Abstraction from “Wheel of the Nine Vehicles“
Sravakas (the hearers)
- View of the hearers is based on realizing one’s selflessness but not that of external phenomena.
- Meditation is informed by practices that render tranquil, to the point of cessation, the objects of the six sense bases.
- Conduct of Monastics is the observance of 250 vows and of laypersons to cultivate the ten virtues for their own spiritual advantage.
- Result of this Foundational Vehicle is the attainment of the exalted state of an arhat, or foe destroyer.
Pratyekabuddhas (solitary realizers)
- View is based on having discerned the difference between absolute and relative truths, having attained emancipation without guidance from a spiritual teacher. To conceive relative truth as an illusory display of the twelve links of interdependent origination and come to realize, like the hearers, the ultimate truth of individual selflessness.
- Meditation is on the emptiness of the twelve links in reverse order.
- Conduct is, for the most part, self-serving, with occasional miraculous displays that benefit others. If the solitary realizers decide to teach, they do so by means of their bodies, not by words, and they adopt nonverbal means of communication to give instruction.
- Result is they become solitary sages, a similar state to that of the sravakas.
Bodhisattvas
- View, individuals and phenomena are empty, devoid of an inherent self.
- Meditation is on cultivating the union of tranquillity (Skt. samatha) and insight (Skt. vipasyana) toward freedom from the obscuring layers of ignorance and yielding a nonconceptual state of concentration.
- Conduct, refrain from committing the ten nonvirtues, while actively engaging in ten kinds of virtue for the benefit of others.
- Result is progression through the ten stages of spiritual development (Skt. bhumi) and attaining complete illumination in the union of the two kayas, the dharmakaya and the rupakaya.
The Bodhisattva Vehicle-also known as the vehicle of perfections (Skt. paramitayana) — takes its name from its cause. The result of the vehicle of perfections is not different from Vajrayana since both fulfill the aims of Mahayana. The view of those engaged in the cultivation of the six perfections is to realize that the whole of the total affliction that is samsara, in both cause and result, and of the complete purity that is nirvana, in both cause and result, is completely devoid of inherent or true existence on the ultimate level. The meaning of Vajrayana is the indestructible vehicle that takes the mind of the buddhas as the path.
Kriya Tantra Vehicle
- Meditation consists of viewing oneself as the samaya being, or commitment being (Skt. samayasattva), while visualizing the deity in front of oneself as the wisdom being (Skt. jnanasattva).
- Conduct entails making offerings to the deity and thereby fulfilling the benefit of self and others by observing the five root and two subsidiary principles laid out in the treatises of this tradition.
- Result, one will attain in sixteen, or even seven, lifetimes the state of Vajradhara of the three families.
Carya Tantra Vehicle
- Meditation consists in familiarizing oneself with the four actualities of deity yoga rehearsal —namely, the actuality of oneself as the samaya being, the deity as the wisdom being, the seed syllable at the heart center of both the samaya and wisdom beings, and verbal recitation while discharging and absorbing light rays that issue from oneself and the wisdom being.
- Conduct, one trains to abide in both the physical and verbal conduct according to the Kriya Tantra while adopting the view of the Yoga Tantra Vehicle.
- Result leads to the state of Vajradhara of the four families in seven or five lifetimes.
The first two outer vehicles, Kriya and Carya, are also grouped under the path of purification, since their function is to purify latent defilements and habitual false views.
Yoga Tantra Vehicle
- View of this vehicle has two aspects. According to Vimalamitra, the ultimate aspect is to realize the sphere of reality, “naturally pure wisdom,” while the relative aspect is “the result of realizing this ultimate; namely, the assembly of deities of the five families, or of the vajra family.”
- Meditation consists of visualizing the deity through images and entering the sphere of reality that transcends images. During the practice of deity yoga, the appearance of oneself as the samaya being and the deity as the wisdom being involve the dissolution of the latter into the former.
- Conduct, one follows the esoteric scriptures of this tradition and abides by the vows of the five buddha families and the consecration of the five aggregates by the five buddha families.
- Result, one attains the state of Vajradhara in five or three lifetimes.
The perspective of the inner tantras, absolute and relative truths are inseparable and all phenomena are deemed equal from this perspective.
The Tantra of the Heart Mirror of Vajrasattva declares:
The development of mahayoga is like the ground of all doctrines.
The completion of anuyoga is like the path of all doctrines.
The great perfection of atiyoga is like the fruition of all doctrines.
Mahayoga
- View is to realize reality as-it is and see all phenomena subsumed under samsara and nirvana as inseparable from ones own enlightened awareness. “All this appearance is consciousness alone, devoid of inherent self-nature: naturally present, pristine awareness, manifesting with no fixed abode.”
- Meditation, one perceives all appearances as the mandala of the deity, and, during the completion-stage practices, one rests in the state of reality itself— empty and luminous, devoid of elaborations, and beyond conceptualization.
- Conduct, one observes three sets of root commitments and twenty-five subsidiary ones and abides in a state free from views and moral judgments.
- Result, one attains realization of the five kayas in one lifetime or in the intermediate state, the bardo (Skt. antarabhava).
Anuyoga
- View is to recognize that all dualistic phenomena in samsara and nirvana are no different than the dynamic energy of the nature of mind— the sphere of the dharmakaya-supreme in all aspects and beyond all contrivance.
- Meditation includes the spontaneous generation of the deity while engaging with the vital channels (Skt. nadi), energy winds (Skt. prana), and seminal drops (Skt. bindu), which have always been part of the mandala of the deity.
- Conduct of this approach accords with the precepts of Mahäyoga.
- Result is attained in one lifetime.
Atiyoga/Dzogchen
- View is to realize that all phenomena arise spontaneously and are pure in their own ineffable emptiness; that is, to see the nonself of both persons and phenomena without needing to grasp a reference point.
- Meditation comprises trekchö and tögel. Trekchö practice aims to overcome the solidity of phenomena and to recognize their primordial purity (kadag), whereas tögel is a method for going beyond pure and impure appearances by means of wisdom’s spontaneous presence (lundrup).
- Conduct is to abide in a spontaneous state without acceptance or rejection, liberated from ensnaring actions and moral vexation.
- Result of the Great Perfection is something that can neither be avoided nor attained. It abides primordially, without birth or cessation.