BUDDHISM Critical Concepts in Religious Studies

488 Pages·2012·21.44 MB·English

BUDDHISM
Critical Concepts in Religious Studies
Edited by Paul Williams
Volume VI
Tantric Buddhism (including China and Japan);
Buddhism in Nepal and Tibet
~~ ~~o~:~;n~f4~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005
by Routledge
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ISBN 0-415-33226-5 (Set)
ISBN 0-415-33232-X (Volume VI)
Publisher's Note
References within each chapter are as they appear in the original complete
work.
CONTENTS
VOLUME VI T ANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA
AND JAPAN); BUDDHISM IN NEPAL AND
TIBET
Acknowledgements vn
73 Reflections on the Mahesvara subjugation myth: Indic
materials, Sa-skya-pa apologetics, and the birth of Heruka 1
RONALD M. DAVIDSON
74 Tibetan scholastic education and the role of soteriology 32
GEORGES DREYFUS
75 Problems of language in Buddhist Tantra 58
GEORGE R. ELDER
76 On the history and psychology of the 'das-log 75
LAWRENCE EPSTEIN
77 Ambiguous sexuality: imagery and interpretation in Tantric
Buddhism 147
ROGER R. JACKSON
78 On the concept of sahaja in Indian Buddhist Tantric
literature 162
PER KVAERNE
79 The study of Bon in the West: past, present, and future 209
PER KVAERNE
v
CONTENTS
80 A modern Newar guide for Vajrayiina life-cycle rites: the
Nepiil Jana ./ivan Kriyii Paddhati 222
TODD T. LEWIS
81 The unique features of Newar Buddhism 265
JOHN K. LOCKE. S J.
82 Seeing Chen-yen Buddhism: traditional scholarship and the
Vajrayiina in China 308
CHARLES D. ORZECH
83 True words, silence, and the adamantine dance: on Japanese
Mikkyo and the formation of the Shingon discourse 334
FABIO RAMBELLI
84 The Jo-nail-pas, a school of Buddhist ontologists according
to the Grub mtha' set gyi me loti 363
D.S. RUEGG
85 Vajrayiina: origin and function 392
ALEXIS SANDERSON
86 Siikyamuni's enlightenment according to the Yoga Tantra 409
TADEUSZ SKORUPSKI
87 A critical Tantrism 418
SHINiCHI TSUDA
Vl
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Volume VI
The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint their
material.
The International Association of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint
Ronald M. Davidson, 'Reflections on the Mahesvara subjugation myth: Indic
materials, Sa-skya-pa apologetics, and the birth of Heruka', Journal of the Inter
national Association ofB uddhist Studies 14, 2, 1991, pp. 197-235.
The International Association of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint
Georges Dreyfus, 'Tibetan scholastic education and the role of soteriology',
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20, 1, 1997, pp.
31-62.
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint George R. Elder, 'Prob
lems of language in Buddhist Tantra', History of Religions 15, 3, 1975, pp.
231-50.
Lawrence Epstein for permission to reprint Lawrence Epstein, 'On the history
and psychology of the 'das log', The Tibet Journal?, 4, 1982, pp. 20-85.
Elsevier for permission to reprint Roger R. Jackson, 'Ambiguous sexuality:
imagery and interpretation in Tantric Buddhism', Religion 22, 1992, pp. 85-100.
© 1992, with permission from Elsevier.
Temenos for permission to reprint Per Kvaeme, 'On the concept of sahaja in
Indian Buddhist Tantric literature', Temenos XI, 1975, pp. 88-135.
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan for permission to reprint Per
Kvaeme, 'The study of Bon in the West: past, present, and future', Bon Studies
2: New Horizons in Bon Studies, Senri Ethnological Reports 15, 2000, pp. 7-20.
Kluwer Academic Publishers for permission to reprint Todd T. Lewis, 'The Nepal
Jana .fivan Kriya Paddhati, A Modem Newar guide for Vajrayana life-cycle
rites': Indo-Iranian Journal 37, 1994, pp. 1-46. © 1994. Kluwer Academic Pub
lishers with kind permission from Springer Science and Business Media.
Vll
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Trustees of the Institute of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint John
K. Locke, S.J. 'The unique features ofNewar Buddhism', in Tadeusz Skorupski
(ed.), The Buddhist Heritage: Papers delivered at the Symposium of the same
name convened at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, November 1985, Buddhica Britannica Series Continua 1, Tring: The
Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1989, pp. 71-116.
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Charles D. Orzech,
'Seeing Chen-yen Buddhism: traditional scholarship and the Vajrayana in
China', History ofR eligions 29, 2, 1988, pp. 87-114.
The Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture for permission to reprint Fabio
Rambelli, 'True words, silence, and the adamantine dance: on Japanese Mikkyo
and the formation of Shingon discourse', Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
21,4, 1994,pp.373-405.
D.S. Ruegg for permission to reprint D.S. Ruegg, 'The Jo-nan-pas, a school of
Buddhist ontologists according to the Grub mtha' sel gyi me Iori', Journal of the
American Oriental Society 83, 1963, pp. 73-91.
The Dhammakaya Foundation for permission to reprint Alexis Sanderson,
'Vajrayana: origin and function', in Dhammakiiya Foundation Studies in Philo
sophy and Buddhist Scriptural Language Presented by Leading Scholars World
wide, 1994,pp. 87-102.
Nagoya Studies in Indian Culture and Buddhism for permission to reprint
Tadeusz Skorupski, 'Sakyamuni's enlightenment according to the Yoga Tantra',
Nagoya Studies in Indian Culture and Buddhism, Sarpbhii!;>ii 6, 1985, pp. 87-94.
Shinichi Tsuda for permission to reprint Shinichi Tsuda, 'A critical Tantrism',
Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 36, 1978, pp. 167-231.
Disclaimer
The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of
works reprinted in Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies. This has
not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspon
dence from those individuals/companies whom we have been unable to trace.
viii
73
REFLECTIONS ON THE
MAHESVARA SUBJUGATION MYTH
Indic materials, Sa-skya-pa apologetics, and the
*
birth of Heruka
Ronald M. Davidson
Source: Journal of the International Association ofB uddhist Studies 14, 2 (1991 ): 197-235.
Perhaps one of the least examined topics in Buddhism is the utilization of myth
in service of clerical values. Myth, of course, is intimately connected with all the
varieties of praxis, yet to read many descriptive analyses of the Buddhist dispen
sation, the nonspecialist might rapidly come to the conclusion that Buddhism
has few concerns outside of doctrine. This impression is reinforced by both the
Eurocentric proclivity to see religion in doxographical terms and by the modem
Buddhist apologia-especially prevalent in the Theravada world-that Bud
dhism is in reality not a religion but a philosophy. Buddhist specialists have fre
quently been seduced by either the Judeo-Christian models, which continue to
exert influence in the quest for underlying unity in religious phenomena, or by
the modem Buddhist desire to appear outside the pale of the set of behaviors
subsumed under the term "religion." Thus, the exploration of Buddhist myth
along with ritual and other forms of activity-has taken a back seat to doctrinal
formulations, many of which are recast in a twentieth century philosophical
diction that can be quite misleading in its implication of set and setting.
Myth, in fact, has been and continues to be extraordinarily important to Bud
dhists. Yet the mythic functions are not precisely those found in the Near
Eastern religions-Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Specifically, the ideology of
an encapsulated temporal sequence, involving a definite creation event, a closed
revelation, and an approaching millennium, are all foreign to Buddhist mythic
processes, which verify an open-ended spatio-temporal system wherein all phe
nomena continually participate in the expression of truth. In general, Buddhist
myth does not reveal a cosmology of creation and judgement, with all the atten
dent personality issues of creator and soul. Instead, it seeks to focus the attention
of the audience on paradigms exemplifying the potential for immanent rectifica
tion, irrespective of eschatology. Thus, as may be seen in most institutional
TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)
religions, Buddhist myths partly reinforce and are partially informed by the doc
trinal structure; for the Mahayana this frequently invokes mythic expressions of
the interpenetration of the relative and absolute spheres.
Such an ideology lends a peculiar polyvalence to Buddhist myths. They tend
to serve an astonishing variety of functions, and, perhaps in keeping with the
doctrine of existence without essence, Buddhist myths freely float from one
milieu to another, sometimes being caught in the act of simultaneously serving
multiple masters. The myth under consideration here-the subjugation of
Mahesvara and the birth of Heruka-is one of these. We will see that it
developed out of a source myth of Vajrapa!fi taming Mahesvara in the
Tattvasal'flgraha and was used in service of establishing authenticity for another
body of literature, the Cakrasal'flvara complex. It completed the cycle of
hermeneutics in Tibet by affirming the authoritativeness of an entirely different
system, the Hevajra, itself the scriptural base for the Lam-'bras system of Sa
skya-pa meditative praxis. The first part of this paper will examine these three
forms of our myth, tracing the development from one form to the next, starting
with the eighth century Indic locus classicus and finishing with fifteenth century
Tibetan materials. The second part of the paper, Interpretive Strategies, will
present an analysis of the Indic and Tibetan forms according to a tripartite
consideration of history, literature, and doctrine, followed by final conclusions.
The locus classicus: Sarvatathiigata-tattvasaiJigraha
All three source traditions-Tattvasa/'flgraha, Cakrasal'flvara, and Hevajra-are
members of the larger set of Buddhist systems known as the [Guhya-]
Mantrayana, the Path of Secret Spells, or the Vajrayana, the Lightning Path, in
turn considered an extension of the Great Vehicle, the Mahayana. Like other
facets of the Buddhist tradition in Asia, the Mantrayana attempted to justify the
inclusion of its scriptures into the open Buddhist canon. For acceptance as the
"word of the Buddha," literature must verify that it represented the direct per
ception of absolute truth by the (or a) buddha, that it was preached by that
buddha to a specific assembly, that it was collected by an authentic master of the
dispensation, and that it was received by a current representative of the tradition
through an authoritative lineage of Buddhist masters, however these latter are
understood. 1
Frequently, the crux of the matter was the verification of the circumstances of
a scripture's preaching and collection. Buddhist innovators commonly identified
a narrow range of dramatic moments when a new scriptural genre was
expounded to an assembly and ultimately compiled into an authentic pronounce
ment. One of the mLe curious facts ofthe Mantrayana is that, unlike most other
Indic Buddhist traditions, it came up with multiple scenarios which purported to
identify the circumstances of the preaching of the system's scriptures-known
as siitra, tantra, mahiikalpa, dhiirm;l, etc., depending on the genre or period of
composition. Most of these scenarios are lineage-specific; they discuss the
2