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The Difference Between the Four Tantras

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12. Bu-tön and Tsong-kha-pa: The Four Tantra Sets


Within the Mantra Vehicle, there are many presentations of varying numbers of tantra sets, but the dominant tradition is of a division into four.a Bu-tön’s three Presentations of the General Tantra Sets—called Condensed, Medium-Length, and Extensive b—give a total of nine different ways of dividing the tantras into four groups. Tsongkha-pa in his Great Exposition of Secret Mantra critically examines most of these and accepts only two with modification. While the brief explanations in Bu-tön’s catalogue provide glimpses of the rich culture of Tantra, Tsong-kha-pa’s critical appraisal fits Tantra into a coherent, high world-view. Let us consider these nine approaches to ordering the tantras.

Four tantras and four castes

Bu-tön reports that some hold that the four tantra sets are for the different castes. For instance, Alaṃkakalasha says in his Commentary on the “Vajra Garland Tantra”:

Action Tantras were taught in order to accommodate Brahmins since they like bathing and cleanliness, hold the view that one is liberated through asceticism, consider their caste to be important, and hold that one is liberated through repetition and burnt offerings.…Performance Tantras, teaching both internal yoga of wisdom and method and external activities, were set forth in order to accommodate the merchant caste since they cannot engage in severe asceticism, will not become involved in low actions, and look down on external cleanliness and so forth.…Yoga Tantras [in which the gods and goddesses of the maṇḍalas


This is so even in Nying-ma in which the fourth division is further divided into Mahāyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga. b Condensed version, 27a.1ff.; Medium-Length version, 641.7-650.5; Extensive version,

rnal ’byor chen po’i rgyud dpal rdo rje phreng ba’i rgya cher ’grel pa zab mo’i don gyi ’grel pa, vajramālāmahāyogatantraṭīkāgambhīrārthadīpikā; P2660, vol. 61 (Toh. 1795); this passage is Cone rgyud gi, 3a.2-4a.3. Cited in my supplement in Tantra in Tibet, 202. For Tsong-kha-pa’s rebuttal see Tantra in Tibet, 155-156.

correspond to a king and his retinue] were taught in order to accommodate those of the royal caste since they cannot engage in asceticism but enjoy the pleasures of the five attributes of the desire realm.…Highest Yoga Tantras, which teach the nonconceptual usage of the five fleshes and so forth, as well as low actions, were taught for those of the servant class who—without any regard for cleanliness— eat everything, engage in all actions, and have little conceptuality. Bu-tön attributes this tradition both to Alaṃkakalasha and also to “the speech of lamas,” giving it additional authority. Also, he gives the impression that this one has his approval when immediately thereafter he cites a passage on the four tantras and declares that it should be analyzed as to whether it is fake or not.

That Alaṃkakalasha, certain lamas, and, most likely, Bu-tön himself approved this tradition highlights how radical Tsong-khapa’s criticism, scathing in its devastating reasonableness, is. Tsongkha-pa says:a If Alaṃkakalasha propounds this thinking that there is a similarity between the trainees of the four tantras and the four castes, such does not encompass the different features of those who engage in Mantra through the four tantra sets. If it is asserted that members of the four castes are needed for the trainees of the four tantras sets, this is not seen to be correct because such is never definite and is not even predominantly so. Though the deities of, for instance, the vajra element (rdo rje’i dbyings, vajradhātu) [[[taught]] in the Compendium of Principles] are described as having features that accord with kings and their retinue, this does not prove that trainees [of Yoga Tantra] are members of the royal caste. The First Paṇ-chen Lama, Lo-sang-chö-kyi-gyel-tsen, clarifies Tsong-kha-pa’s points:b It is wrong to posit the four tantra sets from the viewpoint of the four castes. If this means that those of the four castes

a Ibid., 156. b Notes Presenting the General Teaching and the Four Tantra Sets, Collected Works, vol. 4 (New Delhi: Gurudeva, 1973), 17a.2-17a.4; cited in Tantra in Tibet, 202-203. are the special trainees of the four tantras, then this entails the fault of being too broad [since not all members of the castes practice tantra]. If this means that members of the four castes are needed for the main trainees of the four tantras, then this entails the fault of being too narrow [because the main trainees of the four tantras come from any part of society, not from a specific caste]. If this means that there are cases of the four tantras taming members of the four castes, then this entails the fault of indefiniteness [since there are cases of each of the four taming members of each of the four; therefore, this could not serve to distinguish the tantras]. The criticism is unrelenting, not leaving a shred of a possible reasonable explanation.

In favor of sense, Tsong-kha-pa and his followers unceremoniously drop this tradition, despite its being found in the work of an Indian scholar and repeated in Tibet. Simply put, the trainees of all four tantra sets are drawn from all levels of society, and, furthermore, not all persons of any level of society are suitable as practitioners of Tantra. In the light of reasoned examination, this tradition looks ridiculous; one can appreciate how abrasive such analysis would appear to those who opted, instead, to maintain their traditions (and most did!). Hard to ignore but impossible to absorb, Tsong-kha-pa’s reasoned paradigm would remain a thorn in the side.

Despite the old tradition’s unreasonableness, I find some sense in it, albeit through a different perspective. It strikes me that the connection of the four tantra sets with the four castes might have arisen from masters’ using the four castes as examples in order to illustrate certain practices, such as ritual bathing. For instance, a master might exhort initiates that, in order to meditate on themselves as the main figure in a Yoga Tantra maṇḍala, they would have to consider themselves as kings; or in order to practice the strict cleanliness that is found in the preliminary rituals of Action Tantra, they would have to be like Brahmins, who are renowned for bathing three times a day; or, in order to practice the nondifferentiation of conceptions of cleanliness and uncleanliness in Highest Yoga Mantra, they would have to be like members of the lowest class. The energy that is involved in the imagination of kingly behavior or low-class behavior is drawn to the path by associating the path with it; this indeed is a fundamental procedure of Tantra, mimicking ordinary activities and affairs in a different context, both so that these are understood differently and so that the energy associated with them is made available for and associated with deeper practice. Still, such are only metaphors and cannot reasonably be put forward as the means of differentiating the four tantra sets by way of their trainees. Four tantras and four schools of tenets

Others say that the mode of procedure in the deity yogas of the four tantra sets are for persons holding the views of the four schools of Buddhist tenets. Bu-tön disapproves of this tradition, as does his predecessor Sö-nam-tzay-moa of the Sa-kya sect, whose exposition appears to have been the basis for Bu-tön’s elaboration. Sö-namtzay-mo shows his disapproval merely by reporting that this tradition claimed to be following Nāgārjuna, but Bu-tön makes his disapproval clearer, “Tibetan lamas have said this, but I have not seen a source for it.” The Druk-pa Ka-gyu master Padma-kar-po is even more explicit:b Some Tibetan teachers have explained that [the tantras] are differentiated into four types based on accommodations to [four types of non-Buddhist] Fordersc or based on four schools of Buddhist tenets. Since the sources that they cite do not appear in any texts, these explanations are only their own thoughts. Let us state the assertion as reported in Sö-nam-tzay-mo’sd and Butön’se expositions together with Tsong-kha-pa’s reasoned refutation of it; the latter’s usage of explicitly delineated reasoning again shifts the emphasis from the presence or absence of sources to whether or not the presentation reasonably fits into a larger

a bsod nams rtse mo, 1142-1182. b Presentation of the General Tantra Sets: Captivating the Wise (rgyud sde spyi’i rnam gzhag mkhas pa’i yid ’phrog), Collected Works, vol. 11 (Darjeeling: Kargyud Sungrab Nyamso Khang, 1974), 16a.5. c mu stegs pa, tīrthika. d Presentation of the General Tantra Sets (rgyud sde spyi’i rnam par gzhag pa) (Gangtok, ’Bras-ljongs-sa-ngor-chos-tshogs, 1969), 30b.4-31b.5.

Condensed version, 89b.6ff. Bu-tön does not give this particular presentation in his Extensive version.

schematization of the path. About Action Tantra trainees, this tradition says:

Just as Vātsīputrīyas and Aparantaka-Vaibhāṣhikas assert truly existent external objects and an inexpressible self, so the rites of deity generation in Action Tantras involve laying out a painting of a deity in front of oneself, arranging offerings, bathing, observing cleanliness, inviting a wisdom being [an actual deity] in front of oneself—corresponding to an external object—placing the mantra in the deity’s heart, and engaging in repetition within the context of viewing the deity as like a master and oneself as a servant. Just as these schools assert an inexpressible self, so the wisdombeing is neither the painting nor oneself.

As Tsong-kha-pa points out, the assumption that Action Tantras do not involve imagination of oneself as a deity but call only for meditation on a deity in front indeed has what appears to be a most reliable source, for it is based on the Wisdom Vajra Compendium, an explanatory Tantra of the Guhyasamāja cycle which, in paraphrase, says, “One who practices without the excellent bliss of a wisdombeing and without pride in oneself as a deity abides in Action Tantra.” Tsong-kha-pa has a problem because although he can criticize scholars who present this same opinion, he cannot disagree with a statement in a bona fide tantra; thus, he must explain it away. Also, since Tsong-kha-pa holds that imagination of oneself as a deity is the central distinguishing feature of Tantra, he must find it somewhere in Action Tantra, and, indeed, as we saw above in chapter eleven, he presents an elaborate and cogent argument that such does occur in Action Tantra. Attempting to resolve the problem, Tsong-kha-pa holds that the statement in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium refers only to the lowest trainees of Action Tantras, who are frightened by meditating on themselves as a deity, and hence does not refer to the main trainees of Action Tantra who, despite being a minority within Action Tantra trainees, are fully capable of practicing self-generation. He has no source from the Wisdom Vajra Compendium for this apologetic; reasoned analysis alone is the arbiter that allows a re-reading of the tantra.

Tsong-kha-pa does not bother to mention what, in the face of the fact that he and all other Tibetan scholars consider the tantric systems to be Great Vehicle in terms of the view of emptiness, is the most absurd aspect of this tradition—that is, that there could be a harmony of view on the nature of phenomena between a Tantric system and Lesser Vehicle tenet system such as Vātsīputrīya or Aparantaka-Vaibhāṣhika.

About Performance Tantra trainees, this tradition similarly posits a correspondence with a Lesser Vehicle school: Performance Tantras involving generation of oneself as a pledge-being and generation of a deity in front as a wisdom-being were taught for Kashmiri Vaibhāṣhikas and Sautrāntikas. Repetition is performed within the context of viewing the deity (the wisdom-being in front) and oneself (the pledge-being) as companions. This is similar to these schools’ assertion of ultimately existent subject and object. As before, in the perspective of the developed tradition, the Mantra Vehicle is part of the Great Vehicle from the viewpoints both of tenet and of path, and since emptiness yoga is an integral part of deity generation, adherents of Lesser Vehicle tenets, who assert ultimately established subject and object that are different entities, are not the intended trainees of any tantra.

About Yoga Tantra, this tradition makes what perhaps is its most untutored comparison: Yoga Tantras involving generation of oneself as a pledgebeing and then causing the wisdom-being to enter oneself were taught for Solitary Realizers. This rite of deity generation is similar to Solitary Realizersassertion of conventionally existent object and subject. Since all four schools of tenets—Great Exposition, Sūtra, Mind-Only, and Middle Way schools—present the path of Solitary Realizers, “Solitary Realizer” itself is not a school of tenets. As Tsong-kha-pa says:b Even [if one mistakenly imagined] a relation between Solitary Realizers and the rites of generation in Yoga Tantra, Solitary Realizers are not a division of the four schools of tenets. Tsong-kha-pa’s straightforward, understated refutation masks a huge guffaw.

About Highest Yoga Tantra the tradition says:

Highest Yoga Tantras were taught for the Great Vehicle Proponents of Mind-Only and Proponents of the Middle Way School who assert that neither subject nor object ultimately exists but exists only conventionally. These tantras involve generation of oneself as a pledge-being and the entry of a wisdom-being, corresponding to their assertion of subject and object conventionally, but do not involve requesting the deity to leave, corresponding to not asserting either subject or object ultimately. The correspondence is so superficially facile that it suggests that the main purpose of the tradition is to subsume the four Indian schools of tenets under tantra. Most likely, the tradition stems from teachers who knew little of the four schools of tenets but wanted to affect knowledge of them. Four tantras and four faces of Kālachakra Bu-tön, most likely merely to fulfill an intention to thoroughly catalogue all the varieties of means for dividing the tantras, reports a tradition that the four tantra sets were spoken by the four faces of Kālachakra, the principal deity of one of the main Highest Yoga Tantras. Obviously an attempt to subsume all tantras under the tantra of a single deity, this tradition aligns the four faces, four groups of tantras, and four appearances arisen from four types of predispositions, the latter being a topic central to the Kālachakra Tantra.b Namely, Action and Performance Tantras were set forth by the left face of Kālachakra for the sake of purifying adherence to gross external objects that appear due to predispositions for the waking state. Yoga Tantras were set forth by the right face for the sake of purifying adherence to mere mental appearances that occur due to predispositions for the dream state. Yoginī Tantras were set forth by the front face for the sake of purifying adherence to a nonconceptual state in which all external conceptuality has disappeared and which occurs due to predispositions for the deep sleep state. Yoga Noble Class Tantrasa are set forth by the back face for the sake of purifying adherence to bliss that occurs due to predispositions for the state of sexual absorption called the fourth state.

In this system, the four tantra sets become grist for creative reformulation around topics central to the Kālachakra Tantra. Tsong-kha-pa does not even mention this means of classification, most likely because of its obvious inadequacy to the task, whereas Bu-tön includes it without comment. Four tantras and four periods of the day Bu-tönb also reports a statement in Kalkī Puṇḍarīka’s commentary on the Kālachakra Tantra, the Stainless Light,c that four tantra sets were spoken in order to purify four periods of the day—tantras of smiling in order to purify the first period, tantras of gazing in order to purify the third period, tantras of touching the breast in order to purify the fifth period, and tantras of holding hands in order to purify the seventh period. Bu-tön says no more; Tsong-kha-pa does not mention the tradition; and the First Paṇ-chen Lama, Lo-sangchö-kyi-gyel-tsen (see 382),d explains it away as merely aligning techniques of purification—groups of tantras—with objects to be purified, which here are periods during the day. This tradition again evinces a wish to absorb a highly diverse corpus of tantric literature under a rubric that leaves one’s own system at the top as the most inclusive. Four tantras and four eras Another tradition reported by Bu-töne divides the four tantras by way of four eras in the history of this world-system. Citing

a rnal ’byor rje’u rigs kyi rgyud: Extensive version, 40.7. b Ibid., 40.7-41.2. c

dus kyi ’khor lo’i ’grel bshad rtsa ba’i rgyud kyi rjes su ’jug pa stong phrag bcu gnyis pa dri ma med pa’i ’od, vimālaprabhānāmamūlatantrānusāriṇīdvādaśasāhasrikālaghukālacakratantrarājaṭīkā; P2064, vol. 46. d Presentation of the General Teaching and the Four Tantra Sets, Collected Works, vol. 4, 40.1. e Extensive version, 41.2-41.3.

Kṛṣhṇachārin’s Illumination of the Secret Principles,a he explains that Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga tantras were set forth in relation to eras during which the afflictive emotions of beings became progressively more coarse, presumably requiring more powerful means to conquer them. Tsong-kha-pa, again, does not mention this tradition, most likely because it reflects a familiar theme that he has handled in his earlier criticisms. Four tantras and followers of four deities Bu-tönb reports a tradition that says that the four tantra sets are for persons following particular non-Buddhist deities. He attributes the tradition to his predecessor Sö-nam-tzay-mo, who actually only reports it without endorsing it.c In this tradition, the desirous who are followers of Īshvara are taught Highest Yoga Tantra; the hateful who are followers of Viṣhṇu are taught Performance Tantra; the ignorant who are followers of Brahmā are taught Action Tantra; and those who are indefinite in the sense that they take up the tenets of any deity they encounter are taught Yoga Tantra.

Tsong-kha-pa criticizes this view with devastating reason. Simply put, his view is that it is not necessary before entering into the Mantra Vehicle to take up a non-Buddhist system that has what, for Buddhism, is a wrong view on the status of persons and other phenomena. Also, absurdly, someone who initially assumed Nāgārjuna’s view of the emptiness of inherent existence could not be a main trainee of any tantra set if it were necessary first to assume a wrong view. He says:d

Even if this is taken as meaning that there are instances of these types being trained by these tantras, such cannot identify the different features of those who engage in Mantra through the four tantra sets. This is because some persons of all four types are tamed by each of these tantras. It would be most unreasonable to assert that such persons are needed as the chief trainees of these tantra sets. Since the main trainees of the Mantra Vehicle are the superior among trainees engaging in the Conqueror’s teaching,

a gsang ba’i de kho na nyid gsal ba, guhyatattvaprakāśa; P2167, vol. 51. b Condensed version, 895.2-895.7. c Presentation of the General Tantra Sets, 27a.4-30b.4. d Tantra in Tibet, 153-154.

they do not have to assume a wrong view before engaging in Mantra. Also, there would be the fault that those who initially engaged in correct instead of wrong tenets would not be chief trainees of these tantras. Tsong-kha-pa’s refutation is so devastating that it provokes laughter at such a simple-minded assertion. His open dismissal of these traditions is a conscious attempt to assimilate tantric traditions into a highly evolved style of critical examination. Four tantras and four afflictive emotions to be abandoned

Others, seeing that Mantra involves the usage of desire, hatred, and ignorance in the path in order to overcome them and seeing that practices are geared for persons having a particular predominant afflictive emotion, say that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by specific types of afflictive emotions. Without comment, Bu-tön reports this tradition, citing the Very Brilliant Lamp: b Concerning this, in consideration of those having the lineage of great and middling obscuration, Action Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of low obscuration, Performance Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of low and of medium desire, hatred, and obscuration, Yoga Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of great desire, hatred, and obscuration, Highest Yoga Tantras were taught. For those having the lineage of the great of the great desire, hatred, and obscuration, the Yoginī Tantras were taught. In this tradition, the higher tantra sets are superior because they offer a path that can tame even lower types of trainees; the power of their techniques is so great that beings severely afflicted with desire, hatred, and obscuration can attain Buddhahood through their path. This mirrors Tripiṭakamāla’s view that Tantra, in general, is superior to Sūtra because it has more methods. As Bu-tön summarizes Tripiṭakamāla’s position (cited earlier, 210): In the other systems [that is, the Sūtra approaches], asceticism, vows of restraint, and so forth are described as methods for [achieving] high status [within cyclic existence] and liberation [from cyclic existence], but all sentient beings cannot practice these. Since some course in very peaceful actions, [these practices] were set forth in terms of them, but these cannot take care of all.

However, Secret Mantra was set forth in order to join all sentient beings to virtue. Concerning this, either oneself or a lama determines one’s nature; this is done through analyzing dreams, dropping a flower [on a maṇḍala divided into quadrants that indicate temperament], the descent of wisdom,a constructing seals and so forth, and by way of [noticing predominant styles of ] behavior. Having recognized the afflictive emotion, such as desire, in which one predominantly courses, one also identifies [the deity who is] one’s lord of lineage [in that each lineage is associated with a particular afflictive emotion]. If desire is predominant, one generates [the minds and mental factors of desire]b as Amitābha and, having made offerings [to that deity], enters—by way of mindfulness of his mantra and seal [that is, hand-gesture]—into the meditative stabilization that has the mode of great desire. With a nature of joy pervaded by compassion, all conceptions are abandoned. If Mantra, in general, is superior due to having more techniques that are capable of taming a wider scope of trainees, it is consistent to hold that the higher tantra sets are superior to the lower due to being able to tame ever grosser afflictive emotions.

Tsong-kha-pa’s criticism is, again, scathing. In refuting Alaṃkakalasha’s similar position that the Guhyasamāja Tantra is taught to those in the merchant caste whose desire and hatred are great but whose ignorance is slight, he says:c In general, the chief trainees of the Great Vehicle must have strong compassion. In particular, the chief trainees of


This probably refers to a method of divination through the appearance of configurations on a mirror, and so forth. The meaning of “constructing seals,” which would seem to mean the construction of hand-gestures (phyag rgya, mudrā), is obscure. b The bracketed material is added in accordance with Bu-tön’s own explanation in the next section on obscuration.

Tantra in Tibet, 156-157.

Highest Yoga wish to attain Buddhahood extremely quickly in order to accomplish the welfare of others due to their being highly moved by great compassion. Therefore, it is nonsense to propound that they must have very great hatred. His point is that although a certain afflictive emotion in a tantric practitioner may be predominant in the sense of being stronger than the other afflictive emotions, tantrists are simply not dominated by afflictive emotions. Rather, they are especially motivated by compassion, intent on the quickest means of attaining highest enlightenment in order to be of service to others.

In this vein, with regard to trainees of Highest Yoga Mantra, the Seventh Dalai Lama Kel-sang-gya-tso in his Explanation of the Maṇḍala Rite of the Glorious Guhyasamāja Akṣhobhyavajra: Illumination Brilliantly Clarifying the Principles of the Meaning of Initiation: Sacred Word of Vajrasattva says that practitioners of Mantra are especially motivated by compassion, intent on the quickest means of attaining highest enlightenment in order to be of service to others: Some see that if they rely on the Perfection Vehicle and so forth, they must amass the collections [of merit and wisdom] for three periods of countless great eons, and thus it would take a long time and involve great difficulty. They cannot bear such hardship and seek to attain Buddhahood in a short time and by a path with little difficulty. These people who claim that they, therefore, are engaging in the short path of the Secret Mantra Vehicle are outside the realm of Mantra trainees. For, to be a person of the Great Vehicle in general one cannot seek peace for oneself alone but from the viewpoint of holding others more dear than oneself must be able, for the sake of the welfare of others, to bear whatever type of hardship or suffering might arise. Secret Māntrikas are those of extremely sharp faculties within followers of the Great Vehicle, and, therefore, persons who have turned their backs on others’ welfare and want little difficulty for themselves are not even close to the quarter of Highest Secret Mantra.…One should engage in Highest Yoga Mantra, the secret short path, with the motivation of an altruistic intention to become enlightened, unable to bear that sentient beings will be troubled for a long time by cyclic existence in general and by strong sufferings in particular, thinking, “How nice it would be if I could achieve right now a means to free them!” Similarly, the Mongolian scholar-yogi Jang-kya Röl-pay-dor-jay, lama to the Ch’ien-lung Emperor during the Manchu domination of China in the eighteenth century, emphasizes that the practitioners for whom Tantra was specifically taught are even more compassionate and of a higher type than the practitioners of the Sūtra version of the Great Vehicle. In his Clear Exposition of the Presentations of Tenets: Beautiful Ornament for the Meru of the Subduer’s Teaching, he says:

In the precious tantras and in many commentaries it is said that even those trainees of the Mantra Vehicle who have low faculties must have far greater compassion, sharper faculties, and a more superior lot than the trainees of sharpest faculties in the Perfection Vehicle. Therefore, those who think and propound that the Mantra Vehicle was taught for persons discouraged about achieving enlightenment over a long time and with great difficulty make clear that they have no penetration of the meaning of Tantra. Furthermore, the statement that the Mantra Vehicle is quicker than the Perfection Vehicle is in relation to trainees who are suitable vessels, not in terms of just anyone. Therefore, it is not sufficient that the doctrine be the Mantra Vehicle; the person must be properly engaged in the Mantra Vehicle. Even though the path of the Mantra Vehicle is quicker and easier, a practitioner cannot seek it out of fearing the difficulties of the longer Sūtra path. Rather, the quicker path is sought from being particularly moved by compassion; a Mantra practitioner wants to achieve enlightenment sooner in order more quickly to be of service to others.

In a similar vein, the present Dalai Lama has said that proper contemplation of the difficulties and length of the Sūtra path generates greater determination and courage. I surmise that this is because contemplating one’s own altruistic activity over great periods of time undermines the thresholds of impatience, anger, and discouragement. We can extrapolate from this that those who are frightened by the length of the Sūtra Vehicle path or are incapable of being tamed by it are outside of the province of the Great Vehicle in general, let alone the Mantra Vehicle in particular.

From this perspective, far from being taught for those who are unable to proceed on the Perfection Vehicle, the four tantras were expounded for persons of particularly great compassion, and Jangkya emphasizes that, in addition, the person must be capable of its practice. The position that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by different types of afflictive emotions such as desire or hatred is thereby rendered impossible. That the trainees of Mantra, who are supposed to be the sharpest of all Bodhisattvas, would be discouraged in the face of a long path and—from that depression— seek a short path is raucously ridiculous, for the altruism of Māntrikas, in this view, is even more intense than that of practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle.

One can perceive the ever-widening gulf between those in Tibet who accepted traditional views of Mantra (or who repeated them without much attention) and those who sought to incorporate Mantra in a consistent way into a high Great Vehicle tradition. I detect a reserve of criticism in Bu-tön’s catalogue of traditional views—in this case, his citing it in quotation without the slightest comment—but Tsong-kha-pa takes it much further, launching a critical attack that, despite its negative style, communicates confidence in an overall view of Tantra as consistent within a grand tradition; this vision is what gradually comes to the fore with patient reading and re-reading.

Tsong-kha-pa’s stark critique stands in bold contrast to many tradition-oriented perspectives of his time that also have come to constitute much of the knowledge of Tantra outside Tibet. For instance, Mircea Eliade, who contributed greatly to our understanding of many fields of intellectual endeavor and had much to do with creating an atmosphere of appreciation for the multifaceted a ppearance of world and local religions, describes Tantrism as suited for persons of lower sensibilities than those practicing Great Vehicle Buddhism. He says:a For Buddhists…the Vajrayāna represents a new revelation of Buddha’s doctrine, adapted to the much diminished capacities of modern man. Though Eliade’s view contrasts even with that of Tripiṭakamāla, who held that the top rank among the highest tantric practitioners did not need to use sexual union in the spiritual path, it is somewhat similar in that Tripiṭakamāla viewed the use of consorts merely as a technique suited for those of limited capacity distracted by desire, and so forth.

Numerous contemporary scholars describe Tantrism as a frustrated attempt to turn away from monastic celibacy and prolonged practice of the path to immediate gratification in sexual ritual. Though echoing some trends within traditional views of Tantrism, these opinions obviously do not take into account the exactly opposite view of Tsong-kha-pa and his Ge-luk followers, whose school of exposition, important throughout a vast region of Central Asia, offers a diametrically opposite view of Tantra. A more rounded view needs to present both of these perspectives.

Four tantras and four levels of desire to be purified Bu-tönb reports at length a tradition that divides the four tantras by the type of desire that is utilized and purified in the path. The tradition stems from presentations in Highest Yoga Mantra, a principal source being the one that Bu-tön cites first, the Saṃpuṭa Tantra: c The four aspects of smiling, gazing,

Holding hands, and the two embracing Reside as the four tantras In the manner of insects. Based on such descriptions of the four tantra sets found in Highest Yoga Tantras and their commentaries, it is said that in Action


Mircea Eliade, Patañjali and Yoga, translated by C.L. Markmann (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1969), 179. b Extensive version, 32.7-35.7.

rnal ’byor ma bzhi’i kha sbyor kyi rgyud, catur-yoginī-saṃpuṭatantra; P24, vol. 2.

Tantra the desire involved in male and female gazing, or looking, at each other is used in the path; in Performance Tantra the desire involved in male and female smiling at each other is used in the path; in Yoga Tantra the desire involved in male and female embracing and touching each other is used in the path, and in Highest Yoga Mantra the desire involved in sexual union is used in the path. When desire arising from gazing, smiling, holding hands or embracing, and sexual union is used in the path in conjunction with emptiness and deity yogas, desire itself is extinguished. Specifically, in Highest Yoga Mantra, desire for sexual union leads to sexual union and generation of a blissful consciousness withdrawn from the usual myriad objects; a practitioner uses this consciousness to realize emptiness. The realization of the emptiness of inherent existence, in turn, destroys the possibility of desire since it is built on the misperception that phenomena inherently exist.

The process is compared to a bug being born from moist wood and then eating the wood. In this ancient example (formed at a time when it was assumed that this type of bug, or worm, was generated only from wood and heat), the wood is desire; the bug is the blissful consciousness; the consumption of the wood is the blissful consciousness’s destruction of desire through realizing emptiness. The reason why a blissful consciousness is used for this process is that it is more intense, and thus realization of emptiness by such a consciousness is more powerful. As the First Paṇ-chen Lama, Losang-chö-kyi-gyel-tsen, says (see also 382):

A wood-engendered insect is born from wood but consumes it completely. In the same way, great bliss is generated in dependence upon a causal motivation that is the desire of gazing, smiling, holding hands or embracing, or union of the two organs. The wisdom of undifferentiable bliss and emptiness, which is this great bliss generated undifferentiably with a mind realizing emptiness at the same time, consumes completely the afflictive emotions—desire, ignorance, and so forth.

The process is clearly explained in Ge-luk commentarial literature on Highest Yoga Mantra, where consciousnesses are divided into the gross, the subtle, and the very subtle. According to the system of Guhyasamāja Tantra, the very subtle level of consciousness is the mind of clear light, called the fundamental innate mind of clear light; the subtle are three levels of consciousness called the minds of vivid white, red (or orange), and black appearance; and the gross are the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness, when the latter is not manifesting one of the above subtler levels. When the grosser levels of consciousness cease as is said to occur in the process of orgasm, going to sleep, fainting, sneezing, and dying, the more subtle become manifest. The first to manifest is the mind of vivid white appearance that is described as like a clear night sky filled with moonlight, not the moon shining in empty space but space filled with white light. All conceptuality has ceased, and nothing appears except this slightly dualistic vivid white appearance, which is one’s consciousness itself.

When that mind ceases, a more subtle mind of vivid red or orange increase dawns; this is compared to a clear sky filled with sunlight, again not the sun shining in the sky but space filled with red or orange light. When this mind ceases, a still more subtle mind of vivid black near-attainment dawns; it is called “near-attainment” because one is close to manifesting the mind of clear light. The mind of black near-attainment is compared to a moonless, very black sky just after dusk when no stars shine; during the first part of this phase one remains aware but then becomes unconscious in thick blackness. Then, with the three “pollutants”—the white, red, and black appearances—cleared away, the mind of clear light, the most subtle level of consciousness, dawns.

Because the subtler levels of consciousness are considered to be more powerful and thus more effective in realizing the truth of the emptiness of inherent existence and in overcoming obstructions, the systems of Highest Yoga Mantra seek to manifest the mind of clear light by way of various techniques. One of these techniques is blissful orgasm because, according to the psychology of Highest Yoga Mantra, orgasm, like dying, going to sleep, and fainting— involves the ceasing of the grosser levels of consciousness and manifestation of the more subtle. The intent in using a blissful, orgasmic mind in the path is to manifest the most subtle mind, the fundamental innate mind of clear light, and use it to realize the emptiness of inherent existence. In this way, the power of the pathconsciousness realizing emptiness is enhanced such that it is more effective in overcoming the obstructions to liberation from cyclic existence and obstructions to the altruistic omniscience of Buddhahood.

A consciousness of orgasmic bliss is put to use in the spiritual path because when the sense of pleasure is powerful, one’s consciousness is totally involved with that pleasure and thus completely withdrawn; this is the reason why the subtler levels of consciousness manifest during the intense bliss of orgasm, even if they are not noticed, never mind utilized, in common copulation. Without desire, involvement in bliss would be minimal, and thus Highest Yoga Mantra employs the arts of love-making, and so forth, to enhance the process. This is ordinary desire used in an extraordinary way.

The usage of desire in the path is, therefore, explicitly for the sake of making the mind of wisdom more powerful by way of accessing a subtler level of consciousness. The difficulty of using an orgasmic consciousness to realize anything indicates that it would take a person of great psychological development to be able to utilize such a subtle state in the path. Since other, not so intense, levels of bliss are used in a similar way in the other tantra sets, actual practitioners of Tantra in general and Highest Yoga Mantra in particular must, in this presentation by Tsong-kha-pa and his followers, be more highly developed than the practitioners of the Sūtra version of the Great Vehicle. Through this, it can be seen that there are good reasons why they say that the tantric systems are for persons of a high level of development, quite a contrast to traditions holding that Tantra is superior because it has more powerful techniques for grosser personality types.

Tsong-kha-pa relates the usage of desire in the path to the general Great Vehicle process of heightening—through altruism and altruistic deeds (called “method” in the basic path-structure of wisdom and method)—the power of the wisdom-consciousness realizing emptiness so that it can overcome the obstructions to omniscience. Such relation of tantric practices to broader principles of spiritual development is an organizing feature of his exposition; it is what creates a sense of a unified system, replete with purpose and consistent in aim. He says: As was explained before, the special cause of a form body is deity yoga, which is the main method [in Mantra]. That methods act as heighteners of the wisdom realizing emptiness is the system of both Great Vehicles. Shāntideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds [IX.1] says: The Subduer said that all these branches [of giving, Ethics, and so forth] are for the sake of wisdom.

In the system of both the Perfection and the Mantra Vehicles, factors of method (altruistic motivation and the deeds that it induces) enhance the mind of wisdom realizing emptiness in order to strengthen it to the point where it can abandon the obstructions to omniscience. The early nineteenth-century Mongolian scholar Ngawang-pel-den explains that in the Perfection Vehicle, this is done through training in “limitless varieties of giving and so forth for a limitless time”—“limitless” referring to at least three periods of countless (that is, a very high number) great eons. In Mantra also, there is intense training in the perfections of giving and so forth but not in limitless varieties for a limitless time, since deity yoga speeds up the process. Tsong-kha-pa continues:

The way that the path of wisdom is heightened through deity yoga is this: The special method and wisdom is deity yoga, that is, the appearance of one’s chosen deity in the aspect of a father and mother union. Though Highest Yoga has many distinctive features in its path, it is called “tantra of union of the two” from this point of view, and in these tantras themselves there are a great many descriptions of deities in the aspect of union. From this approach one uses desire in the path and develops the essential of the meeting and staying together of the two minds of enlightenment [that is, drops of essential fluid of male and female that induce powerful bliss and subtler levels of mind]. In dependence on this, realization of emptiness is heightened.

Tsong-kha-pa goes on to speak of all four tantra sets as using desire in the path: Because the lower tantras lack this special method of using desire in the path, among the seven branches [complete enjoyment, union, great bliss, absence of inherent existence, compassion, uninterrupted continuity, and noncessation] the one of union is not taught in the three lower tantras. Still, because the lower tantras do use joy arising from smiling, gazing, and holding hands or embracing in the path, in general they do use desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path.

By relating the practice of using desire in the path to the larger schema of method and wisdom, Tsong-kha-pa’s exposition establishes coherence with the overall path structure.

However, it is not that all parts of his presentation are fused together in a totally coherent picture, although one is certainly beckoned to such a perception. For instance, in this case it is clear how desire for sexual union is used in the path in Highest Yoga Mantra through the route of creating a blissful state in which grosser levels of consciousness cease and subtler ones are manifested, but it is not clear how or when desire is used in the path in the three lower tantras. Tsong-kha-pa himself says that subtler levels of consciousness are not generated from the desire involved in gazing, smiling, and touching/embracing, and even though he affirms that desire is used in the path in Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras, he does not say how this practice serves to heighten wisdom.

Nga-wang-pel-den reports a tradition among Tsong-kha-pa’s followers that holds the blissful consciousnesses that are generated through the desirous activities of gazing, smiling, and embracing are used in realizing emptiness, even though they are not subtler levels of mind. In his Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Tantra Sets: Illumination of the Texts of Tantra he says: The three lower tantras involve using in the path the bliss

that arises upon looking at, smiling at, and holding hands or embracing a meditated Knowledge Woman [[[consort]]]; however, this is not done for the sake of generating a special subject [a subtle consciousness] realizing emptiness, for such is a distinguishing feature only of Highest Yoga Mantra. Nonetheless, most of [[[Tsong-kha-pa’s]]] followers explain that this does not mean that the bliss [[[consciousness]]] that arises upon gazing, smiling, and so forth does not realize emptiness. Still, it must be examined whether or not there is a source clearly stating such in the eloquent elucidations of the great Foremost One [[[Tsong-kha-pa]]] himself.

It makes a great deal of sense that Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras would call for using desire in the path in generating a blissful consciousness that realizes emptiness, since such a mind would be powerful even if not more subtle. However, it does not appear that any of these tantras or any of the Indian scholars who commented on the actual procedure of the path (as distinct from those who commented on Highest Yoga Tantras’ depictions of the other tantra sets) or even Tsong-kha-pa in his Great Exposition of Secret Mantra ever details the procedure for doing this. In his expositions of the yogas of Action, Performance, and Yoga tantras, Tsong-khapa does not even hint at when such would be done; indeed, it is much to his credit that, despite having accepted this explanation from Highest Yoga Mantra that four types of desire are used in the path, when it comes actually to presenting their paths, he does not interpolate such practices into their expositions.

Nevertheless, the lack of such a practice in the source texts casts doubt on the usefulness of this system of ordering the four tantras by way of how desire is used in the path. Though there are many references to embrace in Yoga Tantras such as the Compendium of Principles, there seems to be little emphasis on gazing and smiling in Action and Performance Tantras, and the presentations of the paths of all three of these tantra sets by competent Indian scholars, as well as Tibetans, do not speak of a level of the path when such practice is enacted. Since this technique is the very means used in Ge-luk and other Tibetan traditions for ordering the four tantras sets, its absence in their path-structures is an unavoidable statement of the inadequacy of the schema, revealed thereby to be only an attempt by Highest Yoga Tantras—which do indeed employ such a technique—to create a hierarchy assigning the top rung to themselves.

This schema is indeed useful in drawing attention to the Highest Yoga Mantra claim to greatness through utilizing a more subtle and more powerful level of consciousness in the path, but I am suggesting that to understand and appreciate the paths of the other three tantras there is little evidence to warrant adoption of this interpretive grid from Highest Yoga Tantra, for it obscures their features by suggesting that they have as a principal feature a practice that they actually lack.

To return to explaining this fourfold schema: The four forms of desire correspond to four types of satisfaction of desire found in the various levels of the Desire Realm in Buddhist cosmology. Bu-töna cites Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Manifest Knowledgeb and explains that: • the gods of the Land of the Thirty-threec and all beings below them, including humans, gain desirous satisfaction through sexual union

• the gods of the Land Without Combat,d through embracing • the gods of Joyous Land,e through holding hands • the gods of the Land of Liking Emanation,f through smiling • the gods of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations, g through gazing. Bu-tön goes on to explain that gods in the Form and Formless Realms dwell without desire for Desire Realm attributes, that is to say, attractive objects of the five senses:h

The Perfection Vehicle was taught for the sake of taming persons free from desire, whereas Secret Mantra was

a Extensive version, 33.1. b chos mngon pa’i mdzod, abhidharmakośa, stanza III.69cd; Leo M. Pruden, Abhidhar- makośabhāṣyam, vol. 2 (Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1988), 465; Toh. 4089, 9b.2-9b.3; Sanskrit in Bonpon Zō-Kan-Ei-Wayaku gappeki Abidatsuma kusharon honshō no kenkyū (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshōdō, 1977), 454: dvandvāliṅganapāṇyāptihasitekṣitamaithunāḥ //. c sum cu rtsa gsum, trayastriṃśa. d ’thab bral, yāma. e dga’ ldan, tuṣita.

phrul dga’, nirmāṇarati. g gzhanphrul dbang byed, paranirmitavaśavartin. h Extensive version, 33.3. taught for those desirous persons who could not be tamed by a path devoid of desire. As an antidote to desire that is satisfied through gazing—of those of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations and so forth—Action Tantras that use in the path the bliss of joy that is satisfied through the god and goddess gazing at each other were set forth. The Detailed Rite of Amoghapāsha [an Action Tantra] says, “The Supramundane Victor faces Bhṛkuṭī,” and:

He aims his eye to the right at the goddess Tārā, bashful and with bent body, [displaying] the seal of bestowing the supreme. On the left, Sundarī of the lotus lineage—bashful, according with the ways of Secret Mantra—aims her eye at Amoghapāsha. Notice that Bu-tön cites only one tantra in the Action class that speaks of gazing, thereby begging the question of whether such occurs in a significant number of tantras classified as Action Tantras. Tsong-kha-pa,b obviously relying on Bu-tön, repeats his citations, as he does for the other three tantra sets, saying:

Furthermore, not only does Highest Yoga speak of smiling and so forth [as a way of identifying the four tantras], but so are individual instances [of these] in the lower tantra sets.

Tsong-kha-pa cites two Action Tantra passages from a single tantra, two Performance passages, and two Yoga (all taken from Bu-tön), and adds as a final comment, “These are only illustrations [of instances in these tantra sets that mention looking, and so forth],” thereby suggesting that there are a great many more. However, he neither cites them nor mentions such a practice in any way whatsoever during his presentation of the paths of Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras.

Though Tsong-kha-pa repeats the longer passage from the Detailed Rite of Amoghapāsha, given just above, that Bu-tön cited, he does not repeat Bu-tön’s explanation of it, presumably because he sees it to be faulty. (On the difference between Sūtra and Mantra and the difference between the four tantra sets Bu-tön is both his chief source and his chief object of criticism.) One problem is that Bu-tön apparently considers the gods of the Land of Controlling Others’ Emanations, and so on, themselves to be the chief trainees of the four tantra sets. Tsong-kha-pa, on the other hand, in commenting on Abhayākara’s statement, “A tantra of smiling is, for instance, the bliss of those of the [[[realm]] of gods called] Liking Emanation,” says:

Such statements merely cite gods as examples; they do not teach that these gods are the chief trainees of the tantra sets. For Tsong-kha-pa, persons who are able to use desire in the path in this way are the chief trainees of Action Tantra and so forth, whereas it seems that, for Bu-tön, the inhabitants of these godly realms themselves are the chief trainees.

Another problem is that Bu-tön associates the usage of the four joys—joy, supreme joy, special joy, and innate joy—with the four tantras, whereas, for Tsong-kha-pa, the four joys are associated with subtler levels of consciousness and thus are found only with the practice of Highest Yoga Mantra. As he says in his Lamp Thoroughly Illuminating the Five Stages:

Using desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path for the purpose of generating a special subject [that is, a subtler consciousness] meditating on emptiness does not exist elsewhere than in Highest Yoga Mantra. For Tsong-kha-pa, the four joys are a topic limited to Highest Yoga Mantra, and he finds nothing equivalent to them in the three lower tantras. Again, Bu-tön,c based on an explanation by Abhayākara, approvingly reports a tradition that cannot bear much analysis. About Performance Tantra and so forth Bu-tön continues:

As an antidote to desire that is satisfied through smiling—of those of the Land of Liking Emanation—Performance Tantras that use in the path the bliss of supreme joy satisfied through god and goddess smiling at each other were set forth. The Vairochanābhisambodhi [a Performance Tantra] says:

On the right the goddess called Buddhalochanā, one with A slightly smiling face. With a circle of light a full fathom, Her Unequalled body is most clear. She is the consort of Shākyamuni. Or:

Draw an Avalokiteshvara, Like a conch, a jasmine, and a moon, Hero, sitting on a white lotus seat. On his head sits Amitābha, His face is wonderfully smiling.

On his right is the goddess Tārā Of wide renown, virtuous, And removing fright. These citations do indeed speak of smiling, but I would expect to find as many instances of smiling in Action Tantras as can be found in Performance Tantras, and, indeed, some traditions of Highest Yoga Mantra reverse the order and associate smiling with Action Tantras and gazing with Performance Tantras. Even Bu-tön’s first source, the Saṃpuṭa Tantra, cited above, has the order reversed, as do four of the five other sources that Tsong-kha-pa cites for the general framework, indeed without comment. Given Tsong-khapa’s critical acumen, I take his lack of comment, in the face of obvious counterevidence, to be an admission of the weakness of a tradition that he cannot explain away and yet must accept, because of the great psychological and spiritual profundity of Highest Yoga Mantra.

For Yoga Tantra, Bu-tön cites two passages:

As an antidote to desire satisfied through holding hands—of those of the Joyous Land—Yoga Tantras that use in the path the bliss of special joy satisfied through god and goddess holding hands with each other were set forth. The Vajrashekhara says:a One’s own goddess embraced in the center,b The goddess Vajrakilikilā, Turns her head toward the side. Smiling and gazing everywhere,

She holds the hand of the Supramundane Victor. and the Tantra of the Supreme Original Buddha says: c To his side is Mahāvajra Holding an arrow upright. His proud embracing hand raises A banner of victory [adorned] with monsters of the sea.

Whereas the Action Tantra citations speak of gazing (“The Supramundane Victor faces Bhṛkuṭī,” “aims his eye,” and “aims her eye”) and the Performance Tantra passages speak of smiling (“A slightly smiling face” and “His face is wonderfully smiling”), Bu-tön supplies a Yoga Tantra passage that has all three—embrace (“goddess embraced in the center”) as well as gazing and smiling (“Smiling and gazing everywhere”). The citation appropriately indicates the intensity of the usage of desire between male and female in the path in Yoga Tantra, as is confirmed by even a cursory reading of the chief root Tantra, the Compendium of Principles. Bu-tön continues: As an antidote to desire satisfied through the union of the


gsang ba rnal ’byor chen po’i rgyud rdo rje rtse mo, vajraśekharamahāguhyayogatantra; P113, vol. 5, 16.2.8 (Toh. 480). b 34.3: dbus ’khyud. The word dbus most likely refers to the center, since the text, just prior to this citation, speaks of two goddesses to the right and two to the left of the main figure. The problematic nature of the word is reflected in three variant readings: Long-chen-pa’s Treasury of Tenets (293.6) has dpung khyud which would be “shoulder embrace”; Bu-tön’s Brief Exposition (vol. 14, 860.6) has pus khyud which would be “knee embrace”; Paṇ-chen Sö-nam-drak-pa (General Presentation, 31.6) has mgos khyud which would be “head embrace.” The last is clearly trying to clear up the ambiguity of dbus which could mean “center” or could mean head (dbu) with an instrumental ending; Paṇ-chen Sö-nam-drak-pa obviously prefers the latter reading. However, it seems to me that the context of the tantra suggests “center.”

dpal mchog dang po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i rtog pa’i rgyal po, śrīparamādyanāmamahāyānakalparājā; P119, vol. 5 (Toh. 487). two organs—of those of the Land of the Thirty-three and below—Great Yoga Tantras that use in the path bliss of innate joy satisfied through the god and goddess becoming absorbed with each other were set forth. The Glorious Guhyasamāja Tantra says: Meditate on Lochanā and so forth, Supreme consorts of the One-Gone-Thus. Through union of the two organs, The feat of Buddhahood will be attained. and the Saṃpuṭa Tantra says:

In union together with lady selfless, Through joyous absorption of the two with each other, There is what has the nature of wavelessness. Tsong-kha-pa does not cite these last two passages, most likely because of his earlier explanation of how desire is used in the path in Highest Yoga Mantra, obviating the need for source-quotes here. As he says, the depiction of sexual union is replete throughout Highest Yoga Mantra, and I do not question either this or the emphasis on embrace in Yoga Tantras; however, I wonder whether gazing and smiling are significant features of Action and Performance Tantras, and thus it seems difficult to confirm the value of this tradition toward providing a suitable grid for distinguishing the four tantra sets.

Four tantras and four levels of faculties Bu-tönb cites a passage from the Lady Sky-Traveler Vajra Tent Tantra that aligns the four tantra sets with four increasingly high levels of trainees’ capacities:

Action Tantra is for the inferior. Yoga without activities [that is, Performance Tantra] is for those above them. The supreme Yoga is for supreme beings The Highest Yoga is for those above them. Bu-tön cites a commentary on the Vajrapañjara Tantra a and then gives his own rendition of this tradition, obviously approving of it: A commentary says:

Action Tantras” are for those intent on apprehending external deities such as Dung-mab and who are intent on cleanliness, restraint, and so forth. “Yoga with activities” [as opposed to Performance Tantra, which is yoga without activities,] is to apprehend [a deity] external to oneself, whereas “Yoga [without activities, that is, Performance Tantra]” is to apprehend the Wisdom Being, who is one’s own sovereign,c and oneself to be of one taste. “Supreme Yoga” is to partake of the great secrecy of the supreme bliss arisen from embracing one’s Knowledge Woman. “Highest Yoga” is to apprehend the supreme bliss generated from the union of the vajra [[[Wikipedia:phallus|phallus]]] of one’s own divine self and the lotus [vagina].d

Hence, persons of the bottom level of faculties, who are of low intelligence, take delight in external activities, such as bathing; for their sake, Action Tantras that teach activities of cleanliness upon apprehending an external painted figure and so forth to be a deity were set forth. Performance Tantras were set forth for persons superior to them, who partake of apprehending themselves as a deity and, in addition, a deity externally. Yoga Tantras were set forth for


There are three commentaries—by Devakulamahāmati (P2326), by Kṛṣhṇapāda (P2325), and by Indrabodhi (P2324), the last being Indrabhūti according to the Tohoku catalogue.

b brdungs ma.

c rang gi ’khor los bsgyur ba’i ye shes. d Bu-tön’s own commentary, which follows, suggests that he reads this commentary differently than I do. He seems to take bya ba’i rnal ’byor (39.7) as referring to Performance Tantra, in which case it would have to be a corrupt reading for bya min rnal ’byor, and the next clause as referring to Yoga Tantra, since he speaks of Yoga Tantra as involving apprehension of oneself and the wisdom being as being of one taste. He then seems to take the next two clauses as referring to Highest Yoga Mantra. This is improbable, since “embrace” usually refers to Yoga Tantra. It also could be that he was not concerned with carefully making his exposition fit the quoted commentary.

persons of intelligence sharper even than them, who mainly partake of just meditative stabilization in which oneself and the deity that is the Wisdom Being [the actual deity] are apprehended as of one taste. For the sake of persons of even sharper intelligence who partake of a special type of meditative stabilization of which there is none higher, Highest Yoga Tantras were set forth. Bu-tön indicates that Action Tantras do not involve imagination of oneself as a deity, whereas Performance Tantras do, and Yoga Tantras take the further step of conceiving of oneself and the actual deity as being of one taste.

For Tsong-kha-pa these are fit to occur in Action Tantra, and thus these features cannot serve to distinguish the three lower tantras. Tsong-kha-pa cites the stanza from the Vajrapañjara Tantra, but despite not explicitly considering the validity either of its commentary or of Bu-tön’s re-rendering of it, his opinion is clear both from the material that he has already considered and from a statement he makes at the end of his exposition of self-generation in Action Tantra:

[In connection with self-generation] it is suitable to perform the entry of the wisdom-being [that is, the dissolving of the actual deity into oneself imagined as that deity], conferring of initiation [on oneself by an invited initiation deity], seal implanting [the affixing of the seal or sign of the lineage through imagining the lineage lord at the crown of the head after initiation], and so forth as explained by other masters. Also, the stanza closing the section in his presentation of Action Tantra indicates that reducing Action Tantra to external rites of bathing and so forth is a severe deprecation:

If one claims to know the meaning of Action and Performance tantras By knowing a portion of their meditations and repetitions Such as fasting, bathing rites, and so forth, it is a source of laughter. Therefore, cherish arrangement of the tantra meanings into paths.

Tsong-kha-pa’s concern is with laying out Action Tantra in accordance with the expositions of its path by Buddhaguhya and Varabodhi, whereas Bu-tön, in self-contradiction, says that these tantras do not involve self-generation and yet gives Buddhaguhya’s rendition of the Action Tantra path of meditation of oneself as a deity, and so forth. Bu-tön obviously wanted to maintain the full richness of the tradition that he inherited, even by taking both sides of an issue. Tsong-kha-pa, living within the richness of tradition provided by Bu-tön, had the opportunity to sift through these traditions to creatively find an elegant, internally consistent system; Butön’s catalogue made this possible. Tsong-kha-pa passed this coherent world-view on to his followers, who for the most part grew, over the centuries, distant from the rich tradition of variant explanation that was their founder’s context.

Tsong-kha-pa undoubtedly found the presentation put forth in this commentary on the Vajrapañjara Tantra inappropriate for describing the four levels of capacity and, instead, relates the four with levels of capacity for generating the emptiness and deity yogas that use desire in the path. Here is how I read the impact of his presentation:

The tantric path centers around emptiness yoga and deity yoga, and practitioners have different needs or mind-sets in relation to successfully implementing these yogas. Those who make use of a great many external activities in actualizing emptiness and deity yogas are trainees of Action Tantra. Still, this does not mean that Action Tantra lacks yoga, for (as we have seen) it has a complex and powerful yoga for developing a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight; rather, it means that the main trainees of Action Tantra also engage in many ritual activities such as bathing, for they find that these activities enhance their meditation.

Those who equally perform external activities and internal meditative stabilization are trainees of Performance Tantra. Those who mainly rely on meditative stabilization and use only a few external activities are trainees of Yoga Tantra. Those who do not make use of external activities and yet have the capacity to generate the yoga of which there is none higher are trainees of Highest Yoga Mantra.a This division of the four tantra sets by way of the capacity of their main trainees refers to their ability to generate the main yogas—the emptiness and deity yogas—of their respective systems within, in Action Tantra, an emphasis on external activities; in Performance Tantra, balanced emphasis on external activities and internal meditative stabilization; in Yoga Tantra, emphasis on meditative stabilization; and in Highest Yoga Mantra, with no such external activities. Tsong-kha-pa says that the division is not made merely by way of persons who are interested in such paths, for some persons become interested in paths that they do not presently have a capacity to practice:b

Also, though trainees in general are more, or less, interested in external activities and in cultivation of yoga, there are instances of interest in a path that does not fit a person’s faculties; thus, the main trainees of the four tantra sets cannot be identified through interest.

Rather, it refers to their respective abilities. Giving his stamp of approval to this tradition, Tsong-kha-pa concludes by citing a passage in Tripiṭakamāla’s Lamp for the Three Modes that Bu-tön cites for the same purpose:c Therefore, it should be realized that explanations of their main trainees as relying or not relying on many or few external activities and so forth are correct. Tripiṭakamāla’s Lamp for the Three Modes says:

By the force of potencies from conditioning in another birth, some cannot attain mental equipoise without a home in the forest away from people, or without activities such as bathing, drawing maṇḍala, offering, burnt offerings, asceticism, and repetition [of mantra]. Thus, Action Tantras were taught for them. Also, there are those whose minds


Since Highest Yoga Mantra does indeed involve a great deal of ritual, the point is perhaps that Highest Yoga Mantra does not emphasize ritual bathing and so forth in the way that Action Tantra and so forth do. b Tantra in Tibet, 163.

Ibid., 163-164. The citation from Tripiṭakamāla is P4530, vol. 81, 117.3.3-117.3.5. For Bu-tön’s citation, see his Extensive version, 41.5-42.4.

adhere to suchness and who through the power of faith achieve wisdom by means of activities set forth by the One-Gone-to-Bliss [[[Buddha]]]. They rely on activities, and for them Fundamental Tantras that do not have too many branches of activities were set forth. “Fundamental Tantras” are the same as Performance Tantras. Tantras are assigned as Action if they predominantly teach external activities even though they contain internal meditative stabilization.

Tsong-kha-pa interrupts the citation to explain that a tantra is assigned as an Action Tantra if it predominantly teaches external activities even though it contains internal meditative stabilization. He makes this point to counter a possible impression gained from Tripiṭakamāla’s not explicitly mentioning the practice of meditative stabilization by Action Tantra trainees, although it is implicit to his explanation that they engage in external activities in order to gain mental equipoise. Tsong-kha-pa’s explanation takes this distinction into account: I will now explain the designation of the names of the four tantra sets in accordance with how these names are commonly known in the higher and lower tantra sets [as Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga] and will thereby explain the difference of their trainees. The means of using such attributes of the desire realm in the path are the emptiness and deity yogas. Those who resort to a great many external activities in order to actualize these two yogas are trainees of Action Tantras. Those who balance their external activities and internal meditative stabilization without using very many activities are trainees of Performance Tantras. Those who mainly rely on meditative stabilization and resort to only a few external activities are trainees of Yoga Tantras. Those who do not rely on external activities and are able to generate the yoga of which there is none higher are trainees of Highest Yoga Tantras.

Tsong-kha-pa, speaking from the viewpoint of the pillars of what he has determined to be the general structure of the tantric systems, their emptiness and deity yogas, reshapes Tripiṭakamāla’s and others’ descriptions so that the purposes for which external activities are used—actualization of emptiness and deity yogas—are emphasized. Notice that even while approving this way of distinguishing the four tantras, he redefines it so that it fits more elegantly into a grand schematization of the path.

I would add that although many Action Tantras involve a plethora of external activities, not just Action Tantras but also the other three types of tantras involve withdrawal into solitude for meditation as well as many “activities such as bathing, drawing maṇḍala, offering, burnt offerings, asceticism, and repetition [of mantra].” Also, and more significantly, an Action Tantra such as the Concentration Continuation (which even though a continuation of the Vajraviḍāraṇa, is a separate tantra) is mainly, and even solely concerned with meditative stabilization—yoga—as we have seen in elaborate detail. Furthermore, Tsong-kha-pa’s own exposition of Action Tantra is mainly concerned with the stages of meditative stabilization.

It seems to me that these classificatory systems are employed in Highest Yoga Tantras to put themselves at the top of the list and to draw attention to what are indeed special features of their yoga. It may be helpful not to accept these schemes without considerable reservation, since they blind us to the richness of the yogas found, for instance, in the Concentration Continuation. For, it appears that except for Highest Yoga Tantras, the tantras of what came to be assigned as Action, Performance, and Yoga do not identify themselves as such.

Tsong-kha-pa goes on to quote Tripiṭakamāla’s Lamp for the Three Modes which, in his citation, refers to Yoga Tantras as “Performance Tantras”: For the sake of others who are interested solely in meditation on nondual suchness and consider groups of many activities to be distracting, Performance Tantras that mainly employ yoga and secondarily teach only a few branches of activities were set forth. Tsong-kha-pa adds, “Here, ‘Performance Tantras’ means Yoga Tantras.”

The claim is that Yoga Tantras involve fewer external activities than Performance Tantras, and perhaps analysis will show that the Vairochanābhisambodhi Tantra, widely recognized as the chief Performance Tantra, does call for more external activities than the Compendium of Principles, the chief Yoga Tantra. Whatever the case, it is clear that Tsong-kha-pa’s own expositions of Performance and Yoga Tantra in his Great Exposition of Secret Mantra do not reflect any such orientation, and it is a tribute to his scholarship that he does not allow this ordering of the four tantras to become an interpretive grid that distorts his presentations of their paths. Much like Bu-tön on many other occasions, he mentions the tradition and then does not let it interfere with his exposition. Consistency and coherence—the hallmarks of his own approach—were, it seems, sacrificed here.

With regard to Highest Yoga Mantra, Tsong-kha-pa does not cite Tripiṭakamāla’s Lamp for the Three Modes, an omission suggesting disagreement, given that he cited that text as a source for his explanation of the other three tantras. Let us cite what Tripiṭakamāla says:a

Also, for those great beings who are included in that lineage and who, through the force of conditioning in other births, do not partake of dualistic discriminations with respect to any activities and any things, the Supramundane Victor set forth the tantras of the Great Yoga, the foremost of all tantras, without prescribing specific activities and also not prohibiting doing anything or acting in any way. As was seen above, for Tsong-kha-pa Highest Yoga Mantra has a specific way of utilizing afflictive emotions in the path; thus, the suggestion here that nothing is prohibited was perhaps objectionable since it does not take into account the specific context of the usage of desire and so forth in the path. About Highest Yoga

quent remark (which I mention just after the quote) that “Performance Tantras” means Yoga Tantras. a P4530, vol. 81, 117.3.7. Mantra, Tsong-kha-pa himself says:

Those who do not rely on external activities and are able to generate the yoga of which there is none higher are trainees of Highest Yoga Tantras. His version is more symmetrical in that it extends the movement from “a great many external activities” in Action Tantra, to “without using very many activities” in Performance Tantra, to “only a few branches of activities” in Yoga Tantra, and now to nonreliance on external activities in Highest Yoga Tantra.

Since the rituals of initiation and the conduct of meditation retreats in Highest Yoga Tantra contain many external activities, this explanation that associates it solely with internal yoga seems aimed merely at pointing out that Highest Yoga Tantra has a distinctive yoga for manifesting the fundamental innate mind of clear light through using desire for sexual union in the path. Summarizing Tsong-kha-pa’s position

Utilizing two of Bu-tön’s nine ways of distinguishing the four tantra sets, Tsong-kha-pa differentiates them by way of their main trainees as four very different types, since these trainees have (1) four different ways of using desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path and (2) four different levels of capacity for generating emptiness and deity yogas that use desire in the path. As Long-döl Nga-wang-lo-sang says in his verse summary of Tsongkha-pa’s Great Exposition of Secret Mantra: The effect Secret Mantra Vehicle is of four types— Action Tantra, Performance Tantra, Yoga Tantra, and Highest Yoga Tantra. Hence how are they differentiated?

Though there are many assertions by scholars such as Butön, Our own system is that they are posited by way of using the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path. That using in the path the bliss of gazing at the beautiful face Of one’s own meditated goddess is Action Tantra. That using in the path the bliss of smiling is Performance Tantra. That using in the path the bliss of holding hands is Yoga Tantra. That using in the path the bliss of union of the two is Highest Yoga. According to the etymologies of the four tantra sets,

That mainly performing external activities is called Action Tantra. That equally performing external and internal activities is called Performance Tantra. That mainly practicing internal yoga is called Yoga Tantra. That whose yoga has none higher is called Highest Yoga.

According to Tsong-kha-pa and his followers, the four tantras are not differentiated (1) by way of their object of intent since all four are aimed at bringing about others’ welfare, or (2) by way of the object of attainment they are seeking since all four seek the full enlightenment of Buddhahood, or (3) by way of merely having different types of deity yoga since all four tantra sets have many different types of deity yoga but are each only one tantra set. Rather, the distinctive tantric practice of deity yoga, motivated by great compassion and beginning with emptiness yoga, is carried out in different ways in the four tantra sets. Various levels of desire—involved in gazing, smiling, touching, and sexual union—are utilized by the respective main trainees in accordance with their predispositions toward styles of practice—emphasizing external activities, balancing external activities and meditative stabilization, emphasizing meditative stabilization, or exclusively focusing on meditative stabilization.

The techniques are geared to the levels of capacity of trainees not only in terms of the degree of desire used in the path but also in terms of whether an actual consort is used. Tsong-kha-pa holds that in Action, Performance, and Yoga Tantras consorts are only imagined, whereas in Highest Yoga Mantra actual consorts are used. Speaking about the three lower tantras, he says: In the lower tantra sets this is not done while observing an external Seal [an actual consort], and even in the higher tantra set [[[Highest Yoga]]] it is not indicated that such is done [in the lower tantras], due to which these should be understood as meditated goddesses, such as Lochanā. Based on the thought that trainees of little power cannot use great desire in the path, desire is taught for use in the path in stages beginning with the small. As will be explained, it is clear that when deity yoga has become firm and meditative stabilization on emptiness has been attained, one takes cognizance of a goddess, such as Lochanā, who is of one’s own lineage, and then uses [[[desire]] in the path by way of gazing and so forth].

He clearly says that the use of a consort, either in imagination or in fact, is begun only when a practitioner has achieved proficiency in emptiness yoga and deity yoga.

This is a far cry from many traditions that depict Mantra as being for persons of crude emotions. Still, since initiations into Highest Yoga Mantra are sometimes given publicly, the attendees (including many who have achieved little, if any, success in meditating on emptiness) are required to perform daily meditation rituals that involve imagination of a consort. Such unqualified practice of Mantra is apologetically explained as being for the sake of establishing predispositions for actual practice in future lifetimes, but it may also be explained as a social, economic, and political technique for drawing persons by means of a mysterious ritual into a group that owes allegiance to a particular lama.

Though Tsong-kha-pa’s reasoned presentation is effective in creating a world-view of gradual spiritual transformation that itself exerts an influence on those who comprehend its structure, his followers have also accommodated the system to more common aims. A dual system of high systemization with practical implementation by a limited few and of low accommodation to social, economic, and political spheres is as much a part of this sect as it is of others in Tibet.



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