Carmen Cochior Plescanu: 22 16 18

Course Code: 15PSRH007

Course name: Esoteric Buddhism in India and Tibet

Convenor: Dr Tadeus Skorupski

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Department of the Study of Religions

‘Not two, not one’ – the resolve of the Tantric equivoque

Discuss the polarity symbolism placing emphasis on the yab yum Tantric leitmotif

The investigation of the elaborate polarity symbolism in Tantra is not without difficulties, as

it implies an extremely detailed dialectical approach and ability to escape the conventional

absolutist clichés which gravitate around it. The multifold esoteric symbolism, philosophy

and linguistic complexion of the contents of Tantra could not, but be investigated within the

comparative field of both Hindu and Buddhist ideology. This paper aims to surface the views

on the polarity motif, by discussing and integrating the fundamentals of the both Indian and

Tibetan doctrinarian, aesthetic and spiritual Tantric narrative. For this reason, the themes

1

and symbols of Tibetan Tantra are placed in the context of earlier Indian tradition. The

inspiration of this essay arouse from the encounter with the symbol of yab-yum, which

personifies in Tibetan Buddhism the spiritual process of surrendering the dualistic concepts

and realizing the pristine awareness. It represents a powerful and fertile symbol to be

realized personally by every Tantric practitioner. Furthermore, this essay presumes

familiarity with the basic symbolism and the ontological concepts assigned to them by both

Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism while aware that the deepest understandings of Tantra’s

’secret language’ (Skt. Sandha-bhasa, Tib. Gongpe-ke) demand to be interpreted through

the initiation and oral instruction of a qualified Tantric medium.

A philosophical doctrine common to both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra is that of the

archetypal universal-model 1 which describes reality as one, “but is to be grasped through a

process of conceptual and intuitive polarization.” 2 The poles are represented as active and

passive and the universe being in motion through their interaction. When the state of

absolute oneness and quintessence is being realized through the mingling of the two poles,

the universe ceases its travail. Doctrinally, in both traditions, the polarities are merged

through the “repeated declaration of their fundamental oneness” and experientially,

through “the Tantric’s relieving of this merger through his integrating sadhana or spiritual

discipline.” 3 However the discrepancies between the two traditions reveal themselves when

one ascertains that the specific ascriptions to the two poles are in antithesis.

The Buddhist assigned the ‘male apparatus’ to the kinetic and the dynamic principle and the

female role to the passive and the knowledge principle, whereas the Hindus proceeded

conversely. It is not yet decided among the scholars whether the Buddhist’s selection of the

ascriptions was intentional or unconscious. However, it would seem a naive rationale to

presume the arbitrary in such a complex esoteric tradition, considering the advanced

philosophical theories, the complex and detailed rhetorical and aesthetic tradition of Indic

influence.

-------------------------------------------

1. The Tantric Tradition, Agehananda Bharati, Rider Books, 1998, p. 182. Ibid1 , p.193. Tantra Yoga, Nik Douglas, Munshiram Monoharlal, New Dehl,1971, p. 51

2

The cult for the sovereign feminine principle, of the Mother Goddess could be traced in the

proto-Indian cults, specifically in the Mohenjo-Daro Indus civilisation where evidence of Yoni

worship was preeminent. 4 The Mother Goddess remained in its primitive form and was

developed in the Sakta and Saivite cults only after the Aryan invasion. The powerful magna

mater ritual and worship, autochthonous in pre-Aryan culture was modified and enunciated

in a different manner once the Vedic notions of male supremacy infused the Indian

tradition.

According to Eliade, in Hinduism, the cosmic force Sakti raised to the rank of Divine Mother,

formulating around her the ‘religion of the Mother’ that in ancient times reigned over the

Aegeo-Afrasiatic territory. 5 The supremacy of the mother principle embodies, as

Agehananda Bharati outlines, a speculation “common to all ancient cosmosophies”. 6 The

indigenous elements reasserted themselves in the form of Prakriti, the repository of all

actions and the worship goddess of pre-Aryan India and its catalyzing agent, the male deity

Purusha. One can also assume that the matrifocal atmosphere in which the Indian Tantra

has flourishes, such as Bengal, Udiyanna, Orissa, was conducive to attributing the dynamics

to the female principle. “The leading part played by women in religious life, their

identification with Mother Goddess, the symbolization of various concepts and relations

ascribed to women, the insistence on the cult of sex and female organ as the sole seat of all

happiness, the function of women as priestess, the concept of the supreme being as Female

Principle”, had been definitely assumed, re-systematized and re-conceptualized in the later

Tantric esoteric tradition in Bhattcharyya’s opinion. 7

The female principle, as described by Dr. Bidyut Lata Ray, is endowed with the ultimate

creative power, and it is the very potency of the female’s womb, the container of the ovum

and of life in itself (the Rig Veda’s hiranya-garbha) that must be realized by the Tantrist. 8

--------------------------------------------4. Glimpses of Tantric Studies, Edited by Dr. Bidyut Lata Ray, Prolegomenon by Dr B. L. Roy, R.N. Bhattacharya 2006, p.35. Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade, Princeton, 1969, p. 986. Ibid 1, p.197. Traveller in Space: gender, identity, and Tibetan Buddhism, June Campbell, Continuum International Publishing 2002, p.478. Ibid4.

3

He further states that the Kaula vali Tantra pays maximum respect to the female sex, to the

Heart-of-the-Tantra Mother Goddess, “the initiator, the origin of all life, the source of

enjoyment, the path towards transcendence”, 9 and furthermore, it is notable his claim that

the ferventness of female worship in Tantra, far exceeds the claims of any women’s

liberation movement. The quest of the Hindu Tantrist was, as Eliade refers to as, a religious

rediscovery of the mystery of female aspect, as for him, every woman becomes the

incarnation of Sakti. Through the recognition of what is transcendental and invulnerable in

woman, he realizes the irreducibility of the divine. 10 The gynocentrism of ancient texts and

art suggest, as Miranda Shaw emphasizes, that women were regarded as ‘astute and

indomitable’ thus equal counterparts in the path towards supreme realization. 11

“You are the body of Siva with the sun and the moon as pair of breasts...O blessed Lady,

hence you reciprocally realize each other as complement and essence, this union exists of

you two experiencing supreme bliss with equal savour” (Saundaryalahari Tantra)12

Early in Buddhism two female divinities emerged, the Prajnaparamita (the creation of

metaphysics) and Tara which represented the epiphany of the Great Goddess of aboriginal

India. 13 The attributes assigned by the Indian and Buddhist theologians are axiomatic for the

investigation and comprehending of the polarity leitmotif. They have imputed wisdom

(prajna, Tib. Shes rab) and ‘all cognitive terms of spiritual consummation’ to the female-

static, and compassion (Karuna), method (Upaya) and ‘the conative terms in this universe of

discourse’ to the Male-dynamic. Whereas the Hindu Pandit semantically identifies the

female principle as Sakti regardless of her denominational provenance, the Tibetan Buddhist

follows a distinctive pattern when he identifies the all pervasive wisdom with the Cosmic

Mother (Tib. yum) and respectively the means (Tib. thabs) with the Cosmic Father (Tib. yab)

-or the Buddha-Sakti as the Indologists refer to as. 14

-------------------------------------------------------- 9. Ibid 410. Ibid 5, p. 10111. Passionate Enlightenment: women in Tantric Buddhism, Miranda Shaw, Princeton University Press, p. 87 12. The Tantric Way, Ajit Mookerjee and Madhu Khanna, Thames and Hudston London 1977, p.16413. Ibid 514. Ibid 1. 200

4

Both Buddhist and Hindu visualize their respective ‘noumena’ - the nomenclature that

Agehananda Bharati prefers to use in order to discriminate from “the theologically loaded

term” ‘divine’, which would not be compatible to the Buddhist ontology - as non-duality

(advaita in Vedantic Hinduism and advaya in Tantric Buddhism).15 This supreme non-duality

can only be expressed through engaging the diametrical polarity terminology, as “the

supreme is inexpressible, non-communicable in itself and totally transcendent.” 16: “It is the

dominating notion of two in one upon which the whole complicated structure of the Tantra

is reared, and this applies to its philosophy, its theology and its practice of Yoga.” 17 The

paradigm that is employed by the tantrik, which engages both the mythological and

psychological aspects to illustrate the polarity, is the male and female in a cosmicized

version as god and goddess. In the rich sandha imagery of Buddhist Tantric texts, “the

dynamic part of the male principle finds its individualized counterpart in the male lover who

takes the active part in the yogic love-act ” 18 in contrast with the Hindu Tantric tradition

where the role is attributed to the feminine principle.

The Tibetan fascination with the symbolized polarity is evidenced in their yab-yum

iconography, the precursors of this iconographic pattern having been with certainty from

India as “erotic sculpture have been produced by Indian artists as early as 300 AD, and one

might assume even an earlier date.” 19 This idea could be supported by the historical

occurrences of the beginnings of the 6th century, when India was split into minor dynasties,

as result of the invasion of the Hephalites or the White Huns, and its borders were courted

by the rapidly expansionist Tibetans. Two Buddhist kingdoms had been of interest for the

Tibetans, as their historical recodes evidence, respectively Harsa (Noth West India) and Pala

(Bengal) which, confronted with the imminent invasion and lacking the military power,

conquered them with the powerful and fascinating Tantric Buddhism.

----------------------------------------------

15. Ibid 1, p. 20116. Ibid 12, p. 43 citation from Hevarjratantra17. Ibid 5, p. 9718. Ibid 1, p. 20019. Philosophies of India, Heinrich Robert Zimmer, Joseph Campbell, Princeton University Press 1989, p. 217

5

The temple carvings prevalent in these regions, of tantric asana forms and mithuna

sculptures, the interlocking figures in sexual union representing the antinomic principles

must have been known to the Tibetan trespassers.

Beyond the influences that might have penetrated from without, the Bon indigenous

element, popular imagery and speculative mythological dispositions blended along into the

Tibetan tantric pattern. 20 It is possible, that early Vajrayana have homogenized elements

from the popular, pre-systemised pantheon of Indian origin (the static yum, the Cosmic

Mother, archetype cultivated with predilection in the Prajnaparamita), and the purely Saktis

from the Indian tradition, the purely dynamic female energies ( Skt. Vajravarahi, Tib. rDo rje

phag mo).

The symbols employed by the Tantric scriptural and visual representations present a

structure of signification that goes beyond the literal which is drawn from the ordinary

experiences and which are susceptible to conventional interpretations. In Vajrayana,

symbols come before the subjective discourse – the mere reflection of the objective reality-

and defies it, by revealing the subtle nature of the world which the psychoanalysis and arts

calls it creative and unconscious. Decoding their meanings is both an intimate experience on

an inward reflective level and an exploration of the dynamics of the world. The symbolistic

of yab-yum is meant to bridge these two worlds and awaken the personal experience into a

realm of pristine understanding. 21 The yab yum associations of a sexual nature could not be

excluded in this symbolism, as sexual Tantrism have been practiced with predilection in both

the Tibetan Tantric (rgyud) and Indian tradition. Obviously, sexuality loses its conventional

meaning, as it represents a mental process rather than physical, which enables the polarity

“once it has reached the highest level of absorption or integration (bodhi) to be cancelled

and to become sunyata (ston pa nyid;);this is the state called mahamudra (phyag rgya chen

po); the great Mudra”.

---------------------------------------------------------------

20. The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism: with its mystic cults, symbolism and mythology, and in its relation to Indian Buddhism, L. A. Waddel, Asian Educational Service, 1991, p. 38221. Dakini’s warm breath: the feminine principle in Tibetan Buddhism, Judith Simmer-Brown, Shambhala Publications 2001, p.7922. Ibid 19, p.213

6

The inseparable pair of the consorts, symbolically represented in sexual union explicitly

represent the non dual subjectivity: “And not two, not one, they represent aspects of

totality that are nondual and reflective of each” 23 The symbolism of the couple’s passionate

sexual surrender denotes the aspects of the mind which have been relinquished in their

alchemical metamorphose of the great bliss:

“In Tibetan art, depictions of deities in ecstatic union refer, ultimately to an internal

alchemical process in which the body’s male and female essences, inherited at the moment

of conception, are brought into the central channel, giving rise to the wisdom of Great Bliss

”24

It is worth mentioning that tantric imagery is not an arbitrary invention derived from artistic

manipulation of symbols, but a reality which is designed to emancipate the practitioner

from the surface perceptions during contemplation. The thangkas, quintessentially Tibetan

paintings, represent with artistic complexity in both form and composition the yab-yum

motif. The artists created a dramatic choreography in which the tutelary deities are in

motion and often attributed hyperbolic visual characteristics. The nature of the composition

and the tranquil mood of situation denote the presence of religious rather than secular

subjects: the couple is often painted with unnatural complexions, embraces with elegance

and passion, the gaze expressing contentment. 25

One can notice patterns of the iconic imagery that are uniquely attributed to the Tibetan

culture (and possibly to the Nepalese tradition); the Goddess -Tantric consort- (Tib.

songyum) sitting dominantly astride in the God’s lap seems to be a pure Tibetan

conspicuous artistic feature. The yab is depicted sitting in lotus posture (padmasana or

vajrasana), where, as Agehananda Bharati observes, no movement is possible, “whereas the

posture of yum suggests intensive motion”. 26

--------------------------------------------

23. Ibid 21, p. 15724. The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple, Ian A. Baker, Thames and Hudson 2000, p. 16725. Himalayas, An Aesthetic Adventure, Pratapaditya Pal, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2003, p. 21226. Ibid 1, p. 224

7

This reveals an astonishing paradox, which contrasts the doctrine itself, that the deified

wisdom (Tib. shes rab) is static and the deified method (Tib. thabs) is dynamic. Whether it is

just an artistic iconographical convention in regards to its functional aspect, -female as

active in the yogic sexual union- , this addressed issue remains to be decided within a

broader perspective.

‘The Secret Vajrayana’ (Tib. Gsang war do rje thrg pa) has a long history and social context

that is worth studying before submerging in any naive presuppositions. The philosophy

underlying many of the Tantric practices is very ambiguous with regard to women's place

and role. June Campbell argues that Tibetan Buddhism replaced much of the Mother

Goddess worship and has incorporated all the symbolism of the Lotus Goddess into

Cenrezig, as means for the tulku patrifocal system to ensure its power and domination. 27

She further argues that although in Tibetan Tantric system the women is transcendentalized

into goddesses and dakinis with whom the male must associate themselves in other to

reach Enlightenment, the woman either in symbolic form or real woman as tantric consort is

viewed solely as means for the practitioners to fulfil their quest. This perspective is also

shared by Herrmann-Pfandt 28 who, on the patriarchal bias in Tibetan Buddhism states that

such a convention elevates the yab to primary status whereas his yum counterpart remains

anonymous and often diminutive. However, Vajravarahi (the wrathful form of Varjrayogini)

represents an exceptional example to the patriarchal convention of the male deity taking

precedence. She assumes a prominent place as a central deity in yab-yum union and her

male consort is neither named nor described. The union is reversed when the ritualic

circumstances demand it, which evidence clearly that there are no prevailing fixed

conventions inherent to the yab- yum practice.

By following this rationale, it is rather evident that the already patricentric socio-religious

pattern that defined Tibet could not have been subverted by the Indian influences.

-------------------------------------------------

27. Ibid 728. Ibid 21, p. 158

8

Whereas in India the Vedic male dominating sacerdotalism collided with the native Indus

matriarchal tradition and Tantric tradition emerged as a doctrinal revolution of the latter in

subduing the former, in Tibet, as H. Wilhelm suggested there has existed no basis for this

transference to be incorporated in any of the socio-religious contexts. In this contextual

supposition, “if the Tibetan sentiment at that time of the advent of Buddhism was

patriarchal, there was indeed no need for any such action; the Tibetan converts to

Buddhism would naturally choose those texts and those preceptors from India which fell in

line with a patriarchal trend”. 29

The iconography symbolic narrative is not immune to gender subjectivity mostly created by

the cultural overlay. The Vajrayana attitude requires us to question aspects of the intimate

experience with the symbol, through identifying its qualities rather that employing cultural

presuppositions. To a certain level, Tantrist’s modus operandi implies the deconstruction of

the symbol to the most personal level. From a traditional point of view, the mother aspect

yum does not employ a direct association with women or gender, but with the power of the

realization of emptiness to transform the mundane concerns into enlightenment. 30 Issues

of identity and politics evoked from the conventional perspective are clarified once engaged

in the methodology and philosophy adopted by the Tantric path, in which both feminine and

masculine aspects are just sacred emanations of the fundamental dynamic of phenomena.

On the inner lever as Judith Simmer-Brown asserts, the gender of the deities embodying the

two polarities are transitional, a display without any substance or weight, as when the

practitioner arrives to a subtler level of visualization and understanding, he trespasses the

subjectifying and objectifying sexuality or any concept of self and the other. 31

The goddess can be primarily understood within the cultures in which they are worshipped,

and interestingly, their religious symbolism with multivalent meanings they adorn, do not

fall in the narrow cultural stereotype “feminine” traits.

------------------------------------------------

29. Ibid 1, p. 22130. Ibid 21, p. 8831. Ibid 21, p. 79

9

When the yab-yum iconography is being analyzed too politically, as an expression of male or

female domination, the inner significance is lost to cite Kunjed Gyalpo:”In any possible

circumstance, all beings that transmigrate and enjoy arise solely from this state, the king of

equality has never spoken of male and female.” 32 The transcendental truth is realized by the

male and the female in unio mystica as Heinrich Zimmer asserts and the two poles represent

the two aspects or functions of reality, perfectly equal in rank. The symbol of yogic copulation

reveals the dynamism of enlightenment which returns in its state of full and permanent

incandescence. 33

The unio oppositorum translates on the superior level of understanding the experimental

knowledge of the state of non-duality: “You are not a male, you are not a female; both female

and male are visualized together” 34 The Tantric texts have produced pairs of opposites such

as prajna (wisdom) and upaya (the means to attain it ); sunyata (voidnes) and karuna

(compassion) through which the Vajracharyas attempt to unify them by applying “techniques

combining subtle physiology with meditation”. 35 Mircea Eliade, in his work Yoga-Immortality

and Freedom, unfolds the symbolism of polarity as occurring in Hevajra Tantra, stating that

the state of unity is obtained by discarding the two polar contradictory notions (the samsara

as cosmic process and nvrtti, the absolute arrest of all processes) and that one transcends the

antagonism by becoming conscious that the ultimate nature of the phenomenal world

(samklesa) is identical with that of the absolute (vyavdana). This in fact the concern of the

Tantrist, is to realize the comingling of Prajna and Upaya, which become liberation when

associated with each other, 36 like the inseparable co-existence of the lamp and the light. Only

through this direct ritualic experiencing of the yab-yum Tantric sadhana, the practitioner

acquires the subjectless subjectivity, one which is purified from the mind’s dualistic

tendencies. 37

-----------------------------------------------------32. The Supreme Source, The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente, Snow Lion Publications 1999, p. 11933. Ibid 19, p. 21834. Ibid. 21, p. 16035. Ibid 1, p. 20036. Ibid 537 Ibid 21, p. 150

10

The unity of the relative and absolute aspects of reality expresses the Tantric vision which

sees beyond the apparent dualism of flesh and spirit, sacred and profane. In Tantrism, the

enlightenment continuum is present but largely unrecognized, and the practice of yab-yum

represents a radical visionary method in which the blissful union is enacted, to induce and

lead the practitioner into the “present, cognizant, empty, naked and awake awareness”. 38

“Seek out a qualified consort and the secret of the dakinis,

The wisdom of bliss and emptiness will arise within...

Free of dualistic grasping, reverse the flow of the descending nectar and diffuse it through

the body...

Bliss spreads through the four chakras and the three channels..

Revealing the inseparability of joy and pure potential..

Applied well, you will attain Buddhahood in this very life.”

‘Song of Mahamudra’ Mahassidha Tilopa instructions to Naropa on the bank of Ganges 39

-------------------------------------------------

38. Ibid 24, p. 5539. The myths of freedom and the way of meditation, Chogyam Trungpa, Berkeley and London: Shambhala 1976, p.163

11