The Yoga Tradition

by Georg Feuerstein

  An idiosyncratic feature of the Kâlacakrayâna is the teaching about the mystical kingdom of Shambhala, where it claims to have originated. Only great adepts are said to be able to find the secret entrances to this kingdom, which is ruled by priest-kings.

  The Ch’an or Zen School of China and Japan

  The radical spirit of the Sahajayâna is present also in Japanese Zen Buddhism. Zen is the Japanese version of the Chinese meditation (ch’an) tradition of Buddhism. Both Mahâyâna Buddhism and the Theravâda doctrines were introduced into China in the first century C.E., where they encountered two powerful and symbiotic religions, Confucianism and Taoism. It was the latter that supplied the masses with religious inspiration and hopes of power and immortality, and that, more than the emperor-centered Confucianism, facilitated the establishment and growth of Buddhism in China.

  But Buddhism did not only flourish in China, it was also profoundly transformed, for what the Chinese found the most attractive in it was the devotional element on the one hand and the ideal of transcendental compassion on the other. They were fascinated with the figure of Amitâbha, the Buddha of infinite radiance, who reigns over the pure celestial realm known as Sukhavati, the “Happy Land,” described ornately in the smaller and the larger Sukha- vatî-Vyûha-Sûtras and the Amitâyur-Dhyâna-Sûtra. These are the basic texts of what is called the “Pure Land” Buddhism of the Far East, which is the Far-Eastern Buddhist counterpart to the Bhakti-Yoga of Hinduism. The pious Buddhist hopes for reincarnation in that divine abode, or some other pure realm, such as the Tushita Heaven of the transcendental bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who ranks second to the Buddha Amitâbha (or Amitâyur, “Infinite Life”). Such a rebirth is regarded by some teachers as equivalent to attaining nirvâna.

  The Pure Land (Chinese: Yodo-Shu) school underwent a further transformation upon arriving in Japan, where it became known as the Jodo school, founded by Honen Shonin (1133-1211 C.E.). Honen, “the superior man,” felt that so many centuries had elapsed since Gautama the Buddha that no one could possibly understand his original teaching anymore. The best one could do, in his opinion, was to believe in the Buddha and pray for his grace. Thus Honen taught a form of Mantra-Yoga, revolving around the mantric phrase namu amida butsu, or “Adoration to the Buddha Amida [=Amitâbha],” and otherwise requiring a minimum of disciplines. His principal disciple, Shinran Shonin (1173-1262 C.E.), turned this teaching into a pure doctrine of vicarious salvation: The Buddha Amida’s grace alone suffices to raise the faithful out of conditioned existence. No self-effort (Japanese: jiriki) is required. The “other effort” (Japanese: tariki), or grace of the Buddha, who acquired inexhaustible merit through his own exertions prior to his enlightenment, is sufficient. A single invocation of the name of Buddha Amida, if done with a pure heart, is adequate to ensure one’s salvation. True to his own teaching, Shinran broke his monastic vows and married a princess.

  At the other end of the spectrum is the Zen tradition, which is firmly anchored in self-effort. It acknowledges Bodhidharma (470-543 C.E.), a learned South Indian monk, as its first patriarch. He arrived in China in the year 520 C.E., where he became known as Tamo (Japanese: Daruma). He inaugurated the Ch’an or meditation tradition, which was inspired by the Yogâcâra school. Bodhidharma was received by the Emperor Wu-Ti, a fervent Buddhist. When asked to define the essential principle of Buddhism, Bodhidharma laconically replied, “Vast emptiness,” which disturbed the emperor greatly. After this encounter, Bodhidharma withdrew to a monastery, where he meditated in front of a blank wall for nine years. Later he observed that the mind has to become like a straight-standing wall.

  His teaching attracted a growing number of monks and householders. By the time of the sixth and last patriarch, Hui-Neng (638-713 C.E.), Ch’an had become the leading form of Buddhism in China. Only half a millennium later were the Ch’an teachings brought to Japan by Eisai (1141-1215 C.E.). Zen, which has been styled “the apotheosis of Buddhism,”28 is, like the Indian Sahajayâna, one of the most radical developments within Buddhism. Both are direct applications of the principle of voidness to daily life.

  In the 1930s, Zen was introduced to the West, thanks mainly to the untiring efforts of Zen master and scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, and later through such popularizing catalysts as Alan Watts and the Beat poets and philosophers. This transplant has not always proven fruitful. As one critic, himself a Buddhist, remarked:

  Zen was designed to operate within emptiness. When coming West it is transferred into a vacuum. Let us just recollect what Zen took for granted, as its antecedents, basis and continuing background: a long and unbroken tradition of spiritual “know-how”; firm and unquestioned metaphysical beliefs, and not just a disbelief in everything; a super-abundance of Scriptures and images; a definite discipline supervised by authoritative persons; insistence on right livelihood and an austere life for all exponents of the Dharma; and a strong Sangha [spiritual community], composed of thousands of mature and experienced persons housed in thousands of temples, who could keep deviations from Buddhist principles within narrow bounds29.

  Mantrayâna and Zen demonstrate the immense plasticity of the Buddhist tradition. By comparison with the starkness of Zen, Mantrayâna is positively baroque. Zen dispenses with all gadgets and devices, seeking to force or trick the mind itself into going beyond its own illusory creations. It is comparable to a direct assault on a perpendicular rock face, relying on consciousness alone. Tantric Buddhism is quite different. It utilizes all manners of climbing aids, and in particular appreciates the fact that we are immersed in a dimension of subtle energies that need to be harnessed for the path.

  The ground for Tantric Buddhism was prepared by the rise of Mahâyâna Buddhism. Gradually, many psychotechnical devices in addition to mantras were introduced into the Buddhist tradition, which were meant to simplify the meditative fixing of awareness in the dark age (kaliyuga): The spiritual renaissance of Tantra made its appearance simultaneously in Buddhism and Hinduism. As a matter of fact, in the early Tantric teachings, Buddhism and Hinduism are peculiarly convergent. The following section introduces the salient features of Buddhist Tantra, and this will anticipate to some extent the treatment of Hindu Tantrism in Chapter 17.

  V. THE JEWEL IN THE LOTUS— VAJRAYNA (TANTRIC) BUDDHISM

  The Nature of Buddhist Tantra

  Tantra, or Tantrism, is one of the most fascinating chapters in the long history of India’s spirituality. It is, however, very difficult to define, because it so diversified that it even contains its own antithesis within itself. Thus, Tantric Buddhism, or Vajrayâna, is an esoteric ritualism that includes a vast variety of paraphernalia and the ceremonial worship and internalization of male and female deities, as well as a philosophy and practice of spontaneity (sahaja). Sahajayâna argues that the ultimate Reality can never be found through any external manipulations or even through disciplining of the mind, but that it is simply to be intuited as one’s native Condition. In the words of Sârahapâda (eleventh century C.E.), the enlightened composer of the “Royal Song”:

  When the deluded in a mirror look

  They see a face, not a reflection.

  So the mind that has truth denied

  Relies on that which is not true. (15)

  As a Brahmin, who with rice and butter

  Makes a burnt offering in blazing fire

  Creating a vessel for nectar from celestial space,

  Takes this through wishful thinking as the ultimate. (23)

  Some people who have kindled the inner heat and raised it to the fontanelle

  Stroke the uvula with the tongue in a sort of coition and confuse

  That which fetters with what gives release,

  In pride will call themselves yogis. (24)

  There’s nothing to be negated, nothing to be

  Affirmed or grasped; for It can never be conceived.

  By the fragmentations of the intellect are the deluded

  Fettered; undivided and pure remains spontaneity. (35)30
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  Tantra is a practical path geared to transform human consciousness until the transmental (amanaska) Truth stands out as the obvious. What all Tantric schools have in common is the affirmation that this transcendental Truth is to be discovered in the human body itself, not somewhere else. This affirmation expresses the fundamental doctrine of the Mahâyâna tradition that the world of change (samsâra) is co-essential with the ultimate Reality, whether it be called nirvâna (“extinction”) or shûnya (“void”).

  They also share another metaphysical credo, and that is that from the empirical point of view, the one Reality is manifested as a play of polarity—the two poles being the static male principle and the female dynamic principle: shiva/shakti or prajnâ/karunâ. This understanding is fundamental to the entire Tantric path (sâdhanâ).

  Although there are a good many differences between the Buddhist and the Hindu variety of Tan- trism, the basic ideas and practices are very similar. Tantra differs from the other traditions of India not because of any philosophical innovations but because of its pronouncedly syncretistic approach. As Agehananda Bharati put it, Tantra is more “value-free” than the non-Tantric traditions; that is, it permits practices that are ordinarily considered taboo in spiritual life, and some even in ordinary secular contexts.31 Tantra is body-positive and antipuritanical. The Tantric teachers place self-experimentation above social morality, and the texts typically warn the uninitiated and the initiate alike that their teachings are radical and dangerous. But they are also insistent that they offer a shortcut to enlightenment in the present age of spiritual and moral decline.

  Sacred Gestures (Mudrâ)

  The use of mantras, as already mentioned, is an important part of the Tantric psychotechnical repertoire. Even though mantras are offered as a simple route to spiritual realization, their very simplicity is deceptive. Uninformed Western imitators of Eastern wisdom tend to overlook the fact that any spiritual practice is founded in a profound commitment to self-transcendence. The mere mindless repetition of mantras at best leads to a trance state and at worst can induce psychosis. The admission of mantras into Buddhist practice opened the door for other psychotechnical devices, notably the practice of sacred gestures (mudrâ) and the employment of graphic representations (mandala) of psychocosmo- logical events.

  Just as sound has a transcending aspect, so also the positioning of the body in space can communicate or invoke primal truths. Thus the mudrâs, which are mostly hand gestures (hasta-mudrâ), are both expressive of and conducive to spiritual states. The best known Buddhist mudrâs, often depicted in iconography, are:

  Bhûmi-sparsha-mudrâ or “gesture of touching the ground,” which is also known as the witness gesture. The latter designation derives from the traditional biographies of Gautama the Buddha, who made this gesture when calling upon the earth to witness his success over Mara, the spirit of evil. This mudrâ is executed by draping the right arm over the right knee, with palm turned inward and all fingers pointing downward, while the middle finger touches the seat or ground.

  Dana-mudrâ or “gesture of giving,” which is executed by extending the right arm over the right knee, with the palm of the right hand facing outward.

  Dhyâna-mudrâ or “meditation gesture,” which is performed by having both hands, palms up, rest in the lap, the right hand on top of the left. Both thumbs touch lightly.

  Abhaya-mudrâ or “gesture of fearlessness,” that is, the gesture of dispelling fear in others, which is executed with the right hand, raised to the level of the heart, with the palm turned outward and all the fingers extending upward.

  Dharma-cakra-mudrâ or “gesture of the Wheel of the Law,” which is performed differently according to various traditions. In Tibet, both hands are held at the level of the chest, with the left hand in front of the right.

  The index fingers and thumbs of both hands form a circle and touch.

  The origin of these hand gestures is not known. On one level, they are the invention of artists trying to express inner states iconographically. On another level, they undoubtedly are the products of intensive meditation practice during the course of which it is not uncommon that the body spontaneously assumes certain static as well as dynamic poses, which are known as kriyâs (“actions”).

  Mandala: The Geometry of Sacred Space

  In practical terms, the mandala (“circle”) is a focusing device for the meditator. Symbolically, it is a map of the cosmos and the psyche. As the Italian Tibetologist Guiseppe Tucci explained:

  It is a geometric projection of the world reduced to an essential pattern. Implicitly it early assumed profound significance, because when the mystic identified himself with its center, it transformed him and so determined the first conditions for the success of his work. It remained a paradigm of cosmic involution and evolution. Yet the man who used it no longer wanted only return to the center of the universe. Dissatisfied with the experience of the psyche he longed for a state of concentration in order to find once more the unity of a secluded and undiverted consciousness, and to restore in himself the ideal principle of things. So the mandala is no longer a cosmogram but a psychocosmogram, the scheme of disintegration from the One to the many and of reintegration from the many to the One, to that Absolute Consciousness, entire and luminous, which Yoga causes to shine once more in the depths of our being.32

  The construction of the mandala is a meditative act in which the initiate identifies with the specific deity or deities of the mandala and gradually passes through the various psychic experiences and states corresponding to the different aspects of this psychocosmogram. In the end, he or she arrives at the central point (bindu), the symbolic seed of the manifested universe and the threshold to the transcendental Reality. If the spiritual practitioner (sâdhaka) is successful, this is the moment where his or her individuated consciousness dissolves, and what remains is pure Consciousness, the Absolute.

  The mandala can be constructed either by drawing it in sand or on a piece of paper, cloth, or wood, or by picturing it in one’s mind. The latter practice presumes advanced visualization abilities. In either case, the construction of a mandala must be preceded by appropriate purificatory rites through which the location, the materials, and not least one’s body-mind are consecrated.

  Typically and in greatly simplified terms, a mandala is composed of an outer protective surround consisting of one or more concentric circles, or walls of fire, which enclose a square structure that, in turn, contains the central point (bindu) or image. The square, which has four “gates,” is cut by diagonal lines, yielding four triangles, each of which contains the image of a particular deity with insignia. As can be seen on any Tibetan thanka, or wall hanging, these mandalas are intricate pictorial designs, and their symbolism is still more complex, as is the liturgy associated with the mandala construction. By comparison, the Hindu yantras are relatively simple, which holds true of their symbolic content as well. They will be discussed in connection with Hindu Tantrism in Chapter 17.

  Maithunâ: Sacred Sexuality

  Mantras, mudrâs, and mandalas are important Tantric devices. Another significant tool of psychic transformation, for which Tantra is best known in the West, is the practice of ritualized sexuality, which bears the technical designation of maithunâ and is discussed in more detail in Chapter 17 as well.

  The conduct of a Vajrayâna adept is likely to be unorthodox; intent upon employing everything in life as a means to achievement, he does not except such animal processes as sleeping, eating, excreting and (if he is not a monk) sexual intercourse. The energy of passions and desires must be yoked, not wasted. Every act of body, speech and mind, every circumstance, every sensation, every dream can be turned to good account. This aspect of Tantric Buddhism has led to the great error of confounding it with libertinism. Though all things are employed as means, they must be rightly used and their right use is far removed from sensual gratification.33

  John Blofeld, the writer of the above quote, goes on to make the Tantric point that
the use of drugs like mescaline may serve an appropriate purpose. Indeed, “psychedelic” drugs have been widely used in the spiritual traditions of the world, including the Yoga of Patanjali, though they were never advertised as ultimate keys to enlightenment, merely as steppingstones on the spiritual path. Blofeld relates his own drug experience which plunged him into a state of ecstasy “in which dawned full awareness of three great truths I had long accepted intellectually but never experienced as being self-evident.” The experience revealed to him that there was indeed a level of being on which subject and object ceased to be separate, that this condition is utterly blissful, and that everything arising to consciousness is in fact ephemeral, as is epitomized in the Buddhist doctrine of the dharmas, explained earlier.

  This transcendental realization of undifferentiated being is also the objective and substance of sacred sexual intercourse. It is in this practice that the “jewel in the lotus,” the eternal embrace of the male and female aspect of infinite Reality, is discovered. The word vajrâ (Tibetan: dorje) in Vajrayâna denotes the “diamond,” the substance that is so hard that nothing in the world can possibly break or even chip it. In other words, it is the transcendental Reality itself. It is the supreme principle of wisdom (prajnâ) by which everything can be penetrated and consequently transcended. It is also the male generative force and the esoteric name of the penis.

  The lotus (padma), on the other hand, is the symbol of spiritual unfoldment as well as of the female sex organ. Thus, sexual intercourse can be looked at from many symbolic levels. Primarily, however, the merging of the sexes in the bliss of sexual congress replicates on the human level what is forever true of existence on the transcendental level. But more of this later.