11 The Five Stages Actual stages on the path o f the completion stage i i Divisions of the completion stage Determining the order of the stages Determining the number o f stages Description o f each division Divisions o f the completion stage Actual division z How the six-branch yoga is compiled within the five stages Actual division If you wonder how many stages there are within the completion stage, the Root Tantra as translated by Patsap Lotsawa states: Contemplation on mantra with body, with speech urged to the mind, the supreme to be accomplished, siddhi, the mind joyful and satisfied.278 The commentaries explain that “Contemplation on mantra” refers to speech isolation “W ith body” refers to body isolation, as explained by the com mentary, “a manifested body that accomplishes vajra repetition.” The result ing speech isolation is “urged” toward—meaning “takes as an object”—the Vajrasattva dwelling in the “mind,” or heart By this the “supreme”27’ and the other three—siddhi, joy, and satisfaction—will be accomplished in the con tinuum of the yogi Here “supreme” refers to the mind isolation coming from speech isolation “Siddhi” refers to self-consecration “Mind joyful” refers to the ultimate truth clear light that purifies the illusory body “Satisfied” refers 14 A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages to union and the form of the great Vajradhara Therefore here there are six stages, beginning with body isolation On this part of the tantra and com mentary, the new translations are better.280 In the Compendium o f Practice, this verse is cited in the later one fa m ily section on body isolation, and there its meaning is explained as follows: Having become the body vajra, you enter the speech vajra formed from the palate, tongue, and lips, [80] and the mind vajra “urges” you toward that From these three together, you will accomplish the siddhi of the joyful and satisfied mind.281The former explanation, however, does not contradict this, because a single vajra word allows for many different explanations For exam ple, in the seventh chapter it says that if the hosts of tathagatas are killed, you will gain the supreme siddhi The master Nagarjuna applies this to withdraw ing the imagined282 deities into the clear light, while Aryadeva explains it as referring to entering the completion-stage clear light In Candraklrti s Illuminating Lamp on the first chapter, the generation stage is asserted as being one of the five stages, with the completion stage comprising the other lour—focus on the m ind and so on On this point, when Illuminating Lamp says, “It incorporates the points of every tantra,”283this is a way of referring to the incorporation of every principal point without apply ing the five stages to one particular part of the tantra Acarya Bhavyaldrti and others also explain “Creating the body of secret mantra” as referring to vajra repetition The assertion by Tibetan scholars, however, that body isolation and speech isolation are here combined in focus on the m ind is good because it accords with the Vajra Garland Tantra when, in the explanation of the hid den within the introduction of the tantra, it describes the first two isolations in the section on hidden mind Arya Nagarjuna in his synopsis to Five Stages speaks of there being five stages to the completion stage with vajra repetition as the first This follows the last chapter of the Vajra Garland, which does likewise The Compendium o f Practice talks about the “five points,” which are similar, and in its extensive explanation, it devotes one chapter to body isolation, thereby also describing six stages Nagabodhi s Presentation o f the Guhyasamaja Sadhana talks of “the stage of vajra repetition” and therefore includes it as a separate stage It describes focus on the mind as the second stage, and therefore, like the synopsis in Five Stages, it counts five stages Arya Nagarjuna in the “Third Stage”284 mentions the name of body iso lation when he says merely, “body is isolated,” and does not clearly describe this practice It is extensively explained in the Compendium o f Practice, and in that work this practice is described before speech isolation practice, so why has Nagarjuna not done the same? On this Kashmiri LaksmI and Bhavyakirti The Five Stages 145 explain that the line “Well abiding in the stage of generation”285teaches both the generation stage of the three samadhis286 and body isolation Therefore they assert that Nagarjuna also teaches body isolation before speech isola tion The assertion that the words “stage o f generation” teach body isolation must also be accepted by those who maintain body isolation to be in the gen eration stage in commentaries such as Abhayakaraguptas Light o f the Moon In Serdingpas Five Points o f the Five Stages [8i] it says that Nagarjuna asserts the generation stage to be complete within the illusory body and that therefore he did not teach body isolation In Serdingpas Four Points it says that the generation stage is included in the illusory body and is assigned to be a preliminary practice These statements evidently maintain the method of developing the deity form of body isolation and the method of develop ing the illusory-body Vajradhara to be one and the same and that both of them are generation-stage practices Therefore, although they say that the generation stage is included within the illusory body, because they say that the body-isolation illusory body is included within the generation stage, this must mean there is no body isolation taught separately from the generation stage This is in complete disagreement with the genuine works of the Arya tradition and is evidently an explanation that does not understand Naropas Clear Compilation o f the Five Stages Our own position is that body isolation is in two parts spread across the generation and completion stages, and the fact that the Arya does not place the body isolation of the completion stage before speech isolation is because it is included within the stage of vajra repetition Therefore the first two iso lations are included in the stage o f focus on the mind, and so the completion stage has four stages To take vajra repetition out as a separate stage and to include body isolation within it to make five stages, and again to separate out body isolation to make six stages, is simply a process of expanding and con tracting the divisions and is in no way contradictory In the Later Tantra it says: W ithin the six branches of accomplishment,287 you will accomplish the supreme Accomplishments by other means not become the supreme siddhi Individual withdrawal, meditative absorption, pranayama, and apprehending, recollection, and samadhi: This is the six-branch yoga.288 14 A Lam p to Illum inate the Five Stages Therefore the supreme meditations of the completion stage consist of the six-branch yoga—the branch of individual withdrawal and so on The first four lines state that without practicing for the supreme attainment by way of these six branches, you will not achieve the supreme siddhi Therefore in highest yoga tantra the six branches must be present within the practices for the supreme attainment The ways of explaining these six yogas in the differ ent traditions, however, not have to be identical If that were not the case, then all completion-stage practices would have to be the same The same rea soning could also be applied to all generation-stage practices, which would mean that the teaching of limitless tantras for the sake of the many different types of disciples would be meaningless because the teaching of just one tan tra would suffice Therefore most sadhanas of the generation stage are similar in that they can all be condensed into the practices of the three samadhis— initial yoga, and so on—but there is much divergence on what needs to be done to accomplish these three Likewise, with the completion stage there is unanimity that there has to be a system of the six-branch yoga, but there are many different presentations of it It is not the case that presentations with similar sounding names such as individual withdrawal have similar content [82.] There are countless instances in sutra and tantra of one term with many different meanings and one meaning with many different names How the six-branch yoga is compiled within thefive stages Presentation of different traditions Examination of the validity or nonvalidity of those traditions Presentation o f different traditions The commentarial traditions Tibetan traditions The commentarial traditions Here the compiler is the six stages, which includes body isolation as a sepa rate stage, and that to be compiled is the six-branch yoga The six yogas from the tradition of the Three Bodhisattva Commentaries, Buddhasrij riana’s Oral Teachings o f M anjusri tradition and its followers, Ratnakarasanti s H and fu ls o f Flowers tradition, Abhayakaraguptas Sheaves o f Instructions tradition, The Five Stages 14 and the explanations of Tathágatavajra that follow Cakrasamvara Lüipa all use the same terms but employ very different meanings Therefore I will not explain how they are to be compiled but will teach how the six yogas as taught in the Later Tantra and whose meaning is explained in Candrakirti s Illum inating Lamp are compiled into the six stages Abhayákaraguptas Light o f the Moon commentary states that the “brief stage,” or generation stage, comprises the yogas of individual withdrawal and meditative absorption Individual withdrawal involves meditation on the deity Focusing by conventional and ultimate analysis makes up the concep tualization and analysis branches of meditative absorption Approaching an engagement with reality isjoy and bliss, and the mind focused solely on emp tiness is single-pointed mind These comprise the five branches of the yoga of meditative absorption The withdrawing of the winds into the indestruc tible drop is prdnaydma Although it is not explained as being incorporated into the five stages here, pránáyáma is incorporated into vajra repetition The branch of apprehending is the illusory body and clear light because the text explains: In the nature of illusion, the form of the vajra holder, possessing the entity of clear light, is apprehending.,289 After the clear light, in an instant, the complete form of the vajra holder is recollection Meditation on that as the entity of union is samadhi, and so the last two branches are explained as union Abhayákaraguptas text says this is “an explanation that follows and is the essence of Illuminating Lam p.” For Bhavyaklrti s Commentary Explaining the Meaning o f Illum inating Lam p, individual withdrawal and meditative absorption are mind isola tion Pránáyáma is vajra repetition, apprehending is clear light, and recol lection and samádhi are included in the stage of union Kumáras Essence M irror also follows this listing These two works also follow the tradition of incorporating the six yogas into the five stages as taught in the Illum inat ing Lamp [83] For Ekáda^asvara, the verse beginning “The ten senses,” which explains the yoga of individual withdrawal, is said to be the basis of body isolation The next four verses, beginning “The five objects of desire,” explain medita tive absorption as the actual body isolation In this text the two lines begin ning “Tantra of secrets” are missing.290 Then the next two verses beginning “Five exalted wisdoms,” which teach pránáyáma, are speech isolation The ... A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages to union and the form of the great Vajradhara Therefore here there are six stages, beginning with body isolation On this part of the tantra and com mentary,... Nagabodhi s Presentation o f the Guhyasamaja Sadhana talks of ? ?the stage of vajra repetition” and therefore includes it as a separate stage It describes focus on the mind as the second stage, and... Buddhasrij riana’s Oral Teachings o f M anjusri tradition and its followers, Ratnakarasanti s H and fu ls o f Flowers tradition, Abhayakaraguptas Sheaves o f Instructions tradition, The Five Stages