by Livia Kohn
Any careful observer of these performances will note that the overall program of the pudu and the fang yankou are similar. Both follow the same pattern of invocation/visualization of the ritual world, transformation of the adept into a savior, hell-busting, feeding of the beings, preaching of merit, and dismissal. Both employ mantra and mudra, or “secret gesture” ( shoujue). Both rituals adapt individual soteriological programs to communal salvation. In both, salvation takes the form of an initiation. Both are based in macrocosm–microcosm homologies. Both can be linked to alchemical and sexual imagery.
Both rituals exhibit the same sort of sequencing, concluding abbrevi-
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ation, and so on of the sort noted by Staal (1980) and Payne (1985; 1991). And the list could be lengthened.
Here we need to think about “metaphoric equivalence,” for at this level of generality Buddhist and Daoist rituals have no distinguishing characteristics and might be viewed as interchangeable if not wholly identical. However, if we look closely at the metaphors central to each ritual, a more nuanced picture emerges. The Buddhist ritual involves the feeding and salvation of hungry ghosts ( egui), those preta who in Buddhist lore are condemned to wander about starving and whose mouths burn (and thus the term “fang yankou,” release of the “flaming mouths”). The Daoist ritual refers instead to wandering souls as guhun or orphaned hun souls. The different terms used to refer to the
“ghosts” is the key to understanding that the pudu is a sophisticated Taoist “translation” of the fang yankou.
The Buddhist Fang Yankou
The Buddhist fang yankou involves a ritual peregrination to assemble beings from all of the six gati. Its dramatic core involves an assault on hell followed by a banquet for hungry ghosts ( egui, Skr. preta). The rite unfolds with the use of mantra to assemble the ghosts, to open the hells and the ghosts’ constricted throats, to eliminate their karmic obstructions, and to multiply the offerings of “sweet dew” ( ganlu, Skr. amrta) to slake their thirst. The five Tathagatas are then invoked, and the assembled beings are given consecration ( guanding, Skr. abhi3eka) and then escorted off to rebirth in the Pure Land. The ritual is structured according to well-established templates stemming from the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha (T. 865, 866, 882, etc.) and its related cycle of texts. The earliest versions of the ritual are found in T. 1313–1315
and 1319 and date from the eighth and ninth centuries. A later, more elaborate manual (T. 1320), which probably dates from the Yüan dynasty, incorporates the key mantras of the earlier Tang manuals and fills out the ritual in the fashion of the Buddhist tantras, complete with accompanying mudra and instructions for visualization. This manual is the basis for all later known manuals.17
This salvific “banquet” exhibits a highly regular structure based on the metaphor—harkening back to the Vedas—of inviting a guest for dinner. “At the most fundamental and overt level, both Vedic and Tantric rituals are banquets in honor of the gods” (Wheelock 1989, 111).18 In Vedic ritual, the gods are first invited to the banquet with
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an appropriate mantra; they are provided seats, water to wash with, flowers, and so on. They are praised and then fed, often with soma, an ambrosia ( amrta) identified with the “seed” of the sacrificer and the intoxicating drink of the gods that conferred both immortality and fertility. The offerings are transmitted to the “guests” by pouring them into the sacrificial fire. In turn, the Vedic worshiper could expect a variety of boons: health, wealth, fertility and sons, and immortality. The entire performance hinged on the proper execution of the hymns and mantras . This “banquet” metaphor and its entailments are present to this day in puja (“offering”), which characterizes popular Hindu worship, and in the various rites of the tantras. Indeed, if we examine the sixteen traditional upacara s, or “attendances,” of household and temple puja, we find remarkable correspondence with homa and other esoteric rites (Falk 1987, 12:83a–85a). Not surprisingly, one mainstream tradition in Japanese Shingon (Chuinryu of Koyasan) divides most rituals into five modules based on the guest metaphor: purification, construction, encounter, identification, and dissociation (Payne 1985, 219–222).19
Tantric ritual continues this banquet metaphor and maps several further metaphoric complexes onto it. As exterior ritual, the process of invoking and feeding the gods of the mandala and the use of the sacrificial homa fire, all conducted with the proper mantra, remain in place. Already in Vedic practice we see the metaphoric complex of the soma/ seed of the sacrificer that has been mapped onto the banquet (soma is amr.ta, is seed). In yogic and tantric practice a further metaphoric layer involving the internalizing of the Vedic fire has been added. Thus, the sacrificial fire is identified with yogic “heat,” or tapas, and in this interior “yogic” banquet the altar, mantras, offerings, and so on are mapped onto the body of the adept (body as altar, the fire as tapas). While the Vedic banquet with the gods transformed the sacrificer into an immortal (“We have drunk soma; we have become immortal”) tantric ritual transforms the adept into a divinity, a bodhisattva, or a Buddha.20 In short, tantric ritual is a palimpsest of many metaphoric analogues. It is a rich complex of source domains and targets, and the evocation of one metaphoric layer can activate others.
Buddhism, and particularly the Buddhist tantras, extend these metaphors yet further. In typical practice the adept confesses transgressions (a process often accompanied by homa), arouses the “seed of enlightenment” ( bodhicitta) through external and internal offerings, is consecrated ( guanding, Skr. abhi3eka), and, using the very seed syllables ( bija, zhongzi) of the divinities previously invoked and worshiped,
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generates himself as a Buddha or bodhisattva. The tradition makes the analogy between the interior banquet and the exterior banquet quite explicit, with the external consumption of fuel and offerings for the benefit of a community paralleled by an internal incineration of the adept’s karmic obstructions or defilements. Extending the metaphor, it is said that the “exterior homa” is the fire altar, the sapwood, and so on, while in the “adamantine inner homa total enlightenment is the flame and my own mouth is the hearth” (T. 867; 18.266a).
Most tantric Buddhist rituals focus not only on the identification of the worshiper with a Buddha or bodhisattva, but also on the effect of such identification in the world. Thus most rituals are apotropaic, and the adept, acting as the divinity, secures various sorts of blessings for a community.21 The fang yankou deploys this metaphoric richness in the execution of a sequence in which the adept first arouses “the vast and great mind” (the mind of enlightenment, or bodhicitta), visualizes and invites the Buddhas and other divinities of the mandala/altar, repents transgressions, and then begins the banquet with visualized offerings of “sweet dew” ( bodhicitta, ganlu). Next the adept generates him- or herself as the bodhisattva Avalokite4vara (Guanyin) through the yogic transformation of the sonic and photic
“seed-syllables” ( bija, zhongzi). With eyes closed, the adept visualizes a clear and pure lunar disk in the heart.
Shining brightly on the disk is a Hrih bija which transforms into an eight-petaled lotus. On this lotus throne is Guanzizai [Avalokite4vara]. . . .
The Bodhisattva thinks thus: “each being has this flower of enlightenment. The pure Dharmadhatu is without stain. . . .” One then visualizes this eight-petaled lotus gradually expanding to fill up limitless space and thinks, “On behalf of the ocean-like assembly of Tathagathas illuminated by this flower of enlightenment I vow to complete the great offering. If my mind is steadfast in this concentration then limitless creatures will arouse compassion, and all those who are illuminated by this enlightenment blossom’s light will be completely liberated from all suffering and have the same marks as Guanyin bodhisattva [Avalokite4vara].” (T. 1320; 21.476b)
The lotus vision now shrinks into the adept’s own body. The adept makes the Guanzizai
mudra “empowering” ( adhi3thana, jiazhi) the four places: the heart, shoulders, throat, and top of the head. At each place the mudra touches there appears a Hrih. Once the adept recites the mantra om vajra dharma hri¯h
. , the body of the adept becomes that
of Guanzizai (T. 1320; 21.476b–c).
Having assumed the guise of Guanyin and having donned the crown
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of the five Tathagatas indicative of his or her consecration ( abh3eka, guanding ), the adept recites the vow of Dizang (K3itigarbha) to save all beings in the hells and thereupon makes the round of the six paths ( gati), summoning beings to the banquet. On reaching the gates of hell the adept looses an attack employing mudra and mantra. Making the Vajra-fist, the adept advances, visualizing the opening of hell while chanting the hell-smashing spell ( po diyu yinzhou). A fiery light streams from the mudra, and from his mouth (pronouncing the mantra) there comes a fiery brilliance. The adept visualizes a red hrih syllable shining on the lunar disk in his heart. The light of his mouth, that from the mudra, and that of the syllable in his heart together illuminate the Avici hell. The chanting of the mantra thus three times unlatches the locks on the gates of hell and opens the doors, and all of the suffering beings come out. Recalling the vow of Dizang not to attain Buddha-hood until all the hells are emptied, the adept moves on to the next realm of rebirth (that of the hungry ghosts) to summon them to the Dharma assembly. Making the mudra of “opening the throats”
and chanting the mantra of the Tathagata of Expansive Spirit, the adept opens his hand like an opening Lotus blossom, and above the white lunar disk one visualizes the syllable A pouring forth sweet dew, which condensing into a vapor, falls like a gentle rain on the bodies of the ghosts and spirits, extinguishing their flames and purifying and cooling them (summarizing T. 1320; 21.476c–478a). Now sated, the assembled beings are led in worship of the Three Jewels, arouse the
“essence of enlightenment” ( fa puti xin), and receive the “seal of the discipline” and consecration, and they too make offerings (T. 1320; 21.478b–480b).22
Thus the intertwining of inner and outer banquets based on metaphors of inner and outer fires and the oblations put into the fires are key to understanding the fang yankou ritual. First, in basic Buddhist terms, “moving the mind to make offerings” to others results in the arousal of bodhicitta (the “seed” of enlightenment) in oneself (offering is seed, is enlightenment). This nourishing “seed”
quenches the fire of the passions and releases one from the “hell” of samsara (passions are fire; enlightenment is consecration).
In Esoteric ritual these offerings are the genesis of one’s own enlightenment. In the fang yankou (and in other apotropaic applications of Esoteric ritual) the same metaphoric complex is then extended to all beings. The sound and light of the bija/seed loose the gates of hell and unbind all fetters (karmic defilements) so that the “flaming
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mouths” ( yankou, mouths are hearths) of the liberated ghosts can be watered with the sweet dew (ganlu, amrta, sweet dew is bodhicitta, is consecration) of the teaching! Thus the fang yankou is a symbolic abrogation of karma and the banquet a “sweet rain” of Dharma. Both are based on the Buddhist metaphoric complex of internal yogic practice and external homa, or fire sacrifice. The emblems of this metaphoric complex are the terms “yankou” and “egui”—the flaming mouth of the hungry ghost that must be fed with the sweet dew of the teaching.
The Daoist Pudu
Turning now to the Daoist pudu, we at first see the obvious similarities, then some striking differences. As in the fang yankou, the adept summons and assembles the “Heavenly Worthies of the Ten Directions” and along with his assistants he intones the “Great Talisman for Mobilizing the Brahma- qi” ( daxing fanqi fu, HY 466; 60.5ab). Then through a meditative program that merges the Three Pure Ones into the One, the adept is transformed into a “savior.” He directly invokes the Three Pure Heavenly Worthies and an additional four Heavenly Worthies (the Heavenly Worthy of the center, completing the eight, is not mentioned in the manual, 5b–12a), and he dons the five-pointed wulao crown and assumes the identity of Taiyi jiuku Tianzun, the Heavenly Worthy Who Saves the Suffering. His descent to the world is followed by deployment of the hell-busting talisman ( poyu fu) and the removal of fetters (14a–16b). This is followed by a circumambulation of the cosmos, during which a variety of guhun, or orphaned hun souls, are rounded up and shepherded to the feast, led now by Bamen kaidu Tianzun, the Heavenly Worthy Who Opens the Way to Salvation Through the Eight Gates (17b–23a).23 These cosmic peregrinations parallel the visit to the six paths in the Buddhist ritual and even include the “six paths” as one of the ten locales on the itinerary. Clearly, the basic structure of the ritual mirrors that of the fang yankou!
Nonetheless, the metaphoric complexes and entailments of this banquet for guhun are overwhelmingly Daoist. While mantra-like spells ( zhou) are chanted, it is not the oral mantra but the written word that takes center stage as each event in the ritual drama involves the deployment of a fu—a written talisman. While Buddhist ritual manuals can be (and often are) pared down to a series of mantras, the scaf-folding of the Xuandu daxian yushan jinggong yi consists of a string of
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fu whose core metaphors are unmistakably Daoist. Take, for example, the “Enunciation of the Hell-smashing Fu” ( xuan poyu fu): In boundless Fengdu
with range on range of Vajra mountains
the illimitable brilliance of the Numinous Treasure
illuminates and cauterizes the pool of trouble
and lights up the bodies of the departed.
With the rites of audience at the Altar of the Occult Origin ( xuanyuan tan)
the advancing spirits ascend the blue sky
as the acolyte guides them with the Numinous Banner. (16ab) And again, in the “Enunciation of the Fu Which Bursts Open” ( kaipi fu): The light of the Numinous Treasure of Jade Clarity shines into the three roads.
In every detail it lays open the karmic road.
Penetrating everywhere,
it reaches to the very throne of the East Flower.
Suddenly without leaving a trace,
the spirits transcend heaven
and journey to the banquet with the three primordial officers.
( you yan san guan, 16b)
Beyond the obvious borrowing of the outline of the Buddhist fang yankou there are “Buddhist” details here (vajra mountains, karmic road), but “Fengdu,” the “brilliance of the Numinous Treasure,” the
“audience at the Altar of the Occult Origin,” the “three primordial officers,” and the notion of the fu, or written talisman, themselves alert us to a decidedly Daoist root metaphor, the body is a state. The
“entailments” of this metaphor are those of the Chinese bureaucracy.
The country is administered by “officials” whose salvific knowledge is deployed in the creation and use of written documents. This “banquet,” for orphaned souls, is an official banquet, a banquet that takes its form from official audiences (the banquet is an audience).
Once the Daoist takes on the identity of Taiyi jiuku tianzun, he becomes an officer (the priest is an official), at each step using fu to “summon” the guhun, to open their throats, to feed, clothe, and transform them. While we might argue that Buddhist Esoteric tradition homologizes the human body to the fire altar, the cosmos, and the divine body, the notion that the body is a state with its own terrain and its own gods and officials is certainly not present.
The fang yankou lavishes considerable attention on the opening of
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hell and the eradication of karma, and relatively little space to the clothing and feeding of the spirits. Conversely, the Xuandu daxian yushan jinggong yi hell-busting sequence is brief, while the enumera-tion of the many types of guhun souls
, their feeding and clothing, goes on for more than eighteen double pages (61.4a–22b). In a series of rites parallel to but more extensive than the Buddhist program, the Heavenly Worthy Who Nourishes (beings) uses a spell to produce
“sweet dew” ( ganlu, again) that calls the hun souls, opens their throats (another Buddhist detail), and feeds, unbinds, clothes, and cleans them. Here the metaphors and their entailments point to a Daoist symbolic universe of communal responsibility, miraculous fountains, and sympathetic relationships between nature and physiology, once again based in the body of the Daoist. Thus, for example, in “Enunciating the Fu for Opening the Throats” ( xuan kai yanhou fu) we read:
Vast and obscure, Heaven’s Numinous Fountain
moistens the withered and nourishes the beings.
It flows in accord with nature,
and thus the saliva of the gods ( shenjin shengye) flows forth.
The clear [water] of the Great Occult
enlivens the hun and shrivels the po.
The Numinous [Treasure] provides continuous relief
and the Clear Numinous protects [them] from
the fierce flames and dense smoke [of Fengdu].
The flower pool is boundless,
no one can fathom its source.
The withered infants blossom forth
and the three qi fly to heaven. (61.11ab)
Both the assault and the banquet are cast in a Daoist key, based on an occult interior world that resonates to the external world and is guided by divine officials. Moreover, the constricted throats in the title of the fu are not present in the text of the fu, which speaks instead in terms of nourishing “withered” infants (orphaned souls are infants). The only throat found here involves that of the gods and of the Daoist whose saliva is deployed to salvific effect. The presence and primacy of this interior bodily locale with its extensive pantheon is most directly indicated in the Xuandu daxian yushan jinggong yi by the
“Enunciation of the Fu of the Food of the Teaching of the Secret Brahma Which Opens the Bowels” ( Xuan bifan kai zangfu fashi fu zhuan 61, 29). Judith Boltz has translated a related manual that gives us some of the distinctive flavor of this metaphor and its entailments: