Essence of the Ocean of Attainments by Yael Bentor

Author:Yael Bentor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

7. The Yoga of Taking Death as the Dharmakāya

Immersing the Specially Visualized Deities in Clear Light — The Method of Awakening

THE Guhyasamāja Sādhana explains:771 “The deities on my own body, Vairocana and so forth, dissolve successively into clear light,” for the Concise Sādhana teaches:772 “The yogis should bring the deities into suchness by way of the wheel773 of ultimate truth. When they slay the assembly of tathāgatas, they will achieve the supreme attainment.”

The Sādhana Incorporating the Scripture774 applies this meditation to the following lines of the Root Tantra:775 “Those who desire the fruit should drink776 the semen issued777 from union,778 according to the ritual method. When they slay the assembly of tathāgatas, they will achieve the supreme siddhi.” Is there a contradiction between the Sādhana Incorporating the Scripture779 here and the Illuminating Lamp780 that applies these lines to awakening in the intermediate state? [387] There is no error here because, as the Revelation of the Intention Tantra teaches:781 “Even a single word has various meanings.”

The way of immersing in clear light is neither by visualizing the deities — set on your body — instantaneously dissolving into clear light nor by visualizing their dissolution according to the five individual tathāgata families. Rather, as appears in the Guhyasamāja Sādhana,782 the meditation here proceeds according to the explanation of the Vajra Garland Tantra,783 in correspondence with the stages of the dissolution of the twenty-five coarse elements, during the death of a person born from a womb and endowed with the six constituents, on the level of the ground of purification. The twenty-five coarse elements are: the five aggregates, the four physical elements, the six sensory spheres, the five sense bases, and the five wisdoms of the ground time.784 This is as the Concise Sādhana teaches:785 “These are arranged as the Vajra Garland Tantra786 makes clear.”

When ordinary persons die, their elements dissolve successively:787

(1) At first, the aggregate of form, the mirror-like wisdom of the ground time, the earth element, the eye faculty, and the forms within their continuums dissolve. Here are the external signs of these dissolutions: When the form aggregate dissolves, the body becomes weak and thin. When the mirror-like wisdom of the ground time dissolves, the sight becomes blurred and cloudy. When the earth element dissolves, the body becomes very thin and the dying persons feel as if they are sinking under the earth. When the eye faculty dissolves the dying persons are no longer able to open and close their eyes. When the form within one’s continuum dissolves, the complexion of the body fades and its strength diminishes. As an inner sign, [388] a mirage-like appearance arises. In accordance with that, you should visualize the deities on your body from Vairocana up to the two fierce deities788 dissolving into clear light, for the Vajra Garland Tantra teaches:789 “Included790 in the form aggregate are the mirror-like wisdom, the earth elements, the eye faculty, and the form as the fifth aspect, together with the two fierce deities.”

(2) Following this, the aggregate of feeling,

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