the four empties and four joys

Generally:

• Four Empties: (See: The eight dissolutions)
  1. Empty སྟོང་པ། (Together with the mind of Appearance)
  2. Very empty ཤིན་ཏུ་སྟོང་པ། (Together with the mind of Increase)
  3. Great empty སྟོང་པ་ཆེན་པོ། (Together with the mind of Near-Attainment)
  4. All empty ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ། (Together with the mind of Clear Light)
• Four Joys:
  1. Joy དགའ་བ།
  2. Supreme joy མཆོག་དགའ།
  3. Special joy ཁྱད་དགའ།
  4. Innate joy ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི་དགའ་བ།

Descending and Ascending Joys:

• The four descending joys are produced as bodhicitta descends from the crown to the secret place
• When the bodhicitta then ascends back up from the secret place to the crown, the four ascending joys are produced. These are all Innate Joys and superior to the descending joys.
• The four joys can also be generated through the white bodhicitta descending to the heart and the red bodhicitta ascending to the heart (as in the death process), leading some to say that they are the same as the four empties.

Ngawang Pelden posits them to not be the same due:

• Different causes:
  • Empties: arise due to the dissolution of winds in the central channel etc.
  • Joys: arise due to the movement of bodhicitta
• Also:
  • Empties are an appearance to the mind
  • Joys are experienced by the mind

During final mind isolation:

• All empty is subsumed into the exalted wisdom of Near-Attainment, dividing it into three:
  1. The vacuous black appearance: included in great empty
  2. Unconsciousness: included in great empty
  3. Clear light: all empty
• This is done in order to clarify that the Clear Light included within the stage of Mind Isolation is the Example Clear Light and not the actual or Final Clear Light.

Up a level: Mind isolation