The Two Truths Inseparably Combined 493 Because of this, it is taught that the exalted wisdom of fourth-stage clear light eliminates the seeds of the afflictions and that the term “imprints,” used when describing the excellent quality of being freed from all imprints of afflictions upon attainment of the stage of union because it is an uncontami nated stage, refers to the seeds of the afflictions It refers not only to those of the intellectually contrived afflictions but to those of the innate afflictions as well It is the thinking of the master and his disciples that not only holding to a self of phenomena—which other schools explain as being an obscuration to omniscience—but even the innate holding to a self of phenomena, which is more subtle, is in fact a mental affliction These points have been extensively dealt with in my Differentiating the Interpretive and the Definitive and else where [319] Answer to question one W hen you enter the fourth-stage actual light, the previous illusory body is purified and disappears, and so how does the practitioner again arise in a form that is the stage of union? The Compendium o f Practice speaks o f closeto-attainment arising from the actual clear light, of increase of appearance from close-to-attainment like the warm rays of the sun, and of the initial appearance arising from that like the cool light of the moon After this it says: Therefore this amassed appearance, of the four empty states becoming one,894illuminates the three worlds like the sun; insep arably together with the subtle element like a shadow, the entity of the indestructible vajra body Not transmigrating and without contamination, you are freed from all imprints of afflictions You gain control merely by wishing Like a fish leaping out of water or like waking from sleep quickly, you become form that is the entity of a body of supreme joy, the nature of form whose name is Great Vajradhara Because this is definite liberation from the chains of samsara, it is freedom.895 The ninth chapter of the root tantra says that fire comes from the move ment of the fire stick but that the fire is not to be found in the user s hands and so on W ith this as an example the text continues, “All the tathagatas* 49 A Lam p to Illum inate the Five Stages vajra samaya should be likewise subsequently known, coming and going, and so on.”896 On this Illum inating Lamp says that this teaches the method for creating the vajra body from the clear light and is not found in other vehicles It explains that “all the tathagatas” refers to the all-empty state; “vajra” refers to the greatly empty state, “samaya” to the very empty state, and subsequent knowledge of all three refers to the first empty state Going to the ultimate truth through the process of the three empty states is “going.” The coming of the three empty states in the reverse process is “coming.” “And so on” teaches the completion when there is no coming and going of the arising and enter ing processes This means that when attaining the stage of union, the three empty states arise in reverse order, and at the time of no further practice, the four empty states not come and go in reverse or forward order.897 The second stage from Five Stages also says that when the stage of union is accomplished, the three exalted wisdoms arise from the clear light This cita tion was quoted previously.898 Do you attain the body of the stage of union immediately after arising from the fourth-stage actual clear light or not? If you do, this would con tradict the teaching cited above that when attaining the stage of union, the three empty states arise from the clear light in reverse order, because if the stage-of-union body were not produced from the wind and mind o f the three empty states arising in reverse order, [310] then there would be no sense in teaching it The teaching of the third stage from the Five Stages, which says that the illusory body is produced from the three appearances together with the wind, would also be incorrect, because it cannot be right to make the dis tinction that it is necessary at that stage but not necessary here On the other hand, if you not attain the stage-of-union body immedi ately after rising from the fourth-stage actual clear light but attain it after the arising of the three empty states in reverse order, then it must be produced simply from the wind and mind of the first empty state Then what does it mean to say that it is produced from the three appearances? It would also mean that the Compendium o f Practice, speaking of the “four empty states becoming one,” would make no sense For the duration of the first appear ance and as soon as it arises, there is no actual clear light, and so there could be no attainment of the stage o f union This position also contradicts the basis of purification process in which the intermediate state rises from the death clear light without anything intervening Moreover, if you assert that the stage of union is attained when you again enter clear light from the last appearance, this would contradict Five Stages when it says, “Arising from the The Two Truths Inseparably Combined 495 limit of perfection, you attain the nondualistic wisdom,” as well as the Com pendium o f Practice and Illum inating Lamp, which state many times that the stage of union is attained once you have risen from clear light However, if it is attained in this way, then the above contradictions occur So where exactly is this point at which the stage of union is produced from the clear light? In order to understand well the stage of union, which is the principal topic of the glorious Guhyasamâja Tantra, you first have to know properly the way to attain the practice stage of union To that, you set out these kinds o f questions and then arrive at certainty by resolving those doubts conclusively, leaving no room for other possibilities elsewhere This is excel lent Those who follow the master and his disciples in their commentaries on Five Stages and so on not seem to have engaged in this kind of con clusive analysis Using the teaching above on the empty states appearing in reverse order, the venerable Go explains that the body of the stage o f union is gained from the three appearances together with the wind, which arise in reverse order from the clear light LaksmI also speaks of a way in which the illusory body is produced arising from the empty states appearing in reverse order In keeping with that, I have described the same process in other com positions Still, we should look at this difficult point in more detail Five Stages says: Light together with this entity899 endowed with consciousness and wind, the stage of self-consecration will sometimes arise for the sake of beings Just as fish quickly rise from the clear waters of streams, likewise from the clear all-empty state, it is said that this network of illusion will arise.900 This explains that this body too arises from just wind and mind through the process of self-consecration, [321] and from the clear light, which is likened to a clear stream, the pure illusory body appears like a fish suddenly leaping out of the water This matches the position of arising from the clear light with nothing intervening In Aryadevas Compendium o f Practice example of waking quickly from sleep, the sleep is an example for clear light, and wak ing represents the arising from that of the body of the stage of union This too matches the position of nothing intervening The description of the four 49 ^ A Lamp to Illum inate the Five Stages empty states as one also matches well with the forward process in which the preceding dissolves into the following, finally to become as one in the clear light, but it does not fit well with the reverse process This description also fits very well with the basis-of-purification process in which the intermediate state is formed simultaneously with the formation of the close-to-attainment of appearance immediately following death clear light Therefore the body of the stage of union is formed immediately from fourth-stage actual clear light However, it is not contradictory for there to be the creation of closeto-attainment and so on from clear light as described previously There are statements that speak of the three empty states arising in reverse order when describing the attainment of the stage of union, but these statements are not being said to establish that this body of the stage of union is accomplished from that reverse process If the stage of union is not a simultaneous coming together of the mind of actual clear light and the form o f the pure illusory body, there may well be the attainment of an illusory body formed immediately after rising from fourthstage clear light, but at that time there will be no actual wisdom of clear light, so how can there be a state of union? That is true, and to understand this, it is necessary to know the many methods of achieving union taught in Five Stages Twenty-one are taught, beginning: Abandoning conceptions concerning samsara and nirvana so that they become a single phenomenon: this is taught to be union And ending: Abandoning conceptions concerning form and no form, the powerful yogi who has perceived peace has gained the stage of union.901 The verse beginning “Held-as-a-whole and subsequent dissolution ” teaches two unions, and the verse beginning “Dwelling and not dwelling in medita tive equipoise ” also teaches two unions, so it could be said that there are twenty-three unions O f the unions explained in this way, the principal ones, as expressed in the Chak translation, are: The Two Truths Inseparably Combined 497 Knowing reality, you eventually know self-consecrated and clear light These two alone combined is the stage of union Self-consecration and clear light are a “pair” (.zung) Combined they are “engaged (jug) as a pair”902 [i.e., a union] Also: Having known individually the divisions of the conventional and the ultimate, then these two well mixed are explained as being union The conventional and the ultimate are the “pair.” [322] Mixed together they are “engaged as a pair.” Before the attainment of actual clear light and during the time of the attainment o f the illusory body produced from the five-light wind, there is no clear light in which the mind has become of one taste with the ultimate Before the attainment of the stage of union and during the time of clear light in which the mind of bliss has become of one taste with the ulti mate, there is no conventional truth in which the body has become the illu sory body These two alternate, and therefore there is no union W hen the “selfT or body, has become “consecrated,” or gone to the limit of the conven tional illusory body, and when the mind has gone to the limit of “clear light,” or the ultimate, and these two are gathered together at the same time in one continuum and are combined equally without alternating, union has been attained W hen this principal union is first accomplished, these two must be together at one time Even so, there are other ways of determining union, and every attainment of union is not necessarily a union that has been deter mined this way The Sanskrit for union is yuganadva Yuga means “pair” and adva means “not two.” This means that the individual parts of the pair are not two in the manner of alternating but are together simultaneously, and this, as explained above, is “union.” This is attained when you once again enter clear light, hav ing arisen from the last of the reverse-process appearances Nagarjunas Five Stages speaks of many types of union where concep tualization of samsara and nirvana and other pairs of dual phenomena are eliminated and become a union of nonduality not separated by those con ceptualizations These descriptions determine union using different criteria ... clear light, hav ing arisen from the last of the reverse-process appearances Nagarjunas Five Stages speaks of many types of union where concep tualization of samsara and nirvana and other pairs... individually the divisions of the conventional and the ultimate, then these two well mixed are explained as being union The conventional and the ultimate are the “pair.” [322] Mixed together they are... understand well the stage of union, which is the principal topic of the glorious Guhyasamâja Tantra, you first have to know properly the way to attain the practice stage of union To that, you