i $8 A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages M ain point [91] The Compendium o f Practice explains the sequenced training on the path as described above and then states that once the stage of union has been attained, there are no further stages of training on the path Five Stages also says: Dwelling in the samadhi o f union, there is no further practice at all.308 Therefore there is nothing that is not included in those stages of the path It is also taught that these are the stages you have to train in, and so other paths not included in those stages are not needed This negates there being any higher number of stages W ithout this number of stages, the result could not be attained, which negates the number of stages being any lower Therefore this determined number of stages has to be accepted Nevertheless, clear rea sons for determining this number are not actually stated in the two tantras or by the master and his disciples On this point, LaksmI says that the three isolations isolate—m tznm gpurify—body, speech, and mind Clear light iso lates, or purifies, the conventional and the ultimate truth Union achieves the Vajradhara state of the one taste of the two truths Beyond that there is noth ing more to practice, and so six stages are unnecessary By precisely the num ber of practices described above, your wishes will be fulfilled, and so there are not just four stages Rather, the number is determined to be five Bhavyaklrti follows the above description of the sequencing of the first three stages Then with the three gateways purified comes the attainment of self-consecration in order to work for living beings Any actual apprehen sion to that is removed by the clear light Any nihilistic views regarding clear light are removed by the stage of union Beyond that, there is nothing more to practice; therefore a sixth stage does not exist W ithout these two, how ever, the wishes of self and others could not be fulfilled, and so there are no fewer than five Earlier Tibetans established six stages on the basis of suppressing the man ifest obscurations and of completely uprooting the seeds The suppressing of manifest mental afflictions and conceptualizations are presented as the three isolations Mental quiescence as the foundation of bliss and emptiness is body isolation Bringing the winds under control resulting in no arising of con ceptualization is speech isolation These two are conditions for the suppres sion Mind isolation is the actual suppression because bliss and emptiness is The Five Stages 159 generated in the continuum through dependence on a consort W ith illusory body the emptiness of objects is realized, and so the seed of object concep tualization that grasps a self-continuum of those objects is abandoned W ith clear light, the emptiness of mind is realized, and so the seed of conscious ness conceptualization that grasps the apprehending mind is abandoned In union, the seed of grasping the two truths as separate is abandoned Beyond these, there is nothing else to be abandoned The first two positions above may have different wording but are essen tially the same, and their validity, or lack of it, has already been examined In the way that the third position is expressed, from the perspective of what is to be abandoned, we would have to say that this path alone would suffice [92] However, if you express the path of suppressing as emptiness and bliss united, you are not accepting that although the emptiness to be focused upon is simi lar to that of the Perfection Vehicle, the way of meditating on mental quies cence and special insight is not Therefore you cannot establish two separate paths for mental quiescence and special insight For the three latter paths also, it is not established that they are individually antidotes to these three kinds of conceptualization, and so I think this explanation is incorrect So what is it that determines the number of stages? It is determined by the final attainment This is done by realizing that to reach that attainment these stages are necessary and anything not included in them is not necessary This final attainment is that of the exclusive and resultant stage of union that brings together the exalted-wisdom dharmakaya and its basis, the form body This has been described previously and will be described again later To attain such a union, you have to produce a path-of-practice union, in which the ultimate clear light of the exalted wisdom of great bliss directly engaged in the meaning of reality comes together with the completely pure, conventional-truth illusory body produced from the cause of the five-light wind, which acts as the mount of the exalted wisdom The two parts of this union of the two truths must be first produced individually The Compen dium o f Practice says: W ithout realizing the ultimate truth, you cannot actualize the stage of union.309 It also says that without first attaining the conventional illusory body, you cannot actualize the clear light Thus, as a basis for directly engaging in the clear light, the illusory body must be developed first The reasons for this will be explained later Third-stage illusory body and fourth-stage clear light are 16 o A Lam p to Illum inate the Five Stages not present at the time of union Therefore they are not actually the two parts of this union In general, however, conventional illusory body and ultimate clear light can be considered to be the parts of union, and I am explaining here on the basis of the former two being the latter two The foundation for the formation of such an illusory body is the wind and the mind The mind is that o f mind isolation with its three exalted wis doms, which has been created from the process of the winds dissolving into earth and water and gradually gathering into the heart, from the dissolution process of the winds that move the conceptual minds of the eighty intrinsic natures, and so on W ind refers to the mount of that mind Therefore mind isolation has to precede illusory body In order to perform this special dis solution process at the heart through this method, you have to practice the two meditations of the outer pranayama of union with a karma consort and a wisdom consort, and the inner pranayama of meditating on winds, drops, and so on Therefore, before mind isolation, you have to accomplish the stage of speech-isolation vajra repetition Speech isolation and vajra repetition are the names of one aspect of pranayama [93] The general name for this stage is pranayama, the third of the six branches, as mentioned in the Later Tantra There are three kinds of pranayama: meditation on the substance drop at the lower nose-tip,310 on the indestructible mantra drop at the heart nose-tip, and on the light drop at the tip of the nose on the face O f the two nose-tips of the lower gateways of method and wisdom, you meditate on the substance drop of the wisdom, and therefore this is teaching union with the two types of consorts There are two occasions for pranayama union with the two types of consort: one before vajra repetition is completed and one after completion Generally, why it is necessary to produce as the foundation for the cre ation of the illusory body the mind and wind that arise from the gather ing and dissolution of the winds in the dhuti at the heart has already been explained Precise reasons why and the way that the two consorts become methods for gathering the winds in the heart will be explained later To achieve this pranayama path, which is the special gathering process that brings the winds to the heart, it is first necessary to meditate by focus ing on other vital points of the body It is necessary to meditate on the prac tice of body isolation, in which, generally, you meditate on bringing the two winds into the dhuti, where they dissolve to induce the innate bliss W hat ever appears is regarded as the play of that bliss and meditated upon as being an aspect o f the deity There is no definitive cakra assigned for these other The Five Stages 16 vital points of the body, but here the dissolution begins from the meditation on the drop at the lower gateway To bring to maturation in your continuum the roots of virtue necessary for the creation of the entire completion stage, first the generation stage has to be meditated upon This stage purifies the mental continuum by taking birth, death, and the intermediate state as the three enlightened forms and com prises the coarse single-thought yoga and the subtle conceptual yoga on the mandala in four sessions To become a suitable vessel for the meditations of the two stages, you have to receive a complete and pure initiation and guard the pledges and vows you have taken To become the complete and definitive vessel for receiving an initiation and guarding the pledges, you have to prac tice the stages of the common paths, which exercise the two types of bodhi citta and its supplementary branches, as explained previously Enhancement activities are taught and illustrated by outer pranayama This clarifies the number of all paths of the two stages, and of the stages of the second stage From this you can also know the order of the stages and that all are necessary for a single person to become a buddha Therefore LaksmI, Bhavyakirti, and others are correct when they say that a single per son needs all five stages and that the individual stages are not for different beings [94] Abhayakaraguptas Light o f the Moon Commentary states, however, that the last two stages are for the best person, the third and fourth stages are for the intermediate person, the generation stage and vajra repetition are for the lesser person, and those two plus verbal recitation are for the lesser of the lesser It also says that the position of others is that this gradation of best, intermediate, and lesser refers to successive periods of development within the mind of a single person and that its own position is that it refers to distinct and separate persons This contradicts the works of the Arya mas ter and his disciples that teach the order of the stages It even contradicts Abhayakaraguptas Garland o f Perfected Yoga W hen applying this determination of the number of stages to other tantras, the last three stages should be approached as explained above For the Cakrasamvara five stages and Kukkuripas instructions on the Mahdmdyd Tantra and others that actually teach the dissolution process at the heart, it is easy to understand how they are incorporated as described above Even for the paths of those tantras that not teach dissolution process at the heart but speak about penetrative focusing upon the vital point at the navel and so on, understand how they are finally incorporated into a dissolution at the i6z A Lam p to Illum inate the Five Stages heart Other tantras not mention body isolation by name, but if they con tain its essential meaning, they are also similar Even those tantras that not contain the essential meaning of body isolation are not contradictory for the reasons already explained These, too, understand as following the dissolu tion at the heart, which is easier to perform The above reasoning should be applied to the generation stage also The common paths are the same for all How other paths are incorporated Illuminating Lamp says: This is the supreme branch o f accomplishment, a compilation o f all tantras.311 The meanings of all tantras are compiled into these five stages and the gen eration stage Do not take this to mean only “all Guhyasamaja tantras.” They incorporate all tantras The same passage states that Guhyasamaja is the root of all classes of tantra and is the basket that contains all sutras Therefore the following quote from this work should also be seen as referring to all tantras and not just to Guhyasamaja: O f the divisions o f these stages, there are many elaborations; whoever knows how they are perfecdy compiled knows tantra.312 W hat does it mean to say that the stages of the paths of other tantras are elaborations of this tantra and that knowing how they are compiled here is to know the meaning of tantra? As explained previously, they are not com piled in the sense of being the same but by way of having similar functions The way that the stages from body isolation to union are all necessary has been described previously In that connection, know that the prime inducer of mind isolation is the dissolution process performed at the heart, and even for those tantras that not actually teach the dissolution process at the heart but talk of gathering the winds at other places, such as the navel, [95] know how such a process will eventually culminate at the heart For fear of becoming too wordy, however, I will not write of that now Even for generation-stage practices that not conform exactly to the Guhyasamaja, ... “all Guhyasamaja tantras.” They incorporate all tantras The same passage states that Guhyasamaja is the root of all classes of tantra and is the basket that contains all sutras Therefore the following... branch o f accomplishment, a compilation o f all tantras.311 The meanings of all tantras are compiled into these five stages and the gen eration stage Do not take this to mean only “all Guhyasamaja. .. tantra. 312 W hat does it mean to say that the stages of the paths of other tantras are elaborations of this tantra and that knowing how they are compiled here is to know the meaning of tantra? As