Disclosing the Empty Secret: Textuality and Embodiment in the Cakrasamvara Tantra Author(s): David B.

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DISCLOSING THE EMPTY SECRET: TEXTUALITY AND EMBODIMENT IN THE CAKRASAMVARA TANTRA
David B. Gray

Summary This article seeks to shed light on this genre of textuality. their the textuality of literature. Esoteric of Buddhist tantras and the

esotericism opment ticated which

that characterizes models

It first examines

the devel

of Buddhist textual

theory

that linked

they claimed

their practices Tantra

a sophis developed to the gnosis of the Buddhas, scriptures could achieve most efficaciously. But the rela Buddhists

tion between

text and practice

tators on Cakrasamvara of the "secret," concealed, others of to be which

an empty and an undisclosable The as

one. Indian Buddhists commen is a problematical this problem sought to resolve through the trope traditions that are signifier that points both to practice gnosis closes to which with some of practices lead, and inter article a survey the changing

presuppose. the "secret"

pretations importance

the tradition

itself changed,

highlighting

the central

of sexuality

in the history

of this tradition.

Introduction The Buddhist Tantras, a genre of literature very significant in the religions, have received little serious study until

history of Asian these texts, unlike earlier Buddhist recently. This is largely because sastras or commen such as the s?tras and philosophical genres taries, are highly resistant to interpretation, and thus present a seri

ous hermeneutic challenge to the interested scholar, due their deliberate and often playful obscurantism, undertaken in the name of secrecy.

Yet

they play a very important role in the history of Buddhism, and represent an alternate mode of textuality, one which we are only now beginning to learn how to read. In this paper I will argue that it is essential that we come to terms with this material, in order to

Koninklijke Also available

Brill NV, Leiden (2005) online - www.brill.nl

NUMEN,

Vol.

52

418

David

B. Gray is truly an important and usually and Indian religions. I will review the development the textuality of the

deepen our understanding of what underestimated trend in Buddhism In the first portion of this paper, of Indian Buddhist textual models, Tantras in Buddhist embodiment tion to the dh?rani, textual Buddha's gnosis. In the second

rooting theories, and particularly in rela remnants of the occulted "relics,"

section, I will focus on the trope of how its paradox of occultation and disclosure in secrecy, showing a specific Tantric Buddhist tradition ? that of the Cakrasamvara Tantra ? forms a dialectic in which text and practice are fruitfully united. This implies a performative model in which the act of read a spiritual exercise to shift the reader's ing becomes designed frame of reference, ultimately resulting in an expanded sense of

embodiment. model

Lastly, I will reflect upon the significance of this for the study of the history of Buddhism, as well as the comparative study of mysticism. in Indian Buddhism

Textuality and Embodiment

Buddha's

From early on Buddhist conceptualizations about their texts were to speculation concerning the multiple levels of a closely related embodiment. the two bodies the concept of Initially, Buddhists developed of a Buddha, his physical "form body" (r?pak?ya) of Dharma" (dharmak?ya), which consisted of the

and his "body records of his teachings or collection of his enlightened qualities.1 While the former was, at his death, cremated and reduced to the relics which were enshrined throughout the Buddhist world, the latter lives on, so to speak, in the teachings of Buddhism. in the third century bce, the worship By the time of Asoka of

the relics, enshrined in st?pas, was a major aspect of Buddhist cult to be endowed with practice.2 Relics of the Buddha were believed

See

Paul Williams,

Mah?y?na

Buddhism,

London:

Routledge

1989,

171 for a

views on this subject. summary of early pre-Mah?y?na 2 On the Buddhist cult of relics see John Strong, Relics

of the Buddha

(Princeton:

Disclosing

the Empty Secret

419

life, and even infused with all of the good qualities of the living an ambiguous Buddha.3 Mah?y?na Buddhism perspec developed tive regarding what might be called the "relic cult," which some Mah?y?na has called scriptures sought to supplant with what Gregory Schopen a "cult of the book."4 The Astas?hasrik? Prajn?p?

Buddhist ramit?, a Mah?y?na scripture, derives the sacrality of relics from the ultimate locus of sacrality, the Buddha's awakening or gnosis of reality which the text terms theTranscendence of Wisdom, as follows: prajn?p?ramit?,
Kausika, filled should it happen that you, on the one hand, were given the world to the brim with relics of the Tath?gatas, to be or, on the other, were then selecting one of the two presented with the text of the Prajn?p?ramit?, would said: of you take? I would as the embrace illuminating 'The Lord Monks, see me the Prajn?p?ramit?. guide of Why? This and Shakra is because because Why Dharma ical] ". . . Lord, its fame

which

the Tath?gatas,

it truly is, in a real is that? As as the Lord their bodies is my as

sense, stated:

the body/relic

of the Tath?gatas. (sarlrd) are those who Buddhas have do not through think that this [phys the full realization of body is that which

(dharmak?y?h). will see One should

body

true body. You

the body manifests case,

of Dharma.'

that the Tath?gata's

the limit of reality,

Lord,

the Tath?gata's Prajn?p?ramit?.

that the Tath?gata's are worshipped relics "5

the Prajn?p?ramit?. It is not the namely, . . . Rather, relics are not esteemed by me. insofar as they originate in the

Princeton Honolulu: 3 See in Early 126. 4 See

UP

2004)

and also Gregory of Hawaii "Burial Ad Press Sanctos

Schopen, 1997. and

Bones,

Stones,

and Buddhist

Monks,

University Schopen's

the Physical Bones,

Presence

of

the Buddha

Indian Buddhism,"

reprinted

in Schopen,

Stones,

and Buddhist Monks, bhavef Journal in

Gregory

the Vajracchedik?: 5

17 (1975) 147-81.
My translation

"The Phrase 'sa prthv?pradesas Schopen, Notes on the Cult of the Book in Mah?y?na," from PL. Astas?hasrik? (Buddhist

caityabh?to Indo-Iranian

Vaidya's Aloka

Haribhadra's

Commentary

Called

Sanskrit

Prajn?p?ramit?, no. Texts

With 4), Dar

The Perfection Institute, 1960, 48; cf. Edward Conze, bhanga: Mithila in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Commentary, 1973; repr. Delhi: Publ. 1994, 116.

of Wisdom Sri Satguru

420
The which

David

B. Gray of wisdom," the text that

text here plays upon the term "transcendence designates both the Buddha's gnosis and also

the gnosis of the Buddha, notion, that the text embodies to occupy a central position in the textual theory of Tantric Buddhism. came

it. This gnosis is the true "body" of the supposedly manifests and it persists in its embodiment in the text of this scrip Buddha, ture. This

as in our own, a text can metaphorically have or be a "body." But in specifically Buddhist usage it can also be a relic. In this s?tra the text is claimed relic cult. The Lotus to be S?tra the basis likewise of, and hence superior to, the claims that the site where it is

This text also takes advantage of the polysemy of the Sanskrit term sarlra, which means "body" and also, for Buddhists, "relic," the remnants of a holy person's cremated body. In Indian discourse,

sanctified thereby, and is equal in sacral taught or copied becomes to that produced by the relic of a Buddha.6 The implicit equa ity tion between text and relic is made explicit in a later text. In an to a copy of the Lotus S?tra, the Go-Reizei addendum emperor (r. 967-969 ce) noted that the Lotus Dharma Body of the Buddha.7 The S?tra constitutes relics of the

parallel that is being made here seems to be the following: as relics are the traces or manifestations in the present world just of the Buddha's "Form Body," texts such as the Lotus S?tra mani fest his "Dharma in Mah?y?na cosmic significance as sense of "the embodiment The text is a coded Body." Buddhism per se, for They are not the dharmak?ya was the term dharmak?ya invested with the "real body" or "reality body" in the

or assemblage of what there really is."8 relic, a remnant of the Buddha's teaching, that

6 7

See See

Schopen, Brian D.

"Notes Ruppert,

on

the Cult "Sin

of the Book," Medieval

164. Indebtedness, Japanese and Journal the of

or Crime? in Early

Buddhism, Japan," Doctrine

Construction

of Social

Relations

Studies 28.1-2 39. (2001) Religious 8 Paul Griffiths, On Being Buddha: The Classical SUN Y Press 1994, 149-50.

of Buddhahood,

Albany:

Disclosing is a means for the achievement

the Empty Secret of the Buddha's

421

gnosis, the realiza tion that all of reality is the ultimate level of one's own "embodiment." These developments coincided with a gradual shift in the narra tive structure of Buddhist and composed to written made texts were scriptures. In early Buddhism transmitted orally.9 Eventually the transition was

opening nid?na verse, which in Roland Barthes' terminology could be termed a coded sign of narrativity.11 This verse, which begins

transmission, a transition that was apparently a traumatic one.10 Thence Mah?y?na to Buddhists rapidly proceeded the written composition of new scriptures. Nevertheless, for cen turies Buddhists retained the pretense of orality, particularly via the

9 Regarding "Notes on Some 121-35. The

the oral/aural Oral

nature of Pali

of

the early

Pali

suttas

see

Steven 35

Collins, (1992) in his

Aspects uses legitimizing

Literature," Numen

Indo-Iranian

Journal

of orality

is emphasized 42 the Mah?vamsa

by Donald (1995) 21^-7. (33.100-1),

Lopez indicate was

"Authority 10 Early the Buddhist down

and Orality Sri Lankan canon,

in the Mah?y?na," such as records, which had 35-32 been bce, and History

that put to

transmitted out of fear famine

orally

for centuries, be the island

into writing See

between

that they would Buddhism, 1988,

lost due

the condition in time.

of turmoil, warfare Etienne Lamotte, "Structural Heath, New de Louvain,

that afflicted

at this point

of Indian

Louvain-la-Neuve: 364-71. in his Image, 114-15. and Music, Barthes actions (114), with in and

Universit? Catholique 11 Roland Barthes, Text, defines trans. Stephen these as "the

Institut Orientaliste Analysis York: which on

of Narratives," Hill and Wang reintegrate its donor and in oral

1977, functions

set of operators articulated "we follows:

the narrative he describes codes we know

communication them as

its addressee" literatures

are

familiar conventional

certain and

of recitation that here who

(metrical the 'author'

formulae,

presentation invents

protocols),

is not the person the code which level of a

who

the finest

stories but

the person in such

best masters to conceive a time', etc.)" as

literatures

the narrational

that it is difficult tive ('once of recitation, were upon

is practiced equally by his listeners: is so clearly defined, its rules so binding, 'tale' devoid of the coded signs of the narra This seems applicable it would verse, as to Buddhist of Buddhist have and been codes s?tras Clearly, the authors

(114-15) verse.

such

the nid?na

to follow the expected obliged a s?tra without to compose possible composed it would have almost

rules

of protocol; been

the opening

nid?na rejected

hardly if such was However,

certainly

illegitimate.

422
"Thus have locate

David I heard: At one

B. Gray . . .,"12 serves to time and place, authorizing it Lord

time the Blessed

the narrative within

encounter, the narrative structure representing an actual pedagogical of these texts reflects this imperative. their teach Buddhists increasingly came to disembed Mah?y?na instead a ings from this spatial and temporal context, maintaining stance of ultimacy by insisting on their timeless non-locality.13 The of the Buddha's gnosis, are eter teachings, as aural manifestations

Here the real or genuine perceived historicity of the text is its primary mode of legitimation, and since this legitimacy is based upon its pretension of accurately as buddhavacana,

a specific speech of the Buddha.

mind

nal and omnipresent, provided that one has the purity and strength of to apprehend them. Some Mah?y?na scriptures describe actual meditative concentrations lands of the Buddhas

enabling one to ascend to the pure to receive teachings from them.14 For the

unlike that

signs

such a

as "once

upon

a time," That

the nid?na

verse

is far more in a more

political politically

in

it implies

legitimation

claim.

is, it is "coded"

fashion. charged 12 That is, evam may? this text see and African Oriental 13For an excellent David McMahan, and were

srutam ekasmin "Thus 13.2 have (1950)

samaye I heard 416-26.

John Brough, Studies

On bhagav?n. . . .," Bulletin

the significance of the School

of of see

overview

of Mah?y?na

textual

legitimation History

strategies

Literature 14 There

373 (1998) 249-74.

millennium cessful or who she

"Orality, Writing, and Authority in South Asian in the Mah?y?na," for Legitimacy the Struggle several Mah?y?na to enter states texts composed concentrations of deep during

Buddhism:

Visionary of Religions

the first half of the first enable the suc he

that teach meditative

that supposedly (sam?dhi) and meet

practitioner can travel

concentration

in which

to "Buddhalands" include

(buddhaksetra)

with

the Buddhas

dwell

there. These a second

the Pratyutpanna-buddha-sammukh?vasthita

sam?dhi-s?tra, a fifth century "Buddh?nusmrti Journal vatl: SUNY

century Indian text, and also the *Amit?yur-dhy?na-s?tra, See Paul Harrison, in Central Asia. text that was likely composed in the Pratyutpanna-buddha-sammukh?vasthita-sam?dhi-s?tra," and Julian Pas, Visions 9 (1978) 35-57, Philosophy Commentary on the Kuan Wu-Liang~Shou-Fo Ching. of Sukh? Albany:

of Indian Press 1995.

Shan-Tao's

Disclosing

the Empty Secret

423

are always adept, the awakened worlds of the Buddhas Mah?y?na tech the meditative that one has mastered accessible, provided then need not solely niques that afford access to them. Teachings descend through time from the historical Buddha via lineages that are fragile and easily disrupted, but are accessible Esoteric Buddhists via revelation as
well.

this into a highly sophisticated tex developed which was based upon the notion of the "Reality theory, as a timeless and non-localizable of the Buddha matrix, Body" tual which

is thus realizable, potentially at least, in an infinite number the universe is a text; and the text of ways. For esoteric Buddhists, is a microcosm of a universe, even when the text is as short as a the complete gnosis of such as a or hum.15 Hence single syllable, the Buddha, accessible the direct realization that one of the nature of reality, is always knows how to perceive it. This traditions claim

provided is what methodology to provide; praxical comes becomes This the basis

esoteric Buddhist

to be able

accuracy be efficacy rather than historical for their authority, and, ultimately, the body their text.

sense of textuality obviates the need for the text expanded to be associated with a specific moment in history.While early Buddhist texts sought legitimacy with the Buddha's through connection Manifestation
15A haguhya's Hodge, London:

Body

or historical

embodiment,

esoteric

Buddhists

classic

eighth

commentary

statement of these ideas century on the Mah?vairocana-abhisambodhi

is contained Tantra; see

in Budd Stephen

TheMah?-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi RoutledgeCurzon New York: Japan, Columbia he 2003, UP 172-73, of the Syllable

Tantra with Buddhaguhya's 326-27. See also K?kai's Hakeda, K?kai on of Indian translated 246-62. oral in Yoshito Although instructions systems traditions Ab?,

Commentary, essay K?kai: was Unjigi, Major in and

"The Meanings Works, ninth-century his work, considerable a detailed Mantra: Columbia

Hum,"

1972, lineage

writing

received

Tantras,

while

influenced by East Asia certainly fidelity to the Indian Tantric Buddhist of K?kai's life and work and 1999. the Construction of Esoteric

thought, maintains it. For that inspired The Weaving New of York:

study Kukai UP

see Ry?ichi Buddhist

Discourse,

424
felt increasingly nizable locales. less need Some

David

B. Gray their texts in historically recog works, such as the seventh

to place

early esoteric

S?tra, maintain the paradigm century Sarvatath?gata-Tattvasamgraha of the nid?na opening verse, but locate the text in transmundane locations

such as Akanistha, the highest heaven in Indian Buddhist Such loci fit well with the claim that these texts cosmology.16 from direct revelation of the ultimate.17 continue this trend. Texts such as tantras, which were notable Later Buddhist Tantras would

derive

for their and Hevajra contain a markedly erotic (and historically unb eatable) opening verse.18 This trend reached its culmination in the the Cakrasamvara and related Yoginl Tantras, which jettisoned verse entirely.19 The Cakrasamvara Tantra begins instead opening the Guhyasam?ja erotic elements,
16For the text of this s?tra's nid?na opening Based text see Isshi Yamada's Sarva and

tath?gata-tattva-sangraba: Chinese of and Tibetan this text see Yukei to Chinese inHonor CA: saw (hosshin

A Critical Translations, Matsunaga, Translations,"

Edition Delhi: "A History

on a Sanskrit Manuscript Press 1981, 3-4. For Buddhism and Asian

Jayyed

the dating

of Tantric Thought

in India with Civilization: Scott,

Reference Essays

in Buddhist ed. Leslie

of Herbert Dharma

V Guenther,

S. Kawamura

and Keith

Emeryville, 17K?kai Buddha" revelation by will Indian

this scripture sepp?),

Publishing as originating which See Hakeda,

1977,

177-78. in the "preaching K?kai, 154. Similar of the Dharmak?ya basis were for the made which claims

is the ongoing such as

and non-localizable

of buddhavacana. commentators

for scriptures reads as

the Cakrasamvara

Tantra, at one

be discussed below. 18This verse opening Lord was residing

follows:

"Thus

have

I heard: Ladies, may?

time

the of

Blessed

in the vulvae of

of the Adamantine (evam

the essence srutam

the Body, samaye See Yukei

Speech

and Mind

all Tath?gatas"

ekasmin vijah?ra).

bhagav?n Matsunaga, vol.

sarvatath?gata-k?yav?kcittahrdaya-vajrayosidbhagesu Toho The Guhyasam?ja Tantra, Osaka: The Hevajra dates Tantra: A Critical the Hevajra text the Guhyasam?ja dates

Shuppan

1978,

4,

and also David UP 1959,

Snellgrove,

2, 2. Matsunaga (op. cit., xxvi). 1, 14). are Hindu

Study, London: to the midTantra

Oxford to late cen

eighth

century

Snellgrove a genre traditions, among

to the late eighth that exhibit female

tury (op. 19 The influence

cit., vol.

Yoginitantras from ?aiva practices

of Buddhist and which

emphasize

deities,

significant and

transgressive

involving,

other things, the consumptions

of substances

Disclosing with

the Empty Secret

425

the laconic atha, "and then," which the commentatorial tradi tion takes as a reference to the ongoing and never-ending process of revelation of which this text is a prime manifestation. According to Bhavyak?rti, a tenth-century20 Indian Buddhist commentator:
hold that since the primal buddhas know no cessation, this continuum, existing even before S?kya teaching formulation has a beginningless as has been well stated by tens of millions of buddhas and heroes. muni, I, Bhavyak?rti, Thus, the Prajn?p?ramit? and so forth wane due to the power of Time, and so forth, the Lord S?kyamuni teaches them again. The is not like that, for it exists without Sri Cakrasamvara in inex interruption when the burning eon pressible Buddhalands, and it is experienced through meditative states, etc.

and

engagement

in sexual India

practices They

that would first appear

ordinarily during

be deemed the late

early medieval

society.

seventh

in polluting to early by the study of and Institute and the

eighth century (with the composition vara Tantra), and the Cakrasamvara late eighth the CST. Annotated of Buddhist milieu century, See Translation Studies, as I have argued section 1.2 of my

of the Sarvabuddhasamayogad?kinlj?lasam Tantra (CST) was probably composed in my forthcoming Tantra, an overview Davidson, New of translation and A The Discourse of Sri Heruka: York:

Study

of the Cakrasamvara For see Ronald

American

inwhich

forthcoming. they were composed

the Yoginitantras Indian Esoteric Columbia T?ran?tha, UP was 2002.

Buddhism:

A Social History 20 Bhavyak?rti, Tantric P?la preceptor circa

New York: of the Tantric Movement, to the Tibetan exegete according of Vikramas?la, founded during Lama If this lineage tenth century. of Buddhism evidence of the history reason I consider of list is accurate, See in India, such Indian

the

sixth the

the late eighth this would and Alaka Motilal an

century place him

by

king Dharmap?la. the early T?ran?tha's 18-19,

in this

position yaya, 1990, course

Chimpa as

Chattopadh Banarsidass source it is of

History

repr., Delhi: this to be

325-29.

important While

for the construction

Tantric

Buddhism. does

that T?ran?tha's possible a number of errors), I see no there is additional

list is erroneous to assume

(his History

in fact contain unless

that it is from

the outset,

of course has

evidence

that contradicts

this. In fact, as Templeman greater works;

reason to believe that his works maintains there is good argued, sources to earlier Indian than did many later Tibetan historical fidelity he also critically Templeman, evaluated the Indian and Tibetan materials See David Here "Taranatha the Historian," Tibet Journal 6.2

moreover posal. 41-46. ments my

at his dis (1981) ele See

there

of T?ran?tha's

reason as to provisionally it as evidence, is good accept are confirmed by other sources of information. account 1.3 of my forthcoming study.

discussion

of this in section

426
by the heroes and heroines as "and then."21

David

B. Gray
is the significance of text such

such as Is vari. This

to maintain it necessary the conversational narrative structure of the earlier s?tras. The Cakrasamvara Tantra contains Nor was traces of it, but here the conversation is not between and and his male disciples, but between Sri Heruka Vajrav?r?hi, which betrays Hindu
scriptures.

the Buddha

the goddess influence, likely from Saiva or S?kta

The The

text as relic

textual model Tibetan

served as an increasingly important Buddhist during the mid firstmillennium of the Common Era. on noted in his Exposition scholar mKhas-grub,

Tantric Doxography, during the early fifteenth century, composed that the Pandits of India report that there are three types of "relic" order of in a st?pa. These are, in descending that can be placed "relics of the Reality Body 2) 1) {dharmak?ya)'' importance, "relics of His physical body," and 3) "relics of His garb." mKhas

grub further specifies that Reality Body relics are the texts of the textual pas dharan?,22 which are cryptic and often unintelligible

21

Bhavyak?rti, fols.

vol. ma, 22 See

E?cakrasamvarapa?jika-s?ramanoj?a. 2b, 3a. Lessing, 1968, 106-7, and Alex rgyud sde and Wayman, spyihi mam mKhas par giag

To.

1405, D

rgyud

'grel

Ferdinand

grub pa

rje's Fundamentals rgyas par brjod, The "The Wiener

of the Buddhist Hague: Mouton

Tantras,

also

the discussion Dh?ranis

in Gregory in Indian

Schopen,

Bodhigarbh?lank?ralaksa

and Vimalosnisa

Inscriptions,"

24 (1985) S?dasiens 125. My translations of the above Zeitschrift f?r die Kunde to terms differ somewhat His from Lessing's and Wayman's; I use the capitalized the honorific use of the Tibetan sku. See also Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, represent "Some Approach Comparative Bentor, As Bentor Dh?ranl Written 350," Relic on Paper in Tibetan in Human Classification," Functioning Studies, Culture as Dharmak?ya ed. 1994, Per Kvaerne, vol. Tibetan Relics: Oslo: A Tentative Institute and vol. also for Yael to PT

Research

2, 711-27, Studies,

"Tibetan

in Kvaerne,

1, 16-30.

later Tibetan scholars argue for a fourfold relic points out (17), most one which the "physical subdivides relics" into two types, actual classification, remains such as bones, and the "mustard-seed-like relics" that are com bodily believed to emerge from the former type.

monly

Disclosing sages to which were

the Empty Secret or magical

All
powers when clearly a popular

attributed mnemonic

correctly recited.23 His report reflects what was late Indian Buddhist practice, well attested in the archeological Buddhist of ensconcing in place of record, scriptures in st?pas
actual relics.24

The

identification of dh?ran?

as relics of the Buddha's

development There is in fact a historical texts and the later Buddhist of the Tantras

texts, in both theory and practice, Reality Body had a crucial impact on the of Esoteric Buddhist textual theory and practice. connection Tantras. The between earliest the earlier dh?rin? textual precursors appear with increas

were a dh?ran?-dharmak?ya scribe who

are dh?rani-collections, which in Chinese translation during the sixth and seventh ing frequency centuries.25 The Cakrasamvara Tantra was ritually treated as if it relic. Itwas viewed as such by theNew?ri the oldest palm-leaf manuscript in the twelfth or copied in Northwestern China thirteenth century,26 and also by Buddhists
23 of

On

this see Jens Braarvig,

"Dh?rani of

and Pratibhana: the International

Memory Association

and Eloquence of Buddhist and

the Bodhisattvas,"

in Journal see

8.1 (1985) Studies 17-29. 24 this phenomenon On Dh?ranis." Vimalosnisa 25 See Matsunaga, importance also Ab?, by of dh?rani

Schopen, of Tantric

"The

Bodhigarbh?lank?ralaksa for a discussion of esoteric a genre Buddhism; in turn, were the major Journal of

"A History collections

Buddhism" history

the see

in the early

237-71. The Weaving These, 159-76, of Mantra, the raks? or protective literature of early Buddhism, has See is pan-Buddhist, in all of manifesting of the Sr?vakay?na," his "The Raks? Literature 16 (1992) 109-182. shown, of the ms. is inscribed with which hy avadat Oriental used with

preceded that, as Peter schools of of the Pali

Skilling Buddhism.

Text Society 26 The last folio "Stanza on

Interdependent hetum stanza tes?m was

Origination," tath?gato

the pratltyasamutp?dag?th?, the occurs as ye dharm? in the ms. tes?m ca yo nirodha ms. during evamv?dl #13290, the early "The Journal in Vadodara st?pas Daniel

hetuprabhav? mah?sramanah fol. 38a). This

(Srlheruk?bhidh?na, commonly Its Role often in conjunction and

Institute to consecrate dh?rani.

medieval

period,

See Cult 14.1

Boucher,

Pratltyasamutp?dag?th? of the International

in the Medieval Studies

of the Relics," (1991)

Association

of Buddhist

1-27. Walter

428
around the same

David

B. Gray

dh?ran?

the s?tra genre. The dh?ran? themselves are not narrative at all,28 although many dh?ran? texts present a nid?na opening scenario in an attempt to legitimate the text as a product of the Buddha's teaching activity. Given their cryptic brevity, dh?ran? only practically more suitable for such ritual uses texts were not such as st?pa to larger texts as

time period, who interred a copy of the text as a "Reality Body" relic in a st?paP texts have a radically different narrative structure from Dh?ran?

consecration, but they also sit in a relationship does the relic to the body from which it derives. Dh?ran? are often located at the end of much larger s?tras, and are said to embody

Liebenthal theNan-chao ce. These

has

studied

the inscribed (presently Yunnan

bricks

used

in the construction China) dh?ran? found between and on

of st?pas c. 800-1100 the prat?tyasa of only

in

bricks

kingdom were

in Southwestern both with bricks are

mutp?dag?th?. walls of pagodas.

commonly wrote Liebenthal They cannot be

inscribed that "The seen

the inside

the if

from the outside,

the building is in decay and parts of it are instead tumbling of a relic (she-li, Sanskrit relic" sar?ra) or as a spiritual (Walter Liebenthal, "Sanskrit from Yunnan S?rica 12 [1947] 2; emphasis I," Monumenta Inscriptions in original). 27 Li Fanwen was discovered reports that a text entitled the "Sutra of Samvara" within a Xixia-era interred as dh?ran?-dharmak?ya I relic. While st?pa, evidently have not been able to study this text, it is most itself or likely either the CST some with other several text in the Cakrasamvara other texts and it was in conjunction discovered tradition; tradition. See his "The images from the Cakrasamvara on Xixia" Buddhism in Tibetan ed. Ernst Stein Studies, der ?sterreichischen Akademieder Wissenschaften do not exhibit 1997, normal

visible becoming down. They were used

Influence kellner

of Tibetan (Wien: Verlag while

often containing but deploy words ance that is expected to have a direct son with the appropriate training. As semantic structure, poetic dh?ran?) sort, such as structure of mantra see Robert

vol. 2, 564. 28 Dh?ran?,

recognizable and

words,

or magical utter symbols as a "spell" impact on reality when by a per "repeated" such,

they do exhibit structural features of a etc. For an in-depth discussion of the repetition, alliteration, to the closely related Buddhist (much of which applies Mantras: and Ritual, Rhetoric Explaining in Hindu 2003. Tantra, New York: Routledge the Dream

A. Yelle,

of a Natural

Language

Disclosing

the Empty Secret

429

that are present at the conclusion of a are the secret essence of a much larger body. cremation; they The transition from s?tra to dh?rani textual models was a grad inscrutable charred remains ual one. Some of the earlier esoteric Buddhist S?tra Tattvasamgraha The later Yogini Tantras best exemplify the new Tantra is a paradig Buddhist genre, of which the Cakrasamvara short text of only seven hundred matic example. A relatively the Sarvatath?gata gious s?tra model. or "Samvara Sanskrit verses, it is often called the Laghusamvara, due to the widespread belief that it is a cryptic condensa Light," thousand verse Khasama tion of the much larger one hundred scriptures such as followed the still presti

the significance of the text, which may often be hundreds of times to the bits of larger than the dh?rani itself.29 They are comparable

Tantra, a mythical textwhich probably never existed. Like the dh?rani, to be an encrypted text that secretly encodes it is believed the essence of a much larger work. And despite its "light" designation, and related Tantras are certainly not light read the Cakrasamvara

ing; they tend to be dense and obtuse. They employ esoteric, sym bolic terminology to allude to secret yogic and ritual practices. This, when combined with the texts' brevity, yields an overall obscurity. the Tantras have been largely predominantly, as an object of scholarly their great neglected inquiry, despite in the history of Buddhism. This neglect is primarily importance the result of an inability to read the texts, due to a lack of under For this reason standing of their inner logic, which is radically different from that of earlier genres of Buddhist literature. The s?tras seek to present a true discourse, a dharmapary?ya, and this narrative style, in later Indian Buddhism,
29

effect of considerable

is most

consonant

with

the view

held by some

See,

for example, Blossom Edward

the dh?ran? Prajn?p?ramit?, of Conze, the Fine The 1990,

in the Sadharmapundar?ka-sutra in, respectively, Dharma, New On Sutra Leon Hurvitz, York: Perfect Columbia Wisdom, UP

and

the

Pancavimsatis?hasrik? of the Lotus and Motilal

Scripture 1976, repr. 1975;

320-26, Delhi:

Large 160-162.

Banarsidass

430
Buddhists The that ultimate

David

B. Gray to analysis via reason. style that undermines

Tantras, however, this assumption, and this is based on the conviction that ultimate reality truly is inconceivable, acintya, and is hence not amenable to analysis, and can only be approached via a direct yogic realization that transcends discursive is thought.30 Such direct realization of a spiritual discipline, one that nec of reading the texts. The assumption

reality is amenable assume a narrative

dependent upon the practice essarily involves a practice Buddhist

that the act of reading is a spiritual discipline underlies esoteric textuality, which we will need to understand in order to these texts. the Empty Secret:
Tantra

appreciate Disclosing
Cakrasamvara

Textual Practice

in the

The

new

narrative

strategy adopted

by

the Buddhist

Tantras of

reflects different presuppositions

concerning

the use and purpose

work

were commentators trends at influenced by the intellectual Indian CST seem to have advo and specifically in the Mah?y?na Buddhist community, On Buddhism influenced by Dharmakirti's cated a form of Yog?c?ra epistemology. as Pram?na: Esoteric trend see Ronald this general Davidson, "Masquerading and Epistemological on Indian and Tibetan Akademie Cognition, K?ry?num?na sprinkling thesis Nomenclature," Philosophy, Goal, ed. der Wissenschaften Tantric in Dharmakirti's Shoryu 1999, Katsura, 25-35, Thought Wien: and Ernst and Its der Verlag

30 The

Buddhism Impact kellner, contains

?sterreichischen "Yogic liberal Dharmakirti's

Stein of CST to qua but

and Other Methodological Dharmakirti's terminology, Thought, and also

Applications 349-62. The subscribes

Theorem," of Yog?c?ra regarding and as

clearly

the central Yog?c?ra ultimate only This via reality direct

is truly acintya yogic perception,

the trik?ya theory that the dharmak?ya via rational analysis, thus not accessible John Makransky argues SUNY Press and Tibet, Albany: of commentators such as Bhavabhatta as they were abbots

in his Buddhahood 1997. and

Embodied:

Sources

of Controversy notable may be no

in India

is particularly This was appears

in the works

Bhavyak?rti. which in particular See Chimpa

coincidence, of Yog?c?ra T?ran?tha's

of Vikramas?la, to T?ran?tha.

to have been

a center of both Yog?c?ra

and Tantric

studies. Bhavabhatta

a noted master

philosophy History,

according 326.

and Chattopadhyaya,

Disclosing

the Empty Secret

431

and the texts. They primarily focus on praxis, namely meditative ritual techniques; these are thought to be aids to the direct realiza tion of the ultimate which continually to which declare the texts aspire. Unlike that they should be publicly the s?tras, recited and

the Tantras are esoteric, and seek to restrict widely disseminated, to an elite group of initiates. This is their circulation secrecy another feature that the Tantras share with relics. Relics, both the remnants and the dh?rani "Reality body" physical "Form Body" texts that were treated in the same way, are secret, almost always on the symbolic hidden from view. Bernard Faure, commenting structure at work because

in the case of relics, wrote that "they are sacred are secret, that is, withdrawn from circulation. Their they secrecy or invisibility is therefore an essential part of their nature, even when they are periodically exposed. Their sacrality literally to be cryptic, or rather, encrypted."31 The need for secrecy created new imperatives

has

for textual prac tice. Although Tantric traditions often claim that their scriptures descend from a lengthy precursor, the actual texts composed and utilized in these traditions tend to be brief, so that, like dh?rani, they are more easily employed in ritual uses and more easily hidden. This attitude toward texts is evidenced in a colorful passage in the Hevajra Tantra:
O The listen, Goddess, book should greatly blessed, by one and I will speak tradition on on the subject leaves of books. be written of our of birch-bark

But

for ink and with a human bone as a pen. angula long, with collyrium one will not see either book or painting, if someone should unworthy or the next. To one of our tradition it may either in this world succeed be twelve at any time. On a journey the book should be hidden in the hair or the arm.32

shown under

31

Bernard

Faure, inRending

"Relies, New 2.7.2-4, by me.

Regalia, York:

and

the Dynamics and Secrecy

of Secrecy in theHistory

in Japanese of Religions, vol. 1,

Buddhism,"

the Veil: Concealment Seven trans,

ed. Eliott R. Wolfson, 32 Tantra Hevajra 115, with emendations

Press 1999, 278. Bridges in Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra,

432

David

B. Gray

to be treated as objects of reverence. Rather, the text, which appears at first glance to be ide secrets, is physically structured so as to ally suited for disclosing role of texts with preserve them. This points to the paradoxical
regard to secrecy.33

texts of Mah?y?na

As twelve angula to the span of one's hand, the is equivalent text clearly prescribes here a small and easily portable text, which is quite distinct from the immense and often elaborately decorated s?tras which were

of the Tantras, purports to have a secret that is preserved, i.e., inadequately disclosed, by the text itself. This ambivalence concerning secrecy was a major fea Tantra, like many ture of the commentatorial the Kabbala tradition. Elliot Wolfson's observations concerning tradition are particularly
this paradox in the sense as follows:

The Cakrasamvara

relevant here:

33 Simmel described Georg utterance to be safer appears which 'no iota can be the consequence of a

that it seems

the written "Superficially, to be the only one from

of the written word Yet this prerogative is only ? lack of all those accompaniments sound of voice, tone, ? are sources facial in the spoken word, of both which, gesture, expression . . . For this reason, the letter is much more obfuscation and clarification. than the ? the locus of 'interpretations' and hence of misunderstandings spoken word to the cultural its clarity, or more of it. Corresponding despite correctly, because level at which a relationship what (or period in human of relationship) is clear based on written are, commu likewise, clear is nication sharply and is possible, differentiated: in the the qualitative letter than characteristics utterances of such a relation

taken away.'

and distinct,

is more ambiguous,

distinct

more on

ambiguous. the part of core,

Expressed the recipient

in speech, and what is essentially in terms of the categories of freedom of

and unfreedom

in regard to its the utterance: his understanding, in regard to its deeper and personal his significance, is freer in the case of the letter than in that of speech. One may understanding the secret of the speaker by means of all that sur say that, whereas speech reveals ? rounds it which is visible but not audible, and also includes the imponderables of the speaker himself ? the letter conceals this secret. For this reason, the let logical is less free; but, ter is clearer it is the issue, than speech where the secret of the other is not the letter is more (The Sociology ambiguous" Glencoe, to Dr. IL: The Andrew Free Lass Press 1950, 354-55; thanks for bringing the issue; of Georg emphasis work but where Simmel, in orig to my

trans. Kurt H. Wolff, inal). Many attention.

Simmel's

Disclosing
The matter of putting writing, become down

the Empty Secret

433

of esoteric to secrets of an

interpreter. fosters as

secrets the Kabbalist in a process implicates on the notion is predicated that written allusions secrets that require decipherment at the hand themselves In this manner, the subtle interplay of revelation and con which of secrecy based on of the interface esoteric of orality and The to the dissemination thus created by and of the paradox concealed

cealment writing

a rhetoric

it pertains circle

hermeneutical is disclosed the essential ties.

knowledge. of the secret as that which has preserved communi even

in its concealment esoteric nature

in its disclosure

this enterprise

in textual

. . . that have

advocated

a fuller written

expression

of secrets.34

In order to see this dynamic as itmanifests in a Buddhist to look closely itwould be worthwhile mentatorial tradition, Cakrasamvara verse: "And Tantra now I will

com at the

sively. Union all desired achieving

and its exegesis. It opens with the following explain the secret, concisely, not exten is the means of with Sri Heruka (sr?herukasamyoga) aims."35 soon as The second word in the text is As the text invokes

the concept of "secret," rahasyam. the very next secrecy, itmust deal with the issue of its disclosure; But the text deals with this is vaksye, "I will explain." word in a highly paradoxical unavoidable disclosure fashion, as is typi cal of esoteric This verse traditions. sets up the expectation that the text will disclose the it does not proceed via a simple act of dis undisclosed. However, in which the secret is closure, but rather via a complex dance,

hinted at but never fully disclosed. The very term secret, rahasyam, here corresponds to Roland Barthes' third or obtuse level of mean ing, which he defines wrote that, as a "signifier without

a signified."36 He

34

Elliot

R. Wolfson,

"Occultation

of

the Feminine are my in his

and

the Body

of Secrecy," edition trans.

inWolfson, the Veil, 118. Rending 35 This and all subsequent CST of the text. 36 Roland Stephen Barthes, New "The York: Third Hill

citations

translations

from my Text,

Meaning,"

Image,

Music,

Heath,

three levels of signification

and Wang Barthes for 1977, 61. While argued in the context of an analysis of Eisenstein's cinematography,

434
the signifier... We could also this same of perpetual which inations.37 say on

David
is not filled

B. Gray
. . . state of depletion. as correct ? that just a state that itmaintains of the signified of nom

out, it keeps a permanent the contrary ? and it would be (cannot empty issue itself), back not finding

signifier

is not empty desire

erethism, brings

in that spasm

normally

the subject

voluptuously

into the peace

Like Tantra

third meaning, "secret" of the Cakrasamvara turns out to be highly elusive; the first verse hints that it has "union with Sri Heruka." The commentators consider to them, ultimate the realization of identifies the cen

Barthes'

to do with

to be meaningful. According this juxtaposition aim of this scripture is awakening, specifically self qua the Body of Reality.38 The tradition also tral deity, Sri Heruka, with direct realization of Heruka perspective,

the Body of Reality, so union with or is the aim of this tradition. From this

ultimately the secret is no secret, but is rather univer sally pervasive. This is the position of the commentator Bhava bhatta, who was active circa 900 ce.39 In his gloss upon the term

to a broad array of interpretive enter this analytic tool is, arguably, applicable The comparison of Barthes' third meaning discourse of with the esoteric prises. was Buddhism first made Bernard Faure in his "The Buddhist Icon and the by Modern Gaze," Critical Inquiry "inner," level of often 24 (1998) "secret" 792. The three levels. comparison levels Like Barthes' but For is particularly of apt, their for esoteric scriptures, the Buddhist deployments. Buddhist Symbolism Buddhists the "outer," "secret" It is also identified of signification

traditionally and

signification associated see Alex

is not fixed with sexuality.

subject

"third meaning," to multiple of the and

examples

threefold

signification

Wayman's

essay

"Female

in the Buddhist

Tantras,"

in his The Buddhist

Tantras: 1990,

Light

Energy on Indo

Tibetan Esotericism, Banarsidass 1973, repr. Delhi: Motilal 37 "The Third Meaning," 62. Barthes, 38 This by several commentators, including point is made 1403, D rgyud 'grel vol. ma, 39 Bhavabhatta Vikramasila. Chattopadhyaya, coming study. 'grel vol. fol. 355b). would ba, fol. 42b) and also Viravajra to be

164-201.

Bhavabhatta 1412, D

(see To. rgyud

(see To.

is reported T?ran?tha's

by T?ran?tha place his History,

the fifth Tantric 900 ce;

This

probably

term circa and also

of preceptor see Chimpa and 1.3 of my forth

18, 326,

section

Disclosing rahasyam, "seclusion"

As

the Empty Secret

435
means

he

reduces

or "isolation."
(rahd),

it to its component rahah, which He comments that:

[it indicates that] the natures

for "seclusion"

of time and place

are

of all beings.40 "Time" is the past and so forth. Yet time is par said to be perpetual. "Place" is a region. This is expressed ticularly by the is one's innate mode, and its defining word the nature "secret," [of which] not the scope mark forth the commitments, and is practicing instruction, worshipping, seeking in the state of meditation Now Mah?vajradhara ?ri Heruka. upon the word Due "seclusion" because his nature is imperceptible alienated beings, (rahasya).41 to the lack of understanding state, of ordinary, so

expressed beings.

to all that

is, [their] being

in this solitary

it is "secret"

Bhavabhatta's strategy of understanding secrecy in terms of soli tude or separation is indicative of his sophisticated approach to this issue. For him, the "secret" of the timeless and non-localizable gnosis or "Reality Body," personified here and Mah?vajradhara, is not "secret" due to any sort of intrinsic separation on its part. It is secret only because alien ated beings, by exclusively with a level of embodiment identifying "truth" of the Buddha's as ?ri Heruka specific in time and place, are blind to it.42 In other words, the

40

In Buddhalogical via the senses, of experience that this is not

theory associated See

the "scope" with

embodiment hend levels a mode asserts Buddhists, due

through which

they relate Griffiths, On

of living beings (gocara) to the world, which ordinary (r?pa) or manifestation

is the level beings

of

appre

the form

(nirm?na)

of embodiment.

dominated the

it only seems to the misknowledge 41 translation from my My and MBB-I-70, also See also with See

Bhavabhatta by place. true or complete basis of experience. For esoteric to be the case, as one's experience is artificially occluded that gives rise to the egocentric self-awareness. edition of the text at IASWR as well as the Tibetan mss. MBB-I-33, 1403, D fol. fol. fol. 4a.l-4b, Janardan at To.

129. Being Buddha, the sense of time and

It is thus ordinarily

3a.5-3b.2, 42b.

Cakrasamvaratantram

Shastri ed., Sr?herukabhidh?nam Pandey, the Vivrti Commentary Sarnath: Cen of Bhavabhatta,

tral Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies 3. Pandey's differ from 2002, readings at several points. mine 42 This as a "failure to the use of the term "alienation" is perhaps comparable of self-cognition" in subaltern studies. See Gayatri In Other Chakravorty Spivak, in Cultural Worlds: London: 1987, 200. Politics, Essays Routledge

436
"secret"

David is the secret of our own

B. Gray true nature, which reference is closed to us of

only by ignorance. Bhavabhatta defines

the secret with

to elements

It is not enough to simply practice, but in a specific deployment. practice in accordance with the text, given its cryptic nature. Even practice elements such as the adept's commitments, which the text put spends several chapters describing, cannot be unambiguously into practice purely on the basis of the text alone. To do so one must enter the community of adepts through establishing a relationship with a guru, from whom one would seek instruction (adhyesana). Doing makes must so places one within the tradition's hermeneutical circle, and to one the lineage oral instructions that enable the accessible rearticulation of the occulted meditation instructions. All of this be done

in a state of meditation upon Sri Heruka (sriheru in the venerable Tantric fashion, that, kabh?vanasth?ne), meaning one seeks to take the aim of one's practice as one's path. In this state one worships Sri Heruka, Like any spiritual exercise, is ultimately one's own nature. this is not easily achieved, for the of the text is profound. The reader is led to believe who

disarticulation

the Buddha's that the text embodies gnosis, but like any body it is a complex entity, displaying a texture that is far from transparent, not revealing its innermost essence but shielding it under a veil of is to be achieved via intensive, secrecy. "Union with Sri Heruka" self-identification with the central deities, Sri creatively visualized and their retinue, as hierarchically arranged Heruka and Vajrav?r?hi a "cosmogram" which is believed to pervade both in the m?ndala, the macrocosm Yet of the universe and the microcosm present of one's these key meditation instructions, while body.43 in the text, are

43 For "M?ndala

a study of this m?ndala of the Self: Tradition," "Internal and Powerful of Tibetan Works

and

its mapping Practice Journal and

across

the body

see my See

article in the also in

Embodiment, forthcoming,

Identity

Construction History. Huber,

Cakrasamvara David Sacred sala:

of Religious Culture,

Templeman, Spaces Library

and External Places

Geography 1999,

in Spiritual ed. Toni 187-97.

Biography," Dharam

in Tibetan

and Archives

Disclosing completely scrambled; the Indian and Tibetan On

the Empty Secret a major

437
concern of

their re-articulation was commentators.

the other hand, the text does give relatively clear accounts of ritual procedures involving elements such as the mantras, m?ndalas, and so forth, but these are presented as subsidiary and dependent upon the gnosis achieved via the "secret." Thus in chapter nine, at the end of a lengthy exposition of rituals employing the tantra's root mantra,

the text claims that "one who longs for success (sid is threshing chaff, without knowing the gnosis of Sri Heruka dhi) and is bereft of this mantra. This man will not obtain power nor
happiness."44

for success in the prerequisite in the text; yet the practice elements are a key rites described of the "secret" to achieving this prerequisite realization. The aspect Prior realization key to this problem is the concept of the "secret," rahasya, which the paradox Janus epitomizes centering around the text, which, which faced, points toward both practice and an understanding transcends it. Here

is an essential

it is truly an empty signifier for it is meaning ful only in terms of an absence, an absence of understanding on the part of the reader. Its disclosure is also a non-disclosure, given the obscurity that surrounds the essential practices, the very expres

sion of which is the purpose of the text. This paradox is perhaps best exemplified by the first two verses of chapter ten, which deal as follows with the theme of a Buddha's triple embodiment:
Next I will explain the Triple Body they in accordance succeed by means gnosis with non-dual union one with only. becomes Sri Heruka, Have adept through which regarding of consciousness when

no doubt

this. I proclaim Body.45

(j?ana)

in the bodies

of the Reality

44 from my edition; translation My term siddhi here refers to the magical mantra is thought to yield. However, depends believed 45 CST dhanam, upon to be ch. 82. the gnosis ineffective. 10.1-2; my translation of Sri Heruka,

cf. Pandey, powers such without

?r?herukabhidhanam, application of

80. The of the are the mantra

that successful

successful which

deployment

these ritual applications cf. Pandey, ?r?herukabhi

from my

edition;

438
This concerns decode Heruka's passage

David

B. Gray

the facile assumption that the secret problematizes it is not sufficient to simply practice alone. Evidently, the text's practice instructions. For here we are told that Sri disclosure

of his gnosis is contingent upon one being "adept in the bodies of the Reality body," implying that one is the realization of the already familiar with this gnosis. This makes here the gnosis itself and not the practice elements that "secret," to it, a prerequisite for its disclosure, which seems to be an irresolvable paradox. The claim that success here is to be made via "consciousness also undercuts the supposed only" (vijn?nam?trena) lead

primacy of practice. Bhavabhatta's commentary the text's resolution, one worldview:

As for the means it is the one has

here opens up a potential doorway to that is consonant with the general Tantric
the Reality as it is (jin?h) and also a

of achieving 'Body become and

Body,

'reality' whose and

'body' is. When gnosis. being

of Reality.' define and

It is the Victors

body

this as the

their adept

then there is success, which

I proclaim Body of

I characterize free of and

the gnosis

is the Reality the

singularity

Tath?gatas, manifests

ity, the Victor's as the basis existent

scope always plurality, being is the total the natural clear light. The Reality being Body own form. Thus it it is said to be not singular nor multiple, of the great perfection which benefits self and other. It nor non-existent. uniform. It is sky-like and experientially to understand. It is stainless and unchanging, auspicious I bow Body down of the yet unadulterated (nisprapa?ca). as the peerless Reality for self-knowledge

is neither Its nature and

is difficult

unequalled.

It is pervasive

to that very potential Victors.46

appears to be a virtuous cycle of sorts, a progressively unfolding revelation of the self as the ultimate, in of an authority figure, the guru. Under such the mediation volving Bhavabhatta's vision guidance, one can literally rearticulate

the text that is the relic or

46 My 61b.l-5,

translation

from my

edition

of

the text at IASWR

mss.

MBB-I-33,

fol. 82. The

and MBB-I-70, commented

fol. 60a.9-b.4; upon

terms being

cf. Pandey, Sriheruk?bhidh?nam, are in bold font. in this passage

Disclosing disordered

the Empty Secret

439

trace of the Buddha's obscurantism

the deliberate and scattered ual's which

gnosis, manifesting textually as whereby key teachings are disarticulated

textual performance becomes a reenactment of the Buddha's presence, and a reconstitution of his gnosis.

throughout the text.47 For this tradition, the individ engagement with the text is an embodied practice, one in

Further Reflections The concept of secrecy is protean, and also political. "Disclosing the secret" was never an unproblematic act, nor was it ever final. As Derrida argued with respect to the "secret" of Judaism:
The one looks for the center under a the hearth in which Jewish Geheimnis, cover ? the stone of the temple, the robe the tent of the tabernacle, sensible ? as an empty is finally discovered that clothes the text of the covenant never ends being uncovered, as it has nothing to room, is not uncovered, show."48

view, which has been profitably applied to Jewish mystic to Tantric Buddhism. For ism by Elliot Wolfson,49 is also applicable while commentators such as Bhavabhatta were undoubtedly convinced This

that their interpretation of the "secret" was the final and definitive at the interpretation of the text over one, ifwe look diachronically the centuries, we see that the "secret" is truly an empty signifier, of fixed referent. Instead, its interpretation changed through time and cultural space, accommodating the changing needs of communities. Tantra and the earliest composed at the margins
of the hermeneutical see Robert Lopez, Thurman, Honolulu:

devoid

Tantric Buddhist The it were

47 On vision of

Cakrasamvara evidently
the issue

texts addressing of Indian society, by

circle in the ideal Tantric Hermeneutics," of Hawaii

of the resolution interaction

teacher-student Hermeneutics, 119-48. Derrida, 1986, Glas, 50.

"Vajra

in Buddhist Press 48 1988, Jacques

ed. Donald

University Lincoln:

trans. J. Leavey the Veil,

and R. Rand,

University

of

Nebraska 49 See

Press Wolfson,

Rending

116, n. 7.

440
renunciant yogins.50

David

B. Gray commentaries, the "secret" is

In the earliest

rather unambiguously associated with practice elements, and in par ticular the practice of sex. For Jayabhadra, a commentator who was active during themid-ninth century,51 the "secret" was directly con cerned with
The no

sexuality. He wrote
(rahasyam) to the disciples of the wisdom essence "vulva." are and

that,
should be hidden, i.e., so that there is is achieved the penis, "penis," two. This is ha has sa and so forth.52 Now, and that which

"secret" disclosure

is that which

through vulva and

the union seminal

art is the secret. Moreover, is said to mean the seed of those

and

the three secrets. Ra designates

the syllable

ha,

Syam

because the shape ya has

the syllable ra is shaped like the tip of the penis, the syllable of a bird's beak, and the combination of the two syllables of the two.53

the form of the seed

in India, the concept of tradition developed contexts the new socio-political the secret shifted to accommodate As the Cakrasamvara

50 For

an excellent

survey of the milieu see Davidson, that

in which Esoteric the during was active

the CST

and

related Buddhist

tantras were composed 51 wrote T?ran?tha Vikramas?la, tury. His of great History, 52 The such as which

Indian

Buddhism. third Tantric the earlypreceptor and at cen thus is to mid-ninth

suggests to be

Jayabhadra that he was the earliest See

work

appears

surviving and

CST

commentary,

historical 18, 325.

importance.

Chimpa

Chattopadhyaya,

T?ran?tha's

literature to term "disciple" is often used in Tantric Buddhist (sr?vaka) of the older nik?ya Buddhist traditions conservative members refer to the more the Therav?da, who disapproved are based (as written organs. He of the Tantras and the transgressive sees between India) prac let and tices some of them advocate. 53 comments Jayabhadra's ters of the Sanskrit the male and female alphabet genital

upon

similarities

that he

in ninth century Northeastern employs the euphemisms

for these organs

common bodhicitta fluids. His IASWR

in Buddhist for what text occurs ms.

and for "vulva," literature, namely vajra for "penis," padma sexual and female male I term "seminal essence," namely as follows fol. in my 2b.3-6: reading of his Cakrasamvarapanjik?, gopan?yam from rahasyam sarvasr?vak?dibhyo

#MBB-I-122, / athav?

aprak?sy?t hak?rah

vajrapadmabodhicittam padma

tad rahasyam / athav? ek?karanena s?dhyam prajnop?yayor tat trayam rahasyam / r[ak?rah] iti prokto / caiva [va]jra / ubhayos tayor b?ja syam ity abhidh?yate / ra[k?ra]sya

ucyate

Disclosing in which

the Empty Secret

441

the ninth through twelfth and adapted, in India, the tradition was adopted, centuries by such as Bhavabhatta's Buddhist monastic communities. Commentaries the tradition found itself. From were in which very different con in this new milieu, composed cerns were brought to the fore. In this context, the transgressive,

body-oriented practices of the early tradition were de-emphasized. of the secret to specific practices was Here the facile equation while the gnosis or realization of ultimate reality, problematized, the aim of the practices, was emphasized. New this end were developed, namely the "subtle that were meant practices to achieve body" visualization

exercises

is always an act of interpretation, an attempt to Commentary the text in light of changing socio-historical circum re(en)vision stances. In this tradition, the very notion of secrecy could be deployed to achieve a political end, namely sublimation.55 Through the lens of the commentaries, we can trace the process by which Buddhists shaped and reshaped their traditions to adapt to the values

rightly deemed

to replace the sexual practices transgressive within the monastic Buddhist

that were context.54

vajras?cy?k?ratv?t ubhayabijar?patv?t. 54 For example, who the collectively tradition's to groups at sacred

/ hak?rasya the CST constitute m?ndala.

khagamukh?k?ratv?t is a text predominantly

/ sak?rayak?rayoh on

samyogasya female deities, populate

focusing dakin?j?la,

the "network are

of dakin?s,"

which

There

referred occasions

of female sites. One adept For who

practitioners

that this term originally indications or yoginis who would gather on special concerns of the predominant of the text is instruct strong the secrets tradition, of recognizing however, and visualized and communicat are largely of the yogin?s within,

ing the initiated male ing with reduced these yoginis. to goddesses

regarding the later are

identified with,

features

was the male Such internalized far more body. adept's undoubtedly practice context. within the monastic Buddhist acceptable 55 to David White's I refer specifically that sexual By "sublimation" argument in Hindu tantric traditions and replaced effaced practices were gradually by sani tized practices in which actual sex was ritual or internalized replaced by symbolic visualization Contexts, exercises. Chicago: See his Kiss of the Yogin?: Press "Tantric Sex" in South A very Asian similar of Chicago 2003, 219-257.

University

442

David

B. Gray

of different social contexts. This adaptation was typically carried out through the guise of "disclosing the secret." Such commentatorial creativity was facilitated by the very notion of the "secret," the disclosure of which can never be final. The secret, since Indian it is empty, is also a shifting signifier. For the later are no tradition, the "secret practices" of their predecessors

not on the basis a disembodied

praxis of "fools" who longer "the secret," but rather the misguided in the text.56 The secret becomes take literally the erotic passages a more subtle and rarified entity, accessible only to a chosen few of embodied awareness

and not is on-going, Vajr?c?rya priestly couples. This process a we see a process whereby without loss. In Tibet particularly, relatively gynocentric tradition which elevated female deities and

in two comparable yet significantly different in Tibet, where the tradition became almost completely fashions, dominated institutions, and in the Kathmandu by the monastic valley, where itwas preserved and practiced by the married Newar

This process limation occurred

experience but rather on the basis of or understanding. re-articulation and sub of creative commentatorial

in sacred pilgrimage spots of the tradition, such as Tsari Mountain are supposedly the abodes of the femi Southeastern Tibet, which
seems were to have adopted occurred by Buddhist in Buddhism monastic as the transgressive institutions during tra tenth

(possibly) female practitioners to high positions was re-fashioned in an androcentric manner.57 Ultimately female practitioners were largely excluded from positions of authority, and some of the most

process ditions centuries. 56 For ish"

Yoginitantra the ninth and

example,

the eleventh travel the more

century scholar Abhay?karagupta seeking the yoginis To. internalized

disparages See 'grel is made Buddhism, monastic his vol.

as "child rather Sr?sam cha, fol.

those who

the land

in the gathering practices. rgyud

places,

than practicing 152a. 57 The Shaw

rarified,

putatantrar?jat?kamnayamanjar?-nama, for gymnocentric Enlightenment:

yogic 1198, D

argument UP

origins

for the tradition in Tantric indicate

by Miranda Princeton: of effacement

in her Passionate 1994. While as

Women do

Princeton the female

the commentaries adapted

the gradual

body

the tradition was

into the Buddhist

context,

Disclosing

the Empty Secret

443

nine deities, were closed to female adepts.58 Here too, as in the case of the Jewish mystical the tradition described by Wolfson, in the early tradition, is feminine body, which was highlighted
occulted.59

re should not seem surprising ifwe keep in mind Derrida's mark that a genealogy of secrecy "is also a history of sexuality."60 It is often denied and rarely disclosed, yet is ineradicable and re which mains

the "secret," while shiftable, cannot be fixed, but zigzags. Ironically, in the sublimated and highly refined present-day traditions the body-oriented practices re-emerge as the most secret of secrets, Yet

an important if largely invisible aspect of the living tradition.61 In order to begin to comprehend the literature of an esoteric and that we understand the textual tradition, it is essential mystical models that are operative in the tradition, which often differ signi ficantly from those informing the literature of related exoteric facets of the religion. In turn, it is also important that we understand the

Shaw's Indian argument

strong argument tradition

the agency of female practitioners in the early concerning is not well-supported For critiques of her by extant evidence. review Indian of her book Esoteric in History Tibetan of Religions 92-96. practitioners Nun: The from posi Struggle for 36.1 (1996) Buddhism,

see Liz Wilson's

and also Davidson, 60-64, 58 the general Regarding see Kim tions of authority

exclusion Gutschow,

of female Being

a Buddhist

in the Himalayas, Harvard UP 2004. On the exclusion Enlightenment Cambridge: of women from the highest levels of a popular Tibetan Cakrasamvara pilgrim The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: age route see Toni Huber, Popular Pilgrim age and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet, New York: Oxford UP 1999, chs. 6, 7. 59 See "Occultation Wolfson, 60 The Gift Jacques Derrida, of Chicago nection "From Sealed Press 1995, secrecy 3, cited and Text: between

of the Feminine," of Death, inWolfson,

in his Rending Wills, the Veil,

the Veil. 120. On University the con Wolfson,

trans. David Rending

Chicago: see Elliot

sexuality Time,

in Jewish mysticism

Hermeneutics" (New which York:

and Narrativity in Kabbalistic Memory, in Interpreting Judaism in a Postmodern ed. Steven Kepnes, Age. As in the case of Jewish New York UP, 145-78. tradition, 1996),

Book

to Open

remark and is also subject of Wolfson's secrecy inspired Derrida's analysis, are closely and sexuality linked in Tantric Buddhist traditions. 61 the ways in which sexual have been maintained by practices Regarding

444
uses

David

B. Gray

of the text, the arts of reading and commentary whereby the text is put into practice. For esoteric traditions, the concept of the secret and its disclosure role not only in this plays a pivotal but also

in the process by which the tradition grows and these texts requires what changes through time and space. Reading we might fairly term "intellectual archeology," a term particularly in light of the metaphor of the "relic" which has suf meaningful process, fused this paper. For today the Cakrasamvara Tantra itself truly is a relic, a starting point in a historical process of disclosure that has moved far beyond the text itself. In Tibetan and Newar Buddhist Tantra are not communities scriptures such as the Cakrasamvara the objects of frequent and sustained study.62 The infrequently read like a relic or object of reverence, artfully Tantras are displayed, and stored away behind and above an altar. Ensconced wrapped with them are the commentaries longer relevant relics, however, contain traces and hints that collectively the history of the tradition, yield important evidence concerning we have the requisite patience and understanding to provided that so will prove very rewarding, as it will deepen read them. Doing textual our understanding of the relationships between in mystical traditions. spiritual development David Studies USA B. textual practices and sures are no of past generations, whose disclo to contemporary communities. These

Santa Clara University of Religious Department 500 El Camino Santa Clara, dgray@scu.edu CA Real 95053,

Gray

Space:

celibate Tibetan ostensibly In Search of Female

Buddhist Identity

see June Campbell's in Traveller practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism (New York: George Braziller, which, in my even to appear experience, in the case of very pop

1996).

62 I refer here

to the Tantras

themselves, Tibetan

rarely studied ular traditions commentaries

by contemporary such as the Cakrasamvara. seem to receive

practitioners, texts and Ritual attention

far greater

relatively contemporary in these communities.