Yoga Tantra

Yoga tantra (Skt. Yogatantra; Wyl. rnal 'byor gyi rgyud kyi theg pa) — the third of the three outer classes of tantra and the sixth yana according to the nine yana classification. The vehicle of yoga tantra is so-called because it emphasizes the inner yogic meditation upon reality, combining skilful means and wisdom.

Entry Point

Having been matured through the eleven empowerments—the five empowerments of the disciples (water, crown, vajra, bell and name) as well as the six empowerments of the master (the empowerment of irreversibility, empowerment of seeing secret reality, authorization, prophecy, confirmation and praising encouragement)—one keeps the samayas as described in the particular texts.

View

The view is to regard all phenomena as the deity of the vajradhatu, through the blessing of the emptiness and clear light in which all phenomena are realized to be beyond conceptual elaboration on an ultimate level.

Meditation

One meditates on the yoga of skilful means, visualizing oneself as the deity by means of the five aspects of awakening and the four miraculous things, and summons the wisdom being (Skt. jñānasattva), who then dissolves into oneself, and is sealed by means of the four mudras, and so on. There is also the yoga of wisdom, in which one rests in a state in which ultimate non-conceptual wisdom is inseparable from the relative appearance of the deity of the vajradhatu.

Conduct

One practises ritual purification and cleanliness simply as a support.

Results

As a worldly attainment, one becomes a celestial vidyadhara, and as the supermundane accomplishment, one attains enlightenment in Ghanavyuha, as one of the five buddha families (in addition to the four families previously mentioned, there is also Amoghasiddhi’s buddha family of enlightened activity).