Concentration Without Repetition I
The meditative stabilization of exalted speech has two more phases, both of which involve mantra but not accompanied by the sense that one is listening to one’s own repetition. In these phases, the meditator concentrates on the mantra tones as if resounding of their own accord or as if being recited by someone else; therefore, these steps—the concentrations of abiding in fire and of abiding in sound—constitute the first part of the concentration without repetition and yet are still part of the meditative stabilization of exalted speech. The remaining part of the concentration without repetition—the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound— constitutes the meditative stabilization of exalted mind.
In this way, the concentration without repetition itself has three phases called the three principles, these being the concentration of abiding in fire, the concentration of abiding in sound, and the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound. As just mentioned, the first two are included in the meditative stabilization of exalted speech, whereas the last constitutes the meditative stabilization of exalted mind. About these, the Concentration Continuation Tantra says:
The secret mantra abiding in fire bestows feats.
That abiding in sound bestows yoga.
The end of sound bestows liberation. These are the three principles.
From among the three principles, the first—“The secret mantra abiding in fire,” or concentration of abiding in fire—is said to “bestow feats,” not in the sense that it alone is sufficient for the achievement of major yogic feats but in the sense that, through causing the concentration on mantra to become more powerful and causing the mind to become more stable,c one comes considerably closer to the achievement of feats.
The concentration of abiding in sound “bestows yoga” in that it is the time of achieving a fully qualified calm abiding.d The concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound brings about achievement of a union of calm abiding and special insight realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, which, when cultivated over time, brings direct realization of emptiness and eventually leads to the great liberation of Buddhahood. Let us consider these three concentrations in detail.
Concentration of abiding in fire
When meditators have firm success with the many levels of the concentration with repetition, they pass to a subtler level, the concentration of abiding in fire. As just mentioned, this also is a meditation observing a divine speech mantra, but “repetition” is not involved because in this case when one’s own mind appears in the aspect of the sounds of mantra it is not as if oneself is reciting them, but as if one
is hearing them resounding of their own accord or hearing another’s repetition. Because it is free from the aspect of one’s own recitation of mantra, it is called a concentration without repetition. It is called “abiding in fire” because the sounds of mantra are heard as if resounding within a tongue of flame on a moon disc at the heart of one’s own body visualized as that of a deity. As the Dalai Lama says in commentary:
Previously, during the repetition of mantra while observing the sound of the letters, it was as if you were listening to the reverberation of the sounds of your own recitation, whether whispered or mental. However, here you are to listen to the mantra sounds as if someone else were reciting them. Therefore, that the concentration of abiding in fire is said to be without mantra repetition means that it is free from the aspect of one’s own repetition, not that it is free from mantra sounds altogether.
These sounds are “heard” from within a tongue of flame imagined at the heart—all this within the clear appearance of your own body as a deity’s. Your own mind is as if inside the tongue of flame, appearing in the form of the mantra sounds resounding as if by their own power. This is like the practice on other occasions of the mind’s taking the mind as its object of observation—a factor of the mind taking the general mind as its object. Here the mind is appearing as the sounds of someone else’s repetition and is simultaneously listening to those sounds.
In the previous meditations all forms and sounds were appearances of the mind realizing suchness; thus, all forms seen and sounds heard were appearances of the mind. Within that, one was as if listening to the mantra repeated by oneself; hence, there still was a sense of a listener and the listened. However, here in the concentration of abiding in fire one’s own basis of designation is as if dwelling inside the tongue of flame, and it itself is appearing as the sounds being listened to in that same place.
One’s mind, which is the basis in dependence upon which oneself is designated, is imagined as dwelling within the fire and as appearing as the mantra sounds. The brightness of the fire helps to remove laxity, and the placement of one’s own mind within the small space of the flame helps to remove excitement, the scattering of the mind to other objects. With proficiency, the sounds of the mantra are “heard” as if in continual reverberation. Buddhaguhya explains that meditation at this point becomes one’s own sustenance such that there is no sense of hunger or thirst.
The unusual practice of causing one’s own mind to appear as sounds that have the aspect of being recited by someone else or reverberating of their own accord brings about a diminishment of the sense of subject and object, the bifurcation of the world into what is on this, the subject’s, side and what is on that, the object’s, side. The diminishment of duality mimics the lack of dualistic conception in the realization of emptiness and thus helps to induce such realization through familiarity with a psychological counterpart of a central feature of that realization.
The Concentration Continuation Tantra describes the concentration of abiding in fire with three stanzas:b Māntrikas with intelligence bind to the self [that is, the mind] The phenomena arisen from the nondistinguished [[[mental consciousness]]].
Dwelling on what transcends the branches [that is, the eyes and so forth],
They concentrate without adherence.
When they contemplate within adhering
To the immutable letters [that is, sounds] strung together,
Continual like the sounds of bells
And set in a series called “sound,”
[The sounds] should be contemplated as abiding in fire—
Quiescent, free from words, having the branches [that is, the mantra letters]
With a nature also of having stopped vitality and exertion As well as having forsaken sleep.
The first stanza describes the initial cultivation of one’s own final nature, the suchness of self, the equivalent of the ultimate deity from among the six deities. Practitioners of Mantra (“Māntrikas”) are to “concentrate without adherence,” meaning that they are to meditate within ceasing the conception of inherent existence. They “dwell on” the emptiness of inherent existence, which “transcends the branches”—“branches” here referring not to the four branches of
repetition but to conventional phenomena in general, such as eyes, ears, nose, and so forth. They do this by “binding to the self”—that is, to the mind—the mental factors that accompany it. These mental factors are “phenomena arisen from the nondistinguished” in that they are associated with an internal consciousness that cannot be distinguished, or apprehended, by another’s eye consciousness and so forth. The mental factors involved with the entanglements of the afflictive emotions are “bound” to the mind in the sense that due to strongly contemplating the emptiness of inherent existence, afflictive emotions do not
arise. Such Māntrikas are endowed with “intelligence,” for they have the wisdom capable of investigating their own suchness, their own final nature. Having concentrated on suchness, practitioners rise from solely contemplating the emptiness of inherent existence and, within appearing in the form of a deity and conceiving of themselves to be deities, their own mind of wisdom appears in the aspect of the mantra as if one were hearing another’s recitation of them or resounding of their own accord. Because the mind of wisdom itself is appearing as sound, the sounds of the mantra and one’s own final nature are completely mixed like water and milk.
The practitioner “adheres” in mind to the sounds of the letters, which are “immutable” in that they uninterruptedly appear without any fluctuation “strung together” in a series such that, with proficiency, they become “continual like the sounds of a bell,” the earlier sounds not disappearing with the appearance of the later ones. The sounds are imagined “as abiding in fire,” that is to say, in a tongue of flame at one’s heart; the fire is “quiescent” in the sense that
it does not burn, even though once proficiency is gained, there is a sense of warmth. Also, the sounds of the mantra are “free from words” as they are neither whispered nor mentally repeated in the aspect of one’s reciting them. Moreover, the mantra is endowed with “the branches,” which here means all of its individual letters. “Vitality and exertion,” or breath and distraction, are stopped in order to avoid excitement and scattering of the mind. “Having forsaken sleep” indicates that laxity and slackness in the mode of apprehension of the mind are to be stopped.
Concentration of abiding in sound
When proficiency is achieved in concentrating on the sounds of the mantra in a tiny flame on a moon disc at the heart of one’s own divine body, the meditator proceeds to cultivate the concentration of abiding in sound. This phase involves placing a tiny deity within the flame and then imagining a flame on a moon disc at the heart of the small deity. When this visualization becomes firm, one’s own mind appears as the mantra sounds within the flame at the heart of the tiny inner deity; the smallness of the flame and the withdrawal of the basis of one’s sense of self within a body that is within another body bring about a more intense withdrawal of consciousness but without much danger of laxity because of the brightness of the object of observation, fire. As the Dalai Lama says in commentary:
These unusual objects of observation in the concentrations of abiding in fire and abiding in sound are for the sake of achieving clear appearance and thereby avoiding laxity. For even if the earlier meditations involved the appearance of bright mantra letters and so forth, here one imagines fire itself, even the name of which evokes a bright appearance, thereby helping in relieving the mind of laxity—any looseness in the mode of apprehension of the object. When the mind is able to remain stably and alertly on this new visualization, the meditator takes the sounds of the mantra as the principal object of observation.
The Concentration Continuation Tantra describes two alternative ways of cultivating the concentration of abiding in sound:
Place [a divine body which is] the base of the immutable
[[[mantra]] letters]
In the very peaceful tongue
Of flame with brilliant pure light
That is on a subtle stainless moon disc dwelling at the heart.
Then contemplate the sounds while abiding in bliss.
Or, having set the [written] letters
On the immutable [[[moon disc]]],
Contemplate only the sounds themselves.
Here, it is emphasized that the “moon disc dwelling at the heart” of the practitioner who is visualizing his or her body as a divine body is “subtle” because the smallness of the object helps to eliminate excitement and scattering of the mind. The meditator “places” a small divine body—which is the “base” of a moon on which the mantra letters are set—in the tongue of flame (as imagined in the concentration of abiding in fire) on the small moon at the heart of one’s larger divine body. As earlier, the mantra letters are called “immutable” because they uninterruptedly appear without any fluctuation in a series that is continual like the sounds of a bell.
Then, the meditator leaves off observing these forms and “contemplates the sounds,” which, although the text does not explicitly say so, are viewed as being in the midst of a tiny tongue of flame on a tiny moon at the heart of the tiny deity on the very small moon at the heart of one’s larger divine body. The emphasis here, however, is on just the sounds, which become the principal object of observation and even the sole object of observation in that the other parts only provide context.
The tantra offers a second way to cultivate the concentration of abiding in sound that dispenses with the second deity and even with the flame on the moon. In this version, the meditator “sets the letters,” that is, the written letters, on the edge of “the immutable,” this being the moon disc which is called immutable because it symbolizes the mind of enlightenment realizing the emptiness of inherent existence that abides solely, and thus immutably, in an aspect devoid of dualistic appearance. In this version, the meditator first observes the written letters of the mantra on the moon disc and then, leaving the written letters, “contemplates only the sounds themselves.”
With success at this meditation, a fully qualified calm abiding is achieved—a state of meditative stabilization conjoined with the bliss of mental and physical pliancy. The meditations to this point have employed many techniques to concentrate the mind—to withdraw it from the usual sweep of distraction but without the accompanying dullness and drowsiness that ordinary withdrawal of the senses involves.
In the Sūtra system style of cultivating calm abiding, only one object is the focus of meditation, with other objects used only when techniques to counteract laxity and excitement do not work and either sobering reflection on, for instance, impermanence and death, or revivifying imaginations such as imagining vast acts of charity are needed. Except for such circumstances, the meditator is advised to remain with one and only one object, not switching from it to another.
Here in this Action Tantra, however, a series of meditations that involve switching from object to object upon gaining proficiency with the former serves as a means of keeping the mind alert. Also, the individual meditations themselves call for considerable activity and change; for instance, the reading of mantra letters in a circular fashion on the moon at the heart of the deity in front not only collects the mind in one place but also keeps the mind lively by the very
fact of movement, as is similarly the case with moving the moon and letters to one’s own heart with inhalation and then exhaling them back into the deity in front. Furthermore, the progression from listening to one’s own recitation of mantra, either whispered or mental, to listening to sounds that are like someone else’s recitation or a natural reverberation but which are still an appearance of one’s own consciousness helps to remove distraction in that outside and inside become blended.
All of these factors help to induce the withdrawn and intensely focused mind of calm abiding, but their effects are not limited to building one-pointedness of mind. The very act of imagining one’s own body to be composed not of ordinary substances such as flesh, blood, and bone but of an appearance of consciousness interferes with a basic self-perception—one’s own body—that is usually taken as a given. Such givenness runs counter to dependent-arising and its consequent
emptiness of inherent existence, and thus the undermining of the sense that one’s body is “just there as it is” radically alters a basic self-perception, preparing the way for increased understanding of emptiness. In this fashion Bu-tön Rin-chen-drup (below, 217) says: Through mindfulness of Buddhas and having faith upon recognizing Buddhas and making offerings with resources, collections of merit are always produced. Also,
when meditation of a divine body has become manifest, all phenomena are understood as just appearances of one’s own mind, and moreover, understanding that even the mind is not established arises. Through this and since pristine wisdom is generated in the mental continuum of one with merit, such serves as a cause of pristine wisdom.
At minimum, the meditator, to this point, has been imagining his/her body as composed of an appearance of consciousness, or at least of light, and this process has not just been entertained intellectually but imagined over such a long period of time that one’s new body appears clearly and continually as like that of a deity, and one’s mind similarly manifests in a state far superior to the usual. In dependence upon such enhanced mind and body, one also gains an enhanced sense of self, again undermining perceptions taken in the past to be givens set in place.
Beyond this, the technique of causing the mind to appear as body and as sounds of mantra upsets the division of classes of objects, and the technique of causing one’s mind to appear as sounds that are as if recited by someone else further upsets the ingrained sense of subject and object. Factors of body, mind, self, and subject and object—assumed to be in the warp and woof of appearance— are thereby challenged by substitution meditations that themselves induce a
sense of the implications of the emptiness of inherent existence. Thus, even though the tradition subsumes the meditative stabilizations of exalted body and speech (and thus the concentration with repetition and the first two phases of the concentration without repetition) under the rubric of developing calm abiding and thereby points to an important process being accomplished during these phases, the impact is by no means limited to achieving calm abiding.
Practitioners’ world-views are being challenged in such a way that internal potential for a new way of life is revealed, and groundwork is laid for greater comprehension of the ramifications of emptiness—the refutation of objects’ existing from their own side. The suggestion is that meditation on emptiness through reasonings such as the sevenfold reasoning is not sufficient; it is necessary to coax out its significance by disturbing basic patterns of perception. These
techniques assist in the process of overcoming the sense that phenomena exist under their own power and thereby shake up autonomous complexes, including even the appearance of self-subsisting phenomena such as one’s own body.
Concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound
When the meditative stabilization of exalted speech is complete, practitioners proceed, still within the concentration without repetition, to cultivate the even more subtle meditative stabilization of exalted mind, called the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound. Prior to this point, namely, during the four-branched repetition and the concentrations of abiding in fire and in sound, the main style of meditation was stabilizing meditation, since a
principal aim of those phases was to generate a mind of calm abiding—a one-pointed highly alert and joyous mind spontaneously remaining on its object. During that phase, analytical meditation employing analytical reasoning would have been counterproductive, since it would have interfered with developing onepointedness of mind. However, now that calm abiding has been achieved, stabilizing meditation can be alternated with analytical meditation in such a way that the power of stability is brought to one’s analysis.
The object now is the emptiness of inherent existence. Even though realization of emptiness was cultivated earlier during the first step of self-generation, the ultimate deity, and even though it was involved in all subsequent steps in that the mind realizing emptiness was used (at least in pretend) as the basis of
emanation of the various divine appearances, emptiness was not the central object of meditation. Now, during cultivation of the meditative stabilization of exalted mind, that is, the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound, it is the main focus. The aim is to develop a mind that is a union of calm abiding and special insight realizing emptiness.
Earlier, analysis would have caused the mind to become unstable, and now even though calm abiding has been achieved, too much analysis still tends to promote excitement and reduce the mind’s factor of stability, and thus analysis must be alternated with nonanalysis, setting the mind on its object—the emptiness of inherent existence—without analyzing. Again, when performing stabilization, too much stabilization will harm the factor of analysis, causing one not to want to analyze, and thus, when sufficiently stable, one alternates back to analytical meditation.
At this and preceding levels, stabilizing and analytical styles of meditation work against each other, the one undermining the other. Calm abiding and analysis are like two ends of a scale, the one lowering in force when the other becomes higher. However, this incompatibility is viewed not as being due to the nature of stability and of analysis themselves but as being due to distortions in one’s own mind. The aim in alternating the two styles of meditation is to bring them
to the point where they are in such great harmony that the one, far from harming the other, increases the other; analysis induces even more stability which, in turn, induces greater analytical ability, eventually without any need for alternation. In time, analysis itself induces levels of physical and mental pliancy even greater than those experienced during calm abiding.
As the Dalai Lama says:
Gradually, the power of analysis itself is able to induce physical and mental pliancy similar to those explained earlier with respect to calm abiding, but to a greater degree. The generation of the bliss of physical and mental pliancy, induced through the power of analysis, marks the attainment of fully qualified special insight, and from this point on, one has a union of calm abiding and special insight. One now has powerful weapons for realizing the coarser and subtler levels of emptiness in order to overcome obstructions.
Special insight is defined as a wisdom of thorough discrimination of phenomena conjoined with special pliancy induced by the power of analysis. Etymologically, special insight (lhag mthong, vipaśyanā) is so called because it is sight (mthong, paśya) that exceeds (lhag, vi) that of calm abiding in that analysis induces a clarity surpassing the clarity experienced during calm abiding.
The purpose of the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound is to generate such special insight realizing emptiness, which is subsequently brought to the level of direct perception so that obstructions preventing liberation from cyclic existence and preventing omniscience can be overcome. About the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound, the Concentration Continuation Tantra says:
A Conqueror knows the abandonment of [four] branches [or states]
Of the lords [that is, deities] of knowledge-mantra—
(1) Dependent appearance with the limbs [of a deity], (2) the one called “sound” [whispered repetition],
(3) The mental one [[[mental]] repetition], and (4) what are pure of words [the concentrations of abiding in fire and in sound].
A “Conqueror,” a Buddha, “knows” the stage of liberation when emptiness is meditated after the gradual “abandonment of the branches”—that is to say, after gradually leaving four states of meditation, called “branches” (not to be confused with the four branches of repetition or any of the other meanings of “branches”). These are four states “of the lords of knowledge-mantra,” that is to say, of the deities of knowledge-mantra and of secret mantra who are being meditated. The four states of deities that are left or forsaken in the sense that they no longer are the focus of attention are:
1. “appearance with the limbs” of a deity—that is to say, in a complete divine body—that appears “dependent” upon a style of meditation involving serially reviewing the various aspects of the divine body and adjusting color, shape, and so forth (this being called concentration) and a style of meditation in which one fixes on just one particular aspect of the divine body or just the general body (called meditative stabilization) and which involves binding the breath and stopping distraction
2. “sound,” which here specifically refers to whispered repetition of mantra
3. “the mental one,” that is, mental repetition of mantra
4. “what are pure of words,” these being the concentrations of abiding in fire and in sound in which, even though they involve concentration on mantra, the mind itself appears as the mantra as if recited by someone else or reverberating of its own accord, and thus the concentrations of abiding in fire and in sound are “pure of words,” or free from repetition in the aspect of one’s own words.
These four states are left in the sense that each of the steps is cultivated in meditation until it becomes firm, at which point the next, more subtle level is begun. Leaving or abandoning states, therefore, does not mean that these factors cease to appear; rather, the focus of attention shifts to a more subtle level. Due to having thoroughly trained in the lower levels to the point where their facets appear stably to the mind, it is possible to add something else to the meditation without the former factors disappearing.
What becomes the focus of attention here is the “end” or final nature of “sound,” its emptiness of inherent existence. “Sound” here refers to all four states listed above, since all four involve sound in important respects:
1. The first state, appearance in a divine body, is the place, or basis of mantra sound since the practitioner who is appearing as a deity is the repeater of mantra.
2. The second state is itself “sound” or whispered repetition.
3. The third state, “the mental one,” is mental repetition of the sounds of mantra.
4. The fourth state, “what are pure of words,” these being the concentrations of abiding in fire and in sound which involve the appearance of the sounds of mantra, as if recited by someone else or reverberating of their own accord.
These four are left in the sense that even though they may still appear to the appearance factor of the meditator’s consciousness, they no longer appear to the ascertainment factor of that consciousness, which is concerned only with the emptiness of inherent existence. The meditator has so trained in these appearances that it is possible for them to remain appearing without effort; this allows the meditator simultaneously and explicitly to realize the absence of these same factors’ being established from their own side, their emptiness of inherent existence.
Realization of emptiness was cultivated earlier at the time of the ultimate deity, the first of the six deities in self-generation, at the point of meditating on the suchness of self—one’s own emptiness of inherent existence—and on the suchness of the deity, after which one reflected that one’s own and the deity’s final nature are the same. Also, a sense of the emptiness of inherent existence was maintained throughout the subsequent phases of meditation; however, the
main focus of these meditations was on developing the ability to cause these various elements to appear and thus it was impossible for the meditator to focus on emptiness. Instead, the realization of emptiness, though not manifestly present, affected the practices in the sense that those yogas were conjoined with the force of emptiness yoga. Now, however, emptiness itself becomes the main object of a powerfully focused mind that is so trained that these various appearances continue even while focusing on emptiness.
The description of such a state is facilitated by making a distinction between what appears and what is being ascertained—a divine body and so forth appear, but what is being ascertained is the emptiness of inherent existence. In his Terminology Arising in Secret Mantra, the Scriptural Collections of the Knowledge Bearers, Long-döl Nga-wang-lo-sang b (1719-1794) uses the evocative example of a double moon appearing to someone with defective eyesight (such as nearsightedness) who, all the while, understands that the moon is single. Similarly, to the appearance factor of the consciousness forms and so forth appear,
but to the ascertainment factor only emptiness appears and is realized. The Dalai Lama, in commentary on Action Tantra, speaks clearly to this point: One is no longer mainly concerned with developing clear appearance but is mainly meditating on emptiness. Still, this does not mean that the divine body, sounds, and so forth necessarily no longer appear. Rather, to the ascertainment factor of the concentration on the end of sound only emptiness—a negative of
inherent existence—appears. However, sounds and so forth may still appear to what is called the appearance factor of that consciousness. This means that although the sounds and so forth may appear, the mind is ascertaining or realizing only emptiness. This is the union of the two truths in Mantra—one consciousness appearing in the form of divine body or speech and simultaneously realizing emptiness.
Thus, the difference between the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound and all those preceding is that the earlier deity yoga was merely affected by the force of previously realizing emptiness, whereas now the one consciousness that appears as the mantra sounds, divine body, and so forth also actually and explicitly realizes emptiness. When one consciousness is capable of these two activities, the yoga of the nonduality of the profound (realization of the emptiness of inherent existence) and the manifest (compassionate appearance) is complete. Until this point, the meditator has only been imitating such an ability, and thus the deity yoga of nondual profundity and manifestation, which according to Tsong-kha-pa is the central distinctive feature of tantra (see chapter 10), begins only from this point.
Through gradually cultivating the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound by alternating analytical and stabilizing meditation, the capacity of the mind increases to the point where analysis itself induces an even greater calm abiding than experienced previously. This enhanced calm abiding, in turn, serves as a basis for even greater penetration of the nature of phenomena. This state is called special insight, which necessarily is a union of calm abiding and special insight.
It is evident from this progression of practices that the use of rationality to undermine the appearance of objects as if they inherently existed or existed under their power is aimed at overcoming the sense that phenomena, mental and otherwise, exist under their own power, autonomously. Autonomous complexes are being undermined, not just weakened or accommodated as was Jung’s aim. This Buddhist division of the mind of deity yoga into an appearance factor appearing as
an ideal being and an ascertainment factor realizing emptiness suggests how discrimination is maintained in the face of a profoundly different type of appearance, an ideal being, despite identification with that appearance. Identification has assumed a different meaning, for the meditator merely is identifying himself or herself as that pure person designated in dependence upon purely appearing mind and body and not findable either among or separate from mind and body. This may be how the tantric procedure of deity yoga can go beyond Jung’s emphasis on the conscious mind’s adapting a posture of confrontation of feeling-toned complexes.
In sum, we have seen how the transmutation sought through deity yoga involves development of positive moral qualities, confrontation with neurotic contents and gradual education of them, identification with the sublime, and de-autonomizing objects, consciousnesses, and dysfunctional tendencies through realization of the status of phenomena and through taking emptiness and wisdom as the stuff of appearance. In particular, Jung’s brilliant descriptions of positive and negative inflation have provided an avenue for appreciating the possibility that in deity yoga:
• identification that one’s final nature is an absence of inherent, or autonomous, existence may counteract positive inflation, and
• appearance of the wisdom of emptiness itself as an ideal pure being may counteract negative inflation.
However, as mentioned earlier, his cautions need to be heeded; his insights make it clear that deity yoga, if it is possible, is no easy matter. Given its built-in safeguards and moral tone, deity yoga may actually succeed in overcoming double-edged inflation, despite the enormity of the task. Nevertheless, I will try not to fall into the trap of claiming to have found the universal panacea.
In order to illuminate how the path procedure of Action Tantra fits into the course of spiritual training, the Mongolian scholar Ngawang-pel-den juxtaposes the standard Great Vehicle way of presenting the path in terms of five levels—the paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more learning—with these Action Tantra meditations. His relating these two systems is typical of the synthetic nature of the religious culture in the Tibetan cultural region.
Such juxtaposition not only absorbs a particular system into a grand world-view and thus fulfills a need for coherence and harmony but also enriches understanding of a particular system by intertwining it with a familiar set of vocabulary. Although the fitting together of the two systems can at times become mechanistic, it is both challenging in terms of the attempt to align the two as if they seamlessly were that way from the start and revealing in the sense that, when seen in the context of the larger system, the emphasis of this particular system becomes apparent. Nga-wang-pel-den explains that, related to those
practicing Action Tantra, the first, the path of accumulation, is attained when (1) the practitioners generate a nonartificial aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of others, thinking to accomplish this in dependence upon the path of Action Tantra, (2) enter an Action Tantra maṇḍala, and (3) receive initiation. At that point, practitioners become Mantra Bodhisattvas. Then, during the path of accumulation, they achieve calm abiding by way of the four-branched repetition and the concentrations of abiding in fire and abiding in sound and begin training in the concentration bestowing liberation at the end
of sound. When, in dependence upon this, they generate special insight realizing emptiness, they pass to the Action Tantra path of preparation. In this way, the attainment of a full-fledged concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound—a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight realizing emptiness—marks the beginning of the second of the five paths, the path of preparation.
The Concentration Continuation Tantra itself says nothing more about the remainder of the path, and thus the remainder of Ngawang-pel-den’s description enriches the path-procedure of this tantra through superimposing the remainder of the Sūtra path on the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound. He explains that on the four levels of the path of preparation—called heat, peak, forbearance, and supreme mundane qualities—through further cultivation of the
concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound, the sense of duality between the mind of wisdom and its object, emptiness, gradually diminishes, eventually culminating in direct perception of emptiness, this marking the beginning of the third path, the path of seeing, and the first of the ten Bodhisattva grounds. The mind of meditative equipoise on the path of seeing is totally nondualistic, devoid of the five types of dualistic appearance:
1. There is no conceptual appearance.
2. There is no sense of subject and object; subject and object are like fresh water poured into fresh water, indistinguishable.
3. There is no appearance of inherent existence.
4. There is no appearance of conventional phenomena; only emptiness appears.
5. There is no appearance of difference; although the emptinesses of all phenomena in all world systems appear, they do not appear to be different.
Because of the utterly nondualistic nature of this state, it is impossible for a divine body or any appearance other than emptiness to occur. However, it is not that emptiness blots out or cancels phenomena; rather, the limitations of the unenlightened mind make it impossible for emptiness to be directly realized and for phenomena qualified by emptiness to appear at the same time.
At this point, practitioners begin to overcome obstructions from the root. The initial period of the path of seeing acts as the antidote to intellectually acquired afflictive obstructions, these being (1) forms of ignorance conceiving inherent existence gained by way of incorrect teachings and scriptures and (2) resultant afflictive emotions. Innate afflictive emotions begin to be overcome when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable
of acting as an antidote to the grossest level of innate afflictive emotions, at which point the fourth path, the path of meditation, begins. During this period, Action Tantra Bodhisattvas pass through the remaining nine Bodhisattva grounds, gradually purifying the mind of the innate afflictive emotions and the obstructions to omniscience. The innate afflictive emotions are divided into three levels—big, middling, and small—which in turn are divided into big,
middling, and small, making a total of nine levels. When the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the big of the big innate afflictive emotions, the second Bodhisattva ground is attained. Then, when it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the middling of the big innate afflictive emotions, the third Bodhisattva ground is attained. When it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the small of the
big innate afflictive emotions, the fourth Bodhisattva ground is attained. Similarly, when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the three levels of middling innate afflictive emotions, the fifth, sixth, and seventh Bodhisattva grounds are attained. This pattern is broken with the next step, since the eighth ground is attained when the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound simultaneously
becomes capable of acting as the antidote to all three grades of small innate afflictive emotions. (It surely seems that numerological concerns and devotion to roundness of system dictate the breaking of the pattern.)
Then, during a second phase of the eighth ground, the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the first of four degrees of obstructions to omniscience, these being the “big” level. Then, when it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the middling level of obstructions to omniscience, the ninth Bodhisattva ground is attained. Similarly, the tenth is attained when the concentration bestowing liberation at
the end of sound becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the coarse small level of obstructions to omniscience. During a second phase of the tenth ground, it becomes capable of acting as the antidote to the subtle of the small obstructions to omniscience, immediately after which Buddhahood and the last of the five paths, the path of no more learning, are simultaneously attained.
Since through cultivating the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound over a long period of time a meditator is eventually freed from the afflictive obstructions preventing liberation from cyclic existence and from the obstructions to omniscience, earlier the Concentration Continuation Tantra
said that “The end of sound bestows liberation.” When put in the context of such a path-structure, “liberation” here is seen to refer not just to release from cyclic existence but also to the great liberation of Buddhahood, free from what prevents simultaneous cognition of all objects of knowledge—both phenomena themselves and their final nature, emptiness.
For the concentration bestowing liberation at the end of sound to accomplish the task of removing the obstructions to omniscience, it must be enhanced in force, this being accomplished not only through the usual Great Vehicle means of activities of compassion but also through the particularly tantric means of utilizing special feats in order to promote others’ welfare.a Ge-luk-pa scholars explain that this process of abandoning the innate afflictive emotions and obstructions to omniscience takes two periods of countless eons.
a For a brief discussion of the feats, see below, 202; for a presentation of the purpose of these feats, see my supplement in Deity Yoga, 207-212; for discussion of feats in the context of Yoga Tantra, see H.H the Dalai Lama, Tsong-kha-pa, and Hopkins, Yoga Tantra: Paths to Magical Feats, 64-66 and 110-119.
