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Buddhism 101, Part Three |
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During each time cycle, an emanation of the
presiding Buddha of the period temporarily appears in the world to
proclaim his message of salvation to human beings. Following the death
of this "Manusi-Buddha," the presiding Jina emanates an invisible
Bodhisattva to act as the humanity’s savior until the next
Manusi-Buddha makes his appearance in the world. The iconographic diversity that was linked to each of the Jinas naturally impelled Mahayana Buddhists to create artistic representations for representing these deities. As the Mahayana pantheon grew over time, each of the Jinas became the spiritual father of an entire family of spiritual beings that included celestial bodhisattvas, goddesses and other Buddhist deities. In addition, some of Hindu gods were even integrated into Mahayana cosmology, where they occupy subordinate positions in relationship to the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon. One central component of Mahayana spiritual practice is the realization of sunyata, Sanskrit for “emptiness” or “void.” Because all phenomena are temporary and entirely dependent upon various causes and condition, everything that exists is ultimately sunyata. Even the void itself is perceived to lack an intrinsic nature or absolute value. For this reason, the Mahayana scriptures state that the nature of form is emptiness and the nature of emptiness is form. For the Mahayana Buddhist, sunyata is not merely a concept that can be intellectually understood. Something more that logic is required before one can make the leap to the other shore. Sunyata can only be realized through the performance of meditation and other spiritual exercises that can provide the practitioner with the means for experiencing the void directly. These practices are set out in the Prajnaparimita Sutra. The perfect knowledge of prajna is the "eye of clear vision" that allows the bodhisattva to realize the five virtues or “paramitas” of charity, morality, patience, strenuousness, and tranquility. In in the process of realizing Prajna, the bodhisattva learns how to use the "eye of clear vision" to perceive that the multiplicities of phenomenal existence are, in actuality, void of any intrinsic qualities or absolute natures. The end result of this realization is the dissolution of all the illusory boundaries that act to separate the knower from the knowledge to be known. The Mahayana considered Prajnaparimita to be the mother of all Buddhas because she is the body of supreme virtue that gives birth to all enlightened beings.
Borobudur's Jinas
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The Diamond Vehicle (Vajrayana) |
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Both the Theravada and the Mahayana traditions hold that enlightenment can only be attained after one has accumulated spiritual merit over the course of an innumerable number of lifetimes. Beginning in fifth century CE, however, an offshoot of the Mahayana tradition began to place a greater emphasis on spiritual practices involving the use of meditation diagrams, hand gestures, word formulas and ritual objects. The goal of these practices was to realize a way for dramatically compressing the enlightenment process so that it could be attained within a single human lifetime. By the early eighth century, this new esoteric tradition began to be known as the Vajrayana ("diamond or thunderbolt vehicle") school of Buddhism. The Vajrayana school was directly responsible for the introduction of a large number of Buddhist divinities, many of which were female. Their spiritual practices were also divided into two separate categories: a right-hand path in which procedures of an auspicious nature were performed, and a left-hand path that incorporated practices that were regarded to be inauspicious in nature. Some Vajrayana texts of the left-hand path appear to describe practices that encourage practitioners to commit one or more of the five forbidden acts set forth in the earliest Buddhist scriptures: the destruction of life, stealing, sexual misconduct, falsehood, and the use of intoxicating substances. "The adept who carnally loves the "mother," "sister" and "daughter" achieves the extensive magic (siddhi) at the true nature of the Mahayana summit," proclaims one text passage. (12) When early western scholars initially examined these "Tantric" Buddhist texts, they interpreted passages such as those ones cited above literally. As a result these texts were initially dismissed as representing a resurgence of primitive and decadent magical practices from out of India's distant past. "If at any time in the history of India the mind of the nation as a whole has been diseased, it was during the Tantric age, or the period immediately preceding the Mohammedan conquest of India. The story related in the pages of the numerous Tantric works is...so repugnant that, excepting a few, all respectable scholars have condemned them wholesale and left the field of Tantras severely alone." (13) The roots of Vajrayana Buddhism did indeed draw deeply from the wellspring India's spiritual past. In all cases, however, the composers of these Tantric texts distinctly modified their borrowings to fit their particular requirements. Moreover, this borrowing was not simply a one-way process. By that time, the Hindu religion had developed its own Tantric traditions, which even borrowed deities, mudras, magic formulas, and ritual practices from their Buddhist counterparts. The end-result of the on-going convergence eventually led to India's wholesale absorption of Vajrayana Buddhism into its Hindu Tantric traditions. In the latter half of the 20th century, western translators finally realized that the sexual components of the Vajrayana texts were actually metaphors that compared the male and female principles to be found in the phenomenal world with the changes in consciousness that take place within the practitioner's own body. This is not to say that some Buddhist practitioners did not ever implement Tantric rituals in a literal fashion. It would be foolish, however, to believe that Buddhist monks would have undergone years of extensive training simply in order to gratify desires that could have been more easily fulfilled in the outside world. |
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The Magic of the Siddhis |
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Whenever Vajrayana texts are translated into English, the Sanskrit word "siddhi" is typically replaced by the English word "magic." The Sanskrit word "mantra" is also invariably translated as "magic formula." From the modern western point of view, the word "magic" suggests primitive processes based upon unfounded superstitions that have no scientific basis in fact. This is unfortunate when the translation process leads western readers to immediately question both the purpose and the attainability of the various states of consciousness that are described in these texts. The sounding or mental visualization of phrases, words and syllables were essential components of Mahayana Buddhist practice. One of the better known mantras is "om, mani padme hum," which literally means "the jewel is in the lotus." It is the aural equivalent of the diamond scepter and bell that are featured in various Vajrayana rituals, which represent the mind union of the male and female principles, respectively. Other soundings and visualizations merely consisted of one or more syllables (bijas), the meaning of which varied depending on the context in which they were used. The human mind is continually engaged in thought processes. Some are based upon the input that the mind receives from the body's sensory organs, while others are purely mental activities. As anyone who has ever attempted meditation can attest, it is extremely difficult to get the mind to shut up and be quiet even for a moment. It is always searching for some new to chew on. The purpose of meditation is to reduce the mind chatter to its fundamental state of quiescence. Mantras provide one of the most powerful means whereby the human mind can be freed from its insatiable desire to churn various thought processes. In fact, the sounding of mantras is regarded to be so essential to spiritual practice that the Vajrayana tradition is sometimes called the Mantrayana School of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the prefix "man" means mind, while the suffix syllable "tra" means protecting. In Vajrayana Buddhism, mantras act to protect the mind from engaging in signs from sense objects as well as discursive thought. "As to how it protects, the purpose of mantra is the recitation of the mantra through non-dual engagement of means and insight. That method of cultivation generates the non-dual wisdom of voidness and compassion in the practitioner's stream of consciousness; and because of that method, it is called 'mantra.'" (14) The western mind is often bewildered by the vast array of deities that have been incorporated into the Vajrayana tradition. One needs to realize, however, that the role of divinity in this tradition is far different from how divinity is portrayed in the religious traditions of the western world. For the Christian, Jew or Muslim, God is an entity exterior to oneself, having an intrinsic and absolute existence that is totally separate from selfhood in terms of both time, space and capabilities. Vajrayana Buddhism adopts an entirely different point of view. "Why does one speak of divinity? In the body is located the body possessor; in order to comprehend, there is the 'comprehensor;' in order to comprehend one-self, there is divinity. For that reason, one speaks of divinity." (15) In addition, the Vajrayana practitioner believed mantra to represent the non-dual wisdom of bliss-void belonging to the mind of all the Buddhas. Mantra is both the deities and the calling after the characteristic of deities. For this reason, mantra is to be kept from unworthy vessels. (16) Despite the western mind's unfamiliarity with such “magical” practices, they should not merely be dismissed as superstitious hocus-pocus. Science-fiction author and mathematician Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that any suitably advanced technology is virtually indistinguishable from magic in the eyes of a less-developed culture. This particular point came to my personal attention more than twenty years ago, when an Australian friend used a helicopter to land in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea in order to demonstrate how previously isolated villages could receive TV signals through the use of a satellite dish. The result of Lindsay Jorgenson's expeditions into the wilds of Papua New Guinea aptly illustrates just how one man's science can be perceived to be another's superstition. Every time that Lindsay literally dropped out of the sky it caused a great deal of commotion amongst the villagers. His satellite demonstration kit included a collapsible dish antenna that folded like the petals of a giant flower as well as a battery-operated TV set and satellite receiver. One of the great appeals of his demonstration was that when he unfolded the dish it looked like a giant flower. At one remote village his activities attracted the particular interest of the local witch doctor. After Lindsey completed his demonstration of how the village could get TV, the witch took him aside. "Tell me," asked the witch doctor while pointing at the TV set. "Just how do you get all those people to fit inside such a small box?" |
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FOOTNOTES: (11) The names given here are based on those for the directional Buddhas in the Diamond World Mandala. We do not know the names by which the builders of Borobudur referred to the Buddhas facing the cardinal directions. However, a later Javanese text called the Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan follows the Diamond World tradition of esoteric Buddhism. (12) From the Guhyasamaja as cited in Wayman, Alex. The Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Esoterism. New York: S. Weiser (1973):191. (13) Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office (1964):vii. (14) From the Vajrasekhara-sutra as cited in Wayman 1973:64. |
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copyright 2002 borobudur.tv. All Rights Reserved. |
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Departing from
earlier
traditions, the Mahayana school integrated a number of divine beings
into its cosmology, including five celestial Buddhas called Tathagatas
or Jinas
(“Conquerors”) -- each associated with one of five super-mundane
states of awareness that all Buddhas must achieve at the time of
enlightenment. Presiding over the zenith and the cardinal directions of
east, south, west and north, each was assigned a distinct hand
gesture, color, Bodhi tree, implement and mode of celestial transport,
usually in the form of an animal as well as a specific period of cosmic
time.
