2   Deity Yoga: The Special Tantric Technique

Because people are of different capacities, dispositions, and interests, Shākyamuni Buddha taught many different paths.¹⁴ He set forth sūtra and tantra; within sūtra, he taught four different schools of tenets – Great Exposition School, Sūtra School, Mind Only School, and Middle Way School – and within tantra, he set out four different sets of tantras – Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga (literally “Unsurpassed Yoga”).¹⁵

Within the four schools of the sūtra system he described three varieties of paths – for Hearers,¹⁶ Solitary Realizers,¹⁷ and Bodhisattvas. Each of the four schools has internal subdivisions, and the four divisions of tantra also contain many different types of processes and procedures of meditation. The result is that there are many different levels of commitment – ranging from the assumption of tantric vows down to the assumption of only the refuge vow – many different paths and many different styles.¹⁸

To appreciate the special distinctiveness of tantra, it is necessary to determine the difference between the sūtra and tantra vehicles, and to do that, first it is necessary to settle the difference between the vehicles in sūtra – the Hearers’ Vehicle, Solitary Realizers’ Vehicle, and Bodhisattvas’ Vehicle or Great Vehicle – and then consider the further division of the latter into its sūtra and tantra forms.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SŪTRA VEHICLES

“Vehicle” (theg pa, yāna) has two meanings:

1   Since yā means to go, and na indicates the means of going, a vehicle is comprised of those practices which carry one to a higher state – those practices which when actualized in the mental continuum cause manifestation of a higher type of mind.

2   Somewhat unusually, “vehicle” can also refer to the destination – that place or state at which one is aiming. This is because just as a vehicle can bear or carry a certain load, so the state of Buddhahood – the goal of the Bodhisattva Vehicle – can bear or carry the welfare of all sentient beings, whereas the state of a Low Vehicle Foe Destroyer (dgra bcom pa, arhan)19 can bear much less.²⁰

Since “vehicle” has these two meanings, the distinction between the two Buddhist Vehicles – Hearer and Solitary Realizer (being Low Vehicle) and Bodhisattva (or Great Vehicle) – must occur either within the sense of vehicle as the means by which one progresses or within the sense of vehicle as the destination or state to which one is progressing, or both.

In the interpretation of Low Vehicle and Great Vehicle according to the Middle Way Consequence School,²¹ considered to be the acme of philosophical systems by most Tibetan schools, there is a tremendous difference between the two in the sense of vehicle as that to which one is progressing. In the Low Vehicle, practice culminates in one’s becoming a Foe Destroyer, one who has overcome the foe of ignorance but is not omniscient and thus is not a Buddha. Unlike a Buddha, a Foe Destroyer does not have the ability spontaneously to manifest in various forms in order to help all beings. Since the states of being a Buddha and a Foe Destroyer are very different, there is a significant difference between the Low and Great Vehicles in the sense of vehicle as that to which one is progressing: the respective goals of Buddhahood and Foe Destroyerhood.

With this difference in goal, there must also be a difference in the two vehicles in the sense of the practices by which one progresses to these goals. The difference between the Low and Great Vehicles in terms of the means of progress can occur in only two places – method or wisdom, these two comprising the entire path, in that method mainly produces the Form Body of a Buddha and wisdom mainly produces the Truth Body.22 In the Consequence School’s interpretation, the Low and Great Vehicles do not differ with respect to wisdom in that both require realization of the subtle emptiness of inherent existence of all phenomena such as body, mind, head, eye, wall, consciousness, etc.²³ Although the Low and Great Vehicles do differ in terms of how wisdom is cultivated – how many reasonings one uses for getting at the subtle emptiness, Bodhisattvas using myriad reasonings and Hearers and Solitary Realizers only a few²⁴ – in terms of the object of the wisdom consciousness, the subtle emptiness of inherent existence, there is no difference between the emptiness a Low Vehicle practitioner realizes and the emptiness a Mahāyānist realizes. In this sense there is no difference in wisdom.

Since wisdom in the Low and Great Vehicles does not differ in terms of the type of emptiness being cognized, the difference between the two vehicles must lie in method.²⁵ “Method” here specifically means motivation and the deeds that it impels. No matter how much compassion a Low Vehicle practitioner may have, his or her primary motivation is to release oneself from cyclic existence.²⁶ However, in the Great Vehicle the primary motivation is the altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment²⁷ induced by great love and compassion in which one takes on the burden of the welfare of all beings. Thus, there is a significant difference between the Low and Great Vehicles in terms of method, even though not in wisdom.²⁸

Hence, the Low and Great Vehicles differ in both senses of vehicle, as the means by which one progresses as well as that to which one progresses.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PERFECTION VEHICLE AND THE MANTRA VEHICLE

In the Great Vehicle itself, there are two vehicles – the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra (or Tantra) Vehicle.29 The Perfection Vehicle is sūtra Great Vehicle, and the Mantra Vehicle is mantra or tantra Great Vehicle.

Do the sūtra Great Vehicle and the tantra Great Vehicle differ in the sense of vehicle as that to which one is progressing? The goal of the sūtra Great Vehicle is Buddhahood, and Tantrayāna cannot have another goal separate from Buddhahood as there is no attainment higher than the Buddhahood that is described in sūtra as attainment of the Truth and Form Bodies. Sūtra describes a Buddha as a being who has removed all obstructions and attained all auspicious attributes, a being who has no movement of coarse winds or inner energies;³⁰ thus such Buddhahood has to include the attainments of even Highest Yoga Mantra,³¹ the primary aim of which is to stop the movement of all coarse winds and manifest the most subtle consciousness – the mind of clear light – simultaneously appearing in totally pure form.³² Hence, the Vajradharahood often mentioned as the goal of tantra and the Buddhahood described in sūtra are the same.³³

There being no difference between the Perfection Vehicle and Mantra Vehicle in terms of the goal – the destination – they must differ in the sense of vehicle as the means by which one progresses. They must differ either in terms of method or wisdom or both. If the difference lay in wisdom, there would be many problems because the Perfection Vehicle contains Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way teachings on emptiness, and there would have to be some other more subtle emptiness than that which Nāgārjuna establishes with many different reasonings in the twenty-seven chapters of his Treatise on the Middle Way (dbu ma’i bstan bcos, madhyamakashāstra), whereas there is none. Thus there is no difference between sūtra and tantra in the view, which here refers to the objective view, that is, the object that is viewed (yul gyi lta ba) – emptiness or ultimate truth – not the realizing consciousness, since sūtra Great Vehicle and Highest Yoga Tantra do differ with respect to the subtlety of the consciousness realizing emptiness. Specifically, in Highest Yoga Tantras such as the Kālachakra Tantra, more subtle, enhanced consciousnesses are generated to realize the same emptiness of inherent existence. Still, because the object realized is the same whether the consciousness is more subtle or not, the “objective view” is the same.34

In this way, between the sūtra and tantra Great Vehicles there cannot be any difference in the factor of wisdom in terms of the object that is understood by a wisdom consciousness. Hence, the difference again has to lie in method.

In both the sūtra and tantra Great Vehicles, the basis of method is the altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings; because of this, the motivational basis of the deeds of the path is the same. The other main factor of method has to do with the deeds induced by that motivation. In sūtra Great Vehicle these are the practices induced by the altruistic aspiration – the perfections of giving, ethics, and patience. However, since these are also practiced in tantra, the difference cannot be found there either. Furthermore, tantra has an even greater emphasis than sūtra on the deeds of the perfections in that a tantric practitioner is committed to engage in them at least six times during each day.³⁵

Moreover, the distinction could not be made on the basis of speed of progress on the path because within the four tantra sets – Action, Performance, Yoga, and Highest Yoga Tantra – there are great differences in speed and in sūtra Great Vehicle there are five different modes of progress, slow to fast. In addition, the difference must not lie in some small or insignificant feature, but in an important one.³⁶

The profound distinction occurs in the fact that in tantra there is meditation in which one meditates on one’s body as similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Form Body whereas in sūtra Great Vehicle there is no such meditation. This is deity yoga,³⁷ which all four tantra sets have but sūtra systems do not. Deity yoga means to imagine oneself as having now the Form Body of a Buddha; one meditates on oneself in the aspect of a Buddha’s Form Body,³⁸ imagining oneself as an ideal, altruistically active being now.

In the Perfection Vehicle there is meditation similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Truth Body – a Buddha’s wisdom consciousness. A Bodhisattva enters into meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness with nothing appearing to the mind except the final nature of phenomena, the emptiness of inherent existence; the wisdom consciousness is fused with that emptiness. Even though, unlike their tantric counterparts, sūtra Bodhisattvas do not specifically imagine that the stage of meditative equipoise is a Buddha’s Truth Body,39 meditation similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Truth Body does occur in the sūtra system in the sense that the state of meditative equipoise on emptiness mimics a Buddha’s exalted wisdom consciousness in its aspect of perceiving the ultimate. However, the sūtra Perfection Vehicle does not involve meditation similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Form Body. There is meditation on Buddhas and so forth as objects of offering, etc., but there is no meditation on oneself in the physical body of a Buddha.⁴⁰

Such meditative cultivation of a divine body is included within the factor of method because it is mainly aimed at achieving a Buddha’s Form Body. In the sūtra system the sole means for achieving a Buddha’s Form Body is, on the basis of the altruistic intention to become enlightened, to engage in the first three perfections – giving, ethics, and patience – in “limitless” ways over a “limitless” period of time, specifically three periods of “countless” great eons (“countless” being said to be a one with fifty-nine zeros). Though the Mantra Vehicle also involves practice of the perfections of giving, ethics, and patience, it is not in “limitless” ways over “limitless” periods of time. Despite emphasis on the perfections, practice in “limitless” ways over “limitless” time is unnecessary because one is engaging in the additional technique of meditation on oneself in a body similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Form Body.⁴¹ In other words, in the tantric systems, in order to become a Buddha more quickly, one meditates on oneself as similar in aspect to a Buddha in terms of both body and mind. This practice is significantly distinctive and thus those systems which involve it constitute a separate vehicle, the Tantra Great Vehicle.

In deity yoga one first meditates on emptiness and then uses that consciousness realizing emptiness – or at least an imitation of it – as the basis of emanation of a Buddha. The wisdom consciousness itself appears as the physical form of a Buddha. This one consciousness thus has two parts – a factor of wisdom and a factor of method, or factors of (1) ascertainment of emptiness and (2) appearance as an ideal being – and hence, through the practice of deity yoga, one simultaneously accumulates the collections of merit and wisdom, making their amassing much faster.42

The systems that have this practice are called the Vajra Vehicle because the appearance of a deity is the display of a consciousness that is a fusion of wisdom understanding emptiness and compassion seeking the welfare of others – an inseparable union symbolized by a vajra, a diamond, the foremost of stones as it is “unbreakable”.⁴³ Since the two elements of the fusion – compassionate method and penetrating wisdom – are the very core of the Perfection Vehicle, one can understand that sūtra and tantra, despite being different, are integrated systems. One can understand that compassion is not superseded by but essential to tantra and that the wisdom of the Perfection Vehicle is not forsaken for a deeper understanding of reality in the Tantra Vehicle.

Summary

Let us summarize the points made in this discussion. The difference between the vehicles must lie in the sense of vehicle as that by which one progresses or that to which one progresses. The Low Vehicle differs from the Great Vehicle in both. The destination of the lower one is the state of a Hearer or Solitary Realizer Foe Destroyer and of the higher one, Buddhahood. Concerning “vehicle” in the sense of means by which one progresses, although there is no difference in the wisdom realizing the subtlest nature of phenomena, there is a difference in method – Low Vehicle not having and Great Vehicle having the altruistic mind of enlightenment (that is, the altruistic intention to become enlightened) and its attendant deeds.

Sūtra and tantra Great Vehicle do not differ in terms of the goal, the state being sought, since both seek the highest enlightenment of a Buddha, but there is a difference in the means of progress, again not in wisdom but in method. Within method they differ not in the basis or motivation of the deeds, the altruistic intention to become enlightened, nor in having the perfections as deeds, but in the additional technique of deity yoga. A deity is a supramundane being who himself or herself is a manifestation of compassion and wisdom. Thus, in the special practice of deity yoga one joins one’s own body, speech, mind, and activities with the exalted body, speech, mind, and activities of a supramundane being, manifesting on the path a similitude of the state of the effect.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FOUR TANTRA SETS

Within the Mantra Vehicle, there are many ways of differentiating varying numbers of tantra sets. zong-ka-a, in his Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, follows a system of division into four tantra sets – Action Tantra, Performance Tantra, Yoga Tantra, and Highest Yoga Tantra.44 These four are differentiated not (1) by way of their object of intent since all four are aimed at bringing about others’ welfare, nor (2) by way of the object of attainment they are seeking since all four seek the full enlightenment of Buddhahood, nor (3) by way of merely having different types of deity yoga since all four have many different types of deity yoga but are each only one tantra set.

Some say that the four tantra sets are for the different castes; however, 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. Others say that the four tantra sets are for persons following particular non-Buddhist deities; however, it is not necessary to take up a non-Buddhist system that has what, for Buddhism, is a wrong view on the status of persons and other phenomena before entering into the Mantra Vehicle; 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.

Others, seeing that tantra involves the usage of desire, hatred, and ignorance in the path in order to overcome those and seeing that practices are geared for persons having one or the other affliction predominant among their negative states, say that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by particular types of afflictive emotions. However, 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. With regard to trainees of Highest Yoga Tantra, the Seventh Dalai Lama el-sang-gya-tso (bskal bzang rgya mtsho, 1708-57) says in his Explanation of the Rite of the Guhyasamāja Mandala (gsang ’dus dkyil ’khor cho ga’i rnam bshad):45

           Some see that if they rely on the Perfection Vehicle and so forth, they must amass the collections [of merit and wisdom] for three 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 [actually] 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. Since Secret Māntrikas are those of extremely sharp faculties within followers of the Great Vehicle, 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 Tantra, 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!”

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 due to being particularly moved by compassion; a Mantra practitioner wants to achieve enlightenment sooner in order more quickly to be of service to others. The Dalai Lama has said in public lecture that proper contemplation of the difficulties and length of the Sūtra path generates greater determination and courage; this must be because contemplating one’s own altruistic activity over great periods of time undermines the thresholds of impatience, anger, and discouragement. It is a ridiculous position 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. The altruism of Māntrikas is even more intense than that of practitioners of the Perfection Vehicle.

In this vein, zong-ka-a, in refuting the position of the Indian scholar Alaṃkakalasha that the Guhyasamāja Tantra is taught to those in the merchant caste whose desire and hatred are great but whose ignorance is slight, says:46

           In general, the chief trainees of the Great Vehicle must have strong compassion. In particular, the chief trainees of 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.

Similarly, the Mongolian savant ang-ya Rol-ay-dor-jay (lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje, 1717-86) says in his Clear Exposition of the Presentations of Tenets, Beautiful Ornament for the Meru of the Subduer’s Teaching (grub pa’i mtha’i rnam par bzhag pa gsal bar bshad pa thub bstan lhun po’i mdzes rgyan):47

           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. 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.

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 thus the position that the four tantra sets are for persons dominated by different types of afflictive emotions such as desire or hatred is impossible.

Others say that the four tantra sets are for persons holding the views of the four schools of Buddhist tenets. This position is equally unfounded since the Mantra Vehicle is part of the Great Vehicle both from the viewpoint of school of tenet – the view of the Mind Only School or of the Middle Way School being required – and from the viewpoint of path, a Bodhisattva’s altruism being necessary.⁴⁸

Rather, the four tantra sets are differentiated by way of their main trainees being of four very different types. Their main 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 the emptiness and deity yogas that use desire in the path.

1 Four Ways of Using Desire in the Path

Based on descriptions of the four tantra sets found in Highest Yoga Tantras, it is said that in Action Tantra the desire involved in male and female looking or gazing 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 Tantra the desire involved in sexual union is used in the path. When desire arising from looking, 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, desire such as for sexual union leads to sexual union and, thereby, the generation of a blissfully withdrawn consciousness that the practitioner then uses to realize emptiness. The realization of the emptiness of inherent existence, in turn, destroys the possibility of desire.

The process is compared to a worm’s being born from moist wood and then turning around and eating the wood. In putting together the example and the exemplified, the wood is desire; the worm 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 is that it is more intense, and thus realization of emptiness by such a consciousness is more powerful.

The process is most easily explained in Highest Yoga Tantra. In Highest Yoga Tantra, consciousnesses are divided into the gross, the subtle, and the very subtle. According to the system of the Guhyasamāja Tantra, a Highest Yoga Tantra that is parallel in importance to the Kālachakra Tantra, the most subtle is called the fundamental innate mind of clear light; the subtle are three levels of consciousness called the minds of radiant white, red (or orange), and black appearance; the gross are the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness when not manifesting one of the above subtler levels. Through stopping the gross levels of consciousness, the more subtle become manifest. The first to manifest is a mind of radiant white appearance (“radiant” means vivid, not radiating from a center to the outside) 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 radiant white appearance. When that mind ceases, a more subtle mind of radiant 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 radiant 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 it is said that one remains conscious but then becomes unconscious in thick blackness. Then, with the three pollutants of the white, red, black appearances cleared away, the mind of clear light dawns; it is the most subtle level of consciousness.

The various systems of Highest Yoga Tantra seek to manifest the mind of clear light, also called the fundamental innate mind of clear light, by way of different techniques. One of these techniques is to use blissful orgasm (but without emission) to withdraw the grosser levels of consciousness, thereby manifesting the most subtle level of mind. This very powerful and subtle mind is then used to realize the emptiness of inherent existence, thereby enhancing the power of the path-consciousness realizing emptiness so that it is more effective in overcoming the obstructions to liberation and the obstructions to omniscience. This is how the desire for sexual union is used in the path in Highest Yoga Tantra; in this tantra set, the usage of desire in the path is explicitly for the sake of enhancing the wisdom consciousness realizing emptiness by way of actually generating subtler and thus more powerful consciousnesses that realize it. The difficulty of using an orgasmic blissful consciousness to realize anything indicates that it would take a person of great psychological development and capacity to be able to utilize such a subtle state in the path. It also indicates how, without the contextualization of how and why sexual union is used in the path, the practice could be mis-used or misinterpreted.

In the three lower tantras, it is said that even though such subtler consciousnesses are not generated from the desire involved in looking, smiling, and touching, the blissful consciousnesses that are generated are nevertheless used in realizing emptiness. In this way, the Mongolian scholar Nga-ang-el-den (ngag dbang dpal ldan, born 1797) says in his Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Tantra Sets, Illumination of the Texts of Tantra (gsang chen rgyud sde bzhi’i sa lam gyi rnam bzhag rgyud gzhung gsal byed):49

           The three lower tantras involve using in the path the bliss that arises upon looking at, smiling at, and holding hands with 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 Tantra. Nonetheless, most of [zong-ka-a’s] followers explain that this does not mean that the bliss [consciousness] that arises upon looking, smiling, and so forth does not realize emptiness.

The utilization of the subtlest level of consciousness allows Highest Yoga Tantra to be faster for someone who is capable of practicing it, and thus only through Highest Yoga Tantra is it possible to achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime.

2 Four Capacities for Practice

In addition to the four different ways of using desire for the attributes of the Desire Realm in the path, the four tantra sets correspond to four different levels of capacity for generating the emptiness and deity yogas that use desire in the path. The tantric path centers around emptiness yoga and deity yoga, and practitioners have different needs or mind-sets with 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. However, this does not mean that Action Tantra lacks yoga, for it has a complex and very powerful yoga for developing a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight;50 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 Tantra.

Still, Highest Yoga Tantra involves a great deal of ritual as will be seen in the initiation ritual and daily practice rite translated in this book; the point being made here perhaps is that Highest Yoga Tantra does not involve ritual bathing and so forth in the way that Action Tantra, etc., do.

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 an emphasis on external activities, with balanced emphasis on external activities and internal meditative stabilization, with emphasis on meditative stabilization, and with no such external activities. 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. As zong-ka-a says:⁵¹

           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.

SUMMATION

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 looking, smiling, touching, and sexual union – are utilized by the respective main trainees in accordance with their disposition to 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 as they proceed in their practice over the continuum of lifetimes, the variety of vehicles and forms being a representation of Buddha’s compassionate knowledge. All tantric systems are built on a foundation of altruistic motivation and require the Bodhisattvas’ altruistic deeds.