Bringing the Three Bodies into the Path

      THE ACTUAL PRACTICE OF GENERATION STAGE

      This has six parts:

      1 What is generation stage?

      2 Bringing the three bodies into the path

      3 Checking meditation on the mandala and basis Heruka

      4 Generating the mandala and Deities of the body mandala

      5 Adorning our body with the armour Deities, inviting and absorbing the wisdom beings, and making offerings

      6 The actual generation stage meditation

      WHAT IS GENERATION STAGE?

      Generation stage is defined as a realization of a creative yoga that purifies the three basic bodies and causes the three bodies of the path to ripen. It is called a ‘creative yoga’ because its object is generated, or created, by a mind of pure concentration. For example, when we perform self-generation as Heruka, there appears to our mind a form of Heruka with a blue-coloured body, four faces and twelve arms; and this object is generated by our mind through the force of correct imagination. However, even though it is generated by mind, it exists. If we continue with this meditation, our mind will become more and more familiar with the object, and eventually we will attain the actual body of Heruka; but if we do not first create it with our mind we will never accomplish the actual body of Heruka in the future. In the same way that an artist begins with a rough outline of a picture and then continues painting until the picture is completed, so our generation stage meditation can be likened to an artist drawing a rough outline of a picture, and our completion stage meditation to the artist completing the picture.

      When through the force of generation stage meditation the form of Heruka appears to our mind, this is an actual form. It is a form that is a phenomena source, a form that appears only to mental awareness. Later, when our concentrations of generation and completion stages are completed, we will attain the actual form of Heruka, which we can see with our eye awareness. What was previously a form that is a phenomena source will now have become a form that is a form source, an actual object of eye awareness.

      It is not only in Tantra that Buddha teaches how to generate objects with our mind that later become objects of the senses. In the Vinaya Sutras he says that monks who wish to overcome desirous attachment should visualize the ground covered with skeletons and see all things as impure. Some monks who practised this meditation sincerely saw skeletons directly with their eyes and impure things wherever they looked, and as a result they developed the strong wish to escape from samsara. We cannot say that their minds were wrong awarenesses, because the skeletons they saw were generated by pure concentration. To begin with, the skeletons were forms that are phenomena sources, but for the monks they later became actual form sources. In a similar way, people we dislike appear to us as unattractive but, if we later change our mind about them and come to like them, their appearance will also change and they will now appear to us as attractive. Only our mind has changed, but due to our mind changing the forms that appear to it also change. This shows how everything depends upon the mind. By contemplating these points we can understand what is meant by calling generation stage a ‘creative yoga’, and we can see how it is possible to generate ourself as Heruka through the power of pure concentration.

      The definition also indicates that generation stage purifies the three basic bodies and causes the three bodies of the path to ripen. The three basic bodies are ordinary death, ordinary intermediate state (Tib. bardo) and ordinary rebirth. Ordinary death is known as the ‘basic truth body’. It is not the actual Truth Body but is the basis for attaining the actual Truth Body because it is the basis for the practice of bringing death into the path to the Truth Body. Similarly, ordinary intermediate state is called the ‘basic enjoyment body’ because it is the basis for attaining the actual Enjoyment Body through the practice of bringing the intermediate state into the path; and ordinary rebirth is called the ‘basic emanation body’ because it is the basis for attaining the actual Emanation Body through the practice of bringing rebirth into the path. These three basic bodies are the bases to be purified. They are purified indirectly by the yogas of generation stage and directly by the yogas of completion stage.

      For as long as we do not purify our ordinary death, intermediate state and rebirth, we will remain in samsara and there will be no possibility of our attaining Buddhahood. Up to now we have experienced these three states one after the other without interruption, like the turning of a wheel; and because of this we are trapped in samsara experiencing continuous suffering and problems. If we purify ordinary birth, death and intermediate state, there will be no basis for us to experience suffering – we will have attained liberation.

      Even in the Sutras it says that we need to cut the continuum of birth, death and intermediate state. What will happen if we cut the continuum of ordinary birth? Will we disappear and become like empty space? This is impossible. Even if we cut the continuum of ordinary rebirth, the continuum of our mind will remain; but instead of being thrown into a samsaric rebirth through the force of karma and delusion, we will take rebirth through choice, either in a Pure Land or, out of compassion, in the human realm. It is the suffering of uncontrolled birth and death that will cease.

      How do we purify ordinary death, intermediate state and rebirth? Ordinary death is purified directly by the completion stage realization of ultimate example clear light; ordinary intermediate state is purified directly by the completion stage realization of illusory body; and ordinary rebirth is purified directly by the completion stage yoga of the gross Deity body attained after the realization of illusory body.

      The clear light of completion stage is known as the ‘path truth body’, the illusory body of completion stage is known as the ‘path enjoyment body’, and the completion stage yoga of the gross Deity body is known as the ‘path emanation body’. We cause these three path bodies to ripen by practising the three bringings of generation stage. The generation stage yoga of bringing ordinary death into the path to the Truth Body causes the completion stage realization of clear light to ripen; the generation stage yoga of bringing ordinary intermediate state into the path to the Enjoyment Body causes the completion stage realization of illusory body to ripen; and the generation stage yoga of bringing ordinary rebirth into the path to the Emanation Body causes the completion stage realization of the gross Deity body to ripen. The final result of purifying the three basic bodies by means of the three path bodies is the attainment of the three resultant