THE INDESTRUCTIBLE WAY OF SECRET MANTRA

Here is presented] the resultant indestructible way of secret mantra:

The awareness-holder collection can be included in the three collections since it reveals their content equally.

Alternatively, some accept the proclaimers’ position on the three collections While for others, that is not necessarily the case; since there are seven or other numbers of collections,

The mantra collection of teachings is asserted to be a separate collection.

The meaning of this way is epitomized in these three:

<poem> The nature of tantra, forms of meditation, and the methods of exposition of tantric scriptures. Tantra denotes mantra and its procedures, as well as the means for teaching it. It has various names such as the mantra collection of teachings and the way of mantra. Tantras of worldly beings are not included here.

Its nature is to teach principally the path of awareness mantras and its result. The two categories of mantra are the mundane and supramundane.

They differ in that the first is nominal; the latter, authentic. The mundane mantra comprises what was created by ordinary beings; That which leads to definite assurance, the highest states in the three realms;

And the support for the mind, the paths of accumulation and preparation, along with their collection of teachings.

Tantra is distinct from sutra, not in its ultimate aim which is identical, But in its clarity, abundance of methods, and lack of hardships. <poem> It is intended for one of sharp faculties. According to the master Jnanashri,

Tantra is distinguished by its eleven forms of skillful methods.

Indrabhuti notes its seven special features; and Jnanapada, its practitioner, path, and result.

Shantipa states that mantra and perfections do not differ in ultimate truth,

But mantra has greater depth and vastness in relative truth.

Most believe that the distinction lies with the subject, not object.

Its distinctiveness is encapsulated in three features: the practitioner with three qualifications,

A path with three distinctions in method, and the resultant state of union.

Of four categories, sutra, tantra, both, and neither,

The mantra collection, which uses the result in the path, is distinguished. Mantra is superior by virtue of its swiftness, which is due to five reasons; four sources of bliss;

And its skillful methods in the three trainings and all spheres of experience. Its essence is the union of emptiness and compassion.

The meaning of mantra is to protect the mind from conceptual objectification. The three forms of practice are the best, the lesser, and the secondary;

In essence, great bliss, pride of being the deity, and mantra with its applications. Alternatively, the seven forms are the complete, partial, special, Initial bliss, almost complete, some measure, and slight great bliss.

Mantra refers to secret mantra and blissful pristine awareness. Its applications as activations and powers are considered tantra.

Both the way itself and the means to express it are known as tantra. Tantra is divided in many ways: into two sets, outer and inner; Into three, action, conduct, and yoga; into four, five, six, and more.

The division into four sets is widely accepted because tantras were taught In consideration of four kinds of recipients of the teachings,

As well as the persons to be converted, different castes, faculties, Objects of purification, purificatory means, states, times, and other factors.

Action tantra emphasizes outer conduct.

It has six families. Its entrances, the water and diadem, establish the potentials For the two dimensions, after which the pledges are observed.

For specific purposes, initiation is conferred in four parts; the mandala is a colored powders one.

The process of approaching incorporates ten auxiliary elements. The main elements Are the essential principles: that of oneself comprises six qualities;

That of the deity, deity as form, as letter, and as nature; That of recitation, immersion in sound, mind, and base;

And that of meditative absorption, dwelling in fire, in sound, and at the limit of sound. Familiarization with the deity is perfected in a lord-subject manner.

The powers effected are articles, body, and wealth, equal in fortune to that of desire realm gods. Powers are used for provisional or ultimate goals. Three types of powers are effected in the appropriate manner.

Attainment requires up to eight aeons for one of sharp faculties; or other times. The state attained is that of whichever of the three families one has perfected.

Conduct tantra comprises equal proportions of deeds and contemplation. It has three families. The outer entering is to receive five initiations, the water and the others.

One assumes vows such as the vow unobscured throughout the three times. The inner entering with signs involves the six deities.

For recitation and meditation on the two aspects of letter and base, the deity is like a sibling or friend. Practice without signs is cultivated in conjunction with the minds of entering, abiding, and emerging. The practice of approaching is to become skilled in practice with and without signs.

The practice to effect powers uses outer and inner mandalas for ordinary and special powers Through which one becomes an awareness-holder of the desire or form realm. Progress on the mundane path And the supramundane depend on one’s faculties.

Even hindered, full awakening is attained in three great aeons. Yoga tantra emphasizes contemplation on the profound and the vast.

It has five families. The five initiations of the student And the six of the master are taken gradually. An individual

Who is free of shortcomings and possessed of four qualifications and the vows, Through the result and its fundamental cause, trains in the means of actualization:

The deity yogas incorporating the four seals which serve to purify The ground-of-all, afflicted, mental, and sense consciousnesses. One of sharp faculties trains in the initial union and the two supremely triumphant contemplations; One of low faculties, by means of contemplation of the four yogas, Trains in attention on the coarse deity and the subtle insignia While applying the ten essential principles.

Perfect penetrating wisdom is the view of the unborn. Powers and the pristine awareness of the seals are effected

Through meditative absorption, recitation, and fire-offering rituals. One of sharp faculties swiftly crosses the stages and paths in one lifetime;

And one of low faculties, in sixteen or less. The culmination of the five awakenings Is perfect enlightenment, in essence the five pristine awarenesses. The highest tantra is the supreme yoga of method and wisdom.

The meaning of the tantra is contained in the three continuums. The causal continuum is to be understood by eliminating misconceptions through study and reflection.

The continuum of method is to be relied upon through experience in meditation. The resultant continuum is to be realized through three accumulations. The causal continuum is to be understood by its essence;

Principal nature of luminous clarity; four characteristics;

Synonyms (continuum, ground, ground-of-all, and original buddha); Attributes of interrelated flaws and qualities, or causes and results; Five temporal states; and immutability. The exceptional system Speaks of two authentic conditions, that of body and that of mind.

The luminous clarity nature of mind is the naturally present affinity With three features. The evolving affinity is perfectly acquired.

As illustrated by nine examples, the essence is concealed by adventitious stains.

Its essence is unchanged throughout the three states Of the impure, both pure and impure, and utterly pure. It exists from time without beginning as the source of all phenomena, But is difficult to fathom, entwined by four paradoxes.

It is the ultimate dimension of phenomena, indivisible profundity and clarity, Abiding in the body as the pristine awareness dimension of the nature of great bliss. Sutras and tantras expound the ground continuum using many synonyms:

Essence of enlightenment, transcendent wisdom, emptiness, Original lord, innate pristine awareness, and other terms. Coemergent ignorance creates the deception of the eightfold group, from which arises

The dualism of apprehended and apprehender and the various manifestations of cyclic existence and perfect peace. The four empties and four elemental properties together form the root of cyclic life.

An alternative explanation is that cyclic life arises from mundane innate bliss; the indestructible vital essence Is the root of the thirty-six psychophysical constituents.

The process of taking of birth in the three realms is gradually initiated. Of possible births, The best recipient for mantra is the manifest dimension attended by stains,

In one of the three continents, having a vajra body endowed with six elements. There are the three channels, twenty-four major channels, six channel-wheels, And seventy-two thousand subtle channels, within which [[[winds]] flow].

The life, root, and branch winds, and winds of the time conjunctions, In the orders of generation and dissolution, always shift and move [throughout the channels].

“Spring” and “vital essence,” the twelve refined and twenty-four residual vital essences, In the types of the dissolved, engaged, and dominant, flow [throughout the channels].

The four states—deep sleep, dream, ordinary, And sexual union—constitute the fundamental cause.

The refined elements, which transcend the nature of particles, Manifest from relative bodhichitta, in essence pristine awareness, The support for immutable bliss, the innate body.

The symbol for the causal continuum is evam, whose shape comprises

The union of the five letters of the great emptinesses and six letters of the empty essences. What is symbolized: “semen” and “ovum,” moon and sun, the aspects of method and wisdom, Vajra and sattva, the source of all tantras.

The causal continuum manifests as the powerful ten-letter mantra and Kalachakra. The method continuum comprises four elements: conferral of initiation,

Pledges and vows, contemplation, and application of tantra. A person who enters the path possessed of faith, diligence, and good fortune, With confidence in tantra and a genuine teacher,

First learns the meaning of tantra and then engages in the two phases. Initiation serves as the basis. The mandala precedes the initiation. Mandalas are said to be of eight types or as few as two.

Emanated and pristine awareness mandalas are the spheres of experience of realized persons. Some of sharp faculties may enter the body mandala and heaps of flowers mandala.

The mandalas appropriate for initial entry are mandalas of colored powders, painted on cloth, And tridimensional, each of which comprises three mandalas: that of the pledge deity,

The invoked pristine awareness deity, and the myriad manifestations of the buddha, Which are the bases of the initiation. The tantras are divided According to emphasis on method or wisdom: father tantras comprise three families;

Mother tantras, six, of which the ultimate is the Kalachakra. Each of the individual tantras has its rituals for the site and the preparation,

The actualization, veneration, and master’s self-entry, followed by outer and inner entry. The functions of the vase consist in the awareness initiations, the deliberate behavior, and so forth, The student’s initiations, and the irreversible wheel initiations.

Kalachakra sets forth seven initiations in the pattern of childhood. In the body mandala, relative mandala, and ultimate mandala, The secret, wisdom, and fourth initiations are received.

The high and supremely high ones are given at appropriate times. All are included in the entrance, main part, and permission; Lesser and supreme; mundane and supramundane, and so forth.

Initiations purify the obscurations of body, speech, and mind, and the three equally, Establish potencies for the four indestructible states, ripen one as a fit trainee

Of the generation phase, self-blessing, and example and actual pristine awareness, And bring about the attainment of the rank of a vajra master.

The initiations on the pattern of childhood correspond to the thirtyseven means of purification and spheres of purification. The prohibitions concern root downfalls and secondary infractions;

Injunctions concern contemplation, conduct, sustenance, and articles not to be apart from;

Pledges include those for beginners, adepts of stable realization and highly stable realization, Or the pledges of indestructible awakened body, speech, and mind, and so forth. Contemplation comprises the two phases.

The phase of generation comprises essence, branches, divisions,

Stages, and actual and nominal aspects; its six topics of analysis, Grounds of purification, final result, ripening effect, Purpose, essence, and perfection apply to all its branches.

The phase of completion comprises three parts: essence, types, and natures; And is understood through eleven topics of analysis:

What it is, where to strike crucial points, how to strike them, Experience and signs, qualities, reasons, relinquishment, measure, delineation of stages,

Overcoming obstructions and enhancing realization, and the distinction between the principal and auxiliary. The completion phase comprises the causal and resultant phases.

The causal phase comprises self-blessing, mandala circle, And the great seal. As methods of eliciting bliss and emptiness,

Generally, four seals are taught. There are three sides to the resultant phase. The emptiness side comprises the ultimate three lights of reality

And the relative three of interdependence, with conceptions and without. The three lights are delineated in fifteen sets and referred to by many synonyms.

The thirty-three conceptions, the nature of which is light, Forty, the increase of light, and seven, the culmination of light, serve as the source Of deception and freedom. Pristine awareness is brought forth by method.

The essence of the appearance side is the form of a completion phase deity Of three types. From the four lights and the four elemental properties

The subtle and gross constituents are created. The innate body serves as the ground for attainment. The agent of attainment is the final example luminous clarity. Actual awakening is the cause; the state of union, the result. Application of tantra comprises the twelve great activations

And the common and supreme powers, achieved by means of meditation, Fire offering, diagrams, and compounds. The practice to achieve the four ordinary powers

Includes direction, time, deity, necessary articles, disposition, Place, meditation object, food, ritual, and mantra;

Uncommon substances and pledge articles are superior means to attain powers. The complementary conduct is to engage in the elaborate, unelaborate, And extremely unelaborate conduct; or the conduct of forsaking duality, Ever-perfect, and victorious in all quarters, and so forth.

It is differentiated according to faculties, stages, and so on; of the many types, All are considered part of the three categories of time, procedure, and essence.

The branch of tantric application of wrathful practices is of two types. The perfection of those contemplations leads to the resultant continuum.

In summation, one gains certainty through the view based on wisdom And traverses the path through the stages of cultivating the supreme methods.

Realization is enhanced by using experiences in the path and engaging in three conducts. Within this lifetime, the state of union is thereby attained. Tantric scriptures are classified on the basis of their content;

Both action and conduct tantras are categorized according to presentation As sutras, tantras, skills, detailed rituals, and retention mantras;

Yoga tantras are categorized as root, explanatory, subsidiary, and concordant tantras; Highest yoga, as root tantras, extensive and concise, Two subsidiary, five explanatory, and two concordant tantras. The five tantric topics concern procedures, powers, Pledges, contemplations, and tantric applications.

An alternative system sets forth eleven points: ritual of the site, method of actualization, worship, fire-offering rituals, Initiation, consecration, prescribed ritual implements, and mandalas, Ritual feast gatherings, familiarization, and sets of activations.

One must know details such as ritual implements of insignia (vajra and bell) and ornaments; Drawing and construction of mandalas; place and time for ritual feast gatherings;

As well as the roles of the participants; familiarization for the welfare of oneself and others; And activations related to body and contemplation.

The teaching method in action tantra comprises four practices, the entrance, and so on; In conduct tantra, three exposition approaches and two excellences;

In yoga tantra, four compendiums of analyses, all of which include purpose, Concise meaning, literal meaning, context, and resolution of contradictions.

Points of introduction are given based on the distinction between Buddha and his followers. Highest tantras are to be expounded by means of seven ornaments:

Five points of introduction, four correct methods, Six parameters, four modes, group and individual teachings, Five persons, and two truths. The special exposition methods for Chakrasamvara

Are six key instructions and three unions; For Hevajra, those of the three purities;

For Mahamaya, the shape, mantra, and reality;

For Chatuhpita, the four seats; Samputa, seven secrets; For others, the four dwellings and four essential principles; For Kalachakra, the outer, inner, and alternative levels, All of those based on the four reliances.

In the esoteric instructions system, tantras are taught in terms of the three continuums.

A protective circle, food offering, offering to the teacher, and meditation modelled on early events are performed. The eleven faults of the three doors are eliminated by students.

Those who expound and listen to the tantras undistractedly and endowed with the ornament of speech Will be especially watched over by all awareness-holders, it is taught.

[Next is presented] the extraordinary ancient translation tradition of the indestructible way:

This system is said to comprise four collections from the perspective of overcoming emotional afflictions And nine ways to realization according to different faculties.

All are epitomized in the three ways: the ground (the meaning to be explained);

The path (which presents the explanation); and the result (that which transcends explanation). The ground comprises essence, nature, and energy;

The supreme path, the proclaimer’s way up to anu; The result, supreme pristine awareness, ati. The ways of proclaimers, solitary sages, and bodhisattvas constitute the way of liberation from the source of suffering; And kriya, ubhaya, and yoga, the way resembling Vedic austerity. These are essentially identical

To the ways described in the common explanation, from which knowledge of these should be gained. The tantra, elucidation, and esoteric instructions systems constitute the way of the dominating method. These are known as the three sets of generation, completion, and great perfection.

The essence of mahayoga is the conjoining of understanding and experience Of the indivisibility of the superior truths by relying principally on method. Mahayoga means the great training.

The entrance initiations of benefit, ability, and profundity effect ripening. One enters by way of three contemplations: great emptiness, Illusory compassion, and coarse and subtle symbols. The view of the indivisibility of the two truths beyond the sphere of experience Is conclusively established through the axioms of the four understandings, Three purities, four samenesses, and the total state of being.

For meditation in the sadhana tradition, eight systems of knowledge

Are taught: the four channel-wheels; three neighs of the horse;

Eight syllables of ru lu; Pure Nectar; four piercings;

Channels and winds; and observance of worship and propitiation.

The path of method in the tantra tradition involves the upper and lower doors

Applied with the four branches of familiarization and attainment.

The path of liberation is endowed with three kinds of wisdom. Some achieve the result in a simultaneous way. Those who proceed sequentially rely on the cause, the view of wisdom,

And the condition, contemplation with application, which comprises devotion meditation and definitive perfection. Conduct in the path of method is deliberate behavior; and in the path of liberation, conscientiousness. These bring one to the result: the four kinds of awareness-holders.

The essence of anuyoga is the conjoining of understanding and experience of the nonduality Of the ultimate dimension and pristine awareness, principally based on wisdom. As desire is of primary importance, it is called anuyoga.

Its thirty-six initiations are condensed into four: outer, inner, attainment, and secret. Entrance is through the union of the ultimate dimension and pristine awareness, in which there is perfection without generation.

The view is that of primordial enlightenment in original pure and perfect mind Which is the indivisibility of the three kinds of mandala.

Meditation comprises the upper and lower techniques in the path of method, and establishing the meaning and expression in signs In the path of liberation, thus forming the utterly perfect path.

Those are connected to the three yogas: the cause (the object of the action); The condition (the action); and the result (transcendence of action).

The conduct is that of the empowering energy, the dominating conduct, and conduct of method. The result is great bliss, spontaneously perfect, the twenty-five aspects.

The essence of atiyoga is direct liberation in the state of primordial enlightenment Without renunciation or acceptance, hope or fear.

It is the supreme training, the summit of all ways. The initiations are elaborate, unelaborate, very unelaborate, and utterly unelaborate. One enters by way of no action or effort whatsoever.

The view asserts that everything is the total sphere of the dimension of reality,

Naturally present pristine awareness, effortless primordial enlightenment.

The respective views of the divisions of mind, vast space, and esoteric instructions assert

Freedom from the limit of something to renounce, as no phenomenon is other than mind;

Freedom from the limit of remedies, as phenomena are totally perfected in the vast space of the true nature;

Transcendence of renunciations and remedies, as all are of the real condition already established.

The division on mind has seven distinctions. The vast space division has four aspects.

The esoteric instructions comprise the scattered teachings, oral tradition, and textual tradition of tantras.

The last has cycles of outer, inner, secret, and most secret

As distinctions in the oral transmission and explanatory tantras.

Meditation in the mind division is to remain in total presence and emptiness, the dimension of reality;

In the vast space division, to remain in the state of the true nature without action or effort;

In the esoteric instructions division, to remain in primordial freedom without renunciation and acceptance.

Conduct is spontaneous; the place of primordial freedom is thereby reached.

The pledges should be learned in the context of the mantric vows. Each of the three yogas may be subdivided Into three subparts each, for a total of nine.

The scriptures include the eighteen tantras, the five scriptural elucidations,

The eighteen mother and son tantras of the Majestic Creative Energy, and the seventeen tantras of secret pristine awareness; In the sadhana division, there are the five supramundane

And the three mundane, which include general and special tantras.

As exposition methods, mahayoga’s seven ornaments are the same as in the new tradition.

As special methods, two styles of exposition, that of atiyoga and that of mahayoga,

Are used to teach the Net of Magical Manifestation of Vajrasattva, The Secret Essence, King of Tantras That Ascertains Reality.

The mahayoga style comprises the three exposition methods of the elders;

The Zurpa tradition of the transmitted teachings presents five topics.

At the present time, the title is taught to the most adept; an analysis, to the average;

And the meaning of the words, to the least adept; this is Vimalamitra’s way.

The ten topics of the tantra—view, conduct, mandala, initiation,

Pledges, activations, sadhanas, contemplation, offerings, mantras and mudras—

Serve as instrumental conditions for the path.

Sadhanas are understood through twenty methods: the five summaries,

Five tantric guidelines, five combined elucidations, and five unification systems.

Anuyoga is understood through seven elucidations: view, generation phase, Mantra to be recited, union, release, offering, and propitiation. Atiyoga is taught using the six general meanings: five teachings On the path, with examples; and the result, which is beyond examples.

1. THE NATURE OF TANTRA

I. T he New Tradition of Secret Mantra

A. T he Indestructible Way: Its Placement in the Buddhist Teachings

B. The Main Discussion: The [New] Tradition of Secret Mantra

1. A General Statement

2. The Detailed Discussion

a. T he Nature of Tantra

i. T he Bases for Tantra’s Distinctiveness

aa. The Essence . Synonyms for Tantra

cc. Its Nature dd. Divisions

ii. Distinctions between Sutra and Mantra

aa. T he Viewpoints of Indian Masters and an Encapsulation of Those Viewpoints

bb. Four Categories based on Sutra and Tantra Content cc. The Main Distinction according to Tibetan Masters

iii. T he Exceptional Nature of the Mantra Systemaa. Identification of the Essence of Mantra bb. T he Meaning of the Term Mantra cc. A General Presentation of Divisions within Mantra and Tantra

1' T he Forms of Practice of Mantra a' T he Main Discussion

b' Ancillary: The Distinction between Mantra and Tantra

[Here is presented] the resultant indestructible way of secret mantra:

T he above words introduce the system of the indestructible way (vajrayana) of secret mantra, the exposition of which comprises two parts: the new tradition of secret mantra; and the ancient tradition of secret mantra.1 The first has two parts: the placement of the indestructible way within the collections of Buddhist teachings; and the main presentation of [this] tradition of mantra.

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE WAY: ITS PLACEMENT IN THE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS

The awareness-holder collection can be included in the three collections since it reveals their content equally.

Alternatively, some accept the proclaimers’ position on the three collections

While for others, that is not necessarily the case; since there are seven or other numbers of collections,

The mantra collection of teachings is asserted to be a separate collection.

[Some systems] place this indestructible way within the three collections of Buddhist teachings [of the vinaya (discipline), sutra (discourses), and abhidharma (phenomenology)]. [In other systems,] the indestructible way is not included within these but is classified separately. Of the different ways that do include it within the three collections, some place it solely in the sutra collection;3 others, in all [three].

T he omniscient Rangjung Dorjé [as stated in his Profound Inner Reality] considers the collection of teachings of the awareness-holders5 [to belong to] the three collections equally because it reveals in equal proportions the inner forms of discipline, discourses, and phenomenology.6 Similarly, the master Shraddha Karavarman in his Short Guide to the Meaning of Highest Yoga Tantra states:7

An alternative position holds that the collection of teachings of the way of secret mantra is included in equal proportions within the three collections of Buddhist teachings. T he rationale for this assertion is as follows: the nine branches of the Buddha’s words constitute the collection of teachings of the universal way (mahayana); the collection of teachings of the secret mantra way is itself included within these nine branches and teaches the three trainings [of ethics, contemplation, and wisdom]. H ence, it is considered [to belong to] the three collections. In addition, Abhayakara’s view accords with this explanation for the teachings of the indestructible way being included equally in the three collections of teachings.

Another perspective is found in the Dialogue with Subahu Tantra:

In order to benefit gods, demi-gods, and humans,

Various types of secret and awareness mantras,

Thirty million in number, plus five hundred thousand,

Were declared by the Buddha to be the awareness-holder collection of teachings.

On this point, Shraddha Karavarman states:

It is asserted that the collection of teachings of the secret mantra way does not belong to those of the three ways [of the proclaimers, solitary sages, and bodhisattvas]. Instead, it is known as the awareness-holder collection of teachings and is another bodhisattva collection. As is said, Uphold in its entirety the sacred doctrine of the three ways [to realization]: T he outer way, the inner way, and the secret way.

Furthermore, the master Buddhaguhya [in his Extensive Commentary on the Vajravidarana Tantra] states:

The doctrine taught by the supreme Buddha

Forms four collections: discourses, discipline,

Phenomenology, and the awareness-holder teachings.

Thus, secret mantra is considered to be a fourth collection, that of the awareness-holder. T his is due to secret mantra’s marked superiority over the teachings of the outer way of characteristics in that it is a scriptural tradition that reveals vast and profound means of swiftly gaining the resultant state of awareness-holder during this life or a future one.

Some scholars contend that all twelve branches of the Buddha’s words15 must be included within the three collections. T his represents the perspective of the common way [i.e., the individual way]. H wever, in [the context of] the universal way, that is not necessarily so, as stated in Chandrakirti’s

Seventy Verses on the [Triple] Refuge:16 According to the viewpoint of the proclaimers T here are three collections of teachings. In the context of the bodhisattvas’ [[[doctrine]]], T his is not necessarily the case. and:

From the perspective of the bodhisattvas T here are seven collections of teachings:

The bodhisattvas’ collection of teachings,

The collection of the awareness-holders,18

The discourses, phenomenology, discipline,

Extensive teachings, and stories of the Buddha’s previous lives. These seven collections of teachings...

Thus, the mantra collection of teachings is asserted to be a separate collection. <poem>