Tantric Techniques (64 page)

a
madhyamak
ā
vat
ā
ra, dbu ma la ’jug pa
. The first five chapters of Tsong-kha-pa’s commentary (
dgongs pa rab gsal
) are translated in Jeffrey Hopkins,
Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism
(London: Rider and Co., 1980; rpt. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications), 174-175. (For discussion of the translation of the title
Madhyamak
ā
vat
ā
ra
as “
Supplement to the ‘Treatise on the Middle,’”
see Hopkins,
Meditation on Emptiness,
462-469 and 866-869.)

b
The Dalai Lama’s introduction in
Tantra in Tibet,
55.

c
byang chub kyi sems, bodhicitta
.

268
Tantric Techniques

Thus, there is a significant difference between the Lesser and Great vehicles in terms of method, even though not in wisdom.
a

Hence, the Lesser and Great vehicles differ in both senses of vehicle, as the means by which one progresses as well as that to which one progresses.

Difference between the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle

In the Great Vehicle itself, there are two vehicles—the Perfection Vehicle
b
and the Mantra (or Tantra) Vehicle.
c
The Perfection Vehicle is S
ū
tra Great Vehicle, and the Mantra Vehicle is Mantra (or Tantra) Great Vehicle.

Do the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle and the Mantra Great Vehicle differ in the sense of vehicle as that to which one is progressing? The goal of the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle is Buddhahood, but the Mantra Great Vehicle cannot have another goal separate from Buddhahood as there is no attainment higher than the Buddhahood described in S
ū
tra as attainment of the Body of Attributes and form bodies. S
ū
tra describes a Buddha as having removed all obstructions and attained all auspicious attributes, having no movement of coarse winds, or inner energies;
d
thus such Buddhahood has to include the attainments of even Highest Yoga Mantra, the primary aim of which is to stop the movement of all coarse winds and manifest the most subtle consciousness—the mind of clear light—while simultaneously appearing in totally pure form.
e
Hence, the Vajradharahood often mentioned as the goal of Mantra and the Buddhahood

a
Tantra in Tibet,
98-99.

b
phar phyin kyi theg pa, p
ā
ramit
ā
y
ā
na.

c
sngags kyi theg pa, mantray
ā
na
. The term “Tantray
ā
na” has great favor in much of current non-Tibetan scholarship but does not appear to have been popular in the Tibetan cultural region. There the favored term is Mantray
ā
na or Guhyamantray
ā
na (
gsang sngags kyi theg pa
).

d
rlung, pr
āṇ
a
. This is one among many points that Jam-yang-shay-pa (
’jam dbyangs bzhad pa,
1648-1721) makes in defending the position that the Buddhahoods of S
ū
tra and Mantra are the same in his
Great Exposition of Tenets;
see Hopkins,
Maps of the Profound,
637-645.

e
See Lati Rinbochay and Jeffrey Hopkins,
Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism
(London: Rider and Co., 1979; rpt. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1980), 69-73.

Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure
269

described in S
ū
tra are the same.
a

There being no difference between the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle in terms of the goal—the destination—they must differ in the sense of vehicle as the means by which one progresses. Therefore, they must differ either in terms of method or wisdom or both. If the difference lay in wisdom, there would be many problems because the Perfection Vehicle contains N
ā
g
ā
rju-na’s Middle Way teachings on emptiness, and there would have to be some other more subtle emptiness than that which N
ā
g
ā
rjuna establishes with many different reasonings in the twenty-seven chapters of his
Treatise on the Middle,
whereas there is none. Thus there is no difference between S
ū
tra and Mantra in the view, which here refers to the objective view, that is, the object that is viewed
b
— emptiness or ultimate truth—and does not refer to the realizing consciousness, since S
ū
tra Great Vehicle and Highest Yoga Mantra do differ with respect to the subtlety of the consciousness realizing emptiness. Specifically, in Highest Yoga Tantras such as the
Guhyasam
ā
ja Tantra
or the
K
ā
lachakra Tantra,
more subtle, enhanced consciousnesses are generated to realize the same emptiness of inherent existence. Still, because the object realized is the same whether the consciousness is more subtle or not, the “objective view” is the same.
c

In this way, between the S
ū
tra and Mantra Great Vehicles there cannot be any difference in the factor of wisdom in terms of the object understood by a mind of wisdom. Hence, the difference again has to lie in method. Nevertheless, in both the S
ū
tra and the Man-tra Great Vehicles, the foundation of method is the altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings, and thus the motivational basis of the deeds of the path is the same. The other main factor of method has to do with the deeds induced by that motivation. In the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle these are the practices induced by that altruistic aspiration—the perfections of giving, eth-ics, and patience, and since these are also practiced in Mantra, the difference cannot be found there either. Furthermore, Mantra has an even greater emphasis than S
ū
tra on the deeds of

a
The Dalai Lama’s introduction in
Tantra in Tibet,
55, and Tsong-kha-pa’s own exposition, 139-142.

b
yul gyi lta ba
.

c
The Dalai Lama’s introduction in
Tantra in Tibet,
55-57, and Tsong-kha-pa’s own exposition, 110.

270
Tantric Techniques

the perfections in that a tantric practitioner is committed to en-gage in them at least six times during each day.
a

Moreover, the distinction could not be made on the basis of speed of progress on the path because within the four tantra sets— Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga Mantra—there are great differences in speed, such as the possibility of achieving Buddhahood in one lifetime in Highest Yoga Mantra but taking at least two periods of countless eons in the other three, according to Tsong-kha-pa. Also, in the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle there are five different modes of progress, slow to fast, which are compared to an ox chariot, elephant chariot, sun and moon, magical creation of a Hearer, and magical creation of a One-Gone-Thus.
b
In addition, the difference must not lie in some small or insignificant feature, but in an important one.
c

Tsong-kha-pa’s intricate comparison of the Perfection and the Mantra vehicles has shown how similar these two vehicles are in their basic structure in terms of goal, wisdom of emptiness, and altruistic motivation, thereby literally setting the stage for appreciating the central difference. He finds the profound distinction in the fact that in Mantra there is meditation in which one meditates on one’s body as similar in aspect to a Buddha’s form body, whereas in the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle there is no such meditation. This is deity yoga,
d
which all four tantra sets have but S
ū
tra systems do not. Dei-ty yoga means to imagine oneself as now having the form body of a Buddha; one meditates on oneself in the aspect of a Buddha’s form body,
e
imagining oneself as presently an ideal, altruistically active being. This is the central distinctive feature of Tantra in that it oc-curs in all four sets, even though it does not occur in all tantras, due to which it is not a definition of tantra.