Tantric Techniques (15 page)

pure resident—the deity—and residence—the palace and surroundings—is a fully qualified divine pride. As much as one can cultivate such pride, so much does one harm the conception of inherent existence that is the root of cyclic existence.

Divine pride itself is said to harm or weaken the conception of inherent existence, which is at the root of all other afflictions including afflicted pride. Due to the initial and then continuous practice of realizing the emptiness of inherent existence, the meditator realizes that the person is merely designated in dependence upon pure mind and body and is not analytically findable among or separate from those bases of designation. Thereby, divine pride itself serves as a means for eliminating exaggerated conceptions of the status of phenomena including the person; this is how it prevents afflicted ego-inflation.

With success at deity yoga at the level of the meditative stabilization of exalted mind (discussed in chapter six, 153ff.), the practitioner has the factors of wisdom and compassionate method in one consciousness at one time. The “ascertainment factor”
a
of this consciousness realizes the emptiness of inherent existence at the same time as the “appearance factor”
b
appears in ideal, compassionate form acting to help beings. This is said to be superior to the S
ū
tra version of the union of method and wisdom in which method (cultivation of compassion) merely affects wisdom with its force and in which wisdom (realization of emptiness) merely affects compassionate activities with its force, the two not actually being manifest at one time. In Mantra the presence of compassionate method and wisdom in a single consciousness is said to quicken progress toward Buddhahood—a state of nondual realization of the nature of phenomena within spontaneous dualistic appearance for the benefit of others.

A profound development has occurred when a practitioner becomes capable of deity yoga. After realizing emptiness, appearances are no longer just allowed to re-emerge within understanding that there is a conflict between how they appear to exist in their own right and their actual lack of such concreteness; rather, the practitioner’s own mind realizing emptiness

a
nges cha
.

b
snang cha
.

60
Tantric Techniques

and understanding that one’s own and a deity’s final nature are the same becomes the stuff out of which phenomena appear. The relation between emptiness and appearance, the gap between an experience of unfindability and re-emergence, is bridged.

Tsong-kha-pa and his followers present the Perfection and Mantra vehicles as an integrated progression; the very foundations of Perfection Vehicle practice, altruism and wisdom, are reformulated in the Mantra Vehicle in the practice of deity yoga. As will be clear in chapter nine on his delineation of the tantric difference—this being the meditative use of a mind of wisdom to appear in compassionately active form—he stresses the continuity between the two vehicles, two models or paradigms of the relation of the fundamental emptiness (or the wisdom realizing emptiness) with appearance. But is the progression from the S
ū
tra to the Mantra model of relation with appearance necessarily a smooth transition, a harmonious, incremental putting together of two models, or could it also be fraught with tension?

In preparing for a Buddhist-Christian Encounter conference in Hawaii in 1984 in which Hans Küng’s theological adaptation of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of paradigm change in the sciences was used as the focus, I was struck by Kuhn’s and Küng’s emphasis on crisis in the development and movement from one paradigm to another. For me, Küng’s description of a critical period during which inadequacies and discrepancies of the old paradigm lead to uncertainty such that conviction in the adequacy of the old paradigm is shaken rang true with my own experience of the transition from S
ū
tra practice to tantric practice. Thus, I have found it helpful to use the language of paradigm change—of an initial period of crisis, then a new formation, and finally a sense of continuity with the old paradigm—to appreciate the distinctiveness of tantric deity yoga and the issues remaining from the S
ū
tra model of meditation that it resolves.

My suggestion is that an individual practitioner’s change from the S
ū
tra to the Mantra model may not, in some cases, be a harmonious gradual acquisition of a new technique but may be fraught with psychological crisis. Despite the structural harmony that Tsong-kha-pa presents with such brilliance and clarity, the history of a particular practitioner’s personal incorporation of this

Tantric Mode of Meditation
61

paradigm change may not be a smooth transition. I recognize the autobiographical nature of these reflections and offer them only as a stimulus to appreciation of the profundity of deity yoga.

From one model to another

In that the content to be understood through the meditations of both the S
ū
tra and Mantra models is the nature and basis of appearance, we are dealing with two macro models,
a
for they are both experientially oriented explanations of the very phenomena of life. Despite being taught by the same school (in this case, the Ge-luk-pa order of Tibetan Buddhism), they are purposely kept distinct, not just to preserve schools of teachings from India, but, I would con-tend, to induce—through initial practice of the S
ū
tra model of meditation on selflessness—the crisis that will lead to appreciation of the tantric. Some Ge-luk-pa scholar-practitioners choose only to follow the S
ū
tra model, resisting the change to the tantric model. This can occur (1) by refusing to engage in tantric practice, (2) by engaging in tantric ritual but not believing it, (3) or by incorporating an external show of the practice of both S
ū
tra and Mantra but actually not penetrating either.

The change, or evolution, from the S
ū
tra to the Mantra model cannot actually be made until one learns in meditative
experience
to use the mind “realizing” emptiness and the emptiness—with which it is fused—as a basis of imaginative appearance, in imitation of a Buddha’s ability to do this in fact. Thus, the change cannot be made superficially merely through using the tantric descriptions or through sitting through a ritual that incorporates this process.

A somewhat successful S
ū
tra practitioner, who is able to experience something resembling space-like meditative equipoise, may arrive at a point of hiatus during which he/she is not satisfied with merely letting objects reappear after reflecting on emptiness. The question, the crisis, of comprehending the stuff of appearances may be sufficiently pressing that he or she becomes increasingly dissatisfied with the break between the space-like realization and the subsequent plethora of appearances, despite appearances being marked with realization of the emptiness of inherent existence

a
In this section I am using the vocabulary of paradigm change as found in the chapter “Paradigm Change in Theology,” in Hans Küng
, Theology for the Third Millennium: An Ecumenical View
(New York: Doubleday, 1988), 123-169.

62
Tantric Techniques

through the force of the earlier cognition. There is a retraction of mind when moving from space-like meditative equipoise—in which the mind is fused with the emptiness of inherent existence of all phenomena—to a condition in which the meditator’s mind only affects those appearances in the sense of marking or sealing them with this realization.

There can be a period of transitional uncertainty during which the S
ū
tra model is challenged for its inability to address the problem of the relation of this deep mind realizing emptiness to appearances. The problem of the relation of one’s own mind to those appearances can assume crisis proportions, creating openness to drastic change. The breakdown of the S
ū
tra model at this point and the crisis, induced not only by this breakdown but also by the difficulty of comprehending the tantric model despite its availability, leads to new thinking seeking a way to solve the puzzle, a withdrawal of sole commitment to the S
ū
tra model even though the practitioner might not express it this way. The crisis—the breakdown of the available rules—cracks and softens the rigidity of the devotion to the old model.

The new paradigm candidate, the tantric model, was in a sense always at hand in the form of lectures and ceremonies but was hardly
available
since only through considerable experience with searching for objects, not finding them, and then practicing illusory-like appearance can the additional technique of using this mind realizing emptiness as the basis that itself appears in physical form be appreciated. This is partially due to the general Buddhist analytic tendency, breaking things down to basic parts and those, in turn, to smaller and smaller units since, in the face of this basic perspective, such a grandly synthetic view as is presented in the tantric model might seem even non-Buddhist. A version of the synthetic view is present in the S
ū
tra system in that all appearances are viewed as the sport of emptiness in the sense that the emptiness of inherent existence makes them possible; however, this does not take account of the relation of mind to those appearances as the tantric system does.

The change to the new paradigm constitutes a revolution in outlook, lending an entirely new sense to the meaning of mind-only
a
beyond the one rejected earlier, as a “lower view,” in

a
sems tsam
,
cittam
ā
tra
.

Tantric Mode of Meditation
63

the progress toward the view of the Middle Way School. When the mind realizing emptiness is itself used as that from which phenomena are emanated, the practitioner’s orientation toward the world of appearances undergoes a fundamental re-organization; the model of understanding appearance changes. As I have suggested, this is not done without opposition and struggle both from within and from without, the latter being from concern with teachers and members of the monastic community in the old camp. A period of doubt, loss of faith, and uncertainty due to the pressing inadequacy of the old model is transcended through conversion to a model that copes better with the relation between mind and appearance on an experiential, practical level. The conversion could be prompted by attending a rite where the tantric model is used or by one’s own daily rehearsal of a rite that previously did not have much meaning.

The new, tantric model absorbs the old, preserving in its procedures an important place for the space-like meditative equipoise in the first phase of cultivation of deity yoga, the ultimate deity. Hence, the meditator experiences, after the conversion, a continuity with his or her earlier practice through enactment (at least six times daily) of a ritual that also incorporates the old model. Due to the continuing, and even essential, importance of realization of the absence of inherent existence and of altruism, a
fundamental continuity
is experienced: the very structure of the old model, wisdom and compassion, is literally reshaped to appear in ideal form, wise and compassionate.

Mantra, in this light, can be seen as a
new formation
of the Buddhist tradition, not a new invention of a tradition; the primordial importance of wisdom and compassion remains the basis. In the progression I have outlined, the process of moving from one model to the other, at least for some persons, may not be a simple matter of the incorporation of a new technique, deity yoga, as the Ge-luk-pa tradition in its emphasis on the integration of two vehicles gives the impression that it is. Crisis and shift may better describe the person’s progression from the S
ū
tra vehicle to the Man-tra vehicle; still, from the new perspective the continuity can be seen. Perhaps, the deity yoga that constitutes the difference between the two vehicles according to Tsong-kha-pa and his followers is not merely a distinctive, important factor of the tantric path not found in S
ū
tra but also a difficult one the comprehension