The Tantra of Generation Stage
The following chapters present the instructions on the practices of Heruka and Vajrayogini, which are the very essence of Highest Yoga Tantra. The practice of Highest Yoga Tantra can be divided into two stages: generation stage and completion stage. In generation stage, through the power of correct imagination arising from wisdom, Tantric practitioners generate themselves as Tantric enlightened Deities such as Heruka, and their environment, body, enjoyments and activities as those of Heruka. This imagined new world of Heruka is their object of meditation and they meditate on this new generation with single-pointed concentration. Through continually training in this meditation, Heruka practitioners will gain deep realizations of themselves as Heruka, and their environment, body, enjoyments and activities as those of Heruka. This inner realization is generation stage Tantra.
Generation stage Tantra is defined as an inner realization of a creative yoga that is attained through training in divine pride and clear appearance of being an enlightened Deity. It is called a ‘creative yoga’ because the object of meditation is created by imagination and wisdom. The main function of generation stage Tantra is to purify ordinary death, intermediate state and rebirth, and to accomplish a Buddha’s Truth Body, Enjoyment Body and Emanation Body. It is the quick method to ripen our Buddha nature.
Heruka is an enlightened Deity of Highest Yoga Tantra who is the manifestation of the compassion of all Buddhas. In generation stage Heruka practice, practitioners emphasize training in divine pride and clear appearance of being Heruka. Before training in divine pride, practitioners need to learn to perceive their body and mind as Heruka’s body and mind. Having accomplished this, they then use their imagined Heruka’s body and mind as the basis of imputation for their ‘I’ or ‘self’ and develop the thought ‘I am Buddha Heruka.’ They then meditate on this divine pride with single-pointed concentration. Through training in this meditation they will gain a deep realization of divine pride, which spontaneously believes that they are Heruka. at this time they have changed the basis of imputation for their I.
From beginningless time, in life after life, the basis of imputation for our self or I has been only a contaminated body and mind. Because our self or I is imputed upon a contaminated body and mind, whenever we develop the thought ‘I’ we simultaneously develop self-grasping ignorance, a mind grasping at an inherently existent ‘I’ and ‘mine’, which is the root of all our suffering. However, for qualified Heruka practitioners, their deep realization of divine pride prevents self-grasping ignorance from arising so there is no basis for their experiencing suffering; they will enjoy their pure environment, enjoyments, body and mind of Heruka.
We may ask how, if these practitioners are not yet actually Buddha Heruka, they can believe that they are; and how it is possible for them to gain the realization of divine pride if their view that believes themselves to be Heruka is a mistaken view? although these practitioners are not actually Buddha Heruka, nevertheless they can believe that they are because they have changed their basis of imputation from their contaminated aggregates to the uncontaminated aggregates of Heruka. Their view that believes they are Buddha Heruka is not a mistaken view because it is non-deceptive and arises from the wisdom realizing that the inherently existent ‘I’ and ‘mine’ do not exist. Their realization of divine pride that spontaneously believes themselves to be Heruka therefore has the power to prevent self-grasping ignorance, the root of samsara, from arising.
As explained earlier, things do not exist from their own side. There are no inherently existent ‘I’, ‘mine’ and other phenomena; all phenomena exist as mere imputations. Things are imputed upon their basis of imputation by thought. What does ‘basis of imputation’ mean? For example, the parts of a car are the basis of imputation for the car. The parts of a car are not the car, but there is no car other than its parts. Car is imputed upon its parts by thought. How? Through perceiving any of the parts of the car we naturally develop the thought ‘This is the car’. Similarly, our body and mind are not our self but are the basis of imputation for our self. Our self is imputed upon our body or mind by thought. Through perceiving our body or mind we naturally develop the thought ‘I’ or ‘mine’. Without a basis of imputation things cannot exist; everything depends upon its basis of imputation.
Why is it necessary to change the basis of imputation for our self? as mentioned above, since beginningless time, in life after life until now, the basis of imputation for our self has only been the contaminated aggregates of body and mind. Because the basis of imputation for our self is contaminated by the poison of self-grasping ignorance, we experience the endless cycle of suffering. To free ourself from suffering permanently we therefore need to change our basis of imputation from contaminated aggregates to uncontaminated aggregates.
How can we change our basis of imputation? In general, we have changed our basis of imputation countless times. In our previous lives we took countless rebirths, and each time the basis of imputation for our self was different. When we took a human rebirth our basis of imputation was a human body and mind, and when we took an animal rebirth our basis of imputation was an animal’s body and mind. Even in this life, when we were a baby our basis of imputation was a baby’s body and mind, when we were a teenager our basis of imputation was a teenager’s body and mind, and when we grow old our basis of imputation will be an old person’s body and mind. all these countless bases of imputation are contaminated aggregates. We have never changed our basis of imputation from contaminated to uncontaminated aggregates. Only through relying upon Buddha’s Tantric teachings can we accomplish this.
We change our basis of imputation from contaminated to uncontaminated aggregates by training in clear appearance and divine pride of being Heruka. as Buddha explained in his Tantric teachings, first we learn to purify our body and mind by meditating on the emptiness of the body, mind and all other phenomena. Perceiving only emptiness, we then generate ourself as an enlightened Deity such as Heruka. We then learn to perceive clearly our body and mind as Heruka’s body and mind, our world as Heruka’s Pure Land, and all those around us as enlightened Heroes and Heroines. This is called ‘training in clear appearance’. Perceiving our body and mind as the uncontaminated aggregates of Heruka’s body and mind, we develop the thought ‘I am Buddha Heruka’. We then meditate on this divine pride continually with single-pointed concentration, until we gain a deep realization of divine pride that spontaneously believes we are Buddha Heruka. at this time we have changed our basis of imputation from contaminated to uncontaminated aggregates.
If we are normally called John, for example, we should never believe that John is Buddha Heruka, but feel that John disappeared into emptiness before we generated as Buddha Heruka. We then believe that our I, which is imputed upon Heruka’s body and mind, is Buddha Heruka. This belief is not a mistaken view, because it arises from wisdom, whereas mistaken views necessarily arise from ignorance. The realization of divine pride arises from wisdom and is a powerful method for accumulating great merit and wisdom.
Even if we have the realization that spontaneously believes that we are Buddha Heruka we should never indicate or declare this to others, as such behaviour is inappropriate in normal society. People will still see us as John and not Heruka, and we also know that John is not Heruka. The realizations of divine pride and clear appearance are inner experiences that have the power to control our delusions, and from which pure actions will naturally develop. There is therefore no basis for us to show inappropriate behaviour; we must continue to engage in our daily activities and communicate with others as normal.
As mentioned before, Tantric realizations can be achieved simply through relying upon correct belief and imagination. This practice is very simple: all we need to do is to become deeply familiar with meditation on correct belief and imagination as presented in Tantra, by applying continual effort. Understanding this we should be confident in our ability to accomplish generation stage realizations of Highest Yoga Tantra. also, because our world and our self that we normally see do not exist, we have the precious opportunity to generate our new world and our self that are completely pure; this is generation stage. If our world and our self that we normally see existed it would be impossible to generate our world and our self as completely pure. When the strong perception of our world and our self that we normally see ceases through training in generation stage, we shall naturally experience our world and our self as completely pure. It is most important that our motivation for training in generation stage is the com-passionate mind of bodhichitta.