Gelug Presentation of Anuttarayoga in General
All the details of the four points for analyzing the increased efficiency of general tantra pertain to anuttarayoga. Beyond that, however, the same four points may help us to understand why the highest class of tantra, anuttarayoga, is even speedier than the other three tantra classes are.
Buddha-Figures as More Subtle
(1) Closer Analogies
Anuttarayoga practice not only entails analogies upward with the results we are trying to
achieve, as is the case in general tantra. The practices that simulate the results are also
analogous downward with the bases we want to purify (sbyang-gzhi), namely our samsaric existence.
Downward Analogies
Samsaric existence entails the uncontrollably recurring experience of death, bardo (the
in-between state), and rebirth. We can describe the process by which the three happen as
changes of subtlety of mental activity.
As we die, our consciousness becomes progressively more subtle, passing from its gross to its subtlest level in eight steps. This is because the physical bases for the grosser levels fail (thim, dissolve), in the sense that they can no longer function as supports for mental activity. At death, only clear-light laser-beam mental activity is left.
1.
In bardo, mental activity becomes slightly grosser as we experience it giving rise to the
subtle appearances that occur during the state between births.
2. With rebirth, mental activity becomes gross once more, back to its ordinary levels, with sense consciousness and its production of gross appearances . 3. The Gelug tradition focuses on purifying our future deaths, the ensuing bardos, and our next rebirths. For Gelug, purifying, here, means to eliminate our samsaric existence such that it never recurs - in other words, to achieve a true stopping (true cessation) of it.
A similar process of change in subtlety occurs when we fall asleep.
1. With deep sleep, we reach an extremely subtle level of mental activity.
When dreaming, the level of mental activity is slightly grosser, producing subtle
appearances.
2. 3. When we awaken, our mental activity returns to the gross sensory level.
Upward Analogies
Although we attain the three inseparable enlightening corpuses of a Buddha (sku-gsum, three Buddha-bodies) simultaneously with the achievement of enlightenment, we may conceive of
the process as involving three steps that parallel what happens with death or sleep. The three
steps are mental activity becoming the subtlest, then slightly grosser, and then more gross.
The subtlest level is dharmakaya (chos-sku, the corpus of a Buddha that encompasses
everything), referring to a Buddha's omniscient mental activity and the nature of that
activity.
1. Slightly grosser is dharmakaya's giving rise to the appearances of a sambhogakaya (longs-sku, a corpus of full use) - a network of subtle forms that make full use of the bodhisattva teachings and which only arya bodhisattvas can perceive. Arya bodhisattvas are bodhisattvas who have experienced nonconceptual cognition of voidness.
2. Even grosser is dharmakaya's giving rise to the appearances of a nirmanakaya (sprul-sku, a corpus of emanations) - a network of grosser forms, emanated from 3.
(1) Closer Analogies 51
sambhogakaya, which some ordinary persons can see as well.
Alternatively, and especially in general anuttarayoga tantra, sambhogakaya is the network of
enlightening speech of a Buddha and nirmanakaya is the network of all manifest forms of a
Buddha's enlightening body, regardless of level of subtlety. A Buddha's speech and physical bodies are each progressively grosser than a Buddha's enlightening mind. Taken together,
nirmanakaya and sambhogakaya constitute a rupakaya, a corpus of enlightening forms
(gzugs-sku, form body).
The Analogous Practices
The anuttarayoga practices for achieving the mind and form bodies of a Buddha are analogous
to the three-step process of both the basis and the resultant levels.
When we die or fall asleep on the basis level, or when we achieve a dharmakaya on the
resultant level, we get down to the subtlest level of mental activity, in eight steps.
Similarly, on the anuttarayoga path, to gain nonconceptual cognition of voidness as the
cause for a Buddha's enlightening mind, we also go down, in eight steps, to the subtlest
level of mind, and access and harness it for this cognition.
1. First, we do this in our imaginations on the generation stage. When our attainments of all the necessary meditation tools are complete through extensive practice in our imaginations, we reach our clear-light minds in actuality as we advance through the steps of the complete stage. Note that clear-light mind, as a term for clear-light mental activity, does not mean that all beings share one clear-light mind. Just as the voidness of each phenomenon is an individual voidness, likewise clear-light mind, as a level of mental activity, is individual in each being. When we achieve a bardo or dream state on a basis level, or a sambhogakaya on the resultant level, our mental activity becomes slightly grosser. Likewise, within the state of understanding voidness, we arise on the path in a subtle form, such as a creative energy-drop (thig-le, Skt. bindu), a seed-syllable (sa-bon), or a simplified Buddha-figure.
2. When we take rebirth or wake up on a basis level, or manifest a nirmanakaya on a resultant one, our mental activity produces gross appearances that normal eye consciousness can perceive. Similarly, on the path, we make the subtle form of a creative energy-drop, and so on, appear in a grosser aspect as the full body of a Buddha-figure.
3. We may understand the purification process by an analogy. Suppose there are two two-story houses sharing one basement in which is located the common source of electricity for both houses. One house is the basis situation of samsara; the other is the resultant situation of enlightenment. The ground story of each house is the level of subtle appearances; the top story is the level of grosser appearances. The common basement is the level of clear-light mental activity.
Suppose that the electricity is flowing only to the samsara house, not to the enlightenment
house. To disconnect the electricity from the samsara house and connect it to the
enlightenment house, we need to go down an eight-step staircase to the basement and change
the connection. Likewise, to purify samsara, in the sense of causing it never to recur, we need
Upward Analogies
to go down to the clear-light level in eight steps and disconnect the appearance-making
mechanism from giving rise to the appearances of samsara. We do this with nonconceptual cognition of voidness. In doing so, we automatically connect the appearance-making
mechanism to the enlightenment house so that it produces the subtle and gross appearances of
the physical corpuses of a Buddha.
Before we are able actually to reach the basement and reconnect the wires, we need to practice
the entire procedure, in the sense of rehearsing it. In other words, we practice doing something
that resembles the procedure - first in our imaginations and then in actual simulations. This is
what it means to practice a path that is analogous to both the basis we wish to purify and the
result we wish to attain. Rehearsing in our imaginations corresponds to generation stage practice; rehearsing with actual simulations corresponds to complete stage practice.
Thus, in anuttarayoga, there are not only more analogies than general tantra contains, both
upward with the result and downward with the basis, but also closer analogies. Moreover, the
practice mimics not only the phenomena we experience on both resultant and basis levels, but
also with how we gain their experience in both. These practices are therefore called "taking
pathway minds for (attaining) the three corpuses of a Buddha" (sku-gsum lam-'khyer):
taking death as a pathway mind for (attaining) a Dharmakaya ('chi-ba chos-sku
lam-'khyer),
1. taking bardo as a pathway mind for (attaining) a Sambhogakaya (bar-do longs-sku lam-'khyer),
2. taking birth as a pathway mind for (attaining) a Nirmanakaya (skye-ba sprul-sku lam-'khyer).
3.
(2) Closer Union of Method and Wisdom
Method in Terms of the Appearance of a Body
Just as there are three levels of mental activity, there are also three levels of body that support
them:
1. The gross level is the body of flesh and blood, with its sensory apparatus. The subtle level is the body of the subtle energy-system of chakras (energy-nodes), channels, energy-winds, and creative energy-drops.
2. The subtlest level of body is the subtlest energy-wind, which is the physical support or counterpart of the subtlest level of mental activity.
3. General tantra unites method and wisdom as two truths about the same phenomenon by taking them as a mind's:
actively producing, or at least having as its physical basis, the appearance of a Buddha-figure's body;
1.
2. cognizing the voidness of that appearance.
According to the Gelug explanation, the phenomenon here in general tantra is the subtle level
of mental activity - our usual mental cognition or yogic nonconceptual cognition. Two
inseparable truths about this phenomenon are its cognitive aspect and its supporting subtle
energy-wind. The appearance of a Buddha-figure that our usual mental cognition or yogic
cognition produces is made from this subtle energy-wind. However, our subtle levels of
The Analogous Practices
mental activity and body do not continue into enlightenment. They do not even continue
during our death existence, before they reemerge with bardo.
In anuttarayoga, on the other hand, we access two aspects of the subtlest level of our mental activity - its clear light cognition and its subtlest energy-wind. Both continue into Buddhahood. Their continuums never cease, even during the period of death. In fact, the inseparable pair underlies every moment of our experience. As wisdom, we generate clear-light mental activity into nonconceptual cognition of voidness and, as method, we generate its supporting subtlest energy-wind into an appearance of a Buddha-figure. This appearance is called a "purified illusory body" (dag-pa'i sgyu-lus). It is purified of the emotional obscurations (nyon-sgrib) preventing liberation. Nonconceptual clear-light cognition of voidness is called "actual clear light" (don-gyi 'od-gsal).
Thus, the union of method and wisdom with the clear-light level in anuttarayoga is closer than
that in general tantra because method and wisdom in anuttarayoga are not only inseparable.
They are accessible each moment, as are the enlightening body and mind of a Buddha.
Moreover, all appearances made of subtle energy-wind appear to exist with true existence,
which is not how they actually exist at all. Thus, with the subtle level of mental activity,
cognition of the appearance of a Buddha-figure cannot occur simultaneously with either
conceptual or nonconceptual cognition of voidness. As a union of method and wisdom, they
can only alternate with equivalent cognitive manners of taking their objects.
In contrast, appearances made solely from subtlest energy-wind appear to exist in the manner in which they actually exist. They appear to exist as dependently-arising phenomena (rten-'brel, Skt. pratityasamutpada) - namely, as phenomena that arise as "this"s or "that"s dependently solely on what the mental labels for them refer to when imputed on a valid basis for labeling. Thus, because dependently-arising phenomena appear as absolutely devoid of existing with true existence, they can appear simultaneously with clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness.
Nonconceptual focus on an absence of true existence occludes (khegs, blocks) an appearance
of true existence, because an absence and a presence of true existence are mutually exclusive.
Such focus does not occlude, however, an appearance of a manner of existence that is
absolutely devoid of true existence - namely, an appearance of dependently-arising existence.
This is because an absence of true existence and a presence of dependently-arising existence
are synonymous.
Thus, the union of method and wisdom in anuttarayoga is especially close because the equivalent manners of cognitively taking the inseparable pair - purified illusory body and actual clear light - can occur simultaneously.
Method in Terms of a Blissful Awareness
In anuttarayoga tantra, method refers not only to producing the body of a Buddha from the subtlest energy-winds, but also to using a blissful awareness for the cognition of voidness. Occasionally, we differentiate the four classes of tantra according to progressively more intense levels of bliss (bde-ba).
1. Kriya tantra suggests the bliss from seeing a partner;
2. charya, from exchanging smiles;
Method in Terms of the Appearance of a Body
3. yoga, from hugging or holding hands;
4. anuttarayoga, the bliss from sexual union with a partner.
The three lower classes of tantra, however, do not necessarily make explicit use of a blissful awareness as method. The four levels of bliss are analogies, made in terms of a feature found
specifically in anuttarayoga, to indicate progressively more intense levels of mind in the four
tantra classes.
Furthermore, the bliss of sexual union that anuttarayoga practice uses as a method is not the bliss of orgasm (' dzag-bde) that arises in ordinary sexual union. Tantra practice never entails orgasmic release or degenerate orgies. To think that it does is a complete misunderstanding of tantra. The point of generating a blissful awareness through the contact of the subtle energy-channels of the two sexual organs is that it naturally leads toward the subtlest level of mind. We wish to access, sustain, and use this clear-light level of mental activity for the cognition of voidness.
When we sneeze, yawn, faint, fall into deep sleep, die, or experience the most intense bliss of sexual union, the subtle energy-winds naturally draw inward and our mental activity approaches the subtlest level. With sneezing or yawning, it is extremely difficult to sustain in meditation the natural dissolution of the energy-winds so that we can focus for an extended period on voidness without the winds immediately exploding back out. Harnessing the
fainting, sleeping, or dying state is likewise difficult, because the mind tends to be dull on
those occasions. If, however, through advanced internal yoga methods, we gain control over
our subtle energy-winds so that we can prevent their explosive release with orgasm, we can
sustain the blissful awareness of union and its naturally resulting subtler level of mind. We
can then use it to dissolve the energy-winds even further to the clear-light level and then to
apply that blissful clear-light awareness to sustained cognition of voidness.
The Two Sets of Obscuration
Two sets of fleeting stains obscure clear-light mental activity:
the emotional obscurations (obstacles) (nyon-sgrib) that are the disturbing emotions and attitudes and which prevent liberation;
1. the cognitive obscurations (shes-sgrib) regarding all knowables and which prevent the omniscience of enlightenment. 2. The cognitive obscurations include the constant habits (bag-chags, instincts) of grasping for true existence, which, Gelug-Prasangika uniquely asserts, produce appearances of true existence every moment of our conceptual and usual nonconceptual cognition. Because of producing such appearances, these constant habits prevent us from cognizing the two truths about anything simultaneously - its appearance and its voidness.
According to Gelug-Prasangika, the emotional obscurations include grasping for true existence (bden-'dzin), with which we believe that the appearances of true existence that we cognize correspond to reality. It also includes the disturbing emotions and attitudes - both doctrinally based (kun-brtags) and automatically arising (lhan-skyes) - which all derive from this grasping. Likewise, this set of obscurations also includes the legacies (sa-bon, seed, tendency) of both types of disturbing emotions and attitudes, which give rise to them intermittently.
Method in Terms of a Blissful Awareness
Doctrinally based disturbing emotions and attitudes derive from having studied and
accepted distorted views of reality as taught by non-Prasangika tenet systems. Such
disturbing emotions and attitudes arise only during conceptual cognition. Examples are
the stubborn attachment and defensiveness that arise when someone challenges our
incorrect beliefs.
• Automatically-arising disturbing emotions and attitudes arise even in nonconceptual sense cognition, such as the anger and attachment that arise in humans and animals when seeing someone grab their favorite toy away from them.
• Nonconceptual cognition of voidness is the true pathway of mind that achieves a true stopping (true cessation) of the two sets of obscurations, such that they never recur. First, it eliminates the emotional obscurations. Only when it has removed all of them forever does it begin to eliminate the cognitive obscurations.
Moreover, nonconceptual cognition of voidness requires the force of a determination to be free (renunciation) to eliminate the emotional obscurations preventing liberation. It further requires bodhichitta to cut through the cognitive obscurations preventing omniscience. To cut through the subtlest level of this second set of obscurations, however, the nonconceptual cognition of voidness, held with the forces of renunciation and bodhichitta, must be with the clear-light level of mental activity.
The Necessity for a Blissful Awareness of Voidness
Clear-light mental activity does not necessarily cognize voidness, although according to the
explanation of the fifteenth-century Gelug master Kaydrub Norzang-gyatso (mKhas-grub Nor-bzang rgya-mtsho), it naturally produces a cognitive appearance similar to that of
voidness. Nor is clear-light cognition necessarily blissful, for instance in death. Nevertheless,
by using the bliss of sexual union as a method for accessing our subtlest level of mental activity and then for cognizing voidness with that blissful clear-light mind, anuttarayoga
practice leads to the most efficient cognitive tool for cutting through all obscurations.
The anuttarayoga cognitive tool, then, is simultaneously:
• a clear-light level of mental activity,
• a blissful awareness,
• a nonconceptual cognition of voidness,
• a cognition held with the force of the determination to be free,
• a cognition held with the force of bodhichitta.
A blissful awareness, a nonconceptual cognition of voidness, and a clear-light cognition are not necessarily inseparable phenomena - one can occur in a moment of cognition without the others simultaneously occurring. Nevertheless, anuttarayoga practice makes them inseparable truths about the same phenomenon: one moment of cognition.
In other words, just as one can hit a target with different arrows, one can use a variety of
minds to gain nonconceptual cognition of voidness. Anuttarayoga uses a blissful clear-light mind, gained through blissful awareness on grosser levels, as the arrow for nonconceptually
perceiving voidness. In this way, blissful clear-light awareness is the mind with nonconceptual cognition of voidness, and thus the union of method and wisdom in anuttarayoga is especially
close. Gelug calls this closeness "inseparable voidness and bliss."
The Two Sets of Obscuration
The graphic representation of Buddha-figure couples in union symbolizes method and wisdom
as two inseparable truths about one phenomenon - clear-light cognition. Yab-yum, the Tibetan
term for the couple, does not mean male and female, or masculine and feminine. It means
father and mother. When the causes for the body and mind of a Buddha are made inseparable
truths about clear-light mental activity, they give birth to enlightenment, as a sexually united
father and mother do to a child.
In short, the subtlest energy-wind and the clear-light mental activity that it supports are
already inseparable truths about clear-light mental activity. Anuttarayoga practice generates
the subtlest energy-wind in the form of a Buddha-figure couple - not just in the form of one
member of the couple - and the clear-light mental activity as a nonconceptual cognition of voidness. Moreover, it accesses the clear-light level through a blissful awareness, and in doing
so, generates clear-light cognition as inseparably a blissful awareness. Thus, anuttarayoga
takes clear-light cognition of voidness as wisdom and, as method, both makes it inseparably a
blissful awareness and makes the energy-wind that already is inseparable with it appear in the
form of a Buddha-figure couple.
(3) Special Basis for Voidness
In anuttarayoga tantra, the special basis for voidness is not simply the body of a
Buddha-figure generated from the subtle energy-winds of our imaginations, as in general
tantra. It is such a body generated from the subtlest energy-winds of our clear-light minds.
Since the clear-light level of mental activity underlies each moment of our experience, the
energy-wind of that level is always available for use in meditation. Thus, anuttarayoga
provides an even more stable basis for voidness upon which to focus than does general tantra.
(4) Special Level of Mental Activity
Introductory Remarks
Regardless of which level of mind we use to cognize voidness, voidness itself remains the
same. The absence of impossible ways of existing understood in bodhisattva sutra and all four classes of tantra is the same. Using the subtlest clear-light level of mental activity for this
cognition, however, has many additional advantages besides its being always available for
practice. This is because clear-light cognition of voidness does not require three zillion
(countless) eons to cut through the emotional and cognitive obscurations, as does sutra
practice
. According to Gelug-Prasangika, sutra practice requires:
A zillion eons to reach yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness and thus a seeing
pathway mind (path of seeing), with the elimination forever of doctrinally based
disturbing emotions and attitudes and their legacies.
1. A second set of zillion eons to eliminate forever the rest of the emotional obscurations preventing liberation and thus to attain the eighth out of ten levels of bhumi mind of arya bodhisattvas (byang-sa). The first seven levels of bhumi mind are unpurified 2.
The Necessity for a Blissful Awareness of Voidness
bhumi minds (ma-dag-pa'i sa) - in other words, levels of a highly realized bodhisattva
mind not fully purified of the emotional obscurations;
A third set of zillion eons to eliminate forever the cognitive obscurations preventing
omniscience and thus to complete the attainment of the last three levels of bhumi mind
of arya bodhisattvas, the purified bhumi minds (dag-pa'i sa) and attain enlightenment.
3.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Is Naturally Nonconceptual
The subtle level of mental activity, the second of the three levels of mind, may be either
conceptual or nonconceptual. Staying on this level requires the first zillion eons of
strengthening our enlightenment-building networks of positive force and deep awareness in
order for our cognition of voidness to become nonconceptual. This is because our mental activity remains on the same level of subtlety as is conceptual cognition. Consequently, our
trying to gain nonconceptual cognition of voidness with this level of mind resembles a rabbit's
trying to escape from a fox while remaining on the ground with the fox. Even if the rabbit
hides, the fox can still find and catch it.
Clear-light mental activity, in contrast, is subtler than all levels of conceptual cognition and thus is exclusively nonconceptual. Therefore, gaining nonconceptual cognition of voidness with a clear-light mind is like the rabbit diving into a deep hole. Just in so doing, it escapes the fox. As soon as we access this subtlest level and focus it on voidness, our cognition of voidness is automatically nonconceptual. It automatically rids us forever of doctrinally based disturbing emotions and attitudes. The first zillion eons are not required.
Moreover, because anuttarayoga accesses clear-light cognition through generating a blissful awareness and dissolving the subtle energy-winds in the central channel, the nonconceptuality
of clear-light mind is easier to maintain than the nonconceptuality of grosser levels.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Is Naturally Free of All Disturbing Emotions and
Attitudes
During nonconceptual total absorption on voidness, all disturbing emotions and attitudes are absent, whether we use the subtle or the subtlest level of mind for this cognition. With the subtle mind, however, held by the force of bodhichitta, the initial nonconceptual absorption on voidness removes forever only the disturbing emotions and attitudes that are doctrinally based. Total elimination (true cessation) of the automatically-arising disturbing emotions and attitudes, such that they never arise again, requires a second zillion eons.
Disturbing emotions and attitudes may accompany only gross and subtle mental activities -
our usual sensory and mental cognitions. Clear-light mental activity, on the other hand, being
subtler than these two levels of mind, is naturally free of all disturbing emotions and attitudes.
By the power of this natural absence, the initial clear-light absorption on voidness has the
force to remove forever the doctrinally based and automatically-arising disturbing emotions
and attitudes simultaneously. An additional second set of zillion eons is not required.
Nonconceptual clear-light cognition of voidness and the total removal of all emotional obscurations preventing liberation occur simultaneously.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Does Not Produce Appearances of True Existence The subtle level of mental activity, whether conceptual or nonconceptual, produces appearances only of true existence. Therefore, when subtle mental activity nonconceptually
Introductory Remarks
cognizes voidness, it cannot simultaneously give rise to any appearance. One moment of mind
cannot cognize an absolute absence of true existence and simultaneously make an appearance
of true existence. The two are mutually exclusive. Thus, because subtle mental activity can
only produce and cognize an unpurified appearance of something, it cannot cognize the two truths about anything simultaneously: that object's appearance and its actual mode of
existence.
Clear-light cognition, on the other hand, produces only purified appearances - appearances of a mode of existence totally devoid of all impossible ways. Thus, clear-light cognition - and only clear light cognition - can simultaneously cognize appearances and voidness.
Specifically, it can simultaneously cognize appearances of a mode of existence devoid of true existence and an absolute absence of true existence. For this reason, even in sutra and the three lower classes of tantra, one needs ultimately to access and use clear-light mental activity for cognizing voidness. This is in order to cognize the two truths about things simultaneously, as a Buddha's omniscient awareness does.
Using the sutra methods requires a third zillion eons to achieve clear-light cognition of voidness. The methods of the three lower tantras bring it more quickly, but still require a great amount of time. In either case, this clear-light cognition occurs only during the final phase of practice before Buddhahood, namely at the final phase of a tenth -level bhumi mind.
Anuttarayoga accesses it already when first gaining nonconceptual cognition of voidness - in other words, with the attainment of a seeing pathway mind and a first level bhumi mind. Thus, anuttaryoga does not require the third zillion eons to gain simultaneous cognition of the superficial and deepest truths about the Buddha-figure body that it makes appear. Nevertheless, anuttarayoga still requires considerable familiarization with cognizing the two truths simultaneously, in order to maintain such cognition as a Buddha does, without any break.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Can Have Omniscient Awareness
The mode of existence with which everything actually exists, and which clear-light mental activity cognizes simultaneously with everything's absence of existing in impossible ways, is
as dependently-arising phenomena. Everything arises or exists dependently on, or in relation
to:
1. a basis for labeling, a mental label, and what the mental label refers to;
2. parts;
3. in the case of nonstatic (impermanent) phenomena, causes and conditions. Moreover, everything arises or exists interrelatedly and interdependently. Everything that occurs at this moment
has arisen dependently on everything that has ever occurred before, such as history and so on;
1.
2. is interconnected with everything else that is occurring now;
3. will affect everything that will occur in the future.
Thus, in accurately cognizing the interdependence and interrelatedness of everything,
clear-light mental activity becomes omniscient awareness.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Does Not Produce Appearances of True Existence 59
When first accessed, however, clear-light mind does not function omnisciently. Although it is
naturally free of the emotional obscurations that are disturbing emotions and attitudes, it is not
free of the cognitive obscurations regarding all knowables. This latter set of obscurations
gives rise to appearances of true existence, although not while clear-light mental activity is
manifest.
So long as the appearance-making of true existence can recur, the cognitive obscurations still exist as what can be labeled or imputed on the mental continuum. When clear-light mental activity can be maintained forever, without any break, the existence of the cognitive obscurations can no longer be imputed on that mental continuum. At this point, the clear-light mental activity of that mental continuum becomes omniscient awareness. This is the attainment of only a Buddha. Because of its special practices with clear-light mental activity, anuttarayoga does not require the third zillion eons to reach this omniscient state.
Non-Gelug Variations Concerning General
The non-Gelug traditions agree with most points made by Gelug concerning why anuttarayoga
is a more efficient and speedier path than the three lower tantras. We need to note, however,
the following additions or variations.
(1) Closer Analogies
General Sakya Anuttarayoga
When meditating in analogy to death, bardo, and rebirth, Sakya emphasizes purifying the past
- namely, our deaths from our immediately preceding lives, the bardos that ensued, and our
present rebirths. Purifying, here, means eliminating being under the influence of our previous
karma.
Nyingma and Kagyu Practices Influenced by Nyingma
In Nyingma and in Kagyu practices influenced by Nyingma, the three-part analogy also
corresponds to the three progressively grosser aspects of rigpa. In terms of rigpa, the analogies
also work both downward as the unrealized Buddha-nature and upward as the fully realized
Buddha-nature of an enlightened being.
The essential nature (ngo-bo) of rigpa is its primal purity (ka-dag), its absence of all fleeting grosser levels of mental activity and of all impossible ways of existing.
1. Its influence ('phrin-las) is its compassionate responsiveness (thugs-rje, compassion), its communicative activity.
2. Its functional nature (rang-bzhin) is that it spontaneously establishes appearances (lhun-grub), based on its responsiveness.
3. Thus, in anuttarayoga practice or its dzogchen equivalent:
analogous to death, sleep, dharmakaya, and rigpa's primal purity, we access the subtlest level of mental activity;
1. analogous to bardo, the dream state, sambhogakaya as subtle forms or speech, and rigpa's compassionate responsiveness, we arise, within the state of rigpa, as
2.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Can Have Omniscient Awareness compassion;
analogous to birth, the awake state, nirmanakaya, and rigpa's spontaneously establishing appearances, we arise within a state of compassion in the form of seed-syllables and, from them, as Buddha-figures.
3. Equivalent to Nyingma practice analogous to the subtle movement of rigpa with compassion is the anuttarayoga practice of inciting by songs (glus-bskul), found in both the non-Gelug and Gelug traditions. Incited by female Buddhas singing songs of the four immeasurable attitudes (mtshams-med bzhi, four Brahma-viharas) of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, we arise from focus on voidness and appear in subtle forms to help others. This is analogous to dharmakaya appearing as sambhogakaya.
The Sakya tradition of lamdray (lam-'bras, the path together with its results), practiced in
conjunction with the Buddha-figure Hevajra (Kyai rdo-rje), includes further analogies in
meditation.
As human beings, our subtle bodies have as provisional all-encompassing foundations (gnas-skabs-kyi kun-gzhi, provisional alaya) the four mandala-seats (gdan dkyil-'khor bzhi):
1. energy-channels,
2. subtle syllables within them,
3. creative energy-drops,
4. energy-winds.
Based on these, the appearance-making aspects (gsal-cha, clarity aspect) of our subtlest
clear-light minds, as our ultimate all-encompassing foundations (mthar-thug-gi kun-gzhi,
ultimate alaya), produce two inseparable quantum levels of unpurified appearances of our
bodies, speech, minds, and the inseparable simultaneity of the three. The two quantum levels
are their gross appearances in our usual human forms and their subtle appearances as
Buddha-figures.
By meditating in analogy with the four mandala-seats, we purify ourselves of the four, in the
sense of achieving a true stopping of them. Consequently, the appearance-making aspects of
our clear-light minds analogously give rise on the path to two inseparable quantum levels of
purified appearances of body, speech, mind, and the inseparable simultaneity of the three.
Through further practice, on the resultant level, the appearance-making aspects of our
enlightening clear-light minds give rise to the two inseparable quantum levels of gross
enlightening appearances of nirmanakaya and the subtle enlightening ones of sambhogakaya.
(2) Closer Union of Method and Wisdom
According to the nineteenth-century Rimey (nonsectarian movement) master
Jamyang-kyentsey-wangpo (' Jam-dbyangs mkhyen-rtse dbang-po), many of the seeming
contradictions in the explanations of the four Tibetan traditions arise because of a difference
in viewpoint from which each approaches the Dharma.
1. The Gelug tradition explains from the point of view of the basis,
3. Kagyu and Nyingma from the point of view of the result.
Nyingma and Kagyu Practices Influenced by Nyingma 61
For example,
Gelug asserts that clear-light mind is not innately blissful, because, ordinarily, clear-light cognition at the moment of death is not blissful.
1. Because anuttarayoga practitioners on the path generate clear-light cognition into a blissful awareness, Sakya describes clear-light mind as naturally blissful. It is the "youth of the mind."
2. Since the omniscient clear-light awareness of a Buddha is blissful and all Buddha-qualities are already complete in clear-light mind or rigpa, Kagyu and Nyingma also assert clear-light mind as a blissful awareness . 3. Thus, because of the pathway and resultant viewpoints from which the non-Gelug traditions describe clear-light mental activity, they assert that blissful awareness as method in anuttarayoga is especially close to clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness as wisdom. We need merely to enhance the blissful awareness that is already there, or remove the obscurations preventing its full functioning, in order to reach or access the blissful awareness of the clear-light mind.
(3) Special Basis for Voidness
According to the Sakya and Kagyu traditions, a purified illusory body is a more special basis
for voidness than the purified appearance of the body of a Buddha-figure that appears during
yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness in sutra and the three lower tantras. Purified
illusory bodies and the purified appearances that occur during yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness are both made from the subtlest energy-winds. Nevertheless, the grosser
energy-winds that can fabricate and project dualistic appearances onto such appearances are
still present on the level of yogic cognition. As is the case with disturbing emotions and
attitudes, the undissolved subtle energy-winds can destabilize and in a sense infect the purified
appearances. A purified illusory body avoids such dangers of infection from dualistic
appearance-making, and thus serves as a basis particularly conducive for focusing
simultaneously on its voidness.
Nyingma Explanation
The Nyingma dzogchen tradition does not explain pure appearances in terms of subtlest
energy-wind. Instead, it explains them as the natural effulgence (rtsal) of rigpa, deriving from
rigpa's functional nature of spontaneously establishing appearances. The essential nature of
rigpa is its primal purity, namely its voidness. Thus rigpa's functional nature and essential nature, namely its pure appearances and its voidness, are two aspects of the same
phenomenon.
The Nyingma presentations of bodhisattva sutra and the three lower tantras do not include discussions of rigpa or methods for accessing it. Although yogic nonconceptual cognition also cognizes pure appearances, the cognition of them is still on the level of limited awareness. Consequently, limited awareness can destabilize or infect these appearances.
(2) Closer Union of Method and Wisdom
(4) Special Level of Mental Activity
Introductory Remarks Concerning the Two Sets of Obscurations
The Karma Kagyu presentation of the Prasangika Madhyamaka assertion of the two sets of
obscurations and the stages in which they are eliminated agrees, in structure, with the
Gelug-Prasangika view. As I do not have sufficient information to outline the Karma Kagyu
presentation of these points in terms of its Maha-Madhyamaka view followed in tantra, let us
restrict our discussion here to the Nyingma and Sakya positions. The Nyingma and Sakya traditions assert that both the Prasangika-Madhyamaka and Svatantrika-Madhyamaka schools
accept the presentation of the two obscurations that Gelug and Karma Kagyu assert that only
Svatantrika-Madhyamaka accepts.
If we simplify the Nyingma and Sakya positions, then The emotional obscurations include the unawareness associated with grasping for an impossible "soul" of persons (gang-zag-gi bdag-'dzin , grasping for the self of persons). This is grasping for persons to have a soul that is a nonstatic, monolithic entity separate from the aggregates or that is self-sufficiently knowable. Also included among this set of obscurations are the legacies (sa-bon , seeds, tendencies) of this unawareness, plus all the disturbing emotions and attitudes, as well as their legacies.
• The cognitive obscurations include the unawareness associated with grasping for an impossible "soul" of phenomena (chos-kyi bdag-'dzin , grasping for the self of phenomena). This refers to grasping for all phenomena, including persons, to have truly established existence. Also included among this set of obscurations are the habits (bag-chags ) of this unawareness, plus the habits of all the emotional obscurations.
• Shravakas (nyan-thos , listeners to Buddha's teachings, striving to become arhats, liberated beings) achieve a true stopping of only the first set of obscurations. They do this with cognition of an absolute absence of the impossible "soul" of persons defined as above. From the shravaka point of view, this cognition is nonconceptual, but from a bodhisattva viewpoint, it is still subtly conceptual because absolute absences are objects only of conceptual cognition. Gelug, in contrast, asserts that shravakas and bodhisattvas nonconceptually cognize the same voidness. The voidness they nonconceptually cognize in common is an absolute absence of true existence. Karma Kagyu agrees with Gelug on these points only in terms of sutra Prasangika. From the point of Karma Kagyu Maha-Madhyamaka, only bodhisattvas cognize voidness beyond words and concepts and
All traditions agree that bodhisattva practitioners, both of sutra and of tantra, achieve a true
stopping of both sets of obscurations. According to Nyingma and Sakya, in gaining
nonconceptual cognition of voidness that is beyond words and concepts with respect to all
phenomena, bodhisattva practitioners also gain this cognition with respect to persons.
Although they finish removing the first set of obscurations before completing removal of the
second, they start to eliminate the two sets of obscurations simultaneously, rather than
consecutively as Gelug and Karma Kagyu Prasangika theories assert.
The non-Gelug traditions include three positions concerning the realization that eliminates forever the two sets of obscurations.
(4) Special Level of Mental Activity
The mainstream Sakya tradition asserts voidness beyond words and concepts as self-voidness, an ontological state. Thus, voidness nonconceptually realized in bodhisattva sutra and tantra is the same.
1. The Nyingma tradition asserts voidness beyond words and concepts in both a self-void and other-void sense. Bodhisattva sutra and tantra practitioners realize the same self-voidness, but only practitioners of dzogchen realize other-voidness as the cognitive state of rigpa.
2. The Karma and Shangpa Kagyu Maha-Madhyamaka traditions assert voidness beyond words and concepts as other-voidness. They use the term " self-voidness" only in the sense of a nonimplicative negation, an absolute absence. Although the manner of other-voidness is also beyond words and concepts, they do not call that manner of existence "self-voidness." Other-voidness is beyond self-voidness in the way that they define self-voidness. Thus, although the manner of existence of all phenomena nonconceptually realized in bodhisattva sutra and tantra is the same, the attainment of other-voidness realized in bodhisattva sutra and the three lower tantras is not the definitive other-voidness realized in anuttarayoga.
3. As in Gelug, non-Gelug asserts that attainment of a bodhisattva seeing pathway mind, then an eighth level bhumi mind of an arya bodhisattva (the first of the three purified bhumi minds), and then enlightenment requires a zillion eons each when practicing only the bodhisattva sutra methods.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Is Naturally Nonconceptual
The non-Gelug systems agree with Gelug that because clear-light mental activity is
automatically nonconceptual, it is free of the shortcomings of gaining nonconceptual cognition of voidness while remaining on the same level of mind as conceptual cognition.
Gaining nonconceptual cognition of voidness does not require a zillion eons.
Clear-Light Mental Activity is Naturally Free of All Disturbing Emotions and
Attitudes
Assertions Common to All Non-Gelug Traditions
The non-Gelug schools also agree with Gelug that clear-light cognition is naturally free of all
disturbing emotions and attitudes, both conceptually based and automatically arising. In
accordance with their definitions of the two sets of obscurations, clear-light cognition is also
naturally free of unawareness about the actual mode of existence of both persons and all
phenomena.
Although yogic nonconceptual cognition of the voidness of phenomena attained in bodhisattva sutra and the three lower tantras is also free of these obscurations, it is still at the subtle level of mind at which all of them occur.
Assertions Specific to Nyingma
According to Nyingma, yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness gained on the bodhisattva
sutra path requires a zillion eons to eliminate forever:
1. the doctrinally based emotional obscurations,
2. the doctrinally based cognitive obscurations.
Introductory Remarks Concerning the Two Sets of Obscurations
A second set of zillion eons is required for this yogic cognition to eliminate forever:
1. the automatically arising emotional obscurations,
2. the first six out of nine grades of automatically arising cognitive obscurations. Clear-light mind accessed through anuttarayoga methods, on the other hand, has enhanced power from the preceding generation of bliss and preceding dissolution of the energy-winds in meditation. This is still the case even when, in dzogchen practice, the generation and dissolution do not immediately precede the manifestation of rigpa, but have occurred during earlier anuyoga practice. Further, rigpa made manifest through the dzogchen methods has the additional power of the dzogchen methods.
Clear-light mental activity not only has enhanced efficiency and sustainability; it is deeper than the level at which the disturbing emotions and attitudes operate. Thus, the initial attainment of clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness totally eliminates all the disturbing emotions and attitudes, including unawareness regarding persons - both doctrinally based and automatically arising - and their legacies and habits. Because it is deeper than the conceptual level, its first attainment also eliminates doctrinally based unawareness about phenomena and its habit.
In other words, the initial-level attainment of clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness eliminates forever the emotional obscurations and the doctrinally based cognitive obscurations. Thus, except for the first six out of nine grades of the automatically arising cognitive obscurations - namely, the first six out of nine grades of automatically arising unawareness about phenomena, and their habits - it totally eliminates all the other obscurations that would otherwise take two sets of zillion eons to remove.
Assertions Unique to Sakya
According to the Sakya explanation, the initial attainment of yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness in bodhisattva sutra and the three lower tantras and of clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness in anuttarayoga equally eliminate forever:
1. the doctrinally based and automatically arising emotional obscurations,
2. the doctrinally based cognitive obscurations.
Thus, all the emotional obscurations, together with the doctrinally based obscurations preventing omniscience, are eliminated forever all at once, regardless of the bodhisattva method used for attaining nonconceptual cognition of voidness beyond words and concepts. This attainment through yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness gained through bodhisattva sutra methods requires a zillion eons. When attained through clear-light nonconceptual cognition gained through anuttarayoga methods, it needs much less time.
A second zillion eons is required in bodhisattva sutra to attain yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness effortlessly and spontaneously, so as to eliminate forever:
1. the first six of the nine grades of the automatically arising cognitive obscurations. Because of the exceptional methods of anuttarayoga that dissolve the grosser levels of mental activity on which unawareness about phenomena operates, clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness is much easier to reach spontaneously and effortlessly than is yogic
Assertions Specific to Nyingma
nonconceptual cognition of voidness with other methods. Thus, anuttarayoga does not require
a second set of zillion eons.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Does Not Produce Appearances of Any of the Four
Extreme Modes of Impossible Existence
According to the Nyingma and Sakya explanations in common, yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness in sutra requires a third set of zillion eons to eliminate forever: (1) the final three out of nine grades of automatically arising cognitive obscurations. [For a more advanced discussion, see: Ridding Oneself of the Two Sets of Obscurations in Sutra and Anuttarayoga Tantra According to Nyingma and Sakya {15}.
Conceptual cognition produces appearances of objects as truly existent "this"s and "that"s. Sensory and mental nonconceptual cognitions produce appearances of objects as not truly existent "this"s and "that"s. Both appearances are unpurified appearances, because conceptual and nonconceptual cognition of them are both accompanied by unawareness. Conceptual cognition is accompanied by the unawareness of not knowing how what appears exists and taking it to exist in a manner contradictory to how it actually exists.
1. Sensory and mental nonconceptual cognitions are accompanied by simply the unawareness of not knowing how what appears actually exists.
2. The habits of the unawareness included among the emotional obscurations produce the appearances of truly existent "this"s and "that"s during conceptual cognition. The habits of the unawareness included among the cognitive obscurations produce the appearances of objects as not truly "this"s and "that"s.
When we have eliminated forever the emotional obscurations, our conceptual cognitions no
longer produce appearances of truly existent "this"s and "that"s. Only when we have totally
removed the final three grades of cogntive obscurations do our sensory and mental
nonconceptual cognitions stop producing appearances of objects as not truly existent "this"s
and " that"s. At that point, as Buddhas, we no longer experience sensory or mental cognition.
The omniscient awareness of a Buddha is beyond both.
Appearances According to Non-Gelug
Eliminating the final group of obscurations with clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness beyond words and concepts does not require the third set of zillion eons that doing so
with yogic nonconceptual cognition of it requires in sutra. This is because, like omniscient
awareness, clear-light mental activity is beyond sensory and mental cognition and does not
produce appearances of either truly existent or not truly existent " this"s and "that"s. It is
subtler than the levels of mind that produce these unpurified appearances. Clear-light
nonconceptual cognition of nondenumerable voidness, when manifest, gives rise exclusively
to purified appearances.
[For a more advanced discussion, see: Alaya and Impure Appearance-Making {10} {18}.]
Assertions Unique to Sakya
Further, the third group of obscurations prevents nonconceptual cognition of voidness beyond
words and concepts from cognizing purified appearances and voidness simultaneously with
equal prominence and from cognizing them without a break in continuity. Only clear-light
mental activity is capable of such cognition, because only it continues without disruption and
only it continues into enlightenment. The subtle level of mental activity at which yogic
nonconceptual cognition of voidness operates cannot be sustained during the experience of
death and it ceases altogether with enlightenment.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Has More Stable Reflexive Deep Awareness of Its
Own Nature
Clear-light mental activity lacks all forms of unawareness, including the unawareness of not
knowing how things actually exist. This is because it is subtler than the levels at which
unawareness manifestly occurs. Moreover, not only does it lack unawareness, it naturally has
the reflexive deep awareness (rang-rig ye-shes) of how everything actually does exist.
Yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness attained in bodhisattva sutra and the three lower tantras also has reflexive deep awareness. Nevertheless, yogic cognition is still at the level of
mind at which this deep awareness may not be operational. Consequently, the reflexive deep awareness of clear-light cognition is more stable.
Clear-Light Mental Activity Can Have Omniscient Awareness
Words and concepts imply an impossible mode of existence - namely, that things exist in the
solid categories delineated by them. In other words, words and concepts imply that the fabric
of the interrelatedness of everything is divided into boxes or categories, with solid lines
around them, and that phenomena in these boxes or categories correspond to reality. This is
not so. It is an impossible mode of existence.
Nonconceptual cognition of voidness beyond words and concepts, whether with yogic cognition or clear-light mental activity, does not produce unpurified appearances of any of the four extreme modes of impossible existence. Thus, it does not produce appearances of things existing in the solid categories of truly existent "this"s or "that"s or not truly existent "this"s or "that"s. In this sense, the purified appearances that nonconceptual cognition of nondenumerable voidness produces are beyond words and concepts.
Only clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness, however, can give rise to the entire
fabric of the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of everything. Only clear-light mental activity can become omniscient awareness. This is true because of the following line of
reasoning.
Clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness gives rise to purified appearances simultaneously with their voidness. Nevertheless, it cannot do so at first with both appearances and voidness being equally prominent. The same is true concerning yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness beyond words and concepts.
• So long as the unpurified appearance-making of conceptual cognition can recur, the habits of unawareness of how phenomena exist, which give rise to unpurified appearance-making, can still be imputed on the mental continuum. These habits do not produce unpurified appearances while purified appearances are arising. Nevertheless, their unpurified appearance-making in a sense infects the purified appearances.
• Clear-Light Mental Activity Does Not Produce Appearances of Any of the FourExtreme Mod6e7s of Impossible Because of that, a cognition producing purified appearances is not omniscient so long as these habits can still be imputed, whether the cognition is with clear-light cognition or yogic cognition.
Unlike yogic nonconceptual cognition of voidness, clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness can be sustained forever without any break. When, with the removal forever of the obscurations regarding all knowables, this clear-light cognition can be so sustained, the habits of unawareness that produce unpurified appearances can no longer be imputed on the mental continuum. Because of that, the clear-light cognition can occur with purified appearances and voidness being equally prominent. When this is the case, clear-light mental activity cognizes the entire fabric of all that is knowable.
Thus, it becomes the omniscient awareness of a Buddha. • The interrelatedness of everything does not mean that the accurate mode of existence of everything is as an undifferentiated oneness. Within the fabric of interconnectedness, everything still maintains its individuality. Nevertheless, things exist maintaining their individualities in a manner that is beyond the solid boxes that would correspond to the words and concepts for them.
Yogic and clear-light nonconceptual cognition of nondenumerable voidness and omniscient
awareness all naturally have the deep awareness cognizing individuality (so-sor rtogs-pa'i
ye-shes). Because only clear-light mental activity has the capacity to function as the
omniscient awareness of a Buddha, only its innate deep awareness cognizing individuality has
the capacity to cognize the individuality of everything
.
Kalachakra
(1) Closer Analogies
The Kalachakra Tantra has many unique features not shared in common with the other
anuttarayoga Buddha-figure systems. The upward and downward analogies of general
anuttarayoga still pertain to its practice, except that Kalachakra does not entail practice
analogous to bardo and sambhogakaya. It has practices analogous only to death and
dharmakaya, and to rebirth and nirmanakaya. This is for reasons explained below.
Nevertheless, Kalachakra practice involves additional downward and upward analogies.
Kalachakra (Dus-'khor) means cycles of time and there are three such cycles, each of which is
analogous to the other two:
1. external cycles of time, through which the universe passes,
2. internal cycles, through which the body passes, alternative cycles, referring to the Kalachakra empowerment and practice, and to enlightenment.
3. The external and internal cycles describe samsara. They repeat uncontrollably because of the winds of karma (las-kyi rlung) and the unawareness of reality that drives these winds. The alternative cycles of time purify us of the true causes for experiencing the true problems of the external and internal cycles.
For example, the external cycles entail, for a universe:
Clear-Light Mental Activity Can Have Omniscient Awareness
1. eons of formation,
3. eons of disintegration,
For a year:
1. spring, when foliage grows,
2. summer, when it endures,
3. autumn, when foliage falls apart,
4. winter, when the trees are empty.
Analogous to the external cycles, the internal cycles include the karmic winds passing through four subtle creative energy-drops (thig-le bzhi) in the subtle body, producing the appearances of the four occasions (gnas-skabs bzhi). Appearances may be of sights, sounds, odors, tastes, physical sensations, or ways of being aware of something, such as bliss.
The body creative-drop produces the appearances experienced while awake, which grow through sensory experience.
1.
The speech creative-drop produces the appearances experienced while dreaming,
which are enduring images that do not organically grow or age.
2. The mind creative-drop produces the appearances experienced in deep dreamless sleep, when external sensory experience falls away.
3. The deep-awareness creative-drop produces the appearances experienced during orgasmic release, which are the gateways to the subtlest level of experience, empty of all grosser levels.
4. Through practices that parallel the four occasions, we achieve a Buddha's
1. nirmanakaya, with enlightening appearances that arise and appear to grow,
sambhogakaya, with enlightening appearances that endure until the end of everyone's
samsara,
2. jnana-dharmakaya (ye-shes chos-sku, corpus of deep awareness encompassing everything), in which all conceptual cognition and limitations have fallen away,
3. svabhavakaya (ngo-bo-nyid sku, nature corpus), which, uniquely in Kalachakra, is the blissful awareness of omniscient awareness.
4. The external, internal, and alternative cycles share many other analogous features, such as: externally, the six months each of the northern and southern declinations of the sun, and the six types of subatomic particles;
1. internally, the six aggregate factors of experience, the six bodily elements, the six types of primary consciousness, the six cognitive sensors, and so forth;
2. alternatively, the six Buddha-families of the Kalachakra mandala, and the five types of deep awareness (five Buddha-wisdoms) plus clear-light awareness itself as their basis.
3. In addition, the physical proportions of the universe, the human body, the Kalachakra mandala, and its principal figure parallel each other.
(1) Closer Analogies
(2) Closer Union of Method and Wisdom
In Kalachakra, wisdom refers to the nonconceptual clear-light cognition of voidness without
aspect (rnam-med) and with aspect (rnam-can). Voidness without aspect is voidness itself -
either as self-voidness, other-voidness, or both, depending on the Tibetan tradition. Voidness
with aspect is the devoid-form (stong-gzugs) of a Buddha-figure.
Devoid forms are devoid of the gross particles of the elements, and are the reflexive appearances (rang-snang) of the clear-light mind that arise when the energy-winds enter the central energy-channel. They resemble appearances that arise on a magic-mirror (phra-phab) and may be in any form, not only that of a Buddha-figure.
The fourteenth-century Gelug master Gyaltsab Jey (rGyal-tshab rJe Dar-ma Rin-chen) explains that devoid forms are devoid of the gross particles of the elements in both senses of the superficial truth of gross particles - what they are and how they appear to exist. On the one hand, devoid-forms are not made of gross particles and are therefore a form of physical phenomenon that is subtler than they are. On the other hand, they do not appear to exist with true existence. The gross particles of the elements always appear to be truly existent.
The energy-winds do not need to be dissolved in the central channel and, consequently, clear-light mental activity does not need to be manifest for devoid-forms to appear. Moreover, even if clear-light mental activity is manifest, it does not need to cognize voidness in order for devoid-forms to arise.
Method in Kalachakra is unchanging blissful awareness (mi-'gyur-ba'i bde-ba). This is a
blissful clear-light nonconceptual awareness of voidness; but unlike in general anuttarayoga tantra, it is based on two sets of 21,600 subtle creative energy-drops stacked one by one in the
central channel. The two sets are different from the four subtle creative-drops of the four
occasions.
Although unchanging blissful awareness is intermittent - it occurs only during total absorption on voidness - the stacked drops remain fixed until the attainment of enlightenment. Because of that, the blissful awareness is "unchanging." With the attainment of enlightenment, we no longer have gross or subtle bodies. Our former samsaric bodies, the stacked drops, and the four drops of the four occasions all disappear like a rainbow.
In general anuttarayoga,
1. blissful awareness and illusory body are on the side of method;
2. clear-light cognition of voidness is on the side of wisdom.
Thus, the obtaining causes for the enlightening bodies and mind of a Buddha are on the sides
of method and wisdom respectively.
In Kalachakra,
1. unchanging blissful awareness is on the method side;
2. devoid-forms and clear-light cognition of voidness are on the wisdom side.
Thus, the obtaining causes for enlightening bodies and mind are both on the wisdom side.
They share the same similar-family cause (rigs-'dra'i rgyu).
(2) Closer Union of Method and Wisdom
A similar-family cause is one that is in the same family of phenomena as its result and, in a
sense, serves as the model for its result. For example, the model of a vase is the similar-family
cause for both a clay vase and a visualized vase. The model of a vase, a clay vase, and a
visualized vase are all in the same family of phenomena - vases.
In Kalachakra, sharing the same similar-family cause are
1. unchanging blissful clear-light cognition of voidness, and the devoid-forms that both give rise to this cognition and are the reflexive appearance of this cognition.
2. The similar-family cause that they share is the total absorption of clear-light cognition of voidness. In this respect, Kalachakra has a closer union of method and wisdom than does general anuttarayoga.
(3) Special Basis for Voidness
In general anuttarayoga, only a purified illusory body as a basis for voidness can appear
during total absorption on voidness with actual clear-light cognition. This is because only
purified illusory bodies are made solely from the subtlest energy-wind, which is only
accessible when the actual subtlest clear-light level is reached. Further, because appearances
made solely from the subtlest energy-wind do not appear to be truly existent, they can appear
simultaneously with their absolute absence of impossible ways of existing.
Before achieving actual clear-light cognition of voidness, we practice with an unpurified illusory body or with the imagined bodies of Buddha-figures, both of which are made from grosser levels of energy-wind. According to Gelug, grosser levels of energy-wind make only appearances of true existence. Because of that, such bases for voidness can only appear during the subsequent realization period when the level of mental activity and thus the energy-winds are grosser. Even when total absorption on voidness is conceptual, such bodies - appearing to be truly existent - cannot appear simultaneously with an appearance of empty space representing an absolute absence of the appearance of true existence.
Devoid-forms, as bases for voidness, on the other hand, are reflections of clear-light mental activity and thus do not appear to be truly existent. They appear once the energy-winds have
been made to enter the central channel, whether or not clear-light mental activity is manifest,
and whether or not cognition is nonconceptual. Because they do not appear as truly existent,
they cannot arise while the mind is simultaneously giving rise to appearances of true existence. They can arise only while the mind is giving rise to an appearance of an absolute absence of the appearance of true existence. In other words, they can appear only during total
absorption on voidness, either conceptual or nonconceptual, so long as the energy-winds have
been made to enter the central channel. Thus, devoid-forms are extremely special bases for
voidness since they can appear simultaneously with cognition of their voidness.
The fact that we meditate with devoid-forms, as the cause for achieving the enlightening body
of a Buddha, only during total absorption on voidness explains why Kalachakra does not
entail practices analogous to bardo. We achieve bardo only when the grosser energy-winds
that make appearances of true existence arise again after the experience of the clear-light
(3) Special Basis for Voidness
awareness of death. The bardo-body we then manifest is made of those grosser energy-winds.
Since devoid-forms are not made of the grosser energy-winds that make appearances of true existence, practice with them does not resemble the experience of bardo.
In contrast, before manifesting an actual clear-light nonconceptual cognition of voidness, we can meditate with illusory bodies, as the cause for achieving an enlightening body, only during subsequent realization of voidness. This is because such bodies are made from the grosser energy-winds that make appearances of true existence, and such appearances arise during subsequent realization of voidness, as they do while experiencing bardo. Therefore, general anuttarayoga has practices that are analogous with bardo.
(4) Special Level of Mental Activity
In general anuttarayoga, when clear-light mental activity is made inseparable from a blissful
nonconceptual cognition of voidness, the physical basis that allows this attainment is the
grosser energy-winds being made to enter, abide, and completely dissolve in the central channel. This remains the case only during total absorption on voidness. Until the attainment
of enlightenment, the grosser energy-winds manifest once more during subsequent realization
of voidness or during meditation on something else. At such times, we no longer experience
blissful clear-light awareness of voidness. Because the physical basis for the blissful
clear-light awareness of voidness is only present intermittently, this blissful awareness is
called "changing blissful awareness" (' gyur-ba'i bde-ba).
In Kalachakra, the physical basis that allows clear-light mental activity to be inseparable from
an unchanging blissful nonconceptual cognition of voidness is the subtle creative
energy-drops stacked in the central channel. As is the case with changing blissful clear-light
awareness of voidness, unchanging blissful clear-light awareness of voidness also
ceases during subsequent attainment cognition of voidness and during meditation on
something else, and
1. functions as a nonstatic phenomenon, undergoing moment-to-moment change for the duration of its existence and producing effects.
2. Nevertheless, here, the physical bases for the unchanging awareness remain stacked in the central channel "unchangingly," until the total dissolution, forever, of all grosser levels of body. This final dissolution occurs with the attainment of the enlightening body of a Buddha. The level of mental activity used in Kalachakra and in general anuttarayoga tantra is the same, namely clear-light awareness. Nevertheless, because Kalachakra practice makes that level an unchanging blissful awareness of voidness, rather than a changing blissful awareness of voidness, clear-light awareness of voidness in Kalachakra is more stable than that achieved in general anuttarayoga.
Non-Gelug Variations Concerning Kalachakra
The non-Gelug traditions explain the closer analogies, closer union of method and wisdom,
and special level of mental activity in Kalachakra much as Gelug does. Some slight
differences appear, however, in their explanation of devoid-forms as the special bases for
voidness. The source of the discrepancy lies in different assertions concerning the subtle energy-winds that make appearances.
(4) Special Level of Mental Activity
Gelug asserts that the subtle appearance-making energy-winds make appearances only of true existence, both in conceptual and nonconceptual cognition. Non-Gelug asserts that they make
appearances of truly existent "this"s and "that"s during conceptual cognition only. In sensory
and mental nonconceptual cognitions, they make appearances of not truly existent "this"s and
"that"s. Both types, however, are unpurified appearances. Devoid forms, as purified
appearances, are beyond them both. They are the voidness with aspect that appears
inseparably with voidness without aspect during deep awareness of nondenumerable deepest
truth.
The rest of the explanation of this point - for instance, concerning unpurified illusory bodies appearing only during the subsequent attainment phase of conceptual cognition of voidness - is the same as Gelug.
Conclusion
We may practice tantra successfully without understanding how it works and why it brings
enlightenment more quickly than does sutra. Nevertheless, a clear understanding of general
tantra, general anuttarayoga, and Kalachakra theory helps us to develop unshakable confidence and sincere respect for their special methods. Coupled with the confidence,
respect, and inspiration we gain from healthy relationships with our tantric masters, our tantra practices becomes even more stable for bringing their intended results - our abilities to be of
best help to all others, with our attainments of enlightenment.
