Religion requires analysis but not partisanship. In order to penetrate reality, a yogi needs a sharp mind; it dulls the mind to claim that religions are one in all respects, suggesting that the differences in trainees and in practices are of no consequence. Claiming that all religions are one suggests that practice is ineffective.
Tsongkhapa’s statement that only Buddha taught the final path of liberation draws us into analysis to determine whether or not this path is actually the only final way. A positive decision would indeed impel great effort; an issue of great importance, affecting not just this short lifetime but also the many lifetimes in the future, is at stake. Tsongkhapa issues a call to analysis to see if the Buddhist path is true.
The process of passing from a mistaken notion to clear apprehension of the truth is said to pass through seven steps (reading from bottom to top):37
7. direct perception
6. inferential cognition
5. correct assumption
4. doubt tending to the factual
3. equal doubt
2. doubt tending to the nonfactual
1. wrong view
We begin with a wrong view such as: Buddha, his teaching, and those properly training in his teaching are not the teacher of liberation, the path to liberation, and the friends on the journey to liberation; or, another example: I definitely inherently exist.
Through contact with Buddhist teaching, the wrong view may change into doubt tending to the nonfactual: Buddha, his teaching, and those properly training in his path are probably not the teacher, path, and friends on the journey to liberation; or: I probably inherently exist. Doubt has been raised; the firmness of the wrong view is gone. It is a time of inquiry, leading to equal doubt: Maybe Buddha is the teacher of liberation and maybe he is not; or: Maybe I inherently exist and maybe I do not.
On the basis of study, contact with spiritual guides, and personal experience, doubt tending to the factual is generated: Buddha probably is the teacher of liberation; or: I probably do not inherently exist. Through familiarization with the logical proofs for omniscience and the efficacy of the path as well as with scripture, correct assumption is generated: Buddha is the teacher of the path to liberation, his teaching is the path, and those properly training in it are the friends on the journey to liberation; or: I do not inherently exist.
Still, assumption is not incontrovertible; though a decision has been made, it has not been induced by incontrovertible conviction. Therefore, a correct assumption about the Three Jewels—Buddha, his Doctrine, and the Spiritual Community—is not sufficient; the unshakable knowledge of inference is needed.
Inference is incontrovertible understanding based on reasoning: Buddha, his teaching, and those properly training in his path have qualities such as omniscience, complete cessation of the afflictions, and ability to aid in the path that can be verified through reasoning. Similarly, it can be proved that the “I” does not inherently exist through realizing that whatever is a dependent-arising does not inherently exist and that the “I” is a dependent-arising. After repeated inquiry, unshakable conviction is generated; through familiarization this can be brought to the point of direct cognition, such as directly knowing the true cessation of a certain portion of the afflictions based on Buddha’s path or directly knowing emptiness—the absence of inherent existence—of the “I.”
The process of passing from wrong views to the incontrovertible knowledge of realization, be it inferential or direct, depends on study, analysis, meditation, and acquaintance with a spiritual guide. Inferential understanding is not a discursive mulling over of ideas and concepts; it is the conclusion of the process of analysis in a definite realization. In the case of emptiness, through the route of an image a mere vacuity appears to a mind that ascertains a negative of inherent existence. This realization is called inferential and conceptual only because a mere vacuity of inherent existence appears through the route of a conceptual image. The mind is stilled; it has understood that the “I” is a dependent-arising and that whatever is a dependent-arising does not inherently exist; now, it knows that the “I” does not inherently exist. The impact of even attaining a correct assumption about the emptiness of “I” which means its unfindability among its bases of designation—mind and body—is said to be like being struck by lightning. Thus, inferential realization, far from being a vague shuffling of concepts, is even more dramatic.
When the ascertainment of the absence of inherent existence lessens, yogis review the process of reasoning, but otherwise they remain in the result of reasoning—in terms of appearance, a mere vacuity of inherent existence and in terms of ascertainment, the definite knowledge of an absence of inherent existence. By stabilizing on this mere vacuity and occasionally heightening the realization by further analysis, yogis bring this conceptual understanding to the point of direct cognition. The sense of the object—emptiness—and the subject—the wisdom—gradually disappear, leaving a fusion of object and subject, like fresh water poured into fresh water.
The resultant realization is nondual but not nonspecific. As much as colors and shapes can be known definitely and directly by the eye consciousness, so the mental consciousness can know emptiness definitely and directly. The absence of inherent existence is known directly, based on earlier familiarization with a reasoning proving emptiness. Thus, far from turning against the process of reasoning, this practice is built on reasoning. However, those who are addicted to discursive thought cannot pass to the conclusion of reasoning, much like seeing smoke, reflecting that wherever there is smoke there is fire, and repeatedly going through this process without ever concluding that fire is present.
As much as one can incontrovertibly know of the presence of fire when billows of smoke are seen and can act on that knowledge, so much can one penetrate the nature of phenomena through a similar process of reasoning and live in accordance with it. Also, just as one can eventually go outside and see the fire directly, so by accustoming to the space-like meditative equipoise, one can perceive emptiness directly, without the medium of a conceptual image.
Although an emptiness is a mere negative of inherent existence, it is amenable to reflection and can eventually be perceived nonconceptually. The Kāshyapa Chapter Sūtra says:
Kāshyapa, it is this way: For example, fire arises when the wind rubs two branches together. Once the fire has arisen, the two branches are burned. Just so, Kāshyapa, if you have the correct analytical intellect, a Superior’s faculty of wisdom is generated. Through its generation, the correct analytical intellect is consumed.
Right thought overcomes wrong thought and leads to direct knowledge; thus, discrimination based on correct reasoning is the primary means, when coupled with a mind of calm abiding, for developing direct insight. Even nonconceptual sense consciousnesses have a factor of discrimination, which is a nonconfusion of the objects perceived; without it, everything would be a confused mass. This faculty must be developed, first conceptually and then nonconceptually, with respect to the nature of phenomena. Thought must be used to develop indirect knowledge of the nature of phenomena, and, through familiarization, this is gradually transformed into direct knowledge. Just as an eye consciousness can have definite and certainly not contentless knowledge of a color, so the mental consciousness can know impermanence, suffering, emptiness, others’ minds, and so forth without the medium of concepts.
Objection: This progression suggests that there is something new to be known. Nāgārjuna said that there is not the slightest difference between cyclic existence (saṃsāra) and nirvāṇa.
Answer: The altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings is the basis of a Bodhisattva’s practice in both the Perfection Vehicle and Vajra Vehicle. The altruistic aspiration is induced by love and compassion, which are the result of seeing the suffering of cyclic existence, generating a wish to leave it, and then applying this understanding to others. If one does not want to be free of cyclic existence, there is no way to wish for others to be free of it. This wish to leave cyclic existence is common to the Lesser Vehicle and the Great Vehicle and within the Great Vehicle is common to the Perfection and Vajra Vehicles.
The Sanskrit word nirvāṇa was translated into Tibetan as “passed beyond sorrow,” with “sorrow” identified as the afflictions, the chief of which is the conception of inherent existence. Cyclic existence is an uncontrolled process of birth, aging, sickness, and death motivated by the afflictions. It is clear that when Nāgārjuna says that cyclic existence is nirvāṇa, he is not asserting that cyclic existence is the state of having passed beyond sorrow. Rather, in this context “cyclic existence,” or saṃsāra, refers to conventional truths, all objects except emptinesses; the term “nirvāṇa” refers to a natural nirvāṇa, not the nirvāṇa that is the true cessation of all suffering. A natural nirvāṇa does not come into existence in dependence on the path but is merely the emptiness of inherent existence that each object naturally has.
An emptiness is not created by realizing it; a yogi realizes what always was. “Natural nirvāṇa” (svabhāvanirvāṇa) may also be translated as “inherent nirvāṇa” though, of course, “inherent” here does not mean “inherently existent.” The commentarial tradition in Tibet makes the point that a natural nirvāṇa is not an actual nirvāṇa because an actual nirvāṇa is a true cessation of all afflictions.38
Thus, the statement that saṃsāra is not in the least different from nirvāṇa does not mean that the uncontrolled process of cyclic existence which forms the basis for suffering is the cessation of all suffering. Rather, it refers to the relationship between conventional truths and ultimate truths.
The meaning of Nāgārjuna’s statement is that there is not the slightest difference in entity between a conventional truth, a saṃsāra, and its emptiness, a natural nirvāṇa. They are different within the context of being included in one entity.
Since conventional truths—all objects except emptiness—are not ultimate truths—emptinesses—the two truths are not merely two ways of looking at the same object, and thus it cannot be said that a conventional truth, such as a table or a body, and its emptiness, its lack of inherent existence, are one. They are also not synonyms; an ultimate truth is not a conventional truth and a conventional truth is not an ultimate truth. Further, the two truths are a dichotomy because if something exists and is not an ultimate truth, it must be a conventional truth, and if something exists and is not an ultimate truth, it must be a conventional truth; a dichotomy includes all existents, and nothing can be both.
If a phenomenon, such as a body, and its emptiness were exactly the same, then when we saw the body, we would see its emptiness, in which case we would be liberated. However, we are not liberated; we habitually conceive the opposite of emptiness and are thereby drawn into afflictions. Therefore, ultimate truths and conventional truths are not exactly the same, but they are also not different entities because when one understands the emptiness of the body, for instance, this helps to overcome this misconception of the inherent existence of the body. In other words, because an emptiness of inherent existence is the nature of the body, realizing it helps to overcome misconception of the body. If an emptiness were one entity and the body another, thorough realization of emptiness would not affect the misconception of phenomena as inherently existent. A conventional truth, such as a body, and an ultimate truth, its emptiness of objective or inherent existence, are compatible in one entity but are different.
Ultimate truths do not contradict conventional truths; the emptiness of the body does not contradict the conventionally and validly existent body; it contradicts its inherent existence. Therefore, “conventional” does not mean “usual,” because all phenomena usually appear to nonconceptual sense consciousnesses as if they cover their parts, as if they exist in and of themselves whereas they do not. We know conventional truths such as houses, bodies, and minds, but we do not know conventional truths as conventional truths. To know this, we must know emptiness, the absence of inherent existence of objects; then, we can understand that objects only nominally exist.
Except for emptinesses, all objects are conventional truths, or “truths for an obscured mind.” They seem to exist the way they appear only to a mind obscured with ignorance. Every object has a natural nirvāṇa that is its nonexistence in the way it appears, its emptiness of inherent existence. When this is thoroughly known, the afflictions are gradually overcome to the point where all afflictions whatsoever are removed forever. There is then a nirvāṇa, an emptiness of the mind in the continuum of one who has overcome all afflictions.
In order to effect this transformation yogis cultivate a mind that is a similitude of a Buddha’s Truth Body. Using a reasoning analyzing the ultimate, they investigate whether mind, body, or “I” exist as they appear—exist right with their bases of designation, which for mind are moments of consciousness, for body are limbs and a trunk, and for “I” are mind and body. Intently searching to discover whether phenomena exist from their own side, yogis gradually discover that they do not; a vacuity that is a negative of inherent existence appears with which their mind is fused, remaining in this space-like meditative equipoise as long as possible. This is the path of wisdom of the Perfection Vehicle, a path of transformation through cultivating—prior to the effect stage—a similitude of the nondual meditative equipoise that a Buddha never leaves.
The Vajra Vehicle has the further feature of cultivating while still on the path a similitude of a Buddha’s Form Body. These similitudes of Buddha Bodies are cultivated in order to transmute not only the mind but also the process of physical appearance. The goal is still the Buddhahood that serves as the basis for the welfare of all sentient beings, but the method for eradicating desire, hatred, and ignorance involves using these in the path within the context of emptiness and deity yogas. As the Sakya master Sönam Tsemo (bsod nam rtse mo, 1142–1182) says in his General Presentation of the Tantra Sets:39
If one has method, [desirable] objects serve as aids to liberation, like poison [used as medicine], fire [used in moxabustion], and so forth. Therefore, objects are not inherently fetters; perverse thoughts based on them act as fetters. Through abandoning the entities of the fettering causes, one is liberated; thus, objects serve as secondary causes of liberation. The Hevajra Tantra says:
One is liberated from the fetters
Of cyclic existence through those that bind,
When they are accompanied by method.
With respect to the phrase “accompanied by method,” what is the method for abandoning the causes of being bound? . . . Knowing whatever objects and subjects appear as just one’s own deity, one enjoys them. The Guhyasamāja Tantra says:
Use as you wish
All desired resources,
With the yoga of your deity
Offer them to yourself and others.
The Nyingma master Longchen Rabjam (klong chen rab ’byams / klong chen dri med ’od zer, 1308–1363) says in his Treasury of Tenets:40
Question: If the Mantra Vehicle partakes of a path purifying defilements, what does it mean that it takes the effect as the path? Since the Cause Vehicle is generated to purify defilements, it would be similar.
Answer: Though the Definition [Perfection] Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle are the same in simultaneously cleansing the defilements of the realm and achieving Buddhahood, there is a difference of temporal distance and proximity. Also, the mere warmth of the path for which the Definition Vehicle strives over a long time is taken as the path in one instant of Mantra. Furthermore, due to cultivating in meditation a similitude of the state in the maṇḍala of the expanse, even objects of abandonment shine as aids. In this way the effect is taken as the path; however, the exact final fruit is not actually taken as the path. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate the profound and the vast in meditation.
Mere withdrawal of the mind from conceptions of inherent existence or even mere deity yoga without the wisdom of emptiness will not serve as an antidote to the afflictions. The supreme method is cultivation of deity yoga within the context of realizing the emptiness of inherent existence. The wisdom understanding emptiness and fused with emptiness appears as a deity, and within this state what formerly bound one in cyclic existence can be used as aids to liberation.
Deity yoga requires creative imagination; yogis recognize that their present perceptions are colored by predispositions established by former actions and in order to gain control over the process of appearance enter into the practice of making ideal substitutions. Through imaginatively causing everything that appears to be conjoined with emptiness and deity yoga, they cleanse innate predispositions for misperception and misconception. However, the distinction between imagination and fact is still made, and Buddhahood has not become a figment of imagination. Longchen Rabjam says:41
When one has become a Buddha, freed of all defilements, the features of a land appear thoroughly adorned within the context of neither composition nor separation of body and wisdom [which are indivisibly fused]. Such is actualized [in Mantra] through the force of clearing away the defilements that exist in the expanse by meditating on a similitude of such a land. Therefore, it is called the Effect Vehicle. The Padmashekara Tantra says:
When the nature of the stainless expanse
Having the Three Bodies, wisdom, and land
Is purified, it manifestly appears
In self-illumination. This which takes
A similitude as the path is rightly
Called the Effect Vehicle.
In Mantra, knowledge of the nature that abides primordially in the excellent inherent effect of the expanse is taken as the basis and practiced. Therefore, it is called the Effect Vehicle. Furthermore, in terms of clearing away defilements, generation and completion are cultivated, and through training in suchness the adventitious defilements are purified. The gods, maṇḍalas, and so forth which are mentally meditated are fabrications of one’s own mind; thus, this is not meditation that takes the effect—the expanse with gods and maṇḍalas—as the actual path. However, because it is close to the meaning of the expanse, it should be viewed as a profound, undeceiving path. Though the Mantra Vehicle is similar to the Cause Vehicle in not being able to take the expanse as the actual path, there is a great difference in the closeness of the paths [to the fruit] due to the difference of having a similarity of feature [with the fruit].
Due to its similarity with the effect and its speed in generating the effect, the Vajra Vehicle is called the Effect Vehicle. The process of transforming body and mind is modeled on the features of the effect being sought. Whereas the Perfection Vehicle has cultivation of only a similitude of a Truth Body and relies on other causes to develop a Form Body, the Vajra Vehicle has cultivation of similitudes of both Bodies. This is its distinguishing and elevating feature, the very life of which is to identify wrong conceptions about the nature of phenomena and gradually discover the meaning of emptiness. For it is the consciousness realizing emptiness that itself appears as the body of a deity.