Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

Level 1
“Mindfulness sees with certainty that all things are like an illusion.”
- Saraha, The King’s Song
See the Empty Nature of Appearances
After years of sexual yoga practice, through sympathetic vibration you activate the potency in
your genitals for higher levels of realization. By reflecting upon and holding confidence in the
empty nature of appearances as you maintain the view of Mahāmudrā, you directly perceive
emptiness. You discover, Saraha says, that “Emptiness is inseparable from appearance.” As a
result, your thoughts and emotions are naturally pacified. At the first level, Mindfulness (Smṛiti),
you pacify your mind while maintaining the view of Mahāmudrā. You quiet your mind chatter
through meditation, while regarding all appearances as illusory. In this way, you stabilize and
deepen your recognition of your mind’s own true nature as beyond thoughts. Avoiding agitation
and drowsiness, you cut through your obscuring thoughts and emotions on subtle levels. The
practice of this level is called the Samādhi of Illusion-Like Appearances (Śūnyatā Samādhi)
because you perceive all appearances as empty and illusory.
Level Two
“The mind itself is not affected by the faults arising from saṃsāra,
nor by the excellent qualities found in the Buddha.”
- Saraha, The King’s Song
See Appearances as Mind
Deepening the power of your sexual yoga practice with your consort over time, you initiate a
second level of enlightened potency within your genitals. Once you can perceive directly all
appearances as empty, the next step is to see them all as mind. In the second level, Beyond
Mindfulness (Vismaraṇa), you question the nature of your own mind. You begin with Mind Only
insight meditation: through deep analytical questioning, you ask yourself, “What is the
relationship between your mind and body? Do they exist as separate from each other? Does your
mind inhabit the body, is it enclosed by it? Is the body simply another mental projection of the
mind?” You determine with certainty that your body is a mental projection. Then in a state of
deep meditative tranquility, you spontaneously and directly perceive your body as a projection of
your mind. The second level of meditation is called the Samādhi of the Lion’s Play (Siṃha Līla
Samādhi) because its power dispels emotional and mental obscurations, you perceive their
inherent nature as mind, and your obscurations disappear because you see they never really
existed in the first place. They are conquered by seeing their true nature as projections of your
own mind. Once you perceive your obscurations as projections, you effortlessly perceive all
appearances in the same way.
340