PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

338Pacific WorldIn advanced tantric practices, one visualizes oneself as already being atantric deity, fully enlightened with all attendant buddha-qualities. InDzogchen, inherent perfection or buddhahood is considered one’s primordialcondition from the very beginning. Again, this common theme takeseither a symbolic or non-symbolic form depending on the path: in tantrathe identification is accomplished through symbolic visualization whileDzogchen bypasses symbols altogether (one’s current predicament is thema√∂ala). Put another way, both tantra and Dzogchen are means of“tuning in” to the here and now, one through symbols and one nonsymbolicallythrough the experience of immediate presence. This nonsymbolicapproach is directly correlated by Nyingmapas with Dzogchen’sultimate superiority as a path, since from the Nyingma perspective anytype of condition imposed on experience is necessarily an obscuration ofone’s true, primordial nature. 75Dzogchen View: Ultimate and Conventional RealityReality, according to the Indo-Tibetan Mahåyåna Buddhist tradition,may be understood from two different perspectives: “ultimate”(paramårthasatya) or “conventional” (saµv®tisatya). Conventional realityis usually identified with the ordinary cognition of things as “inherentlyexisting.” Ultimate Reality, on the other hand, refers to emptiness (Ω¥nyatå):the absence of inherent existence in any “thing” and therefore the ultimateillusoriness of “reality” at the conventional level. 76 In the Tibetan context,however, the meaning of ultimate Reality is more complex. Tibetan Buddhismis essentially tantric. And though an apophatic understanding ofemptiness (associated with Pråsaçgika Mådhyamaka) represents the officialposition on ultimate Reality held by many Tibetan Buddhists (especiallyGelugpas), the pervasively tantric character of Tibetan Buddhistpractice lends itself to a more cataphatic approach. From the tantricperspective, emptiness is “a radiant presence full of vivid imagery” thatconstitutes “the source of [the] … primordial energy that brings all possibleforms, even the universe itself, into manifestation.” 77Tibetan Buddhism is also influenced by other, more cataphatic formsof Indian Mahåyåna Buddhism, such as Yogåcåra and the concept oftathågatagarbha—the innately pure and luminous Buddha-nature residingwithin all sentient beings. Yogåcåra has been particularly important forthe Nyingma school. According to Samuel, Nyingmapas have historicallytended to emphasize “Yogåcåra [i.e., positive] conceptualizations of thepath” rather than the Pråsaçgika Madhyamaka approach of strict negation.78 The result is that Tibetan, and particularly Nyingma, presentationsof ultimate Reality often sound much more positive than the term “emptiness”suggests.