The Tree of Enlightenment
An Introduction to the Major Traditions of Buddhism
by Peter Della Santina
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Part Three
The Vajrayana
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Chapter Twenty-Two
The Origins of the Vajrayana Tradition
Let us begin by looking at the Vajrayana tradition briefly in the
context of the
Mahayana. The Mahayana tradition is divided into
two paths, the
practice of the
perfections (Paramitayana) and the
practice of the Vajrayana
(Mantrayana). The
Vajrayana is a part of
the Mahayana tradition. There is no distinction
between the two in
terms of their starting point (the experience of suffering) and their
goal (Buddhahood).
The only difference is in methodology:
whereas accomplishment of the
path of the
perfections requires
three eons, the methods of the Vajrayana enable
one to accelerate
development and thereby progress more rapidly along the path.
There are three names by which the Vajrayana tradition isbest
known:
Vajrayana,
Mantrayana, and Tantrayana. Vajrayana
is the way of the adamant, or
diamond. Vajra
means diamond, the
substance more durable than any other. The vajra is
also the
thunderbolt or scepter wielded by Indra, the king of the
Brahmanical
gods. The vajra is
therefore a symbol of
indestructibility and also of mastery over the
universe.
A mantra is a short formula that generally has three purposes.
First,
it is used as an aid to
concentration. Just as one can use one's
breath, an image of the
Buddha, a blue flower, or
an idea as an
object on which to concentrate one's mind, so one can use
the
sound of a
mantra. Second, it is an aid to memory. When one
recites the mantra, Om
mani padme
hum, for example, one
remembers not only the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara but also
skillful means and wisdom, and the necessity of uniting them. Third,
a
mantra has the
power to enhance one's spiritual development, in
that the repeated use
of mantras by
meditation masters over many
centuries has charged these mantras with a
particular
potency. The
word mantra is composed of two parts: man comes from the
term
manas,
which means 'mind,' and tra from tranam, 'to protect.'
Mantra therefore
means
'something that protects the mind.' In
general, it also means the
esoteric or secret
vehicle.
Tantra means the extension or continuity of knowledge.
Literally,
tantra is derived from
the continuity of a thread in a fabric;
by implication, it means
following the thread of
knowledge
continuously and thus extending it to encompass all
knowledge.
A distinction can be drawn between the literature of the
Vajrayana and
the literature of
the Mahayana proper. Just as the
Mahayana tradition is composed of the
Paramitayana
and
Vajrayana, so Mahayana literature is composed of the sutras and
tantras. Both the
sutras and tantras are believed to have been
spoken by the Buddha, and
they form the
canonical literature of the
Mahayana and Vajrayana, respectively. There
are a large
number
of tantras; some of the more important ones are the Guhyasamaja
Tantra (The
Collection of the Hidden or Secret Meaning), the
Hevajra Tantra (The
Tantra of
Adamantine Bliss), and the
Kalachakra Tantra (The Tantra of the Wheel
of Time). In
addition
to the tantras, the Vajrayana tradition recognizes a large
amount of
commentarial
literature attributed to Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti,
and also to the
eighty-four men of
great attainment, or
Mahasiddhas.
Let us spend a moment on the origins of the tantras, since it is
often
asked whether they
were indeed taught by the Buddha. From
the very beginning of the
Buddhist tradition, it
was common for the
Buddha to give teachings in all kinds of unusual
circumstances.
Sometimes he taught in response to the request of a god or another
supra-human being,
and even the Abhidharma is believed to have
been taught by the Buddha
to his mother
after her death, when she
was residing in the Heaven of the
Thirty-Three. In the
Mahayana
tradition, it is generally accepted that Mahayana masters can
receive
instruction through extraordinary means. For example, the
fundamental
texts of the Mind
Only school are said to have been
taught to Asanga by the future Buddha
Maitreya (see
Chapter 19).
The tantras are said to have been transmitted in a similar way. The
tantras are not
unreasonable if we examine them carefully.
They do not contradict the
meaning of other
Buddhist scriptures, as
will become apparent in the chapters that
follow. If the Buddha
did
not teach the tantras at once to everyone, surely it was because
not
everyone is able to
appreciate their true significance. In the light of
these
considerations, there is no
reasonable doubt that the
Vajrayana literature is authentic.
The Vajrayana arose as a result of the evolution of three
currents of
thought--currents
that were already present even in the
Buddha's own day. These were (1)
the democraticcurrent, (2) the
magical or ritual current, and (3) the symbolic
current. The
democratic
current sought to avail lay people of the highest fruitsof
religious
life, such as
enlightenment. An example of the democratic
current at work in the
early period of the
Buddhist tradition is the
attainment of Arhatship by the Buddha's
father, Shuddhodana
while
still a layman. In the Mahayana tradition, this current was
accelerated and
amplified, so that the figure of the householder
Bodhisattva became the
norm.
Examples of the magical or ritual
current occur in accounts in the Pali
canon. We find
the Buddha
pronouncing formulas of protection against snakebite and the
perils
of
childbirth. There is also an account of the Buddha's conversion
of a
queen, Kshema, in
which the Buddha creates the vision of a
lovely maiden who, as Kshema
watches,
becomes old and decrepit
in a matter of moments. In this case the
Buddha used
extraordinary powers to create an apparition that would teach the
truth
of impermanence.
This happens with great frequency in
Mahayana literature, where we find
the Buddha
assuming various
forms in order to teach. In the Mahayana, too, there
is an
increasing use
of dharanis (verbal formulas that are precursors of
mantras), as well
as the continuation of
various rituals of the early
Buddhist period, particularly ordination
rituals like the
removal of
the hair and donning of yellow robes.
The use of symbols was also present in the Buddhist tradition
from the
earliest period.
For example, the symbol of the wheel was
used to indicate the Dharma,
and the symbol
of the lute was used
to explain the Middle Way. In the Mahayana, this
use of symbols
continued to play an important role. In these three currents of
thought
and action--the
democratic, magic or ritual, and
symbolic--we have the main streams
that contributed to
the growth
of the Vajrayana tradition.
The phenomenon that we now identify as the Vajrayana
tradition
originated in India
between the third and seventh century
C.E. By the seventh century, the
Vajrayana was
flourishing
throughout India. Nagarjuna and Asanga played a major role
in its
growth at
the outset; later, the Vajrayana tradition was greatly
influenced by
the eighty-four
Mahasiddhas. You may be surprised
to find the names of Nagarjuna and
Asanga
occurring in this
context, but the Vajrayana tradition is unanimous in
calling them its
founders. We will understand why this is true from the conceptual
point
of view when we
examine the philosophical and religious
background of the Vajrayana in
Chapter 23. For
now, let us look
at the traditional biographies of Nagarjuna and
Asanga, which will
help
us understand the environment in which the Vajrayana
originated and
developed.
According to the traditional Tibetan
biographies of Nagarjuna, it was
predicted that he
would not
survive beyond the age of seven. The biographies tell us
that, when
the boy's
seventh birthday drew near, his parents, unwilling to
watch him die,
sent him away with
companions and provisions on
an extended journey. The accounts say that
Nagarjuna
proceeded
north and eventually reached Nalanda University. There
Nagarjuna
met an
adept professor by the name of Saraha. When Saraha
heard of Nagarjuna's
predicted
early demise, he counseled him to
recite the mantra of Aparamitayus,
the Buddha of
Limitless Life.
After reciting the mantra throughout the night of his
seventh
birthday,
Nagarjuna escaped the death that had been predicted for
him.
Whether or not we want to credit this account as history, we
can learn
something rather
important about the climate in which it
was accepted as
biography--namely, that it was
one in which mantras were believed to have the power to influence
reality.
In the biographies of Nagarjuna we also learn that, during a famine, he
sustained his
colleagues in the monastery by transforming ordinary, base objects into
gold. Here we
have an example of the symbolism of alchemy. This symbolism became
important in the
Vajrayana tradition because just as the alchemist transforms base
objects into gold, so the
Vajrayana adept transforms the impure and defiled experience of
ordinary human beings
into the experience of enlightenment.
If we look at the biographies of Asanga, we find very
revealing stories
there as well.
According to these texts, Asanga retired to a cave to meditate on the
future Buddha
Maitreya, practicing for three years without success. Discouraged, he
left the cave at the
end of the third year and almost immediately came upon a man rubbing a
piece of iron
with a feather. When Asanga asked him what he was doing, the man said
he was making
a needle. Asanga thought that if people had such patience even in
worldly tasks, perhaps
he had been too hasty in abandoning his practice, so he returned to
the
cave and
continued with his meditation.
Asanga meditated for twelve years in all without having any direct
experience of
Maitreya. At the end of the twelfth year, he once again left the cave.
This time he came
upon a dog lying ill by the side of the path, his body covered with
festering wounds in
which maggots were feeding. Having meditated on Maitreya for twelve
years and thereby
having developed great compassion, Asanga immediately wished to ease
the suffering of
the dog. He thought of removing the maggots but reflected that if he
were to use his
fingers, he would injure them. In order not to injure the maggots and
yet relieve the dog,
he bent down to remove the maggots with his tongue. The moment he did
so, the dog
disappeared into a burst of rainbow-colored light and the Bodhisattva
Maitreya appeared
before him.
Asanga asked, 'Where have you been all these years?' to
which Maitreya
replied, 'I have
been with you all along--it is just that you were not able to see me.
Only when you had
developed your compassion and purified your mind sufficiently were you
able to see
me.' To demonstrate the truth of this, he asked Asanga to take him on
his shoulders and
walk through the village. Nobody saw anything on Asanga's shoulders
except for one old
woman, who asked him, 'What are you doing carrying that sick dog?'
Thus, in the biographies of Asanga, we find another important truth:
that
whatever we
experience--the whole of reality--depends on the condition of our
minds.
In the biographies of these two founding fathers, we can see various
elements that are
important to the Vajrayana tradition: the magical or ritual element,
the alchemical
element, and the element of the apparitional, or mind-dependent, nature
of reality.
While Nagarjuna and Asanga are credited with being the founding fathers
of Vajrayana,
the eighty-four men of great attainment, or Mahasiddhas, undoubtedly
performed the
work of disseminating the Vajrayana throughout India. These men were
examples of a
new kind of religious personality. Not necessarily monks of orthodox
Buddhism or
priests of the old Brahmanism, these figures who played principal roles
in the spread of
Vajryana were laymen, naked ascetics, boatmen, potters, and
kings. If
we look at the
accounts of these new heroes' lives and times, we will appreciate the
spiritual climate that
existed in India during the rise of the Vajrayana tradition. Let us
look at the
biographies
of two of these Mahasiddhas, Virupa and Naropa.
Virupa is responsible for the origin and transmission of many important
Vajrayana
teachings. He was a professor at Nalanda University, where he taught
philosophy all day
and practiced Vajrayana all night. He practiced for years and recited
thousands of mantras
without success. Finally, he got fed up and threw his rosary into a
latrine. The next night,
while Virupa was sleeping, a vision of Nairatmya, a goddess of
insubstantiality, appeared
before him and told him that he had been reciting the mantra of the
wrong deity. The next
day Virupa retrieved his rosary from the latrine and went back to the
Vajrayana, reciting
and practicing the meditation on the Goddess Nairatmya. He achieved
success in his
practice and left his professorial post, wandering as a naked yogi
throughout India.
Three important things are said of Virupa: he is said to have stopped
the flow of the
Ganges River so that he might cross it; to have drunk wine for three
days nonstop in a
wine shop; and to have held the sun immobile in the sky all the while.
What do these
feats mean? Stopping the flow of the Ganges means stopping the river of
the afflictions,
breaking the cycle of birth and death. Drinking wine for three days
means enjoying the
supreme bliss of emancipation. Holding the sun immobile in the sky
means holding the
light of the mind in the sky of omniscience.
In the biographies of Virupa, we have an indication of the premium that
the Vajrayana
places on experiential or direct knowledge. Virupa was a professor at
Nalanda University,
but that was not enough. In addition to the knowledge he acquired
through study, he had
to acquire direct, immediate knowledge in order to realize the truth
for himself.
The same theme is evident in the biography of Naropa, who was also a
professor at
Nalanda. One day, while he was sitting in his cell surrounded by his
books, an old woman
appeared and asked him whether he understood the letter of the teaching
contained in all
his books. Naropa replied that he did. The woman was very pleased and
then asked
whether he understood the spirit of the teaching as well. Naropa
thought that since she
had been so pleased with his earlier answer, he would reply that he
also understood the
spirit of the teaching contained in the books. But the old woman then
became angry, and
said that although the first time he had told the truth, the second
time he had lied. The old
woman was Vajravarahi, another goddess of
insubstantiality. As a
consequence of the
disclosure that he did not understand the spirit of what he had read,
Naropa, too, left his
professorial post and went forth as a seeker of the truth.
Let us conclude by looking at a few ideas from verses that are
attributed to the
Mahasiddhas. In these verses we see the new type of religious
personality that they
exemplified. We also see the use of various symbols to convey the
importance of the
transcendence of duality.
The first verse is as follows:
Dombi,(the name of an outcast woman) your hut lies outside the village.
You are touched
by the bald-headed and by the caste-conscious Brahmin. I am a naked
Kapalika, an
ascetic who wears a garland of skulls. I have no prejudices. I will
take you for
my maid.
Here 'Dombi' is a symbol of Nairatmya, a goddess of
insubstantiality.
'Your hut lies outside the village' means that, in order to really
understand emptiness,
one has to transcend conventional limitations. The rest of the verse
means that, although
emptiness may be touched by monks and Brahmins, only the yogi--the new
type of
religious figure who has no prejudices--can make emptiness his maid,
that is, identify
with emptiness.
A second example runs:
The wine woman brews her wine. The wine drinker sees the
sign on the
tenth door of the
wine shop, and enters.
Here 'the wine woman' is a symbol of Nairatmya. 'Wine' is the wine of
nonduality,
of going beyond this and that. 'The sign on the tenth door' means the
tenth stage of the
Bodhisattva path, the threshold of Buddhahood. Thus the verse means
that the wine
drinker enters the door of Buddhahood through abiding in nonduality.
With the increasing popularity of magic, ritual, and symbolism, and the
gathering
strength of the democratic currents that promised the highest fruits of
religion to all types
of persons, the Vajrayana became exceedingly widespread throughout
India within the
space of a few centuries.
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Contents
|
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11
| 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41
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Update : 11-05-2002
