THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER

"...the best introduction to the subject, well written and authoritative."-John Powers, Australian National University

Daniel Cozort is Professor of Religion at Dickinson College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, has studied with many Tibetan lamas, curated an exhibition of Tibetan tantric art, and is the co-author of Buddhist Philosophy.

The following excerpt is from chapter 2 of
Highest Yoga Tantra.

Paths Common to Sutra and Tantra
As mentioned earlier, Highest Yoga Tantra practice comprises two stages, the stage of generation and the stage of completion. The stage of completion is necessarily preceeded by the stage of generation, which itself has three sets of prerequisites (1) previous practice of the paths common to sutra and tantra, (2) initiation in a tantra of the Highest Yoga Tantra set, and (3) assuming special tantric pledges and vows. Before beginning to describe the stage of generation in detail, these three sets of prerequisites will be briefly explained.

Before practicing the stages of Highest Yoga Tantra, it is necessary to establish in one's mind the correct motivation and the correct view as taught in the sutra presentations of the paths to enlightenment. Indeed, almost all of the features of sutra are included in tantra; hence, the tantras do not replace the sutras, but rather, complement them. That being the case, the three principal aspects of the path, as delineated by the Indian scholar Atisha and explained by Dzong-ka-ba and many others, are no less indispensible to tantric practitioners than they are to others. The three principal aspects of the path are: (1) renunciation, the determination to leave cyclic existence, (2) the altruistic aspiration to enlightenment, the determination to become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings; and (3) the correct view, the realization that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence.

The Need for Renunciation
Those who aspire to enlightenment must turn away from their attachment to the appearances of this life and their attachment to future lives, meditating on the meaningfulness of leisure and fortune and the difficulty of finding it and the inevitability of suffering and death. It is said that without a strong intention to renounce cyclic existence there is no way to generate a strong aspiration to attain Buddhahood. As Dzong-ka-ba says in his Three Principal Aspects of the Path (lam gyi gtso bo rnam pa gsum):

Without a complete thought definitely to leave
Cyclic existence there is no way to stop
Seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of existence.
Also, craving cyclic existence thoroughly binds
The embodied; therefore, in the beginning, a thought
Definitely to leave cyclic existence should be sought.

Renunciation is a prerequisite for the practice of any vehicle, be it sutra or tantra. For tantra, renunciation is particularly important because sexual desire is used in the path; without renunciation, the practitioner can easily become attached to the object of desire.

The Need for Compassion
Tantric trainees, like Perfection Vehicle trainees, should be Bodhisattvas, persons who not only have renounced the world, but are fully committed to attaining enlightenment in order to serve the welfare of others. In fact, those who practice tantra should have an extraordinary degree of compassion; their motivation for practicing tantra should be that they cannot bear to spend unnecessary time attaining Buddhahood because they want to be a supreme source of help and happiness to others as soon as possible. As Jang-gya (lcang skya, 1717-86) says in his Presentation of Tenets (grub mtha'i rnam bzhag):

It is said in the precious tantras and in many commentaries that even those trainees of the Mantra Vehicle who have low faculties must have far greater compassion, sharper faculties, and a superior lot than the trainees of sharpest faculties in the Perfection Vehicle.

Jang-gya contradicts a view, widely held in the West, that compassion belongs to an earlier phase of Buddhism, tantra having replaced compassion with passion.

The Need for Wisdom
Tantric practitioners should also have made progress in meditation on emptiness. Meditation on emptiness is the heart of the Buddhist path in both sutra and tantra. Although compassion is said to be the basis of practice, it is basic in the sense of being one's motivation; meditation on emptiness is the chief practice of Buddhism because it actualizes one's compassionate intent by removing all obstructions to Buddhahood. All the practices of method, both in sutra and tantra, are done specifically in order to enhance the wisdom consciousness that realizes emptiness, as Shantideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (spyod 'jug, bodhicaryavatara, IX. 1) says:

The Subduer said that all these Branches are for the sake of wisdom.

Considering the centrality of meditation on emptiness to the tantric path, it must be regarded as misleading to contrast the Secret Mantra Vehicle to the Perfection Vehicle as does S.B. Dasgupta:

The different metaphysical systems deal with the nature of reality and the philosophical method for its realization; whereas the tantras lay stress on the esoteric methods for realizing that reality.

On the contrary, Jeffrey Hopkins argues the tantric yogi must engage in the same sort of reasonings as other Buddhist practitioners:

...non-dualistic wisdom is the life of both the sutra and tantra paths, and in both paths initial reliance on reasoning to uncover the nature of phenomena, hidden to our direct experience, is necessary.

Tantric yogis succeed in their cultivation of wisdom more quickly than do practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle because the tantric yogi, employing deity yoga, can achieve a mind that is a union of calm abiding and special insight—a mind of alert one-pointedness that realizes emptiness—in far less time than the period of countless great aeons required for those who practice sutra paths alone. Tantric yogis use deity yoga to enhance meditation on emptiness; their use of deity yoga brings them more quickly to an initial direct cognition of emptiness by enhancing their ability to combine meditative stability with analysis. Also, in Highest Yoga Tantra, powerful, subtle consciousnesses that realize emptiness are manifested, whereby the obstructions to liberation and omniscience are quickly overcome.

Even though tantric practitioners seem to be superior to others both in terms of their cultivation of method and their cultivation of wisdom, some commentators, both past and present, have thought that they are inferior. For instance, the great Italian Tibetologist, Giuseppe Tucci, says:

The tantras of the 'superior class' are above all addressed to men in whom non-religious impulses, especially those of a sexual nature, are at their most powerful.

Also:

The Anuttaratantras are reserved for the creatures who sin most, who do not distinguish good from evil, who lead impure lives.

Notions such as these are explicitly refuted by Ge-luk-ba scholars. Practitioners of tantra, they say, should be acting on the purest of motives—the altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment—and should have impeccable behavior. Highest Yoga Tantra does indeed use desire, but only to destroy desire, just as "wood-born" insects eat the wood that engenders them. Desire is used to generate a powerful bliss consciousness which is then employed in the destruction of the root of desire, the conception of inherent existence, through realizing the emptiness of inherent existence.

Ge-luk-ba scholars also reject the position that tantra is an easy path, meant for persons incapable of more difficult practices, as Mircea Eliade has suggested: "...the Vajrayana represents a new revelation of Buddha's doctrine adapted to the much diminished capacities of modern man." On the contrary, the tantric path is considered far more difficult than the sutra path. Consequently, it is said that there are many who wish to practice tantra but few who are qualified for it.