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Mysticism and Tantric Studies groups. Since this paper deals with a Tantric Buddhist
tradition, it naturally fits within the scope of Tantric Studies. However, regarding its
suitability for the field of mysticism studies, the waters are perhaps a bit more
century authors such as Evelyn Underhill, tended to ignore Asian traditions such as
Hinduism and Buddhism, and also to downplay the body, presenting “mystical
which became gradually corrupted by mystical theologies and ritual practices.1 This
paper will explore a Buddhist tradition that is arguably strongly mystical, but which
focuses on the body as the transformable site of mystical experience. In using these
(Kripal 1995:20)
to briefly address the contested status of this term. The notion that “mystical
1
For discussions of some of the implications of this tendency see Schopen 1991 and Cohen 2006.
experience” entails a special category of experience involving direct and unmediated
access to the absolute has received considerable criticism, notably by Steven Katz
(1978) and Robert Sharf (2000), while this notion has been defended by others, such as
Robert Forman (1990, 1999). Interestingly, Mahāyāna Buddhists seemingly straddle this
synthesis that came to dominate in Northern India during the time when the Buddhist
tantras were composed argued for the conditioned, and hence constructed, nature of
other traditions with strong mystical inclinations, claimed that it is possible to give rise
to direct knowledge of the absolute. Since at least the time of Dharmakīrti, many
Buddhists have also presumed a special mode of “yogic cognition” (yogajñāna), resulting
from successful meditation practice, which permits direct and unmediated experience
Buddhists as acintya, inconceivable and thus indescribable, this experience has often
In this paper I do not wish to make any special claims about the nature of
based solely upon textual sources, this essay can only address with the rhetoric of
exact content of any experiences that the meditative practices described in these texts
might engender is beyond the scope of this paper. However, insofar as the meditative
practices that will be described below do yield, on a regular basis, distinctive forms of
“religious experience,” I agree with Matthew Kapstein, who argued that experiences,
religious or otherwise, are not private and are thus reproducible by qualified agents.
Rather, “religious experiences, like aesthetic experiences, are thus second order
experiences of sound, sight, and so on, and of mental and abstract phenomena as well.”
(Kapstein 2004:287)
style of meditation practice found within the Buddhist Yoginītantras, which were
composed in India during the eighth and ninth centuries. Sometimes termed “body
body, as well as the elements of one’s sensory experience, as divine. As such, these are
based upon the classic Mahāyāna belief that our experience is indeed constructed, and
that our suffering and happiness both result from this conditioning.2 These practices
are “meditation” in the classical Buddhist sense, as they entail a transformation of the
For this tradition, this involves the “purification” of the body, or, rather, the
2
A classic expression of this idea is contained in the first chapter of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra. See Luk
2002, 13-14.
3
The term bhāvanā is usually translated as meditation, but this term can have a passive sense which
perhaps does not capture the active sense of the word, which implies a ‘cultivation’ or intentional re-
conditioning of the mind-body complex. See Carrithers 1983, 44.
of one’s self and environment with the deities of the maṇḍala. The Hevajra Tantra4 thus
All things are regarded as intrinsically pure. As a result one can speak of
their individual differentiation in terms of the deities. The six sense
powers, the six sense media, the five heaps and the five elements are
naturally pure, but they are obscured by the affliction of misknowledge
(ajñānakleśa). Their purification consists in self-experience (svasaṃvedya),
and by no other means of purification may one be released. This self-
experiencing, this bliss supreme, arises from the pure condition of the
spheres of sense. Form and so on and whatever other spheres of sense
there are, for the yogī all these appear in their purified condition, for of
Buddha nature is this world.5
This process is worked out in the sādhanas or meditation manuals. A fascinating sādhana
Cakrasamvara tradition. It begins with a meditation on the four divine abodes, and then
divine, as follows:
First the lord of yogīs should meditate on the four divine abodes. Then
one should give rise to the pride of the five aggregates. [One should see]
Vairocana in the form aggregate, Vajrasūrya in the feeling aggregate,
Padmanarteśvara in the cognition aggregate, Vajrarāja in the
conditioning aggregate, and Śrī Herukavajra in all Tathāgata states.
4
The Hevajra Tantra is an important Yoginītantra, dated by David Snellgrove to the end of the eighth
century (1959, 1.14). However, its deployment of sophisticated terminology concerning the “perfecting
stage” (niṣpannakrama) of advanced Tantric Buddhist practice suggests that it was likely composed no
earlier than the ninth century. See Davidson 2002, 65, 77-78 n. 69.
5
This is David Snellgove’s translation of the Hevajra Tantra 1.9.1-4, with emendations by me. See David
Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, vol.1, pp. 78-79 (for his translation), and vol. 2 pp. 32-33 (for his editions of
the Sanskrit and Tibetan).
6
My translation from the Sanskrit text edited in Sakurai 1998, 3.
As this text indicates, the process of purification involves the identification of central
components of self-experience with the deities of the maṇḍala. It equates the five sense
powers with five male deities, and the elements that constitute the sense objects as five
female deities. All sensation, symbolized as a sexual union between the respective
deities, is understood as being potentially productive of great bliss.7 This implies that
purification through the elimination of the underlying cause of all problems, the
whose heaps and so forth are thus purified, is naturally purified, birthlessly, as is a
magical deity, because one has purified one’s clinging to that which is of the self.”8
follow the process of the deconstruction of the self, i.e., the realization that it is devoid
of plurality, then the gnosis that is free of these conceptual factors, nirvikalpajñāna,
7
The symbolization of the contact between the sense power and sense object in terms of sexual
intercourse is not in itself a revolutionary idea peculiar to the Tantras; the sixth link in the chain of
relativity (pratītyasamutpāda) is sparśa or “contact”, referring to the contact between sense organ and
object. It was typically symbolized by a couple engaged in intercourse, and is depicted thus in the Ajanta
cave paintings, and also in written sources such as the Mūlasarvāstivādan vinaya. See Schlingloff 1988,
167-180, and also Nihom 1994, 185-86.
8
My translation from Atīśa Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna, Abhisamayavibhaṅga, To. 1490, D fol. 187b.
would presumably tend toward an experience of unity. Mistaken belief in an
independently existing self is though to yield suffering, and also yields deluded
perceptions that appear to confirm this mistaken belief. This meditation practice seeks
to undermine this conditioning by imagining self and other, subject and object, as
a gnosis of non-duality (advayajñāna), and the body is the site for this realization. That
is, the fundamental dichotomies of human experience, such as the dichotomy between
self and other, is to be resolved via meditative re-imagining of the body and its sensual
experience. Mark Taylor describes the body in a way that seems compatible with the
In Tantric praxis the body the site for the blissful integration of the dualities; an
integration effected by the union enacted in its ritual and meditative practices. While
this union seemingly violates some of the basic assumption of human experience, their
view that the subject-object distinction is false may be worthy of serious consideration.
liberation, a liberation that is characterized as blissful. This bliss arises in the body
insofar as the body mediates the subject and object, integrating the two in a state
symbolized as sexual union. In the advanced tantric practices of the perfecting stage,
this integration is achieved through the unification of energies within the body.
And to achieve this bliss, it is necessary that one attends to one’s sensual experience,
and that one cultivates it through engagement with objects of desire. For example, the
Furthermore, it is not the case that all are adept in all yogas, capable of
feasting to the extent of their ability on fish, flesh and so forth. One
should partake of the five foods and so forth with relish, even when they
are not present. At night one should always undertake extensive
feasting. Then the messenger should be bestowed. Placing one’s head in
her lap, she is worshipped in the fashion of the nondual hero.10 Whether
or not she is one’s mother, sister, daughter, kinswoman or wife, should
one do thus in accordance with the rite, one will be free of all bonds.11
A similar sentiment is expressed in the ninth chapter of this scripture, with concludes
The practitioner of love (kāmācāra)12 is given the fruit of all the powers of
mantra. He who is adept in mantra and mudrā knows that which was
9
My translation from Tsong Khapa’s bde mchog bsdus pa’i rgyud kyi rgya cher bshad pa sbas pa’i don kun gsal
ba, in the rJe yab sras gsung ‘bum, (Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1980), vol. nya, fol. 42b.
10
The Tibetan scholar Tsong Khapa takes this as referring to sexual union, arguing that “the left one is the
messenger, and placing one’s head between her thighs means placing the head of the vajra in her lotus.”
My translation from Tsong Khapa’s sbas don kun gsal, fol. 175a.
11
My translation of Cakrasamvara Tantra 33.1-4 from my forthcoming edition.
12
The tenth century commentor Bhavyakīrti defined this term as follows: “kāmācāra is the enjoyment of
all objects of desire. He who conducts himself immodestly day and night is a pr a ctitioner o f l ove.” My
translation from his (Śrīcakrasamvarapañjikā-śūramanojñā, To. 1405, D fol. 18b.
extolled by the Sugata, that enjoying the enjoyable, that is food and
drink such as the caru oblations,13 with the savors and so forth (rasādyāḥ),
is the means of achieving all powers.14
This passage is understood to refer to the achievement of great bliss through union
achieved via cultivation of the body. Regarding this Tsong Khapa wrote that:
One must increase bliss in order to produce the union of bliss and
emptiness. In order to augment the ‘jasmine-like’ [semen]15 on which
one depends since it is the support of bliss, it is necessary to expand the
sense powers together with their supports by enjoying special desired
objects. As it says in the Dvikalpa, “Since camphor is the cause, eat meat
and especially drink wine.”16
For this tradition, the cultivation of bliss resulting from engagement of sensual
In so doing, the body plays a central role, and should not thus be neglected or punished
The Tantric attitude regarding the body can probably be summed up by the
following question and answer from the Hevajra Tantra, which asks, “Without bodily
form how should there be bliss? Of bliss one could not speak. The world is pervaded by
all life forms, suggesting a parallelism with the doctrine of Buddha-nature, the innate
potential for awakening present in all beings.18 For the these Tantric traditions, then,
13
In this context the caru oblation is a consecrated food offering consumed in the context of the Tantric
feast (gaṇacakra). Typically they consist of five offerings corresponding to the five sense faculties.
14
My translation of Cakrasamvara Tantra 9.7c-8 from my forthcoming edition.
15
kunda lta bu, which, like the term camphor below, are euphemisms for semen on account of their white
color.
16
My translation from Tsong Khapa’s sbas don kun gsal, fol. 94b. Tsong Khapa here quotes three quarters
of HT kalpa 2 ch. 11 v. 15 (see Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, vol. 2, pp. 98-99. Snellgrove does not
translate this verse.
17
Translated in Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra, vol. 1 p. 92.
18
This association between bliss and awakening is clearly made in the Hevajra Tantra as follows: “There is
no being that is not enlightened, if it but knows its own true nature. The denizens of hell, the pretas and
the animals, gods and men and titans, even the worms upon the dung heap, are eternally blissful in their
Awakening is bliss, and since the goal is taken as the path, bliss is accomplished
through bliss by embodied beings, who, by virtue of their bodies, are capable of
experiencing it. And, as is often the case, this ultimate achievement was also thought to
bring worldly benefits, in this case, a healthy, youthful body. The Sarvabuddhasamayoga-
ḍākinījālāsamvara Tantra promises that “this bliss which extracts the savor (rasāyāna) of
all Buddhas achieves supreme bliss and the glorious life of Vajrasattva, youthful and
free of disease.”19 This clearly points to the centrality of the body for this tradition.
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