Tantric Techniques (29 page)

a
zhi gnas,
ś
amatha.

5. Mantra Repetition

When meditators gain the capacity to remain within visualization of their own body as a deity’s, they proceed to cultivate the meditative stabilization of exalted speech. The stated general purpose of cultivating the meditative stabilizations of exalted body and exalted speech is to achieve calm abiding, a powerfully focused mind that, when teamed with wisdom and brought to the level of direct perception of emptiness, can overcome—from the root—afflictive emotions such as desire and hatred. At that point, afflictive emotions are not just replaced through thinking about something else, not merely suppressed through thinking about their faults, not merely repressed through defense mechanisms, and not merely sublimated through becoming conscious of them. They are totally and forever removed in a gradual process that extirpates increasingly subtle levels of desire, hatred, and ignorance until they are entirely uprooted. This is the claim that we are exploring through gaining a comprehensive picture of the path in Action Tantra; it would be difficult to come to a conclusion on whether the practices could be
this
effective, but detailing the complexity and profundity of this religious culture will tease our minds into considering the possibility.

A question that needs first to be settled is just when a meditator is to proceed from cultivating the meditative stabilization of exalted body to cultivating that of exalted speech. It is clear that ac-tual calm abiding is achieved at the end of the meditative stabilization of exalted speech,
a
but when, during the well laid out process of cultivating calm abiding, does one switch from mainly concentrating on divine body to concentrating on mantra? To appreciate speculation on this question and gain a sense of one of the chief purposes of the meditative stabilizations of exalted body and speech, let us consider briefly the process of developing calm abiding from S
ū
tra system presentations, since even though calm abiding is integral to Mantra, it is described in more detail in the S
ū
tra systems.

a
In his introduction to Tsong-kha-pa’s text, the Dalai Lama (
Deity Yoga,
29) says, “The concentration of abiding in sound is the time of achieving a fully qualified calm abiding (
ś
amatha
), an effortless and spontaneous meditative stabilization induced by physical and mental pliancy.”

118
Tantric Techniques

Tibetan descriptions of the process of achieving calm abiding often combine two Indian presentations—Maitreya’s depiction of five faults and eight antidotes in his
Differentiation of the Middle and the Extremes
a
and Asa
ṅ
ga’s depiction of nine states called “mental abidings” and of four mental engagements in his
Grounds of Hearers
and
Summary of Manifest Knowledge
. I will give a brief synopsis of this combined exposition.

About achieving calm abiding, Maitreya’s
Differentiation of the Middle and the Extremes
says:
b

It arises from the cause of implementing

The eight activities
c
abandoning the five faults.

“Activities” here are antidotes counteracting the five faults, which are:

1. laziness
   

2. forgetting the instruction on the object of meditation
   

3. laxity and excitement—the mind’s being too loose or too tight
   

4. nonapplication of antidotes when laxity and excitement arise
   

5. overapplication of antidotes when laxity and excitement are no longer present.
   

Laziness includes not only the
indolence
of attachment to sleeping and so forth,
procrastination,
and a
sense of inadequacy
in which one thinks, “How could someone like myself accomplish calm abiding!” but also
attachment to bad activities
such as those of desire or hatred.

a
dbus dang mtha’ rnam par ’byed pa, madhy
ā
ntavibha
ṅ
ga
. The exposition of calm abiding is drawn to a great extent from Hopkins,
Meditation on Emptiness,
67-88. For lengthy treatments of calm abiding, see Gedün Lodrö,
Calm Abiding and Special Insight,
trans. and ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1998), 11-213, and Lati Rinbochay, Denma Lochö Rinbochay, Leah Zahler, and Jeffrey Hopkins,
Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism
(London: Wisdom Publications, 1983), 52-91.

b
IV.3b. The Sanskrit is:
pañcado
ṣ
aprah
āṇā
’
ṣṭ
asa
ṃ
sk
ā
r
ā
’sevan
ā
’nvay
ā
.
See Ramchandra Pandeya, ed.,
Madhy
ā
ntaVibh
ā
ga-
Śā
stra
(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971),

129. For English translations see the Bibliography.

c
That is to say, antidotes.

Mantra Repetition
119

Chart 1: Faults of Meditative Stabilization and Their Antidotes

Of the eight antidotes, four are prescribed as counteragents to laziness—faith, aspiration, exertion, and pliancy. In this context, faith refers to being
captivated
with the advantages of meditative stabilization as well as
wishing
to attain those qualities and
being convinced
of those advantages. The cultivation of faith calls for reflecting on the disadvantages of not having meditative stabilization—namely, the faults of distraction—as well as the beneficial results of being endowed with meditative stabilization, such as being able, when teamed with wisdom, to remove afflictive emotions from their root. In dependence upon such faith, aspiration seeking meditative stabilization arises. This, in turn, induces the exertion necessary to achieve it. Eventually, exertion at the process of meditative stabilization yields pliancy which makes laziness impossible; however, since pliancy comes only after long experience, it is not relevant at the beginning, except in that reflection on the advantages of meditative stabilization induces enthusiasm for practice.

The fifth antidote, mindfulness, is prescribed as an antidote to the fault of forgetting the object. As cited by Tsong-kha-pa in his presentation of Yoga Tantra, Sh
ā
kyamitra quotes Bh
ā
vaviveka’s graphic description of the process of bringing the mind under control. Tsong-kha-pa says:
a

With regard to the way to hold the mind, Sh
ā
kyamitra
b
cites Bh
ā
vaviveka’s
Heart of the Middle
c
and says to do it that

a
H.H the Dalai Lama, Tsong-kha-pa, and Hopkins,
Yoga Tantra: Paths to Magical Feats,
94.

b
Toh. 2503,
sde dge
edition, vol.
yi,
154b.4.

c
dbu ma’i snying po, madhyamakah
ṛ
daya;
P5255, vol. 96, 4.1.7.

120
Tantric Techniques

way:

The crazy elephant of the mind behaving wildly Is tied to the pillar of an object of observation With the rope of mindfulness.

By degrees it is brought under control with the hook of wisdom.

“Wisdom” here is introspection.
a
Hence, the example of taming an elephant indicates the achievement of a serviceable mind by way of the two—mindfulness and introspection. The subtle vajra that is the base on which the mind is being set is like the stable pillar to which the elephant is tied. The unserviceable mind is like an untamed elephant. Causing the mind not to be distracted from its object of observation through relying on mindfulness is like using a rope to tie an elephant. Setting [the mind] free from fault— when it does not hold the object of observation as [original-ly] set—through immediately recognizing such by means of introspection is like a herder’s hitting an elephant with his hook and correcting it when it strays from the tie-up.

The elephant of the mind is being tied to the pole of an object of observation—in this case, one’s own divine body—with the rope of mindfulness so that it can be brought under control by the hook of introspection. Mindfulness is a faculty that, in increasing degrees, keeps the mind from losing its object; it is gained by constantly returning the mind to the object. The sixth antidote, introspection, inspects from time to time to determine whether laxity and excitement (the third fault) are present.

Laxity primarily refers to the mind’s being too loose; in its worst form, one has as if entered into darkness, losing the object of meditation entirely. A middling form of laxity occurs when the mind stays on the object but without clarity—“clarity” here referring to a quality of mental alertness; a subtle form occurs when the mind stays on the object and with clarity but without
intense
clarity. Thus, it is possible for meditators to be deceived into thinking they have achieved meditative stabilization when they are actually stuck in subtle laxity because the object appears clearly and the mind remains clearly and stably on it, but they have not recognized that

a
shes bzhin, sa
ṃ
prajanya.

Mantra Repetition
121

the clarity of mind lacks intensity.

Excitement, on the other hand, is primarily a scattering of the mind to an object of desire, although, by extension, it includes all types of scattering, whether the object be virtuous, nonvirtuous, or neutral. Again, there are levels of excitement; in the worst version, the object is entirely captivated with something else, but in the subtler version the mind remains on its object with a tendency to fast-moving thought underneath. The latter is compared to water moving about under a frozen river.

The sixth antidote, introspection, is a counteragent to
nonre-cognition
of laxity and excitement. The actual antidote to these two is the application of techniques to rid the mind of whichever of these faults is present; thus, the seventh antidote is called “application” of the antidotes, which serves to counteract the fourth fault, nonapplication.

The techniques for removing laxity and excitement are presented in series beginning with the least intrusive. (As will be seen, in Action Tantra the meditative stabilizations of exalted body and speech contain important factors enhancing these techniques.) For laxity, there are five levels of counteragents to apply. Since laxity is a looseness in the mind’s mode of holding the object, the first and least intrusive method is merely to tighten the mode of apprehension of the mind a little. The process is compared to tightening the strings on a musical instrument; how much to tighten can be known only through experience. If this does not work, the next lev-el is to increase the object’s brightness or to notice the details of the object, or to move it higher. (In the Action Tantra system of meditation that we have been considering, the technique of blessing parts of the body into a state of magnificence, this being during the “seal deity,” helps in this regard as does the very process of the style of meditation called “concentration” in which the practitioner reviews the appearance of the various parts of the deity’s body, adjusting for color, brightness, and so forth—the act of attention to detail itself being a way of making the mode of apprehension of the mind more taut. Also, the spreading out of light rays removes laxi-ty.)