9.

Classical Synthesis

193-228

“the dominant deities at this period seem still to have been old-fashioned yaks.a deities such as Man.ibhadra (patron of travellers and traders; Thapan 1997) or

Vajrapan.i (protective deity of Rajagr.ha …; Lalou 1956 ...),

along with Laks.mi (… Manasa and Padmavati).”

India

Iran

Hellas

Skanda

Sraos^a

S`iva

Oes^o

Oado

Heraklees

“Paul Williams and Robert Mayer have discussed how visionary procedures such as those found within the Pratyupanna[-]buddha[-]sammukhavasthita[-]samadhi Sutra may have provided the mechanism by which the Mahayana Sutras in general were received and held to be the authentic word of the Buddhas (Williams 1989:30; Mayer 1996:74-5).”

siddhi

Yoga-Sutra __

“mind-reading”

3:19

“strength of an elephant”

3:25

“knowledge of the position … of the stars”

3:28-9

“knowledge of the internal structure of the body”

3:30

“ability to enter another's body”

3:38

“travel upwards out of the body”

3:39

“man.d.ala-type structures … can be found in many other cultures. I noted this in my book …, where I cited Australian Aboriginal examples among others (Samuel 1990:90, 170 n. 4).”

east

Aditya

sight

“visible appearances”

south

Yama

yajn~a ('sacrifice')

daks.ina ('right')

west

Varun.a

water

semen

north

Soma

diks.a ('consecration')

satya ('truth')

centre

Vac

--

--

p. 225

“Bodhisattva Rucira[-]ketu (or S`raddha[-]ketu) is meditating …, his house undergoes a visionary transformation into a vast building made of beryl and with divine jewels and celestial perfumes. Four

p. 226

lotus-seats appear in the four directions, with four Buddhas seated upon them :”

in the __

buddha

east

A-ks.obhya

south

Ratna-ketu

west

A-mita-ayus

north

Dundhubhi-is`vara

10.

Wild Goddesses

229-70

“S`aivas and Buddhists borrowed extensively from each other … (… Bu:hnemann 1996, 1999, 2000a …).”

fn. 1 “For other examples of materials … shared between S`aiva and Buddhist Tantra, see Benard 1994 ...; Stablein 1976 …; Schaeffer 2002; Walter 1992, 1996, 2003 … .”

“Vais.n.ava and Jaina traditions were also involved with 'Tantric' material”.

fn. 2 “For Pan~caratra body practice, see Flood 2006:99-119; for equivalent Jaina practices, see Qvarnstro:m 2002, 2003. In later centuries, the Vais.n.ava Sahajiya tradition of Bengal employed sexual practices (e.g. Hayes 2003), as did the Bauls, whose theology was part Vais.n.ava, part Muslim (see e.g. ... Das 1992). The Jainas used a variety of fierce goddess rituals; … see Cort 1987:255.

There were other traditions … included within … 'Tantra', for example the Gana.apatyas … (see e.g. Courtright 1985:218-20; Thapan 1997, esp. 176-970.'

“In Indian parlance, this is figured in terms of 'right-hand' and 'left-hand' styles of practice, terms which are rather more loaded in India than they are in the West, since

the right hand is used for eating and pure functions, and the left for impure and polluted tasks.”

{This is likewise true of <arabia.}

p. 234

“Nobody would admit in respectable company to visiting a shaman or to taking what she has to say (most Korean shamans are women) seriously. Shamanic practice is shameful … and disreputable. To be compelled by the spirits to become a shaman is a real misfortune, and condemns one to the lowest level of Korean society. … .

Also, … there is an 'internal' perspective, held by the practitioners themselves, in which what they do is seen as characterised by high levels of compassion.

p. 235

These people see what they are doing as spiritually rather than materially motivated.”

p. 235

“the South Indian king was surrounded by a number of ritual specialists from low-status castes (drummers, bards, spirit-mediums, funeral priests …)

p. 236

… . The king was dependent on these people to maintain his … auspiciousness. … The king's royal … drum … was a critical element of his power, so much so that its possession was held actually to confer title to the kingdom. … 'the most important element connected with the drum was the god – or spirit – who was supposed to inhabit it, and who had to be kept in the drum and made happy with … liquor sacrifice' (Hart 1987:475).”

p. 237

“the so-called Vratyakan.d.a, forms Book Fifteen of the Atharvaveda in the S`aunaka version … . …

p. 238

The first part of the text describes a vratya who 'rouses' Prajapati and becomes Mahadeva

(presumably meaning S`iva).

{Invocation of Praja-PATI would imply that Pas`u-PATI (not S`iva!) is intended by the term “ Mahadeva”.}

After this, he is referred to as …the holder of Indra's bow.

{Indra's bow is the rainbow.}

In the next section he is described as 'moving' in the four directions, and various occult … correspondences are described … . … further correspondences are stated … to the components of his seat and to the six seasons of the year. He is provided with six gods as attendants in the … directions …, with further correspondences including the earth, gods, sacrificial fires … .

The remaining sections describe how a vratya knowing this … should be treated by kings … and provide some additional correspondences, including sets based on his various internal breaths (pran.a) and on parts of his body.”

“Modern S`aiva ascetics are generally linked to one or another branch of the so-called Das`a[-]nami tradition, which … appears to have taken shape … in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century (Clark 2004).”

p. 240

“The Pas`upatas are first mentioned in the Mahabharata [“S`anti Parvan”, 349:64 (Clark 2004, p. 137)] … . By the seventh and eighth centuries, we find them being patronized by the rulers of Orissa {Odivis`a}, where a series of temples in Bhubaneswar {Bhuvana-is`vara} have Pas`upata iconography, and also in Southeast

p. 241

Asia {Indo-China}, where they served as court ritualists for the Khmer kings and, … somewhat later, in Java.”

“Daniel Ingalls pointed some years ago to the intriguing resemblances between the Pas`upatas and

the classical Greek cult known as the Cynics … . …

{Perhaps a better match for the Kunik ('hounding') philosophy (consisting of social satire) would be in Kukkuri (the siddha-acarya), who (when visited by Tailika-pada) kept himself surrounded by bitches.}

David White considers … in his book Myths of the Dog-Man … the Black Sea {Pontos Axinos/Euxinos} region from which the Greek Cynics traced their tradition

{Heraklees dragged the immortal hound-deity Kerberos “up a subterrene path which leads to the gloomy cave of Acone, near Mariandyne on the Black Sea. … his slaver … gave birth to the poisonous plant aconite, also called hecateis” (GM 134.h).} {“Aconite … was used by the Thessalian witches in the manufacture of their flying ointment” (GM 134.5). “witches could experience mental flight by rubbing their bodies with … aconite, … lethal if ingested.” (AP&NR) Cf. R.c Veda 10:136:4 “He sails through the air” (p. 158 supra).}

had trading links to the port of Broach on the Arabian Sea in the first centuries of the common era (White 1991:104 …).

One might also consider the Indo-Greek presence in India from the late fourth century BCE onwards”.

{Actually however, because Diogenes himself disdained to associate with Alexandros ho Megalos of Makedon, therefore it is quite improbable that any Kuniks ever traveled to the Makedonian colonies in India.}

“a series of stages (avasthas) in the practitioner's spiritual development (Lorenzen ...:185). The first or 'marked' (vyakta) stage involves bathing in ash, living in a temple and … laughing, dancing and singing.

It is at the second or 'unmarked' stage (avyakta) that he leaves the temple and

deliberately courts criticism and censure from the public.”

{Courting of public rebuke is an Aghorin practice.}

“Each of the S`akta pit.has today consists of a goddess temple, associated with a named … goddess, regarded as deriving from a specific part of Sati's body that is held to have fallen to earth at that point … . Often the Goddess's body-part is associated with a specific natural feature, such as the 'tongue' of flame at Jwala[-]mukhi {'Flame-mouthed'} in the Punjab {Pan~j-ab}. Today, these sites include … South Asia's most celebrated pilgrimage sites, such as

Jwalamukhi (Jalandhara),

Hinglaj in Pakistan (Baluchistan),

Kamarupa in Assam or

Kalighat in Calcutta (… S. Gupta 2003; Morinis 1984).”

p. 259

“Buddhist Tantras develop fairly smoothly out of later Mahayana sutras and … the same text may in some cases be given the same label. This is true, for example, for the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi Sutra or Tantra … . This … is the main text of the caryatantra class and … it forms one of the two principal scriptures of the Shingon or Japanese Tantric tradition.”

p. 259, fn. 39

“The Mahavairocanabhisambodhi Sutra is known as Dainichi-kyo in Japanese and is one of the two fundamental sutras of Shingon, the other being the Kongocho-gyo (Vajras`ekhara), a generic term for a number of texts of which the most important is the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra in 753. This is regarded as the principal text of the yogatantra class.”

p. 259

“anuttarayogatantra [fn. 40 : alternatively designated /yoga-nir-uttara/ or /yoga-an-uttara/]… fell into two main groups. The first was known as mahayoga, and included texts such as the Guhyasamaja Tantra …

p. 260

and Guhyagarbha Tantra … .

The second … group was known variously as yogini[-]tantra, bhagini[-]tantra ('sister') or prajn~a Tantras. … These Yogini Tantras include the Hevajra Tantra …, Cakrasamvara Tantra (sometimes referred to simply as Samvara Tantra …) and Kalacakra Tantra … .

[quoted from Snellgrove 1987, pp. 170-1] “those who take life, who take pleasure in lying, who always covet the wealth of others, … these are worthy ones … . The yogin who makes love to his mother, sister or daughter achieves enormous success in … the Mahayana.”

p. 261

“the Guhyasamaja Tantra certainly teaches practices of sexual yoga”.

{The main specific feature of “sexual yoga” prominent in the Guhya-samaja (and in other maha-yoga tantra-s) is that couples perform sexual intercourse in other couples' praesence, couples watching other couples so performing.}

p. 263

“Mahayoga Tantras however include … a sexual yoga that is intended to produce a state of

p. 264

experience of enlightenment. …

The “experience of enlightenment” is a conviction of the praesence of great deities in one's immediate vicinity. This can be induced by ritual recitations proclaiming the (perhaps invisible) praesence of mighty deities staring with intense approval at human couples who are performing sexual intercourse to the public view of others.}

The sexual practices raise the question of how far practitioners were celibate.”

{Couples were caelibate only in the sense of not being legally married. As is usual in such circumstances, they abstained from legal matrimony because they resented the prospect of a consequent legal divorce with the possibility of one spouse suing the other spouse in a civil court of law --where the civil court of law is one of the state-government institutions from which true Tantriks have entirely dissociated themselves, and refuse to acknowledge the authority of, praefering instead to be defrauded. Cf. 1^st Epistole to the Korinthioi 6:1-8.}

“The pit.has, the S`akta cult centres associated with the new practices for the S`aivas were centres for the Buddhists as well. ... we find … the same lists of sites in sources from both traditions, … yielding for both the S`aiva Kubjika tradition and the Buddhist Cakrasamvara three circles of eight sites. … a cultic underground presented by the texts, in which practitioners are meeting at the pit.has, recognizing each other through special signs and coded language, and coming together for ritual gatherings … happened. In fact, … with the shared early Buddhist-Jain-Ajivika-Brahmanical renunciate scene, … at a later stage there were sharings between S[.]ufis and Hindu yogis, still visible today in the dual identities of Nath gurus (van Skyhawk 1993, Khan 2004) and in the Bengali Baul {Vatula} traditions (Openshaw 1997, 2002 …).”

“The Buddhist equivalent of Bhairava, Mahakala, has virtually the same iconography … . … The conversion process {of mutually converting deities into identicality in the two religions} also made it appropriate for Buddhist Tantric deities such as Vajrakilaya … to take on the fierce {wrathful} … nature of the S`aivite Tantric deities.”

11.

Subtle Bodies & Internal Alchemy

271-90

[quoted from Sanderson 1988, p. 680] “orgasm itself ... is a privileged means of access to a blissful expansion of consciousness in which the deities of the Kula permeate and obliterate the ego of the worshipper.”

Kaula-jn~ana-nirn.aya (Bagchi & Magee 1986)

Kubjika-[mata-]tantra (Heilijgers-Seelen 1994)

“known in various versions as

daoyin … in the Chinese context,

as hat.ha yoga in the S`aiva context, and

as >phrul >khor in the context of Tibetan Vajrayana.”

fn. 13 “the >phrul >khor exercises are … known to … Loseries-Leick 1997.”

[quoted from S.at.-cakra-nirupana 8-11 (Woodroffe, pp. 340, 343, 346-7)]

“Near the mouth of the Nad.i called Vajra, in the pericarp …, there constantly shines the … lightning-like triangle which is Kamarupa, and known as Traipura. There is … the Vayu called Kandarpa, who is … red … and resplendent like ten million suns.

Inside it (the triangle) is Svayambhu in His Linga-form, beautiful like molten gold, with His head downwards. … The Deva who resides happily here as in Kas`i is in forms like a whirlpool.

Over it {the whirlpool?} shines the sleeping Kun.d.alini … . … Like the spiral {helix} of the conch-shell, Her shining snake-like form goes three and a half times around …, and her lustre is that of a strong flash … . Her sweet murmur is like the indistinct hum of … bees. … She … maintains all the beings of the world by means of” respiration.

“late Vedic texts treat sexual intercourse as symbolically equivalent to the Vedic sacrifice … . This theme occurs in the Jaiminiya Brahman.a (Hartzell 1997:86-7) and the Chandogya Upanis.ad (5.8.1)”.

her __

is the __

“vulva”

“sacrificial ground”

“pubic hair”

“sacred grass”

“labia majora”

“the Soma-press”

“labia minora”

“fire”

[quoted from Silburn 1988, pp. 25-6] “During the rising of Kun.d.alini, since the yogin experiences a vigorous whirling at the level level of the centres located along the central axis, the latter are called 'whirling wheels'. …

In ordinary persons these wheels neither revolve nor vibrate, they form

inextricable tangles of coils,

{the tangled self-contradictions of materialism}

called accordingly 'knots' (granthi), because they knot spirit and matter,

{the knots are hypotheses of materialism, which tie the soul into materialist delusions}

thus strengthening the sense of the ego. …

{materialism resultant in extreme egotism}

Together they constitute the unconscious complexes (samskara)

woven by illusion, and

{weaving of the valkyrja : illusions of materialistic greed}

the weight and rigidity of the past offers a strong opposition to the passage of spiritual force.

{rigidity of materialist conservatism is obstructive to spiritual progress}

Each knot, being an obstruction, must be loosened,

{Each metaphysical hypothesis of materialism must indeed be abandoned,

can be absorbed by the the Kun.d.alini and thus regain its universality.”

so that the divine nature contained in the convocations of deities can be absorbed into one's fravas^i (guardian-spirit, guardian-angel), and thereby connect with the universal government of divine communism.}

1^st

anna-maya (“formed by food”)

2^nd

pran.a-maya (“made of vital breath”)

3^rd

manas-maya (“made of mind”)

4^th

vijn~ana-maya (“made of consciousness or intellect”)

5^th

ananda-maya (“made of biss”)

6^th

“a central channel through the body and

the possibility of movement in different directions from that central channel.”

{The nad.i-s entail possibilities of movement outward from (and returningly into) the central channel.}

“These bodies were later developed by Vedantic writers into five 'sheaths' or kos`a obscuring the inner self (e.g. in S`ankara's Viveka[-]cud.aman.i).”

{They are divinely designed for us in order that we be shielded by means of them from the hideous evil of capitalist materialism.}

“in the songs of the nineteenth century Bengali saint Lalon Fakir and his fellow 'Bauls' we find the internal practices rewritten in Islamic terms (Salomon 1991).”

location (p. 284)

__ cakra

bhru-madhya ('eyebrows-middle')

maha-sukha ('great bliss')

kan.t.ha ('throat')

sambhoga ('enjoyment')

hr.daya ('heart')

dharma

nabhi ('navel')

nirman.a

[Guhya-samaja Tantra 7:33-4 (quoted from Freemantle 1990, pp. 109, 113)] “In accordance with the pledge, … attain supreme perfection. … All are naturally luminous, unarisen, uninfluenced; there is … no end and no origin.”

12.

Tantra & the [Political] State

291-323

p. 302

“women took a central role in Tantric Buddhist practice … (M. Shaw 1994).”

p. 303, fn. 7

“The Shangs-pa bka>-brgyud … go back to a series of women teachers in India, including Sukha[-]siddhi … (Kapstein 1980, 1997, 2005). Sukhasiddhi is … to Tilopa … the source of bar do (intermediate state) and consciousness-transference practices … (Mullin 2006:28-9). … In the modern South Asian context, Tantric sexual practices seem … of relative equality (e.g. among the Bauls, McDaniel 1992)”.

p. 304

“the Vin.a[-]s`ikha … corresponds to and is spoken by one of the four faces of the deity Tumburu. …

p. 305

In 1973, Teun Goudriaan summarized the then-available sources on Tumburu (Goudriaan 1973). … He is described in several S`aivite … texts (Yoga[-]vasis.t.ha, Vis.n.u[-]dharmottara Puran.a, Agni Puran.a, S`arada[-]tilaka, S.at.[-]karma[-]dipika, etc.) as ... (usually) four-headed, always in association with four or seven Matr.ka-type goddesses who are his consorts, and

he occurs in one Buddhist Tantric text (the Man~jus`ri[-]mula[-]kalpa), where he is accompanied by four goddesses described as his sisters. … .

… the Vin.a[-]s`ikha Tantra … takes the usual form of a dialogue between S`iva and his consort, who are seated on Mount Kailasa, 'surrounded by Gan[.]a[-]s (headed by Maha[-]kala), Siddhas, sages and other supernatural beings' … .”

“Another [in addition to the Vin.a-s`ikha Tantra (satirically described on p. 304 supra)] Kashmiri text, Ks.emendra's Samaya[-]matr.ka, provides a further range … of the use of Tantric ritual, again told in satirical style (Wojtilla 1984).”

{In both these texts, that which is being satirized is the royalty (and, by implication, royalties and political states which are dominated by royalties, more generally). Perhaps such tantra-s were composed with the intent of seducing royalties into various egotistical fancies, so that they could be used for royalty-satirizing narratives.}

p. 306

“successful performance of Bhais.ajyaguru rituals for members of the ruling family led to state patronage of Bhais.ajyaguru and of the

p. 307

Tantric ritualists associated with his cult. However, … Bhais.ajyaguru himself … has his own man.d.ala of

yaks.a generals who will protect those who reverence him”.

{In China, state-sponsored religious (Confucianist) mythology is replete with divine military generals. Is this an indication that Bhais.ajya-guru is an originally Confucianist deity who hath been artificially assimilated into Vajra-yana?}

p. 309

“The Suvarn.a[-]prabhasa Sutra … was in fact classified in Japan as one of the three 'State Protecting Sutras'. The other two were the Saddharma[-]pun.d.arika … and the so-called Renwang Jing … .

Thus, in Chapter 6 of the Suvarn.aprabhasa Sutra, the Four Great Kings, the four yaks.a-style deities of the four directions …, … proclaim that should a king of men who has heard this sutra protect and support monks …, they, the four Great Kings, along with their twenty-eight yaks.a generals and numerous hundreds of thousands of yaks.as, will protect and assist that king and assure him peace and welfare.”

p. 310

“The Renwang Jing's full title can be translated as The Prajn~aparamita Sutra Which Explains How Benevolent Kings May protect Their Countries. It is extant in two Chinese translations, the first by Kumarajiva, dating from 401, and the second by Amoghavajra, dating from 765. … . … this text, which is described as being preached to the sixteen kings of the mahajanapadas, led by Prasenajit of S`ravasti, was to become an {officially} important text both in China, and also in Japan.”

p. 309, fn. 13

“Whalen Lai has suggested that the Suvarn.aprabhasa might have been used as the basis of 'a pact among early {mediaeval} Buddhist kings …, in early Mahayana Northwest India.' It was … used in this way in the Northern Dynasties in {mediaeval} China. The Renwang Jing was used in a similar way. (… book review of Wang Zhenping's Ambassadors from the Islands of Immortals, published … 2006.)”

“Korean monk Myongnang is said to have studied Tantric ritual in China … . After Myongnang's return to the Korean kingdom of Silla, he was responsible for the Silla state's ritual defence … . His rituals were successful”.

p. 311

“Gaozu, the first T>ang emperor, was pro-Daoist … .

The second T>ang emperor, Taizong (620-49) … decreed … that Daoist monks and nuns should take precedence … . … .

… the next significant emperor, Xuanzong (712-56) … was, however, interested in Tantric

p. 312

Buddhism, and it was during his reign and that of his two immediate successors, Suzong (756-62) and Daizong (762-79), that the main translations of Tantric texts were undertaken. …

The later 'Anuttarayoga' Tantric material, in which the fierce S`aivite gods and goddesses move to the centre, thus did not reach China or Korea until it arrived with the Mongol court some … centuries later”.

p. 314

Goddess “Hariti, … an important deity of Gandhara … . She remains a significant figure in the

p. 315

Kathmandu Valley, where she is linked to a Tantric healing cult … (Iltis 2002; Merz 1996). The principal temple of Hariti, on the hill at Svayambhu, nowadays has a second identity for Hindu worshippers as a temple of S`itala, one of the principal disease-goddesses”.

“the Valley had been divided for some time into three small Newar kingdoms, each with a chief town (Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur) and a palace complex centred on the temple … . … Each of these cities is surrounded by circles of temples, including sets of the eight Matr.ka deities (Slusser 1982; Gutschow ... 1993; Gutschow and Basukala 1987).”

p. 315

“the masked ritual dances through which the As.t.amatr.ka deities are embodied in the Kathmandu Valley. … The dancers are in a trance”.

p. 319

“the teyyam rituals of Kerala and the bhuta rituals of southern Kannada. In both of these cases, ferocious deities … are held to possess masked low-caste dancers.”

p. 321, fn. 19

“there are also indications in early South Indian material … of spirit-possession cults … (e.g. Hart 1975).”

“two Nath subgroups … are named for two 'sons' of Matsyendranath, Nimnath and Parasnath … (Briggs [1938] … :72). These are the names of the Jaina tirthankaras, Nemi and Pars`va.”