Jiabs 21-2

Journal of the International Association of
Buddhist Studies
Volume 21. Number 2.1998
PIERRE ARENES
Hermeneutique des tantra:
etude de quelques usages du sens cache
GEORGES DREYFUS
173
The Shuk-den Mfair: History and Nature of a Quarrel 227
ROBERT MAYER
The Figure of Mahesvara/Rudra
in the rNiiJ.-ma-paTantric Tradition
JOHNNEWMAN
Islam in the Kruacakra Tantra
MAXNIHOM
Vajravinaya and VajraSauJ?<J.a:
A 'Ghost' Goddess and her Syncretic Spouse
'fll.,MANN VETTER
Explanations of dukkha
Index to JIABS 11-21, by Torn TOMABECHI
English summary of the article by P. Arenes
271
311
373
383
389
409
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub
Tom J.F. Tillemans
Editors-in-Chief
Robert Buswell
Steven Collins
Collett Cox
Luis O. Gomez
Paul Harrison
Oskar von Hiniiber
Roger Jackson
Padmanabh S. Jaini
Shoryu Katsura
Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Alexander Macdonald
D. Seyfort Ruegg
Robert Sharf
Ernst Steinkellner
Erik Zurcher
Editorial Assistant:
Yves Ramseier
JIABS 21.2
Contributors to this issue:
Pierre ARENES, Doctorate in Indian Studies from the University of
Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), researcher at the Centre National de Ia
Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, equipe 1229). Author of La deesse
sGrol-ma (Tiirii), Louvain 1996.
Georges DREYFUS is Associate Professor in the Department of Reli-
gion at Williams College. He is the author of Recognizing Reality:
Dharmaklrti's Philosophy and its Tibetan Interpretations and of several
articles on a variety of topics pertaining to Buddhist and Tibetan studies.
He is currently engaged in writing a book on Tibetan monastic educa-
tion.
Robert MAYER (together with his wife Cathy Cantwell) has been at the
Universities of Kent since 1994 and Wales since 1995. His research
interests include the processes by which new religious forms are gene-
rated and the processes of Buddhist scriptural revelation. He is also
engaged in the study of the rNili ma'i rgyud 'bum, and is co-director
with D. Germano of the Nyingma Tantras Research Project. He is the
author of A Scripture of the Ancient Tantra Collection. The Phur-pa
bcu-gnyis, a study of canonicity and scriptural revelation.
John NEWMAN completed the Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin - Madison. He is currently the John T. and Catherine
D. MacArthur Associate Professor of Asian Religions at New College,
the honors college of the Florida state university system. His research
centers on Indian and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, in particular the
history and doctrines of the Kalacakra tantra system.
Max NIHOM: A.B. Linguistics/ Anthropology, University of California,
Berkeley; D.Litt., Indology, Instituut Kern, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden;
'Habilitation': Institut fiir Indologie, Universitat Wien. Interests: Tantra,
Cultural and Intellectual History of South and South-East Asia, Old
Javanese Literature.
Tilmann VETTER, born in 1937, is currently professor of Buddhology,
Indian philosophy and Tibetology at Leiden University. His publications
include Erkenntnisprobleme bei Dharmakfrti (Wien 1964), Studien zur
Lehre und Entwicklung Sankaras (Wien 1979), and The Ideas and Medi-
tative Practices of Early Buddhism (Lei den 1988). He is presently
preparing a book on the khandha passages in the Vinayapitaka and the
four main Nikiiyas.
PIERRE ARENES
Hermeneutique des tantra:
etude de qil:e1ques usages du sens cache*
DU SENS CACHE (GARBHYARTHA; SEAS DON), DE SA FONCTION
ACROAMATIQUEIPOUR L'ENSEIGNEMENT DES TANTRA, DE SON
USAGE COMME SENS ACCOMMODATICE DANS CERTAINS TEXTES
CANONIQUES TRANSITIONNELS OU HYBRIDES
Si, parfois, l'interet speculatif que suscite la subtilite de la pensee bouddhiste,
peut faire oublier l'usage et la destination des textes qui l'exposent, souvent,
les difficultes que souleve cette meme subtilite nous rappellent que leur
premier usage, leur premiere destination n' est pas de constituer l' objet d' etude
des philologues, historiens des religions, indianistes ou tibetologues.
En effet, que l' <<intente2 du texte nous vienne a manquer, nous
contraignant d'avoir recours au meta-texte, a l'herrneneutique, ou au contexte
doctrinal, culturel ou historique, nous voila alors tenus de considerer ce qui
justifie, encadre Ie texte et lui donne son sens : Ie hors texte. Si, outre signifier,
Ia fonction d'un texte est aussi de communiquer,3 elle l'est a fortiori dans Ie
bouddhisme, ou Ie texte est un enseignement qui s'inscrit dans une
perspective soteriologique.
Assurer l' aboutissement de l' acte de signifier exige de tenir compte non
seulement de l' ensemble de la doctrine mais aussi de la maturite spirituelle du
destinataire et encore des fins, eventuellement perlocutoires, que I' on se
propose. Ainsi, quand on est dans l' obligation de s' adresser a plusieurs types
de publics et qu' on envisage plusieurs destinataires, on peut soit composer
plusieurs discours, soit faire en sorte que Ie discours que l'on tient ait plusieurs
sens. On peut aussi utiliser un discours deja existant, compose. a l'intention
d'un public particulier et Ie reinterpreter, voire Ie <<traduire, en vue d'un
nouveau public. On peut encore envisager de faire cela, non pas pour un
public nouveau mais pour un meme public dont les qualites et la maturite
auraient evolue : dans ce cas, pour introduire ce meme public a un autre sens,
utiliser un texte auquel il aurait ete deja accoutume, presenterait des avantages
p6dagogiques certains. Ce passage, pour un meme texte, d'un sens a l'autre,
accompagnerait, en quelque sorte, l'evolution d'un public.
* For an English summary of this article, see p. 409.
1. 1. e. reserve a un public restreint de disciples dotes de la maturite et des qualites
requises (cf. A. LALANDE: Vocabulaire technique et critique de la Philosophie,
Paris: P.U.F. 1976 (reed.), pp.16-17, 297-298).
2. C'est a dire, selon E. BENVENISTE, ce que Ie locuteur veut dire, l'actualisation
linguistique de sa pensee (Problemes de linguistique generale n, Paris: Galli-
mard 1966, p. 225).
3. Cf. E. BENVENISTE, op. cit., p. 63 et ss.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
Volume 21. Number 2 .1998
nABS 21.2 174
Certains textes canoniques qui ont. ete commentes selon Ie sens ,?ache
(garbhyartha; sbas don) en fonction de sens accommodatice
4
et dont Ie
c1assement incertain comme sutra ou comme tantra a ete l' ~ b j e t de con-
troverse
s
, pourraient, au moins dans quelques cas, avoir ete utilises pour
repondre it un tel besoin.
Le sens cache (garbhyartha; sbas don) a-t-il ete applique it. des
textes qui n'etaient pas des tantra ou qui n'etaient pas des tantra aux-
quels il etait applicable? A-t-il ete, dans un souci didactico-soterio-
logique, (legitimement?) employe aussi comme moyen hermeneutique
particulierement souple, susceptible d' assurer une transition aisee entre
la pratique des sutra et celIe des tantra ou entre celIe des tantra infe-
rieurs et celIe des tantra superieurs?
Qu'en est-il?
Pour tenter de repondre it cette question et etudier l' application du
sens cache it un sutra et it un tantra dans Ie cadre etroit limite par Ie
petit nombre de textes canoniques accessibles, de nature hybride ou
ambigue
6
et ayant fait I'objet de commentaires en sens cache, nos
choix ont essaye de repondre it un souci de coherence et de commodite:
des auteurs assez tardifs, heritiers d'une tradition de commentaires
permettant de disposer d'une perspective historique, mais assez proches
les uns des autres du point de vue chronologique, pour maintenir une
relative homogeneite diachronique.
4. De sens accommodatice, i.e. un texte auquel, a posteriori, un sens autre que Ie
sens obvie aurait ete attribue par quelqu'un a la fois connaissant precisement les
pratiques de l' anuttarayogatantra et assez habile pour, en operant une lecture
selective de ce texte, y discerner / dessiner une description metaphorique de ces
pratiques; on peut aussi envisager que ce texte ait pu etre compose de maniere a
en permettre deux lectures, la seconde n'etant accessible qu'a l'auteur lui-meme
ou a tout autre personne autorisee et disposant des cles d'interpretation. Nous
n'avons retenu de la definition du terme accommodatice, applique habituelle-
ment a l'un des quatre sens de l'hermeneutique biblique, que ce qui est indique
par son etymologie meme (cf. A. LALANDE, op. cit., pp.14 et 37).
5. Cf. L. RENOU et J. FILLIOZAT et alii: L'Inde classique, Manuel des etudes
indiennes, Paris: Ecole Fran9aise d'Extreme-Orient 1985 (lere ed. 1953), t. II,
pp. 374-375, au sujet du fait qu'un certain nombre de sutra represente des formes
de passage entre les sutra anciens et la litterature tantrique, d'autres, quoique
intitules sutra, sont, en fait, des tantra.
6. I.e. sutra ou tantra ou bien encore sutra contenant un ou des mantra; ces diffe-
rents points (textes hybrides ou classes de plusieurs manieres, textes commentes
et commentaires) seront developpes et precises plus loin.
ARENES 175
Pour cela, il nous a semble utile d'examiner l'explication en sens
each d'un tantra bien particulier, l' BIage en Vingt et un Hommage a
Tara (Namastare ekavif!lsati-stotra)7, et d'un sutra, lui aussi bien parti-
culier, le Sutra du C(Eur de Ia Perfection de Sapience, (Prajiiaparamita-
hrdayasutra)', deux textes canoniques dont Ie classement (sutra/ tantra
au tantra inferieurs/superieurs) est controverse; pour ce faire, nous
avons ete amenes a etudier quelques ouvrages de doxographes et
exegetes des XVIIe et XVIIIe s., Taranatha (1575-1635), Gun than 'Jam
pa'i dbyans (1762-1823) et dBal man
8
dKon mchog rGyal mtshan
(1764-1853).
En ce qui conceme l' application du sens cacM a un sutra, Gun than
'Jam pa'i dbyans se trouve etre I'auteur d'un expose elegant et relative-
ment developpe portant sur Ie sujet. Min d' eclairer son propos, nous
avons choisi d' etudier les conceptions des quatre explications et du
sens each que se faisait un de ses contemporains de la meme ecole,
dBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan. Quant a l'application du sens
cache a un tantra dont la classification faisait l' objet de polemique,
notre ignorance d'autres exempies aisement accessibles ainsi que l'interet
qu'il presentait, nous ont conduit a avoir recours a un auteur moins
tardif, Taranatha.
En ce qui conceme l'historien tibetain bien connu, Taranatha, c'est
donc seulement en tant qu'exegete tantrique qu'il sera cite ici : nous etu-
dierons de son commentaire, Ie sGroI ma'j 'grel pa
9
, I'explication en
sens cach (sbas don) d'un tantra, Les Vingt et un Hommage a
Tara.
7. Bien que les auteurs tiMtains aient rendu Ie titre sanskrit (parfois en l'abregeant)
par sGroi rna'i bstod pa phyags 'tshal ni su rtsa gcig rna (mKhas grub rje) ou
sGroi rna ner gcig gi bstod pa (dGe 'dun grub pa) ou bien sGroi mar phyags
'tshal ner gcig gis bstod pa (dNul chu Dharmabhadra) ou encore Phyags 'tshal
ner gcig gi bstod pa (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) (cf. P. ARENES, La Deesse sGroI
rna (Tara), Orientalia Analecta Lovaniensia, Louvain: Peeters 1996, pp. 205,
275,278,395,401-402), il s'agit bien sur de Vingt et un Hommage a [toi 6]
Tara, Narnastare etant une traduction d'incipit (tare = vocatif).
8. Bien que, depuis A. I. VOSTRIKOV (cf. infra n.lO), une graphie corrigee (dPal
mail), ait ete en usage chez les specialistes, l' orthographe correcte du nom de cet
auteur est dBal mail.
9. Collected Works, vo1.12, Sman rtsis shesrig Dpe mjod [sic], Leh 1985, ff 553-
581. Le texte utilise ici est sans mention d'editeur; en ce qui conceme Taranatha et
ce commentaire (presentation, traduction, etc.), v. P. ARENES, op. cit., pp. 332-
381.
JIABS 21.2 176
Gun than dKon mchog bsTan pa'i sgron melD, appele aussi Gun.than
'Jam pa'i dbyans, fut un maitre eminent et erudit polygraphe de l'ecole
dGe lugs pa. Disciple du second 'Jam dbyails Mad pa, dKon m,chog 'Jigs
med dban po (1728-1791)11, il fit ses etudes au monastere de 'Bras
spuns et fut intronise, en 1792,. 2le abbe du fameux monastere de
l' Amdo, Bla bran bKra sis 'lchyil12; nous nous interesserons ici a s.on
ouvrage sur Ie sens cache du Hrdayasutra, Ie Commentaire du Ca:ur
de la Sapience qui en eclaire Ie Sens cache!3.
Contemporain de Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans, dBal man dKon mchog
rgyal mtshan!4, lui aussi eminent polygraphe de l'ecole dGe lugs pa,
egalement disciple du 2e 'Jam dbyans Mad pa, et 24e abbe du meme
monastere est evoque ici pour un chapitre de son ouvrage Expose du sens
general des quatre classes de tantra [appelel porte des mantra!5.
10. II existe de nombreuses biographies de ce maitre: 'Jam dbymis bla rna rje btsun
dkon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me'i mam par thar pa brjod pa 'i gtam dad pa 'i
padma Mad pa 'i fUn byed par elBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan (Collected
Works of dBal man dkon mchog rGyal mtshan, vol. VI); rJe bla rna mtshan
brjod par dga' ba dkon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me dpal bzmi po'i rtogs pa
brjod pa no mtshar lha'i rol mo mkhas pa'i yid 'phrog par rGyal mkhan po
Grags pa rgyal mtshan (1762-1837) (Collected Works, vol. V) qui aurait aussi
compose du meme, deux biographies secretes (cf. A. I. VOSTRIKOV, Tibetan
Historical literature, Soviet Indology Series 4, Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and
Present 1970, p. 225); D. SEYFORT RUEGG, "Some Reflections on the Place of
Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism", JIABS 18.2 (1995): 170-171; E. STEIN-
KELLNER, "Literary source for late 18th-century spoken Tibetan (amdowa)", Acta
Orientalia t. XXXIV (1980): 246.
11. Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans a compose deux biographies de dKon mchog 'Jigs
med dban po: Dus gsum rgyal ba'i spyi gzugs rje .btsun dkon mchog 'jigs med
dban po 'i tal sna nas kyi mam par thar pa rgyal sras rgya mtsho 'i 'jug nogs et
rJe btsun dkon mchog 'jigs med dban po'i mam thar (la seconde est une bio-
graphie secrete: cf. A.I. VOSTRIKOV, op. cit., p.90).
12. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER, ibid.
13. Ses rab sfiin po'i snags kyi mam Mad sbas don gsal ba sgron me, dans The
Collected Works of Gun-than dKon-mchog bstan-pa'i sgron-me, vol. 1, pp. 682-
715, New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo 1971.
14. V. sa biographie detaillee, Yon rdzogs bstan pa'i mna' bdag rje btsun bla rna
rdo rje 'chan dkon mchog rgyal mtshan dpal bzan po'i tal sna nas kyi mam
thar 'dod 'jug nogs par son disciple, Ie 2ge abbe de Bla bran, Brag dgon iabs
drun dKon mchog bsTan pa rab rgyas (Collected Works of dBal man dKon
mchog rGyal mtshan, vol. 10 - v. A.I. VOSTRIKOV, ibid., p. 88).
15. rGyud sde bti'i spyi'i don mam par btag pa snags pa'i 'jug pa'i sgo, vol. 5,
The Collected Works of dBal man dKon mchog rGyal mtshan, reproduction de
ARENES 177
I. LE SENS CACHE (GARBHYARTHA; SBAS DON) ET LA
TRADITION HERMENEUTIQUE BOUDDHISTE
Le sens cache a ete aborde brievement dans Ie cadre d' etudes gene-
rales consacrees aux sept omements mais n'a pas fait, jusqu'a present,
l'objet d'etude detaillee. Nous rappellerons d'abord son contexte herme-
neutique puis nous etudierons sa definition theorique et son application.
Le sens cache est Ie troisieme element d'un ensemble appele Ies
quatre explications (caturvidhakhyiiyikii; bsad tshul bii) qui, elles-
memes, font partie d' appareils hermeneutiques, les sept omements
(saptiilaY[Lkiira; rgyan bdun) connus dans la tradition bouddhiste
indienne et tibetaine pour etre appliques aux tantra
16
Rappelons d'abord
quelques traits significatifs de l'hermeneutique bouddhiste.
1. Hermeneutique: rappel de quelques faits importants pour la compre-
hension du sens cache
1.1. Necessite et origine de l'hermeneutique bouddhiste
Dans Ie bouddhisme indien, Ia critique d'interpretation
17
et Ies systemes
hermeneutiques se sont developpes en raison de l'ampleur et la diversite
de la litterature canonique, pour maintenir une necessaire coherence
entre de nombreux textes qui presentent des contradictions ou meme des
differences notables dans la maniere de traiter un sujet; certains textes
sont a prendre ala lettre, d'autres doivent etre interpretes pour ne pas
l' edition de A mchog dGa' ldan chos 'khor glin, Gyal tan Gelek Nam gyal, New
Delhi: 1974.
16. Les six possibilites alternatives mtha' drug) qui forment Ie troisieme
ornement, sont deja connus de I'exegese non tantrique mais les termes y ont
des acceptions etJou usages differents (cf. E. LAMOTTE: "La Critique d'interpreta-
tion dans Ie bouddhisme", Annuaire de l'lnstitut de philologie et d'Histoire
Orientale et Slave 9 (1949): 341-361; E. STEINKELLNER: "Remarks on Tantristic
Hermeneutics", Proceedings of the Csoma de Karas Memorial Symposium,
edited by Louis Ligeti, Akaderniai Kiado, Budapest 1978: 451; M. BROIDO:
"bShad thabs: Some Tibetan Methods of Explaining the Tantras", dans Contribu-
tions on Tibetan and Buddhist Religion and Philosophy, ed. par E. STEIN-
KELLNER et H. TAUSCHER, Vienne 1983: 21); il faut noter que Sa skya PaJ}.c;lita
Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) semble ne pas reserver I'usage des
(mtha' drug) aux tantra (cf. D. SEYFORT RUEGG: "Purport, Implicature and
Presupposition: Sanskrit abhipriiya and Tibetan dgongs pa / dgongs gii as
hermeneutical concepts", Journal of Indian Philosophy 13 (1985): 311.)
17. Pour I'hermeneutique des satra, cf. E. LAMOTTE, op. cit., pp. 341-361.
JIABS 21.2 178
etre en contradiction avec Ie reste de Ia doctrine
l8
, non Ia
qualification d'un meme texte peut etre differente suivant Ies ecoles
19
mais, pour la meme ecole, un meme texte, peut etre compris ,de diverses
manieres
2o
.
Cette incoherence apparente. recouvre une disparite de nature des
messages et correspond a une diversite de situation de communication.
Lei; textes consideres comme paroles de buddha (buddhavacana) ne sont
pas a rapporter a un critere de verite, absolu, independant de toute con-
tingence, valable pour tous, en toutes circonstances. Ce qui est determi-
nant, c'est Ia validite soteriologique de ces enseignements; Ia parole des
18. Par exemple, les dix actions non vertueuses (karmapatha) sont presentees
comme telles dans l'Abhidharmakosa (IV. 68-74) mais six d'entre e1les sont
recommandees dans Ie Kalacakratantra (cf. M. BROmO, "Killing, Lying,
Stealing and Adultery: A Problem of Interpretation in the Tantras", in Buddhist
Hermeneutics, edited by Donald S. LOPEZ, Honolulu: Kuroda Institute Univer-
sity of Hawal Press 1988, p.71). Ainsi, CandrakIrti dans Ie Pradfpoddyotana,
evoque Ie cas de yogins qui, prenant ala lettre certains enseignements, se livraient
a l'inconduite (cf. R. THURMAN: "Vajra Hermeneutics" in Buddhist Hermeneu-
tics, p. 127); D. SEYFORT RUEGG: "Deux Problemes d'exegese et de pratique
tantriques selon DlpaIpkarasrljiiana et Ie de Yavadvlpa: Suvarl).a-
dvlpa", in M. Strickmann (ed.), Tantric and Taoist studies in Honour of R. A.
Stein, vol. 1, Melanges chinois et bouddhiques vol. XX, Bruxelles: Institut beIge
des Hautes etudes chinoises 1981, pp. 214,219,222,223.
19. Cf. P. ARENES: "Problemes d'interpretation des textes canoniques", in op. cit.,
pp. 292-293; 1. I. CABEZON: Buddhism and language. A Study of Indo-Tibetan
Scholasticism, State Univ. of New York Press, Albany 1994, p. 58: (cit. du DraTi
Ties rnam 'byed legs Mad sfiiri po dka' gnad rnams mchan bur bkod pa gzur
gnas dka' ston de Geshe T. Rabten - Notes sur Ie Legs Mad sfiiTi po de TsoiJ.
kha pa): "It is impossible to elucidate (the status of a scripture) simply (by relying
upon) another text which says "this (scriptural passage) is of definitive meaning"
(nftartha; nges don) because, (were this the case), it would have been pointless
for all the Mahayanists to have composed so many commentaries. Moreover,
there are many disagreements between the very texts which say that they settle
(the question of what is of) definitive and what is of provisional meaning
(neyartha; drang don)"; ibid., p. 63, (cit.du Drari Ties legs Mad sfiiTi po de TsoiJ.
kha pa, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1987 - cit. du Saf!ldhinirmocanasiitra): "We
see that in some siitras (the Lord) says that all phenomena lack an essence
(svabhava). In others, the own characteristic of the aggregates, etc.,
are said to exist. When we compare these two statements, a contradiction arises,
and since there should be no contradictions, I ask (the Lord): with what intention
did you state that essences do not exist?"
20. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER, op. cit. (1978), p. 447; M. BROmO, "bShad thabs [ .. T,
p. 21; R. THURMAN, op. cit., pp.141-142.
ARENES 179
buddha, pour pouvoir etre comprise et mise en pratique, doit etre en
accord avec Ie degre d'intelligence et de realisation spirituelle des dif-
ferentes sortes d'etres
21
; et cela, aussi bien pour les sutra
22
que pour les
tantra qui nous interessent plus particulierement ici. Celui qui reintro-
duit un ordre dans cette disparite apparente, c' est Ie maitre spirituel
(guru ou iiciirya) ou Ie maitre de tantra (vajriiciirya) et cet ordre, c'est la
Voie (miirga). C'est donc Ie maitre spirituel, source de l'enseignement,
qui est l'instance regulatrice des rapports entre la Doctrine et les bigar-
rures de l'ignorance, qui met en relation les differents plans de significa-
tion et leurs destinataires et rend Ie contenu de l' enseignement opera-
toire.
1.2. Role du secret, de l'hermetisme et du maitre spirituel
Le maitre spirituel joue, a plusieurs titres, un role particulierement
important dans les tantra
23

D'abord, ceux-ci, pour l'essentieI, ne sont pas constitues d'exposes
doctrinaux tMoriques mais renvoient a des pratiques specifiques des
mantra secrets (i.e. des tantra) dont ils constituent, en quelque sorte, les
manuels de pratique. Un texte aussi clair soit-il ne peut repondre a
toutes les questions que peut se poser quelqu'un qui voudrait Ie mettre
directement en pratique. Par consequent, une hermeneutique visant la
seule comprehension des textes ne saurait suffire et Ie recours a
quelqu'un qui maitriserait cette pratique, en l' occurrence, un maitre
spirituel, devient absolument necessaire.
Ensuite, les tantra et les pratiques qui s'y rapportent sont lies au
secret; si l'on en croit la tradition bouddhiste tibetaine, dans leur com-
mencement, ils auraient ete pratiques dans Ie plus grand secret2
4
mais,
maintenant encore, bien que certaines explications generales soient
donnees publiquement, l' essentiel des instructions reste secret et detenu
par Ie maitre spirituel (guru ).
21. 1. I. CABEZON (op. cit., p.62), utilise Ie concept de verite pragmatique:
"[ ... ]they [the scriptures] are pragmatically true".
22. Cf. D. SEYFORT RUEGG: "Purport, Implicature and Presupposition [ ... ]", JIP l3:
313,315,317.
23. Cf. Gurupaiiciisikli; Bla rna ina bcu pa, P. 4544, vol. 81,205.2.7-
206.2.3.
24. Cf. Taranatha, sGrol rna'i 'lo rgyus, The Collected Works of Jo nan rje btsun
Tiiraniitha, pp. 517-520 (v. trad. P. ARE-NES, op. cit., pp. 248-255).
JIABS 21.2 180
Nombre d' enonces de textes de tantra requierent des explications, par
exemple, parce qu'ils sont codes
25
, ou que leur formulation ramassee et
elliptique prend une valeur provocante par reference au de vue de
la morale bouddhiste
26
, etc. Ces formulations particulieres de l'enseigne-
ment des tantra ont, semble-t-il, une double fonction : d'abord, pour
ceux qui n'auraient pas encore atteint la maturite spirituelle
les proteger d'un mesusage et de ses consequences
27
; ensuite, pour les
autres, en une sorte de propedeutique, les familiariser avec Ie caractere
illusoire et relatif des representations conventionneIles et les amener it
abandonner leur attachement au langage litteral et it l'illusion realiste
28

Le role du maitre spirituel est donc de rendre accessibles it un public
compose de pratiquants de dispositions et capacites diverses, des textes
tantriques polysemiques
29
ou enigmatiques, comme les tantra-racines; il
doit, non seulement, expliquer les mots contraires ou opposes
(viruddha; 'gal ba), i.e. opposes au monde, it la logique ou aux astra,
avec lesquels sont rediges certains tantra
30
, mais il devient aussi, lui-
meme, comme par exemple dans Ie cas du sens cache, un instrument
hermeneutique : Ie savoir du maitre, seul depositaire du sens du texte, est
en, quelque sorte, annexe it celui-ci!
Le maitre spirituel doit aussi s'adresser it celui qui sera amene it
enseigner les tantra. En effet, si Ie maitre spirituel est necessaire it
l'hermeneutique, ceIle-ci l'est tout autant au maitre spirituel: la fonction
de l'hermeneutique n'est pas seulement de faire comprendre l'enseigne-
ment mais elle consiste encore it montrer comment Ie faire, aussi con-
stitue-t-elle, partiellement, une meta-hermeneutique.
Ainsi, l'hommage que Candrakirti (VIle s.), dans son Pradfpod-
dyotana, rend it son maitre spirituel illustre-t-il de maniere eloquente
l'etendue de ce role. S'il rend grace it son maitre, c'est pour l'aide
precieuse que celui-ci lui a prodiguee, de trois : d' abord, en lui
montrant comment mettre en relation Ie tantra-racine et ses commen-
25. Cf. R. THURMAN, op. cit., p.139: "But the non literal or symbolic expressions of
the tantras are special jargon words, a secret code, completely unknown in the
world [ ... J".
26. Cf. M. BROIDO: "Killing, Lying, Stealing [ ... J", op. cit, pp.71-1Ol.
27. Cf. CandrakIrti (Pradfpoddyotana) cite par R. THURMAN (op. cit., pp. 127-128).
28. Cf. R. THURMAN, op. cit., pp.138-139. R. THURMAN se livre a une brillante
variation sur l'obscurite comme instrument hermeneutique (p.12S).
29. Cf. R. THURMAN, op. cit., p. 124.
30. Cf. M. BRomO, op. cit., p. 94 et n. 83, p. 109.
ARENES 181
taires, -ensuite, en lui indiquant quel instrument hermeneutique utiliser
pour tel ou tel passage, enfin, en rapportant Ie sens elucide aux etapes de
la pratique
3
!. L'appareil hermeneutique des sept ornements refiete
bien aussi,au moins en certaines de ses parties, ces preoccupations
capitales pour un enseignement efficace des tantra.
2. Les sept omements
2.1. Origine
L'appareil hermeneutique des sept ornements (saptiiZarrzkiira; rgyan
bdun)32 auquel appartiennent les quatre explications et done Ie sens
cacM, lie au cycle du Guhyasamiijatantra a ete expose par les commen-
tateurs de l'ecole Arya CPhags lugs pa)33 grandement estimee par les
31. Cf. R. THURMAN, op. cit., p.129.
32. La tradition bouddhiste indienne (Aryadeva, BhavyakIrti) explique aZaf(lkiira
comme quelque chose qui embellit (a l'instar d'unjoyau) ou qui paracheve; Tson
kha pa presente les sept ornements comme des joyaux embellissant Ie tantra-
racine. E. STEINKELLNER (1978: 450, n.15) propose de traduire aZaf(lkiira
(rgyan) par preparation, en revenant a une autre acception du mot (cf. J.
GONDA, "The meaning of the word alarpkara", Selected Studies II, Leiden 1975,
p. 265); R. THURMAN (op. cit., p. 147, n.20) conteste cette traduction.
nest vrai, comme l' affmne E. STEINKELLNER, que, de plusieurs manieres,
certains de ces ornements servent a organiser ou a preparer l' enseignement
de (ou a partir de) textes tantriques;- il est vrai aussi qu' on ne peut prendre au pied
de la lettre Ie terme ornements: c'est Ie cas, particulierement, pour Ie sixieme
qui definit les differents types de destinataires. II ne nous parait pas necessaire,
pour autant, d'abandonner la traduction d' ornements. Entre appret et prepa-
ration, il n'y a pas un gouffre semantique et ce terme, nous semble-t-il, fonc-
tionne de maniere metaphorique; de meme qu'un ornement rehausse la beaute, de
meme, ce sixieme omements rend plus aise l' enseignement, la transmission des
tantra : Ie seme commun a retenir de cette metaphore est celui d' amelioration et
non de beaut!!, a moins que Ie bon fonctionnement d'un proces linguistique de
communication ne puisse etre considere comme beau. L'evocation, ace sujet,
par R. THURMAN de la signification de Belles Lettres parait judicieuse.
33. L' ecole Arya a ete fondee par Nagarjuna et son disciple Aryadeva. Les tantra de
la classe des anuttarayogatantra consistent toujours en muZatantra (tantra-
racine), uttaratantra (tantra ulterieurs), iikhyiinatantra (tantra explicatifs). En ce
qui concerne Ie cycle du Guhyasamiijatantra (Tohoku n 442), Ie mulatantra
correspond aux dix-sept premiers chapitres du Guhyasamiijatantra, l'uttara-
tantra au dix-huitieme, quant aux iikhyiinatantra, ce sont les Sandhivyiikarm:za-
tantra (Tohoku n 444), VajramiiZiitantra (Tohoku n 445), Caturdevfpari-
PTcchiitantra (Tohoku n 446), Vajrajfiiinasamuccayatantra (Tohoku nO 447),
DevendraparipTcchiitantra. Ces iikhyiina (excepte Ie dernier que l' on ne connait
que par des citations) ne sont disponibles qu'en tibetain.
JIABS 21.2 182
auteurs de la tradition exegetique tibetaine. Le cycle du Guhyasamiija-
tantra
34
presenre, en effet, la particularite d'inclure des ceuvres (iantra
racine, uttaratantra et tantra explicatifs) qui sont toutes considerees
comme paroles de buddha (buddhavacana)35. Quoique Ie Vajrajiiiina-
samuccayatantra
36
(un iikhyiinatantra du cycle du Guhyasamiijatantra)
considere comme la source, quant aux sept ornements, du Pradf-
poddyotana
37
de Candraklrti, soit bien connu de la tradition exegetique
tibetaine
38
, celle-ci se refbe plus volontiers a cet ouvrage de Candra-
klrti39.
Y. MATSUNAGA remet en question Ie fait que Ie Vajrajiiiinasamuc-
cayatantra, au moins dans sa deuxieme partie, soit la source des sept
ornements' 40 et, seion E. STEINKELLNER, Candraklrti serait I' auteur de
la mise en forme des sept ornements en tant qu'ensemble ou
systeme hermeneutique
41
.
2.2. Nature
Sans doute serait-il preferable d'utiliser plutot Ie terme appareil que Ie
terme systeme42 qui implique une coherence que les sept ornements,
34. Sarvatathiigatakiiyaviikcittarahasyaguhyasamiijaniimamahiikalparaja; De biin
gsegs pa thams cad kyi sku gSUli thugs kyi gsan chen gsan ba 'dus pa ies bya ba
brtag pa'i rgyalpo chen po, P. 81, vol. 3 (Tohoku nO 442-443).
35. Cf. E. S1EINKELLNER 1978: 448, et R. THURMAN, op. cit., pp.128-129, 130.
36. Vajrajfiiinasamuccaya-niima-tantra (Tohoku nO 447).
37. Pradfpoddyotana-niima-!fkii; sGron ma gsal bar byed pa ies bya ba 'j rgya cher
bSadpa, P. 2650, 23.1.1-117.3.7.
38. Le Vajrajfiiinasamuccaya fait l'objet de divers commentaires comme Ie rGyud
thams cad kyi rgyaZ po dpaZ gsmi ba 'dus pa'i rgya cher bSad pas sgron ma
gsal ba 'i tshig don ji biin 'byed pa 'i mtshan gyi yali 'grel de Tson kha pa.
39. M. BRomO (1978: 91) attribue ce fait au manque de clarte du Vajrajfiiina-
samuccaya mais i1 faudrait savoir a quelle version se referaient les commentateurs
tiMtains puisqu'il existe dans Ie bKa' 'gyur de sDe dge une version beaucoup
plus detaillee que celle-ci (Tohoku n 450): v. MATSUNAGA: "A Doubt to Autho-
rity of the Guhyasamiija-Akhyiina-tantras", Indogaku BukkyiJgaku Kenkyu 12
(1964): 22/838.
40. Cf. Y. MATSUNAGA, op. cit., pp. 20-23 I 840-837. L'origine du systeme ou/et de
ses elements reste, malgre tout, incertaine: selon E. S1EINKELLNER, certains des
sept ornements (les six ko!i) proviendraient de l'exegese non tantrique (op. cit.,
p.449 et 452); v. aussi M. BROIDO, op. cit., p.l07, n. 64.
41. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER, op. cit., p. 449.
42. Ibid., "[ ... J the system as a whole [etc.}",.
ARENES 183
d'un certain point de vue, ne presentent pas; ils sont constitues d'une
collection d'instruments d'intelligibilite
43
dont on a souligne, a juste
titre, l'Mterogeneite partielle en ce qui concerne leur fonction herme-
neutique au sens strict
44

Certains elements du premier ornement sont arapporter a l' objet de
l'hermeneutique (Ie texte/message) et constituent un appareil paratextuel
du texte tantrique; d'autres, du premier, deuxieme, cinquieme, sixieme,
ou septieme ornement, s'attachent aux (ou a certains) facteurs consti-
tutifs du proces linguistique (represente par l'enseignement d'un tantra)
et de la situation de communication (destinataire, referent, contact);
plusieurs composantes du troisieme ornement decrivent les differents
types de discours (message et code); d'autres encore du troisieme et
toutes celles du quatrieme ornement concernent plus directement
l'interpretation (message/contact/code) et peuvent plus proprement etre
qualifiees d'instruments hermeneutiques45.
Si les sept ornements ne forment pas un systeme coherent du point
de vue hermeneutique stricto sensu, ils constituent, en tout cas, un appa-
43. Les sept ornements (saptiilaIJ'Lkiira; rgyan bdun) sont composes de (1) la
presentation (upodghi'ita; gleri bslari), (2) les manieres d'atteindre la perfec-
tion, de devenir buddha ('tshari rgya tshul) / les quatre procedures (nyiiya;
rigs pa (bii, (3) les six extremes, ou six possibilites alternatives (mtha'
drug; (4) les quatre modes d'explication (Mad tshul bii; caturvidhi'i-
khyiiyikii), (5) les manieres d' expliquer (' chad tshul) / les deux manieres
d' expliquer, d' enseigner aux auditeurs (dvividhabheda; fian pa po la bsad tshul
gfiis), (6) [la nature de] l'auditeur (nan pa po) / des cinq [sortes d'] individus
(pancapudgala; gari zag lria), (7) les deux verites certaines (satyadvayavinir-
TJaya; bden gfiis ries pa). R. THURMAN (op. cit., pp.134-143) passe en revue les
sept ornements; M. BROIDO, ("bShad thabs[ ... ]"), ainsi que E. STEINKELLNER
(op. cit.) n'analysent que les ornements 3 et 4.)
44. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER, op. cit., pp. 451-452.
45. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER, ibid.
En ce qui concerne Ie proces de communication que semblent decrire les sept
ornements (et si l'on se rapporte au systeme de R. JAKOBSON), un element est
absent: Ie destinateur, i.e., ici, Ie buddha Vairocana (ou son substitut, Ie maitre
spirituel), mais il constitue, en quelque sorte, Ie but ultime de l'enseignement des
tantra, l' etat de buddha, et il est represente par le motif ou but (prayojana), 5e
element du 1er ornements, la presentation (upodghiita); on comprend alors
pourquoi la fonction emotive ou expressive centree sur Ie destinateur est absente;
de meme, si d'autres fonctions comme la fonction poetique, etc., ne sont pas
representees, c'est, sans doute, parce qU'elles ne sont pas a l'ceuvre, de maniere
significative dans un tantra; Ie 3e et Ie 4e ornement (caturvidhi'ikhyiiyikii)
sont essentiellement metalinguistiques puisque centres sur Ie code.
JIABS 21.2 184
reil linguistique tout a fait coherent, a visee didactico-hermeneutique et
applicable a un type de texte particulier : Ie tantra, lui-meme dote d'un
statut d' objet linguistique46 au meme titre que les sastra
4
\ cet appareil
refiete une conscience tres claire de la nature du proces de communica-
tion et des problemes poses par l' enseignement et l' explication des
tantra a un public heterogene et il semble s'adresser, en fait, d'avantage
a celui qui est cense enseigner ce tantra qu' au disciple qui est cense Ie
pratiquer.
2.3. Emploi des sept ornements
Le degre de generalite que conrere aux sept ornements la perspective
linguistique seIon laquelle, Ie plus souvent, ils traitent de l' ens eigne-
ment, de l'interpretation et de 1'usage des tantra ainsi que la formulation
systematique qu'en a donnee CandraIdrti, n'ont sans doute pas peu con-
tribue a la generalisation de leur usage et de leur application a des textes
n'appartenant pas au cycle du Guhyasamajatantra. En effet, outre cette
raison, Ie fait, deja reIeve, que les textes du cycle du Guhyasamajatantra
soient classes comme paroles du buddha (buddhavacana) explique pour-
quoi la tradition hermeneutique tibetaine a utilise Ie Mad thabs des sept
ornements pour tous les principaux tantra de la classe anuttara
48
: c'est
en raison de cette preeminence du Guhyasamajatantra que Tson kha pa
46. Au sens large de ce tenne: en effet, on pourrait ranger les tantra dans les
productions litteraires, considerer qu'il s' agit Hi d'une typologie textuelle et parler
alors de poetique (cf. O. DUCROT et T. TODOROV, Dictionnaire encyclo-
pMique des sciences du langage, Paris: Editions du SeuiI1972, pp. 106-112).
47. Les cinq caracteristiques du tantra sont indiques dans Ie premier ornements
(<<presentation: upodghiita; glen blan): (1) nom et type de texte (sarrzjfiii), (2) les
destinataires (nimittam), (3) l'auteur (kartii), (4) longueur (pramii), (5) but
(prayojana). E. STEINKELLNER (op. cit., pA49, n. 12) a deja souligne la relation
entre ces caracteristiques et celles requises pour un siistra ; R. BROIDO ("Killing,
Lying, Stealing [ .. .]", p. 87) releve que l'ensemble des caracteres definissant les
siistra a ete applique a des tantra (au Hevajratantra par Vajragarbha et au
Kiilacakra).
48. E. STEINKELLNER soutient que les sept omements ne sont applicables qu'au
Guhyasamiija (op. cit., pA51, n.17): il se peut qu'il en ait ete ainsi a l'origine
mais M. BROIDO ("Killing, Lying, Stealing [ .. .]", p. 73) et R. THURMAN (op. cit.,
p.133) soulignent leur application generalisee.
ARENES 185
justifie l'application des sept ornements a tous les autres anuttara-
tantra.
49

En ce qui concerne l' emploi des. sept ornements, Tson kha pa
(1357-1419), dans Ie resume qu'il fait de leur fonction, montre bien que
celle-ci ne se borne pas a interpreter des textes mais qu'elle consiste
aussi a organiser, choisir cette interpretation en fonction des differentes
etapes de la Voie et des disciples qui doivent la parcourir:
Tel ou tel tantra doit etre elucide, ses significations doiventetre expliquees par
telle ou telle procedure henneneutique et rassembIees [pour etre rapportees J a telle
ou telle etape de la Voie. Pour tel ou tel disciple, on fait usage de tel ou tel type
d'explication et quand il y a certitude quant au sens de telle ou telle conception
majeure, aIors la signification du tantra-racine est expliquee sans erreur. Voila ce
qu'etablissent les sept omements.50
Cette fonction multiple des sept ornements va se retrouver meme dans
des ornements consideres, d'ordinaire, comme plus proprement
hermeneutiques, i.e. les quatre modes d'explication (Mad tshul bii).
II. LES QUATRE MODES D'EXPLICATION (Mad tshul bii; catur-
vidhakhyiiyikii) ET LE SENS CACHE (garbhyiirtha; sbas (pa'i) don)
Les quatre modes d' explication constituent Ie quatrieme des sept
ornements et, selon E. STEINKELLNER, Ie seul a etre veritablement
hermeneutique51. Contrairement aux possibilites alternatives (.Jatko.ti)
dont les termes sont courants, quoique avec des acceptions et des usages
differents, dans Ia tradition exegetique des sutra
52
, les quatre modes
49. TsoIi. kha pa, Ye ses rdo rje kun las btus pa'i rgya cher 'gre! pa, Collected
Works, rJe yab sras gSUli 'bum, ed. de bKra bsis !hun po, vol. CA, fol. 451 ff.
(cit. de R. THURMAN, ibid.).
50. TsoIi. kha pa, ibid., fol. Sa.
51. "truly henneneutic". E. STEINKELLNER Cop. cit., p.451) l'oppose en cela aux
(mtha' drug) du troisieme omements.
52. Cf. E. LAMOTTE, op. cit., pp. 341-361; D. SEYFORT RUEGG, "Purport, implica-
ture, and presupposition [ ... J" et "Allusiveness and obliqueness in Buddhist texts:
sa'!ldhii, sa'!ldhi, sa'!ldhyii and abhisa'!ldhi", Dialectes dans les litteratures
indo-aryennes, Paris: Institut de Civilisation indienne 1986; M. BROIDO,
"Intention and suggestion in the Abhidharmakosa: revisited",
Journal of Indian Philosophy 13 (1985): 327-381.
JIABS21.2 186
d'explication sont exclusivemeiit utilises pour les tantra
53
; parmi les
tantra, ils ne sont applicables qu' aux anuttarayo gatantra
54
. Les quatre
modes d' explication font partie des deux ornements dont la fonction
assignee est, selon Tson kha pa, de commenter la pensee l'intention
(dgons pa; abhipriiya)] du tantm-racine.55
Nous n'etudierons pas, ici, exhaustivement les quatre explications;
nous nous bornerons, pour replacer Ie sens cache dans Ie
auquel il appartient, a exposer brievement la description qu' en donne
l'erudit dGe lugs pa, dBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan (1764-1853)
condisciple de Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans. Nous d6finirons, d'abord, les
deux modes d' explication qui precedent Ie sens cache et celui qui Ie
suit, puis nous aborderons, a part, de maniere detaillee Ie sens cache.
Sans nous interdire de faire appel, eventuellement, pour les points
difficiles, a des doxographes plus anciens, nous utiliserons la section
intitu16e Expose des anuttarayogatantra et instructions concernant les
methodes d'explication des tantra de son traite Expose du sens general
des quatre classes de tantra, appele <<Porte des mantra56.
53. L'exception, peut-etre, du sens cache, dans un cas tres particulier, mais il n'est
pas certain que Ie texte ne puisse pas etre tenu pour un tantra, comme on Ie yerra
plus loin.
54. ct. TSOIJ. kha pa, dPal gsan 'dus pa'i Mad pa'i rgyud ye ses rdo rje kun las btus
pa'i rgya cher Mad pa rGyud Mad thabs kyi man nag gsal bar bstan pa ies bya
ba, P. 6198, 152.1.8-Tsa, 174b: mtha' drug dan tshul bii tshan ba'i Mad pa
mal sbyor bla med kyi rgyud ma rtogs pa la mi ruIis yan I
55. ct. TSOIJ. kha pa, op. cit., 151.5.8-Tsa, 174a: khyad par lna ldan gyi rtsa rgyud
de'i dgons pa 'grel pa'i tshul ni mtha' drug dan tshul biir nes la I des ni rgyan
giiis pa dan gsum pas ston no /I
On a utilise ici Ie tenne pensee dans Ie sens OU il est employe, quand on se
demande quelle est la pensee de l'auteur, i.e. la pensee protonde. En ce qui
concerne abhipriiya, Y. D. SEYFORT RUEGG et M. BROIDO (supra, n. 52).
56. rNal 'byor bla med kyi rgyud mam biag dan rgyud Mad thabs kyi man nag,
dans rGyud sde bii'i don rnam par biag pa snags pa'ijug pa'i sgo (Y. supra,
n.14).
ARENES 187
1. Les quatre modes d'explication (bsad tshlll bZi; caturvidhakhyayika)
1) L'explication seion Ie s e n ~ litteral57 (akoJariirtha; tshig gi don /
yig don)58: c'est une explicatiori, appuyee seulement sur les textes
de grammaire des grammairiens, du sens que peuvent produire
directement les mots de vajra
59
; dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal
mtshan ne mentionne pas Ie fait que Ie sens litteral est considere
comme un ornement de mots (sabdiila7[lkiira)60 particularite
qui pourrait expliquer pourquoi il n'est pas nomme dans Ia
premiere partie du Vajrajfiiinasamuccaya
61
.
2) L'explication selon Ie sens commun ou sens general (sama-
stii7igiirtha; spyi'i don): c'est I'explication des mots de vajra qui
montrent Ie sens des pratiques communes aux pratiquants,
jusqu'aux pratiquants du stade de creation (utpattikrama; bskyed
rim)62. Les subdivisions de cet ornement donne des precisions
sur ces pratiques communes:
a - Ie sens commun des pratiques communes a deux cate-
gories d'individus:
1 - ceux qui aspirent aux realisations (siddhi) mon-
daines ('jig rten pa 'i d7ios grub)
2 - ceux qui aspirent a Ia realisation supreme
(mchog gi d7ios grub ).
Ces pratiques concernent Ie stade de creation (utpatti-
krama).
57. Yig don du Mad pa: Cf. dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, rGyud sde bii'i
don mam par biag pa snags pa 'i jug pa 'i sgo, p. 26.
58. dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan donne yig [ge'i 1 don, ibid.; mais tshig gi
don et yi ge'i don sont attestes pour les rgyan bdun, cf. M. BROIDO, "bShad
thabs [ ... ]", p. 19.
59. Cf. dEal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit., pp. 25-26: Idon de min de la
dngos su 'jug par sgra ba mams kyi sgra'i giun cam la brten thon par nus pa'i
rdo rje'i tshig de'i Mad pa de I yig don du Mad pa'i mtshan iiid I
60. Cf. BhavyakIrti, Pradfpoddyotanabhisarrzdhiprakasika, f. 1 08a3-1 09a2 (cit. de E.
STEINKELLNER, op. cit., p. 454, n. 29): Ie sens litteral est, selon BhavyakIrti, Ie
seul a etre considere comme un omement de mots (sabdalarrzkara) alors que
les trois autres seraient des omements de sens (arthalarrzkara).
61. Cf. Y. MATSUNAGA, op. cit., p. 839 (21).
62. Cf. dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit, p. 26: II bskyed rim pa man
chad gan run dan niiams su blan bya thun mon ba'i don ston pa 'i rdo rje 'i tshig
de'i Mad pa de spyi don du Mad pa 'j mtshan iiid II.
" JIABS 21.2 188
b - Ie sens commun. des pratiques communes aux prati-
quants des classes de tantra inferieurs et a d'autres: "
1 - sens commun des pratiques communes des
classes de tantra inferieurs et superieurs": yoga de la
deite
2 - sens corrimun des pratiques communes aux sidra
et aux tantra : comprehension de Ia Vacuite
63
3) L'explication se10n Ie sens cacM (garbhyiirtha; sbas (pa'i)
don) (cf infra)
4) L'explication se10n Ie sens ultime (kolikiirtha; mthar thug gi
(pa'i) don) est en rapport avec la doctrine de la Claire Lumiere
(prabhiisvara; 'od gsal) et de l'Union (yuganaddha; zUli 'jug),
i.e. Ies stades finaux du Stade d' achevement (sampannakrama;
rdzogs rim)64.
2. Le Sens cache (garbhyartha; sbas (pa'i) don)
2.1. Sens cache et tantra
2.1.1. Le Sens cacM (sbas (pa'i) don) seion dBal man dKon mchog
rgyal mtshan
On peut se demander la raison pour Iaquelle ce sens est qualifie de
cacM, i.e. pourquoi merite-t-il davantage unetelle qualification que,
par exemple, Ie sens uitime? L'idee de secret voire de cache est,
certes, communement attachee aux tantra dans la tradition indienne et
63. Pour a et b, cf. dBal mati. dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit, p. 26: I dbye na 'jig
rten pa 'i dnos grub don du gfier ba dan / mcho g gi dnos grub gfier ba gfiis ka' i
fiams su blans bya thun mon ba'i spyi'i don dan I rgyud sde 'og rna man chad
dan thun mon ba' i spyi' i don gfiis / dan po ni I bskyed rim lta bu '0 II gfiis pa la
rgyud sde gon 'og thun mon ba'i spyi'i don dan I mdo snags thun mon ba'i
spyi'i don gfiis I dan po ni I lha'i mal 'byor Ita bu I gfiis pa ni I ston fiid rtogs
pa'i lta ba lta bu'o II Seion CandrakIrti et Bu ston, ce sens aurait pour fonction
d' etablir une relation entre les pratiquants de stades inferieurs de la pratique et les
stades superieurs auxquels ils peuvent aspirer ou qu'ils peuvent redouter, et, de
les rassurer (cf. M. BROmO, "bShad thabs[ ... ]", p.42; E. STEINKELLNER, op.
cit., p. 455; R. THURMAN, op. cit, p. 140).
64. Cf. dEal mati. dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit, p. 27: / rdo rje'i tshig de la don
mi thun pa bii yod pa 'i nan nas mthar gfiis gan run gi don ston pa 'i Mad pa de
mthar thug gi Mad pa 'j mtshan fiid I mtshan gii ni I dnos po med pa 'j sogs kyis
, od zun bstan pa Ita pu '0 I
En ce qui concerne Ie sens d' ultime, mtha' (kola) veut dire ici qui atteint la
limite (cf. R. THURMAN, op. cit., p.141).
ARENES 189
tibetaine: gsan snags kyi theg pa, Ie vehicule des mantra secrets (syno-
nyme de tantra ) est appele ainsi, selon TsoiJ. kha pa, parce que pratique
secretement et de maniere cachee et enseigne uniquement a ceux suscep-
tibles d'en tirer profit65; mais Ie sens cacM meme s'il peut etre,
comme on Ie verra, applique seuI, i.e. sans les trois autres explica-
tions, est-iI, en quelque maniere, exemplaire ou singulier? .
Voyons d'abord comment il est defini dans Ie cadre des quatre
explications par dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan:
Definition de l'explication selon Ie sens cache: explication des mots de vajra
(rdo rje tshig), qui montre, parmi les quatre sens particuliers [qui s']y [rappor-
tent], Ie sens de 1'un queIconque des trois sens caches.
[On peut en donner] comme exemple [Ie fait de parler de] l'absence d'objets66,
etc. [quand on] expose 1'Esprit isole (cittaviveka; sems dben )67 et Ie Corps
illusoire (miiyiikaya / miiyiideha; sgyus lus)68.
Si [ron desire entrer dans Ie detail, on peut] distinguer trois [sortes de sens]
caches:
65. Tson kha pa, rGyal khyab rdo rje 'chari chen po'i lam gyi rim pa gsari ba kun
gyi gnad rnam par phye ba, P. 6210, vol. 161 (cf. J. HOPKINS, trad.: Tantra in
Tibet, The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra by TSOli ka pa, The Wisdom of
Tibet 3, London: George Allen and Unwin 1977, p.106); Gun than 'Jam pa'i
dbyans, Ses rab siiin po sriags kyi rnam Mad sbas don gsal ba, p. 707.1-2. Pour
Ie secret, Ie cachb>, dans la tradition indienne des tantra, voir aussi A.
WAYMAN: The Buddhist Tantras, Light on Indo- Tibetan Esotericism, London:
Routledge and Kegan 1973, pp. 36-43.
66. drios po med pa (abhiiva): absence d' existence en soi, non substantialite.
67. Deuxieme etape de la pratique du stade d'achevement (sampannakrama; rdzogs
rim) grace aux yoga d' isolement de la parole comme la recitation de vajra,
etc., on realise l' Esprit isole de Claire Lumiere sirnilaire ultime (sems dben
dpe'i 'od gsal mthar thug): 1'esprit est isoIe des conceptions et des vents
qu' elles chevauchen1. Cette realisation permet de separer Ie corps grossier ([us
rags pa) du corps subtil (Ius phra ba), cf. Geshe Kelsang Gy ATSO, Claire
Lumiere de Felicite, Ie Mahamudra dans le Bouddhisme du Vajrayana, trad. de
G. MILLION et G. DRIESSENS, Editions Dharma 1986, pp. 201,204-205.
68. n y a deux Corps illusoires: run impur (ma dag pa) developpe d'abord, l'autre
pur (dag pa); la difference de purete correspond a une difference de qualite
dans la realisation de la Vacuite, par l' esprit de Claire Lurniere; Ie Corps illusoire
impur correspond a la troisieme etape du stade d'achevernent et se developpe a
partir du vent subtil servant de monture a l'Esprit isole de Claire Lumiere. nest
appele illusoire parce qu'illustre par douze comparaisons synonymes d'illusion
(maya): cf. Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., pp. 200, 205-206 (a propos de ces
comparaisons, v. E. LAMOTTE: Le Traite de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de
Nagarjuna (Makaprajiiaparamitasastra), Louvain: Bureaux du Museon 1944,
1. I, pp. 357-387).
JIABS 21.2 190
- [1] [sens] cacM du dharma d'attachement ('dod chags chos sbas; riiga-
dharma)69.
- [2] [sens] cacM de l'lllusion [de la Verite] conventionnelle (kun 'dzob [bden
pa'i] sgyu ma; saf!lvrtimiiyii).
- [3] [sens] cacM de l'Esprit d'apparence [blanche] (snaJi ba [dkar lam pa'i]
sems)70
En ce conceme Ie premier sens cache, il y a deux subdivisions:
[1.1] Ie dharma d'attachement de la base (comme les absorptions meditatives
(samiipatti) d'union
71
des bases de purification de Ia Voie) et
[1. 2] Ie dharma d'attachement des absorptions meditatives des pratiquants du
stade de creation et des pratiquants du stade d'achevement.
En ce qui conceme Ie second sens cache, c'est celui de l'lllusion:
- de la base
n
: Ie Corps primordial (giiug ma'i lus; niviisitakiiya), Ie Corps de
reve (svapnakiiya; rmi lam gyi lus)73, Ie Corps de vent de l'etat intermediaire
(bar do rluJi gi lus), etc.,
- et de la Voie: Ie Corps lllusoire analogue et Ie Corps lllusoire veritable (sgyu
lus rjes mthun daJi dJios gnas), etc.
En ce qui conceme Ie troisieme sens cachb>, c'est celui de l'Esprit d'apparence
[blanche]:
- de la base, comme les trois apparences du sommeil et de la mort
74
- et de la V oie, comme les trois apparences de la Voie
69. Le sens cacM du riigadharma est rattache par E. STEINKELLNER (op. cit.,
p. 455) et par R. THURMAN, (op. cit., p.141) a Ia premiere etape (vajrajiipa ) du
stade d'achevement (utpannakrama), alors que M. BROIDO ("bShad thabs [ ... ]",
p. 41) Ie situe apres la troisieme du meme stade.
70. L' Esprit d'apparence blanche est un etat de conscience subtil du moment de Ia
mort, qui suit la dissolution des quatre elements (cf. Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op.
cit., pp. 83-84).
71. pho mo sfioms 'jug (dEal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit., p. 26.5.)
72. gii'i [ ... ] sgyu ma'i sbas pa (dEal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit., p. 26.
5.6).
73. Le corps de reve est considere comme tres proche du corps illusoire auquel
il peut se melanger (cf. Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., pp. 206-207)
74. Trois etats de conscience successifs experimentes lors de l'endormissement et de
la mort: cf. LATI Rinpoche et Jeffrey HOPKINS en collaboration avec E. NAPPER,
trad. de G. DRIESSENS, V. PAULENCE & M. ZAREGRADSKY: La Mort, l'Etat
lntermediaire et la Renaissance dans le Bouddhisme Tibetain, Peymeinade:
Editions Dharma 1980, pp. 42-50, et Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., pp. 84-85,
115-116:
ARENES 191
A qui [Ie Sens cache] est-il cache? [TI] est cache [aux pratiquarlts] des classes
inferieures de tantra et, dans ses trois manieres d'etre cache, il est cache en
existant en essence a 1'interieur
75
sans etre apparent a l' exterieur.7
6
.
Ainsi, selon. dBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, non seulement Ie
sens cache (sbas (pa'i) don) est cache aux pratiquants des classes de
tantra inferieurs mais, en outre, il est reserve aux pratiquants du stade
d'achevement auxquels il est explique en prive (slob bSad1ryi gait zag
par opposition a tshogs bsad kyi gait zag). Cette des textes
dotes d'unsens cache fait de ceux-ci, a proprement parler, des textes
acroamatiques. Le sens cache partage cette particularite du mode d'en-
seignement avec Ie sens ultime ainsi qu'avec trois des six possibilites
alternatives rntha' drug)77: Ie sens non conforme aux mots
(na yathiirtha; sgra ji biin rna yin pa); Ie sens certain au sens d6fi-
nitif (nftiirtha; ites don), Ie sens relevant d'une intention speciale
(dgoits bsad; )78; il est parfois considere comme cor-
75. La problematique interieur f exterieur a ete souvent utilisee pour evoquer Ie sens
cache: cf. Mi Pham sur Ie Kiilacakratantra (cit. de M. BRomO, "Killing, Lying,
Stealing [ ... r, p. 79, 105, n.39).
76. dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, op. cit., pp. 26.3-27.1: rdo rje tshig de la
don mi mthun pa bi.i yod pa 'i nan nas sbas don gsum po gan run gi don stan
pa'i rdo rje'i tshig de'i Mad pa de sbas don du Mad pa 'i mtshan fiyid f mtshan
gi.i f dnos po med pa'i sags kyis sems dben dan f sgyus Ius bstan pa Ita bu'o /I
dbye na 'dod chags chos sbas f kun rdzob sgyu ma'i sbas pa snan ba sems sbas
dan gsum f dan po la flam gyi sbyan du gi.i'i pho mo sfioms 'jug Ita bu gi.i'i dan
f bskyed rim pa dan rdzogs rim pa'i sfioms 'jug lam gyi 'dod chags chos sbas
gfiis f gfiis pa la f gfiug ma'i Ius f rmi lam gyi Ius f bar do rlun gi Ius sags gi.i'i
dan f sgyu lus rjes mthun dan dnos gnas sags lam gyi sgyu ma'i sbas pa'o /I
gsum pa la I gfiid dan 'chi ba'i snan pa gsum Ita bu gi.i'i dan flam gyi snan pa
gsum Ita bu lam gyi snan pa sems sbas so /I gan la sbas na rgyud sde 'og ma
man chad la sbas pa dan f [27] f sbas tshul gsum las f phyi nas mi mnon par
nan na sfiin par yod pa' i tshul gyis sbas pa '0 /I
77. ibid. p. 27. 3.: mtha' drug gi gsum dan tshul bi.i'i dan po gfiis tshogs Mad kyi
gan zag dan f sgra ji bi.in ma yin pa dan f nes don f dgons Mad f tshul bi.i'i tha
ma gfiis mams slob Mad kyi gan zag la Mad par byaJ. .. ] f
78. Parfois rapproche de sbas don (par ex. par Kumiira), v. M. BRomO, op.cit.,
p.109, n. 81.
nABS 21.2 192
respondant au sens certain 79 ce qui n' est pas etonnant puisque Ie sens
certain est souvent rapporte au stade d'achevement
So

A quoi correspond Ie sens cache?
Comme Ie montrent Ies termes utilises, il renvoie it diverses pratiques
du stade d'achevement; Ie stade d'achevement comporte cinq etapes
S1
dont trois seulement interessent'le sens cache: (1) parole isoIee (vag-
viveka; nag dben) correspondant it Ia recitation de vajra (vajrajiipa; 'rdor
bzlas); (2) esprit isoIe (cittaviveka; sems dben) correspondant it Ia purifi-
cation de I'esprit (cittavisuddhi; sems mam par dag pa); (3) Ie Corps
illusoire correspondant it I'auto-benediction bdag la.byin
gyis brlab pa)S2.
De quoi parle ce sens cache qui existe it l'interieur, en essence
(nan na sfiin por)?
II parle du creur de I' enseignement
S3
et comme cet enseignement
renvoie it une pratique, il est pertinent it I'intime de I'experience spiri-
tuelle relevant de ces etapes.
79. BhavyakIrti cit. par M. BROIDO, op. cit., p.96; d'autant que Ie sens certain
(nftlirtha) oppose a sens a interpreter (neylirtha) est aussi rapporte a l'opposi-
tion interieur I exterieur (ibid., pp. 75,78, VimaZaprabha).
80. Ibid., pp. 78-79, 92, 96. nest aussi dit cache (par BhavyakIrti, ibid., p.96).
Parfois, il designe seulement les pratiques les plus avancees (ibid., p. 81).
81. Cf. Katsurni MlMAKI et Toru TOMABECHI, Paiicakrama Sanskrit and Tibetan
Text Critically Edited with Verse Index and Facsimile, Edition of the Sanskrit
Manuscripts, Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco: I.
Vajrajlipakrama, p.l; II. Sarvasuddhivisuddhikrama, p.15; III.
krama, p.3l; IV. Paramarahasyasukhlibhisambodhikrama, p.4l; V. Yuga-
naddhakrama, p.49; v. aussi Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., p. 195, 201, 205.
82. L' Oldre dans lequel sont donnes les trois sens caches par dBal mail. dKon
mchog rgyal mtshan ne semble pas tout a fait correspondre a celui-ci: Ie sens
cache du dharma d'attachement. (1) et Ie sens cache de l'illusion de la Verite
conventionnelle (2) pourraient correspondre aux stades I et II mais Ie detail de
leur contenu laisse penser qu'ils pourraient se rapporter, chacun, a plusieurs
stades; en outre, il semblerait qu'il y ait des ambigultes puisque les tableaux
fournis par E. STEINKELLNER (op. cit., p.456), d'apres BhavyakIrti, par M.
BROIDO (v. "bShad thabs [ .. T, p.4l), d'apres Bu ston, par R. THuRMAN (op.
cit., p.14l), d'apres Ie Jiilinavajrasamuccaya et TsOIi. kha pa ne correspondent
pas sur plusieurs points.
83. Bu ston, dPaZ gsan ba 'dus pa'i !fkka sGron ma rab gsaZ, 26 a (cite par M.
BROIDO, op. cit., p. 42).
ARENES 193
2.1.2. Exemple d'application du sens cache. (sbas (pa'i) don) a un
tantra
Comment Ie sens cache est-il applique a un texte precis?
dBal mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan n'en donne pas d'exemples
precis. Aussi hous a-t-il pam particulierement interessant de choisir
quelques exemples de son application a un texte fort connu mais singu-
lier a plusieurs egards, l'Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara
(Namastare ekavif(lsati-stotra)84.
Ce texte se presente comme un texte versifie d' eloge a Tara, en vingt
et une strophes commen9ant chacune par Hommage a Tara ... , compa-
rable en tous points, tout au moins en apparence, aux autres eloges
(stotra / stava; bstod pa) de la partie du canon tibetain qui leur est con-
sacree (bstod tshogs ); neanmoins, ce texte figurant en sanskrit dans l'un
des plus importants tantra de Tara et seul, ailleurs, en tibetain, se trouve
etre l'objet d'une controverse non seulement quant a son classement
comme kriyatantra ou anuttarayogatantra mais encore quant a son ori-
gine et il est considere comme constituant a lui seul un tantra complet
85
.
Ces points seront developpes plus loin mais l' on peut deja noter que son
classement comme anuttarayogatantra le rend susceptible de ressortir au
sens cache. Le commentaire, Ie sGroI ma'i 'grel pa, qui en propose
des explications en sens cache a ete compose a une date inconnue, par
Ie fameux Taranatha (1575-1635)86.
D'une maniere generale, Taranatha explique les Vingt et un Hom-
mage a Tara selon un grand nombre de sens: Ie sens non conforme
aux mots (sgra ji biin ma yin pa) (str.l), sens certain (ries don) (str.
16, 18, 19), sens cache (sbas don) (pour toutes les strophes sauf les
str.l,4,8,15,16,19), Ie sens interieur (nari gi don) (str.8), Ie sens pro-
fond (zab don) (strA) Ie sens litteral (yi ge don), commun (spyi'i
don), ultime (mthar thug pa); toutes les strophes sont expliquees selon
au moins deux sens: une explication ordinaire jamais denommee (sauf
84. Texte en sanskrit dans Ie chap. III du Sarvatathiigatamiitani[sic]Tarevisva-
karmabhava-tantra-niima, P. 390, vol. 8, 150.3.2-150.4.7; texte tiMtain isoIe du
reste du tantra: bCom idan 'das rna sGroi rna ymi dag par rdzogs pa'i salis
rgyas bstod pa gsulis pa, P. 77, vol. 3, 154.2.3-154.4.7.
85. A propos de ces differents points concernant I'Eloge en Vingt et un Hommages,
v. P. ARENES: , op. cit., pp. 203-205,276-277,282-287
86. Pour Ie sGroI ma'i 'grel pa ou Phyag 'tshai ner gcig gis bstod pa'i mam par
Mad pa, v. Tliranatha, The Collected Works, vol. 12, p. 553-581; presentation et
traduction, v. P. ARENES, op. cit., pp. 332-381.
JIABS 21.2 194
pour la str. 21) et une explication selon Ie sens cache ou sens
certain ou definitif (qui ne figurent jamais ensemble pour la meme
strophe) voire Ie sens profond (pour un cas)87.
Voici quelques exemples d' explication en sens cachb> concernant les
strophes 2, 14, 21
88
:
2.1.2.1. Strophe 2:
Hommage a elie dont Ie visage brilie comme cent pleines Iunes
d'automne amoncelees, Celie qui resplendit de l'intense Iurniere
[de] rnilliers d'etoiles
Explication de Taranatha
90
:
Sens cache (sbas don): Ie bodhicitta
91
[qui est] semblable a Ia Iune d'automne
a rempli Ie canal central [avadhatl], du <<joyau au sinciput, [en demeurant] stable
et tous les canaux [nagf] secondaires remplis par Ie kunda
92
, quant a eux, sont
pareils a des etoiles assemblees.
87. Ibid.
88. Notre but ici n'est pas d'etudier la signification des Vingt et un Hommages en
sens cache mais d'examiner comment s'articule Ie sens cache autexte dont il
constitue une des explications (Mad pa) ou peut-etre auquel il s'applique; pour
!'instant, nous nous en tiendrons a un petit nombre d' exemples choisis pour leur
brievete et leur diversite.
89. Le texte tibetain utilise ici est Ie beom [dan 'das ma sGrol ma yan dag par
rdzogs pa'i sans rgyas bstod pa gsuns pa, P.77, vol. 3, 154.2.4-2.5.:
/ / Phyag 'tshal ston ka 'i zla ba kun tu /
gan ba brgya ni brtsegs pa 'i fal ma /
skar ma ston phrag tshogs pa mams kyis /
rab tu phye ba'i 'ad rab 'bar ma II
90. Taranatha, sGrol ma'i 'grel pa, p. 41: sbas don ni ston zla lta bu'i byan chub kyi
sems nor bu nas spyi bo'i bar 'pho med du brtsegs pa dan I rtsa phran thams
cad kun das gan ba ni skar tshags lta bu'ol
91. byan chub kyi sems. A propos de ce terme, v. R.A. STEIN: Vie et chants de 'Brug
pa Kun legs, le yogin, Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose 1972, p. 319 (n.5 et
6): Les deux Bodhicitta, ou Kunda et Bodhicitta, il ne faut pas les abimer quand
on acheve l'etat de Buddha. R.A. STEIN explique: <<les deux Bodhicitta sont
celies de la Verite Relative (Amour et Misericorde) et celie de la Verite Absolue.
R.A. STEIN ajoute que la pensee de Bodhi designe a la fois Ie sperme (kunda:
jasrnin) et la Pensee 111urninee [pensee d'Eveil] qui saisit directement la Vacuite.
92. V. supra, n.91.
ARENES 195
Identification des pratiques d'anuttarayogatantra:
II s'agit la d'une meditation sur Ies gouttes (sukra/bindu; thig Ie), les
canaux et les vents (viiyu; rlun) liee a la pratique du yoga du Feu
Iilterieur (calJiilf; gtum mo) dont le but est de deaire les nceuds formes
par les canaux (rtsa mdud) au niveau du cceur et qui est mise en ceuvre
apres la realisation d'une certaine pratique appartenant a la parole
isolee (nag dben), premiere des cinq etapes du stade d'achevement.
93
.
Analyse de I 'articulation du sens cache a la strophe commentee:
Dans ce premier exemple, Ie sens cache se rattache au texte explique
en s'insinuant dans Ie cadre d'une comparaison, i.e. dans Ie jeu d'une
distanciation abolie qui, pour un instant, entrouvre un espace de
possibles similaires; alors que la brillance du visage de la deesse est
comparee a celle de cent pleines lunes d'automne, Ie premier element
du sens cacM, bodhicitta, se substitue de facto au compare du texte
commente en etant lui-meme compare au meme comparant, la dune
d' automne, ce qui est une maniere subtile de poser l' equation bodhi-
citta
94
= brillance du visage de la Deesse. Le deuxieme element, les
canaux (niiQ secondaires, se substitue aussi ala brillance du visage
de la Deesse en etant compare au second comparant, les etoiles assem-
blees. Ainsi, par substitution partielle, le sens cacM reprend a son
compte une double comparaison, s'inscrivant, de ce fait, dans Ie texte,
aussi bien par Ie truchement de l' axe des substitutions que par celui des
concatenations.
2.1.2.2. Strophe 14:
Hommage it Celle qui frappe de la paume de sa main et qui martele
du pied la surface de la terre, arborant un regard irrite, par la sy llabe
HOly!, elle soumet les sept niveaux!95
93. V. Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., p. 193.
94. La lune (zla ba) elle-meme est synonyme de bodhicitta: mais une idee de
brillance, de blancheur, est aussi rattachee it d' autres synonymes de bodhicitta
(khams dkar po, etc.).
95. beom Idan 'das ma sGroI ma yan dag par rdzogs pa'i sans rgyas bstod pa
gsuns pa, P. 77, vol. 3, 154.3.5-154.3.6:
II Phyag 'tshal sa gti'i nos la phyag gi I
mthil gyis bsnun cin tabs kyis rdun ma I
khro ner can mdzad yi ge HU gis /
rim pa bdun po rnams ni 'gems ma II
JIABS 21.2 196
Explication de Taranatha:
Sens cache (sbas don): la surface de la terre, c'est Ie cerc1e de
l' ombilic; il est battu par Ie feu de la Connaissance Superieure [jiiiina ] de la
Violente [Le.] par Ie pied de la Deesse selon Ie sens certain [nftiirtha]
et il est frappe par sa main de flamme. En outre, les sept mondes souterrains
[correspondent] au feu pur
96
qui, dans la partie inferieure du canal central
[avadhutf] s'enroule comme un serpent sept fois; quand, dans ce lieu ardent,
vient [la goutte] Esprit d'Eveil [Bodhicitta] qui flambe du feu de la Violente [po
57], la brfilure du feu est totalement apaisee et les fl(l!uds des canaux sont
soumis et detruits.
97
La pratique evoquee ici est celie du Feu Interieur dans sa phase finale: Ia
destruction des nceuds de canaux qui va permetlre aux vents de pene-
trer, demeurer et se dissoudre dans Ie canal central et, au meditant, de
faire l' experience des quatre Vides, accedant ainsi a l' etape de l' esprit
isole, deuxieme des cinq etapes du stade d'achevement. On notera, ici,
I'association ponctuelle du sens certain (nftiirtha; nes don) au sens
cache.
Analyse de l' articulation du sens cache a la strophe commentee:
Dans ce second exemple, Ie sens cache s'ancre dans la strophe a
expliquer selon une strategie partiellement similaire, mais plus directe:
l' action de Tara decrite dans certe strophe est mise en parallele avec un
moment du processus que doit maitriser Ie pratiquant du gtum mo. Le
sens cache institue un rapport metaphorique entre certe action et ce
processus de trois manieres : d'abord, un premier element de Ia strophe,
Ia surface de Ia terre, est en quelque sorte traduit, i.e. identifie
directement a un element de Ia pratique du gtum mo, Ie cerc1e de
l' ombilic; ensuite, ce dernier est substitue au terme dont i1 est Ie sens et
replace dans son contexte phrastique : i1 devient alors l' objet de deux
actions marteler/battre (rdun ba) et frapper (bsnun pa) auxquelles
i1 confere alors une valeur metaphorique. Neanmoins, toujours dans Ie
96. tshans pa'i me: ou feu de Brabma = feu de 1'ombilic (bus kyi Ite ba'i me), cf. Bod
rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, TA-CHA, p. 2254.
97. Taranatha, sGrol ma'i 'grel pa, pp. 56.4-57.1: sbas don ni / sa gii'i nos ni Ite
ba'i dkyil 'khor te / de Ia gtum mo ye ses kyi me nes pa'i don gyi Iha mo'i iabs
kyis brduns pa dan me lce'i phyag gis bsnun pa'o 1/ de yan sa 'og bdun te / dbus
ma'i mas sna na tshans pa'i me sprulltar 'khyil ba len bdun pa / rab tu 'bar ba
gnas pa der / gtum mo 'bar ba'i byan chub kyi sems 'ons pa na me'i gdun ba
rab tu ii ba dan / de'i rtsa mdud mams 'gems sin 'jig pa'o 1/
ARENES 197
cadre de cette metaphore filee, Taranatha traduit Ie premier moyen de
l'action de battre en l'identifiant directement en terme de gtum rno:
pied de la Deesse = feu de la Violente (gtum mo)>> et, pour ce faire,
introduit l'une des six possibilites alternatives (ko!i), Ie sens certain
(nltiirtha); quant au second moyen de l'action de frapper, la main (de
la Deesse), Taranatha nelui donne pas directement un sens en terme de
gtum mo, mais, plus elegamment, l'utilise en une combinaison meta-
phorique, main de fIamme qui remplit la meme fonction. Un autre
element de la strophe, <des sept mondes souterrains, est Ie point de
depart d'un assez long developpement qui semble s'ecarter de la strophe.
Ce terme est simplement identifie au feu de gtum mo de la partie infe-
rieure du corps et suivi d'une description d'un moment de cette pratique.
Le developpement lui-meme n'est justifie et rattache a la strophe com-
mentee que par un element, Ie chiffre sept.
2.1.2.3. Strophe 21:
Hornmage a Celie qui, par la disposition des trois realites [tattva ]
[ultimes], est parfaitement pourvue du pouvoir d'apaisement [siva];
[Hornmage a] TURE [Ia Rapide], la Supreme, l'ExcelIente qui
triomphe de la multitude des graha, des vetala et des yak,\'a!98
Explication de Taranatha:
Sens cache (sbas don) : Ies trois realites [tattva] sont : l' apparence, la
croissance, l' obtention proche; celIes-ci etant etablies et apparaissant succes-
sivement, nait l'apaisement, c'est-a-dire qu'irnmediatement, l' Apaisement et la
Claire Lumiere du Vide total [sarvasunya] vont [apparaitre].
Les demons [graha] sont les canaux [nadf], les vampires [vetaZa] sont les
gouttes [bindu], les y a ~ a sont les pensees conceptuelles [vikaZpa]; du fait qu'ils
sont vaincus dans I'Espace de la Claire Lumiere [prabhasvaradhatu], [on
s]'erige rapidement [en Ie] corps de la deite, c'est-a-dire [de] la Supreme.
Quant a de telles categories [d'interpretation], il est dit dans La Lampe lumi-
neuse:
99
[Pour] expliquer tres bien la Claire Lumiere et pour faire comprendre
l'Union [yuganaddha][p.69], [on] explique Ie sens ultime sous deux aspects, par
llltime, [on entendlles mots a la limite [du dicible?]. Ainsi, bien que, dans la
98. beom ldan 'das ma sGrol ma yan dag par rdzogs pa'j sans rgyas bstod pa
gsuns pa, P.77, vol. 3, 154.4.2-4.3:
II Phyag 'tshal de ftid gsum mams bkod pas I
ii ba'j mthu dan yan dag ldan ma I
gdon dan ro lans gnod sbyin tshogs mams I
'joms pas TU RE rab mchog fiid ma II
La traduction tibetaine reprend Ie mot sanskrit Ture (vocatif de l'adjectif tura).
99. Gron gsal: il s'agit du Pradfpoddyotana de CandrakIrti.
nABS 21.2 198
tradition exegetique meme [de l'ecole] Arya du Guhyasamiija, soit affumee
l'explication"de l'ultime; il faut savoir qu'en general, il y a aussi Ie sens cacMIOO.
Le commentaire de Taranatha reste malgre tout relativement elliptique:
on peut penser qu'il fait allusion aux trois etats de conscience (<<esprit
d' apparence blanche, etc.)IOI qui se produisent (en particulier) au
moment dela mort et qui font partie des huit signes successifs
102
experi-
mentes conjointement a la Vacuite et sont suivis de l' avenement de la
Claire Lumiere du Vide total (thams cad stan pa'i 'ad gsal); cela pour-
rait donc se rapporter a la quatrieme etape du stade d' achevement, ou a
la troisieme si l'on considere que la quatrieme ne debute qu'au moment
ou disparait Ie Corps illusoire impur, au moment de la realisation de la
Claire Lumiere de signification (don gyi 'ad gsal)I03.
Analyse de l'articulation du sens cache a la strophe commentee:
Dans ce troisieme exemple, un premier element de la strophe, les trois
realites (tattva)>> est directement, i.e. de maniere quasi equationnelle,
identifie a trois etats de conscience (<<esprit d'apparence blanche, etc.)
experimentes au moment de la mort; un deuxieme element de la strophe,
1' Apaisement (ii ba)>>, est presente seul, d'abord, sans justification,
comme une consequence de I' avenement de ces etats de conscience, puis
glose en etant reaffirme comme evenement consequent mais alors,
associe, par apposition, a un autre element de pratique du stade d'ache-
vement, la Claire Lumiere du Vide total.
Dans la meme strophe est glorifie un exploit ordinaire de Tara,
l' action de vaincre les multitudes de demons. Les actants-objets sont
100. Taranatha,op. cit., pp. 68.3-69.2: gsum pa sbas don ni / de fiid gsum snan ba
dan mehed pa dan / fie bar thob pa' 0 II de dag bkod pa de rim gyi sar nas / ii
ba te skad cig pa ii ba thams cad stan pa 'od gsal ba fie bar 'gro '0 II gdon te
rtsa dan / ro lans te thig Ie dan / gnod sbyin te mam par rtog pa mams 'od gsal
kyi dbyins su beom pa las / rab mehog te lha'i skur myur du biens pa' 0 II 'di Ita
bu'i rigs ni / sgron gsallas / 'od gsal ba ni rab ston dan II zun 'jug pa rab
rtogs byed II mam pa gfiis su mtha' Mad do II mtha'i ni mur thug pa yi tshig /
ees gsan 'dus 'phags skor ba mams kyi ran lugs la / mthar thug gi Mad pa
'dod kyan / spyir nas sbas don yan yod par ses par bya' 0 II.
101. V. supra, n. 64 et 74.
102. Cf. LATI Rinpoche et J. HOPKINS, op cit., p.57.
103. Cf. Geshe Kelsang GYATSO, op. cit., pp. 214-216.
ARENES 199
d' abord identifies directement, de mamere serielle
104
demons =
canaux (niidf)>>, vampires (vetiila)>> = gouttes (bindu), y a k ~ a =
pensees conceptuelles (vikalpa)>> a des elements de yoga du stade
d'achevement; puis, a 1'actant-sujet, est substitue un autre element de ce
meme stade, I' Espace de la Claire Lumiere qui devient sujet de
1'action de vaincre ('joms/bcom)>> conferant de facto a celle-ci une
valeur metaphorique. Un dernier terme de la strophe, rab mchog (la
Supreme) est repris par Ie sens cacM (sbas don) pour etre identifie au
corps de la deite obtenu a l'issue de cette phase de yoga.
2.1.2.4. Analyse des conceptions et de la methode de Taranatha
Que peut-on deduire, d'une maniere generale, de ces trois exemples?
Taranatha semble etablir, Ie plus souvent, une sorte de correspondance
ou de parallele entre Ie contenu des strophes et Ie deroulement de pra-
tiques du stade d'achevement; par des series d'identifications de termes
importants de la strophe a des elements de ces pratiques, il confere au
texte de l' eloge une valeur metaphorique qui devient la forme d' expres-
sion du sens cacM. Ces identifications sont faites en etablissant des
correspondances terme a terme comme si l'auteur avait recours a un
lexique ou un code etabli. Cette hypothese pourrait etre confirmee par Ie
fait qu'a la fin de son commentaire, il enumere une longue liste de
significations qu'il n'a pas utilisees et indique les termes de l'eloge aux-
quels elles sont assignables; malheureusement, il n'entre pas davantage
dans Ie detail et renvoie a des ouvrages traitant de ces sujets
105
.
En ce qui concerne son utilisation (str.14) du sens certain (nftiirtha;
rres don), il est difficile de conclure quant aux rapports reciproques du
sens cache et du sens certain; on pourrait avoir l'impression que Ie
sens certain est applicable de maniere ponctuelle et que Ie sens
cacM I'est de maniere plus globale. On pourrait aussi penser que ces
deux sens sont employes concurremment puisque il ne semble guere y
avoir de difference entre les autres identifications faites au nom du sens
cachb> et celIe du pied de la Deesse faite en fonction du sens
104. Au moyen de la particule te: [ ... ] gdon te rtsa / ro fans te thig Ie, etc. (Taranlltha,
op. cit., p. 68. 5).
105. Ibid., pp. 71-72: gian yan fie bar rna go ba'i rnarn grans 'di Ita bu dag kyan /
stan ka'i zla ba sags kyis zla ba dan sa bon las bskyed pa dan / fii rna zla ba
rgyas pa sags kyis rnnon byan Ina las bskyed pa dan I [etc.]; il renvoie ensuite a
l'ouvrage intitule Tiirii douce le jour, irritee ia nuit (sGroi rna fiin it rntshan
khro), cf. P. ARENES, op. cit., p. 373.
, JIABS 21.2 200
certain; par ailleurs, dans toutes ies strophes OU une interpretation du
sens cache ne' suit pas l'explication generale, c'est une explication en
sens certain qui prend sa place (str. 16, 18, 19)106; mai,s d'autres
exemples de telles occurrences seraient necessaires p()ur confirmer ces
hypotheses.
L' explication que parait vouloir donner Taranatha des categories
d'interpretation qu'il utilise ne semble pas tres claire. En effet, alors
qu'il interprete la derniere strophe en sens cache, il cite un passage de
l'ouvrage de CandrakIrti qui fait reference en la matiere, Ie Pradf-
poddyotana; or ce passage traite de l'usage du sens ultime (kolikiirtha)
pour expliquer la Claire Lumiere et l'Union ; selon cette citation,
I'Ultime est explique (Mad pa) sous deux aspects (mam pa). Ensuite,
Taranatha semble gloser cette citation en expliquant qu' outre Ie sens
ultime expose par la tradition exegetique AIya du Guhyasamiija, il
existe aussi Ie sens cache, comme si cette tradition ignorait ou
negligeait Ie sens cache.
Si I' expression deux aspects de la citation renvoie a sens cache et
sens ultime, la demonstration de Taranatha est coherente mais, alors,
Ie sens cache comme Ie sens ultime traitent de l'Ultime, en l' occur-
rence, de la Claire Lumiere (prabhiisvara) et de I'Union (yuganaddha),
ce qui est contradictoire avec les definitions habituelles du sens cache!
En outre, dans ce passage de Candraldrti, il semblerait que ces deux
aspects designent, en fait, la Claire Lumiere et l'Union107.
Pour conclure de ces exemples, ce qu'on peut dire, c'est que, si I'on
ignore I'explication en sens cache (sbas don), il n'est en aucune
maniere possible de I'induire ou de Ie deduire du texte de l' Eloge en
Vingt et un Hommages. On ne peut affirmer pour autant, avec certitude,
que ce texte est un texte de sens accommodatice, i.e. un texte auquel, a
posteriori, un sens autre que Ie sens obvie aurait ete attribue par quel-
qu'un ala fois connaissant precisement les pratiques de l' anuttarayoga-
tantra et assez habile pour, en operant une lecture selective de ce texte, y
discerner / dessiner une description metaphorique de ces pratiques. En
effet, il n'est pas non plus insense d'envisager que ce texte ait pu etre
106, Cf. P. ARENES, op. cit., pp. 358, 362-363.
107. Cf. R. THuRMAN, op. cit., pp.140-141 (trad. du Pradfpoddyotana):
The ultimate is explained to be twofold;
Either showing clear light translucency [' od gsal],
Or affording realization of integration [zu1i 'jug];
"Ultimate" means here "reaching the limit".
ARENBS 201
compose de maniere a en permettre deux lectures, Ia seconde n' etant
accessible qu'a l'auteur lui-meme ou a toute autre personne autorisee et
disposant des des d'interpretation.
Le developpement que Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans cons acre au sens
cache et a sa' justification dans son commentaire du sens cache du
Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra permet-il de preciser q u e l q u e s ~ u n s de ces
points?
2.2. Sens cache (garbhyiirtha; sbas (pa'i) don) et Sutra
Le Ses rab sfiin po'i snags kyi mam Mad sbas don gsal ba sgron me
n'est sans doute pas Ie plus connu des ouvrages de Gung than 'Jam pa'i
dbyans (l762-1823)
108
mais il s'inscrit dans la riche tradition exegetique
de la litterature de la Prajfiiipiiramitii. Bcrit en 1816, ce commentaire
qui traite de l'explication en sens cachb> du Hrdayasutra, tout en
faisant reference aux commentateurs indiens, s'appuie aussi sur Ie rNam
Mad sfiin po'i rgyan de rGyal tshab rje (1364-1432) qui est lui-meme un
commentaire de l'Abhisamayiila1'[Lkiira
I09
. Cette application du sens
cache a un texte qui non seulement a toutes les apparences d'un sutra
mais est aussi intitul6 sutra, revet une importance particuliere.
108. Ses rab siiin po'i snags kyi mam bSad sbas don gsal ba sgron me, dans The
Collected Works of Gun-than dKon-mchog bstan-pa'i sgron-me, vol. 1,
pp.682-715, New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo 1971. Dans cet article, cet
ouvrage sera desormais abrege en sB. d. (= sBas don gsal ba).
Sur ce maitre, v. supra n.lO, et D. LOPEZ, The Heart Satra explained: Indian
and Tibetan commentaries, pp.14-15 (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications 1990): D.
LOPEZ donne, en annexe, la traduction integrale de ce commentaire (pp. 161-
186).
109. Ce texte, l' AbhisamayiilalJlkara, est considere comme un commentaire des Satra
de la Prajiiiipiiramitii, mais lui-meme fait l'objet d'un subcommentaire, la
Sphutiirthii (sur la litterature exegetique, cf. J.I. CABEZON: Buddhism and
language. A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism, Albany: State Univ. of New
York Press 1994).
JIABS 21.2 202
2.2.1. Application du sens cache a un sutra: Ie Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdaya-
sutra
Le Sutra du Cceur de la Perfection de Sapience
llO
est un texte extreme-
ment bref qui traite, directement, de la Vacuite (ston pa iiid; sun,yatii),
i.e. la Voie profonde (zab mo'i lam) et indirectement de la Voie etendue
(rgya che ba'i lam, i.e. les qualites relevant des piiramitii autres que
Priijiiii: la compassion, etc.). Le sens cache de cet enseignement, selon
Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyaIis (en accord avec la definition de dBal man
dKon mchog rgyal mtshan et celle de la tradition hermeneutique), est en
rapport avec les anuttarayogatantra
111
et, constitue par les cinq etapes
des comprehensions superieures (abhisamaya; mnon rtogs)112. Le
commentaire decrit les pratiques a accomplir, leur ordre, les qualites a
obtenir, etc., en expliquant de maniere a la fois poetique et judicieuse
que, de meme que Ie chemin d'un oiseau ne peut etre decrit par les
cantons de l'espace qu'il traverse mais par les plaines, les montagnes, les
rivieres et les forets qu'il survole, de meme les etapes spirituelles ne
peuvent etre decrites que par les qualites et aptitudes permettant de les
atteindre 113 .
On peut en prendre comme exemple l'explication qu'il donne du
celebre mantra: tadyathii O gate gate piiragate piirasafJ1.gate bodhi
sviihii. De meme que Ie texte qui Ie precede est divise en plusieurs
parties correspondant aux divers chemins (miirga), de meme ce mantra
(sauf O) se voit assigne comme sens cache (sbas don) les cinq
110. Bhagavatz-prajfia-paramita-hrdaya; bCom ldan 'das ma ses rab pha rol tu
phyin pa 'i sfiili po, P. 160, Vol. 6, 166.1.1-4-5 (quatre foI. seulement); trad. E.
CONZE, dans Buddhist Wisdom Books, New York: Harper and Row 1972.
111. Cf. sB. d., p.707: [ ... ] ser mdo la 'byU/i ba de [= sbas don gyi tha sfiad] bla
med kyi rgyud mthar thug pa mams dan khan fie da'i rtags pa yin I
112. Ibid.: des na snags' di ses rab sfiin po'i sbas don mnon rtogs gyi rim pa ston
byed yin pas snags su gsuns te I. Aussi, p. 708: ser sfiin 'dir tshig fiun bas sbas
don mnon rtog lam Ina tshan gcig las ma gsuns so I. En ce qui concerne les
comprehensions superieures et leur rapport aux cinq chemins, cf. Asanga,
Abhidharmasamuccaya (trad., W. RAHULA: Le Compendium de la Super-
Doctrine (Abhidharmasamuccaya) d'Asanga, Paris: EFEO 1971, p. 160, 163),
Mahiiyiinasaf[lgraha (trad. E. LAMOTTE, La Somme du Grand Vehicule
d'Asanga, Louvain la Neuve: Institut orientaliste 1973, p. 172-173; bibl., p. 34).
113. Cf. sB. d., p. 697.
ARENES 203
chemins. II resume alors Ie sens cache114 et chaque element du man-
tra est mis en correspondance avec une partie du texte:
Tadyathii: ce terme resume l'ensemble du contenu du prologue I 15.
O renvoie au sens ultime, a la signification de EVA contenue dans
ce prologue : la nature du corps, de la parole et de l'esprit (de
buddha). I 16
Gate gate indique Ie chemin de l'accumulation (saYj1bhiiramiirga;
tshogs-lam) et Ie chemin de la preparation (prayogamiirga; sbyor-lam);
ces deux mots correspondent a la partie du texte ou se trouve la phrase:
Sanputra, les fils ou les filles de qualite qui desirent pratiquer
la profonde Sapience parfaite doivent voir [les choses] ainsi 117.
Piiragate: Ie chemin de la vision (darsanamiirga; mthOli lam) correspond
a la partie qui va de <des cinq agregats jusqu'a il n'y a pas d'obten-
tion118.
PiirasaYj1gate: Ie chemin de la meditation (bhiivaniimiirga; sgom lam)
correspond a Sariputra, ainsi [les bodhisattva n' ayant pas d' obtention,
se fondent-ils sur la parfaite Sapience et demeurent-ils en elle; leur esprit
etant sans voile, il est sans peur, etc.]119.
Bodhi: Ie chemin au-dela-de-l'etude mi slob lam) corres-
pond a : [C'est en s'appuyant sur la Sapience parfaite que] les buddha
des trois temps [obtiennent l'Eveil parfait, accompli, sublime] 120.
Sviihii: signifie qu'il en soit ainsi
121

114. Cf. sB. d, p. 712,4.: de yan chad kyi mdo'i don thams cad snags 'dis bsdus pa
yin te I.
115. Ibid.: nan gi don rtogs ses rab dan ldan pa 'i sgo nas stan dgos tshul gyi man
nag glen giis bsdus mams ta dya tha ies pas bstan I.
116. Ibid.: sku gsuri thugs gsum gyi bdag fiid e warn gyi don mthar thug pa glen gii'i
khons na gnas pa de fiid om ies pas bstan I.
117. Ibid.: sa ri bu rigs kyi bu' am I nas I mam par blta bar bya ies pa 'j sbas don gyi
tshogs sbyor gfiis ga te ga te ies pas bstan I.
118. Ibid.: phuri po ina po f ies pa nas I rna thob pa 'an med ces pa'i sbas don gyi
mthon lam pii ra ga te ies pas bstan I.
119. sB. d., p. 713: de Ita bas naies sogs kyi sbasdon sgom lampiirasa1!lga te ies
pas bstan f.
120. Ibid.: dus gsum du ies sogs kyi mi slob lam bo dhi ies pas bstan to JI.
121. Ibid.: sviihii ni gii tshugs ies brtan par byed pa 'i don te f.
JIABS 21.2 204
Comme on Ie voit, il n'est rien de <;ommun entre Ie sens cach6> (sbas
don) et Ie mantra, hormis l'idee de progression exprimee par celui-ci :
alle, alle, alle par dela, completement aIle, Eveil, (i.e. Quand on a
continuement avance, quand on a atteint l' autre rive, quand on est arrive
au but, c'est l'Eveil!) C'est d'ailleurs cette idee qui permet de lui
rattacher la succession des chemins: Ainsi, Ie premier allez122 (gate)
indique Ia maniere de progresser sur Ie chemin de I' accumulation
[ ... ]123. Pour les autres elements du mantra, la relation avec les cinq
chemins est etablie par l' etymologie :
Par exemple :
para [rive, autre rive, but, limite, etc.] de piiragate124, etant explique cornme
au deUt, il faut aussi l'expliquer cornme absolu (don dam pa): en effet, en
ajoutant quelques lettres a ce mot, on obtient <<.piiramartha [paramarthaJ'25.
Jouant sur la similitude de ptira et de pra (de prayogamtirga, chemin de
la preparation), Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans affirme que, quand pra se
transforme en ptira, alors on se prepare a l' absolu126 (i.e. sur Ie che-
min de la preparation, on se prepare au chernin suivant, celui de la
Vision?). De meme Ie saY[L de ptirasaY[Lgate, est rapproche de saY[Lsodha
si bien que ptirasaY[Lgate est alors associe a l'idee de complete purifica-
tion127; rapproche aussi de saY[Lttina il est associe a l'idee de continuite
de progres
128
; Ie sens habituel de saY[L n'est pas oublie et c'est l'idee de
I' elimination complete des erreurs qui mene a l' accomplissement du
nirvti"(la
129
qui est associee alors a ptirasaY[Lgate.
122. Le terme sanskrit, un verbal en -ta (gata) au locatif, a ete traduit en tibetain par
un imperatif: sons sig.
123. sE. d., p. 693: de ltar na sons sig ces pa dan pas chos fiid kyi don la thos bsam
gtso bar gyur pa'i tshogs lam bgrod tshul dan I.
124. Cf. MONIER-WILLIAMS: A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, (reedition), Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass 1995, p. 619.
125. sB. d., p. 695: des na piira gate ies pa'i para pha rol tu Mad pas don dam par
yan Mad dgos te / de la yi ge bsnan pas piiramiirtha don dam pa La 'jug cin I.
126. sB. d., p. 698: der ma zad sbyor lam gyi skad dod prayogamarga [sic] ies pa
pra piira byas tshe don dam pa La sbyor bies pa'i don du 'gyur bar Mad do II.
127. sE. d., ibid.: 'dir pii ra sal?'! gate ies pa'i sal?'! ni sal?'!sodha byas na yons su
sbyan ba la 'jug I.
128. Ibid.: santana [sic] byas tshe rgyun du la 'jug pas yun bsrins nas goms te gon
'phel tu gton dgos pa'i don du 'gro la I.
129. Ibid.: phyin ci log las sin tu 'das nas my a nan las 'das par mthar phyin to t.
ARENES 205
S'il ne- parait pas illogique de penser que, pour expliquer comment
la Vacuite exposee dans ce siitra, il est utile de considerer les
chemins qui y menent, en revanche, on a Ie sentiment que les rapproche-
ments qui permettent d'articuler Ie sens cache au texte ne sont pas
toujours justifie-s formellement
l3o
. En outre, il faut noter que, quoique Ie
sens cache soit bien rapporte aux anuttarayogatantra, rien de similaire
a ce qui est indique par dBai mail dKon mchog rgyal mtshan n'est
mentionne ici; on n'y trouve qu'une tres breve explication concernant
les Corps, Parole, Esprit de vajra et la maniere dont les anuttarayoga-
tantra les realisent
l31
. Comment expliquer cette apparente contradiction,
comment Gun than ' Jam pa'i dbyans explique-t -ille sens cache?
2.2.2. Le sens cache (sbas don; garbhyartha) selon Gun than 'Jam
pa'i dbyans
sbas don et tugs bstan
tugs bstan
Pour expliquer Ie sens cache, Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyails Ie compare
au sens implicite (tugs bstan): Ie sens implicite se trouve (even-
tuellement) dans n'importe quel texte et il est possible de Ie comprendre
par la force (stobs) d'un raisonnement (rigs-pa) qui analyse Ie sens (de
l' expose) explicite ou direct (dit.os bstan )132.
II ne s'agit donc nullement, ici, d'une allusion puisque celle-ci exige
que Ie lecteur (ou l'auditeur) soit en possession de l'information et que
130. Cette maniere de proceder etymologico-philologique se rapproche (partielle-
ment), quand meme, du fonctionnement d'un alaTJ1kara, une categorie de double
sens, Ie qui peut reposer sur un phoneme un mot
(pada), un genre (liliga), une langue un theme (Prakrti), un suffixe
(pratyaya), une desinence (vibhakti), etc.: cf. M.C. PORCHER: Figures de style
en sanskrit, Theorie des AlaTJ1karatastra, Paris: College de France, Institut de
Civilisation fudienne 1978, p. 347.
131. sB. d., p. 703: bla med la sku 'grub byed bskyed rim 1 gsuli 'grub byed kun
rdzob bsgyu ma'i rdzogs rim 1 thugs 'grub byed don dam 'od gsal gyi rdzogs
rim yin la [ ... ] I.
132. sB. d., p. 707: tugs bstan ni zuli gali la 'ali yod cili dlios bstan gyi don la dpyad
pa'i rigs pa'i stobs kyis rtogs nus zig yin I.
Cf. D SEYFORT RUEGG: "Purport, Implicature and Presupposition [ ... ]", 311-
312: "[ ... J directly and explicitly (dlios su; mukhya ) or by implication (tugs kyis;
samarthyat or don gyis = arthat) [ ... ]."
JIABS 21.2 206
I'auteur Ie sache; il ne s'agit pas non plus d'une suggestionl33
celle-ci representel'action par'laquelle une idee en appelle, en fait naitre
une autre et qu'alors, aucune mediation n'intervient entre lys deux. Ce
sugs bstan
134
semble etre ce qui est montre, indique (bstan paY par
shugs : dans sugs, ce qu'il faut.retenir, c'est I'idee de potentialite, de
virtualite, i.e. qui existe en puissance et non en acte
135
mais c.ette
virtualite n' est actualisee que par un raisonnement.
Par exemple, c'est par deduction qu'on peut comprendre de l'affirma-
tion (explicite) selon laquelle Devadatta ne mangeait pas Ie jour, qu'il
mangeait la nuit (implicite) 136: la mention d'un raisonnement dans
l' actualisation d'une proposition connexe rapproche sugs bstan, Ie sens
implique, de l'acception que implicite a en logique, c'est a dire d'iro-
plication.
sbasdon
En ce qui concerne Ie sens cache (sbas don), il n'est aucunement
deductible d'un enonce, a la difference du sens implicite, aucun raison-
nement ne permet d'y acceder:
En ce qui conceme Ie sens cache, il n'est pas possible, tout seul, de Ie comprendre
en anaIysant [son enonce] sans [avoir recours aux] explications [fournies] par les
instructions d'un maitre
l37
.
133. Nous entendons 130 suggestion dans Ie sens moderne du terme mais, parmi les
aIa'!lkiira, Ie sens cache semble avoir quelques similitudes avec Ie dhvani : il est
apprehende apres l'exprime, il peut naitre d'un mot, d'une phrase, d'un ouvrage
entier, ou d'un phoneme, il requiert la connaissance d'eIements exterieurs au
texte, il peut s'adresser a quelqu'un d'autre que Ie destinataire du sens obvie;
neanmoins Ie dhvani est en relation avec Ie double sens du cf. M.C.
PORCHER,op. cit, pp.
134. D. SEYFORT RUEGG, ibid., p. 312: "And what is thus implicitly communicated
[ ... ] is designated in Tibetan by tugs bstan".
135. Inherent power (vertu, pouvoir inherent): cf. Chandra DAS: Tibetan English
Dictionary, p. 1240; Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, Dza-A, p.2852: nus pa
dan stobs.
136. Cf. Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, p.2853. C'est l'exemple donne de sugs
bstan: dper na lHas sbyin chen pos fUn par zas mi za I ies pas fUn mor zas mi
za Ia dnos su bstan nas I mtshan mor zas za ba sugs bstan pa' 0 I. Le sens
implicite est d'ailleurs ainsi defmi comme un autre sens en relation avec Ie sens
expressement enonce (explicite): don d:1ios su bstan pa'i ior nas don gian bstan
pa [ ... ] I.
137. Cf. sB. d., p.707: sbas don ni bia ma'i man nag gis ma bstan par ran dban du
dpyad pas rtogs mi nus pa iig yin I; seul: ran dban du (lit. de son propre chef,
librement).
ARENES 207
C' est une propriete du Iangage que de pouvoir utiliser des mots dans un
sens qui n'est pas connu au prealable par Ia communaute linguistique
138
;
en general, on Ie fait comprendre par Ie contexte qui rend, alors, neces-
smre ce nouveau sens : c'est, par exemple, Ie cas pour l'usage de meta-
phores; en ce qui concerne Ie sens cache, Ie contexte n'est d'aucune
aide, ce sont les instructions du maitre qui permettent d'y acceder
comme nous avons pu Ie voir dans Ies applications evoquees plus haut.
C'est en ce sens que Ie savoir du maitre est, en quelque sorte, annexe au
texte.
Un enonce dote d'un sens cacM ne comporte donc ni ambiguite Iii
amphibolie; bien que signifib>, i1 n'est pas ce qui manque au signi-
fiant puisqu'il ne lui est pas assigne par un code linguistique ou
culturel
139
; pas plus que Ie sens obvie, Ie sens cache n' a de rapport de
res semblance avec la suite graphique ou sonore de l' enonce auquel il est
assigne
140
: de ce point de vue, leur relation n'est pas motivee. En ce
qui concerne Ie caractere de necessite141, i1 semble plus difficile de
trancher. II est un point, neanmoins, sur lequel Ie sens cache se
rapproche du sens implicite, c'est que Ie sens cacM semble etre appeIe
par Ie sens obvie. En effet, Gun than 'jam pa'i dbyans souligne, a
propos du Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra, que ce sens cache est en
quelque sorte necessaire :
Tout Ie texte ayant expose principalement la vacuite, on peut se demander
comment mettre en pratique (cet enseignement)142.
C' est pour repondre a cette question que Ie sens (cacM) du texte est
organise de maniere a correspondre aux etapes de Ia voie
143
. Et notre
auteur se montre plus precis encore, en affirmant :
138. Cf. T. TODOROV, "Signe" in Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences du
Zangage, Paris: Editions du Seuil, p.137, 1972.
139. Cf. T. TODOROV, ibid, p. 133: a propos du signifie en general et du signifie
Saussurien en particulier.
140. Bien que different du sens obvie, Ie sens cache, comme lui, n'est pas motive
linguistiquement ainsi que l'est Ie sens symbolique.
141. Au sens linguistique du terme: Ie signifie ne peut se passer du signifiant (ibid.,
p.13S).
142. Cf. sB. d., p. 707: giun ril pos ston iiid gtso bor bstan nas de siiams su len tshul
ji ltar yin siiam pa la /
143. Ibid., p. 707: / giun don lam gyi rim par bsgrigs te [ ... ] /
nABS 21.2 208
Lorsqu'il y a moyen d'indiquer un chemin comme senscacM d'un
ayant pour sujet expres, la vacuite, il faut aussi que soit indiquee la Connaissance
superieure (jfiiina) du chemin de la Vision (darsanamiirga; mthon lam) 144, Ie
Corps ultime (mthar thug gi sku), etc.: c'est Iii qu'intervient pleineinent Ie sens
des quatre modes d'explicatioll (caturvidhiikhyiiyikii; [bSad] tshul bii)145.
Cette necessite n'est pas, a strictement parler, d'ordre logique mais
plut6t d'ordre teleologique
146
: Ie sens cache (sbas don) reintroduit'le
contenu du texte a sa place, dans un ensemble doctrinal dont les fins sont
clairement soteriologiques, il Ie situe par rapport aux etapes d'un
processus conduisant a l' etat de buddha. Dans Ie cas du Prajfiaparamita-
hrdayasutra, Ie sens cache semble avoir, avec lui, une relation de
complementarite. Puisqu'on a affaire ici a une sorte de contigui:te de
signifies doctrinaux, on pourrrait peut-etre faire etat, pour Ie sens
cache, de signification par collocation, si ce concept n'etait pas Ie plus
souvent utilise pour des mots
147
. On pourrait aussi parler de trans-
textualite, au sens ou I'entend G. GENETTE, a condition de s'en tenir a
sa definition generale ou meme de paratextualitb>, a condition d'en
144. A propos des cinq chemins et du chemin de la Vision, v. AsaIiga, Abhi-
dharmasamuccaya (trad.: W. RAHULA, Le Compendium de la Super Doctrine
d'Asanga, p. 104-109); sur Ie chemin de la Vision, un arya voit directement la
Vacuite, i.e., 1'absence d'existence en soi des pMnomenes.
145. Cf. sB. d., p.707: dnos su yul ston fiid gsun pa de'i sbas don la lam iig ston
tshul yod tshe mthon lam gyi ye ses dan mthar thug gi sku sogs kyan ston tshul
yod dgos pas tshul bii'i don tshan bar 'byun no I. Pour les quatre modes
d'explication, v. supra, pp.185-188.
146. C'est iI dire que cette necessite est moyen d'une fin (la bouddMite); bien que
teleologique, ici, soit employe dans Ie sens que lui donne Kant dans sa
Critique du ]ugement (Kritick der Urtheilskraft) 2e partie, 84: Nun haben wir
nur eine einzige Art wesen in der Welt deren Kausalitat teleologisch, das ist auf
Zwecke gerichtet und doch zugleich beschaffen [ ... ] (cf. A. LALANDE, Vocabu-
Zaire technique et critique de la Philosophie, Paris, P.U.F., 1976 (reed.), p.354),
il se peut, neanmons, que, comme me 1'a suggere Ie Professeur E. STEIN-
KELLNER, qu'il vaHle mieux parler - et plus subtilement peut-etre - d'une neces-
site de causalite proleptique.
147. II s'agit ici davantage de significations culturelles que linguistiques comme par
exemple, pour un mot, Ie fait d' evoquer les proprietes de l' objet qu'il nomme en
meme temps qu'ille nomme: Cf. lR. FIRTH, Papers in Linguistics 1934-1951,
London: Oxford University Press 1957, pp. 190-215. De meme, W. EMPSON
(dans The Structure of complex words, Londres: Chatto and Windus 1969,
pp.I-45) fait etat du meme pMnomene, i.e. que, lorsqu'un mot est produit dans
un enonce, il mobilise, en meme temps, tout un complexe de signifies, un sous
ensemble ideologique.
ARENES 209
elargir Ie sens
148
, puisque Ie sens cache est, d'une certaine maniere,
l'expression d'une coherence doctrinale et qu'il renvoie a d'autres textes
portant sur des themes connexes voirecomplementaires. Mais si l' on se
refere a 1' application du sens cache aux Vingt et un Hommage a
Tara, cette complementarite apparait moins clairement
149
.
Si l' on rapporte, main tenant, cette definition du sens cache de Gun
than 'Jam pa'i dbyans et Ie commentaire qui l'accompagne ala definiton
donnee par dBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, ces. definitions ne
paraissent guere colncider. En effet, Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans semble
se cantonner dans des considerations beaucoup plus generales. On con-
state une quasi absence de commentaire developpe concernant les anutta-
rayogatantra et l'on trouve pourtant, dans son expose, l'affirmation de
ce qui devrait autoriser un tel commentaire, i.e. l' affirmation de la
necessite des quatre explications.
II semble donc qu'on ait affaire, en quelque sorte, a un sens cache
pteparatoire a celui expose par dBal man dKon mchog rgyal mtshan.
Ce caractere particulier serait-il en relation avec Ie fait que le texte
auquelle sens cache est applique, n' est pas un tantra?
III. SUTRA ET TANTRA : PARTITION ET TRANSITION
1. Le Prajfiaparamitahrdayasfitra, texte hybride voire ambigu
Le sens cache (sbas don; garbhyartha ), normalement, n' est pas utilise
pour d'autres textesque les tantra
150
Neanmoins, il 1'a ete pour un
siitra, Ie Prajiiaparamitahrdayasutra. Cette contradiction trouve son
148. G. GENETTE, dans Palimpsestes (1982) (Paris: Le Seuil, Points Essais, 1992),
definit la transtextualite ou transcendance textuelle du texte comme ce qui
englobe les differents types de relation manifeste ou cacMe que Ie texte entretient
avec d'autres textes.
La paratextualite est la copresence autour ou Ii cote du texte, d'un texte
exterieur qui l' encadre, Ie determine et en conditionne la lecture; Ie probleme,
c' est que Ie paratexte est defini trop etroitement. n renvoie, en effet, aux titres,
sous-titres, preface, notes, epigraphes, priere d'inserer, etc.
149. Malgre ses apparences d'hyrnne, sa nature de texte de kriyiitantra n'est guere
douteuse, on peut done considerer que son commentaire comme anuttarayoga-
tantra est, en quelque sorte, complementaire dans Ie cadre d'une progression des
tantra inferieurs aux tantra superieurs.
150. Cf. supra, p. 191.
.JIABS 21.2 210
echo dans Ie double classement de ce texte : Bu ston cons acre cette ambi-
gu'ite en faisant figurer Ie Prajiiapiiramitiihrdayasutra dans Ia des
Tantra et dans celie de la Prajiiiipiiramita
l51
.
C'est Ia presence d'un mantra dans Ie Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra qui
pose Ie probleme de sa nature, justifiant son interpretation en sens
cache, creant ainsi une interface entre tantra et sutra. En
deux termes designent Ies tantra : Ies mots rgyud et gsan snags. Ce der-
nier terme, gsan snags (guhyamantra, mot a mot, mantra secrets) parfois
en concurrence avec snags (par ex. snags kyi thegs pa)152, est souvent
utilise par GUD. than 'Jam pa'i dbyans et, quelquefois, non sans ambi-
guite (mantra / tantra?). Cette ambiguite est quelque peu genante quand
il s'agit de savoir si c'est Ie mantra seul qui peut etre qualifie de tantra
ou si c'est Ie texte entier. Cette curiosite Iexicale et cette ambigu'ite ne
renvoient-elles pas justement aces textes transitionneis de caractere
hybride - textes comprenant mantra ou dhiira1J.l mais presentes comme
sutra - deja evoques par J. FILLIOZATI53?
La justification de I'utilisation du sens cache pour expliquer ce
Sutra du cceur de la perfection de Sapience donne lieu a un debat - dont
GUD. than 'Jam pa'i dbyans se fait I'echo dans son argumentation - ou
Ies commentateurs indiens et tiMtains en viennent a considerer Ies cri-
teres de differenciation des sutra et des tantra, Ies rapports entre ceux-ci
et leur definition respective
l54

Les raisons utilisees pour demontrer Ia legitimite de l' attribution du
statut de tantra au Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra etlou du mantra qu'il
contient font, bien sur, etat des caracreres specifiques d'un tantra.
D'abord, GUD. than 'Jam pa'i dbyans cite Vimalamitra (Ville S.)155 selon
Iequel c'est un tantra parce qu'enseigne en secret, i.e. sans etre reveIe a
ceux dont Ies facultes sont faibles; Vimalamitra, ici, renvoie donc a une
pratique, un fait mais aussi a une definition 156.
151. Cf. D. LOPEZ, op. cit., p.112.
152. Cf; infra, n.160 et 165; mais aussi opposition tantra/sutra: mdo-snags (v.
infra, n. 164).
153. Cf. L. RENou et J. FlLLIOZAT, op. cit., II, 2014-2015, pp. 373-374.
154. Cf. sB. d, pp.703-707.
155. Ce maitre aurait ete disciple de Buddhaguhya et de SrlsiIpha et se serait rendu au
Tibet it l'epoque du roi Kbri sron Ide btsan: cf. D. LOpEZ, op. cit, pp. 8-9.
156. Cf. sB. d, p.703: dban rtulla gsan ste bstan pas gsan snags su brtags par
gsuns I
ARENES 211
II faitaussi etat d'un autre argument, celui qu'utilise Vajrapa1).i (Xle
S.)157 pour repondre par anticipation a une question concernant l'appar-
tenance eventuelle au vehicule des caracteristiques mtshan
fiid gyi theg pa = piiramitiiyiina) ou au vehicule des mantra (snags gyi
theg pa = tantrayiina), d'instructions a propos du sens du Prajfiiipiira-
mitiihrdayasutra. VajrapaI).i fait valoir qu'il est vrai que Ie mantra de ce
sutra (gate gate piirasa1!lgate ... ) ne ressemble pas aux mantra utilises
d'habitude dans les rituels de pacification, accroissement, subjugation,
etc, necessaires a l' accomplissement des quatre activites (samudiiciira;
'phrin las) mais que, de meme que la realite est diverse dans son appa-
rence et identique en sa nature profonde, de meme ce mantra constitue
l'intime du sens de tous les mantra (gsan snags mams kyi don gyi sfiin
po) et que compendre son sens lihere l'esprit
158

Gun than evoque un autre argument: Ie mantra (?) est aussi un tantra
parce que Nagarjuna et Anandagarbha ont compose deux siidhana l'utili-
sant comme base, l'un relevant des anuttarayogatantra et l'autre des
yogatantra et qu'ainsi, les disciples non ordinaires peuvent Ie prati-
quer comme un tantra
159
lci encore, l'argument renvoie a un constat:
c'est son usage atteste comme tantra qui justifie son statut et, en defini-
tive, son commentaire en sens cache.
157. Ce maitre, ne en 1017, disciple de MaitrIpa et expert en doha, aurait enseigne la
Mahfunudra: cf. 'Gos 10 tsa ba, Deb ther snon po (trad. N. G. ROERICH: The
Blues Annals, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 1976 (lere ed. 1949), pp. 842-843).
158. sB. d., p.704: sems can mams kyi blo'i snan ba la tha dad du snan mod kyi /
zab mo'i chos iiid la tha dad med de / de dra bas na ses rab kyi pha rol tu phyin
pa'i snags 'di ni gsan snags mams kyi don gyi siiin po yin no / Ces mantra
sont, en quelque sorte, des cas particuliers de celui du Sutra du C(Eur. Cf. Ie
Sarvatathagatakiiyaviikcittarahasyaguhyasamiijaniimamahakalpariija; De biin
gsegs pa thams cad kyi sku gsun thugs kyi gsan chen gsan ba 'dus pa ies bya
ba brtag pa'i rgyal po chen po (P. 81, vol. 3., 200. 4. 2., 69c-71b) it propos de
l' explication classique du terme mantra, selon laquelle ce mot forme de man
(esprit) et tra (proteger) signifie proteger l'esprit: ce qui protege l'esprit
ultimement, c'est la comprehension directe de l'absence d'existence en soi des
phenomenes, c'est l'acces it l'etat de buddha auquelle sens cache du mantra
du Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra fait allusion.
159. sB. d., p.704: Klu sgrub kyis 'di'i sgrub thabs mdzad pa bla med dan 'gros
mthun iin / Kun siiin gis mal 'byor rgyud dan bstun nas grub thabs mdzad pas
gdul bya thun mon ma yin pa' 'ga' iig la ltos te snags su byas chog go /
.nABS 21.2 212
2. Relations entre les sUtra. et les tantra : continuite et specijicite
Pour justifier ce rapprochement entre sutra et tantra, Gun tha.J1 'Jam pa'i
dbyans fait un expose convaincant sur les rapports entre sutra et tantra,
ou il souligne leur specificite et .leur complementarite: les sutra con-
duisent naturellement aux tantra; s'epanouissent en eux
160
, il faut donc
les rapprocher voire les meler
161
, et, selon Kulikapul).<;larIka, Ie vehicule
de vajra conjugue la methode des mantra (snags kyi tshul) et la methode
des piiramitii (pha rol tu phyin pa 'i tshul) qui sont, respectivement, de la
nature du fruit et de la cause
162
n ajoute qu'en depit de cette relation
etroite, il convient, neanmoins, conformement a l'intention du Buddha
de s'adapter au degre de maturite spirituelle des disciples I 63, de main-
tenir une claire distinction entre sutra et tantra (Imantra).
3. Definition et caracteres des tantra : specijicite et usage
D'abord, ce qui distingue un tantra (lmantra) d'un sutra (Gun than
'Jam pa'i dbyans cite a ce sujet les affirmations de Vimalamitra et
Atisa), c'est Ie fait d'etre enseigne en secret de ceux dont les facultes
sont faibles (dban rtul) et comme on l'a vu plus haut, c'est un argument
en faveur du statut de tantra du Sutra du C(Eur ou plus vraisemblable-
ment de son mantra
l64

Ensuite, les sutra ne font que partiellement etat de cet ultime (mthar
thug pa ) qu' on peut obtenir par Ie chemin des tantra ([gsan ] snags) du
fruit I 65.
160. sB. d., p.705: spyir mdo thams cad sriags la giol ba yin I
161. sB. d., p.705: de gfiis gcig tu bsre ruri bar rna zad ries par 'dres dgos pa yin te I
162. sB. d., p.705: rdo rje theg pa ste sriags kyi tshul dari pha rol phyin pa'i tshul
'bras bu dari rgyu'i bdag fiid gcig tu 'dres par gyur pa'o I
163. sB. d., p.705: 'on kyari de'i ched du bya ba'i gdul bya la dari po nas snags lugs
su byas nas bstan na stan pas mdo sriags so sor gsuris pa 'i dgoris pa rna phyed
pa dari skabs 'chol ba'i skyon du 'gyur I
164. sB. d., p. 703: Le texte est ici ambigu parce qu'il pourrait s'agir du Prajiiii-
piiramitiihrdayasutra ou de son mantra: '0 na 'di mdo sriags giiis las gari du
gtogs siiam na I Bi rna la mi tras dbari rtulla gsari ste bstan pas gsari sriags su
btags par gsuris I. Le demonstratif 'di devrait designer neanmoins Ie mantra
dont on parle auparavant.
165. Ibid., p.705: des na 'bras bu sriags lam gyis thob bya'i mthar thug pa de zur
tsam bstan kyari I
ARENES 213
En ou"tre, Ie chemin des tantra qualifie de chemin (utilisant) des
methodes habiles complementaires n'est pas enseigne en meme temps
que Ie chemin des sutra
l66
. En effet, selon Tson kha pa
167
, dans Ie
vehicule des piiramitii, la methode permettant de produire Ie fruit, la
Felicite de l'Eveil (byan chub kyi bde ba), la grande Felicite du
chemin nee simultanement, n'est pas enseignee
168
bien que, lorsqu'on
parle du fruit, il soit permis d'expliquer la Grande FelicitiS.
Enfin, la presence, dans un texte, d'explications telles que celles qu'on
trouve dans les tantra it propos du stade du fruit, ne fait pas, pour
autant, relever ce texte du vehicule des tantra; il faut, pour cela, que ces
explications soient aussi accompagnees d'un expose du chemin per-
mettant d'y accederl69.
Ces caracteres autorisant l' appellation de tantra, enonces par Gun than
'Jam pa'i dbyans, sont relativement precis et denues d'ambigulte mais
que penser de ce qu'implique I'argument selon lequel Ie mantra du
Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra est un tantra parce que Nagarjuna et
Anandagarbha ont compose deux siidhana de niveau yogatantra et
anuttarayogatantra l'utilisant comme base et qu'ainsi, les disciples
non-ordinaires peuvent Ie pratiquer comme un tantra
l70
?
On peut en deduire, bien sur, que les tantra n'ont pas Ie meme pu-
blic que les sutra mais ce qu'il faut surtout noter, c'est que l'usage de
cet argument entraine un renversement de perspective puisque ce n' est
plus Ie statut de tantra qui autorise son utilisation comme tel, c'est I'usa-
ge qui en est fait qui legitime son statut : est considere comme tantra un
texte qui donne lieu a des pratiques tantriques. Le point de vue pragma-
tique qui inspire cet argument et l'utilisation particuliere du Sutra du
C(Eur, est aussi celui qui inspire une pratique, voire une strategie plus
generale : celIe de la transmission et de l' enseignement des tantra.
166. Ibid.: snon pa 'debs rgyu'i thabs mkhas kyi lam de dan po nas mfiam du ston
pa min pas theg pa so so bar 'gro ba'i phyir te /
167. lei (sB. d., pp. 705-706), l'auteur cite Ie Rim Ina sgron gsal de Tson kha pa.
168. Ibid., p. 706: / Rim tna sgron gsallas / phar phyin gyi theg par 'bras bu byan
chub kyi bde ba'i thabs rgyu lam gyi lhan skyes kyi bde ba chen po ma bstan
pas / 'bras bu'i skabs su bde ba Mad du chug kyan theg pa gfiis khyad par che
bar gsuns so /
169. Ibid .. : [ ... ] gsuns pa Ita bu snags kyi thun mon ma yin pa'i gnad don re re tsam
bstan yan / de sgrub byed kyi lam dan bcas te ma gsuns pas snags kyi theg par
mi 'gyur pa dan /
170. sB. d., p.704 (v. supra, n.159).
JIABS 21.2 214
4. Typologie des textes, typoiogie des etres : d'une probIematiqufj! de
l'articulation a une probIematique de la transition
4.1. Souci pedagogique, strategies et pratiques
Les sutra trouvent donc leur prolongement dans les tantra tout en restant
distincts de ceux-ci; mais comment se fait cette articulation des uns aux
autres?
Les termes de methode (tshul), chemin (lam), vehicule (theg
pa), utilises pour distinguer les uns des autres renvoient a ceux qui uti-
lisent ces methodes et ces vehicules, empruntent ces chemins: les prati-
quants ou disciples et c'est donc parrapport a eux, a leur progression
spirituelle que se fait l'articulation des tantra aux sutra.
L'idee de gnidualisme est, bien sur, centrale dans Ie Mahiiyiina. On
sait comment elle 1'a emporte au Tibet!7! contre les tendances subitistes.
On sait combien sont importantes les notions de petit Vehicule et Grand
Vehicule, de terres (bhumi; sa) et chemins (miirga; lam) ou encore
Ie fait de distinguer les individus suivant leur motivation : ce sont ces
considerations ou de similaires qui president a l' organisation, la mise en
perspective de la transmission et de l' enseignement des tantra.
Ainsi, deux arguments, utilises pour soutenir Ie caractere tantrique du
mantra du Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra introduisent une consideration
capitale dans Ie fonctionnement des systemes d'interpretation: la d i v e r ~
site des sortes de disciples. Le premier distingue, comme on I' a vu,
parmi les disciples ceux qui ont de faibles facultes (dban rtul) ,
auxquels les tantra ne peuvent etre enseignes
172
, et Ie second mentionne
les disciples non ordinaires (thun mon ma yin pa) susceptibles de
pratiquer des siidhana derives du Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra173.
171. Cf. P. DEMIEVILLE: Le Condle de Lhasa. Une controverse sur le quiitisine
entre les bouddhistes de l'Inde et de la Chine au Ville siecle de l'ere chretienne,
Paris: P.D.F. 1952; Y. IMAEDA: "Documents tibetains de Touen-houang
concernant Ie concile du Tibet", I.A. CCLXTII (1975): 125-146; D. SEYFORT
RUEGG: Buddha nature, Mind and the problem of Gradualism in a comparative
perspective: On the transmission and reception of Buddhism in India and Tibet,
London: School of Oriental and African Studies 1989.
172. Cf. sB. d., p.703: dban rtulla gsan ste bstan pas gsan snags su brtags par
gsuns I
173. sB. eL, p.704: Klu sgrub kyis 'di'i sgrub thabs mdzad pa bla med dan 'gros
mthun tin I Kun sfiin gis mal 'byor rgyud dan bstun nas grub thabs mdzad pas
gdul bya thun mon ma yin pa' 'ga' tig la ltos te snags su byas chog go I.
ARENES 215
La distinction ordinaire I non ordinaire (thun man pa 'i / thun man
ma yin pa'i: litt. commun/non commun) correspond a des differences
d'instruction, de developpement spirituel des pratiquants. C'est un souci
didactico-soteriologique qui justifie alors la partition sutra-tantra, qui
organise leurs rapports et qui legitime Ie caractere acroamatique des
enseignements consideres comme les plus avances. Deux types de
disciples sont distingues : ceux qui ne seraient pas encore prets ou qui
seraient susceptibles de s' effaroucher si on leur parlait de tantra et des
disciples dotes de la maturite spirituelle requise ou de capacites supe-
rieures.
Sur ce point, Gun than 'Jam pa'idbyans decrit tres precisement la
maniere prudente et pragmatique dont procedent les maltres spiritue1s
pour guider leurs disciples sur cette Voie des sutra qui se prolonge dans
les tantra. 11 explique que les disciples de la voie etendue des sutra
(mdo lugs kyi lam rkyan pa), suivent celle-ci dans la perspective
d'atteindre ainsi l' ultime (mthar thug pa) (i.e. Ie fruit )174; quand ils
ont obtenu une realisation suffisante de la voie commune (thun man
lam), on leur enseigne que leur but ne peut etre atteint sans la pratique
des tantra
175
, et on leur ens eigne ceux-ci.
Ce qu'il nous dit de la maniere d'utiliser Ie Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdaya-
sidra comme texte transitionnel est plus significatif encore de ce point
de vue pragmatique. Par exemple, en ce qui concerne Ie mantra de ce
texte, il souligne que, bien qu'il soit possible d'enseigner, quant a son
sens, l'intention profonde (dgons pa'i phugs) en relation avec ce mantra,
il n' est pas necessairement souhaitable de I' enseigner en disant explicite-
ment (tshig gis), des Ie debut, de Ie pratiquer en tant que tantra. lci, il
est fait reference a des disciples qui pourraient prendre peur si on leur
disait qu'il s'agit de tantra
176
Plus loin, par contre, il est fait allusion a
174. C'est-a-dire la Felicite de l'Eveil, cf. supra, p. 213 et n.168 (sB. d., p.706).
175. Ibid., p. 705: des na 'bras bu snags lam gyis thob bya'i mthar thug pa de zur
tsam bstan kyan t mdo'j ched du bya ba 'i gdul bya dan por de mdo lugs kyi lam
rkyan pas thob thub pa 'i dban du byas nas bstan Gin fiams su blans te thun mon
lam byan gi rtogs pa skyes zin pa na gzod 'di la snags kyi snon pa zig ma btab
par 'bras bu de thob mi nus zes snags lam ston pa ma gtogs t.
176. Ibid., p. 704-705: don fa dgons pa 'i phugs snags dan bsres nas ston run yan t
dan po nas snags [tar fiams su fons zes tshig gis ston mi run no I. Auparavant,
l' auteur a fait allusion a une anecdote concernant un certain Pracandraprabha qui
ne pouvait supporter d' entendre parler de beurre mais a qui il fallut en faire
absorber sans Ie lui dire, pour des raisons medicaIes.
nABS 21.2 216
des disciples avec lesquels il n'est pas besoin de prendre autant de
precautions: des disciples de capacites superieures qui comprennent Ie
sens d'un simple mouvement de tete177.
On voit donc qu'un maitre dispose d'une certaine marge de manreuvre.
Lorsqu'il a affaire a des disciplesa un degre intermediaire de maturite,
des disciples presque prets mais pas tout a fait, il peut moduler une
approche plus souple de vues doctrinales et de pratiques encore incon-
nues des vineya (gdul bya) qu'il doit guider, a condition de disposer de
textes qui Ie lui permettent.
4.2. Textes hybrides et hypotheses: de l'ambiguite comme lieu privi-
legie d'une didactique de la transition
En effet, parmi les textes canoniques, il existe certains textes dont Ie
statut hybride pourrait legitimement (?) autoriser un tel usage. Ainsi,
certains sutra, en general courts, conserves dans des recueils de dhiirat}i
(gzwis; formules magiques - c e l l e s ~ c i etant designees alternativement
comme sutra ou dhiira7J.t) representeraient, selon J. FILLIOZATI78, des
formes de passage entre les sutra anciens et la litterature tantrique.
Le Maiijusrfmulakalpa, par exemple, peut etre considere comme un
texte de ce type puisque, bien qu'il soit presente comme un mulatantra
et c1asse parmi les tantra, il est donne par la plupart de ses colophons
comme un mahiiyiinavaipulyasutra
l79

A l'instar de ces textes, Ie Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra, appeIe sutra,
contenant un mantra
180
considere comme tantra, et c1asse, ala fois,
parmi les sutra et les tantra, peut etre considere comme un texte transi-
tionnel parce qu'il semble avoir ete utilise pour constituer une transi-
tion, une etape iIitroductive, en quelque sorte, une preparation a la pra-
tique des tantra ..
Le statut du Prajiiiipiiramitiihrdayasutra, comme celui des textes
hybrides mentionnes plus haut, reste ambigu : sutra ou tantra?
La reponse n'est pas donnee. Si Gun than 'jam pa'i dbyans affrrme
bien que son mantra est de la nature des tantra, qu' il est interpretable en
177. Cf. ibid., p. 707: giuri don lam gyi rim par bsgrigs te gdul bya dban po sin tu
mon sos mgo smos pa tsam gyis go ba mams La 'dis ston pa yin no I.
178. Cf. L. RENOuet J. Fil.LIOZAT, op. cit., n, 2014-2015, pp. 373-374.
179. Ibid.
180. D'autres textes canoniques qui sont des sutra contiennent des mantra: Ie
Lankiivatlirasutra, Ie RatnaketudhliraIJi, etc.
ARENES 217
sens each (sbas don) (i.e. renvoie aux anuttarayogatantra), n t ~ a n
moins, il ne dissipe pas toute ambigulte puisque, parlant des siidhana se
rapportant au Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdayasiitra, il declare que ces textes sont
bien (en la circonstance) des tantra (parce qu'utilisables par des disciples
debutant dans fa pratique des tantra) mais qu'ils ne sont pas necessaire-
ment des tantra, en generalI
8
!.
Mais qu'en est-il pour l'autre exemple d'application du sens cache?
De meme que Ie Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdayasiitra, L'Eloge en Vingt et un
Hommage il Tiirii fait l'objet d'un double classement, son texte en
sanskrit est considere comme un kriyiitantra et figure dans Ie chap. III
du Sarvatathiigatamiitani [sic] Tarevisvakarmabhava-tantra-niima
182
et
sa traduction tib6taine isolee, sous Ie titre de beom ldan 'das ma sGroI
ma yan dag par rdzogs pa 'i sans rgyas bstod pa gsuns pa183, est classee
parmi les anuttarayogatantra. Le Ier Dalai Lama, dGe 'dun grub pa
(1391-1475) Ie classe parmi les kriyiitantra et rapporte que ce point fait
l'objet d'une polemique en raison d'un commentaire qui l'explique en
termes d' anuttarayogatantra
184
Taranatha en revanche, dont on a vu Ie
commentaire en sens cache, Ie considere, et pour cause, comme un
anuttarayo g atantra 185 .
Ces deux points de vue ne sont pas contradictoires et mKhas grub rje
(1385-1438), dans son rGyud sde spyi'i rnam giag, eclaire quelque peu
les raisons de cette double classification. II explique que cette double
occurrence ne correspond pas a deux textes mais a une double maniere
de commenter un meme texte et rappelle que l'iiciirya Suryagupta lui
181. Cf. sB. d, p. 707: de Itar na 'di'i sgrub thabs mams kymi snags Ia 'jug rin gyi
gdul bya thun mon ma yin pa de 'j dban du byas pas de Ia ltos te snags yin kyan
spyir snags yin mi dgos so I. lei, Ie tenne exact utilise pour qualifier les sadhana
est snags, i.e. mantra, mais on ne peut pas dire qu'un texte de sadhana est ou
non un mantra; par consequent, il faut comprendre snags comrne gsan snags
(mantra secret) synonyme de tantra.
182. Sarvatathiigatamatani[sic]Tarevisvakarmabhava-tantra-nama, P. 390, vo1.8.,
150.3.2-150.4.7 (v. P. ARENES, op. cit., p. 202-203, 275-276; en ce qui con-
ceme la graphie miitani, v. p.275, n.126).
183. bCom Idan 'das ma sGroI ma yan dag par rdzogs pa'i sans rgyas bstod pa
gsuns pa, P. 77, vol. 3, 154.2.3-154.4.7 (v. P. ARENES, ibid.).
184. Cf. dGe 'dun grub pa, sGroI ma phyag 'tshal ner gcig gi !fkka (sic) rin po che'i
phren ba, The Collected Works, gsun 'bum, vol. 6, (CHA), p. 60 (v. P. ARENES,
op. cit., p. 307).
185. Cf. Taranatha, op. cit., p. 39 (v. P. ARENES, op. cit., p. 335).
JIABS 21.2 218
meme avait commente ce texte en termes d'anuttarayogatantra
186
; Le
tantra de l' Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara n' est pas Ie seul
tantra de ce type: en effet, la Mafijusrfnamasarrzglti a ete c,ommente
comme un yogatantra par les acarya UHivajra et Mafijusriklrti mais Ie
Vimalaprabha et Aryadeva 1'expliquent comme un anuttarayoga-
tantra
187
.
Apparemment, Ie probleme n' est plus comme pour Ie Prajfiaparamita-
hrdayasutra, de justifier Ie traitement de ce texte comme un tantra,
puisque I 'Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara est un tantra. En
realite, cela revient au meme puisqu'il s'agit de savoir s'il peut etre
traite comme un anuttarayogatantra, i.e., pour ce qui nous concerne,
etre commente en sens cache (sbas don).
La possibilite de commenter l'Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a
Tara en termes d' anuttarayogatantra tient-elle a!' origine de cet eloge,
et, d'une maniere plus generale, un texte est-il un tantra par nature ou
par destination?
D'abord, l' Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara (Namastare eka-
virrzsatistotra), dans ses diverses versions, comporte des colophons diffe-
rents ce qui pourrait laisser penser qu'il proviendrait d'un texte (ou
groupe de textes) autre que Ie Sarvatathagatamatani [sic] Tarevisva-
karmabhava-tantranama
188
Ensuite, Taranatha considerant ce dernier
tantra comme un tantra compose (brtsams rgyud) , est d'avis que
l' Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara est un tantra resume qui
provient d'un autre tantra plus developpe, Ie Roi des tantra de la Libe-
ratrice en sept cents sections
189
Cette origine particuliere pourrait expli-
quer pourquoi, contrairement au texte dont il fait partie, il serait expli-
cable comme un anuttarayogatantra. Enfin pour compliguer Ie tout, Ie
colophon d'une de ses versions sanskrites Ie qualifie de sutra
190

11 faut noter, neanmoins, que ces variations dans la maniere de
commenter certains tantra ne semblent pas choquer mKhas grub rje et
186. Tohoku n 685-1689 (cf. F.D. LESSING et A. WAYMAN: Mkhas Grub Rje's
Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras rGyud sde spyihimam par giag pa
rgyas par brjod, La Haye-Paris: Mouton 1968, p. 127).
187. Ibid., p.127.
188. Cf. P. ARENES, op. cit, pp. 283-285.
189. Cf. Taranatha, op. cit., pp. 79-80 (v. P. ARENES, op. cit, p. 285,380).
190. Celui du texte sanskrit du bKa'-'gyur, au chapitre III du Sarvatathiigatamiitani
[sic] TareviSvakarmabhava-tantra-niima, P. 390, vol. 8, 150.4.6-4.7 (v.
P. ARENES, op. cit, p. 283).
ARENES 219
que Taranatha, lorsqu' il mentionne ses doutes quant a l' origine de
l' Eloge en Vingt et un Hommage a Tara, ne Ie fait pas pour justifier
son interpretation en termes d' anuttarayogatantra; au contraire, quand il
explique sa methode, on a Ie sentiment que, comme commentateur, il
dispose d'une rdative liberte:
Celui-ci, je l' ai explique Ie plus souvent en accord avec deux cornrnentaires [ ... ]
composes par des erudits indiens, ainsi qu'avec Ie contenu du Grand Commen-
taire de Tantra de Dlparpkarasri[jnana]. Lorsque ceux-ci presentaient quelques
discordances avec les instructions du Vajrayoga, j'ai compose mon propre com-
mentaire [ ... ]. Me conforrnant a l' adage selon lequel, pour comprendre un tantra,
il faut avoir recours a un autre tantra, j'ai cornrnente celui-ci en me reierant au
Vajrayoga
191
.
En tout cas, il est bien difficile de dire si l' Eloge en Vingt et un
Hommage a Tara est un ancien sutra transforme en tantra ou bien s'il
a toujours ete un kriyatantra, ou encore, si c'est un kriyatantra dote d'un
sens accommodatice d' anuttarayogatantra, ou meme s'il a toujours ete
Ie support de deux types de pratique. Ce qu'on peut constater, c'est que,
de meme que pour Ie Prajiiiiparamitahrdayasutra Ie sens cache (sbas
don; garbhyartha), permet de menager une transition entre les sutra et
les tantra, de meme, pour Ie Namastare ekavi1'[lsatistotra, Ie sens cache
permet de transformer un texte de kriyatantra (ou utilise pour des
pratiques de kriyatantra), en support de pratique d' anuttarayogatantra.
Ce faisant, il etablit une continuite entre les tantra inferieurs et les tantra
superieurs, 1'usage d'un meme texte constituant une maniere de
transition susceptible de rassurer les disciples auxquels Ie sens
commun n'aurait pas suffil92.
Le sens cache, dans ce type d'usage, est particulierement utile parce
que, tout en demeurant orthodoxe, il n' est pas fixe dans sa formulation
meme, voire l'opportunite de celle-ci
19
3, parce qu'il est a Ia discretion
du maitre spirituel qui en est Ie seul detenteur, parce qu'il fonctionne
comme un sens accommodatice. Cet usage, en tout cas en ce qui
concerne Ie Prajiiaparamitahrdayasutra, est atteste en lnde a partir du
191. Cf. Taranatha, op. cit., p. 70 (v. P. ARENES, op. cit, pp. 370-371).
192. Cf. supra, les quatre explications, Ie sens cornrnun, p.187 et n. 62.
193. II existe une version du cornrnentaire de Taranatha, Ie sGroI bstod rab gsal me
loli, par Yon phun tshogs kyi dpal ba, ou tout ce qui conceme Ie sens cache .
est enleve et qui est destinee a tous ceux dont !'intelligence est inferieure (v. P.
ARENES, op. cit., p. 334).
JIABS 21.2 220
VIne S.194 mais il reste a savoir si sa pratique etait exceptionnellc: ou
non.
n constitue, au moins dans quelques cas evoques ici, un iI!strument
commode, adaptable, hermeneutique mais plus proprement maIeutique,
des enseignements acroamatiques des tantra.
194. Cf. supra, p. 210 et n.155; Vimalamitra (Ville s.) a compose un commentaire
intituIe Prajiiaparamittihrdaya!fkii, P. 5217 (cf. D. LOPEZ, op. cit, pp. 8-9).
ARENES 221
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Renou, L. et Filliozat, J. (et alii) 1985 (lere ed. 1953): L'Inde classique, Manuel des
etudes indiennes, Paris: :Ecole d'Extreme-Orient, t. II.
Seyfort Ruegg, D. 1981: "Deux Problemes d'exegese et de pratique tantriques selon
DIparpkaraSrIjJiana et Ie Pa4J.9apatika de YavadvIpa: SuvllfQ.advlpa" in
M. Strickmann (ed.) Tantric and Taoist studies in Honour of R. A.
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Stein, R.A.
Institut beIge des Hautes etudes chinoises, pp. 212-227.
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of Indian Philosophy 13: 309-325.
1986: "Allusiveness and obliqueness in Buddhist texts: sal'{ldhii,
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Studies, University of London.
1995: "Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of
Buddhism;', nABS 18.2.
1972: Vie et chants de 'Brug pa Kun legs, Ie yogin, Paris: G. P.
Maisonneuve et Larose.
ARENES 223
Steinkellner, E. 1978: "Remarks on Tantristic hermeneutics", dans Proceedings of the
Csoma de Karas Memorial Symposium (1976) Mite par Louis Ligeti,
Acta Orientalia Hungarica, 1978 Akademiai Kiado, Budapest.
Thurman, R.
1980: "Literary source foro late 18th-century spoken Tibetan
(amdowa)", Acta Orientalia, t. XXXIV.
1988: "Vajra Hermeneutics" in Buddhist Hermeneutics edite par
Donald S. Lopez, Honolulu: Kuroda Institute University of Hawai:
Press, pp. 119-148.
Todorov, T. et Ducrot, O. 1972: Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences du Zangage,
Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Vostrikov, A. I. 1970: Tibetan Historical literature, Soviet Indology Series 4, Calcutta:
Indian Studies Past and Present.
Wayman, A. 1973:
0
The Buddhist Tantras, Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism,
London: Routledge and Kegan.
2. Textes canoniques :
bKa' 'gyur
Guhyasamiijatantra = Sarvatathiigatakiiyaviikcittarahasyaguhyasmiijaniimamahii-
kalpariija; De biin gsegs pa thams cad kyi sku gsuri thugs kyi gsari
chen gsari ba 'dus pa ies bya ba brtag pa'i rgyaI po chen po, P. 81,
vol. 3, 174.3. 5-203. 2. 1 (T6hoku nO 442-443).
bCom ldan 'das ma sGroI ma yari dag par rdzogs pa'i saris rgyas bstod pa gsuris pa,
P. 77, vol. 3, 154.2.3.-154.4.8 (trad. tib. du Namastiire-ekavilJ1sati).
Bhagavatf-prajfiii-piiramitii-hrdaya; bcom ldan ' das ma ses rab pha rol tu phyin pa'i
sfiiri po, P. 160, vol. 6, 166.1.7-166.4.5 (T6hoku nO 21); trad. E.
Conze, dans Buddhist Wisdom Books, New York: Harper and Row
1972.
Caturdevfpariprcchiitantra; lHa mo Mis yoris su sus pa, P. 85, vol. 3, 254.1.5-255.4.8
(T6hoku nO 446).
Vajrajfiiinasamuccaya-niima-tantra; Ye ses rdo rje kun las btus pa, P. 84, vol. 3,
252.3.2-254.1.5 (T6hoku nO 447).
Vaj ramiiliitantra = SrWajramiiliibhidhiinamahiiyo gatantra-sarvatantrahrdayaraha-
syavibhariga-iti, P. 82,203.2.1-231.4.2 (T6hoku nO 445).
SandhivyiikarmJaniimatantra; dGoris pa luri bstan pa ses bya ba'i rgyud, P. 83,
231.4.2-252.3.2 (T6hoku nO 444).
Sarvatathiigatamiitani[sic]Tarevisvakarmabhava-tantra-niima; De biin gsegs pa
thams cad kyi yum sGroi ma las sna tshogs 'byuri ba ies bya ba'i
rgyud, P. 390, vol. 8, 149.3.5-155.5.8 (T6hoku n 726) contenant Ie
texte sanskrit du Namastiire-ekavilJ1sati (150. 3. 2-150. 3.7).
.JIABS 21.2 224
bsTan 'gyur
Asanga Abhidharmasamuccaya; Chos mnon pa kun las btus pa, P. 5550, vol.
112, 236.4.2-272.5.2 (Tohoku nO 4049).
AsaIi.ga MahiiyiinasaY[lgraha; Theg pa chen po bsdus pa, P. 5549, vol. 112,
215.1.1-236.4.2 (Tohoku nO 4048).
GurupaficiiSikiij Bla malna bcu pa, P. 4544, vol. 81,205.2.7-206.2.3
(Tohoku nO 3721).
CandrakIrti Pradfpoddyotana-niima-!fkii; sGron ma gsal bar byed pa ies bya ba'i
rgya cher bsad pa, P. 2650, vol. 60, 23. 1.1-117.3.7 (Tohoku
nO 1785).
Nagarjuna Paficakrama; Rim pa Ina, P. 2667, vol. 61, 288. 3. 7-293. 5. 1 (
Tohoku n 1802).
BhavyakIrti PradfpoddyotaniibhisaY[ldhiprakiiSikii-niima-vyiikhyiitfkii; sGron ma
gsal bar byed pa'i dgons pa rab gsal ies bya ba bsad pa'i [fkii, P.
2658, vol. 60, 239.1.1-fin du vol. (Tohoku n 1793).
Vimalarnitra Aryaprajfiiipiiramitiihrdayatfkii; 'Phags pa ses rab kyi pha rol tu
phyin pa'i sfiin po'i rgya cher Mad pa, P. 5217, vol. 94, 278.3.5-
285.2.2 (Tohoku n 818).
3. Ouvrages tibetains
Kran dbyi sun (et alii): Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang 1985.
Gun than 'jam pa'i dbyans (1762-1823): Dus gsum rgyal ba'i spyi gzugs rje btsun
dkon mchog 'jigs med dban po'i ial sna nas kyi rnam par thar pa
rgyal sras rgya mtsho 'i 'jug nogs dans The Collected Works of dKon
mchog 'Jigs med dban po, vol. 1; reproduced from prints from Bla
brang kra Mis 'khyil. New Delhi: Ngawang GelekDemo 1974, pp. 1-
555.
rJe btsun dKon mchog 'jigs med dban po'i gsan ba'i rnam thar, dans
The Collected Works of dKon mchog 'Jigs med dban po, vol. 1,
reproduced from prints from Bla bran kra bsis 'khyil. New Delhi:
Ngawang GelekDemo 1974, pp. 557-566.
Ses rab sfiin po'i snags kyi rnam Mad sbas don gsal ba sgron me,
dans The Collected Works of Gun than dKon mchog bstan pa 'i sgron
me, vol. 1, New Delhi: Ngawang GelekDemo 1971 pp. 682-715.
dGe 'dun grub pa (1391-1475): sGroI ma phyag 'tshal fier gcig gi tfkka rin po che'i
phren ba, Collected Works, gsun 'bum, voL 6 (CHA), pp. 59-73,
Gangtok: Dodrup Lama Sangye 1981.
'Gos 10 tsa ba Glon nu dpal (1392-1481): Bod kyi yul du chos dan chos smra baji ltar
byun ba'i rim pa deb ther siLOn po, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984
(trad. N. G. Roerich, The Blues Annals, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
1976 (lere M. 1949)).
ARENES 225
rGyal rnkhan po Grags pa rgyal mtshan (1762-1837): rle bla ma mtshan brjod par
dga' ba dkon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me dpal bzmi po'i rtogs pa
brjodpa no mtshar Iha'i rol mo mkhas pa'i yid 'phrog, The Collected
Works ofrGyal mkhan po Grags pa rgyal mtshan, vol. 5 (Institute of
Peoples of Asia, Baradin Collection n 5).
Taranatha (1575-i635?) sGroI ma'i 'grel pa, The Collected Works of 10 nan rje btsun
Tiiraniitha, vol. 12, Sman rtsis shes rig Dpemjod[sicl, Leh: 1985, ff
553-581. Le texte utilise ici est sans mention d'editeur.
sGroI ma'i 10 rgyus, The Collected Works of 10 nan rje btsun
Tiiraniitha, vol. 12, sSman rtsis shes rig Dpemjod [sic], Leh: 1985,
pp.513-55l.
Bu ston rin chen grub (1290-1364): dPal gsan ba 'dus pa'i trkka sGron ma rab tu gsaI
ba, The Collected Works of Bu ston, part 9, gSun 'bum, vol. TA,
edited by Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra, International Academy of Indian
Culture, New Delhi 1967;pp. 141-170.
Brag dgon Zabs drun dKon mchog bsTan pa rab rgyas (1801-?): Yons rdzogs bstan
pa'i mna' bdag rje btsun bla ma rdo rje 'chan dkon mchog rgyal
mtshan dpal bzan po'i ial sna nas kyi mam thar 'dod 'jug nogs, The
Collected Works of dBal man dKon mchog rGyal mtshan, vol. 10
(Institute of Peoples of Asia, Baradin Collection n
O
.6).
dBal man dkon mchog rgyal mtshan (1764-1863); rGyud sde bii spyi'i don mam par
biag pa snags pa'i 'jug pa'i sgo, vol. 5, The Collected Works of dBal
man dKon mchog rGyal mtshan, reproduction de l'edition de A
mchog dGa' ldan chos 'khor glin, New Delhi: Gyaltan Gelek
Namgyal1974, pp.I-139.
lam dbyans bla ma rje btsun dKon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me 'j
mam par thar pa brjod pa'i gtam dad pa'i padma Mad pa'i fiin
byed, Collected Works of dEal man, dkon mchog rGyaZ mtshan, vol. 6
(Institute of Peoples of Asia, Baradin Collection nO.6).
Tson kha pa Blo bzan grags pa (1357-1419): rGyud kyi rgyal po dpal gsan ba 'dus pa
'i man nag Rim Ina rab tu gsal ba'j sgron me ses bya ba, P. 6167,
vol. 158-159, 169. 1.1-81.1.1.
Dran ba dan izes pa'i don mam par phye ba'i bstan bcos Legs bsad
sfiin po ses bya ba, P. 6142, vol. 153, 168.4.8-209.3.4.
dPal gsan ba 'dus pa'i Mad pa'i rgyud Ye ses rdo rje kun las btus
pa 'i rgya cher Mad pa rGyud Mad thabs kyi man nag g sal bar bstan
pa ies bya ba, P. 6198, vol. 160, 150.5.6-173.1.8 (Tohoku nO 5286).
rGyal ba khyab bdag rdo rje 'chan chen po 'i lam gyi rim pa gsan ba
kun gyi gnad mam par phye ba, P. 6210, vol. 161, 53.1.1-fin du vol.
(Tohoku n 5281) (trad.: J. Hopkins, Tantra in Tibet, The Great
Exposition of Secret Mantra by Tsong ka pa, The Wisdom of Tibet 3,
London: George Allen & Unwin 1977).
JIABS 21.2 226
[dPal gsmi ba 'dus pa 'i rgya cher bSad pa Sgron ma gsal bar byed
pa S'es bya ba slob dpon Zla ba grags pa mdzad pa'i mtshan' gyis
gsal bar bSadpa], P. 6166, vol. 158, 1.1.1-169.1.1 (Tohoku nO 5282,
titre different: rGyud thams cad kyi rgyal po dpal gsmi btl 'dus pa'i
tgya cher bSad pas sgron ma gsal ba'i tshig don ji biin 'byed pa 'i
mtshan gyi yan 'grel)
Yon phun tshogs kyi dpal ba: sGroi bstod rabgsal me lon, Bla bran Kra Mis 'khyil,
Fonds Migot de la bibliotheque de l'EFEO (T. 0240).
Rab brtan, dOes shes T.: Dran nes rnam 'byed legs bSad siiin po dka' gnad rnams
mtshan bur bkod pa gzur gnas dka' stan, reproduction par Lhun grub
chos grags, Delhi 1978.
GEORGES DREYFUS
The Shuk -den Affair: History and Nature of a Quarrel
In recent years the community of Tibetan Buddhists has been agitated
by an intense dispute concerning the practice of a controversial deity,
Gyel-chen Dor-je Shuk-den (rgyal chen rdo rje sugs ldan).! Several
Tibetan monks have been brutally murdered, and the Tibetan communi-
ty in general and the Ge-Iuk tradition in particular have become pro-
foundly polarized. Outsiders have been puzzled by the intensity of this
dispute, for it concerns an unusual type of deity, the dharma protector
(chos skyon srun rna), the concept of which is difficult to understand
within the modern view of religion as a system of individual beliefs.
Despite the importance of these events and the coverage that it has re-
ceived in both print and electronic media, modern scholars have
remained relatively silent on the subject. One reason for this is that few
scholars are willing to enter into a conflict as highly charged as this one.
Moreover, the dispute concerns a rather baroque area of the Tibetan
religious world that is neither well known nor easy for a modern
observer to conceptualize. Nevertheless, this scholarly silence is regret-
table, in that it has allowed less well-informed viewpoints to acquire
legitimacy. It has also contributed to the irrational atmosphere that has
surrounded this question.
In this essay, I will attempt to fill this scholarly gap and to promote a
more rational approach by examining the quarrel surrounding Shuk-den
and delineating some of the events leading to the present crisis. I will
examine the narrative of Shuk-den's origin, focusing on the meaning of
the hostility toward the Dalai-Lama which it displays and which is con-
firmed by recent events. The irony is that Shuk-den is presented by his
followers as the protector of the Ge-Iuk (dge lugs) school, of which the
Dalai-Lama is the de facto leader. How can there be a practice in the
Ge-luk tradition opposed to its own leader?
1. I would like to acknowledge all the people who have helped me in this project.
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, however, I feel that I should not mention
any name and just thank them collectively.
JIABS 21.2 228
To answer this question, I will, examine the historical development of
the Shuk-den practice. I will first consider the events related in the
Shuk-den story. I will then tum to later historical devc;;lopments, in
particular the way in which Pa-bong-ka (pha bon kha, 1878-1941), the
central figure in the Shuk-den lineage, developed this practice in
response to contemporary events. I will also examine recent events in
India, where the "Shuk-den Affair" started to emerge in the 1970s. I
will show that although the dispute concerning this deity has an impor-
tant political background, it primarily concerns the orientation of the
Ge-Iuk tradition and its relation to other Buddhist traditions. In explor-
ing these questions, I will also seek to answer other related questions
such as: Why is Shuk-den so controversial? Is the practice of propitiat-
ing Shuk-den different from the practices associated with other protec-
tors? Why has the present Dalai-Lama been so opposed to the practice of
propitiating Shuk-den? These are some of the questions that I seek to
answer in this essay.
In order to address these questions, I explore the practice of Dor-je
Shuk-den as it has been understood over time. In doing so, I follow the
critical methods of the historical approach, whose assumptions are quite
different from those of the believers. I examine how Shuk-den is pre-
sented in the rare texts where he appears prior to the contemporary
period, that is, as a wordly deity ('jig rten pa'i lha) who can be propiti-
ated but not worshipped. His followers often reply that this description
refers to the interpretable meaning (dran don) of the deity, not its ulti-
mate meaning Cnes don), for in such a dimension Shuk-den is said to be
fully enlightened (nes don la sails rgyas).2 It is this kind of normative
distinction that I will leave aside here.
2. TRI-JANG Rin-bo-che, The Music that Rejoices the Ocean of Pledge Bound,
Being an Account of the Amazing Three Secrets [of Body, Speech and Mind] of
Great Magical Dharma Spirit Endowed with the Adamantine Force, The
Supreme Manifested Deity Protecting the Ge-den Tradition (dge ldan bstan
bsrwi ba'i lha mchog sprul pa'i chos rgyal chen po rdo rje tugs ldan rtsal gyi
gsafz gsum rmad du byufz ba'i rtogs pa brjod pa' i gtam du bya ba dam can can
rgya mtsho dgyes pa'i rol mo), Collected Works, Delhi: Guru Deva 1978), V. 5-
159,8.
DREYFUS 229
The Founding Myth
When asked to explain the origin of the practice of Dor-je Shuk-den, his
followers point to a rather obscure and bloody episode of Tibetan his-
tory, the premature death of Trul-ku Drak-ba Gyel-tsen (sprul sku grags
pa rgyal mtshan, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen was an important Ge-
luk lama who was a rival of the Fifth Dalai-Lama, Ngak-wang Lo-sang
Gya-tso (nag dban bIo bzan rgya mtsho, 1617-1682).3 Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen and Ngak-wang Lo-sang Gya-tso were born at a crucial time in the
Ge-luk tradition. The tradition had by then survived a protracted civil
war with the forces of Tsang (gtsan) backed by some of the other
Tibetan Buddhist schools. It had not yet won the war but had begun to
establish an alliance with Mongol groups that would allow it to triumph
two decades later. Around the same time, two of the most important Ge-
luk lamas had died: the fourth Dalai-Lama and the second reincarnation
of Pru;t-chen S6-nam-drak-ba (bsod nams grags pa, 1478-1554), who
was one of the most important Ge-Iuk teachers during the sixteenth
century. Between the two boys, Ngak-wang Lo-sang Gya-tso was chosen
as the Fifth Dalai-Lama over Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, who was designated by
way of compensation as the third reincarnation of Pru;t-chen S6-nam-
drak-ba.
4
This choice did not seem, however, to have resolved the con-
tention between the two lamas, as they remained rivals at the heads of
two competing estates known as the "Upper Chamber" (zim khangon
ma) under Drak-ba and the "Lower Chamber" (zim khan 'og
ma) under the Dalai-Lama.
During the next two decades, the struggle between the forces of
Central Tibet supported by the Mongols of Gushrl Khan and the forces
3. Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's lineage is said to go back to Dul Dzin Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, a
direct disciple of Dzong-ka-ba. This lineage is, however, a kind of spiritual
lineage and quite different from the recognized lineage of a lama. See PA-BONG-
KA: Supplement to the Explanation of the Preliminaries of the Life Entrusting
[Ritual] (rgyal chen srog gtad gyi snon 'gro Mad pa' i mtshams sbyor kha
bskon), Collected Works, New Delhi: Chopel Legdan 1973, VII. 517-532,520.
4. Sang-gye Gya-tso (sans rgyasrgya mtsho) explains that after Ngak-wang Ge-
lek (nag dban dge legs) had died, the second reincarnation of PaI].-chen So-nam-
drak-ba was found in the Ge-kha-sa (gad kha sa) family. He adds: "Although he
had hopes for being the reincarnation of the All-knowing Yon-ten Gya-tso, he
was made the reincarnation of Ngak-wang Ge-Iek" (thams cad mkhyen pa yon
tan rgya mtsho'i sprul sku yon du re yan nag dban dge legs kyi sprul sku byas
pas). Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, Vait}urya-ser-po, Delhi: International Academy
of Indian Culture 1960: 72.
JIABS 21.2 230
of Tsang continued, gradually turning to the advantage of the Jormer
party. Due to his connection with the Mongols, which had been estab-
lished by the Third Dalai-Lama and reinforced by the Fourth, the Fifth
Dalai-Lama and his party were able to establish their supremacy. In
1642, the Fifth Dalai-Lama became the ruler of Tibet and entrusted the
actual running of the state to his prime minister, So-nam Cho-pel (bsod
nams chos 'phal). This victory, however, still did not eliminate the
rivalry between the two lamas and their estates. Very little is known
about the events that took place in the next ten years, but it is not unlike-
ly that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen was a focus of the opposition to the rule of the
Fifth Dalai-Lama and his prime minister within the Ge-Iuk hierarchy. In
these circumstances, in 1655, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen suddenly died.
The exact conditions of his death are controversial. Some of the
Fifth's sympathizers claimed that there was nothing extraordinary in
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death. He had just died of a sudden illness. Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen's sympathizers disagreed, arguing that he had died because he
had not been able to bear the constant efforts from the Dalai-Lama's
followers to undermine him. Others claimed that he was killed while in
the custody of the Dalai-Lama's prime minister. Still others claimed that
he submitted himself voluntarily to death by strangulation or by suffoca-
tion in order to become a wrathful protector of the Ge-Iuk tradition.
5
In
a particularly dramatic and highly revealing account, Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen's death is described as occurring after a traditional religious debate
that he had with the Fifth Dalai-Lama. As an acknowledgment of his
victory, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen had received a ceremonial scarf from the
Fifth. Shortly after, however, he was found dead, the scarf stuffed down
his throat.
Whatever the exact details of his death, the important point is that
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death was perceived to be related to his rivalry with
the Fifth Dalai-Lama. It was also taken to have been violent and hence
the kind of death that leads people to take rebirth as dangerous spirits.
According to standard Indian and Tibetan cultural assumptions, a person
who is killed often becomes a ghost and seeks revenge. In his famous
description of the demonology of Tibet, Nebesky-Wojkowitz provides
several examples of the transformation of a person into a spirit due to a
5. Tru-JANG: Music, 101-109.
DREYFUS 231
violent death.
6
Such a spirit is considered more dangerous when the
person has religious knowledge, which is said to explain the particular
power of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's spirit. He
7
is not just one among many
protectors but a particularly dangerous one as the vengeful ghost of a
knowledgeable person who died violently and prematurely.
According to the Shuk-den legend, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen manifested him-
self as a gyel-po, i.e., the dangerous red-spiritS of a person, often a reli-
gious one, who is bent on extracting revenge against those involved in
his death. Since he had been an important lama, however, Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen turned his anger from a personal revenge to a nobler task, the pro-
tection of the doctrinal purity of the Ge-luk tradition. According to the
legend, he first manifestated his wrathful nature by haunting his silver
mausoleum, which became animated by a buzzing noise, and by inflict-
ing damage on his own estate. Then the monks serving the Fifth Dalai-
Lama began to encounter difficulties in performing their ritual duties.
9
Finally the Dalai-Lama himself became the target. He began to hear
noises such as that of stones falling on the roof, which became so loud
that it is said that he could not eat his meals without monks blowing
large horns o ~ the roof of his residence. Frightened by these wrathful
manifestations, the prime minister So-nam CM-pel decided to get rid of
the troublesome silver mausoleum by packing it into a wooden box and
throwing it in the Kyi-chu river. Carried by the current the box reached
Dol, a small pond in Southern Tibet. It is there that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's
spirit resided for a while in a small temple built for him at the order of
the Fifth Dalai-lama, who decided to pacify his spirit by establishing a
practice of propitiation under the name of Gyel-chen Dor-je Shuk-den
(rgyal chen rdo rje tugs ldan ) and entrusting it to the Sa-gya schoo1.l0
6. R. NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ: Oracles and Demons of Tibet, The Hague: Mouton
1956.
7. In this essay I will treat deities as "real persons" since they are experienced as
such by Tibetans.
8. Such a spirit is also called tsan (often but not always the spirit of a monk who
has either fallen from his monastic commitment or has been killed), who lives in
rocks and must be pacified with special red offerings. Tibetans speak of eight
classes of gods and spirits (lha srin sde brgyad). See: G. SAMUEL: Civilized
Shamans, Washington: Smithsonian 1993: 161-163.
9. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 521.
10. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 523 and Tru-JANG, Music, 105.
JIABS 21.2 232
This story is striking. In particular, its undertone of hostility toward
the Dalai-Lama is remarkable given that the Dalai-Lama represents to a
large extent the ascendency of the Ge-Iuk school, also the school that the
Shuk-den rituals seek to protect. Our first task here is to explain the
meaning of this narrative, an important task given that the recent events
in India seem to illustrate its hostility toward the Dalai-Lama. The most
obvious and tempting explanation is to assume that this story is primari-
ly a political tale reflecting the tension between a strong Dalai-Lama and
a restive Ge-Iuk establishment. This may surprise an outside observer for
whom the institution of the Dalai-Lama is a Ge-Iuk creation and repre-
sents the power of this school. This interpretation appears more credible
to an insider who knows that the Dalai-Lama institution rests on a com-
plex coalition in which the Ge-Iuk school is central but which includes
other people, such as members of aristocratic families, adherents of the
Nying-ma tradition, etc.
In such a coalition, the relationship between the Dalai-Lama and the
Ge-Iuk establishment is difficult and must be carefully negotiated. The
delicacy of this situation is illustrated by the question of the leadership
of the Ge-Iuk tradition. The nominal leader of the Ge-Iuk school is not
the Dalai-Lama but the Tri Rin-bo-che (khri rin po che), the Holder of
the Throne of Ga-den in direct line of succession from Dzong-ka-ba.
But in times where the Dalai-Lama is strong, the leadership of the Hold-
er of the Throne of Ga-den, who is chosen among the ex-abbots of the
two tantric colleges, 11 is mostly nominal, and the Dalai-Lama exercises
effective leadership over the Ge-Iuk school through his government.
The Ge-Iuk school and more particularly its three large monasteries
around Lhasa have played a leading role in the Dalai-Lama's rule in
Tibet. They have supported and legitimized his power and have received
in return considerable socio-economic power. But this power also has
been a source of tension with the Dalai-Lamas, particularly when he was
a strong personality who had his own power basis and intended to lead.
In the history of the Dalai-Lamas, there have been three such politically
powerful figures: the Fifth, the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth Dalai-
Lamas, and all three have had serious difficulties with the Ge-luk estab-
lishment. It is also these same three Dalai-Lamas who are said to have
11. The Tri-ba seems at first to have been elected, which would have stenghtened his
position. Later he was selected by the Dalai-Lama. When did this change occur?
Only further research will provide an answer which will greatly help us in
understanding the history of the Ge-Iuk tradition.
DREYFUS 233
had problems with Shuk-den. Shuk-den could then be a manifestation of
the political resentment of the Ge-Iuk hierarchy against the power of a
strong Dalai-Lama seeking to restrict and control it. The dispute sur-
rounding Shuk-den would be a thinly disguised way for Ge-Iuk partisans
to express their political opposition to an institution that does not suffi-
ciently represent their parochial interests, an opposition manifested in
the story of Drak-ba Gye1-tsen's wrathful manifestation against the Fifth
Dalai-Lama.
I would argue that although tempting, this reading of the Shuk-den
story is inadequate for at least two reasons. First, it fails to differentiate
the stages in the relations between the Dalai-Lama and the Ge-Iuk estab-
lishment. It is true that these relations have often been tense. But to run
together the opposition between the Fifth Dalai-Lama and the Ge-Iuk
hierarchy, and the tension surrounding the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Dalai-Lamas fails to take into account the profound transformations that
the Dalai-Lama institution has undergone, particularly around the turn
of the eighteenth century. Secondly, the political interpretation of the
saga of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's wrathful manifestation is anachronistic,
confusing the story and the events that it narrates. Or, to put it different-
ly, this interpretation fails to see that we are dealing here with two
stories: the story of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, a seventeenth century victim of
the Fifth Dalai-Lama's power, and the story of Shuk-den, the spirit in
charge of maintaining the purity of the Ge-Iuk tradition as understood
by his twentieth century followers. The former narrative is clearly polit-
ical but is not about Shuk-den. It concerns the nature of the Dalai-Lama
institution and its relation to the Ge-Iuk hierarchy in the seventeenth
century. The latter is about Shuk-den. It is mostly religious but does not
concern directly the Dalai-Lama's political power.
To further clarify these two points, I will examine the political context
in which the Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's story took place and the nature of the
Dalai-Lama institution at that time. I will then consider the events sur-
rounding Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's tragic death in a historical perspective,
and try to reconstruct the way in which it was understood by his con-
temporaries.
The Historical Context
The events surrounding Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death must be understood
in relation to its historical context, the political events surrounding the
emergence of the Dalai-Lama institution as a centralizing power during
JIABS 21.2 234
the second half of the seventeenth century. The rule of this ~ o n a r c h
seems to have been particularly resented by some elements in the Ge-Iuk
tradition. It is quite probable that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen was &een after his
death as a victim of the Dalai-Lama's power and hence became a symbol
of opposition.
The resentment against the power of the Fifth Dalai-Lama was pri-
marily connected to a broad and far-reaching issue, the desire of some of
the more sectarian Ge-Iuk hierarchs to set up a purely Ge-Iuk rule. Some
even seem to have argued for the suppression of the schools against
which they had fought for more than a century, particularly the Kar-ma
Ka-gyii tradition.
I2
The Fifth seems to have realized that such a rule
would have had little support and would have exacerbated the intersec-
tarian violence that had marred the last two centuries of Tibetan history.
To avoid this, he attempted to build a state with a broader power base,
state which he presented as the re-establishment of the early Tibetan
empire. His rule was to be supported by the Ge-Iuk tradition, but would
also include groups affiliated with other religious traditions.
The Fifth was particularly well disposed toward the Nying-ma tradi-
tion from which he derived a great deal of his practice and with which
he had a relation through his family. This seems to have created a great
deal of frustration among some Ge-Iuk circles, as expressed by several
popular stories. The stories frequently involve a colorful figure, Ba-ko
Rab-jam (bra sgo rab 'byams), who was a friend of the Dalai-Lama. In
the stories, he is often depicted as making fun of the Fifth Dalai-Lama.
For example, one day he comes to see the Dalai-Lama, but the enormous
Pur-ba (ritual dagger) he wears in his belt prevents him from crossing
the door, an obviously sarcastic reference to the Nying-ma leanings of
the Fifth Dalai-Lama.
In the light of this opposition, it would seem that the narrative of
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's wrathful manifestation makes perfect sense. Is not
the Shuk-den story about the revenge of a group, the Ge-Iuk hierarchy,
in struggle against the Fifth's strong centralizing power? Although
tempting, this interpretation completely ignores the historical transfor-
mations of the Dalai-Lama institution. In particular, it ignores the fact
that after the Fifth's death the Dalai-Lama institution was taken over by
the Ge-Iuk hierarchy and radically changed. To put it colorfully, if
12. E.G. SMITH, "Introduction," Kongtrul's Encyclopedia of Indo-Tibetan Culture,
New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture 1970: 17.
DREYFUS 235
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen had manifested as Shuk-den to protect the Ge-luk
hierarchy against the encroachments of a Dalai-Lama not sufficiently
sympathetic to the Ge-Iuk tradition, this vengeful spirit would have been
out of business by the beginning of the eighteenth century when his par-
tisans,the Ge-]uk hierarchy, won the day!
As long as the Fifth was alive, the Ge-luk hierarchy had to endure his
rule, but his death changed the situation. His prime minister Sang-gye
Gya-tso (sans rgyas rgya mtsho) at first tried to conceal this death. When
this proved impossible, he attempted to continue the Fifth's tradition by
appointing his candidate, Tsang-yang Gya-tso (tshans dbyans rgya
mtsho), as the Sixth Dalai-Lama. But with the latter's failure to behave
as a Dalai-Lama, Sang-gye Gya-tso lost the possibility to continue the
task started by the Fifth. A few years later (1705) he was killed after
being defeated by a complex coalition of Ge-luk hierarchs led by Jam-
yang-shay-ba, the Dzungar Mongols and Lhab-zang Khan backed by the
Manchu emperor.
13
After this defeat, the role of the Dalai-Lama was transformed. His po-
litical power was limited and the nature of the ritual system supporting
the institution was changed, as we shall see later. In these ways, the
institution of the Dalai-Lama became a more purely Ge-luk creation.
Hence, it makes very little sense to speak of Shuk-den as representing
the spirit of Ge-luk opposition to the Dalai-Lama institution after the
demise of the Fifth, for by then the institution had become to a large
extent favorable to the Ge-Iuk hierarchy. Admittedly, there were a few
incidents between the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama and some elements of the
Ge-luk tradition. There was also some resentment against the high-
handedness of this ruler but these were minor and should not be blown
out of proportion.
Did Drak-ba Gyel-tsen Become a Spirit?
This interpretation is confirmed by an analysis of the perception of the
contemporaries of these events. In the founding myth of the Shuk-den
practice, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death and wrathful manifestation are pre-
sented in a favourable light as being the view of his followers. Given the
cultural assumptions of Tibetans, who consider deities as real persons,
this scenario cannot dismissed a priori. Impressed by his violent death,
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's followers may have started to think of him as
13. L. PETECH: Introduction to Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, Vaitjurya-ser-po, xi-xiL
JIABS 21.2 236
having reincarnated as a wrathful spirit and may have begun to,propiti-
ate him as such, feeling hostility against those whom they held respon-
sible for his death. But although this scenario is culturally plausible, is it
historical? That is, did Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's followers think of him in
this way? This question is difficult, given the paucity of contemporary
sources, but it needs to be asked, for we cannot simply assume that these
legendary episodes reflect the perception of contemporaries. In fact,
there are indications that they do not.
The most decisive evidence is provided by the later Ge-luk historian,
Sum-pa Ken-po Ye-shay Pel-jor (sum pa mkhan po ye ses dpaZ 'byor,
1702-1788), who reports for the year 1657 (Fire Bird) the following:
The assertion that this Tibetan spirit (bod de'i rgyaZ po) is Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, the
reincarnation of the Upper Chamber, is just an expression of prejudice. Thus, I
believe that the rumor that it is So-nam Cho-pel, who after passing away in the
same year, is protecting the Ge-luk tradition having assumed the form of a
dharma protector through his ["]great concern for the Ge-Iuk tradition,["] is
correct. 14
This passage is significant in several respects. First, it confirms the fact
that there were stories of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen becoming Shuk-den quite
early on. Although Sum-pa does not mention the deity by name, it
seems quite clear that this is who he has in mind. But it also shows that
Sum-pa Ken-po does not concede the identification of Shuk-den as the
wrathful manifestation of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, which he takes to be an
insult to "the reincarnation of the Upper Chamber." In what is probably
a tongue in cheek tit-for-tat, he rather identifies the troublesome spirit
with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's enemy, So-nam CM-pel, the hated first prime
minister of the Fifth Dalai-Lama whom he sarcastically credits with a
"great concern for the Ge-Iuk tradition."
Second, Sum-pa's remark is important because it reflects the view of
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen'ssympathizers as the respectful epithet ("the reincar-
nation of the Upper Chamber") makes clear. Sum-pa was the disciple of
Jam-yang-shay-ba ('jam dbymis biadpa, 1648-1722), one of the leading
Ge-luk lamas opposing the Fifth and his third prime minister (sde srid)
14. bod de'i rgyal po ni gzim khan gon ma sprul sku grags rgyan zer ba ni chag(s)
sdan gi gtam kho nar zad do 1 des na bsod nams chos 'phel ni [0 'dir 'das nas
khon dge lugs la thugs zen ches pas chosbsrun ba'i tshul bzun nas dge lugs pa
skyon zes grags pa bden nam sfiam mo I. Rehu mig or chronological tables in
Sum pa mkhan po: dPag bsam !jon bzan, Delhi: International Academy of Indian
Culture 1959: 70-1.
DREYFUS 237
Sang-gye Gya-tso.
15
Thus, when he denies that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen had
become Shuk-den, Sum-pa is reflecting the views of the people who
considered Drak-ba Gyel-tsen with sympathy as an unfortunate victim of
arule they resented. The ironical remark about So-nam CM-pel ("his
great concern for the Ge-Iuk tradition") and his identification as Shuk-
den confirms this. Sum-pa hated So-nam CM-pel, whom he considered
responsible for the Fifth's rule and Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death.
Sum-pa's remark, however, raises a question. For, who then are the
people claiming that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen had become Shuk-den if not the
followers of this lama? Could it be that Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's followers
had changed their minds by the time Sum-pa Ken-po wrote his account
(1749)? Though further investigations may change our view, the eviden-
ce seems to suggest that this is not the case. The people who were identi-
fying Shuk-den as the wrathful manifestation of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen were
not his followers but his enemies, i.e., the Fifth Dalai-Lama and his
followers. This seems to be the implication of comments by Sang-gye
Gya-tso when he says, referring to Drak-ba Gyel-tsen:
After [the death of] Ngak-wang So-nam Ge-Iek (PaI).-chen So-nam-drak-ba's
second reincarnation), [his reincarnation was born] as a member of the Ge-kha-sa
family. Although [this person] had at first hopes for being the reincarnation of the
All-knowing Yon-ten Gya-tso (the Fourth Dalai-Lama), he was made the reincar-
nation of Ngak-wang So-nam Ge-Iek and finally ended in a bad rebirth. 16
Although Sang-gye Gya-tso is not explicit, his words seem to refer to
the story of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's reincarnation as a spirit such as Shuk-
den. This is confirmed by the Fifth Dalai-Lama, who describes Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen's demise as leading to his becoming a spirit. The Fifth
explains that:
15. This opposition had come to the fore when the prime minister tried to entice the
Lo-sel-ling college of Dre-bung monastery to adopt the fifth Dalai-Lama's works
as its textbooks in place of Pal).-chen So-nam-drak-ba's works. After the
college's refusal, Sang-gye Gya-tso asked Jam-yang-shay-ba to refute Pal).-chen
So-nam-drak-ba. This was an attempt at strengthening the government's control
over the monasteries as well as a way of removing Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's
posthumous influence, two goals with which Jam-yang-shay-ba had little
sympathy. Hence, the latter refused to oblige.
16. de'i rjes su gad kha sa pa'i nan so gro (grod?) [hug thog mar thams cad
mkhyen pa yon tan rgya mtsho'i sprul sku yon du re yan nag dban bsod nams
dge legs kyi sprul sku byas pas mthar skye gnas mi bzan bar gyur to I. Sangs
rgyas rgya mtsho: Vaitjiirya-ser-po, Delhi: International Academy of Indian
Culture 1960: 71-2.
JIABS 21.2 238
Due to the magic of a spirit (?), the son of the noble family Ge-kha-sa turned.into
a false reincarnation of Ngak-wang So-nam Ge-Iek and became a spirit
[motivated by] mistaken prayers (smon lam log pa'i dam srid).17
What this quote indicates is that after Trul-ku Drak"':ba Gyel-tsen's death
the claim that he had become a. spirit such as Shuk-den was not a praise
of his followers, but a denigration, not to say downright slander, by his
enemies! It is not Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's partisans who were identifying
him as Shuk-den, but his adversaries who were presenting this scenario
as a way to explain away the events following his tragic demise.
We must wonder, however, why the Fifth Dalai-Lama and his follow-
ers were interested in propagating the story of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's
wrathful manifestation, a story which the latter's followers were keen to
dispel? The answer to this question is bound to be tentative and specula-
tive, and it is unlikely that any clear historical evidence will answer this
question. Nevertheless, I think that it is not unreasonable to assume the
following scenario. Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's premature death must have been
a momentous event in Tibet at that time. It must have created a consid-
erable malaise among Tibetans, who consider the killing of a high lama
a terrible crime that can affect a whole country (as attested by the per-
ception of the Re-ting affair in this century). Such a perception of mis-
fortune must have been accompanied by events perceived as bad omens.
There were probably stories of the possession and destruction of objects
associated with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, as reported in the founding myth.
Finally, there was the fact that the reincarnation of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen
had not been sought for, an extraordinary occurrence given that he was
the reincarnation of PaI,l-chen S6-nam-drak-ba, one of the foremost Ge-
luk lamas.
It is in these circumstances that the story of his wrathful reincarnation
must have appeared, not as a vindication of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, but as an
attempt by the Fifth Dalai-Lama and his followers to explain the absence
of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's reincarnation and to shift the blame for the bad
omen that had followed his death. These events were not the karmic
effects of his violent death but the results of his transformation into a
dangerous spirit. The Fifth Dalai-Lama mentions that after Drak-ba
17. gad kha sa lags a rgyal gyi 'phrulla brten nag dban bsod nams dge legs dpal
bzan gyi sku skye. rdzus ma lam du son ba smon lam log pa 'i dam srid gyur te I.
Fifth Dalai-Lama: Collected Works, vol. Ha, 423-4. A similar scenario is
presented in the Fifth's autobiography. Both passages were quoted by the present
Dalai-Lama in a talk given in Los Angeles, June 1997.
DREYFUS 239
Gyel-tsen's demise his spirit started to harm people. In order to pacify
him, the Fifth had a small temple built near the pond of Dol, but this did
not help and the reports of harm continued unabated. With the help of
several important lamas such as Ter-dag Ling-pa (gter bdag gliri pa), the
Fifth decided to launch a final ritual assault and to bum the spirit during
a fire ritual in which the spectators were said to have smelled the odor of
burnt flesh.
As we realize, this description of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's posthumous fate
is highly partisan and it is no surprise that his followers rejected these
explanations. They were keen on keeping the blame on the party of the
Dalai-Lama, arguing that the unfortunate events were not due to the
wrathful reincarnation of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, who had taken rebirth as
the emperor of China.
18
Thus, the legend of the origin of Shuk-den as
the wrathful manifestation of Trul-ku Drak-ba Gyel-tsen is not fully
historical. It is not the account of the followers of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, as
claimed by Shuk-den's modem followers, but only the highly partisan
attempt by the Fifth Dalai-Lama and his followers to discredit a rival
and shift away the blame for his death. In fact, the story of Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen's demise as it appears in contemporary sources has little to do
with Shuk-den. It is not about the deity but about Drak-ba Gyel-tsen.
Only much later, when the significance of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's story
faded, did this story resurface and get taken as the account of the origin
of Shuk-den.
The fact that the founding narrative of the Shuk-den practice is largely
mythological does not mean that we should dismiss it. Rather we should
inquire into its meaning. This is what I do in the following pages, where
I examine the story of the violent manifestation of Trul-ku Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen as the founding myth of the tradition of those who propitiate
Shuk-den. I also inquire about the history of this propitiation, for if this
practice did not start with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death, where does it
come from?
18. In reference to the year 1655 (Wood Sheep), Sum-pa-rnkhan-po notes: "[Birth
of] the Kangshi emperor renowned as the reincarnation of Tul-ku Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen" (sprul sku grags rgyan skye bar grags pa'i khan ii bde skyid rgyal po)
Rehu mig: 70.
JIABS 21.2 240
The Early History of a Practice
To understand the history of the Shuk-den practice, we need to examine
the way in which this deity has been considered throughout most of the
history of the Ge-Iuk tradition. To his twentieth century followers,
Shuk-den is known as Gyel-chen Dor-je Shuk-den Tsal (rgyal chen rdo
rje sugs ldan rtsal), the "Great Magical Spirit Endowed with the
Adamantine Force."19 If we look at earlier mentions, however, we can
see that Shuk-den also appears under another and less exalted name, i.e.,
as Dol Gyel (dol rgyal). Even Pa-bong-ka calls him in this way when he
says: "The wooden implements (i.e., crate) having been thrown in the
water, the pond of DOl became whitish. After abiding there, he became
known for a while as Dol-gyel."2o This name helps us to understand how
Shuk -den was considered in the earlier period, that is, as a troublesome
but minor spirit, an interpretation confirmed by the explanations con-
cerning Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's reincarnation.
The name Dol Gyel is quite interesting, for it yields a possible expla-
nation of the origin of Shuk-den. It suggests that originally Shuk-den
had a close regional connection with the area of the Tsang-po and the
Yar-Iung valleys where the pond of Dol lies. There, Shuk-denl Dbl-gyel
was considered a gyel po (rgyal po), that is, the dangerous red-spirit of a
religious person, who had died after falling from his monastic vows or
had been killed in troubling circumstances.
21
Shuk-den/Dol Gyel would
19. PA-BONG-KA gives the following gloss of Shuk-den's name: "[This] great
protector, who holds the adamantine force which is all pervading regarding the
destruction of the army of the devil, [this] spirit who is a war god, the protector
of the Ge-den tradition, who assumes the pretense of being a wordly boastful god
though he is beyond the world, is well known 'Great Magical Spirit Endowed
with the Adamantine Force'" (de ltar 'jig rten las 'das kyan dregs pa'i zol 'chan
dge ldan bstan snai dgra lha'i rgyal po / bdud kyi sde 'joms pa la thogs pa med
pa'i rdo rje'i sugs 'chan ba bstan srun chen po rgyal chen dor je sugs ldan rtsal
zes yons su grags pa). Supplement: 528.
20. sin cha rnams chu la bskyur ba dol chu mig dkar mor chags pas der gnas pas
re zig bar du dol rgyal zes grags. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 52l.
21. Another informant has suggested that Shuk-den became at some point a monastic
deity in charge of eliminating rogue monks who had broken their vows but still
pretended to be pure. This hypothesis would account for the monastic appearance
of Shuk-den's main form and provide a precedent for Shuk-den's opposition to
Ge-luk practitioners who have adopted Nying-ma teachings. From punishing
rogue monks, it is quite easy to imagine how DOl-gyel could have been trans-
formed into a deity punishing "rogue Ge-Iuk-bas"! I have not found, however,
DREYFUS 241
then be a spirit from Southern Tibet, potentially troublesome like other
red-spirits. No wonder then that his identification with Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen was rejected by the latter's followers as an insult to this important
and lama.
We find confirmation of Shuk-den's regional connection in the des-
cription given in 1815 by a Nying-ma teacher Do Kyen-tse (mdo mkhyen
brtse ye ses rdo rje). While narrating his travels, he mentions the un-
pleasant presence of Shuk-den in Southern Tibet. On his way to Lhasa,
after passing through the Nying-ma monastery of Dor-je Drak, Do
Kyen-tse arrived in the area of Dra-thang (grwa thail.) where Gyel-po
Shuk-den (this is the name he uses) was active. Nevertheless, the spirit
was unable to interfere with his travel and he reached his destination
safely.22 Thus, the existence of a deity, D61-gyell Shuk-den, and his
regional connection with the area of Southern Tibet seem to have been
well established quite early on.
This regional connection is further confirmed by the fact that Shuk-
den was propitiated in some of the monasteries of the same area, particu-
larly in Sam-ye (bsam yas), which was by then Sa-kya. There Shuk-den
appears as a minor but dangerous wordly protector. This also suggests
that this deity was first adopted by the tradition of the monastery of Sa-
gya,23 a hypothesis further confirmed by the reference in the founding
myth to his being taken over by the holder of the Sa-gya throne S6-
nam-rin-chen (bsod nams rin chen). In one of the versions, Shuk-den
any source confinuing this hypothesis. That such a type of deity exists among
Tibetans is well established (see NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ, Oracles, 207), but the
connection with Dol-Gyel or Shuk-den remains unfounded. For a description of
Shuk-den's five forms, see Kelsang Gyatso: Heart Jewel: The Essential
Practices of Kadampa Buddhism, London: Tharpa Publications 1997: 77.
22. phyi'i nan du ned ran phyir ldog cin / sku tshab drun du phyin nas smon lam
rnam par dag pas mtshams sbyar nas / dur khrod du iag gcig bsdad pas tshar
slon gi mtha' rdzogs pa byun / de nas theg cin btsan than g.yu yi Iha khan du
iag gcig bsdad / rim biin gtsan chu'i srib nos nas / byams pa glin dan 0 rgyan
smin grol gUn / thub bstan rdor brag sogs la mehod mjal ius / leags la'i sras
mkhan rin po ehe dan mjal iin thugs yid gcig 'dres su gyur / grwa than du rgyal
po sugs ldan nas eho 'phrul sna tshogs byun yan fie io rna nus bde bar leags
zam ehu bo rir slebs. Autobiography of Mdo Mkhyen brtse Ye ses rdo rje,
Gangtok: Namgyal Institutue of Tibetology 1974: 148.
23. The practice of propitiating DOl-gyel seems to have been absent in the Ngor-ba or
Tshar-ba branches of the Sa-gya tradition. It also seems to have disappeared from
this tradition due to the realization of its sectarian implications.
JIABS 21.2 242
first attempts to go to Ta-shi Lhung-po (bkra sis lhun po), the
of his teacher, the First Pen-chen Lama, Lob-zang ChO-gyen (bIo bzan
chos kyi rgyaI mtshan, 1569-1662). He is prevented from doing so by
Vaisrava.Q.a (rnam thos sras), the supra-mundane protector of the
monastery. He is then taken in by So-nam-rin-chen, who pities him and
writes a text for his
This small text, which is the first ritual text focusing on Shuk-den that
I have been able to trace, can be found in the collection of ritual texts
for the protectors of the Sam-ye monastery and confirms the existence
of the practice of Shuk-den early on in the Sa-gya tradition.
24
Its title
("The Request to the Gyel-po [for the] Termination of Ganea")
suggests that Shuk-den was considered as an effective spirit in charge of
clearing away Obstacles (Ganes a being the king of Obstacles).25 Shuk-
den does not seem to have played, however, a major role in the Sa-gya
tradition, where he seemed to have remained a relatively minor protec-
tor. This is confirmed by a story told by Ka-Iu Rin-bo-che, who men-
tions coming across a small Sa-gya temple for Shuk-den in Western
Tibet and the profound fear that this deity inspired in the care-taker of
this temple.
26
Given this evidence, it is reasonable to assume that the practice of Dol-
gyel was taken by the Ge-Iuk tradition from the Sa-gya school. But here
another difficult question remains. When did this happen? The evidence
available establishes that the practice of propitiating Dol-gyel existed in
the Ge-Iuk tradition during the eighteenth century. One of the clearest
proofs appears in the biography of the Ge-Iuk polymath Jang-gya-rol-
bay-dor-jay (lcang skya rol pa'i rdo rje 1717-1786), written by his
disciple Tu-gen-lo-sang-chO-gyi-nyi-ma (thu'u bkwan bIo bzan chos kyi
24. I 480 / IASWR microfilms 08.043. Dpal bsam yas lhun gyis grub pa'i gtsugs
lag khan gi srun ma phrin las kyi mgon pa kun khyab rdo rje drag po rtsal gyi
spyan 'dren bskan pa phrin beol, 12.b-16.a. It is by no means sure, however,
that the present version is identical to the text written by So-nam-rin-chen. The
colophon mentions the fact that the text was revised (beos) by Ngak-wang Kun-
ga Lo-dro (nag dban kun dga' bio gros). The text is found among a collections
of ritual texts of Anye Zhab (amyes tabs nag dban kun dga', 1597-1659).
25. rgyal gsollog 'dren tshar geod.
26. One of the main sources in this essay is the present Dalai-Lama, who has done a
great deal of excellent research conceming Shuk-den, tracing several mentions of
this deity in the early stages of the Ge-Iuk tradition. Here I am borrowing from
his talk given on the 8th of May 1996.
DREYFUS 243
nz ma,1737-1802).27 Tu-gen reports that Jang-gya mentions that Dbl-
gyel was propitiated by several Ga-den Tri-bas. After several unfortu-
nate events, another Tri-ba, Ngak-wang Chok-den (nag dban mchog
[dan, 1677-1751), the tutor of the Seventh Dalai-Lama Kel-zang Gya-
tso(bskal bzan rgya tsho, 1708-1757) put an end to this practice by
expelling Shuk-den from Ga-den monastery.
This mention of DOl-Gyel is quite interesting for a number of reasons.
First, it dates the practice of propitiating this deity in the Ge-Iuk tradi-
tion. This practice must have existed prior to Ngak-wang Chok-den's
intervention, and it must have had a certain extension to have been
adopted by several Ga-den Tri-bas. Second, it attests to the troublesome
character of this deity. However, no connection is made with Trul-ku
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen. Jang-gya was after all one of the followers of Jam-
yang-shay-ba, one of the main Ge-Iuk hierarchs opposed to the Fifth,
and hence not inclined to consider favorably the story of Shuk-den as
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's wrathful manifestation. Finally, this passage illus-
trates the minor status of this deity in the Ge-luk tradition at that time,
as Jang-gya mentions the expulsion of this deity in passing. This impres-
sion of small importance is confirmed by the fact that it is so difficult to
document the practice of Shuk-den prior to the beginning of this
century.
But if Dbl-gyel, as he is called by Jang-gya, is minor, why did Ngak-
wang Chok-den and Jang-gya oppose his propitiation? Possibly because
of its troublesome character. Jang-gya mentions that the Tri-bas who
propitiated Dbl-gyel encountered difficulties but he does not elaborate.
Another possible reason for expelling Dbl-gyel from Ga-den is that no
mundane deity is allowed to remain permanently in Ga-den. Even Ma-
chen Pom-ra, the local god (yul Iha) of Dzong-ka-ba, the founder of the
Ge-Iuk tradition, is not supposed to stay in Ga-den overnight, and must
take his residence below the monastery.28 Finally, the political connec-
tion alleged by the Fifth Dalai-Lama's followers between this deity and
their nemesis, Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, may have played a role, though this is
far from sure since by this time the story of the latter's demise must
have started to fade away. Jang-gya may not have opposed the practice
27. Collected works of Thu-bkwan Blo-bzang-chos-kyi-nyi-ma, Delhi: Ngawang
Gelek Demo 1969-1971: 1.5-831, 221.b. Quoted by the Dalai-Lama in his talk of
the 8th of May 1996.
28. NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ: Oracles, 210.
JIABS 21.2 244
in general, for we find a representation of Shuk-den in a collection of
thanka paintings given to Jang-gya by the Qianlong Emperor. Because
the thanka is not dated, we cannot be sure of the date of its, appearance
in the collection. Despite this uncertainty concerning some details, an
impression emerges which suggests that around the middle of the eigh-
teenth century Dol-gyel was a troublesome but minor deity propitiated
by some Ge-Iuk lamas.
The practice of Dol-gyel or Shuk-den also surfaced as an issue during
the rule of the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama, who put restrictions on the oracle
for Shuk-den but did not prohibit his activities completely. Dol-gyel
could be propitiated in his proper place in the order of Tibetan gods,
namely, as a minor mundane deity. His oracle was permitted only at
certain fixed locations, such as Tro-de Khang-sar (spra bde khan gsar)
in Lhasa or Tro-mo (gra rna) in the Chumbi valley, but not in any of the
large monasteries. Finally, the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama and his govern-
ment applied pressure on Pa-bong-ka to desist from propitiating Shuk-
den. They were particularly displeased by the diffusion of the Shuk-den
practice in Dre-bung. They perceived these efforts as attempts to dis-
place Ne-chung, who is, as we will see later, the wordly protector of the
Dre-bung monastery and the Tibetan government. Hence, they ordered
him to abstain from propitiating Shuk-den altogether. According to his
biographer, Pa-bong-ka promised not to propitiate Shuk-den any
more.
29
These events seem to indicate that the propitiation of Shuk-den had
spread to a certain extent during or just prior to the rule of the
Thirteenth Dalai-Lama. This may have been due to a gradual spread of
this practice during the nineteenth century, particularly its second half.
This practice was widespread enough during the time of the Thirteenth
to raise some concern in governmental circles. But even then references
to Dol-gyel or Shuk-den remain very rare. Although the Thirteenth
opposed what he saw as an excessive emphasis on Shuk-den by Pa-bong-
ka, the issue was minor and there was little controversy concerning the
practice of this deity.
Thus, what emerges from this impressionistic survey is that Shuk-den
was a minor though troublesome deity in the Ge-Iuk pantheon through-
out most of the history of this tradition. This deity does not seem to
29. Lob-zang Dor-je, Biography of Pha bong kha (pha bon kha pa bde chen sfiin po
dpaZ bzan po'i roam par thar pa), 471.a-.b.
DREYFUS 245
have been considered early on as Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's manifestation,
except by his enemies, who intended the identification disparagingly. Its
gradual adoption in the Ge-luk tradition does not show any relation with
either PaI).-chen So-nam-drak-ba or his third reincarnation, Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen. Sliuk-den seems to have been adopted by Ge-luk lamas be-
cause of his power as a wordly deity, not on the basis of a connection
with PaI).-chen So-nam-drak-ba's lineage. Lamas who are part of this
lineage do not show any special inclination toward Shuk-den. For
example, the monks of the Lo-sel-ling college of Dre-bung, who take
PaI).-chen So-nam-drak-ba's works as their textbooks (yig cha) and con-
sider him as perhaps the foremost interpreter of Dzong-ka-ba's tradition,
have had very little connection with Shuk-den (with a few individual
exceptions).
How is it then that this minor spirit coming from an obscure location
in Central Tibet has become the center of a raging controversy that has
cost the lives of several Ge-Iuk monks and continues to threaten the
unity of the Ge-luk tradition? Moreover, how is it that this deity is now
so pervasively identified with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen by his staunchest sup-
porters, who take this connection as a vindication of both Shuk-den and
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen?
The Rise of a Spirit
To answer these questions, we must consider the changes that took place
within the Ge-Iuk tradition during the first half of the twentieth century
due to Pa-bong-ka (1878-1941) and the revival movement that he spear-
headed. Though Pa-bong-ka was not particularly important by rank, he
exercised a considerable influence through his very popular public
teachings and his charismatic personality. Elder monks often mention
the enchanting quality of his voice and the trans formative power of his
teachings. Pa-bong-ka was also well served by his disciples, particularly
the very gifted and versatile Tri-jang Rin-bo-che (khri byali rin po che,
1901-1983), a charismatic figure in his own right who became the
present Dalai-Lama's tutor and exercised considerable influence over the
Lhasa higher classes and the monastic elites of the three main Ge-luk
monasteries around Lhasa. Another influential disciple was Tob-den La-
ma (rtogs ldan bla rna), a stridently Ge-luk lama very active in dissemi-
nating Pa-bong-ka's teachings in Khams. Because of his own charisma
and the qualities and influence of his disciples, Pa-bong-ka had an
enormous influence on the Ge-luk tradition that cannot be ignored in
JIABS 21.2 246
explaining the present conflict. 1 I ~ created a new understanding of the
Ge-Iuk tradition focused on "three elements: VajrayoginI as the main
meditational deity (yi dam,), Shuk-den as the protector, and,Pa-bong-ka
as the guru.
Like other revivalist figures, Pa-bong-ka presented his teachings as
embodying the orthodoxy of his tradition. But when compared w i ~ the
main teachings of his tradition as they appear in Dzong-ka-ba's writings,
Pa-bong-ka's approach appears in several respects quite innovative.
Although he insisted on the Stages of the Path (lam rim) as the basis of
further practice, like other Ge-Iuk teachers, Pa-bong-ka differed in
recommending VajrayoginI as the central meditational deity of the Ge-
luk tradition. This emphasis is remarkable given the fact that the practice
of this deity came originally from the Sa-gya tradition and is not
included in Dzong-ka-ba's original synthesis, which is based on the
practice of three meditational deities (Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, and
CakrasaIp.vara). The novelty of his approach is even clearer when we
consider Pa-bong-ka's emphasis on Tara Cintamru;ri as a secondary medi-
tational deity, for this practice is not canonical in the strict sense of the
term but comes from the pure visions of one of Pa-bong-ka's main
teachers, Ta-bu Pe-ma Baz-ra (sta bu padma badzra), a figure about
whom very little is presently known.
We have to be clear, however, on the nature of Pa-bong-ka's innova-
tions. He did not introduce these practices himself, for he received them
from teachers such as Ta-bu Pe-ma Baz-ra and Dak-po Kel-zang Kay-
drub (dwag po bskal bzan mkhas grub). Where Pa-bong-ka was innova-
tive was in making formerly secondary teachings widespread and central
to the Ge-Iuk tradition and claiming that they represented the essence of
Dzong-ka-ba's teaching. This pattern, which is typical of a revival
movement, also holds true for Pa-bong-ka's wide diffusion, particularly
at the end of his life, of the practice of Dor-je Shuk-den as the central
protector of the Ge-Iuk tradition. Whereas previously Shuk-den seems to
have been a relatively minor protector in the Ge-Iuk tradition, Pa-bong-
ka made him into one of the main protectors of the tradition. In this
way, he founded a new and distinct way of conceiving the teachings of
the Ge-Iuk tradition that is central to the "Shuk-den Affair."
In promoting Shuk-den as the protector of his charismatic movement,
Pa-bong-ka did not invent the practice of this deity, which he received
from Ta-bu Pe-ma Baz-ra, but he transformed a marginal practice into a
central element of the Ge-Juk tradition. This transformation is illustrated
DREYFUS 247
by the -epithets used to refer to Shuk-den. Instead of being just "The
Spirit from Dol" (dol rgyal) , or even "The Great Magical Spirit En-
dowed with the Adamantine Force" (r.gyal chen rdo rje sugs ldan rtsal),
he is described now by Pa-bong-ka and his disciples as "The Protector of
the Tradition' of the Victorious Lord Mafijusrl (i.e., Dzong-ka-ba)"
('jam mgon rgyal ba'i bstan srU1i)30 and "The Supreme Protective Deity
of the Ge-den (i.e., Ge-Iuk) Tradition" (dge ldan bstan bsruri ba'i lha
mchog).31
These descriptions have been controversial. Traditionally, the Ge-Iuk
tradition has been protected by the Dharma-king (dam can chos rgyal),
the supra-mundane deity bound to an oath given to Dzong-ka-ba, the
founder of the tradition. The tradition also speaks of three main protec-
tors adapted to the three scopes of practice described in the Stages of the
Path (skyes bu gsum gyi sruri ma): MahakaIa for the person of great
scope, VaisravaI).a for the person of middling scope, and the Dharma-
king for the person of small scope.
32
By describing Shuk-den as "the
protector of the tradition of the victorious lord MafijusrI," Pa-bong-ka
suggests that he is the protector of the Ge-Iuk tradition, replacing the
protectors appointed by Dzong-ka-ba himself. This impression is con-
firmed by one of the stories that Shuk -den's partisans use to justify their
claim. According to this story, the Dharma-king has left this world to
retire in the pure land of T u ~ i t a having entrusted the protection of the
Ge-Iuk tradition to Shuk-den. Thus, Shuk-den has become the man,. Ge-
luk protector replacing the traditional supra-mundane protectors of the
Ge-Iuk tradition, indeed a spectacular promotion in the pantheon of the
tradition.
Pa-bong-ka's promotion of this deity has several reasons. There was
an undeniable personal devotion to Shuk-den in Pa-bong-ka derived
from his early experiences, dreams or visions. This devotion was also
based on a family connection, for Shuk-den was his mother's female
god (skyes ma'i rgyud kyi lha).33 Pa-bong-ka's writings reflect this
strong devotion to Shuk-den, as is shown by the following passage:
Hu:rp.! Praise and prostration through remembering your three secrets, [praise and
prostration to you] the violent poison for the obstacles, the enemies, [and] those
30. PA-BONG-KA: Collected Works, VITI. 498,533.
3l. TID-JANG: Music,S.
32. NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ: Oracles,S.
33. Lob-zang Dor-je, Biography ofPha bong kha, 471.b.
JIABS 21.2 248
who have broken [their] pledges, [to you] the magical jewel who fulfills the
hopes and wishes of the practitioners, [to you] the only life tree [i.e., support] in
protecting Dzong-ka-ba's tradition.
34
The very real personal devotion found in many of the Shuk-den texts
written by Pa-bong-ka and his disciples explains Pa-bong-ka's fervor in
diffusing Shuk-den. From the viewpoint of his followers, it is the most
important element of Pa-bong-ka's heritage.
There is, however, another element that must be examined in order to
understand the troublesome nature of the practice of Shuk-den, namely,
the sectarian stance that it reflects. This is where the story of Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen becomes relevant again. For Pa-bong-ka, particularly at the
end of his life, one of the main functions of Gyel-chen Dor-je Shuk-den
as Ge-luk protector is the use of violent means (the adamantine force) to
protect the Ge-Iuk tradition. Pa-bong-ka quite explicitly states:
Hu.rp.! Now [I] exhort to violent actions Shuk-den, who is the main war-god of
Dzong-ka-ba's tradition and its holders, the angry spirit, the Slayer of Yfuna (i.e.,
Yamantaka or Maiijusd in his wrathful form) .... In particular it is time [for you]
to free (i.e., kill) in one moment the enemies of Dzong-ka-ba's tradition.
Protector, set up [your] violent actions without [letting] your previous commit-
ments dissipate. Quickly engage in violent actions without relaxing your loving
promises. Quickly accomplish [these] requests and entrusted actions without
leaving them aside (or without acting impartially). Quickly accomplish [these]
actions [that I] entrust [to you], forI do not have any other source of hope.3
5
This passage clearly presents the goal of the propitiation of Shuk-den as
the protection of the Ge-Iuk tradition through violent means, even
including the killing of its enemies. We should wonder, however, what
34. hun I blo bzan bstan pa srun ba'i srog iin gcig I mal 'byor 'dod pa'i re skon yid
biin nor / dam fiams dgra gegs srog la ha la'i dug / khyod kyi gsan gsum dran
pas bstod phyag tshall PA-BONG-KA: Collection of [Rituals] concerning the
Circle of Offerings, The Special Offering of Drinks, [and] the Exhortation to
Action of the Powerful Protectors of Buddhism and [the propitiation of] Wealth
Gods and Spirit (mthu ldan bstan srun khag gi 'phrin las bskul gser skyems
tshogs mchod sogs dan / gnod sbyin nor lha' skor 'ga' iig phogs gcig tu bkod
pa, Collected Works, New Delhi: Chopel Legdan 1973, VII.451-497, 467.
35. hun / khro rgyal gsin rje gsed / 'jam mgon bla ma tson kha pa'i / bstan dan
bstan 'dzind dgra lha'i gtso / sugs ldan drag po las La bskull ... khyad par blo
bzan bstan pa'i dgra / skad cig sgrol ba'i dus La bab / snon gyi dam tshig ma
g.yel bar / chos skyon drag po'i las la biens / sfiin rin thugs dam ma lhod par /
dra po'i las la myur du chos / bskul iin 'phrin las bcol ba'i las / bstan sfioms
ma mdzad myur du sgrubs / bdag la re sa gian med kyi / bcol ba'i 'phrin las
myur sgrubs. PA-BONG-KA: Collection, 468-469.
DREYFUS 249
this passage means? Is it to be taken literally? And who are these ene-
mies?
To answer these questions in detail would take us beyond the purview
cif this essay.' A short answer is that in certain ways the statements of this
ritual text are' not very different from the ones found in similar texts
devoted to other mundane protectors. By itself, this text does not prove
very much. Combined with Pa-bong-ka's other writings, however, the
statement about killing the enemies of the Ge-luk is more than the usual
ritual incitements contained in manuals for the propitiation of protectors.
Consider this rather explicit passage contained in an introduction to the
text of the empowerment required to propitiate Shuk-den (the srog gtad,
about which more will be said later):
[This protector of the doctrine] is extremely important for holding Dzong-ka-ba's
tradition without mixing and corrupting [it] with confusions, [an importance] due
to the great violence and the speed of the force of his actions, which fanlike
lightning to punish violently all those beings who have wronged the Yellow Hat
Tradition, whether they are high or low. [This protector is also particularly signif-
icant with respect to the fact that] many from our own side, monks or lay people,
high or low, are not content with Dzong-ka-ba's tradition, which is like pure
gold, [and] have mixed and corrupted [this tradition with] the mistaken views
and practices from other schools, which are tenet systems that are reputed to be
incredibly profound and amazingly fast but are [in reality] mistakes among mis-
takes, faulty, dangerous and misleading paths. In regard to this situation, this
protector of the doctrine, this witness, manifests his own form or a variety of un-
bearable manifestations of terrifying and frightening wrathful and fierce appear-
ances. Due to that, a variety of events, some of them having happened or happen-
ing, some of which have been heard or seen, seem to have taken place: some
people become unhinged and mad, some have a heart attack and suddenly die,
some [see] through a variety of inauspicious signs [their] wealth, accumulated
possessions and descendants disappear without leaving any trace, like a pond
whose feeding river has ceased, whereas some [find it] difficult to achieve any-
thing in successive lifetimes.
36
36. zwa gser gyi bstan pa la log par spyod pa 'i 'gro ba mchog dman kun la drag
po 'i che pa thog ltar 'beb pa la 'phrin las kyi sugs sin tu myur tin I drag sul sin
tu che bas na I ran phyogs kyi ser skya mchog dman man po tig kyan rje'i rin
lugs gser sbyans btso ma lta bu 'di iiid kyis go ma chod par gtan phyogs pa 'I Ita
grub 'khrul pa las kyan fild 'khrul mu 'byam du son ba'i lam log lam gol gyi
grub mtha' myur myur mo dan I zab zab mor grags pa man po zig bse bslad
byas pa la brten nas bstan bsrun gfian po 'dis ran gzugs dnos su bstan pa dan I
khrog gtum 'jigs sin rliams pa'i rnam 'gyur mi bzad pa'i cho 'phrul sna tshogs
pas kha cig myo tin 'bog pa dan Ila la khon khrag 'dren cin glo bur du tshe'!
'du byed pa I 'ga' zig ml 'dod pa 'i nan ltas ci rigs pas dpal 'byor 'du lons rigs
rgyud dan bcas pa ltag chu chad pa 'i rdzin bu [tar rim biin rjes suI med par
JIABS 21.2 250
In this passage, which is based on notes taken by Tri-jang during a
ceremony given by Pa-bong-ka and published in his Collected Works,
Pa-bong-ka takes the references to eliminating the e n e m i e ~ of the the
Ge-luk tradition as more than stylistic conventions or usual ritual incan-
tations. It may concern the elimination of actual people by the protector.
But who are these people?
A number of people may be included in this category. Several Nying-
rna lamas have claimed to have been the target of Shuk-den, who is
often greatly feared by the followers of this school. In this passage,
however, Pa-bong-ka seems to have in mind less members of other
schools than those Ge-luk practitioners who mix Dzong-ka-ba's tradition
with elements from other traditions, particularly the Nying-ma Dzok-
chen to which he refers indirectly but clearly.37 The mission of Shuk-
den as defined here is to prevent Ge-luk practitioners from mixing tra-
ditions and even visiting retribution on those who dare to go against this
prescription.
This is also the central message of the founding myth of the Shuk -den
practice as defined by Pa-bong-ka and his followers. Trul-ku Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen becomes a wrathful deity to visit retribution, not on those who
caused his death, but on those who defile Dsong-ka-ba's pure tradition.
According to the legend, Shuk-den takes the Fifth Dalai-Lama as his
target because the latter was eclectic, including in his practice many
elements from the Nying-ma tradition, which provoked the anger of
Shuk-den as a guardian of Ge-Iuk orthodoxy. Pa-bong-ka is quite
explicit:
Because the All Seeing Great Fifth practiced and developed all tenets of the old
and new [schools], this great protector through the power of previous prayers
produced a variety of extremely frightful appearances to the supreme Powerful
btan ba dan / skye ba 'i phren ba gian mar 'gar yan ci byas pa la lam du rgyu
dka' ba sags mnan sum du byun ba dan 'byun 'gyur man pa mthan thas kyi yul
du 'gyur pa ltar lags pas bla bzan rgyal ba'i bstan pa grub mtha' chal chal
gian gyis bse bslad med par 'dzin pa sin tu gal che iin. PA-BONG-KA:
Supplement, 526-527.
37. The ironical words myur myur ma dan / zab zab ma are clear references to
Dzok-chen, which characterizes itself as having the most profound view and the
fastest path.
DREYFUS 251
King (the Fifth Dalai-Lama) in order to protect and defend spotlessly Dzong-ka-
ba's great tradition. 38
We may now understand the peculiar fate of the story of Drak-ba Gyel-
tsen's wrathful manifestation as Shuk-den, which shifted from a slander
of the former into a praise of the latter. Pa-bong-ka was aware of the
stories surrounding Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's death but understood them quite
differently from the way contemporaries of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen had. For
him, the narrative was not about Drak-ba Gyel-tsen but about Shuk-den
and the identification of the latter with the former was a way to legit-
imize the diffusion of a practice that had been previously marginal.
The choice of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen was particularly meaningful for Pa-
bong-ka, who had been pressured by the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama to
renounce his practice of Shuk-den and may have been somewhat resent-
ful. He may have felt a communion with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen, who like
him had been the object of unwelcome attention from a strong Dalai-
Lama. More importantly, however, Pa-bong-ka must have felt that
Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's alleged posthumous antagonism to the Fifth Dalai-
Lama's eclecticism paralleled his own opposition to the adoption of
Nying-ma teachings by some Ge-Iuk-bas. Shuk-den's anger against the
Fifth Dalai-Lama is not directed at the Dalai-Lama institution per se but
at the Nying-ma leanings of the Fifth.
Keeping the Ge-luk Tradition Pure
We now begin to understand the main message of the founding myth of
the Shuk-den practice. We are also in a position to grasp some of the
reasons for the troublesome nature of this deity and we understand the
history of this myth, which is a classical case of invention, or, perhaps
re-invention, of tradition in which past events are re-interpreted in the
light of a contemporary situation. Still, a few questions remain. For
example, why was Pa-bong-ka so emphatic in his opposition to Ge-Iuk
eclecticism? Why did he worry so much about this limited phenomenon
which was no threat to the overwhelming domination of the Ge-Iuk
38. kun gzigs bia pa chen po grub mtha' gsar min thams cad 'dzin skyon spel bar
mdzad pas / chos skyon chen po 'dis snon gyi thugs smon gyi dban gis 'jam
mgon bla ma'i rin lugs dri rna med par bsrun tin skyon ba'i phyir / rgyal dban
mchog la sin tu 'jigs su run ba'i rnam 'gyur sna tshogs ston pa'i gzigs snan
byun ba na I. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 521. This text consists of notes taken
by Pa-bong-ka's secretary Lob-zang Dor-je during one of Pa-bong-ka's Life
Entrusting (srag gtad) ceremonies.
JIABS 21.2 252
tradition in Central Tibet? It is true that several important Ge-Iuk lamas
such as the Fifth Pen-chen Lama Lob-zang Pal-den (blo bzan dp'al ldan
choskyi grags pa, 1853-1882) and La-tsiin Rin-bo-che (lha,btsun rin po
che) were attracted by Nying-ma practices of the Dzok-chen tradition.
But this phenomenon remained limited in Central Tibet. Why did Pa-
bong-ka feel the integrity of the Ge-Iuk tradition threatened?
To answer, we must place Pa-bong-ka in context. The idea of keeping
the Ge-Iuk tradition pure (dge lugs tshan ma) was hardly new. It may
even date to Kay-drub's tenure as the second Holder of the Throne of
Ga-den during the first half of the fifteenth century. It appears that Kay-
drub urged his followers to stick to Dzong-ka-ba's views and scolded
those who did not. This approach became stronger during the seven-
teenth century, probably as a result of the civil war that led to the emer-
gence of the Dalai-Lama institution. But even then, not all Ge-Iuk-bas
agreed with this approach. For example, the Fifth Dalai-Lama advocated
a more eclectic and inclusive approach.
As we have seen, his approach did not meet the approval of several
Ge-Iuk hierarchs. After their victory at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, the more restrictive view became dominant. It is only much
later, around the turn of the twentieth century, that this issue resurfaced
in connection with the success of the Non-sectarian (ris med) movement
in Eastern Tibet, which developed as a reaction against sectarian abuses
among Non-Ge-Iuk schools. It was intended to promote a more ecu-
menical atmosphere among these schools, but it was also a way for the
weaker traditions to oppose the dominant Ge-Iuk tradition by presenting
a united front. Their strategy was remarkably successful, and in short or-
der the movement revived Non-Ge-Iuk institutions and greatly strength-
ened their position, particularly in Khams. It also influenced several im-
portant Ge-Iuk lamas, as we will see shortly.
This success could not but worry the more conservative elements of
the Ge-Iuk establishment. Pa-bong-ka was particularly worried about the
situation in Khams, which influenced his view of other traditions. In an
earlier period of his life, Pa-bong-ka was rather open-minded. He had
received several Dzok-chen teachings and was eclectic himself, despite
his close personal connection with Shuk-den, his personal deity. After
receiving these teachings, however, he became sick and attributed this
interference to Shuk-den's displeasure. He thus refrained from taking
any more Dzok-cen teaching and became more committed to a purely
Ge-Iuk line of practice. Nevertheless, Pa-bong-ka did not immediately
DREYFUS 253
promote Shuk-den as the main protector of the Ge-Iuk tradition against
other schools, perhaps because of the restrictions that the Thirteenth
Dalai-Lama and his government placed on his practice of Shuk-den .
. The situation changed after the death of the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama in
1933. Shortly' after, Pa-bong-ka left Lhasa and visited several important
Ge-Iuk monasteries in Khams, the area where the move-
ment was the strongest. There he could not but notice the strength of this
movement as well as the poor shape of the Ge-Iuk institutions. Whereas
in Amdo and Central Tibet, the Ge-Iuk school's hegemony was over-
whelming and the challenge of other schools had little credibility, the
situation in Khams was quite different. Ge-Iuk monasteries were large
but had little to show for themselves. There were very few scholars and
most monks were almost completely illiterate. Moreover, the level of
discipline was poor. Given that situation, the success of the Non-sectar-
ian movement was hardly surprising,
Pa-bong-ka perceived this situation as a serious threat to the overall
Ge-Iuk supremacy, and this led him to a more sectarian and militant
stance. He saw the inclusion by Ge-Iuk-bas of the teachings of other
schools as a threat to the integrity of the Ge-Iuk tradition. The task of
protecting the tradition from such encroachments was assigned to Shuk-
den, the protector with whom he had a strong personal tie. This renewed
emphasis on Shuk-den was also made possible by the Thirteenth Dalai-
Lama's death which removed the restrictions imposed on Pa-bong-ka's
practice and diffusion of Shuk-den.
The sectarian implications of Pa-bong-ka's revival movement and the
role of Shuk-den therein became clear during the 1940s, when the cult
of Shuk-den spread in Khams and the Ge-Iuk tradition became much
more aggressive in its opposition to the other schools. Under one of Pa-
bong-ka's disciples, Tob-den Rin-bo-che, several Nying-ma monasteries
were forcefully transformed into Ge-Iuk establishments and statues of
Gu-ru Rin-bo-che are said to have been destroyed. In certain parts of
Khams, particularly in Ge-Iuk strongholds such as Dra-gyab and Cham-
do, some Ge-Iuk fanatics tried to stamp out the other traditions in the
name of Shuk-den. It is hard to know, however, what Pa-bong-ka
thought about these events, which may have been the work of a few ex-
tremists. It is clear, however, that since this time Shuk-den played a
central role for Pa-bong-ka, who continued to promote his practice to
support Ge-Iuk exclusivism after his return to Central Tibet.
JIABS 21.2 254
We now start to understand Shuk-den's particularities and the reason
he is controversial. First is his origin as D6l-gyel, an angry and
spirit. This makes him particularly effective and powerful Qut also dan-
gerous according to standard Tibetan cultural assumptions. Second is his
novelty as the protector of the tradition of the victorious lord MafijusrI,
the protector of a Ge-luk revival movement who is said to replace the
main supra-mundane protector of the tradition. This promotion is all the
more controversial that it is recent, for Shuk-den was nothing but a
minor Ge-Iuk protector before the the 1930s when Pa-bong-ka started to
promote him aggressively as the main Ge-luk protector. Third is his
sectarian role as Do-je Shuk-den, that is, holder of the adamantine vio-
lence now understood to be aimed at keeping the Ge-luk tradition sepa-
rate from and above other schools. Shuk-den is now depicted by his
followers not just as the main Ge-luk protector, but as the one in charge
of visiting retribution on those Ge-luk-bas tempted by the religious
. eclecticism of the Non-sectarian movement.
Still, for many years nothing happened. Some Ge-luk teachers may
have been uncomfortable at the promotion of Shuk-den but there was no
reason to engage in a controversy with Pa-bong-ka, who was popular but
just one among many important Ge-luk lamas. Despite some tension
between him and the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama, no major differences sur-
faced and the Ge-luk tradition seemed strong and united. After the death
of the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama, there was very little discussion concern-
ing Shuk-den. Pa-bong-ka's promotion of Shuk-den's cult and its
founding myth were not considered threatening to the Tibetan govern-
ment or the young new Dalai-Lama, for the cult was not opposed to the
Dalai-Lama institution but affirmed the primacy of the Ge-luk tradition,
a goal shared by many in the Tibetan government. In later years, the
importance of Pa-bong-ka's lineage was further reinforced by the nomi-
nation of Tri-jang as the Junior Tutor of the Dalai-Lama.
The exile both confirmed this situation and changed it.
disciple Tri-jang became the main source of teaching and inspiration for
the Ge-luk tradition. The Dalai-Lama was still young; his other tutor,
Ling Rin-bo-che, had a modest personality that took him out of conten-
tion, and most of the other great Ge-luk lamas remained in Tibet. The
preeminence of Tri-jang further strengthened the position of Pa-bong-
ka's lineage as embodying the central orthodoxy of the tradition. More-
over, Tri-jang seems to have been personally extremely devoted to
DREYFUS 255
Shuk-den. In his commentary on Pa-bong-ka's praise of Shuk-den,39
Tri-jang devotes several pages to explaining the many dreams of Shuk-
den that he had from the age of seven. Tri-jang stressed this practice
among his disciples and pushed the glorification of Shuk-den even fur-
ther than Pa-bong-ka, insisting on the fact that this deity is ultimately a
fully enlightened buddha who merely appears as a mundane deity.
Ge-Iuk teachers who were uncomfortable with this situation could say
little against Tri-jang, the Dalai-Lama's own teacher. Moreover, every-
one (myself included) was won over by Tri-jang's astonishing qualities,
his command of the Tibetan tradition, his personal grace, his refined
manners, his diplomatic skills, and commanding presence. Finally, there
was no reason for open controversy, for there was enough room in the
tradition to accomodate several views. Ling Rin-bo-che offered an alter-
native to those who did not completely share Tri-jang's orientation.
Thus, at the beginning of the 70s, the tradition seemed to be strong and
united in its admiration of its great teachers, the Dalai-Lama and his two
tutors, a trinity that almost providentially seemed to be the mirror image
of the original relation between Dzong-ka-ba and his two disciples.
Nobody would have dreamed of the crisis that was about to come.
The Dispute Begins
The situation began to deteriorate in 1975, a year which can be de-
scribed as the Ge-luk ann us terribilis. In this year a book (henceforth the
"Yellow Book") written in Tibetan about Shuk-den by Dze-may Rin-bo-
che (dze smad rin po che, 1927-1996) was published.
4o
Retrospectively,
we can say that the whole affrur started from this book and the Dalai-
Lama's reaction to it. Prior to its publication, there was no controversy
concerning Shuk-den. There may have been some tension between the
Dalai-Lama and some Ge-Iuk-bas. Some of the more conservative ele-
ments may have believed that the three monasteries should rule the
Tibetan state and hence have resented the power and orientation of the
last two Dalai-Lamas. These elements may have also tended toward the
Shuk-den practice. Thus, elements of resentment, suspicion and discon-
tent provided the background for the present crisis, but they did not
create it. The present crisis is a new phenomenon, largely a product of
contingent circumstances and even coincidence.
39. TRJ-JANG: Music.
40. See above for the bibliographical reference.
JIABS 21.2 256
The Yellow Book was intended, to complement Tri-jang's commentary
on Pa-bong-ka's praise of Shuk-den.
41
It consists of a series of stories
which the author had heard informally from his teacher Ttj-jang during
the many years of their relationship which he wanted to record for pos-
terity before the death of his teacher. The book enumerates the many
Ge-Iuk lamas whose lives are supposed to have been shortened by Shuk-
den's displeasure at their practicing Nying-ma teachings. First, the Fifth
Pen-chen Lama, Lob-zang Pal-den, is described as the object of Shuk-
den's anger because he adopted Nying-ma practices. Despite the repeated
warnings of the protector, Lob-zang Pal-den refused to mend his ways.
After an unsuccessful ritual self-defense, which backfired, Lob-zang
Pal-den died at the age of twenty nine.
42
The book cites several other
Ge-Iuk lamas who had similar fates. Most noticeable is the long descrip-
tion of the Re-treng (rwa streit) affair. According to this account, Re-
treng's tragic fate is not due to his real or alleged misdeeds,43 but be-
cause he incurres the wrath of Shuk-den by practicing Nying-ma teach-
ings.
Another particularly revealing story is that of the preceding reincarna-
tion of Zi-gyab Rin-bo-che (gzigs rgyab rin po che), a lama from Tre-
hor, who first studied at Tra-shi Lhung-po where he became learned and
then developed a link with the Sixth Pen-chen Lama Tub-ten ChO-gi-
nyi-ma (thub stan chos kyi iii ma, 1883-1937), who asked him to stay
with him. Because of the past Pen-chen lama's eclectic ritual practice,
Zi-gyab studied and practiced Nying-ma teachings. Later he decided to
receive one of its central teachings, Jam-gon Kong-trul's ('jam mgon
koit sprul, 1813-1899) Rin chen gter mdzod from Kyung Rin-bo-che
(khyuit rin po che). According to the story, Shuk-den warned Zi-gyab
against this course of action. When the lama refused to heed the protec-
tor's advice, he fell sick and died suddenly without having been able to
listen to the Rin chen gter mdzod. In short order Kyung also died sud-
denly after several ominous signs of Shuk-den's anger. Shuk-den's
anger at Zi-gyab's attempt to receive the Rin chen gter mdzod is particu-
41. TRI-JANG, Music.
42. Or thirty according to the Tibetan way of counting years. Dze-may, The Yellow
Book,4.
43. M. GOLDSTEIN, A History afModem Tibet, 1913-1951, Berkeley: University of
California 1989: 310-363.
DREYFUS 257
larly revealing in view of the central place held by this collection of
teachings in the Non-sectarian movement.
Whatever the intentions of its author, the main message of the Yellow
Book is hard to miss. Ge-Iuk lamas should absolutely not practice the
teachings from other schools, otherwise they will incur Shuk -den's
wrath and die prematurely. The author of the Yellow Book was repeat-
ing the views already expressed by the two most important figures in the
tradition of Shuk-den followers, Pa-bong-ka and Tri-jang, as illustrated
by the above quote (for the former) and claimed by the book itself (for
the latter).44 The Yellow Book provided a number of cases that illustrate
this point, emphasizing that the dire warnings were not empty threats but
based on "facts."
The Dalai-Lama reacted strongly to this book. He felt personally be-
trayed by Dze-may, a lama for whom he had great hopes and to whom
he had shown particular solicitude. More importantly, he felt that the
Yellow Book was an attack on his role as Dalai-Lama, a rejection of his
religious leadership by the Ge-Iuk establishment, and a betrayal of his
efforts in the struggle for Tibetan freedom. In 1976 the first signs of the
impending crisis appeared, which I will explore in some detail, since I
do not believe that these events have been well documented even by
Tibetans. I will use my own memories to supplement the sketchy public
records.
One of the first public manifestations of the Dalai-Lama's state of
mind was his refusal, after the Tibetan New Year of 1976, of the long
life offerings made by the Tibetan government. Traditionally, the Dalai-
Lama accepts such an offering after the new year as a sign of the pure
bond (dam tshig tshan ma) that exists between him and Tibetans: this
bond is based on his commitment to continue his work as Dalai-Lama
and the Tibetans' allegiance. His refusal signaled in effect that he
thought that the bond had been undermined and that the behavior of
Tibetans was incompatible with his remaining as Dalai-Lama. When
pressed by the National Assembly to accept the offerings, the Dalai-
44. When compared to Pa-bong-ka's explicit stance, TRI-JANG's stance toward other
schools seems more moderate. In fact, it is clear that for him the devotional
element is much more important than the sectarian element in the practice of
Shuk-den. This is why some of his disciples seem to be genuinely surprised
when they are accused of being sectarian. Nevertheless, TRI-JANG does point to
the connection between the Fifth Pen-chen Lama's tragic fate, his Non-sectarian
(ris su rna chad pa) orientation, and Shuk-den's action. Music, 134.
JIABS 21.2 258
Lama sent back even stronger signals, mentioning dreams i ~ which
<;iakinls had entreated him to return to the pure realms. The refusal of the
offerings of long life was already bad enough. The menrion of these
dreams was akin to a declaration of intention to abandon this world and
his role therein. This sent the Tibetan community into a veritable ritual
frenzy. The state oracle of Ne-chung ordered Tibetans to recite an
enormous number of maI).i, the mantra of the bodhisattva A valokiteSvara
of whom the Dalai-Lama is said to be a manifestation.
At that time I was living at the Rikon monastery in Switzerland. I did
not witness the scenes I am describing but heard about them from
Tibetan friends and read reports in the Ses Bya review in Tibetan. I re-
member very clearly, however, the emotion that the news created among
the monks living in Switzerland. Some were devastated, crying openly. I
also remember the many hours that the Tibetan community in
Switzerland spent reciting the number of required mantras. I was puz-
zled by the fact that not all Ge-Iuk monks seemed equally affected.
Some seemed to be distinctly cool, despite their participation in the
public rituals intended to protect the life of the Dalai-Lama. Why were
they so unmoved by the news of the Dalai-Lama's reaction?
The answer, about which I had no idea at the time, was that they
agreed with the views expressed by the Yellow Book. Hence, they were
less than moved by the Dalai-Lama's negative reaction. They understood
that it manifested a profound division within the Ge-Iuk tradition, a di-
vision about which they could not but worry. Primarily, however, they
saw his reaction as a rejection and a betrayal of the teachings of his
tutor, Tri-jang, whom they considered to be the main teacher of the Ge-
luk tradition and the guardian of its orthodoxy. They also may have
foreseen that the Dalai-Lama would counterattack. The crisis that has
agitated the Ge-Iuk school since then had begun.
In the mid 1976, the Dalai-Lama finally accepted the long life offer-
ings of the Tibetan government and the Tibetan people. He would lead
them after all, but this was not the end of the story, for he would also
take strong actions to strengthen the loyalty of the Ge-Iuk establishment.
His offensive started at the beginning of 1977 when Dze-may was
publicly berated for his book. He was expelled from one of the public
teachings that the Dalai-Lama gave that year. The Dalai-Lama also
began to apply pressure against the practice of Shuk-den, laying several
restrictions on the practice. The three great monasteries of Dre-bung,
Ga-den and Se-ra, which traditionally, though not unambiguously, have
DREYFUS 259
supported the Tibetan government, and the two tantric colleges were
ordered not to propitiate Shuk-den in public ceremonies. Moreover,
several statues of Shuk-den were removed from the chapels of the three
monasteries. Finally, the Dalai-Lama ordered the monks of Se-ra in
Bylakuppe not to use a building originally intended for the monthly
ritual of Shuk-den. Individuals could continue their practice privately if
they so chose, as long as they remained discreet about it.
The Ritual Basis of the Dalai-Lama Institution
Many found the Dalai-Lama's reaction excessive. After all, the views
expressed by the book were rather unexceptional. The book was undeni-
ably sectarian, but this is not rare in any of the four (or more) Tibetan
schools. Similar sectarian views were held by Pa-bong-ka.
45
Even the
Non-sectarian movement had at times used its inclusive strategy against
the dominance of the Ge-Iuk school. Thus, the mere presence of a
sectarian element in the Yellow Book could not justify or explain the
Dalai-Lama's strong reaction. We need to find another explanation.
Throughout the crisis, the Dalai-Lama has gone to great lengths to
explain his position. At first reserved to a limited audience, these expla-
nations, some of which are of great scholarly quality, are now available
in Tibetan and are invaluable to understand the present crisis.
46
The
Dalai-Lama repeatedly points to the relation between Shuk-den and the
ritual system underlying the institution of the Dalai-Lama as the source
of the problem.
45. The best example of Ge-Iuk sectarianism is perhaps Sum-pa ken-po ye-shay-bel-
jor's attack on the Nying-ma tradition. There has been, however, another tradition
of Ge-luk thinkers who have defended and exemplified a more enlightened and
tolerant view. Tu-gen rejected the conclusions of his teacher Sum-pa Ken-po and
defended the authenticity of the Nying-ma tradition. See M. KAPSTEIN: "The
Purificatory Gem and its Cleansing", History of Religions 28.3 (1989): 217-244.
Another example is Jang-gya. More enlightened Ge-Iuk thinkers such as Tu-gen
or Jang-gya should not be thought of as eclectic. They were not arguing for a
more inclusive religious practice, as did the Fifth Dalai-Lama, but for a more
tolerant outlook within a purely Ge-Iuk practice.
46. His collected speeches from 1978 to 1996 on the subject have been published in
Gon sa skyabs mgon chen po mchog nas chos skyon bsten phyogs skor btsal
ba'i bka' slob (Dharamsala: Religious Affairs, 1996) (henceforth DL).
JIABS 21.2 260
The institution of the Dalai-Lama is not just political, but also .rests on
an elaborate ritual system, which has undergone several transformations.
When the Fifth Dalai-Lama assumed power after 1642, he attempted to
build a broad-based rule legitimized by a claim to reestablish the early
Tibetan empire. This claim was supported by an elaborate ritual system,
which sought to reenact the perceived religious basis of the Tibetan
empire. This ritual system was not limited to the practices of the Ge-Iuk
tradition but included teachings and figures closely associated with the
Nying-ma tradition, the Buddhist school that for Tibetans has a close
association with the early empire. The ritual system involves an ex-
tremely complex network of practices which cannot be examined here.
Two elements require mention, however.
The first element is devotion to Padmasarpbhava, the semi-mythical
founder of the Nying-ma tradition. His role is central to the ritual
system as conceived by the present Dalai-Lama, for Guru Rin-bo-che is
responsible for taming the negative forces in Tibet. According to legend,
he started the practice of transforming pre-Buddhist deities into worldly
protectors by binding them through oaths. He is in charge of making
sure that these gods keep their word, and he is the guarantor of all the
worldly protectors of the Tibetan world.
47
The second element of this ritual system is the primacy of the protec-
tor Ne-chung. Like most other collective entities in the Tibetan cultural
landscape, the institution of the Dalai-Lama and his government has a
mundane protector. This deity has fulfilled this function for the Dalai-
Lama institution since the Fifth Dalai-Lama. Ne-chung is one in an im-
portant group of deities named "the five kings" (rgyal po sku bia, lit.,
five king-bodies). Among the five kings, the most famous is Pe-har,
who was appointed by Padmasarpbhava as the main guardian of
Buddhism. He is also described as one of the main protectors of the
early Tibetan empire. Ne-chung is related to Pe-har and is usually iden-
tified with Dor-je Drak-den (rdo rje grags ldan) , another of the five
47. DL, 24. This fact is recognized even by Shuk-den's followers. Pa-bong-ka
describes how Pe-har, the main protector appointed by PadmasaIp.bhava, is
supposed to have incited Shuk-den into protecting the Ge-Iuk tradition. Pe-har is
depicted as saying: "I have been assigned by Guru Rin-bo-che to protect the
Nying-ma tradition and hence cannot protect Dzong-ka-ba's tradition, the only
truly faultless tradition. You should do it." Supplement, 519.
DREYFUS 261
king-body deities.
48
The Fifth Dalai-Lama and his government have
used Ne-chung's connection with Pe-har to emphasize their connection
with the early empire and thus strengthen their legitimacy. This choice
rdnforced the. centrality of Gum Rin-bo-che, and reflected the Fifth
Dalai-Lama's personal association with the Nying-ma tradition.
The Yellow Book and the propitiation of Shuk-den threaten this
eclectic system centered on the worship of Gum Rin-bo-che and the
propitiation of Ne-chung. By presenting Shuk-den as a deity in charge
of visiting retribution upon those Ge-luk who have adopted practices
from the Nying-ma tradition, which is based on and closely associated
with the devotion to Gum Rin-bo-che, the Yellow Book undermines the
ritual system underlying the Dalai-Lama institution, and the present
Dalai-Lama's efforts to implement this system more fully. I also believe
that the timing of the Yellow Book was particularly disastrous.
In his early years, the present Dalai-Lama followed the advice of his
teachers and practiced an almost purely Ge-Iuk ritual system. In doing
so, he was continuing the tradition of the last seven Dalai-Lamas, who
had adopted a strictly Ge-luk ritual system as the religious basis of their
power. Important changes were introduced after the death of the Fifth
and the defeat of his party, when the role of the Dalai-Lama and the
ritual system supporting the institution were changed. Instead of an
eclectic system emulating the religious basis of the early empire, a more
purely Ge-Iuk ritual system was installed under the auspices of the
Seventh Dalai-Lama Kel-zang Gya-tso. The monks of Nam-gyel, the
personal monastery of the Dalai-Lama, were replaced by monks from
the Ge-Iuk Tantric Colleges and the Nying-ma rituals that they had per-
formed were discontinued.
49
This situation continued into this century,
forming the religious practice of the Thirteenth and the young Four-
teenth.
As the Fourteenth became more mature, however, he started to ques-
tion this orientation. He felt a strong appreciation for the Fifth's politi-
48. NEBESKY-WOJKOWITZ: Oracles, 107. The five king-bodies represent the five
aspects of the group of deity: body, speech, mind, quality and action. Ne-chung is
identified with Dor-je Drak-den, who represents the speech aspect, whereas Pe-
har represents the action aspect.
49. gDong-thog mentions the discontinuation of the practice of 'Jam dpal gsin rje
tshe bdag. Gon sa skyabs mgon rgyal ba'i dban po mchog gi lha srU1i bsten
phyogs bka' slob la rgol ba'i rtsod zlog bden gtam sa gii ' dar ba'i 'brug sgra
(Seattle: SapaI.1 Institute, 1996), 23.
JIABS 21.2 262
cal project, which he has described as a masterplan for building Tibet
into a nation able to take part in the history of the region rather than a
marginal state governed by religious hierarchs mostly preoccupied with
the power of their monasteries and estates.
50
He also felt a strong reli-
gious bond with the Fifth and gradually came to the realization that he
needed to implement the latter's ritual system. Consequently, he aban-
doned his Shuk-den practice in the mid-seventies, for he could not keep
propitiating this deity while using Ne-chung, the protector associated
with Guru Rin-bo-che and with whom he had had a special relation for
many years.
51
He also attempted to promote the role of Guru Rin-bo-che
in the ritual system of the Tibetan state. Only by strengthening this role,
which he saw as vital to the integrity of the ritual basis of the Tibetan
state, could the cause of Tibet be successfuL Were not the political diffi-
culties experienced by Tibetans signs that this ritual support had been
undermined?
As an expression of his resolve to return to the ritual system developed
by the Fifth Dalai-Lama, the present Dalai-Lama developed the role of
Nying-ma rituals in the practice of his own 'personal Nam-gyel
monastery. The monastery's repertoire wasexpanded from the usual Ge-
1uk tantric rituals to include typical Nying-ma practices such as Vajra-
kIlaya and others. He invited several Nying-ma lamas to give teachings
and empowerments to his monks. He also ordered them to do appropri-
ate retreats. I remember the tongue in cheek comments of some of my
friends of the Nam-gyel monastery about their "becoming Nying-ma-
bas." They were surprised, taken aback and uncomfortable, for the
rituals of the Nam-gyel monastery had been for many years Ge-Iuk, not
very different from that of the two tantric colleges. They were ready to
follow the Dalai-Lama, however, despite their obvious misgivings.
Another key element in the Dalai-Lama's strategy of returning to the
Fifth's ritual system was the institution in October 1975 of a yearly
ceremony of making a hundred thousands offerings to Guru Rin-bo-che.
The collective worship of Guru Rin-bo-che would restore the synergy
that existed between this figure and the Tibetan people, thus strengthen-
ing the power of the gods appointed by Guru Rin-bo-che to protect
Tibetans from danger. But this event was not very successful. Many Ge-
luk monks and nuns felt rather lukewarm, if not downright hostile,
50. Oral interview given during the second visit of the Dalai-Lama in France (1987).
51. DL., 17-9.
DREYFUS 263
toward "Guru Rin-bo-che, and abstained from attending the event. They
profoundly resented the adoption of rituals they saw as coming from an
alien tradition .
. This was precisely the time that the famous Yellow Book first circu-
lated, a coincidence I consider particularly unfortunate. 52 Although the
connection between the low attendance at this new ceremony and the
book is hard to establish, the Dalai-Lama felt that the Yellow Book had
contributed to the lack of support among Ge-luk monks and nuns. More
importantly, he felt that the appearance of such a book precisely when
he was trying to restore the ritual basis of the Tibetan state represented
an act of open defiance by the very people, the high Ge-luk lamas, who
were supposed to support him. These were the same people who had
thwarted the attempts of the Thirteenth Dalai-Lama toward reform with
tragic consequences for Tibet. These were also particularly difficult
times for Tibet politically. The repression in Tibet had gone on practi-
cally uninterrupted since 1959 and there seemed no end in sight. The
sadness and even desperation thereby induced in the exile community
and the Dalai-Lama must have contributed to the crisis.
53
Finally, the Dalai-Lama felt directly attacked by the Yellow Book.
For, after all, who was the person who was designated as a potential
target of Shuk-den, the person who was undermining the purity of the
52. This was also the time when the Dalai-Lama was trying to prevent Ne-chung
from expressing through his oracle resentment against the success of Shuk-den,
labeling this protector "the teacher of novelty seekers" (a sras mkhan po), and
complaining that the practice of Shuk-den weakens him (DL, 20). The Dalai-
Lama had ordered Ne-chung to keep silent on this topic, realizing the conflict that
would be unleashed if he gave in to Ne-chung's requests. In these circumstances,
the Dalai-Lama felt that the publication of the Yellow Book made his self-
imposed restraint impossible. His efforts at moderation were not recognized and
imitated. Henceforth, he felt that he could not stop Ne-chung from complaining
and demanding that Shuk-den stop his activities. See DL, 20.
53. A factor in the developments analyzed here has been the political situation in
Tibet The Dalai-Lama and the exile community have felt a strong urgency to do
something about the situation in Tibet and that has probably exacerbated the
"affair." It is not without reason that the most acute crises in the "Shuk-den
Mfair" have occurred in moments (1975, 1996) where, for different reasons, the
situation of Tibet seemed most difficult. R. Schwartz mentions the role that
millenarian elements such as oracles and protectors have played in contemporary
Tibetan political actions during the most difficult times when rational modes of
action seemed impossible and hopeless. See Circle of Protest, New York:
Columbia University Press 1994: 226-231.
JIABS 21.2 264
Ge-Iuk tradition by adopting practices from the Nying-ma tradition, if
not himself? "Also, the felt that this book was working
against his efforts to promote harmony among the Tibetan schools. The
matter was made much worse by the attribution of the 'opinions ex-
pressed by the Yellow Book to Tri-jang, who, to my knowledge, has
never rejected this attribution. In fact, everybody assumed that Dze-may
had indeed reported the words of his teacher and this is why the book
was thought to be particularly damaging. What could the Dalai-Lama
say against his own teacher?
The Role of Shuk-den
If we can recognize the Dalai-Lama's reasons for reacting to the diffu-
sion of the Yellow Book, we have yet to understand the place of the
practice of Shuk-den in this affair. Why focus so exclusively on the
propitiation of Shuk-den? We need to consider briefly the role of mun-
dane protectors in Tibetan culture. Mundane protectors ('jig rten pa' i
lha) are guardians in a universe alive with forces which can quickly
become threatening, and are considered by Tibetans to be particularly
effective because they are mundane, i.e., unenlightened. 54 They share
human emotions such as anger or jealousy, which makes them more
effective than the more remote supra-mundane deities ('jig rten las' das
pa'i lha), but also more prone to take offense at the actions of humans
or other protectors. Shuk-den, for example, is presented as being hostile
to those Ge-luk-bas who do not stick to the pure tradition of Dzong-ka-
ba and seek the teachings of other traditions. Shuk-den is also said to
undermine Ne-chung, and the latter is said to resent the former's actions.
We may wonder about the meaning of these conflicts between deities.
What does it mean to say that Ne-chung resents Shuk-den? For tradi-
tional Tibetans, such a statement is perfectly clear and does not require
any further explanation, since it refers to entities whose reality is as
certain as that of the solar system is for scientifically educated people.
The propitiation of these entities is an integral part of their culture, and
the conflict between worldly protectors or gods is a normal occurence in
a universe which is filled by entities who can harm humans. I remember
at one point becoming quite close to a young lama and his servant. I
used to eat with them and help them in various ways, until one day I was
54. Technically, mundane protectors are defmed as deities who have not attained the
noble path Cphags lam, iiryamiirga) in their spiritual development.
DREYFUS 265
told that my visits were not welcome any more. They had had bad
dreams. It seems that their protector was unhappy at my visits. My god
apparently did not agree with theirs!
. For modem educated people such an explanation is hardly satisfying.
In the case cif personal relations, incompatibilities can be easily ex-
plained as temperamental. But what does it mean for Shuk-den and Ne-
chung not to get along? Protectors are not just individual guardians, but
also protect collective entities. Monasteries, households of lamas, region-
al houses in large monasteries, and clans or families have their own pro-
tectors. This collective dimension of protectors is most relevant to the
present conflict between Shuk-den and Ne-chung, which is quite obvi-
ously a reflection of the conflict between two groups, the conservative
Ge-luk-bas, who resent the Dalai-Lama's reliance on the Nying-ma tra-
dition, and the groups who accept or support the Dalai-Lama's eclectic
approach.
The relation between groups and worldly protectors becomes clear if
one remembers that the deities who are protectors are defined as such
because they protect the person or the group, often by violent means,
from enemies. These enemies are described as the "enemies of
Buddhism" (bstan dgra); they are the "other" in opposition to which the
person and the group define their identity. The connection between
group and protector is very close.
There is, however, an important distinction to be made here. In the
case of supra-mundane protectors, enemies of Buddhism threaten
Buddhism as well as their own spiritual welfare.
55
The violence that pro-
tectors unleash against them is said to be strictly motivated by compas-
sion and aims at benefiting the beings who are its target, much like the
actions of bodhisattvas described in the Mahayana literature.
56
This
violence is impartial and cannot be used for one's personal advantage.
However, the violence of mundane deities is quite different, for it in-
volves para-human emotions. Since these deities experience these emo-
tions, they are thought to be partial and can be enrolled in actions per-
55. I am explaining the Tibetan understanding of supra-mundane deities, who are
mostly Indian in their origin. Whether these gods were understood in India in the
same way is a different question.
56. The classical example in the Mahayana siitras is found in the story of the
bodhisattva killing the person who was about to murder five hundred people on
his ship. See G. CHANG: A Treasury of Mahliyana Satras, Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass 1991: 452-465.
JIABS 21.2 266
formed on behalf of the person or the group who propitiates them. The
term "enemies of Buddhism;' is used and the practitioner or the group
will ask the protector to get rid of these beings. But in this the term
"enemies of Buddhism" refers less to the objects of compassionate and
impartial violence than to the perceived by the person or the group
as threatening. An "enemy of Buddhism" may belong to a rival Buddhist
group, or may be a member of one's own tradition, such as Ge-luk
practitioners who are interested in other schools such as the Nying-maY
We now begin to understand the close connection between group iden-
tity and mundane protectors, and the reason why the propitiation of
some protectors can be quite troubling.
Moreover, the close connection between group and protector is not just
symbolic, it is also inscribed in the nature of the practices relating to
protectors which is based on the notion of loyalty. The relation between
a person or group and the protector is described as being based on the
maintenance of "pure bond" or "pure commitment" (dam tshig tshan
rna). This notion of pure bond is particularly important in Tibetan
Buddhism, where there is a strong emphasis on preserving the commit-
ment between students and their teachers, especially in the context of
tantric practice. But this sense of loyalty goes well beyond the domain of
tantric practice. It plays a vital role in the social life of Tibetans, who
put a great emphasis on personal friendship and group loyalty. It also
informs a part of Tibetan political life, as we noticed earlier.
It is this same sense of loyalty that lies at the basis of the relations
between protectors and their followers. This is particularly true regard-
ing the practice of Dor-je Shuk-den,a practice based on the taking of a
solemn oath similar to that of friends swearing life-long loyalty to each
other. The propitiation of Shuk-den requires a ceremony called "life
entrusting" (srog gtad), during which the followers and the deity are
introduced to each other by the guru who confers the empowerment.
58
The follower swears his or her fidelity to Dor-je Shuk-den who in ex-
change promises to serve him or her. It is clear that this practice fosters
57. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 526.
58. TIlls ceremony, which does not seem to have any source in the Indian tradition, is
not unique to Dor-je Shuk-den. It seems to exist for some other wordly gods as
well where it is called "life empowerment" (srog dban). It does not appear that
these ceremonies are practiced in the case of protectors such as Ne-chung, but I
have not been able to obtain clear information on this point.
DREYFUS 267
a very strong loyalty to the deity and by extension to the group that the
deity represents.
In Shuk-den's case, devotion has been strengthened further by the
central role of the charismatic teachers Pa-bong-ka and Tri-jang, who
have transformed this formerly minor practice into one of the main ele-
ments of the Ge-luk tradition. Because of the central place of keeping
commitments to one's guru among Tibetans, and because of the consid-
erable personal qualities of these teachers, they have succeeded in inspir-
ing an extreme devotion in their followers, who seem to value their
commitment to these figures more than anything else. In fact, from the
point of view of many of Shuk-den's followers, the devotion to teachers
such as Pa-bong-ka or Tri-jang is the basis for the practice of Shuk-den.
They propitiate this deity first and foremost because it is the protector
recommended by their guru. This situation has contributed significantly
to the polarization that surrounds the issue and has further enhanced the
troubling potential of the Shuk-den practice. For when the Dalai-Lama
opposes Shuk-den, the followers of this deity feel his opposition is
directed against the founding fathers of their own tradition, and hence an
attack against their own group. They also feel misrepresented when they
are accused of being sectarian, for in their perspective the sectarian ele-
ment pales in significance when compared to their commitment to their
guru and his tradition.
Nevertheless, other groups may feel that they fit the description
"enemies of Buddhism" as defined by the Shuk-den rituals, even if the
threat the rituals imply is not implemented by Shuk-den practitioners
themselves or is considered by these practitioners as being secondary in
nature. Thus the claim that the practice of Shuk-den disrupts the func-
tioning of the Dalai-Lama institution becomes easier to understand.
Shuk-den as a mundane protector is in charge of helping his followers
against certain "enemies of Buddhism." These enemies are designated by
Pa-bong-ka as those Ge-luk lamas who adopt Nying-ma practices.
59
But,
as we saw earlier, a number of Nying-ma rituals are precisely the basis
of the Dalai-Lama institution as understood by the Fifth and the Four-
teenth Dalai-Lamas. Does it not follow that the present Dalai-Lama is
the "enemy of Buddhism" as implied by the practice of Shuk-den?
Most of Pa-bong-ka's followers would answer this question in the
negative. They would argue that their practice is primarily not directed
59. PA-BONG-KA: Supplement, 526-527. See above.
JIABS 21.2 268
at anybody but stems from their religious commitments. Nevertheless,
the fact that this shocking statement seems to follow logically from the
way the practice of has been defined by its proponents
explains the challenge that such a practice raises for the leadership of the
Dalai-Lama. It also throws some light on the claim that Ne-chung re-
sents Shuk-den's success. Since Ne-chung is taken as the preeminent
protector of the Dalai-Lama, he must indeed be disturbed by a cult that
takes the very people he is meant to protect as its target. Finally, we
understand the divisiveness of the practice of mundane protectors such as
Shuk-den and the danger of violence that it contains. For, after all, what
can one do with the enemies of Buddhism but fight them?
Weare also able to answer one of the questions raised at the beginning
of this essay: is the practice of Shuk-den different from the practices
associated with other protectors? It is clear that there are other wordly
protectors within the world of Tibetan Buddhism. It also clear Shuk-den
as a deity does not appear to be very different from other worldly pro-
tectors who are all perceived to inspire awe and fear and hence have the
potential for being put to troubling uses, though the particular cultural
scenario associated with Shuk-den, i.e., being a spirit of a dead religious
person (rgyal po), may mark him as a particularly fierce deity. A similar
cultural scenario, however, is alleged in the case of Ne-chung, a deity
sometimes presented as the spirit of a monk who broke his vows.
60
Thus, the root of the problem raised by the Shuk-den affair is not the
particular nature of the deity. So why is the practice of Shuk-den so
problematic?
The answer is to be found in the sectarian ways in which this practice
has been defined by its founders. Shuk-den was re-invented during this
century not just to satisfy the wordly purposes of individuals or particu-
lar institutions, but also and mostly to affirm and defend the identity of
a revival movement opposed to other religious groups, particularly
within the Ge-Iuk tradition. Shuk-den is the protector in charge not just
of protecting individual practitioners but the integrity of the Ge-Iuk
tradition as conceived by its most conservative elements. It is this agges-
sively sectarian use of this deity that has been particularly problematic.
The practices associated with the other protectors are different in that
they are used by monasteries, lama's estates, families, or individuals for
60. Lob-zang eM-phe1: giun Ian dran sron rgan po'i 'bel gtam, Delhi: Dorje
Shugden Society 1997: 120.
DREYFUS 269
this-wordly purposes as piecemeal elements cf a traditional network of
religious practices, not to affirm a systematically sectarian outlook. As
such they do not map into any large-scale socio-political distinction and
their potential for abuse remains limited.
This sectarian stance is the central message of the founding myth of
the Shuk-den tradition, the wrathful transformation of Trul-ku Drak-ba
Gyel-tsen into Shuk-den and his hostility to the Fifth Dalai-Lama. This
hostility reflects the attitude of a part of the Ge-luk tradition which
advocates a strictly Ge-Iuk practice and opposes the importation of
Nying-ma teachings into their tradition. This opposition between two
visions of the Ge-Iuk tradition focuses on the figure of the Dalai-Lama
because of the way in which the Fifth and the Fourteenth Dalai-Lamas
have considered the institution they represent, i.e., as resting on an
eclectic religious basis in which elements associated with the Nying-ma
tradition combine with an overall Ge-Iukorientation. Shuk-den, then, is
less the spirit of the Ge-luk political resentment against a strong Dalai-
Lama, than it is the spirit of a. religious resentment against a perceived
threat to the integrity of the Ge-Iuk tradition. The target of Shuk-den is
not the Dalai-Lama per se but the accomodation toward other schools,
particularly the Nying-ma, shown by the Fifth and the Fourteenth Dalai-
Lamas, an attitude perceived by Shuk-den's followers as a defilement of
Dzong-ka'ba's tradition.
When this sectarian orientation is combined with some of the particu-
larities of the Shuk -den tradition such as the central role of charismatic
figures such as Pa-bong-ka and Tri-jang, the extreme devotion they have
inspired in their followers, as well as the intensity of the loyalty devel-
oped by the Shuk-den cult based on the life entrusting ceremony men-
tioned above, the troubling events that have revolved around the practice
of Dor-je Shuk-den become less surprising. The strong opposition of the
present Dalai-Lama also becomes more understandable. For a sectarian
opposition to the Dalai-Lama institution cannot help but have strong
political implications in contemporary Tibetan society where this institu-
tion plays such a large role. The practice of propitiating Shuk-den
threatens this institution and undermines its ability to function as a rally-
ing point for Tibetans. Is it then surprising if he opposes it so vigor-
ously?
JIABS 21.2 270
Author's note added in proofs
Since I have written these lines, I have been able to collec;t a few sup-
plementary indications that confirm my argument and make it more
precise, particularly in its historical part. First, it appears that So-nam-
rin-chen, the holder of the Sa-gya throne referred to in the story in
which Drak-ba Gyel-tsen manifests wrathfully as Shuk-den, lived long
after the events in which he is supposed to have taken part. In the Shuk-
den story, the Fifth Dalai-Lama is described as having entrusted to So-
nam-rin-chen this cult. As we have seen, it is true that So-nam-rin-chen
wrote the first ritual propitiating Shuk-den. New information, however,
shows that it is highly unlikely he actually could have participated in the
events described by the Shuk-den myth, given that he was born only in
1704, well after the recounted events. The considerable gap between So-
nam-rin-chen and the events of the Shuk-den myth confirms my thesis
that the story of Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's wrathful manifestation as Shuk-den
is a later creation, incorporating a variety of narratives rearranged in the
light of later situations.
Secondly, there are other Shuk-den stories that present the spirit later
connected with Drak-ba Gyel-tsen as being already active prior to the
latter's demise, even as early 1636 (See Du ku La'i gos bzang, II. 157.
a-b.). If, according to these stories, Shuk-den was already active prior to
Trul-ku Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's tragic demise, how then could he be the
latter's wrathful manifestation? This shows that what we have here is not
a unified narrative but several only partly overlapping stories. The
founding myth of the Shuk-den tradition is composed from many stories
concerning Drak-ba Gyel-tsen's tragic demise. It grew out of a nexus of
narratives relating to these tragic events and developed in accordance
with the new changing historical circumstances, an altogether not sur-
prising scenario.
ROBERTMAYER*
The Figure of Mahesvara/Rudra in the rNiri-ma-pa
Tantric Tradition
Most academic scholars of Buddhist Tantra should by now be reasonably
familiar with Alexis SANDERSON's work on the dependence of the
Buddhist Yogimtantras on Saiva scriptural sources - all the more so now
that increasing quantities of this material is beginning to filter down
from the somewhat hermetic confines of the academic research seminar,
and into the bibliographical bases of such popular and best-selling works
as Gavin FLOOD's widely praised Introduction to Hinduism, and
Miranda SHAW's more controversial Passionate Enlightenment.
1
SANDERSON's work I am referring to includes his published paper
"Vajrayana: Origin and Function",2 as well as a number of unpublished
(yet nevertheless quite well-known and widely-circulated) seminar
papers and public lectures given over the years at various universities
and institutes.3 For specialists in Tantric Buddhism, the most significant
* This paper is a slightly revised version of a lecture given to the Tantric Studies
Seminar at All Soul's College, Oxford, on April 29, 1996.
1. Gavin FLOOD, 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge, C.U.P.; and
Miranda Shaw, 1994. Passionate Enlightenment. Princeton, Princeton University
Press.
2. 1995: "Vajrayiina: Origin and Function". In Buddhism Into the Year 2000. Inter-
national Conference Proceedings. Bangkok and Los Angeles: Dhamrnakaya
Foundation,pp.89-102.
3. (i) "Evidence of the Textual Dependence of the Buddhist Yoganuttaratantras on
the Tantric Saiva Canon", seminar delivered at the University of Hamburg, May
1990. (li) "The Dependence of the Herukatantras on the Saiva Tantras of the
Vidyapltha", lecture series delivered at All Souls College, Oxford, May-June
1993. (iii) "Pious Plagiarism: Evidence of the Dependence of the Buddhist
YoginItantras on Saiva Scriptural Sources", paper delivered at the Rijksuniversi-
teit te Leiden, April 11, 1995. Items (i) and (ii) present excerpts from the Sanskrit
texts of the Buddhist YoginItantras in parallel with their Saiva prototypes. Item
(iii) introduces mythic narratives as well. Although not a Tibetanist himself,
SANDERSON is able to draw significantly on Tibetan Buddhist materials from
myself and Gyurme DORJE, juxtaposing these with fascinating Saiva myths from
the Sanskrit.
Volume 21 Number 2.1998
JIABS 21.2 272
result of SANDERSON's work has been to seriously call into the
previously dominant view accepted by a majority of Buddhological
scholars, who had suggested that any such observable parallels between
the specifically kiipiilika or 'cemetery' strands within the Buddhist
Vajrayana and a number of very similar Saiva systems, were primarily
the result of both traditions arising from a common lndic cultural
substrate.
4
While Martin KALFF since the 1970's and David
SNELLGROVE since the mid-1980"s had already begun to question the
validity of this unsatisfactorily vague position on the grounds of
common sense and more generalised observation,5 it was only with the
presentation of SANDERSON's minutely detailed and substantially docu-
mented philological analysis that we have finally been able to conclude
with a reasonable degree of certainty that such similarities are much
better explained as a result of direct Buddhist borrowings from the Saiva
sources.
In his papers, lectures and seminars, SANDERSON has analysed and
discussed the phenomena of such Vajrayana dependence on Saivism
from a. number of different perspectives and has used a number of
different types of primary sources. Firstly, he has presented detailed
philological evidence showing the movement of substantial passages of
text from specific Saiva scriptural sources into specific Buddhist Heru-
katantras. Secondly, he has shown how many of the general categories
of the Buddhist Vajrayana appear to be calques on Saiva prototypes.
Thirdly, SANDERSON has cited passages of Saiva mythology, which
have provided an additional and valuable source of information for the
relation of these two Tantric traditions. In particular, SANDERSON has
shown how the Saiva myths agree in most instances with the Buddhist
ones already analysed by Tibetanists that the predominant direction of
the borrowings were from Saivism into Buddhism, even though the two
4. For an influential pioneering exposition of this view, see David SEYFORT
RUEGG, "Sur les rapports entre Ie Bouddhisme et Ie 'substrat religieux' indien et
tibetain", Journal Asiatique 252 (1964): 7-95; see also SEYFORTRUEGG's much
later Review of David SNELLGROVE, Indo- Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists
and their Tibetan Successors in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1989 (1)
p.173;
5. SNELLGROVE, David L. 1987: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and
their Tibetan Successors. London: Serindia. Pp.152ff, 462-463; and 1988:
"Categories of Buddhist Tantras". In: G. Gnoli and L Lanciotti, eds. Orientalia
Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata. Serie Orientale Roma LVI. 3. Rome, IsMEO.
P.136l.
MAYER 273
traditions might offer quite different interpretations of the religious
significance of this fact.
In my recent book, A Scripture of ihe Ancient Tantra Collection: the
Phur-pa bcu-gnyis, I took up some themes from this third group of
sources, the mythology.6 Focusing mainly on the Buddhist sources, I
discussed the well-known Buddhist myths of the 'Taming of Mahe-
svara/Rudra'. This myth has been dealt with at length in a number of
published secondary sources, and I expect the outlines of it are familiar
to most specialists in the field.? In my book, I primarily understood the
6. Robert MAYER, 1996: A Scripture of the Ancient Tantra Collection. The Phur-pa
bcu-gnyis. Oxford and Gartmore: Kiscadale Publications.
7. In a nutshell, a basic core narrative more or less shared by the many variant
versions of these myths could be described as follows: typically, it might begin
by relating how the all-powerful malignance of Siva and his entourage, specifi-
cally in their more radically transgressive or kiipiilika tantric forms, seduced many
beings into a demonic and evil religious practice, and also came to pose a serious
threat to the survival of the Buddhist religion and even to the material welfare of
the whole world. The severity of this predicament eventually induced the assem-
bled Buddhas of the three times and ten directions to conclude that in the excep-
tional case of such intractable and acutely dangerous enemies as these Saiva
deities, there remained nO realistic alternative other than to tame them and convert
them to Buddhism by brute force. However, this could only be achieved if the
Buddhas themselves manifested in terryfying forms that exactly matched and
resembled the ferocious Saiva deities (viz., the Tantric Buddhist Heruka and
entourage); accordingly, such Buddhist kiipiiZika deities or Herukas were emanat-
ed by the combined forces of all the Tathagatas, and were sent to engage the
Saiva deities in combat. Having succeeded in killing the Saiva deities, the
Buddhist Herukas are then typically described as resuscitating them and enslav-
ing them as servants of Buddhism, giving them new Buddhist names, while like-
wise co-opting the entire panoply of Saiva transgressive Tantric practice as a
vehicle for disseminating Buddhist truths. It was under such circumstances, say
the Buddhist texts, that the esoteric, specifically kiipiilika traditions of Vajrayana
first appeared within history, and become accessible to the human beings of our
world. Such myths appear in a great many extant Tantric texts in Sanskrit,
Chinese, and Tibetan. The main secondary sources I have consulted are as
follows: (i) RA. STEIN, Annuaires du College de France, Annees 71-80, and
more recently "La soumission de Rudra et autres contes tantriques", Journal
Asiatique 283.1 (1995): 121-160. (ii) Martin Michael KALFF 1979: Selected
Chapters from the Abhidhiinottara-tantra. The union offemale and male deities.
Unpublished PhD dissertation, Columbia University. (iii) Nobumi IYANAGA
1985: "Recits de la soumission de Mahesvara par Trailokyavijaya, d'apres les
sources chinoises et japonaises", in Michel Strickmann, ed. Tantric and Taoist
Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, vol. 3, Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques
vol. XXII. Institut BeIge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, Bruxelles. (iv) David
JlABS 21.2 274
'Taming of Mahesvara/Rudra' narrative as the charter myth (more or
less in a Maliilowskiansense) of the Vajrayana in its specifically kiipii-
lika forms, in other words as the myth by which the explained
and justified to themselves and to the world their co-option of so much
of the religion of their Sai'va riyals. I also discussed this myth as repre-
senting Siva as a 'demon devotee' of the Buddha, in other words of re-
peating the widespread pattern found in Indian religions in which deities
transform hostile demons into their loyal devotees (often giving them
the specific function of guardian or protector) through the medium of
first slaying them, and then bringing them back to life.
8
I also showed
how this myth can be seen as giving a Buddhist commentary (in the
Geertzian sense) upon Saiva-Buddhist relations, and how it can be seen
to document the process described by LEVI-STRAUSS as 'bricolage', in
which persisting cultural materials are re-worked to create new cultural
reconstructions.
9
I also looked at the myth in terms of the category of
'shamanic mediation' more recently developed by the anthropologist
Geoffrey SAMUEL, in this specific case referring to the use of altered
states of consciousness by Tantric Buddhist ritual specialists to achieve a
reconciliation or accommodation between their own tradition and con-
flicting extraneous cultural forces.1
o
Finally, I located the notion of the
taming of Mahesvara/Rudra within i!S broader emic frameworks, as a
specific instance of the important Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist cate-
gory of 'dul ba or 'taming',l1 which in general terms refers to a
SNELLGROVE, 1987: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their
Tibetan Successors. London: Serindia. pp.136-141. (v) Alexander W.
MACDONALD 1990: "Hindu-isation, Buddha-isation then Lama-isation or: What
happened at La-phyi?", in Indo-Tibetan Studies. Buddhica Britannica Series II.
Ed. T. Skorupski. Tring.(vi) Ronald DAVIDSON 1991: "Reflections on the
Mahesvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apologetics, and the
Birth of Heruka", nABS 14.2. etc.
8. cf. Alf HILTEBElTEL 1989 (ed): Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees. Essays on
the Guardians of Popular Hinduism. Albany, SUNY Press. HILTEBEITEL's
introduction to the volume gives a clear outline.
9. Claude LEVI-STRAUSS 1976: The Savage Mind, London: Wiedenfield and
Nicholson. See, for example, pp.16 ff.
10. Geoffrey SAMUEL 1990: Mind, Body and Culture. Cambridge: C.U.P.; and
1993: Civilized Shamans. Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Washington: Smith-
sonian Institution Press.
11. Perhaps this concept has its roots in early Buddhism? cf. the 'Ten Epithets of the
Tathiigata', as cited, for example, in TAKASAKI Jikido, trans. Rolf GIEBEL 1987:
MAYER 275
conveyor-belt process in which all non-Buddhist beings throughout the
universe are eventually to be converted to the Dharma and set
irreversibly on the path to enlightenment; more specifically, Tantric
Buddhism claims to possess unique skilful methods, by which even those
hard cases particularly resistant to taming (such as MaheSvaral Rudra),
can also be converted.
In this paper, however, I want to focus on a somewhat different aspect
of this material. I want to address the question of what weight, or what
significance, the figure of MaheSvara/Rudra and the Saiva categories
associated with him have been accorded by the various traditions of
Tibetan Buddhism themselves. From the Tibetans' own point of view, is
Mahesvara/Rudra merely a marginal figure who appears occasionally in
a few obscure myths that might be of more interest to foreign philo-
logists than to the tradition itself? Or is the figure of Mahesvara/Rudra
of great and central importance to the tradition as well? One part of the
answer to this question is, of course, that Mahesvara/Rudra has been
accorded a more prominent role in some areas of the diverse Tibetan
Tantric traditions than in others. In particular, I wish to single out two
areas where he is particularly significant. The first one is in the Yoginl-
tantra traditions of Cakrasmp.vara.
12
The second one is in the Mahayoga
traditions of the rNiil-ma-pa. The hypothesis I am putting forward here
is that in the case of the Cakrasmp.vara tradition, the Saiva deity and the
borrowed Saiva categories are, according to most traditional voices,
acknowledged and allowed to play only a somewhat limited albeit dis-
tinctive role: their true historical and structural importance to the Cakra-
sarp.vara system is consistently understated and downplayed, even if
usually admitted in somewhat oblique and nebulous terms within certain
narrow and carefully delimited contexts. By contrast, in the Mahayoga
traditions of the rNiil-ma-pa, the figure of Mahesvara/Rudra is accorded
a much more substantial part with very little restriction, and here he is
much more freely permitted to fulfil a broad and surprisingly pivotal
symbolic role of crucial importance. Once again, however, what modern
An Introduction to Buddhism, Tokyo: T5h5 Gakkai, p. 50: epithet 8 is puruoJa-
"one who controls men to be tamed".
12. The orthography 'Cakrasarpvara' is deliberate: I am following SANDERSON's
extensive but as yet unpublished research on the orthographical problems of
sa'!lvaral saT[lvara, based on Saiva and Buddhist sources in both Sanskrit and
Tibetan. According to SANDERSON's findings, while 'CakrasaIp.vara' is probably
more correct, most other instances should be spelt '-saT[lvara'.
JIABS 21.2 276
scholars might see as the actual historical nature of the relation of
Saivism to Tailtric Buddhism is by and large tacitly ignored in f a ~ o u r of
highly complex metaphysical re-interpretations of that history.
I. MaheSvara in the Yoginltantras
The renowned yi dam Cakrasllip.vara and his consort VajravarahI are
among the most important deities of the Yoginltantras, which are more
usually designated by Tibetan doxography as the 'Mother-Tantra' (ma
rgyud) section of the Anuttarayogatantras. This is one of the areas of the
tradition very closely studied by SANDERSON, and since many readers
are probably already familiar with his work or can consult it directly, I
shall deal with this topic only very briefly.
Within Tibetan Buddhism, the Cakrasllip.vara Tantras are pre-eminent-
ly the speciality of the various bKa' -brgyud-pa schools, for whom these
cycles are closely connected with their famous traditions of yoga and
Mahamudra meditation. However, Cakrasllip.vara is also of great impor-
tance to the gSar-ma-pa traditions in general, including the dGe-lugs-pa,
the Sa-skya-pa, and so on. In the Cakrasa:rp.vara tradition, the Saiva
deities take the form of Bhairava and his consort Kalaratri. As SANDER-
SON has so clearly described, these non-Buddhist deities played a
specific role in the general Cakrasllip.vara iconography and commentarial
literature in Sanskrit, primarily as the seats of the Buddhist Herukas.
13
The Tibetan tradition preserves this feature, but in addition, as one
might expect, Bhairava and Kalaratri have also come to be represented
in a number of additional indigenous Tibetan cultural developments of
the Cakrasa:rp.vara tradition. For example, there are important and elabo-
rate pilgrimage and sacred site traditions connected with this cycle, in
which a number of holy mountains, but most notably Kailas, La-phyi
and Tsa-ri, are seen as concrete manifestations of the Cakrasllip.vara
ma1}rJala of deities. These mountains must surely rank among the most
famous of all the natural holy sites within the rich and so far largely
uncatalogued inventory of the Tibetan religious landscape. As concrete
manifestations of the Cakrasa:rp.vara ma1}rJala and being further
identified with some of the ancient Indian pf!has described in the
Yoginltantras, in terms of the iconography and the taming narratives of
this tradition they should necessarily also include representations of
13. Origins & Functions, op.cit.; and "Pious Plagiarism", op.cit., pp.3-5.
MAYER 277
Bhairava and Kiilaratri. I believe these are in fact in evidence, although
as yet I know only a very few details of their appearance.
14
My readings within the Cakrasmp-vara literature are by no means
exhaustive; on balance, however, my impression is that consciousness of
its substantially Saiva origins and of the predominantly Saiva forms of
the deities in its pantheon are not and never have been of absolutely
overwhelming importance to the Cakrasarp.vara tradition as represented
in Tibet, nor to any other area of the gSar-ma-pa traditions as currently
practised, for that matter. Representations of the Saiva forms might exist
in iconography and mythology or possibly also in natural forms at
sacred sites such as Tsa-ri, but these do not seem to have been allowed to
penetrate to the inner core of the tradition, or to spread too deeply into
its siidhana and commentarial systems. Rather, the taming myths persist
as something attached to the tradition as an origin myth while remaining
slightly extraneous to the ritual practice itself and the associated higher
metaphysics, while the iconography of the Saiva deities as the Herukas'
seats is seen as little more than a symbolic detail, open to a variety of
standard Buddhist interpretations of the subjugation of evil. Even if
there might be a widespread awareness and acknowledgement of the
formal external similarities of the Cakrasamvara traditions to Saivism, as
explained by the tmning narrative and commonly assented to by lamas of
this tradition, this is never allowed to become a doctrinally pivotal point:
it remains a mere detail, a mere contingency. The very names of
Bhairava and Kalaratri appear within only a few contexts in the litera-
ture, notably when the origin myth is being recounted, or when the
14. Traditional texts, such as an oral text known as the gNas chen tsari tra'i gsol
'debs, apparently claim that there are naturally-occurring stone liligas and yon is
found at the hamlet of rDo-mtshan (lit. 'Sexed Stones') beside Tsa-ri. According
to this tradition, these 'sexed stones' are apparently conceptualised according to
the famous Indic cosmic dismemberment narratives connected with the Saival
Sakta conceptions of the pf!ha system; in other words, as far as I understand it,
following the taming myths, they are seen as the stone symbols of Mahesvara
and his goddesses installed at Tsari (= the pf!ha Caritra) and at each of the other
24 pfthas, before their downfall to Heruka. Apparently these svayambhu stone
phalluses and vulvas are not obvious or easy to perceive, except by advanced
yogins. While important for Tantric meditators, they are more often seen by lay
persons as bestowing special powers of procreation and fertility. These stones
and other features of the sacred topography of Tsa-ri are described in Toni
HUBER 1993: What is a Mountain? An Ethnohistory of Representation and
Ritual at Pure Crystal Mountain in Tibet. PhD Dissertation, University of
Canterbury, Christchurch (New Zealand), pp. 82ff.
JIABS 21.2 278
deities' seats are being described; otherwise, they seem to have no role
to play, and there is no need to name them. One has the impressIon that
were all its internal references to Saivism to become forgotten alto-
gether, the Cakrasarp.vara traditions of Tibetan Buddhism could still con-
tinue more or less unchanged. .
However, as I have said above, my knowledge of the Cakrasrup.vara
traditions is by no means entirely exhaustive, and so my perception of its
representations of Siva might yet prove to be mistaken. But if, as I
expect, my current perceptions do indeed transpire to be accurate, this
could be considered a little surprising, because there surely can be no
area of the Buddhist tradition more intimately bound up with Saivism
than the Cakrasarp.vara Tantras. As we know from SANDERSON's work,
large sections of their major scriptures, such as the Laghusarrzvara and
the Abhidhanottara, are borrowed virtually word for word from Saiva
prototypes such as the Picumata and the Tantrasadbhava.1
5
In addition,
15. For those readers unfamiliar with SANDERSON's work, although I cannot review
all the issues here, perhaps it might be useful to present one brief quotation from
my recent book in which I review some of SANDERSON's findings (taken from
MAYER 1996 op.cit., pp.59-60):
"A contemporary Indologist, Alexis SANDERSON, has already identified
(through textual criticism) a good quarter of all the verses in the long and impor-
tant LaghusafJtvara as having been adapted or borrowed virtually unchanged
word-by-word from earlier Saiva texts such as the Picumatal Brahmayiimala,
the SiddhayogeSvarfmata, and the Yoginfsamciira[prakara!Za] (which latter
appears in the third ~ a t k a , or section of 6000 verses, of the composite Jayadra-
thayamala). This is remarkable for several reaSons. Firstly, the LaghuSafJtvara is
often considered the single most important text of the Cakrasamvara cycle.
Secondly, the quarter of the text so far demonstrably incorporated from Saiva
sources might not reveal the full extent of the dependency, since not all the corpus
of relevant Saiva texts survive; for example, the *YoginfjiilasafJtvara and the
*Sarvavirasamiiyoga are two lost Saiva texts that were influential in the eighth
century, a period when a matrix of Buddhist YoginItantras were produced whose
very names may have been calques on the Saiva texts (I;>iiki!ZfjiilasafJtvara and
Sarvabuddhasamiiyoga). Thirdly, a good part of the LaghusafJtvara consists of
mantroddharas and the like that are written very much in the manner of a Saiva
text, but which obviously could not be lifted in directly from Saiva sources, given
the important function of mantras as a text's unique signatures. Since the impor-
tant Cakrasatp.vara vyiikhyiitantra (explanatory tantra), theAbhidhtInottara, seems
to draw on similar materials to the [proto-] LaghusafJtvara, a quantity of the same
Saiva materials is found there as well, probably in an earlier form than the
Laghusamvara as we have it now (SANDERSON op. cit. 1990; 1993; 1995).
Among other shared materials are the all-important samayiU}. (tantric vows of
conduct). (Thanks to Alexis SANDERSON for these references)."
MAYER 279
the CakrasaIp.vara iconography has probably remained closer to its Saiva
prototypes than any other Buddhist iconography. On top of that, the
colourful and popular CakrasaIpvara rendition of the taming myth, even
if doctrinally comparatively restricted in scope, is nevertheless extremely
widely attested in Tibet, and numerous versions of it are preserved and
frequently repeated at both learned and popular levels; at first glance,
one might possibly have expected this fact alone to have had more
impact in terms of an historical awareness of the relation of the two
traditions. Yet the acknowledgement of anything Saiva does not seem to
have been allowed to pervade very widely or deeply through the tradi-
tion. As far as I am aware, the CakrasaIp.vara tradition in Tibet contrives
to deny the surface meaning of its own origin myth, and presents itself
as having an exclusively Buddhist nature, often even claiming to have
been originally taught by the historical Buddha during his lifetime in a
transcendent form at the Dhanyakaraka Stupa near AmaravatI in Andhra
country, simultaneous to his preaching of the Mahayana Siltras in a more
anthropomorphic form at the Vulture's Peak in Bihar (NEWMAN 1985:
53)16. Thus, within Tibet at least, the Cakrasarp.vara cycle is generally
conceptualised as a product of a uniquely Buddhist environment with
scant acknowledgement of any debts to or historical contacts with
Saivism, or any realistic acknowledgement of the Saiva iconography of
its maIJrjalas. It seems to me, then, that Buddhism has here decided to
turn a blind eye to significant aspects of its own nature and origins: there
seems to be a degree of deliberate avoidance or even denial of the full
extent of the Cakrasarp.vara cycle's debts to Saivism. Even the appar-
ently obvious message of the taIning narrative becomes ignored, isolated
and negated by the denying attitudes of the broader tradition as a whole.
This traditional policy of denial has inevitably had its effect on
modern Buddhology too. As recently as 1991, one of the finest of con-
temporary Buddhologists working in Vajrayana, Ronald DAVIDSON,
wrote of the list of 24 P1thaS as mentioned in the CakrasaIp.vara-cycle's
Siva-taming narratives, that "it cannot be immediately assumed that
[this] was a popular Hindu system subsumed into the Buddhist fold ... "
DAVIDSON continues, "The Buddhist mythic contention that these [24]
places were initially Saiva cannot be accepted as fact. Instead, the list is
16. John NEWMAN 1985; "A Brief History of the KaIacakra". In The Wheel afTime,
ed. Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Roger Jackson & John Newman, Madison: Deer Park
Books, pp. 51-84.
JIABS 21.2 280
developed out of such geographical lists of places noted in esoteric
Buddhist literature as early as the Mahiimayurf-vidya-rajfif-dhara1Jr'.17
In other words, DAVIDSON admits that the taming nan::atives of the
CakrasaqlVara tradition openly assert that the Buddhists took the system
of pf!has from the Saivas; yet he argues that as critical modern scholars,
we should not believe this unlikely story. To my mind, this compara-
tively recent quotation from a first class scholar such as DAVIDSON only
goes to show what a major long-term impact SANDERSON's extensive,
painstakingly detailed and solidly founded philological work is likely to
have on the Vajrayana branch of Buddhology: thanks to SANDERSON,
we can now move on from educated speculation, to a terra firma of
sorts; for as SANDERSON has conclusively shown, the Buddhists did
indeed adopt the system of pffhas directly from the Saiva canon, exactly
as the Buddhist taming narrative maintainsP8
I do not feel this is the moment to embark on a discussion of how
things might have been in Indian Buddhism; however, as far as I can
see, there seem to be three factors that can help account for this tradi-
tional understatement of the surface message of the taming myths and
other Saiva elements within the Cakrasarp.vara systems of Tibet:
[i] Firstly, as far as I know, the taming myths occurs only in commen-
tarial texts of the Y oginItantras, and not in the actual canonical YoginI
scriptures themselves. Hence they are by definition somewhat marginal
to the tradition as a whole, and from a traditional point of view there is
no compulsion for their message to make an appearance at deeper or
broader levels of sadhana and metaphysics. According to Ronald
DA VIDSON, it is not even quite clear to what extent the Cakrasarp.vara-
cycle Siva taming myths as we currently have them derive from Indic
sources, and to what extent they originate in Tibet. While R.A. STEIN
has cited the following sources which he believes to be Indic, as far as I
know he has not yet got round to publishing any findings from them: [1]
A commentary by IndrabhUti, Peking bsTan-'gyur 2129; [2] Two com-
mentaries by Vajra, Peking bsTan-'gyur 2128 and 2140. [3] A commen-
tary by Naropa, Peking bsTan-'gyur 4628 [4] a text he identifies only as
17. Ronald M. DAVIDSON: "Reflections on the Mahesvara Subjugation Myth: Indic
Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apologetics, and the Birth of Heruka", JIABS 14.2
(1991): 224.
18. See in particular Origin and Function, op.cit; and Pious Plagiarism, p. 15, with
Sanskrit texts pp. 3-4.
MAYER 281
P. No.2624 [sic]. Following STEIN's lead, Ronald DAVIDSON reports
that the two commentaries by IndrabhUti and Suravajra do indeed make
the subjugation of MaheSvara "part of the lore surrounding the advent of
the Cakrasa:rp.vara Tantras."19 Having read these two texts, however,
DAVIDSON's' conclusion is that they are too brief to account for the
fully comprehensive earliest known Tibetan version of the Cakrasa:rp.vara
taming myth written by the early Sa-skya-pa patriarch Grags-pa rgyal-
mtshan, who lived from 1167-1216. One feature of Grags-pa rgyal-
mtshan's analysis mentioned by DAVIDSON was that the Buddhists'
arch-fiend figure of Mahesvara/Rudra himself becomes re-interpreted as
an aspect of the Buddha of primordial enlightenment, an interpretation
highly typical of the rNin-ma-pa exegesis of the taming narratives.
DAVIDSON concludes, "so far as I am able to determine, fully devel-
oped forms [of the Cakrasa:rp.vara taming myth] occur only in indige-
nous Tibetan language materials, and the text of a Tibetan author of the
twelfth-thirteenth century appears to be the earliest version".
(DAVIDSON 1991 op.cit., p.204).
[ii] A second reason for the understatement of the debts to Saivism is
that Tibetan Buddhism did not have to co-exist with Saivism in the same
way that Indian or Nepalese Buddhism has had to do. Hence Tibetan
approaches to Hinduism in any of its aspects has always tended to reduce
Hindu categories into convenient sets of mainly abstract symbols for
purely domestic intellectual or scholastic consumption. With the actual
presence of Hinduism so distant, there was no need to take it seriously as
a living historical reality. The reduction by learned clerics of its few
references to Saivism into purely abstract sets of symbols, is precisely
what seems to have happened in the case of the Cakrasa:rp.vara cycle in
Tibet.
[iii] Thirdly, the general tendency of the gSar-ma-pa traditions is to see
the Tantras as the utterances of the historical Buddha, even if uttered by
him in the transcendent form of Vajradhara. In other words, the gSar-
ma-pa tend to support a closed canon, rejecting the idea of ongoing
revelation and the continuous addition of new scripture to the existing
19. DAVIDSON gives exact citations: sricakrasa1J'!varatantrariijasa1J'!barasamuc-
caya-vrtti, To. 1413, rgyud 'grel, vol. tsa, fol. 4ab; Mulatantrahrdaya-
sa1J'!grahiibhidhiinottaratantra-malamulavrtti, To 1414, rgyud 'grel, voL tsa, fol.
121a7.
JIABS 21.2 282
canonical collections through the 'shamanic' (in SAMUEL'S, special
technical sense) processes of colonising or 'taming' extraneous religious
systems such as Saivism. Thus the historical implications ()f the taming
myth, that so clearly identify the origins of the YoginItantras as an his-
torical Buddhist response to Saivism involving a stategy of co-option,
are possibly something of an embarrassment: they suggest an uncomfort-
able truth, one that best remains understated.
II. The Taming myth in the rNin-ma-pa Tantric scriptures.
The other area of Tibetan Buddhism I wish to discuss in which the
Mahesvara/Rudra myths are important lies within the Mahayoga tradi-
tions of the rNin-ma-pa. Here, however, the figure of Mahesvaral
Rudra takes on a very full and central role indeed, within the very heart
of siidhana, within a great many aspects of ritual, and at the very
deepest levels of commentarial exegesis. Here, little or no effort is made
to ignore or contain the taming myths (with all their implicit
implications of dependence), nor to deny Buddhist Tantrism's debts to
the figures of MaheSvara/Rudra, even if these debts become heavily re-
interpreted in Buddhism's favour. On the contrary, the very dependence
of Vajrayana Buddhism on this hostile and alien figure is itself elevated
to a valuable spiritual truth, and the Saiva deity himself is accorded a
pervasive and pivotal role in rNin-ma-pa metaphysics, soteriology, and
ritual. In the rest of this paper, I want to mainly look at this complex
figure of Rudra in the rNin-ma-pa tantric tradition.
Unlike the Cakrasarpvara traditions, the taming of Mahesvara/Rudra
narrative plays a significant part in a great many of the most important
canonical Tantric scriptures of the rNin-ma-pa tradition. It is true, of
course, that much of the main rNin-ma-pa tantric canon, the rNin-ma'i
rgyud- 'bum (henceforth NGB), consists of materials composed or
compiled in Tibet, rather than direct translations from Sanskrit as in the
case of most of the Tantric texts of the gSar-ma-pa canon, the Kanjur.
However, in integrating the taming myths into their scriptures, the rNin-
ma-pa were certainly remaining true to a much older Sanskrit Vajrayana
tradition. Arguably the oldest and most important of all versions of the
MaheSvara/Rudra taming myths is that found in the Sarvatathiigata-
tattvasa'!lgraha (henceforth STTS), the basic text of the older
Yogatantra tradition, which became the source of the very wide dispersal
of the taming myth in Far Eastern Tantric Buddhism. Likewise, taming
myths occur in scriptures of the Mahayoga traditions found in the
MAYER 283
Tibetan Kanjur as well as in the NGB, and which are generally thought
to have had an Indic origin, such as the Candraguhyatilaka-mahiitantra-
riija,20 and the text known to the Tibetans as the *Guhyagarbha-tattva-
viniscaya, which SANDERSON has possibly identified from Sanskrit
sources as originally bearing the name of Guhyakosa.
In the rNiil.-ma-pa Tantras, the scriptural references to the taming
myths are not merely fleeting or marginal. On the contrary, they assume
the greatest possible significance, occupying large sections within the
most important of the rNiil.-ma-pa Tantras. The taming myth occupies
an entire chapter of the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya, for example, and
this text is widely considered the most important single scripture within
the rNiil.-ma-pa Mahayoga tradition as a whole. In the Mdo dgOlis-pa
, dus-pa, a text of uncertain origin said to have been translated from the
'Bru-sha language, which is the root text for the rNiil.-ma-pa Anuyoga
tradition but also very influential for Mahayoga, the highly extended
taming narrative occupies no less than eleven chapters, (chs. 20-31) and,
in the words of Matthew KAPSTEIN, this taming narrative "has become
the organising metaphor of the text as a whole")! No one has yet
attempted a comprehensive survey of the frequency of scriptural occur-
20. This occurrence of the taming myth is reported by DAVIDSON op.cit. p.203,
based on the version of the Candraguhyatilaka-mahiitantraraja as found in sDe-
dge rgyud-'bum, vol. ja, fols. 281a-287a. It might be of interest to note that I
recently made a brief and cursory ad hoc comparison of the opening chapter of
the versions of the Candraguhyatilaka-maMtantraraja as contained in the sTog
Kanjur (vol. 97 CHA, 226a3-297b5) and in the mTshams-brag NGB (vol 18
folios 357 ff); I found that substantial portions at the beginning of the text seemed
to be dramatically at variance between the different editions, while other portions
were more or less the same. Note also that quite different translators from differ-
ent historical periods are mentioned in the colophons of the different versions.
21. See his "Samantabhadra and Rudra: Innate Enlightenment and Radical Evil in
Tibetan Rnying-ma-pa Buddhism", in F. Reynolds and D. Tracy, eds., Discourse
and Practice, SUNY 1992, p. 66. R.A. STEIN has recently written a characteristi-
cally valuable and interesting paper in which he proposes that this extended
version from the Mdo dg01is-pa 'dus-pa differs from Sanskrit texts such as the
STTS and the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya in that it talks more of Rudra than
of Mahesvara; STEIN further suggests that it might be the source for the detailed
taming narratives found in a number of other Mahayoga scriptures, including
some he has closely studied that were placed in the rNying-rgyud section of the
Kanjur, such as the Me-lee 'bar-ba (P466), the bDud-rtsi chen-po (P464, and an
untitled text that accompanies them (P465) (STEIN 1995, op.cit). The Mdo dgons-
pa 'dus-pa version of the taming narrative has also probably been very influential
on important gTer-ma texts such as the Padma bka'i than.
JIABS 21.2 284
rences of the taming narratives within the rNiIi-ma-pa Tantric canons,
but I have encountered them in casual readings of several o t h e ~ rNiri-
ma-pa tantras, such as the dPal rdo-rje phur-pa'i bsad-rgyud dri-med
'od, [Thimpu NGB Sa, 28]; in the Phur-pa mya-nan-Ias-'das-pa'i rgyud
chen-po [Thimpu NGB Sa,28]; and in also in a doxographically more
important text that I have looked at more carefully, the Phur-pa .bcu-
gfiis, one of the main root texts for the VajrakIlaya tradition [Thimpu
NGB Dza, 19]. STEIN has also reported extended taming myths in a
number of other rNiri-ma-pa Tantras, such as the Me-Ice 'bar-ba
(P466), the bDud-rtsi chen-po (P464), and an untitled text that accom-
panies them (P465) (STEIN 1995, op.cit.). From the above evidence, it
is not unreasonable to assume that taming narratives will eventually be
found in a significant proportion of rNiri-ma-pa tantric scriptures. For
example, they are quite likely to turn up in several more of the nineteen
*Guhyagarbhatantras preserved in the NGB, and not merely in the single
if most important specimen from among .this voluminous literature
studied by Gyurme DORJE, namely the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya
mentioned above.
22
On doctrinal grounds, we can also prediet a good
likelihood of finding taming narratives in several more of the rNiIi-ma-
pa tantras connected with major Heruka figures such as VajrakIlaya,
Hayagdva, and so on.
The taming myth in Klon':'chen-pa' s Phyogs-bcu mun-sel
If the taming of Mahesvara/Rudra narratives loom so large within the
rNiri-ma-pa scriptures, the question arises as to why? What important
messages do they convey? To approach this complex question, I want to
begin by citing a few key passages from a definitive traditional com-
mentary on the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya called the Phyogs-bcu
mun-sel, 'Dispersing the darkness of the ten directions', written by that
most influential of all rNiIi-ma-pa commentators, the fourteenth century
sage Klori-chen-pa. This extensive commentary has been translated in
full by Gyurme DORJE (DORJE 1987, op.cit.). Here, I can only sum-
marise a few salient points from its treatment of the taming narrative.
Klori-chen-pa provides a comprehensive exegesis of the taming myth
that aims only to bring out its soteriological implications: actual histori-
22. DORJE, Gyunne 1987: The Guhyagarbhatantra and its Fourteenth Century
Tibetan Commentary Phyogs-bcu mun-sel. Unpublished PhD thesis, London:
SOAS.
MAYER 285
cal fact, in the shape of the relations of Budd..1Usm with Saivism in India,
are of no interest to him. Now, it is a famous feature of this particular
commentary that Klon-chen-pa here seeks to intetpret even the root text
for all Mahayoga, the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya or rGyud gsan-ba
sfiin-po, to 'some degree at least from the doctrinally higher and
philosophically even less dualistic point of view of Atiyoga or rDzogs-
chen. Hence it is that within this profound soteriological exegesis of the
taming myth, Klon-chen-pa adopts above all the uncompromisingly and
quite radically non-dual perspectives characteristic of Atiyoga, focusing
more on themes of primal purity than on more typical Mahayoga themes
of transformation. It is this bias towards Atiyoga which probably
undetpins his strong emphasis on the proposal that even the evil demon
Mahesvara, who here as elsewhere throughout the Mahayoga literature is
consistently identified as the chief and worst of all the Maras, is
ultimately an expression of primordial wisdom.
Firstly, Klon-chen-pa affirms that the Buddhist tanttic wrathful deities
exist primordially, and are particularly connected with the head cakra,
just as the Buddhist peaceful deities exist primordially and are
particularly connected with the heart cakra. He explains that this is
entirely in accord with Buddhist doctrines on the trikiiya and on the
subtle body. It is therefore only to illustrate the principles of the Vajra-
yana teachings to trainee sentient beings, that the Rudra-taming episode
is enacted at all; in other words, Klon-chen-pa is saying that although
the wrathful Buddhist kiipiilika deities exist primordially, they skilfully
manifest themselves to beings via the occasion of the taming of Rudra.
Thus Rudra himself is not really what he seems: he is in reality an ex-
pression of primordial wisdom, appearing as a demon to be subdued in
order to provide an occasion by which the principles of the secret
mantrayana can be made clear to beings. In that he constitutes the unique
condition for the revelation of the supreme Vajrayana itself, he is thus
superior even to a Buddha's emanation in the usual guttic parlance.
If all this begs some questions about Rudra's behaviour in harming
and killing so many sentient beings through illness, calamity, and false
teachings, as so graphically described in the main body of the narrative,
Klon-chen-pa compares the situation with that described in the Anguli-
miilii-sutra. He writes:
This is reminiscent of a common sutra which reveals that when the dwarf
Ailgulimaliya had formed a garland of the fingers of 999 men he had slain, he
was tamed by the Buddha and ultimately shown to have no defect. However it
JIABS 21.2 286
was in fact an emanation of the Tathagatas who slew phantom human beings of
his own emanation so that the garland was strung ... (translation from DORJE
op.cit., p. 1088)
Thus Rudra is a phantasmagorical expression of Buddhist skilful means,
who uniquely can demonstrate a negative example to sentient beings,
without actually harming anyone. On the other hand, anyone foolish
enough to attempt to emulate Rudra's outward behaviour would un-
doubtedly cause great harm, and this fact becomes a very important
point in rNin-ma-pa writings on ethics, doctrine and the Tantric samaya
vows, as I shall describe later on.
In typical Buddhist fashion, Rudra becomes an archetype and is
multiplied. There can be any number of Rudras in different worlds. We
can all become Rudras if we misunderstand the tantras, taking them
literally with no insight into Buddhist metaphysical truths. Thus Rudra
becomes transformed from an historical Saiva deity, into a generalised
symbol of evil with a very broad application. He has become elevated
from history into myth, from a specific Hindu god to a universal symbol
of evil equivalent to Mara.
Klon-chen-pa summarises this first part of his exegesis:
Rudra attained Buddhahood as Samantabhadra in primordial original time, and
then, in order to subdue the Mara who appeared within his self-manifesting
cakras, he became manifest in and of himself .... " (DORJE op.cit., p.1092)
In brief, just as the lion throne appears to symbolise the presence of the four
kinds of fearlessness, Rudra appears to be subdued in order to symbolise victory
over all demons and outside aggressors, and the complete mastery which over-
whelms proud spirits. At the time when enlightenment is attained, Mara must
appear to be subdued. Thus when the subjugation of Rudra, as the fIrst and fore-
most of the host of proud demons or Maras, is revealed, one attains mastery over
the appearances of the self-manifesting cakras.
It is crucial for an understanding of Klon-chen-pa to realise that Rudra is
the chief of all Maras. He remains the closest thing to a Buddhist Satan,
an inversion of all Buddhist values. It is only through the radical non-
dualism of Klon-chen-pa's Atiyoga type of exegesis that even the chief
of the Maras is realised to be an expression of primordial wisdom like
Samantabhadra; for what is enlightenment other than the conquest of
Mara, and how could Mara be conquered if he did not manifest?
Therefore there can be no enlightenment without Mara, and so Mara
must be an expression of primordial wisdom. As the foremost of the
Maras, Rudra is also indispensable for enlightenment.
MAYER 287
It is worth noting that in this non-dual interpretation of Rudra as pri-
mordially enlightened, Klon-chen-pa is not diverging from the early Sa-
skya-pa exegesis of the CakrasaIp-vara taming myth. As DAVIDSON has
pointed out, the Sa-skya-pa patriarch Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan took a very
similar view in his work dPal he ru ka'i byUli tshul, a title which
translates as "How Heruka was born".23 Here Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan
distinguished two levels of the Cakrasarpvara tradition of the taming
myth, the provisional meaning (neyiirtha) and the definitive meaning
(nftiirtha). While the provisional meaning took the taming narrative at
face value as a story of Buddhism conquering the wicked deities of the
Saiva pantheon, according to the definitive meaning, the taIller and the
taIlled become non-differentiated. The Saiva deities, including Bhairava
and Kalaratri, are all seen as emanations of Mahesvara, who is in tum
seen as an emanation of the Buddha Vajradhara. Likewise, all the
Buddhist deities who effect the conversion are emanations of Sri
Heruka, who is himself an emanation of Vajradhara. Thus, from the
point of view of the definitive meaning, all the characters in the taming
myth are emanations of MaMvajradhara (DAVIDSON 1991 op.cit.,
p.208). However, as DAVIDSON points out, Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan
cited no written sources for this interpretation of his: he simply states, it
is "culled from the speech of my guru".24 As a major early commentator
of his own hereditary faInily lineage of the Phur-pa tradition as
well as of the newer tantras such as Hevajra and CakrasaIpvara, it is
theoretically not impossible that Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan in fact borrowed
this idea from the VajrakIlaya literature or other rNin-ma-pa sources.
Until we have read more of the surviving Indic Cakrasarpvara commen-
tarial texts such as those from the Tenjur mentioned above, we cannot
easily assess how much of the CakrasaIpvara taming myth is indigenous
to Tibet. However, my own hunch is that it probably does have a sub-
stantially lndic basis; otherwise, it would be unlikely to have established
so secure a place for itself within the writings of such seminal gSar-ma-
pa authorities as Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan and Bu-ston, endowed as they
were with such highly-developed critical faculties.
23. Sa-skya bka'-'bum (henceforth SKB), llI.298.4.2-300.2.6 (bSod-nams rgya-
mtsho, ed., The Complete Works of the Great Masters of the Sa Skya Sect of the
Tibetan Buddhism (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko 1968).
24. Dpal he ru ka'i byun tshul mam par biag pa bla ma'i gsun las cun zad btus teo
SKB 1ll.300.2.6; cited in DAVIDSON op.cit., p. 231, n. 8
nABS 21.2 288
Chapter Seven of the Phur-pa beu-gills.
I now want to consider more specific applications of the figure of Mahe-
svara/Rudra within the VajrakUaya tradition, beginning 'by looking at
the taming narrative of Chapter 7 of the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis-kyi rgyud, an
important root-text from the NGB, counted by that tradition as one of
the Eighteen [Root] Tantras of Mahayoga (tantra sde bco-brgyad).25 I
want to show how the single episode of the taming of Mahesvara/Rudra
can be seen as the central, pivotal moment for the unfolding of this
whole scripture: for it is out of this single great and complex act of the
taming of Mahesvara/Rudra that the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis seeks to derive
all the most important teachings of the VajrakIlaya tradition, including
the key doctrinal positions, the major iconographic features, the basic
visualisation sequences used in VajrakIlaya siidhanas, the major Vajra-
ldlaya ritual specialities, and the key VajrakIlaya textual passages, which
latter function both as scripture and as the most important liturgical
passages. Surprising though it might seem to those unfamiliar with the
rNiIi-ma-pa Mahayoga traditions, according to the anonymous authors of
the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis, all such absolutely fundamental components of
this most pre-eminent among rNiIi-ma-pa yi dam soteriological systems
should thus be seen as being directly derived from or directly linked to
the taming narrative, and hence to the figure of Mahesvara/Rudra. In
this way the figure of Mahesvara/Rudra seems to be invested with a
scriptural prominence and a quite crucial doctrinal and even spiritual
importance that I have not yet encountered in my readings of the Cakra-
sarp.vara tradition (although I would not be entirely surprised if some-
thing similar were eventually to turn up in some early precursors of the
developed Cakrasarp.vara tradition).
25. The full title is Phur pa bcu gfiis kyi rgyud ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo.
There are in fact several texts in the NGB with quite similar titles to this, but the
particular one I am referring to is perhaps traditionally considered the most im-
portant, since it has been selected as one of the special Eighteen Tantras. My
analysis below is based on my consultation of this text as contained in the
following editions of the NGB: the sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol. PA, ff.176r-
251 v; a manuscript NGB held in the National Archives, Kathmandu, vol MA,
ff.37r-129v; the reprint edition of the mTshams-brag manuscript NGB preserved
in the National Library, Thimpu, vol. DZA, 393r-507r (pages 785-1013); the
Thimpu reprint of the gTing-skyes dgon-pa-byang monastery manuscript NGB,
vpl. DZA, lr-100r (pages 1-199); and the Waddell Manuscript NGB, mainly
held in the India Office Library, London, vol DZA, lr-91r.
MAYER 289
Perhaps I should begin with a brief summary of the chapter. It is enti-
tled 'Chapter Seven, How the arrogant [gods] were tamed', gdug pa can
btul ba'i le'u ste bdun pa'o II, and is found within pages 82-92 of the
. Thimpu reprint NGB, within pages 871-884 of the mTshams-brag
Manuscript NCB, and within folios 206r to 210v of the sDe-dge xylo-
graph NGB. This substantial prose chapter is dedicated to a
lengthy description of the taming of Mahesvara/Rudra and his en-
tourage, containing no other material. To my mind, the narrative clearly
appears here, as in many other rNiil-ma-pa Tantras, as a charter-myth
for Buddhist kapalikaism. More specifically, it also gives the context for
the first appearance of the main V ajrakIlaya itself, which up to
this point had not yet made its appearance in the text. The narrative
begins with the Buddhas noticing that the Saiva deities were causing
terrible harm to the world by their savage attacks against the Buddhist
religion. The Buddhas also perceived that the Saiva deities could never
be influenced by peaceful means; hence VajrakIlaya manifested a special
wrathful form with one thousand heads, a thousand arms, and ten billion
feet, dwelling in a cemetery palace. From this form in turn was emanat-
ed the six-armed, four-legged, three-headed basic form of Vajrakumara
so familiar from rNiil-ma-pa siidhana texts, here called the 'Excellent
Son', embracing his consort Ekajata. Easily victorious, Vajrakumara
subdued and trampled the arrogant Saiva gods underfoot. To mark his
victory, he was then invested by VajrakIlaya with the emblems of the
Saiva gods, such as the kha!viiitga and the other kiipiilika regalia. To
proceed with the conquest of the remainder of the Saiva pantheon, the
Buddhist deities next emanated some further forms, known as the
'KIlayas of the Five Families', i.e. BuddhakIlaya, Vajrakllaya, Ratna-
kllaya, PadmakIlaya, and KarmakIlaya; each of these had upper bodies
similar to Vajrakumara's, while their lower bodies were shaped like
triangular kflas. Upon this, the subsidiary Saiva deity Vighnaraja (or
Ganesa) with all his retinue of vighna deities (Tib. bgegs;as with the
Sanskrit, literally, = 'obstacles') was summoned; to the accompaniment
of some potent 'vajra verses', the assembled Saiva vighna deities were
killed, andtheir remainders roasted or burned and eaten.
Most significantly, in my opinion, it is only at this point within the
scripture, after these great acts of conquest had been carried out, that the
interlocutor figure becomes transformed for the first time from the
general, less esoteric tantric form of Vajradharma, to the specifically
kiipiilika, more esoteric Tantric form of Karmaheruka, which latter form
JIABS 21.2 290
he retains for. the duration of the remainder of the scripture. trans-
formed into Karmaheruka, the interlocutor now asks Lord Vajrakilaya
how the yo gins of future ages should emulate this great deed of subdu-
ing the Saiva deities? Vajrakilaya replies with twenty-three lines of the
most famous root verses of the Vajrakilaya tradition, verses that are
found repeated verbatim in virtually every Vajrakllaya gter ma, siidh-
ana, liturgy, commentary, and so on, verses which have also attracted
far more important commentarial attention than any other section of the
Vajrakilaya literature. They are known by heart in some version or an-
other by most serious Tibetan practitioners of this cycle, and they also
occur in the rTsa-ba'i dum-bu or Vajrakflayamiilatantrakhaly;la,26 the
only fragment of Vajrakilaya literature to have gained entry into the
Kanjur, in this case through the efforts of Grags-pa rgyal-mtshan's
famous successor, Sa-skya PaI).<;J.ita. These root verses not only give the
key teachings on the practice of 'liberative killing' (sgroI ba, for
which the rNiIi-ma-pa Mahayoga in general, and the Vajrakllaya cycle in
particular are so farnous, but, according to the commentarial tradition,
they also give the most crucial of all instructions on the main Mahayoga
contemplative soteriology itself.
27
After this important episode, the
26. Peking Kanjur 78,3; sTog Palace Kanjur Catalogue no. 405; sDe-dge Kanjur,
Toh. no. 439; Ulan Bator Kanjur Handlist, no. 469.
27. Innumerable variants of these verses occur within the multifarious Phur pa tradi-
tions taken as a whole (see MAYER op.cit. pages 212-215). Here, I show only the
version given in Chapter 7 of the Phur-pa beu-gfiis itself, mainly following the
sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol PA, folio 209r, but including some of the main
variant readings taken from other editions: / rdo rje khros pas ie sdaft geod II
mtshon chen sfton po 'bar ba yis II nam mkha'i dkyil nas thigs par [thig pa] sar
II srog gi go ru sar ba daft II sfiift gi go ru bsgom par bya II sfiift rjes bsgral ba'i
dam tshig ni II gsad eift mnan pa ma yin te II phuft po rdo rjer gtams byas nas II
rnam par ses pa rdo rjer bsgom II rdo rje gion nu'i rigs 'dzin rnams II srid pa
rdo rje grub mdzod Gig II srid pa rdo rje phur pa 'i lha I [however, the previous
four yig-rkang are omitted in sDe-dge; I take them here from mTshams-brag ms.
vol DZA, p 880] lye ses khro bo 'grub [or grub] par mdzod II safts rgyas kun
gyi ye ses sku II nan fiid rdo rje ehos dbyins las II 'bar ba 'i khro bo mi bzad pa II
sku yi dbyig tu [sDe-dge reads dbyings su] bdag bskyed eift II thabs kyi spyod
pas 'gro don du II byams daft sfiin rjes gan 'dul ba 1/ safts rgyas 'phrin las
rdzogs bya'i phyir /1 dban daft byin rlabs 'dir stsol Gig II de rjes phyi nan gsmi
gsum dban II byin rlabsbdag la stsal nas ni II de fiid du ni mi snad [or snang]
'gyur /1 de nas sras mehog yab yum gyis II gfiis med byaft chub sems las ni 1/
'byun ba 'i gsan snags' di yin no I The soteriological meaning of these key verses
is analysed at considerable length by 'Jam-mgon kon-sprul blo-'gros mtha'-yas
in a famous commentary on the rTsa-ba'i dum-bu: see his dPal rdo rje phur pa
MAYER 291
taming narrative continues with the emanation of the well-known Maha-
yoga versions of the 'Ten Wrathful Deities' (dasakrodha) , along with
their female consorts and their zoomorphic attendants. By now, the
Saiva deities have been reduced to a pulp, upon which the special
Buddhist waste-disposal deity is emanated. The latter
consumes the mess, through which process the Saiva pantheon become
revived once more; now they take the service-names of 'Grub-pa Lailka'
(sic), promising to protect future Buddhist yogins, and offering them-
selves as the seats of the Buddhist deities. Next, VajrakIlaya copulates
with each one of the consorts of the Saiva deities, and from these
unions, the series of goddesses Gauri etc., Sinhama etc., and Arikusa
etc., are born. After being used in this way, the Saiva female deities
themselves are bound under oath as servants, and consigned to the out-
side of the mm:u!ala (as the protective Twenty-eight ISvarls). With this,
the emanation of the VajrakIlaya malJ-rJala of deities is complete.
Let us now look at how this narrative is interpreted and exploited by
the tradition. To my mind, the taming narrative clearly signals sacrificial
motifs, as I believe is also the case in Chapter 15 of the *Guhyagarbha-
tattvaviniScaya. The main implement used by the Buddhist deities in
their work is the kfla, which, as I have shown elsewhere, shares distinct
iconographic and ritual features with the yupa, or sacrificial stake
(MAYER 1991).28 The Saiva deities are slain, consumed by the Buddhist
deities, digested by them, and then excreted, a symbolic representation
of the transformation of impurity still widely current in India and which
in itself has sacrificial overtones, here with the digestive fire of the
deities analogous to the trans formative fire of the sacrifice.
29
Through
rtsa ba'i rgyud kyi dum bu'i 'grel pa sfiiri po bsdus pa dpal chen dgyes pa'i ial
luri ies bya ba (henceforth DG), 85 ff.
28. Robert MAYER 1991: "Observations on the Tibetan Phur-pa and the Indian
KIla", in The Buddhist Forum vol. II, London: SOAS. A considerable quantity
of data further reinforcing my original association of the phur pa with the yupa
has come to light since this article was published. The reader might like to note
that in this article, a computer-generated hyper-correction resulted in the two quite
distinct Tibetan words phur pa and phur bu becoming conflated as a meaningless
single word, *phur ba.
29. See Jonathan PARRY, 1985. "Death and Digestion: the Symbolism of Food and
Eating in North Indian Mortuary Rites". In Man vol. 20A, pp. 612-630. PARRY
writes: "Digestion is thought to distil the good and nourishing part of food from
the bad waste products; and it is employed in a wide range of cultural contexts. It
is argued that by ingesting and digesting the deceased, his impure sins are elirni-
JIABS 21.2 292
this process, the impure 'Proud Gods' are transmuted into pure. aspects
of the VajrakIlaya ma1}cj.aia: in other words, we can see the en.tire
process as a rite of passage, through which Rudrahood sheds its delusive
aspects and achieves maturity into Herukahood.
30
In this sense, the
taming of Rudra is a symbol of the entire Buddhist path. But let us look
more minutely at what the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis gives us out of this . great
sacrifice of Mahesvaral Rudra.
To start with, the taming narrative becomes the opportunity to intro-
duce the specifically VajrakIlaya ma1}cj.ala for the first time. Before this
point in the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis, only general Vajrayana categories had
been discussed, and only the non-specific peaceful ma1}cj.alas had been
described in any great detail. Now, the main subject matter or the central
ma1}cj.ala of the text is finally introduced (a moment marked by the
change in the name of the interlocutor from Vajradharma to Karma-
heruka, as I have already mentioned above). The manner of this intro-
duction of the main subject matter. is also noteworthy: the detailed
description of the Vajrala.laya or Vajrakumara ma1}cj.ala precisely and
exactly matches the step by step stages of visualisation followed in the
siidhana traditions. Now, we must remember that VajrakIlaya is a Maha-
yoga cyCle, and in the rNm-ma-pa tradition, Mahayoga is understood to
put a special emphasis on the visualisation processes of the" development
stage, skyed rim or utpattikrama, which constitutes its main contempla-
tive technique. Hence in giving the actual visualisations that are the main
basis of the main practice through which yogins approach their main
spiritual objective of identification with the deity Vajrakumara, the text
is indeed at this point finally offering up its central tenet. The actual
narrative runs as follows: in order to tame Mahesvara and his retinues,
the teacher of this Tantra, the Lord, the Master of Supreme Secrets
[VajrakIlaya], does the following acts (I paraphrase and summarise the
text):
nated, while his pure essence is distilled and translated by the 'digestive fIre' of
the stomach to the other world - as the corpse is transmittted by the fIre of
cremation, and offerings to the gods by the sacrifIcial fIre" (summary, p. 612).
30. For analyses of sacrifIce as rites of passage, see Charles MALAMOUD's learned
discussion of Vedic ritual, Cuire le monde, Paris 1989: 248 ff; for a broader
theoretical view, see also Edmund LEACH, Culture and Communication: the
logic by which symbols are connected. Cambridge University Press 1976; espe-
cially pp. 77-93.
MAYER 293
Firstly, to build up the deity's palace, he emanates the syllables e,
ya1!l, ra1!l, ma, SU1!l, ke1!l and bhru1!l, along with the utterance of the
associated mantras, e iikiiSa hU1!l, karma ha1!l, ra1!l vajra jvala ra1!l,
mahiirakta jViila maf}r;lala, SU1!l samaya hU1!l, ke1!l nirrti maf}r;lala, and
bhru1!l bhiif}r;la (sic) jfiiinacakra jViila maf}r;lala. From these are built up
the maf}r;lalas of the five elements and the cosmic mountain. that form
the foundation of the deity's palace: the triangular pyramidal blue
maf}r;lala of the space element, identified with SamantabhadrI, the green
maf}r;lala of the air element shaped (in this case) like a crossed vajra and
identified with Samayatara, the triangular red maf}r;lala of the fire ele-
ment identified with the circular white or red maf}r;lala of
the water element identified with MamakI, and the square yellow
maf}r;lala of the earth element identified with Buddhalocana; upon these
bases arises the Mount Meru of skeletons, with the immeasurable blazing
skull palace of the deity on the very top.3! Those familiar with
VajrakIlaya siidhana texts will easily recognise that this sequence is
virtually identical to the ones commonly found in the siidhana traditions
of the Sa-skya-pa and rNiri-ma-pa alike; it can be found in numerous
texts of all types, for example the long Sa-skya-pa Phur-chen, the short
and popular Sa-skya-pa Nes-don thig-Ie (henceforth NT),32 or the
extensive rNiri-ma-pa gNam-lcags sPu-gri (henceforth NP),33 etc. etc.
Next in the taming narrative of the Phur-pa bcu-gfiis we get the ema-
nation of Vajrakumara's important main consort of union, Dlptacakra,34
through the utterance of the mantra 01!l vajra kllikllaya mahiikrodhi haY[!.
31. gTin-skyes dgon-pa-byan ms. reprint, vol. DZA, pages 83-85; sDe-dge xylo-
graph, vol. PA, folios 206v-207r; mTshams-brag ms. reprint, vol DZA, pages
872-875.
32. My edition of the Phur Chen is from Rajpur, in 79 folios. NT can be found at
sGrub-thabs kun-btus, vol. PA, pp.165-169.
33. dPal rDo-rje Phur-bu bDud- 'jams gNam-lcags sPu-gri, from The Collected
Works of H.H. bDud- 'jams Rin-po-che, vols. 10 and 11. n.d., n.p.(for the fullest
description of this sequence, see its bsiien yig folios 92ft).
34. Kon-sprul explains her name as follows: "Dlpta means blazing, and cakra means
wheel". He goes on to explain the wheel specifically as a wheel of destruction
that kills enemies (DG, folio 101, lines 1-2). The rendering of her name given by
Martin BOORD as 'Trptacakra', interpreted by BOORD to indicate a 'wheel of
bliss', is not attested in any of the commentaries I have so far seen.
Unfortunately, BOORD does not cite any sources for his unusual rendering of the
consort's name. See Martin J. BOORD 1993: The Cult of the Deity Vajrakfla.
Tring: Institute of Buddhist Studies.
JIABS 21.2 294
She too has not appeared in the text up to this point. She is .closely
followed by the first manifestation of the central deity Vajrakumara
himself, the very well known form practised in siidhana and surely the
most popular yi dam or among the entire rNiil-ma-pa tradi-
tion. In many respects, this is absolutely the central event of the whole
scripture. I quote from my draft translation:
Then the fearsome lord VajrakIlaya uttered 'hal'(! hal'(! hal'(! vajrakflaya sarva-
vighnan bal'(! hal'(! hal'(! hal'(! pha!!', upon which he emanated wrathful deities
from out of his body, speech and mind. These emanated deities [killed and]
'liberated' the arrogant gods [Mahesvara etc.] in all the ten directions; and then,
regathering, they merged together in front of the Lord, and transformed them-
selves into the Excellent Son, Vajrakumara. He had three faces, the right one
white, the left one red, and the middle one dark blue, which were very wrathful;
and he stood with his four legs held in the posture with [two] drawn in and [two]
extended. Filling the surrounding space with his vajra wings, his dark reddish
brown hair bristled straight upwards. His head was ornamented with the blood-
drinkers of the five [families], and a complete human skin was worn draped
around the upper part of his body. A fresh elephant skin was worn at his flanks,
and he was ornamented with garlands of dry and fresh heads. His four joints
were ornamented with snakes of the four varJ?as, and he wore a lower wrap of
tiger skin. Residing within a dark maroon mountain of cremation fire, he rested in
the embrace of his consort Ekaja!a. Thus [the many wrathful deities] were trans-
formed into the single [form of Vajrakumara], who, having trampled underfoot
the vicious arrogant gods [Mahesvara etc.] , stood there like a servant attending
his lord.
35
The description given here is exactly that of the version of the deity as
visualised in siidhana, in this case embracing the 'liberating' aspect of
his consort, Ekajata, rather than her 'uniting' aspect Dlptacakra. So here
we learn from the taming narrative that the great yi dam Vajrakumara,
the focus of more rNiil-ma-pa siidhana practice than any other single
35. From sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol PA, folio 207v: I de nas 'jigs byed kyi bdag
po badzra kf fa yas II hal'(! hal'(! hal'(! badzra kf la ya I sarba bigh niin bal'(! hal'(!
hal'(! hal'(! pha! lies brjod pas I sku gSUli thugs las phyun ba'i khro bo de dag gis
I phyogs bcu'i dregs pa can de dag bsgral nas I slar 'dus te I bcom ldan 'das kyi
spyan sna na sras mchog rdo rje gion nur gyur te I ial gsum pa I g-yas dkar po
I g-yon dmar ba Ildbus mthin nag II ial sin tu yan mams pa I iabs bii brkyan
bskum du biugs pa I rdo rje'i gsog pas gtams pa Iskra kham nag gyen du
brdzes pa I khrag 'thun lnas dbu la brgyan cin g-yan gii ya kor du mnabs pa I
glan chen gyi ko rlon go zur mnabs pa I thad pa skarn rlon gyi phren bas brgyan
pa I sbrul rigs biis mdo biirbrgyan pa I stag lpags ky! sam thabs can I dur
khrod kyi me ri smug nag gi nan na biugs sin I yum ral gcig rna dan 'khril pa'i
tshul du biugs pa gcig tu gyur te I bran jo bo la bka' nod pa 'i tshul du biugs sin
gdug pa can gyi dregs pa mams iabs 'og tu brdzis te gnas par gyur to I
MAYER 295
deity, was manifested especially and specifically to effect the killing of
the hostile Saiva deity, MaheSvara/Rudra! The point I will try to draw
out later on is that when in their daily sadhanas yogins practising Vajra-
kumara build up the visualisation of the elements, the palace, and the
deity in stages in exactly the same way as described here, they are quite
consciously emulating the great archetypal act of taming which the
Buddha, in his tantric aspect as the Great Lord, the Master of Supreme
Secrets, first did in a bygone age: these later yogins too .are doing it for
the express purpose of killing Rudrahood, even if not the original
legendary Rudra himself, for he has already been slain. First, let us
return to the sequence of the taming narrative. The next passage reads as
follows:
Then, in order to endow [Vajrakumara] with the great [vajra] pride of the wrath-
ful [dharmata], and to bestow empowerment [abhi,l"eka] [upon him], the Great
Blood Drinker [VajrakIlaya] uttered the following [mantra]: 'HilYJ'l vajrakflaya
hilYJ'l jiianavajra'; upon which he placed a nine-pointed vajra of wisdom Unana]
into [Vajrakumara's] first right hand, a five-pointed vajra of the five wisdoms
into [Vajrakumara's] middle right hand, and a Mt. Meru [kfla], for piercing the
defilements [kleia], into the lower right hand. Then, placing the skull-cup of great
compassion's lust in the first left hand, empowerment was bestowed. Since
[Vajrakumara] had subjugated [all] the vicious [gods i.e. Mahesvara etc.] in [all]
the ten directions, he [also] appropriated their emblem, the khatvanga, to be
brandished as a sign of heroism in the middle left hand.
36
Thus this passage describes how the hand-emblems of the deity are
generated, once again in a sequence very like that of the sadhanas, and
once again at least partly in terms of the conquest of MaheSvara/Rudra.
The narrative continues:
"Then, in order to [kill and] 'liberate' the [non-Buddhist] protector [deities] of the
directions [of space], the King of the Blood Drinkers VajrakIlaya once more
entered into the equanimity of a sam1idhi of vajra wrath; and from out of the
body, speech and mind of VajrakIlaya himself, [the following mantras] issued
forth:
36. From sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol PA, folio 207v: I de nas khrag 'thun chen
pas khros pa 'i na rgyal chen par byin te dban bskur ba'i phyir I hilYJ'l badzra kfla
ya hilYJ'l dzfta na badzra ies brjod de lye ses kyi rdo rje rtse dgu pa ni g-yas kyi
dan par byin lye ses tna'i rdo rje rtse lna pa ni phyag g-yas kyi bar mar byin I
non mons pa gzir ba'i ri rab ni g-yas kyi tha mar byin I thugs rje chags pa'i
bMn da ni g-yon gyi dan par byin te ban bskur ro II phyogs bcu'i gdug pa can
btul nas de'i lag cha kha twaYJ'l ga phrog nas g-yon gyi bar ma na dpa' rtags su
bsnams so I
JIABS 21.2 296
Ol!! buddhakilikflaya sarvavighnan bal!! hal!! pha!
Ol!! vajrakilikflaya sarvavighnan bai'[! hal!! pha!
Ol!! ratnakilikflaya sarvavighnan bal!! hal!! pha!
Ol!! padmakilikflaya sarvavighnan bal!! hal!! pha!
Ol!! karmakilikflaya sarvavighnan bal!! hal!! pha!
Upon this utterance, ten activity kflayas became emanated - those of the activity
kflaya of the blood drinker's wrath, the activity kflaya of vajra wrath, the activity
kflaya of ratna wrath, the activity kflaya of padma wrath, the activity kflaya of
karma wrath, and the [five] activity kflayas [further] emanated from those of the
five farnilies.37 [All of] these also had three faces and six arms for their upper
body, but their lower body appeared as the three sided blade of an iron kfla. The
reddish brown hair upon their heads bristled up on end in a triangular [shaped]
lock, and their heads were perfected with the five [buddha] families. With seed
syllables at their hearts, they obediently took up their positions before the
Supreme Son Vajrakumara, upon thrones of [the syllable] e."38
The VajrakIlaya sadhanas often talk of three aspects to the malJrjala to
be visualised: the dharmakaya malJrjala, the sambhogakaya malJrjala,
and the nirmalJakaya malJrjala. These are typically built up in visualisa-
tion in sequence, one after the other. With the figures aJready described
above, up to and including the figures of BuddhakIlaya, VajrakIlaya,
RatnakIlaya, PadmakIlaya and KarmakIlaya, the dharmakaya malJrjala is
complete.
39
37. The text here is rather obscure, in that it is unclear what the further five are. I have
been unable to resolve this problem by consulting NP, NT, DG etc.; most likely,
they are the consorts of the kflas of the five families.
38. From sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol PA, folio 207v:-208r I de nas yan khrag
'thun gi rgyal po badzra kf la yas phyogs skyon ba bsgral ba'i ehed du I rdo rje
khro bo'i tif! ne 'dzin la sfioms par iugs nas I rdo rje phur pa fiid kyi sku dan
gsun dan thugs las thon to II Ol!! buddha kfli kf la ya sarba bighnan bal!! hal!!
pha! 1/ Ol!! badzra kf li kf la ya sarba bighnan bal!! hal!! pha! / Ol!! ratna kf Ii kf la
ya sarba bighnan bal!! hal!! pha! / ol!! padma kf li kf la ya sarba bighnan bal!!
hal!! pha! I ol!! karma kf Ii kf la ya sarba bighnan bal!! hal!! pha! lies brjod pas
/1 khrag 'thun khro bo las kyi phur pa dan I rdo rje khro bo las kyi phur pa dan I
rin chen khro bo las kyi phur pa dan / padma khro bo las kyi phur pa dan I las
kyi khro bo las kyi phur pa dan I rigs lna las gyur pa 'i las kyi phur pa bcu 'thon
par gyur to II de yan sku stod ial gsum phyag drug pa I sku smad lcags kyi phur
bu zur gsum du snan ba I dbu skra kham pa ral pa zur gsum pa gyen du snan
ba I dbu la rigs ilia rdzogs pa I thugs kha na sa bon dan ldan pa I e'i gdan la
sras mchog rdo rje gion nu'i spyan sna na bka' nod pa'i tshul du biugs so I
39. To give a highly typical example of this last aspect of the dharmakaya mmyjala:
In NP, the kflayas of the five families immediately surround Vajraldlaya, Dlpta-
cakra and Ekajata in the Root Mal).9ala. They are seen as direct expressions of
Vakraldlaya in terms of the five jfianas. According to NP las byan: they all
resemble the root deity in having three heads, two wings, six arms, and in having
MAYER 297
As one might expect, the taming narrative continues to proceed in
following in the steps of the siidhana tradition, by presenting the sam-
bhogakiiya malJrjala next; this mainly comprises the group of Heruka
deities known as the Ten Wrathful Ones (khro-bo-bcu, dasakrodha),
along with their consorts and attendant deities. Then come the various
figures of the nirmiilJakiiya malJrjala, who have a more protective func-
tion. There is neither space here nor, I feel, any need to give further de-
scriptions of the highly complex sambhogakiiya and nirmiilJakiiya
malJrjalas, but I should reiterate that this absolutely fundamental three-
fold construction of the main central skyed rim or visualisation practice
is not described anywhere else within the twenty-four chapters of the
Phur-pa bcu-giiis other than here, in the context of the taming narrative,
just as the twenty-three lines from the famous root verses do not occur
elsewhere.
their two lower arms rolling a kfla, but the lower part of their bodies are formed
into phur bus, rather like the Supreme Sons. To the right is blue Buddha-kIlaya,
supreme body, right face white, left face red, upper right hands hold meteoric iron
vajra and wheel, left ones hold kha.tviiliga and fire; lower hands roll a meteoric
iron phur bu; the lower body is a conch phur bu. To the east is white Vajra-
kIlaya, supreme mind, right face blue, left face red, upper right hands hold nine
and five spoked vajras, left ones hold iron hook and skull-cup of blood; lower
hands roll a silver phur pa; the lower body is a silver phur bu. To the south is
yellow Ratna-1a.1aya, supreme qualities, right face white, the left red, upper right
hands hold blazing jewel and war axe, left ones hold noose and skull-cup of
blood; lower hands roll golden phur pa; the lower body is a golden phur bu. To
the west is red Padma-kIlaya, supreme speech, right face white, left blue, upper
right hands hold lotus and blazing sword, left ones hold skull-cup of blood and
iron chains; lower hands roll a jewelled copper phur pa; lower body is a copper
phur bu. To the north is green Karma-kIlaya, supreme activities, right face white,
the left red, upper right hands hold crossed vajra and blazing skull staff, left ones
hold mass of flames and bell; lower hands roll a jewelled turquoise phur pa;
lower body is an iron phur bu (NP las bymi: 97-98).
JIABS 21.2 298
sGroi ba
I want to turn now from the standard or typical Mahayoga visualisation
practices of Vajrakumara, to a particular yogic practice known as sgroI
ba, or m o k ~ a , which is the most famous speciality or hallmark of the
VajrakIlaya tradition.
4o
Sgrolba is basically a practice of ritual killing.
It takes many forms and is practised on many different occasions, but is
most popularly done as a central component of the galJacakra or tshogs
offerings connected with the extended forms of the standard siidhana
practice. In this rite, an effigy is typically made, described as a liriga, to
be ritually stabbed by the yogin with a kfla or phur pa. The idea is that
spiritual negativities are visualised as concentrated within the liriga, and
these are then forcibly transformed into wisdom through 'slaying' the
liriga with the MIa. In the VajrakIlaya tradition, the liriga is commonly
identified as 'Rudra', and the act of stabbing the liriga with the kfla can
be seen as an emulation of the original act of Vajrakumara in slaying
Mahesvara/Rudra. So here once again, a central aspect of the Vajra-
kIlaya tradition is linked with the taming narrative,. and unsurprisingly
MaheSvara-Rudra can frequently become the central focus of the entire
rite. There are numerous examples of this in the siidhanas. I quote here
from Cathy CANTWELL's translation of NP:
A liliga or effigy of Rudra is made and placed before the practitioner; the visuali-
sation instructions are thus:
41
"From the heart of oneself visualised as Vajrakumara, multitudes of wrathful
emanations are sent forth ... all negative forces, lacking any independent power,
become summoned and dissolve into the linga [of Rudra ]. .. "
While visualising as above, one recites:
... Multitudes of Rudras of breakers of samaya, hostile forces and obstacles, are
summoned.
The time for their 'killing and liberation' [sgroi] has come!'
Then, rolling the kfla, one strikes at the heart of the liriga, which by
now embodies all the Rudras, and recites:
40. The most comprehensive treatment of this subject so far is by Catherine M.
CANTWELL, forthcoming: "To Meditate on Consciousness as the Vajra Nature.
Ritual 'Killing and Liberation' in the rNying-ma-pa tradition", in H. Krasser et al.
eds., Tibetan Studies vol I, Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1997, pp.107118.
41. Page 130, line 6, to page 131, line 3.
MAYER 299
These Rudras of the path of confused appearances
Are 'killed and liberated' in the expanse of the unborn essence.
They are purified in the great spontaneous three kayas ....
They are united in the circle of Great Bliss ....
The instructions continue: after being stabbed at the heart with the kfla,
the Rudra linga is to be stabbed in all its other cakras too. Then further
weapons are employed. The linga is bombarded with magical black
mustard seeds and other power substances; it is sliced with a small ritual
sword; then each of the resulting slices is hammered with a small ritual
hammer; and finally mashed with a pestle. Each of these actions is
accompanied by the appropriate liturgy and visualisation. At the end, the
mashed remains of Rudra are offered up to Vajrakumara and his retinue
to be eaten.
As well as this standard practice of sgroi ba as a means of transform-
ing one's own negativity, there is another, much rarer form that envis-
ages the actual killing by magic of a living human being. Needless to
say, given the Buddhist context of these rites, the tradition holds that
such literal' killing should only be done in the most extreme circum-
stances, when the heinous demerits being earned by a potential victim
are so vast that it becomes an act of mercy to kill them, to save them
from a certain rebirth in hell. In addition, tradition holds that the per-
former of such rites must be highly accomplished, possessed of suffi-
cient compassion and siddhi to unfailingly transfer the victim's con-
sciousness to a higher realm - otherwise the performer will themselves
incur the evil karma of murder. In the rNiIi-ma-pa tradition, potential
victims of this rite are typically described as Buddhist yogins who have
misunderstood the real meaning of Tantric practice. Instead of taming
Rudra, they have become Rudra. Instead of a Buddhicised Mahayana-
congruent kiipiilika practice, they have regressed into following an
uregenerated version as originally taught by Rudra. The Phur-pa bcu-
giiis Ch. 12 describes them as follows:
"Now for the characteristics of those who have fallen away from the purpose [of
Vajrayana practice].
In performing their duties, they do various things wrong:
They handle the sacred substances and ritual utensils in public;
They practice the rites of tana and ghana [i.e. sexual union and killing], in a
[purely literal] physical [way];
They tum their backs on the view and on contemplation;
They are always ready to indulge in coarse behaviour;
They express anger, rage and pride for no reason;
They understand truthful oral instructions wrongly;
JIABS 21.2 300
When offering guidance to others, their [teaching of] Dharma is false;
They are erudite in [any] lore that misleads;
Casting aside precepts and scriptural authority, yet they embark on grandiose
undertakings;
They practice assorted perversions;
Since such persons are genuine. Rudras,
Even in [killing and] liberating them with the abhiciira [rites],
one remains unstained by sin."42
MahefvaralRudra in Mahiiyoga Doctrine
I want to finish this section of my paper by briefly summarising how the
figure of Mahesvara/Rudra fits into the Mahayoga doctrinal system as a
whole. In very general terms, the basic view of the rNin-ma-pa Maha-
yoga system is a non-dual one, not dissimilar to that of the YoginI-
tantras. It holds that all phenomena, whether conventionally designated
good or bad, pure or impure, should all ultimately be realised as being
from the point of view of absolute truth the inseparability of appearance
and emptiness (snali stoli dbyer med). To approach this from the point of
view of relative truth, one meditates on all phenomena alike, whether
pure or impure, whether good or bad, as the primally pure mal}fjala of
the Tantric deities. The conventional dualistic designations we impose
on phenomena as good or bad, pure or impure, are thus seen as having
no ultimate validity and are considered illusory, predicated upon false
notions of inherent existence (rali biin) and ontological duality (giiis
'dzin). A ritual corollary of this Mahayoga doctrine is that those factors
of existence or mind designated as impurities or sins to be abandoned in
the conventional Mahayana systems, are here to be retained as potential
sources of wisdom, as the raw materials of spiritual practice; thus rather
than merely abandon such negativities as the five moral defilements or
klea of conventional Buddhism, in Mahayoga one seeks to overcome
them through the alternative method of retaining them and exposing
their true nature as aspects of the great purity of the mal}fjala of deities,
and, from the ultimate point of view, as appearance and emptiness
42. From sDe-dge xylograph NGB, vol PA, folio 219r: I don las fiams pa'i mtshan
fiid ni II bya ru mi ruli sna tshogs byed /1 rdzas dali lag cha mlion du 'dzin II tan
gan sbyor sgroi dlios par spyod II Ita ba tili 'dzin rgyab tu bar II spyod pa brian
po dali du len II khro gtum na rgyal rali gar gtoli II don gyi man nag log par go
II pha rol 'dren la log pa'i chos II phyin ci log gi don la mkhas /1 bka' giuli bar
nas rtsom pa che /1 log par spyod pa mtha' dag spyad II 'di ni ru dra dnos yin te
II mlion spyod bsgral yali sdig mi gas I
MAYER 301
inseparable. To take a specific example: in the case of the defilement of
aggression which is the main focus of the Vajraldlaya tradition, this
would imply not abandoning it, but meditating on it; meditating on
aggression should show it to have as its ultimate true nature, or to be
from the point'of view of emptiness, the mirror-like wisdom (jiiiina) of
the Buddha The method of meditating on aggres!'ion would
be to visualise it as an aspect of the primal purity of the mat:u!-ala of the
Tantric deity. Thus the basic method used to achieve the transformation
of negativity in Mahayoga is to visualise all negative factors as aspects
of the wrathful Heruka deity ma7J.rj.ala, and as components of the special
tantric offerings made to the Heruka. A central principle behind this
practice is discussed by 'Jam-mgon Kon-sprul in his commentary on the
Vajraldlaya root verses I have mentioned above. He explains that the
wrath of Herukas such as Vajrakumara is directed against the city of ego
projections built upon the duality of subject and object and discriminat-
ing discursive thoughts; such a wrath is quite unlike the hatred of per-
sonal egotism aimed at a specific enemy; it is more like the radiant sun
fiercely dispelling the gloom of discursive conceptualisation all round
(DG p.81). Similarly, the Heruka's wrathful compassion cuts through
hatred, because it can not co-exist in the mental continuum with hatred
any more than heat can co-exist with cold in a single substrate, since
compassion and hatred are mutually exclusive (DG p.82).43 The impli-
cation seems to be that simply by putting whatever negativities there
might be in direct proximity with the spiritual presence of Vajrakumara,
all such negativities will spontaneously become destroyed and their
energy will become transformed into wisdom. Thus one visualises the
Heruka's cemetery palace as replete with negativity, graphically repre-
sented by gruesome symbols drawn from kiipiilika iconography, because
from the relative point of view, the compassionate Heruka is understood
43. DG p.81: gan la khros na I mtshan ma'i mam par rtog pa gzun 'dzin bdag rtog
gi gron khyer la khros I tshul ji ltar khros na I ie sda1i ran rgyud pas mig sis
nan dgra la khros pa Ita bu ma yin par fii ma 'char ba'i gzi brjid kyis mun pa'i
smag rum mdun na mi gnas pa ltar I DG p.82: don ni I ie sdan gcod ces pa kun
snan sfiin rjes ie sda1i gcod pa ste / dper na tsha reg gan na yod pa na gran reg
med / gran reg gan na yod pa na tsha reg med pa de biin du I gan zag gcig gi
rgyud la ie sdan skyes tshe sfiin rje med I sfiin rje skyes tshe ie sdan med pa
lhan cig mi gnas 'gal ba yin cin I Cathy Cantwell informs me that this passage is
probably not Kon-sprul's original composition: almost identical passages occur
in the NP bsfien yig, for example, suggesting an older common source (NP bsfien
yig pp.87-88).
JIABS 21.2 302
to delight in his bodhisattva's acts of effortlessly and spontap.eously
transmuting negativities into wisdom, and thus he constantly immerses
himself in negativity. At the same time, from the point of view of abso-
lute truth, the Heruka maly;lala can be understood as the real nature of
such negativities, once their empty or ultimate nature is understood as
the inseparability of appearence and emptiness.
An additional significant point in Mahayoga doctrine is that its com-
mentators also sometimes take a position found also in the Y oginItantras,
which argues that since beings of the present dark age are so heavily
defiled, they quite naturally have far more negativity than virtue. It
follows that pragmatically speaking, the potential good results of a spiri-
tual approach which aims at the transformation of negativities, in
general tends to outweigh the potential good results of a path that aims
at the cultivation of positive values, by sheer force of weight. From such
a logic, it follows that environments and persons with a great deal of
negativity are the ideal and intended sphere of operations for deities such
as Vajrakumara; for if the heruka practice is being practiced success-
fully, the more negativities there are, the more wisdom energy will be
produced.
Now, as we have seen above, the commentarial tradition explains that
from the point of view of conventional analysis, Rudra is the Vajrayana
equivalent of Mara, the main Buddhist symbol of evil. From the abso-
lute point of view, it also describes him as primordially pure, as an
aspect of the Buddha Samantabhadra since beginningless time, merely
appearing as evil and impure for the express purpose of allowing
enlightenment to become manifest through the process of overcoming
his apparent negativity. It would therefore make sense if in Mahayoga
ritual, the negativities visualised in siidhana with the intention that their
pure inner wisdom aspect should be revealed, are identified with Mahe-
svara/Rudra; and this is in fact exactly what happens. Rudra stands for
the primordial ground to be purified, or, to use the analogy of alchemy,
the base metal of defilement to be transmuted into the gold of Buddhist
enlightenment. Just as one can not alchemically make gold without first
having some base metal to transmute, so one can not manifest enlighten-
ment without a Rudra of egohood to liberate. In particular, in the Maha-
yoga cycles, the specifically kiipiilika categories associated with Rudra in
the taming narratives are expressly identified with the negativities to be
transformed.
MAYER 303
In siidhana texts, one therefore comes across frequent references to
Mahe:varaI Rudra, in nearly all cases broadly identifying him with the
negative basis of purification. In the NP las byan, currently a very popu-
lar siidhana to Vajrakumara, the cemetery palace is visualised as built up
of the dismembered fragments of Rudra's corpse, with the roof canopy,
for example, being described as made of Rudra's flayed skin (NP las
byan, Page 93, line 5). On the one hand, the palace as made of Rudra's
dismembered corpse signifies the expanse of the negativities which need
to be transmuted, within which the Heruka figure has his ideal field of
activities; yet at the same time, the Rudra cemetery palace is also seen as
an expression of pure primordial wisdom, a demonstration that confu-
sions have primordially been of the nature of wisdom, in accordance
with the primordially pure ultimate nature of Rudra as described in
Klon-chen-pa's commentary on the *Guhyagarbha-tattvaviniscaya, Ch.
l 5 ~ Similarly, referring to the practices of a rDo rje gro lod and a Bla
sgrub ritual manual of the bDud 'joms tradition, CANTWELL notes that
the wrathful series of the so-called outer offerings (or in some cases the
inner offerings), which include items such as the flowers of the senses,
the incense of melting human fat, butter lamps of burning stomach fat,
perfume of blood or urine, food of human flesh or excrement, and
music of skull-drums and thigh-bone trumpet, are often explained as the
parts of the body of Rudra.
44
By offering these to the Buddhist Heruka,
the idea is that the negativities they represent should become sponta-
neously revealed as wisdom, a wisdom which is already inherent within
them when they are understood from the ultimate level of emptiness.
So the specific function of the wrathful Buddhist Herukas in Maha-
yoga is an aggressive one: rather than attempting to directly increase
good qualities which are already inherent anyway, Herukas exist in order
to counteract the negativities that mask the primordial perfection. Their
function is primarily to destroy what needs to be destroyed, above all to
demolish dualistic thinking and intellectual clinging to the idea of inher-
ent existence, even more than to encourage or increase any good quali-
ties. Their wrathful, exorcistic names, epithets and representations
underline their primarily destructive orientation: VajrakIlaya is described
as cutting through hatred much more frequently than he is described as
44. Catherine M. CANTWELL 1989: An Ethnographic Account of the Religious
Practice in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Northern India. Unpublished PhD
thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury. See pages 135, 180.
JIABS 21.2 304
building up love, while HayagrIva is described as subduing arrogance far
more frequently than he is described as cultivating humility. Now, as we
have already seen above, (embarrassing though this might be for the
ecumenically-minded contemporary Buddhist seeking a rapprochement
with, say, Kashmiri Saivism), the Mahayoga commentarial tradition has
chosen as its main symbol of negativity the kapiilika figure of Mahe-
svara/Rudra, which in this context largely displaces the more traditional
Buddhist symbol of evil, Mara. It is not surprising then that one is often
reminded within the literature that a major purpose of the Buddhist
Heruka is to attack and destroy Mahesvara/Rudra! If Mahesvara/Rudra
is the embodiment of all that needs to be destroyed, then, by an un-
avoidable logic, it follows that the whole spiritual purpose of Mahayoga
can be and often is symbolically expressed as the destruction of
Mahesvara/Rudra. Thus, as the NP liturgy puts it, the whole point of
Vajrakumara is that his "wrathful roar of hii1'[l! [shall] destroy the brains
of Rudra" (NP las byan, p. 119, line 6); the whole point of his en-
tourage is that they should "annihilate the Rudras of the teaching" (NP
las byan p. 121, line 2); as the prayer of fulfilment (bskan ba) describes
them, the Vajraldlaya deities are blessed and praised precisely because
they "[have] the mighty power to subdue the Rudras of perverse views"
(NP las byan, p.160, line 1). Thus through achieving union with such
Heruka deities as Vajrakilaya, the Mahayoga sadhaka might aspire to
emulate the greatgter stan and saint 'J a' -tshon sfiiiJ.-po, who famously
earned that highest (if not ecumenically resonant!) spiritual accolade of
the rNiiJ.-ma-pas, bdag 'dzin ru dra 'jams pa, 'The Vanquisher of
Rudra-egohood. '
In Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see that Tibetan Buddhism seems to allow the
figure of Mahesvara/Rudra to play only a comparatively small role in
the Cakrasarp.vara traditions, although a considerably larger one in the
rNiiJ.-ma-pa Mahayoga systems, where he functions as one of the most
important symbolic categories of that tradition. In both cases, however,
the Saiva deity and the traditions connected with him are predominantly
constructed in abstract metaphysical terms. The actual concrete historical
significance of the Saiva tantric traditions for Vajrayana Buddhism is
only rarely or almost never the focus of Buddhist scholastic attention.
The surface historical reading of the taming narrative, that so obviously
to Westerners seems to admit that the kapiilika elements of the Buddhist
MAYER 305
Vajrayana are derivative of Saivism, is not widely followed by Tibetans.
Instead, in the hands of the tradition, this underlying historical narrative
is comprehensively and systematically reconstructed into a purely
metaphysical set of symbols onto which psychological factors can be
conelated in accordance with Buddhist doctrine.
Unfortunately, the question as to why the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition
seems uninterested in its historical debts to Saivism is one I have not yet
had much opportunity to think about. Nevertheless, it might be useful at
this juncture to float a few largely speculative ideas on the subject, and I
have already mentioned some of these earlier. On the one hand, it does
seem to me at the moment that there is surely some degree of simple
denial involved, some effort to gloss over what could be construed as an
embarrassing historical fact for Buddhism: it can surely not be consid-
ered a very comfortable situation for Buddhists to constantly to have to
reflect on the substantially derivative nature of some of their most sacred
traditions. On the other hand, it is no straightforward task to ascertain to
what degree such denial is the case, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the
strictly historical understandings of events of any kind, whether shame-
ful or glorious, have never been of much interest or relevance to
Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, especially in India. The Buddhist
scholastic tradition has consistently mythologised every aspect of its
history, the shameful and the glorious to an equal degree. We can see
this from the highly mythologised traditional accounts of the Buddha's
life, the hagiographies of Buddhist saints and kings, predictions about
the decline of the sasana, and the stories about the origins of Buddhist
scriptures and Buddhist sacred sites such as stupas. The Indian Buddhist
scholastic tradition, like its many Hindu counterparts, seems to have
quite consistently sought to distil what it saw as religiously valuable
mythic narratives out of any historical events within its experience, and
not merely the embanassing events. It is not impossible that the mythol-
ogised approaches of the figure of Mahesvara/Rudra evidenced in
Tibetan literature might derive from a typical Indian Buddhist mytho-
logical response to history, just as much as from a specific cover-up
attempt.
I am also not clear to what degree the different elements of the
Buddhist tradition in India would have found the facts of its debts to
Saivism embarrasssing. Surely the blatant bonowings of substantial un-
edited passages from the scriptures of the Saiva canon into the Buddhist
Y oginItantras must have been a considerable embarrassment to many
JIABS 21.2 306
among the more respectable cleri.cal elements of Indian Buddhism at the
time; yet this raw co-option of Saiva material was presumably at the
same time seen as a great coup by the 'shamanic' (in SAMYEL's techni-
cal usage) or yogic Buddhist individuals who initiated it. Perhaps these
yogins understood their coup in terms of a continuation of the process of
the taming of MaheSvara described in already well established Yoga-
tantra scriptures such as the STTS; this is a point that also needs to be
carefully considered. Above all, however, as LAMOTTE remarked many
years ago, we must remember the pervasive theme in pre-Tantric
Buddhist literature of the conversion of Mara and his daughters to the
Dharma. The Tantric narratives of the taming of MaheSvara/Rudra
make clear allusion to these much older stories - for example, conver-
sion of Mara's daughters by multiple simultaneous sexual intercourse
(cf. Mahayoga) already existed in Mahayana scriptures such as the
Suraf(Lgamasamiidhisutra, a text which devotes considerable attention to
the taming of Mara and his daughters. With the identification of Mara as
MaheSvara-Rudra, an ancient Buddhist literary template (cf. Suraf(L-
gamasamiidhisutra, Mahiisaf(Lnipiita, Vimalakfrtinirde.fasutra, etc.)
found a new concretely historical focus. Now there was a real, tangible
Mara out there to be converted, not just a symbolic or mythical one.
So even from a clerical point of view, the general principle of
Buddhism's co-option of Saiva kiipiilika tantrism might not have been
altogether unacceptable. A basic tendency of Buddhism from its very
inception is that it seems to have normally preferred to recode and to
respond to or react to existing non-Buddhist categories, rather than to
create new ones of its own ex nihilo. Most of my readers are probably
aware of the work of Richard GOMBRICH and K.R. NORMAN, who
have shown most of the key doctrines of early Buddhism to be construc-
ted from recycled Brahmanical categories. This includes even such
quintessential Buddhist ideas and technical terms such as karma, nirviilJ-a,
and the Middle Way, all originally articulated through the medium of
redefining existing non-Buddhist ideas. One can see another aspect of
this tendency neatly represented in texts like the Brahmajiila Sutta, the
first text of the Dfgha Nikiiya of the Pali Canon, which presents the
Buddhist point of view through the medium of a critique of sixty-two
specifically non-Buddhist theories. K.R. NORMAN writes as follows:
There have been those who thought that Buddhism was simply an offshoot of
Hinduism, while there are others who maintain that there is no trace of Hinduism
in Buddhism. The truth, as always, lies somewhere between these two extremes.
MAYER 307
What is certainly true is that Buddhism owes much, especially in tenninology, to
Brahmanical Hinduism and much of the Buddha's preaching would have been
unintelligible to those who had no knowledge of Brahmanical teaching. Although
some of the technical terms of Buddhism are exclusive to that religion, mu'ch
Buddhist tenninology is, in form, identical with that of brahmanism. At the same
time it must be recognized that, although the Buddha took over some of the
terminology of Brahmanical Hinduism, he gave it a new Buddhist sense.
45
Although NORMAN was here discussing early Buddhism, it seems to me
his words are substantially true of later Buddhism as well. On several
significant occasions through its long history, Indian Buddhism seems to
have recreated itself anew primarily through the medium of reinterpret-
ing or reacting to the existing categories of its opponents, in preference
to inventing new categories of its own. This process of subverting its
rivals seems to have eventually become interpreted as a central Buddhist
virtue and elevated to the level ofa conscious dialectic. Perhaps the most
famous example is the way in which the Mahayana Buddhism of the
early Perfection of Wisdom literature primarily defined itself through its
critique of the Abhidharma, upon the categories of which it is by that
very token substantially dependent for its articulation. Similarly, as Paul
WILLIAMS suggested to me some years ago, it might be that Buddhist
logic invented itself in an effort to defeat the Nyaya logicians in their
own terms. Buddhist logic is therefore philosophically diametrically
opposed to Nyaya - idealist or phenomenalist as opposed to Nyaya's
naive realism - while nevertheless expressing itself almost entirely
through the medium of originally Nyaya types of discourse. The most
basic Mahayana philosophical notions often seem to encapsulate this sort
of propensity - the apohaviida claims that nothing can be defined except
in terms of what it is not, the Madhyamaka dialectic puts forward no
argument of its own but merely negates those of its opponents.
In addition, the three major philosophical strands represented in Vajra-
yana Buddhism, the emptiness doctrines of the Madhyamaka, the mind-
only doctrines of the Y ogacara, and the Buddha-nature doctrines of the
Tathagatagarbha sutras, all share an important basic axiom. They all
hold that emptiness or the ultimate nature is already inherent within all
the profane phenomena of sa1J1-siira, and can never be found or con-
structed outside of them. Thus the major purpose of Buddhism was seen
to be to expose the ultimately true nature already inherent in existing
45. K.R. NORMAN: "Theravada Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism: Brahmanical
Terms in a Buddhist Guise", Buddhist Forum n, p.193.
JIABS 21.2 308
defiled phenomena, not to try to create new structures of truth oqtside of
them. Truth or Dharma was seen as self-existent and all pervading; the
only purpose of Buddhism was to point it out to beings. To this kind of
thinking, if an originally non-Buddhist deva were compelled by the skil-
ful methods of Heruka to heed .the teachings of the Buddha and begin to
realise his inherent Buddha-nature, he could become just as much a
legitimate object of Buddhist devotion as any being of purely Buddhist
lineage who had achieved realisation within a conventional sangha
career. It seems to me that with such an ideological framework, many
elements within Indian Buddhism might have been reasonably un-
ashamed and unperturbed by the fact that their religion had taken sub-
stantial borrowings from non-Buddhist sources.
The situation developing within contemporary Tibetan Buddhism is
harder to assess. The barrier of the Himalayas has meant that for around
1,000 years Tibetan Buddhism had no significant social contact with
Saivism, and as a result, Saivism remained of a mainly abstract and
symbolic value within Tibetan thinking. It is only in very recent years
that Tibetan Buddhist refugees have had to seriously confront their
boundaries with Saivism in any concrete sense, and they have had to
begin to do so with little or no traditional template or precedent to work
from. Over recent decades, the Tibetan refugee experience of modem
Hinduism has generally been very harmonious, but it has also been poli-
tically fraught on some occasions. Several Tibetans have claimed that in
Nepal, Hindu bureaucrats have sometimes compelled Tibetan refugee
lamas to sign documents avowing their religion to be a minor subsection
of Hinduism.
46
In India, Hindu fundamentalism can be seen as a threat-
ening force by some Tibetans. In Bhutan, the Buddhist populations feel
their traditional way of life to be gravely threatened by what they see as
an engulfmg tide of Hindu Nepalese settlers and colonists. As one might
expect, in such circumstances a wide variety of responses to the question
of historical relationships with Saivism seem to be forthcoming. I have
discussed the problems of Saiva/Buddhist scriptural intertextuality with
a number of Tibetan refugee lamas living in India and Nepal, including
some major figures in the contemporary Tibetan Cakrasarp.vara tradi-
tions, as wellas specialists in Mahayoga. My impression is that there are
46. David GELLNER likewise reports that the official Nepalese Government view has
been that Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism are all branches of Hinduism. See his
Monk, Householder and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and its Hierarchy of
Ritual, Cambridge University Press 1992, page 92.
MAYER 309
no fixed ideological positions dictated by sectarian or doctrinal affilia-
tion; rather, responses seem to vary according to the individual. My
initial impression is that the lamas most closely connected to the yogic
side of Tibetan Buddhism, what Geoffrey SAMUEL calls its 'shamanic
current', seem to be quite happy to admit a concrete historical relation-
ship with Saivism, while the more clerical lamas seem more reluctant to
admit to any Buddhist dependence on Saivism. Thus K:henpo A, a
widely respected scholar of the Karma Bka' -brgyud-paand rNin-ma-pa
traditions especially favoured by some among the more yogic side of the
tradition, told me he had made a special study of the relation of the
Vajrayana to Saivism whilst studying in Benares. He was an enthusiastic
supporter of the idea that Vajrayana was derivative of Saivism, in the
specific sense that Saivism had been tamed ('dul ba) by Buddhism. He
told me that the next thing would be that Buddhism was going to tame
technology and science, which were going to become a principal
medium through which the Dharma would express itself in future cen-
turies. B Rinpoche, a major incarnate lama with considerable back-
ground in traditional mountain retreats dedicated to both the bKa'-
brgyud-pa and rNin-ma-pa systems, firmly took the view that Saivism
and the Vajrayana were often virtually identical in all ritual respects, but
that Buddhism uniquely applied these rituals to the understanding of
emptiness. He described to me Saiva tantric rituals he knew of, which he
said were almost identical with those of Buddhism. However, he advised
me to dissemble when discussing this fact with Buddhists of a more
clerical or traditionalist mind set, because he said such talk would only
upset them and achieve no benefit. C Rinpoche is the lama in charge of
one of the leading yogic training centres within contemporary Tibetan
Buddhism. His centre is particularly associated with the Cakrasarp.vara
cycle and its associated yogas, which are practised there in the form of
long solitary retreats of many years duration. C Rinpoche clearly felt
very positively about certain aspects of Hinduism, and spoke warmly of
the virtues that can be found within the Hindu traditions. Our conversa-
tion on the subject of Saiva-Buddhist intertextuality came to a slightly
uncomfortable close when I made remarks that could be interpreted to
carry a slightly anti-Hindu nuance. D Rinpoche, who was mainly con-
cerned with the social aspects of Buddhism and had no experience of
retreat, had entirely different attitudes. At one stage I even became anx-
ious that he might come to blows with the Hindu we met at the
Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project offices in Kathmandu,
JIABS 21.2 310
when our conversation turned to Saiva/Buddhist parallels, and the
PaJ)'9-its all asserted that the Buddhists had copied their rituals from the
Hindus. We had to leave quite briskly. D's close friend, a senior monk
and a recent escapee from Tibet, had only weeks before been arrested,
beaten and, he alleged, forced to sign a humiliating document by the
Nepalese police, asserting thatBuddhism was a minor offshoot ,of Hin-
duism. It will be interesting to see how Tibetan Buddhism comes to
terms over the coming years with the growing evidence of its historic
debts to Saivism.
JOHN NEWMAN
Islam in the Kalacakra Tantra*
They totally differ from us in religion, as we believe in nothing in which they
believe, and vice versa.
al-BIriinI, aI-HindI
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Islam's impact on Indian Buddhism is well known to historians of reli-
gion: after the Muslim conquest of the Buddhist homeland in north-
eastern India at the beginning of the 13th century CE, Buddhism ceased
to exist as an institutional religious force. Although remnants of
Buddhist culture continued to survive for several centuries, Muslim po-
litical and economic domination of northern India insured that Buddhist
monasteries would not be reborn from their ashes.
The attitude of the Muslims who invaded India towards Buddhism is
amply documented by Muslim historians - as idolatrous infidels
Buddhists were put to the sword or enslaved, and their temples were
looted and destroyed, all as acts of religious merit.2 It is not surprising
that this violent persecution produced fear and hatred in the minds of the
victims. Commenting on the results of Mal).mild of Ghaznl's famous
raids during the first decades of the 11 th century, al-BIrilni writes:
* An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the
American Academy of Religion. I am grateful to Drs. Beth Newman, Michael
Sweet, Leonard Zwilling, Cynthia Talbot, and Richard Salomon for criticism and
comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
1. SACRAU 1989: 1.19.
2. For Muslim accounts of the Turkish attacks on East Indian Buddhist monasteries
see WARDER 1980: 506-8. For a Tibetan eye-witness account of such raids see
ROERICH 1959: xviii-xxii, 93-94.
"The notion [of diihiid] stems from the fundamental principle of the
universality of Islam: this religion, along with the temporal authority which it
implies, ought to embrace [the] whole universe, if necessary by force ... [With
regard to idolaters:] their conversion to Islam is obligatory under pain of being
put to death or reduced into slavery" (EI ii.538a),
Volume 21. Number 2 1998
JIABS 21.2 312
MaJ:!miid utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed there
wonderful exploits, by which the [Indians] became like atoms of dust scattered in
all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered
remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towaFds all Muslims.
This is the reason, too, why [Indian] sciences have retired far away from those
parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand
cannot yet reach, to Kashmir,Benares, and other places. And there the antago-
nism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment from
both political and religious sources.
3
Al-Blnlnl' s report that 'antagonism between Indians and foreigners re-
ceived nourishment from religious sources' suggests Hindus and
Buddhists were aware of the threat Islam posed. However, a standard
history of India, commenting on Indian reactions to the Muslim Turkic
invasions of the 11th and 12th centuries, states:
There was an awareness that an entirely new force had arrived on the Indian
scene, but there was hardly any curiosity about it. That the conquerors would
supersede the indigenous rulers in the political sphere was acknowledged; but the
wider implications - such as the likelihood that the newcomers would alter and
modify the pattern of Indian culture - was not at fIrst clearly realized (THAP AR
1974: 266). The people of India curiously do not seem to have perceived the new
arrivals as a unifIed body of Muslims (THAPAR 1989: 223).
In fact as early as the beginning of the 11 th century some Indian
Buddhists were very curious about the new religion that had recently
appeared on their western horizon, and perceived it to be a threat to tra-
ditional Indian culture. As we will see, the KaIacakra tantra is a remark-
able exception to the rule that in classical Indian literature "the Muslims,
who were not only present in India for many centuries, but were its
actual rulers, appear only in vague and marginal references" (HALBFASS
1988: 182); "the Sanskrit tradition has never taken official notice of the
existence of Islam" (ERNST 1992: 30); "I would lay stress on this - the
religious identity of the Central Asians [who invaded India] is not once
thematized in Sanskrit sources" (POLLOCK 1993: 286). In Sanskrit
literature the Kalacakra tantra is unique in presenting a fairly compre-
hensive and quite accurate portrayal of Islamic beliefs and practices.
3. SACHAU 1989: 1.22; see also 19-23. I have replaced Sachau's "Hindus" with
[Indians], because in this passage al-Blri'inI clearly intends an inclusive
ethnonym, not a religious denomination, as SACHAU himself no doubt recog-
nized. Note also the following passage: "Another circumstance which increased
the already existing antagonism between [Indians] and foreigners is that the so-
called Shamaniyya (Buddhists), though they cordially hate the Brahmans, still are
nearer akin to them than to others" (SACHAU 1989:1.21).
NEWMAN 313
Also, the Buddhist authors of the Kalacakra developed strategies for
dealing with Islam that grew out of their own religious preoccupations,
in line with the contemporary religious milieu.
The Kiilacakra Tantra
The source for this study is the literature of the Indian Buddhist
Kalacakra tantra tradition.
4
The Kalacakra, or "Wheel of Time," was the
last major product of Indian Vajrayana Buddhism. All late Vajrayana
Buddhism is syncretic - it takes elements from non-Buddhist religious
traditions and assimilates them to a Buddhist context. However, in the
Kalacakra tantra syncretism is unusually obvious and is even self-
conscious - the tantra makes little effort to disguise its borrowings from
the Saiva, and Jaina traditions. The basic structure of the
Kalacakra system is itself non-Buddhist: the Kalacakra uses the ancient
idea of the homology of the macrocosm and the microcosm as the foun-
dation of its soteriology. Islam appears in both the macrocosm and the
microcosm of the Kalacakra mysticism.
In this essay I have attempted to collect, edit, translate, and analyze all
of the references to Islamic beliefs and practices appearing in the earliest
stratum of the Indian Kalacakra corpus. There are in addition numerous
references to the Muslim "barbarians" in other passages dealing with the
myth of the Kalkins of Sambhala (see below, and NEWMAN 1995), but
they do not directly bear on our assessment of the Kalacakra's knowl-
edge of Islam as a historical reality, the main focus of this study.
Much of the Indian KaIacakra literature exists in the original Sanskrit,
and all of this is available in Tibetan translation. References to Islam
appear in the following Indian Kalacakra texts:
I. Paramiidibuddhoddhrta-Srf-Kiilacakra-niima-tantrariija (hence-
forth 'Srf Kiilacakra'), together with its commentary Vimalapra-
bhii-niima-miilatantriinusiiri1Jf-dviidasasiihasrikii-laghukiilacakra-
tantrariija!fkii (henceforth 'Vimalaprabhii').
II. Srf-Kiilacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-niima (henceforth
'Tantrahrdaya').
III. Svadarsanamatoddda
IV. Srf-Paramiirthasevii
4. Here tantra has two connotations: its primary meaning is a system of mysticism;
by extension, it also refers to the revealed texts that teach such a system. Thus, the
Kalacakra tantra is taught in the Srr Kiilacakra and other tantras belonging to the
Kalacakra corpus of buddha-vacanam.
nABS 21.2 314
The 5rf KiiZacakra and VimaZaprabha are complete in Sanskrit; ~ t least
one-fourth of the Sanskrit of the Paramiirthasevii has survived;5 but
apart from brief quotations we have only Tibetan translations of the
Tantrahrdaya and the Svadarsanamatoddesa.
The 5rf KiiZacakra is the KiUacakra Zaghutantra - it is traditionally
held to be the condensed redaction of the Paramiidibuddha, the KJila-
cakra muZatantra, which is attributed to the Buddha. The 5rf KiiZacakra
is an esoteric treatise that, together with its massive commentary the
VimaZaprabhii, is our main source for the Indian KaIacakra tantra tradi-
tion. The 5rf KiiZacakra, according to its own account, was composed by
Yasas, an emanation of the bodhisattva MafijusrI, who was the first
Kalkin emperor of the mythical Inner Asian land of Sambhala. The
VimaZaprabha claims itself to be written by Yasas' son Pu:r;t9arIka, the
second Kalkin of Sambhala, an emanation of the bodhisattva A valoki-
tesvara. The Tantrahrdaya is a supplement (tantrottara) to the 5rf KiiZa-
cakra attributed to Yasas, and Yasas also composed the Svadarsana-
matoddeia, an independent verse treatise. The Paramiirthasevii, by
Pu:r;t9arIka, is an independent work of didactic poetry.
6
We can safely assume that 'Yasas' and 'Pu:r;t9arIka' are pseudonyms,
elements of an elaborate mythology devised to provide the newly created
Kiilacakra tantra with a suitable Buddhist pedigree, in an attempt to
introduce the KaIacakra to the Indian Buddhist intelligentsia of the early
11th century. A passage in Abhayakaragupta's 5rf-Sarrzpu!a-tantrariija-
!fkii-Amniiyamaiijarf-niima (composed ca. 1109 CE) informs us that
some Buddhist cognoscenti indeed held 'Yasas' and 'Pu:r;t9arIka' to be
pseudonyms, rejected their claim to the status of bodhisattva, and found
much in the KaIacakra corpus that was incompatible with Buddhism
(NEWMAN 1987b: 107-110).
If we assume the names 'Yasas' and 'Pu:r;t9anKa'are products of
mythogenesis, we can make some observations about the historical
authors of these texts based on their contents. First, the authors were
5. The incomplete MS of the Paramiirthasevii is National Archives Kathmandu
no. 5-7235, Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project reel no. B 30/31,
misleadingly. catalogued under the title Kiilacakratantra. Brief excerpts are also
imbedded in the Paramiirthasa1'!lgraha, GU"(labhara"(lz, Sekoddesa!ippa"(lz, and
Kriyiisamuccaya. Unfortunately, I have not found the verses I have edited and
translated below among the portions of the text that survive in Sanskrit.
6. For discussion of the myth and history surrounding these authors and texts see
NEWMAN 1985; 1987a; 1987b: 70-113; 1995; 1996.
NEWMAN 315
highly educated masters of late Indian Vajrayana Buddhism. The Kala-
cakra literature demonstrates an intimate knowledge of 'anuttarayoga'
tantras such as the Guhyasamaja, Hevajra, and Cakrasarpvara; it also pre-
supposes a thorough grounding in Sravakayana and non-tantric
Mahayana philosophy and soteriology. In addition, the Vimalaprabhil
exhibits a more than passing acquaintance with brahmanical learning,
citing such texts as the Siirrzkhyakiirikii, Manusmrti,
Mahiibhiirata, etc. It is likely that the authors themselves were brahmans
by caste, Buddhists by religious affiliation.
An unusual feature of the earliest stratum of the Indian Kalacakra
literature is its interest in what we might call ethnography. Although the
most striking example of this is the Kalacakra's information on Muslims
and Islam, the texts also comment on t.lJ.e religious and social customs of
other people in India and abroad. In brief, we can characterize the
authors of the early Kalacakra literature as erudite Indian Buddhists who
situated their mysticism in a cosmopolitan cultural milieu.
I believe the earliest stratum of the Indian Kalacakra literature, includ-
ing the texts studied here, is the product of a small group of vajriiciiryas
who flourished in northeastern India during the early decades of the 11 th
century CEo Members of the original Kalacakra cult included Atisa's
guru PiI).<;io - a brahman Buddhist monk born in Java, and Naro
(Naropada) - the famous vajriiciirya of Nalanda. For discussion of this
theory see NEWMAN 1987b:89-107.
The Sri Kiilacakra, Vimalaprabhii, Tantrahrdaya, Svadarsanamatod-
dda, and Paramiirthasevii all can be dated with a remarkable degree of
precision: all are quoted by name in the Paramiirthasarrzgraha-niima-
Sekodddatlkii7 composed by Naro, who probably died ca. 1040 CE.8
7. For the ParamiirthasaYJ1graha quotations of the Srr Kiilacakra see NIHOM 1984:
20; NEWMAN 1987a: 90, n.ll; GNOLI and OROFINO 1994: index s.y.
Laghukiilacakratantra. For the Vimalaprabhii see GNOLI and OROFINO 1994:
index s.y. For the Tantrahrdaya (cited under the short titles Kiilacakrottara and
Tantrottara) seeNIHOM 1984: 20; GNOLI and OROFINO 1994: 218, 316-17. For
the Svadarsanamatodde.sa see ParamiirthasaYJ1graha p. 61 (cf. GNOLI and
OROFINO 1994: 323). For the Paramiirthasevii see GNOLI and OROFINO 1994:
index s.y.
8. See WYLIE 1982. WYLIE refers only to A1aka Chattopadhyaya's Atfsa and Tibet
for the story of Naro's last days (WYLIE 1982: 688-89, n.14-16). For Tibetan
sources for this important story see the Atisa biographies (EIMER 1979: 2.172-
74, 1.225); dPa' bo gTsug lag phreng ba 1545: 673; and Padma dkar po 1575:
445. On Marpa's meeting with Atisa and his subsequent search for Naro, in
JIABS 21.2 316
Even more important is the fact that the Sri Kiilacakra ~ n d the
Vimalaprabhii contain a year - 403 - which forms the basis for the
epoch of the KaIacakra system of chronology and astrono:rp.y. The year
403 is the year of the lord of the mlecchas, MuI:tammad (1.2,3),9 and it is
a solar calendar reckoning of a year in the Hijra era that can be reckoned
as corresponding to 1024/25 CE (see NEWMAN 1998). The appearance
of this year in the SrI Kiilacakra and the Vimalaprabhii - a terminus post
quem, together with Naro's citations - a terminus ante quem, proves that
these texts were completed between 1025 and ca. 1040 CE. Also, the
Indo-Tibetan Kalacakra guru lineages originate early in the 11 th century
(NEWMAN 1987b: 89-107). In brief, both internal and external evidence
indicates that the earliest stratum of the Kalacakra literature was com-
posed during the early decades of the 11th century. It is certainly no
mere coincidence that this was the very time Mal).mud of GhaznI
launched his epoch-making raids into northwestern India.
Buddhist Perceptions of Islam: the Barbarian Tiiyin
The KaIacakra literature uniformly refers to Muslims as mlecchas - bar-
barians, and Islam is called the mleccha-dharma, the barbarian religion
(1. 1 ff.). In brahmanical usage the Sanskrit word mleccha commonly
addition to the Marpa hagiography cited by WYLIE (1982: 689), see Padma dkar
po 1575: 445-52.
I follow WYLIE in relying on the stories that place Naro's death shortly before
Atisa's departure to Tibet, i.e., ca. 1040. This is not unlikely given the fact Atisa
was a junior contemporary of Naro. However, unlike WYLIE and other scholars,
I have very little faith in the wonderfully precise dates given for the births and
deaths of Tilo and Naro in their late Tibetan hagiographies. These dates are given
in the Tibetan element-animal sexagenary cycle, which was never used in India.
We must investigate how the Tibetans arrived at these dates before we rely too
heavily on them.
9. Henceforth I cross-reference my discussion with the translations and text editions
given in Parts 2 and 3. Thus (1.2,3) indicates the second and third extracts from
the Srf KaZacakra and the VimaZaprabha; (ll.4) denotes the fourth extract from
the Tantrahrdaya, etc.
NEWMAN 317
denotes any foreigner who does not follow Indian customs,tO but the
KaIacakra texts seem to apply it only to Muslims.
ll
The KaIacakra texts specify the identity of the barbarians: they are the
Tayin. In Buddhist Sanskrit texts the word tiiyin is widely used as a
laudatory epithet of buddhas and bodhisattvas, meaning, among other
things, "a protector" (EDGERTON 1972: 251-52); in sense the
Tibetans translate tiiyin as skyob pa. And in fact this common usage is
well-attested in the KaIacakra literature.1
2
However, in the KaIacakra's
discussion of the mlecchas "tiiyin" is given another, very different
meaning; in this context the Tibetans translate it as stag gzig. We should
10. See al-BIriinI: "[A]ll their fanaticism is directed against those who do not belong
to them - against all foreigners. They call them mleccha, i.e. impure, and forbid
having any connection with them, be it by intermarriage or any other kind of
relationship, or by sitting, eating, and drinking with them, because thereby, they
think, they would be polluted ... [I]n all manners and usages they differ from us to
such a degree as to frighten their children with us, with our dress, and our ways
and customs, and as to declare us to be devil's breed, and our doings the very
opposite of all that is good and proper. By the by, we must confess, in order to be
just, that a similar depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and the
[Indians], but is common to all nations towards each other" (SACHAU 1989: I.19-
20). For excellent discussions of traditional brahmanical xenology see THAPAR
1971; HALBFASS 1988: 172-96. Indian Buddhist attitudes towards foreigners
seem to have been somewhat different from the normative brahmanical attitude; a
valuable study could be done comparing the two.
11. With a few exceptions, one could accurately gloss mleccha as 'Muslim'
throughout the Kalacakra literature. On the other hand, the texts do not employ
the term mleccha when referring to non-Muslim foreigners. For example, the
Tibetans, whose beef-eating and lack of hygiene are equally barbarous from the
author's point of view, are not called mlecchas (see III.2; and Tantrahrdaya P
152a6: bod na khrus dang gtsang spra med: "In Tibet there is no bathing or
cleanliness"). This is probably due to the fact that the authors recognized the
Tibetans as fellow Buddhists (NEWMAN 1987b: 362; 1996: 494, n. 10).
12. SrI Ktilacakra 5.68c refers to the "beneficent attitude of the Tayin [- the buddhas .
and bodhisattvas]" (ttiyintil'{l saukyabuddhis; skyob pa mams kyi bde ba'i blo
gros). Similarly, the Paramtirthasal'{lgraha (p.28.24-25), commenting on
"protector" (ttiyin; skyob pa) in Sekoddda 22b, reads: "The protection is [the
buddhas'] proclamation of the path they saw. Since they do that, they are
protectors, the Tathagatas and so forth" (ttiyalJ I tadyogtit
ttiyinas tathtigattidayaJ:t 1 skyob pa nyid gzigs lam gsun pa 1 de La sbyor ba 'i phyir
skyob ste 1 skyob pa ni skyob pa de biin gsegs pa la sogs mams so I) (see GNOLI
and OROFINO 1994: 205). Naro's gloss takes ttiyin as a nominal stem in -in
formed on ttiyalJ; see EDGERTON 1972: 251-52. For an extensive bibliography on
Buddhist Sanskrit ttiyin see DE JONG 1974: 69, n.4.
JIABS 21.2 318
first note that all the examples found in the Sanskrit texts edite4 below
are declined in the genitive plural: tiiyiniim (Sanskrit and Tibetan:
1.2,3,7,10; Tibetan only: II.l,4,7; IV.2). However, elsewhere in the Srf
Kiilacakra and Vimalaprabhii we find the feminine nominative singular
form tiiyinf (Tib. stag gzig ma) in a list of eight ethnonyms denoting
outcaste and tribal women.l
3
Thus, we can be confident that the underly-
ing word is treated as nominal stem in -in; the masculine nominative
singular would be tiiyf.
The Kalacakra texts use tiiyin in place of the common Sanskrit term
tiijika to refer to the mlecchas of the West. In Sanskrit literature tiijika
"urspriinglich die Araber bezeichnete, dann aber allgemein auf die
westlichen islamischen Volker ausgedehnt wurde" (MA YRHOFER 1956:
492). Given the 11th century date of the Kalacakra texts, it is very
unlikely that tiiyin refers specifically to 'Arabs,' who were not the main
participants in the Muslim raids on India at the time. Since the Vimala-
prabhii refers to Persians
14
independently of the Tayin, the Tayin are not
simply 'Persians.' Instead we assume 'Tayin,' like 'Tajika,' is a some-
what vague ethnonym referring collectively to the Muslim Turks,
Persians, and Arabs of the northwestern borderlands of the Indian world.
The question remains, why did the authors use a well-known epithet of
the buddhas and bodhisattvas to designate their antithesis, the barbarian
Muslims, when the well-established word 'Tajika' was available? I
suspect at least two factors come into play here. First, the authors of the
Kalacakra literature exhibit a playful attitude towards language which
reflects their philosophical view that words are only conventionally
related to the objects they signify; thus a single word can have multiple
and even contrary referents (cf. NEWMAN 1988). Second, this coinage
13. Vimalaprabhii 3.5.126 (VP (S) B 132al [note: MS enumerates this verse as
124]; U 11.112.6); Sri Kiilacakra 3.134b, Vimalaprabhii 3.5.134b (VP (S) B
132b4 [note: MS enumerates this verse as 131]; U II.1l4.26, 115.4). VP (S) U
consistently reads tiipiniwith no variants given. Although it is often very difficult
to distinguishpa and ya in the MSS, I am confident in my reading, which agrees
with Vira-Chandra (SK (S) V), Banerjee (SK (S) B) and, most importantly, with
the Tibetan translation stag gzig ma
Tiiyinf stands at the northern point of the charnel-ground circle of the
Kalacakra's galJacakra: MlecchI, MatangI, TayinI, VarvarI, PukkasI,
BhillI, and Saban. This list demonstrates that the author viewed the tiiyin - in
Indian terms - as comparable to an outcaste or tribal group, and it shows that
mleccha and tiiyin are not synonymous.
14. piirasika; pii ra si ka (NEWMAN 1987b: 362).
NEWMAN 319
reflects- their predilection to transcribe names of Arabic origin with
meaningful Sanskrit terms: compare the etymologies of
MadhumatI, V arabI, Isa, Matham, and Vagada in the Appendix.
First we will look at the Kalacakra literature's representation of the
social customs of the barbarian Tayin, then we will examine its depic-
tion of their religious ideology and practices.
Barbarian Customs
As a rule, the Kalacakra presents the barbarian customs as contrary to
Indian brahmanical norms. The mleccha diet is especially abhorrent. In a
verse in the Srf Kalacakra the Buddha says:
[The barbarians] kill camels, horses, and cattle, and briefly cook the flesh together
with blood. They cook beef and amniotic fluid with butter and spice, rice mixed
with vegetables, and forest fruit, all at once on the fIre. Men eat that, 0 king, and
drink bird eggs, in the place of the demon [barbarians] (1.5. See also 1.6; II. 1,4;
ill.2).
We do not know the extent to which this diet reflects actual Muslim
practice, and how much of it is derogatory fiction. The reference to the
barbarian fondness for beef and raw eggs, mentioned in several passages,
is probably derived from observation. Beef-eating, of course, is particu-
larly repugnant to orthodox brahmans. The alleged mleccha consump-
tion of blood is noteworthy: blood is one of the few foods expressly for-
bidden in the Koran and by later Islamic tradition (Ell iii.I56ab; EI
ii.l06Ib, I069a). Perhaps the author encountered Muslims who ignored
this fundamental dietary law; perhaps he simply falsely ascribed an
imagined barbarity to them. In any case, the purpose of this verse and
the other references to the mleccha diet is clear: the barbarian diet is an
element of their conduct that serves to define them as barbarians, as
outsiders who engage in unacceptable behavior. As we will see later,
mleccha dietary practice also has a religious dimension.
Tayin marriage customs are similarly outlandish from an Indian
brahmanical perspective. The Tantrahrdaya notes that in Makka (makha)
a barbarian takes his paternal uncle's daughter in marriage (11.3; cf. L9;
IV.I). Such a marriage of paternal parallel cousins is considered equiva-
lent to incest between siblings.
15
15. EP iii.913b classes female descendants of aunts and great-aunts among blood
relations prohibited as marriage partners; see also 912b. By implication a paternal
parallel cousin would be permitted, although I do not know how prevalent such
nABS 21.2 320
While these dietary and marriage practices do not find favor with the
authors of the' KaIacakra texts, they note some barbarian customs with
tacit approbation. The mleccha Tayin reject the doctrine of multiple
castes, and live as a single group (Ll4; 11.4). This contrasts with the
casteism of the brahmanical caste system (1.14).16 The barbarians respect
each other's property, they are truthful, and they practice hygiene (llA).
They avoid each other's wives, and maintain the "asceticism" of remain-
ing faithful to their own wives (llA). The barbarians are fierce and
heroic in battle (Ll), and the might of their cavalry is specifically men-
tioned (ll.4).
Barbarian Teachers
We now tum to the history of the barbarian religion. In a verse in the
Sri: Kalacakra the Buddha prophesies the origin and development of the
mlecchadhanna:
Adam (arda), NuQ. (nogha), and IbrahIm (variiht) [are the fIrst three barbarian
teachers]; there are also fIve others whose nature is tamas
17
in the family of
demonic snakes: Musa 'lsa (fsa), the White-Clad One (ivetavastrin),
MuQ.ammad (madhupan), and the MahdI (mathani), who will be the eighth - he
will belong to the darkness. The seventh will clearly be born in the city of
Baghdad (viigadii) in the land ofMakka (makha), where the demonic incarnation
- the mighty, merciless idol of the barbarians -lives in the world (1.5).18
marriages may have been among the Muslims the Kiilacakra authors are likely to
have encountered.
Manu 3.5 says: "A woman who [does not] belong to the same lineage (of the
sages) [gotra] on her father's side .. , is recommended for marriage to twice-born
men" (DONIGER 1991: 43). A man's paternal uncle necessarily belongs to the
same gotra, and thus his daughters are prohibited as marriage partners.
16. Buddhism, like Islam, generally espouses egalitarianism in the context of
religioUS practice (see DE JONG 1990). It seems that the Kalacakra texts'
references to Muslim egalitarianism reflect a perceived ritual and doctrinal parallel
between Islam and Buddhism in contrast to the casteism and ritual exclusivity of
orthodox brahmanism.
17. The Klilacakra appropriates the SliIpkhya notion of the three - sattva,
rajas, tamas - as a religio-anthropological classifIcation system. Buddhists are
siittvika - with goodness and light. itrthikas - the followers of non-
Buddhist Indian religious traditions - are riijasa: their nature is a mixture of good
and evil. The mleccha Tayin, of course, are tiimasa - having a vicious, dark
nature. Manu 12.39-41 (DONIGER 1991: 282-83) posits a very different division
of humanity on the basis of the three but agrees that mlecchas derive from
tamas (Manu 12.43). Cf. HALBFASS 1991: 357-63.
18. For previous study of this verse see HOFFMANN 1960,1969; NEWMAN 1987b:
594-614; OROFINO 1995.
NEWMAN 321
As Daniel MARTIN and Giacomella OROFINO have suggested, it appears
that this list of barbarians derives from a sevener ShI'I source.
19
The
Isma'IlIs hold that Adam, NuJ::t (Noah), IbrahIm (Abraham), Musa
(Moses), 'Isa (Jesus), and MuJ::tammad are the first six natiq ("enuncia-
tors"), who will be followed by MuJ::tammad b. Isma'Il, the hidden imam
who will return as the MahdI (EI iv.203ab; DAFTARY 1990: 139-40 and
s.v. natiq). We know that Isma'IlI da'f- missionaries (see EI ii.97b-
98a; DAFTARY 1990: s.v.) - were active in Sindh from the latter part of
the 9th century, and that they succeeded in establishing an Isma'Ill
stronghold in Multan during the second half of the 10th century which
survived into the early 11th century (STERN 1949; AL-HAMDANI 1956:
1-8; EI iv.198a, 199a; WINK 1990: 212-18; DAFTARY 1990: 118-19,
125, 176, 180, 198,210-11,228).
On the other hand, the Mubayyi<;la (White-Clad) followers of AbU
Muslim (d. 755 CE), also believed in a nearly identical succession of
teachers, replacing (or identifying?) the MahdI with AbU Muslim:
About two decades after the death of Abu Muslim, al-MuJ.s:anna' ... appeared in
Trans-oxania to lead another [anti-'Abbiisid] revolutionary movement. His
following was composed of white-clad (Ar. Mubayyic;la, Pers. SapId-.Qjamagan)
Soghdian peasants and by Turkish tribesman. He claimed to be the final divine
incarnation after Adam, Nul;!, IbrahIm, Musa, 'lsa, Mul;!arnmad and Abu
Muslim ... The sect of the Mubayyic;la is still mentioned as surviving in the
6th/12th century (EI v.64a; cf. EI iii.617a, iv.16ab, v.1234a).
The reference to "the White-Clad One" (svetavastrin) here, and refer-
ences to white-clad (svetavastram, svetavasin) Tayin ascetics discussed
below, may support the hypothesis that the Srf Kalacakra's list of
barbarians derives from a Mubayyi<;la source.
However, thus far we have not solved the vexing puzzle of the identity
of the sixth barbarian teacher - the White-Clad One.
20
Also, it must be
19. This hypothesis linking the Srf Kiilacakra' s list of mlecchas with the Mubayyic;la
or the Isma'ilis was first suggested in an unpublished paper titled "The veiled
prophet of Khurasan and the revolutions of the Wheel of Time" written by Daniel
MARTIN in 1984. Recently Giacomella OROFINO (1995) has independently
arrived at a very similar hypothesis.
20. Helmut HOFFMANN (1960: 98; 1969: 57-59, 67) identified "The White-Clad
One" as Mani, and interpreted this verse as reflecting a syncretic knowledge of
"Manichaeism, Christianity, and Islam in the KaIacakra tantra." As I have argued
elsewhere, it is much simpler to interpret the entire list of mlecchas as being
JIABS 21.2 322
noted that the Srf Kiilacakra specifies eight barbarian teacheJ;'s, with
MulJammad as the seventh and the Mahdi as the eighth, whereas the
Isma'm traditions that follow this sequence of nii!iqs appear to be
unanimous that MulJammad was the sixth nii!iq and that the Mahdi will
be the seventh (DAFTARY 1990: 105, 128-29, 139, 177-79,219). It is
unclear whether this discrepancy represents confusion on the part of the
author of the Srf Kiilacakra, or rather that his Muslim informant com-
municated a variant sevener Shl'l tradition about which we have no
information. The reference to Baghdad (see below) further complicates
matters. It seems unlikely that a sevener Shl'i informant in the early
11th century would revere Baghdad given the long and bitter conflict
between the ' Abbasid Caliphate and the Sill'I. Perhaps the author of the
Srf Kiilacakra has drawn a composite picture of Islam based on a variety
of sources.
With regard to the eighth barbarian teacher, the tantra reads: "the
Mahdi, who will be the eighth - he will belong to the darkness" (ma-
thanf yo so 'ndhakaJ:t syiit). Given the context, I take it as cer-
tain that mathanf- "the Destroyer" is a pejoratively meaningful trans-
cription of Arabic mahdf- "the Rightly Guided One" (EI v.1230b ff.).
The word andham indicates "darkness," and by extension, "spiritual
ignorance." I interpret andhaka - "he will belong to the darkness" - as
an allusion to the occultation of the Mahdi (EI v.1235b ff.; DAFTARY
1990: s.v. ghayba and "hidden imams"), noting that a literal reading of
the Sanskrit carries a pejorative connotation. If this interpretation is
correct, this reference to the occultation of the Mahdl in the KaIacakra's
list of mleccha teachers strongly suggests that this list was obtained from
a Shl'i source:
Belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet became a central
aspect of the faith in radical ShI'ism in contrast to Sunnism. Distinctively Shi'i
was also the common belief in a temporary absence or occultation (ghayba) of the
MahdI and his eventual return in glory (EI v.1235b).
The Kalacakra literature pays special attention to the seventh of the
mleccha teachers listed above. The person responsible for the introduc-
tion of the barbarian religion will be "MulJammad, the incarnation
derived solely from an Islamic source, and there is no evidence that the authors of
the KaIacakra had know ledge of Manichreism or any other Western religion apart
from Islam (NEWMAN 1987b: 603-9).
NEWMAN 323
(avatara)21 of ar-Ral).man, the teacher of the barbarian religion, the guru
and master (svamin) of the barbarian Tayin" (madhumatf rahma7:zavataro
mlecchadharmadesako mlecchana1!l tayina1!l gurul:z svamt) (1.3; cf. 1.2;
II.2,6). As noted above, the epoch of the KaIacakra astronomy is based
on the era of Mul).ammad, the Hijra era (1.3). In the Srf Kiilacakra the
Buddha prophesies that in fourteen hundred years22 Mul).ammad will
introduce the demonic religion of the barbarian Tayin in the city of
Baghdad (vagada) (1.4,5) in the land of Makka (makha) (1.2,5; II.3).
There is, of course, some confusion here. Mul).ammad (d. 632 CE) was
not born in Baghdad (founded 762 CE; EI i.S94b ff.), and Makka is not
a "land." Howe.ver, it is easily understandable that a writer in 11th
century India, just beyond the fringe of the Muslim conquests, could
have made Malum - the birthplace of Mul).ammad and Islam's holiest
city - into a country, and then placed in it Baghdad, the nominal politi-
cal center of the Sunn! Islamic world.
Barbarian Ideology
What, then, are the beliefs of the followers of Mul).arnmad? The mleccha
Tayin worship a mighty, merciless, demonic death-deity named ar-
Ral).man (rahmalJ)23 (1.3,7,10). Here we recognize the most common
Muslim epithet for Allah: in Arabic ar-Ral).man means "The Benefactor"
(EI i.406b ff., 40Sa, lOS4b-S5a). Ar-Ral).man is the Creator who creates
all animate and inanimate things for the enjoyment of the Tayin (1.7)
(EI i.407a).
By satisfying ar-Ral).man a man achieves bliss in heaven; by displeas-
ing ar-Ral).man a man suffers in hell (1.7,10) (EI i.40Sb-9a, 412b-13a).
21. In the bilingual Arabic-Sanskrit coins minted in the Punjab by of
GhaznI in the Tajika years (tiijikfyena sarrzvatii) 418 and 419 (i.e., 418-19 A.H. =
1027-28 CE), the Sanskrit avatiira is used to translate Arabic rasiil- 'messen-
ger' or 'prophet' - as an epithet of Mul;tarnmad in the kalima: avyaktam eka
muhammada avatara nrpati mahamuda (SIReAR 1983: 650-51). The Vimala-
prabha (1.3) refers to "the incarnation of the [barbarian] death-deity in battle"
(sarrzgriime miiradevatiivatiiram).
22. The KaIacakra chronology places the Buddha in the 8th century BCE; see below,
and NEWMAN 1998.
23. This is a consonant-final stem, declined like a root-stem. Thus in Srf Kiilacakra
2.158d and Vimalaprabha 2.7.158cd (I.7) we find the instrumental rahmalJii and
the genitive LORENZEN (1972: 62) reports "a Raharnfu).a (a Muslim)"
in a list of heretics found in Yasa!;tpaIa's Mohariijapariijaya, which he dates to
ca. 1175 (1972: 49, n.141).
JIABS 21.2 324
At death a man is judged by ar-RaJ::tman, and experiences his in
heaven or hell in that very corporeal human form (1.10) (El iA07 a,
1092a). The Tayin assert that the person is spontaneously generated
(upapiiduka-pudgala; cf. EDGERTON 1972: 162-63), an epiphenomenon
(upapattyangika-pudgala) of the material human body it inhabits (1.14).
The Tayin reject the Buddhist notion that a person's experiences are the
results of his karma; they reject the concept of reincarnation (1.10); and
they deny that there is any sort of nirvana beside the achievement of
heaven (1.14).
Barbarian Religious Practices
From the Buddhist perspective, the most repugnant feature of the barba-
rian religion is the practice of animal sacrifice. The mlecchas slit the
throats of animals while saying the mantra of their demonic deity
vimla, 'Withered by Poison'; that is, bismilliih - "in the name of Allah"
(1.1; cf. IIL1).24 The mleccha religion prescribes eating the flesh of
animals slaughtered with this mantra, and prohibits consuming the meat
of those that die naturally, that die due to their own karma (1.1; cf.
1.6).25 Violation of this precept bars one from entrance to heaven (IV.2;
cf. II.1).
24. EI ii.213b: "For the [sacrificial victim] to be validly put to death and the animal
concerned to be permissible as food [the correct method must be employed].
Otherwise the dead animal will be regarded as carrion (mayta) and therefore
legally unfit for consumption except in the case of absolute necessity. At the mo-
ment of slaughter it is obligatory to have the necessary intention and to invoke the
name of God. [I.e., the basmala. EI i.1084a: "The invocation of the basmala, at
the beginning of every important act, calls down the divine blessing upon this act
and consecrates it."] ... The [method of slaughter] consists of slitting the throat,
including the trachea and the oesophagus; ... the head is not to be severed."
The Buddhist doctrine of non-violence, on the other hand, extends even to
prohibit consumption of the meat of animals killed specifically for the consumer:
"[I]f the monk who received meat and the donor who gave it to him were not
responsible for killing the animal, if they had neither seen, heard, nor suspected
that the animal had been killed on purpose for him, then the meat was pure; eating
it was not an offense [against the monastic code]" (WIJAYARATNA 1990: 71).
The same principle, in theory at least, is applied to the Buddhist laity. In both
cases, however, the issue of 'responsibility' is narrowly defined, being restricted
to actual slaughter or direct inducement to slaughter.
25. Ell iii.156: "Maita ... means an animal that has died in any way other than by
slaughter. In later terminology the word means firstly an animal that has not been
slain in the ritually prescribed fashion, the flesh of which therefore cannot be
NEWMAN 325
Not only do the barbarians eat forbidden and repulsive foods, they eat
at odd times as well. While Buddhist ascetics take their meals during the
day before noon, Tayin ascetics dine after sundown and at night (1.6;
IV.2). The fact that the texts refer specifically to 'ascetic' fasting may
indicate knowiedge of the Islamic voluntary fast (Ell iv.196a) rather
than the obligatory fast of Rama<;lan (Ell iv.194b). In any case, the
Islamic tradition of fasting during the daytime and eating at night (Ell
iv.193b) is quite contrary to normative Buddhist asceticism, which
restricts meals to the period between sunrise and noon (WIJAYARATNA
1990: 68).
Tayin religious garb is also. contrary to Buddhist conventions.
Buddhist ascetics wear red clothing, and are forbidden the white clothing
of Indian laymen. Mleccha ascetics (tapasvin) dress in white, but there is
no rule on this matter for barbarian laymen (1.6; cf. 1.5,11). The
Buddhist monastic code prohibits monks and nuns from wearing white
clothing, and common Indian ascetic tradition advocates the wearing of
ochre (WIJAYARATNA 1990: 37, cf. 32). However, the Kalacakra's
specification that mleccha ascetics wear white is intriguing. We are not
given enough information to identify with certainty the Muslim tradition
alluded to, but as noted above, it may refer to some segment of the
Mubayyi<;la ('White-Clad') movement.
Mleccha prayer practices are also noteworthy. The Tayin first wash,
then they bow down, five times each day: at noon, in the afternoon, in
the evening, at midnight, and at sunrise (IlA). When praising their deity
they kneel (1.6), and draw in their limbs like a tortoise (I.12). This is a
brief but fairly accurate description of the Islamic ritual prayer. The
obligatory ritual ablution is mentioned (Ell iv.97b), and the order of the
five services corresponds exactly to the traditional presentation of the
sequence (Ell iiiA92b-93a). The 'bowing' presumably refers to the
sud,iUd; the 'kneeling' to the Qjulus (ElI iv.99b).
The barbarian religion demands something of its followers that the
author of the Paramiirthasevii found bizarre. It reads: "The Tayin cut
the skin from the tips of their penises
26
as a cause for happiness in
heaven" (IV.2). Although the Muslim doctors of jurisprudence differ as
eaten ... ". By way of contrast, the Vimalaprabha's apology for meat consumption
in Vajrayana ritual notes that Buddhist tantric yogis indeed consume various
types of flesh (albeit in tiny pellets), but such meat must not be the product of a
sacrifice, and the animal should preferably have died of natural causes (NEWMAN
1987b: 265-67),
26. EI v.20b: "As regards males it is obligatory to cut off the whole skin which
covers the glans, so that this latter is wholly denuded."
JIABS 21.2 326
to whether circumcision is obligatory or merely customary (El .v.20a),
its importance is well established in Islamic practice.
27
Barbarian iconoclasm is also mentioned: the Tayin cavalry conduct
raids to destroy Buddhist and non-Buddhist temples containing anthro-
pomorphic images (ll.4; cf. II.5,6; I.8). During the first quarter of the
11th century Mal)mud of GhaznI made greed-motivated, religiously
sanctioned raids on Indian temples a key element of his very active
foreign policy.28 Given the date of the Kalacakra texts, their references
to Muslim iconoclasm must refer to the expeditions of Mal;1mud, and
they are echoes of the terrible jihad he visited upon northwestern India.
A Buddhist Appraisal of Islam
We may summarize the Kalacakra tantra's perception of Islamic beliefs
and practices as follows: from the Buddhist point of view Islam is
demonic and perverse, a perfect anti-religion which is the antithesis of
Buddhism (daitya-dharma; asura-dharma; atyaniadharma; adharma)
(1.13,14,15; see also Vimalaprabhii 1.8.22: viparyasa-dharma). Islam's
theology of an omnipotent Creator who consigns men to heaven or hell
based on their pleasing or displeasing him is classed with the lowest of
Indian ideologies.
29
The Islamic belief that ar-RaJ:!man makes his
27. EI v.20b: "To the uneducated mass of Muslims ... as well as to the great mass of
non-Muslims, both of whom pay the greatest attention to formalities, abstention
from pork, together with circumcision, have even to a certain extent become the
criteria of Islam. The exaggerated estimation of the two precepts finds no support
in the law, for here they are on the same level with numerous other precepts, to
which the mass attaches less importance."
28. See, e.g., GANGULY 1979: 5-23. GANGULY (1979: 23) is no doubt correct that
"[Mal.Jmiid's] ruthless destruction of temples and images ... violated the most
sacred and cherished sentiments of the Indian people, and his championship of
Islam therefore merely served to degrade it in their eyes such as nothing else
could." Referring to expeditions of plunder such as those of Mal.Jmiid, WINK
(1990: 302) says, "The Turkish conquest of Northern India was, in the final
analysis, a goldrush ... " He also makes the important point that "the rhetoric of the
'holy war'" in Muslim conquest historiography tends to obscure the underlying
political and economic objectives of the Muslim invaders (WINK 1990: 196-201).
29. In the KaIacakra doxography Islamic dogma does not merit an independent
refutation (NEWMAN 1992: 227-28; GRONBOLD 1992). On the one hand, Islamic
creationism is covered by the standard Buddhist refutation of Isvara, V i ~ l ) . u or
Brahma as creator (see Srf Kalacakra 2;162; GRONBOW 1992: 287-88); on the
other, the Islamic doctrine that Allah punishes and rewards humans based on
their obedience to his law is passed over in silence. Also, Tayin beliefs are placed
in the same verse as those of the Lokayata, materialists whom the Buddhists
NEWMAN 327
followers cut off their foreskins in order to enter heaven is viewed as
exotic and bizarre.
The KaIacakra tantra represents Islam as a religion of violence (hirpsa-
dharma) that advocates savage behavior (raudra-karman) (1.6). It under-
stands the consecration in the name of Allah of animals to be slaughtered
as an animal sacrifice to the barbarian god, who is a merciless deity of
death (mara-devata) (1.1,5), a god of darkness (11.6) comparable to
Rahu, the demon who devours the sun and the moon (11.4). The texts
exhibit concern about the destructive raids of Tayin cavalry on the
Buddhist and non-Buddhist temples of India (11.4,6). The KaIacakra
tantra presents several strategies for dealing with the new Islamic
challenge.
Buddhist Strategies for Dealing with Islam
First, the tantra prohibits its own adherents from participating in the
barbarian religion. Second, it holds out the possibility of converting the
barbarians to Buddhism. Third, it uses the threat of Islam in anti-
brahman polemics. Finally, it prophesies a Buddhist holy war against
Islam .
. As an item in a list of twenty-five prohibited behaviors, the Srz
KaZacakra requires that initiates into this tantra refrain from practicing
Islarn (1.13). This contrasts starkly with the tantra's general attitude of
tolerance towards the performance of non-violent forms of tzrthika reli-
gious practice,3D and it no doubt derives from the tantra's perception of
Islam as being intrinsically contrary (taddharmavirodhi) (I.6) to the
Buddhist principle of non-violence.
While recognizing the violent tendencies of the barbarian Tayin, the
Kalacakra does not abandon them as being completely outside the range
of the Buddha's compassion. It asserts that with skillful means the
Buddha is able to wean the mlecchas away from their own crude dogma
about the person, and to convert them to the personalist doctrine of the
consider to be nihilists. I assume this is due to a perceived similarity between
Lokayata materialism and the Islamic doctrine that a person is inextricably
connected to his material body.
30. For example, Srr Kiilacakra 3.169 and Vimalaprabhii 3.5.169 allow the
Kalacakra initiate who understands reality to behave as a Buddhist, a Saiva, a
naked Paramah3.I!lsa, a a householder who has undergone brahmanical
initiation, a brahman, a Kapalika, a Jaina, an ordinary householder, a guard, a
silent hermit, a madman, a Kaula, a scholar, or a pupil.
JIABS 21.2 328
Buddhist V a i b h a ~ i k a school. Then, once they have heard the trapscen-
dent doctrine of the bodhisattVas, some barbarians can indeed eventually
go on to achieve the path of perfect buddhahood (Ll4).
Islam also appears in the Kalacakra in the context of Buddhist anti-
brahman polemics. The Vimalaprabha compares the practice of animal
sacrifice expounded in the Vedic tradition to the animal sacrifice of the
mlecchas, and concludes that they amount to the same thing in so far as
both depend on killing living beings. It then warns brahman followers of
the Veda that if they do not convert to Vajrayana Buddhism, their
descendants will eventually become barbarians. It says that since there is
no difference between the mleccha religion and the Vedic religion with
respect to animal sacrifice, when the brahmans see the power of the bar-
barians in war, and the might of the barbarian death-deity, they will
convert to the barbarian religion. Once the brahmans have converted, it
says, the other castes will follow (Ll; cf. 19; IV.1).
The Kalacakra texts also use Muslim marriage practices to poke fun at
brahman caste pretensions. To the brahman claim that their caste was
born from the mouth of Brahma (cf. lJ-g Veda 10.90.11-12
[O'FLAHERTY 1981: 31]; Manu 1.31 [DONIGER 1991: 6-7]), the
Buddhists reply that since female brahmans must originate from the
same source, it follows that the brahmans commit incest, just like the
mlecchas. This being the case, the brahmans degrade their caste, which
according to brahmanicallaw results in birth in hell (I.9; IV.1; cf. ll.3).
In retrospect we can see that defusing the barbarian threat by convert-
ing the mlecchas to Buddhism, or rallying Indians against foreign inva-
sion by converting brahmans to Buddhism, had little chance for success.
The Kalacakra tantra apparently recognizes this fact. Its primary
approach to dealing with Islam is to counter the actual jihad of the
Muslim invaders of South Asia with a prophetic apocalyptic myth of a
Buddhist holy war against Islam. This Buddhist crusade is given both an
exoteric and an esoteric interpretation, and we will consider each in
turn.
31
The Kalacakra tantra prophesies that in the future, in the last phase of
the current degenerate age (kali-yuga), the barbarians will dominate
southern Asia. All true religion will die out in the barbarian realm, and
only the mleccha dharma will flourish. The mlecchas will be ruled by
31. For previous treatments of this topic see NEWMAN 1985: 54-58,78-80; 1987b:
578-654; 1995; 1996: 486-87.
NEWMAN 329
their Mahdi named Kplmati,32 Finally, at the very end of the age, the
messianic Buddhist warrior-king KaIkin Raudra Cakrin - a reincarnation
of Mafijusd Yasas, the first Kalkin of Sambhala - will appear in the
Inner Asian land of Sambhala. This bodhisattva emperor will lead the
army of Sambhala in a righteous crusade against the barbarian army of
Makka, and in Baghdad the war will erupt with the forces of Sambhala
and the brahmanical gods on one side, the mlecchas and the demons on
the other. Having killed the barbarian Mahdi and utterly annihilated the
barbarian horde, Kalkin Cakrin will re-establish the Buddha Dharma,
and will reign over a new golden age of happiness, prosperity, and
righteousness.
33
So much for the exoteric version of the myth. As mentioned previ-
ously, the Kalacakra tantra is primarily a mystical system of soteriology.
In the esoteric interpretation the external war against the barbarians of
Makka is explained to be a mere illusion that Kalkin Cakrin will conjure
up to destroy the arrogance of the mlecchas:
At the tennination of the age, having seen the absolute anti-religion of the barbar-
ians, [Kalkin Cakrin] will become as still as a mountain. By means of the mental
concentration of the supreme horse, he will radiate limitless supreme horses that
32. Although it is not explicit in the tantra, I understand referred to in Srf
Kiilacakra 1.163 and 2.48, to be another name for MathanI, the MahdI referred to
in Sri Kiilacakra 1.154. Inthis I agree with HOFFMANN (1960: 98). MathanI is
the last of the prophesied Muslim teachers, and is the mleccha opponent
whom Kalkin Cakrin will slay at the end of the kaliyuga (see NEWMAN 1995:
288-89). Thus I assume the author of the tantra envisaged an apocalypse in
which the Buddhist KaIkin defeats the Muslim MahdI.
The verbal root krt means "to cut, cut off, divide, tear asunder, cut in pieces,
destroy" (APTE 1986: 598), and matiJ:t means, among other things, "intellect,
heart, thought, intention, inclination" (APTE 1986: 1224). Thus, krnmatiJ:t can be
interpreted as a "the intention to destroy." This accords well with
Vimalaprabhii 2.3.48d, comment on Srf Kiilacakra 2.48d: "the external Krnmati
is, in the body, the path of non-virtue that gives suffering" (yo biihye krnmatir
duJ:tkhadiitii akusalapatha iti dehe). Therefore, in the exoteric aspect of the
apocalypse Kalkin Cakrin, the Buddhist messiah, will thwart the MahdI's
intention to give further suffering to humankind. In the esoteric aspect of the
apocalypse, KaIkin Cakrin, i.e., adamantine mind (vajrin, cittavajra), destroys the
inclination towards evil that gives rise to samsaric suffering.
I suspect like most of the other names for Muslim prophets found in
the KaIacakra texts, is a pejorative transposition from an Arabic original, but I am
unable to determine the underlying Arabic.
33. This prophesy is a Buddhist adaptation of the myth of Kalki of
Sambhala, the prophesied avatiira see NEWMAN 1995.
JIABS 21.2 330
will dismay the barbarians, thus establishing them in his own Dharma. He will
eradicate their dharma, not kill them (US).
The actual war takes place within the human microcosm .. In the Kala-
cakra mysticism the war on the mlecchas serves as an allegory for the
personal transformation that is the main subject of the tantra. In this
interpretation the barbarian MahdI symbolizes the path of nonvirtue. The
mleccha army represents malice, ill-will, jealousy, and attachment. The
Buddhist Kalkin is the gnosis of bliss and emptiness, and the Buddhist
army stands for love, compassion, sympathy, and equanimity. Thus the
myth of the external Armageddon is an allegory for the inner war of the
spiritual path. The internal Buddhist jihad occurs when the gnosis actual-
ized by the Kalacakra yoga destroys nescience and produces the golden
age of enlightenment.3
4
The dual use of the Buddhist holy war against Islam exemplifies the
basic structure of the Kalacakra tantra. In the macrocosm the prophesy
of the destruction of the barbarians represents an apocalyptic revelation
of the future of the world. In the microcosm the eradication of personal
barbarism - ignorance and vice - ushers in a new age of enlightenment.
Thus, in the Kalacakra the myth of the defeat of evil illustrates both the
prophesied end of the world and the ultimate destiny of a human being.
Conclusion
The Kalacakra tantra's depiction of Islam can only be understood by
placing it in its historical context. As al-BIriinI reports, Mal).illud of
GhaznI's raids into northwestern India during the early decades of the
11 th century must have engendered "the most inveterate. aversion to-
wards all Muslims" in the minds of many Indians. Mal).mud's wide-
34. Among the meanings of Qiihad is "an effort directed upon oneself for the
attainment of moral and religious perfection. Certain writers, particularly among
those of Shl'ite persuasion, qualify this .Qiihad as 'spiritual.Qiihad' and as 'the
greater .Qiihad', in opposition to the .Qiihad [of military action] which is called
'physical.Qiihad' or 'the lesser .Qiihad.' It is, however, very much more usual for
the term Qjihad to denote this latter form of "effort'" (EI ii.538a).
The notion of 'holy war' is fundamentally alien to Buddhist doctrine, but the
Kalacakra's mythic eschatology is a product of indigenous Indian thought rather
than a borrowing from Islam. The exoteric myth of the Buddhist Kalkins of
Sambhala is clearly drawn from the tradition, and the internalized
version of this myth is, I believe, a vision original to the author the Kalacakra
tantra. It is nonetheless ironic that Buddhists adopted the idea of holy war from
Hinduism in response to the religiously justified military aggression of Muslims.
NEWMAN 331
spread looting and destruction of major temples and pilgrimage centers
in the name of Islam no doubt led some Indians to associate Islam with
barbaric violence, iconoclasm, and religious persecution .
. The authors of the KaIacakra tantra responded to the new Islamic
presence by investigating it and interpreting it in their own cultural and
religious categories. We should first note the factuality with which the
Kalacakra tantra depicts Islamic beliefs and practices. There is no
discernible attempt to portray Muslims as monsters by falsifying or
distorting their ideology and behavior. On the contrary, the texts even
report that the barbarians are truthful, clean, honest, and chaste.
Although the authors clearly found Islam to be exotic and evil, they
appear to have faithfully recorded their observations of it. Indeed, it is
quite remarkable that in terms of comprehensiveness, detail, and accu-
racy the Kalacakra's representation of Islam is superior to the sum total
of pre-modem Muslim knowledge of Buddhism.
35
This relatively com-
plete and accurate portrayal of Islam in the KaIacakra tantra leads us to
assume that its authors had fairly extensive direct contact with Muslims.
The KaIacakra account of Islamic theology and Muslim refutations of
Buddhist dogma even conjures up an image of a Buddhist-Muslim doc-
trinal discussion.
However, the authors of the Kalacakra tantra were not ethnographers
dispassionately studying an alien culture, they were Indian Vajrayana
Buddhist mystics who perceived Islam to be a mortal threat to their own
tradition. We can understand the mythology of the Kalacakra tantra as a
classic example of a "crisis cult."36 Crisis cults form when religious
traditions confronted with real crises respond by creating myth to inter-
pret and cope with their predicaments. Apocalyptic eschatology and
millenarian messianism are hallmarks of crisis cults. As we have seen,
Islam appears in the Kalacakra tantra in Buddhist prophecies depicting
the end of the current age of degeneration, the kaliyuga. In fact the
tantra as a whole is a "yoga for the liberation of men at the time of the
kaliyuga."37 The idea that the kaliyuga is characterized by the advent of
mleccha rulers and mleccha-dharma has a long history in brahmanical
35. For pre-modem Muslim treatments of Buddhism see SACHAU 1989: 1. xlv-xlvii,
1.8 (II.253-54), 1.21 (II.261); GIMARET 1969; SMITH 1973; LAWRENCE 1976:
42-43,100-14.
36. On crisis cults, see LA BARRE 1970.
37. Srf Kalacakra 1.Id: yogaI'{! srfktilacakre kaliyugasamaye muktihetor nara1}am.
JIABS 21.2 332
religious literature.
38
The of the KaIacakra tantra appropriate
this brahmanical mythic topos, make it Buddhist by placing It in the
mouth of the Buddha, and use it to explain their situation:
the Muslim invaders are naturally identified as the mlecchas of the
kaliyuga, and Islam, of CO"!ll"se, is the mleccha-dharma of this age of
decadence. Also, the appearance of Islam is not understood in. mere
human terms; instead it is viewed as an apocalyptic irruption of evil, a
demonic anti-religion that threatens to entirely eclipse the Buddha
Dharma.3
9
In response to this threat the KaIacakra tantra prophesies an
eschatology in which a Buddhist messiah will use magical means to
purify the world of Islam, thereby instituting a new age of perfection.
Furthermore, the Islamic incursion into India is not treated as a unique
historical event. It is depicted as the current instance of a phase that
repeats regularly in the never-ending cycle of time: at the end of every
age men become barbarians,and the Buddhist messiah returns to free the
world from barbarism (II.6). Thus the Kalacakra's representation of
Islam can be viewed as an example of the tendency in classical Indian
religions to represent historical events in mythic, trans-historical terms.
In the introduction to his monumental al-Hind, al-BIriinI displays a
scientific attitude toward the Indian Other:
This book is not a polemical one. I shall not produce the arguments of our antag-
onists in order to refute such of them as I believe to be wrong. My book is
nothing but a simple historic record offacts (SACRAU 1989: 7, emphasis in the
original).
AI-BIriinI could relax in the knowledge that he belonged to the cultural
elite of the strongest state in his region, and to a rapidly expanding reli-
gious tradition that had recently come to dominate much of the known
world. The authors of the KaIacakra tantra - al-BIriinI's contemporaries
- were of course on the other side of this epoch-making clash of civi-
38. Designating the social and religious practices of foreign invaders as mleccha-
dharma is an old trope drawn from the Mahiibhiirata and the Puriir;.as that is
closely associated with the myth of the Kalki avatiira (see, e.g.,
TRAP AR 1971: 421). The KaIacakra tantra seems to be the earliest instance of the
application of this concept to Islam.
39. The Kalacakra appears to be the earliest example of a tendency that continued
throughout medieval times in India. See TALBOT 1995: 695-99, "The Muslim as
Demonic Barbarian," especially p. 699: " ... Muslims were demonized, that is,
represented as being like the demons of ancient myth who engaged in endless
battle against the forces of good."
NEWMAN 333
lizations; they perceived themselves as members of a culture under
attack. This being so, it is not surprising that they take a less 'scientific'
attitude toward the barbarians at the gate, and resort to the mythic demo-
nization that provides a context for their account of Islam. In any case
we must credit the authors of the Kalacakra tantra with a remarkable
degree of prescience. Less than two hundred years after the revelation of
the Kalacakra, Muslim Turks swept over the Gangetic plain and devas-
tated the major centers of Buddhist learning, irrevocably altering the fate
of Buddhism in the land of its birth.
Appendix: Arabic Loanwords in the KCilacakra Tantra
Arabic Sanskrit Tibetan English References
bismillah v i ~ a v i m l a bi ~ i mi lla / "in the name of I.1;Ill.l
("withered by bi si bi lla Allah"
poison")
Makka makha makha Mecca 1.2,5; IT.3,6
Arabic: Tayyi' tayin (= tajika) stag gzig 1.2,3,7,10;
PahlavI: Tazfg IT.l,4,7; IV.2
Muftammad madhumatf sbrali rtsi'i blo Muhammad 1.3; IT.2,6
("wino") grosl
madhuma ti
madhupati sbrali rtsi'i blo 1.5
("wine- gros [sic]
master")
ar-Ral:zman rahmalJ rahma lJa "Beneficent 1.3,7,10
One"
Baghdad vagada ("giver bii ga da Baghdad 1.4,5
of speech")
Adam arda a dra [sic] Adam 1.5
Nul:z
nogha a no gha [sic] Noah 1.5
Ibrahfm varahf phag [dan Abraham 1.5
("swineherd")
Musa m u ~ a byiba Moses 1.5
("mouse")
'lsa !Sa ("lord") dbalipo Jesus 1.5
al-Mahdf mathanf 'joms byed theMahdi 1.5
("destroyer")
JIABS 21.2 334
PART 2: TRANSLATIONS
1.1. [Vimalaprabhii 1.3. This passage is a portion of a lectUre Yasas, the
first Kalkin of Sambhala, delivered to Sl1ryaratha, leader of the brahman
sages of Sambhala. For a translation of the entire lecture see NEWMAN
1985: 59-63; 1987b: 304-14.]
"[Sl1ryaratha, you and the other brahman sages must be initiated into the
Kalacakra, and eat, drink and form marriage relations with the vajra
family (vajrakulam) of the Vajrayana.] Otherwise, after eight hundred
years have elapsed your descendants will engage in the barbarian dharma
and will teach the barbarian dharma in the ninety-six great lands of
Sambhala and so forth. Using the mantra of the barbarian deity
Bismillah,40 they will slit the throats of animals with cleavers. Then they
will prescribe eating the flesh of those beasts killed with the mantra of
their own deity, and will prohibit eating the flesh of those that die due to
their own karma. That very dharma is authoritative for you [brahman
sages] because of the statement in the smrti: 'Beasts are created for
sacrifice' (Manusmrti 5.39a). With regard to killing there is no differ-
ence between the barbarian dharma and the Vedic dharma.
"Therefore, your descendents will see the valor of those barbarians and
the incarnation of their death deity (miiradevatiivatiiram) in battle, and
in the future, after eight hundred years have elapsed, they will become
barbarians. Once they have become barbarians, everyone dwelling in the
nine-hundred-and-sixty million villages [in Sambhala, etc.], the four
castes and so forth, will also become barbarians. For the brahman sages
say: 'Where the great man goes, that is the path' (Mahiibhiirata 3.297;
appendix p. 1089, 1. 68).
"In the barbarian dharma as well as in the Vedic dharma one must kill
for the sake of the deities and the ancestors, and the same is true in the
dharma of the kshatriyas. For the brahman sages say: 'Having satisfied
the ancestors and the gods, there is no fault in eating flesh' (Yiijiia-
valkyasmrti 1.5.l78cd); and likewise: 'I see no fault in one who would
40. "In the name of Allah." VP (S) B: v i ~ a v i m l i l ; VP (S) U: v i ~ a v i l v i l (MSS do not
distinguish ba and va); VP (T): bi ~ i mi lla; annotation to VP (T): "Ma [i.e., rMa
dGe ba'i blo gros's translation of the Vimalaprabhil] says, bi smin ra ma lhaT;
SvadarsanamatoddeSa [section (ill. 1) below]: bi si bi lla. Cf. HOFFMANN 1969:
62, 64-65; GRONBOLD 1992: 280, n. 26.
NEWMAN 335
do ill t6 a vicious [beast]' [quotation unidentified].
"Thus, holding the Vedic dharma to be authoritative, they will adopt
the barbarian dharma. For this reason, so that in the future you will not
enter the barbarian dharma, I give you this precept. Therefore, you
venerable sirs' must obey my command [to take initiation into the Kiila-
cakra]."
1.2. [Srf Kalacakra 1.26 and Vimalaprabhii 1.9.26.]
Now I will explain "from the first year" and so forth, with which the
Tathagata prophesied the appearance of Mafijusrl in the land of
Sambhala, the corruption of the astronomical siddhantas
siddhiinta) due to the appearance of the barbarian dharma, and the intro-
duction of the laghukara1}a.
Srf Kalacakra 1.26
Six hundred years from the first year, king Yasa will clearly appear in the [land]
called 'SambhaIa.' Nag; [8] hundred years after that, the barbarian dharma will
definitely appear in the land of Makka. At that time people on earth should know
the clear laghukarar:za. The corruption of the siddhantas on the entire surface of
the earth will occur in the yoga of time. II
Regarding, "Six hundred years from the first year, king Yasa will clear-
ly appear in [the land] called 'Sambhala''': "The first" is the year the
Tathagata taught the Dharma. Six hundred years from that year - "Yasa"
is the reading in the text,41 i.e., the great Yasas - MafijusrI, "will clearly
appear" in the land named Sambhala north of the SIta River.
42
This
means "[MafijusrI] will take up an emanation body [and appear as king
Yasas]."
"Nag a [8] hundred years after that," refers to [eight hundred years]
after Yasas' nirvana. "Naga," i.e., in eight hundred years, "definitely,"
i.e., certainly, the barbarian dharma will appear in the land of Makka.
The demonic dharma of the barbarian Tayin will appear in the land of
Makka [- the land of the Muslims (sog yul)43 -] endowed with ten
41. That is, "yasa" in the text of the tantra lacks a case ending. On irregular grammar
in the early Kalacakra literature, see NEWMAN 1988.
42. The SUa River can be identified as the Tarim River in Eastern Turkestan, and
SambhaIa corresponds to the region north of the Tian Shan; see NEWMAN 1996:
487.
43. The Tibetan ethnonym. sog po was applied to various peoples at different times
(see HOFFMANN 1971, especially pp. 442-43). The itinerary of Urgyan pa (13th
cent.) edited and translated by Tucci explicitly gives "Muslim" as a synonym. for
JIABS 21.2 336
million villages, south of the Smi [River]. At that time of the barbarians,
people on the earth should know the clear laghukaralJ-a.
44
.
Regarding, "the corruption of the siddhiintas": The Brah1}1a, Sauram,
Yamanakam [= Yavana?; gcer bu pa rnams], and Romakam (sgra gcan)
are the siddhiintas.
45
The corruption of these four is the corruption of
the siddhiintas.
Regarding, "on the entire earth-surface": 'Entire' refers to everywhere
on the surface of the earth south of the SUa that the tfrthika siddhiintas
decline - there on the surface of the earth. It is not the case that the
Buddhist siddhiinta in the lands of Sambhala and so forth will be
corrupted.
Regarding, "will occur in the yoga of time": The yoga of time is the
barbarian dharma. The joining (yoga; sbyor ba) of that with the
[tfrthika] siddhiintas is the yoga of time - it will occur due to that yoga
of time.
46
Regarding, "in the yoga of time": [It should be in the ablative
case, i.e., "due to," and the locative case, i.e., "in," is used. Thus,] the
locative case is used for the ablative case.
47
[Thus, the meaning is "due
to the yoga of time."]
1.3 [Srf Kiilacakra 1.27a and Vimalaprabhii 1.9.27a. This passage estab-
lishes the astronomical epoch of the KaIacakra laghukaralJ-a. For a study
sog po: la La na hin dhu ies pa rgya gar pa yod ILa fa na mu sur man ies pa sog
po yod (TUCCI 1940: 94); "In some places there are 'Hindus,' Indians. In some
places there are 'Mussulmans,' sog po" (cf. TUCCI's interpretation on p.45).
Here and elsewhere in Eu ston's annotations to VP (T) I believe the translation
"Muslim" is called for.
44. "Siddhiintas are comprehensive treatises deducing mean motions from the
beginning of the Kalpa or the current Kaliyuga; karalJas are more concise
expositions of astronomy in which the mean longitudes for a time close to the
date of composition are given, and the mean . longitudes at later times are
computed therefrom ... " (PINGREE 1981: 13-14).
45. Vimalaprabhii 1.9.86 [VP (S) U I.118; VP (S) T 552], commenting on Srf
KiiLacakra 1.86, repeats this list. For these siddhiintas see PINGREE 1981: 11,
13-l7,21-26.
46. PINGREE (1981:30; cf. p. 34) says: "The influence of Islamic Ptolemaic theory
upon Indian astronomy can be traced back to Mufijlila in the tenth century ... " The
Kalacakra astronomy presents itself as a reaction against mleccha "corruption" of
the trrthika siddhantas (NEWMAN 1987b: 531-38).
47. See NEWMAN 1988:130.
NEWMAN 337
of the Indian, Tibetan, and Western interpretations of this see NEWMAN
1998.]
Now the laghukaral}a [of the Srf Kiilacakra] is discussed: "Add ... to
fire [3] sky [0] ocean [4]."48
Srl KaIacakra 1.27a
Add the expired prabhava year to fIre [3] sky [0] ocean [4] - this establishes the
[expired] year of the barbarian.
The epoch (dhruvaka; lies pa) in the [Srf Kiilacakra] King of Tantra is
transient because the epoch is reset at the end of the sexagenary cycle.
The epoch in the karafJa - the era of [Kalkin] MafijusrI [Yasas] - is
six hundred years after the era of the Tathagata. The era of the barbarian
is eight hundred years after that. The era of KaJkin Aja - the Aja who
corrected the laghukarafJa - is one hundred and eighty-two years prior
to that era of the barbarian. That very era [of Aja] is the epoch in the
karal}a, [caJculated] from the barbarian year.
Regarding "the expired prabhava year": Prabhava is the beginning -
i.e., the first - of the sexagenary cycle that begins with prabhava. The
year preceding the particular current year among these is the expired
prabhava year. Adding [the numerical vaJue of its position in the sexa-
genary cycle] to the quantity four hundred and three establishes the
[expired] barbarian year. Having made one year the first, adding up to
sixty years produces the expired prabhava year. That very [expired
prabhava] year is established in aJl the other karal}as, like Sunday and
the other days of the week. Adding that to the quantity four hundred and
three years establishes the [expired] barbarian year. The barbarian is
Mul:).ammad, the incarnation of ar-Ral:).man, the teacher of the barbarian
dharma, the guru and leader of the barbarian Tayin (mleccho madhumatf
rahmafJiivatiiro mlecchadharmadeako mlecchiiniirp. tiiyiniirp. guru!;
sviiml).
48. vahnau khe 'bdhau; me mkha' rgya mtsho. "Fire [3] sky [0] ocean [4]" are
"number symbols" (Tib. grangs brda). PINGREE (1981: 1) gives the Sanskrit as
bhutasmikhya, and explains that they are "common objects that appear or are
understood to appear in the world in fIxed quantities [used] as synonyms for
those quantities." In combination the symbols are read right-to-Ieft; thus, the
above example symbolizes the number 403. See SK (S) B, appendix, for a list of
these terms used in the KaIacakra corpus.
nABS 21.2 338
1.4. [Srf Kiilacakra 1.89d and Vtmalaprabha 1.9.89d.]
[(Srf Kiilacakra 1.89d:) Atthe end of the kaliyuga] a fierce war will
occur on earth between the gods and the demons. ,
[(Vimalaprabhii 1.9.89d:) At the end of the kaliyuga] a fierce war will
occur on earth in the city of Baghdad (viigadii) between the gods and the
demons - the barbarians.
1.5. [Srf Kiilacakra 1.154-155. For a translation and analysis of Srf
Kiilacakra 1.150-170 see NEWMAN 1987b: 578-654; for a translation
and discussion of Srf Kiilacakra 1.154-165 see NEWMAN 1995.]
SrI Kiilacakra 1.154
Adam, Niil;1, and ibrahIm [are the first three barbarian teachers]; there are also
five others whose nature is tamas in the family of demonic snakes: Milsa, 'Isa,
the White-Clad One, MU);J.ammad, and the MahdI, who will be the eighth - he
will belong to the darkness. The seventh will clearly be born in the city of
Baghdad in the land of Makka, where the demonic incarnation - the mighty,
merciless idol of the barbarians -lives in the world.!1
SrI Kiilacakra 1.155
[The barbarians] kill camels, horses, and cattle, and briefly cook the flesh together
with blood. They cook beef and amniotic fluid with butter and spice, rice mixed
with vegetables, and forest fruit, all at once on the fire. Men eat that, 0 king, and
drink bird eggs, in the place of the demon [barbarians].11
1.6. [Srf Kiilacakra 2.98-99 and Vimalaprabha 2.5.98-99.]
Now "Knowledge" etc., states the times knowledge Uriiina; ye ses) arises
for Buddhists and demonic barbarians:
Srf Kiilacakra 2.98
Knowledge arises for the Jinas in the sun, at daytime, at midnight [or] at day-
break. It arises for demons in the moon, at nightime, in the middle of the day [ or]
at the disappearance of the day. Those having correct and deceptive knowledge
speak Sanskrit and Prakrit. Their actions in the three existences are peaceful and
violent, heroic and vulgar. II
Here, indeed, there are three types of yogic practice: Buddhist, demonic,
and ghostly. With regard to that, Buddhist yoga consists of emptiness
and compassion; demonic [barbarian yoga is] an imaginary dharma.
Ghostly [tfrthika yogic practice] is of two types: etemalist and annihila-
tionist. Likewise, there are three types of yogi, in accordance with their
different yogic practices. Among them, knowledge arises for Buddhist
NEWMAN 339
yogis in'the daytime. Knowledge arises for demonic yogis in the night-
time, and for ghostly yogis in the time other than [those] four watches.
With regard to the allotments of time: "Knowledge arises for the Jinas
iIi the sun, at daytime, at midnight [or] at daybreak. It arises for demons
in the moon, at nighttime, at midday [or] at the disappearance of the
day." Since the ghosts are not mentioned [explicitly in the tantra,
knowledge arises for them] in the time other than those watches.
The empowerment of knowledge occurs for Buddhists at midnight or
at daybreak. [Thus, the Buddha achieved buddhahood at dawn.] The
empowerment of knowledge occurs for demons at midday or sundown.
It occurs for ghosts in the other four watches: in daytime the empower-
ment of eternalist knowledge, in nighttime the empowerment of annihi-
lationist knowledge. With regard to the Buddhists and demons,
Buddhists have correct knowledge, and demons have deceptive
[knowledge] which is contrary to that [Buddhist] Dharma. Correct
knowledge, like day vision, sees everything. Deceptive knowledge, like
night vision, sees only a bit of the lives and deaths of sentient beings.
How does one know that? - from [the truth and falsehood] of their
dharma teachings.
With regard to, "Those having correct and deceptive knowledge speak
Sanskrit and Prakrit": Those who have acquired correct knowledge
speak Sanskrit, which consists of all utterances. Those who have
acquired deceptive knowledge speak Prakrit because [their] teachers use
the language of a single land.
49
The knowledge of the Buddhists teaches
peaceful karma - it consists of compassion for all sentient beings. The
knowledge of the demons teaches violent karma - it harms animals for
meat-eating. In the three existences the knowledge of the Buddhists
teaches heroic karma. On earth the knowledge of the demons teaches
vulgar karma. On earth [the knowledge] of the ghosts teaches mixed
karma. This is the instruction that teaches knowledge. 119811
Now "From midday" etc., states the mealtimes of the Buddhists and
the demons:
49. Compare this passage with PuJ}.9arlka'S statement elsewhere in the Vimalaprabhii
that the Buddha uses the omniscient language that consists of
the utterances of all sentient beings, in contrast to the parochial (priiddika)
Sanskrit language of the tfrthikas, which is tied up with birth as a god (NEWMAN
1988: 129-30). I assume the 'Prakrit of the demon barbarians' refers to Arabic.
JIABS 21.2 340
Srf Kiilacakra 2.99
From midday to midriight, at day and at night, are the times they eat. Their foods
are cooked rice and beef; their drinks are flavorful mixtures and the fluid of eggs.
Their clothes are red and white. Like the paths of the sun and the moon, their
abodes are heaven and the underworld. Their dharmas are non-violent and
violent. In accordance with the precepts of their gurus, their sitting postures are
the adamantine and the demonic. 119911
Each day from midday [backwards] through to midnight is daytime.
From midnight [backwards] until midday is nighttime. The mealtimes of
Buddhist and barbarian ascetics are in those day- and nighttimes, in the
latter half of their respective periods; for householders there is no
precept. With regard to the food
50
and drink of the Buddhists and
demons: Buddhists eat superior cooked rice, and the barbarian diet
includes beef. Buddhists drink delicious, flavorful mixtures, and the
barbarians drink the fluid of the eggs of fowl and so forth. Buddhists
wear red cloth, and the barbarians wear white; this applies to ascetics,
for householders there is no precept.
Likewise, after death their abodes are "like the paths of the sun and the
moon" - the sun ascends and the moon descends. Like their paths,
heaven, the path of the sun, is for the Buddhists, and the underworld -
like the path of the moon - is for the demons. Likewise, the Bhagavan
[Buddha] said in the Sekoddda of the basic tantra:
When all living beings die, the moon-nectar goes below, the sun-menses goes
above, and Rahu-consciousness takes on the characteristic of rebirth. II (Sekoddefa
86)51
Likewise, their dharmas are as follows: the dharma of the Buddhists is
non-violent, that of the barbarians is violent. The word "and" [in the
tantra indicates that the dharma] of the ghosts [is violent also].
In accordance with the precepts of their gurus, when they meditate and
when they praise their chosen deities the adamantine sitting posture is
commended for Buddhists and the demonic sitting posture is com-
mended for barbarians. The word "and" [in the tantra] indicates that at
other [times they are] equal, neither prescribed nor prohibited. Here is
50. khiinam; bza' ba. See also Vimalaprabhii 1.3 (VP (S) U 1.27.13): khiinapiinam.
I am grateful to Richard SALOMON for drawing my attention to this word, which
is standard in Hindi but unusual in Sanskrit.
51. This verse alludes to the tantric doctrine that at death a person's natal semen and
blood - the zygote obtained from one's father and mother - separates, with the
semen exiting through the genitals and the blood exiting through the nose.
NEWMAN 341
the demonic sitting posture: On the ground extend the left knee; on top
of the left foot is the right foot. The word "and" [in the tantra] indicates
that underneath [oneself] the right foot is on top of the sole of the left
foot. The word "and" also indicates one is sitting back on one's
buttocks. The adamantine sitting posture, etc., will be explained later [in
the tantra; see (I.12) below]. This is the instruction on the practices of
the Buddhists and the demons. 119911 .
1.7. [Srf Kiilacakra 2.158cd and Vimalaprabhii 2.7.158cd. For previous
study of this passage see NEWMAN 1987b: 606-7; GRONBOLD 1992:
277-78, 284.]
Now "The Creator" and so forth states the beliefs of the barbarian
Tayin.
SrI Kalacakra 2.158cd
The Creator creates all mobile and immobile things for the enjoyment of the
Tayin. Men certainly attain heaven by satisfying him. That is the doctrine of ar-
Ra1;unan.1I
The Creator ar-Ral:).man creates all mobile - animate, and immobile -
inanimate, things for the enjoyment of the "Tayin" - the white-clad bar-
barians. Men certainly attain heaven by satisfying ar-Ral:).man; they attain
hell by not satisfying him. That is the doctrine of ar-Ral:).man; [the bar-
barian] practices were stated above [in Srf Kiilacakra 2.98-99; see (1.6)].
This is the instruction on the beliefs of the Tayin.
1.8. [Vimalaprabhii 2.7.160b, comment on Srf Kiilacakra 2.160b. See
GRONBOLD 1992: 275-76,286.]
Furthermore, the [brahmanical] scriptures claim: "When the Veda is
nonexistent, when the barbarians have eradicated the Vedic dharma, then
[Srf Kiilacakra 2.160b:] 'Brahma, with his four mouths, will proclaim
the meaning with the ancient word ofthe Veda,' by reciting 'Indra be-
came a beast,' etc." Thus it is proven that the meaning is different than
the Veda.
1.9. [Vimalaprabhii 2.7.161, comment on Srf Kiilacakra 2.161.]
Furthermore, [the brahmans] claim it is true that brahmans are born
from the mouth of Brahma. Thus I ask, "Are female brahmans also born
from that?" If so, then they are [the brahmans'] sisters because they
originate from the same womb. The same is true for the kshatriyas and
so forth. How could one marry one's sister? If one did one would adopt
JIABS 21.2 342
the barbarian dharma. By adopting the barbarian dharma one's ~ a c e is
degraded. By degrading one's race one goes to hell. That is the [brah-
manical] law.
1.10 [Srf Kiilacakra 2.168 and Vimalaprabhii 2.7.168.]
Now, "A living being," etc., states a [Tayin] refutation [of the doctrine
that one] experiences [the results of] previous karma [in the present life]
and accumulates present karma [for the future]:
Srf Ktilacakra 2.168
[Buddhists claim:] A living being experiences previously created karmas [in the
present life], and [the karmas created] in the present in another life. [The Tayin
reply:] If this were so, men could not destroy karma because of [their] repeated
other lives. There would be no exit from samsara, and no entrance to liberation,
because of limitless existences. The rejection of other lives is indeed the belief of
the Tayin.
[The Tayin] believe [the Buddhist doctrine that] a living being experi-
ences previously created karmas [in this life], and [the karmas] created
in this life in another life [is false]. If such were the case, [they say,]
men could not destroy karma because they would experience the results
of karma in repeated other lives. Thus there would be no exit from
samsara, and no entrance to liberation, because of limitless existences.
That is indeed the belief of the Tayin. However, [the tantra] says, "the
rejection of other lives." The barbarian Tayin believe that a dead man
experiences happiness or suffering in heaven or hell with that human
body in accordance with ar-Ral).man's law. Thus, the rejection of other
lives is [their] precept. 1116811
1.11. [Vimalaprabhii 3.1.3. This verse is part of a discussion that asserts
the superiority of monk vajriiciiryas over house-holder vajriiciiryas.]
Just as sinners get angry when they see a red-clad [monk], Buddhists
fond of white-clad [lay vajracaryas] are enamored of the barbarian
dharma.11
1.12. [Vimalaprabha 3.1.19c; comment on Srf Kiilacakra 3.19c. This
passage appears in a section describing the postures used when perform-
ing the eight magical rites.]
"Demon" refers to the demonic sitting posture. For [the magical rite of]
killing [one sits in] the demonic sitting posture, [with limbs drawn in]
like the retracted legs of a tortoise.
NEWMAN 343
1.13. [SrI Kiilacakra 3.94ab and Vimalaprabhii 3.4.94ab; see also
Paramiirthasarrzgraha p. 16; GNOLI and OROFINO 1994: 172.]
[An initiate of the Kalacakra tantra] may not follow ... the dharma of
the lord of the demons.
[An initiate of the Kalacakra tantra] may not follow the demonic
dharma, i.e., the barbarian dharma.
1.14. [Vimalaprabhii 5.3 (comment on Srf Kiilacakra 5.58).]
From beginningless time sentient beings have been tfrthikas, fond of the
dharmas of the gods, ghosts, and demons, deprived of the path of the
Omniscient [Buddha], observing [the brahmanicallaw of] four castes or
[the Muslim law of] one caste, craving enjoyment of a heavenly reward,
proponents of a Creator and a Self.
Among them, the proponents of [Vedic] scriptural authority observe
the dharma of the gods and the manes; they are proponents of a God, a
Self, and casteism.
The barbarians observe the demonic dharma; they are proponents of a
Creator, a soul, and are free of casteism. The barbarians have two
dogmas: the dogma of [the body being] an aggregation of particles, and
the dogma of an epiphenomenal person. They believe: "If there is no
epiphenomenal person (upapattyaJigika-pudgala) dwelling within the
physical body that is composed of an aggregation of particles, then who
takes up another body when the body consisting of an aggregation of
particles is destroyed? Thus, there is a spontaneously generated person
(upapiiduka-pudgala). That proves that the heavenly reward is the re-
ward of nirvana - there is no so-called 'nirvana' other than the heavenly
reward."
When [the barbarians] ask about reality, the Bhagavan [Buddha] who
knows reality, knowing their own beliefs, says [in the Bhiirahiira-siitra]:
"There is a person who bears the burden; I do not say it is permanent, I
do not say it is impermanent."52 That is indeed true, because it is the
statement of the Bhagavan; one is unable to say that the person [who is a
product of] mental propensities in the dream state is impermanent or
permanent. Due to this statement of the Tathagata, [the barbarians]
abandon the barbarian dharma and become Buddhist
52. This quotation is cited in Prakrit; likewise at VP (S) U 1266.9-10; in Sanskrit at
VP (S) U 1.54.3-4, trans. NEWMAN 1987: 422. Bu ston's annotation identifies it
as coming from the Bharahara-sutra (Khur khur ba'i mdo), on which see
PRUDEN 1991: 1367, n. 71.
JIABS 21.2 344
Furthermore, some hear the transcendental Dharma being taught to the
bodhisattvas, abandon the dogma of a person, and resort to the path of
the true, perfect Buddha.
1.15. [VimaZaprabhii 5.3.J
At the termination of the age [Kalkin Cakrin] will see the absolute anti-
religion of the barbarians. He will become as still as a mountain. With
the meditative concentration of the supreme horse he will radiate
numberless supreme horses that will dismay the barbarians, thus estab-
lishing them in his own Dharma. He will eradicate their dharma, not kill
them.
11.1. [Srf-KaZacakra-tantrottara- Tantrahrdaya-nama.J
... the Tayin who vow to eat flesh ...
11.2. [Srf-KaZacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-nama.J
... furthermore, Mul:).ammad (*madhumatf; ma dhu ma ti), the lord of
the goblins (*rak:jasendra; srin po'i dban po), will appear.
11.3. [Srf- KaZacakra -tantrottara -Tantrahrdaya -nama.]
... also, in Makka one's own son takes one's brother's daughter [in
marriage].
11.4. [Srf-Kiilacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-nama.]
The cavalry of the Tayin, engaged in war, will entirely destroy shrines
(*devaZaya; lha rten) that display buddhas, bhairavas, men, women, and
snakes. They belong to a single caste, and do not take [each] other's
property; they speak the truth and practice hygiene. Their youths avoid
others' wives, and upholding the precepts of asceticism, they resort to
their own wives.
On earth and in heaven the lord of darkness (*tamasvfndra; mun can
dban po) only protects those Tayin and tfrthikas who, having washed,
prostrate to the worshipped Rahu (*i:j!arahu; 'dod pa'i sgra gcan) five
times each day at noon, afternoon, evening, night, and sunrise.
In fierce battles [heJ protects [them] like a father [protecting his] sons
and servants. Since the kshatriyas will not fight, [the TayinJ king,
having worshipped the terrifying [deityJ with the flesh of birds and
beasts, will cut off [the kshatriyaJ lineages by harming various sentient
beings and pillaging others' wealth.
NEWMAN 345
IT.S. [Srr-Kiilacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-niima.]
o Siirya,53 in the future when the seed of Brahman [- *brahmabijam;
tshans pa'i sa bon; i.e., the syllable O representing the Veda, or else
the brahman race -] is about to be destroyed, if one worships the earth-
protector [Kalkin Raudra Cakrin] the barbarians and tfrthikas will be
destroyed in battle.
IT.6. [SrI-Kalacakra-tantrottara-Tantrabrdaya-nama.]
In the future the descendents, relatives, and men of the lord of the bar-
barians MuJ;mmmad (*madhumatf; ma dhu ma ti) will destroy sixty-eight
temples of the sacred sites (*sthiinam; gnas) and pilgrimage places
tin) on earth.
In eighteen hundred [?] years, in Makka (*makha; ma kha), etc., [and
in India,] the land of the Aryans, I [KaIkin Yasas, having reincarnated as
Kalkin Raudra Cakrin,] will annihilate the barbarians and the god of
darkness (*tamasvin; mun can) whom they imagine to be the sun.
o Siirya, I will place living beings in happiness by establishing them
in [the Dharma] through the rite of the three refuges in the Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha. Then I will go from Kalapa [in Sambhala] to
the supreme abode of the gods.
When XXXXXXX54 years have elapsed, men will again become bar-
barians for eighteen hundred [?] years. Again and again I will appear in
that kaliyuga to destroy them.
IT.7. [Srf-Kiilacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-niima.]
I have taught about ... the Tayin ...
ITI.t. [Svadarsanamatoddda]
... the thing to be held and the holder, the thing to be killed and the
killer, for the mantra of Bismillah bi si bi lla), Vigm and
Bhairava protect.
53. The Tantrahrdaya, like the Srr Kalacakra, is buddhavacanam, but it was
redacted by Yasas, the first Kalkin of Sambhala. In this passage Yasas addresses
Siiryaratha, leader of the brahman sages of Sambhala.
54. nam mkha' mkha' dan dus dan dban po mig gis dus kyi dus. I am unable to
decipher this number. Tibetan dus could stand for Sanskrit kala (3), yuga (4), or
rtu (6); see SK (S) B, p. 267, appendix 1.
JIABS 21.2 346
III.2. [Svadarsanamatodde.a]
North of the [Himalaya] snow mountains the kings in Tibet and so forth
eat cattle. To the west [of India] the barbarian kings kill cattle and birds
(*dvija; gfiis skyes) as well. '
IV.1. [Srf-Paramiirthasevii]
(1) If you assert (*kila; grags pa na) that brahmans are born from the
mouth of Brahma, then are female brahmans also born from that very
place? If both are born from the same womb, then it is unlawful for
[such] brothers and sisters to marry. (2) If they do, they become barbar-
ian people. If they become barbarians, it degrades their caste. If they
destroy their caste, [they experience] fierce suffering in hell. This
obtains for those [brahmans] because they are attached to their own
caste.
IV.2. [Srf-Paramiirthasevii]
(1) Others, for happiness in heaven, cut the skin from the tips of their
own penises. The Tayin must eat at the end of the day and during the
night. (2) They do not consume the flesh of animals that die due to their
own karma. Having killed [animals], they eat them; [they believe that] if
men do otherwise they do not go to heaven.
PART 3: SANSKRIT TEXTS AND TIBETAN TRANSLATIONS
I. Srf KiiZacakra and VimaZaprabhii.
[VP (S) B is a superb manuscript copied early in the 12th century CE,
about a century after the composition of the Vimalaprabhii - it is the
earliest extant witness for this text. Because the early Kalacakra litera-
ture self-consciously employs irregular grammar and spelling (see
NEWMAN 1988), I reproduce VP (S) B's orthography and sandhi except
for missing avagrahas and irregular doubling of consonants; I have
supplied most of the
1.1. Vimalaprabhii 1.3 [VP (S) B lOb3-6; U 1.27.15-28.3]
anyatha gate] sati mlecchadharme
pravrttil!l k[tva mlecchadharmadeSa-
nal!l I kartrikaya grIvayal!l
pasul!l hatva tatas pasuna:tp. mamsa:tp.
NEWMAN 347
svakarmaI).amrtanfup. mamsam I so
'pi dharmo pramaJ;la:rp. yagarthe
4
pasava1;l iti smrti-
vaeanat mleeehadharmavedadharmayor nasti praJ;latipatata1;l I
tasmat putrapautradayas mleeehanfup. prataprup
srupgrame maradevatavatarafi ea
5
anagate 'dhvany gate sati
mleeeha I satsu
nivasino 'pi eaturvar.t;ladaya1;l sarve mleeeha mabajano yena
gata1;l sa pantha iti I iha mleeehadhanne vedadharme
'pi devatapitrarthrup praJ;latipata1;l kartavya1;l 'pi ea tarpayi-
tva pitrn devan khadan mamsrup na iti brahmaqivaeanat
6
I
tatha tatra na
7
pasyami yo aeared iti I evrup veda-
dharmrup prama.t;lllqtya mleeehadharmaparigraha:rp. I tena
karaI).enanagate 'dhvani mleeehadharmapravesaya maya
niyamo datta1;l1 tasmad bhavadbhir mamajfiii kartavyeti I
v.I.: 1) U: 2) U: 3) U: abhaqrup.. 4) U: yagarthiil,l. 5) U: -ava-
tarrup. va. 6) U: 7) B: omit na.
VP (T) 1.356.5-357.5 [This is Bu ston Rin chen grub's (1290-1364)
revised and annotated edition of Son ston rDo rje rgyal mtshan's
translation, the translation that appears in the bsTan 'gyur.J
Imam pa gian du na 10 brgyad brgya 'das pa'i rjes la khyed kyi bu dan
tsha bo la sogs pas kla klo'i ehos dar bar byas nas sambha la sogs pa'i
yul chen po dgu beu rtsa drug tu kla klo'i ehos ston par byed par 'gyur
ro II kla klo'i Iha [rna I bi smin ra rna lha'i zer] bi mi lla'i snags kyis
phyugs kyi ske gri gug gis bead de I de nas (add: ran gi) lha'i snags kyis
bsad pa'i phyugs de mams kyi sa za bar byed ein ran gi las kyis si ba
mams kyi sa za bar mi byed par 'gyur ro II ehos de yan khyed mams la
tshad rna ste I mehod sbyin don du phyugs dag [bsad pal spros II ses pa'i
giun gi tshig las so II kla klo'i ehos dan rig byed kyi ehos dagla yan
khyad par med de I srog geod par byed pa'i phyir ro II de'i phyir khyed
kyi rigs kyi bu dan tsha bo la sogs pa mams kyis kla klo de dag gi gzi
byin dan g.yul du bdud kyi lha 'jug pa yan mthon nas rna 'ons pa'i dus
10 brgyad brgya 'das pa na kla klor 'gyur ro II de dag kla klor gyur pa na
gron bye ba phrag dgu beu rtsa drug na gnas pa'i rigs bii la sogs pa
thams cad kyan kla klor 'gyur te I skye bo chen po gan nas bgrod pa de
ni lam mo ies tshans pa'i dran sron gis smras ba'i phyir ro II 'dir kla
klo'i ehos dan rig byed kyi ehos la yanlha dan pha mes kyi don du srog
geod par bya ba yin la I rgyal rigs kyi ehos la yan no II lha dan pha mes
JIABS 21.2 348
tshim byas na (read: byas nas) II sa zos skyon gyi cha yod min II zes pa
dail I de Min du I gail zig gdug Ia gdug spyod pa II de Ia skyon ni rna
mthoil ilo II zes bram zes smras ba'i phyir ro II de Itar rigs, byed (read:
rig byed) kyi chos chad mar (read: tshad mar) byas nas kla klo'i chos
yoils su 'dzin par ' gyur te I rgyu des na rna ' oils pa na kla klo' i chos mi
'jug par bya ba'i phyir khyed mams Ia bdag gis iles pa byin no II de bas
khyed mams kyis bdag gi bka' Min bya'o zes so I
1.2. Srf Kiilacakra 1.26 and Vimalaprabhii 1.9.26 [VP (S) B 31a7-31b3;
U 1.77.1-19]
idiinIIp. mafijusriya utpadaya I mlecchadharmotpadat jyo-
adyabdadity-
adina vitanomIti I
Sri Kiilacakra 1.26
iidyiibdiit prakata yasanwal;t sambhalakhye
tasmiin niiga.il;t satiibda.il;t khalu mlecchadharmapravrttil;t I
tasmin kale dharaI].yfu:p. miinavair veditavyam
siddhiintiinfu:p. vinasal;t sakalabhuvitale kalayoge " 26 "
adyabdat prakata yasaIlfPal;t sambhalakhye iti I
adyeti tathagatasya I tasmad
sItanadyuttare sarp.bhalanamni yasa ity agamapatbal;t mahayas0
3
mafijusrIl;1 prakato iti4
arthal;t I tasman satabdair iti tasmad yasaso nirvrtat I nagair ity
khalv iti niscitaI!l mlecchadharmapravrttir
I sItaya
5
mlecchanan
tayinarp. asuradharmapravrttir I tasmin mlecchakale dhara-
sphuralaghukaraJ;larp. manavair veditavYaI!l I siddhantanam vinas a
iti siddhantarp. brahma sauraI!l yamanakaI!l romakam iti I
vinasal;t6 siddhantanam vinasal;t I sakalabhuvitale iti sakala iti yatra
tIrthikasiddhanta nivartante
7
tatra sakalaI!l bhuvitalaI!l
tasmin bhuvitale I na bauddhasiddhantasya vinas a iti
I kalayoge iti kalayog08 mlecchadharmal;t tena siddhantanarp.
yogal;t kalayogal;t tasmat kalayogad I kalayoga iti paficamy-
arthe saptamI I
v.l.: 1) U: utpiidanrup. 2) U: 3) U: mahiiyasii. 4) U: 5) U: sItii-.
6) U: vinasrup. 7) U: varttante. 8) U: kalal;t. 9) U:
NEWMAN 349
VP (T) "1.477.1-478.3
II [gnas pa bcu gsum pal da ni 10 'di nas ni zes pa la sogs pas sambha la'i
yul du 'jam dpal 'bymJ. ba dail I kla klo'i chos bymJ. nas [mu stegs kyi]
skar rtsis kyis (read: kyi) grub pa'i mtha' mam par fiams pa dan fiun
nu'i byed pa rab tu 'jug par de Min gsegs pas lun bstan pa bdag gis
dgrol bar bya' 0 I
(SK (T) 1.9.4-5:)
110 ' di nas ni drug brgya'i 10 yis gsal bar rni bdag grags pa sarnbha la ies bya bar
'byunl
I de nas klu yi 10 brgya mams kyis nes par rna kha'i yul du kla klo'i chos dag rab
iu 'jug I
I de yi dus su 'dzin rna la ni nun nu'i byed pa gsal bar rni mams dag gis rig par
byal
I mtha' dag sa gii la ni grub pa'i mtha' mams mam par nams pa dus kyi sbyor ba
la 'byun 'gyur II 26
110 'di nas ni drug brgya'i 10 yis gsal bar mi bdag grags pa sambha 1a
zes bya bar 'byun I zes pa la 110 'di zes pa ni I de Min gsegs pas [dus kyi
'khor lo'i] chos bstan pa'i 10 ste 110 de nas 10 drug brgya na chu bo Sl
ta'i byail sambha la zes bya ba'i yu1 du grags pa [ya sa zes pa mam dbye
med par byas pal zes pa ni Ilun gi brjod pa ste [sdeb sbyor gyi dbail yin
gyi don la ya sal). '0 II ] I 'jam dpal grags pa chen po gsal bar 'byun zes
pa I sprul pa'i sku' dzin par mdzad par ' gyur zes pa'i don to II de nas
klu'i 10 brgya mams kyis ses pa ni I grags pars 10 brgya chos bstan pa'i
rjes 1a] my a nan las 'das pa de nas I klu zes pa 10 brgyad brgya na I nes
par zes pa ni gdon mi za bar I rna kha'i yul du kla klo'i chos dag rab tu
'jug par 'gyur te I chu bo Sl ta'i Tho phyogs [sog yul] rna kha'i yul gron
bye bas mam par brgyan par I kla klo stag gzig mams kyi 1ha rna yin gyi
chos rab tu 'jug par 'gyur ro II kla klo de'i dus su 'dzin rna la ni [mu
stegs pa'i] fiun nu'i byed pa gsal bar rni mams dag gis rig par bya'o II
grub pa'i mtha' mams mam par fiams pa zes pa ni I tshans pa dan ill rna
dan gcer bu pa mams dan sgra gcan gi grub pa'i mtha' ste I 'di Mi mam
par fiams pa ni I grub pa'i mtha' mams mam par fiams pa'o II mtha' dag
sa gzi 1a ni zes pa la I mtha' dag ni I gail du mu stegs pa'i grub pa'i
mtha' zugs pa de mtha' dag go I sa gzi ni chu bo 81 ta'i lho ste I sa gzi
der ro I sambha 1a sogs pa'i yu1 mams su sails rgyas pa'i grub pa'i mtha'
mam par fiams pa ni rna yin no II dus kyi sbyor ba la 'byun ' gyur zes pa
la I dus kyi sbyor ba ni I k1a klo'i chos te I de yis [mu stegs kyi] grub
pa'i mtha' mams la sbyor ba ni dus kyi sbyor ba las 'byun bar 'gyur ro
II dus kyi sbyor ba la zes pa ni I [las zes Ina pa dgos pa la Ila zes bdun pa
byas pas na I] rna pa'i don la bdun pa'o I
.JIABS 21.2 350
1.3. Srf Kiilacakra 1.27a and Vimalaprabhii 1.9.27a [VP (S) B 31b7-
32a2; U 1.78.8-22] .
idanup.laghukaraJ?arp. tavad ucyate vahnau khe 'bdhau vimisram iti I
Sri Klilacakra 1.27a
vahnau khe 'bdhau vimisrarp. prabhavamukhagataIp. prasiddlIam
iha dhruvako 'nityas tantraraje punar dhruvaracanad
1
iti I iha tathagatakaIat mafijusrIkaIal}. karaJ?e dhruval}. I ta-
smad mlecchakaIal}. I tasmat mlecchakaIat dvyasItyadhika-
satenahIno 'jakalkIkalo yenajena laghukaraJ?arp. visodhitarp.1 sa eva kaIal}.
karaJ?e dhruvakarp. bhavati iti I prabhavamukhagatam iti
prabhavo mukham adir te prabhavamukhal). I
prabhavamukhagatam iti I
tan misrarp. tryadhikacatul).satarasau
2
prasiddharp. bhavati
I adiIp. lqtva yavat tavad vimisrarp. prabhava-
mukhagatarp. bhavatIti I tad eva sarvakaraJ?antare prasiddhatp.
bhavaty3 adityadivaravat I tena misrarp.4 iti
prasiddhaIp. 1 mleccho madhumatI rahmaI).avataro
mlecchadharmadesako mlecchanrup. tayinrup. gurul). svamI I
v.I.: 1) U: dhruvakaraI].ad. 2) U: 3) U: bhavatIty. 4) U: vimisritaIp..
VP (T) 1.480.1-481.3
I [gnas pa bcu bii pa I] da ni re sig fiUIi im'i byed pa gsUIis pa I
(SK (T) 1.9.5-6)
I me mkha' rgya mtsho roams 1a rab bYllIi.1a sogs ' das pa roams bsres kla klo' i 10
ni rab tu grub I
me mkha' rgya mtsho mams ses pa'o II rgyud kyi rgyal po 'di la nes pa
ni I mi rtag pa ste 110 drug cu'i mthar slar yan nes pa 'god pa'i phyir ro
II 'dir byed pa la nes pa ni I de biin gsegs pa'i dus [my a nan las 'das nas
:les pa la sogs pa I] nas 10 drug brgya na 'jam dpal gyi dus so II de nas 10
brgyad brgya na kla klo'i dus so II kla klo'i dus [nas bzun ba'i lo'i
tshogs] de las brgyad cu rtsa gfiis Ihag pa'i brgya yis dman pa ni I rgyal
dka' gan gis fiun nu'i byed pa['i don du] mam parsbyon ba'i rigs Idan
rgyal dka'i dus [nas bzun ba'i lo'i tshogs byed pas] so II dus de fiid ni I
byed pa la nes par 'gyur te I [gan la sbyor na] kla klo'i 10 las so I (N.B.:
Here Bu ston annotates VP (T) with six verses quoted from the
Laghutantra!fkii that list the years of the sexagenary cycle; see NEWMAN
NEWMAN 351
1998: 344-45.) I rab bymJ. la sogs 'das pa ies pa ni 110 drug cu po gail
dag gi dan po rab byun yin pa de dag ni rab byunla sogs te I de dag las
so sor da ltar ba'i lo'i sna ma'i 10 ni rab byunia sogs 'das pa'o II de dag
gsum lhag pa'i bii brgya'i phun po Ia bsres pa ni I Ida Ido'i [mgo zug
tshun chad kyi] lor rab tu grub par 'gyur ro 1110 gcig dail por byas nas 10
drug cu ji sfied pa de fiid ni I rab byun Ia sogs 'das pa mams bsres su
'gyur ro II [rab byun gil 10 de fiid ni I byed pa gian thams cad Ia [10
mams kyi dail por] rab tu grags pa yin te I gza' ill ma [res gza' bdun gyi
dail por grags pa I] biin no II gsum lhag pa'i bii brgya'i 10 yis phun po
Ia de yis bsres pa ni I Ida Ido'i lor rab tu grub ste I Ida Ido ni I sbrail rtsi'i
blo gros te I rahma :t;la'i 'jug pa Ida klo'i chos ston pa po Ida Ido stag
gzig mams kyi bia ma dail rje bo'o I
1.4. Srf Kiilacakra 1.89d and Vimalaprabhii 1.9.89d
[SK (S) B 23.4; VP (S) U I.l19.23]
devanrup. danavanrup. raudrayuddhmp. II
v.l.: 1) VP (S) U:
[VP (S) B 46a2; U I. 119.28-120.2]
devanrup. danavana11l mlecchana11l vagadayrup. nagaryrup.
raudrayuddhmp. I
SK (T) 1.24.7-1.25:1
Ilha mams dag danlha min roams kyi 'khrug pa drag po sa gii'i gnas mams su
ni 'byun bar 'gyur I
VP (T) 1.554.4-5
[rtsod ldan gyi mjug] de'i dus su lha mams dag dail lha min Ida kio
mams kyi 'khrug pa drag po sa gii'i gnas ba ga da mams su ni 'byun
bar 'gyur te I
1.5. Srf Kiilacakra 1.154-155 [Note: I follow VP (S) U in numbering
these verses; some MSS and the Tibetan translation given below omit
verse 90 of this pa!ala, and thus number these verses as 153-154. My
edition of these verses is based on the MS readings given in HOFFMANN
1969: 56-66; VP (S) U I.l53.15-22; SK (S) V 338-39; SK (S) B 39.1-
8; SK (S) T 19a6-19b3; NEWMAN 1987a: 594-616]
JIABS 21.2 352
ardo nogho variihI danubhujagakule tamasanye 'pi paiica
svetavastrI madhupati mathanI yo so 'ndhakal,1 syat 1
sarp.bhiltil:). saptamasya sphuta vagadadau nagaryam
yasyiiIp.loke 'suriiIp.sI nivasati balavan nirdayo mlecchamfu1:il;lll15411
u*asvau gas ca hatva sarudhirapisitarp. suddhapakvarp. hi kiiicit
gomiiIp.sarp. siltatoyarp. ghrtakatukasamarp. tru;l(;lularp. sakarnisram 1
ekasmin vahnipakvarp. vanaphalasahitarp. yatra bhojyarp. nariiI;tam
panarp. ciiI;t<;larp. khaganiiIp. bhavati narapate tatpadarp. casuriiI;tam 1115511
VP (T) 1.40.7-41.6 [Without annotations; for discussion of this and
other Tibetan translations of these verses see NEWMAN 1987b: 594-616]
1 a dra a no gha dail phag ldan lha min lag 'gro'i rigs la mun pa can ni gzan yail
liJ.a 1
1 byi ba dban po gos dkar can dail sbrail rtsi'i blo gros 'joms byed brgyad pa gail
de mun pa can 1
1 gsal bar ma kha'i yul gyi ba ga da sogs gron khyer du ni bdun pa yan dag skyes
pa ste 1
1 gan du 'jig rten Iha min yan lag stobs dan ldan par gnas sin brtse ba med pa kla
klo:i gzugs 1 153
1 rria morta dan ba Ian bsad nas khrag dail bcas pa'i sa ni chun zad btsos pa 'ba'
zig daiJ. 1
1 ba Iail sa dail dnul chu chu dail mar dail tsha ba miiam pa 'bras dail 10 ma bsres
pani 1
1 gcig tu me la btsos pa nags kyi 'bras bu dag dail bcas pa gail du mi mams dag gi
zas 1
1 btun ba bya mams dag gi sgo nar 'gyur ro mi yi bdag po de ni Iha min mams
kyi gnas 1154
1.6. SrI Kiilacakra 2.98-99 and Vimalaprabhii 2.5.98-99 [VP (S) B
78b5-79a6; U 1.222.10-223.24]
idanIrp. bauddhanam asuraIJarp. rnlecchanarp. jfianotpattikala ucyate jfiana
ityadina
Sri Kiilacakra 2.98
jiianotpattir jinaniiIp. ravidinasarnaye cardharatre nisante
madhyahne casuriiI;tiiIp. sasinisisamaye nirgame vasarasya
l
samyagjiiane vibhailge prabhavati vacanarp. sarp.slq.tarp. praIq.tarp. ca
santarp. raudrarp. ca karma tribhuvananilaye praIq.tarp. ca II 98 II
iha khalu trividho yogabhyasal). bauddha asuro bhautas ca I tatra bauddho
yogaJ::!. sunyatakaruIJatmakaJ::!. asural). kalpanadharmaJ::!. bhautiko dviJ::!.pra-
Ural). sasvatarupa ucchedarupas ca I evarp. trividho yogI sa eva vidyate
yasya tadyogabhyasabalatvad
2
iti I divabhage bauddhayoginarp. jfia-
notpattiJ::!. ratribhage asurayoginarp.3 catuJ::!.sandhyarahitakale
4
bhautayogi-
NEWMAN 353
naJ1l jftanotpattir iti I atra kalavibhagaJ;!. jfianotpattir jinanaJ1l ravidina-
samaye cardharatre nisante madhyahne easurfu;laJ1l sasinisisamaye nir-
game vasarasya11 bhautanam anuktatvad api sandhyarahitakalel atrardha-
tatre purvasandhyayaJ1l va bhavati bauddhanaJ1l I
asura1).aJ1l madhyahnasaJ1ldhyayaJ1l astarigatasandhyayaJ1l6 va jfianadhi-
bhavati I bhutanam aparacatuJ;!.praharasandhyayfup. divabhage
ratribhage I anayor
bauddhasurayor yathasaJ11khYaJ1l samyakjfianaJ1l bauddhanaJ1l bhavati
vibharigaJ1l taddharmavirodhi bhavaty asura1).iiJ11 I samyakjfianaJ1l diva-
lokavat sarvadarsi I vibharigaJ1l jfianaJ1l ratryalokavat kifieit sattvanaJ1l
jivanamara1).adarsIti7 I kathaJ1l jfiayata ity8 aha .dharmaddanaya
9
iti I iha
samyagjfiane vibharige prabhavati vacanaJ1l saJ1lslqtaJ1l praIqtafi eeti I
samyagjfianotpannanaJ1l saJ1lskrtaJ1l vakyaJ1l sarvarutatmakam iti I
vibharigajfianotpannanaJ1l prakrtaJ1l vakyaJ1l bhavati desakanam eka
I santakarmadesakaJ1l1O bauddhanaJ1l jfianaJ1l sarva-
sattvakani1).atmakaJ1l I raudrakarmaddakaJ1l11 asura1).iiJ11 jfianaJ1l tiryak-
sattvapakari I tribhuvananilaye karma
bauddhanaJ1ljfianaJ1l desayati I praIqtaJ1l karma asurfu;liiJ11 jfianaJ1l
desayati I bhUtanam vimisraJ1l karma desayati prthivyam I iti jfianadesa-
naniyamaJ;!. II 98 II
idaillJ1l bauddhasurayor bhuktikala ucyate madhyahnad ityadina I
SrI KiiZacakra 2.99
madhyahnad dinanisisamaye bhuktikaIas tayos ca
panam aI).qasya sukram I
ca ravisasigativat svargapataIavasal,l
dharmo 'hiJr!sa ca hi1p.sa guruniyamavasad ca II 99 II
iha pratidine madhyahnad
l2
arabhyardharatraJ1l yavat dinasamayaJ;!.13 I
ardharatrad arabhya madhyahnaparyantaJ1l nisisamayaJ;!. I tasmin dinanisi-
samaye svasvasamayasya parardhe bhuktikalaJ;!. tayor bauddhamlecchayor
yathasaJ11khYaJ1l tapasvinaJ1l grhasthanam iti na
l4
niyamaJ;!. I bauddhasur'a-
yoJ;!. punaJ;!. khanaJ1l panaJ1l15 yathasaJ11khyaJ1l annaJ1l
bauddhanaJ1l gomamsasahitaJ1l mlecchanaJ1l I panaJ1l yathasaJ11khyaJ1l
bahuvidharasadaJ1l bauddhanaJ1l kukkuradlnam a1).c;lasya sukraJ1l
panaJ1l16 mlecchanam iti I paridhanaJ1l yathasaJ11khyaJ1l raktavastraJ1l
bauddhaniiJ11 svetaJ1l mlecchanaJ1l tapasviniiJ11 grhasthanam na niyamaJ;!.17
I tatha maraJ?ante avaso yathasaJ11khYaJ1l ravisasigativad iti raver urdhva-
gatiJ;!.18 candrasyadhogatiJ;!. I tayor gativat svargavaso ravigatir bauddha-
niiJ11 patalavaso 'surfu;liiJ11 candragativad iti I tatha
19
m11latantre sekoddese
bhagavan aha I
JIABS 21.2 354
adhas candramrtaIp. yati maraIJ.e sai-vadebinfup. I
iirdhve siiryarajo20 rahuvijfianaIp. II (Sekoddefa 86)
tatha dharmo yathasarpkhymp. bauddhanarp. dharmo 'hinsa mlecchanarp.
hinsa cakarat bhUtanarp. I guruniyamavasad
21
bhavanakale
kale yathasmp.khyarp. bauddhanarp. vajrasanarp. prasastarp.22 mlecchanarp.
daityasanmp. prasastmp. cakarad apararp. samanyam iti tasya na viddhir
23
na iti I atra daityasanarp.24 bhutale
25
varnajanuprasilral).26 vama-
padordhvarp.27 I cakarad adhal). urdhvavarna-
padatale
29
'pi I cakarat 'pi iti
30
vajrasanadikafi ca
31
vaktavyam iti bauddhasurakriyaniyamal). II 99 II
v.l.: 1) U: vasavasya. 2) U: -ratatvad; Tib.: dga' ba las. 3) U: asura-. 4) U: -rabite kale.
5) U & B [emendation]: Ifollow Tib., which I believe reflects
B's original reading. 6) U: aHaiJ.gata-. 7) U: jIva-. 8) U: ity ata. 9) U: -desanaya.
10) B: santarp. karrna-. 11) B: raudraIp. karrna-. 12) U: madhyanad. 13) U:
-samayam. 14) U places this na after tapasvinfup.. 15) U: khanapanarp.. 16) U:
sUkrapanarp.. 17) Breads yamaJ:!.; marginal emendation adds' ni-. 18) U:
iirddhvarp. gatil;!. 19) U: yatha. 20) U: siiryarp. rajo. 21) B: -vasat. 22) B:
prasastarp.. 23) B: nividher. 24) U: daityanfup.. 25) B: bhiitate. 26) U: -prasarataJ:!..
27) U: vamajaniirddhvarp.. 28) U adds: vama-
padorddhvarp. 29) U: iirddhvaIp. padatale. 30) U: iti; B:
omit cakarat 'pi iti; marginal emendation adds, reading: kati-
nisanno. 31) U: vajrasanadi-.
VP (T) 2.143.2-146.7
I da ni ye ses ses pa la sogs pas sails rgyas pa mams danlha min [ni kla
klo dan rtag chad pa'i spyi yin pa'm I yan na lha min kla klo mams ses
, gyur bcos I de rna yin na gon ' og , gal 10 II] mams dan kla klo mams kyi
ye ses skye ba'i dus gsuns te I
(SK (T) 1.70.2-4)
lye ses skye ste rgyal ba mams kyi m rna mn mo'i dus su mtshan mo phyed dan
mtshan mo'i mthar I
Ilha min mams kyi zla ba mtshan mo'i dus su m rna phyed dan mn mo dag gi
mjugtu'o I
I yan dag ye ses mams (read: mam) fiams dag la tshig ni legs sbyar tha mal dag
tu rab tu ' gyur ba ste I
I ii dan drag po las te srid pa gsum gyi gnas su skyes bu fiid daiJ. tha mal dag
kyaiJ. no II 98
I 'dir nes par mal 'byor goms pa mam pa gsum sans rgyas pa'i dan I Iha
min gyi dan I 'byun po'i '0 II de la sans rgyas pa'i mal 'byor ni I ston pa
fiid dan sfiin rje'i bdag fiid do II lha min [kla klo mams] gyi ni [bIos
kun] btags pa'i chos so II 'byun po yi ni [mu stegs pal mam pa gilis te I
NEWMAN 355
rtag pa'i ilo bo[r 'dod pal dan chad pa'i ilo bo[r 'dod pal '0 II de biin du
mal 'byor de goms pa la dga' ba iiid las 1 de iiid gailla yod pa'i mal
'byor pa mam pa gsum mo II de mams las [ye ses skye ba'i dus] iiin
mo'icha la sails rgyas pa'i mal 'byor pa mams kyi ye ses skye'o II
mtshan mo'i cha la lha min gyi mal 'byor pa mams kyi'o II thun
mtshams bii spails pa'i [mtshams bii'i] dus su 'byuil po'i mal 'byor pa
mams kyi ye ses .skye'o II 'dir dus kyi cha ni 1 ye ses skye ste 1 rgyal ba
mams kyi iii rna fiin mo'i dus su [ye ses skye ba iiin mo'i dus ni I]
mtshan mo phyed [nas] dail mtshan mo'i mthar [te tho rails kyi iii rna
phyed kyi bar du'o II] Ilha min mams kyi zla ba mtshan mo'i dus su [ye
ses skye ste mtshan mo'i dus ni I] iii rna phyed [nas] dail iiin mo dag gi
mjug tu [ste nam phyed kyi bar du] '0 II 'byuil po mams kyi yail [rgyud
du dilos su] rna brjod pa iiid las thun mtshams spails pa'i dus su'o II 'dir
mtshan mo'i phyed dam sila dro'i thun mtshams la sails rgyas pa mams
kyi ye ses lhag par gnas 'gyur [bas sails rgyas kyail tho rails sails rgyas
pa Ita bu'i] ro II fii rna phyed dam nub par gyur pa'i thun mtshams la 1
lha min mams kyi ye ses [skye 'chi cuil zad tsam mthoil ba de] lhag par
gnas par 'gyur ro II gian thun bii'i thun mishams la 'byuil po mams kyi
ste 1 fiin mo'i cha la ['byunpo mams kyi] rtag pa'i ye ses lhag par gnas
sm mtshan mo'i cha la chad pa'i ye ses lhag par gnas so II sails rgyas pa
daillha min 'di dag gi grails biin du sails rgyas pa mams kyi yail dag ye
ses su 'gyur ro II [sails rgyas pal 'di'i chos dail 'gal ba mam fiams ni 1
lha min mams kyrr (read: kyi) 'gyur ro II yail dag ses (read: ye ses) ni 1
fiin mo'i snail ba biin du tbams cad mthoil ba'o II mam fiams ye ses ni 1
mtshan mo' i snail ba biin du sems can mams kyi 'chi ba dail 'tsho ba
cuil zad mthoil ba'o II ji ltar ses ie na 1 de'i phyir gsuils pa 1 chos ston
pa['i rtags] las [ses]so ies pa ste 1 'dir yail dag ye ses mam fiams dag la
tshig ni legs sbyar tha mal dag tu 'gyur ba ste 1 ies pa ni 1 yail dag ye ses
skyes pa [sails rgyas] mams kyis (read: kyi) legs par sbyar ba'i ilag sgra
thams cad kyi bdag iiid do II mam fiams ye ses skyes pa mams kyi tha
mal gyi ilag tu 'gyur te 1 ston par byed pa po mams kyi yul gcig gi skad
kyi khyad par gyis so II sails rgyas pa mams kyi ye ses ni 1 [thog mtha'
bar gsum dge ba ston pas I] sems can thams cad la ['tshe ba med pas I]
siiiil rje'i bdag iiid can ii ba'i las ston par byed pa po'o IIlha min mams
kyi ye ses ni 1 Sa bza' ba'i slad du dud 'gro'i sems can la gnod pa byed
pa drag po'i las [bde sdug gi rgyur] ston par byed pa'o II srid pa gsum
gyi gnas su sails rgyas pa mams kyi ye ses ni 1 [bde sdug gi rgyur] skyes
bu fiid kyi [rail rail gil las ston par byed do II lha min [kla klo] mams
kyi ye ses ni sa la tha mal gyi las [rail gis rna byas pa rgyur] ston par
JIABS 21.2 356
byed do II 'byun po [mu stegs pa] mams kyi ni 1 sa la [de giiis ka] mam
par 'dres pa'i las ston par byed do II ye ses ston par byed pa'i nes pa'o II
98
da ni iii rna gun ies pa la sogs pas sails rgyas pa dan lha min dag gi za
ba'i dus gsuils te 1
(SK (T) 1.70.4-5)
I iii rna gun dail. rntshan rno phyed nas iiin dail. rntshan rno'i dus su de dag gis
(read: gi) ni za ba'i dus I
I bza' ba zan dail. ba IaiI. sa ste btun ba rnam mail. bcud ster dag dail. sgo na'i khu
ba'o I
I gos ni dmar dail. dkar po dag dail. iii rna zla ba'i bgrod pa biin du rntho ris sa 'og
gnasl
I chos ni 'tshe rned 'tshe ba yail. ste bIa rna'i nes pa'i dbail. gis rdo rje Iha min
gdan yail. no II 99
1 [iiin mtshan gyi tshul 'di ni kla klo'i 'dod lugs dail bstun gyi sans rgyas
pa'i lugs ni 'di las ldog pa snar gyi biin no II] 'dir iiin iag so so la [yail
na de rill] iii rna gun nas brtsams nas [mdail] mtshan mo'i phyed kyi bar
du iiin mo [sails rgyas pa'i za ba]'i dus so II [mdail] mtshan mo phyed
nas brtsams nas [sail] iii rna gun gi mthar thug pa ni intshan mo'i dus so
II iiin mo dail mtshan mo'i dus de la rail ran gi dus kyi phyed phyi rna ni
grails biin du sans rgyas pa dail kla klo de dag gi dka' thub pa mams kyi
za ba'i dus te 1 khyim pa mams kyi ni [za dus nes pa bstan pa I] rna yin
no ies pa ste nes pa' 0 II sans rgyas pa dan lha min dag gi bza' ba dail
btun ba yail grails biin du sails rgyas pa mams kyi zan khyad par du
, phags pa ste 1 kla klo mams kyi ba lail gi sa dail beas pa' 0 II btun ba ni
grail Min du sails rgyas pa mams kyi ['0 rna la sogs pa] mam mail beud
ster iim pa ste 1 kla klo mams kyi btun ba ni 1 bya gag [khyim bya] la
sogs pa'i sgo na'i khu ba'o II bgo ba ni 1 grails biin du sans rgyas pa
mams kyi gos dmar po ste 1 kla klo pa mams kyi ni 1 dkar po' 0 II [de
mams kyail] dka' thub pa mams kyi ste 1 khyim pa mams kyi ni nes pa
med do II de Min du si ba'i mthar gnas ni 1 grails Min du iii rna zla ba'i
bgrod pa biin du ies pa ste 1 iii rna sten du bgrod cin zla ba 'og tu bgrod
do II de dag gi bgrod pa biin du [dge ba'i dban gis] mtho ris kyi gnas iii
ma'i bgrod pa ni I. sans rgyas la (read: pa) mams kyi ste 1 zla ba'i bgrod
pa biin du [mi dge ba'i dbail gis] sa 'og gi gnas ni lha min mams kyi'o
II de Min du rtsa ba'i rgyud kyi dbail mdor bstan pa las beom ldan 'das
kyis gsuns pa 1
1 [lha mi lha ~ i n la sogs pa I] Ius ean thams ead si ba na [ste 'ehi ba'i
dus su] 1
NEWMAN 357
I zla ba bdud rtsi [byail chub kyi sems 'pho ba'i bag chags goms pa las]
'og tu 'gro I
I sten du iii rna rdul ['gro la] [mi ses pa rna rig pa'i bag chags daillhan
cig stobs dailldan pa'i grog (read: srog) dail bcas pa'i] sgra gcan I
I [mam ses srid'pa'i mtshan iiid do II] mam ses dIios [bha ba dIios po 'di
biin legs so II] po'i mtshan iiid [de dge mi dge'i las kyis sprul pa'i skye
ba srid pa gian du 'gro ba] do II
de biin du chos ni I grails biin du sails rgyas pa mams kyi [sems can
mams la] 'tshe ba med pa'o II kIa kIo pa mams kyi ni I 'tshe ba ste I yail
yig las 'byun po mamskyi'o II bla ma'i Des pa'i dbail gis sgom pa'i dus
dan 'dod pa'i lha la bstod pa'i dus su grails biin du sans rgyas pa mams
la rdo rje'i gdan bsnags sin I kIa kIo pa la [de rna thag ston pa'i]
lha min gyi gdan snags so II yail yig las gian ni I thun mon ba ste I de ni
mi sgrub cin mi 'gog go II 'dir lha min gyi gdan ni I sa'i nos la pus mo
g.yon gyi sten du pus mo g.yas brkyail iin rkail pa['i byin pal g.yon gyi
sten du rkan pa['i byin pal g.yas pa'o II yail yig las [rkail pa bsgyur te
rkan pa g.yas pal 'og tu ste I rkail pa g.yas pa'i sten du [rkail pa g.yon
pal '0 II rkan pa'i mthil du yaill yan yig las rgyab tu dbyi biag pa'o II
rdo rje'i gdan la sogs pa ni I 'chad par 'gyur pa las brjod par bya'o II
sails rgyas pa daillha min gyi bya ba Des pa' 0 II 99
1.7. Srf Kalacakra 2.158cd and Vimalaprabha 2.7.158cd [VP (S) B
90a4-5; U 1.259.3-4, 11-15. The text of Srf Kalacakra 2.158cd given
below is my edition based on the readings in SK (S) V, U, B, T (f.
39b4-5; p. 78.4-5). This is 2.164cd in all three printed editions of the
Srf Kalacakra. Verses 2.116-121 in the printed editions are clearly alate
interpolation. BANERJEE (SK (S) B p.72) notes that they do not appear
in his two best MSS, nor in the Peking, sDe dge, or sNar thang editions'
of the Tibetan translation. They are also absent from SK (T). Cf. VP (S)
U 1.232-33, note.]
idfuiiIp. matam ucyate kartretyadi I
Srf Kiilacakra 2.l58cd
kartra samastrup. sacaram acarajrup. tiiyinfup. bhuktiheto/;l
svargas tasya bhavati khalu np).fup. desana rahmaI).a/;l sa 11158 II
iha kartra rahmaI).a samastarp. sacararp. jangamarp. acararp.
sthavararp. vastu tayinam iti I
svargas tasya narako bhavati khalu
desana
1
sa I pllrvokta
2
kriyeti 11158 II
v.I.: 1) U: omit desana. 2) U: piirvokta-. 3) U: tayi-.
JIABS 21.2 358
VP (T) 2.203.2-5
da ni [sog po ra rna I).a (read: rahma I).a) dan] kIa kIo stag gzig mams kyi
'dod pa gsUJ'ls pa I byed po zes pa la sogs pa ste I
SK (T) 1.83.7-84.1)
I byed porgyu dan mi rgyu las skyes mtha' dag bskyed cin stag gzig mams kyi
thar pa dag gi rgyu I
I de miies pa las nes par mi mams mtho ris su 'gyur de ni ra hma :t)a yi bstan pa' 0
11158
'dir byed po rahma I).as rgyu ba g.yo ba dan mi rgyu ba brtan pa'i dIios
po mtha' dag skyed citi stag gzig mams kyi zes pa kIa kIo gos dkar po
can mams kyi thar pa dag gi rgyu I [byed pa po] rahma l).aJ:! de mfies pa
las lies par mi mams mtho ris dan I rna mfies pa las dmyal bar 'gyur ro
zes pa de ni rahmaJ:!'i (read: rahma 1).aJ:!'i) bstan pa ste I bya ba ni [ye ses
skye ba la sogs pa'i dus skabs su] sliar brjod pa'o II stag gzig gi 'dod pa
lies pa'o II 158
1.8. Vimalaprabhii 2.7.160b, comment on Srf Kiilacakra 2.160b (166b
of printed eds.) [VP (S) B 90b4; U 1.260.26-261.1]
kin canyad iha kila sriiyate yada vedabhavo bhavati mlecchair veda-
dharme ucchadite sati tada (SK 2.160b:) brahma vaktrais caturbhiJ:!
prakatayati pura vedasabdena
1
carthrup. indraJ:! pasur asld ityiidipatheneti I
ato 'rtho 'nyo vedo 'nya iti siddham I
v.I.: 1) B: -sabdena.
VP (T) 2.206.3-5
gzan pa ci 'dir gan gi tshe [dan por rig byed yod kyan] kIa kIo mams
kyis rig byed kyi chos [bzi po rgya mtshor bskyur nas] bsgribs par gyur
pa na rig byed med par gyur pa de'i tshe [tshans pas dran nas] tshans
pa'i gdon bzi dag gis slion gyi rig byed [de slar] sgra dag gis kyan don
ni rab tu gsal bar byas te I dban po phyugs su gyur ces pa la sogs [pa rig
byed 'don] pa'i kIog gis so zes zer ba thos so II de'i phyir don gzan dan
rig byed gzan zes grub bo II
Vimalaprabhii 2.7.161, comment on Srf Kiilacakra 2.161 (2.167 of
printed eds.) [VP (S) B 90b7-91al; U 1.261.17-21]
kin canyad iha brahmamukhat briihmal).a jatiiJ:! kila satyrup. I ataJ:! Pfccha-
mi kirp brahmal).yol 'pi tato jatiiJ:!1 yadi syus tada bhaginyo bhavanti
ekayonisamutpannatviid iti I evrup. api I vivahrup. bhaginya
NEWMAN 359
sardharp. bhavati katharp. I atha bhavati tada mlecchadharmapravrttir
bhavati I mlecchadharmapravrttau narakam iti
nyaya1;l1
v.l.: 1) U: brabmal).ye.
VP (T) 2.207.5-208.2
I gzan pa ci I 'dir tshans pa'i kha nas bram ze mams skyes pa ni bden par
grag go II de'i phyir bdag gis dri bar bya'o II bram ze mo mams kyan
[tshans pa'i kha] de las skyes par gyur tam ci I gal te gyur na de'i tshe
srin mor 'gyur te I skye gnas gcig las skyes pa fiid kyi phyir ro II de Min
du rgyal rigs la sogs pa mams kyan no II de'i phyir srin mo dan Ihan cig
bag rna ji ltar byed I ci ste byed na de'i tshe [bram ze mams] kla klo'i
chos Ia zugs [par thaI te srin mo bag mar len pas] so II kla klo'i chos la
zugs [par 'dod] na rigs fiams [par thaI] te [I kla klo'i chos la zugs pa'i
phyir ro] II rigs fiams pa las [bram ze mams] dmyal ba ['gro ba]r 'gyur
ro zes pa ni [bram ze'i] rigs pa'o II
1.10. Srf Kalacakra 2.168 (2.174 of printed eds.) and Vimalaprabha
2.7.168 [VP (S) B 93a7-93b1; U I.268.1-11]
idanlrp. ucyate
jantur
1
ityadi I
Sri Kalacakra 2.168
jantuJ.l piirvfu.ri karml1l).y anubhavati lqtany aihikany anyajatya
yady eVaIll karmanaso na hi bhavati Il]:I.liiIp. jatijatyantarel).a I
smpsaran nirgarnaJ.l syad aparirnitabhavair naiva pravesaJ.l2
etad vai tayiniiIp. tu prabhavati hi mataIll canyajatiprahIl).arn 11168 II
iha mate
3
jantul). piirvakrtani karmal).i bhurp.kte iha janmani krtany
anyajatya
4
iti yady evarp. tada karmanaso na hi bhavati nrl).arp. jati-
jatyantarel).a karmaphalopabhogata iti I evan na samsaran nirgamal). syad
aparimitabhavair naiva pravdo bhavatHi I etad vai tayinarp. pra-
bhavati hi matarp. I kintv anyajatiprahIl).am iti tayinarp. mlecchanam
matarp. mrtal). svarge va narake va 'naya
sukham va dul).kham va bhurp.kte rahmal).o niyameneti I ato 'nyajatipra-
hIl).am iti niyarilal). II 168 II
v.l.: 1) B: yantur. 2) U: 3) U: mataIll. 4) U: anyajatyam.
JIABS 21.2 360
VP (T) 2.223.7-224.4
1 da ni sna ma;i las fie bar Ions spyod pa dan 1 da Itar gyi las gsog pa la
dgag pa gsUIis pa 1 skye bo zes pa la sogs pa ste 1
(SK (T) 1.86.1-3)
I skye bo snon gyi las mams fiarris su myon 'gyur 'di la byas pa mams ni skye ba
gzanla'o I
I gal te de Ita yin na las ni 'jig par mi 'gyur mi mams skye dan skye ba gzan dag
gi (read: gis) I
I dpag med srid pa dag gis 'khor ba las ni 'byun bar 'gyur dan thar pa 'jug pa
medpafiid I
I 'di dag stag gzig mams kyan nes par 'dod par 'gyur te gzan pa'i rigs kyis rab tu
dman pa'o 11168
'dir gan dag gi 'dod pa las 1 snar byas pa'i las mams [skye ba 'dir] skye
bo Ions spyod cm 1 skye ba 'di la [las dge sdig] byas pa mams ni skye ba
gzan la'o ies so II gal te de Ita yin na 1 de'i tshe las ni 'jig [pa dan zad]
par mi 'gyur te 1 mi mams skye dan skye ba gzan dag gi (read: gis) las
kyi 'bras bu fie bar Ions spyod pa'i phyir ro II de Itar na [lam bsgoms
kyan] dpag med srid pa dag gis 'khor ba las ni 'byUIi bar 'gyur ba med
cin 1 thar par 'jug pa med pa fud du 'gyur ro II 'di dag stag gzig mams
kyan nes par 'dod par 'gyur te 1 'on kyan gzan pa'i rigs kyis rab tu dman
pa' 0 zes pa la 1 kla klo stag gzig mams kyi 'dod pa ni 1 mi si ba dag 1
mtho ris sam dmyal bar mi'i Ius 'dis bde ba'm sdug bsnallons spyod de
1 [byed pa po] rahma [rofies pa dan ma mfies pa] nes pas so zes pa'o
1 de'i phyir gzan pa'i [las byed pa po'i Ius de fud kyis byed par 'dod
pa'i] rigs kyis rab tu dman pa'o zes pa ste nes pa'o 11168
1.11. VimaZaprabhii 3.1.3 [VP (S) B 96a6; U 11.6.21-22]
raktambara:ql yatha gacchanti papinaI:t 1
mlecchadharmarata bauddhas tatha svemmbarapriya II iti 1
v.I.: 1) U: yada
VP (T) 2.244.2-5 [Note: parenthetical insertions are sub annotations]
1 [khyim pa slob dpon du byed pa] gan [gi] tshe gos dmar [gyi dge slon]
mthon gyur nal [I sdig can kla klo'i chos (la) dga' mams II (gus pa med
cin) ze sdan du 'gyur de yi tshe II sans rgyas pa mams gos dkar dga' 1
(bas de bzun ste rab tu byun ba'i rtags 'jig par 'gyur ro I) 1 'di bzin
bsgyur na legs I] 1 ze sdan du 'gyur sans rgyas pa [mams kyan] II sdig
can kla klo'i chos la dga' II de tshe dkar po'i gos la mos [te dkar po'i
gos bzun bas rtags fiams pas bstan pa fiams dmas par 'gyur ro II] II ies so II
1.12. Vimalaprabhii 3.1.19c (comment on Srf Kiilacakra 3.19c) [VP (S)
B 99b7-100a1; U II.18.1-2]
daityam iti daityasanarp maraJ).e allkakarakurmapadavad iti daityasanarp.
VP (T) 2.262.1-2
Ilha min ies pa ni Ilha min gyi 'dug stails te 1 [sa'i ilos la Pl,lS mo g.yon
gyi steil du pus mo g.yas brkyails iiill rkail pa g.yon gyi steil du rkail pa
g.yas pa'o II yail yig las 'og tu ste 1 rkail pa g.yas pa'i steil du'o II rkail
pa'i mthil du yail yail yig las rgyab tu dpyi Mag pa'o II ies Mad la sa
dhu pu tras Ius bskums te rus sballtar gnas pa'i ies bsad ciil 'dir I] gsad
pa la 'thap mo byed pa'i rus sbal gyi stabs Min no ies pa ni Ilha min
gyi gdan no 1
1.13. Srf Kiilacakra 3.94ab and Vimalaprabhii 3.4.94ab [VP (S) B
124b4; U II.88.25, 89.2-3]
-daityendradharmarp. ... na kuryat
daityadharmarp mlecchadharmarp na kuryad iti
SK (T) 1.109.7-110.1
... lha min dbail po'i chos ... mi bya'o I
VP (T) 2.386.2
... lha min gyi chos ni I kla klo'i chos de mi bya'o ies pa 1
1.14. Vimalaprabhii 5.3 (comment on Srf Kiilacakra 5.58) [VP (S) B
198b2-6; U III.86.5-17]
iha sattva anadikale futhikaJ). devabhUtasuradharmaratalf sarvajfiamarga-
caturvarI).aikavarI).asritaJ). kartratma-
vadinalf 1 sabdavadino devapretadharmasrita Isvaravadinas catma-
vadinas ca jativadinas ceti I mleccha 'suradharmasritalf kartrvadino jlva-
vadino jativadarahitaJ). 1 mlecchanam ubhayagrahalf param3.J..lusan-
dohagrahalf upapattyailgikapudgalagrahas ceti 1 abhiprayal,l yadi
paramal,lusarpdohatmake sarIre antarvarty upapattyailgikapudgalo nasti
paramal,lusandohatmake kaye sati aparakayagrahaJ).arp kalf kari-
I tasmad upapadukapudgalo ' sti 1 tena sadhitena svargaphalarp
nirval,laphalarpl bhavati svargaphalad apararp nirval,larp nama na syad iti
1 tattvaprcchakale svacittabhiprayam abhijfiaya tattvavida bhagava-
toktarp atthi puggalo bharavaho l,la l,liccam bhaJ).ami l,lal,liccarp bhal,lamlti
JIABS 21.2 362
I etad eva satyarp. bhagavato vacanat svapnavasthayarp.
pudgalo nanityo na nit yo vaktUrp.2 sakyate I anena tathagatavacanena
mlecchadharmarp. tyaktva bauddha jataI! I punar lokottara-
dharmarp. deSyamanarp. srutva bodhisattvanam ilia pudgalagraharp. pari-
tyajya ke cit samyaksarp.buddhamargam asrita iti I
v.I.: 1) B adds Q.a; emendation deletes; U: ca. 2) B: nityoktmp.; marginal emendation
adds va. .
VP (T) 3.172.4-173.5
I 'dir sems can mams ni I thog rna med pa'i dus nas mu stegs pa Ilha dan
'byuil po dail lha rna yin gyi chos la dga' ba I thams cad mkhyen pa'i
lam fiams pa I rigs bii dail rigs gcig la brten pa I mtho ris kyi 'bras bu'i
Ioils spyod milon par 'dod pa I byed pa po dail bdag tu srnra ba po mams
te I de mams las sgra srnra ba po mams ni Ilha dail yi dwags kyi chos la
brten pa mams dan I dbail phyug srnra ba po mams dan I bdag srnra ba
po mams dail I rigs srnra ba po mams so II kla klo ni I lha min gyi chos
la brten pa mams dail I byed pa por srnra ba po mams dan I srog srnra ba
po mams te I rigs smra ba dail bral ba mams so II kla klo 'di mams kyi
'dzin pa gfiis ka ste I rdul phra rab tshogs pa'i 'dzin pa dan I skye ba'i
cha sas can gyi gail zag gi 'dzin pa' 0 II 'di mams kyi bsam pa ni I gal te
rdul phra rab tshogs pa'i bdag fiid can gyi Ius la nail du 'jug pa po skye
ba'i cha sas can gyi gail zag med na I rdul phra rab tshogs pa'i bdag fiid
kyi Ius mam par fiams pa'i rjes la Ius gian su yis 'dzin par byed par
'gyur I de'i phyir rdzus te byuil ba'i gail zag yod do II de yis bsgrubs pas
mtho ris kyi 'bras bu ni I my a ilan las 'das pa'i 'bras bur 'gyur te I mtho
ris kyi 'bras bu las gian my a ilan las 'das pa ies bya ba med do ies pa
ste I de khQ na fiid 'dri ba'i dus su de mams kyi rail gi sems kyi bsam pa
milon par mkhyen nas I de ko na fiid srnra ba po bcom ldan 'das kyis
gsuils pa I [khur khur ba'i mdo las] khur khur ba'i gail zag yod de I rtag
padail mi rtag par bdag mi smra'o II ies pa'o II de fud bden te I bcom
ldan 'das kyis gsuils pa'i phyir ro II rrni lam gyi gnas skabs su sems kyi
bag chags kyi gan zag ni I rtag pa dari mi rtag par brjod par mi nus so II
de biin gsegs pa'i gsuri 'di yis kla klo'i chos spans nas saris rgyas pa'i
bye brag tu smra ba mams byuil bar gyur to II de nas byari chub sems
dpa' mams la 'jig rten las 'das pa'i chos bstan pa thos nas I 'dir gail zag
tu 'dzin pa yoils su sparis nas 'ga' iig yan dag par rdzogs pa'i saris rgyas
kyi lam Ia brten to II
NEWMAN 363
1.15. Vimalaprabhii 5.3 [VP (S) B 203b7; U III.96.26-29]
punar yugavasane rnlecchanam atyantadharmarp. sailavan niQ.-
kampo bhUtva paramasvasamadhina 'nantan pararnasvan spharayitva tair
nilecchanarp. cittani dravayitva svadharme I dharrnot-
pa!anarp. na pral).atyagarp. I
VP (T) 3.200.5-7
I slar yan dus bzi'i rnthar kla klo mams kyi sin tu chos rna yin pa gzigs
nas ri bo Min du 'dar ba rned par 'gyur te I rta rnchog gi tin ne 'dzin
gyis rta rnchog rntha'yas pa spros nas I de mams kyis kla klo mams kyi
serns zurn par byas te I ran gi chos la 'god par 'gyur zin de marns kyi
chos 'jorns par 'gyur gyi I srog gton ba ni rna yin no I
II. Srf-Kiilacakra-tantrottara-Tantrahrdaya-niima [D bKa' 'gyur rGyud
'bum KA; P bKa' 'gyur rGyud KA. I mostly follow the readings in P
because D appears to have been polished.]
11.1. [D 137a5; P 150a2]
... sa yi dam tshig can gyi stag gzig ...
11.2. [D 137b4; P 150a8-150bl]
... gzan yan rna dhu rna ti srin po'i bdan po 'byun I
11.3. [D 138b7; P I52a5]
... rna khar yan ni spun zla'i bu rno ran gi bus (bag mar len) I
11.4. [D 141b3-6; P 155a2-6]
I sans rgyas mams dan 'jigs byed skyes pa bud rned gdens can mams kyi
bstan pa lha rten gan I
I g.yul du zugs pa'i stag gzig mams kyi rta yi tshogs kyis de marns rna
Ius 'jig par byed I
I de mains rigs gcig gzan gyi nor mi len cin bden par srnra dan gtsan
spra rab tu 'jug I
I gzon nu gzan gyi chun rna spon zin dka' thub nes pa dan Idan ran gi
chun rna bsten I
I khrus byas gan zig 'dod pa'i sgra gcan rntshan rno so so'i dus su fun
gun phyed yol dan I
I srod dan thun gsurn dag dan fii rna ri la sar bar gyur nas Ian mal phyag
byed cm I
nABS 21.2 364
1 sa steils
2
1ha yu1 dag tu stag gzig mu stegs dag 1a mun can dbail pos
gcig tu skyob I' .
1 drag po'i g.yu1 ilor pha 1tar skyob par byed ciil bu dail b r ~ biin 'gyur
1a rgyal po ni 1
1 rgyal rigs 'thab mo min pas
3
gfi,is skyes phyugs kyi sa yis 'jigs byed las
sogs4 mchod nas su 1 .
1 sna tshogs sems can gnod pa byed cm gian gyi nor 'phrog pa yis gduil
rgyud 'chad pa 'byuil 1
v.l.: 1) D: mar. 2) D: steil. 3) D: mun pas. 4) D: la sogs.
n.s. [D 142a3; P 155b3]
1 fii rna gail du tshails pa'i sa bon fie bar 'jigs par 'gyur ba des na dus
phyi mar 1
1 sa gii sky oil ba mchod na 'dir ni g.yul ilor kIa kIo dail ni mu stegs
'jigs! par gyur 1
v.I.: 1) P: 'jig.
n.6. [D 142a5-143bl; P 155b6-156al]
1 phyi nas sa steil son pa'i gnas dail im gi Iha khail! drug bcu
2
rtsa
brgyad kIa kIo yi 1
1 mgon po rna dhu rna ti bu dail bu mo spun zla skyes pa mams kyis 'jig
parbyed 1
1 der ni bcwa brgyad
3
lola brgya yis brgya 1a bsgyur bas rna kha las
sogs4 'phags pa'i yull
1 kIa kIo mams dail 1ha gail mun can iii mar rtogs pa gail de ila yis bdag
parbya 1
1 sails rgyas chos dail dge 'dun mams 1a skyabs gsum cho gas skye dgu
mams ni der biag nas 1
1 bde la
5
bkod de ka Hi pa nas lha gnas dga' 1dan mchog tu iii rna 'gro
barbya 1
1 nam mkha' mkha' dail dus daIi dbaIi po mig gis dus kyi dus son pa yi6
10 yi tshad 1
1 slar yail skye bo mams ni kIakIo 'jug ste ji srid bcwa brgyad lola
bsgyur dail bcas pa'i bar 1
1 yail nas yail du ila yis rtsod pa'i dus der byuil nas de mams giig par
bya ba iiid 1
v.I.: 1) D: lha gaIi. D: drug eu. 3) D: beo brgyad. 4) D: la sogs. 5) P: bde ba. 6) D:
dus su son pa'i.
NEWMAN 365
11.7. [D 144a5; P 157b7-8]
000 stag gzig mams 000 bdag gis bsten 1
In. Svadarsanamatoddea [P gives the Sanskrit title of this text as Pra-
I follow the form given by Naro in his
Paramiirthasarrzgraha-niima-sekoddearrkii (po 61.7). The text appears in
P bsTan 'gyur rGyud 'grel PU, but not in D.]
111.1. [P 35b6-7]
1 ** bzun bya 'dzin pa dail 1
1 gsad bya dan ni gsod po dan 1
1 bi si bi lla'i snags ched du 1
1 khyab 'jug 'jigs byed skyob [*phyir] ro 1
111.2. [P 50a2-3]
1 gans ri'i byail du sa skyons mams 1
1 bod sogs mams su ba lail za 1
1 nub tu kla klo'i rgyal po mams 1
1 ba lail gills skyes mams kyan gsod 1
IV. Srf-Paramiirthasevii [D bsTan 'gyur rGyud NA; P bsTan 'gyur
rGyud 'grel GA]
IV.l. [D 13b6-7; P 16b7-17a1]
1 tshails pa'i kha fiid las skyes bram ze grags pa na 1
.1 bram ze mo yan gnas de fiid las yin nam ci 1
1 gal te 'di dag skye gnas gcig las skyes gyur na 1
1 min po dan ni srin mo bag mar rigs rna yin 1 (1)
1 gal te yin na kla klo'i skye bo 'jug par 'gyur 1
1 kla klo 'jug par gyur na rigs ni fiams pas te 1
I rigs zad na ni dmyal bar sdug bsnal mi bzad pa 1
1 ran gi rigs ni 'dzin phyir de dag la 'gyur ro 1 (2)
IV.2. [D 17b7-18a2; P 22a6-8]
1 gian mams kyis kyail mtho ris bde ba'i rgyu III ni 1
1 ran gi lin ga'il rtse mo'i pags pa
2
gcod par byed I
1 fiin mo'i mtha' dan mtshan mo'i sten du bza' ba ni I
1 nes par stag gzig3 mams kyis byed par 'gyur ba'o I (1)
JIABS 21.2 366
I rail gi las kyis si bar gyur pa'i phyugs mams kyi
4
I
I de yi sa ni fie bar spyod par mi byed do I
I srog bead rab tu byas nas de fiid za byed de I
I gian du na ni mi mams mtho ris ' gro ba med I (2)
v.l.: 1) P: linga'i. 2) P: lags pa. 3) P: stag gzir. 4) P&D: kyis.
NEWMAN 367
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SK (T)
VP (S) B
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JIABS 21.2 368
VP (S) U (1) Jagannatha Upadhyaya, ed. Vimalaprabhii!fkti of Kalki Srf PU1J.rja-
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VP (T)
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Kalkin Srfpu1J.rjarlka on Srflaghukiilacakratantrartija by Srfmaiijusrf-
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Institute Higher Tibetan Studies 1994.
Lokesh Chandra, ed. The Collected Works of Bu-ston, Part 1 (KA),
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MAXNIHOM
Vajravinaya and VajrasauIJ<;la:
A 'Ghost' Goddess and her Syncretic Spouse
In Marie-Therese DE MALLMAN's Introduction a l'Iconographie du
Tantrisme Bouddhique (1975), on page 431 one finds the entry Vajra-
vinayii:
De vinaya, separer, rejeter. Deesse figurant parmi les divinites hindoues du
MaI,lqaIa Durgatiparisodhana (NSP 22). Epouse de (i.e. Balarama),
elle est pareille 11 lui; cependant, elle peut tenir de la gauche Ie kha,tvanga au lieu
du soc.
The requisite passage in Abhayakaragupta's (p.89)
indeed reads:
kuftjare vajrasau,!g.a/:l sita/:l savye vajrarrz vamena zanga lam / vajravinaya
vajrasau'!4avat / vamena khatvaizgarrz bibhartiti /
VajraSaul).q.a, white, on an elephant, has in his right hand a vajra [and] in his left
hand a plough. Vajravinaya is like With her left hand she holds a
khatvanga. Such is [her] particularity.
Similarly, in SKORUPSKI's edition of the Sarvadurgatiparisodhana-
tantra, recension B, at 252.6-10 we find:
vajrasau'!g.o ga,!apatir gajavahano vajraf!l dhiirayed vamena
laf!lgalaf!l dhiirayed avasthitaf:t / sitavar1}af:t /
vajravinaya VajrasauIJ-rJavad ayan tu yad uta vamakareIJ-a
kha.tviingadhiiriIJ-fti /
Here, the Tibetan translation reads:
rdo rje tshogs bdag glan sna glan po che ion pa can / phyag g.yas pas rdo rje
'dzin cin/ g.yon pas gsol 'dzin cin gnas pas /mdog dkar po'o/
rdo rje 'dul ma rdo rje glan sna Zta bu' 0/ 'di ni khyad par te gan ie na / phyag
g.yon gyis kha.tvanga 'dzin pa'o /
Save that glan po che ion pa can implies *mahiigajaviihana, the Tibetan
seems in accordance with the Sanskrit as printed. For gajaviihano manu-
script Breads gajiiviihako and for dhiirayed manuscript G reads dharaft.
These discrepancies are minor. Of more interest is that for vajravinayii,
well represented by Tibetan rdo rje 'dul rna, no less than four manu-
scripts (of seven), namely A, B, C and G, read vajravilayii.
JIABS 21.2 374
Obviously, given the SUppOlt of the and the 'Tibetan
of such would not seem to be a problem.
However, although in the set of gQds of which
VajrasauI).Q.a and Vajravinaya are a part are found in the outer circle of
the maI).Q.ala, and although SKORUPSKI, who indeed noted the almost
total identity of the divinities cif the former with the set found in SDP-
B, also suggests that these gods are found "beginning in the northeast" of
the SarvadurgatiparisodhanamaI).Q.ala (1983: 87-91), in fact this set of
gods is practically identical to the set described in the Vajrasamaya
section of the Tattvasa1J1graha for the TrailokyavijayamaI).Q.ala (Tattva-
sa1J1graha 172-173), where they are each the vajraniima or consecration
name of an associated Hindu divinity. Tattvasa1J1graha 172.13 (Tib.
242a2/3) and 173.13 (Tib. 242b2/3):
madhumattiiya VajrasawyjaJ:t
sbrari rtsis myos pa ni rdo rje'i glari po'i sna'ol
miiralJyai vajravilayii
bsod ma ni rdo rje 'ju ma'o
We therefore have a 'problem'. Four of the seven manuscripts of Sarva-
durgatiparisodhana-B confirm the reading of the Tattvasa1J1graha, that
the spouse of VajrasauI).Q.a is not Vajravinaya, but Vajravilaya. More-
over, vilayii makes more sense, since the Hindu goddess is MaraI).I, She
Who Causes Death. Since, paleographically, an erroneous reading vinayii
for vilayii is no problem at all, we may propose that the 'true' reading is
vilayii, and that Tibetan SDP-B had as basis a faulty Sanskrit reading.
It may consequently be formally proposed that Vajravinaya, whatever
her subsequent textual or art-historical development may be, is a divinity
whose origin is an orthographic error.
This simple reasoning is nicely supported by Anandagarbha's Trai-
lokyavijayamalJrjalopiiyikii's parallel to the SDP-B passage cited above.
Indeed, the entire SDP-B section dealing with these divinites also found
as reported by the the exterior of the Sarvadurgati-
parisodhanamaI).Q.ala is to be retrieved in the former text.2 45a8/b 1:
1. Compare Trailokyavijayamahiikalpariijii 64b6: chari gis myos pa ni rdo rjes zin
pa' o. rdo rjes is clearly an error and may be corrected to rdo rje s[na].
2. Text-historical consequences may not be insignificant, since the Trailokyavijaya-
malJalopiiyikii also furnishes the set of mantras associated with the divinities of
the TrilokacakramaJ.lqala of the Tattvasal"{lgraha in close propinquity to this
passage which it shares with Sarvadurgatiparisodhana-B.
NIHOM 375
rdorje glan po 'i sna ni tshogs kyi bdag po ste I mdog dkar po I lag pa g.yas na
rdo rje thogs pa I g.yon gsol thogs te gnas pa glan po che la ion pa' 0 II
rdo rje 'ju rna ni glan sna dan 'dra ba las khyad par ni 'di yod de I 'di itar lag
pa g.yon na kha.tviinga thogs pa'o II
Being found here and in the Tibetan of TattvasaYflgraha 173.13 above,
the translation rdo rje 'ju ma, with 'ju ba meaning "to melt, digest"3 and
with 'ju ba attested as representing vilfna,4 now irrefutably may be taken
to be a reflex for vajravilayii.
Ancillary evidence for this conclusion is supplied by the parallel
passage of the Vajrasekharatantra (peking 46a1): gsod byed rdo rje 'jigs
ma ste II. Here, 'jigs ma should not be taken as representing bhlmii,
bhairavf or the like, but as from a non-standard perfect of 'jig pa, 'to
destroy, dissolve'.5 Further, we may adduce the mantra associated with
. Vajravilaya in the sarvavajrakulakarmamaJ).<;lala of the Trilokacakra in
the TattvasaYflgraha (303.6-8):
atha vajravilayii svakarmasamayiim a b h i i ~ a t I
Ol'(! vajravi[laye
6
chinda sina bhinda va]jri!'li miidayonmadaya piva piva hal'(!
pha!11
The portion between brackets has been supplied by YAMADA on the
basis of the Chinese and Tibetan. That it is correct to do so is proven by
TrailokyavijayamalJrJ.alopiiyikii 44b5:
Ol'(! vajravilaye chinda asina bhinda vajre!'la maraya udmadaya piva priva hal'(!
pha!11
I am unable to understand the readings sina and asina as Sanskrit
(Chinese reconstructs to chindii sinii
7
), although perhaps sina is a Middle
lndic imperative corresponding to the Sanskrit root snii, 'bathe'. TS
vajrilJi, taken as afeminine vocative, may be better than vajrelJa, since
the set of mantras of which this is one is partial to vocatives. While it is
obvious that the mantra should read unmadaya, because Tibetan TS
reads miiraya u[n]madaya and because the TattvasaYflgraha has identi-
fied MaraI).l as Vajravilaya, it is not unlikely that one should read
miiraya instead of miidaya or maraya, because the Trailokyavijaya-
3. JASCHKE 177.
4. LOKESH CHANDRA 1976: 810.
5. Cf. JASCHKE 175. The usual perfect is biig.
6. Tibetan TS (253d6) adds me.
7. YAMADA 1981: 303 note 7.
JIABS 21.2 376
malJ-r.Jalopiiyikii, in its list of consecration names associated with the
Hindu divinities of the states (64c5): gsod ma ni
rdo rje gsod ma' 0 / "Marar.u is VajramaraIJ.1". ,
In the light of the data presented so far, it is more difficult to account
for unmadaya. True, given the imperatives piva piva
8
, "drink! drink!",
this statement seems insignificant.
9
Yet acknowledgement of the impor-
tance of intoxication for Vajravilaya presumes that her symbolism is to
be regarded as structurally admixed with that of her spouse, Vajra-
and this is a notion which, although certainly not unlikely,
remains to be proved, since it would have consequences for our under-
standing of all sixteen pairs of divinities of the Trailokyavijaya, Triloka-
cakra and
To this end, we may first cite Tattvasal[lgraha 284.8-9, which presents
the mantra of in the of the Triloka-
cakra:
atha VajrasaU1:u;laJ:t I a svasamayamudro.m / Ol'(! vajramade I I hill'(! 1112
Then Vajrasau.Q.<;ia declared his own Pledge-Mudra: Ol'(! 0 (female) Vajra-
Intoxication! hill'(!.
As male, Vajramada is found in the samayahrdaya of in the
Trilokacakra mahiimalJ-r.Jala description at Tattvasal[lgraha 271.11: 0 l[l
vajramada hUl[lI3. This name is also supported by Vajrasekharatantra
45e4: myos chen rdo rje myos pa ste, "Mahamada is Vajramada".I4
Curiously, the Tibetan (252c3) for Tattvasal[lgraha 271.11 reads: Ol[l
vajradhama hUl[l. This dhama is definitely not an error: TS 294.6 has
Ol[l mada mada hUl[l phar, for which the Tibetan (253a4/5) is Ol[l dhama
dhama hUl[l phat. The word dhama is interesting: the root" dham may
8. priva of the Trailokyavijayamm:zrjalopiiyikii is an error.
9. See also Vajravilaya's svah[daya at Trailokyavijayamahiikalparo.jo. 77b8: Ol'(!
khargamarini hill'(!. For marini, I suggest mo.rilJi, 'she destroying' . kharga is
more difficult. Given kharjiko., "a relish that provokes drinking" (MONIER-
WILLIAMS 1899: 337), might one conjecture kharja? kharjamo.rilJi would then be
a vocative: 0 She destroying the itch to drink!
10. "Chinese inserts galJapatiJ:t" (YAMADA 1981: 284 note 4).
11. The Chinese suggests vajrasaUlJrje (YAMADA 1981: 284 note 5).
12. TS Tibetan 252c3/4: de nas rdo rje snas ran gi dam tshig phyag rgya smras pa I
Ol'(! vajramede hill'(!.
13. Chinese hiii'(!.
14. See also Tattvasal'(!graha 279.9: madanfmadanftfvral'(!.
NIHOM 377
mean 'to blow a conch shell or any wind instrument, blow into, exhale,
kindle a fire by blowing' (MW 509). As noun, it also means 'blowing,
melting', but is also said of K r ~ I f a (ibid.).
VajrasauIJr;fa is most easily taken as meaning 'Vajra-Intoxication'
(sauIJr;fa: 'fond of intoxicating liquor, drunk, intoxicated'). Although in
accordance with mada, this hardly fits with the Tibetan translation glan
sna, glan po'i sna or the like. These suggest that sauIJr;fa be taken as
from su'!-r;fa, 'elephant-trunk', and imply a translation of 'Vajra-
Elephant-Trunk'. From here, the trumpeting of an elephant could be
seen to be implied by the imperatives dhama and dhama dhama in the
mantras above, the more since dhamadhamii (ind.) means 'blowing
repeatedly or the sort of sound made by blowing with a bellows or
trumpet' (MW 509).
Such an association for VajrasauIfc;la with elephants is further support-
ed by Anandagarbha's TrailokyavijayamalJr;falopiiyikii. There (39b7/8),
parallel to the passages of the Tattvasa1!lgraha and Trailokyavijayamahii-
kalpariijii identifying Hindu divinities with Buddhist ones, we find for
MaraI).1/ Vajravilaya:
gsod rna ni gtso rna rda rje 'dzurn rna 'a II
Mara" is the mistress Vajranguli.
This is at first obscure: 'Vajra-Finger' seems totally irrelevant. Never-
theless, anguli also means "finger-like tip of an elephant's trunk" (MW
8). This word has been previously attested only lexicographically and in
NilakaIftha's Miitangallla iii.U
5
Hence, analogous to the locution
unmadaya in Vajravilaya's mantra above, we may use the presence of a
particular association of the god (VajrasauIfc;la) to motivate the existence
of aspects of his consort.
Now in fact understanding how, if not why, VajrasauIfc;la was under-
stood to include references to both elephants and to intoxication is not
very difficult. His 'Hindu' name, Madhumatta, could be understood as
'he (a furious elephant) drunk with liquor' or 'he (an elephant) intoxi-
cated by the Spring (i.e. in rut)'. As such, that such an elephant would
'trumpet' or 'blow' (cf. dhama) with his trunk (sauIJr;fa, glan sna) is
quite acceptable.
In any case, the connection of VajrasauIfc;la with elephants is also
furnished by Trailokyavijayamahiikalpariija 77a2:
15. Cf. EDGERTON 1931: 58, 114.
JIABS 21.2 378
Of[l mahabalaka mahiiganade piva piva ruhrira sarvaduoJ!anana pha!
Most of these orthographic monstrosities are easy enough to correct.
ruhrira may be corrected to rudhira1[l and sarvadutanii to sarvadutii-
nii1[l, while mahiiganade should clearly be mahiiga1}apate.
16
This leaves
mahiibiiliika. Reading maMbiilaka, the immediate meaning is 'a great
young one'. This is in context seemingly senseless, save that one recalls
that Vajragarbha, the more 'orthodox' name for Vajrasaul).<;la, is the
prime vajrabodhisattva associated with consecration. As such mahii-
biilaka could be seen to refer to the tantric candidate. However, perhaps
more to the point is another meaning furnished by the dictionary for
biilaka: 'a young elephant five years old'.17 This meaning of a young
bull elephant fits very well with the other aspects signified by mada,
matta, and dhama, namely, the characteristic of impetuousity.
Of[l 0 great young bull elephant! Great Lord of Hosts! Drink! Drink the blood of
all the evil ones! pha!
Yet this is not the end of the matter. Above we noted that another use of
dhama is as a name of K r ~ l ) . a . This again seems irrelevant: till, that is,
one adduces the parallel to the passages equating the Hindu and Buddhist
names from the Trailokyavijayama1}r;lalopiiyikii (38b3):
stobs bzwi ni tshogs kyi bdag po rdo rje glwi po'i sna'o II
MALLMAN deems Vajrasaul).<;la to be called Balabhadra, who is the elder
brother of K r ~ l ) . a (1975: 114). Indeed, Balabhadra, who is also known as
Balarama, is found outside of the fourth circle of the Dharmadhatuvag-
Isvaramal).<;lala (Nipanniiyogiivalf no. 21) and is held in the skull in the
fifth left hand of Visva<;laka in the northern circle of the Panca<;laka-
mal).<;lala (Nipanniiyogiivalf no. 24). Since stobs bzan is recorded as
representing balabhadra,18 it follows that stobs bZaJi should also be so
reconstructed. However, stobs bzan may also represent liingalin (ibid.),
which is another name for Baladeva (MW 900) who is indeed the elder
brother of K r ~ l ) . a and whose distinctive iconographic attribute is the
plough (Ziingala, hala. MALLMAN 1963: 270).
16. See also Tattvasaf[lgraha 263.2-5: atha vajrasaU1:ujo galJ-apatir bhagavate
vajrapalJ-aye idaf[l hrdayan niryiitayati sma I Of[l vajrasauwja mahiigalJ-apati
rakoJa sarvaduoJ{ebhyo vajradhariijfiiif[l palaya hUf[l pha! II
17. Cf. MW 729. However, in the Miitafzgalrla (v.2), Mla refers to "an elephant in
the first year" (EDGERTON 1931: 121).
18. LOKESH CHANDRA 1976: 986; 1992-94: 805.
NIHOM 379
Now above we noted that MONIER-WILLIAMS records that dhama is
said of but unfortunately no text locus is supplied. Nor is one
found in the Petersburg Worterbuch: Assuming that dhama and/or
dhama dhama. in the mantras cited above may be taken both as a name
and as imperatives, the resultant discrepancy between the identification
of as Balabhadra/Langalin and as is at first puzzling.
On the other hand, evidence from Indian art exists of a syncretism
between Vasudeva and Balarama (MALLMAN 1968: 48 and note
49). Moreover, as MALLMAN has noted on several occasions, the
elephant, here the mount of is in fact connected with
and not with Balabhadra (ibid.; 1964: 177; 1975: 114-115).
Therefore, we may conclude that the figure of V is probably
another example of such a syncretism. It is worth noting that the name
Baladeva occurs only once in the Tattvasaf!Lgraha and that in the epithet
in the mantra of Vajrasana (TS 303.9-14),19 the consort
of Vajramala whom MALLMAN (1964: 177) associates with Vasudeva
(i.e. Moreover, since (Madhumatta) is the first and
Vajramala (Madhukara) the second of the four vajrabodhisattva in the
South of the their positions may reflect the
elder/younger brother relationship of Balarama and That the
names Madhumatta and Madhukara are also similar is not likely to be
chance. If not, then that the "maker of madhu" is and the
consumer is Baladeva (Balarama, Balabhadra) is also an interesting
observation of the Tattvasaf!Lgraha on the relationship between these two
brothers.21
The afore going provides the student both with interesting conclusions on
the nature of the yogatantras and with troubling questions as the proper
19. TS 303.10-14: atha vajrasana svakarmasamayam I oY(t vajrasane bha
[k,saya vajradasani saktidhari]lJ-i mansahare nararucira
subhapriye majjavasanulepanaviliptagatre anaya sarvadhanadhanyahiralJ-ya-
suva[rlJ-adini sal'{tkramaya hiil'{t phat II
20. Note that VajraSaUi:).ga is white in colour and that Balarama is also said "of a
white hair of (SORENSEN 1904: 107).
21. It also brings up the question of whether madhukara is a kind of pun on s
famous epithet madhusiidana. Concern with the elder/younger brother relation-
ship is found elsewhere, in particular vis it vis Skanda and GaI).esa (cf. SANFORD
1991: 297).
JIABS 21.2 380
methodology towards their study. Let us take on the aspect 9f doubt
first.
We may be accused of an all too flippant use or misuse of philological
methods. Thus, for example, we have postulated that the word dhama
within a mantra may be seen both as an imperative verb and as a noun in
the vocative. That is, not only have we insisted on the multi-interpreta-
bility of words, but have also suggested that such a polyvalence extends
to grammatical categories. This is, to my knowledge, not usual.
Nevertheless, one may hypothesize that in the yogatantras the multi-
interpretability of names and mantras are precisely the salient feature.
That is, these lea - if one may call them so - are what distinguishes
tantric from non-tantric ritualizations. Indeed, I should like to go
further. I suggest that the subsequent semantic 'overload' was intended
by the writers of these texts. Perhaps, the idea is that by weighing the
disciple down with ultimately unwieldly and unbearable masses of
culturally determined meaning, the notion might arise that the meaning
of words and acts is in truth disjoined from imposed externalities and
resides solely in the mind of the disciple himself.
If this ratiocination has merit, it then follows that the academic student
of these texts must search for the ambiguities in them, even while
distinguishing between text developments external to the 'system' (e.g.
vinaya as orthographic error for vilaya) and intended ambiguities as
such. Clearly, this is in practise difficult, and may explain why so little
progress has been achieved in our understanding of the particulars of
these fascinating and recalcitrant texts.
NIHOM 381
Bibliography & Abbreviations
Eqgerton 1931: Franklin Edgerton, The Elephant Lore of the Hindus, New Haven
i931.
Jiischke H.A.Jiischke, A Tibetan-English Dictionary, New Delhi 1987 (reprint
of London edition of 1881).
Lokesh Chandra 1976: Lokesh Chandra, Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, 2 vols., Kyoto
1976 (reprint of 12 volume 1959 edition).
Lokesh Chandra 1992-94: id., Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, Supplementary Volumes
1-6, New Delhi 1992.
Mallman 1963 M.-T. de Mallman, Les enseignements iconographiques de l'Agni-
Puriirta, Paris 1963.
Mallman 1964 id., Etudes iconographiques sur Manjusrf, Paris 1964 (publications
de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, volume LV).
Mallman 1968 id., "Hindu Deities in Tantric Buddhism", Zentralasiatische Studien 2
(1968): 41-53.
Mallman 1975 id., Introduction a l'iconographie du tlintrisme bouddhique, Paris
1975.
MW Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford
1899.
Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (ed.), of Mahiipartita
Abhayiikaragupta, Baroda 1972 (Gaekwad's Oriental Series no. 109)
(reprint of first edition of 1949).
Sanford 1991 James H. Sanford, "Literary Aspects of Japan's Dual-Gailesa Cult", in
Robert L. Brown (ed.), Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, Albany
1991, pp. 287-336.
SarvadurgatipariSodhana: see Skorupski 1983.
Skorupski 1983: Tadeusz Skorupski (ed.), SarvadurgatipariSodhana Tantra: Elimina-
tion of All Evil Destinies. Sanskrit and Tibetan texts with introduction,
English translation and notes. New Delhi 1983.
Sorensen 1904 S. Sorensen, An Index to the Names in the Mahiibhiirata, New Delhi,
1978 (reprint of 1904 edition):
Tattvasaf!lgraha: for printed Sanskrit edition, see Yamada 1981.
for facsimile reproduction of the single known manuscript, Lokesh
Chandra and David Snellgrove, Sarva-Tathiigata-Tattva-Saf!lgraha:
Facsimile Reproduction of a Tenth Century Sanskrit Manuscriptfrom
Nepal, New Delhi 1981 (Sata-Pitaka Series vol. 269).
Sarvatathiigatatattvasaf!lgraha, Tibetan translation, Peking edition,
vol. 4 (no. 112), pp. 217al-283b8.
Trailokyavijayamahiikalpariijii: Trailokyavijayamahiikalpariijii, Tibetan translation,
Peking edition, vol. 5 (no. 115), pp. 61al-83bl.
JIABS 21.2 382
Trailokyavijayamm:z{ialopayika: Anandagarbha' s SrftrailokyamalJ{ialopttyika arya-
tattvasamgrahatantroddhrta (dpal khams gsum mam par rgyal ba'i
dkyil 'khor gyi cho ga 'phags pa de kho na iiid bsdus pa'i rgyud las
btus pa), Tibetan translation, Peking edition, vol.'74 (no. 3342),
pp.32c8-52b8.
Vajrasekharatantra: Vajrasikharatantra (sic), Tibetan Translation, Peking edition,
vol. 5 (no. 113), pp.1a1-56d7.
Vajrasekharatantra, Tibetan Translation, Taipei edition, vol. 17
(no.480), pp.223d1-261a5.
Yamada 1981 1sshi Yamada (ed.), Sarva-Tathtigata-Tattva-Sarp.graha-Nttma-Mahti-
yana-Satra, A crit. ed. based on a Sanskrit manuscript & Chinese &
Tibetan transl. (Sata-Pitaka Series 262), New Delhi 1981.
TILMANN VETTER
Explanations of dukkha
The present contribution presents some philological observations and a
historical assumption concenling the First Noble Truth.
It is well-known to most buddhologists and many Buddhists that the
explanations of the First Noble Truth in the First Sermon as found in the
Mahiivagga of the Vinayapitaka and in some other places conclude with
a remark on the five upiidiinakkhandhii, literally: 'branches of appro-
priation'. This remark is commonly understood as a summary.
Practically unknown is the fact that in Hermann OLDENBERG's edition
of the Mahiivagga
l
(= Yin I) this concluding remark contains the parti-
cle pi, like most of the preceding explanations of dukkha. The preceding
explanations are: jiiti pi dukkhii, jarii pi dukkhii, vyiidhi pi dukkhii,
marana1'(t pi dukkha1'(t, appiyehi sampayogo dukkho, piyehi vippayogo
dukkho; ya1'(t p' iccha1'(t na labhati tam
2
pi dukkha1'(t (Vin I 10.26).
Wherever pi here appears it obviously has the function of coordinating
examples of events or processes that cause pain (not: are pain3): birth is
causing pain, as well as decay, etc.
4
1. The Vinaya Pitakalfl. Vol. 1, The Mahavagga. London-Edinburgh 1879.
2. OLDENBERG's edition seems to reflect inconsistency of the manuscripts in some-
times considering combinations of -Ifl with the particle pi as a real sandhi and
writing -m pi.
3. dukkha- is an adjective here; it follows the gender of the preceding (pro)noun.
Not so in the MUlasarvastivada version in The Gilgit Manuscript of the Sangha-
bhedavastu, ed. by R. Gnoli and T. Venkatacharya, Part 1, Roma 1977, l37: jiltir
duftkhalfl, jaril duftkhalfl, vyildhir duftkhalfl, maralJalfl duftkhalfl, priyaviprayogo
duftkhalfl, apriyasalflprayogo duftkhalfl, yad apfcchan na labhate
tad api duftkham, paiica upildilnaskandha duftkhalfl. Rere only yad
apfcchan na labhate tad api duftkham contains api.
4. In translating the noun dukkha as 'pain' (and correspondingly the adjective as
'causing pain' or 'painful') I follow K. R. NORMAN "The Four Noble Truths",
in: Indogical and Buddhist Studies (Festschrift lW. de Jong) ed. AL. Rercus et.
al. Canberra 1982: 377-391, n.3 "without implying that this is necessarily the best
translation" .
JIABS 21.2 384
At Yin I 10.29, the concluding remark runs as follows: sarrzkhittena
pane' upadanakkhandha pi
5
dukkha. No note on this pi is found in
OLDENBERG's generally trustworthy apparatus criticus. So ';'Ie may infer
that the manuscripts consulted by OLDENBERG all contained this pi.
In the Dhammakaya CD-ROM [1.0, 1996], which, with some errors,
represents the PTS editions, this pi is also found in other places where
the concluding remark on dukkha appears, namely, DN II 305.5; 307.
17-20; SN V 421.23; Patis I 37.28; II 147.26; Vibh 99.10; 101.15. 20.
However in the Niilanda-DevanagarI-Pali-Series (=NDP) [1958, etc.] it
is missing in all these places (including Yin I 10.29), while it is found in
AN 1177.2, where it is lacking in the Dhammakaya CD-ROM. In MN I
48.34 and 185.6 it is found neither in the PTS edition [ed. V.
Trenckner, 1888] nor in NDP6. But TRENCKNER remarks on p.532
with regard to 48.34: "-kkhandha pi M and all the Burmese authorities
known to me, also Yin. 1.c. [=Vin I 10.29]." The CD-ROMs BudsirIV
of Mahidol University [1994] and Chattha Sangayana from Dhammagiri
[1.1, 1997] consistently omit pi in these places.
We can therefore state: 1) TRENCKNER, whose edition of MN I nor-
mally excells the average PTSeditions, has chosen a reading against all
Burmese manuscripts; 2) NDP and the CD-ROMs mentioned above, all
depending on the Sixth Council, do not accept this pi7; 3) other editions
show there was a manuscript tradition of employing pi in the concluding
remark in the Mahavagga as well as in Sutta and Abhidhamma texts.
How should we deal with these observations from a historical point of
view? That TRENCKNER has made his choice against nearly all his
witnesses is easily explained. On the third page of the Preface of his
MN I edition he says: "Buddhaghosa's commentary has been of very
great service. Whenever his readings, from his comments upon them, are
unmistakable, they must, in my opinion, be adopted in spite of other
authorities. His MSS. were at least fifteen centuries older than ours, and
in a first edition we certainly cannot aim at anything higher than repro-
ducing his text as far as possible (here he adds a footnote: 'Even if his
readings may seem questionable, as [ ... ]')".
5. OLDENBERG writes: upiidiinakkhandhiipi
6. Note that at MN 148.34 in TRENCKNER's edition the passage appiyehi sampa-
yogo dukkho, piyehi vippayogo dukkho of Yin 1 10.29 is replaced by sokapari-
devadukkhadomanassupiiyiisii pi, while in NDP it is preceded by this long
compound, and pi also appears after sampayago and vippayogo.
7. The pi at ND P AN I 177.2 seems to have escaped attention.
VETTER 385
What"does the commentary to MN I 48.34 say? It refers to the discus-
sion of the four noble truths in [chapter XVI] of the Visuddhimagga.
There ( 57'-60 ed. H.C. Warren and Dh. Kosambi, Cambridge Mass.,
1950) we read saitkhittena pancupiidiinakkhandhii dukkhii, without pi.
The Sixth Council (perhaps influenced by TRENCKNER's view) may
have had a similar motive for leaving out pi at all places where the con-
cluding remark on dukkha appears, but I have no information about this
and can therefore only deal with TRECKNER's statement ..
In the main, I am in favour of considering the oldest commentaries as
very likely preserving old readings. But such a reading, especially when
the commentator himself lives centuries after the composition of a text,
cannot be preferred to another, if he employs ideas that cannot be found
in the old texts, whereas the other reading can be defended by referring
to their contents. This is precisely the case in Buddhaghosa's explanation
of the reading without pi.
At Visuddhimagga XVI 57-60 we get the impression that Buddha-
ghosa (or a predecessor) had a text without pi before him (readings are
not discussed) and made the best of it by explaining saitkhittena as indi-
cating a summary of the preceding statements
8
and declaring that the
remark on the five 'branches' of appropriation implies all other state-
ments about pain, because actual pain does not occur without them.
9
But to my knowledge, there is no single place in the Plili Vinaya- and
Suttapi!aka where the often occUrring statement that the five upiidiina-
kkhandhii are dukkha is understood in this way, while there are many
places where their being dukkha is understood as derived from their
impermanence, which implies that in this context dukkha does not mean
'causing actual pain', but 'eventually disappointing' or 'unsatisfactory'.
Moreover, there is, as far as I know, at best one place in the Vinaya- and
Suttapi!aka where saitkhittena seems to suriunanze what precedes: at the
end of MN no. 38 (I 270.37); and this place is doubtful, because it could
be an inadequate copy of what happens in MN no. 37, where safikhittena
8. He depends on a text that included sokaparidevadukkhadomassupiiyiisii and
appiyehi sampayogo dukkho piyehi vippayogo dukkho, not on the Mahiivagga
passage.
9. The essence of the commentary is given in these verses:
liitippabhutikarp. dukkhalJ1. yarp. vuttam idha tiidinii
avuttarp. yan ca tarp. sabbalJ1. vinii ete na vijjati
Yasmii, tasmii upiidiinakkhandhii sCllikhepato ime
dukkhii ti vuttii dukkhantadesakena Mahesinii.
JIABS 21.2 386
appears at the start and at the end of the sutta. In all other cases I have
checked, about 300, sankhittena announces an item that afterwards is, or
should be, explained. .
Given this state of things it seems unlikely that pi in the last remark on
dukkha is an error of uncontrolled repetition of the pi in the preceding
sentences, now fortunately removed by TRENCKNER and the Sixth
Council. It is much more probable that Buddhaghosa (or a predecessor)
had a text where pi in the last remark had, accidentally or with some
intention, been lost, and that he made the best of it, a nice interpretation
that succeeds fairly well in maintaining an unequivocal meaning of
dukkha, but is not important for the historian of early buddhism. For
this historical purpose we have to accept the reading with pi, and to
understand the last remark as another example of the usage of the adjec-
tive dukkha, though in a slightly different meaning, which points to an
addition. Sankhittena means nothing than: this is a short remark that has
to be explained to the neophyte who does not know what the five
upiidiinakkhandhas are and/or why they are are called dukkha, though
they do not always actually cause pain. The translation then is: "Also the
five branches of appropriation, briefly said (sankhittena), are causing
pain."
Let us, finally, return to OLDENBERG. In his famous Buddha, sein
Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde
lo
we find a translation of the con-
cluding remark on dukkha that also seems to depend on the Visuddhi-
magga, not on the Mahiivagga, the source OLDENBERG mentions in this
connection: "kurz die fiinferlei Objekte des Ergreifens sind Leiden II".
Perhaps he was inspired by TRENCKNER. But then one would expect a
note referring to the reading established by himself in his edition of Yin
I. I found no such note. Instead a note is attached to 'Objekte des
Ergreifens' that gives German translations of the names of these five
objects as they occur elsewhere, and moreover rejects, without any
arguing, an assumption by KOEPPENI2 said to be given without any
10. The fourth edition (Stuttgart-Berlin 1903) was the earliest available to me; see
p.146 and 293. I also checked the edition supervised by H. VON GLASENAPP
(Stuttgart [1959?]) and saw that in this question nothing had changed; see p.137
and 224 and note p. 426.
11. dukkhii is of course not 'Leiden', but 'leidvoll', if one depends on the Pilli
sources, as OLDENBERG says he does.
12. Carl Friedrich KOEPPEN, Die Religion des Buddha und ihre Entstehung. I, Berlin
1857.
VETTER 387
arguing: namely that the concluding remark on dukkha might be "ein
metaphysischer Zusatz"13.
Exit KOEPPEN, at least in this question, on the basis of an ex cathedra
judgement. A questionable tradition of translating this remark in books
that pretend to' deal with the Buddha's teaching has been established here
and is still flourishing. To arrive at his judgement against KOEPPEN,
OLDENBERG had to forget (or to ignore) his own edition of the Mahii-
vagga. He showed moreover, that he had not the slightest inkling of the
problem that vedanii, the second of these 'Objekte des Ergreifens', is
often explained as consisting of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feeling
and that pleasant and neutral feeling cannot be characterized as 'Leiden'
and only in a slightly different sense as 'leidvoll'.1
4
13. "Koppen (1, S.222, Anm.l) findet in dies en letzten Worten einen 'meta-
physischen Zusatz' zum ursprunglichen Text der vier Wahrheiten, ohne allen
Grund. So viel metaphysische Terminologie, wie in diesen Worten liegt, hat der
Buddhismus vonjeher besessen."
14. Already V.GLASENAPP, in his 'Nachwort' to OLDENBERG's Buddha [1959:
474] hinted at this problem, by pointing to the (SN no.36.11),
though his approach is quite unhlstorical. There, replying to a question, the
Buddha admits (SN IV 216.20) he has taught both: there are three kinds of
feelings, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, and: whatever one feels belongs to the
unpleasant (ya,!! kind vedayita'!! ta,!! dukkhasmi,!!). But "the [second] statement
has been made by me having in mind that salikhiirii as such are impermanent
(mayii salikhiiriina'!! yeva aniccata,!! sandhiiya bhiisita'!!)". See Lambert
SCHMITHAUSEN, "Zur buddhistischen Lehre von der dreifachen Leidhaftigkeit",
ZDMG (Supplement TIL2) 1977: 918-931.
INDEX TO JlABS 11-21
by Toru Tomabechi
The present index covers the issues of the Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies from 1988 (nABS 11.1) until 1998
(nABS 21.2). We have by and large taken as our model the index
compiled by Bruce Cameron HALL in nABS 10.2 (1987), i.e., titles are
given as the main entries for all items. Also following HALL, the titles
of books being reviewed have been placed in italics. The reader can
consult the explanations to be found in HALL 1987 (pp. 181-2) for more
information on the organizational principles which we have adopted.
(The) Advent of Theravada Buddhism to Mainland South-east Asia, Peter SKILLING.
20.1 (1997): 93-107.
Alayavijfiiina: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of
Yogiiciira Philosophy, Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN. Review by Paul J. GRIFFITHs.
12.1 (1989): 1 7 0 ~ 1 7 7 .
AMES, William L. see:
(The) Soteriological Purpose of Nagarjuna'sPhilosophy: A Study of Chapter
Twenty-Three of the MUla-madhyamaka-kiirikiis.
ANDREWS, Allan A. see:
(The) Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yiian's
Commentary on the Visualisation Sutra.
Honen and Popular Pure Land Piety: Assimilation and Transformation.
Anti-Chan Polemics in Post Tang Tiantai, Brook ZIPORYN. 17.1 (1994): 26-65.
(The) Application of the Vinaya Term niisanii, Ute HUSKEN. 20.2 (1997): 93-111.
Apropos of Some Recently Recovered Texts Belonging to the Lam 'bras Teachings of
the Sa skyapa and Ko brag pa, Leonald W.J. VANDERKuup. 17.2 (1994): 175-
201.
Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen), David GERMANO. 17.2 (1994): 203-335.
ARENES, Pierre see:
Hermeneutique des tantra: etude de quelques usages du sens cache.
Asailga's Understanding of Madhyamika: Notes on the Shung-chung-Iun, John P.
KEENAN. 12.1 (1989): 93-107.
[Obituary Harold Walter Bailey, see] Sir Harold Walter Bailey.
BECHERT, Heinz see:
(The) Dating of the Historical Buddha. Die Datierung des Historischen Buddha,
part I.
JIABS 21.2 390
BENTOR, Yael see:
(The) Redactions of the Adbhutadharmaparyaya from Gilgit.
(A) Bibliography of Buddhist Materials in the Recorded Sound CpIlection of the
Library of Congress, Floyd B. HOOKER. 16.1 (1993): 209-242.
BIELEFELDT, Carl see:
(The) Four Levels of Pratftya-8amutpada According to the Fa-hua hsiian i.
BLACKBURN, Anne M. see:
Religion, Kinship and Buddhism: Ambedkar's Vision ofa Moral Community.
BONGARD-LEVIN, G.M. see:
(A) Fragment of the Larger Prajfiapliramita from Central Asia.
BOUCHER, Daniel see:
(The) Pratltyasamutpadagatha and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics.
BREKKE, Torkel see:
(The) Early Sarpgha and the Laity.
BRONKHORST, Johannes see:
Did the Buddha Believe in Karma and Rebirth?
BROWN, Robert L. see:
(A) Lajja Gauri in a Buddhist Context at Aurangabad.
Studies in the Buddhist Art of South Asia.
BUCKNELL, Roderick S. see:
Reinterpreting the Jhanas.
The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism.
Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka. Review
by Vijitha RAJAPAKSE. 14.2 (1991): 331-341.
Buddhism and Law - Preface. Frank REYNOLDS. 18.1 (1995): 1-6.
Buddhism and Law - The View From Mandalay. Andrew HUXLEY. 18.1 (1995):
47-95.
Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka, Richard GOMBRICH and
Gananath OBEYESEKERE. Review by Vijitha RAJAPAKSE. 13.2 (1990): 139-151.
Buddhist Law According to the Theravada-Vinaya, A Survey of Theory and Practice,
Oskar VON HINDBER. 18.1 (1995): 7-45.
Buddhist Law According to the Theravlida Vinaya IT: Some Additions and Corrections,
Oskar VON HINOBER. 20.2 (1997): 87-92.
Buddhist Sanskrit in the Kalacakra Tantra, John NEWMAN. 11.1 (1988): 123-140.
"Buddhist Soteriology": A Conference Report. Robert E. BUSWELL and Robert M.
GIMELLO. 13.1 (1990): 79-99.
INDEX TO JIABS 11-21 391
Buddhist Studies as a Discipline and the Role of Thecry, Jose Ignacio CABEZON. 18.2
(1995): 231-268.
BUESCHER, John B. see:
Tibetan Materials in the Asia Rare Book Collection of the Library of Congress.
BUSWElL, Robert E. see:
[Conference report] "Buddhist Soteriology": A Conference Report,
Chinul's Ambivalent Critique of Radical Subitism in Korean SOn.
Three Recent Collections: Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha.
CABEZON, Jose Ignacio see:
Buddhist Studies as a Discipline and the Role of Theory.
The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian MCldhyamika
[Exchange] On Retreating to Method and Other Postmodem Turns: A Response
to C.W. Huntington, Jr ..
Commentaire a la soixantaine sur Ie raisonnement ou Du vrai
enseignement de la causalite par Ie Maitre indien Candrakfrti.
CAMPANY, Robert F. see:
Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Functions of Sutra Texts as
Depicted in Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tales and Hagiographies.
(The) Categories of T'i, Hsiang, and Yung: Evidence that Paramartha Composed the
Awakening of Faith, WilliamH. GROSNICK.12.1 (1989): 65-92.
Ch'an Commentaries on the Heart Sutra: Preliminary Inferences on the Permutation of
Chinese Buddhism, John R. MCRAE. 11.2 (1988): 87-115.
CHEN, Jinhua see:
(The) Construction of Eady Tendai Esoteric Buddhism: The Japanese Prove-
nance of Saich5's Transmission Documents and Three Esoteric Buddhist
Apocrypha Attributed to SubhakarasiIi:lha.
Chinese Reliquary Inscriptionsand the San-chieh-chiao, Jamie HUBBARD. 14.2
(1991): 253-280.
Chinul's Ambivalent Critique of Radical Subitism in Korean Son, Robert E. BUSWElL.
12.2 (1989): 20-44.
Choix de Documents tibetains conserves a la Bibliotheque Nationale complete par
quelques manuscrits de l'India Office et du British Museum, Yoshiro IMAEDA
and Tsuguhito TAKEUClll. Review by Alexander W. MACDONALD. 15.1 (1992):
144-145.
Collected Papers, Vol. 2, K.R. NORMAN. Review by Nirmala S. SALGADO. 16.1
(1993): 183-186.
(A) Concordance of Buddhist Birth Stories, Leslie GREY. Review by Barend A. VAN
NOOTEN.15.1 (1992): 145-147.
nABS 21.2 392
(The) Construction of Early Tendai Esoteric Buddhism: The Japanese of
SaichO's Transmission Docilments and Three Esoteric Buddhist Apocrypha
Attributed to SubhakarasiIi:lha, Jinhua CHEN. 21.1 (1998): 21-76.
Contributions to the Study of Popular Buddhism: The Newar Buddhist Festival of
Gurplii Dharma. Todd T. Lewis. 16.2 (1993): 309-354.
Controversy Over Dharmakiiya in India and Tibet: A New Interpretation of Its Basis,
Abhisamayiila7!lkiira, Chapter 8, JohnJ. MAKRANSKY. 12.2 (1989): 45"78.
(The) Cosmology of Law in Buddhist Tibet, Rebecca REDWOOD FRENCH. 18.1
(1995): 97-116.
cox, Collett see:
On the Possibility of a Nonexistent Object of Consciousness: Sarviistiviidin- and
Theories.
Two New Fragments of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts from Central Asia.
(The): Dating of the Historical Buddha. Die Datierung des Historischen Buddha,
part I, (ed.) Heinz BECHERT. Review by AX NARAlN. 16.1 (1993): 187-201.
DAVIDSON, Ronald M. see:
Reflections on the Mahesvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa
Apologetics and the Birth ofHeruka.
(The) Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yuan's
Commentary on the Visualisation Sutra, Kenneth K. TANAKA. Review by Allan
A. ANDREWS. 14.1 (1991): 181-190.
DE JONG, J.W. see:
[Exchange] J.W. DE JONG's review of Jeffrey HOPKINS' Meditation on
Emptiness.
Did the Buddha Believe in Karma and Rebirth? Johannes BRONKHORST. 21.1 (1998):
1-19.
Distortion as a Price for Comprehensibility? The rGyal tshab-Jackson Interpretation of
DharmakIrti, Eli FRANCO. 20.1 (1997): 109-132.
Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism, Peter MANSFIELD. Review by Charles HALUSEY.
11.1 (1988): 173-175.
Dagen's Raihaitokuzui and Women Teaching in Sung Ch'an, Miriam LEVERING. 21.1
(1998): 77-110.
DRAGONETTI, Carmen see:
(An) Introduction to Buddhism.
DREYFUS, Georges see:
Law, State, and Political Ideology in Tibet.
(The) Shuk-den affair: History and nature of a quarrel.
Tibetan Scholastic Education and The Role of Soteriology
(The) Early Srupgha and the Laity, Torkel BREKKE. 20.2 (1997): 7-32.
(The) Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika,
HUNTINGTON, C.W. & Geshe NAMGYAL WANGCHEN. Review by Jose Ignacio
CABEZON. 13.2 (1990): 152-161.
EpSTEIN, Lawrence see:
Three Recent Collections: Reflections on Tibetan Culture.
Explanation of dukkha, Tilmann VETIER. 21.2 (1998): 383-387.
FAURE, Bernard see:
[Obituary] In Memoriam Michel Striclanan.
(The) Figure of Mahesvara/Rudra in the rNing-ma-pa Tantric Tradition. Robert
MAYER. 21.2 (1998): 271-310.
FOULK, T. Griffith see:
[Review article] Issues on the Field of East Asian Buddhist Studies: An
Extended Review of Sudden and Graduat Approaches to Enlightenment in
Chinese Thought, ed. Peter N. GREGORY.
(The) Four Levels of Pratftya-Samutpiida According to the Fa-hua hsiian i, Carl
BIELEFELDT. 11.1 (1988): 7-29. .
(A) Fragment of the Larger Prajfiapararnita from Central Asia, G.M. BONGARD-LEVIN
and Shin'ichir5 HORJ. 19.1 (1996): 19-60.
FRANCO, Eli see:
Distortion as a Price for Comprehensibility? The rGyal tshab-Jackson Interpreta-
tion of Dharmakirti ..
(A) Short Response to Roger Jackson's Reply.
FRANK, Bernard see:
Vacuite et corps actualise: Le probleme de la presence des "Personnages
V eneres" dans leurs images selon la tradition du bouddhisme japonais.
(Die) Frau im friihen Buddhismus, Renata PITZER-REYL. Review by Vijitha
RAJAPAKSE. 12.1 (1989): 165-170.
GARDINER, David L. see:
MaJ;lc.lala, MaJ;lc.lala on the Wall: Variations of Usage in the Shingon School.
GELLNER, David N. see:
Hodgeson's Blind Alley? On the So-called Schools of Nepalese Buddhism.
A Newar Buddhist Liturgy: Sravakayiinist Ritual in Kwii Biihal:)., Lalitpur, Nepal.
Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women, Padma-
nabh S. JAIN!. Review by Serinity YOUNG. 16.1 (1993): 202-206.
GERMANO, David see:
Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection
(rdzogs chen).
GIMELLO, Robert M. see:
[Conference report] "Buddhist Soteriology": A Conference Report.
JIABS 21.2 394
GOBLE, Andrew see:
Truth, Contradiction and Harmony in Medieval Japan: Emperor Himazono
(1297-1348) and Buddhism.
GOMBRICH, Richard see:
Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka.
GOMEZ, Luis O. see:
Unspoken Paradigms: Meanderings through the Metaphors of a Field.
GRANOFF, Phyllis see:
(The) Violence of Non-Violence: A Study of Some Jain Responses to Non-Jain
Religious Practices.
GREGORY, Peter N. see:
(The) Integration ofCh'an/Son and The Teaching (Chiao/Kyo) in Tsung-mi and
Chinul.
Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism.
GREY, Leslie see:
(A) Concordance of Buddhist Birth Stories.
GRIFFITHS, Paul J. see:
Alayavijiiiina: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of
Yogiiciira Philosophy.
Miidhyamika and Yogiiciira: A Study of Mahiiyiina Philosophies.
Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijfiiinaviida.
On being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem.
What Else Remains in Siinyata? An Investigation of Terms for Mental Imagery in
the Madhyiintavibhiiga-Corpus.
GROSNICK, William H. see:
(The) Categories of T'i, Hsiang, and Yung: Evidence that Paramiirtha Composed
the Awakening ofF aith.
Guenther's Saraha: A Detailed Review of Ecstatic Spontaneity, Roger R. Jackson. 17.1
(1994): 111-143.
HALLISEY, Charles see:
Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism.
HAMLIN, Edward see:
Magical Upiiya in the Vimalaklrtinirdda sutra.
HARRISON, Paul see:
Is the Dharma-kiiya the Real "Phantom Body" of the Buddha?
(The) Heart Sutra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text? Jan NATTIER. 15.2 (1992): 153-223.
HEIRMAN, Ann see:
Some Remarks on the Rise of the bhik/ful}lsaJ?lgha and on the Ordination
Ceremony for bhik:;wJls according to the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya.
Hermeneutique des tantra: etude de quelques usages du sens cacM, Pierre ARENEs.
21.2 (1998): 173-226.
HEVIA, James see:
Lamas, Emperors, and Rituals: Political Implications in Qing Imperial
Ceremonies.
High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism, Sherry B.
ORTNER. Review by AlexanderW. MACDONALD. 14.2 (1991): 341-344.
HINOBER, Oskar von see:
Buddhist Law According to the Theraviida-Vinaya, A Survey of Theory and
Practice.
Buddhist Law According to the Theraviida Vinaya II: Some Additions and
Corrections.
Hodgeson's Blind Alley? On the So-called Schools of Nepalese Buddhism, David N.
GELLNER. 12.1 (1989): 7-20.
HOFFMAN, Frank see:
On being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem.
HOFFMAN, Frank J. see:
Rationality and Mind in Early Buddhism.
HOLMBERG, David see:
(Les) Tamang du Nepal: Usages et religion, religion de l'usage.
H5nen and Popular Pure Land Piety: Assimilation and Transformation, Allan A.
ANDREWs. 17.1 (1994): 96-110.
HOOKER, FloydB. see:
(A) Bibliography of Buddhist Materials in the Recorded Sound Collection of the
Library of Congress.
HOPKINS, Jeffrey see:
[Exchange] J.W. de Jong's review of Jeffrey HOPKINS' Meditation on Empti-
ness.
HORI, Shin'ichir5 see:
(A) Fragment of the Larger Prajiiapiiramitii from Central Asia.
HSIEH, Ding-Hwa Evelyn see:
Yuan-wu K'o-ch'in's (1063-1l35) Teaching of Ch'an Kung-an Practice: A
Translation from the Literary Study ofCh'anKung-an to the Practical K'an-hua
Ch'an.
HUBl3ARD, Jamie see:
Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions and the San-chieh-chiao.
Mo Fa, The Three Levels Movement, and the Theory of the Three Periods.
Upping the Ante: budstud@rnillenium.end.edu.
JIABS 21.2 396
HUNTINGTON, C.W. see:
(The) Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Miidhyamika
[Exchange] The Theatre of Objectivity: Comments on Jose Cabez6n' s
Interpretations ofmKhas grub rje's and C.W. Huntington, Jr.'s Interpretations of
the Tibetan Translation of a Seventh Century Indian Buddhist Text.
A Way of Reading.
HUNTINGTON, John C. see:
(A) Reexamination of a Period Tetradrachm Coin Type with an Image of
Metrago/Maitreya on the Reverse (GobI 793.1) and a Brief Notice on the
Importance of the Inscription Relative to Bactro-Gandharan Buddhist Icono-
graphy ofthe Period.
HOSKEN, Ute see:
(The) Application of the Vinaya Term niisanii.
HUXLEY, Andrew see:
Buddhism and Law - The View From Mandalay.
Studying Theravada Legal Literature.
IMAEDA, Yoshiro see:
Choix de Documents tibetains conserves d la Bibliotheque Nationale complete
par quelques manuscrits de !'India Office et du British Museum.
In Memoriam Michel Strickman, Bernard FAURE. 17.2 (1994): 361-363.
Indian Altruism: A Study of the Terms bodhicitta and bodhicittotpiida, Gareth
SPARHAM. 15.2 (1992): 224-242.
(The) Integration of Ch'an/Son and The Teaching (Chiao/Kyo) in Tsung-mi and
Chinul, PeterN. GREGORY. 12.2 (1989): 7-19.
(The) International Association of Buddhist Studies and the World Wide Web, Joe
Bransford WILSON. 20.1 (1997): 175-177.
(An) Introduction to Buddhism, Jikido TAKASAKI. Review by Carmen DRAGONETTI &
Fernando TOLA. 11.2 (1988): 117-118.
Is it a Crow (P. dhaf!lka) or a Nurse (Skt. dhiifrl), or Milk (Skt. or a Toy-Plough
(P. vaf!lka)? Stephan H. LEvm. 16.1 (1993): 56-89.
Is the Dharma-kiiya the Real "Phantom Body" of the Buddha? Paul HARRISON. 15.1
(1992): 44-94.
Islam in the KaIacakra Tantra, John NEWMAN. 21.2 (1998): 311-37l.
Issues on the Field of East Asian Buddhist Studies: An Extended Review of Sudden
and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, ed. Peter N.
GREGORY. T. GRIFFITH FOULK. 16.1 (1993): 93-180.
JACKSON, David see:
Sa-skya Pat}.Qita the "Polemicist": Ancient Debates and Modern Interpretations.
INDEX TO ]lABS 11-21 397
JACKSON, Roger R. see:
[Review article] Guenther's Saraba: A Detailed Review of Ecstatic Spontaneity
[News and notice] Notice of the Buddhist Forum.
Rationality and Mind in Early Buddhism.
Three Recent Collections: Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha.
Three Recent Collections: The Buddhist Heritage.
(The) Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism
"(The) Whole Secret Lies in Arbitrariness": A Reply to Eli Franco.
JAINI, Padmanabh S. see:
Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women.
Jhana and Buddhist Scholaticism, Martin STUART-Fox. 12.2 (1989): 79-110.
JONES, Charles B. see:
Stages in the Religious Life of Lay Buddhists in Taiwan.
J.W. de Jong's review of Jeffrey Hopkins' Meditation on Emptiness, J.W. DE JONG &
JEFFREY HOPKINs. 12.2 (1989): 123-129.
KAHRS, Eivind see:
[Obituary] Sir Harold Walter Bailey.
KAPSTEIN, Matthew see:
Mahamudra: The quintessence of Mind and Meditation.
(The) Kathavatthu NiyiimaDebates, James P. MCDERMOTT. 12.1 (1989): 139-146.
KAWAMURA, Leslie S. see:
Miidhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahayana Philosophies.
KA W ANAMI, Hiroko see:
(The) Religious Standing of Burmese Buddhist Nuns (thila-shin): The Ten
Precepts and Religious Respect Words.
KEENAN, John P. see:
Asanga's Understanding ofMadhyamika: Notes on the Shung-chung-lun.
KIEFFER-POLz, Petra . see:
Rules for the sima Regulation in the Vinaya and its Commentaries and their
Application in Thailand.
KINNARD, Jakob N. see:
Reevaluating the Eighth-Ninth Century Piila Milieu: Icono-Conservatism and the
Persistence of Sakyamuni.
KRITZER, Robert see:
Vasubandhu on saTflskarapratyayaTfl vijiianam.
Kv iERNE, Per see:
[News and notice] Notice of Studies in Central and East Asian Religions.
Recent French Contributions to Himalayan and Tibetan Studies.
JIABS 21.2 398
(A) Lajja GaurI in a Buddhist Context at Aurangabad, Robert L. BROWN. 13.2 (1990):
1-16.
Lamas, Emperors, and Rituals: Political Implications in Qing Imperial Ceremonies,
James HEVIA. 16.2 (1993): 243-278. '
Law, State, and Political Ideology in Tibet, Georges DREYFUS. 18.1 (1995): 117-138.
(The) Lay Ownership of Monasteries and the Role of the Monk in Miilasarvastivadin
Monasticism, Gregory SCHOPEN. 19.1 (1996): 81-126.
LEVERING, Miriam see:
Dagen's Raihaitokuzui and Women Teaching in Sung Ch'an.
LEVITT, Stephin H. see,'
Is it a Crow (P. dhal?lka) or a Nurse (Skt. dhatrf), or Milk (Skt. ~ f r a ) or a Toy-
Plough (P. val'!lka)?
LEWIS, Todd T. see:
Contributions to the Study of Popular Buddhism: The Newar Buddhist Festival
of Guqila Dharma.
Mahayana Vratas in Newar Buddhism.
(The) Life and Tibetan Legacy of the Indian Mahapa1:uj.ita Vibhilticandra, Cyrus
Steams. 19.1 (1996): 127-171.
Lost in China, Found in Tibet: How Wonch'uk Became the Author of the Great
Chinese Commentary, John POWERS. 15.1 (1992): 95-103.
MACDONALD, Alexander W. see:
Choix de Documents tibetains conserves a la Bibliotheque Nationale complete
par quelques manuscrits de l'India Office et du British Museum.
High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism.
[News and notice] Report on the 10th lABS Conference.
Miidhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahiiyana Philosophies, Gadjin M. NAGAO
(ed., tr., collated by Leslie S. KAwAMURA). Review by Paul J. GRIFFITHS. 14.2
(1991): 345-347.
Magical Upaya in the Vimalakfrtinirdda sutra, Edward HAMLIN. 11.1 (1988):
89-121.
Mahamudra: The quintessence of Mind and Meditation, Tashi NAMGYAL [tr. Lobsang
Lhalungpa]. Review by Matthew KAPSTEIN. 13.1 (1990): 101-114.
Mahayana Vratas in Newar Buddhism, Todd T. LEWIS. 12.1 (1989): 109-138.
MAKRANSKY, John J. see:
Controversy Over Dharmakiiya in India and Tibet: A New Interpretation of Its
Basis, Abhisamyalal?lkara, Chapter 8.
MALANDRA, Geri H. see:
(The) MaI,l<;lala at Ellora / Ellora in the MaI,l<;lala.
INDEX TO ]IABS 11-21 399
(The) MiuJ,9ala at Ellora / Ellorain the MaI].9ala, Geri H. MALANDRA. 19.2 (1996):
181-207.
MaI;l9ala, MaI].9ala on the Wall: Variations of Usage in the Shingon School, David L.
GARDINER. 19.2 (1996): 245-279.
MaI;l9alas on the'Move: Reflections from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism Circa 800 C.B.,
Charles D. ORZECH. 19.2 (1996):209-244.
MANSFIELD, Peter see:
Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism.
(The) Mantra "Orrz maT}i-padme hftrrz" in an Early Tibetan Grammatical Treatise, Pieter
C. VERHAGEN. 13.2 (1990): 133-138.
MARTIN, Dan see:
[Translation] A Twelfth Century Tibetan Classic of Mahamudrii: The Path 0/
Ultimate Profondity: The Great Seal Instructions o/Zhang.
MAYER, Robert see:
(The) Figure of Mahesvara / Rudra in the rNing-ma-pa Tantric Tradition.
MCDERMOTI, James P. see:
(The) Kathavatthu Niyama Debates.
McRAE, John R. see:
. Ch'an Commentaries on the Heart Sfttra: Preliminary Inferences on the Permuta-
tion of Chinese Buddhism.
Zen base CDl.
Meditation and Cosmology: The PhysiCal Basis of the Concentrations and Formless
Absorptions According to dGe-lugs Tibetan Presentations, Leah ZAHLER. 13.1
(1990): 53-78. .
Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis o/the Vijfianavada, Thomas E.
WOOD. Review by Paul 1. GRIFFITHS. 15.2 (1992): 320-324.
Mo Fa, The Three Levels Movement, and the Theory of the Three Periods, Jamie
HUBBARD. 19.1 (1996): 1-17.
(The) Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the
Redactional History of Two Vinayas, Gregory SCHOPEN. 17.2 (1994): 145-173.
(The) Moves MaI].9alas Make, John S. STRONG. 19.2 (1996): 301-312.
NAGAO, Gadjin M. see:
Madhyamika and Yogacara: A Study o/Mahayana Philosophies.
NAMGYAL WANGCHEN(Geshe) see:
(The) Emptiness o/Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika.
NARAIN, A.K. see:
(The) Dating 0/ the Historical Buddha. Die Datierung des Historischen Buddha,
part I
Studies in the Buddhist Art 0/ South Asia.
JIABS 21.2 400
NAITIER, Jan see:
(The) Heart Sidra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?
(A) Newar Buddhist Liturgy: Sravakayarust Ritual in Kwa Bahal;l, Lalitpur, Nepal,
David N. GELLNER. 14.2 (1991): 236-252.
NEWMAN, John see:
Buddhist Sanslait in the Kiilacakra Tantra.
Islam in the Kalacakra Tantra.
Vajrayana Deities in an Illustrated Indian Manuscript of the
prajiiiipiiramitii.
NIHOM, Max see:
Vajravinaya and VajrasaUI}.<;Ia: A 'Ghost' Goddess and her Syncretic Spouse.
NORMAN, K.R. see:
Collected Papers, Vol. 2.
(A) Note on Pramii1Javiirttika, Pramii1Jasamuccaya and Nyiiyamukha. What is the
svadharmin in Buddhist Logic? Tom J.F. TILLEMANS. 21.1 (1998): 111-124.
(A) Note on the Opening Formula of Buddhist Sutras, Jonathan A. SILK. 12.1 (1989):
158-163.
Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Functions of Sutra Texts as Depicted in
Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tales and Hagiographies, Robert F. CAMPANY.
14.1 (1991): 28-72.
Notice of Studies in Central and East Asian Religions, Per KVLERNE. 13.1 (1990):
117-119.
Notice of the Buddhist Forum, Roger R. JACKSON. 13.2 (1990): 163.
OBEYESEKERE, Gananath see:
Budq.hism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka.
(An) Old Inscription from Amaravati and the Cult of the Local Monastic Dead in
Indian Buddhist Monasteries, Gregory SCHOPEN. 14.2 (1991): 281-329.
On a Recent Translation of the Sa1!ldhinirmocanasutra, Tom J.F. TILLEMANS. 20.1
(1997): 153-164.
On being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem, Paul J.
GRIFFITHS. Review by Frank HOFFMAN. 11.2 (1988): 118-123.
On Retreating to Method and Other Postmodern Turns: A Response to C.W:
Huntington, Jr., Jose Ignacio CABEZON. 15.1 (1992): 134-143.
On the Possibility of a Nonexistent Object of Consciousness: Sarvastivadin and
Theories, Collett COX. 11:1 (1988): 31-87.
ORTNER Sherry B. see:
High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism.
INDEX TO JIABS 401
ORZECH; Charles D. see:
MaI.l<;lalas on the Move: Reflections from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism Circa 800
C.B.
PITZER-REYL, Renata see:
(Die) Frau im friihen Buddhismus.
(A) Possible Citation of Candragomin's Lost *Kiiyatrayiivatiira, Peter SKILLING. 13.1
(1990): 41-51.
POWERS, John see:
Lost in China, Found in Tibet: How Wonch'uk Became the Author of the Great
Chinese Commentary.
(The) Pratftyasamutpiidagiithii and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics, Daniel
BOUCHER. 14.1 (1991): 1-27.
Preface [On Mar.l.galas], Frank REYNOLDS. 19.2 (1996): 177-180.
Pudgalavada in Tibet? Assertions of Substantially Existent Selves in the Writings of
Tsong-kha-pa and His Followers, Joe Bransford WILSON. 14.1 (1991): 155-180.
RAJAPAKSE, Vijitha see:
Buddha in the Crown: AvalokiteSvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka
Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka.
(Die) Frau im friihen Buddhismus.
Rationality and Mind in EarlyBuddhism, Frank J. HOFFMAN. Review by Roger R.
JACKSON. 12.2 (1989): 111-122.
Recent French Contributions to Himalayan and Tibetan Studies, Per KV.tERNE. 16.2
(1993): 299-308.
(The) Redactions of the Adbhutadharmaparyiiya from Gilgit, Yael BENTOR. 11.2
(1988): 21-52.
REDWOOD FRENCH, Rebecca see:
(The) Cosmology of Law in Buddhist Tibet.
Reevaluating the Eighth-Ninth Century Pala Milieu: leono-Conservatism and the
Persistence of Siikyamuni, Jakob N. KINNARD. 19.2 (1996): 281-300.
(A) Reexamination of a Period Tetradrachm Coin Type with an Image of
Metrago/Maitreya on the Reverse (GobI 793.1) and a Brief Notice on the
Importance of the Inscription Relative to Bactro-Gandharan Buddhist
leonography of the Period, John C. HUNTINGTON. 16.2 (1993): 355-374.
Reflections on the Mahesvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apolo-
getics and the Birth of Heruka, Ronald M. DAVIDSON. 14.2 (1991): 197-235.
Reinterpreting the Jhiinas, Roderick S. BUCKNELL. 16.2 (1993): 375-409.
(The) Religioius Standing of Burmese Buddhist Nuns (thild-shin): The Ten Precepts
and Religious Respect Words, Hiroko KAWANAMI. 13.1 (1990): 17-39.
JIABS 21.2 402
Religion, Kinship and Buddhism: Ambedkar's Vision of a Moral Community, Anne
M. BLACKBURN. 16.1 (1993): 1-23. .
Remarks on Philology, Tom J.P. TILLEMANS. 18.2 (1995): 269-277.
Replacing hu withfan: A Change in the Chinese Perception of Buddhism during the
Medieval Period, Jidong YANG. 21.1 (1998): 157-170.
Report on the 10th lABS Conference, Alexander W. MACDONALD. 15.1 (1992): 148.
REYNOLDS, Frank see:
Buddhism and Law - Preface.
Preface [On MaIJ,Qalas].
Rules for the sima Regulation in the Vinaya and its Commentaries and their Application
in Thailand, Petra KIEFFER-P'OLZ. 20.2 (1997): 141-153.
SALGADO, Nirmala S. see:
Collected Papers, Vol. 2.
Ways of Knowing and Transmitting Religious Knowledge: Case Studies of
Theravada Buddhist Nuns.
SALOMON, Richard see:
Two New Fragments of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts from Central Asia.
Sa-skya PaIJ,Qita the "Polemicist": Ancient Debates and Modem Interpretations, David
JACKSON. 13.2 (1990): 17-116.
SCHERRER-SCHAUB, Cristina Anna see:
Commentaire a la soixantaine sur Ie raisonnement ou Du vrai
enseignement de la causalite par Ie Maitre indien Candrakirti.
SCHN1ITHAUSEN, Lambert see:
Alayavijiiana: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of
Yogacara Philosophy.
SCHOPEN, Gregory see:
(Tht;) Lay Ownership of Monasteries and the Role of the Monk in MUlasarvasti-
vadin Monasticism.
(The) Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the
Redactional History of Two Vinayas.
(An) Old Inscription from Amaravati and the Cult of the Local Monastic Dead in
Indian Buddhist Monasteries.
(A) Verse from the BhadracariprmJidhana in a 10th Century Inscription found
at Niilanda.
SEYFORT RUEGG, David see:
[Presidential address] Some Observations on the Present and Future of Buddhist
Studies.
Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism.
SHERBURNE, Richard see:
INDEX TO ]JABS 11-21 403
SHINOHARA, Koichi see:
(A) Source Analysis of the ruijing lu ("Records of Miraculous Scriptures").
(A) Short Response to Roger Jackson's Reply, Eli FRANCO. 20.1 (1997): 149-151.
(The) Shuk-den. affair: History and nature of a quarrel, Georges DREYFUS. 21.2
(1998): 227-269.
SILK, Jonathan A. see:
(A) Note on the Opening Fonnula of Buddhist Sfttras.
Sir Harold Walter Bailey, Eivind KAHRs. 20.2 (1997): 3-5.
SKILLING, Peter see:
(The) Advent of Theraviida Buddhism to Mainland South-east Asia.
A Possible Citation of Can drago min's Lost *Kiiyatrcryiivatiira.
SKORUPSKI, Tadeusz see:
Three Recent Collections: The Buddhist Heritage.
Some Observation s on the Present and Future of Buddhist Studies, David SEYFORT
RUEGG. 15.1 (1992): 104-117.
Some Reflections on R.S.Y. Chi's Buddhist Formal Logic, Tom J.F. TILLEMANS. 11.1
(1988): 155-171.
Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism, David
SEYFORTRUEGG. 18.2 (1995): 145-181.
Some Remarks on the Rise of the bhik$u7J.fsaT{lgha and on the Ordination Ceremony
for bhik$u7J.IS according to the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, Ann HEIRMAN. 20.2
(1997): 33-85.
S0RENSEN, Henrik H. see:
Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism.
(The) Soteriological Purpose of Nagarjuna' s Philosophy: A Study of Chapter Twenty-
Three of the Mftla-madhyamaka-kiirikiis, William L. AMEs. 11.2 (1988): 7-20.
(A) Source Analysis of the ruijing lu ("Records of Miraculous Scriptures"), Koichi
SHINOHARA. 14.1 (1991): 73-154.
SPARHAM, Gareth see:
Indian Altruism: A Study of the Tenns bodhicitta and bodhicittotpiida.
Stages in the Religious Life of Lay Buddhists in Taiwan, Charles B. JONES. 20.2
(1997): 113-139.
STEARNS, Cyrus see:
(The) Life and Tibetan Legacy of the Indian Mahiipa7J.rj.ita Vibhiiticandra.
STEINMANN, Brigitte see:
(Les) Tamang du Nepal: Usages et religion, religion de I'usage.
[Obituary Michel Strickman, see] In Memoriam Michel Strickman
JIABS 21.2 404
STRONG, John S. see:
(The) Moves MaJ.1<;lalas Make.
STUART-FOX, Martin see:
Jhana and Buddhist Scholaticism.
(The) Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism.
Studies in the Buddhist Art of South Asia, (ed.) A.K. NARAIN. Review by Robert L.
BROWN. 11.1 (1988): 175-179.
Studying Theravada Legal Literature, Andrew HUXLEY. 20.1 (1997): 63-91.
SWANSON, Paul L. see:
Understanding Chih-i: Through a glass, darkly.
What's Going on Here? Chih-i's Use (and Abuse) of Scripture.
TAKASAKI, Jikido see:
TAKEUCHI, Tsuguhito see:
Choix de Documents tibetains conserves Ii fa Bibliotheque Nationale complete
par quelques manuscrits de I'India Office et du British Museum.
(Les) Tamang du Nepal: Usages et religion, religion de I'usage, Brigitte STEINMANN.
Review by David HOLMBERG. 13.1 (1990): 114-116.
TANAKA, Kenneth K. see:
(The) Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yiian 's
Commentary on the Visualisation Sutra.
Tashi NAMGYAL [tr. Lobsang Lhalungpa] see:
Mahamudra: The quintessence of Mind and Meditation.
(The) Theatre of Objectivity: Comments on Jose Cabezon's Interpretations of mKhas
grub Ije's and C.W. Huntington, Jr.'s Interpretations of the Tibetan Translation
of a Seventh Century Indian Buddhist Text, C.W. HUNTINGTON. 15.1 (1992):
118-133.
Three Recent Collections: Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, (ed.) Robert E. BUSWELL.
Review by Roger R. JACKSON. 14.1 (1991): 191-193.
Three Recent Collections: Reflections on Tibetan Culture, (eds.) Lawrence EpSTEIN
and Richard SHERBURNE. Review by Roger R. JACKSON. 14.1 (1991): 191-193.
Three Recent The Buddhist Heritage, (ed.) Tadeusz SKORUPSKI. Review
by Roger R. JACKSON. 14.1 (1991): 191-193.
Tibetan Materials in the Asia Rare Book Collection of the Library of Congress, John B.
BUESCHER. 13.1 (1990): 1-15.
Tibetan Scholastic Education and The Role of Soteriology, Georges DREYFUS. 20.1
(1997): 31-62.
TILLEMANS, Tom J.F. see:
(A) Note on Pramd1Javdrttika, Pramd1Jasamuccaya and Nydyamukha. What is
the svadharmin in Buddhist Logic?
On a Recent Translation of the Sa11ldhinirmocanasutra.
Remarks on Philology.
Some Reflections on R.S.Y. Chi's Buddhist Formal Logic.
TOLA, Fernando see:
Traditions 0/ Meditation in Chinese Buddhism, (ed.) Peter N. GREGORY. Review by
HenrikH. S0RENSEN. 11.1 (1988): 179-184.
(A) Translation of the Madhyamakahrdayakdrikii with the Tarkajvdld ill. 137-146,
Chikafumi WATANABE. 21.1 (1998): 125-155.
Truth, Contradiction and Harmony in Medieval Japan: Emperor Hanazono (1297-
1348) and Buddhism, Andrew GOBLE. 12.1 (1989): 21-63.
(A) Twelfth Century Tibetan Classic of Mahamudra: The Path o/Ultimate Profundity:
The Great Seal Instructions o/Zhang, Dan MARTIN. 15.2 (1992): 243-319.
(The) Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism,
Roderick S. BUCKNELL & Martin STUART-Fox. Review by Roger R. JACKSON.
11.2 (1988): 123-130.
Two Mongol Xylographs (Hor pa ma) of the Tibetan Text of Sa skya s Work
on Buddhist Logic and Epistemology, Leonald W.J. VAN DER Kuup. 16.2
(1993): 279-298.
Two New Fragments of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts from Central Asia, Richard
SALOMON & Collett COX. 11.1 (1988): 141-153.
Understanding Chih-i: Through a glass, darkly, Paul L. SWANSON. 17.2 (1994): 337-
360.
Unspoken Paradigms: Meanderings through the Metaphors of a Field, Luis O.
G6MEZ. 18.2 (1995): 183-230.
Upping the Ante: budstud@rnillenium.end.edu, Jamie HUBBARD. 18.2 (1995): 309-
. 322.
URBAN, Hugh B. see:
What Else Remains in Siinyat:a? An Investigation of Terms for Mental Imagery in
the Madhyiintavibhaga-Corpus.
Vacuite et corps actualise: Le probleme de la presence des "Personnages V eneres" dans
leurs images selon la tradition du bouddhisme japonais, Bernard FRANK. 11.2
(1988): 53-86.
Vajravinaya and VajraSauQ.Q.a: A 'Ghost' Goddess and her Syncretic Spouse, Max
NIHOM. 21.2 (1998): 373-382.
JIABS 21.2 406
Vajrayana Deities in an Illustrated Indian Manuscript of the
prajiiiipiiraniitii, John NEWMAN.. 13.2 (1990): 117-132. .
VANDERKUIJP, Leonald W.J. see:
Apropos of Some Recently Recovered Texts Belonging to the Lam 'bras
Teachings of the Sa skya pa and Ko brag pa.
Two Mongol Xylographs (Hor p"a rna) of the Tibetan Text of Sa skya PaI.1Qita's
Work on Buddhist Logic and Epistemology.
VAN NOOTEN, Barend A. see:
(A) Concordance of Buddhist Birth Stories.
Vasubandhu on sarrzskiirapratyayarrz vijiiiinam, Robert KRITZER. 16.1 (1993): 24-55.
VERHAGEN, Pieter C. see:
(The) Mantra "Orrz mal}i-padme hurrz" in an Early Tibetan Grammatical Treatise.
(A) Verse from the Bhadracaripra1J.idhiina in a 10th Century Inscription found at
Nalanda, Gregory SCHOPEN. 12.1 (1989): 149-157.
VETTER, Tilmann see:
Explanation of dukkha.
(The) Violence of Non-Violence: A Study of Some Jain Responses to Non-Jain
Religious Practices, Phyllis GRANOFF. 15.1 (1992): 1-43.
WATANABE, Chikafumi see:
(A) Translation of the Madhyamakahrdayakarikii with the Tarkajviilii III. 137-
146.
(A) Way of Reading, C.W. Huntington. 18.2 (1995): 279-308.
Ways of Knowing and Transmitting Religious Knowledge: Case Studies of Theravada
Buddhist Nuns, Nirmala S. SALGADO. 19.1 (1996): 61-79.
What Else Remains in Siinyata? An Investigation of Terms for Mental Imagery in the
Madhyantavibhaga-Corpus, Hugh B. URBAN & Paul J. GRIFFITHS .. 17.1 (1994):
1-25.
What's Going on Here? Chih-i's Use (and Abuse) of Scripture, Paul L. SWANSON.
20.1 (1997): 1-30.
"(The) Whole Secret Lies in Arbitrariness": A Reply to Eli Franco, Roger R. JACKSON.
20.1 (1997): 133-148.
WILSON, Joe Bransford see:
[News and notice 1 The International Association of Buddhist Studies and the
World Wide Web.
Pudgalaviida in Tibet? Assertions of Substantially Existent Selves in the Writings
of Tsong-kha-pa and His Followers.
WOOD, Thomas E. see:
Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijiiiinaviida.
YANG, Jidong see:
Replacing hu withfan: A Change in the Chinese Perception of Buddhism during
the Medieval Period.
YOUNG, Serinity see:
Gender and-Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women.
Yuan-wu K'o-ch'in's (1063-1135) Teaching of Ch'an Kung-an Practice: A
Translation from the Literary Study of Ch'an Kung-an to the Practical K'an-hua
Ch'an, Ding-HwaEvelyn HSIEH. 17.1 (1994): 66-95.
Yukti:;a:;tikiivrtti: Commentaire d la soixantaine sur Ie raisonnement ou Du vrai
enseignement de la causatite par Ie Maitre indien Candrakirti, Cristina Anna
SCHERRER-SCHAUB. Review by Jose Ignacio CABEZON. 15.2 (1992): 325-326.
ZAHLER, Leah see:
Meditation and Cosmology: The Physical Basis of the Concentrations and
Formless Absorptions According to dGe-Iugs Tibetan Presentations.
Zenbase CDl. Review by John R. MCRAE. 20.1 (1997): 165-174.
ZIPORYN, Brook see:
Anti-Chan Polemics in Post Tang Tiantai.
PIERRE ARENES
Henneneutics of the Tantra:
A Study of some Uses of the "Hidden
The article deals with the hermeneutics of the tantras and concerns the
"Four modes of Explanation" (caturvidhiikhyiiyikii; Mad tshul bii), the
fourth of the "Seven ornaments" (saptiila'!lkiira; rgyan bdun) - the
device_ most commonly used in the hermeneutic tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism. The object of our study is the fourth, viz., the "Hidden
Meaning" (garbhyiirtha; sbas (pa'O don), this being the. most unusual of
the "Four modes of Explanation", and one that is remarkable for its
relative autonomy.
This study is more specifically focused on the use of the "Hidden
Meaning" as sens "accommodatice" for certain transitional or hybrid
canonical texts (Namastiire ekavi'!lsati-stotra, Prajfiiipiiramitiihrdaya-
sutra) whose vague classification as sutra or as tantra has been an object
of controversy. The works of Taranatha (1575-1635), Gun than 'Jam
pa'i dbyans (1762-1823) and dBal man dKon mchog rGyal mtshan
(1764-1853) have been utilized.
It would appear that in the cases studied, the "Hidden Meaning" was
employed with a didactical-soteriological purpose, either to encourage a
smooth transition from the sutras to the tantras, or in order to transform
a kriyiitantra text (or one utilized for the practice of kriyiitantra) into a
support for an anuttarayogatantra practice, thus establishing a continuity
between the lower and higher tantras.
* English Summary, see article on p. 173.
JIABS21.2 411
Guidelines for Contributors to nABS
Two paper copies of articles for publication should be submitted to the
editors. Material "in English, French and German will be considered for
publication, with the proviso that a summary in English should accom-
pany manuscripts written in French or German.
For Sanskrit and Pali, use the standard system of transcription as given
in, for example, A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, Appendix X.
Transcription of Chinese should preferably be according to pinyin, and
Tibetan should be in the system of the American Library Association -
Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare, using Ii, ii, Z, s, rather than the ng, ny,
zh and sh of the Wylie system. Hyphenation may be used for Tibetan
proper names, if wished, but should not be used elsewhere. Japanese
should be transcribed according the system to be found in Kenkyiisha's
New Japanese-English Dictionary.
In addition to the mandatory two paper copies, the JIABS requests
contributors also to send their articles on computer disks. Please clearly
label the disk with format, name(s) of relevant files, and the word-
processing program used to create the files. In addition, please translate
the article to ASCII code on the same disk if possible. For more infor-
mation on computer matters, contact the editors.
The International Assocation of Buddhist Studies
Colette Caillat
President
Gregory Schopen
Vice-president
Oskar v. Hintiber
General Secretary
Joe B. Wilson
Treasurer
Regional Secretaries:
Janet Gyatso (Americas)
S. Katsura (Asia)
Oskar v. Hintiber (Europe) (temporary)
Members of the Board:
Robert Buswell, H. Durt, R. Gupta, K. Kimura,
E. Steinkeller, T. TiIlemans, Akira Yuyama
The International Association of Buddhist Studies, founded in 1976, is
devoted to promoting and supporting scholarship in Buddhist Studies in
all its aspects, past and present, around the world. Membership is open
to scholars of all academic disciplines.
Membership dues are: $40 for full members, $20 for student members,
$1000 for life members. Dues may be paid by personal check (US only),
Visa, or MasterCard. Prospective members from developing countries
may contact the Treasurer concerning subsidized membership rates.
Dues are payable per calendar year by December 31 of the previous
year. Payments may be sent in US dollars to Professor Joe B. Wilson,
Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina at
Wilmington, Wilmington NC 28403 USA. Email: wilsonj @uncwil.edu
Fax: 910-962-7107.
The lABS world wide web site is located at:
http://www2. uncwil.eduliabs
Abstracts of the articles published in this issue available at:
http://www.unil.ch/orient.

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