BUDDHIST MEDITATION: TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION

Buddhist contemplative traditions have thrived in Tibet since at least the seventh century ce, and have taken an astonishing variety of forms ranging over the entire spectrum of Indian and Central Asian Buddhist traditions. This diversity is usually organized under the rubric of "three vehicles" in Buddhism—the Lesser (Hīnayāna), Great (Mahāyāna), and Adamantine (Vajrayāna) vehicles. The historical challenge was to integrate this diversity into cogent systems of practice, and especially how to integrate exoteric Buddhist contemplation based on canonical sūtras, and esoteric forms of Buddhist meditation derived from canonical Tantras. Most Tibetan traditions came to see the Tantric methods as intrinsically superior in their capacity to generate more rapid realization due to their directness. By the thirteenth century, Tibet had established itself as the international center of esoteric Buddhism, and alone developed the full spectrum of Buddhist esoteric contemplative practices. We have thus structured the present survey of Tibetan Buddhist contemplative traditions in terms of traditional categories that proceed through the three vehicles from "lower" to "higher" in terms of the traditional explicit ranking of Tibetan sectarian traditions. The demarcation between "contemplation" and "ritual" is artificial and often of limited use, but we have still relied upon it based on similar distinctions in Tibetan literature.

SŪtra

Our survey begins with the exoteric traditions of contemplation, the canonical basis of which is Sūtras believed to have been spoken by buddhas. In the present context, Sūtra is short hand for the entire array of literature, institutions and practices that marked exoteric Buddhism in India and Tibet.

Analytical meditation and stabilizing meditation

Meditation in Tibetan traditions is usually presented as being part of a therapeutic impulse to resolve the dissatisfactory nature of embodied existence for oneself and others. This enterprise has three main phases: listening (thos ), which includes all forms of study and learning pertaining to normative Buddhist doctrine; reflection or contemplation (bsam ), the phase in which the meditator processes those teachings in order to arrive at an understanding of their import; and finally meditation (sgom ), the process by which these concepts become integrated into one's experience.

The third stage of meditation (bhāvana) is thus focused on deepening the individual's experience of the insights gained through the first two stages. In traditional presentations, meditation in this context is often described as being either "analytical meditation" (dpyad sgom ) or "stabilizing meditation" ('jog sgom ). Initially, the practitioner performs analytical meditation on some doctrinal aspect of the teachings, for example, impermanence, emptiness (stong pa nyid; Skt., śūnyatā ), or compassion (snying rje; Skt., karuṇā ), carefully scrutinizing the different explanations, and finally arriving at an inferential understanding of the topic. These "analytical" meditations often involve formal processes of reasoning that are carried out in reliance upon scriptural or oral guidance. Having arrived at such a clear understanding, one then employs the techniques of stabilizing meditation to reach a firm conviction and nondiscursive intuition of the validity of the teaching or doctrine under investigation. Alternatively, initially it is necessary to settle the mind so that it can remain calm and focused in its pursuit of knowledge and realization. This "calming" practice may in fact be the first form of meditation in which the beginning practitioner engages.

Calm abiding and insight meditation

A related presentation of the general meditative process is that of "calming" (zhi gnas; Skt., śamatha; literally, "calm abiding"), and "insight" (lhag mthong; Skt., vipaśyanā; literally, "higher seeing"). This is not unique to Tibetan Buddhism, but is frequently invoked within Tibet to explain basic Buddhist meditation. The practice of calming is designed to build the mind's capacity for concentration to such a degree that it can remain single-pointed (rtse gcig ) and undistracted for long periods of time. Such techniques proliferated in Tibet, with the main variance being the object of focus, which could be a candle flame, one's breathing, a statue of a buddha, a song, a visualized syllable, or a waterfall. Most accounts of calming practices thus outline the object of focus, and then provide detailed accounts of the deepening levels of concentration, as well as pitfalls to avoid. In this way, contemplative calming serves as the meditative basis for the attainment of incisive insight into the nature of reality, specifically into the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of phenomena, realization of which are said to result ultimately in liberation or enlightenment. The practice of calming thus clears a mental space for the acquisition of the ability to see the world in accordance with Buddhist doctrinal analysis of its final reality, while the practice of insight cultivates and deepens that perception with an incisiveness based upon the newly acquired capacity for concentration. The practice of calm abiding is thus roughly equivalent to "stabilizing meditation," while the practice of insight meditation is roughly equivalent to "analytical meditation."

Meditation on emptiness

While earlier forms of Buddhism stressed the ultimate object of contemplation as "no-self," namely the lack of any permanent identity in people or things, the Great Vehicle instead stressed the notion of universal "emptiness," which came to be a dominant motif in Tibet. In a sense, all forms of analytical and insight meditation have "emptiness" as their ultimate object. Meditation on emptiness is highly valued in Tibetan Buddhist traditions since a nonconceptual realization of emptiness is considered to be the antidote to the ignorance that is the root cause of suffering. In general, emptiness is said to be absence of inherent existence, and is equivalent to the selflessness of persons and selflessness of phenomena discussed above. It is a fundamental Buddhist tenet that suffering arises in dependence on the misapprehension of the true nature and identity of persons and phenomena, mistaking them for independent, permanent, autonomous entities rather than the concatenation of various factors, events, and conditions they truly are. In reality, these entities are empty of this mistaken imputed identity, and need to be recognized as such in order to attain liberation or enlightenment (byang chub; Skt., bodhi ).

There are many forms of emptiness meditation in the various Tibetan traditions. One such typical meditation associated with the "sūtra" stream of Tibetan Buddhism is the so-called "sevenfold reasoning" drawn from Candrakīrti's (c. 600–650) Guide to the Middle Way (dbu ma la 'jug pa; Skt., Madhyamakāvatāra ). The gist of the reasoning concerns itself with the analysis of a chariot and its parts, and recalls the famous dialogue between Nāgasena and Milinda in the Questions of King Milinda (milindapanha). The seven analyses are: (1) there is no chariot other than its parts; (2) there is no chariot that is the same as its parts; (3) there is no chariot that inherently possesses its parts; (4) there is no chariot that inherently depends on its parts; (5) there is no chariot upon which its parts inherently depend; (6) there is no chariot that is the mere collection of its parts; and (7) there is no chariot that is the shape of its parts. These same reasonings may be applied to the existence of the "self" (bdag; Skt., ātman ), whether it is of a person or a phenomenon (e.g., a chariot), and its relation to their aggregates (phung po; Skt., skandha ).

Although emptiness meditation often has this rational character such that it resembles deconstructive analysis rehearsed according to scripts, it is also possible to meditate on emptiness in a less formal, systematic way. For instance, practitioners might employ images, symbols, and language such as the eight similes of illusion to induce an intuitive understanding of the nature of emptiness. In such a loosely structured meditation, one might reflect on phenomena being like a dream, an optical illusion, a mirage, a reflection of the moon in water, an echo, a castle in the sky, or a phantom. Having thus established a sense of emptiness on the basis of what is essentially an aesthetic mood, one rests in that state for a time. Regardless of the technique employed, immersion in emptiness during the formal meditative session is usually contrasted to the practice of maintaining that awareness after the session as one reengages with the social world of appearances and activities. The relationship between these two phases of "meditative equanimity" (mnyam gzhag ) and "post-contemplative awareness" (rjes thob ), a duality that ultimately must be dissolved, is an important topic within emptiness yoga.

Meditation on compassion

Tibetan Buddhism also possesses many meditation practices specifically concerned with the cultivation of compassion for living beings in accordance with the Great Vehicle's primary contemplative and ideological motif of the integration of emptiness and compassion. If emptiness deconstructs the world, compassion is what pulls us back into engagement within its illusory appearances. One of the most famous forms of compassion meditation found in Tibetan Buddhism is the "giving and taking" meditation (gtong len ). This is done in conjunction with the meditator's breathing and in relation to all beings, including family members, friends, enemies, and strangers, all of whom are visualized seated around the meditator. As the meditator breathes out, the meditator imagines that all of his or her personal happiness, comfort, wealth, and resources transform into white light and go out to all the beings seated there. When the light strikes the beings that are visualized surrounding the meditator, he or she imagines that the light fulfills all their wishes, heals all illnesses, and bestows all happiness. With the inhalation of the breath, the meditator is directed to visualize all the suffering and causes for suffering present within the beings' mental continua being drawn back into the meditator in the form of black smoky light rays. These beams then merge with the meditator, who imagines that he or she has taken on all the sufferings and misery of all others. Most compassion contemplative techniques involve such guided reveries including scripted liturgy and visualizations.

Such meditation helps the meditator adopt an attitude that inverts the normal pattern of viewing oneself and one's own concerns as preeminent, and it instills the habit of seeing others as being more important. The significance of this in Buddhist terms is easy to discern. First, it inculcates in the practitioner compassion toward others, and slowly habituates one to sacrifice one's own interest in order to benefit others. Second, on the ultimate level, one is undermining and dismantling the structures of ego that are the underlying cause for all of one's suffering through exchanging one's own interests and happiness for those of others. In this way compassion both inculcates a realization of emptiness through dissolving boundaries, but also offers an essential complement to realization of emptiness by instilling a sense of the value of others, as illusory as their identity may ultimately be.

Stages of the Path and ordinary preliminaries

One of the most distinctive contributions to Buddhist meditation practice made by Tibetans is the category or genre of "Stages of the Path" (Lam rim). There have been countless practice-oriented texts written in this genre in all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. The precursor to most of these texts was a short work written by the Indian scholar Atīśa (982–1054) called The Lamp for the Path (byang chub gyi sgron ma (Skt., bodhipathapradīpa ). This text is noted for its reference to the three spiritual levels of beings, as well as the notion that a solid foundation in the sūtra practices is essential to the practice of Tantra. Inspired by this brief text, later Tibetan scholars and meditators composed their own elaborations on the themes introduced in it. Among the most famous of these texts is Tsongkhappa's (tsong kha pa, 1357–1419) Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path (lam rim chen mo), and Gampopa's (sgam po pa, 1079–1153) Jewel Ornament of Liberation (thar rgyan). The type of meditation practice described in texts of this genre is what is usually referred to as "mind training" or "mental development" (blo sbyong ).

Such meditation is, in a sense, intended to "reprogram" the practitioner, guiding him or her to new attitudes or views through the force of constant habituation. The core practices associated with this genre are sometimes referred to as "the four thoughts that turn the mind." These are thinking about the value of human rebirth, death and impermanence, the law of karma and cause and effect, and the disadvantages of living in cyclic existence. These four practices are designed to encourage the practitioner to recognize the unique opportunity for spiritual progress inherent in human existence, while realizing that the body is fragile and transient, and hence that the opportunity will not last forever. By recognizing that if one does not take advantage of this chance by engaging in virtuous actions one will be compelled to experience the resultant suffering, the practitioner is motivated to practice only dharma (virtue) henceforward. These practices comprise what are referred to as the four "ordinary preliminary practices" (sngon 'gro ), which are considered prerequisites to the higher practices associated with Tantra. They essentially use guided imagination and analysis to rehearse and habituate the basic worldview of exoteric Buddhism—life is impermanent, selves are not what they seem to be, ordinary life will not fulfill us, and the moral consequences of our actions shape all.

Tantra

Buddhist Tantra is marked throughout by a rhetorical focus on practice over intellectual studies. Its origins are defined by ritual practice, including complex ritual consecrations initiating one into ideal communities known as maṇḍalas and the self-transfiguration of the individual practitioner into a divine buddha. Subsequently, the rise of yoginī Tantras involved antinomian behavioral practices deconstructing social codes, as well as new contemplative practices focused on the body's interior with the goal of reproducing and transforming extreme experiences such as death and orgasm. A strong rhetorical tradition developed stressing the absolute centrality of personal contemplative experience, and there was a profusion of yogic techniques ranging over sleep, diet, death, sacrifice, and physical movements. This led to the phenomenon of large anthologies of integrated practices, such that many innovations lay as much in the packaging as in new techniques. The radicalization of Tantric practice led to tensions with exoteric forms of practice, such that their integration in overarching systems came to be a dominant theme of Tibetan Buddhist contemplation. The means of classification of the main Tantric contemplations are numerous and varied, but the most common includes two "phases": generation phase (bskyed rim ) and perfection phase (rdzogs rim ). Generation phase signifies deity yoga practices involving the visualization of one's self as a Buddhist deity, whereas perfection phase signifies both practices of radical nonconceptuality and somatic yogas involving the visualization, sensation, and manipulation of subtle currents of bodily energy.

Extraordinary preliminary practices

Most sects of Tibetan Buddhism embraced a packaged integration of exoteric and basic esoteric practices under the header of "preliminaries" (sngon 'gro ) to serve as an introduction to advanced Tantric contemplation. As discussed above, their "ordinary" forms rehearsed basic Buddhist doctrine, while their "extraordinary" practices introduced basic Tantric contemplation: going for refuge, generating the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, Vajrasattva purification, maṇḍala offerings, and Guru Yoga.

"Going for refuge" is done by reciting a short prayer while prostrating to a visualized "assembly tree" (tshogs shing ), a maṇḍala -like vertical array of one's lineage. The refuge prayers themselves often encode specifically Tantric versions of the three jewels of Buddhism—the Buddha, his community, and his teachings. "Generating the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment" (sems bskyed ) is the core Great Vehicle practice integrating compassion and emptiness, and here involves the recitation of a short prayer while visualizing the assembly tree. "Vajrasattva purification" is the visualization of the Buddha Adamantine Hero (Skt., Vajrasattva) above the crown of one's head, while reciting his hundred-syllable mantra revolving around his heart. The practitioner confesses downfalls, and visualizes that luminous ambrosia flows from Vajrasattva's heart to transform the practitioner's negativity into sustenance for suffering beings. "Maṇḍala offerings" is a practice of repeatedly creating small maṇḍalas using heaps of rice and three concentric discs placed on top of the other, and then offering these with visualized enhancements to the buddhas. "Guru Yoga" contemplation requires the visualization of one's guru as a divine buddha. Practitioners perform each 100,000 times, and thus rehearse the basic Tantric elements of visualization, mantra repetition, somatic sensations, constructions of maṇḍalas, the divinity and primacy of the guru, transformation, offerings, and the importance of divinities.

Generation phase practices: Deity yoga and maṇḍala meditation

The most famous, and often defining, Tantric practice is deity yoga (lha'i rnal 'byor ), the ritual evocation of oneself as a Buddhist deity. The practice is often described as involving three principal factors—vivid visualization, divine pride in identifying oneself with the deity, and "recollection of purity" (dag dran ) signifying the need to cognitively understand the symbolic import of each visualized element. The deities evoked are varied in character, and include buddhas, bodhisattvas, and others, male and female, different colors, different numbers of heads, arms, and legs, and different types of apparel or ritual objects. These practices can involve single deities or the visualization of symmetrically arrayed configurations of multiple deities known as maṇḍalas. Maṇḍalas are typically organized around a central deity or deity pair known as the primary ones(s), with whom a practitioner identifies in visualizing the maṇḍala. Visualized deities can be either serene in demeanor and appearance, or wrathful, in which case their visage is scowling, their appearance demonic, and their apparel and backdrop often drawn from a chaotic charnel ground.

These evocations are done according to handbooks termed "techniques for evocation" (grub thabs; Skt., sādhana ), which provide visual detail for visualization, the verbal formula or mantra for recitation, the symbolic gestures known as "seals" (phyag rgya; Skt., mudrā ) for performance with one's hands, and liturgy. Thus the eyes are trained to see the divinity in visual form as one's own body; the speech is conditioned to recite the sonic form of the divinity; and the hands form gestures embodying the deity and its activities. These practices can be done with variable locus for the visualization, namely, in front, as self, or in an object such as a ritual vase. Self-visualization is the primary form that has soteriological force, whereas visualization-in-front is for the purpose of making offerings and petitions, and visualization-in-an-object is utilized for various ritual purposes. It is thought that by imaginatively imitating all physical, verbal, and mental activities of a buddha, one creates powerful momentum for the rapid attainment of actual buddhahood. This process is termed "taking the result as the cause," and is one of the key distinguishing features of Tantra.

Retreats involve massive accumulations of mantra recitation by an individual practitioner. However, these practices of deity visualization, mantra repetition, and maṇḍala construction can also be done in communal practices as well. Deity yoga is closely related to "empowerment" rituals (dbang; Skt., abhiṣeka ), which ritually introduce a practitioner into the maṇḍala or community of a specific deity. These empowerment rituals are a necessary precursor to doing yoga for a given deity, while deity yoga practices often repeat empowerment ritual processes within their own contemplative structure.

Perfection phase practices: Somatic yogas and other techniques

Perfection phase practices involve three distinct bodies of practices. The most important category involves somatic yogas in which subtle bodies are contemplatively manipulated to recreate extreme experiences, especially sexual and death-related experiences. This is consonant with the late Tantric emphasis on liminal and intense experiences—sexuality, dying, violence, transgression, sleep—and the transformation of these potent experiences into yogic processes. Secondly, it includes practices of nonconceptuality, and thirdly, the perfection phase came to be a catch-all term to embrace a variety of practices, including physical exercises, dietary prescriptions, and other topics. These are typically transmitted in Tibet in anthologies, the most famous example being perhaps The Six Yogas of Nāropa. Visceral experience is strongly stressed, and is often summarized in terms of bliss (bde ba ), clarity and radiance (gsal ba ), and nonconceptuality (mi rtog ).

The most central is the "fierce woman" (gtum mo; Skt., Caṇḍali) practice based upon the "adamantine body", a subtle body of channels, winds, and nuclei forming an experiential configuration within the coarse physical body. The core sequence of contemplative events mimics sexual experience, but harnesses it for the sake of enlightenment. Three subtle channels run up the torso's center from the head to the genitals, branching out to pervade the body with "wheels" (cakra ) at the crown, throat, heart, navel, and genitals. One visualizes a triangle of solar fire at the navel that causes a white lunar haṃ syllable at the crown to drip. The resultant flow downwards of ambrosial nuclei causes experiences of increasing joy known as "four joys," clearly modeled upon male sexual arousal. The emphasis on bliss is integrated with the Mahayana focus on emptiness, such that the yoga rightly pursued involves a potent realization of emptiness enhanced by the intensity of experience engendered by the bliss. It is famous for its testing procedure, in which an initiate is expected to utilize contemplatively generated heat to dry wet clothes while sitting naked on a glacier at night. Such public displays could be utilized to mobilize human and financial capital in support of their own social and religious agendas.

This is closely linked to sexual yoga, which involves a similar process in partnership with a visualized or real consort. The white nuclei descends into the genitals, but then is reversed without ejaculation and raised upwards back through the torso. The lunar nuclei are then distributed through the body, and finally one's whole body is deconstructed into luminous emptiness. Practitioners thus use this exceptionally powerful state of blissful consciousness to realize emptiness, with the intensity of experience magnifying the consequences of this realization. In the context of discussing this practice as sexual, there are many additional particulars relating to male and female genitalia, positions, herbs, and the like.

The yoga of "radiant light"

('od gsal; Skt., prabhāsvara ) is based upon the human body and mind possessing an innate luminous buddha-nature occluded by karmic sedimentations and emotional distortions. The mind is interdependent with "winds," that is, the breath as well as other currents of energy flowing through the body on the model of a rider and horse. Subtle body praxis deconstructs conditioning and knots of emotional distortion, thereby enabling more subtle layers of consciousness and luminosity to emerge. The yogic technique of "vase breathing" confines the breath and internal winds in the area around the navel, thereby helping facilitate the dissolution of ordinary conceptuality by penning up its mounts. The goal is to bring all the winds into the body's central channel, where they become transformed into winds of primordial gnosis (ye shes; Skt., jñāna ). This is described as a phased dissolution of the psychophysical winds, thereby causing their associated cognitive activities to collapse, and rehearsing the process of dying. A practitioner experiences various flashes of light, the subjective correlate of more subtle levels of consciousness, that gradually proceed to an immersion in the radiant light at the heart. Phenomenologies of such experiences include the eight or ten "signs" (rtags ) and "four appearances" (snang ba bzhi ), which are described as resembling smoke, mirages, moonlight, and the like, and culminate in an experience of radiant light.

Sleep and dream yogas

are closely related to the esoteric meditations upon light, and exoteric contemplations on emptiness and illusion. Falling asleep involves the intertwined dissolution of winds, conceptuality, and consciousness similar to dying, and likewise culminating in an experience of radiant light and deep unconsciousness; dreaming involves the reversal of this process as manifestation, conceptuality, and experience revive out of the emptiness of radiant light. The goal is to preserve reflexive self-awareness throughout so as to bypass unconsciousness and instead fully experience the ultimate radiant light of consciousness. One visualizes an inner luminosity or syllable representing one's consciousness moving up and down the central axis of the body's interior, until finally with sleep it settles into a lotus flower at the heart. The practice facilitates lucid dreaming, namely the retention of a sense of awareness that one is dreaming even as one dreams. Such awareness—and the consequent sense of the malleability and fluidity of appearances—precisely parallels the Great Vehicle contemplation of emptiness and its focus on the illusory nature of appearances. Specific dreaming practices tend to be grouped into three principles—recognizing dreams as dreams, experimenting with the transformation of dream appearances, and enabling this awareness of recognized dreams to permeate daytime experience as well.

Magical devices

(phrul ʿkhor; Skt., yantra ) constitute a type of yogic practice focused on bodily postures and movements, and often named evocatively after animals, birds, types of people, ritual implements, and the like. Different traditions stress physical movement and static postures to different degrees, though usually they remain within a fairly small space of movement rather than involving broad movements across a large area. The magical-devices practices can also involve specific breathing practices and visualizations conjoined with bodily postures and movements, as well as exercises in the cultivation of awareness.

"Transference" of consciousness

(pho ba ) involves learning to shoot one's consciousness out of the body toward rebirth in a Pure Land. One visualizes one's consciousness as a luminous sphere or syllable moving up and down the central channel of one's subtle body in conjunction with respiration and the enunciation of the mantric syllables hrik and pheṭ. Often the Buddha Immeasurable Light ('Od dpag med [Öpakme]; Skt., Amitābha), who presides over the most popular Pure Land of choice, is visualized blocking off the top of one's skull. This practice is usually done during specialized retreats (often large lay gatherings) in which practitioners aim to create a small hole in their scalp where the consciousness is being targeted. In addition to enabling a practitioner to instinctively shoot his or her consciousness into a Pure Land in the case of accidental death, the same technique can be deployed in funerary ceremonies by the presiding lama to forcibly shoot the deceased person's consciousness out of the body into a Pure Land by force of his or her own visualization. The "intermediate process" (bar do ) is the famous Tibetan religious conception of life, death, and rebirth as a never-ending series of transitions, including a period of tumultuous visions experienced between death and rebirth. The actual practices, however, are generally practices derived from elsewhere rather than constituting an entirely new set of practices.

The "extraction of essences"

(bcud len ) involves alchemical techniques for contemplatively generating dietary nourishment without relying on ordinary sources, and engendering and deepening realization. One set of practices involves ingesting specially prepared juices, meats, stones, herbs, precious substances (mercury, gold, etc.), or excrement, which may also be accompanied by special yogic recitations, breathing, visualization, and postures. It is believed that such special pills can help a retreatant sustain himself or herself for months during solitary retreat in isolated wilderness, as well as engender long life, physical vitality, and facilitation of special contemplative experiences. Other such practices include "eating winds," where sustenance is ingested from space via breath, and utilizing visualization-enhanced inhalation, which imagines waves of blue space, or red and white nuclei, flowing into one's body.

Post-Tantra Practices and Beyond

One of the most distinctive attributes of Tibetan Buddhist contemplation was the evolution of independent traditions out of perfection-phase praxis that embraced a radical rhetoric of the transcendence of practice along with a proclivity for naturalism, spontaneity, and nonconceptuality rather than the esoteric motifs of transgression, sexuality, and power. Post-Tantra is not an indigenous label, but expresses their simultaneous grounding in Tantra and the rejection of many of its fundamental paradigms. The most famous are the Great Perfection (dzokchen, rdzogs chen ) in Nyingma (Rnying ma) and Bon lineages, and the Great Seal (chakchen, phyag chen; Skt., mahāmudrā ), found in the Kagyü, Sakya, and Geluk schools. Their texts decline to specify contemplative procedures such as breathing, posture, concentration, visualization, or guided reveries, and consist of philosophical and poetic meditations on the nature of enlightenment. Such rhetoric left many wondering as to whether they formed contemplative paths, or instead were merely descriptions of realization. They are often characterized by a rhetoric of supremacy beyond sūtra and Tantra, while at times they are self-characterized as belonging to sūtra or Tantra. However, these traditions can be viewed as symbiotic with other contemplative traditions both in terms of being deconstructions of preoccupation with technique, and a type of aesthetic gazing and poetics of contemplative experiences. The recitation and reading of such texts offered subtle guides to contextualize the various meditative experiences to which other practices had given rise. Thus they came to have a strong association with the somatic body yogas, including sexual forms, but focused on the experiences unfolding from those practices toward final enlightenment rather than their techniques per se.

Many such texts and lineages however did set forth contemplative techniques, even if such prescriptive passages were still accompanied by a transcendentalist rhetoric that negated all practice. These techniques tend to be recognizable variations of exoteric practices of calming, insight, and emptiness yogas, but they focus on cultivating deconstruction of such states of concentration to foster an open and free-flowing awareness without negating appearances, emotions, and thoughts. The techniques themselves are often distinctive in terms of modifications in line with the rhetoric of simplicity, spontaneity, naturalness, and innate divinity. In this context the Great Seal tradition discusses four yogas—the one pointed (rtse gcig ), the non-elaborate (spros bral), the single flavor (ro gcig ), and nonmeditation (sgom med). The emphasis throughout is on contemplation of the nature of one's mind, the realization of which is blocked by contemplations that are too bound up with the mind's discursive operations.

The Great Perfection also underwent a series of transformations in which a variety of late Tantric contemplative practices were explicitly assimilated in accordance with the traditional focus on simplicity, spontaneity, release, and naturalness. The most influential of these was the Seminal Heart (Snying thig [Nyingthik]), which created anthologies of Tantric and non-Tantric Buddhist contemplations. The most distinctive innovations were the two principal practices of "breakthrough" (khregs chod) and "direct transcendence" (thod rgal ). The former represents a cultivation of one's own naked self-awareness as directed by intensely poetic guided reveries, whereas the latter is a transmutation of perfection-phase techniques contemplating a spontaneous flow of light imagery. The flashes of light appear through staring at the light of the sun or moon or gazing within complete darkness, and then slowly increase in intensity, extent, and complexity of form to become vast arrays of maṇḍalas of buddhas.

These traditions are often grouped with other yogic traditions that share a tendency to blur the boundaries between sūtra and Tantra, embrace a rhetoric of transcendental superiority, and focus on nondual contemplative experiences. The Great Middle Way (Dbu ma chen po; [Uma chenpo]; Skt., Mahāmadhyamaka) appropriates the prestigious rubric of Mādhyamaka to disseminate traditional contemplative practices of calming, insight, and emptiness yoga in association with an emphasis on yoga rather than study, and luminous rather than austere conceptions of emptiness. The Path and the Fruit (Lam 'bras [Lamdré]), the supreme contemplative system of the Sakya school, involves tummo and sexual yoga with an innovative third practice named the "adamantine wave" (rdo rje rba labs ). Peace-making (zhi byed ) and "cutting" (gcod ) stem from the eleventh-century Indian Phadampa Sangyé (Pha dam pa sangs rgyas, d. 1117). Cutting involves going to a remote and frightening location, such as a charnel grounds at night, and visualizing that the Adamantine Yoginī (Rdo rje rnal 'byor ma; Vajrayoginī), one of the main esoteric goddesses, cuts one's body into small pieces for offering to surrounding demons and spirits. The motif of disintegration evokes the exoteric realization of emptiness, while the sacrificial gift of one's body to others blends that realization with radical compassion.

Communal Conclusions

There are at least two major communal contexts for specialized practice of Buddhist contemplation: the monastery or temple, and retreat centers in isolated networks of sacred sites. While it is impossible to classify practices in any strict fashion based upon these communal centers, it is clear that exoteric techniques and deity yoga/maṇḍala meditation thrived in the monastic institutions with their deep doctrinal content, highly structured character, and institutional messages. Likewise, esoteric techniques focused on body yogas and post-Tantra contemplative systems particularly thrived in yogic circles outside such institutions. This is not surprising, given their strong experiential focus, relative resistance to doctrinal conditioning, and commitment to internal, solitary realization and transgressive experiences. In addition, yogic circles tend to be critical of intellectual pursuits as interfering with contemplative practice, while monastic institutions on the whole stress their integration and in actuality tend to stress far more the intellectual, ritual, and social sides of religion rather than solitary contemplation. However, such lines were only tendencies, not sedimented differences. In both contexts, extended retreats—including durations of years—were common in all sectors of Tibetan religion, though by no means widely practiced as such even within monasteries. The rhetoric of the centrality of sustained contemplative practice is pervasive, and both historical and ethnographic evidence point to this being far more than simple rhetoric, even within ordinary lay members of society. Tibetan Buddhist hagiographies frequently portray in narrative form a strong tension between solitary contemplation and social responsibilities, with retreatants feeling pulled back, often against their will, toward the communal responsibilities of life in the monastery or village.

Bibliography

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Dudjom Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje (Dudjom Rinpoche). The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein. Boston, 1991. This encyclopedic work by a famous Tibetan author covers a vast range of Nyingma topics from the perspective of the twentieth century.

Germano, David F. "Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of rDzogs Chen." The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 17, no. 2 (1994): 203–335. This surveys the various forms of the Great Perfection with a special concern for their contemplative practices.

Guenther, Herbert V., trans. Jewel Ornament of Liberation. London, 1959. A translation of the classic Stages of the Path text by Gampopa, a disciple of Milarepa (Mi la ras pa).

Guenther, Herbert V., trans. The Life and Teachings of Nāropa. Oxford, 1963. This text and interpretation offers a systematic view of the Six Yogas of Nāropa, one of the most famous anthologies of perfection phase practice.

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. Clear Light of Bliss: Mahāmudrā in Vajrayāna Buddhism. London, 1982. This provides an exceptionally detailed description of the perfection phase practices from a Geluk point of view.

Hopkins, P. Jeffrey. Emptiness Yoga: The Tibetan Middle Way. Ithaca, N.Y., 1987. A clear description of emptiness meditation, especially as it is practiced in the monastic context.

Lopez, Donald, ed. Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton, 1997. This is a compilation of many translations with introductions of Tibetan texts dealing with meditation and ritual.

Patrul Rinpoche. Words of My Perfect Teacher. Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. Boston, 1998. This is a translation of one of the most famous examples of Tantric preliminaries (kun bzang bla ma'i zhal lung ); composed in the nineteenth century.

Rabten, Geshe, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Advice from a Spiritual Friend. Translated and edited by Brian Beresford. London, 1984. This is an excellent introduction to the practice of mind training (blo sbyong ), with translations of several short exemplary texts.

Sherburne, Richard, trans. A Lamp for the Path and Commentary of Atīśa. London, 1983. This is a translation of one of the most influential Indian prototypes for the Stages of the Path and in general for Tibetan compendia of exoteric contemplative practices.

Takpo Tashi Namgyal. Mahāmudrā: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation. Translated by Lhalungpa, Lobsang. Boston, 1986. This is a translation of an encyclopedic Kagyü survey of mahāmudrā.

Tsong kha pa, and Dalai Lama XIV (Tenzin Gyatso). Deity Yoga. Translated by P. Jeffrey Hopkins. Ithaca, N.Y., 1987. This is a partial translation of Tsong ka pa's important survey of Tantra, The Great Stages of Mantra (sngags rim chen mo ), with commentary by the Dalai Lama.

Willis, Janice D. The Diamond Light of the Eastern Dawn: A Collection of Tibetan Buddhist Meditations. New York, 1972. This is a compilation of translations of various Buddhist meditational manuals with a focus on esoteric rites of evocation.

Wilson, Joe B. Candrakīrti's Sevenfold Reasoning: Meditation on the Selflessness of Persons. Dharmsala, India, 1980. This is a presentation of classical emptiness meditation based on analytical reasoning.

Zahler, Leah, trans. and ed. Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism. Rev. ed. Boston, 1997. This offers a clear survey of the traditional processes and states discussed in the context of "calming" and "insight" contemplative techniques.

David Germano (2005)

Gregory A. Hillis (2005)