General Presentation o f Activities $13 you must engage in activities of bliss is not just for the accomplishment of the stable meditative equipoise of a single-pointed mind but also for developing the samadhi of innate great bliss [331] Eliminating the notion that certain activities contradict scripture Presentation and explanation of this topic in the Compendium o f Practice i Dispelling the arguments of others Presentation and explanation o f this topic in the Compendium of Practice If it is taught that you will attain enlightenment by engaging the five types of sensual objects933in whatever way you desire, then how does that not contra dict the teaching that attachment to the five types of sensual objects is a poi son to be abandoned? As it says in the lines: Desire, anger, and ignorance are the three poisons of the world.934 Moreover, how does it not contradict the teachings that speak of the dis advantages of desire, namely that engaging the five types of sensual objects results in the arising of afflictions and is therefore asserted as a cause for rebirth in the lower realms? In reply the Compendium o f Practice explains:935 The afflictions become the conditions for the afflictions of those with apprehending views, such as sravakas, because they not understand the nature of afflictions If their nature is understood, they become a cause for enlightenment.936 In the Supreme Origi nal Tantra: Holding desire, anger, and ignorance, they will become poisons Pacifying those poisons, poison eliminates poison Relying upon the ambrosia process, they will become ambrosia.937 $14 A Lamp to Illum inate the Five Stages The Kasyapa Chapter in the Ratnakuta sutra collection says that just as the manure of a city benefits the sugarcane fields and so on, the manure of the bodhisattvas afflictions is beneficial for becoming a buddha Also, the same work says that just as poi son held by medicine and mantra cannot cause death, the afflic tions held by method and wisdom cannot cause downfall.938 The Vinaya Amoghasiddhi Tantra says: That which binds the stupid will liberate the wise Meditating on the aspect of enlightenment, all this will be reversed Precisely that which binds the ignorant and finally leads to the wailing hell through transformation will lead to liberation and, by the power of wisdom, bring bliss.939 By this way of thinking, there is no other practice for obtain ing the result of the great bliss of the highest yoga, which itself contains the cause of generating the extraordinary and beau tiful result, on account of its being an extraordinary arousal, and an extraordinary transformation Therefore the omniscient state endowed with the eight mighty qualities will be actualized through the pleasure of food, dwelling, and so on by means of just this The Illusory Samvara Tantra also says: Therefore bliss is gained by bliss and will bring about every buddha.940 [332] Concerning the phrase “become the conditions for the afflictions,” the two later translations of the Compendium o f Practice have “become the cause of the lower realms,” which is a better translation The argument is that relying upon the five types of sensual objects pro duces afflictions that become causes for the lower realms The reply differen tiates between the afflictions that arise from relying upon the five objects that become a cause for the lower realms in those frâvakas and so on who have not understood reality and the afflictions that become a cause for buddha hood in those who have It does not say that afflictions are not produced from relying upon the sensual objects Generally, as explained earlier, having General Presentation o f Activities 515 no attachment to objects o f desire does not contradict seeking out objects o f desire such as food and clothing Merely making use o f sense objects that may be attractive, unattractive, or neutral and seeking out sense objects that arise in the mental consciousness not become afflictions Here the teach ing is primarily on the basis o f not being divorced from attachment to sensual objects Moreover, from among those objects o f desire, this is an examination on whether it is right to take attachment to the joining o f the two organs and make it into the path If someone who does not lack attachment to objects o f desire and does not possess an understanding o f reality makes use o f objects o f desire just as they wish, the affliction o f attachment to those objects will be produced, and those afflictions will become a cause for the lower realms Because such a person has no ability to transform any affliction into even the cause for lib eration, such activities are not permitted Even those o f the Lower Vehicle who have understood reality have no ability to transform any affliction into a cause for their enlightenment This is because that vehicle doesn’t have even a fraction o f the methods for such a transformation as we find in teachings o f the Mahayana Perfection and Mantra Vehicles and because a transforma tion o f that kind relies on special methods and special wisdom Therefore the statement that by understanding the nature, or reality, o f the afflictions they become a cause for enlightenment is saying that in those circumstances, there is a cause that will transform afflictions into enlightenment It is not saying that all understandings o f reality become a cause for transforming the senseobject afflictions into enlightenment If it were, statements about the need to pursue the many practices from the category o f method that are not views on emptiness would be meaningless The Supreme Original Tantra citation says that the three afflictions can become poison or can become ambrosia Therefore saying that the three afflictions are wholly poisonous and are to be eliminated is for certain beings and not for all By teaching that some of the afflictions of a bodhisattva can create the qualities of a buddha, the first half of the Ratnakuta sutra citation illustrates that not every affliction obstructs the attainment of buddhahood [333] By saying that afflictions held by a special method and wisdom cannot lead to the “downfall” of the lower realms, the second half of the citation illustrates that the afflictions that shut out the higher realms for those not possessed of skillful means not the same for those who are possessed of skillful means The Ratnakuta sutra is saying that the Perfection Vehicle bodhisattva has $16 A Lamp to Illum inate the Five Stages the ability to eliminate the afflictions o f strong desire that cause birth in samsara but deliberately does not so, and that taking birth by such an afflic tion enables the completion o f the great wave o f bodhisattva activities, and so is a cause o f buddhahood The sutra also describes special beings such as the brahman youth Taraka and the woman who would die if he refused to indulge his desires— an outcome he had to prevent— and if he did indulge his desires, he would be able to bring her to virtue For this reason he was per mitted to commit adultery The above kinds o f afflictions transformed into causes o f enlightenment and the way o f using desire as the path described here are completely different Nevertheless these citations are used as a refer ence for the fact that some afflictions held by skillful means become a cause for enlightenment and are therefore capable o f dismissing the argument that afflictions produced from relying upon objects o f desire will necessarily lead to the lower realms, that they are an obstruction to enlightenment, and that the citations above contradict each other The Sutra Requested by the Householder Ugra teaches the conduct o f bodhisattva householders for those who are unable to abandon the desires o f householders but have no attraction to traveling the path by the vehicle o f desire So they are taught to engage in the practices while perceiving reli ance upon objects o f desire as a fault.941 This is different from taming those with attachment by the path o f highest tantra The citation from the yoga tantra Supreme Original Tantra does not teach the importance o f increasing bodhicitta in your own body, or that there is no fault in making into the path the attachment held by skillful means that uses objects o f desire as a way to increase your bodhicitta by relying upon the body o f another It does teach, however, that it is possible to turn the three afflictions into the path, and so it is an appropriate citation here In that case, though there is an allowance for desire here, how can there be allowance for anger and ignorance? It is said that when carrying out wrath ful actions such as killing and expelling, there is no anger in the causal moti vation, but during the contemporaneous-motivation942 period, a fierceness of mind is generated It is also explained that when performing the initial meditations of the protection wheel and so on, compassion is generated dur ing the causal-motivation period, but in the contemporaneous-motivation period, hostility toward the hindering beings is generated This is an allow ance for anger and other states o f mind included within that category Every state of anger and desire arises as a concomitant associate943of afflicted igno rance [334] Thus ignorance is allowed as an incidental affliction to other allowed afflictions, but there is no special allowance for ignorance General Presentation o f Activities $17 The words “That which” from Vmaya Amoghasiddhi Tantra refer gener ally to attachment to objects of desire and specifically to attachment to the joining of the two organs “Precisely that” attachment that “binds” in samsara “the stupid”—meaning those who are ignorant of the nature of reality—and leads the ignorant to the wailing hell will liberate into great bliss the skillful who, with the power of wisdom, have understood reality Therefore medita tion on the bodhicitta of bliss and emptiness will become bondage for the unskillful and liberation for the skillful The Hevajra Tantra also says: Attachment binds the world; by desire you will be free.944 The affliction of attachment to objects of desire contains the causes of both freedom and bondage The Vajra Garland says: Abandoning what should and should not be done, even doing what is prohibited, like a lotus growing in the mud, you understand the nature and are not tainted.945 This is saying that although there may be attachment to objects o f desire, you are not adversely affected by the faults of such attachment, and in this way you are “not tainted.” It does not say that attachment does not arise In that case, if the way that afflictions become a cause for enlightenment in other vehicles is as described above, and taking attachment as the path in other classes of tantra means only to have attachment focused on the five sensory ob jects of the visualized goddess with whom one has not entered into meditative union, what does it mean to take attachment to sensual objects as the path in highest yoga tantra? Led by a mind of fervent admiration that has truly seen the exceptional qualities of the path of the innate wisdom of the bliss of melt ing meditating upon the definitive meaning of reality, you desire to generate great bliss in order to meditate upon reality As a means to that, you take as the path the attachment to an object o f desire—namely, meditative union with an external consort or wisdom consort Such a process is followed not only for this aim, but also for the accomplishment of the illusory body These processes have been explained several times Taking attachment to objects of desire as the path in order to produce a special consciousness that meditates on emptiness is found only in highest yoga tantra and not elsewhere ...$14 A Lamp to Illum inate the Five Stages The Kasyapa Chapter in the Ratnakuta sutra collection says that just as the manure of a city benefits the sugarcane fields and so on, the manure of the. .. a transformation as we find in teachings o f the Mahayana Perfection and Mantra Vehicles and because a transforma tion o f that kind relies on special methods and special wisdom Therefore the. .. tion enables the completion o f the great wave o f bodhisattva activities, and so is a cause o f buddhahood The sutra also describes special beings such as the brahman youth Taraka and the woman