Tantric Techniques (11 page)

There are basically two types of deity yoga, generation in front and self-generation—imagining a deity in front of oneself as a visitor and imagining oneself as a deity. Preliminary to this are extensive preparations (to be described in chapter four),
a
after which the meditator begins the four-branched repetition which basically is in two parts—first the four branches and then repetition. The meditator enacts four distinct stages, these being the four branches, or members, that make repetition possible:

1. generating a deity in front called “other-base”
   

2. generating oneself as a deity called “self-base”
   

3. a step called “mind”
   

4. a step called “sound.”
   

These four are included within the meditative stabilization of exalted body; the repetition done after succeeding in visualizing these four is included in the meditative stabilization of exalted speech.

The practice of visualizing an ideal being in front of oneself and making offerings and so forth, although a form a deity yoga, is not the deity yoga that distinguishes S
ū
tra from Mantra. The distinctively tantric practice is
self
-generation, imagining oneself as a dei-ty, the second of the four branches, and thus we shall consider this first, leaving the other Action Tantra meditations for chapters four, five, and six.

Imagining oneself as a deity

In Action Tantra the process of imagining, or generating, oneself as a deity is structured in six steps called six deities, which supply a basic tantric paradigm for meditation on selflessness and subsequent relation with appearance. This process is referred to but not described in the
Concentration Continuation Tantra
(to be cited in chapter four) and is known from the
Extensive Vid
ā
ra
ṇ
a Tantra
,
b
available only in citation in Buddhaguhya’s commentary, which is extant only in Tibetan. The
Extensive Vid
ā
ra
ṇ
a Tantra
says:

Having first bathed, a yogi

a
For details on these preparatory stages see
Deity Yoga,
79-101 and 215.

b
rdo rje rnam ’joms kyi rgyud rgyas pa
, *
vajravi
ḍā
ra
ṇā
vaip
ū
lya
. For the citation, see

Deity Yoga,
109.

Tantric Mode of Meditation
47

Sits on the vajra cushion

And having offered and made petition Cultivates the six deities.

Emptiness, sound, letter, form, Seal, and sign are the six.

The six deities are:

1. ultimate deity (also called emptiness deity or suchness deity)
   

2. sound deity (also called tone deity)
   

3. letter deity
   

4. form deity
   

5. seal deity
   

6. sign deity.
   

Let us consider these six steps in detail, using the commentaries mentioned above.

Ultimate deity.
Dül-dzin-drak-pa-gyel-tsen describes the ultimate deity very briefly:
a

The ultimate deity is meditation on emptiness:

O
ṃ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddh
āḥ
sarvadharm
āḥ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddho ’ha
ṃ
(
O
ṃ
naturally pure are all phenomena; naturally pure am I.) Just as my own suchness is ultimately free from all the proliferations [of inherent existence], so also is the deity’s suchness. Therefore, in terms of nonconceptual perception [of the final mode of subsistence of phenomena] the suchness of myself and the suchness of the deity are undifferentiable, like a mixture of water and milk.

The brevity of his description of this initial and crucial step of meditation on emptiness is due to the fact that although realization of emptiness is obviously integral to Mantra, descriptions of how to do it, though present in tantras such as the
Concentration Continuation Tantra
,
b
are found in far more detail in the S
ū
tra systems.
c
The

a
Collected Works of Rje Tso
ṅ
-kha-pa Blo-bza
ṅ
-grags-pa, vol. 17 (
na
), 447.2-447.3.

b
See
Deity Yoga,
104-106, 168-171.

c
See Gung-tang (
gung thang dkon mchog bstan pa’i sgron me
, 1762-1823),
Beginnings of a Commentary on the Difficult Points of (Tsong-kha-pa’s) “Differentiation of the Interpretable and the Definitive,” the Quintessence of “The Essence of Eloquence”
(
drang nges

48
Tantric Techniques

meditator is expected to bring such knowledge to this practice.

The description of the ultimate deity by Ke-drup in his
Extensive Explanation of the Format of the General Tantra Sets
speaks to this point directly:
a

Meditation within settling well—in dependence upon a Middle Way reasoning such as the lack of [being] one or many and so forth—that one’s mind is empty of inherent existence is the suchness of self. Then, meditation [on the fact] that the suchness of whatever deity is being meditated and the suchness of oneself are undifferentiably without inherent existence is the suchness of the deity. That twofold suchness is the suchness deity from among the six deities. It is the equivalent of meditating on emptiness within saying
svabh
ā
va
[that is,
o
ṃ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddh
āḥ
sarvadharm
āḥ
svabh
ā
va-
ś
uddho ’ha
ṃ
: “
O
ṃ
naturally pure are all phenomena; naturally pure am I”] or
śū
nyat
ā
[
o
ṃ śū
nyat
ā
jñ
ā
navajra-svabh
ā
v
ā
tmako ’ha
ṃ
: “I have a nature of indivisible emptiness and wisdom”] in higher tantra sets.

A Middle Way reasoning such as the lack of being an inherently existent one or an inherently existent plurality is used for the sake of realizing first that oneself (or, alternately, one’s own mind) does not inherently exist. Thus, this first step in imagining oneself as a deity incorporates the S
ū
tra style meditation described in the previous chapter (14 ff.):

1. ascertaining what is being negated—inherent existence
   

2. ascertaining entailment of emptiness
   

3. ascertaining that the “I” and the aggregates are not inherently the same
   

4. ascertaining that the “I” and the aggregates are not inherently different
   

5. realizing the absence of inherent existence of the “I” in space-like meditative equipoise.
   

Tsong-kha-pa and his followers emphasize over and over again that

rnam ’byed kyi dga’ ’grel rtsom ’phro legs bshad snying po’i yang snying
) (Guru Deva: Sarnath, no date), 21.7-21.11.

a
The text is Lessing and Wayman,
Fundamentals,
158.16ff; for their translation, see the same.

Tantric Mode of Meditation
49

the view of emptiness in S
ū
tra and in Mantra is the same,
a
this pre-ferably being as explained by what is considered to be the final philosophical system, the Middle Way Consequence School.
b
Thus, these five steps are to be brought into the tantric meditation in to-to.

The difference is that tantric practitioners, after meditating on their own lack of inherent existence, proceed to reflect on the emptiness of the deity as whom they will appear and then reflect on the sameness of themselves and the deity in terms of their own and the deity’s ultimate mode of subsistence, an absence of inherent existence. The ultimate reality of oneself and the ultimate reality of the deity are viewed as like “water and milk” which mix so completely that they cannot be distinguished. Thus, the first step in meditating on oneself as a deity is to realize that, from the viewpoint of the perception of suchness, oneself and the deity are the same; this realization serves to break down the conception that either oneself or the deity inherently exists.