Some maintain the engendering of the will to enlightenment to bе а Mantra meditation. This is а mistake about Mantra [practice].
Listen while I explain this, also. There are three types of Action Тantra: it is taught that some - the Amoghapasa and others - may bе practiced bу anyone who is аbе to observe fasting retreats and the like, even though he may have neither obtained initiation nor conceived the will to enlightenment.
The Trisamayavyuharaja and the like may bе practiced [only] after the implemental will to enlightenment has been conceived, in order to accomplish certain feats, if one knows the rite.
From the Susiddhikara [tantra] onward, however, unless the respective initiation has been obtained, all Mantra practice is forbidden,
even if the will to enlightenment has been conceived. Refer to the lengthy warnings in the Susiddhikara [tantra] that one who knows the rites should not impart mantras to the uninitiated.
ln the remaining three classes of tantra, no meditation on а chosen deity based solely on the conception of the will to enlightenment
is taught, but only those that are based on the attainment of initiation.
Some engage in Mantra practices presendy, promising to obtain initiation later. This, too, is not the Doctrine of the Buddha. If he should explain the precepts to one who has not been initiated, а master incurs an infraction and his pupil is disqualified before he can obtain initiation.
"Even if initiation has not been performed," some say, "an enthusiastic interest in mantras is itself а gateway to the Doctrine, and so
one who has this quality can practice Mantra meditations."
ln that case, since enthusiasm for renunciation alone may bе а gateway to ordination, would it bе all right to observe vows
even though they have not bееn obtained?
And as enthusiasm for the will to enlightenment itself may bе а gateway to the bodhisattva's career, what need is there to acquire the vows of that resolve in а rite of conception?
Similarly, enthusiasm for the harvest may bе the gateway to feasting even tbough no tilling has been done, so why exert onesalf in agriculture? All such kinds of religious teachings are to bе countered with these sorts of argumentation.
Therefore this term "gateway to the Doctrine" has become а cause for error.
Fools practice benighted meditations, saying: "Initiation is just а gateway to the Teaching, but there is another factor leading to enlightenment that may bе cultivated besides it."
ln that case, the vows of full monkhood, too, are the gateway to being а full monk. But is there any intrinsic quality of full monks' vows to bе sought elsewhere?
Similarly, tilling is the gateway through which harvests appear; is there any other technique for growing crops to Ье sought elsewhere?
Му own earnest advice, therefore, is this: lnitiation is not merely а gateway to the Doctrine. Because the Mantra system uses interrelativity as its path, its instructions concern bringing the correlates into order.
"lnitiation" is а name given to а technique for becoming enlightened in this very lifetime after the seeds of Buddhahood have bееn planted within the aggregates of personality, the sense-fields, and the sense-bases. Therefore, it is taught that а person of superior faculties may bе liberated through initiation alone.
Others, whom initiation cannot liberate, need cultivation through meditation. Thus "cultivation in meditation" is а name for the safeguarding and increase of that which was obtained in initiation.
Therefore, in the system of the Perfections of the Great Vehicle, there is no spiritual factor but that of the will to enlightenment. For one who has entered the gateway to the Vajra Vehicle, there is no spiritual factor but initiation.
Thus this is the reason that the Sage, in tantras, extols initiation alone, and that the wise revere initiation in every way.