The Yoga Tradition

by Georg Feuerstein

  The unshakable (acalâ) stage: They acquire the power to transfer wholesome karma to other beings to ease their karmic burden and speed up their spiritual growth.

  The good-thought (sadhûmatî) stage: They increase their effort of liberating beings as one of the great transcendental bodhisattvas.

  The cloud-of-dharma stage: They have now fully consolidated their all-embracing knowledge (jnâna), and their “thusness/suchness” (tathatâ) radiates throughout the universe like a rain cloud shedding water. The phrase dharma-megha, or “cloud of dharma,” is also found in Patanjali’s Classical Yoga, where it is given a similar meaning by some interpreters.

  Viewed from a Hindu perspective, the Mahâyâna path represents a synthesis between Jnâna-Yoga and Karma-Yoga, the personal cultivation of ever deeper transcending awareness (prajnâ) and its translation into benevolent activity for the ultimate good of all beings, the ultimate good being their enlightenment.

  The Doctrine of the Three Bodies of the Buddha

  Mahâyâna Buddhism emerged long after the death of the historical Buddha. For the Mahâyâna followers the human Buddha was a temporary projection of the Absolute. The true Buddha is the transcendental Reality itself, which is beyond space-time. This important notion is epitomized in the Mahâyâna doctrine of the “triple body” (tri-kâya) of the Buddha. The three bodies are:

  the “body of the law” (dharma-kâya), which is the absolute or transcendental dimension of existence;

  the “body of enjoyment” (sambhoga-kâya), which is the psychic or inner dimension composed of numerous “transcendental” Buddhas;

  the “body of creation” (nirmana-kâya), which refers to the flesh-and-blood bodies of the Buddhas in human form, of which there have been many.

  Thus, only in his transcendental essence is the Buddha singular. On the physical and psychic (or subtle) levels, there are many Buddhas. The next Buddha to descend into the physical realm is Târâ, who is now a transcendental bodhisattva residing in the Tushita Heaven. She and the other transcendental or celestial bodhisattvas—such as Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya (“He who is friendly”)—belong to the sambhoga-kâya of the Buddha. At the highest—tenth—level of the bodhisattva path, the bodhisattva is spiritually so elevated that some texts speak of him as a buddha.

  These great beings (mahâ-sattva), whether they are called buddhas or bodhisattvas, are invoked by the followers of Mahâyâna as agents of grace. Thus, unlike Hînayâna, the Mahâyâna schools typically understand the spiritual process as a combination of self-effort and graceful intervention from the Buddhas and celestial bodhisattvas. Hence there is a place in the Mahâyâna approach for the discipline of meditation as well as prayer and worship, which corresponds to Bhakti-Yoga in Hinduism. This is an instance of what has been called the eclecticism of Mahâyâna—an eclecticism, however, that is a strength rather than a weakness.

  The Mâdhyamika School

  The philosophical teachings of Mahâyâna, as found in the Prajnâ-Pâramitâ literature, were consolidated by the thinkers of the Shûnyavâda or Mâdhyamika school, notably Nâgârjuna (second century C.E.) and his chief disciple ryadeva. Nâgârjuna’s principal work is the influential Mâdhyamika-Kârikâ, on which numerous commentaries have been written. His lasting contribution to Buddhist metaphysics was his dialectics, by which he tried to demonstrate that the ultimate Reality cannot be described satisfactorily either in positive or in negative terms. For this great Buddhist thinker and adept, essentiality (svabhâvatâ) is that which is uncreated or unborn and which is therefore eternal. The world, by contrast, lacks such essence, and for this reason is deemed void. The transcendental Void is so called because it is empty of all possible limiting conditions.

  Nâgârjuna did for Indian philosophy what Kant did for Western philosophy. Both managed to shatter metaphysical thought through strictly logical means. Yet, unlike Kant, Nâgârjuna is remembered not only as a formidable philosopher and the “father of Mahâyâna” but also as a spiritually accomplished master (siddha), an alchemist, and a miracle worker about whom countless legends have been woven.19

  SOURCE READING 9

  Mahâyâna-Vimshaka of Nâgârjuna

  This short but important work on Mahâyâna philosophy is extant only in Tibetan and Chinese versions but has been reconstructed in Sanskrit by the Indian scholar Vidhusekhara Bhattacharya. The present rendering is based on this reconstruction.

  Obeisance to the wise, dispassionate Buddha whose powers are inconceivable and who. out of sympathy (dayâ) [for all beings] has taught that which is inexpressible by words. (1)

  From the transcendental perspective (parama-artha20), there is no origination (utpâda) and, in truth, there is no cessation (nirodha). The Buddha is like space (âkâsha), and hence also [all] beings have one-and-the-same (eka) characteristic. (2)

  There is no creation (jâtî) on this or the other side. A compound-thing (samskrita) [simply] arises from the [existing] condition (pratyaya) and is, by its nature, void—the domain of the knowledge of the omniscient [Buddha). (3)

  All states (bhâva) are deemed by their nature to be like reflections (pralibimba): pure and tranquil by nature, nondual, equal, and thusness (tathatâ). (4)

  In fact, ordinary people conceive of essence (âtman) in nonessence, and similarly [they wrongly imagine] joy and sorrow, indifference, passion (klesha), and liberation. (5)

  The six [types of] birth in the world (samsâra),21 supreme joy in heaven, and great suffering in hell are [likewise] not within the domain of Reality (tattva). (6)

  Similarly [untrue are the ideas that] from inauspicious [deeds come] endless suffering, aging, illness, and death, but that by auspicious actions surely an auspicious (shubha) [destiny can be won]. (7)

  As a painter is terrified by the image of a demon he himself has painted, so an ignoramus (abudha) is [riddled with] fear in the world. (8)

  As some fool going to a quagmire by himself is sucked down [into it], so beings, submerged in the quagmire of imagination (kalpanâ), are unable to extricate themselves. (9)

  The sensation of suffering is experienced by picturing existence (bhâva) in nonexistence (abhâva). [Beings] are troubled by the poison of imagining [that there is] both an object and knowledge. (10)

  Seeing these helpless [beings], one should, with a mind overwhelmed with compassion, cultivate the practice of enlightenment (bodhi-caryâ) for the benefit of [all] beings. (11)

  Having acquired merit (sambhâra) by this [practice] and having attained unsurpassable enlightenment (bodhi), one should become a Buddha, released from the bond of imagination [but remaining] a friend of the world.”22 (12)

  He who understands the Real Object (bhûta-artha23) through [insight into] dependent origination (pratîtya-samutpâda) knows the world as void, without beginning, middle, and end. (13)

  By seeing that the world (samsâra) and extinction (nirvâna) are not in reality [existent], [one realizes] the immaculate, changeless, priorly tranquil (âdishânta), and luminous [Reality]. (14)

  The object of dream cognition is not perceived by the fully awakened [person], [Similarly,] the world is not perceived by him who has awaked from the darkness of [spiritual] delusion. (15)

  The originator (jâtimat) does not originate himself. Origination is imagined by worldly ones (loka). Both imaginings and [imaginary] beings are not conducive [to the Truth]. (16)

  All this is mere mind (citta-mâtra); it exists like a hallucination (mâyâ). Hence auspicious or inauspicious action [appears to be engaged in], and from this [follows apparent] auspicious or inauspicious birth. (17)

  All things (dharma) are restricted by restricting the mind’s wheel. Hence [all] things are nonessential (anâtman), and thus they are pure. (18)

  By presuming [that which is] eternal, essential (âtman), and joyous to be in things (bhâva) [that are] insubstantial (nihsvabhâva), this ocean of existence manifests for him who is enveloped by the darkness of attachment and delusion. (19)

  Who can reach the far
ther shore of the mighty ocean of the world abounding with the water of imagination without resorting to the great vehicle (Mahâyâna)? (20)

  The Vijnânavâda and Yogâcâra Schools

  A further significant development within Buddhism occurred in the fourth century C.E., which saw the emergence of the Vijnânavâda and Yogâcâra schools of the brothers Vasubandhû and Asanga, who, from one point of view, embody the perennial complementarity of theory and practice in the spiritual tradition of India. They are said to have set the “wheel of the teaching” in motion for the third time. Asanga received the teachings of the so- called Yogâcâra (“Yoga Conduct”) school directly from the future Buddha Maitreya.

  According to a well-known story, Asanga had exerted himself over many years to gain a vision of the celestial bodhisattva Maitreya. He was despairing of ever succeeding in this particular meditation. However, one day this compassionate master administered to a wounded dog by the roadside, forgetting his own spiritual despair. Suddenly, Maitreya revealed himself to him in the form of that dog and promptly transported Asanga to the Tushita Heaven where he taught him five great texts, notably the Abhisamaya-Alamkâra and the Mahâ- yâna-Sûtra-Alamkâra. Dismissing this traditional story, many scholars think that the originator of the teachings contained in these works was a human teacher by the name of Maitreyanâtha.

  Be that as it may, Asanga endeavored to fortify the practice of Yoga amidst a highly speculative atmosphere in Buddhist circles. According to the Yogâcâra school, the objective world is “mere mind” (citta-mâtra), which is also the basic position of the Lankâ-Avatâra-Sûtra. What this means is that our entire experience is simply that: experience, flashes of consciousness, without objective substratum. But that fleeting consciousness is, in truth, the ever-lasting transcendental Consciousness. This whole consideration apparently grew out of Asanga’s own intense meditation practice, which taught him the spuriousness of phenomena, leading him to pure metaphysical idealism. He is also traditionally held responsible for the introduction of the Tantric approach into Buddhism.

  Vasubandhu, Asanga’s younger brother, was more concerned with putting the new metaphysical ideas on solid theoretical foundations. He authored the famous Abhidharma-Kosha and an auto-commentary (bhâshya) on it. His Vijnânavâda is the most popular of all the Mahâyâna schools. For him, as for the Vedânta philosophers, the ultimate Reality is pure, indeterminable, universal Consciousness (vijnâna). He even spoke of that Reality as the Great Self (mahâ-âtman, written mahâtman). Lower than this supreme Consciousness is what is called the “storehouse consciousness” (âlaya-vijnâna), which serves as the reservoir of all subconscious activators (samskâra) by which individual consciousnesses maintain their separateness. Even Vasubandhû’s abstract formulations are intended to encourage self- transcending practice rather than mere philosophizing about Consciousness or the spiritual path.

  It was Gaudapâda, the teacher of Shankara’s teacher, who drank deeply from the well of wisdom of the Mâdhyamika and the Vijnânavâda branches of Buddhism, and both he and Shankara refer to them frequently, if critically, in their works. The similarities between Mahâyâna Buddhism and Advaita Vedânta have often been pointed out, and partly owing to Shankara’s scholastic ingenuity, Advaita Vedânta rather than Mahâyâna Buddhism won out on Indian soil.

  Mantrayâna

  From about the third century C.E. on, the use of mantras, or sacred words or formulae, came into prominence in the Buddhist tradition. The discovery that sound can have a transformative effect on the psyche goes back, however, to the Vedas. For millennia the brahmins have used such sacred syllables as om or such mantric prayers as the gâyatrî-mantra both to focus the mind and to invoke the higher powers. Similarly in Buddhism, mantra-like formulae for protecting oneself against evil, known in Pali as parittas, have been employed since the time of the Buddha. The Mahâsânghika school, which may have been the intermediary between the Hînayâna and the Mahâyâna traditions, possessed a special collection of mantras titled the Dhâranî-Pitaka. But in the early centuries of the Common Era some Buddhist teachers began to use mantras as the primary means of disciplining and transcending the mind. This came to be known as the Mantrayâna tradition, corresponding broadly to the Hindu Mantra-Yoga.

  A good example of Buddhist mantra practice is the recitation of the famous mantra of the Prajnâ-Pâramitâ literature: Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svahd, “Gone, gone, gone beyond, fully gone beyond, enlightenment, svâhâ.” In the Eka-Akshari- (“Single Letter”) Sûtra,24 again, the letter a is introduced as the sacred sound that embodies the entire Prajnâ-Pâramitâ literature.

  Some Buddhists texts distinguish between mantras and dhâranîs, defining the latter as “that by which something is supported” (dhâryate anayâ iti), the “something” being the meditating mind. Dhâranîs are a special category of mantra: They are abbreviated versions of key scriptural sayings, expressing quintessential ideas. A typical dhâranî is the famous Tibetan mantric phrase om mani padme hûm, “Om, jewel in the lotus—hûm.” The late Anagarika Govinda, a Vajrayâna initiate of German extraction, has analyzed this mantra in great detail.25 The Buddhist scriptures also speak of kavâcas, which are similar strings of sacred sounds, but are used specifically for self-protection. The word actually means “armor.”

  The flair for abbreviation among mantra creators is taken to the extreme in the case of bîja-mantras, which are single phonemes such as om, hum, or phat thought to be the “seed” for a far more complex reality and corresponding spiritual experience. They each stand for a whole cosmos of ideas. Thus om is the soundless sound of the absolute Reality itself, and its place in the human body is at the sacred spot between the eyebrows (“third eye”). This locus is the point of confluence between the left and the right streams of life, which then go singly to the great “door” of liberation at the crown of the head (see Chapter 17).

  The Mantrayâna tradition is regarded as one of the branches or phases of Tantric Buddhism, together with the Vajrayâna, the Kâlacakrayâna, and the Sahajayâna. However, the designation Mantrayâna is also frequently applied to Buddhist Tantrism in general. Strictly speaking, however, the Mantrayâna is the introductory phase of Buddhist Tantrism, whose full flowering is present in the Vajrayâna tradition, which is discussed separately in Section V below.

  Sahajayâna

  The Sahajayâna, which came into being in the eighth century C.E., is best understood as a reaction to, and critique of, the busy esotericism and magical preoccupations of mainstream Tantra. The Sahajayâna, the Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu Sahajîyâ, does not have Tantric scriptures of its own, which would almost violate its principle of spontaneity. But its teachers have left behind memorable songs, known as dohâs or caryâs, which were orally transmitted and were popular in many parts of India until the twelfth centuries C.E.

  The Sahajîyâ movement straddled Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, and dohâs were composed in the languages and dialects peculiar to these traditions. Only a small number of these songs have survived, which were collected and published by the renowned Indian scholar Prabodh Chandra Bagchi.26

  The masters of Sahajayâna taught that Reality cannot be discovered by placing unnatural restraints of one kind or another on human nature. Instead they insisted that we should follow what is the most natural in us, that is, be true to our own personal imperative. Of course, they did not preach that we should simply abandon ourselves to our passions or instincts. Rather, their natural or spontaneous approach is the way of abiding in what is inherently true of us, which is blissful freedom. Perhaps Joseph Campbell’s popular phrase “Follow your own bliss” conveys something of their teaching.

  The best known Buddhist dohâs are those of the eighth-century adept Sâraha, or Sârahapâda. His female consort (dâkint)27 was the daughter of an arrowsmith, and hence he is commonly portrayed as holding an arrow—a symbol of the penetrating power of wisdom. Sâraha’s name itself means “he who releases (ha) the arrow (sara).”<
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  While the Sahajîyâ realizers enjoyed great respect, their message was too radical to be properly understood by many. Yet, the ideal of spontaneity is of perennial value to spiritual practitioners, for it is all too easy to get caught up in a struggle for enlightenment. The dohas and also the caryâs are reminders that all struggle is an egoic activity and as such a limitation on our native condition of perfect bliss.

  Kâlacakrayâna

  Out of the Vajrayâna tradition emerged, some time in the tenth century C.E., the Kâlacakrayâna. The phrase kalâ-cakra means “wheel of time” or “wheel of death” and stands for the ultimate Reality in its bipolar aspect as wisdom (prajnâ) and means (upâya), that is, the means of compassion (karunâ).

  This tradition is associated with the wrathful deities of the Tibetan pantheon, perhaps because time itself is a destructive force. Change is inevitable and death rules supreme. The goal of the Kâlacakrayâna aspirant is to transcend time and death by manipulating his or her own microcosm, the human body-mind. As a faithful replica of the larger cosmos, the body contains all the essential features of the external world—stars, planets, mountains, oceans, and rivers. We must simply learn to decipher the hidden language of the microcosmmacrocosm parallelism.

  The Kâlacakrayâna teachers emphasize the yogic path. Time or death must be outwitted particularly by means of controlling the inbreath (prâna) and the out-breath (apâna). The incessant flow of the breath of life is, to use an anachronistic metaphor, like the ticking of the clock, telling us that time is running out. Prâna (life) and kâla (time/death) are intimately linked. To stop the one is to stop the other. And this is exactly the declared purpose of the adepts of this tradition. When life and time stand still, the realization of great bliss (mahâ- sukha) is at hand.

  Another way in which the Kâlacakrayâna teachers have expressed this is by speaking of the union of sun and moon, or upâya and prajnâ respectively. This union is Lord Kâlacakra. The yogic discipline (sâdhanâ) by which the ultimate Reality can be realized is explained in some detail in the Kâlacakra-Tantra, a text of the tenth century C.E.