230 C not es to chapter one drawal (so sor sdud pa, pratyāhāra), meditative absorption (bsam gtan, dhyāna), yoga of the winds (srog rtsol, prāṇāyāma), retention (’dzin pa, dhāraṇā), recollection (rjes su dran pa, anusmṛti), and contemplation (ting nge ’dzin, samādhi) See below, Chapter 8, section entitled “The Kalachakra Completion Phase.” 18 Nagarjuna’s Five Stages (Toh 1802), vol Ngi, f 45a6-7 The Dergé Tengyur version reads kyis at the end of the third line 19 Nagabodhi explains that to be “firmly abiding” means “having perfected contemplation.” Here, “contemplation” refers to the contemplation of the one hundred families, and so forth, arising from seed-syllables, etc., in the manner of conditioned birth Related to this are four points, namely, contemplation, proficiency in contemplation, contemplation brought to perfection, and the purpose of contemplation The first means to repeatedly set the mind on the focus (just spoken of ) Proficiency in contemplation means unobstructedness with respect to the aspects of awakened bodies, voices, and minds, whatever their numbers or dimensions Contemplation brought to perfection refers to the stage at which everything manifests as the mandala of the deity The purpose is to overcome coarse conceptions and thereby achieve clarity when practicing contemplation in the phase of completion Just as one ascends a ladder step by step, one should apply the five stages of the phase of completion successively, not all together Just as one needs to use a ladder to accomplish particular tasks, one must rely on the phase of creation, which involves analysis, when cultivating the phase of completion Just as one has to reach the top of a ladder in order to carry out one’s purpose, one can work for the welfare of others only when the five stages have been perfected (a summary of Nagabodhi’s Elucidation of the Five Stages, Toh 1833, vol Ci, f 210a4-b5) 20 Saroruha (mTsho skyes), or Saroruhavajra, was a student of Anangavajra Taranatha includes him among the masters of the action-seal (las rgya, karmamudrā) transmission The learned scholar Durjayachandra (Mi thub zla ba) was a student of Dombiyogini Taranatha includes him among the masters of the inner-fire ( gtum mo, caṇḍālī) transmission Both these adepts of ancient India wrote important commentaries on the Hevajra tantra: Saroruha, Commentary on Difficult Points of the Hevajra Tantra: The Lotus (Toh 1181); and Durjayachandra, Commentary on Difficult Points [of the Hevajra Tantra]: Kaumudi (Toh 1185) See Taranatha’s Histories of the Masters of the Seven Transmissions 21 Vajragarbha is the interlocutor of the Buddha in the Hevajra Tantra 22 Hevajra Tantra (Toh 418), vol Nga, f 15b2-3 Here (and in the next sentence) Kongtrul paraphrases the words of the tantra 23 Great-bliss innateness (bde ba chen po lhan cig skyes pa, sahajamahasukha) refers to the luminous clarity and emptiness nature of all that exists This is called bliss because it is not subject to suffering, nor can it be grasped by concepts See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, f 93b5 See also Chapter 1, n 10 24 Hevajra Tantra Two Examinations (Toh 418), vol Nga, f 15b3-4 25 Kongtrul explains that one cannot speak of the arising of great bliss without the body on which that bliss depends since, without the body, there would not be the comple- notes to chapter one c 231 tion of the moment of changing, or deteriorating, bliss or of changeless bliss For that reason, bliss pervades everything as the indivisible essence of method, the pervaded, and wisdom, the pervader Great bliss, the pervader, pervades the minds of all beings, the pervaded Just as without a flower, the fragrance that rests in it cannot be sensed, without the methods of the action seal, pledge seal, seal of phenomena, and great seal, the great bliss that depends on them for its arising cannot be experienced This indicates the necessity to meditate on creation and completion as a union See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, f 196a5-b5 26 Vajragarbha’s Commentary Epitomizing the Hevajra Tantra (Toh 1180), vol Ka This discussion is found at f 3b5-7 27 False millet (ko tra ba), or Nepalese kodo: a species of grain resembling millet eaten by the poor and also used to make an alcoholic beverage in the Himalayan regions 28 Read gzings la for gzings pa 29 Union at the time of the result (’bras dus su zung ’jug): the union of luminous clarity and illusory body at the stage of awakening 30 Atisha’s Lamp for the Path (Toh 3947), vol Khi, f 240a2-3 31 According to the general view shared by the way of the perfections and the tantric path, the method aspect fulfills the cultivation of positive potential, which leads to the form dimension of a buddha ( gzugs sku, rūpakāya); and the wisdom aspect fulfills the cultivation of pristine awareness, which leads to the attainment of the pristine-awareness dimension of a buddha ( ye shes sku, jñānakāya) Thus, both are indispensable If one of them is missing, full awakening cannot be realized See Atisha’s Commentary on the Lamp for the Path (Toh 3948), vol Khi, ff 276b5-278a1 32 This means that an individual who has transformed ordinary perceptions and fixations by applying the yoga of the first phase involving imagination of the deity and who wishes to apply the two phases inseparably should rely on elaborations, i.e., the fabricated images of the deity and the mandala, and so on, understanding that those elaborate forms, though manifest, have no reality, just as the images in a dream and the perceiver of those images have no reality Having gained such understanding, one settles in the state of meditative equipoise in which those myriad forms are understood as being beyond conceptual elaborations When, as a result of that, the elaborations and that which is beyond conceptual elaborations become of one flavor (ro gcig), creation and completion are no longer experienced separately The two phases become indivisible See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, f 194a2-5 33 The term “continuum” (rgyud, tantra) refers to the luminous-clarity nature of the mind It is a continuum in the sense that it has always existed with no interruption It has three aspects: the causal continuum (rgyu’i rgyud ); the method continuum (thabs kyi rgyud ); and the resultant continuum (’bras bu’i rgyud ) The causal continuum denotes the ground of everything, the sky-like nature of the mind, also known as the “essence of enlightenment” or “buddha nature.” The method continuum consists essentially of the mind of the phase of creation and the mind of the phase of completion The resultant continuum denotes the causal continuum itself when free 232 C not es to chapter one from adventitious stains and transformed into the state of full awakening See Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge: Systems of Buddhist Tantra (English translation), pp 143-147 Here, these three aspects are equated with the naturally present affinity for awakening (rang bzhin gyi rigs), the evolving affinity (rgyas ’gyur gyi rigs), and the lord of the affinity (rigs kyi bdag po) or lord of the family “Lord of the family,” in addition to the common meaning of the chief figure of a buddha family, in this context refers to one’s own essence of enlightenment fully realized The same term “affinity,” or “family” (rigs), is used in tantra to denote “the single innate great joy” (or the essence of enlightenment as defined in the tantras) in all its possible states and manifestations, a single reality that manifests as many buddha families That single innate awareness, in the context of the ground, is accompanied by obscurations Attachment and the other emotional afflictions are therefore present as “impure affinities” or “impure families.” In their purified aspects or natures, these emotions are the buddhas of the five families The families can be further subdivided to an infinite number See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, ff 203a5-205b6 34 All-Secret Tantra (Toh 481), vol Ta These exact words are not found in this tantra, but essentially the same meaning is expressed 35 Hevajra Tantra Two Examinations (Toh 418), vol Nga, f 16a 36 Concerning this verse, Kongtrul explains that by means of meditation involving imagination of the form of the deity, ordinary concepts are overcome By means of meditating on the mandala of the deity, which represents the universe of beings, cyclic existence is purified, and so forth Just as a drop of water that has entered the ear is drawn out by flushing the ear with more water, the notion of existence, which is the apprehension of subject and object with regard to the psychophysical constituents, is purified by means of the wisdom of definite knowledge of the essential principle, the form of the deity, and so on See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, f 202a5-b3 37 Hevajra Tantra Two Examinations (Toh 418), vol Nga, f 16a4 38 The same negative karma through which an ordinary individual would normally be fettered to existence could lead to release if he or she is possessed of a skillful method In other words, although it is through desire for material possessions or other beings, and attachment to them, that one becomes fettered, if one knows the instructions on how to use the very nature of desire as an element of the path, one can become swiftly liberated from the attachment With the wish to free all beings from cyclic existence, one can then attain the fully liberated state of a buddha See Kongtrul’s Commentary on the Hevajra, ff 202b5-203a3 39 The “three purities” spoken of in highest yoga tantra refer to the purity of the essential nature (de bzhin nyid kyi rnam par dag pa), the purity of the particular deities (lha so so’i rnam par dag pa), and the purity of self-knowing awareness (rang rig pa’i rnam par dag pa) Kongtrul explains that all phenomena, forms and so forth, from the very beginning, have never moved from being of the ineffable essential nature This is what is meant by the purity of the essential nature Subsequently, when impurities are eliminated on the path, the aggregates, elements, and so forth are recognized notes to chapter two c 233 to be the natures of individual buddhas and their respective consorts in union, and so on This is the purity of the particular deities Self-knowing awareness, luminous and devoid of concepts, the nature of direct yogic perception, which has never been tainted by obscurations, is the purity of the innate nature of bliss and emptiness (bde stong lhan cig skyes pa’i rang bzhin tu rnam par dag pa), or the purity of self-knowing awareness These three purities apply to both the phase of creation and the phase of completion See Kongtrul’s Topical Commentary on the Hevajra Tantra (henceforth cited as Meaning of the Hevajra), ff 32b7-33a3 Chapter 2: The Phase of Creation Indestructible Tent Tantra (Toh 419), vol Nga These exact words are not found in the Dergé Kangyur edition of this tantra Way of the perfections (pha rol tu phyin pa’i theg pa): the universal way (theg pa chen po, mahāyāna), a gradual path on which one progresses through the stages and the paths to awakening by applying six perfections, or ten The “pride of being a heruka or another deity” means the self-identification of the practitioner with the deity being meditated upon This principle of tantra counteracts one’s self-identity as a human being Heruka here is a general name for the principal deity of the mandala, such as Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, or Guhyasamaja The wrathful deities of the retinue are not called heruka In the Kalachakra tantra, heruka symbolizes the enjoyment dimension of awakening (sambhogakāya), while in the Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, as well as other tantras, heruka symbolizes the manifest dimension (nirmāṇakāya) See Kongtrul’s Manual for the Performance of Retreat on the Tantras of the Marpa Tradition, f 4b3-4 Treatise on Valid Cognition (Toh 4210), vol Ce, f 129a6-7 The Treatise on Valid Cognition, from which this citation is taken, is a work that establishes the validity of the direct yogic perception (rnal ’byor mngon sum) “True” refers to the truth of no-self of persons and that of phenomena; and “untrue,” to the objects called “ten totalities” (zad pa bcu) of the meditation in which one imagines that everything is earth, water, fire, wind, the colors blue, yellow, red, and white, space, and consciousness Once one has fully familiarized with those objects (i.e., the truths of no-self and the objects of meditation), there arises a vivid and direct yogic perception free from imagination 6 In this context, the white spheres transform into heroes (dpa’ bo, vīra) or gods, and the red, into heroines (dpa’ mo, virini) or goddesses (Bokar Rinpoché, oral communication) 7 Among the various kinds of mantras, the essential mantra (snying po sngags) is a mantra that contains a name or epithet of a particular deity Some explain that the root mantra (rtsa sngags) invokes the awakened body; the essential mantra (snying po sngags), the awakened speech; and the quintessential mantra (nye snying sngags), the mind of the deity Atisha states that the essence of the deity is that of the pure awakening mind (bodhi- 234 C not es to chapter two chitta), the indivisibility of the method of compassion and wisdom of emptiness Moreover, the essential mantra invokes the mind; the quintessential mantra invokes the mind intensely The secret mantra ( gsang sngags) is so called because it protects one from a worldly mind The awareness mantra (rig sngags) is so called because repetition of it brings about a special wisdom The recollection mantra ( gzungs sngags) is so called because it brings about the unfailing recollection of the pure awakening mind See Kongtrul’s Manual for the Performance of Retreat on the Tantras of the Marpa Tradition, ff 15b3-16a1 8 See Chapter 3, section entitled “The System of the Net of Magical Manifestation.” Samvarodaya Tantra (Toh 373), vol Kha, f 267a3-4 The citation as it appears in IOK is not identical to that of the Dergé Kangyur, but the meaning does not differ substantially The Dergé Kangyur reads: dbang po dman pas bskyed rim gyi/ dkyil ’khor bsgom zhing bsam par bya/ dbang po rnon pos skad cig gi/ rnam pas sems tsam dkyil ’khor bsam/ skad cig rnam pa’i rnal ’byor gyis/ rdzogs pa’i rim pa bsgom pa ni 10 Abhayakaragupta’s Garland of the Complete Yogas (Toh 3141), vol Phu, f 95a1 11 Taught primarily in the Guhyasamaja tantra, the four branches of familiarization and attainment (bsnyen sgrub yan lag bzhi) represent the most widely used tantric framework for the creation phase These four apply also to the Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Yamari systems of the phase of creation See Chapter Three, section entitled “The System of Guhyasamaja.” 12 Warmth (drod ) specifically refers to the first of the four stages of the path of preparation, which are warmth, peak (rtse mo), patience (bzod pa), and supreme worldly quality (’jig rten chos mchog) See Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge: Buddhist Ethics (English translation), p 494, n 245; and Gampopa’s The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, trans H V Guenther, pp 229, n 34; pp 232-233 13 Karma Trinlé Choklé Namgyal (Karma phrin las phyogs las rnam rgyal) (1456-1539): a renowned scholar, disciple of the Seventh Karmapa Chödrak Gyatso (Chos grags rgya mtsho) (1454-1506) and master of the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorjé (Mi bskyod rdo rje) (1507-1554) 14 The concept of training in purifying realms (zhing dag pa’i sbyor ba) seems to have arisen in the early phase of the universal way (mahāyāna) This practice is performed by a bodhisattva and serves the purpose of creating a connection with a particular realm and its beings where eventually, as a buddha, he or she will work for the benefit of beings The practice involves training in the six perfections while imagining that the world where one is currently living and its inhabitants are pure 15 In the creation phase of the Kalachakra, the world is created twice As the base for the mandala, first one visualizes a tetrahedron (chos ’byung, dharmodaya) as vast as space This corresponds to the space wherein arise the wind mandala and the other mandalas during the formation of the world (according to ancient Indo-Tibetan cosmology) Within the tetrahedron, the semicircle of wind and the shapes of the other elements are visualized one upon the other, corresponding to the appearance of the elements in the outside world The last of the elements to be visualized is earth, upon which Mount Meru is created, corresponding to the outer Mount Meru A multicol- ... Yamari systems of the phase of creation See Chapter Three, section entitled “The System of Guhyasamaja.” 12 Warmth (drod ) specifically refers to the first of the four stages of the path of preparation,... preparation, which are warmth, peak (rtse mo), patience (bzod pa), and supreme worldly quality (? ??jig rten chos mchog) See Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge: Buddhist Ethics (English translation), p 494,... Chödrak Gyatso (Chos grags rgya mtsho) (1 454-1506) and master of the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorjé (Mi bskyod rdo rje) (1 507-1554) 14 The concept of training in purifying realms (zhing dag pa’i