Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute introduction, Kyabje Rinpoche explains why tantra is a faster path than the perfection vehicle. Both require the same two accumulations—wisdom understanding emptiness and merit—but tantra’s method differs. Instead of relying mainly on ethical conduct, tantric practitioners collect merit through deity visualization and the four purities: imagining oneself as the deity, one’s place as a celestial Buddha land, one’s resources as offerings from emptiness, and one’s actions as benefiting all beings. He outlines the four levels of tantra—action, performance, yoga, and highest yoga—as paths suited to different capacities, and explains how empowerment serves as the gateway to practice. The teaching emphasizes that Buddhahood can be attained in one lifetime, or three years and one month through highest yoga tantra. Suited for practitioners with foundational Buddhist knowledge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-02-25 – 2A – Introduction to Tantra – KR.mp3
UUID: 116bcdc1-f53a-41a8-b5b0-67a94edcdde4
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Tantra Introduction
Date: 1989-02-25
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,515
Okay. So we we should adjust our motivation so that we develop the excellent motivation whereby we’re going to listen to this profound teaching on the great vehicle as a means to be able to attain peerless, complete Buddhahood and thereby be enabled to place all sentient beings equal to space and complete bliss and peace. So Kamalaśīla has said that within the great vehicle, there is the perfection vehicle and the tantric vehicle. And he also went on to say that with respect to the results, the fruit of the practice of these two vehicles, there is no difference. That is to say, there is no difference with respect to the Buddhahood attained through the perfection or the tantric vehicle.
But with respect to the cause, there is a difference. As it’s spoken of in the text, Uttara Tantra, or Sublime Continuum,, the resultant effect of the two vehicles is Buddhahood. And this is composed of the two bodies of the Buddha. That is the truth body of the dharmakaya and the and the form body or the rupakaya. So the main thrust of our practice amongst these two resultant bodies of the Buddha is the or the form body.
The purpose for our practice in the Dharma is to benefit sentient beings. And it’s only by the taking on the the form body of a Buddha that we’re able to appear to sentient beings whereby to teach them. Therefore, the main thrust of our practice is the attainment of the form body of a Buddha. In order to be able to do that, it’s necessary, that is to say, in order to be able to appear in a spontaneous, effortless manner before sentient beings in order to teach them Dharma, it’s necessary for us to first attain. Not first, but to be able to manifest from the truth body of the Buddha, that is the dharmakaya.
In order to attain the truth body, it is made up of the wisdom understanding all the varieties of phenomena. That is to say, ultimate reality, the nature of all existence. In order to attain this understanding, in addition, we must be able to remove all the various faults, all the various obstacles. And there are two main obstacles to our attainment. And that is the obstacle to liberation, the afflictive obstacle and the knowledge obstacle.
In order to attain these two bodies of the Buddha, this truth body and the form body, we must create the causes. And the causes of attaining the two bodies are the two accumulations: the accumulation of wisdom and the accumulation of merit. And therefore, The practice involves the methods whereby we accumulate vast stores of the accumulations of wisdom and positive potential or merit. So both within sūtra and tantra, in order to attain Buddhahood, we must collect the two accumulations of wisdom and potential. There’s no difference with respect to this.
Within the sūtra vehicle, that is to say, or the perfection, The collection of the wisdom accumulation is accomplished through the realization of emptiness conjoined with the awakening heart. So the wisdom or the realization which understands emptiness conjoined or being supported, assisted by the awakening heart is the means of accumulating the collection of wisdom. The wisdom understanding emptiness conjoined with the awakening heart is the means of collecting the accumulation of wisdom which is the main cause for attaining the resultant truth body. It is the cooperative cause for attaining the form body. So this is the same whether it’s the perfection vehicle or the tantric vehicle.
The realization of emptiness conjoined with the awakening heart is the main cause for the attainment of the resultant truth body and the cooperative cause for attaining the form body of a Buddha. The but there is a difference with respect to the the perfection vehicle and the tantric vehicle in the method of collecting the accumulation of positive potential, which is the cause for attaining the form body. There is a big difference between these two vehicles. Within the perfection vehicle, such states as the awakening heart, activities of generosity, ethics, patience are the main or the uncommon cause for the attainment of the form body. And they are the cooperative causes for attaining the truth body.
In the tantric vehicle, the method for collecting the accumulation of positive potential is done through the meditation on the circle of deities. The circle of deities. This practice is not found within the perfection vehicle. And this is the uncommon method for collecting the necessary causes whereby to attain the form body of a Buddha. It’s through this uncommon method of collecting the accumulation of positive potential which makes the tantric vehicle an extraordinary vehicle.
In the sense that within the perfection vehicle in order to attain Buddhahood it’s necessary to collect the accumulation of the positive potential over three countless eons. Whereby in the tantric vehicle according to their practices, the accumulation can be completed in one lifetime on the basis of one physical basis of body. So it’s with respect to the method of the two, method and wisdom. It’s respect to the skill and methods of the tantric vehicle whereby it is a quicker vehicle. We don’t have to extend the path over innumerable number of eons, but it can be completed within one lifetime.
So as was explained previously in the actual meditation on the deities as a means for accumulating the necessary collection of positive potential, we make use of the practice of the four purities. So the four the four purities are made up of the purity of body, abode, resources, and activities or deeds. These are the four purities that are practiced. So with respect to the purity of abode, this is the practice of perceiving one’s place, that is the abode, as not being ordinary, as not being plain. That is in fact, it is abiding in the divine mandala.
That we are to think of the resultant place abode that is a Buddha land and imagine taking that result into the present moment and that we are abiding in an actual Buddha field or Buddha land in a celestial mansion. And this is the purity of abode. And then the first of these four purities is the purity of body. And this involves the practice of first developing the understanding, the realization of emptiness, and then everything becomes empty and arising from this emptiness in the form of the deity. This deity can be of whatever type of Buddha body that we seek to attain in the future state.
It could be, for example, Tārā or Chenrezig, Avalokiteśvara. Imagine that you have actually attained the future state of a Buddha. And then the third of the purities is purity of resources. This involves the making of various types of offering. We can offer the various types of standard set of material offerings, light, incense, such things as this.
And imagine that these arise, evolve out of emptiness and that we offer these both to ourselves and others. And the fourth of the purities is the purity of deed or activity. And this involves the imaginative process whereby the radiating out lights from the mantra garland at our heart, the mantra rosary at our heart. These lights can go out and for example transform into various goddesses. These goddesses make offerings to the Buddhas of the 10 directions.
Having done that, then the lights radiate out to all the various sentient beings visualized before us, purifying them of their suffering, removing their suffering, and purifying them of their various obscurations and helping them to develop realizations. So, you know, actually, to be able to perform this last purity, the purity of activities or deeds whereby benefiting all sentient beings, purifying them of their obscurations, placing them, helping them to develop realizations. In order to do that, in fact, we ourselves have to be Buddhas. But we’re taking this future result and bringing it into the present moment. This is said to be the practice of the similitude result.
We’re taking a practice which is similar to the result that we’re seeking to attain. And this is the extraordinary practice of tantra. So this is the, you know, an explanation on the distinguishing factor between sūtra and tantra and why tantra is a more skillful vehicle than that of the perfection vehicle. We yes, last week we discussed the four levels of tantra. That was the action, performance, yoga, and highest yoga tantra.
So the four levels of tantra are established in accordance with the four levels of trainees or students according to their capacity. With respect to the first, that is action tantra, this is specifically designed for the lesser type of practitioner or trainee or student. So when we talk about the lesser type of trainee, in general, the tantric vehicle is designed for those of sharpest faculty, the most intelligent types of practitioners. But amongst these, there are certain practitioners who have a lesser accumulation of positive potential. And though this type of individual has the sharp faculty, that is he has accumulated a great deal of wisdom, But still with respect to his accumulation of positive potential, he is a lesser capacity, lesser level.
And therefore he is said to be a lesser practitioner, lesser trainee. And the action tantra was designed for such a person. So within this action tantra, there are the two divisions of inner and outer. And when we talk about the inner action tantra, we’re mainly referring to the meditative stabilization. With respect to the outer, this involves the practices of purifying and cleansing the external environment.
The practitioner of action tantra of these two is mainly concerned with the outer practices of purifying and cleansing. Then the practitioner of the second level of tantra, that is performance tantra, of these two, that is inner and outer divisions of the tantra, this practitioner So the practitioner of the first level of tantra, action tantra, of the two of inner and outer activities is mainly concerned with the outer activity of purifying and cleansing. And the practitioner of the second level of tantra, that is performance tantra, of the two, that is to say the yoga of meditative stabilizations and the external practices of cleansing and purifying, is equally concerned with both types of practices. Then the third level of tantra, that is a yoga tantra. And the practitioners of this level of tantra, of the two external and internal practices, is mainly concerned with the internal practices of the yoga of meditative stabilization.
And finally, the practitioner of the fourth or highest level of tantra, that is highest yoga tantra, is not only concerned mainly with the inner practices of the yoga of meditative stabilization, but he carries on additional practices on top of that which are of the highest level of yoga. And therefore this derives its name as highest yoga tantra. The three lower tantras, that is action, performance and yoga tantra, through these methods we can attain Buddhahood in one lifetime. But the practice necessarily involves attaining a long lifetime in which to practice. It’s only by means of the highest Yoga tantra that we can attain Buddhahood in the shortest amount of time.
And it’s said the shortest amount of time is, that is to say, quickly. And this shortest amount of time is three years and one and a half months. So one can attain Buddhahood within three years and one and a half months. So as we explained previously, that by means of the perfection vehicle we can attain Buddhahood, but it’s only attained by means of the perfection vehicle if it’s performed in conjunction with the tantric vehicle. It’s only by entering eventually into the tantric vehicle that one can attain Buddhahood.
In this situation it’s similar to the three lower classes of tantra. In dependence upon the three lower classes of tantra action, performance, and yoga tantra we can attain Buddhahood. But we cannot attain Buddhahood only in dependence upon this. It’s necessary to eventually enter into highest yoga tantra. So if we take the case of of the Buddha, the Śākyamūni Buddha, that he, by means of traveling, making use of the perfection vehicle, he attained the tenth ground.
He attained by means of the perfection vehicle. And then he entered into this is the highest ground and then he entered into the meditative stabilization of equipoise on infinite space as a means to finally attain Buddhahood. But in this equipoise he was awakened by the Buddhas, awakened from this state. They spoke to him that he should arise from this meditative stabilization and enter into the tantric vehicle. He arose and was granted the wisdom knowledge empowerment, and and taking by means of the consort practice was able to actually attain Buddhahood.
Having received this wisdom, knowledge, empowerment, finally on the fifteenth day of the fourth month, that is in Tibetan Saga Dawa, the fifteenth day, then he received the fourth level of empowerment, which is the word empowerment, and by the power of receiving that was able to attain Buddhahood. So in dependence upon only the perfection vehicle and the three lower levels of tantra action, performance and yoga tantra we cannot attain Buddhahood. It’s necessary to finally depend upon the highest level of tantra that is the highest yoga tantra. This is because there are the most subtle abandonments which are necessary, which prevent us from attaining Buddhahood can only be abandoned, can only be eliminated by the power of highest yoga tantra. The doorway into the great vehicle is mind generation.
Mind generation or bodhicitta, that’s another word for bodhicitta, the awakening heart. If one has that cause, if one has developed mind generation, awakening heart, then one has entered into the great vehicle. If one does not have the awakening heart, one has not entered into the great vehicle. Within the tantric vehicle, the doorway is said to be empowerment. It’s necessary if we’re going to enter into the tantric vehicle to receive four levels of empowerment.
And this involves the attainment of the tantric vows. So it’s necessary to actually receive the empowerments of each of the four levels of tantra in order to engage in the various practices, the rituals, and the visualizations of those respective levels of tantra. Whether in order to make use of the practices within, for example, the action tantra, is necessary to receive the empowerment or the permission of action tantra. Likewise for performance, yoga, and highest yoga tantras. There are four levels of empowerment.
There’s the water empowerment, secret empowerment, the wisdom knowledge empowerment, and the word empowerment. So within the highest yoga tantra there are these complete four empowerments. But with respect to the lower three tantras, action, performance, and yoga tantra, of these four levels of empowerment, they only have the first, that is water empowerment. With respect to the first empowerment, the water