Tantric Techniques (82 page)

a
There are three commentaries—by Devakulamah
ā
mati (P2326), by K
ṛṣ
h
ṇ
ap
ā
da (P2325), and by Indrabodhi (P2324), the last being Indrabh
ū
ti according to the Tohoku catalogue.

b
brdungs ma.

c
rang gi ’khor los bsgyur ba’i ye shes
.

d
Bu-tön’s own commentary, which follows, suggests that he reads this commentary differently than I do. He seems to take
bya ba’i rnal ’byor
(39.7) as referring to Performance Tantra, in which case it would have to be a corrupt reading for
bya min rnal ’byor,
and the next clause as referring to Yoga Tantra, since he speaks of Yoga Tantra as involving apprehension of oneself and the wisdom being as being of one taste. He then seems to take the next two clauses as referring to Highest Yoga Mantra. This is improbable, since “embrace” usually refers to Yoga Tantra. It also could be that he was not concerned with carefully making his exposition fit the quoted commentary.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
349

persons of intelligence sharper even than them, who main-ly partake of just meditative stabilization in which oneself and the deity that is the Wisdom Being [the actual deity] are apprehended as of one taste. For the sake of persons of even sharper intelligence who partake of a special type of meditative stabilization of which there is none higher, Highest Yoga Tantras were set forth.

Bu-tön indicates that Action Tantras do not involve imagination of oneself as a deity, whereas Performance Tantras do, and Yoga Tantras take the further step of conceiving of oneself and the actual deity as being of one taste.

For Tsong-kha-pa these are fit to occur in Action Tantra, and thus these features cannot serve to distinguish the three lower tantras. Tsong-kha-pa cites the stanza from the
Vajrapañjara Tantra,
but despite not explicitly considering the validity either of its commentary or of Bu-tön’s re-rendering of it, his opinion is clear both from the material that he has already considered and from a statement he makes at the end of his exposition of self-generation in Action Tantra:
a

[In connection with self-generation] it is suitable to perform the entry of the wisdom-being [that is, the dissolving of the actual deity into oneself imagined as that deity], conferring of initiation [on oneself by an invited initiation dei-ty], seal implanting [the affixing of the seal or sign of the lineage through imagining the lineage lord at the crown of the head after initiation], and so forth as explained by other masters.

Also, the stanza closing the section in his presentation of Action Tantra indicates that reducing Action Tantra to external rites of bathing and so forth is a severe deprecation:

If one claims to know the meaning of Action and Performance tantras

By knowing a portion of their meditations and repetitions Such as fasting, bathing rites, and so forth, it is a source of

laughter.

Therefore, cherish arrangement of the tantra meanings in-to paths.

a
Deity Yoga,
114.

350
Tantric Techniques

Tsong-kha-pa’s concern is with laying out Action Tantra in accordance with the expositions of its path by Buddhaguhya and Varabodhi, whereas Bu-tön, in self-contradiction, says that these tantras do not involve self-generation and yet gives Buddhaguhya’s rendition of the Action Tantra path of meditation of oneself as a deity, and so forth.
a
Bu-tön obviously wanted to maintain the full richness of the tradition that he inherited, even by taking both sides of an issue. Tsong-kha-pa, living within the richness of tradition provided by Bu-tön, had the opportunity to sift through these traditions to creatively find an elegant, internally consistent system; Bu-tön’s catalogue made this possible. Tsong-kha-pa passed this coherent world-view on to his followers, who for the most part grew, over the centuries, distant from the rich tradition of variant explanation that was their founder’s context.

Tsong-kha-pa undoubtedly found the presentation put forth in this commentary on the
Vajrapañjara Tantra
inappropriate for describing the four levels of capacity and, instead, relates the four with levels of capacity for generating the emptiness and deity yogas that use desire in the path. Here is how I read the impact of his presentation:

The tantric path centers around emptiness yoga and deity yoga, and practitioners have different needs or mind-sets in relation to successfully implementing these yogas. Those who make use of a great many external activities in actualizing emptiness and deity yogas are trainees of Action Tantra. Still, this does not mean that Action Tantra lacks yoga, for (as we have seen) it has a complex and powerful yoga for developing a meditative stabilization that is a un-ion of calm abiding and special insight; rather, it means that the
main
trainees of Action Tantra
also
engage in many ritual activities such as bathing, for they find that these activities enhance their meditation.

Those who equally perform external activities and internal meditative stabilization are trainees of Performance Tantra. Those who mainly rely on meditative stabilization and use only a few external activities are trainees of Yoga Tantra. Those who do not make use of external activities and yet have the capacity to generate the yoga of which

a
Extensive
version, 54.5-61.7.

Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets
351

there is none higher are trainees of Highest Yoga Mantra.
a

This division of the four tantra sets by way of the capacity of their main trainees refers to their
ability
to generate the main yogas—the emptiness and deity yogas—of their respective systems within, in Action Tantra, an emphasis on external activities; in Performance Tantra, balanced emphasis on external activities and internal meditative stabilization; in Yoga Tantra, emphasis on meditative stabilization; and in Highest Yoga Mantra, with no such external activities. Tsong-kha-pa says that the division is not made merely by way of persons who are
interested
in such paths, for some persons be-come interested in paths that they do not presently have a capacity to practice:
b

Also, though trainees in general are more, or less, interested in external activities and in cultivation of yoga, there are instances of interest in a path that does not fit a person’s faculties; thus, the main trainees of the four tantra sets cannot be identified through interest.

Rather, it refers to their respective abilities. Giving his stamp of approval to this tradition, Tsong-kha-pa concludes by citing a passage in Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s
Lamp for the Three Modes
that Bu-tön cites for the same purpose:
c

Therefore, it should be realized that explanations of their main trainees as relying or not relying on many or few external activities and so forth are correct. Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la’s
Lamp for the Three Modes
says:

By the force of potencies from conditioning in another birth, some cannot attain mental equipoise without a home in the forest away from people, or without activities such as bathing, drawing ma
ṇḍ
ala, offering, burnt offerings, asceticism, and repetition [of mantra]. Thus, Action Tantras were taught for them. Also, there are those whose minds

a
Since Highest Yoga Mantra does indeed involve a great deal of ritual, the point is perhaps that Highest Yoga Mantra does not emphasize ritual bathing and so forth in the way that Action Tantra and so forth do.

b
Tantra in Tibet,
163.

c
Ibid., 163-164. The citation from Tripi
ṭ
akam
ā
la is P4530, vol. 81, 117.3.3-117.3.5. For Bu-tön’s citation, see his
Extensive
version, 41.5-42.4.