Tantric Techniques (69 page)

Since Bodhisattvas on the first ground and above could magically display an erection, they would have no need to use such an afflictive emotion to father a child. More seriously, this calls into question the assertion that the scope of S
ū
tra Bodhisattvas’ usage of desire in the path would be limited to those on the paths of accumulation.

Hatred also is said to be used in the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle path, as in killing a highly injurious person who cannot be tamed in any other way. Again, the causal motivation is compassion (both for the evil person and for others oppressed by him/her), but does the act itself have to involve hatred or does it just
look
like a hateful act? Among my Tibetan teachers, one lama said that hatred might be necessary to bring the act of stopping the other person’s life to completion, whereas another said it would not.
h

In any case, the S
ū
tra ways of using the afflictive emotions in the path in which negative emotions impel virtuous acts are not

a
rgyu’i kun slong
.

b
dus kyi kun slong
.

c
’jam dbyangs bzhad pa ngag dbang brtson grus,
1648-1722.

d
’phags pa,
ā
rya.

e
mthong lam, dar
ś
anam
ā
rga
.

f
dbang po las rung
.

g
Jam-yang-shay-pa’s
Great Exposition of the Concentrations and Formless Absorptions,

149b.2.

h
This issue is crucial to determining how the afflictive emotion of hatred itself actually is used in the path in the S
ū
tra Great Vehicle and if it is, on what levels it is used, but a definitive answer is elusive.

Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure
289

comparable to the tantric use of a bliss consciousness arising from desire
to realize emptiness
. Hence, there remains the question of whether the usage of desire in this particularly tantric way could be indeed a differentiator of the S
ū
tra and Mantra Great Vehicles. Tsong-kha-pa briefly addresses this more refined position:
a

We must assert that the trainees of the four tantras each use pleasure in the path in dependence on the four types of desire for the attributes of the desire realm [gazing, smiling, holding hands, and union. The presence or absence of such an ability to use pleasure in the path] is suitable as a difference between persons who are initially entering the Mantra or Perfection Vehicles; however, such cannot distinguish the vehicles.

Is Tsong-kha-pa making the point that differences between practitioners of vehicles cannot determine differences in vehicles? This seems unlikely, since the difference in persons comes by way of an ability to practice a certain path, or vehicle. Or, is he saying that such a difference occurs with respect to trainees “initially” entering these vehicles but does not hold true throughout the practice of the vehicle and thus cannot distinguish the vehicles? If this is the case, then in Tsong-kha-pa’s system deity yoga would absurdly have to be practiced at
every single
point in the Mantra Vehicle, something that he himself does not assert.
b
Rather, he seems to be admitting that the difference in the trainees of the respective vehicles indeed indicates a difference in the paths but is not
sufficient
to distinguish the vehicles since it is not central. The Dalai Lama speaks directly to this point:
c

Although it indicates an inequality in the capacities of the two types of persons, it is not the profound and complete

a
Tantra in Tibet,
112.

b
As the
Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Tantra Sets: Illumination of the Texts of Tantra
(
gsang chen rgyud sde bzhi’i sa lam gyi rnam bzhag rgyud gzhung gsal byed
) (rgyud smad par khang edition, no other data), 5b.4, by Ngawang-pel-den (
ngag dbang dpal ldan;
born 1797) says:

In general, whatever is either of the two, a yoga with signs or a yoga without signs, does not necessarily perceive the body of a deity who has the aspects of a face and arms because on this occasion there exist the four—deity and emptiness yogas and wind and repetition yogas.

c
Ibid., 59.

290
Tantric Techniques

distinction between the Perfection and Mantra vehicles.

This statement reinforces a focal point in Tsong-kha-pa’s basic argument, namely, that the difference between the vehicles must be
significant
in terms of the general structure of the path, this being in terms of method and wisdom, which are the chief progenitors respectively of the two aspects of the goal of the path—a Buddha’s Body of Attributes and form bodies. Deity yoga does indeed fulfill this criterion.

The special tantric way of using desire in the path can perhaps be subsumed under deity yoga, the special union of method and wisdom found only in Mantra, since it is performed within imagination of oneself and the consort as deities, whether the consort is an actual one or not. However, because the technique of using desire in the path is for the sake of enhancing the
mind of wisdom
realizing emptiness—not necessarily in the sense of generating a subtler consciousness realizing emptiness as is done in Highest Yoga Man-tra but at least in the sense of generating a bliss consciousness realizing emptiness—it should be included within the factor of wis-dom, in which case there would be a difference between the S
ū
tra and Mantra Great Vehicles in terms of how wisdom is enhanced, a difference not limited to Highest Yoga Mantra but also present in the three lower tantras. Still, for Tsong-kha-pa, this would not make the factor of wisdom the differentiator between the two vehicles since just as he recognizes the difference between the Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle modes of cultivating wisdom—the for-mer by just a brief form of reasoning and the later by “endless” reasonings—and yet does not posit it as a sufficiently significant difference to be the central distinction between those vehicles, so here the difference in the usage of desire in the path in the two Great Vehicles is clearly for him not sufficiently significant. Rather, in Tsong-kha-pa’s system, the centrally significant distinguishing feature of Mantra is deity yoga—meditation on oneself as having a body similar in aspect to a Buddha’s form body.

Deity yoga involves an enactment in meditation of the pure condition of Buddhahood while still on the path. The abode, body, resources, and deeds of a Buddha are an Effect Vehicle
a
in the sense of being that to which one is progressing. Because in Mantra the cause vehicle—the means by which one progresses to that state—

a
’bras bu’i theg pa, phalay
ā
na
.

Tsong-kha-pa’s Reasoned Analysis of Path-Structure
291

involves using an imitation of the state of the effect in the path, it is also called an Effect Vehicle. Thus, the term “Effect Vehicle” has two meanings: (1) the actual state of the effect that is the goal of the path and (2) the means of progress (cause vehicle) that is called an Effect Vehicle since it involves a meditative assumption of the state of the effect. Tsong-kha-pa says:

About “Vehicle,” there is an Effect Vehicle which is that to which one is proceeding and a cause vehicle which is that by which one progresses. Due to proceeding [it is called] a vehicle. With respect to the “Effect Vehicle,” the word “Ef-fect” refers to the four thorough purities—abode, body, resources, and deeds, which are a Buddha’s palace, body, fortune, and activities. In accordance with them one meditates on oneself as one presently having an inconceivable mansion, divine companions, sacred articles, and deeds such as purification of environments and beings. Thus, it is called the “Effect Vehicle” because one is progressing through meditation in accordance with the aspects of the effect [or fruit, Buddhahood].