Post #1360

“How, then, are the two vehicles differentiated? Some say that the difference between Sūtra and Mantra is that Mantra was taught for those who can use desire as an aid in the path whereas the Perfection Vehicle was taught in order to tame beings within the context of separation from desire. This opinion is wrong because both the Perfection Vehicle and the Mantra Vehicle have modes of advancing on the path without having abandoned desire and both have modes of progress by cultivating paths to abandon desire. For, in Sūtra it is said that just as the filth of a city is helpful to the field of a sugarcane grower who knows how to utilize a substance which itself is not helpful, so the afflictions can be useful in the path. If one knows how to use the afflictions for the welfare of others, they can serve as aids in amassing the accumulations of merit, and in this sense desire is not one-pointedly to be avoided although, from the viewpoint of the entities of the afflictions, they are indeed to be abandoned. Sūtra Bodhisattvas who have not yet thoroughly abandoned the afflictions of desire and hatred can use them for the benefit of others, as in the case of Bodhisattva kings who have fathered many children in order to further the welfare of the country through the work of their children. Here the afflictions act as secondary causes in the aiding of others. Just as within Sūtra practice there are occasions when Bodhisattvas intentionally do not abandon afflictions but use them as aids, so in Mantra practice, according to the time and the situation, Bodhisattvas use the afflictions. However, on the occasions when there is no purpose for desire or hatred, a Mantra practitioner must intentionally seek to abandon them. If in order to be a practitioner of Mantra one necessarily had to have not abandoned desire and hatred, there would be no opportunity to become a Buddha through the Mantra path.” Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama