of the ground time five stages in some way other than the above-explained. As for the meaning of imple- menting the five stages in a single day. a certain Marpa system follower says that one day's inhalation and exhalation is vajra recitation, the instinctual notions dissolving in the heart center is the mind objective, sleep is clear light, dream arisal is magic body, and waking is communion. As for his interpretation of the general sleep and dream instruction as the personal instruction of the Noble system, except for knowing how to explain depending on the Integrated Practices, a clear explanation is not explicit anywhere in the Noble system texts. Although the Illumination of the Lamp quotes one reference from that context in the Integrated Prac- tices, it is merely quoted [and not explained]. If we interpret according to the intention there, one can call the vajra recitation as above, the first three of the four voids that arise between the start of sleep and the arisal
of dream are called the mind objective, and this basic clear light is called the sleep truth body. Here not the mere arisal of dream but the existence of a specific body in the dream is the stage of magic body, called the dream beatific body. And this can represent the third stage and fifth stage magic bodies. Then, waking is the [6SaJ emanation body, this not being just mere waking but a specific kind of awakening. As for Indian [masters] other than the above mentioned followers of the five Noble father and sons, they don't explain the five stages of becoming, birth, and death, the
ground three bodies, and the single day five stages. Still, as for what emerges from the personal instructions of Naropa, it is definitely neces- sary, as being the intention of the above-explained texts. And I have explained them here since, if you know well such a way of determining the five stages in the natural, basic context, then you can discover a great
certainty about the keys of the personal instruction of the [nine] mergers.
146? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. B'2'b'ii' - Explaining the art of penetrating the vital points
? in the body relying on that!
Such attainment of the two magic bodies from mere neural-wind- energy-mind, as it is attained in coorespondence with the [basic natural] between, the four voids preceding it must be achieved according to the four voids of the death time. In that regard, the Tantric Vajra Rosary states:
As for the wind-energies' supreme decline, Who truly understands it,
Knows the nature in an instant of death, And mutually truly condenses them, Dissolving [them] as in the process of birth.
Thus, according to the stages of emergence in the time of birth, at the time of death one dissolves through the ascending process. 57 Again the text [the Vajra Rosary] continues:
The addictive mind, the life-energy itself, Will always truly proceed.
First, at the time of transit,
It becomes like the form of a fish.
Thus, at the time of first transition, the life-energy-holding wind is created, and from it, gradually, there develop the nine [other] wind-energies, such as the evacuative energy. and so forth. "The life-energy wind abides in the heart center," it is said. I6SbJ Thus, as the life-energy wind is said to abide in the heart center, at the time of death the neural-wind-energy- mind dissolves into the heart center. This Tantra agrees with A rya Asanga also, in explaining that the heart center is the first place of entrance of the consciousness in the center of the father's and mother's semen and ovum, that the body develops from there up and down, and that finally at the time of death the consciousness exits from the heart center. This does not contradict the statements from the Samputa {Tantra} and so forth that at the time of death the consciousnesses transits from the nine doors such as
S7 Tib. mul' rim, i. e. " stages from below," i. e. ascending, though one thinks of the dissolu- tion at death as being a process of descending energies down from the brain and sense doors located in the head.
? Chapter //-Learning the Tantric Path ? 147
eye and ear. For, since the heart center is the chief support of the mind, consciousness cannot transit from any other door until it has emerged from the abode of the heart center indestructible [drop] ; and the personal instructions for death-transition in those sections of those Tantras are stated in the Sheaf of Instructions to require training in the yoga of eject- ing consciousness from the heart center.
Therefore, you should proceed according to the basic [natural] five stages. By meditating the indestructible in the heart center and by doing vajra recitation by inhaling, holding, and exhaling the energy while visu- alizing the heart center, finally you can stop the in and out of the energy and gradually dissolve it into the heart center and experience the dawn of the four voids, after which you will achieve the extremely subtle magic body from just the wind and mind abiding within the gross body. Then, you will achieve the magic body after the metaphoric clear light, and the communion body after the objective clear light. Since that beati-fic body cannot be seen by the ordinary eye, but can be seen by the flesh eye [only] when it upholds the body of gross aggregates, it then [can make itself into] an emanation body.
Thus in the Noble system the best spot [66aJ for penetrating the vital points in the body is the center of the channel wheel at the heart center; and so you should hold this as the import of "vital point. " And this ultimate personal instruction of expert liberative artistry for transforming this turning the wheel of the life cycle by the rosary of birth, death, and between of the natural basic time into the death truth body, between
beatific body, and birth emanation body-its liberative arts being such as this king of life-energy[-breath]-controls sufficiently [practiced by remem- bering to] identify the personal instruction within the very inhalation and exhalation of the energy through which each living being abides auto- matically. This is the personal instruction identifying the three bodies of the great Vajradhara, the noble Nagarjuna. I will explain below the way of penetrating the vital points in the body by practicing according to the
single-day-five-bodies.
CHAPTER [[/
Explanation ofthe Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra in Particular
( 66a. 3-83b. 6]
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c' -
The third, explaining the perfection stage of this Tantra in particular, has three parts: [ 1 '] Explanation of the way of thorough evaluation of the ultimate private instruction; [2'] The need to reconcile the other private instructions of the ancient mentors with this [ultimate private instruction] ; and [3'] The actual explanation of the stages of the path of the perfection stage .
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'l ' - Explanation of the way of thorough evaluation of the ultimate private instruction I
The ultimate location of the private instruction of the five stages is the Esoteric Community Root Tantra, so that is the ultimate treatise of that instruction. However, within that Tantra the five perfection stages are sealed, or [kept] inexplicit and concealed, and the Explanatory Tantras make statements that release those seals and explicate that hidden import. That being the case, it is declared that, if you do not [receive] personal explanation from a qualified mentor who knows how to fully explain the
meaning of the Tantra by connecting the Root and Explanatory Tantras, even the jewel-like person will not fully f66bl understand the import of the Tantra. Therefore, it must depend on the private instruction of the mentor. As the Five Stages states:
That truth stands well sealed
In the glorious Community Tantra; Following the Explanatory Tantras, Realize it from the mentor's speech.
Such is the import of the statement that one must understand from the mentor's speech the import sealed or concealed in the Root Tantra, which should not be interpreted as [condoning] the accepting of any oral tradi- tion of the mentors which, by their avoiding writing, is not established in
? ? 149
Explaining the perfection stage of this T:mtra in pm1icularl
1 50 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
the Tantra. If you do interpret it in that way, it becomes an obstacle to gen- erating the unexcelled reverence for the Root and Explanatory Tantras. You will not discover the import of the Tantra and you will persist in the same tendency during future lives as well.
Such a type of concealment is one in which the import concealed is taught in the Tantra where it is hidden, but concealed by not being ex- plicit. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra states:
The very clear truth of Mantra,
That truth is supremely secret;
I do not explain it wheresoever, Considering those who lack the destiny; But what I have hidden in all the Tantras, Listen and that will I explain.
Thus, such a topic as the vajra recitation is concealed in the lower Tantras by not being taught at all, which is the type of concealment of not being taught [at all] in such a Tantra. In such a case, as the private instruction cannot be found therein at all, one must seek it elsewhere. One must un- derstand the difference between these two ways of concealment.
So, the Vajra Rosary declares:
Some people who do not know [the way], And who very much want to go
To the far shore of the four oceans,
Yet who do not inquire into the path I67al -
How are they going to get there?
In the same way, the practitioner
Who lacks the private instruction
Gotten with great difficulty,
Will remain without fruition.
Again even the wise practitioner
Can get angry ; that moment of anger
Destroys fruition and sends him to the Raurava hell.
Therefore, with all efforts, and with respect. One should learn the private instructions, From the lineage of mentors.
Here one might imagine that ''this declares the drawbacks of lack- ing the mentor's private instructions, even though one might be skilled in
Chapter Ill-Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra ? 151
the Root and Explanatory Tantras; so it is not correct to accept the Root and Explanatory Tantras as the ultimate private instruction. " But the "wise" [person] mentioned here is a person learned in the other sciences and lacking in the mentor's private instruction, and is not a person skilled in the Root and Explanatory Tantras. This is because lacking that private instruction precludes being skilled in the two [kinds of] Tantras; because the statement occurs in a context in that Tantra where, in response to Vajrapal)i's question about what is the private instruction, the Buddha clearly states that private instruction; and because there is no contradic- tion at all between the necessity of the instruction of the mentor who teaches connecting Root and Explanatory Tantras and the Root and Ex- planatory Tantras [themselves] being the supreme instruction.
In regard to those Tantric texts, it is shown that, after having sought the understanding which is thorough knowledge of the paths to be trav- eled from the beginner's stage up to buddhahood, if one then does not put into practice the instructions, but travels the path by sitting in stolid confusion, it is like the person who wants to cross over the ocean without learning the way from one who knows the way, but proceeding in total confusion. 167bl Thus, you should understand this reference as a source
[for the fact] that, before practicing the private instruction, you must develop a full insight about it. And the Noble father and sons, seeing that the above explained mentor's knowledge of teaching by connecting Root and Explanatory Tantras would be hard to find in the future, and that writing down the mentor's precept discovered by such mentors' connect- ing the Root and Explanatory Tantras would [cause it to] remain even for a long time, wrote many treatises on the instruction in the two stages such as the Five Stages and the Lamp of Integrated Practices. And those con- tain the ultimate keys of the precept that must be known from the mouth
of the mentor who has discovered the import of the Tantra.
As for their not being able to take much effect in contemporary persons even though in actuality they are the ultimate instructions, it is because of the key point that the powers of the mind in later times have been gradually diminished from [their level] in previous times, and is not because the ultimate keys of the precepts are not clear in those texts. I n
those texts, it is not only just that the import is not concealed and unclear. as it is in the Root Tantra, but also- 1out of awareness that I even though they explained the concealed meaning clearly. their treatises' would become unclear as the passage of time would make the persons minds
152? BrilliantIlluminationoftheLamp
unclear-as a method of generating such realization [in the minds of future disciples], they made commentaries which elucidated the verbal meaning extremely clearly. Also, as a way of providing realization of the import of that, even if they did not directly [write a commentary] they
wrote extra notes on the precept as well.
? in these two stages, and nowadays we see sixteen oral traditions of Naro- pa's instructions, descended through Master Marpa. Among these, there is the manual of the five stages [falsely] attributed to the mentor Marpa called Lama's Speech Light Rays Teaching, which takes as authority the apparitional Nondual Triumph Tantra, and agrees with the interpretations of that Tantra alone. Since it seems to disagree with the verifiable instruc-
Now the root word on this precept of the Marpa tradition is the Concise Five Stages Elucidation, as above explained, and it appears that Serdingpa also relied on that. In the writings of Serdingpa on the personal instruction of the Community, there are things from the Yogini Tantra such as the meditations of body-invasion, soul-ejection, and furor, which seem to have been put forth on some sort of a basis in the Concise Five Stages Elucidation. And the reason why that treatise teaches those things will be explained below.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c '2 ' - The need to reconcile the other private instructions of the ancient mentors with that (ultimate private instruction)]
If you thoroughly evaluate the stages of the manuals composed by the Tibetan saints in the light of the instructions of this [Noble tradition], you must do it by long study of the way properly to connect I6SaJ Root
and Explanatory Tantras, of the treatises of the five father and sons along with their accessory [texts], and also by thorough study of all the addi- tional private instruction [texts]. The Master Go wrote a work known as the Great Voidness Session, which extensively elucidated the instructions
tions of the Marpa tradition, it would not seem to have been authored by that mentor. Of the manuals written by Serdingpa, who witnessed the two traditions in the succession from Tsurton to Geypawa, the contents are in agreement with the explanations of the Concise Five Stages Elucidation
of other lineages.
Chapter Ill-Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra ? 153
Although there seem to be many other gross and subtle (68hJ pre- cepts of the Community, the principal ones are the four [by Serdingpa (12th c. )],58 the Five Point Treatise on the Five Stages,59 the Four Point Treatise,60 the Five Stages Single Session, and the Wheel Endowed. These are manuals teaching completely the imports of the five stages of this tradi- tion. Thus it is not the case that the ancient mentors did not write com- plete manuals [of the private instructions] and only transmitted them orally.
Now, the first four subjects of the Five Point exist in the written annotation of the precepts, and so are not explained in that treatise except in subject outline. Thus the Five Point teaches just that instruction of meditating the two stages in a single session, in connection with the signs of the path. Therefore, it is the precept of meditating the five stages in a single session.
The Four Point teaches four subjects, the practitioner, the place, the companion, and the actual instruction, the content of which actual instruction is the same as in the above work.
The Five Stages Single Session is renowned [also] as the Father Tantra Quintessence. 61 As it says:
There are six points in the instruction;
Meditation of creation and perfection in one sitting, Investigating forward and reverse ignorance, Channeling bliss into the path,
Furor, soul-ejection, and invasion [yogas].
58 Ace. to the TBRC online database, Serdingpa (gser sdings pa gzhon nu 'od; 12th c. ) wrote the following five texts: (1) gsang 'dus don lnga ma; (2) gsang 'dus rim lnga 'khor lo'i can; (3) gsang 'dus rim lnga gdan rdzogs; (4) gsang 'dus rim lnga'i khrid skor; (5) gsangs 'dus 'khor lo med pa don bzhi ma. Presumably our Five Point Treatise on the Five Stages (rim lnga don lnga ma) = (1) gsang 'dus don lnga ma; our Four Point Treatise (don bzhi ma) = (5) gsangs 'dus 'khor lo med pa don bzhi ma; our Five Stages
59 rim lnga don lnga ma . 60 don bzhi ma .
61 Tsong Khapa refers to the Five Stages Single Session by this alternate name again below, Tib 83b.
? ? Single Session (rim lnga gdan rdzogs) = (3) gsang 'dus rim lnga gdan rdwgs; and our Wheel Endowed ( 'khor lo can) = (2) gsang 'dus rim lnga 'khor lo 'i can. These remain to
be investigated in more detail.
1 54 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
Though this six-point teaching is the complete way of teaching the imports of the Marpa tradition literature on the Community precept, the main thing is the meditation of creation and perfection at one sitting.
The Wheel Endowed, though it teaches the five stages, gets its name [by concentrating] on the meditation of the mantra wheel in the heart center; in it also occurs the precept of the [way of] completion of the five
stages within the [mantra] wheel-possessing [heart center] in a single sitting. That instruction of meditating the mantra wheel in the heart [69aJ occurs in all four of the texts, from which point of view they can all be called "wheel endowed. " Since the complete meditation in the Wheel En- dowed of the five stages in a single session is called "complete sitting of the five stages," all four of the texts are the "instruction in the five stages
single session. "
In the Four Point, when expressing the number of instructions
transmitted by Geypawa to Jakangpa, while his head was aching, the above four texts are not mentioned, but the mentioned "Five Stages Single Session Vital Manuaf' refers to all those teachings. The reason why such a name is used is that they are interpreted as relying on the teaching of the meditation of five stages in a single session; as the Concise Five Stages states:
Various vehicles, transcendences,
Existence, birth, living, and so on,
As differentiated by differences of time,
Unite them in a single session and meditate on them.
The Master Naropa bestowed upon Mentor Marpa four distinctive instructions relying on four superb Tantras. Among them, he was said to have bestowed the "Instruction on meditating the five stages completely in a single session relying on the Glorious Esoteric Community"; and the above explained should be understood as just this.
? ? The more recent sages of Tibet say that the transmission concern- ing the instructions of the Marpa tradition of the Communitv is commit- ted to writing. Those who uphold the instructions of this tradition, except for just a few of them, some of them write miscellaneously about the
Community precept, some of them seem to arrange them in one section in the context of the six yogas of Naropa. And even if they do not set them forth in one section in writing by such an arrangement, J69bJ it is not that
C h a p t e r Il l - P e rfe c t i o n S t a g e of t h i . r; Ta n t r a ? 1 5 5
they do not write them down. And also it is not that they were not written down before those authoritative manuals of the Marpa tradition.
The above mentioned four [texts on] the precept of the complete sitting are from one author, but either represent the different statements of different or earlier and later mentors, or are [different] because of the various changes of the mind of the one author. For there seem to be many inconsistencies and many writing mistakes that are continued for some time. Therefore, their explanations of the import of the Concise Five Stages organize and combine the instructions transmitted from Naropa's disciple Jiianakara to Nagtso and the other instructions transmitted by Marpa, and some become and some do not become the import of the Concise Five Stages. All of them ground themselves on the Root and Explanatory Tantras and on the undisputable treatises of the five father and sons. From among them, some are openly upheld [as valid], some not, and even those correct ones not upheld, in a way are [preserved] there in that their meaning is attained [indirectly]. And if one explains that such are by reason of the errors of those somewhat not fulfilling the intention of the first instruction, due to the length of the transmission, [nevertheless], it seems that the potency of the Marpa tradition Commu- nity instructions came to be completely extracted; and that is how it is to be explained.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3' - The actual explanation of the stages of the path of the perfection stage]
The third has four parts: [a'] Categories of the perfection stage; [b'] Certification of their order; [c'] Certification of their number; and [d'] The import of the individual categories.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'a' -
The first has two parts: [i'] The actual categories; and [ii'] The way
to reconcile the five stages and the six branches.
[VI. B. 3. b. ii. c'3'aT -
Here one wonders, "how many stages are included within the per- fection stage? " [70al The Root Tantra-Patsab translation, sixth chapter- states that:
? ? ? Categories of the perfection stage]
The actual categories]
1 56 ? Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp
In mantra [practice], by the visualized body,
And by speech which urges [Vajrasattva] in the mind, You attain the extreme and supreme acomplishment, The mind's delight, and [perfect] beatitude.
As for the meaning of this, "in mantra [practice], visualized" refers to speech isolation. "By body" refers to the body emanated as the means of attaining vajra recitation; that is, the body isolation. The "speech" isola- tion thereby attained, "which urges" the Vajrasattva who abides "in the mind," in the heart center. By precisely taking him as object, one should attain the four "extreme" and "supreme" [attainments, i. e. the voids and
joys of the mind objective] in the Yogi Tantras. The "extreme and supreme" is the mind isolation developed from the vajra recitation. "Accomplishment" refers to the self-consecration, [i. e. the creation of the magic body]. "The mind's delight" refers to the ultimate reality clear light that is the means of purifying the magic body. "Beatitude" is de- clared when one is liberated in the communion body of great Vajradhara. Thus, here there are said to be six stages such as body isolation and so forth.
As for the translations of both [Root] Tantra and commentaries in this context, the new translations are better. This verse is quoted in the Integrated Practices in the context of the single clan body isolation, and [our explanation above] does not contradict the explanation of its mean- ing there, as being that, having developed the body vajra, one engages with the speech vajra by connected in tongue, palate, and lips, while the mind vajra is the means of urging [Vajrasattva] therein; and by the union of these three [vajras], the mind is delighted and satisfied and one attains accomplishment. For some vajra words can be given many different ex- planations. 170bl For example, when the [Root Tantra] Seventh Chapter proclaims that one will attain the supreme accomplishment when one kills the host of transcendent lords, the Savior Nagarjuna interprets this as referring to the retraction of one's visualization into clear light, while Aryadeva explains it as referring to entrance into the perfection stage clear light.
In the Illumination of the Lamp on the first chapter, [Chandrakirti] makes the creation stage one stage and the perfection stage four stages from mind objective. In regard to that, from that same text, it states:
It is the condensed meaning of all Tantras. . .
Chapter Ill-Perfection Stage ofthis Tantra ? 157
so this is an interpretation that condenses all the main meanings, without putting into five stages a single element of the subjects of the Tantra. Though Master Bhavyakirti and company explain that "The mantra body is very much attained" refers to the vajra recitation, it is better to follow the Tibetan scholars who include body isolation and speech isolation within the mind objective, since that accords with the reference to the first two isolations in the context of the hiddenness of the mind in the Vajra Rosary, the Tantra of the hidden meaning explanation of the setting of the [main] Tantra.
In the Summary Teaching ofthe Five Stages, the Noble [Nagarjuna] makes the perfection stage into five stages, taking the vajra recitation as the first, which follows the system in the final chapter of the Explanatory Tantra Vajra Rosary. In the Integrated Practices, "That same thing is five! " is similar to those, while in its detailed explanation, it makes a whole chapter out of the body isolation and states six stages. In the Stage ofArrangement, [7lal the vajra recitation is interpreted as the first stage and the mind objective as the second, showing its preference of a system of five stages like the Summary Teaching.
That the Noble master does not explain body isolation clearly- except for a brief mention in the Third Stage [chapter of the Five Stages] -is extensively explained in the Integrated Practices. Here one might wonder about the reason why the Noble master does not speak of it in the way [A ryadeva] does in the Integrated Practices, putting it before the speech isolation. Concerning this, the Kashmiri Lak? hmi and Bhavyakirti explain that the expression "well abiding on the creation stage" refers to both the triple samadhi creation stage and to the body isolation, thereby claiming that the Noble master also indicates body isolation as prelimi- nary to speech isolation. As for "creation stage" referring to body isola-
tion, it must be accepted because of the explanations of body isolation as the creation stage in the Moonlight Commentary and so forth. As for the Five Point statement:
The Noble master did not interpret the creation stage as completing the magic body. . .
and the Four Point statement:
the creation stage preliminarily includes the magic body . . .
158 ? Brilliant Illumination ofthe Lamp
they consider the mode of deity creation of the body isolation and that of the creation of Vajradhara as the magic body to be the same; but as for saying that it seems that both are considered creation stage-including the magic body in the creation stage-it only refers to the body isolation magic body as included in creation stage, and does not refer to any body isolation apart from the creation stage. This does not accord with any of the treatises of the noble literature 17tbl and seems to be an explanation coming from not understanding the meaning of the Concise Five Stages
Elucidation.
As for my own interpretation, the Noble master did not mention the second stage body isolation, taken as the second part of a twofold body isolation, prior to the speech isolation, considering it contained within the varja recitation stage. Thus, the first two isolations can be contained within the mind objective stage and the perfection stage considered to have four stages overall.