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EDITORIAL BOARD

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Editor-in-Chief

Robert Buswell Steven Collins

Collett Cox Luis O. G6mez

Oskar von Hiniiber Roger Jackson

Padmanabh S. Jaini Shoryu Katsura

Alexander Macdonald D. Seyfort Ruegg Ernst Steinkellner

Erik ZUrcher

Editorial Assistant . Alexander Vesey

J oumal of the International Association of .

Buddhist Studies Volume 17 • Number 2 • Winter 1994

GREGORYSCHOPEN

The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas

LEONARDW.J. VANDERKUIJP

Apropos of Some Recently Recovered Texts Belonging to the Lam 'bras Teachings of the Sa skya pa. and Ko brag pa

DAVID GERMANO

Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History

145

175

of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) 203

PAUL L. SWANSON

Understanding Chih-i: Through a glass, darkly?

BERNARD FAURE

In Memorian Michel Strickman

TREASURER'S REPORT

337

361

365

Con,tributors to this issue:

BERNARD FAURE is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University.

DAVID GERMANO is Assistant Professor of Himalayan Studies and Tibetan Language in the Department of Religious Studies at the ' University of Virginia.

GREGORY SCHOPEN is Professor of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

. -PAUL L. SWANSON is a permanent fellow of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture and Pro.fessor at N anzan University in Nagoya, Japan.

LEONARD J. W. VANDER KUIJP is Associate Professor of Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures of the University of Washington.

GREGORY SCHOPEN

The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas

We still, it seems, know very little about how Buddhist monastic com -munities became fully institutionalized in India, or how such Indian monastic organizations actually functioned. This, in part at least, is because we still know very little that is certain about the vinaya, and because very little attention has been paid to those things which allowed such communities not only to endure over time, but to prosper, and made, in fact, the monastic life possible~property, buildings, money, forced labor and corporate organization. Historians of Indian Buddhism seem slow, if not entirely reluctant, to admit or allow what their medievalist colleagues elsewhere take as a given:

Yet monasticism is not just about forms of Christian service, the daily round of prayer and contemplation by those who lived within the cloister . . . Religious houses were also corporations which owned land, adminis­tered estates and enjoyed rights and privileges which needed ratifying and defending. 1

Moreover, medievalists have been fully aware of the fact that different monastic groups or orders could-and did--deal with these various concerns very differently,.at least in their formal legislation, and that these differences were often directly linked to the social, political and

1. J. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300 (Cambridge: 1994) x. As a small sampling of the richness of historical stud­ies on Western monasticisms see esp. B. D. Hill, English Cistercian Monas­teries and Their Patrons in the Twelfth Century (Urbana: 1968); R. B. Dobson, Durham Priory 1400-1450 (Cambridge:1973); D.J. Osheim, A Tuscan Monastery and Its Social World. San Michele ofGuamo (1156-1348) (Roma:1989); B. H. Rosenwein, To Be the Neighbor of Saint Peter. The Social Meaning of Cluny's Property, 909-1049 (Ithaca I London: 1989).

145

146 JIABS 17.2

economic contexts in which the various monastic groups operated.2 The study of Buddhist monasticism has, to be sure, been hampered in this regard by the availability of significantly less documentation. But it is also just possible that what documentation it has-and it is still consid­erable-has not been fully utilized. There is a comparative wealth of inscriptional data bearing on the economic and institutional history of monastic Buddhisms which has yet to be fully used; there are as well the monastic codes of six different Buddhist orders, although only one of these is easily available in a translation into a European language, and the rest have been comparatively ignored.

But the study of the institutional history of Buddhist monasticisms may also have been hampered as much by some of its own assumptions. It has, for example, been commonly believed-and still is by some-that elements found to be common to all or most of the extant vinayas must go back to a hypothetical, single, "pre-sectarian," primitive vinaya.3

This belief has had at least two consequences. First, most of the energy and effort in the study of the vinayas has been directed toward finding or ferreting out these common elements. This procedure has resulted in, if nothing else, a kind of homogenization of potentially significant differ­ences and has led-at least according to Sylvain Levi-"to a kind of single archetype, which is not the primitive Vinaya, but the average of the Vinayas."4 Secondly, this same belief has almost necessarily deter­mined that any deviation from the mean or average would have to be

2. The distinctive differences between Christian monasticism in early Ireland and most of the rest of Europe is commonly said to have been conditioned, if not determined, by the absence of towns in early Ireland, by the fact that Ireland had never been part of the Roman Empire and by the fact that Irish society was essentially tribal; see J. F. Webb and D. H. Farmer, The Age of Bede (London: 1988) 13, and, much more fully, L. M. Bitel, Isle of the Saints. Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland (Ithaca I London: 1990) esp. 1, 87. 3. The most elaborate study based on this assumption is still E. Frauwallner, The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature (Rome: 1975). For a succint discussion of some of the larger problems involved in this approach, and for references to other conceptualizations of the relationship between the various vinayas, see G. Schopen, "The Ritual Obligations and Donor Roles of Monks in the Pali Vinaya," Journal of the Pali Text Society 16 (1992) 87-107, esp. 104-06 and notes. 4. S. Levi, "Les saintes ecritures du bouddhisme. Comment s'est constitue Ie canon sacre," Memorial Sylvain Levi (Paris: 1937) 83: "RMuits par etagage a leurs elements communs, les Vinaya de toutes les ecoles se rame­nent sans effort a une sorte d' arcMtype unique, qui n' est pas Ie Vinaya primi­tif, mais la moyenne des Vinaya."

SCHOPEN 147

explained in chronological terms as a "late addition" or "an isolated accretion" -as if there were no other possible explanation for such dif­ferences. Weare, in short, left with little sense of how the differenct monastic orders might have solved different or even common problems, or what kinds of external forces might have been working on the differ­ent orders in different geographical and cultural areas-. If 1. B. Horner was right-and that is likely-about the important influence of lay val­ues on monastic rules and legislation, 5 then, unless one wants to argue for a uniform level and type oflay culture throughout early India and Sri Lanka, the different orders in different places could not have been sub­jected to the same sets of influences, and must have had to adapt to a wide range oflocallay values. Something like this is, indeed, explicitly allowed for in the Mahisasaka Vinaya for example:

Le Buddha dit: ... Bien qu'une chose ait ete autorisee par moi, si dans une autre region on ne la considere pas comme pure, personne ne doit s'en servir. Bien qu'une chose n'ait pas ete autorisee par moi, si dans une autre region il y a des gens qui doivent necessairement la pratiquer, tout Ie monde doit ,la mettre en pratique.6

And explicit instances of adaption of monastic rule to local custom can be found in all the vinayas, as, for example, in the case where monks in Avant! were allowed to bathe constantly because "in the southern region of Avanti people attach importance to bathing, to purification by water."7 The recognition of the force of local values is in fact also a characteristic of Indian Dharmasiistra where it is an accepted principle that "custom prevails over dharma."B

These, however, are large questions and are themselves not easily treated. Nor will anyone case bring a definitive solution. But if we are to begin to make an effort towards determining the various stages in the process of the institutionalization of monastic Buddhisms, and to begin

5. 1. B. Horner, The Book of the Discipline, vol. 1 (Oxford: 1938) xvi-xvii; cf xxviii-xxix. 6. J. Jaworski, "Le section de la nourriture dans Ie vinaya des mahisasaka," Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 7 (1929-30) 94; something like this sense-though not so clearly expressed-may be lurking in the corresponding passage in the Mahlivihlirin Vinaya: see H. Oldenberg, The Vinaya P~taka, vol. 1 (London: 1879) 250-51 (I have used this edition throughout). 7. Horner, The Book of the Discipline, iv 263. 8. R. W. Lariviere, The Nllradasmrti (Philadelphia: 1989tpt. 1, 18 (1.34); pt. 2, 11 (1.34); see also V. N. Mandlik, Mllnava-Dharma-Sllstra (Bombay: 1886; repro 1992) VIII. 46.

148 nABS 17.2

to understand the external forces which might have been involved in the process, then it is probably best not to begin with generalizations--they, it seems, may already have created a considerable muddle. However tiresome, we must start with particulars and particularity, and look closely at how, for example, the literate members of these monastic orders saw, or wanted others to see, particular and presumably signifi­cant moments in their own institutional histories.

Potentially, of course, there are any number of such "moments" that could be studied, but I have chosen to limit the discussion here to the accounts in only two vinayas of the particular circumstances in which the Buddha was said to have allowed the use, acceptance, or ownership of a particular kind of property, property whose use or ownership would seem to have entailed and presupposed significant institutional develop­ments. In both vinayas the property in question is a certain category or class of domestic servant or slave, a more precise definition of which will depend on the discussion of the texts .. The choice of the two vinayas to be taken into account is determined by my own linguistic incompetence. But-----perhaps as a small proof that at least occasionally you can indeed make a silk purse out of a sow's ear-these two vinayas also represent the two opposite ends of the chronological continuum conventionally assumed in most discussions of the composition of the various vinayas: the MahZtvihlirin Vinaya is often believed to be the earliest of the monastic codes,9 the Malasarvilstivlidin Vinaya the lat­est 10 If these chronological assumptions are correct-although my own opinion is that there are no very compelling reasons to think that they are-then a close study of these two accounts will allow us to see how the same tradition was presented by two widely separated monastic codes. It might allow us as well to see if the "separation" between the two has not been determined by something other than time.

9. For a recen~ reaffIrmation of this view see O. von Hiniiber, "The Arising of an Offence: Apattisamugbana. A Note on the Structure and History of the Theravada-Vinaya," Journal of the Pali Text Society 16 (1992) 68n.13. 10. For some references to the sometimes contradictory assessments of the chronological position of the Mulasarvastivlidin Vinaya see G. Schopen, "On Avoiding Ghosts and Social Censure: Monastic Funerals in the Mulasarvastivada-vinaya," Journal of Indian Philosophy 20 (1992) 36-37 n.69. Regardless of the date of its compilation, the Tibetan translation is clearly later than the Sanskrit manuscripts from Gilgit and the Chinese trans­lation, and should represent the latest form of this Vinaya.

SCHOPEN 149

We might start with the account now found in the Bhesajja-khandhaka or "Section on Medicines," in the Mahiivihiirin Vinaya. 11

On that occasion the Venerable Pilindavaccha was clearing an overhang in Rajagrha, wanting to make a cell. The King of Magadha, Seniya Bimbisara approached the Venerable Pilindavaccha, saluted him, and sat down to one side. So seated the King of Magadha, Seniya Bimbisara, said to the Venerable Pilindavaccba: "Reverend, wbat is the Elder doing?"

"Great King, I am clearing an overhang to make a cell." "Reverend, does the Noble One need an attendant for a monastery

(lirlimika)?" 12 "Great King, the Blessed One bas not allowed an attendant for a

monastery" "Then indeed, Reverend, when you have asked the Blessed One about

this you should inform me" The Venerable Pilindavaccba agreed saying ''Yes, Great King." Then .the Venerable Pilindavaccha instructed King Bimbisara with talk

connected with Dbamma, inspired, incited and delighted bim. Wben King Bimbisara bad been instructed with talk connected with Dbamma by the Venerable Pilindavaccba, bad been inspired, incited and deligbted, be stood up from bis seat, saluted the Venerable Pilindavaccba, circumambulated bim, and departed.

11. Oldenberg, Vinaya Pi!aka i 206.34-208.1; translated in T. W. Rbys Davids and H. Oldenberg, Vinaya Texts, pt. II, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVII (Oxford: 1882) 61-63; Homer, The Book of the Discipline iv 281-82. I bave intentionally used the title "Mahlivihlirin Vinaya" to refer to wbat is usually called "The Pali Vinaya" or "The Tberavada Vinaya" or-still worse-simply "The Vinaya." My usage is intended to problematize the sta­tus of this Vinaya, whicb is too often assumed to be self-evident. Though we know little or nothing of the details we do know that there were, or appear to bave been, competing versions or understandings of ''Tbe Theravada Vinaya" in both Sri Lanka (see H. Becbert, "On the Identification of Buddhist Schools in Early Sri Lanka," in Indology and Law. Studies in Honour of Professor J. Duncan M. Derrett, ed. G.-D. Sontheimer and P. K. Aithal (Wiesbaden: 1982) 60-76); V. Stache-Rosen, Upliliparip'rcchlisiitra. Ein Text zur bud­dhistischen Ordensdisziplin, brsg. H. Bechert. (Gottingen: 1984) esp. 28-31), and in South India (see P. V. Bapat, "Vimati-Vinodani, A Vinaya Commen­tary and Kundalkesi-Vatthu, A Tamil Poem," Journal of Indian History 45.3 [1967] 689-94; P. Kieffer-Piilz, "Zitate aus der Andhaka~Atthakatha in der Samantapasadika," in Studien zur Indologie und Buddhismuskunde. Festgabe des Seminars fUr Indologie und Buddhismuskunde fUr Professor Dr. Heinz Bechert zum 60. Geburtstag am 26. Juni 1992, brsg. R. Griinendahl et al [Bonn: 1993] 171-212), and this must at least raise the question of the repre­sentativeness of the redaction of this Vinaya that we bave. 12. For the sake of convenience-and nothing more-l bave adopted Homer's translation of lirlimika bere. Rbys Davids and Oldenberg fall back on an etymological rendering, "park-keeper," but that fits clumsily into the account since there is no lirlima here; cfbelow.

150 nABS 17.2

The Venerable Pilindavaccha sent a messenger then to the Blessed One to say: "Reverend, the King of Magadha, Seniya Bimbisara, wishes to give (datukiima) an attendant for a monastery. How, Reverend, should it now be done?"

When the Blessed One had given a talk on Dhamma on that occasion, he addressed the monks: "I allow, monks, a monastery attendant."

A second time the King of Magadha, Seniya Bimbisara, approached the Venerable Pilindavaccha, saluted him, and sat down to one side. So seated Bimbisara said this to the Venerable Pilindavaccha: "Reverend, has the Blessed One allowed a monastery attendant?"

"Yes, Great King." "Then indeed, Reverend, 1 will give a monastery attendant to the Noble

One (ayyassa arlimikam dammiti)." Then the King of Magadha, Seniya Bimbisara, after he had promised a

monastery attendant to the Venerable Pilindavaccha, and had forgotten it, after a long time remembered. He addressed a minister concerned with all affairs: "Sir, has the monastery attendant which 1 promised to the Noble One been given (dinna)?"

"No, Lord, the monastery attendant has not been given to the Noble One."

"But how long ago, Sir, since it was considered?" The minister then counted up the nights and said to Bimbisara: "Lord, it

has been five hundred nights." "Therefore indeed, sir, you must give (detha) five hundred monastery

attendants to the Noble One (ayyassa). The minister assented to the king saying "Yes, Lord," and gave (piidasi)

five hundred monastery attendants to the Venerable Pilindavaccha. A sepa­rate village was settled. They called it a "Village of Monastery Attendants (aramika-gama)." They called it a "Village of Pilinda."13

Although their reasons are not always clear or entirely well-founded, a number of scholars have expressed some uneasiness in regard to this text. R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, for example, seems to want to assign the account to "the later sections of the Vinaya P~taka," but does not say why or how he has identified these "later sections." 14 J. Jaworski, having noted that the account in the Mahaviharin Bhesajja-khandhaka had no parallel in the "Section des RemMes" in the MahiSlisaka-vinaya, first refers to our text as a "local legend." 15 A few years later he said,

13. There is some uncertainty about where this part of the story ends. Oldenberg has in fact paragraphed the same text in two different ways. 1 fol­low that found at Oldenberg, Vinaya iii 249 - cf. below n.28 14. R. A. L. H. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough. Monasticism and Eco­nomic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (Tucson: 1979) 97. 15. J. Jaworski, "Le section des remMes dans Ie vinaya des mamsasaka et dans Ie vinaya pall," Rocznik Drjentalistyczny 5 (1927) 100: "Le debut du chapitre XV, qui est tees developpe en pall, n'a pas d'equivalent en chinois. II s'agit de la fondation d'un village appeIe Pilinda-gama. Cette legende

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for essentially the same reason: "la longue histoire sur Pilindavatsa, que nous rencontrons dans Mahiivagga, ne peut etre qU'une interpolation tardive."16 Neither Gunawardana nor Jaworski, then, seem to want our text to be early, and it very well may not be, but that does not necessarily mean that it occurs in a "later section" or is a ''late interpolation." We will have to return to this point later. For the moment we might look first at Jaworski's suggestion that the Mahaviharin text is a "local legend"

There are at least two things about the Mahaviharin text which might suggest that it is local: its beginning and its end. The beginning of the text is unusual. It says that Pilindavaccha ... pabbhiira1J1. sodhiipeti le!la1J1. kattukiimo. Rhys Davids and Oldenberg translate this: "Pilindavaccha had a mountain cave ... cleared out, with the object of making itinto a cave dwelling-place"; Horner as: "Pilindavaccha, desir­ing to make a cave, had a (mountain) slope cleared." Admittedly le~ can mean several things, but first and foremost it seems to mean "a cave used or made into a residential cell ," and that is almost certainly its sense here. Moreover, although sodhiipeti might mean "clear" in the sense of "removing trees, etc. ," it is hard to see why making a "cave" would require clearing a slope or hillside. Then there is the term pabbhiira which The Fiili Text Society Dictionary defines as, first, "a decline, incline, slope," but its Sanskrit equivalent-priigbhiira-is defined by Edgerton, when it is a noun, as a "rocky overhanging crag with ledge beneath." 17

There are a number of uncertainties here, but in large part that may be because the activity described in our text is so odd, if not entirely unique: It is not commonly described elsewhere in Indian literature, if at all. And it is probably safe to assume that an Indian monk would probably have had as difficult a time as we do understanding what was being referred to-Indian monks normally did not occupy or "improve" natural caves. Sri Lankan monks, however, most certainly did. The hundreds of early BrahmI inscriptions from Sri Lanka are almost all engraved below the artificially made "drip-ledges" of just such cleared

locale, ou Ie venerable Pilinda vaccha tient un grand role, n' a que peu de rap­ports avec Ie medecine." 16. Jaworski, Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 7 (1929-30) 55n.7. 17. F. Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven: 1953) 390: He gets this sense from Tibetan bya skyibs, "lit. bird-shelter," but the equivalence is well attested by the Mahiivyutpatti where, as Edgerton notes, prligbhiira follows parvata and precedes dari.

and improved natural caves or overhangs, and these "caves" are almost always referred to in these records as le1)ill.18 W. Rahula, for example, has already noted that "the large number of donative inscriptions of the first few. centuries of Buddhism, incised on the brows of the caves found scattered throughout the island, indicates the extent to which the caves were used by monks .... "19 Yet another observation of Rahula's suggests that both the authors and the readers of the PaIi Commentaries might well have had an even more preCise understanding of what Pilindavaccha was doing. Rahula says:

Preparing a cave for the residence of monks was not an easy task. Fortu­nately, we get in the Pali Commentaries casual references to the process that was in vogue at least about the fifth-century A. C. First of all, the cave was filled with rue-wood and the wood was then burnt; this helped to remove loose splinters of rock as well as to dispel unpleasant odours. After the cave wa~ cleaned, walls of bricks were built on the exposed sides, and doors and windows fixed. Sometimes walls were plastered and whitewashed.20

To judge, for example, by Carrithers' text and photographs some Sri Lankan monks are still living in such accommodations. 21

18. S. Paranavitana, Inscriptions of Ceylon, vol I (Ceylon: 1970) ii; see also-especially for the dates assigned to these iI!criptions, which in many cases may turn out to have been too early-Po E. E. Fernando, "Palaeo­graphical Development of the Brahmi Script in Ceylon from the 3rd Century B. C. to the 7th Century A. D.," University of Ceylon Review 7 (1949) 282-301; W. S. Karunaratne, "The Date of the Brahmi Inscriptions of Ceylon," in Paranavitana Felicitation Volume, ed. N. A. Jayawickrama (Colombo: 1965) 243-51; S. K. Sitrampalam, "The Brahmi Inscriptions of Sri Lanka. The Need for a Fresh Analysis," in James Thevathasan Rutnam Felicitation Volume, ed. K. Indrapala (Jaffna: 1975) 89-95; and, in particular, A. H. Dani, Indian Palaeography (Oxford: 1963) 214 ff. 19. W. Rahula, History of Buddhism in Ceylon. The Anuriidhapura Period 3rd Century B. C. - 10th Century A. C. (Colombo: 1956) 113. 20. Rahula, History of Buddhism in Ceylon, 114; see also W. M. A. Wamasuriya, "Inscriptional Evidence bearing on the Nature of Religious En­dowment in Ancient Ceylon," University of Ceylon Review 1.1 (1943) 71-2: "The majority of these caves gifted to the Sangha, were natural rock caves­for excavated caves are rare in Ceylon-whose insides were doubtless white­washed and even plastered, and a mud or brick wall (the latter occurring about the 9th Century, A. D., says Hocart) built so as to form protected or enclosed rooms under the shelter of the rocks." See also VbhA 366 cited in the Pali Text Society Dictionary under le!la. 21. M. Carrithers, The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka. An Anthropological and Historical Study (Delhi: 1983); see especially the 2nd and 6th plate between pp. 128-29.

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All of this is not to say that Indian monks never cleared and improved natural rock over-hangs or caves, but the known instances of anything like this are very, very rare in India 22 In Sri Lanka. on the other hand, this sort of activity was very, very common, in fact, it produced a characteristic form of Sri Lankan monastic "architecture." And it is precisely this characteristically Sri Lankan activity which, I would suggest, is being described in our text of the canonical vinaya.

If the beginning of the Mahaviharin account of Pilindavaccha appears to reflect not Indian, but Sri Lankan practice, so too might the end. The account ends by explaining, or accounting for the origin of, two terms or names which, however, are introduced rather abruptly at the very end: "A village of monastery attendants," iirlimikagiima, and "a village of Pilinda," pilindagama. The second of these two is specific and has no other history as far as I know. But the first is a generic name for a cate­gory of donation which is, indeed, referred to elsewhere, but not in India. Geiger, for example, has noted in regard to early medieval Sri Lanka, that: "The general expression for monastery helpers was iirlimika (46.14; 100.218). A hundred helpers and three villages were granted by Aggabodhi IV's Queen Je@la to a nunnery built by her (46.28)."23 Gunawardana too has noted that in Sri Lanka iirlimikas "were, at times, granted in large numbers . . . Aggabodhi I granted a hundred iiriimikas to the Kandavihara, and Jegha, the queen of Aggabodhi IV, granted a hundred iiriimikas to the Je@larama. Kassapa IV granted iirlimikagiimas to the hermitages he built."24 Evidence of this sort-drawn largely from the Culava1JlSa-makes it clear that the account of PiIindavaccha now found in the canonical vinaya was describing practices that were curiously close to those said by the CulavQ1JlSa to have been current, if not common, in medieval Sri Lanka. This, of course, is not to say that ilriimikas were not known in Indian vinaya texts. There are a number of references to them in the

22. See the recently discovered and still not fully published early monastic site at Panguraria in Madhya Pradesh: B. K. Thapar, ed., Indian Archaeology 1975-76-A Review (New Delhi: 1979) 28-30, pIs. xxxix-xli; H. Sarkar, "A Post-Asokan Inscription from Pangoraria in the Vindhyan Range," in B. N. MukbeIjee et al, Sri Dinesacandrika. Studies in Indology. Shri D. C. Sircar Festschrift (Delhi: 1983) 403-05, pIs. 73-75. 23. W. Geiger, Culture of Ceylon in Mediaeval Times, 2nd ed., ed. H. Bechert (Stuttgart: 1986) 194 (sec. 187); the numbers refer to chapter and verse of the Cuiavamsa. 24. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough, 98-99; note in particular here the term lirlimikaglima.

154 nABS 17.2

MUlasarvilstivii£1in Vinaya for example. But I do not know of a single reference to the gift of aramikas in any of the numerous Indian royal donations of land and villages to Buddhist monastic communities recorded in Indian inscriptions, nor does the term aramikagama seem to occur anywhere there or in continental literary sources. In this sense, then, if in no other, what is described in the Mahaviharin account of Pilindavaccha is characteristically Sri Lankan. There are also other indi -cations that would suggest that groups of iiramikas were a particular concern of the compilers of the Mahavihiirin Vinaya, and well known to them.

At the end of "the section on Beds and Seats" in the Mahavihiirin Vinaya, for example, there is a well-known passage which describes the Buddha "allowing" or instituting a whole series of administr_ative posi­tions. He "allowed" that an individual monk should be designated as the "issuer of meals" (bhattuddesaka), the "assigner of lodgings" (senilsanapanntipaka), the "keeper of the storeroom" (bhar.zrJiigarika), the "accepter of robes" (civarapa.tiggahaka), etc. ill regard to the second to the last administrative office mentioned the text says: "At that time the order did not have a superintendent of monastery attendants (aramikapesaka). The monastery attendants being unsupervised did not do their work." When the Buddha was told of this he allowed or insti­tuted the office of "superintendent of monastery attendants."25 The corresponding passage at the end of the corresponding section of the MUlasarvilstivadin Vinaya has a similar list of monastic officials, but one of the several ways in which that list differs from the Mahaviharin list is that the former makes no reference to an aramikapesaka or any­thing like it. Such an office was unknown at least in this piece of Ml1lasarvastivadin legislation.26 1his is particularly interesting since this

25. Oldenberg, Vinaya ii 175-77; Homer, The Book of the Discipline v 246-49; cf. M. Njammasch, "Hierarchische Strukturen in den buddhistischen KlOstern Indiens in der ersten HaIfte des ersten Jahrtausends unserer Zeitrechnung," Ethnographisch-Archtiologische Zeitschrift 11 (1970) 513-39, esp. 522-24, 529 ff. , 26. R. Gnoli, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Sayaniisanavastu and the Adhikaraf.U1vastu. Being the 15th and 16th Sections Of the Vinaya of the Malasarviistiviidin, Serle Orientale Roma L (Rome: 1978) 53-56. It does refer to a pre~aka, but this term-which is unrecorded in Edgerton-has no connection here with iiriimika and appears to designate a general comptroller.

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office is also referred to in the Mahaviharin Parivara and Aitguttara­nikiiya. 27

Beyond considerations of this sort, the way itself in which the Mahaviharin account of Pilinda is presented seems to presuppose that it was compiled after it was already commonly known what an aramika was. Notice that the text is not about how ariimikas got their name or what they were. It is about how a village came to be called a "village of aramikas," or how the name for a certain category of village­ariimikagiima-<ame to be. The text itself never says what an ariimika was and proceeds as if this were already known. Notice too that the text as it stands not only abruptly introduces the term, but seems to require that ariimika be taken in its technical and specifically Buddhist sense of a-for the moment-" forced laborer attached to or owned by an indi­vidual monk or monastic community ," but, again, that sense has not yet been articulated. Notice finally that unless the legal status of such a "laborer" had already been established our text would have been a lawyer's nightmare-unless, of course, it was redacted and intended for use in an environment with little legal tradition or where formal laws of ownership and property were little developed. There are otherwise far too many things left undetermined: for what purposes is an ariimika allowed; in who or what does ownership of the ariimika inhere; does 1he donor retain some rights in regard to the ariimika and if the king is the donor does the iiriimika continue to have obligations in regard to the state; what, if any, are the obligations of the donee; what are the obliga­tions of the ariimika; etc. None of this is engaged and there must be at least some question as to whether this would have been acceptable-or even possible-in an Indian world that knew anything about the Dharma-siltras or Dharma-sastras. The issues here might be better focused if we look at our next text

When Jaworski suggested the account of Pilindavaccha in the Mahiivihiirin Vinaya was a "late interpolation," and when Gunawardana wanted to assign it to "the later sections" of that collection, both were referring only to the account in the Bhesajja-khandaka. Neither seems to have noted that the same account also occurs in the Suttavibhanga of the same vinaya,28 and neither indicated that a clear parallel to the

27. Oldenberg, Vinaya v 204-05; Homer, The Book of the Discipline vi 328; E. Hardy, The AiLguttara-Nikliya, part III (London: 1897) 275. 28. Oldenberg, Vinaya iii 248-49; Homer, The Book of the Discipline ii 126-28.

156 JIABS 17.2

Mahavihann account also occurs in the Vibhanga of at least one other vinaya, the Miilasarvastivlidin Vinaya-vibhaizga preserved in TIbetan. This Ml1lasarvastivadin parallel complicates, of course, both their observations in a number of ways, but before taking up a discussion of these I first give a translation of the Tibetan text. The Tibetan account translated here, it should be noted, does not fall under the heading of the 23rd "Forfeiture" (nissaggiya) as in the Mahavihiirin Vinaya, but forms a part of the Ml1lasarvastivadin discussion of the 2nd of the offences requiring expulsion from the order.29

The Buddha, the Blessed One, was staying in Rajagrha, in the Bamboo Grove and haunt of the Kalandakas. Now it was the usual practice of King Bimbisara (lOlb) to go every day to venerate the feet of the Blessed One and each of the Elder monks. On one such occasion King Bimbisara venerated the feet of the Blessed One and sat down in his presence to hear Dharma. The Blessed One instructed with a talk connected with Dharma the King of Magadha, SreJ?ya Bimbisara, as he was seated to one side, he inspired him, incited and delighted him. When the Blessed One had instructed him in various ways with talk connected with Dharmjl, had inspired, incited and ~ delighted him, he fell silent. Then King SreJ?ya Bimbisara, when he had venerated the feet of the Blessed One, stood up from his seat and departed

He went to the vihlira (gtsug lag khang) of the Venerable Pilindaka. At that time the Venerable Pilindaka himself was doing repair and maintenance work on that vihlira.30 The Venerable Pilindaka saw SreJ?ya Bimbisara, the King of Magadha, from a distance, and when he saw him he washed his h:n)ds and feet and sat down on the seat he had prepared.

Srel.1ya Bimbisara, the King of Magadha, then honored with his head the (eet of the Venerable Pilindaka and sat down to one side. So seated King Srel.1ya Bimbisara said this to the Venerable Pilindaka: ''Noble One, what is this? Do you yourself do the repair and maintenance work?"

"Great King, a renunciant (rab tu byung ba, pravrajita) is one who does his own work. Since we are renunciants (102a) what other would do the work?"

"Noble One, if that is so I will give the Noble One a servant (zhabs 'bring ba, parivllra)."

The Great King up to four times had this polite exchange. A ftfth time too he himself said "1 will give the Noble One a servant." But fmally a co­residential pupil (sllrdha1J1.vihlirika) of the Venerable Pilindaka who spoke truthfully, consistently, and with courage said: "Great King, ever since the Great King offered servants to the Preceptor the Preceptor, when the vihlira is in need of repairs, lets it fall to pieces."

29. The translation given here is based on the Derge text reprinted in A. W. Barber, ed., The Tibetan Tripitaka. Taipei Edition, vol. I, 'dul ba, (Taipei: 1991) Ca 1OIa.7-103bA. This was the only edition available to me. 30. de'i tshe na tshe dang ldan pa pi lin da'i bu gtsug lag khang de na ral ba dang' drums par rang nyid kyis phyir 'coos par byed do, 101 bA.

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The King said: "Noble One, what is this? Did we not repeatedly promise servants?"

"Great King, not only on one occasion, but on five." Since the King was forgetful it was his usual practice when making even

small promises to someone to have all that written down in a document by a man who sat behind him.31 The King said to the man: "Hear, home­minister! Is it not true that I repeatedly promised this?"

"That is true, Lord, five times." "Therefore, since I would do what I had agreed I will give the Noble One

five hundred servants." He ordered his officers: "Present the Noble One with five hundred servants!"

The Venerable Pilindaka said: "Great King, I have renounced personal servants (g-yog, parivara, dasa). What do servants have to do with a renunciant?"

"Noble One, you must accept them for the benefit of the Community! (dge 'dun gyi don du bzhes Shig, sa1]tghaya g.rhliT;a)"

"Great King, if that is the case I will ask the Blessed One." "Noble One, ask, since that would not involve an offence!": The Venerable Pilindaka reported the matter in detail to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said: "Servants (g-yog) are to be accepted for the bene-

fit of the Community (dge 'dun gyi don du)." The Venerable Pilindaka accepted those servants (102b). When those servants were repeatedly made to do work in the King's

house they said to the Venerable Pilindaka: ''Noble One, we were given as servants (zhabs 'bring ba) to the Noble Ones ('phags pa dag gi, arylinli1Jt). Since we are delighted with that why are we repeatedly made to do work in the King's house?"

"Good men, do not mal)e trouble! I must speak to the King." On another occasion Sre1.lya Bimbisara, the King of Magadha again

approached the Venerable Pilindaka, honored his feet, and sat down in front of him.

The Venerable Pilindaka said: "Great King, do you not regret having given servants (g-yog) for the benefit of the Community?"

"Noble One, I do not have the slightest regret. "But why then are those servants still made to do work in the King's

house?" The King, while still seated on that very seat, ordered his ministers:

"Sirs, the servants of the Noble Ones henceforth must not be made to do work in the King's house!"

When the ministers ordered others saying "you must do work in the King's house!," some among them said "we belong to the Noble Ones (bdag cag 'phags pa dag gi yin no)."

The ministers said to the King: "Lord, we are unable to order anyone. When we say to someone "you must work in the King's house!," they say "we belong to the Noble Ones."

The King said: "Go! Make them all work!"

31. rgyal po de brjed ngas pas rgyal po de'i kun tu spyod pa ni gang yang rung ba la chung zad khas blangs pa ci yang rung ste / de thams cad phyi na 'dug pa'i mis yi ger 'dri bar byed pas . .. 102a.4.

158 JIABS 17.2

When they all were again made to do work in the King's house they once again said to the Venerable Pilindaka: "Noble One, we again in the same way were made to work in the King's house. Has the Noble One not spo­ken to him?"

"Good men, I have spoken to him (l03,a), but I must do so again." The Venerable Pilindaka, when King SreI.lya Bimbisara approached him

again in the same way, said: "What is this, Great King? Have you again come to have regrets?"

"Noble One, what have I done wrong?" "The servants have again been made to work in the same way." "Noble One, I am not able to order anyone. When I order someone they

say 'we belong to the Noble Ones.' Ah! If I had built at some place quar­ters for the proper bondmen (lha 'bangs, kalpikllra) of the Noble Ones, then we would know-'These belong to the King. These belong to the Noble Ones'." ('di dag ni rgyal po'i '0/ 'di dag ni 'phags pa dag gi '01)

The Venerable Pilindaka said: "I will ask the Blessed One." The Venerable Pilindaka reported the matter in detail to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said: "Henceforth having quarters for the proper bond-

men constructed is approved." The monks did not know where to have the quarters for the 'proper

bondmen constructed. The Blessed One said: "Quarters for the proper bondmen should be built outside of the King's house and outside of the Bamboo Grove, but in between where, when they have heard the sound of a summons, they can accomplish the needs of the Community."

The monks informed the sub-ministers: "The Blessed One has said that 'the quarters for the proper bondmen should be built in this place.' You should make that known!"

The sub-ministers had the bell sounded in Rajagrha and proclaimed: "It is determined that those who are proper bondmen of the Noble Ones are to live outside of Rajagrha and outside of the Bamboo Grove, but in between. Quarters must now be built there!" They went there and built quarters.

When they had built their bondmen's quarters they went to the vihllra and (103b) worked. The monks explained to them the work: "Since this task is proper you should do it Since this task is not proper you should not do it." Because they performed the proper tasks the designation "proper bondman," "proper bondman" came into being. Because they took care of the llrlima of the Community the designation "proper slave," "proper slave" (rtse rgod, kapyllrz) came into being.

When all the bondmen were in the vihllra the monks were not able to achieve mental concentration because of the noise.

The Blessed One said: "Only those who have finished their work should enter the vihlira, not all of them."

When the monks had food and clothing distributed to all the bondmen the Blessed One said: "To those who work food and clothing are to be dis­tributed, but not to all."

When the monks ignored those who were sick the Blessed One said: ''To those who are sick food and clothing is to be distributed and they should be attended to."

There can be, it seems, very little doubt that the Mahaviharin and Millasarvastivadin accounts ofPilinda represent two different redactions

SCHOPEN 159

of the same tradition. At the very least that would mean that both the vinaya that is purported to .be the earliest (the Mahaviharin), and the vinaya that is purported to be the latest (the Mfilasarvastivadin), have this tradition in common. Putting aside the possibility of other redac­tions in other vinayas-at least the Sarvastivadin Vinaya preserved in Chinese may well contain yet another version of the account32--con­ventional wisdom would dictate that the Millasarvastivadin version must be the latest version, and must somehow be based on or borrow from the Mahaviharin Vinaya, through however many intermediaries. At the very least it must come after it. But a comparison of the two versions, rather than confirming this, produces a series of anomalies.

To start with, the Mahaviharin account which should represent the earliest version has itself been labeled a probable "late interpolation." Moreover, both the beginning and the end of the Mahaviharin account may well reflect not early Indian, but Sri Lankan practice, and even for­mally the Mahaviharin version looks-if anything-like an abbreviated or an abridged version of a longer account. There is, for example, the abrupt and awkward introduction into the Mahaviharin account of the technical term iiriimika before the term itself has been defined. Equally awkward and equally abrupt is the insertion at the very end of reference to the iiriimika-giima or "village of monastery attendants"-the clumsi­ness of the original is nicely reflected in Homer's translation: "and a distinct village established itself' (pii,tiyekko glimo nivisi). Unlike in the Millasarvastivadin version, there is here no reason given for this, no explanation as to why it should have occurred. This same final passage also underlines the secondary character of the Mahaviharin account: Here the account is framed in such a way that it becomes not a story of primary origins-as in the Mfilasarvastiviidin account-but of secondary origins. It is here not presented as the story of the origins of iiriimikas, but as the story of the origins of "villages of iiriimikas," a

32. See J. Gernet, Les aspects economiques du bouddhisme dans la societe chinoise du ve au x;e siecle (paris: 1956) 124 (citing TaishO 1435). But to judge by Gernet's brief remarks this text could hardly be the source for the Miilasarvastivadin account. Moreover, if it is, in fact, a version of the Pilinda story then it-like the Mahaviharin account-may also contain distinct local elements which in this case could be either Chinese or Central Asian; e. g. the reference to Bimbisara giving not 'servants' but "500 brigands qui meritaient la peine capitale"-such a practice, says Gernet, was "courante a l'epoque des Wei," but there is not, as far as I know, any evidence for this sort of thing in India.

160 JIABS 17.2

term or concept which the Mulasarvastivadin version knows nothing about

Then there are the matters of content. The Millasarvastivadin version addresses and negotiates a whole series of "legal" and practical issues which the acceptance of such property by monastic groups would almost certainly have entailed-the question of where ownership inheres; the retention of rights or interest in the property by the donor; the obliga­tions of the community, etc.-none of which, as we have seen, are addressed by the Mahaviharin account The fIrst of these issues is par­ticularly interesting and the way in which it is handled in the two accounts would seem to point to a particularly striking anomaly: the lat­est version (the Millasarvastivadin) takes a far more conservative and restricted position in regard to the ownership of "proper bondmen" (kalpikiira) or "monastery attendants" than does what should be the ear­liest version (the Mahaviharin). The former takes some pains to have Pilindaka point out that as an individual he is a pravrajita and as such "does his own work" (rgyal po chen po rab tu byung ba ni rang nyid kyis byed pa yin te I), and that he has renounced personal servants (rgyal po chen po kho bo rang gi g-yog nyid spangs te I). Moreover, tre Mfilasarvastivadin text explicitly says the servants were given, allowed by the Buddha, and accepted "for the benefit of the community" (dge 'dun gyi don du), not as personal property. That ownership inheres not in Pilindaka but in ·the monastic group is then repeatedly reaffirmed by the consistent use of the plural: the servants say they were given not to Pilindaka but to "the Noble Ones" ( 'phags pa dag gi, iiryiinii1Jl); they say they "belong" not to Pilindaka, but "to the Noble Ones"; the king establishes separate quarters to institutionalize the distinction between those servants that "belong to the king" and those that "belong to the Noble Ones" ('di dag ni rgyal po'i '0/ 'di dag ni 'phags pa dag gi '01).33 The Mahaviharin account, on the other hand, articulates a very

33. The only exception to this in the Miilasarvastivadin account occurs in the continuation of the story. There, when a band of thieves is aboutto set upon the kalpikaras, the gods who are devoted to Pilinda (lha gang dag tshe dang ldan pa pi lin da'i bu la mngon par dad pa) warn him. In speaking to him they u.se the expression "Your servants" (khyed kyi zabs 'bring ba; 104a.2); but this is an isolated and strictly narrative usage. Note that in both accounts the continuation of the story deals with Pilinda coming to the aid of the arlimikas / kalpikaras, but the story line and details are completely different in each. Note, too, that the continuation of the Miilasarvastivadin account also contains at 106a3-U3a.6 another, largely unnoticed, Miilasarvastivadin version of the text now found in the Digha-nikaya under the title of the

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different conception of ownership. It has nothing to correspond to the Mulasarvastivadin repeated clause "for the benefit of the community," and it just as consistently uses the singular: the king promises to give an attendant not to "the Noble Ones," but to "the Noble One" (ayyassa), i. e. to Pilindavaccha; likewise when he finally gives five hundred they are given specifically to "the Noble One" or Pilindaka himself. The Mahaviharin text in fact seems to want to emphasize that the· iirlimikas were the personal property of Pilinda. It specifically notes that the vil­lage was called "The Village ofPilinda" or "Pilinda's Village," and this name-not .Arlimikagama-is repeatedly used in the continuation of the story. The conception of ownership that is articulated in the Mahaviharin account of Pi linda may in fact be only one instance of a far broader Mahaviharin attitude towards the "private" possession by monks of "monastic" property, an attitude for which, again, there is little Indian evidence. S. Kemper, for example, has said that "the precedent for the individual holding and,willing of property by monks [in Sri Lanka] dates to a tenth-century dedication of property to the use of a particular monk and his pupilS."34 But there is good evidence that this happened much, much earlier. There is at least one early Sri Lankan BrahmI inscription which dates to the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd Century C.E. which records that a vihiira was built not for the community, but "for the Elder Godhagatta Tissa," and Paranavitana has noted that "the chronicle has recorded the founding by Vattagama¢ Abhaya of the Abhayagiri-vihiira, and some other vihiiras by his gen­erals, to be given to certain theras in recognition of the aid rendered to the king and his followers in their days of adversity.35 Evidence for anything like this is both very hard to find in Indian Buddhist inscrip-

Aggaiiiia-suttanta. The Tibetan text here differs in many small ways from the Tibetan translation that occurs in the Sanghabhedavastu at Ga 257b,lff (cf. R. Gnoli, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Sanghabhedavastu. Being the 17th and Last Section of the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadin, Serie Orientale Roma XLIX, 1, pt I, [Rome: 1977] 7-16). 34. S. Kemper, ''The Buddhist Monkhood, the Law, and the State in Colo­nial Sri Lanka," Comparative Studies in Society and History 26.3 (1984) 401-27; esp. 417; cf. H.-D. Evers, Monks, Priests and Peasants. A Study of Buddhism and Social Structure in Central Ceylon (Brlll:1972) 16; H.-D. Evers, "Kinship and Property Rights in a Buddhist Monastery in Central Ceylon," American Anthropologist, n. s. 69 (1967) 703-10. 35. S. Paranavitana, Inscriptions of Ceylon, vol. II, part I (Moratuwa: 1983) 21-22.

162 JIABS 17.2

tions, and then only very late. 36 Moreover, in specific regard to the per­sonal possession of aramikas, at least some Indian vinayas explicitly forbid this. In the 8th PrakfTly.aka of the Mahasa'!Lghika-Lokottara­vadin Bhik~W}f-vinaya, for example, the Buddha is made to say:

Desormais, il ne convient pas d' entretenir une jardiniere personnelle (tena hi na k~amati paudagalikllm [rd.: paudagaliktlm] tlrtlmikinfm upasthti­payitwJl)

II ne convient pas [d'entretenir] une jardiniere, ni une servante, ni une lruque au service de la communaute (na k~amati tlrtlmikinf / na k~amati cep/ na k~amati kalpiyakllrl)

Si une nonne entretient une jardiniere personnelle, elle commet une infraction a la discipline. C'est ce qu'on appelle la regIe concernant les jardinieres37

This passage from the Mahasmpghika-Lokortaravadin tradition also directs our attention to a final anomaly, or at least distinct difference, between the Mahaviharin and Miilasarvastivadin accounts of Pilinda: it both distinguishes between and conflates the two terms aramika, "monastery attendant" and kalpiyakara, a form of the term I have trans -lated "proper bondman." The Mahaviharin account of Pilinda deals with the fIrst, but the MUlasarvastivadin is concerned with the second, and the question naturally arises about the relationship between the two terms or categories they designate. The Mahasmpghika-Lokottaravadin passage,

36. The GUl}aighar Copper-plate Inscription of Vainyagupta (507 C. E.) might present an Indian case, but it is difficult to interpret on this point (see D. C. Bhattacharyya, "A Newly Discovered Copperplate from Tippera," Indian Historical Quarterly 6 [1930] 45-60, esp. "Overse," lines 3-5; D. C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilization, 2nd ed., vol. I [Calcutta: 1965] 341-45). And in several of the Valabhi grants we find wording like: tlctlryya-bhadanta-sthiramati-ktlrita-srf-bappaptldfya­vihtire (G. BUhler, "Further Valabhl Grants," Indian Antiquary 6 [1877] 12, 1.3-4), which Il)ight be-but has not been-taken to mean: '1n the monastery called that of Srl Bappapada which had been builtfor the_Acarya Bhadanta Sthiramati." BUhler in fact takes it to mean "built by the Acarya ... " (p.9); so too does Levi: "l'un [monastery] avait e16 eleve a Valabhlpar Ie savant docteur (tlctlrya bhadanta) Sthiramati" (S. Levi, "Les donations .religieuses des r9is de valabhl," in Memorial Sylvain Levi [paris: 1937] 231). 37. E. Nolot, Regles de discipline des nonnes bouddhistes (Paris: 1991) 344-45 (§262), translating G. Roth, Bhik~u1}f-vinaya. Including Bhik§u1}f­Prakfr1}aka and a Summary of the Bhik~u-Prakfr1}aka of the Arya­Mahtistl1Jlghika-Lokottaravadin (Patna: 1970) There is, however, good nar­rative evidence-which I hope to deal with elsewhere-that the Miilasarvastivadin tradition, at least, allowed individual monks to own what would have to be called "child oblates," and that these child oblates fre­quently functioned as menials or acolytes.

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if in no other way than by listing them separately, distinguishes between the two terms or categories, but then lumps them together with ce:ta ("servant" or "slave") by saying that the rule that applies to all three is called "the rule concerning iiriimikas."

This confusion or conflation appears to occur in one form or another almost everywhere. In referring to the CUlavOJJ1Sa Geiger, for example, says that "the terms kappiyakiiraka 'who does what is appropriate' .. . paricaraka 'attendant' ... and parivarajana 'people for service' .. . seem to be synonymous with ariimiko.."38 In the "old" commentary embedded in the Malasarvilstiviidin Vinayavibhahga, for another exam­pIe, in the section dealing with the rule against touching gold and silver, the text says: "'Ariimika' means 'one who does what is proper'" (kun dga' ra ba pa zhes bya ba ni rung ba byed pa'o). 39 Sorting this out-if even possible-will certainly not be easy and would require a separate study. Here we need only stick to our particular context.

The context in both the Mahaviharin and Miilasarvastivadin accounts ofPilinda makes it clear that the individuals called ariimikas or kaZpi­kliras are individuals who engage in or do the physical labor connected with monastic living quarters. In regard to ariimikas this is not problematic-in the vinayas of both orders aramikas continue fo be associated with physical or manual labor. But, again in both vinayas, individuals of the serving class also come to be given more specific or specialized functions; in both they are sometimes assigned the role of ko.ppiya-kiirakas or ko.lpiklira. The specialized nature of this role is clear in both vinayas in regard to the vexed question of monks accepting money. The Mahiivihlirin Vinaya, for example, says:

There are, monks, people who have faith and are believing. They deposit gold (coins) in the hands of those who make things allowable [kappiya­karaka], saying: "By means of this give the master that which is allowable [kappiya]." I allow you, monks, thereupon to consent to that which is allowable.40

While in the Bhai~ajyavastu of the MaZasarviistiviidin-vinaya, in a dis­cussion of the acceptance by monks of ''travel money," we find

38. Geiger, Culture of Ceylon in Mediaeval Times, 195. 39. Derge, 'dul ba, Cha 149a4. 40. OIdenberg, Vinaya i 245.2-5; Horner, The Book of the Discipline iv 336.

164 nABS 17.2

Though it was said by the Blessed One "money (kar~apat}a) is to be accepted," the monks did not know by whom and how it was to be accepted.

The Blessed One said: "It is to be accepted by one who makes things allow (kalpikara).41

In these and numerous other passages in both vinayas the kappiya­kiiraka or kalpikiira is an individual who acts as a middleman by accept­ing things that monks cannot (e. g. money) and converting them into things that they can. 1his specialized function is well established in both vinayas, but the Ml1lasarvastivadin account of PHinda seems to know nothing of this particular development and appears to be using the term kaZpiklira in an old, if not original, sense of one who does the manual labor that was deemed proper to him. There is no hint of th~ developed middleman role. The Tibetan translators too appear to have recognized this. When kalpiklira is used in the sense of a middleman "who makes things proper"-as it is in the passage from the Bhai~ajyavastu just cited-it is rendered into Tibetan by nmg ba byed pa, which means just that. But in the account of Pilinda it is rendered into Tibetan by lha 'bangs, a term which seems to carry some of the same connotations as Sanskrit devadlisa, "temple slave," which it sometimes translates. 42

Moreover, that the Millasarvastivadin account ofPilinda is old-though it is supposed to be the latest of such accounts-may be further con­fIrmed by the fact that it also uses the even more obscure kapyliri pre­cisely where the term liriimika, if then well established, would have both naturally and "etymologically" been expected. After "because they took care of the lirlima of the Community" we do not find "the designation

41. N. Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. III, pt. 1 (Srinagar: 1947) 248.7-.10. This is the only passage cited by Edgerton, BHSD 173, for the form kalpakara, but if there are no others kalpakllra would represent yet another ghost word in BHSD based on a misreading in Dutt's edition of the Malasarvastivooa-vinaya. In both occurrences of the term in this passage the manuscript has clearly kalpikllra- (R. Vira and L. Chandra, Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts [Facsimile Edition], part 6 [New Delhi: 1974] 772.2). Note too that here kalpikara is translated into Tibetan by rung ba byed pa; 'dul ba, Ga 31b.7. 42. Cf. below. Note that Edgerton too at least hints at a differentation of meanings for his kalpikllra and notes that the connection with Pali kappiyakaraka is only possible. Virtually his whole entry reads: "kalpikara, m. (cf. kapyari; possibly connected with Pali kappiyakaraka, Vin i.206.12, but the traditional interpretation is different; ... ), Mvy 3840; ? acc. to confused defmitions in Tib., Chin., and Jap., would seem to mean some kind of servant of monks in a temple or monastery"; BHSD 173.

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'aramika,' 'aramika' came into being ," but rather "the designation 'kapyari,' 'kapyari' came into being."43 In other words, the Millasarvastivadin story of Pilinda appears to have been used to account for the origin of both an old, if not obsolete sense, of kalpikiira, and the equally-if not more so-obsolete term kapyari. Such obsolescence is hard to account for in what should be a very late text, whereas the use of ariimika in the Mahaviharin account creates, in this sense at least, no difficulties: in that account an old story may well have been used to explain a relatively late term.

Most of the anomalies that arise from a comparison of the story of Pilinda in the purportedly early Mahlivihiirin Vinaya and the purportedly late Malasarvastiviidin Vinaya can perhaps be explained in at least two conventional ways. It is possible, for example, to take the account of Pilinda in the Mahaviharin Vinaya as another instance of the "strong northern influence" on the Buddhist literature of Sri Lanka. E. Frauwallner-in referring to several remarks of S. Levi-has said almost forty years ago:

Now it has been remarked long ago that the Buddhist literature of Ceylon, and above all the commentaries, show a strong northern influence. It is met with at every step when one scans the pages of the Dhamma­padayhakathli. And some legends show unmistakably the form which they have received in the school of the MOlasarvastivadin ... There was rather a barrowing of themes, above all in the field of narrative literature, which took place on a large scale.44

43. dge 'dun gyi kun dga' ra ba skyong bar byed pas nse rgod nse rgod ces bya ba'i ming du gyur to, Ca 103b.1. As noted, this would have been a per­fect place to find kun dga' ra ba pa, the standard equivalent of llrllmika. What we do find, rtse rgod, is given as an equivalent by the Mahllvyutpatti for kapyllri and kalpikllra, suggesting at least that the two are closely related. Edgerton says, in fact, that kapyllri "appears to be Sktization of MIndic form representing kalpikllra or Orin (something like *kappiyari)"; BHSD 168. He also cites the Chinese as meaning "male or female slave." The Tibetan would seem, however, to be somehow related to the etymological meaning of llrllma or llrllmika: Jaschke, A Tibetan-English Dictionary (London: 1881) gives for rtse rgod only the meaning "sport and laughter"; Nyan shul mkbyen rab 'od gsal et al, Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo (Beijing: 1985) give, as the second meaning of nse rgod: (myin) lha 'bangs dang g-yog po, vol. II, 2225. 44. Frauwallner, The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Liter­ature, 188-89; see also H. Bechert, "Zur Geschichte der buddhistischen Sekten in Indien und Ceylon," La nouvelle clio 7-9 (1955-57) 311-60; esp. 355-56; etc.

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The account of Pilinda might well fall into line with what is suggested here; it is a "legend" presumably, and certainly falls within "the field of narrative literature." Its late borrowing and adaptation by the Mahaviharin tradition would seem to account both for its basic narrative similarity with the MUlasarvastivadin tradition and the Sri Lankan ele­ments it appears to contain. Such an explanation, moreover, would fit with Jaworski's suggestion that the account was a "late interpolation" in the Mahlivihlirin Vinaya. But notice that if this explanation is correct then the account of Pilinda presents us with a case of "northern influ -ence" not on the commentaries, but directly on the canon. And it would, indeed, have been strong: if the account is interpolated, then it was interpolated twice into the canonical MahliVihlirin Vinaya, once into the Suttavibhanga and once into the Bhesajja-khandhaka. _

But it is also possible, perhaps, to explain the anomalies in another way. The account of Pilinda may present us with yet another instance where on close study the MUlasarvastivadin tradition, though it is sup­posed to be late, turns out not to be so. Again almost forty years ago A. Bareau-referring to Przyluski's Legende d'ar;oka and Hofinger's Concile de vair;lili-said:

However, after deep but very incomplete comparative studies the Vinayapi!aka of the Miilasarvastivadins appears clearly to be more archaic than that of the Sarvastivadins, and even than the majority of other Vinayap(takas45

A case, then, can be made for thinking-contrary to what might have been expected-that the Mahaviharin account of Pilinda represents a Sri Lankan borrowing and adaptation of the Millasarvastivadin account; and a case can be made for thinking that the Mulasarvastivadin account, rather than being the latest, is the earliest. But this may not exhaust what we might learn from the comparison of the two versions, nor do these explanations address the distinct possibility that the Miilasarvastivadin version itself is not very early. Notice, for example, that it need not have been very early for it to have been borrowed by the Sri Lankan Mahaviharins along with other "themes" and "narrative literature." As is suggested by Frauwallner himself the most likely period for the Sri Lankan borrowing ofMUlasarvastivadin material was during the period

45. A. Bareau, Les sectes bouddhique du petit vehicule (Paris: 1955) 154; cf. K. R. Norman, "The Value of the Pali Tradition," Jagajjyoti. Buddha Jayanti Annual (Calcutta: May 1984) 7; etc.

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from the 2nd to the 5th or 6th Century C. E.46 There are in fact reasons for thinking that the Millasarvastivadin account is not much earlier than the 2nd Century, and that what separates the two versions is not so much time as cultural and physical geography.

There has been a marked tendency to ignore the remarkable degree of institutional development and sophistication reflected in virtually all of the vinayas as we have them, to avoid, in effect, asking how a given ruling attributed to the Buddha could have possibly been put into effect or implemented, or what conditions or organizational elements were pre­supposed by a given rule. It may be, however, just such questions that will begin to reveal the various layers of institutional forms that were known or presupposed by the redactors of the various vinayas that have come down to us. The Malasarviistivlidin account of Pilinda may serve as a good example.

The Mulasarvastivarun account of Pilinda would at first seem to pre­suppose permanent monastic establishments whose repair and mainte­nance required a large non-monastic work force-notice that both it and the Mahavihann account concern the gift not of single servants or bondmen, but large numbers, though we need not take the number 500 too seriously. Such establishments, to judge by the archeological record, were not early. It seems, in fact, they only begin to appear around the beginning of the Common Era, and even then were probably not the norm. 47 Moreover, a variety of vinaya literatures suggest that monks in other instances did, and in many places may have continued to do, their own maintenance and repair work. In the Suttavibhanga of the Mahlivihiirin Vinaya there is a long series of cases, for example, dealing with the deaths of monks that resulted from construction accidents­monks building vihiiras or walls had stones or bricks dropt on their heads, they fell off scaffolds while making repairs, had, again, adzes and beams drOpt on them, fell off the roof when thatChing the vihiira, etc.48

46. Frauwallner, The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Liter­ature, 187ff. 47. On the late appearance of the large, well organized, walled, quadrangular vihlira presupposed by the vinayas see 1. Marshall et aI, The Monuments Of Sliiichi, vol. I (Delhi: 1940) 61-64: I. Marshall, Taxila. An Illustrated Account of the Archaeological Excavations Carried out at Taxila Under the Orders of the Government of India Between the Years of 1913 and 1934, voU (Cambridge: 1951) 233, 320; both, however, need to be read criti­cally-see my paper cited below in n. 52. 48. Oldenberg, Vinaya iii 80-82; Horner, The Book of the Discipline i 140-42.

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Elsewhere, in the Mahasanghika Abhisamliclirikii, for example, there is an explicit ruling made that all monks are to do repair and maintenance work on the vihlira-daiming exemption by virtue of being a "Reciter of Dharma" (dharmakathika) or "Preserver of the Vinaya" (vinayadhara), etc., is an offence and will not work. 49 Seen in light of texts like these we may begin to see that the redactors of the Mulasarvastivadin account ofPiIinda may not simply have presupposed a community that could use large non-monastic labor forces, but may also have had in mind a community that found itself in a cultural milieu in which at least prominent monks were not expected to do manual labor and had achieved the status and means whereby they could avoid it. 50

A related presupposition must of necessity lie behind the seemingly simple ruling that "to those who work food and clothing ~e to be dis­tributed." This ruling presupposes that the monastic community had the means to do so, that it had sufficient surplus--or was expectoo to have -to meet its obligations to feed and cloth a large work force. But in addition to presuppositions in regard to the monastic communities access to a considerable-economic surplus, the redactors of the Mulasarvasti­vadin account also presuppose that the conception of the sangha as a juristic personality that could, and did, own property was wen

49. B. Jinananda, Abhisamlicllrikli [Bhik~upraklr!UJka] (Palna: 1969) 65.5-.9. 50. There is, of course, a distinct possibility that different Buddhist orders in India-like different monastic orders in the West-took different positions in regard to monks engaging in manual labor, and that-again as in the West­those positions could and did change over time, especially when an order's financial condition improved. This is a topic hardly touched in the study of Buddhist monasticisms. For the West see, at least, H. Dorries, "Monchtum und Arbeit," Forschungen zur Kirchengeschichte und zur christlichen Kunst (Festschrift Johannes Ficker) (Leipzig: 1931) 17-39; E. Delaruelle, ''Le travail dans les regles monastiques occidentales du quatrieme au neuvieme siecle;" Journal de psychologie normale et pathologique 41 (1948) 51-62; but note too that "It has been a romantic notion only with difficulty dispelled by his­torical research, that the typical (or perhaps ideal) monk laboured in the fields so as to be almost self-supporting. The truth of the matter was far different. Even in the general recommendations of the rule of St. Benedict manual labour was only part and not a necessary part, of a programme of moral cul­ture," J. A. Raftis, "Western Monasticism and Economic Organization," Comparative Studies in Society and History 3 (1961) 457. For passages in the Malasarvllstiviidin VinaytJ which place a positive value on monks doing manual labor see Gnoli, Sayanllsanavastu 37.27-38.3; Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts iii 1, 285.8ff; for a text which seems to implicitly allow monks to continue practicing certain secular trades see Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts iii 1, 280.8-281.18.

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established and, more importantly, publicly recognized by the state. At least that was what they were asserting.

None of these considerations argue well for an early date for the Miilasarvastivadin account of Pilinda, and this in turn leaves us with two redactions of the same text-the Mahavihlirin and Mlllasarvasti-vadin­neither of which could be very early. It is, therefore, unlikely that their relative chronology can in any way explain their very significant differ­ences: something else must be involved. What that some-thing is, I would suggest, is that already suggested in regard to the beginning and end of the Mahavihlirin account: locality. These two versions may dif­fer from each other not so much because they were redacted at different times, but because they were redacted in different places, and because there were different social and, more especially, legal forces at work in these different areas.

A number of recent studies on specific topics in the MUlasarvastivadin Vinaya, for example, have demonstrated, I think, a remarkable degree of contact between that Vinaya and Indian Dharrna!iistra or "orthodox" brahmanical values. These studies have suggested, for instance, that Miilasarvastivadin "monastic regulations governing the distribution of a dead monk's property were framed to conform to, or be in harmony with, classical Hindu laws or dharrna!iistric conventions governing inheritance."51 They have shown as well that this Vinaya and the Yiijiiavalkya-sm.rti have remarkably similar rules governing lending on interest and written contracts of debt.52 The redactors of this Vinaya in fact frequently appear to be trying to come to terms or negotiate with an established legal system and set of values that surrounded them. 53 Here, in the cultural milieu in which the redactors of this Vinaya found themselves, a gift-for exam­ple-was not a simple spontaneous act without complications, but a legal procedure involving rights of ownership that had to be defined and

51. Schopen, Journal of Indian Philosophy 20 (1992) 12; Note that at least in Medieval and Modem Sri Lanka practices in regard to the inheritance of a deceased monk's property had developed in a completely different way-see the sources cited above in n.34. 52. G. Schopen, "Doing Business for the Lord: Lending on Interest and Written Loan Contracts in the Malasarvastivada-vinaya," Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.4 (1994). 53. G. Schopen, "Ritual Rights and Bones of Contention: More on Monas­tic Funerals and Relics in the Malasarvastivada-vinaya," Journal of Indian Philosophy 22 (1994) 31-80; esp. 62-63.

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defended. 54 It is, I think, fairly obvious that the Ml1lasarvastivadin account of Pilinda differs from the Mahaviharin account almost entirely in terms oflegal detail. It takes pains to distinguish between private and corporate ownership of the property involved; it carefully distinguishes between the rights of the king in regard to the labor of those individuals who belong to the king and those who belong to the Community; it insists that the two groups be physically separated, that those that belong to the Community be in effect removed from the general population (they must live outside of the royal house and city), and that this distinction be formally recognized and publicly proclaimed (the ministers sound the city bell and formally announce it); it also clearly defined the Community's obligations to feed, clothe, and give medical aid to their bondmen, and the bondmen's obligation to work. 55 All of this-even an awareness of the problems-is, as has already been noted, completely absent from the Mahaviharin account, and this can hardly be unrelated to the fact that the Mahiivihiirin Vinaya as a whole shows little awareness of the very early and elaborate Indian legal system articulated in the Dhannasutras and Dhannasiistras. In fact there is little trace of either in any of the extant sources for early Sri Lankan cultural history, nor is there any strong evi dence in these same sources for any clearly established indigenous, formal system or systems of law. The fact that so little is known of the history of Sri Lanka law prior to the Kandy Period would seem to suggest that in early Sri Lanka-in marked contrast to brahmanized areas of early India-formal law and legal literature were little developed. 56 A monastic community in such an

54. A systematic study of gifts and giving in Dharmasllstra has yet to be done, but see P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasllstra, vol. II, part 1I,(Poona: 1941) 837-88; V. Nath, Dllna: Gift System in Ancient India (c. 600 B. C. -c. A. D. 300). A Socio-Economic Perspective (Delhi: 1987). 55. Note that even the reference to the king having his promises recorded in a written document (see the text cited in n.31) seems to place the MiHasarvastivadin account in a dharmasllstric environment; see the texts on a king's use of written documents conveniently collected in L. S. Joshi, Dharmakosa. Vyavahlirakll1}tja, vol. J, part I (Wai: 1937) 348ff. Note too that-as in for example the Carolingian West-the use of writing in early India may be closely connected with the development of formal legal sys­tems; ct. R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge: 1989) esp. Ch. 2. 56. See, for example, A. Huxley, "How Buddhist is Theravada Buddhist Law," in The Buddhist Forum, vol. I, ed. T. Skorupski (London:1990) 41-85: "Sri Lanka has produced no lasting tradition of written secular law texts ... " (p.42) "Sri Lankan Buddhists, despite 1800 years of literate culture, did not produce a lasting textual tradition of secular laws" (p. 82). Huxley sug-

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environment would have had considerable latitude in the way in which they would or could frame their own ecclesiastical law, and there would almost certainly have been far less need for precise legal definition, far less need to distinguish one set of rights from another. The absence of a strong legal tradition in Sri Lanka, and the presence of an established, competing system of non-ecclesiasticallaw in the brahmanical milieu in which the Miilasarviistiviidin Vinaya seems to have been redacted, are sufficient, it seems, to account for the significant differences between the Mahilviharin and MUlasarvastivadin accounts ofPilinda. They can, in any case, not simply be a function of time.

A few loose ends remain, and there is still room for another conclusion.

First of all, it would appear that the accounts of Pilinda in both the Mahiivihlirin and Mulasarviistiviidin Vinayas contain or deliver the ini -tial rule allowing for the acceptance by monks or monastic communities of iiriimikas or kalpikiiras. They were, as it were, the charters for such practices. But since it also seems that neither account in either vinaya can be early, then it would also appear that references to iiriimikas and kalpikiiras elsewhere in their respective vinayas also cannot be early. It would seem unlikely that incidental references to iiriimikas or kalpikiiras would precede the rule allowing their acceptance. But since such refer­ences are scattered throughout both vinayas as we have them the impli­cations of this are both far reaching and obvious.

Then there is the problem of what to call iiriimikas or kalpikiiras: ate they servants, forced laborers, bondmen, slaves? This is a problem reflected in the clumsiness of my own translation, but also one that goes way beyond Indian studies. The definition of "slavery ," for example, is beset in every field by academic debate and ideological wrangling. 57

gests this may be because of, or related to, the absence of "brahmins" to carry such a tradition in Sri Lanka, and the peculiar role of the king there. 57. See M. 1. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (New York: 1980); Y. Garlan, Slavery in Ancient Greece, rev. and expo ed., trans. J. Lloyd (Ithaca and London: 1988)-Garlan refers to E. Herrmann, Bibliographie zur antiken Sklaverei, published in 1983, which alone contains 5,162 works. For India see now J. A. Silk, "A Bibliography on Ancient Indian Slavery," Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 16/17 (1992) 277-85. For an early inscriptional reference to the giving of male and female slaves" (dl1sidtIsa-) to a Buddhist monastic community see S. Sankaranarayanan, "A Brahmi Inscription from Allum," Sri Venkateswara University Journal 20 (1977) 75-89; it has generally been assigned to the 2nd Cent. C. E.-cf. D. C. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (Calcutta: 1939) 328-30.

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About all that can be done here is to report what our specific texts can contribute to the discussion. We might note frrst that the language of the Mahaviharin account is not particularly helpful. It does, however, indi­cate that iiriimikas were human beings who could be, and were, given (datu-, dammi, dinna, detha, piidiisi) by one person (the king) to another (the Venerable Pilinda), and appear to have been, in this sense at least, chattels. The language of the MUlasarvastivadin account is richer, but also has to be filtered through the Tibetan translation. The prepon­derant verb for the action of the king is the same as in the Mahaviharin text: it is in Tibetan some form of 'bul ba, a well attested equivalent of forms from ~dii. What the king offers and gives is expressed, up until a certain point in the text, by two apparently interchangeable Tibetan terms: zhabs 'bring ba, which frequently translates parivlira, "suite, retinue, dependants ," etc., and g-yog, which also translates pariviira, but diisa, "slave, servant," as well, and bl!.rtya, "dependent, servant." These terms are used throughout the text until, significantly, the king deter­mines that a distinction between "those who belong to the king" and "those who belong to the Community" must be institutionalized and the latter must be physically removed from the city. From this point and this point only the text begins to use the term which I have translated "proper bondmen": lha 'bangs. lha 'bangs is a well attested equivalent for kalpikiira, but it is by no means an etymological translation of it. In Tibetan its etymological meaning is "subjects of the god(s)" and Jasschke defines it as "slaves belonging to a temple." In fact the only Sanskrit equivalent other than kalpikiira that Chandra gives is devadiisa. 58 For what it is worth, then, the Tibetan translators seem to have understood kalpikiiras to be a special category of slaves. 59 In the MUlasarvastivadin account too they are human beings who are owned and can be given, although here they also have at least conditional rights: if they work they have rights to food, clothing and medical attention from their monastic owners.

58. L. Chandra, Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary (New Delhi: 1961) 2530. 59. The only inscriptional reference to kalpikaras that I know occurs in an early 7th Century ValabhI grant made to a Buddhist monastery. There the grant is made in part kalpikara-pada-mula-prajlvanaya (D. B. Diskalkar, "Some Unpublished Copper-plates of the Rulers of ValabhI," Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 1 [1925] 27, 1.5), pada-mula and prajivana being two additional-and largely undefinable-categories of "servants," the former frequently attached to temples in Indian inscriptions.

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Finally, and by way of conclusion, we should probably note what should be obvious from the above discussion: the accounts of Pilinda can almost certainly not tell us anything about what very early Buddhist groups were. They, and the vinayas as we have them, can, however, tell us a great deal about what those groups had become. There are good reasons for thinking that neither account could have been redacted much before the 1st or 2nd Century C. E. Such a suggested date is, Of course, usually enough to have a text or passage dismissed as "late" and of little historical value. But to do so, I think, is to miss completely the importance of such documents: they are important precisely because they are "late." Such "late" documents would provide us, for example, with written sources close to, if not contemporaneous with, the remark­able florescence of monastic Buddhisms visible in the archeological record between the beginning of the Common Era and the 5th or 6th Century, and help us make sense of it. Such "late" documents would provide us with important indications of the activities and interests of the "mainstream" monastic orders during the period when the majority of Mahayana sutras were being composed, and, again, help us make sense of them. The apparent fact, for example, that the redactors of two very different vinayas, the canon lawyers of two very different orders, were occupied with and interested in framing rules governing the monastic acceptance and ownership of servants, bondmen or slaves in the early centuries of the Common Era can hardly be unrelated to the attacks on and criticisms of certain aspects of institutionalized monasticism found in Mahayana sutra literature. Indeed, it may well turn out that the institutional concerns which dominate the various vinayas as we have them played a very important-and largely overlooked-role in the origins of what we call the Mahayana. But that, too, is another story.

LEONARD W. 1. VAN DER KUIJP

Apropos of Some Recently Recovered Texts Belonging to the Lam 'bras Teachings of the Sa skya pa and Ko brag pa

The still little studied path-and-result (lam 'bras) teachings had their inception in the Lam 'bras bu dang bcas pai gdams ngag dang man ngag tu bcas pa-this work is also referred to as the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang or the Gsung ngag Tin po che-{)f VirUpa (?eighth century) which, after several centuries of propagation in the Indian subcontinent, penetrated the Tibetan cultural area in the eleventh century through the efforts of primarily 'Brog mi Lo tsa ba Shaky a ye shes (993-1074/1087) and his fifteen main disciples, both men and women. l

Among his disciples we find 'Khon Dkon mchog rgyal po (1034-1102), the founder of Sa skya monastery, and it was with him and especially his son Sa chen Kun dga' snying po (1092-1158), the first of the Sa skya school's five patriarchs, that lam 'bras became one of the most cherished and esoteric doctrinal entities of this school.

Anyone studying the various available chronicles of the transmission of lam 'bras, will quickly come to the realization that so many early and evidently highly influential treatises mentioned in these are still unknown to us. 2 This situation is now slowly changing for the better. The Tibetan division of the China Nationalities Library of the Cultural Palace of

This paper is one of the results obtained during my stay in Beijing from July to September of 1993 that was made possible by a generous grant from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, Washington, D. C. I should wish to express my gratitude to Messrs. Li Jiuqi, Chief Librarian, Shao Guoxian, Deputy Librarian, and Ngag dbang nor bu, Assistant Researcher, of the library of the Cultural Palace of National­ities (hereafter CPN) for the warm cooperation I received, one which made it possible for me to survey a slight portion of the enormous collection of Tibetan texts in their library. 1. See the literature cited in my introduction in van der Kuijp-Stearns (forthcoming). 2. For two of these, namely Cha gan Dbang phyug rgyal mtshan's biography of Viriipa as well as his lam 'bras chronicle (= CHA), both of which were written in 1304, see van der Kuijp-Stearns (forthcoming).

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Nationalities (hereafter CPN) contains an enormous number of hand­written dbu med manuscripts of hitherto unknown treatises that have to do with lam 'bras and the ensuing annotated (and preliminary) catalogue of a fraction of the manuscripts that were inspected by me is but a mod­est contribution toward an illumination of this doctrinal entity's literary history. It falls into three parts: [A] lam 'bras chronicles, [B] biogra­phies and 311 autobiography of five exponents of this tradition, and [C] exegeses of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang. A 1-3 are three different witnesses of the early history of the Sa skya pa transmission of the lam 'bras teachings by Dmar ston Chos kyi rgyal po, who, as he himself indicates, based his work inter alia on information passed on to him by his master Bla rna Lo tsa ba, that is, Sa skya P~Q.ita Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182-1251), the Sa skya school's fourth patriarch. An edition and an annotated translation of this very influential treatise based on three different manuscripts is being prepared by C.R. Steams. A 4-5 concern two different manuscripts of the history written by Bo dong P~ chen Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1373/75-1451). The next section, B 1-5, describes manuscripts of one autobiography and four biographies of five thirteenth century lam 'bras masters, including one of Ko brag pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan (1182-1261). C 1-2 involves two manuscripts, one complete the other less so, of Dmar ston's commentary on the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang, C 3-4 are witnesses of the exegesis of the same by Shar pa Rdo rje 'od zer, and C 5 concerns the early fourteenth century study of VirUpa's text by Cha gan Dbang phyug rgyal mtshan.

A. Chronicles of the Sa skya pa Transmission of Lam 'bras Teachings

1. Title page: Bla ma bod kyi [b Jrgyud pa 'i roam thar zhib mo rdo rje CPN no. 002807(20) Folios 27

Incipit: [lb] II bla rna dam pa'i zhabs la spyi bos gus par phyag 'tshallo II gang zhig phyi nang gsang pa [read: ba] mthar thug rten 'breI de kho naIl sor phreng can dang 'jam dbyangs mthu stobs dbang phyug rdo rje 'chang: dpalldan bla rna mtshungs med rang gi sems nyid Ihan med skyes II dbyer med rten cing 'breI 'byung ston mdzad dam pa'i zhabs pad 'dud II

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Colophon: [27b] bla rna bod kyi brgyud pa'i mam thar zhib mo rdo rje zhes bya ba: mang du mnyan zhing zhallas dris te : legs par myed pa 'di ni shakya'i dge slong chos kyi rgyalpo zhes bya bas : gung thang na la cho gnas po chen po'i gtsug lag khang du sbyar ba 'di yongs su rdzo gs sho / /

Dmar ston Chos kyi rgyal po thus wrote this text at an unspecified date, but probably before 1244, in the temple of La cho [read: rtse] gnas po chen po in Gung thang, the same place where Sa chen had resided for some time. 3 Gung ru Shes rab bzang po's (1411-1475) supplement to the unfinished lam 'bras chronicle by Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang po (1382-1456) gives one of the lines of transmission that issued from his master Sa skya Pa~<;lita as follows 4: Tshogs bsgom Kun dga' dpal bzang po (1210-12 Aprill11 May 1307)5 -Gnyags Snying po rgyal

3. For this, see Dmar ston Chos kyi rgyal po's lam 'bras chronicle in DMAR 17a. This is not noted in Rje btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan's (1147-1216) biography of his father Sa chen in his Bla rna sa skya pa chen po'i rnam thar, SSBB 3, no. 5, 83.3.6-87.3. In addition to this and good number of other lam 'bras-related texts, Dmar ston is known to have written works on lam 'bras other than the two mentioned in this paper, as well as a commen­tary on a number of gnomes of Sa skya PaI,lQita's Legs bshad rin po che gter and a series of glosses on his master's Sdom gsum rab tu dbye ba; for these, see the Legs par bshad pa rin po che'i gter dang 'grel pa (Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1982) and the reference in Jo nang Kun dga' grolmchog's (1507-1566) autobiography in KUN 360. 4. GUNG 122.1.3-6. For some remarks on Gung ru's life, see David P. Jackson, The Early Abbots of 'Phan-po Na-Iendra: The Vicissitudes of a Great Tibetan Monastery in the 15th Century, Wiener Studien zur Tibetolo­gie und Buddhismuskunde, Heft 23, (Wien: Arbeitskreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universiilit Wien, 1989) 15-16, and also van der Kuijp 1994, 147 note 15. I located another text by him under CPN catalogue no. 002807(18), namely a thirty-folio handwritten dbu med manuscript of his biography of Mus chen Dkon mchog rgyal mtshan (1388-1469), the Rje btsun chen po dkon mchog rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po'i roam thar, which he wrote in 1469 in Bde ba can monastery in Western Mus when his subject was eighty-{me years old. It is no doubt this work to which Brag dgon Zhabs drung Dkon mchog rab rgyas (1801-?) refers in the bibliography of his his­tory of Buddhism in Amdo; see the Yul mdo smad kyi ljongs su thub bstan rin po che ji ltar dar ba'i tshul gsal bar brjod pa deb ther rgya mtsho, ed. Yon tan rgya mtsho, voLl (New Delhi, 1974) 22 (Ibid., ed. Smon lam rgya mtsho [Lanzhou: Kan su'u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982] 10). 5. The only biography of this man known to me is the anonymous TSHOGS; another witness of this work is a four-folio handwritten dbu med manuscript under CPN catalogue no. 002465(10), where the title has bsgom instead of sgom. The precise, albeit here still ambiguous dating of his passing-it is unclear which "final spring-month" is meant here-and those for certain ind-

178 nABS 17.2

mtshan6-Bar ston Rdo rje rgyal mtshan, and states that the latter wrote a Bla rna brgyud pa'i mam thar zhib mo rdo rjeand a "voluminous" set

viduals that will follow are computed with the aid of the Tabellen in D. Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplement Band 16 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1973). On fol. 4a, the CPN manuscript of Tshogs sgom's biography contains a rather interesting postscript after the notice of his departure for Bde ba can, his death, on the ninth day of the final spring-month of 1307, one that seems to devolve on his unidentified biogra­pher and which is missing from the LBSB. It reads: chos rje ?nyan po pa de yul nulog stod gyi rje grong dbyig 'khar ba dgung 10 bcu gcig la rab tu byon bcu gsum pa la spyod 'jug khyog du bshad de nas brag ram du byon nas dgung 10 nyi shu rtsa Inga pa'i bar du phar tshad rnams tshar nas thugs dam rtse 1 la bzhugs rin po che tshogs 10 bcu gnyis bsten . sku tshe'i 'jug tu gdul bya dpag tu med pa'i don nulzad nas dgung 10 brgyad bcu gya brgyad pa la sbrul gyi 10 zla ba gnyis pa'i nyi shu brgyad kyi ?? la ngo mtshar ba' i ltsa dpag tu med pa dang bcas te bde bar gshegs so I : dge' 0 I shu~bhan1J'l. This would indicate that the subject of this note seems to have met Tshogs sgom when he was about twenty-four or twenty-five years, after which he stayed and studied with him for some twelve years. He passed away in a snake-year at the age of eighty-seven. 6. Earlier, in GUNG 119.3.1, he warned that the Gnyags Snying po rgyal mtshan-the chronological study of Mang thos KIu sgrub rgya mtsho (1523-1596) writes his name "Gnyan Snying po rgyal mtshan" in MANG 182-of this particular line should not be confused with Gnyags [g]zhir palba Dbang phyug dpal for whom Sa chen had written a Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang commentary known to the tradition as the Gnyags mao No doubt because it was the shortest of his best known eleven commentaries of this work, it was included by his son Rje btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan in his compilation of lam 'bras texts known as the Pod ser, the "Yellow Volume"; see LBSB 11, 21-128. The Gnyags rna enjoyed some "popularity" around the end of the thirteenth and the begining of the fourteenth century. GUNG 122.4.2-3 notes that Sru lung Kun [dga'] smon[lam], a disciple of 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1235-1280), Sa skya's fifth patriarch, had composed a survey of its contents (zin bris), an explanation of the lam bsdus and a commentary on the first of Sa chen's Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang exegeses, the A seng ma, so called after its addressee Skyu ra A seng; Gung ru also calls the latter the Don bsdus rna in GUNG 119.2.4. The cognate account given by Ames zhabs dif­fers somewhat from Gung ru's, for, omitting the work on lam bsdus, he writes, in AMES 200, that Sbro lung pa Kun [dga'] smon [lam], a disciple of Zhang Dkon mchog dpal (1250-1317)-for the biography of this student of 'Phags pa, see below note 19-also wrote a clarificatory (gsal byed) commen­tary on the GNYAGS MA. The toponym "Sbro lung" is probably a variant of not only "Sru lung"-A mes zhabs registers a "Sru lung pa" in A 275 (A 1 227) among 'Phags pa's disciples- but also of "Sro lung pa" as noted in A MES 171; for the latter, a grand-master of Thugs Ije brtson 'grus, see below note 36. Another variant is "Spru lung" as encountered in Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang po's (1385-1438) record of teachings received in Mkhas grub rje'i gsung 'bum (Lhasa Zhol print), vol. KA (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan

VAN DER KUIJP 179

of annotations to the Drnar rna, that is, Dmar ston's exegesis of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang, for which see below under C-1-2. He also suggests that Dmar ston wrote a Bla rna brgyud pa'i mam thar, a study of the biographies of various lam 'bras masters, without specifically giving a title for this work. The ascription of a set of biographies subti­tled Zhib mo rdo rje to Bar ston is evidently based on a confusion with what we know the title of Dmar ston's work to have been; since, for example, Ames zhabs Ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams (1597-1659) subtitles Bar ston's text as the Zhib mo mam dag.1 To be sure, the simi­larity of these titles might indicate that the latter was conceived as a con­tinuation of Dmar ston's work, or that it was critical of it. In any event, it has unfortunately not turned up so far. All the major Sa skya pa lam 'bras histories appear to have made ample use ofDmar ston's textS and, at times, refer to it in a critical fashion.9 On fol. 1b, Dmar ston quite

Works and Archives, 1979) 63. Yet another one is "Sro lung pa," as found in the enumeration of some early exegeses of Sa skya PaJ.l<p-ta's StJom gsum rab dbye where Kun dga' grol mchog has it, in KUN 360, that Sro lung pa Kun smon had written a series of annotations to the text, as well as in MANG 166. Lastly, Ngor chen's record of teachings Obtained writes "Sbru (or: Spru) lung pa Kun smon; see mOB 61.1.6,2.2. 7. See AMES 198 and the entry in his bibliography in A MES 311. Ames zbabs also distinguishes between an early and a later Bar ston. The former was the author of these texts, whereas the latter had been for a long time Bla ma dam pa's major domo (gsol dpon). This work is also noted by Kun dga' grol mchog in KUN 309. 8. There is no overt use ofDmar ston's chronicle in Cha gan's CHA, which either tells us something about its "sociology," or about Cha gan himself. Further, it is curious that Bla rna dam pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan (1312-1375) and ?Bo dong PaJ.l chen-see below note 15-only mention his Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang commentary and not his lam 'bras chronicle-see BLA 93 (BLA1 fol. 38b) and BO 570 (B01 fols. 40b-41a)-, although they clearly made use of it. We might note here that ?Bo dong PaJ.l chen's text is to some extent dependent on Bla ma dam pa's. Both are duly noted, however, by 'Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang phyug (1524-1568) in 'JAM 142. 9. An explicit example would be Dmar ston's discussion of 'Brom De palba ston chung, one the fifteen closest disciples of 'Brog mi Lo tsa ba and the founder of the 'Brom lam 'bras transmission in DMAR fols. 8a-9a, where he concludes that it did not develop (des na 'brom las 'phel ba med de .. ), and that the so-called '''Brom system" (,brom lugs) appears to have had its incep­tion (and demise) with a rather problematic and eclectic lady by the name of Jo mo 'Brom mo, an erstwhile disciple of Sa chen. While his survey of 'Brom was not really criticized by either Bla ma dam pa in BLA 32 (BLA 1 fol. 13a) or ?Bo dong PaJ.l chen in BO 464 (B01 fol. 15a)--only a note in BLA 30 refers to Dmar ston- it was severely taken to task by Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang po (1382-1456) in NGOR 114.2.1, 114.4.4-5 (NGOR1 157.3.5-6, 158.2.5), and then in 'JAM 82 and AMES 166, where Ames zhabs refers to

180 JIABS 17.2

explicitly says that his account of the transmissions of lam 'bras teach­ings in Tibet, emphasizing how it developed among the Sa skya pa, was written exactly according to statements by "bla rna 10 tsa ba," who is of course none other than Sa skya Pa1).<;lita. He is unspecific about other sources he might have used.

2. Title page: B1a rna dam pa bod kyi 10 rgyus bzhugs pa lags so dbang CPN no. 002864(3) Folios: 21

Colophon: [21a] bla rna bod kyi brgyud pa'i mam thar zhib mo rdo rje zhes bya ba mang du mnyan zhing zhallas bris te legs par myed pa ' di shakya'i dge slong chos kyi rgyal po zhes bya bas / gung thang na la rtse gnas po che'i tsug lag khang du sbyar ba 'di yongs su rdzogs shyo 1/ Secondary Colophon: [21a-b] 10 rgyus kyi yi ge 'di bla rna 10 tsha ba chen po'i phyag du phul bas mnyes ste rab tu bsngags [21b] pas na the tshom 1).a par gus pas long shig / yul dbus kyi blo gsal dmar gyis yi ge , di bri ba bsnan med par bris pa yin no II dge' 0/ dge' 0 /

Here the place of composition is given as La rue gnas po che. What we have called the "secondary colophon," observes that Sa skya Pa1).<;lita was delighted when Dmar ston showed him this work. Furthermore, "1).a" is an abbreviation of med that one frequently encounters in early dbu med manuscripts. This manuscript is laced with annotations by an unknown hand.

There are two post-textual additions extraneous to the colophons. In the fITst, we read in a hand similar to the one used in the manuscript:

II 'khon glu'i [read: klu'i] dbang po bsrung ba I rdo rje rin po ehe : shes rab yon tan: tshul khrims rgya1 mtshan : rdo rje tsug tor: dge skyabs : dge mthong : 'khon bal po : shakya blo gros : shes rab tshul khrims : dkon mchog rgya1 po I kun dga' snying po I slob dpon rin po ehe : rje btsun pa : ehos rje pa : bla rna ehos rgyal {both "Chos Ije pa" [= Sa skya P~4ita]

both Ngor chen's stricture and Dmar ston's text without, however, passing judgement on the latter. In CHA fol. 31b, Cha gan gives 'Brom's full name as "'Brom De ba Shakya [read: SMkya] dpal," and in his account of him, in CHA fols. 48b-53b, he makes no mention of any "'Brom system," although he does indicate that while he had composed several exegeses of lam 'bras, his hermeneutic approach (bshad sroT) did not spread.

VANDERKUIJP 181

and "Bla rna Chos rgyal" [= 'Phags pal are subscribed by "7"-this may be a very early attestation of the so-called ehe nags Jryi yig, "graph of an indication of greatness," a sign indicating respect10] /I slob dpon chen po dharma pa la ralqi ta' 0 II [the last occurs in small characters]

This is therefore a little genealogy of members of that branch of the 'Khan family that ended up founding and ruling Sa skya. It ends with DharmapaIarak~ita (1268-24 December 1287),11 'Phags pa's nephew, so that it is quite probable that this manuscript dates from his floTUit. We then read in a hand different from that of the manuscript:

II II na mo gu TU II ehos kyi rje nyid thugs kyi sras I bla ma Tin po ehe pa'i mam thar kyang gong du gsung ba bzhin khong pa rang dang mnyam po eig gis brjod par rigs pa la 'on kyang bsod nams 'phel bas eung zad brjod na : rigs rgyud shin du bzang ba la 10 tsha bzhi byon pa'i rjes su 'khrungs shing thog mar mkhan po bzhi mo lung pa la : kyai rdo rje'i bum dbang yan chad thob : 'bri 'tshams zhang gi drung du kun las btus gsan : dgung 10 beu dgu pa la spang tsar ehos 'khor mdzad nas mngon pa gsungs I de nas ehos rje pas mkhan po mdzad I 'u yug pas [supralinear note: bsod nams seng gel gsang ste : ri phug pas [supralinear note: kras rgyal = bkra shis rgyaZ polmtshan?] las mdzad bsnyen par rdzogs pa ehig rdzogs mdzad : 'byad pa rtsi 'dul gyi drung du mdo rtsa 'dul ba'i eha lag tsho mkhyen par mdzad I lug gdur du u [read: dbu] ma rigs tshogs thams cad mkhyen par mdzad ste : u [read: dbu] ma la khong pas rgya ehe ba tsam mi 'dug gsung I ehos rje pa 10 beu gsum . ..

Given the context, this seems to be a short biograpical note on Dmar stone?) We learn that, while still very young, he first received initiations in Hevajra from the so-called 'jug initiation" onward from Mkhan po Bzhi mo lung pa. Having read the [Ahhidharma]-samuccaya with

10. See here, for example, Bis pa Mi pham zla ba, Phrin yig gi mam bzhag dper brjod dang beas pa padma dkar po'i phreng mdzes (based on Reb gong Rong bo dgon chen print) (Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1986) 16. This work was written by the author in 1806. The name he used in his poetic and linguistic compositions, as in this textbook on the art of let­ter-writing, is Mi pham dbyangs can dga' ba'i blo gros. 11. Tshal pa Kun dga' rdo Ije (1309-1364) writes simply that he passed away in 1288 at the age of twenty-one (= twenty); see TSHAL 48 (TSHALl 22a)-whereas Yar lung Jo bo Shakya rin chen's chronicle of 1376 explicitly states that his death occurred on the eighteenth day of the smal po month in 1287; see YAR fol. 96a (YAR 1158, YAR2 153). And the latter is followed in the compilation of Stag tshang Dpal 'byor bzang pO in STAG 333. In addition to the dossier used in Inaba 1975, 542-540, we may note that the history of Sa skya's ruling families by Stag tshang Lo tsa ba Shes rab rin chen (1405-after 1477) follows Yar lung Jo bo in dating DharmapaIarak~ita's death-see SHES fol. 24a-, and Ames zhabs concurs with this scenario in A 287 (AI 237).

182 nABS 17.2

'Bring 'tshams [also: mtshams] Zhang, he held a convocation at Spang tsa at the age of nineteen (= eighteen) and taught there abhidhanna. He subsequently received his monk's ¥ows from Sa skya P~<;lita, 'U yug pa Bsod nams seng ge, alias Rigs pa'i seng ge,12 and Ri phug pa ?Bkra shis rgyal poImtshan. He studied the Vinayasutra under a 'Byad pa Rtsi 'dul [?Thugs rje byang chub] 13 and the six collections of madhyamaka arguments, that is, the six purely philosophical treatises of NagiUjuna, in Lug dgur and became an expert in these. The abrupt ending could sug­gest that he may have stayed with Sa skya P~<;lita for thirteen years. Though unseen by us, we may add here that the biographical sketch of Dmar ston's life by Glo bo Mkhan chen Bsod nams lhun grub (1456-1532), it is entitled Bla ma dmar chos kyi rgyal po'i mam thar, was filmed by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project under Reel no. L 16811L 139-4. It will be studied in C. Stearns' forthcoming translation of this text

Of sufficient interest is that the beginning of Tshogs sgom pa's biog -raphy-see note 5 of this essay-bears such striking resemblances to this narrative that we may very well suspect some kind of inter- or intra-biographic contamination, or that this slight postcript has nothing whatsoever to do with Dmar ston.14

12. This must have taken place in the early 1220s at the earliest. For 'U yug pa and how he had come to Sa skya. see my "A Hitherto Unknown Oral Text of Sa skya PaJ)4ita." which is to appear in the Bulletin of the School of Ori­ental and African Studies. 13. For him, see briefly 'Gos Lo tsa ba Gzhon nu dpal (1392-1481) in 'GOS 900 (Roerich 1979, 1013). 14. After a few preliminaries, Tshogs sgom's biography states, in TSHOGS 338, that he was born in the wake of some four Tshogs Lo tsa bas-this compares with the manuscript's "10 tsha bzht'-and that his birth was accompanied by good omens. It then continues in TSHOGS 339: de nas gzhon nu'i dus su bla ma gzhi mo lung pa la kye rdo rje'i bum dbang yan chad zhus I de nas klog yi ge sgra bstan bcos la sogs pa thams cad mkhas par bslabs nas I dgung 10 bcu gsum pa la 'bring mtshams zhang gi drung du mngon pa gong ma gsan du byon I bcu dgu pa la spang rtsar 'bring mtshams zhang gdan drangs nas mngon pa la bshad gsar mdzad do II de nas chos rje pas mkhan po mdzad de bsnyen par rdzogs pa mdzad nas I mdog lung du rtsi 'dut 'dzin gyi drung du 'dut ba mdo rtsa gsan I gzhan yang 'dut ba'i cha lag thams cad rdzogs par gsan no II de nas chos rje pa la sems bskyed zhus nas I da khyod kyis dbu ma cig nyon gsungs nas I bo dong tug dur dang I ri phug gnyis su yar gshegs mar gshegs mdzad nas I dbu ma rigs tshogs dang bstod tshogs skor la sogs pa thams cad gsan I rtsa she dang tshig la bshad pa yang mdzad I de nas chos rye pa 10 bcu gsum ... The text continues this sentence: ... bsten nas spyod tshogs dang I byams chos dang I rgyud gsum gdams ngag dang bcas pa I I bde mchog gi rgyud

VAN DER KUIJP 183

3. TItle page: Lam 'bras kyi bla ma brgyud pa'i lo rgyus CPN no. 004345(1) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ga 102 Folios 23 Incomplete

This is another manuscript of Dmar ston's work. Its colophon on fol. 23a ends in ... gus pas long II bkra shis sho II; this would be part of the "secondary colophon" found also in A-2.

4. Title page: Lam 'bras kyi bla ma tshad ma'i 10 rgyus CPN no. 002452(5) Folios 41 Marginal notation: 11 Ii

Incipit: [lb] da ni kye'i rdo rje'i snyan rgyud zab mo'i man ngag brjod parbyaste/ Colophon: [41a] ... snga ma la ni bsams na shes pa'i mngon shes kyang mnga' zhes thos so /I

This work, attributed to Bo dong P~ chen, is included in his collected writings. 15 Its subject matter ranges from Vi.rUpa to an incomplete sketch of the lives of 'Phags pa's students of the lam 'bras teachings. Bo dong P~ chen's biography notes16 that he had first obtained the transmission of the lam 'bras system under his maternal uncle La tsa ba Grags pa

cha lag dang bcas pa I yo ga la sogs nulor na sa skya pa'i chos lugs thams cad gsan cing thugs su chud par nulzad I. This also allows us to place Lug [g]dur in the Bo dong area. 15. See BO. A word of caution is needed here. There is much in this Ency­clopdia Tibetica that did not come directly from Bo dong Pax,:t chen's own pen. GUNG 123.1.6 writes that Lo tsa ba Byang chub rtse mo (1303-1380), Bo dong Pax,:t chen's great-uncle, received lam 'bras from Bla ma dam pa and that he had written inter alia a chronicle of its transmission. It remains an open question as to what relationship, if any, exists between this work and the one ascribed to Bo dong Pax,:t chen by virtue of its inclusion in the encyclopedia 16. See 'Jigs med 'bangs, Dpalldan bla ma dam pa thams cad mkhyen pa phyogs bcu las rnam par rgyal ba'i zhabs kyi rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar gyi dga' ston, Encyclopedia Tibetica. The Collected Works of Bo dong PaT] chen Phyogs las rnam rgyal, vol. 1 (New Delhi: The Tibet House, 1981) 149-152, 208 (Ibid., ed. Padma tshul khrims [Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990] 110-111, 152).

184 JIABS 17.2

rgyal mtshan (1352/53-1405)17, after which he continued his studies with BIo bzang dkar mo, who was a disciple of Gon gyi/Go 'g.yo Ye shes dpal (1281-1365). At that time, Blo bzang dkar mo was staying at mount Se mkhar chung and Bo dong P~ chen spent some twenty-three days with hiin after which, according to his biographer, he fully realized the lam 'bras precepts. Some information on this BIo bzang dkar mo and his transmission of the lam 'bras is found in the lam 'bras histories of Gung ro, 'Jam dbyangs Mkhyen brtse'i dbang phyug and Ames zhabs, as well as in Mang thos' study,18 and his line of transmission can be sketched as follows:

Sa skya P~c).ita 'Phags pa Zhang Dkon mchog dpal19 Brag phug paBsod nams dpal (1277-1350)20 Brag phug pa Dkon mchog rgyal mtshan Blo gros dkar po, alias BIo bzang dkar po Lam 'bras pa Ye shes dpal BIo bzang dkar mo

5. Title page: Lam 'bras kyi bla ma tshad ma'i 10 rgyus CPN no. 006867(1) fudigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 84 Folios 67

This is yet another manuscript of ?Bo dong P~ chen's work.

17. His biography is found in the Gsang 'dus lung rigs man ngag ston par byed pa'i bla ma tshad ma'i 10 rgyus, Encyclopedia Tibetica. The Collected Works of Bo dong Pa chen Phyogs las roam rgyal, vol. 64 (New Delhi: The Tibet House, 1972) 451-490. "1420" for the year of his passing in van der Kuijp 1994, 148, note 25, is a typographic error. 18. See, respectively, GUNG 121.1.6 ff. 122.4.3 ff., 'JAM 145, AMES 196, 200-201 andMANG 173-175. 19. His biography based on an account by his disciple Brag phug pa is found in LBSB 1,362-367. A six-folio dbu med manuscript of this text is located under CPN no. 002465(9). 20. His biography by Ri khrod pa BIo gros brtan pa, alias Blo gros mtshungs med, dated 1351, is found in LBSB 1, 367-374. An eight-folio dbu med manuscript of this text is located under CPN no. 002465(12).

VAN DER KUIJP 185

B. Four Biographies and One Autobiography of Thirteenth Century Lam 'bras Masters

1. Title page: Chos rje leo brag pa'i roam thar CPN no. 002790(5) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 33 Folios 10

Incipit: [lb] /I bsod nams rgya rntsho'i gling la legs 'khrungs cing /I rgyal mtshan rtse nas ye shes nor bu la /I .. Colophon: [lOa] rje ko brag pa'i mam thar dgos 'dod 'byung pa zhes bya ba Ila stod pa shes rab rngon gyis rgya che ba mams kyi nang nas gal che ba roams bstus te I phan thogs che ba'i phyir bris pa' 0 /I 'gro ba dpag tu med pa la phan thogs par gyur 1/1 dge'o : /I

This biography of Ko brag pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan21 was written by his disciple La stod pa Shes rab mgon at an unspecified place and date. On fo1. 2a, we learn that he was known as Dum bu Dge bshes at around the age of twenty. This allows us to understand why one version of Ngor chen's chronicle gives his name as "bla ma dam pa ko brag pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan," whereas another version has "bla rna dum bu ko brag pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan."22 Fo1. 5a states that he received lam 'bras from Chos rje Snyos [= Gnyos Chos kyi gzi brjid] and Bla ma Smon mkbar ba [= Nyang Rgyal po grags], to whom we should also add Zhang ston Se mig pa.23 The available sources also mention in this

21. A brief note on his life is found in 'GOS 635-638 (Roerich 1979,726-727). There the name of his mother is given as "sTod rje ma," but fo1. Ib of the biography has "Stod mo rje ma." 22. NGOR 116.3.1 and NGORI 160.1.3; AMES 169 reads this prefix as "ldum bu." 23. Ngor chen, 'Jam dbyangs Mkhyen brtse'i dbang phyug and Ames zhabs devote a special section of their work to his lam 'bras transmissions, which took their point of departure from the feminine line of the Zh[ w]ma tradition and that of the Zhang, both of which originated with Se Mkhar chung ba (or ?Se ston Kun rig, see below note 39), one of 'Brog mi Lo tsa ba's ftfteen dis­ciples; see NGOR 116.3.1-4.1 (NGORI 160.1.3-2.3), 'JAM 152-153 and A MES 169-170. For the Zh[w]a rna transmission in general, see NGOR 115.1.1-116.3.1 (NGORI 158.3.3-160.1.3), and for that of the Zhang, see NGOR 114.4.5-115.1.1 (NGORI 158.2.6-3.3). For Ma gcig Zh[w]a ma (1062-?}-her date is taken from MANG 114-, the founder of the Zh[w]ma tradition, see now the brief remarks in E. Lo Bue, "A Case of Mistaken Iden­tity: Ma gcig Labs sgron and Ma gcig Zha ma," Tibetan Studies. Proceedings

186 nABS 17.2

connection VibhUticandra and his sbyor drug (~tu;laizga) teachings, so that it would appear that his lam 'hrasprecepts were also influenced by the former. The biography notes, on fols. 6b-7a, that he studied with this aged master in GIang 'khor-Ko brag pa had invited him to Tibet­during the Mongol conquest of Central TIbet or shortly thereafter which, since most sources date the Mongol invasion to the year 1240, suggests the tenninus a quo of their meeting to have been that very year. Ko brag pa passed away on 1 November, the eighth day of the smin drug month, 1261.

2. TItle page: Rje btsun nag phug pa'i mam thar CPN no. 004381(7) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 173 Folios 1-19;483-501 Upper left-hand comer of title page: gi

49

Incipit: [lb] oIp swa sti siddharpl dpalldan bla ma mams dang 'khor 10 sdom 'jam dbyangs sgroI sogs lhag pa'i lha mams dang II tshogs mams kun la gus pas phyag 'tshal[ 1]0 II Colophon: [18b-19a] II mam par thar pa 'di bla ma 'jam dbyangs lajo gdan shakya shes rab kyis yang dang yang du gsol ba btab nas mdzad payinnoll ..

This is an undated autobiography which Nag[s] phug pa 'Jam dbyangs Shes rab 'od zer (?-?) wrote at ·the behest of a jo gdan Shakya shes rab who was one of his disciples. The equation of Sa skya PaJ).<;lita with MafijusrI that occurred to him in a dream-it is outlined on fols. 15b-16a- is quoted in Sa skya PaJ).<;lita's biography by GIo bo Mkhan chen, which was then adopted by Ames zhabs for his study of Sa skya PaJ).<;lita's life of 1629.24 No doubt in part owing to the role MafijusrI

of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies Fagemes 1992 (Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Cul­ture, 1994) 481-482, which is solely based on 'Gos Lo tsa ba's chronicle, without taking into account any of the earlier historical studies of lam 'bras. The Zhang transmission began with Zhang ston Chos 'bar (1053-1135Hne of the main masters of Sa chen-and his younger brother Zhang ston Gzi btjid 'bar. 24. See, respectively, Mkhas pa roams 'jug pa'i sgo yi roam par bshad pa rig gnas gsal byed (New Delhi, 1979) 52 (Ibid. [Sde dge ed.], Selected Writ-

VAN DER KUIJP 187

played in his own spiritual life, he is sometimes referred to as '''Jam dbyangs gsar balma," the "New MafijusrL" He had come to Sa skya P~<;lita somewhat late in his life, at the earliest shortly after the Mongols had invaded Central Tibet. He obtained from him lam 'bras and was witness to his (and his nephews') departure for KOden's residence in 1244. Gung m relates 25 that he had at first written out some formal dis­agreements with Sa skya Pa1).<;lita's opinions whereafter MafijlisrI (in a vision) had expressed his displeasure with this. However, after receiving the lam 'bras from him (and 'Phags pa), he composed a reverential peti­tion (gsol 'debs) to the lam 'bras lineage as well as a eulogy to both masters. This manuscript was clearly part of a larger collection of (probably) biographies, whereby it occupied fols. 483 to 501 of this ensemble. Mang thos writes that he was the second of "three quite renowned scholars in Nags phug [in] Gtsang," the other two being Gtsang Nags [phug pal Brtson 'gms seng ge, the well-known disciple of Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge (1109-1169), and Gtsang Nags phug pa Thugs rje seng ge, a disciple of Thugs rje brtson 'grus, who figures as the subject of the biography listed under B-5, and the author of the influential Bar do 'phrang sgroI. 26

3. Title page: Bla rna grub thob chen po'i mam thar CPN no. 004381(10) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 151 Folios 6

Incipit: [lb] bla rna grub thob pa'i 10 rgyus cung zad brjod na / de yang chos rje sa skya p~<;li ta zhes pa sa gsum du yongs su grags pa de'i sras kyi thu bor gyur pa / grub thob yon tan dpal zhes bya ba yin / No colophon.

This work is an undated, anonymous study of the life of Grub thob Yon tan dpal, another disciple of Sa skya Pa1).<).ita, who served him as a chamber-servant (gzims g.yog) for six years. Fo!' 6b states that he passed away in the Mongol (Yuan) capital ofDadu (or Shangdu) on the eighth day of the eleventh lunar month of the water-female-pig year at

ings, vo1.3 [Debra Dun: Pal Evam Cbodan Ngorpa Centre, 1985] 33-34) and A 127-128 (AI112-113). 25. GUNG 121.4.4-6; see also AMES 199. 26. MANG 152.

188 nABS 17.2

the age of eighty-seven (= eighty-six). This means that he was born in 1237 and that he probably died on 6 November 1323. 4. Title page: Chos rje 'jam dbyangs chen po'i mam thar yon tan

rgyamtsho CPN no. 004381(10) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 173 Folios 24 Incomplete; missing are folios 14-17

Incipit: [1 b] II OIp.svastisiddhmp II dpalldan bla ma dam pa 'jam dbyangs chen po'i roam par thar pa yon tan rgya mtsho zhes bya ba I bla ma danf dkon mchog 3 la gus pas phyag 'tshallo II bskal pa bgrang yas tshogs 2 rgya chen rgya mtsho las II . .. Colophon: [23b-24a] chos kyi rje dpal ldan bla ma dam pa 'jam dbyangs chen po'i rnam par thar pa 'di ni I de nyid la mi phyed pa'i dad pa dang ldan zhing I gsung gi bdud rtsis tshim pa'i skyes bu dge ba'i bshes gnyen rin chen skyabs kyi gsung gis bskul ba dang I sgo 3 gus pas bla ma mnyes par mdzad cing bka' drin rjes su dran pa'i nye gnas mam pas bskul ba dang I thos bsam gyis rgyud yongs su sbyangs shing I nges don bsgom pa la spro ba [24a] can : ston pa ye shes rgyal mtshan dang I nye gnas seng ge rgyal mtshan 2 kyis gus 'dun drag pos yang yang bskul ba'i phyir I bsgom chen pa rgyal ba ye shes kyis I dngos dang brgyud pa'i sgo nas mthong thos kyi mam thar cung zad bkod pa , di legs par grub po II . ..

This biography of 'Jam dbyangs Rin chen rgyal mtshan of Sa skya's House of Shar, erstwhile abbot of Sa skya's Bzhi thog Residence, that is, abbot of Sa skya as a whole, from probably 1288 to 1297,27 and imperial preceptor to OIJeitii Qayan (Chengzong Emperor, r. 10 May 1294 to 2 February 1307) from 1304 to 1305, was written by Byang

27. In an undated passage in fol. 5a of the biography, Rgyal ba ye shes writes that, upon DharmapaIarak~ita's death, Qubilai Qayan appointed him abbot of Sa skya. Stag tshang Lo tsa ba but notes some of his accomplish­ments in SHES fols. 24a, 25a, without giving any dates for his priorship. A mes zhabs provides a brief account of the vicissitudes of the abbatial throne in connection with 'Jam dbyangs Rin chen rgyal mtshan and Bdag chen Bzang po dpal (1262-132211324), his successor, in A 290-295 (A 1 239-243)­some of what is written there seems to be taken literally from SHES fols. 24a-25a-, after which, in A 659 (A 1 541), he calculates the former's tenure of Sa skya's abbacy to have taken place from 1288 to 1297.

VAN DER KUIJP 189

sems Rgyal ba ye shes (1257-1320) 28 at the behest of Rin chen skyabs, Ston pa Ye shes rgyal mtshan and nye gnas Seng ge rgyal mtshan. Its CPN catalogue number is identical to the manuscript of B-3. Rgyal ba ye shes does not relate the year of his birth, but does provide a precise date of his passing on fol. 2Ia, namely the eleventh day of the first lunar month of the serpent-year, thatis, 7 January 1305, and this year is cor­roborated by the history of the Yuan dynasty which, too, has the first month of this year. 29 His main preceptors in lam 'bras were 'Phags pa, Nags phug pa, his uncle Shar pa Ye shes rgyal mtshan (?l222-?l287) and his elder brother Dus 'khor ba Ye shes rin chen (?1248-1294).

The earliest account of the House of Shar is given by Tshal pa, which was then reproduced by and large in the later chronicles of Yar lung Jo bo, Stag tshang Dpal 'byor bzang po, and in an anonymous text whose date of composition has not yet been established with any certainty, although it may belong to the first half of the fifteenth century. 30 All are very short on dates. Another study of this family authored by Glo bo Mkhan chen has the drawback of not providing any dates at alPl Only a note in Yar lung Jo bo's text has it that he was "an earth-male-horse one," that is, that he was born in 1258, and that he was appointed to the Bzhi thog throne in 1287. He does write, however, that he passed away at the age of forty-nine (= forty-eight), so that the year of his birth

28. A very brief sketch of his life can be found in 'GOS 678-679 (Roerich 1979, 772-773). A full length study of his biography was written in 1362 by Mnga' ris Chos kyi rgyal po (1306-1386), alias Phyogs las roam rgyal. CPN catalogue no. 002780(2) registers a thirty-two folio handwritten dbu med manuscript of this work entitled Chos kyi rje byang chub sems dpa' chen po'i rnam par thar pa yon tan rin po che'i gter mdzod kun las btus pa. For Mnga' ris Chos kyi rgyal po, see 'GOS 682-683 (Roerich 1979, 777-779) and my "Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa (1920-1975) and His Chronicles of the Jo nang pa Sect," currently under preparation, where several manuscripts of his writings found in the CPN are considered. 29. Inaba 1975, 536. 30. See, respectively, TSHAL 50-51 (TSHAL 1 23a-b), Y AR fol. 103a (YAR 1 170-171, YAR2 163), STAG 351-352 and the Rgyal rabs sogs bod kyi yig tshang gsal ba'i me long, Sngon gyi gtam me tog gi phreng ba .. with other rare historical texts from the library of Burmiok Athing T.D. Densapa (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1985) 102-103. The first and third of these (plus the notices in the Yuanshi) formed the basis for the analysis of this family in Inaba 1975, 539-535. 31. This is his Chos rje shar pa' i gdung brgyud kyi rim pa ji ltar byon pa' i tshul. My thanks to Mr. Jeffrey Schoening for providing me with a handwrit­ten dbu med manuscript of this text in five folios. Rgyal ba ye shes' work is listed in its bibliographical note on fol. 5a-b.

190 JIABS 17.2

would then have to be 1257. According to Chinese sources, he was installed as imperial preceptor sometime in the first lunar month of 1304, and two dated official documents that were issued by him in this capa­city are extant. 32

5. Title page: Kun spangs chos rje'i mom thar yon tan rab gsal CPN no. 002815(5) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ra 197 Folios 40 Incomplete

Incipit: [lb] oIp swasti siddhaIp II kun spangs chen po chos kyi rje'i mam par thar pa yon tan rab gsal zhes bya ba : bla ma dang dkon mchog 3 la gus pas phy[ag 'tshal ]10/ Colophon: [40b] kun spangs chen po chos kyi rje mam par thar pa brjod kyis mi lang bir(= ba 'dir?) / brjod pa'i spobs pa dang bral bas rang gzhan gyi dad gus kyi dmigs rkyen mdor bsdus la / mkhyen ldan kun thugs bstun pa gyeng ris la bkod pas tshim par bgyis pa lags na' ang / chos rje'i gsung gi bdud rtsis tshim pa'i dge ba'i gshes gnyen dbu che sgom chen mams kyis yang yang bskul ba dang / khyad par du bla ma yon tan rgya mtshos thugs ...

A portion of the colophon of this biography of Kim spangs pa Thugs rje brtson 'gros, alias Kun tu bzang po and Mi bskyod rdo rje, by the same Byang sems Rgyal ba ye shes is therefore missing from this manuscript. Another manuscript of the same biography under CPN cata-

32. G. Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, II (Rome: la Libreria Dello Stato, 1949) 670, 747, published one letter missive by him dated the twenty-third day of the fifth month of the dragon year (1304), which he wrote at imperial command in the capital of Shangdu; this document was reprinted in the ten­dentious volume edited by 'Phrln las chos grags, Krung go'i bod sa gnas kyi 10 rgyus yig tshang phyogs btus (Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1986) 243-244, and also in Bkra shis dbang 'dus 1989, 200. An ear­lier, hitherto unknown letter missive from his pen was recently published in Bkra shis dbang 'dus 1989, 199, and it was written by him by order of the emperor in Me tog ra ba temple in the capital of Dadu on the twenty-fourth day of the second month of the dragon year (1304). Bkra shis dbang 'dus 1989, 201, reproduces an edict with no intitulatio, which it also attributes to 'Jam dbyangs Rin chen rgyal mtshan. However, its dating to the year 71306 would preclude this ascription.

VAN DER KUIJP 191

logue no. 002815(11), this one in fifty-seven folios, continues on fols. 56b--57a:

... gnyer ched pos mang du bskul zhing/ ston pa bsod nams dpal dang: ston pa sher rgyalla bskul ba bcol nas : nye bar bskul ba'i phyir : bsgom chen [gloss: brtsom byed] pa rgyal ba ye shes kyis rgas pa'i sems dang brjed nas snyom las kyi ngang las: 'bad pas dran shes bskyed nas I ru 4'i [gloss: brtsom gnas] snying po gtsang chu [d]mig ring mo'i sa [57a] cha : g.yas 'khyil gyi chu bo'i rgyun gyis bskor zhing I dgos 'dod sna tshogs kyi 'bru smin pa'i sa gzhi rgya ched po'i dbus su I rtsi thog sna tshogs rgyas pa'i ri bo mthon pos bskor bal phrin dkar gyi mdog can gyi brag ri la lha dang mi'i drang srong gi bsgrub gnas ran byung I bkra shis sgo mangs Itar brtsegs pa'i gnas mchog Ilhun grub bde chen zhes bya bar bsdebs pa 'di legs par grub pa yin I yi ge pa ni ston pa shes rab rgyal mtshan no II.

Thus Rgyal ba ye shes wrote this work in Lhun grub bde chen at the behest of some meditators at Dbu che, Yon tan rgya mtsho--he should probably be identified as Mkhas btsun Yon tan rgya mtsho, his disciple and successor to Jo nang monastery's abbatial throne, whose dates are 1260 to 1327 33_, Ston pa Bsod nams dpal, and Ston pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan functioned as his scribe. The latter must probably be identified as Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292-1361). Another handwritten dbu med manuscript in forty-eight folios of this very same text is located under CPN catalogue no. 006594(8). The earliest biographical sketch of Thugs rje brtson 'grus so far had been the few lines ·devoted to him by 'Gos Lo tsa ba. 34

As with his study of the life of 'Jam dbyangs Rin chen rgyal mtshan, here too Rgyal ba ye shes is rather short on dates. While there seems to be little reason to question that Thugs rje brtson 'gros passed away in 1313-Rgyal ba ye shes observes on fol. 3Th that this took place on the twenty-fifth day of the intermediate spring-month, that is, sometime in the first half of that year, irrespective of what he meant by the ambigu­ous "intermediate spring-month"-the biography does not note the year of his birth, which other sources give as either 1242 or 1243. 35 Both may very well be problematic, however. After outlining the various

33. 'GOS 680-681 (Roerich 1979, 775). His biography is published in the seventh volume of The 'Dzam thang Edition of the Collected Works (Gsung , bum) of Kun mkhyen Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan, ed. M. Kapstein (New Delhi, 1994) 279-386. 34. 'GOS 677-678 (Roerich 1979, 771-772). 35. Roerich 1979, 771.

192 nABS 17.2

transfigurations Thugs rje brtson 'gros underwent in his previous embOdiments, the actual biography begins on fol. 12a, and it relates on fol. 12b that he had received the bodhisattva-vow from Sa skya Pl4lQita at the age of five (= four) in Gnyag tsha. As was observed previously, this master had begun his voyage to the residence of Koden, in present day Gansu province, in 1244 and passed away among the Mongols, never returning to his homeland. Fol. 22b relates that Thugs rje brtson 'gros studied the Hevajratantra, a tantra fundamental to lam 'bras, under 'Phags pa in Chu mig bde chen, indicating that this must have taken place between the years 1276 and 1280. Shortly thereafter, he received lam 'bras proper from' Jam dbyangs chen po, that is, the sub­ject of the biography listed above under B-4, in Lha rtse rdzong. Rgyal ba ye shes stipulates, however, he studied the lam 'bras transmissions of the Sa skya pa and the Zh[w]a rna traditions from Bla rna Rin chen 'od 36 Later, Rgyal ba ye shes writes, Thugs rje brtson 'gros was to edit (zhus dag) the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang texts belonging to the Sa skya pa and 'Brom transmissions37 and, presumably, on the basis of this text, wrote various exegeses and meditation manuals. This is one of the two earliest references to a reworking of the basic lam 'bras text; for the other see below under C-S. Ngor chen is much more explicit on this matter than Rgyal ba ye shes and makes in this connection the following observation.38 Thugs rje brtson 'gros apparently thought of rewriting 1m basic text in a sequence different from the original one so as to facill tate a better understanding of it, and petitioned his (unnamed) master and a inkha' 'gro ma for permission to do so. Se ston Kun rig (?l029-?1116),39 one of the founding fathers of especially the Zh[w]a latn

36. NGOR 117.4.3 identifies him as a native ofKha phyar-NGOR1161.2.2 has here "Rab phyar"-and an immediate disciple of Bla rna Lha lung pa. A MES 171 has the toponym "Kha char," homophonic with "Kha phyar," and writes that Rin chen' od was a student of a Bla ma Sro lung pa; for "Sro lung pa," see above note 6. Gung ru adds that Byang nga sbyer ba(?) Rin chen 'od zer-'JAM 153 has the more correct toponym "Byang pa Char pa"-:-, himself a disciple of Nag[s] phug pa, was another one of Thugs Ije brston 'gros' lam 'bras masters; see GUNG 122.1.1. . 37. For this transmission, see NGOR 114.1.6-4.5 (NGORI 157.3.5-158. 2.6). 38. See NGOR 117.4.1-118.1.3 (NGORI 161.1.6-3.2). 39. These dates are taken from 'GOS 193 (Roerich 1979, 215), where it is said that he was eighty-seven (= eighty-six) when he met Sa chen aged twenty-four (= twenty-three), and that he passed away one year later. Of the available sources, Dmar ston, Cha gan and Ames zhabs place someone with this.name in the listing of 'Brog mi Lo tsa ba's fifteen main disciples, specif-

VANDER KUIJP 193

'bras, manifested himself to him in a dream, and granted him that per­mission. He then made a compilation of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang corpus of the Zh(w]a, 'Bram and Sa skya traditions, and rewrote the text changing much of the earlier sequence. Thereafter, he composed one large commentary using various earlier exegeses, including those of Sa chen, the Zh(w]a rna tradition, and of "two Bka' brgyud(!)," which seemingly was entitled Rdo rje'i tshig rkang dkrugs pa bsdebs gab pa mngon duphyung ba'i 'grel pa tshig don gsalbyed sgron mao And he also wrote a summary ofit which apparently included a "chronicle of the transmission" (de'i bsdus don brgyud pa'i 10 rgyus). Neither has been located so far. The library of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities has at least one minor work of his, namely a commentary on a text by Sha ba ri pa 40

ically as the last of the three who haq received from him the complete oral instructions (gdams ngag/rnan ngag); see DMAR fol. 6a, CHA fol. 31b and A MES 144. Of the three other pre-Dmar ston lam 'bras chronicles are extant, namely the one by Rje Btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan and the two that were probably written by Ko brag pa, the former gives the identical names for the lust two disciples in this particular grouping, but has "Bla rna Se mkhar chung ba"-according to Mang thos, in MANG 89, his dates are 1025 to 1092-instead of "Se ston Kun rig"; see his Bla rna brgyud pa bod kyi 10 rgyus, SSBB 3 no.11, 173.4.5-another witness of this text is a five-folio handwritten dbu med manuscript under CPN catalogue no. 002465(2), where the corresponding passage can be found on fol. 4a. On the other hand, one of the two texts that I would tentatively like to attribute to Ko brag pa-for this consideration, see van der Kuijp-Steams (forthcoming)-knows only of Se ston Kun rig and the other one may equate him with Se mkhar chung ba; see, respectively, the Bhir ba pa'i 10 rgyus and the *Lam 'bras snyan brgyud, in Gtun bSad klog skya rna sogs, voU (Dolanji: Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Cen­tre, 1975) 399, 440. A confusion of these two, or their identity, is further­more indicated by the fact that 'Jam dbyangs Mkhyen brtse'i dbang phyug writes, in 'JAM 153, that it was Se mkhar chung ba who had appeared to Thugs Ije bruon ' grus in this dream. To be recalled is that, whereas, in A MES 144, Ames zhabs indicated his sources to have been the chronicles by Rje btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan, Dmar ston and Bla rna dam pa, he nonetheless has "Se ston Kun rig" and not "Se mkhar chung ba" in the aforementioned triad. Se mkhar chung ba is discussed not only in Rje btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan's text, but also in BLA 30, 32-36 (BLAI fols. 13a, 14a-15b), NGOR 114.1.6 (NGORlI57.3.5), 'JAM 77,82-90,99, and MANG 82-but see also MANG 132! These excurses are very similar to the ones concerning Se ston Kun rig in DMAR fols. 9a-12b and CHA fols. 53a-60a. The relationship between Se ston Kun rig and Se mkhar chung ba requires further study. 40. The title page of this little handwritten dbu med manuscript in six folios entitles it Dpal sha ba ri pa'i gzhung chung II gzhung chung de'i 'grel pa kun spangs thugs rje !b}rtson 'grus gyis mdzod != mdzad}. Its CPN cata-

194 JIABS 17.2

C. Exegeses o/the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang

1. TItle page: Rtsa ba rdo rje' i tshig [rleang] gi mam par bshad pa gsung sgros rna mes bya ba dmar chos kyi rgyal pos mdzad pa CPN no. 006687(1) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi rna 337 Folios 107

Incipit: [lb] bla rna dam pa'i zhabs la spyi bos phyag 'tshallo /I bde gshegs kun dngos rgyal ba'i dbang po mchog : rdo rje 'dzin pa gsang bdag dbyer med gtso : sku bzbi'i bdag nyid lhun grub sku lnga'i skur : gnas gyur mchog bmyes bla ma'i zhabs la 'dud: Colophon: [107a-b] ... mgon po 'am dpal dbyangs dang tha mi dad cing / 'gran zla thams cad dang bral ba'i chos kyi [107b] rje chen po sa skya pru;t<;li ta'i zhabs kyi brdul(sic) la yun ring du gus par btugs(sic) cing / zhalla dris te nan tur gyis bzung nas dga' ba chen pos yid la 'dris par byas ste / dbri bsnan med par gzhan gyi don du yul dbus kyi blo gsal la dmar gyi(sic) sbyar ba rdzogs sho / shubhan /

This exegesis of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rleang, written byDmar ston at the behest of his disciples Rin chen 'bar, Rdo rje grags pa and Ye shes' od zer a,nd at the subsequent request of Bla rna Grags pa 'od zer­these names are taken from glosses found in a manuscript of this text with a slightly different title that waS published in India41-was based

logue nlll!lber is 006762(11) and the indigenous catalogue number phyi Tea 131. For Sabara, see the note in K. Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra. Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas (Albany: The State Uni­versity of New York, 1985) 60-65. For his lineage of this transmission, see Ngor chen in 11IOB 72.2.3-4. 41. DMARI 294. These names are not entirely unproblematic, for onJy one, namely the last one, is most likely identifiable as belonging to imperial pre­ceptor Grags pa 'od zer (1246-1303), and 'Phags pa's erstwhile master of offerings (mchod dpon); see Inaba 1975, 538-536, 533. GUNG 122.1.6 but registers a Sgang ston Shes cab 'bum as one of his lam 'bras students, and A MES 194 notes two variants of his name, "Gye re Sgang ston" and "Snang thang Sgang ston." Ngor chen first registers a Dgongs ston Shes rab 'bum as a student of 'Phags pa after which this same individual is also stated to have been a disciple of Dmar ston; see THOB 68.2.2, 69.2.3-4. Thus, "Dgongs ston" would be a variant of "Sgang ston." But THOB 107.1. 1 records a Sgang ston Shes rab bla ma as one of Dmar ston's students, and distin­guishes him from his disciple Shes cab 'bum, something we also encounter in the record of teachings received of Bu ston Rin chen grub (1290-1364) in BU 22. This might be an error. The latter notes that Mnga' ris Skyi ston, a Mi

VAN DER KUIJP 195

on the oral teachings he received from Sa skya P~c;lita. While their colophons read more or less the same, the text issued in India does have an additional note subsequent to it, one which states: bsod nams dpal gyi dpe '0 II, "Bsod nams dpal's manuscript."42 One wonders if this "Bsod nams dpal" is to be identified as Brag phug pa Bsod nams dpal. This exegesis is also known as the Gzhung bshad dmar ma43 and should of course not be confused with the Pod dmar po, the "Red Volume," so named after the color of the cloth in which it was wrapped. The latter is a convolute of lam 'bras texts by various authors, originally compiled by Ngor chen, for which his nephew and disciple Rgyal tshab dam pa Kun dga' dbang phyug (1424-1478) wrote a catalogue.44

2. Title page: Lam 'bras bu dang bcas pa'i gdams ngag dang man ngag du bcas pa dmar chos kyi rgyal pos mdzad pa'i gsung ngag gi nyams len yig chung dang bcas pa CPN no. 004345(2) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ga 102 Folios 42 Incomplete; missing folios 43-?

Incipit: [lb] same as no. 4. No colophon

This is another manuscript ofDmar ston's exegesis of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang.

3. Title page: Bid ma shar pa rdo rje ' od zer gyis thugs kyi beud I II lam 'bras bu dang beas pa CPN no. 004345(3) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ga 102

nyag Chos rgyal, and a Khams pa Sa mu dra (= Rgya mtsho) were also among Dmar ston's disciples-see BU lOS, 118-to which we may add Dmar Shakya grub (?his nephew) and Bla rna Shakya gzhon nu; see THOB 102.4.3, 103.4.6-1-104.1.1. 42. DMAR 1 295. 43. GUNG 122.1.6. 44. See the Lam 'bras g~un bSad pod drnar rna (Dolanji: Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre, 1974). However, a collection by the same name is also attributed to Mus chen Dkon mchog rgyal mtshan, another one of Ngor chen's disciples, in the listing of contents for LBSB 13, 1-469.

196 JIABS 17.2

Folios 20 Incomplete; missing folios 9-10, 21-1 Some water damage

Incipit: [lb] II bla rna dam pa'i zhabs la gus pas phyag 'tshallo II rdo rje tshig rkang la don gnyis te I bla rna dam pa'i zhabs la phyag 'tshal zhing lam 'bras bshad par dam bcwa [read: bca'] ba dang I gzhung dngos po II No colophon

This is a commentary on the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang by Shar pa Rdo rje '00 zero Fol. Ib has two miniatures with VirUpa on the left and an unidentified individual, possibly Sa skya P~<;lita, on the right hand side. Gung ru observes that Rdo rje 'od zer completed the exegesis of the text that had been left unfinished by his elder brother Shar pa Shes rab 'byung gnas.45 This may be that work. Rdo rje 'od zer was the sec­ond abbot of Sa skya's Shar Residence and a disciple of Sa skya P~<;lita and his elder brother. The first three sources mentioned in note twenty­three of this paper state unanimously that Shes rab 'byung gnas passed away at the age of sixty-four (= sixty-three). It is only in a gloss anent him in a manuscript ofYar lung Jo bo's text in which we imd given the year of his birth as the earth-male-horse year. This would mean that his year of birth was most likely 1198 I 1199 remains a slight possibility as January of that year is also included in the earth-male-horse year, so that the year of his passing would have to be either 1261 or 1262. Again, the first three sources state that his younger brother Rdo rje 'od zer was abbot of the see of Shar for seven years and that he died at the age of sixty-two (= sixty-one). If we can accept that Rdo rje 'od zer mounted the abbacy upon the death of Shes rab 'byung gnas and that he remained on the throne until his own passing, then we may assume that his dates are circa 1206 to 1267.

4. Title page: Bl bsrungs 'thun mongpa: rje btsun dam pa 'i gsung ngag .CPNno.004345(4) Indigenous catalogue no. phyi ga 102 Folios 113; folio 25 has an "upper" (gong) and a ''lower'' ('og) one

45. GUNG 121.4.3-4.

VANDER KUIJP 197

Some water damage

Incipit: [lb] II bla rna dang dkon mchog rin po che mam pa gsum la phyag 'tshal zhing skyabs su mchi'o II bdag dang sems can thams cad kyi(sic) sangs rgyas thob par bya ba'i phyir I bsrung ba'i mal 'byor nyams su blang bar bgyi'o I Colophon: [112a] Ilbla rna dam pa chos kyi rje sa skya pa'i chas thams cad kyi mthar thug gam 'bras bu 'di chos kyi rje sa skya PaI).9i ta chen po'i zhabs kyi pad mo spyi bos blangs pa : bla rna shar pa rdo rje 'od zer gyis legs par sbyar ba'o II . .. II thun mong rna yin chos tshul 'di II dad ldan don yod rdo rje yis II nyams su blang phyir bris brtsarns pa II rgya ston ring mos dag par bris II . ..

This work on lam 'bras practise was written by Shar pa Rdo rje 'od zer under the inspiration of Sa skya PaI).9ita's instructions. It would appear that a Don yod rdo rje made a copy for his own use and the manuscript was then written out by a Rgya ston ring mo.

5. Title page: Rdo rje tshig rkang gi 'grel pa cha gan gyis bsdebs pa'o CPN no. 006617(14) Fols.46

Incipit: Ib] na mo gu ru bhYaJ:1 bla rna yid dam mkha' 'gro la II sgo gsum gus pas phyag 'tshaI te II rdo rje'i tshig 'byed 'grel chung 'di II rang gzhan don du bri bar bya' 0 II Colophon: [47a-b] .. shing pho brug gi 10 sgrog khum gyi zla ba'i yar tshes beu gsum la : [47b] bla rna dam pa'i gzims khang rin chen sgang gong mar sbyar cing bris pa 'dis gang zag dpag tu med pa smin grol la 'god cing : phyogs dus thams cad du bkra shis par gyur cig II II

Cha gan Dbang phyug rgyaI mtshan completed this study in what had been 'Phags pa's private chambers in the Rin chen sgang complex of Sa skya on the thirteenth day of the first haIf of the sgrog khum lunar month of the wood-maIe-dragon year, that is, sometime in 1304, inas­much as I do not know to what month the expression sgrog khum refers. The manuscript is in places scarcely legible and is replete with a

198 JIABS 17.2

large number of glosses in an unknown hand, including a long post­colophonic note which is by and large illegible. Typologically, Cha gan's exegesis belongs to the genre of the interlinear commentary, called mehan 'grel in later times. According to Ngor chen, Cha gan and his disciple Bla rna Mnyam med pa Grags pa rgyal mtshan46 apparently edited and, no doubt in their opinion, corrected the Tibetan translation of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang, without recourse of the Sanskrit text of the original, after which Cha gan wrote an exegesis of this curious pro­duction. Ngor chen critically refers to the resultant work, the Gzhung bshad rgyas pa, an "Extensive Commentary [on VirUpa's] Text, as a "subjective [re]construction" (rang bzo). Gung ru appears to call it the Gzhung bshad chen mo bka' rgya rna, a "Sealed Extensive Commentary [on VirUpa's] Work."47 If we compare the text of the Rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang used by Cha gan-in the manuscript, it is marked off the exegesis as such by having been written in larger script-to the readings and structure of the text as transmitted in orthodox Sa skya pa sources, it is clear that a number of significant changes in the text seems to have been initiated by him, or by him and Bla rna Mnyam med pa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbreviations A

Al

AMES

Ames zhabs Ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams. 1975. 'Dzam gling byang phyogs kyi thub pa'i rgyal tshab chen po dpal ldan sa skya pa'i gdung rabs rin po ehe ji ltar byon pa'i tshul gyi rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar rin po che'i bang mdzod dgos 'dod kun 'byung [Sde dge print]. New Delhi: Bonpo Monastic Centre. Ibid. 1986. Ed. Rdo tje rgyal po. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun lchang. Ibid. 1974. fongs rdzogs bstan pa rin po che'i nyams len gyi man ngag gsung rab rin po ehe'i byon tshul khog phub dang beas pa rgyas par bshad pa legs bshad 'dus pa'i rgya mtsho, Lam 'bras khog phub bde mehog ehos 'byung. Two

46. NGOR 117.2.2-3.4 [NGOR1 160.3.1~.3). For Bla rna Mnyam med pa Grags pa rgyal mtsban, see van der Kuijp 1994, 139, 142-144, and additional references in the introduction of van der Kuijp-Stearns (forthCOming). 47. GUNG 123.2.3~.

BLA

BLAI

BO

001 BU

CHA

DMAR DMARI

'GOS

GUNG

'JAM

KUN

MANG

VAN DER KUIJP 199

Historical Studies of the Sa-skya-pa Lam 'bras and Chakrasamvara(sic) Traditions. New Delhi. 1-314. Bla ma dam pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan. Bla ma brgyud pa'i roam par thar pa ngo mtshar snang ba. LBSB 13. 1-121. Ibid. Handwritten dbu med manuscript in fols.50. CPN catalogue no. 002799(7). ?Bo dong PaI]. chen Phyogs las rnam rgyal. 1973 Lam 'bras bla ma tshad ma'i 10 rgyus, Encyclopedia Tibetica. The Collected Works of Bo dong PaT) chen Phyogs las roam rgyal. Yol.l06. New Delhi: The Tibet House. 411-573. See the text listed under A-5 in the present paper. Bu ston Rin chen grub pa 1971. Bla ma dam pa leyis rjes su bzung ba'i tshul bka' drin rjes su dran par byed pa. The Collected Works of Bu ston (and Sgra tshad pa) [Lhasa print]. Part 24. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture. 1-142. Cha gan Dbang phyug rgyal mtshan. Lam 'bras leyi bla ma bod leyi 10 rgyus rgyas pa bod bstan pa'i byung 'dems mao Incomplete, handwritten dbu med manuscript in fols. 92. See van der Kuijp-Stearns (forthcoming). See the text listed under A-2 in the present paper. Dmar ston Chos kyi rgyal po. Gzhung rdo rje'i tshig rkang gi 'grel pa 'jam dbyangs bla ma'i gsung sgros mao LBSB

31. 1-295. 'Gos Lo tsa ba Gzhon nu dpal. 1976. Deb gter sngon po. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture. Gung ru Shes rab bzang po. Lam 'bras bu dang bcas pa'i man ngag gi byung tshul gsung ngag rin po che bstan pa rgyas pa'i 'od. SSBB 9 no.37. 108/3-126.4.3. 'Jam dbyangs Mkhyen brtse'idbang phyug. Gdams ngag byung tshul gyi zin bris gsang chen bstan pa rgyas byed. LBSB 14. 1-155. Jo nang Kun dga' grol mchog. 1982. Zhen pa rang grol gyi Ihug par brjod pa'i gtam bskal bzang dad pa'i shing rta 'dren byed. The Autobiographies of 10 nang Kun dga' grol mchog. YoU. New Delhi: The Tibet House. 285-534. Mang thos Kiu sgrub rgya mtsho. 1987. Bstan rtsis gsal ba'i nyin byed lhag bsam rab dkar, Gangs can rig mdzod

200 JIABS 17.2

4. Ed. Nor brang 0 rgyan. Lhasa: Bod Ijongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang.

LBSB The Slob bshad Tradition o/the Sa skya Lam 'Bras. 1983-1985. Vols.1-31. Dehra Dun: Sakya Centre.

NGOR Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang po. Lam 'bras bu dang bcas pa'i man ngag gi byung tshul gsung ngag rin po che bstan pa rgyas pa'i 'od. SSBB 9 no.37. 108.3-118.2.3.

NGORI Ibid. Lam 'bras bu dang bcas pa'i man ngag gi byung tshul gsung ngag bstan pa rgyas pa'i 'od kha skong dang bcas pa. SSBB 15 nO.87. 152.2-161.4.2.

SHES Stag tshang Shes rab rin chen, Sa skya pa'i gdung rabs 'dod dgu'i rgya mtsho handwritten dbu med manuscript in fols. 34. CPN catalogue no. 002437(?).

SSBB Sa skya pa'i bka' 'bum. 1968-1969. Vols.I-15. Compo Bsod nams rgya mtsho: Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko.

STAG Stag tshang pa Dpal 'byor bzang po. 1985. Rgya bod yig tshang chen mo. Ed. Dung dkar BIo bzang 'phrin las. Chengdu; Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang.

THOB Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang po. Thob yig rgya mtsho. SSBB

9 no.36. 44.4--108.2. TSHAL

TSHALI

TSHOGS

YAR

YARI

YAR2

Tshal pa Kun dga' rdo Ije. 1981. Deb ther dmar po. Ed. Dung dkar BIo bzang phrin las. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. Ibid. 1961. Gangtok: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. Anonymous. Tshogs sgom rin po che'i mam thar. LBSB 1. 338-341 Yar lung Jo bo SMkya rin chen, Yar lung jo bo shtikya rin chen gis mdzad pa'i chos 'byung, handwritten'dbu med manuscript in fols. 116. CPN ca-talogue no. 002446(2) Ibid. 1988. Ed. Dbyangs can. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang. Ibid. 1988. Ed. Ngag dbang. Lhasa: Bod Ijongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang.

Other References Bkra shis dbang 'dus. 1989. Bod kyi lo rgyus yig tshags dang gzhung yig

phyogs bsdus dwangs shel me long. Beijing: Mi dmangs dpe skrun khang.

VANDERKUIJP 201

Inaba, ShOju. 1975. "An Introductory Study of the Degeneration of Lamas-a genealogical and chronological note on the Imperial Preceptors of the Yuan dynasty." A Study of Kleia. Ed. G. H. Sasaki. Tokyo. 553-516.

van der Kuijp, L.W. J. 1994. ''Fourteenth Century Tibetan Cultural History I: Ta'i-si-tu Byang-chub rgyal-mtshan as a Man of Religion." Indo-Iranian Journal 37. 139-149.

van der Kuijp, L. W. J., and C. R. Stearns. Cha gan Dbang phyug rgyal mtshan and His Chronicles of the Sa skya Path-and-Result (lam 'bras) Teachings (forthcoming).

Roerich, G., trans. 1979. The Blue Annals. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

DAVID GERMANO

Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen)

Historical overview The Nyingma (rNying rna; "ancients") sect of Tibetan Buddhism claims to stem in lineal succession from religious groups active during the dy­nastic period of Tibetan history (600-842 CE), which they maintain endured in non-monastic lay groups though the dark period (842-978) ensuing upon the collapse of centralized political authority in Tibet. As this latter period gives way to the classical period (978-1419) of Tibetan civilization sparked by economic revival and limited political centraliza­tion, competing religious traditions emerge under the rubric of the Sarma (gSar rna; "modernists").l The Nyingmas were known as such in con-

This article benefited greatly from discussions during a symposium on rdzogs chen at the University of Virginia in April 1994, and I would thus like to thank its principal participants: Ronald Davidson, Janet Gyatso, Jeffrey Hopkins, Matthew Kapstein, Anne Klein and Dan Martin. In particu­lar I would like to thank Janet for her criticism of an earlier draft of the paper, and Matthew for very helpful conversations prior to and following the sym­posium. Paul Hackett also offered me constructive criticism on the opening sections. Finally my remarks on the importance of the body in these con­templative techniques are in part based on extensive discussions with Charles Herreshoff and Herbert Guenther. 1. I am well aware that some will object vehemently to my rendering of gSar rna as "modernist" (the Tibetan term literally means "the new" or "the fresh"). I do not intend to directly compare the use of the term to the various specific usages of the English rubric "modernism" in the twentieth century, but I do think it accords with the general significance of "modem thought, character, or practice" and even its more specialized contemporary definition as "the de­liberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expres­sion." It also has the advantage of making clear the pure ideological force of these terms for competing groups during this period, while simply utilizing

203

204 JIABS 17.2

trast to these groups actively and self-consciously reimporting Buddhism from India from the late tenth century onwards. Thus these rubrics "ancients" and "modernists" are not lndic in origin, but rather [rrst came into use in Tibet to signify these two discernible periods of Tibetan translation of Buddhist texts: "ancients" refers to the activity of the translator Vairocana (late eighth century) up to PaJ.lQita Sm.rtiCifianaldrti) (late tenth century or early eleventh century), while "modernists" signifies Rin chen bzang po (958-1055) onwards.2 The distinctive identities of both traditions were mutually co-constituting during the eleventh century and beyond, since both had their inception as self-conscious and distinct movements in intimate dialogue with each other. In addition, the earlier communities and their associated religious traditions were divided up into two broadly defined camps based upon whether or not they considered themselves explicitly Buddhist in affilia­tion: the Buddhist "ancient ones" and the non-Buddhist Bonpos {bon po).3

While the dark period continues to be obscure from our contemporary perspective, as it comes to a close we find those groups adhering to the rubric of the ancients dominated by two tantric-based traditions of prac -tice and theory generally transmitted in conjunction with each other: Mahayoga (mal 'byor chen po) and the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). The former constitutes a classic tantric system with the full spectrum of beliefs and practices characterizing late Indian Buddhist tantric move­ments (i. e. eighth century onwards). Thus representing the Tibetan importation of cutting edge Indian Buddhist tantra in the eighth to ninth centuries, this system constituted mainstream tantra for the Nyingmas, just as the Anuttarayoga tantras would eventually fulfill the same func-

the Tibetan teITIlS suggests their semantic content is slight (the flat "new ones" speaks little to a reader). 2. See kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Grub mtha' mazod 315.6. The important early Nyingma master Rong zorn chos kyi bzang po was said to be a direct reincarnation of PaJ.l4ita Smrtijiianaldrti (see Dudjom 1991, 703). 3. The early Great Perfection traditions are mainly found within these two communities. While the associated practices and literature are quite similar in both, in the present context I will be focusing exclusively on the situation within the communities of the ancients. Though it is imperative that the two be studied in tandem, research has not yet progressed to a state where thisis readily possible in many cases.

GERMANO 205

tion for the modernists. The Great Perfection. however, defined itSelf by the rhetorical rejection of such normative categories constituting tantric as well as non-tantric Indian Buddhism. This pristine state of affairs known as the "Mind Series" (sems sde) movement stemmed above all from Buddhist tantra as represented by the Mahayoga tantras, but was also influenced by other sources such as Chinese Chan. and unknown indigenous elements. Over the course of the next four centuries tradi­tions going under the name of the "Great Perfection" radically altered in nature. These alterations primarily consisted of rethinking its relation­ship to the wider tantric domains of discourse and praxiS that formed its original and continuing matrix of significance. This rethinking was pur­sued in dialogue with more normative tantric traditions both from within their own tradition (primarily the Mahayoga) and from the burgeoning modernist movements (such as the Mahamudra and Anuttarayoga tantra cycles); it was driven by its own interior logic of development as well as the multiple transformations induced by the modernists philosophically, institutionally andideologically. The entire process constituted nothing less than a stunningly original and distinctively Tibetan reinvention of Buddhist tantra in a large body of canonical and commentarial Tibetan language texts, many of which are philosophical and literary master­pieces. Of the many new systems thus generated under the continuing rubric of the Great Perfection, the most important was known as the "Seminal Heart" (snying thig). The process finally culminated in the corpus of the fourteenth century scholar-poet kLong chen rab 'byams pa (1308-1363), who not only systematized the creative ferment of the preceding centuries, but also carefully contextualized it in terms of the standard doctrinal and contemplative structures that were beginning to define Tibetan Buddhism in general. It is this process from the ninth to fourteenth century which forms the subject of my present inquiry.

The denial of tantra and rhetoric of absence in the formation of Great Perfection traditions From a very early point onwards, the Mahayoga Guhyagarbha Tantra (gSang ba sllying po) represents the most normative vision of what constitutes a tantra for these Nyingma lineages. Tibetan exegetical works on it discuss it in terms of ten or eleven "practical principles of tantra" (rgyud kyi dngos po) understood as summarizing the distinctive features of mainstream tantric systems overall. For example, Rong zorn

206 nABS 17.2

chos kyi bzang po (eleventh century) 4 speaks of nine such principles in his commentary: m~<;lala, actualization, empowennent, commitments and enlightened activities (as the five foundations), along with mantra, "seals," contemplation and offering (as the four branches). The earlier sPar Khab commentary ofLIIavajra adds the dyad of view and conduct to the five foundations to fonnulate seven principles. rDo grub 'jigs med bstan pa'i nyi rna (1865-1926) then structures the second half of his own commentary, the mDzod kyi Ide mig, around ten principles tenned "supporting conditions for the path": 5 view of suchness, resolving con­duct, arraying maI,l<;lala, empowerments for sequential traversal, com­mitments which are not to be transgressed, play of enlightened activity, actualization of aspirations, unwavering contemplation, offerings pre -sented to the appropriate (divine) sites and recitation of mantras with binding seals. Mi pham's (1846-1912) exegesis of the Guhyagarbha Tantra6 is structured around the same set of topics, though he counts the final two separately to arrive at eleven principles and sequences them differently: the triad of view, contemplation and conduct; the triad of maI,l<;lala, empowerment and commitment; the triad of actualization, offering and enlightened activity; and the dyad of seals and mantras. The fITst triad consists of the view or outlook, the contemplative means to instantiate that view in one's own being, and the conduct by which one integrates these with one's ongoing lifestyle and behavior. The sec­ond triad then relates to the integrated configurations ("m~<;lala") of divine energies representing this world being articulated or revealed, the transference of intense energy that begins to purify stains and thus empower one to take part in this maI,l<;lala, and the guideline~_ for the preservation of this new integration, i. e. the commitments that must be sustained. The third triad is comprised of the ritual and meditative means to actualize these changes, the offering practices to surrender one­self up to this new vision of reality while acknowledging the power and beauty of its chief incarnations (i. e. the buddhas, etc.), and the charis­matic efficacious activities that begin to unfold from the practitioner's newly found place in the universe. Finally there are seals which bind or secure these dimensions to prevent relapse and the mantras representing

4. The descriptions from Rong zorn chos kyi bzang po as well as the sPar khnb are drawn from mDzod kyi Ide mig 145ff. 5. Ibid., 145ff. 6. gSang 'grel phyogs bcu'i mun sel gyi spyi don 'ad gsal snying po 65.5.

GERMANO 207

the use oflanguage to evoke this world as well as sustain its integrity. These ten principles, with the detailed theories and practices they signify, thus constitute the quintessential identity· and infrastructure of normative tantra for the Nyingma tradition. In Tibetan Buddhism in general (i. e. both the modernists and ancients), a complimentary classification identi­fying a system or text as belonging to the tantric mainstream is that of the dyad of generation stage and perfection stage theories and pfaxis.?

The early Great Perfection is characterized by constant rhetorical denials of the validity and critical relevance of not only this dyadic sys -tern of tantric contemplation, but also the entire tenfold structure of tantra precisely as represented in the ancients' own mainstream tantric tradi­tions (Mahayoga). It is preCisely such denials that were involved in critics' rejection of Great Perfection texts as authentically tantric, as well as the texts' own attempts at differentiating between themselves and tantra. An early prominent example of such rhetoric is the important ninth chapter of the Kun byed rgyaZ po, where normative tantric princi­ples are negated under the rubric of the "ten facets of the enlightening mind's own being" (rang bzhin bcu). Identified as the "view of the great perfection, the enlightening mind," these ten constitute a rejection of the relevance of the tantric principles defining Mahayoga: 8 there is no meditative cultivation of a view; no preserving of commitments; no skill or exertion in enlightened activities; no obscuration of primordial gnosis; no cultivation or refinement of meditative stages; no path to traverse; no subtle phenomena; 9 no duality with relationships (between such discrete

7. See my discussion of this dyad below. 8. Kun byed rgyal po 32.1. 9. I interpret "subtle phenomena" as constituting a rejection of attempts to articulate some type of description of the ultimate nature of things (chos) as discrete manipulable things or building blocks that language can get a suffi­cient handle on. The tantra elaborates that "deviations and obscurations emerge in relation to phenomena via the grasping at a unitary dimension which is not some-thing to be grasped." Instead it is only in releasing one­self into the nothingness of reality (chos nyid) that the truly subtle reveals itself, at the level of the whole and its logic. Thus the tantra says "I am pri­mordially beyond subject-object duality, and hence there is no designation of 'subtle' .... "-giving oneself up to this unitary dimension of the invisible, one finds one's personal identity as part of its field, not in terms of some more subtle self still conceived along discrete lines. Similarly the rejection of duality and linkages in the following item rejects understanding this

208 JIABS 17.2

phenomena); no delineation of definitive scriptures aside from the mind; and no resolution in terms of esoteric precepts since it is beyond all reductionism, whether reifications or negations. While not identical to the Mahayoga lists, the similar numeration and partial correspondence is unmistakable.

In his commentary on the Kun byed rgyal po, 10 kLong chen rab 'byams pa speaks of the "tenfold nature of tantra" (rang bzhin bcu) in preface to citing a passage from the same ninth chapter: view or per­spective, meditation, commitments, enlightened activity, m~Qala, empowerment, cultivating stages (in a gradated path), traversing paths, purifying obstacles, and pristine awareness or buddha activity. He fur­ther specifies that these aspects can not be found upon analysis to exist as discrete tangible essences, and describes it thus: "this tenfold nature which is pure from the ground is resolved as a great non-meditation." However, the passage kLong chen rab 'byams pa cites provides brief descriptions of the same list of ten specified above from the Kun byed rgyal po (except it omits the tenth) and thus does not directly correlate to his own prefatory list. kLong chen rab 'byams pa adds "m~Qala," "empowerment," splits "meditation on a view" and "no obscuration of primordial gnosis" each into two elements, and omits "subtle phenom­ena," "non-duality" and the final two regarding scriptures and precepts. In addition, while kLong chen rab 'byams pa simply applies absence to all ten facets, the passage he cites oscillates back and forth between dimensions which are "absent" (med pa) and dimensions which pertain (yin), thereby intertwining positive and negative identifications of this dimension being evoked. In the gNas lugs mdzod,11 kLong chen rab 'byams pa cites an earlier passage from the ninth chapter of the Kun

dimension in teffils of "relationships" between discrete (i. e. dualistically con­ceived) entities, a type of discourse stemming from the karmic focus on indi­vidual subjectivities and their interaction as discrete centers on the basis of discernible patterns of cause and effect. Thus the tantra explains that "devi­ations and obscurations in terms of linkage occur via the emergence of link­ages in relation to a unitary dimension which is devoid of duality"; "because my fOffil pervades all, primordially it is not dual." 10. Byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po'i don khrid rin chen sgru boo All my page references are to Lipman's translation (1987, 34). 11. gNas lugs mdzod 60.5.

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byed rgyaZ po and identifies the "view of the great perfection" as the "realization of the absence of ten natures": view, commitments, empowerment, maI,lc;lala, stages, path, enlightened activity, primordial gnosis, fruit and reality itself. However, his list again only partially cor­responds to the quote it prefaces: he adds "empowerment and maI,lc;lala" as well as "fruit and reality," and ignores the final four elements in the tantra's enumeration. He concludes with a citation from the tantra's forty~ighth chapter12 which explains six "foundations": view, com­mitment, enlightened activity, path, stage, and primordial gnosis. These discrepancies result from kLong chen rab 'byams pa modifying the original list to resemble a more straightforward account of ten principles governing tantra in particular 13 as well as a more direct Nagarjunian­style negation of each. 1his apparently relates to his agenda of bringing the Great Perfection tradition into more explicit dialogue with the types of concerns characterizing the Buddhism of the normative academic institutions beginning to take shape in Tibet. In the current context he links itto the authoritative Middle Way (dbu rna, madhyamaka) system and carves out a distinctive space for it in relation to standard tantric systems.

The Great Perfection thus originates on the periphery of the vast dis­cursive terrain of the Mahayoga, the latter being none other than the complex web of doctrines and practices constituting normative tantra during that period. A vacuum is created in this landscape through the systematic expulsion of every standard tantric principle. Just as in Dignaga's theory of language where meaning derives from exclusion (apoha), 14 it creates itself through denial, rejection, and negation, result­ing in a space with nothing at all. What could this possibly signify in itself, since it is by its own definition nothing? Yet this absence, just as in signification, is utterly defined by what it has excluded-it is not a simple absence, but rather an absence of precise systems, systems which are thus inexorably evoked though now under erasure. The entire spec­trum of tantric ideologies and praxis haunts this pristine space of absence. The subsequent history of the Great Perfection then constitutes the cycling back of the tide, the inexorable return of the expelled, as

12. Kun byed rgyal po 141. 13. Most are also standard principles of non-tantric Buddhism, though the definitions emphasize their uniquely tantric interpretation. 14. For example, see Klein 1986, 145.

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tantric ideologies and practices flow back into this excavated space of Atiyoga. Yet as they return, they are transformed to become something other than their source-while permeable, the boundaries of the space remain. These boundaries in some way continue to demarcate a space of absence, but now the absence coexists with affirmation. The end result is that this becomes a place where a genuinely Tibetan transformation of Buddhist tantra takes place, an innovative appropriation and thorough­going revision in the cauldron of Tibetan ideologies, culture and lan­guage. This carved out space of absence thus functioned partially to maintain a bounded zone in which Tibetans could think, resisting the pressure of domination from the flood of Indic culture through rhetorical negation, and then while still holding it at an arm's distance, perform the alchemy of cultural assimilation.

Thus, at least at the level of literary expression, for the next six cen­turies (ninth to fourteenth) the Great Perfection was subject to a process of gradual alteration as these (rhetorically) exorcised demons gradually flowed back into its very core. Given the at times highly unusual way in which these "demons" made their reappearance, it is crucial not to assume that this process should be characterized pejoratively as regres­sion or simple assimilation, rather than as ongoing creativity and inno­vation. From a very early period we find Great Perfection texts being transmitted together with more normative tantric material and practices, and the key to understanding its fluctuations over the centuries among its different principal authors and lineage holders is to see a shifting bound­ary line that delineates the Great Perfection from the tantric ocean it is borne and sustained within in Tibet. We must trace how that oceanic background shapes it at any given time, as well as how the constantly shifting explicit divestiture and incorporation of diverse elements from its tantric context continued to alter its identity, at times in startling new directions. In addition, it is important not to exclusively privilege these valorized authors and lineage figures as distinct from what might have been quite different movements among unknown figures, withholding the pejorative designation "popular."

The rhetorical denial of early Great Perfection texts later classified as the "Mind Series" can thus not simply be taken at face value. On the one hand it could be largely intended for those who have already gone thro;Ugh these tantric processes with their complex meditations and ritu­als-for an authoritative voice to suddenly pronounce the whole infra­structure as meaningless and irrelevant would in that context possess a

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tremendous psychological power. Yet simultaneously its restriction to such a context would prevent it from actually undercutting or discour­aging an initial or even ongoing immersion in such practices. Aside from such considerations, obviously rejecting such principles is a way of talking about them, which evokes and conjures them even in its denial, thus living a parasitic existence dependent on its own alterity. While the precise significance of this Mind Series strategy of rhetorically negating these normative tantric principles is thus far from straight­forward, it should be noted that there are additional standard Great Per­fection approaches involving reinterpreting these principles in terms of internal process-oriented experiences of the psyche's embodied nature rather than externally conceived and performed structured activities. This can consist in poetic evocation that still clarifies little as to any practical approach: while there is a naturally occurring view, it is not forcefully cultivated; while there are commitments, they are not actively maintained vows; ordinary appearances are the desired vision rather than transcendent pure realms, and so forth. Alternatively, such an approach can involve a reinterpretation of standard practices such as evocation rit­uals that present their many details (such as offering, confession and feast) in terms of internal psychological processes revolving around deep contemplative awareness. Although the practice is thus streamlined and interiorized, it remains clearly implementable-i. e. the visualization of the relevant deity and chanting of liturgy are still enacted.

The Great Perfection's early sources: Chinese Chan, Tibetan Mind Series and the cutting edge of Indian Buddhist tantric contemplation In Kennard Lipman's study of an important Mind Series text,IS he char­acterizes early Great Perfection movements as growing out of tantric speculation on the notion of the "enlightened mind" (byang chub sems, bodhicitta), and emphasizes the use of concepts drawn from non-tantric "mind only" (sems tsam, cittamatrii) literature. In addition, while overt citation of Indian buddha-nature literature in the Great Perfection only becomes prevalent in the fourteenth century with kLong chen rab 'byams pa, tantra itself in general is based ideologically and hermeneuti­cally on buddha-nature traditions. 16 In similar fashion, the Great Per­fection is from its inception an integral part of this long standing Indian

15. Lipman 1987, 11. 16. Snellgrove 1987, 125.

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tradition of speculation on the practical implications of using the trope of the Buddha to talk about the ongoing dynamics of one's ow~ being, both that which lies in the grasp of one's vision and that which exceeds it. Philosophically it is a tantric interpretation of buddha-nature dis­course or "the enlightening mind" (byang chub sems, bodhicitta), emphasizing original purity (ka dag) or emptiness as well as valorizing continued action and dynamism under the heading of "spontaneity" (lhun grub). In doing so, it relentlessly undercuts the dominance of ordinary human subjectivity in preference for consistently adopting the mysterious "buddha-perspective." Regardless of which elements are stressed, the Great Perfection in its origins and development clearly belongs in the continuum of South Asian Buddhist traditions. The impressions of some contemporary Tibetologists to the contrary are par­tially due to the influential presuppositions of traditional and contempo­rary adherents to logico-epistemological strands of Indian Buddhism in our interpretations of the history of Buddhist thought and textuality. 17

When an understanding of thought and language is assumed and conse­quently applied across the spectrum as if natural, the differences elided are immense, and it becomes difficult to articulate a response when that elision falls unacknowledged, a shadow across the clear light of reason.

The major modem historical study to date of the specific origins of early Great Perfection lineages is Samten Karmay's The Great Perfec­tion. He argues 18 that it involves the blending of elements drawn from three principal sources: (i) movements emphasizing the instantaneous nature of enlightenment (cig car ba) deriving from Chinese Chan tradi­tions that were very active in Tibet during the eighth to ninth centuries; (ii) tantric teachings found in such Mahayoga texts as the Guhyagarbha Tantra and presumably deriving in the main from Indic areas of South Asia; and (iii) "Mind Series" type teachings. How or whether he distin­guishes the third element from the second element, i. e. whether the Mind Series is simply a rubric for this development out of the tantric

17. I have in mind conversations I have had over the years with various scholars. It also must be said that the quality and extent of modem academic work done in these and other sutra-based Indian and Tibetan Buddhist tradi­tions remains superior to that done in tantra-based traditions. For these rea­sons, there is a quite natural tendency for the former to unduly dominate our critical perspectives. 18. Karmay 1988, 216.

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perfection phase meditations in the Mahayoga Tantras 19 or a priorly existent movement, is not clear. In fact, the center of Karmay' s text is the proposition that Padmasambhava's Man ngag Zta ba'i phreng ba, a commentary on perfection phase contemplative processes outlined in the Guhyagarbha Tantra framed by a discussion of a doxography of nine vehicles, represents a state at which the Great Perfection is beginning to separate itself from its tantric origins. Approximah~ly half of Padmasambhava's text concerns the Great Perfection presented as the third of the triune process (tshuZ) of the "tantric vehicle of inner yogic means": 20 the generation mode, perfection mode, and great perfection mode. At this early stage, the Great Perfection thus is not understood as an independent vehicle, but rather as an expansion of the traditional tantric dyad of generation phase and perfection phase meditations into a triad which it culminates. Its rationale may be to focus in on the form­less meditations of the perfection phase,21 thereby enabling them to become contemplative sessions in and of themselves divorced from not only generation phase visualizations, but also the techniques of complex

I

internalized visualizations that also go under the rubric of "perfection phase" (reflected in subtle body theory and praxis). In this way, rer­haps, proponents were able to engage in complex and difficult contem­plative processes, but also rhetorically and experientially preserve a space in which such language as "natural," "uncontrived," "stress-free" and "open" could apply. It is essential to keep in mind that Mahayoga just represents the cutting edge of Indian Buddhist Tantrism in the eighth to ninth centuries, similar to the rubric "Anuttarayoga" in the tenth to eleventh centuries for the modernists-in fact the two are basically very similar movements despite the polemics. Karmayalso points to refer­ences in modernist tantras themselves that indicate "great perfection" (whatever Indic term this may translate) was used to refer to a "high level of spiritual attainment reached through the practice of rdzogs rim contemplation"22 or the perfection phase itself.

19. Kannay 1988, 120. 20. Kannay 1988, 146. 21. The term "formless" is problematic, since such meditations are subtly thematized or in-formed by the aphoristic language of "instructions" as well as the overall context in which they are practiced. 22. Kannay 1988, 141.

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In the Guhyagarbha Tantra itself we find repeated uses of the term rdzogs, but only four references to "great perfection." Each of the refer­ences clearly relates to the term's later usage, though none unambigu-0usly imply it functioning as a rubric for a coherent system of theory or praxis. The first reference: 23

Primordial gnosis considered in terms of a center with four directions Is an inconceivable, spontaneous m~Qala, which is a great perfection

(rdzogs chen) -The visionary who realizes it Experiences the origin of everything within this great m~Qala.

The second reference: 24

Then all the m~Qalas of the adamantine enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddhas from throughout the ten directions and four times became condensed into one. Thus the Great Joyous One entered equipoise within the contemplation of the cloud-array of the intensely secret commitment's nucleus, i. e. that all phenomena are primordially spontaneously present within the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen).

The third reference:25

Om! The great perfection (rdzogs pa che) of enlightened body, speech and mind -

Totally perfect and complete in terms of enlightened qualities and activities !

Totally positive (kun bzang) in its primordial spontaneous perfection! completeness!

A great seminal nucleus of the gathered great assembly! Hoh!

The fourth reference: 26

Remaining within the commitment of sameness Which evenly links you to sameness,

23. Chapter six; Tibetan and translation in DoIje 1987, 200, 626. All trans­lations provided here are my own. 24. Chapter thirteen; Tibetan and translation in DOlje 1987, 31, 982. 25. Chapter fourteen; Tibetan and translation in Dorje 1987,235, 1054. 26. Chapter nineteen; Tibetan and translation in DOIje 1987,253, 186.

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You will obtain the great sameness-perfection (mnyam rdzogs chen po);

If you transgress it, you will never be expansively awakened into buddhahood.

This connection between the Guhyagarbha Tantra and early Great Per­fection movements is supported by the traditional characterization of the final three vehicles (Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga) as tantra (rgyud), scripture (lung) and esoteric precept (man ngag),21 This sug­gests that Mahayoga constitutes the traditional tantric cycles, while Atiyoga functions as highly specialized and experiential precepts pre­senting the cycles' essence in contemplative form.

In saying that Padmasambhava's text gave "birth to the doctrine of rdzogs chen as a syncretic teaching drawing mainly from [the Guhyagarbha Tantra]" (152), Karmay again tersely qualifies this by characterizing it as "tinged with thinking deriving from the [Mind Series] 18 series of texts."28 The relevant passages are ambiguously expressed, and it is quite possible that Karmay does not intend to sug­gest two separate movements. However, for the purpose of my current discussion I would like to briefly pursue the possibility of distinct strands in Tibet that then merged during these early centuries. The con­tention is that the Mind Series may have constituted a separate and inde­pendent movement of unspecified origins, which then transformed into the Great Perfection in Tibet through merging with a separate develop­ment flowing out of Mahayoga perfection phase theory and practices. This then gradually detached itself from its Origins into a tradition that evolved a self-understanding of itself as an independent vehicle. The origins of this hypothesized early Mind Series could have been a largely oral and non-monastic movement among Himalayan yogic circles belonging to a similar Buddhist milieu as that which generated other such traditions reflected in Doha literature29 and Mahamudra. While clearly tantric in nature, it was an aestheticized and streamlined variety distancing itself from other tantric movements focusing on sexuality, violence and complex ritual practices encompassed by generation phase

27. See, for example, the Theg mchog nuizod vol. 2, 97.4. 28. This set of texts is discussed in Karmay 1988, 24. 29. This is of course related to Kvaeme's theory on the origins of Bon Great Perfection.

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and perfection phase contemplation.30 While possessing scattered attempts at literary production, its literary identity was fairly unformed, and thus it was able to easily blend with a more literary-based movement growing out of speculations on the implications of a type of contempla­tion known as the "great perfection" emerging out of perfection phase practices (themselves drawn from the extensive Mahayoga tantra cycles). While both the Mind Series and new Mahayoga developments may have largely took shape in Tibetan areas as Karmay continually implies, clearly there were also substantial ties to Indian Buddhist circles via Tibetans traveling abroad as well as various foreign yogis / scholars wandering through Tibet.

As opposed to the subsequent Seminal Heart transformation of the Great Perfection which is quite different from Chan and intensely tantric in nature,31 the early Great Perfection tradition eventually subsumed under the Mind Series rubric obviously bears many striking similarities to Chinese Chan (as well as differences). Given early references to the subterranean survival of Chan in Tibet, it would thus not be surprising that Chan constituted one of the important strands fueling the Great Per­fection's initial development. Despite this, its main sources are obvi­ously tantric in nature; the earlier characterizations of it as the "residue of Chan in Tibet" having been thoroughly criticized by Karmay, I will not repeat it here. 32 Robertson and Tanaka 33 likewise have strongly criti­cized Tucci's claims that the Great Perfection has a direct genetic rela­tionship to Chinese Chan such that it partially represents the preservation of Chan practices and beliefs in Tibet. While the criticism of Tucci's fallacious arguments is excellent, they base themselves on a single text, such that the scope of refutation is too narrow and consequently the claims made are too strong in disregarding more subtle versions of

30. See Robertson 1992, 162 for a discussion of how the Mind Series movement takes its stand independently of tantric features, claiming its "inexpressible spontaneous presence of pure and complete mind" is outside of the generation / perfection phase structures (also see Karmay 1988, 55-58, 119-120). 31. For this reason, questions regarding how the Seminal Heart's innova­tiveness may be genetically related to other traditions must be pursued elsewhere. 32. Karmay 1988, 86-106. 33. Robertson and Tanaka 1992.

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Chan's possible influences on early Great Perfection traditions. Such influence could have taken place outside of Tibetan cultural domains, and / or in the late eighth century some one hundred and fIfty years prior to bSam gtan mig sgran' s composition (the text Robertson and Tanaka use to argue that Chan and the Great Perfection were considered to be quite distinct traditions). Nonetheless, I do agree that even these early Great Perfection traditions were clearly profoundly tantric in character by at least the latter half of tenth century, which indicates its principal roots were non-Chan in origin, despite the lack of overtly tantric visual­ization techniques. This type of doctrinal argument is echoed by Norbu.34 However even if we posit the Great Perfection as emerging through a process of detachment from Mahayoga tantric practices and literature, its development in Tibet took place in a milieu where Chan influence was at times very strong indeed. Given their striking similari­ties as well as the references to Chan in Nyingma literature,35 it would be very odd if the Great Perfection was not significantly influenced by its dialogues with Chan, even if its original genesis and primary impetus is to be located elsewhere.

Scholarship clearly must thus move beyond an "either / or" type of framework that posits the Great Perfection as a survival of Chan in Tibet, or disavows any relationship whatsoever. It is also important to note that the later Seminal Heart movement could never be confused with Chan in any of its ordinary forms, with the exception of its incor­poration of earlier Great Perfection movements in its "absence" (med pa) discourse articulating "breakthrough" (khregs chad) contemplation. A more interesting line of inquiry is to ask how the Great Perfection might have important implications for our re-reading of the history and nature of Indian Buddhism as a tantric tradition offering important hermeneutic and philosophical innovations rather than simple anti-nomian practices, new terminology, or new "styles" for contemplation. 36 Finally, it is

34. Norbu 1984. 35. See Karmay 1988, 93, for a reference to a seventh generation of Chan teachings in reference to an important Great Perfection master around 1000 C.E. 36. An example of the understanding of tantrism that I find problematic can be found in Snellgrove 1987, 189: " .... the vast variety of tantric imagery, when divorced from the actual tantric practices of the kind we have illustrated, becomes in effect nothing more than new styles for old practices .... tantric

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essential to keep in mind that the Great Perfection was not at all a mono -lithic tradition, but rather during these early centuries consisted of a wide variety of heterogeneous movements with often quite different sources and agendas. In many ways the quest for pinpointing its "origins" is yet another futile search ill-fated because of its faulty premises.

Whatever its origins, in Tibet, at least, the term "Great Perfection" came to signify a series of interlinked poetically thematized styles of meditation codified into varying traditions grouped together as the "Mind Series" (sems sde). The term became a rubric for extended dis­courses on the subject gradually understood as a discourse making sense in and of itself, eve~ to the extent (in some circles) of constituting a self­sufficient praxis without reliance on other more tangible technique-ori­ented systems of Buddhist contemplation. At some point in this pro­cess, its adherents thus began to refer to it as a "vehicle" (theg pa, yana), which connotes a soteriologically efficacious and autonomous way. Recent research 37 indicates this may have been already in process by the late eighth century in India. However, simply the term "vehicle" does not by itself indicate that the Great Perfection had gained any type of self-sufficient identity for itself either in terms of extended literary cycles or forms of praxis, although it may have had such an identity as a largely oral phenomena only gradually elaborated in graphic forms. The strands that fueled this initial development in Tibet appears to be this triad of early Vajrayana speculation and practice, then known under the heading of "Mahayoga" (the Guhyagarhha Tantra in particular);38 Chinese Chan traditions encountered from Sichuan, Dunhuang, and elsewhere; and unknown indigenous influences, perhaps including heterodox Buddhist movements circulating in Tibet prior to the late eighth cen-

Buddhism seems to offer little new in results, which earlier forms of Mahayana Buddhism do not already supply .... " Despite such problems, Snellgrove's lTUio-Tibetan Buddhism vol. I remains the standard work on the history of Indian Buddhist tantra. 37. I have in mind here the ongoing doctoral research of Phil Stanley at the University of Virginia into the early nine vehicle doxographical systems of Nyingma literature. 38. See Eastman 1981, 1983.

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tury.39 This discursive independence of the Great Perfection is clearly indicated textually during the tenth century in Tibet by gNubs sangs rgyas ye shes's bSam gtan mig sgron and the codification by unknown hands of earlier short tantras into the critical Kun byed rgyal po. The former is the earliest surviving substantial exegetical work on the Great Perfection attributed explicitly to a Tibetan author, and its main section discusses four distinct Buddhist traditions hierarchically arranged from lowest to highest: the gradual approach of the MMhyarnika taught by KamalaSila, the sudden approach of the Chan taught by Hva-shang Mahayana, the non-dual approach of the Mahayoga and the spontaneous approach of the Great Perfection.40 The Kun byed rgyal po, on the other hand, is the main canonical work of the Great Perfection as it emerges from the "dark period" (850 to 1000 C. E.) into the light of the economic and religious transformations of the eleventh century. While the dark period was marked by economic depression, political decentral­ization, and a paucity of historical records,41 it was thus also apparently the site of these non-institutionalized developments of early Vajrayana movements that resulted in the gradual articulation of a self-conscious Great Perfection movement in Tibet, as well as the more graphically tantric Mahayoga systems.

A digression into the history of rhetoric and practice in Buddhist tantric contemplation: the triad of generation phase, perfection phase and the great perfection The later phases of Buddhist tantra in India known under the rubric of the "Anuttara-yoga Tantras" generally classified their various contem­plative techniques into two sequentially ordered types: "generation

39. See Kvaerne 1972, 38-40, where he suggests that Bonpo Great Perfection traditions stemmed in part from the activities of Buddhist tantric adepts and possibly Saivite yogis in western Tibet (then the kingdom of Zhang Zhung) during the seventh to eighth centuries. In other words, the eighth century transmission of Buddhism from China and India into central Tibet under the auspices of the Yarlung dynasty was not the earliest or exclusive source of Buddhist transmissions in ancient Tibet. Also see Kvaeme 1976. 40. bSam gtan mig sgron 65-118, 118-186, 186-290, 290-494 respectively. See Guenther 1983 for a discussion of this text; also Ruegg 1989,6-7, etc .. 41. Ronald Davidson delivered an excellent summary of issues related to this period and its end in an unpublished talk entitled "The Eleventh Century Renaissance in Central Tibet" (April 1994, University of Virginia).

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phase" (bskyed rim, utpatti-krama) and "perfection phase" (rdzogs rim, sa'!!panna-krama) practices respectively. This categorization was par­tially an attempt to introduce innovative contemplations (the latter) and theoretically justify them as complimentary processes to previously standard tantric contemplative practices (the former). The perfection phase is thus understood as bringing the generation phase practices to "perfection" or "completion," thereby both integrating with, and subor­dinating, the earlier standard modes of contemplation. One gives rise to a vision of transcendence in stark contrast to one's mundane existence (generation), and that vision is then fully em-bodied as it culminates in the visionary's physical incarnation of a new order of existence (peifection), a new organizing principle that begins to assert itself in and as oneself.42 "Generation phase" in general signifies a concern with visual images, and in particular the various practices of "generating" visualizations of deities' bodily images that became so popular under the rubric of Buddhist tantra. Its various systematizations correspond to different procedures and corresponding classifications for how one goes about such visualization in an organized sequence of steps.

"Perfection phase," however, covers two distinct rubrics: an earlier body of practice focused on the absence of images and a later system of techniques focused on the human body as a directly sensed reality. The first aspect indicates form-less types of contemplation directly on tre ultimate nature of one's mind utterly devoid of any fabricated or sponta­neous visual images. Often discussed as the dissolution of visual images back into the visionary, one could explain them as a felt experi­ence of being grounded in the body, guided by the felt gravity of the body's presence without any cathexis to external images. They can also be understood in part as attempts to formally incorporate the non-exo­teric styles of meditation on emptiness (that were increasingly normative in orthodox monastic environments) into tantric practice and ideology. This was done so with a degree of self-identity that provided rhetorical justification of their Buddhist character, as well as perhaps a means to transform a discourse and praxis that may have become a stifling ortho­doxy.43 It is important both to note that the actual "content" and style of these meditations when isolated out from their context is near identical,

42. See Cozart 1986, 27 and 4i. 43. See de Jong 1984, 98, for a discussion of Matsunaga's notion of the "ritualisation of Mahayana ideas" in Buddhist tantra.

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and yet, when contextualized discursively and practically, the distinct semantic shapings of that similar "content" results in arguably quite dif­ferent practices despite their formal similarities. In other words, exoteric contemplation of emptiness and esoteric dissolution of images is simul­taneously radically similar, and radically different. The second rubric of perfection phase contemplation signifies internal meditations on a subtle or imaginal body-image through visualizing its triune elements known as "the channels, winds, and nuclei" (rtsa riung thig Ie). This is in contrast to focusing on external visualizations of deities in front of one's self, or as one self, or even internal visualizations of constellations of such deities as a "body IDaJ).Qala." These types of perfection phase medita­tions are innovative and distinctive in the history of Buddhist tantra in that they introduce overtly sexual symbolism as the basis for contempla­tion through reliance on non-anthropomorphic representations of a sub­tle body. Correspondingly they mark a move towards felt tactile sensa­tions (especially sexual bliss and sensations of warmth) rather than exclusive reliance on our capacity for vision. In this way it marks a movement towards embodiment and processes internal to our body, with sexuality involving intensely tactile felt presences in contrast to vision, the coolest and most metaphysical of our senses. 44 We can thus only fully embody and assimilate these transformations by coming to terms with our body, a space that somehow resists the influence of the det­ached image.

TIlls distinction of two dimensions of "perfection phase" practices is at times discussed as "with signs" or "symbolic" (mtshan bcas) in distinc­tion to "without signs" or "non-symbolic" (mtshan met!).45 In other

44. See Levin's 1988 analysis of the nature of vision and its contemporary distortion in "The Yielding of the Visible" (60-69) and ''The Technological Eye" (95-107), as well as how he contrasts vision's distance to the immediacy of touch in "Vision in Touch" (253-256). 45. Of course this distinction between images I appearances and emptiness has an ancient pedigree in Indian Buddhism, and even the precise terminology of "yoga with signs" and "yoga without signs" is used to discuss the contem­plative techniques found in the earlier tantric systems eventually classified as the Action, Conduct and Yoga tantric classes (see Hopkins 1987, 189-203; Hopkins 1987a, 52; Sopa 1985, 24-27). In that context it refers primarily instead to contemplation of a deity in contrast to contemplation of emptiness, since the elaborate notion of a subtle body and consequent focus on the body's felt interior only emerges in the later Anuttarayoga tantras. Beyer

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contexts the distinction is terminologically expressed as "the path of effi­cacious means" (thabs lam) and "the path of freedom" (grollam).46 A significant point of contention in India and Tibet appears to have been whether the latter styles of contemplation could constitute a meditative session with particular techniques to generate and sustain it (regardless of rhetorical denials offormal meditation), or even an entire "vehicle" in and of themselves. The more conservative position maintained the necessity of their linkage to imaginal processes involving visual images as a necessary preliminary and / or complement, i. e. generation phase practices. Obvious reasons for the necessity of such linkage range from the felt need to imbue these practices' powerful effects with a strong sense of orthodox Buddhist ethics,47 to the circular logic that Beyer alludes t048-since normative Buddhist circles have come to set up such practices as presupposing that "the practitioner is a deity. . . . formed through a series of magically potent contemplative events," mastery of generation phase techniques is an absolute prerequisite. However such circular logic is hardly convincing outside of a tradijional discourse, and the motivations and necessity of this privileging of deity-discourse remains an open question. 49 Just as Sharf has pointed out in other con-

(1973, 132) discusses this distinction in the context of the latter, identifying "signless" as "gathering in the divine body-image and arising from the clear light of emptiness" (bsdu [dang). 46. DOlje 1987,117. 47. This need is particularly evident when considering contemporary Qigong in the PRC, where the paranoia of "masters" obsessed with the manipulation of their own energy is legendary. I particularly remember a discussion with a Chinese friend of mine living in a remote Tibetan monastery after forsaking following in the footsteps of his father, a famous Qigong master in Beijing. Despite having had numerous experiences of the tremendous power such prac­tices have, he had been unable to cope with what he viewed as the dominant tone of manipulation and control in their guarding secret techniques, martial applications, amassing of wealth and general disregard of ethics. It was pre­cisely for the immersion in a Buddhist world-view that he had come to the monastery, despite the hardships. 48. Beyer 1973, 131. 49. The broader subject of the role of visually conceived symbols is some­what different from this issue of how visualization of deity-images came to .. dominate Buddhist tantric practice.

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texts, certainly in Tibet also there was a continual oscillation in such practices between the actual presence of felt experiences in the perceptual fields of the practitioner's body and the dominance of discursive / ritual systematizations, with the latter generating, and fulfilling, a wide variety of needs quite distinct from the psycho-physical transformation of an individual. 50

The term "Great Perfection" or "great completeness" then seems to have first had a limited currency in India (and perhaps elsewhere) as a technical term referring to a higher development of "perfection phase" yogic states (eighth century?). This was eventually codified into a triadic transformation or expansion of the increasingly normative dyadic classi­ficatlon oftantric contemplation: the generation phase, perfection phase and great perfection. In some sources this triad apparently signified the different stages of meditation an adept must pass through. 51 In this context, "great perfection" apparently referred to a kind of technique-free "natural" immersion in a non-conceptual state that became a frequent experience for some practitioners after prolonged use of perfection phase techniques, a psychological space which was intensely tantric by virtue of its matrix. As examples of textual evidence, the important Anuyoga text the mDo dgongs ' dus pa represents the final three vehicles as gen­eration' perfection, and total perfection (yongs su rdzogs).52 Dudjom Rinpoche53 cites at length two such passages from modernist tantras, the 'Jam dpa/ zhal lung of Buddhasrijfianapada and its commentary by

50. See Sharf 1992. The strong reading of Sharf's argument against assum­ing phenomenological interpretations of Buddhist texts' reference to subjec­tive contemplative experiences simply does not hold water in Tibet. There are numerous very specific and pointed discussions of personal experiences, as well as pointed discussions of contemporaries who have, and have not, expe­rienced various types of markers in Tibetan texts (see the gTer bdag gling pa passage cited below). In addition, my own personal experience, and conversa­tions with various religious practitioners in various parts of the Tibetan cultural zone clearly indicates how misleading such a strong argument would be. Despite this, his arguments mitigated with caution are quite valid, and offer valuable hermeneutics as to how these practices and discourses can have numerous functions intersubjectively that have little to do with any "authentic" inner experiences. 51. Karmay 1988, 18 and 138. 52. mDo dgongs 'dus pa 302.7. 53. Dudjom 1991, 313.

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Vitapada ('Phags pa 'jam dpaZ dbyangs kyi zhaZZung gi 'greZ pa). The texts as a pair explicitly identify the term "Great Perfection" as referring to the second stage of the perfection phase, i. e. the "non-symbolic" as opposed to "symbolic." The former characterizes it as "the second stage which is the essence of all the glorious ones," which the latter interprets as the "second stage of the second [i. e. perfection] stage." In the much later Chos dbyings mdzod,54 kLong chen rab 'byams pa explicitly labels the Great Perfection as "secret mantra" in terms of situating it within Indian Buddhism, and further specifies that from the secret mantra's two divisions of "generation" and "perfection" phase, it is the latter. Finally, in terms of the two types of perfection phases - "greater and lesser"-it is the "great" type. In his bSam gtan ngaZ gso,55 kLong chen rab 'byams pa also refers to it as "the great perfection phase" (rdzogs rim chen po), defined as "resting in the pristine unfabricated enlightening­mind of awareness."

The orthodox position in Tibet was certainly that perfection phase practices sequentially follow, and are contextualized by, standard Mahayana meditations such as "engendering an altruistic motivation to enlightenment" (sems bskyed) and tantric generation phase visualiza­tions-one Tibetan author even defines perfection phase practices with­out such conjunction as essentially non-Buddhist practices.56 Often the advocated mastery of visualizations in the generation phase required to move on to perfection phase contemplations is extraordinary, to the point where one must be "capable of visualizing the entire mat;tc.Iala palace and occupants as contained within a shining drop at the tip of the nose, heart center, or genitals, and of holding that precise hologram stable for sev­eral hours."57 Frequently Tibetans will speak of needing to see the "whites of the eyes" of each of the innumerable deities in a given mat;t -c.Iala. However, there are many indications that such extreme strictures are largely theoretical or exhortatory in nature, while in practice the situ-

54. Chos dbyings mdzod 350.7ff. 55. bSam gtan nga/ gsa 80.2. 56. Matthew Kapstein infoffiled me (private communication, April 1994) that he had seen precisel y such a reference in 'Jam mgon Kong sprul's corpus, while similar statements are scattered throughout Tibetan Buddhist texts. See the Yid bzhin mdzod (665.7) for a typical assumption of such conjunction. 57. ThUImall 1994, 73.

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ation is much more fluid. Beyer58 cites a conversation with a "highly placed incarnate lama" who admitted to being only able to roughly visualize the subtle deities, though he quickly cited an elder yogi who supposedly had perfect visual mastery. Gyatso's59 detailed account of perfection phase practice in the Geluk tradition provides a very succinct set of relatively simple visualizations for those who cannot do the more extensive ones (specifying it as the minimum requirement for proceeding onwards). Lest one think such a reference is an accommodation for contemporary students, I should point out that in the Shing rta chen po 60

kLong chen rab 'byams pa details a practice that is said to be for ''those who only take up perfection phase practices, whether because they can't engage in extensive generation phase meditation or because they have little problem with discursiveness."

This question of the autonomy of perfection phase contemplation is pertinent whether the context is a particular meditative session, or some type of sequential progression outlined by a path structure. If it is held that the non-symbolic formless meditations themselves are sufficient, since there is no longer a preliminary engagement of vision that can be said to energize or contextualize the consequent states of dissolution, a natural question arises: in what way are such meditations delineated from standard types of non-esoteric "calming" practices (zhi gnas, samatha) and meditations on emptiness? Far from being the "ultra­peak" (yang rtse) of all Buddhist practices as claimed, such associations instead link them to doxographically inferior non-tantric preparatory types of contemplation. This appears to have been a frequent point of attack in Tibet, since Great Perfection literature stresses that its medita­tions Me not fixated or exclusionary as calming practices generally are­instead they enable a vibrant and ceaselessly active type of awareness to come to the fore, which is then integrated into every day life. 61 A fur-

58. Beyer 1973, 75. 59. Gyatso 1982, 14-16. 60. Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 112.5. 61. This is indicated in passages such as the following from the Tshig don nulzod (349):

No matter whether it (i. e. awareness) is shining forth hither to objects of the six consciousnesses or abiding within indwelling cognition, the dimension of awareness is a naked natural clarity, vivid in its clarity and awareness. Though vile thoughts arise, it is nakedly present in

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ther implicit type of delineation appears to be how their discourse's sur­rounding semantic field flavors the practitioner's understanding of such states of contemplation, such that their inherently tantric textual (graphic and oral) discourses shape and give body to these simple, yet difficult, states of being. In this way, one could argue that even a tradition not actively appropriating visualization in praxis could be profoundly tantric by virtue of this discursive shaping of the contemplative arena. This is particularly clear in the Great Perfection, where such "formless" con­templations cultivate not only an alert, vigilant, eyes-open awareness, but also are shaped in distinct styles of psychological inquiry by poetic thematization. 62

There were at least two major religious traditions in Tibetan areas during the eleventh to twelfth centuries that attempted to rhetorically (leaving open the question of actual praxis in specific life-contexts) pre­sent themselves as self-sufficient tantric vehicles that exclusively engaged in "formless"63 types of contemplation: the bKa' brgyud tradi-

inherently cleansed wakefulness; though noble thoughts arise, it is purely present and awake in its freedom from limitations. Though awareness abides within its own place, it uninterruptedly gazes with wide open eyes, untransformed by objects, unadulterated by grasping, and without involvement in notions of things to abandon and their antidotes. This dimension of awareness in its intense clarity and unwavering lucidity is identified as the Body of Reality in its naked unimpededness. If it is not cognitive and aware, forget about it; but if it is, since it's impossible that its essence is not the Body of Reality, you must recognize it as such.

62. Examples of such poetic thematization are the four styles of letting-be, twelve adamantine laughs and seven marvelous esoteric words described in the Seminal Heart tradition as means for Breakthrough meditation (especially see the Tshig don mdzod 346fO. 63. I continue to use scare quotes around "formless" to frighten away inap­propriate connotations. They are only form-less in relation to their lack of standard Buddhist contemplative forms and their deconstruction of foeval vision, while in fact they are very concerned with the nature of our visual field as well as in-forming experience.

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tions of the Great Seal (phyag rgya chen po, mahamudra)64 and the Ancients I Bon traditions of the Great Perfection (i. e. the Mind Series, not later developments). In their early forms, both represent innovative codifications of non-symbolic perfection phase practices separated off from their intimate partners in tantric contemplation, and thus in essence are tantric transformations of earlier calming (zhi gnas, samatha) and insight (lhag mthong, vipaiyana) meditations. These latter meditations are modified in terms of actual practice as well as shaped by the tantric discourses in which they are rhetorically contextualized. Both traditions are thus referred to as "great" (chen po), a word that in TIbetan generally functions along the lines of the English "super." They are the "super" part of perfection I completion phase practices, such that the "Great Perfection" can be interpreted as the "super style I dimension of perfec­tion phase practices." In other words, these traditions do not concern themselves with the interiorization, sexualization, and de-anthropomor­phic imaging of visualization in the subtle body (i. e. symbolic perfection phase practices), but rather only with the more seemingly amorphous realms of (visually contrived) form-less meditation. They ultimately aim at haunting or reshaping everyday experience rather than becoming mys­tic trances departing from and re-entering th~ conventional domain.

The question as to what degree these were actually implemented apart from any other types of more normative tantric practices, and particularly subtle body meditations, is crucial. For the moment, my emphasis is simply on their rhetorical exclusion of such practices, which at the very least appeared to be a basis for the polemical attacks launched by other groups (as well as a basis for the bKa' brgyud-Nyingma syncretism over the centuries that finally issued forth in a full blown ecumenical (ris med) movement in nineteenth century Eastern Tibet). For example, a typical passage from the bSam gtan mig sgron65 rejects any type of physical discipline, including the simple discipline of a prescribed sitting posture as one meditates-the practitioner "should instead do whatever is comfortable." However in the history of Buddhism we often find the rhetorical negation of a practice serves a variety of functions without

64. The history and nature of the various movements that have gone under the rubric of the "Great Seal" in Tibet has yet to be critically studied. Such a history should shed considerable light on these issues. 65. See the bSam gtan mig sgron 403-5; also Karmay 1988, 119. The cited phrase is on 403.6.

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necessarily entailing the literal rejection of the practice in question. For instance, such negative rhetoric can discourage becoming rigidly fixated on particular techniques as producing desired experiences or states, such that one loses sight of the eventual necessity to dissolve boundaries between contemplative practice and daily life. Subsequent Great Perfec­tion traditions indicate that such styles of meditation begin with a sym­balic indication of the mind's nature in an encounter with one's teacher referred to as a "pointing to" or "introduction to" the mind's nature (sems khrid; ngo sprod).66 While contemporary teachers tend to con­textualize such an event within a swelter of other practices which it then serves to reinterpret, it is not clear to what extent such may have been the case during these earlier periOds.

Following such an "introduction" constituting a type of initiation into the tradition, one can envision at least five possible ways in which dis­ciples may have been directed to contextualize Great Perfection rhetoric and thus understand the traditions' specific practical parameters. (i) The first possibility ("semantic contextualization") is that they were directed to simply reinterpret visualization practices (already part of their daily praxis) with an enhanced sense of the importance and priority of the visualized images' dissolution processes (thim tshu£). (ii) An alternative possibility ("calming techniques") is that oral precepts may have instructed disciples to continue and transform traditional "calming" types of concentration exercises (again presupposing such daily praxis) by moving towards integration and expansiveness rather than the isolation (from daily experience) and intense concentration that such practices tend to initially generate. This would make perfect sense of the frequent exhortations in this literature to "relax" and "integrate" such that artificial boundaries are deconstructed. (iii) Another possibility ("formless medi­tation") is that practitioners were advised to embark on extended ses­sions of sitting meditation (such as in some strands of Chan) devoid of any specific techniques or imaged content, as wen as any preliminary exercises to "ease" entry into such states This also may have presup­posed initial familiarity with visualization practices and their dissolution, with the contemplation fonowing dissolution gradually detached to creale

66. Generally a heavily ritualized event, this at times preserves an existential freshness and highly contextualized personal significance. See Das 1992 for stories of such events involving flatulence (54-5), a drunken beating (20-1), forbidden alcohol (155), and others.

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a separate meditative session devoid of dependency on the initial visualization phases. (iv) A fourth alternative ("poetically thematized meditation") is the employment of psychological inquiries that utilize oral instructions or graphic texts to engage in guided reveries, analyses, or poetic thought. 'This can be quite complex in its own right, but does not necessarily involve the body in such direct ways as contemplative techniques using posture, visualization and the like. These· inquiries could directly presume a background in calming exercises, visualization practices, "formless" sitting meditation, or no such background at all. (v) Finally, as critics often imply, some teachers may have interpreted ("non-meditation") the rhetoric as simply advocating doing as they please (ci dgar), taking these new teachings as a radical justification of complete immanence that places the "seal" (phyag rgya) of approval on their own ordinary life styles without the slightest necessity for any type of formal contemplative praxis-the emotional distortions (nyon rnongs) are primordial gnosis (ye shes), after all. Obviously all of these interpre­tations were present to some degree, and the controversies that raged are powerfully presented in the famous story of the origination of the demonic Rudra in the fourteenth century "rediscovered" text Pad rna bka' thang by 0 rgyan gling pa. 67 The story revolves around his archetypal account of two radically different interpretative takes, and consequent life styles, possible in the Great Perfection's teaching of "do as you please." One student-"the secretive I definitive pig" (Dan phag)-departs from his teacher's shadow to engage in sitting medita­tion, while one student-"black liberation" (Thar pa nag po)-departs with an enhanced sense of legitimacy for his ordinary coarse behavioral patterns. The difference is a hermeneutical one that in many ways still rages on in modern Buddhological research, and has far reaching social implications.

Particularly relevant to this issue is the question of the extent to which some Great Perfection circles were strictly opposed in practice to nor­mative tantric contemplations of generation I perfection phases (in par­ticular sadhanas-visualizing a deity, reciting its mantra, etc.), and the extent to which for others these contemplations' negation was purely rhetorical while in practice individuals routinely resorted to such tech­niques. For example, kLong chen rab 'byams pa in his Grub mtha'

67. See Kapstein 1992 for an interpretation of this story found in chapters five and six of the Pad rna bka' thang.

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mdzotJ68 describes generation and perfection phases as being rejected by the Great Perfection since they involve speculative or intellectualized contemplation. In contrast, the Great Perfection itself is said to be beyond all such mental constructs and fixation, instead locating the pri­mordial knowing (~ shes) of radiant light's immediacy as its view. In fact it may be that early differences within those movements aligning themselves with the rubric "the Great Perfection" were in large due to three factors: the distinct lineal transmissions of the teachings; geo­graphical differences and distances; and this issue of how literally anti­sadhana rhetoric (and other rhetoric) was understood in terms of actual practice. At some point it became common among the ancients to speak of the revealed treasure (gter rna) tradition as summarized by the triune rubric "life force-perfection-enlightened heart" (bla rdzogs thugs), or in less terse language, "guru-great perfection-compassionate Avalokitesvara: 69 (i) teachings on the lama / guru (in particular guru­yoga practices and guru Padmasambhava); (li) teachings on the Great Perfection; and (iii) teachings as well as visualization practices revolving around AvalokiteSvara, the "Greatly Compassionate One" (Thugs rje chen po). This triune classification could be interpreted either as sup­porting the thesis that the formless meditations of the Great Perfection were generally pursued in conjunction with sadhana-types of practices utilizing visualization, or alternatively as suggesting a tension that had called this (forced) rubric into being. In other words, the Great Perfec­tion of its own momentum may have tended to break away from its contextualized relation to other practices and ideologies, a rupture that may have had dangerous implications for some institutions and / or individuals.

These early Great Perfection movements were rhetorically (at least) linked to rejection of more literal tantric interpretations (power sub­stances in general and body-fluids in particular, as well as graphic vio­lence and sexuality), de-emphasis of the profusion of contemplative techniques, stress on direct experience rather than scholastically medi­ated knowledge, de-emphasis of ritual, mocking of syllogistic logic (despite its not infrequent use), and in general resistance to codifications of rules for any life-processes. How these rhetorical orientations played

68. Grub mtha' mdzod 380.3ff. 69. See the numerous references in Dudjom 1991, 396, 724, 764, 765, 791, 821,827 and 881.

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themselves out at a practical level is a matter of considerable contro -versy, especially with regards to their simultaneous rejection of norma­tive contemplative techniques and linkage to the dominant contemporary Mahayoga Tantras that incarnated such techniques. It was precisely this rhetorical linkage of doctrinal negation and social antinomianism that appeared to have made this movement so politically explosive-the tantric nature of its rhetorical codification of the formless (or en-vehi­cling, in Buddhist terminology) was crucial in the controversies that swirled around the Great Perfection. Its tantric origins link it to explo­sive ethical questions-form-less can seem to signify ethic-less, and thus to disparage the conventionalities of ethical structures I codes is in some sense linked to disparaging systematic visualization practices. For instance, in terms of the traditional dyad of accumulating "gnosis" (~ shes) and "merit" (bsod mams), tantric visualization and ethics 70 are linked to "merit," supporting the notion that we need to engage in rule­governed activities to develop as individuals. These troubling (to some) ethical implications were aggravated by the tantric spin on formlessness, which coupled an arguably theoretical undercutting of ethics with the suggestion of an active energetic exploration of the violent, dark impulses that also constitute who we are, particularly as summed up in the infamous Mahayoga rubric of "unifying and liberating" (sbyor sgroi). Such a rubric seemed to some no more than an euphemism for sex and murder. It is important to note, however, that unlike Mahayoga which matched the graphic sexual and violent imagery in the transgres­sive elements of the modernists' own doctrines (i. e. the Anuttarayoga Tantras), the Great Perfection represents an aestheticized brand oftantra. Transgression is limited / expanded to a thorough resistance to rule-gov­erned hermeneutics of all types, rather than a focus on manifest trans­gressions involving sexual fluids, ritual sacrifice and shocking public displays. An overwhelming need to invert the law in its socially focused manifestations, in other words, becomes more an imperative to resist the

70. See Hopkins 1987, 14, and Gyatso 1982, 191 and 208, for discussions of how deity yoga and other contemplative focuses on a divine body image are linked to the accumulation of merit, and thus the eventual manifestation of enlightened forms for the benefit of other living beings. This contrasts to contemplation on emptiness or formless light, which is particularly connected to the accumulation of gnosis, leading to the realization of the Buddha's Reality Body (ehos sku, dharmnkaya).

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law in its subtle orderings of our being, whether ethical, imaginal, intel­lectual or otherwise.?! Whereas other tantric discourses are dominated by intuitions of danger, of the violent impulses that constitute our embodied identity and instinct for self-preservation, the Great Perfection seems instead to be driven by a stronger intuition of an underlying posi­tive force enfolded in our bodies with the capacity to simply dissolve these forces, an instinct for relationship.72 Thus the formlessness unleashed in perfection phase praxis can also undercut the importance of images of sex and violence. Indeed the Seminal Heart later reintroduces graphic sexual and horrific imagery with its set of peaceful and wra.thful (mi khro) deities, but the imagery is curiously detached without manifest crudity of other tantras and it is conjoined with a de-emphasis of sexual yogic processes. 73 This is reflected in part by kLong chen rab 'byams pa's doxographical correlation of the Great Perfection to the sophisti­cated discourses of the "non-dual" modernist classification, i. e. the Kalacakra Tantra. 74 In other words, Mahayoga and the Great Perfec­tion both undercut a certain type of ethics, but do in different ways: the former actively advocates transgressive types of behavior, while the lat­ter aesthetically deconstructs formal ethical systems without a corre­sponding urgent compulsion to actively explore the dark side of ethical deconstruction. In addition, the latter has an alternative and quite sophi­sticated way of coping with concerns of intersubjective relations, which is found within its discussions of the third quality of the ground of being-literally "compassion" (thugs rje), it is its capacity to resonate with, and know, the other.

71. This resistance to the worship of codified rules is the empathetic basis of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's positive reference to the eighth century Chan master Huashang who was so maligned in later Tibetan Buddhist polemics (see his gNas lugs mdzod 68.7). 72. See Levin 1988, especially "Revisioning the Body Politic" (295-340). 73. See Snellgrove 1987, 152-176 for a discussion of issues pertaining to this crudity in Buddhist tantras; Sanderson 1987 has an excellent discussion in the context of Hindu tantra of how early "cremation grounds culture" was later internalized, deodorized and aestheticized. See the passage from kLong chen rab 'byams pa cited below for a criticism of ordinary tantric sexual practices. 74. See below for a more detailed discussion of these doxographical correlations.

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However, one can easily imagine the vehemence of emotions that swirled around these issues, especially since in the public imagination the Great Perfection came to be linked to supposed Mahayoga excesses.75 From its own side, its discourse denigrates conventionally valorized religious and non-religious activities in preference for a simple phenomenological "looking" (lta ba), and this seemingly lawless dynamic devaluing structure is also experienced as threatening groups attempting to articulate norms and establish institutional mechanisms. The normative position of the modernists (to the degree we can speak of one) became a general suspicion of allowing the formless or the lawless to exist in itself, with its implied or explicit discarding of conventional consensually validated order. Does naturalness constitute a practice of the self in the same way that violent inversion constitutes a practice of the self in other tantras (a practice the necessity for which it calls into question), or does it constitute a denial of the need for such discipline all together? In the latter eventuality, we can imagine a fairly benign cultivation of natural experiences (sexuality, art, etc.) and experiences of nature, as well as an actively negative appropriation (such as Rudra evokes) that utilizes this rhetoric to authorize self-aggrandizing practices of a violent and disruptive nature.

Finally, the term "generation-perfection-great perfection" (bskyed rdzogs rdzogs chen) can be interpreted as signifying that the great per­fection is the "great consummation" of the generation and perfection phases-the latter's lighting-up or vision (snang ba) and the former's openness (stong pa) are experienced in a dynamic and perfect simul­taneity. In Seminal Heart terms, the generation phase is thus interpreted as "spontaneous presence" (lhun grub) and the ground-presencing (gzhi snang) of its ascendancy; perfection phase signifies "original purity" (ka dag) and the ground (gzhi) of its ascendancy; and the Great Perfection then evokes their primordial intertwining. An example of such a rein­terpretation of standard tantric contemplative terminology can be found inkLong chen rab 'byams pa's Zab mo yang tig (vol. 11,344.2-6):76

(The Great Perfection) style of "ritual approach and actualization" (bsnyen sgrub, seva-sadhana) is superior to that of stress-filled actualization involved in ordinary generation and perfection (phase

75. See Karrnay 1988, 121ff. 76. Zab nw yang tig vol. 2, 344.2-6:

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tantric contemplations) ... : (i) "ritual approach" (bsnyen pa, sevii) is recognizing the Reality Body as self through being self-introduced to self-emergent primordial gnosis; (li) "culminating approach" (nye bar bsnyen pa, upasevii) is sustaining yourself within that state; (iii) "actualization" (sgrub pa, siidhana) is dissolving fixation on (discrete sealed-oft) "selves"; and (iv) "great actualization" (sgrub pa chen po, mahiisiidhana) is the fruit coming to the fore.

In addition, while early Great Perfection traditions may have understood themsel ves as engaging in exclusively non-symbolic styles of perfection phase praxis, with the Seminal Heart and associated movements we find the reintroduction of symbolic styles as well. 1his occurs not only in its unique subtle body theories ("luminous channels"; 'ad rtsa) revolving around an interiorized lighting-up of the Ground (gzhi snang) and its embrace of a radical new version of generation phase praxis in its avo­cation of spontaneous vision (thad rgal), but also in its literary incorpo­ration of standard generation and perfection phase practices in its cycles, as well as somewhat more customized variants such as "sleep yoga" and "eating the winds.:'77 The Seminal Heart thus, as we will see, marks the radical re-influx of the body and its cult into the domain of the Great Perfection.

A brief overview of Mind Series (sems sde) literature and lineages Traditional Nyingma histories emphasize that the Great Perfection had only a very limited circulation outside of Tibet, and trace its non-Tibetan origins through a series of six shadowy Indic figures known as "Mystics" (rig , dzin; vidyiidhara): Surativajra (dGa' rab rdo rje), Mafijusnmitra (' Jam dpal bshes gnyen) , SrlsiI!1ha (Shri sing ha), Jfianasfitra (Ye shes mdo), Vimalarnitra (Dri med bshes gnyen or Bi ma la mi tra) and Padmasambhava. Of these six, two actually visited Tibet during the late eighth century and early ninth century (Vimalarnitra and Padmasambhava) while one other is said to have worked closely with Tibetan translators outside of Tibet during the same period (Srlsimha). While Snsi:rpha and his Tibetan disciple Vairoca~ are the principai fig­ures mentioned in colophons to the early Mind Series texts, with the emergence of the Esoteric Precepts traditions, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava are increasingly prominent. The early Great Perfection

77. See Tshig don mdzod 319-327.

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is represented literarily by what came to be classified as "Mind Series" texts, the most important of which were the very lengthy Kun byed rgyal po (by far the major Mind Series source cited by kLong chen rab 'byams pa) and a number of texts that at some point came to be transmit­ted as a group known as The Eighteen Texts of the Mind Series (Sems sde beG brgyad). These were said to have been translated into Tibetan via the activity of the Vairocana (in conjunction with SnsiIplui. and later Vimalamitra) and Vimalamitra (in conjunction with other key Tibetan translators of this period). The former text was circulating at least by 1032, when Pho brang zhi ba 'od criticized it as a composition by a unknown Tibetan by the name of Drang nga shag tshul. 78 At least five of the set of eighteen texts are identifiable with chapters in the present recension of the Kun byed rgyal po,79 the former being quite short on the whole in striking contrast to the latter's sprawling length. In the lengthy discussion of the Great Perfection found in the important tenth century bSam gtan mig sgron by gNubs sangs rgyas ye shes, a number of these eighteen texts are cited at length and there is a marked absence of any of the characteristic Seminal Heart doctrines. The fact that he does not appear to cite the Kun byed rgyal po (?) at all suggests that this tantra was most likely a Tibetan composition in the late tenth century functioning to integrate previous shorter canonical works (in part per­haps genuine dynastic period translations of non-Tibetan Originals) as well as introduce more systematically innovations that had developed in Tibet over the intervening decades.

Whereas the Kun byed rgyal po is a tantra presented as a transcript of a teaching by a Buddha (traditionally said to be translated into Tibetan by Vairocana and SrlsiIpha during the dynastic period), and possesses tre consequent dramatic setting of a dialogue between a Buddha and his / her retinue, the eighteen Mind Series texts appear to have been under­stood initially as simple human-authored compositions by one of above six lndic figures. Most lack any colophon indicating an author, but on the whole lack references to the dialogues between a Buddha and retinue that characterize normal tantras. It may be that initially there were no specifically Great Perfection Tantras in its early stage as "esoteric pre­cepts" (man ngag) to the other tantric systems (especially Mahayoga). This early literature could have been subsequently systematized into

78. See Karmay 1975, 151. 79. Karmay 1988,207.

236 JIABS 17.2

tantras (especially the Kun byed rgyal po) as it began to develop a dis­tinctive self-identity in Tibet constituting an independent movement that needed the authorizing force of its own unique canonical body of tantras. Another distinctive grouping of Mind Series literature which may have also been generated during this intermediate phase is the twenty five tantras constituting the third volume of the mTshams brag edition of the rNying rna rgyud 'bum, though it is currently unknown at what point these circulated as a set. At any rate, these traditions developed in a number of different lineages as yet uncharted through the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, until gradually they became displaced by the over­whelming success of more vision-oriented movements such as the Seminal Heart.

Karmay's simplified analysis 80 of their diversity focuses on the Khams tradition (lugs) in Eastern Tibet founded by A ro ye shes 'byung gnas (eleventh century) and the Rong tradition in Central Tibet founded by Rong zorn chos kyi bzang po (eleventh century). The Rong system remains unclear since all of Rong zorn's specifically Great Perfection works remain unavailable. 81 The Chos 'byung rin po che'i gter mdzod by rGyal sras thugs mchog rtsal describes the Rong tradition transmis­sion as beginning in the eighth to ninth centuries with gNyags Jfianakumara, and passing through Sog po dpal gyi ye shes and gNubs sangs rgyas ye shes; 82 the Deb ther sngon po also refers to gNubs sangs rgyas ye shes's bSam gtan mig sgron as belonging to the Rong tradition. However 'Jam mgon kong sprul's (1813-1899) Shes bya kun khyab and Zhe chen rgyal tshab's Legs bshad padma dkar po'i rdzing bu later link the Rong tradition to Rong zorn. At an unknown date, refer­ence to "Three Traditions of the Mind Class" (serns sde lugs gsum) carne to be normative in some circles-Dudjom Rinpoche Cites it as having been studied by gTer bdag gling pa (1646-1714).83 Kapstein and Dorje first identify it as consisting of these two traditions plus either "the original cycles of the Mind Class," but later identify the third as the A ro thun bdun system of A ro ye shes 'byung gnas (though this is often instead considered as a special division of the Khams tradition). 84

80. Kannay 1988, 207-8. 81. Karmay 1988, 125. 82. Kannay 1988, 125-6,207-8. 83. Dudjom 1991, 827.

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In addition, Kapstein has verbally conveyed to me his belief that rGyud 'bum o!Vairo(cana) represents the Mind Series lineages of the Zur tra­dition, referring to the well known Zur family.

Nyang ral nyima 'od zer's (1136-1204) famous Chos ' byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi'i bcud contains an appendix outlining the history of the early development of Nyingma tenet systems. 85 He begins by highlighting The Eighteen Mind Series Texts, the cycle of the Kun byed rgyaZ po with its nine mother-son texts (Kun byed ma bu dgu skor) and a general reference to "Mind orientation texts" (Sems phyogs mams). He also provides a lineage for a Sems so tradition deriving from gNubs sangs rgyas ye shes, though this apparently is not limited to Mind Series texts. 86 He subsequently87 provides the following lineage transmission for Sems phyogs a ti: ehos sku kun tu bzang po, dPal rdo rje sems dpa', rDo rje snying po, Yang sprul dga' rab rdo rje, 'Jam dpal bshes gnyen, five hundred learned ones such as the twenty five lineal descen­dants, PaJ).91ta SM Singha, Lotsawa Vairocana, gYu sgra, Jiiana, Sog po dpal gyi ye shes, sNubs yon tan rgya mtsho, Ye shes rgya mtsho,

84. Kapstein and Dorje 1991, 121, 279. Their index provide the following references for existent literature concerning these traditions. The rDzogs chen khams lugs is described by Sag bzlog bIo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-c. 1624) in the gDams ngag mdzod vol. 1, 305-55; and in the rNying rna bka' rna rgyas pa vol. 17. The rDzogs chen rong lugs is described by Kal;1 thog pa nam mkha' rdo tje (dates?) in the gDams ngag mdzod vol. 1, 270-95; and in the rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa vol. 17. It is important to note that both texts are relatively brief and are written by much later authors. The A ro thun bdun ("Seven Sessions of Aro [ye shes 'byung gnas]") is found in the gDams ngag mdzod vol. I, 356-371; and in the rNying ma bka' rna rgyas pa vol. 17. This was also known as the A ro khrid mo che (don skor), Aro'i thugs bcud and rDzogs chen aro lugs kyi man ngag; the term "seven" derives from A ro ye shes having held the Indian and Chinese lineages during the seventh generation of their development. The text as we currently have it is written by Zhwa dmar II mkha' spyod dbang po (1350-1405). 85. Chos 'byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi'i bcud 482-498. At the Virginia rDzogs Chen symposium mentioned above, the consensus was that this section may not have been written by Nyang ral himself, but if so, was most likely written by either his son or another direct disciple. 86. Ibid., 483. 87. Ibid., 488.

238 nABS 17.2

Padma dbang rgyal, Nyang chen nyang chung, and Zur po che. He then gives another lineage 88 for the Great Perfection, which he specifies as the five Proclamation Tantras of the Perfect Completeness of Esoteric Primordial Gnosis (bKa' ye shes gsang rdzogs rgyud) and the twenty one Profound Treasure Scriptures (Zab rna gter gzhung), along with the empowerment and introduction. The lineage is as follows: the great translator Vairocana, gYu sgra, sBa sgom rdo rje rgyal mtshan, Rab snang lha'i dbang phyug, Gru mchog gi ye shes, Nyang shes rab 'byung gnas, Nyang rdo rje snying po, Nyang ri khrod pa chen po zag med kyi sku brnyed pa 'dar ston dge 'dun, gNyan lcags byil ba, sPa se ras pa, rTse phrom bar lhas pa, gLan rdzing 'bring ba, gLan shaky a mgon po, dBas grub thob pa, and so forth. In addition, A ro ye shes 'byung gnas, a disciple of sNyags jfiana who was an emanation of Mafijusn from lower Amdo, taught such things as the Outer Cycle (phyi skor), Internal Cycle (nang skor), the Secret Cycle (gsang skor) and the Greater and Intermediate Spikes (gzer ka che 'bring). The transmission from him onwards involved Zangs ka mdzod khur, Kha rag gru sha rgyal bu, Ya zi bon ston, Gru gu glog chung, Kong rab mtsho, ITam dar rna, Tshe me byang chub rdo Ije, sBa sgom bsod snying, Kha rag sgom chung,Ba rang sgom chen, Ma gcig nyang mo, and Dam pa shakya rgyal. He then provides a lineage for the cycle of the Kun byed rgyal po with its nine mother-son texts (Kun byed rna bu dgu skor) in which A ro ye shes 'byung gnas figures prominently. He concludes by explaining the Khams tradition of Mind Series as referring to Dha tsha hor po and Dam pa shakya rgyal po; the sKor tradition referring to that which passed through sKor ston shes rab grags pa; and the Rong tradition as that which passed through the gTsang master (Rong zorn) chos kyi bzang po. Finally he gives brief lineages for a "Brahmin tradition" (bram ze'i lugs)-Vimalamitra, Nyang ting nge 'dzin bzang po, 'Dan rna lhun gyi rgyal mtshan and Shangs pa lee chung ye shes rgyal mtshan-as well as the "unsurpassed great perfection" (rdzogs chen bla med)-Vimalarnitra, Nyang ting nge 'dzin bzang po, bSam yas kyi zhang chen po, rIe (i. e., ICe) btsun seng ge dbang phyug, ICe sgom nag po, and sKal ldan yo so (at which point "its exegesis and practice spread"). These latter two movements 89 apparently signify visionary

88. Ibid., 490-1, 491-2, 492. 89. I would like to thank Matthew Kapstein for first pointing out this pass­age's significance to me.

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movements sharing similar lineages of transmission involving Vimalamitra, Nyang ting nge 'dzin bzang po, concealment as treasure and members of the ICe clan. The latter clearly refers to the Seminal Heart tradition proper, which is frequently styled as the "unsurpassed secret" (gsang ba bla na med pa) division of the Esoteric Precept Series, while the former apparently refers to texts from the yang ti tradition of the Great Perfection. The yang ti texts collected in volume seven of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum (gTing skyes) are in Kaneko's catalogue90

labeled as the "yang ti Brahmin cycles" (rDzogs pa chen po yang Ii bram ze'i skar), the bulk of which are traced back to Vimalamitra.

This brief outline merely touches upon this complex issue of begin­ning to untangle the many different threads constituting the first six centuries of the Great Perfection (ninth to fourteenth). Further progress can only come from systematically collecting all early references to internal divisions and lineal transmissions, particularly within the mate­rial currently collected in the various recensions of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum. In conclusion, I would like to note the innovative nature of the Mind Series trilogies developed by kLong chen rab 'byams pa in the fourteenth century, which I discuss in more detail below: the Ngal gsa skor gsum and the Rang grol skor gsum. In addition, Mind Series discourse and praxis was transformed in its assimilation by the Seminal Heart under the rubric of breakthrough contemplation.

Early Mind Series contemplation The early Great Perfection was principally a tantric development of bud­dha-nature discourse without any complex systematic literature or medi­tative practices. It is thus difficult to ascertain precisely what type of formal contemplation might have been associated with e::rrly Mind Series literature, since it devotes little space to such practical presentations. The language of the early texts suggests that in the beginning its proponents may have had little use for visualization, but (as discussed above) this does not necessarily entail a process-oriented rejection of any structure involved in fonnal contemplative procedures. In fact, later developments indicate that at least among certain circles there was probably cultivation of mental concentration via calming techniques (zhi gnas) using the standard seven point posture, as well as precisely thematized meditation topics (provided in lineally transmitted discourses) that functioned psy-

90. Kaneko 1982, 127.

240 JIABS 17.2

chologically within the context of such cultivation. Thus the basis of contemplation appears to largely have been a type of extension of "calming" practices at times involving concentration exercises as preparatory techniques, but ultimately aiming at a technique free immer­sion in the bare immediacy of one's own deepest levels of awareness. Thus formless types of meditation were valorized over the complex fab­rication of visual images found in other tantric systems such as Mahayoga, though it may very well be that during these early phases it was largely practiced in conjunction with other types of more normative tantric practices of that type. I have also suggested that certain groups may have exclusively adhered to Mind Series traditions, even if its "main" transmitters were doing so in conjunction with other types of tantric lineages. The accompanying literature consisted of evocative deSCriptions of, and exhortations to, this process, that served to contex­tualize this contemplative inquiry as the unfoldip.g of a type of interior primordial purity known as the "buddha" (literally "purifying-expand­ing"-sangs rgyas). This also functioned to relate the inquires to the buddha-nature strand of Mahayana discourse as well as more aestheti­cized strands of Vajrayana. Based on this belief in a primordial state of enlightenment within, the literature is characterized by the language of letting-go, relaxation, naturalness and simplicity, in stark contrast to the rhetoric of control, analysis, and "marshaling of resources" found in Indian Buddhist logico-epistemological treatises, as well as the strands oftantric discourse dominated by sexual and violent imagery. The latter is found in the Mahayoga traditions of the ancient ones as well as the Anuttarayoga tantra traditions that subsequently emerge in the modernist traditions. There is also a consistent antinomian tendency in these dis­courses, a rhetorical lawlessness asserting a primordial dimension that is neither accessed by, nor governed by, law-abiding patterns.

The nature of these traditions is indicated clearly in the famous inci­dent in Mi la ras pa's biography when he is directed to his first encounter with Marpa by a Great Perfection teacher, after Mi la ras pa fails to understand his own teachings. The teacher, known as Rong ston lha dga', greeted Mi la ras pa's request for liberating teachings with the following words:91

91. See LhaIungpa 1992, 42.

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TIlls Teaching of the Great Perfection leads one to triumph at the root, to triumph at the summit, and to triumph in the fruits of achievement To meditate on it by day is to be Buddha in one day. To meditate on it by night is to be Buddha in one night. For those fortunate ones with favorable karma who merely chance to hear it, without even meditating on it, this joyous teaching is a sure means of liberation. That is why I wish to give it to you.

It comes as little surprise that the youthful Mi la ras pa figured he had it made, and slept through the next few days, after which the Lama dis -cemed he wasn't up to such a subtle doctrine and sent him packing to Mar pa. In other words, he sent him to much more complex and intensely tantric contemplative systems utilizing visualization within, and without, the body.

However, regardless of whether or not its earliest phases involved largely quiet sitting partially thematized by aphoristic contemplation themes, from at least the eleventh century onwards Great Perfection groups began to experiment increasingly with various contemplative techniques and procedures generally classed under the two rubrics of "generation phase" and "perfection phase." The course these experi­ments took became one of the key factors behind the further develop­ment of different traditions, the more radical of which begin to position themselves under pre-existing and I or new rubrics in distinction to the "lower" Mind Series teachings. Yet eventually the Mind Series itself apparently yielded to this experimentation and began to include to a cer­tain degree contemplative praxis drawn from generation and perfection phase traditions. The principle of incorporation is that of simplicity, of rejecting highly structured visualizations such as complex maI.1c)alas of deities to instead focus on limited images, spontaneous imagery or natu­rally occurring objects (meditation on water, fire, etc.). This is reflected in the rhetoric of being simple (spros med), natural (rang bzhin gyis), stress-free (' bad rtsol med pa) and the like.

Doxographical gymnastics: Spanning the abyss between the modernists and the ancients The classical example of these transformed Mind Series-based contem -plative systems is kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Ngal gsa skar gsum and

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Rang grol skor gsum In his own catalogue to his corpus, 92 kLong chen rab 'byams pa's final two rubrics classify works as being "general explanations of crucial topics of esotericism" and "detailed exegesis of the crucial topics of the unsurpassed great esotericism." The latter embraces his main Seminal Heart works such as the Tshig don mdzod and Theg mchog mdzod, while the former is divided into the three series, with the Mind Series classification containing his commentary on the Kun byed rgyal po and Rang grol skor gsum The former also con­tains a prefatory section including the Man ngag mdzod and NgaZ gso skor gsum that is introduced thus: " .... in order that the significance of all the spiritual vehicles be understood as a preliminary to or mere means of entering the path of the Great Perfection, (these texts) clarify treatises which teach the stages of the path along with fruits to lead people onwards in accordance with any (tradition of Tibetan BUddhism)." In fact, the N gal gso skor gsum is traditionally classified with the Rang grol skor gsum as essentially a Mind Series treatise. Its primary focus is, as kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own characterization clearly indicates, on relating the Great Perfection Mind Series tradition to everything that preceded it in Buddhism, and creating a discursive and contemplative momentum towards experiencing the Mind Series as its natural culmina­tion. While there are a few points at which an Esoteric Series-perspec­tive surfaces, on the whole he systematically avoids reference to the Seminal Heart's technical vocabulary in the cycle, as well as to its con­templative procedures known as the direct transcendence. kLong chen rab 'byams pa's apparent motivations are most likely his ongoing defense of the Great Perfection in the context of the wider sphere of Tibetan Buddhism through relating it to other non-tantric and tantric Buddhist movements, and his desire to provide a deeply Great Perfection-based system of study and practice that reached out to other yogic and intellectual circles through such linkage. There are thus numerous references to "your own tantric cycles" or "the tantric cycle you are involved with." It may have also stemmed from a time in kLong chenrab 'byams pa's life when his disciples were increasing in number as well as diversity and background, such that the always dangerous issue of tantric "commitments" (dam tshig, samaya) increasingly

92. I have used a copy of this catalogue as appendixed to the contemporary sDe dge printing of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's gSung thor bu; no other publishing information available.

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weighed on his mind. 93 The relatively straightforward Mind Series is quite a bit less intense than the Seminal Heart in such tenns, and thus in the NgaZ gsa skar gsum kLong chen rab 'byams pa systematically avoids the theoretical and contemplative details of later developments (i. e. the Seminal Heart).94 Such a Mind Series practice-focused cycle not only provided a way to disseminate the Great Perfection intellectually and contemplatively in a trans-sectarian fashion, but also transformed the Mind Series into a springboard for particularly committed disciples to eventually leap into the more quirky and unique world of the Esoteric Precepts Series. While clearly the NgaZ gsa skor gsum was quite inno­vative in many ways in the context of the Mind Series, the extent of its innovativeness is as yet unclear and it is thus particularly provocative for the types of questions I have raised about formal practice in the Mind Series prior to the fourteenth century.

In kLong chen rab 'byams pa's very self-conscious attempts in this cycle to integrate the Great Perfection into the tantric movements increasingly normative in Tibet, one of his strategies is doxographical. He seemingly identifies (rather than simply correlates) the three main uniquely Nyingma tantric systems (Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga) with the modernists' three internal divisions of Anuttarayoga tantra (father, mother and non-dual).95 As far as I know this is the earliest instance of such a correlation. In the ensuing discussion, he indicates that the Mahayoga "father" tantras prinCipally focus on generation phase practices, while their perfection phase practices are focused on winds; the associated tantras cited are the Guhyasamiija Tantra (gSang ba ' dus pa) and the Mafijusri Yamliri (' Jam dpaZ gshin rje'i gshed).96 The

93. Matthew Kapstein suggested this possibility to me (April 1994). 94. It appears to be a common phenomena that prominent Great Perfection teachers who once openly taught become increasingly conservative as they age, often attributing health-related or other problems to their open teaching of such esoteric traditions. For instance, I have on more than one occasion heard such stories about the contemporary teachers sMyo shul Kbanpo and Bya bral Rinpoche. 95. Shing rta chen povol. 2, 8.5ff. 96. While the former is of course one of the main modernist Anuttarayoga tantras, and also exists in an earlier translation as a principal tantra in the Nyingma Mabayoga classification, I could not locate the latter's title in either the Tohoku or Peking catalogues of the Tibetan canons. There are,

244 nABS 17.2

Anuyoga "mother" tantras, on the other hand, focus on perfection phase practices in general, while their particular brand of such practices emphasize the seminal nuclei; the associated tantras cited are the Yang dag, Vajrakilaya, CakrasaTfLvara Tantra and Hevajra Tantra. 97 The Atiyoga "non-dual" tantras then focus on the integration (zung 'jug) of generation and perfection phase practices, while its perfection phase practices concentrate on the great primordial gnosis in its inconceivable radiant light of bliss, radiance and non-conceptuality generated from the channels, winds and nuclei.98 Although the fIrst two categories thus ignore the standard Nyingma association of Mahayoga with the Guhyagarbha Tantra and Anuyoga with the mDa dgangs 'dus pa in preference for standard modernist associations, in this category kLong chen rab 'byams pa ignores the modernist association of it with the Klilacakra Tantra 99 and instead refers to the "sGyu 'phrul drwa ba" (miiyajala) and so on" (later indicating this refers to the Guhyagarbha Tantra in partlcular).100 Subsequently in his discussion of empower­ments 101 he reiterates the identification of "Ati" with the non-dual tantric classes, and in particular with the sGyu 'phrul drwa ba, which he characterizes as "the peak of all vehicles" in contrast to "the stage of general secret mantra." This fIssure in some contexts between how he identifies "Atiyoga" and the Great Perfection is further suggested in his "practical instructions" (don khrid) on the Sems nyid ngal gsa, where he presents the text's contemplative system as a sequence of one hundred and forty one topics divided up into three rubrics: (i) the exoteric causally oriented vehicle of characteristics (siitra); (ii) the inner extraor­dinary result-oriented vehicle of adamantine secret mantra (tantra); and

however, two similar titles in the gTing skyes edition of rNying rna rgyud 'bum (Kaneko 239 and 248). 97. The last two tantras are of course the standard modernist Mother tantras, but the previous two would seem to refer to Nyingma Mahayoga tantras. 98. See the Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 12.3ff for further details on the types of practices associated with these three tantric classes. 99. While some traditions classified the Klllacakra Tantra as part of a third "non-dual" division, the Geluk rejected a threefold division of the Anuttarayoga tantras and thus instead classified it as a "mother" tantra (see Wayman 1980,250-269 and Sopa 1985, 31). 100. It is cited under this title in the Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 14.6 .

. 101. Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 47.2-3.

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(iii) the vehicle of the unsurpassed great perfection, the fruit of the definitive nucleus of esotericism (the Great Perfection). Tantra is then divided into the standard set of four systems, with the fourth labeled "the unsurpassed Mahayoga tantras" (mal 'byor chen po bla na med pa'i rgyud, mahayoga-anuttara tantra).102 As above, it is subdivided into the father, mother, and non-dual, with the non-dual identified as the sGyu 'phrul drwa ba.

Interestingly, however, in the Ngal gso skar gsum gyi spyi don legs bshad rgya mtsho, kLong chen rab 'byams pa's discussion of tantra clearly delineates between the modernist tantras and the Nyingma tantras along the lines of the doxography in his Grub mtha' mdzod. l03 While he continues to correlate Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga to the mod­ernist classification offather, mother and non-dual tantras, 104 the listing out of titles corresponding to the modernist triad and the Nyingma triad in no way overlap with each other, and instead reflect precisely their traditional textual associations. lOS In particular, the Atiyoga section 106 lists out groups of Mind Series texts, pointedly ignoring Seminal Heart traditions despite earlier citing two of its main works. 107 Among the possible reasons for this doxographical discrepancy within the same cycle is that kLong chen rab 'byams pa is attempting to reach out to non­Nyingma scholars and practitioners in the earlier passages by presenting a syncretic doxography that emphasizes the thematic and 'contemplative points of contact between the modernist and Nyingma tantric traditions, while in these later passages he is acknowledging the clear lineal differ­ences (that this approach intentionally obscures).

Mahayoga is thus pivotal to this strategy: he not only links the "Mahayoga" tradition as a whole with the "Anuttara tantras,"108 he also identifies the key Mahayoga group of texts referred to under the rubric sGyu 'phrul drwa ba chen po as the "non-dUal" division, thus presenting the Great Perfection as outside, and beyond, that triad. At the

102. Byang chub lam bzang 514.1. 103. Ngal gso skor gsum gyi spyi don legs bshad rgya mtsho 176.4-193.1 and 193.1-207.5 respectively. 104. Ibid., 199.5ff. 105. Ibid., 190.3-193.1 and 203.1-207.5 respectively. 106. Ibid., 205.1-207.5. 107. Ibid., 196.4 and 201.3. 108. Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 4.5.

246 JIABS 17.2

same time, he elsewhere correlates Atiyoga with this non-dual cate­gory, 109 thus implying an Atiyoga-Guhyagarbha tantra connection. In general, he thus tends to treat the sGyu 'phrul drwa ba, and its main exemplar, the Guhyagarba Tantra, as a unique and profound tantric system distinguished from others, somewhat analogous to how the Geluk tradition tends to treat the Kalacakra Tantra cycle as a category unto itself. 110 In fact there are points where he explicitly suggests a connection between the two systems, such as the comparison of their presentations of subtle body theories in the Shing rta chen po .111 While kLong chen rab 'byams pa ranges through a tremendous variety of non­tantric and tantric Buddhist materials in the Ngal gso skor gsum, apart from the Great Perfection it is clearly the Guhyagarba Tantra above all else that forms the hermeneutical core of the cycle. For example, the two main subdivisions of the ninth chapter (which is focused on the devel­oping and perfection phases) are "a general discussion of the signifi­cance of secret mantra" and "a detailed exegesis of the sGyu 'phrul drwa ba. "112 Thus the cycle offers a prominent example of an influx of Mind Series ideology into the exegesis of Mahayoga materials, as well as the reverse, i. e. the influx of more normative Mahayoga traditions back into the pristine spaces of Mind Series discourse. Such intersections allow him to authorize and introduce the Great Perfection in connection to potentially mainstream tantric movements, as well as begin to intertwine the former into the latter's very foundation (a strategy eventually flower­ing in the nineteenth century non-partisan movement). Thus his "practical instructions" (don khrid) on the Sems nyid ngal gso113 describes the culminating meditation of tantra (prior to the Great Perfec -tion) as "the great perfection of pristine primordial gnosis, the quintessential core of the definitive ultimate in the unsurpassed perfec­tionphaseofthesGyu 'Phrul (cycle)."

109. Ibid., vol. 2, 47.2. 110. For example, see Ngag dbang dpal ldan's well known gSang chen rgyud sde bzhi'i sa lam gyi mam gzhag rgyud gzhung gsal byed. He con­trasts the "general Anuttarayoga tantra" to the Klilacakra in his presentation of Anuttarayoga tantras (540.1fO. 111. Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 18.3-19.3 112. See kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own structural outline of the text (vol. 2, 418.2-422.1). 113. Byang chub lam bzang 524.6-525.1

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This presentation closely corresponds to that found in the lengthy doxographical twelfth chapter of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's modernist oriented-survey entitled the Yid bzflinmdzod. He begins by specifying four tantric sets,ll4 the first three of which are the standard triad of "outer" tantras: Action, Conduct, and Yoga. The fourth set is first specified only as "perfection phase" and "inner,"115 followed by the specification "inner unsurpassed secret mantra" (nang pa giang sngags bla na med pa) and "the unsurpassed Mahayoga" (mal 'byor chen po bla na med pa'i rgyud).116 He begins by differentiating it into "father" and "mother" tantras on the basis of the deities involved and their apparel, but his main discussion subsequently 117 divides the "unsurpassed Mahayoga" into the triad of father, mother, and non-dual on the basis of criteria very similar to those in the Shing rta chen po. Father tantras emphasize generation phase contemplation and perfection

114. Yid bzhin mdzod 553.2. This doxography of four tantric classes along with the terminological distinctions of a dyadic or triadic internal division of the fourth only penetrated Tibet in the eleventh century with the modernists. The term "Anuttarayoga" evidently itself stems from Buddhist-Saivite yogic circles in Northeastern India (see Snellgrove 1987,462-3 and 504-5). Earlier the term "Great Yoga" (Mahtiyoga) was used to classify certain tantras that had taken directions distinctive enough that it was felt necessary to doxo­graphically distinguish them from other tantras known as "Yoga tantras." The term also was used in early modernist circles to signify what came to be known as the "father" tantras in contrast to the yogini I prajfia" tantras, or "mother" tantras, leading Snellgrove (505) to suggest a fivefold classification of tantras-Action, Conduct, Yoga, Great Yoga and Y oginI I Prajiia. While in Tibet it became the standard among modernists to artificially classify all tantras outside of the rrrst three classes as "Anuttarayoga," itself divided up into "father" and "mother" (or with a third ''non-dual'' subdivision), this was simply one scheme among many. The Nyingmas instead opted for the triune division of its higher tantric classes into Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga. The differences between the modernists and ancients on tantric doxography is thus due to three factors: the temporal period of the reception of tantric tradi­tions from outside Tibet (seventh to tenth centuries vs. eleventh to twelfth), the geographical location outside of Tibet of their transmissions' sources, and the intervening development of received traditions in Tibet during the four centuries they existed prior to the modernists' arisal. 115. Yid bzhin mdzod 554.6. 116. Ibid., 555.2 and 563.4 respectively. 117. Ibid., 565.6ff.

248 JIABS 17.2

phase techniques focused on winds, in addition to which they teach a variety of enlightened activities and are said to be for taming males. Mother tantras, on the other hand, focus on perfection phase techniques overall, and in particular those involving the nuclei, while they stress the powerful activities (dbang gi las) and are said to be for taming women. Non-dual tantras then emphasize primordial gnosis with an equal bal­ance on generation and perfection phases, correlated to efficacious means (thahs) and insight (shes rab) respectively. His textual correla­tions with these categories are as follows: father tantras with the Guhyasamaja Tantra, Yamari and so forth; mother tantras with the Cakrasa1pvara, Catuf! P~tha Tantra and so forth; and non-dUal tantras1l8 with the Kalacakra Tantra and sGyu 'phrul drwa ba ("and so forth" is not specified). The key difference is that he makes no corre-1ation here of this triad to the Nyingma triad of Maha, Anu and Ati, and thus no suggestion of a split between Atiyoga and the Great Perfec­tion.119 Additionally, the relationship between the Guhyagarba Tantra and the Kiilacakra Tantra is here made explicit, a relationship suggested in the Shing rta chen po passage cited above. It is clear that this is in part an attempt to authorize the controversial Mahayoga tantra by refer­ence to this widely accepted modernist tantra differing markedly on many points of theory and praxis from other modernist tantras.

The Grub mtha' mdzod is by its very title defined as kLongchen rab 'byams pa's doxographical analysis par excellence, and as ]ll.ight be expected, devotes its final four chapters to an analysis oftantric litera­ture, ideas and practices. Chapter five offers an overview, chapter six concerns modernist tantras, chapter seven presents the ancients' tantras

118. Despite his consistent use of the "non-dual" category in his presenta­tions of the Anuttarayoga tantras as triune in nature, in the Ngal gsa skar gsum gyi spyi dan legs bshad rgya mtsho (192.5-193.1) kLong chen rab 'byams pa argues that it is inappropriate to speak of a class of tantras that are "non-dual" separate from the father and mother categories. 119. An additional difference in the treatment of tantra between the yilt bzhin mdzad and Ngal gsa skar gsum is the lack in the former of the latter's dis­tinctive use of the triune experiences of bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality (also understood as the triune radiant light) to structure its presentation of per­fection phase practices. Such differences clearly indicate a later date of com­position for the latter, which is in many ways a reworking of the former driven by kLong chen rab 'byams pa's new agenda of integrating the Great Perfection Mind Series traditions into Buddhism as a whole.

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(including the Great Perfection), and chapter eight is devoted to the Seminal Heart tradition in particular. In his analysis of the modernist tantras, he presents the standard fourfold division, labeling the fourth "the unsurpassed yoga" and subsequently "the great yoga," indicating the two rubrics are interchangeable. 120 His analysis of the fourth cate­gory121 again utilizes the standard triad of father tantras emphasizing efficacious means, mother Tantras emphasizing insight, and unsurpassed tantras emphasizing non-duality (he also subsequently provides a very detailed differentiation of the father and mother tantras by means of seven distinctions). 122 In this context, he provides detailed lists of modernist tantras correlating to the first two rubrics, while for the third he only specifies the "'Jam dpaZ rtsa rgyud sgyu 'phruZ drwa ba, the Kalacakra Tantra and so forth." The first title refers to one of the key texts123 in the important sGyu 'phruZ collection of Mahayoga Tantras that the various versions of the Guhyagarba Tantra also belong to. 124 This particular text was also later translated, and thus accepted, by the modernists, in which context it is known as the ' Jam dpaZ gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa (Mafijusrf nama Saf!Lgftz). Through reference to this common text, kLong chen rab 'byams pa thus cleverly connects the Guhyagarba Tantra with the KaZacakra Tantra, as well as the sGyu 'phruZ Mahayoga tantric traditions with the modernist Anuttarayoga cycles, without explicitly referring to the controversial Guhyagarbha Tantra. In the following chapter in which he presents the Nyingma tantras, he begins by outlining the standard list of nine vehicles. 125 1re last six are split into an outer triad (Action, Conduct and Yoga), and an inner triad (Maha, Anu, and Ati). He proceeds to again correlate Mahayoga with father tantras, Anuyoga with mother tantras, and Atiyoga with non-dual. 126 However, the list of texts, despite some problematic aspects, clearly reflect principally Nyingma tantric literature.

120. Grub mtha' mdzod 319.4 and 320.5 respectively. 121. Ibid., 328.lff. 122. Ibid., 331.5-335.1. 123. Kaneko 196; Pelliot Tibetain 849. 124. For a thorough discussion of this collection, see DOIje 1987, 37-58. 125. Grub mtha' mdzod 336.4ff. 126. Ibid., 342.3ff.

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kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Theg mchog mdzod devotes an entire chapter to Nyingma doxography127 organized around the nine vehicles, and thus lacking any reference to the standard four tantra sets of mod­ernist doxography. Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga are discussed in terms of the specifically Nyingma tantric traditions without any reference to mother, father and non-dual classifications, or the concomitant dis­tinctions. 128 His Chos dbyings mdzod129 discusses the nine vehicles, but is so focused on Atiyoga that discussions of the lower vehicles is largely simply to contrast them to the Great Perfection. Finally, it is interesting to note his modernist-oriented presentation of tantric doxog­raphy in his principal commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the Phyogs bcu mun sel. Here kLong chen rab 'byams pa divides the Secret Mantra vehicle into two: the external and the intemal. 130 The external includes the standard triad of Action, Performance and Yoga, while the internal signifies the following triad: the yogis' tantras (correlated with Mahayoga and a focus on winds in contemplation), the insight-mother tantras (correlated with Anuyoga and perfection phase techniques) and the non-dual tantras (correlated with Atiyoga and primordial buddha­hood).

The variations in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's various doxographies of tantra relates to the different agendas of each work. For example, these final two treasures (the Theg mchog mdzod and Chos dbyings mdzod) are principally focused on the Great Perfection tantric traditions (the former on Seminal Heart and the latter on a Mind Series-oriented reading of the Seminal Heart), and thus are not concerned with assimi­lating or catering to such modernist concerns as the four categories of tantras. The Grub mtha' mdzod, however, ranges over a wide variety of traditions, and in doing so presents the modernist and Nyingma tantric doxographies separately, though it does also correlate them. The Ngal gso skor gsum then is concerned to integrate the Great Perfection orien­tation into the wider Tibetan religious scene without insisting on the unique specificity of its own terminology, practices and sources, and thus explicitly synthesizes the modernist and Nyingma tantric doxo­graphy. kLong chen rab 'byams pa even completely identifies the three

127. Theg mchog mdzod vol. 1, 62-119. 128. Ibid., 96.7-119.6. 129. Chos dbyings mdzod 104.2ff. 130. Phyogs bcu mun seI149.5ff.

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Nyingma inner tantras with the three divisions of the modernist Anuttarayoga Tantras, such that the only specifically Nyingma tantra mentioned is the Guhyagarbha Tantra. In contrast, the Yid bzhin mdzod is solidly modernist in its tantric orientation, and consequently ignores the Great Perfection as well as Nyingma doxography to focus on the standard four tantric sets of the modernists.

Mind Series contemplative systems in kLong chen rab 'byams pa 's Trilogies (sKor gsum): the impact of modernism and the reappropria­tion oftantric techniques The point of this extended doxographical digression is to contextualize the possible innovation of the Mind Series contemplation system pre -sented in the NgaZ gsa skar gsum. The system itself is presented in dif­ferent ways, one of the most clear being the "practical guidance" com­mentary on the Sems nyid ngal gsa. This text outlines one hundred and forty one sequentially arranged contemplative techniques split into three sections: exoteric Buddhism (92), tantra (22) and the Great Perfection (27). Evidently dPal sprul 0 rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po (commonly referred to as dPal sprul Rim poche; 1808-1887) 131 main­tained the lineage of using this as a teaching tradition by teaching one topic each day with regular practice sessions over the course of one hundred and forty one days. 'Jam mgon kong sprul tried to keep this alive, as evidenced by his including the text in the first volume of his large compilation entitled the gDam ngag mdzod, but eventually it apparently lost its last main advocate with the death of mKhan po ngag chung (1879-1941). It is currently used primarily as background com­bined with other systems, rather than itself functioning as a principal practice text

The twenty-seven aspects of Great Perfection contemplation clearly avoid any reference to Seminal Heart contemplative systems, as well as the auxiliary perfection phase techniques closely linked to them. How­ever, it should be noted that in the opening lineage account he specifies the Seminal Heart lineage of Indians and Tibetans. 132 In addition, having specified that the Esoteric Precept Series is the highest teaching

13 L Matthew Kapstein is the source of the following infoIIDation on its use in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as an actual practice text (in conver­sation, summer 1994). 132. Byang chub lam bzang 526.4ff.

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from among the three Series (sde gsum) of the Great Perfection, he identifies his present account as in accord with practices for engaging those with "intellects wrapped up in objective references" (dmigs pa yul gyi bio can) and the breakthrough practices.133 The former is a standard term used to identify lower order tantric-based practices associated with Great Perfection contemplation as adjuncts, but not considered intrinsi­cally part of it. The presentation of precepts on contemplative practices themselves is divided into three rubricS:134 (i) determining (the ground) through (understanding) the view (precepts 115-118); (ii) sustaining yourself in the state (of this view) through contemplative cultivation (119-138); (iii) and the fruit (of such contemplation), divestiture from all hopes and fears (139-141). The four precepts of the first rubric are mainly analytical contemplative techniques for evoking a sense of the emptiness or intangibility of external objects and the internal psyche. Apart from the reasoning process involved in such deconstruction, no specific techniques or postures are identified. The three precepts of the third rubric contain no indications of discrete contemplative procedures, but rather are poetic reveries on the phenomenological significance of the expanse, the five spiritual bodies, and the five types of primordial gnosis invoked in discussing the ideal of perfected (wo)man (i. e. the Buddha).

The twenty precepts of the second rubric, however, do involve con­templative techniques and procedures beyond such thematic inquiries. They are classified into two groups: a general discussion of contempla­tive processes classified in accordance with three levels of practitioners (lower, intermediate and higher; precepts 119-129) and a detailed expla­nation of the particulars of skill in means (precepts 130-138). As for the first division, the lower level of practice (precepts 119-125) is discussed in terms of calming techniques (zhi gnas), insight techniques (lhag mthong) and their integration (zung 'jug). The calming techniques (precepts 119-122) are all specified as following (and thus contextual­ized by) the standard practice of guru yoga and utilizing the standard seven pOint posture. All four involve developing concentration through simple techniques of focusing on various external objects or internal images. While as a whole they utilize such tantric techniques as visual­izing the subtle body's three main channels, visualizing the breath with colors, modulating the length of inhalation and exhalation, focusing on

133. Ibid., 526.3. 134. Ibid., 527.2-543.2.

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internal images, visualizing one's own body as a deity, or emanating and contracting light rays, the technique in question is always very simple in form and the focus remains on the generation of concentration rather than any quality of the technique in and of itself. The use of deity visu­alization is entirely incidental and appears to simply be used as a conve­nient and familiar object to focus the psyche on, given the wide spread use of such practices. Other things to note are the emphasis on the body's sensory experience, with visible forms, sounds, scents, flavors and tactile sensations all forming the objective pole for contemplation. The insight techniques and "integration" (precepts 123-125), however, involve no specific techniques beyond analytical or poetic shaping of a preexisting contemplative state, with a focus on directed inquiries into emptiness. The intermediate (precepts 126-128) and higher (precept 129) levels of practice involve no techniques beyond the standard lotus posture, and are again poetically thematized styles of contemplative inquiry attempting to evoke and I or pinpoint such key dimensions as emptiness, clarity, awareness and primordial freedom.

The second division (precepts 130-138) is fourfold: calming tech­niques, insight techniques, their integration, and their finalization (Ia Va). In general these techniques represent a furthering of the earlier techniques in their emphasis on integrating realization with ordinary activity, and direct rather than analytical or analogical experience. (i) The calming techniques (130-132) are as follows: visualizing an image such as a lotus at one's heart which then runs down into the depths of the earth to create a sense of stability, after which it is contracted into one's heart (130); incidentally using an image of a deity to dissolve distorted mental activity and focus on emptiness (131); and integrating this calm state with activity such as walking, thinking and conversing (132). (ii) The insight techniques (133-135) all lack any particular techniques of postures, visualization, or the like, instead focusing on the seemingly intangible experiences of appearance's illusory quality and emptiness. (iii) The integration techniques (136-137) are twofold, the first of which again is a thematic type of contemplation focused on finding the val­orized state of awareness while sitting in the standard posture. The sec­ond technique, identified as an "enhancer" (bogs 'byin) to the first, involves utilizing specific postures and gazes to contemplate a lucent cloudless sky. This causes one's inner sky to clear up, such that reality manifests as the "secret nucleus of radiant light" (gsang ba 'ad gsal snying po). While in the Seminal Heart this would refer to the particular

254 JIABS 17.2

visions of direct transcendence contemplation, here it apparently refers more to a sense of the luminous expanse or an inner vastness, as indi­cated by its description as "beyond centers and peripheries." (iv) The final technique, that of finalization, appropriately returns to pure Mind Series contemplation. 135

The bulk of these contemplative styles are thus technique-free, exhor­tatory and evocative in nature, poetry and analysis on a cushion. Of the twenty seven forms of contemplation kLong chen rab 'byams pa details under the rubric of the Great Perfection, twenty are of this technique-free variety appropriate to the rhetoric of early Mind Series literature (excepting posture), while seven involve some type oflimited applica­tion of either early Buddhist calming techniques or later principles of tantric contemplation. A seven point lotus posture is consistently stressed even within the context of the former set of practices, making quite clear that these involve formal meditative sessions sitting on a cushion, not simply a vague spin put on experience in the back of one's mind as one goes through daily activities. As for the latter set of practices, though they draw upon tantric practices and other normative Buddhist meditative techniques, the guiding principle is extreme sim­plicity (spros braZ), and always priority remains on the mind's state, not the imported practice's specific details. The emphasis in such practices is simply on concentrating the mind, and then dissolving that concentra­tion. In addition, they are clearly positioned as "inferior" styles of medi­tation' while the higher levels are purely of the former type. Again, it is not clear how innovative the formal inclusion of such meditative prac­tices was in the context of fourteenth century Mind Series traditions-it may have been partially an attempt to revive this genre in ecumenical ways not possible for the Seminal Heart. Yet even overlooking its pos­sible innovativeness, it is striking that as late as the fourteenth century we find 74% of a famous Mind Series contemplative system involving no formal techniques of any type, and the remaining 26% simply involv­ing basic concentration exercises.

The contemplative structure utilized in the second text of the trilogy (bSam gtan ngaZ gso), is based upon the standard triad of contemplative experiences (nyams): bliss (bde ba), radiance / clarity (gsaZ ba) and non-conceptuality (mi rtog pa). The Shing rta chen po identifies this

135. Ibid., 138.

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triad as the three aspects of radiant light (' ad gsal):136 the radiant light of bliss involves contemplations bringing the seminal nuclei into the central channel and consequently tactile sensations; the radiant light of clarity involves contemplatively working with the inner winds and con­sequently visual sensations of lights; and the radiant light of non-con­ceptuality involves contemplating the mind directly (or psychic sensa­tions). In chapter three (the principal section) of the bSam gtim ngal gsa and its auto-commentary the Shing rta mam dag, this triad is the main structure kLong chen rab 'byams pa utilizes to present the trilogy's main Great Perfection-based contemplative system. That presentation is fur­ther delineated in terms of the standard tripartite sequence of preliminar -ies, main practice, and concluding phase. The intermediate phase is par­ticularly important, since it is considered to be the heart of the system.

The preliminaries consist of a triad that can be correlated to the three vehicles: the general preliminaries on impermanence and renunciation of cyclic existence (the Lesser Vehicle); the special preliminaries on com­passion and the engendering a compassionate motivation (the Great Vehicle); and the supreme preliminaries, which are identified as the gen­eration phase, perfection phase and guru yoga. 137 This serves to con­textualize the system in terms of the standard range of Buddhist teach­ings and practices in Tibet, simultaneously relegating them to a lower status even while emphasizing their necessity. In fact he makes a point138 of emphatically stressing the necessity of doing four types of preliminaries prior to "meditation on the path of the Great Perfection," the latter which he characterizes as "settling into the unfabricated pristine enlightening mind of awareness" (rig pa byang chub kyi sems ma bcos mal du 'jog pa). He indicates that among his contemporaries there were many who attempted to directly meditate on the path without such pre­liminaries, but he characterizes them as deviant or mistaken. In this context, he specifies the four as (i) impermanence, compassion, genera­tion of an enlightened motivation (bodhicitta); (li) imaginatively generat­ing all appearances and life-worlds as the pure lands of the Buddhas and deities; (ill) chanting mantras and focusing the mind on the subtle yoga; and (iv) meditation and supplication in guru yoga.

136. Shing rta chen po vol. 2, 12.6ff. 137. Shing rta roam dag 72.5ff. 138. Ibid., 80.2ff.

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Although he refers to the perfection phase techniques of "channels, winds and nuclei" in this context of the preliminaries,139 in fact the commentary does not elaborate on any such techniques at that point. In contrast, the practices classified as the "main" and "concluding" phases clearly are modifications or variants of such techniques. In fact his opening discussion of the main phase140 describes a variant of the stan­dard perfection phase fierce woman (gtum mo) practice described as "following the (preliminary) generation of the deity and guru yoga." I interpret this as reflecting his desire to modify the Mind-Series style of Great Perfection contemplation to include such normative tantric tech­niques, but in the process to thoroughly modify them in line with the Great Perfection's ideological and psychological premises. For this rea­son, he rhetorically identifies ordinary perfection phase techniques as "preliminary," and then takes pains to point out how the similar yet modified techniques classified as the latter two phases (main / conclud­ing) are instead specifically Great Perfection in character. In the com­mentary, 141 kLong chen rab 'byams pa refers to this presentation as uniquely Great Perfection in its orientation precisely in this classification of the above triad of practices as ''preliminary'' since they involve objec­tive references (dmigs beas); in contrast, ordinary tantra teaches the "real path" as "meditation on a single seat alternating between generation and perfection phase techniques / states." Thus the system again shows kLong chen rab 'byams pa's emphasis on the perfection phase rather than generation phase practices, just as in his presentation oftantric con­templation in the Yid bzhin mdzod. In the latter context he describes 142 the "main phase" (dngos gzhi) of meditation as the utilization ofperfec­tion phase techniques to contemplate "primordial gnosis in its radiant light" (' od gsal ye shes), explicitly poSitioned as posterior to preliminary meditation on engendering an enlightened motivation and generation phase techniques. This is not to deny the frequent passages in the Shing rta rnam dag that stress the inappropriateness of "perfection" without "generation," as well as describe a "path without a deity" as not being a mantric path. 143 This would appear to be a veiled criticism of those who

139. Ibid., 73. 140. Ibid., 81.4ff. 141. Ibid., 73.3. 142. Yid bzhin mdzod 665. 143. Shing rta mam dag 76.5.

GERMANO 257

construe the Great Perfection's rhetoric to explicitly deny the use of any type of practice involving vision or visualization, though it is important to note that this particular statement is in the context of "preliminary" practices of generation and perfection, and hence does not apply, strictly speaking, to the Great Perfection per se.

The Shing rta mam dag then outlines the main practices in terms of contemplative techniques / states (bsam gtan) focused on the respective experiences of bliss, radiance and non-conceptuality. The practices under the rubric of "bliss" are a variant on the sexual yogic practices centered on seminal nuclei (the key technique of many perfection phase systems under the rubric of "fierce woman" [gtwn mo]), and involve the manipulation of visualized syllables and so on within the subtle body system to evoke experiences of intense bliss. The practices dealing with "radiance" utilize techniques involving the body's winds / breath and the visualization of light within the body, ultimately focusing on the conse­quent experiences of internal and external luminosity. The techniques dealing with "non-conceptuality" involve contemplation of the sky's vast openness with the aid of an extremely simple visualization and chant, and subsequently focusing on the concomitant sensations of non-con­ceptuality. In this modification of perfection phase techniques, the key principles are that of extreme simplicity (spros med) in terms of proce­dures and visualizations, in striking contrast to the often amazingly complex and convoluted (spros bcas) contents of generation phase practices; the frequent invocation of the importance of balance, smooth­ness, and avoidance of stress; and a constant return to, emphasis on, and culmination in, contemplation of the open spaces of the mind's final nature beyond and within all specific images and sensations. This inter­linked triune tact is what, for kLong chen rab 'byams pa, constitutes this as a uniquely Great Perfection contemplative system, despite its obvious departure from what one might imagine as a pristine uncompromising Mind Series-based contemplative style.

The discussion of the concluding phase is not at all perfunctory, but rather includes discussions of new contemplative techniques under the rubric of "branches which aid the practice of the main phase." 144 Thus kLong chen rab 'byams pa interprets this category in the sense of "back­ground teachings" (rgyab chos) to discuss more extensive and complex tantric techniques, without, however, admitting them into the principal

144. Ibid., 92.4.

258 JIABS 17.2

system itself. Of the four sections, two explicitly deal with new con­templative techniques: (i) contemplative experiences (nyams) and (ii) techniques for enhancement or energization of one's contemplation (bogs 'byin). The former is not particularly interesting for our present purposes, as it consists of pointers to cope with the inevitable attachment that occurs to the intense new sensations generated by contemplation. The latter is presented in terms of (i) techniques for curing defects in one's contemplative experiences (nyams skyon can bcos thabs) and (ii) techniques for intensifying (gong du 'phel ba) the gnosis of bliss, radi­anee, and non-conceptuality. In discussing the curative techniques, he specifies that the best practitioners simply have recourse to the "view" (lta ba), the intermediate to "meditation" (sgom pa) and the inferior to "conduct" (spyod pa).145 Thus for the "best" we find that pure Mind Series contemplation without any specific techniques, even to the extent of calming practices, is sufficient. In this way kLong chen rab 'byams pa acknowledges the older tradition (whether it was simply rhetorical or practical) and the supremacy of such simple contemplation within the pristine view. But the slight space given it in comparison to the other two types of practitioners clearly constitutes a pragmatic recognition that such an uncompromising position simply isn't sufficient for most indi­viduals-as a tradition, it seems one must involve oneselves in "meditation" and "conduct" (key words for different types of practice), despite the "view's" ontological accuracy in its claims to be "beyond meditation and conduct" (sgom med, spyod met!). Thus the traditional triad of a view, its meditative cultivation, and its behavioral implementa­tion (Ita sgom spyod) is used to justify this extension out of pure Mind Series contemplation, whether or not such an extension is actual, or a mere rhetorical acknowledgment of a pre-existing state of affairs. Addi­tional elements of this strategy are the triad of bliss, radiance and non­conceptuality-it suggests Mind Series is focused more on the non-con­ceptuality, but other techniques are more adequate to the equally impor­tant experiences and intuitions of bliss and radiance. Finally the widespread hiearchization of individuals' varying contemplative capaci -ties (as seen above) is utilized: the lower on the yogic ladder you get. the more elaborate techniques are needed (though the most elaborate elements of this contemplative system remain considerably simpler than the elaborate mlll.19alas and procedures of some tantric systems).

145. Ibid., 96.1-98.6, 98.6-103.2, and 103.2-107.2 respectively.

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The instructions for curative techniques in "meditation" for the average practitioner all consist of very simple techniques used to cure precise problems that arise in the above three practices. For example, if one has problems with preventing ejaculation in the "bliss" practice, one visualizes a dark blue huJ?t syllable within the penis-vajra. From this a flre blazes and incinerates all the seeds, and one visualizes it as empty. If one has problems with the mind being too agitated to focus, one visu­alizes a lotus or crossed double vajra at one's heart, from which a cord extends downward. TItis cord increases in length until it reaches all the way down to the universe's very foundation. With prolonged medita­tion, this will clear away the agitation. Finally, if one has a problem with mental fogginess and torpor while doing practice of non-conceptuality, one can clear it away with the following technique: a glittering presence resembling a globe of light raises from one's heart, and one focuses on it hovering in space an armspan above one.

"Conduct" is then explained in terms of utilizing different postures (Zta stangs), substances (rdzas), and supporting links (rten 'breZ). The rubric of postures includes some Simple postural adjustments in support of the above three types of practice, as well as an extended discussion of why the classic seven point posture is so crucial. 146 "Substances" con­centrates on diet, as well as the type of company to keep and geographi­cal environment, in relation to the particular type of practice one is en­gaged on. "Supporting links" involves using particular types of material substances such as charmed cords and sandalwood.

kLong chen rab 'byams pa begins his discussion of "intensifying" techniques with a trenchant criticism of those who reject all meditative references (dmigs pa) or specific icons such as visualization (mtshan bcas).147 Without the use of such "key points" (gnad), he indicates one will not have the slightest meditative experience and thus will not be able to stabilize one's mind. He instead stresses the importance of beginning with meditative objects, and only subsequently releasing them into non­referential (dmigs med) meditation. In the present context, he identifies "meditative references" as the blazing and dripping of the nuclei in the bliss practices; the colorized inner winds in the radiance practices; and the pure sky in the non-conceptuality practices. Subsequently he con-

146. Ibid., 103.3-104.5. 147. Ibid., 107.3-116.3 and 107.3-108.3 respectively.

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cludes this section 148 in a similar vein with an admonition that for the energization of all these contemplative techniques a practitioner should generally value the standard range of meritorious activities: amassing the two accumulations of gnosis and merit, purifying obscurations, meditation on generation and perfection phase techniques, and doing guru yoga. Thus in the intervening discussion, he indicates how to energize the bliss practice in particular by providing more particulars on its four phases of descent, reversal, dispersal and indictment (as empty) of the seminal nuclei in one's body, including pointers on posture and so forth that facilitate them. 149 Of particular interest 150 is what appears to be his justification for including sexual yoga in a Great Perfection con­templative system: the focus here is on the final phase of finding the originally pure emptiness within these sensations of intense bliss, in marked contrast to the "stressful and forced" (rtsol ba can) practices of those who just continually concentrate on the descent, reversal and dis­persal of the seminal nuclei within their bodies along with the concomi­tant intense orgiastic sensations. In his account of the energization of the radiance practice, lSI he also emphasizes its difference from ordinary perfection phase techniques, characterizing it as superior to standard breath techniques visualizing the breath as colored, with temperature, shapes and so on. The energization of the non-conceptuality practice,152 however, is just an outline of several simple techniques; dis solving all conceptuality into an intent focus on a meditative reference such as the statue of a deity; holding the lungs empty and staring intently at mountains, rocks and so on; or focusing the mind on letters, lights, or deity images at the four wheels of the subtle body while holding one's breath inside.

Finally, I would like to point out that this entire system is summarized into an attractively simple sequence of preliminaries, main practice and concluding phase in the "practical guidance" (don khrid) on this text. 153 While space prevents me from outlining it here, it suffices to point out that it presents the above in a very stream lined package giving one the

148. Ibid., 115.6-116.3. 149. Ibid., 108.3-112.4. 150. Ibid., 112.3. 151. Ibid., 112.4-114.6. 152. Ibid., 114.6-115.6. 153. Yid bzhin nor bu 126.3-129.4.

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sensation of a truly Great Perfection-based reading of the standard range of Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practices, inclusive yet non-com­promising in its adherence to the principle of simplicity (spros med).

As with the NgaZ gso skor gsum, kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Rang grot skor gsum cycle enables him to present the standard Buddhist vehicles with a focus on practice in the Mind Series. It also is novel to some degree, as indicated by its status as a "pure vision" (dag snang) received by kLong chen rab 'byams pa directly from Ye shes mtsho rgyal. 154 This trilogy provides a sustained interpretation of the Mind Series from the perspective of the Esoteric Precept Series, such as when it utilizes the unique terminology of the four visions of direct transcen­dence to discuss the progression of breakthrough / Mind Series con­templation, or its clear references to dream practices associated with the Seminal Heart tradition. 155 Thus it would seem kLong chen rab 'byams pa thought of this trilogy as an intermediate bridge between the solidly Mind Series-based NgaZ gso skor gsum and specifically Seminal Heart scriptures, probably intended to gradually introduce modernists to the latter's unique and quirky world both terminologically and contempla­tively through the medium of the more palatable Mind Series tradition. In other words, it was intended as a springboard for orienting people towards the Esoteric Precept Series vision of the Great Perfection.

The first text of the trilogy, the rDzogs pa chen po sems nyid rang grol,156 devotes its lengthy second chapter to contemplation, but its intensely beautiful and experiential account provides little detail on actual contemplative procedures aside from the standard poetic-evocative Mind Series style of meditation. Its auto-commentary (another "practical guidance" (don khrid) text), however, has more specifics in its triune presentation of a gradated path of meditation: 157 (i) instructions on

154. See Buddha Mind (356) for a lineage with several intermediate figures; a different lineage list for the Chos nyid rang grol and mNyam nyid rang groi provided in their respective "practical guidance" commentaries (329.6 and 377.4) goes difectly from Ye shes mtsho rgyal to kLong chen rab 'byams pa himself (the latter text specifies the "Padma couple," i. e. Padmasambhava and Ye shes mtsho rgyal). 155. See Thondup 1989, 335-6. 156. All page references to this and its commentary are to Thondup's transla­tions for the reader's convenience. 157. Lam rim snying po 357-367, 367-370 and 370-373 respectively.

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natural freedom in contemplative practice in this current lifetime; (ii) instructions on radiant light as the pure source-potential within the post­life intermediate state; and (iii) instructions on the fruit of definitive actualization. The first section begins with seven preliminary phases of contemplation (the first six are done for seven days apiece, and the sev­enth for a few additional days): (i) a standard, and fairly complex, tantric guru-yoga centered on the visualization of Padmasambhava and Ye shes mtsho rgyal; (ii) maJ;lQala offering utilizing visualization; (iii) purificatory meditation on Vajrasattva; (iv) contemplation of imperma­nence; (v) going for refuge to visualized presences; (vi) the standard Mahayana generation of an altruistic motivation towards enlightenment; and (vii) finally a triune meditation on calming, insight, and their inte­gration. None of these involve any visionary or visualization practices unique to the Seminal Heart tradition. These preliminaries are then fol­lowed by the main and concluding practices, which on the whole involve no iconic-specific visualizations, breathing modulations, or other such tantric techniques. Thus typical Buddhist meditations are relegated to a "preliminary" phase, while the main contemplations are concordant with the anti-nomian (from a normative Buddhist scholastic and contempla­tive vantage point) discourse of early Great Perfection literature. The only exception is the "enhancement" (bogs dbyung) section of the con­cluding practices, which describes a practice involving going to a soli­tary spot and acting out whatever comes to your mind. This practice is drawn from the Seminal Heart tradition, where it is known as "the dif­ferentiation between cyclic existence and transcendence's respective domains" (' khOT 'das ru shan). 158

The intermediate state section, however, is an abbreviated account of the processes of dying and post-death existence accompanied by a terse outline of the associated contemplative precepts involving lights, visual­ization, and so on, drawn from the tenth adamantine topic of the Seminal Heart tradition. The final section on the fruit is not so clearly experien tial in nature, and largely involves theories of the nature of a Buddha's activity and realization. Thus overall we find again an incorporation of standard tantric practices that have been streamlined and simplified, tre prominence of calming / insight techniques, and a subdued incorporation of certain aspects of Seminal Heart terminology and contemplative prac­tices. Despite the presence of these tantric techniques, there is absolutely

158. See the description in Tshig don mdzod 372.4-374.3.

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no focus on the iconic presence of anyone deity or set of deities as in ordinary generation phase practices, nor is there any emphasis on bring -ing the internal winds into the body's central channel as in ordinary per­fection phase practices.

I will defer a similarly detailed examination of the other texts in the trilogy, except to note that in general they follow the pattern of the first set oftexts: they frame the breakthrough style contemplation with more conventional preliminary tantric and Mahayana contemplations, there is an infusion of bardo ideology and praxis, the modernist and Seminal Heart focus on radiant light and vision is pronounced, and despite its obvious influence, they refrain on the whole from utilizing the character­istic Seminal Heart terminology or describing the critical direct transcen­dence contemplation. The emphasis on radiant light and the bardo is even more pronounced, and the other two "practical guidances" structure their discussion of contemplative instructions around the traditional triad used to structure Seminal Heart treatises' presentations of contemplation: (i) a deSCription of contemplative procedures to be used in this life for the sharpest of practitioner; (li) instructions for the post-death interme­diate states for practitioners of intermediate abilities; and finally (iii) pre­cepts for those of inferior abilities, which basically consists in utilizing the practice of transference of consciousness (' pho ba) to be reborn in a pure land. kLong chen rab 'byams pa uses this emphasis on the inter­mediate state and radiant light to bring an Esoteric Precept Series per­spective to bear upon the Mind Series without, however, bringing its dangerous "commitments" (psychically and politically) into play since he avoids explicitly invoking the former. It may have been that the bardo discourses had gained a wider acceptance in Tibetan Buddhist commu­nities by virtue of their widespread popularity among the lay, as well as their displacing these unusual doctrines from the mainstream arena via situating them in the liminal zone of death. Thus kLong chen rab 'byams pa saw them as the most appropriate teachings to function as a bridge between the world of the Mind Series and modernist traditions, and that of the Seminal Heart.

Finally, I will briefly summarize the contemplative system outlined in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own commentary on the principal Mind Series text, the KWl byed rgyaZ po.159 His account is particularly inter-

159. Byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po'i don khrid Tin chen sgru bo 29-52. This text has been translated by Kennard Lipman and Merrill Peterson

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esting since it is closely based on the text itself, thus revealing how he unfolds a series of practices from a text which never describes any for­mal contemplative scenarios. The description is divided up into the tra­ditional triad of a contemplation session: the preliminaries (here identi­fied as guru yoga), the main practice and the concluding practices (here specified as techniques for sustaining the visions and experiences). The guru yoga begins with simple visualizations of a syllable emanating light rays, continues with self-visualization as the deity Sems dpa' rdo rje, a visualization of an image of the guru upon your head, and further visual­izations of surrounding lineage masters and so forth. In addition, you utilize a special breathing technique called "vajra repetition" (rdo rje' i bzlas )-you pronounce 61J1. as you inhale, ii{l as you hold the breath momentarily, and hi11J1. as you exhale. This practice is a quite standard tantric contemplation, but it is important to note this is introduced as a preliminary which serves to contextualize the main practice, which would be the Great Perfection proper.

The main practice involves four subdivisions:160 determining (the ground) through the appropriate view, finalizing through contemplative cultivation (of this view); clearing away treacherous pathways through your conduct; and divesting yourself from all hopes and fears as the fruit. The view section involves exclusively poetic / analytic thematic meditative inquiry or reverie, though the two references to how many days should be spent on it clearly indicate that formal meditative ses sions are indicated.161 The contemplation, conduct and fruit sections begin with relaxing in the seven point lotus posture, but are in fact in their entirety "technique-free" yet highly experiential scripts for working with one's own psyche. The concluding phase provides some simple practical techniques for coping with various situations. 162 As strategies for dealing with obstacles to one's meditative practice, kLong chen rab 'byams pa advocates traditional Buddhist techniques such as supplicat­ing one's Master, trusting in pure vision, cultivating love and compas­sion, and training one's mind to be constantly aware of karmic conse-

as You are the Eyes o/the World (1987). All page references here and in the following are to this translation for the reader's convenience. 160. Lipman and Peterson 1987, 31-50. 161. Ibid., 33, 35. 162. Ibid., 50-2.

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quences of one's actions as well as impennanence. While other solu­tions are again more cognitive in nature, he offers specific advice for feelings of drowsiness and distraction towards objects---"stick to a cool room with a high seat, exert yourself and do physical exercises."163 He also reiterates the importance of stabilizing concentration on an objective reference, the precise content of which is not relevant,l64 followed by a clear explication of how such stabilization is utilized. The beginning level of such practice involves the achievement of a calm, collected state of mind, which, however, is periodically interrupted by the movement of thought (sems gnas thog nas 'phro). The intennediate level of familiar­ization with such contemplation is reached when one begins to gain the ability to find such calm amidst the movement of thought (,phro thog na gnas); the advanced level is when calmness and thoughts manifest with­out any duality or fissure (gnas 'phro gnyis med du shar ba).

In conclusion, this brief look at kLong chen rab 'byams pa's four­teenth century writings on Mind Series contemplation indicates quite clearly an important, though limited and modified, role of ordinary tantric contemplative principles distinct from their possible importance as an assumed background. It clearly represents a simplification ofperfec­tion phase techniques infused with the spirit of Great Perfection rhetoric while consciously avoiding complicated generation phase production of images, resulting in an attractively simple yet evocative system. In addi­tion, it indicates the importance of calming techniques as a central means for preparing one's psyche for the tricky nature of such seemingly in­tangible styles of contemplation. Finally, his accounts both indicate how highly experiential these at times vague sounding contemplations can be in terms of providing precise means for working directly with one's psyche, sensory experience and sedimented interpretative patterns, as well as stress the importance of pursuing these in a fonnal setting while seated in a supportive posture and disengaged from other activities. It is only in the context of cultivating such concentration in extended medita­tive sessions that his avocation of integrating such experiences with ordinary activities makes sense, as well his frequent invocations of "relaxation" and "naturalness." Further research must be done on earlier Mind Series literature with a specific focus on evidence of contemplative praxis to assess kLong chen rab 'byams pa's innovativeness. In par-

163. Ibid., 51. 164. Ibid., 52.

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ticular, a systematic review of the rGyud 'bum o!Vairo(cana) is vital if Kapstein is correct in his characterization of it as a middle to late twelfth century redaction of Zur Mind Series traditions.

The path from bodhicitta to bindu As the eleventh century begins, the Great Perfection is already character­ized by these webs of lineages known as the Mind Series, separated from each other by such factors as geographical distances and clan affil­iations. The emergence of the modernist movements from this point onwards resulted in new religio-cultural heterologues sparking a series of crises and transformations in pre-existing Buddhist groups (beginning with their constitution as the "ancients"). The eleventh to thirteenth centuries are a time of tremendous ferment as a variety of interlinked yogic systems of theory and praxis are not only being imported from outside Tibet, but are also being developed and refined in Tibet itself. This latter process took place intellectually, literarily and experientially, and for a few explosive centuries literally thousands of tantric flowers bloomed, most eventually withering away within the restricted circles wherein they first emerged, forever beyond retrieval. Amidst this mutually constituting creativity in modernist and ancient circles, startling new developments emerge within these Great Perfection traditions. While grounded in classical Indian Buddhist thought, they also represent systematic Tibetan innovations of an extremely sophisti­cated and creative nature.

The most interesting were those experimenting with imaginal pro­cesses interlinked with the human body through pushing outwards the boundaries demarcating the Great Perfection from the other tantric tradi -tions being transmitted with it,165 as well as incorporating in interesting ways tantric doctrines and practices circulating in modernist camps. These developments reversed its probable initial process of formation in which it separated itself off from other areas of tantra to gain its own distinctive self-identity. As these boundaries of discourse and praxis fluctuated outwards, the incorporated materials / techniques themselves were altered in ways both subtle and striking by their new setting and use, as well as altering the very identity of the Great Perfection in the process. These fluctuations and reintroductions of tantric elements were taking place across an immense geographical landscape over a number

165. This is clear from hagiographic and lineage records.

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of centuries, and it is not yet possible to give a competent outline of the various heterogeneous systems, nor their interrelationships and differ­ences. We have yet to adequately analyze the existent literature to dis­cern the outlines of these groups, much less ask questions as to philo­sophical and contemplative differences that may have constituted their respective boundaries (beyond the mere clan affinities, lineage transmis­sions, and geographical locations). The situation is particularly complex in that much of the early materials were being introduced as canonical tantras attributed to a cosmic buddha, or compositions by Indian and Tibetan figures of the seventh to ninth centuries. As such, they were often introduced into collections without any further colophonic data.

The "Seminal Heart" (snying thig) emerged out of such ferment from the mid eleventh century onwards. The Seminal Heart was also known as the "unsurpassed" (bla med), perhaps echoing the modernist term "Unsurpassed Yoga Tantras" (mal 'byor bla na med pa'i rgyud). While it is startlingly different from the world evoked by the classic Mind Series texts, its innovativeness in the context of related movements in the Great Perfection cannot be assessed until further research has been done on surviving textual materials from this time period 166 Since these traditions were in intimate dialogue with the emerging modernist tantric and yogic developments as well, comparative studies should also yield detailed correspondences. With the emergence of such movements, various classification systems or doxographies begin to develop to make sense of older Great Perfection traditions in this new context. Early developments gaining wider acceptance with their proposed rubrics for self-identification (yang ti, spyi ti, a ti and so forth) thus began to create systematized genres as early as the eleventh century. Eventually a certain spectrum of these that went furthest in assimilating perfection phase techniques were understood as variations of a single classification known as the "Esoteric Precept Series." The most standard overarching doxography included this in a triune hierarchically sequenced series (sde gsum): the Mind Series, Space Series, and Esoteric Precepts Series (man ngag sde). The Mind Series functioned as a systematization of older traditions, as well as eventually more conservative innovations, while the Esoteric Precepts Series and its internal divisions authorized and positioned the radical developments led by the Seminal Heart. Thus

166. Particularly important are the key "Space Series" (klong sde) works and those grouped under the rubrics yang ti or spyi ti.

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while people were continually going off into the vast Tibetan wilderness and pursuing their own interests in isolated conditions, the pervasive institution of lineages and the complimentary Tibetan instinct for collectivization constantly acted to counterbalance these tendencies towards fragmentation and isolation. Some early passages about the interrelation between yang ti and spyi ti clearly indicate these were separate currents with self-conscious identities, 167 although this is not to deny that later classificatory attempts (such as those found in the ordering of texts in the rNying rna rgyud 'bum) introduce artificial divisions as they attempt to fit heterogeneous material into a few rubrics distilled out from this creative period. In particular, later attempts to confine this into a standard four divisions of the Esoteric Precepts Series seems to reflect a late hegemonic attempt to homogenize these develop­ments into a unified scheme. While in the Seminal Heart's earliest emergence in the eleventh century it was one of many tentative inquiries into the expansion of the Great Perfection, this particular line of devel­opment eventually become so dominant in Tibet that the term came to be understood as synonymous with the Great Perfection itself in many cir­des. Even later traditions claiming distinct visionary roots in the eighth century are clearly heavily indebted to the practices, terminology and

167. For example, a revelation of Nyang ral nyi rna 'oct zer entitled rGyud kyi nse rgyal nyi zla 'od 'bar mkha' klong mam dag rgya mtsho klong gsal rgyud currently found in the mTshams brag edition of rNying rna rgyud 'bum (vol. 10,624-671; Kaneko 124) has references to spyi ti and yang ti; also see the references in the chapter titles of two other Nyang revelations (Kaneko 93-4). A Padmasambhava treasure (the discoverer is unspecified) located imme­diately after those texts (Kaneko 95) has numerous references to spyi ti, yang ti and a ti (the rGyud thams cad kyi rgyal po nyi zla'i snying po 'od 'bar ba bdud rtsi'i rgyal mtsho La 'khyiL ba'i rgyud). Chapter 47 discusses the view of spyi ti, which it identifies as "original purity" (ka dag), while the follow­ing chapter discusses the view of yang ti, which it explicitly identifies as "higher" than spyi ti. Chapter 48 then discusses the view of "the totally per­fect direct transcendence" (yongs rdzogs thod rgal). Chapter 72 further dis­cusses the "difference between a ti and spyi ti," and actually presents it in terms of a debate between two proponents. Systematic research into such passages will eventually yield a clearer understanding of what is implied by each rubric.

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direction first formulated in the Seminal Heart circles (this is particularly true of the important fourteenth century dGongs pa zang thal cycle). 168

The history of the Great Perfection's transformation into the Seminal Heart Traditionally, the Seminal Heart is said to have been the exceedingly secret core of the Great Perfection, and as such was only transmitted to literally a handful of people during the late eighth and ninth centuries as Buddhism took hold in dynastic period Tibet. This new Great Perfec­tion movement was then introduced to the wider Tibetan public from the eleventh century onwards under the auspices of "recovered" texts called "treasures" (gter ma), which included both transcendental buddha­authored tantras and their human-composed exegetical literature. In terms of the former, there were a series of new tantras in the classic for­mat said to be dynastic period translations by either Vimalamitra or Vairocana in conjunction with Srlsi~a, from which a set of seventeen was gradually codified under the rubric of rGyud bcu bdun (The Seven­teen Tantras). In addition, there emerged a body of exegetical literature attributed to six Indian figures (see below) and eventually collected into a set known as Bi ma snying thig (The Seminal Heart of Vimalarnitra), the name pointing to the supposed eighth century Indian redactor who is said to have brought the texts to Tibet and redacted them there as a col -lection. These texts' origination and transmission were both attributed to the shadowy non-Tibetan figures said to play the key roles in the Great Perfection's emergence in this world system and initial very limited cir­culation (prior to its unprecedented expansion in Tibet)-- Surativajra, MafijuSrImitra, SrIsi~a, Jfianasl1tra and Vimalarnitra. The main early figure that is historically attested seems to be ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug (active in the eleventh century), who was said to have played a major role (some claim "authorship" in many cases as the most appro­priate description)169 in the rediscovery of these two principal textual

168. It is necessary to carefully chart the way in which Seminal Heart devel­opments were appropriated by other systems as the centuries passed on, since the special treasure-revelation mechanisms of the ancients was often utilized to create separate sources of authorization clouding their immense debt to the original Seminal Heart corpus. For information on the phenomena of "treasure," see Thondup 1986 aI)d Gyatso 1986, 1993. 169. See Karmay 1988; 210.

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collections that were to put the Seminal Heart teachings on the spiritual and intellectual map in Tibet. 170 These two collections later formed a triad with the important mKha' 'gro snying thig (The Seminal Heart of the Sky Dancer), a group of texts ascribed to the authorship of Padmasambhava in conjunction with his Tibetan consort Ye shes mtsho rgyal yet only re-revealed in Tibet during the late thirteenth century by Padmalas 'brelrtsal (1291-1316). Traditional accounts of this enSuing period thus speak of their concealment in Tibet and subsequent "rediscovery" as actual physical manuscripts or visionary documents, an extremely complex and confusing series of events over a period of four centuries that is in part certainly beyond our retrieval. Along with the repeated disclaimers explaining why these teachings and doctrines had been totally unknown prior to this time (roughly the eleventh century), this indicates the quite innovative nature of these Seminal Heart teach­ings in the context of what was understood to signified by the "Great Perfection" when they first appeared. Even within the context of Nyingma communities, and more so in the wider TIbetan religious land­scape being reshaped by the modernist movement, these teachings were quite controversial. The uniqueness of the Seminal Heart tradition in the context of the Great Perfection is due equally to its complex mytho­philosophical presentation of the cosmos' unfolding within an explicitly soteriological and psychological framework, as well as its incorporation of complex visual images and imaging into its mainstream (though in a quite different style than traditional tantric praxis).

Given the period's complicated maneuvers regarding ascription of authorship as motivated by desires for legitimation in the often fractious conflicts between the modernists and ancient ones, attributions to Indian figures such as Vimalarnitra and even to Tibetan figures beginning with ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug (though from fairly early on he is cited as the source of the Seminal Heart innovation) cannot be taken at face value without independent corroboration. The situation is further con­fused by the fact that many of the early figures were visionaries who

170. I am currently working on a detailed analysis of this literature in an article provisionally entitled "kLong chen rab 'byams pa's sNying thig Sources: The "Original" sNying Thig Literature Canonized in the 14th Cen­tury." The most pressing task in reconstructing a literary history is a system­atic cataloging and comparison of the huge amounts of Great Perfection litera­ture produced during this period.

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received texts in varying states of detail within visions,I71 texts which subsequent transmissions would speak of as belonging more to the envisioned author than the visionary him / herself. In addition, to some degree genuinely ancient texts lost or concealed during the dark period were being recovered and recirculated from the late tenth century onwards, just as is happening now in Tibetan regions following the far darker period that transpired under Chinese Communist rule during the sixties and seventies. Finally, these texts, as well as other texts, were often sites of continuing creative development that in some cases lasted over several centuries or more, such that reference to a text or collection by name is not clear evidence that it existed at that point in its present codified form. It is important to realize that traditional and modem accounts of a type of "renaissance" of Tibetan religious culture from the tenth century onwards as essentially creative, dominant and active mod­ernist movements pushing along reactionary, weak and passive Nyingma and Bonpo movements is profoundly inaccurate. Instead it was a jOint explOSion of creativity shared by all three, with the Seminal Heart in particular marking the profundity of the changes occurring in the Nyingma camps.

The traditional account of the emergence of this literature can be found in the sNying thig lo rgyus chen po (The Great Chronicles of the Seminal Heart), a historical work found in the Bi rna snying thig, possibly authored by Zhang ston bkra shis rdo rje. 172 In this account, Vimalamitra brings the texts to Tibet towards the end of the eighth cen­tury, but decides against disseminating them at that pOint, and instead conceals the texts in mChims phu (the retreat site associated with bSam yas monastery in Central Tibet). He transmits some materials to tre

171. A contemporary Great Perfection Teacher in Golok Serta, mKhan po 'jigs med phun tshogs, is quite famed for his visionary reception of texts in perfect syllabic meter. This being the twentieth century, disciples scramble for the tape recorder and microphone when he appears to be going into such a state. In his own community, and in the wider religious community if they gain legitimation as genuine, these compositions are attributed to the eighth or ninth century and the subsequently discussed as the "root" of a fourteenth century text and so on. An excellent discussion of this tradition of "treasure" (gTer rna) texts revealed physically or in non-material visions can be found in Thondup 1986. 172. See Karmay 1988,209. See Thondup 1984 for a good syncretic presen­tation of such accounts.

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Tibetan Nyang ting nge 'dzin bzang po, who conceals those texts at the Zhwa'i temple. In order to maintain the lineage, he transmitted it in some type of oral form to 'Bron rin chen 'bar ba, who in.turn transmitted it to dBu ru zhwa'i ldang rna dge mchog. The latter's son, gNas brtan ldang rna lhun gyi rgyal mtshan then rediscovered some portion of the texts from Zhwa temple. He transmitted these to ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug, who further re-located some of the texts at mChims phu, but also re-hid these texts. ICe sgom nag po then thirty years later recovered some of those texts. From this point on we have datable fig­ures: ICe sgom nag po's disciple Zhang ston bkra shis rdo rje (1097-1167), Zhang's son Nyi rna 'bum (1158-1213), Nyi 'bum's nephew Guru jo 'ber (1172-1231), 10 'ber's disciple 'Khrul zhig seng ge rgyab pa (1200s), the latter's disciple Me long rdo rje (1243-1303), and Me long rdo rje's disciple Kumaradza (1266-1343), the root teacher of kLong chenrab 'byams pa (1308-1363). The materials developed dur­ing the pre-kLong chen rab 'byams pa period bear traces of a number of quite different authorial hands, often in a single te~t. However material attributed to Vimalamitra's (traditionally seen as the key redactor of this material) own hand often seems stylistically unified, internally structured and possibly forming the corpus of a single individual. The key issue in part, then, is whether we can pinpoint a historical figure who most likely penned a substantial portion of these materials, whether it be ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug, ICe sgom nag po, or 'some later figure. Interest­ingly, Nyang ral nyi rna 'od zer's twelfth century Chos 'byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi'i bcud clearly refers (see above) in passing to the emerging Seminal Heart tradition under the rubric of "the unsurpassed (tradition of the) Great Perfection" (rdzogs chen bla med), though he confines himself to a brief description of the lineage.

It is helpful to understand the history of the Seminal Heart in terms of three phases. 0) The initial period of formation (early eleventh century to early twelfth century?) was marked by the longer texts (such as the sGra thaI' gyur and Rig pa rang shar tantras) and two main collections of texts (The Seventeen Tantras and the Bi rna snying thig) gradually taking shape over the course of decades via a number of authors. This is suggested by the reoccurring theme of visions of Vimalamitra and texts which are re-covered, re-concealed and re-recovered. Thus at some time in the eleventh century this new movement began within the framework of the Great Perfection drawing upon a variety of sources: new modernist doctrines, indigenous Tibetan religious concepts, inno-

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vative strains of the Great Perfection such as in the Space Series and other unknown influences. It may even be that these visionary practices were partially already present as an oral transmission largely contempla­tive in nature in conjunction with a limited graphic tradition focused on tantric themes of buddha-nature and primordial purity; the Seminal Heart may then ret1ect the subsequent gradual elaboration of this into a sys­tematic philosophical discourse. It then spread for several centuries with literary production basically confined to "tantras" claiming to be tran­scripts of celestial doctrines rather than human compositions, and I or texts claiming to be rediscoveries of fifth-ninth century non-Tibetan Great Perfection masters. The formation of the two basic collections said to stem from the time of ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug was most likely the product of gradual "discovery" and composition reaching a codified form only later in the late thirteenth century, though it may be that it was present in a core form already in the eleventh century with ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug's, or ICe sgom nag po's, literary activity ("archaeology" and composition).

(ii) In the intermediate period (early thirteenth century to early four­teenth century) the tradition starts to take stable form and move into wider patterns of circulation with Me long rdo rje and Kumaradza. In this way, the Seminal Heart tradition with its texts and associated prac­tices eventually began to experience quite a bit of success, such that in the early fourteenth century we find such a prominent modernist figure as the third Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339) deeply involved in their transmission and study. 173 In this process, the rnKha' , gro snying thig played a critical role, as indicated by its great popularity in the fourteenth century.l14 The factors behind this popularity lie partially in its direct linkage to the evolving cult of Padmasambhava that was beginning to dominate the Nyingma lineages, but also in its stylistic qualities, organization, and pragmatic usefulness. Whereas the Bi rna snying thig represents a sprawling mass of often quite obscure and cer­tainly heterogeneous materials, this later collection (as one might expect) is tightly written, characterized by an evocative yet clear style, and pre­sents the entire range of philosophical treatises, ritual manuals, and con­templative instructions in a single easy to consult cycle. This is yet another reason for the importance of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's

173. See Dudjom 1991, 572-4. 174. See Ehrhard 1992, 54.

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exegetical work, since he also brought much needed order and organiza­tional clarity to the at times chaotic mass of the Vimalamitra-fransmitted Seminal Heart scriptures inherited from Kumaradza (also the relevant teacher of Rang byung rdo rje). In addition, Kumaradza's biography has the following interesting comment: " ... Kumaradza was able to explain the instructions of the Innermost Spirituality (snying thig) with­out mixing them with others' systems of the stage of perfection; and thus he created a philosophical system in the technical language [of the Great Perfection itself] .... "175 In their annotation to this, Kapstein and Dorje indicate that they suspect this may indicate Kumaradza played an important role, perhaps even a literary one, in the systematization of the Seminal Heart tradition with its peculiar terminology that kLong chen rab 'byams pa received.

(ill) In the "final" period (fourteenth century) kLong chen rab 'byams pa systematized and codified these literary and oral traditions into a complex, yet clear architectonic structure. This resulted in the redaction of the literature into the vast sNying thig ya bihi (The Seminal Heart in Four Parts) along with the canonical Seventeen Tantras. Further research into other Great Perfection figures of the time may reveal alter­native Seminal Heart-inspired or related traditions that bypassed kLong chen rab 'byams pa's systematization, though it is unlikely any do so in such masterly fashion. Prior to the fourteenth century, there appears to have been little e;wlicitly commentarialliterature being attributed to Tibetan scholar / practitioners, although presumably many of the tantras found in the various editions of rNying ma rgyud 'bum were being pro­duced, revealed, or rediscovered during the twelfth and thirteenth cen­turies under circumstances that are less than clear. This entire develop­mental process of a complex and highly architectonic discourse over three centuries then culminated with the life and writings of kLong chen rab 'byams pa, who produced a massive corpus of writings on the Seminal Heart constituting its first systematic exposition attributed explicitly to an indigenous Tibetan author. Not only did he put thus put the tradition in its classical form, he also managed to integrate its doc­trines and practices into the increasingly normative modernist discourses that had taken shape from the contemporary Indian Buddhist 10gico­epistemological circles, Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and tantric traditions of the late tenth to thirteenth centuries. 1his is in line with the general tenor

175. See Dudjom 1991,571-2.

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of the fourteenth century, a time when the preceding centuries' creative and at times chaotic ferment was being everywhere systematized and codified, and the Tibetan version of the academic industry was kicking into gear. kLong chen rab 'byams pa's overall corpus is brilliant, and has enjoyed a commensurate reputation in a1111betan traditions from the fourteenth century onwards. It had an immediate impact, and in subse­quent centuries was to serve as the explicit model for many Nyingma compositions. In particular, his Seminal Heart writings were intensely philosophical as well as contemplative, and architectonic in nature. Though on the whole their characteristic doctrines and terminology are present in the earlier literature stemming from ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug onwards, their terminological precision, eloquent style, systematic range and structure, and integration with normative Buddhist discourse constitute a major innovation in and of themselves. To his credit, kLong chen rab 'byams pa's alternative identities as a poet and accomplished yogi enabled him on the whole to avoid the scholastic sterility that many Tibetan scholars were already becoming trapped within.

A period of striking creativity was thus brought to its culmination by kLong chen rab 'byams pa, while in the following centuries (right up to the present), many figures in the Nyingma tradition (and other sects) composed their own Seminal Heart systems (generally known by such titles as the Pad rna snying thig [Lotus Seminal Heart] and so on) such that earlier traditions of the Great Perfection became marginalized and Seminal Heart came to be widely recognized as the premier form of the Great Perfection. Indeed, it was viewed as the pinnacle of the entire "nine vehicle" (theg pa dgu) systematization of tenet systems in Nyingma literature. However, despite, or perhaps because of, the immensity of his accomplishment, kLong chen rab 'byams pa's corpus had a relatively limited circulation for the ensuing four centuries. It was finally simultaneously established as authoritative, and partially dis­placed, in the eighteenth century by 'Jigs med gling pa's (1730-1798) immensely popular kLong chen snying thig cycle. This functioned to simplify much of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Seminal Heart systemati­zation, but also altered the fundamental structure of its literature and praxis by drawing upon normative (and transformed) deity visualization­oriented practices as found in Mahayoga cycles for its key structural framework. In addition, his Yon tan mdzod basically rewrote kLong chen rab 'byams pa's NgaZ gso skor gsum. While both works were to prove considerably more popular than their inspiration in kLong chen

276 nABS 17.2

rab 'byams pa's corresponding compositions, they also solidified the tradition of according the latter an authoritative position in the field of the Great Perfect, and opened up a space within which kLong chen rab 'byams pa studies flourished (relatively speaking). In addition, it sparked the famous "non-partisan" (ris med) movement that spread over eastern TIbet in the nineteenth century, for which this renewed Seminal Heart formed the visionary and intellectual heart. 176 Much of the Nyingma school's ensuing (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) produc­tion of systematic exegetical literature on the great Mahayana exoteric classics can be profitable viewed as an attempt to pursue Great Perfec­tion concerns in the new arena of discourses formerly dominated by the modernists. However the history of Seminal Heart post-fourteenth century to the twentieth century remains a complicated matter requiring further extensive research, as well as the sam issue of parallel move­ments in the Great Perfection that may have been formulated in separa­tion from, in dialogue with, or in dependence upon the Seminal Heart traditions.

Just as with the Mind Series traditions, an important issue in the Seminal Heart's historical development is the extent to which its Heart must be contextualized pedagogically and contemplatively in terms of other Buddhist doctrinal, contemplative and ritual systems. For exam­ple, in most Nyingma scholastic centers established in the refugee com­munities outside of Tibet, monks are generally required to engage in years of systematic study of other traditions before (if ever) instructed in highly technical literature of the Seminal Heart tradition. On the other hand, at mKhan po 'jigs med phun tshogs's contemporary institute located at Go log gser rta in far east Tibet, he regularly teaches such lit­erature to the monastic assembly, and as a result I found monks in their early twenties with whom I could have quite specialized discussions. In addition I once had an interesting discussion with the contemporary Bonpo master sLob dpon bstan 'dzin rnam dag in which he expressed his worries that the contemporary marginalization of these traditions within the normative study curriculum was contributing to their decline. On the other side of the religious fence in Tibetan cultural zones, there are numerous accounts of distinguished great Perfection teachers and practitioners who were not ritually, scholastically, or at times even Iin-

176. See Smith 1969, 1970, and Samuel 19993, 525-552, for an excellent overview of the ecumenical movement

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guistically literate in the wider Tibetan Buddhist domain. A charming example is related by Namkhai Norbu 177 in telling how his teacher Byang chub rdo rje fumbled his way through a standard ritualized sequence of events (since he lacked formal training in these complicated tantric structures) after being pressured by his eager young scholasti­cally-trained student (Norbu himself) to fit into his preconception of what a Tibetan Buddhist teacher should do. However, the cnntemporary norm is that prior to engaging in the main practices such as Break­through and direct transcendence, one must perform the lengthy prac -tices of the five hundred thousand preliminary practices, the recitations-. actualizations of the three roots (master, tutelary deity, and sky dancer), and channel-wind practices (rtsa rlung).178 The Shifting diachronic and synchronic lines of the Seminal Heart's relationship to other traditions at the practical rather than theoretical level is thus an important area for further research. The intent of this vastly oversimplified and brief histor­ical sketch is to offer a preliminary schema to facilitate further discus -sion, and has no pretense of doing justice to a complex and murky situation. 179

177. See Norbu 1986, 15-19. 178. For example see Jampal Zangpo 1988, 12. 179. In particular, my historical sketch makes no attempt to integrate the complex developments of the Bonpo traditions of the Great Perfection, about which I have only begun study the past few years. In addition, it is necessary to systematically survey all Nyingma and Bon literature prior to the four­teenth century for references to such specific technical terminology and themes as snying thig, thad rgal, khregs chad, gzhi snang and kun tu bzang pa'i grol tshul, as well as indications of awareness of different types of Great Per­fection lineages existing during the author's lifetime. In this way we can begin to accurately delineate the formation of these doctrines from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries by tracing the gradual codification of a stan­dard set of terminology, structures and so on. Thus we can clarify interrela­tions between various elements of the Nyingma tradition, as well as the nature, extent and histories of alternative attempts at renovating the Great Per­fection tradition during these first few centuries which failed where the Semi­nal Heart-Essence succeeded. Finally, systematic studies of the vast un­charted textual territory of the various editions of rNying rna rgyud 'bum as well as biographical literature are a vital necessity for further progress. For example, there is a large number of texts in the various editions attributed to Padmasambhava, for which it would be extremely helpful to analyze for the

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The Seminal Heart's innovations: the spontaneous visions of absence, the cult of the body and the transformation oftantric contemplation The core of the Seminal Heart's difference from earlier Great Perfection traditions can be summed up as a focus on the spontaneous dynamics (lhun grub) of the Ground, a spontaneity which one visually experiences in mandalic images in death and death-in-life, i. e. contemplation. This emphasis on spontaneity and vision is related not only to the mod­ernists' emphasis on techniques of vision, but also to the need for the ancients to present themselves ideologically as having a "vision." In other words, the communities of the ancients needed to show their own cultural vitality, and undercut caricatures of themselves as stagnant con­servatives with new visions of a specific nature rather than mere amor­phous formlessness. Evidently even in the fourteenth century there con­tinued to be conservatives in the Great Perfection tradition who rejected the Seminal Heart, and instead focused on the austerely conceived dyadic poles of a primordial ground and the distorted worlds of samsaric life forms. kLong chen rab 'byams pa alludes to this continuing contro­versy in the following discussion of the four visions of Direct Contem­plation practice: 180

These four visions (snang ba) of such natural spontaneity are elo­quently borne witness to in the great canonical tantras, scriptures (lung) and esoteric precepts (man ngag), and yet nowadays (many) err with respect to their internal radiance within the great lighting-up of the primordial ground (gz/li snang), the lighting-up (snang) of the originally pure essence. They thus fail to recognize these visions / lighting-up of natural spontaneity, the sheath (sbubs) of gnosis' radi­ant light, existing between the primordial ground and the distortions of the six life-forms (in srup.sara). I consider such people to be exceed­ingly misguided, despite their conceited pretensions to understanding

. the Great Perfection. I myself have seen all of this lighting-up (or

type of terminology, doctrines, and overall consistency that characterizes this group of texts. At the University of Virginia we currently have a computer­based project to index, correlate and summarize individual texts in these edi­tions-for further information, I can be contacted at Department of Religious Studies, Cocke Hall, Uinversity of Virginia, Charlottesville, V A 22903. 180. Zab.don rgya mtsho'i sprin 108.3.

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"these visions") through the inspiration of Padmasambhava and his consort, and it appeared exceedingly similar to (how they are described) in the Rang ShaT scripture. 181 Having seen it like that, I've set it down here for the sake of futUre generations ....

Though this clearly indicates controversies were raging still in central Tibet over the identity of the Great Perfection, by the seventeenth cen­tury gTer bdag gling pa says "practically nothing much survived of the Mind Series apart from the transmission of the "permission" (lung) in his time,"182 indicating that the victory of the Seminal Heart over the heart and soul of the Great Perfection was almost total. This occurs in the context of a discussion 183 of the extent to which such esoteric tradi­tions in both the modernists and Nyingma circles survived as experien­tial systems beyond a mere exegetical continuity. In particular he says that many Mind Series systems (lugs) previously flourished, such as the Rong, Khams, sKoT, and Nyang, but that in contemporary times the Mind Series and Space Series systems barely survive in terms of the traditional triad of their respective empowerments, experiential guidances and verbal transmissions. In contrast, he describes the Esoteric Precept Series-i. e. the two traditions supposedly stemming from Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava respectively-as having been preserved in its unique exegetical form as well as experientially, though without any great expansion. The ensuing discussion goes into considerable detail as he mentions contemporary or recent figures and their experiential accomplishments of these systems. in the context of which his concern for these as living contemplative traditions is manifest. It should be noted however that the contemporary Great Perfection teacher Namkhai Norbu (among others) has taught both the Mind Series and Space Series as practices over the past few decades, and his characterizations of their status has been far milder: " .... the [Mind Series] has tended to become rather overshadowed by the presentation of the [Esoteric Precept

181. The Rang shar is one of The Seventeen Tantras (rGyud bcu bdun). 182. Kannay 1988, 208; see further information on this text's discussion below (this passage is on folio 351). 183. gTer chen clws ki rgyal po gter bdag gling pa gar dbang 'gyur med rdo rje'i zhal snga nas mclwg sman rnams kyis dri ba sna tslwgs pa'i Ian rim par spe1 ba rin chen phreng ba (chab slwg) (350Aff).

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Series], and at various times it has been necessary to re-emphasize its importance." 184

In broader terms, the Seminal Heart innovations within the previ ous Great Perfection environment can be discussed as fourfold. (i) It articulates a deeply phenomenological and partially mythic overarching narrative about the origination and telos of the human world that serves to structure the entire tradition. TIlls can be summed up by a primordial ground, its unfolding in the ground-presencing, its split into s~ara and nirv~ and its culmination in enlightenment (ii) It directly introduces visionary practices into the heart of Great Perfection contemplation in a way intertwined with this evolutionary or developmental ethos. This is the "direct transcendence" discourse. (ill) It incorporates a wide range of tantric types of practices as auxiliary and supporting praxis, which on the whole involve relatively simple techniques of visualization in con­trast to the intricate m~<;lalas of modernist focus. (iv) It injects a far greater range of tantric doctrines into its discourse, ranging from subtle body theory to the set of one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities based on the five Buddha families. In this way, an extensive set of new technical vocabulary (gzhi snang, gdangs / mdangs, thod rgal, khregs chod, ru shan, etc.) emerges that is not attested in earlier Great Perfec­tion literature. In terms of the classic tantric split between traditions that give rhetorical voice (and often actual practical implementation) to explicit sexual imagery, violence and horrific imagery and those tradi­tions that are more aestheticized and overtly symbolic in nature, 185 the new Seminal Heart system remains relatively desexualized and aestheti­cized in comparison to the often shockingly crude discourses of the modernists' tantras and the Nyingma's own Mahayoga tradition (the antinomianism operative in the Great Perfection is more hermeneutical than social). However the influx oftantric vocabulary, themes, and even sexual practices as adjuncts do sexualize and em-body the tradition to a greater extent than seems to have been the norm previously.

In the Seminal Heart, the contemplative discourses on internal move­ments of energy within a "subtle" or imaginal body that characterize later phases ofIndian Buddhist tantra are reincorporated into the Great Per-

184. Norbu 1986, 24-5. 185. This split is variously referred to in Western literature as "crude" vs. "refined," "bindu" vs. "nada," or "sexual fluids" vs. "aestheticized symbol­ism," "cremation grounds culture" vs. "deodorized" traditions.

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fection, and furthermore instantiate and transform its cosmo gonic dis­courses of the movement from formless unity to hierarchized multiplic­ity. It is particularly interesting how processes of "intelligence" or "gnosis" operative in a wide range of dimensions are both models for, and modeled by, these cosmogonic imaginal bodies of understanding and experiencing. We must note the "dislocation" of intelligence as a trope and how that interplays with the shifting parameters of ordinary and authentic modes of subjectivity-how does realization involve onto­logical processes constitutive of our ordinary modes of being? How does the theme of unitary beginnings in potentia relate to the experienced presence of complex hierarchies of actualized plural structures? In understanding the nature of Seminal Heart subtle body theory and prac­tice' it is critical to look at the different styles in which these imaginal discourses take place, beginning with a tentative triadic classification into tactile (the "hydraulics" of the body), photic (the electrical "wiring" of the body), and phonic (the "graphing" of the body) dimensions of this body of practices that graphically inscribe cosmogonic tales of begin­nings and philosophical controversies over gnosis and subjectivity into our sensually experienced bodies.

Nyingma doxographies a/the ninth vehicle: "writing the view" in a infinite regression a/nuances Before going into greater detail as to the specific nature of the Seminal Heart, I will briefly discuss the doxographical ways in which it was apparently integrated with the previous Buddhist and specifically Great Perfection traditions such that the latter were both incorporated into, and subordinated to, the new Seminal Heart school. Here also I can only offer tentative sketches, since a systematic history of early doxographical schemes in the Nyingma tradition remains to be written. The standard doxographical scheme in the Nyingma tradition of systematizing the entire range of inherited Buddhist thought and praxis was a structural framework of "nine vehicles," each further characterized by internal structuration. 186 The initial triad constitutes the way of renunciation (spong lam): (i) the listeners (nyan thas, sravaka) and (ii) the self-

186. See the extensive discussion in Dudjom 1991, 151-374. I have here given the standard list of nine vehicles, though there are variations-see Karmay 1988, 172-3) Norbu 1989, xii and Stanley'S ongoing research (see above).

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awakened ones (rang sangs rgyas, pratyekabuddha) representing HInayana; and (iii) the spiritual heroes (byang chub sems dpa', bodhi­sattva) signifying Mahayana. The intermediate triad is the way of purification (sbyong lam) representing the lower three tantric classes from the standard set of four found in modernist traditions (here termed "outer tantras"): (iv) the Action Tantras (bya ba'i rgyud, kriyii), (v) the Conduct Tantras (spyod pa'i rgyud, caryii), and (vi) the Yoga Tantras (mal 'byor rgyud, yoga). The final triad, the way of transformation (bsgyur lam), represents the uniquely Nyingma set of tantric classes referred to as the "inner tantras": (vii) the Great Yoga Tantras (mal 'byor chen po'i rgyud, mahilyoga), (viii) the Subsequent / Complete Yoga Tantras (rjes su / yongs su mal 'byor rgyud, anuyoga), and (ix) the Transcendent Yoga Tantras (shin tu mal 'byor rgyud, atiyoga). Though the fITst six vehicles represent codifications of traditions undeni­ably non-Tibetan in origin, the status of the final three vehicles' texts and practices has traditionally been controversial, with many modernists claiming they are wholly Tibetan developments in nature (a potent claim in a world where Indic origins became the most powerful tool of legiti­macy). However, it appears that in fact the tantric core of the Mahayoga traditions represented by the Guhyagarbha Tantra and associated works, the key canonical texts of Anuyoga, and some early key short Mind Series texts of Atiyoga are in fact pre-eleventh century non­Tibetan works which to some degree go back as far as the ninth century. On the other hand, the elaborate "eight pronouncement deities" (bka' brgyad) traditions of Mahayoga and most of the Atiyoga tradition (especially the Seminal Heart) are clearly, at least in terms of received lit­erature, products of a uniquely TIbetan religious imagination.

While initially the ninth vehicle (Atiyoga generally is used synony­mously with the term Great Perfection) apparently referred to the type of limited tradition offormless meditation and poetic reveries on buddha­nature discussed above, with the development of more elaborate and complex movements under the wider rubric of the Great Perfection (as well as new specific sub-rubrics such as Seminal Heart), 187 an elaborate

187. Phil Stanley verbally informed me (1/94) Ibat he had yet to see Ibe term snying thig in his research into early doxographical accounts in Ibe Nyingma tradition. OIber such terms as yang ti and spyi ti along wiIb snying thig need to be researched as to Ibeir earliest occurrences and Ibe full range of Ibeir uses in early literature.

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system of internal divisions developed to discuss the changing identity of the ninth vehicle. The motivation was clearly in part the need to make sense of the different strands of the Great Perfection that had developed historically, and which partially continued to coexist with each other. A simplified presentation of these systems is the basic hierarchically orga­nized triad cited above, with each member possessing its own existent texts and practices: the Mind Series (sems sde), Space Series (klong sde)188 and the Esoteric Precept Series (man ngag sde). It is not yet clear at what point historically these rubrics came to refer to distinct movements, and it may very well be that these doxographical distinc­tions preexisted such a point. The Mind Series, in particular, serves partially as a rubric to classify the earlier states of the Great Perfection prior to the development of the Seminal Heart movements. "Mind" (sems) is understood as referring to the "enlightening mind" (literally "purifying / encompassing mind"-byang chub kyi sems, bodhicitta), connoting how these traditions were in large part tantric-influenced meditations on the presence of an enlightened psychic force within. It also points (in contrast to the use of term thig le) to an orientation towards a non-tantric traditional focus on the mind, and Mahayana's particular usage of the notion of "the enlightened mind." The Space Series and Esoteric Precept Series then came to serve as rubrics for later developments of the Great Perfection which increasingly experimented with re-incorporating tantric contemplative techniques centered on the body and vision, as well as the consequent philosophical shifts this became interwoven with. This is why the Mind Series is connected more to the tradition of continuously transmitted scriptures (bka' ma), while the Esoteric Precept Series is intimately bound up with the

188. Almost no Euro-American research into the surviving texts of the Space Series has been done. However, Matthew Kapstein has verbally infolTIled me that he has seen passages in the writings of both rTse Ie sna tshogs rang grol (1608-?) and Karma chags med (1605-1670) insisting on a strong connection between the Space and Esoteric Precept Series. If this is borne out by textual research, this could be a valuable piece of the many interlocking puzzles sur­rounding the fOlTIlation of the various Great Perfection traditions during the tenth to thirteenth centuries. A careful study of these doxographies of Atiyoga will also shed further light on these issues--in particular, it is neces­sary to trace the earliest occurrences of the "three series" (sde gsum), which probably preexisted its use by ICe btsun's lineages to legitimize, integrate and differentiate its new Seminal Heart-Essence teachings.

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emerging "treasure" (gter ma) ideology of freshly revealed scriptures without obvious historical precedent. 189 In this context, "esoteric prec­epts" (man ngag )-a term usually referring to a teacher's private in­structions to his / her disciple on the precise details of contemplation­connotes how the Seminal Heart traditions elaborate in much more detail the actual contemplative practices that may be utilized for existential realization.

The Esoteric Precept Series is also characterized by a complex set of internal divisions,19O the most straight forward one being a fourfold set of cycles: the outer cycle (Phyi skor), inner cycle (nang skor), secret cycle (gsang skor) and unsurpassed secret cycle (bZa na med pa skor). kLong chen rab 'byams pa identifies the Seminal Heart with only the fourth cycle, indicating that even here there was a complex set of devel­opments with enough differences existing that it was felt important to stress these internal divisions' separations. Its literary correlate is most frequently identified as rGyud beu bdun (The Seventeen Timtras). 191 "Lower" divisions deal with many of the same themes, but on the whole do not so with the elaborate sweep, detail and narrative force of texts falling under this classification. It thus may be that a type of threefold division of the Great Perfection or Atiyoga existed as far back as the late eighth century (if we accept the traditional account of the Great Perfec­tion's arrival into Tibet), and that this threefold division was then later adapted, manipulated and transformed by Seminal Heart proponents and

189. For example, see gTer chen ehos ki rgyaZ po gter bdag gling pa gar dbang 'gyur med rdo rje'i zhaZ snga nas mchog srnan rnams kyis dri ba sna tshogs pa'i Zan rim par speZ ba Tin chen phreng ba (chab shag) (351.2). 190. The aforementioned article in progress on '1d.,ong chen rab 'byams pa's sNying-thig Sources" includes an analysis of the internal divisions of Esoteric Precept Series. 191. See ehos dbyings mdzod 350.4-5, where kLong chen rab 'byams pa says there are an inconceivable number of tantric series associated with this division, but that all can be summarized in teIllls of The Seventeen Tantms. Also see his Grub mtha' mdzod 370.4-5, where aside from the mention of a text in the Bi rna snying thig, The Seventeen Tantms are the only texts men­tioned as belonging to the Esoteric Precept Series that are actually cited by kLong chen rab 'byams pa elsewhere. Finally, see Kaneko's 1982 index, which clearly indicates it is these tantras alone that correspond to the rubric "unsurpassed secret cycle" in the gTing skyes edition of rNying rna rgyud 'bum.

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other groups for their legitimizing potency with little regard for their original references. TIlls is suggested in part by these internal divisions of Esoteric Precept Series, which may have stemmed from the attempt to transform a pre-existing category to account for new developments. Examining these divisions of the Esoteric Precept Series and their exis­tent literary correlates should be very helpful in beginning to sort out the various currents.

Since kLong chen rab 'byams pa's way of presenting the internal divisions of the three Seriesl92 is exceedingly complicated and he fails to associate the divisions with literary works, I suspect these doxo­graphical divisions are often more thematic in nature and evocative in intent than classifications of real bodies of literature, practice, or even transmission lineages. For example, divisions of the Mind Series often resemble contemplative themes more than distinct traditions, such as the twenty one contemplative strands discussed by kLong chen rab 'byams pa in his "practical guidance" commentary on the Sems nyid ngaZ gso (see above). Since these various contemplations are often simply differ­ent poetic aphorisms subtly flavoring the meditative state in question, it is easy to miss their experiential implications, as well as to misunder­stand them as referring to distinct traditions. TIlls is particularly clear in the complex discussion in the Grub mtha' mdzod of the three Series' internal divisions, which seem to bear little relation to any existent litera­ture or lineal transmissions. This has also been noted by Ken Eastman: 193 "In the Tibetan dynastic period there were a number of dif­ferent schemes for categorizing tantra, but these were abstract rankings of doctrine or understanding rather than the bibliographic systems of classification they became in the medieval period; and neither the nine­fold nor the four-fold schemes are found precisely as given above in the archaic literature." These neat classificatory schemes thus do not always clearly reflect the actual rubrics under which distinct movements flour­ished during this time period. A clear history of these various rubrics and their historical permutations has not yet been written, but of clear importance is the triad of a ti, yang ti and spyi ti, a classificatory scheme utilized in the various recensions of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum to indi-

192. A classic example is in Grub mtha' mdzod 351.7-369.6. 193. Eastman 1983,44.

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cate distinctions between visionary literature and practices that were emerging within the tradition of the Great Perfection. 194

The intertwined Books of Life and Death: ordinary vision, spontaneous vision and visualization These particular developments of the Seminal Heart were thus spawned in a variety of yogic circles (sometimes consisting of a single person and a few followers) who were "rediscovering" texts and experimenting with new techniques and ideas, especially as revolving around the human body and its capacity to see light. It was a reclamation of the value of images to speak within the purview of the Mind Series' pristine absence, and the potent significance of the human body despite its abyssal lack of any discrete, definable ontological ground. Contem­porary interpreters refer to these innovations when they say195 that if not properly analyzed, the Mind Series appears similar to the extreme of nihilism (chad pa'i mtha') with its frequent antinomian invocation of absence and the inadequacy of language to represent our experience; the Space Series, however, appears similar to the opposing extreme of per­manence (rtag pa'i mtha') with its focus on images and the ViSllally dis­cernible presence of a primordial Buddha within all sentient beings. In this way over the centuries the Great Perfection has paradoxically been attacked on both fronts as representative of these two traditional poles of heresy in Buddhism, of erring on the side of too much and too little commitment, commitment to ontologies, to language, to human conven­tions. This tension is unabashedly the central focus of the Esoteric Pre­cept Series, reinscribed philosophically in its central hermeneutic of potentiality (nang gsa!) and actuality (phyir gsal) while reflected con -templatively in its conjunction of the breakthrough and direct transcendence.

Thus, in addition to these doxographical demarcations, two strands are discernible in the early Seminal Heart systems: the breakthrough (khregs chod) and direct transcendence (thod rgal) discourses. I have named these after its two principal styles of contemplation, which corre-

194. I will defer further discussion of these to the article on "lcLong chen rab 'byams pa's sNying thig Sources," since only a detailed presentation is likely to be of any use. 195. This comment was attributed to the contemporary teacher mKhan po smyo shul during a visit to Penor Rinpoche's monastery in the early 1990s.

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spond directly to its central philosophical dyad of "original purity" (ka dag) and "spontaneous presence" (lhun grub), the Great Perfection ver­sion of emptiness and interdependent origination recast as nothingness seething with dynamic webs of relatedness. The direct transcendence incorporates most of what is unique to the Seminal Heart, while the breakthrough serves as a rubric for those older elements of the Great Perfection continuing to play an important role in its new formulations. Interestingly, the breakthrough discourse also subsequently served as a way to both assimilate, and respond to, the modernists' attack on the Great Perfection as a reifying self-oriented heresy, since these sections and texts tend to be resolutely apophatic in their emphasis on an imme­diate formless (yet in-forming) awareness. The breakthrough clearly corresponds to non-symbolic types of perfection phase contemplation, just as the direct transcendence corresponds to the generation phase (as well as symbolic types of perfection phase techniques). Thus while the Seminal Heart in part is a recognition of the need for the latter types of practice-for form, image and spontaneity-the eventually codified order of practice (in which the former precedes the latter) equally re­iterates the traditional Great Perfection inversion of the normative se­quencing. In other words, it precedes perfection phase contemplation with competence in the generation phase, emptiness before interdepen­dence, openness before figural image. Conversely, the standard ac­count 196 of the manner in which breakthrough contemplation is inferior to the practice of direct transcendence indicates clearly these communi­ties' recognition of the inadequacy of a mere rhetoric of no-practice (even if conjoined with formal types of calming techniques and other image-less extensions), and the consequent need for a prioritization of working directly with the human capacity for the generation and experi­ence of images.

The Seminal Heart's innovativeness thus basically boils down to an unusual technique of spontaneous vision (thod rgaf) said to yield an orderly regularity of images in terms of temporal sequencing and con­tent, along with a systematized technical vocabulary developed to articu­late an ideological structure integrating those visions into previous Great Perfection discourse. Thus the most interesting historical question con­cems the sources of this visionary praxis (as distinct from the sources of

196. See the Tshig don mdzod 365.4-368.7 for a discussion of seven points in which direct transcendence is superior.

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the non-Seminal Heart Great Perfection): an indigenous shamanistic set of techniques perhaps first incorporated by the Bonpos, 197 contact with llluminationist Sufis to the West, Daoist yogas to the East,198 Kashmiri Saivism to the Southwest, or perhaps even some subcurrents of Indian Buddhist tantra (such as reflected in the Kalacakra Tantra)? In most ways, however, the tradition is clearly profoundly Buddhist to the core, and has systematic affinities with the many other fragile yogic systems circulating around and through Tibetan areas during the eleventh cen­tury. For example the visions in question are centered around the five Buddha families which were the standard set of deities in Buddhist tantra, 199 though here enframed in the expanded maJ)<;lalas of the "one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities" (zhi khro). In fact, the Seminal Heart can be discussed as the influx of symbolic perfection phase tantric practices back into the Great Perfection as vision again assumes a domi­nant poSition, though in a strikingly innovative way with its theories of "light channels" (' od rtsa) and the spontaneous visual imagery flowing out from them. Regardless of the sources, there is also the issue of what motivated certain Great Perfection groups to so radically transform their tradition in ways evidenced by the emergence of the direct transcen­dence-based body of contemplative and philosophical materials. While they may have generally returned to their own tantric traditions for the reappropriation of tantric contemplative techniques, and only surrepti­tiously to the new modernist tantric systems, clearly the new threat and presence of modernist communities was one of the main factors impelling these changes. Ideologically, the many tantric systems based on "radiant light" (' od gsal) definitely had an impact as well as the Anuttarayoga emphasis on the body, and one can well imagine Great Perfection advocates experimenting with the significance and practice of such d<?ctrines to see how they could fit in their own tradition. In addi -tion, certainly one line feeding into these changes was simply a natural

197. It is at this point not yet clear in which camp these techniques first emerged, since until more systematic research has been done all traditional Bonpo datings of early materials must be considered highly unreliable. 198. See Robinet 1993 for an account of the Mao-shan tradition that yields interesting affinities; also see Deng 1990 for a contemporary assertion of the affinity of the Great Perfection with Daoism. 199. See Snellgrove 1987, 189-213.

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progression of their own practices and ongoing inquiries. 200 For example, kLong chen rab 'byams pa's "practical guidance" for the Sems nyid ngal gso presents a sky meditation as an "enhancement" or "energizer" practice in his Mind Series contemplative system, which involves using certain postures to gaze into a cloudless sky. 201 After a while one's inner sky clears up, and for a moment reality itself (chos nyiti), identified as "the pure sky of the esoteric nucleus of radiant light," manifests. It could be that early Great Perfection advocates utilized contemplation of the sky to evoke a sensation of vast emptiness, but that for some practitioners strange lights began to appear, and they followed their experiences.

Arguably the most vital source of this tantric influx into the Great Perfection was the Indian Mahayoga tantras (especially the Guhya­garbha Tantra), which were the original location of the set of "one hun­dred peaceful and wrathful deities." 202 This m~Qalic set also was cen­tral to the accounts of post-death visions in the so-called "Tibetan Book of the Dead" literature, and in fact Mahayoga was one of the most important strands woven together to form this highly popular literaure and its associated practices that came to be relied upon by all traditions in dealing with the dead. Research on its historical development and codi -fication as a genre should yield light on the intimately related rise of the Seminal Heart, which embraces the "Book of the Dead" topics as a sub-

200. This issue is in some ways reminiscent of the long standing contro­versy over the Upanishadic transformation of Vedic religious culture in the sixth century B. C. E. Scholars such as Heesterman (1985) emphasize the in­ternallogic of these changes from within the Brahmanical system (the interi­orization of sacrifice's violence, etc.) while others such as Olivelle (1992) stress the importance of external factors (urbanization, etc.) and the disconti­nuity of the new symbolic order from the previous Vedic world. I have tried to strike a balance between these two poles in my analysis of the transforma­tions of the Great Perfection during this time period. 201. Byang chub lam bzang 539.2-539.4. 202. I know of no study as yet that clearly analyzes this important set of deities in terms of its historical rise, or precise correspondences to maI.14alas found in modernist tantric cycles. Particular points of interest are the earliest ascertainable mention of a wrathful version of the set of five Buddhas, such a set with the precise names found herein, and whether The Nucleus of Mystery itself or only its exegetical literature explicitly mentions the entire one hun­dred member IDaI.14llia.

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set. It seems that the famous fourteenth century "rediscovery" of Karma gling pa (1327-1387) entitled the Bar do thos grol was in large part a systematization of Seminal Heart teachings:203 the latter's technique of spontaneous vision yielding curiously specific and ordered types of visual images is perfectly mirrored by the "Book of the Dead's" teach­ings of how the peaceful and wrathful deities appear following death (especially striking is this shared manifestation of the same set of deities). Similar to the using of direct transcendence, they naturally and spontaneously overflow out of one's heart following the primal mani­festation of one's core radiant light (' od gsal) in death, and yet are said to take this very specific visual form regardless of one's acquaintance with them during life. The practice of direct transcendence thus can be characterized as an incorporation of post-death experience into our lives, and understood as the this-life contemplative praxis of the Book of tre Dead. In fact its crucial forty nine day dark retreat is termed the "bardo retreat," 204 the number forty-nine obviously corresponding to the period said to be the limit for post-death existence: in both, vision is borne within darkness, whether naturally (death) or artificially induced (the sealed off enclosure of the dark house). Furthermore, the two genres of literature and practices are closely interrelated given the obvious unity of four different central notions: the psycho-cosmogony205 of the ground (gzhi) and Ground-presencing (gzhi snang), the post-death visions, the four visions of direct transcendence contemplation, and the experiences or activity of a buddha. kLong chen rab 'byams pa's account of the ground-presencing in his Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin,206 for instance, is clearly modeled / modeling accounts of post-death experience, even to the point of talking about "contemplation days" (bsam gtan gyi zhag) over which the sequence of manifestations take place. Thus a pressing task is the history of the development of the bardo literature in Tibet, and in particular how the various modernist doctrines drawn from

203. See Schmidt 1987 and Orofino 1990 for translations of explicitly Seminal Heart-Essence oriented works on the bardo. The latter is a partial translation Nyi zla kha syor, one of The Seventeen Tantras which is in fact a systematic presentation of bardo-related topics. 204. Freemantle 1987, 11. 205. Kerry Skora (University of Virginia) first pointed out the usefulness of this term in the present context 206. Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin 96.5-109.2.

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Anuttarayoga Tantras (such as the "bardo" and "radiant light" in Naropa's "six yogas" systematization of perfection phase practices) figure in.207 Nyingma communities giving voice to the Seminal Heart transformation were obviously creatively appropriating tantric dis­courses on the bardo, as well as possibly indigenous proto-bardo liter­ature, ideologies or practices, into the framework of the Great Perfection, appropriations which also contributed to the rise of a separate genre finally codified with Karma gling pa's fourteenth century "rediscovery." In other words, the articulation of such themes as spontaneous vision and the dissolution of physical energies was developed in a complex pattern of interrelation as both an account of actual death and post-death experiences and as meditative techniques for this life. The ongoing dialectical unity of the two is also clearly indicated in how the Seminal Heart discusses bardo accounts under the rubric of "how you obtain enlightenment if you are unable to be freed in this life." 208

Thus the Seminal Heart's transformation of the Great Perfection marks a return to its Mahayoga roots sparked by a constellation of rea­sons, one of the principal of which is indicated by the coincidence of its origins with the onset of the modernist movement. This return first appropriates tantric techniques and ideology in unusual ways, but even­tually returns to a fuller embrace of traditional sadhana practice revolving around the visualization of deities according to strictly prescribed pat­terns. This extension of the Mahayoga's incorporation into the Great Perfection occurred with 'Jigs med gling pa's (1730-1798) famous kLong chen snying thig three volume cycle, which has come to be as normative as any cycle could be given the fissured state of Nyingma lin­eages. It marks the most important transformation in Seminal Heart discourse following kLong chen rab 'byams pa. I am struck by how much more ritualistic and conventionally tantric in nature the kLong chen snying thig seems in comparison to kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own

207. See Guenther 1978,82-86 and Hopkins 1981. 208. Alternatively, this is expressed as being precepts for "average" practi­tioners, while the standard practices are for the "best" practitioners-the latter become free in this very life and hence have no need for additional precepts. This is often complemented by a third category for those of inferior diligence or capacities-precepts on how to be reborn in a pure land and eventually become enlightened there. For example, see the structure of the discussion of the path in Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin 329.2-453.6.

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Seminal Heart writings. 209 This is not to deny its unconventional aspects such as in the Thig Ie rgya can ,210 but simply to point out its general characteristics. This cycle not only directly and extensively incorporates the "eight proclamation deities" (bka' brgyad) that form one of the two main strands of Mahayoga Tantras, but also grants a far more prominent role to traditional sadhanas (i. e. meditative sessions relying on prescribed and detailed visualizations). Certainly one could argue that previous Seminal Heart movements often involved intense reliance on associated sadhana practices, and there is no question that its earlier cycles often contained short descriptions of such practice. However it is

209. Karmay 1988,213, makes similar but vague comments in characteriz­ing the Seminal Heart-Essence system of 'Jigs med gling pa as "pervaded with a type of sadhana, hence very ritualistic" in opposition to the "serene contemplator" of the Mind Series and the "profound meditation of the calm ascetic" of the Space Series. Eva Dargyay (1977) hilS characterized it as a mixture of the old Great Perfection system and the Mahayoga cycles centered around sadhanas of the set of deities referred to as the "eight pronouncements" (bka' brgyad). A detailed survey ofpost-kLong chen rab 'byams pa transfor­mations in the Seminal Heart tradition remains to be written, and thus for the aforementioned article ("kLong chen rab 'byams pa's sNying thig Sources") I am currently compiling analytical lists of surviving Seminal Heart literature. 210. lowe the following comments on this sadhana entirely to a discussion with Janet Gyatso (April 1994). The Thig Ie rgya can sadhana is phrased in terms of direct transcendence terminology, with the act of the deity's body­image coming into appearance understood in terms of its four visionary phases. While this does not undercut my comments, it is important to note the degree to which some authors may have been altering normative sadhana structures. In addition, this constant worry about the tendency to give our­selves over to concretizing instincts, to the security of in-place structures, has a long pedigree in Buddhism: in generation phase praxis and exegesis, the deity springs out of and returns to emptiness, and there is a deliberate attempt to avoid attachment to images of deities with the constant reminders that they are only projections, rainbows, and so on. The visions and visualizations of Great Perfection are arguably even more concerned with this constant immer­sion in fluidity and openness, but it is a question of degree rather than strik­ing difference. We also find this constant oscillation in 'Jigs med gling pa's autobiographical writings, where he constantly deprecates particular visions he has as only more signs or images (mtshan beas) among many. In contrast to the valorization of the always unformulated ground, there at times seems no ground to favor one image over another.

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surely of significance that with 'Jigs med gling pa's revelation these practices are formally included in elaborate form within the main cycle­the balance has clearly shifted from the earlier Bi rna snying thig, mKha' 'gro snying thig, bZab nw yang tig and others. 1his may in part be why 'Jigs med gling pa is so insistent on his inspiration / authorization by kLong chen rab 'byams pa himself in a series of visionary encounters (though not those relating to the kLong chen snying thig system directly) and on his own work incarnating the essence of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Great Perfection writings (which they are often explicitly modeled after). This is reflected in the (surreptitious and perhaps unconscious) naming of the cycle as a whole after him ("great sphere" being "klong­chen") such that, in ignorance of its visionary attribution to Padmasambhava from the eighth century, ordinary monks often mistak­enly refer to the system as the Seminal Heart ofkLong chen rab 'byams pa 2l1

Analysis of the structure of the cycle clearly indicates its focus on sadhanas:212 it is explicitly structured principally around a wide variety of sadhanas centered on two sets of deities-eight tutelary deities (yi dam, i~ta-devata) referred to as "awareness holders" (rig 'dzin, vidya­dOOra) drawn from Mahayoga sources and seven "religious protectors" (chos skyong, dharmapala)-while overtly Seminal Heart materials are mainly present in the third volume. The principal work of what I below term "scholastic Seminal Heart" constitutes one hundred and sixty four pages in that volume, and is titled the Khrid yig ye shes bla ma. Goodman refers to this as a "practice text,"213 and while I argue below

211. See Goodman 1992a, 143. I add the "surreptitiously" since, as Janet Gyatso stressed to me in conversation, the visionary retrieval of this cycle involved no visions of kLong chen rab 'byams pa and in that it is understood as a direct transmission from Padmasambhava, there can be no manifest ques­tion of the title relating to the fourteenth century kLong chen rab 'byams pa's personal name. Thus Kapstein and Do:rje's (DOlje 1991,243) rendering of it as "Innermost Spirituality of kLong chen rab 'byams pa" is misleading. However, whether motivated consciously, unconsciously, or visionarily, the semantic leakage is undeniable. 212. Goodman 1983, chap. 4, 118ff. 213. Goodman 1983, 128. This must be understood in conjunction with his characterization (135) of 'Jigs med gling pa's Yon tan mdzod as "a classical presentation of rDzogs chen philosophy." While it is directly modeled on kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Ngal gso SkOT gsum, the former also ends with a

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that this is a misleading designation for this genre of literature except as a terse indication of its phenomenological orientation, it could in part indicate how much less philosophical, and more conventionally tantric (i. e. focused on sadhana practice), the entire cycle really is. My cursory examination of this text indicates that it is a non-innovative and fairly perfunctory summary of older materials offering a simplified presenta­tion that comes to be normative. This overall emphasis on standard tantric visualization practices and the corresponding liturgical require­ments could go a long way to explaining its quick ascendancy in subse -quent Nyingma communities, since it's revelation came at a time that Nyingmas were beginning to systematically respond to modernist chal-1enges through assimilating their traditions institutionally and doctrinally. Thus this doctrinal and contemplative move in the direction of more normative tantric practices may be seen as marking a shift towards modernist traditions, a tendency which flowered in the nineteenth cen­tury non-partisan (ris med) movement culminating with Mi pham 'jam dbyangs mam rgyal' s (1846-1912) systematic attempt to reinterpret normative non-esoteric Mahayana scriptures from a Great Perfection perspective. It also accorded with the institutional assimilation that occurred as Nyingmas began to focus more on monastic institutions rather than its ancient roots in villages, sacred pilgrimage routes, and small temples. The ancient anti-rule orientation of Great Perfection

discussion of Seminal Heart tradition. At the moment my reading of the text does not permit me to compare that discussion with Khrid yig ye shes bla rna, nor characterize it overall in terms of its agenda. My suspicion about Goodman's characterizations is that I consider the earlier materials of the Seminal Heart intensely philosophical in their own right, and I find problem­atic hints that the "real" philosophy is instead found in these works that accommodate modernist concerns. dPal sprul Rim poche continued this trend in the nineteenth century with his very popular Kun bzang bla ma'i mal lung, which was one of a number of texts that emerged dealing with the "preliminaries" or "introduction" (sngon 'gro) to Seminal Heart cycles (in this case to 'Jigs med gling pa's /cLong chen snying thig). Despite its charming style, it is essentially a very standardized presentation containing little that is uniquely Great Perfection or even differing from the politically normative modernist traditions. This is quite in contrast to kLong chen rab 'byams pa's trilogy, a complicated series of interlocking texts containing many unusual doctrines and practices.

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henneneutics, philosophy, and contemplation did not fit in well with the collective mentality of monastic institutions, and the necessity for codi­fied rules governing the collective.

Further research on other cycles including Seminal Heart materials between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries (such as the seventeenth century gNam ehos) is required to fully trace its gradual alteration, and nonnalization, along these lines. In doing so, it is important not to quickly extrapolate from literary documents to wide ranging generaliza­tions about actual practice-for example, sadhana practice may have been a pervasive reality of the Great Perfection from the beginning, despite its anti-sadhana rhetoric. It is also important to ask what forces were at work in these changes, as well as inquire into the differences between "tactile" and "visual" styles of contemplation, and between spontaneous and codified uses of imagery. From both psychological and socio-political perspectives, we must ask what has been lost and what gained? The dynamic is partially that the Seminal Heart innova­tions were increasingly mixed in with other types of materials as they gained wider circulation post fourteenth century. In this way large col­lections such as the gNam coos may contain Seminal Heart elements, but quite different materials constitute the logic driving their overall organi -zation. Given the absolutely central role214 of Mahayoga to Nyingma lineages ritually, contemplatively, and literarily, it is comes as no sur­prise that it should be the principal dynamic that increasingly exerts its influence. It should also be noted, however, that as early as the four­teenth century we find examples of the converse direction, i. e. in how kLong chen rab 'byams pa reinterprets the Guhyagarba Tantra from a

214. See DOIje 1987, 7-58, for two passages from kLong chen rab 'byams pa and Mipham that describe the Guhyagarbha Tantra in glowing terms as the pinnacle of all Buddhist traditions, on the basis of which DOIje concludes that "the mying rna tradition therefore regards this text as its fundamental tantra, whether it is interpreted as mainstream Mahayoga or as an Atiyoga source." I would only qualify this assertion with the caveat that no "Nyingma tradition" as such ever existed, of course, and the diachronic and synchronic oscillations in the wide range of Nyingma communities on this issue of the priority of Mahayoga principles are an important topic for further study. For example, kLong chen rab 'byams pa clearly values the Great Per­fection corpus over the Guhyagarbha Tantra (if one were to make such hier­archical judgments), a fact evidenced in his Atiyoga-based interpretation of the latter.

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resolutely Atiyoga-based vantage point, such that influence between the two was a mutually constituting procesS.2I5

The scholastics (grub mtha' ) of simplicity (spros med; phyal paY It is fairly well known that from the eighteenth century onwards as spurred by 'Jigs med gling pa, the "non-partisan" movement in Eastern Tibet resulted in the production of important and extensive Nyingma scholastic literature on the same Mahayana topics that had been, until then, the traditional stronghold of the modernists, and of little interest to those in Nyingma circles. This literature's orientation often derived from the Great Perfection, yet contained relatively slight direct discus­sion of the latter in its own right. Yet what about this Seminal Heart tradition as it formally began with the startling "discoveries" by ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug, developed through a series of further "discoveries" of texts attributed either to transcendental sources or the near transcendental and semi-legendary seventh to ninth centuries non­Tibetan Masters of the Great Perfection tradition (Surativajra etc.), and finally culminated in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's corpus? It is often assumed that there was little such systematic thought or literature in the Great Perfection itself, which is taken to be a type of poetic exhortation to non-discursive experiences of natural simplicity, often caricatured as a simplistic or paradoxical call to "experience." Thus complex philosophi­cal speculation is seen as constituting a problem rather than a solution­you either get it, or you do not, just as in the famous encounter of Milarepa with the Great Perfection teachings. In addition, while the Great Perfection lacks the sexually and wrathfully stylized antinomian­ism of the Anuttarayoga Tantras, it is characterized by a hermeneutical or philosophical type of antinomianism that expresses itself in more abstract types of ethical transgression and a thorough going resistance to the codification of rules (literarily, doctrinally and contemplatively). This would appear to conflict with scholastic ventures, and indeed per­haps even with rigorous thought itself, though Buddhist Tantra's own general antinomianism failed to prevent the eventual rise of a scholastic industry in both India and Tibet. Thus for many traditional and Euro­American scholars the notion of a Great Perfection systematic literature

215. See Dorje 1987, 21, 58, 88-8 and 123-7. Also see Guenther's The Matrix of Mystery for a brilliant presentation of such an Atiyoga-based expli­cation of the Guhyagarbha Tantra .

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even seems contradictory, given this widespread reputation of being a largely contemplative tradition with textual expressions limited to often lovely but vague poetic invocations and exhortations.

While it is true there is a consistent valorization in these traditions of the possibility of a culturally unsophisticated and even illiterate individ­ual incarnating its realization, there is also an equally strong valorization of experientially-based intellectual and graphically textualized traditions of immense literary and intellectual complexity. This complexity is interlaced with equally consistent calls to simplicity, to direct and seem­ingly unmediated experience (mngan sum) and criticism of the futility of conceptual thought with its discursive expressions (spros bcas). In par­ticular, I would argue that in fact an elaborate scholastic literature can be found in the Nyingma school very early on within the Great Perfection traditions themselves, namely the extremely technical genre of Seminal Heart literature I have discussed above. 216 While continuing the earlier emphasis on non-discursive experience and simplicity thematically and . hermeneutically (especially as incorporated into its breakthrough dis­course), the Seminal Heart literature is clearly a genre of philosophical tantra that is systematic, complex and extremely architectonic. Despite the seeming contradictions of a systematic body of discourse centered on non-discursive experiences and exhortations to transcend the discursive proliferation of thought and language, this discourse flourished, and its architectonic nature is revealed most clearly in its various thematic structures. Often this is expressed as a set of overarching rubrics termed "adamantine topics" (rda rje'i gnas), themselves characterized by a complex set of interlinked subdivisions, which form the architecture of these texts. Though an analytic presentation of these structures is crucial for understanding the scholastic nature of this literature, at present I will confine myself to more general remarks.217

216. I am thus not thinking of the Great Perfection-flavored Nyingma ver­sion of the "stages of the path" (lam rim) genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature which kLong chen rab 'byams pa initiated with his NgaZ gsa skar gsum, though this genre does form an important subset of Great Perfection literature from that time onwards. 217. The highly distinctive terminology, practices and beliefs governing this tradition are discussed in detail in an article I am currently finishing, "Building within Absence: the Infra-structure of Seminal Heart-Essence."

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kLong chen rab 'byruns pa's Tshig don mdzod218 is the most succinct yet detailed instance of this genre of technical literature in the Great Per­fection tradition best described as "scholastics" or "systematic thought," the latter term lacking the pejorative connotations of the former (divestiture from embodied experience, lack of textual aesthetics and divergence from non-textual contemplative praxis). However, consid­ered in its root meaning of simply a love of study without these negative connotations of irrelevancy for lived experience and an overwhelming desire for closure, this text may be accurately described as Great Perfec­tion scholastics, though under such a rubric we may perhaps find our understanding of scholastics strangified beyond recognition (a familiar experience in the shifting realms of Great Perfection textuality). This genre of literature is scholastic not only in its clear love for language and thought for its own sake, but also in its intense structuration with analyt­ical internal outlines (sa bead). kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own title self-consciously embraces this paradox with its celebration of words and thought in unfolding the pristine simplicity of the Great Perfection. Its divergence from other types of Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism, how­ever, is revealed in the striking tension between scholasticism's system­atic and analytical form and the Great Perfection's own valorization of poetry, analogy and allegory as the primary mode of serious philosophi­cal thought, its dismissal of literalness-obsessed intellectualism, its rejection of syllogistically-bound analysis and its constant invocation of natural spontaneity. kLong chenrab 'byarns pa's hermeneutical explica­tion of the term "main practice" (dngos gzhi) is illuminating in this light, a term designating the principal phase of contemplation between prelimi­naries and concluding activities, yet literally meaning "real-basis."219 He interprets dngos as referring to "real" contemplative experiences and gzhi as an verbally articulatable intellectual "basis" for contextualizing and explicating those experiences. 1hrough a series of analogies revolv­ing around seeing a king, he stresses the vitality of both in the Great

This most clearly explicates the systematic architectonics of the tradition's primary literature. 218. See Germano 1992 for a study and partial translation of this work. I am now completing a translation of the entire text as well as a separate study of it. 219. See the Theg mchog mdzod vol. 2, 250.

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Perfection: (i) the "basis" (gmi) without the "real" (dngos) is like seeing the palace but not the king; (li) the real without the basis is like seeing the king, but not being able to discern his characteristics; (iii) lacking both the real and the basis is like neither seeing the king nor palace; and (iv) the real with the basis is like seeing the king and thoroughly under­standing all his characteristics. In other words, the stress on the phe­nomenological, on this being a practice of the self, cannot be at the expense of the hermeneutical, on the literary-intellectual expressions that shape and are shaped by such practice. This dual intertwined emphasis is characteristic of Seminal Heart literature from its onset, with its founders as interested in intellectual-literary traditions as they are in the body.

kLong chen rab 'byams pa further systematized this tradition into forms which have served as its guiding paradigms for the following six centuries (fifteenth to twentieth) and which, despite their own rich ambi­guity and disseminative play eluding and eliding attempts at closure, functioned to cap off the tremendously fertile period of its preceding development. In other words, his systematic writings on the Great Per­fection mark the transition from a creative tradition-in-ferment to a received tradition whose basic paradigms of contemplation and thought are no longer at stake. This gives rise to the perennial question-what and where is the difference between paradigms at stake, structures in playful and dramatic process, and inherited paradigms that are assimi-1ated, structures no longer at stake or risk? One could of course argue that experientially the tradition remains a risky business, but it would seem to me that six centuries of closure, and often dilution, in graphic systematic incarnations reflects a hermeneutical, and human, series of losses. This suspicion of loss has been compounded by my frequent frustration with contemporary Tibetan figures' tendency to gloss over the intricate textuality of the early traditions and their hermeneutical instincts for closure in the face of clearly fissuring circles of meaning. This frustration, however, is laced with a respect for the deeply experi­ential involvement of some with the tradition, an involvement that mani -fests clearly on an interpersonal level in an unusual blend of caring, intelligence and psychological acuteness. It must also be kept in mind that the hermeneutically complex tradition of systematic thought and textuality that kLong chen rab 'byams pa incarnated was not widely read in the subsequent centuries, though the more simple narrative outlines of that tradition are easily discernible in the oral textuality of even the most

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intellectually simple of Great Perfection visionaries. This is not to sug­gest a straight forward contrast between lived narratives and scholasti­cally elaborated narratives, since autobiographical references clearly indicate kLong chen rab 'byams pa and his predecessors were on the whole intimately familiar with the contemplative traditions at the heart of the Great Perfection. In addition, one of the most complex facets of their textuality is its intricately phenomenological nature, i. e. cultivated expe­riences are irretrievably embedded in the most systematic, detailed aspects of their writings. One of the most remarkable features of these early traditions is their production of a scholastic body of literature that paradoxically curbs the disembodying and reifying tendencies (the metaphysical) of such graphically conceived I expressed systematic lines of inquiry, so that it remains simultaneously an inquiry into the embod­ied experience of lived worlds. Such inquiry requires commitment and risk to quests which weave in and out of the texts that one lives through, entailing attempts to transform the very nature of one's physical being and modes of perception. kLong chen rab 'byams pa himself is thus generally considered to be a perfect exemplar of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist ideal of someone who is a brilliant scholar intellectually, and yet who also has experientially transformed his own body and percep­tion via contemplation (mkhas grub; literally scholastically "learned" and experientially "accomplished"); wisdom and compassion that inform each other in ways that allow each to bypass their own potential dead­ends. kLong chen rab 'byams pa's own corpus is marked by frequent attacks on both intellectuals whose understanding remains metaphysical (expressed as being "dry" in its lack of the lived experience's fluidity, lost in the infinity of words (kha 'byams» and contemplators (sgom chen) whose intellectual naivete distorts and undercuts their experiential inquiries. In fact the term "Great Perfection," or its more literal render­ing as "Super (chen) Completion (rdzogs)," itself yields the slipperiness and strangeness of the enterprise: it tricks one into expecting closure, the definitive take, the master narrative that will finally bring the uncom­fortable ambiguity of this long human journey to an end, and yet in fact its "completion" is in many ways a complete deconstruction of the structures one brought to the text, an opening up to the process ambigu­ity oflife-in-formation. This is not the completion we bargain for in a typical scholastic structure, just as we might find the "buddha" (sangs rgyas) we thought was within is a buddha whose face, or masks, we find strangely unfamiliar, a sensation the tradition would argue is inter-

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twined with an awakening recognition of the strangeness of what is familiar.

The graphic locus of the classical Seminal Heart tradition220

Since the principal goal of my recent research has been to articulate the significance evoked by the rubric of the Great Perfection in what came to be its classical form during the period when the bask religious paradigms of Tibetan civilization took shape (eleventh to fourteenth centuries), I have concentrated not on its earliest occurrences but rather on those bodies of Seminal Heart literature which first give systematic expression to the full range of its contemplative and philosophical facets. Yet even to make sense of this chaotic array of early materials it is also necessary to precisely understand its classical systematization, such that earlier texts can be evaluated not only by what is present, but also by what is absent. To pursue this inquiry, my point of departure is thus the figure universally acknowledged as the key juncture between the present and the past, between normative Mahayana Buddhist scholasticism and the Great Perfection, between creative ferment and received tradition, between culturally, ideologically and doctrinally heterogeneous roots and a clearly unified Tibetan reality: kLong chen rab 'byams pa. His corpus is generally taken to be the definitive expression of the Great Perfection with its precise terminological distinctions, systematic scope, and inte­gration with the normative Buddhist scholasticism that became dominant in Tibet during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. As for his own sources in his systematic technical Great Perfection writings, they can be grouped under the following four rubrics: (i) the Kun byed rgyal po, (ii) The Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection (including two closely affiliated tantras-the kLong gsal and Thig le kun gsal), (iii) the Seminal Heart system of Vimalamitra (Bi rna snying thig) and (iv) the Seminal Heart system ofPadmasambhava (mKha' 'gro snying thig). Classical Seminal Heart literature thus consists of the massive corpus of kLong chen rab 'byams pa along with these four heterogeneous collec­tions of texts that he positions himself as an interpreter of: (i) the tantra representing the systematization of earlier Great Perfection movements;

220. I have kept the present section quite brief, since my article cited above on kLong chen rab 'byams pa's sources involves a very detailed analysis of the complex identity of Seminal Heart literature from the eleventh to four­teenth centuries.

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Oi) the principal early Seminal Heart tantras; and (ili-iv) the two main cycles of early commentarial literature on the latter. None of these sources include significant texts explicitly authored by Tibetans, since they claim to be either (i) primary tantras with anonymous behind-the­scenes authors or (ii) a commentarial tier citing and interpreting those tantras in texts attributed to legendary Indian figures such as Padmasambhava and Vimalarnitra. Thus not only did kLong chen rab 'byams pa inherit a large body of already existent systematic exposition which he brought into explicit dialogue with normative modernist themes, but he was also the first Tibetan figure in the tradition to write systematic treatises in this vein and acknowledge his / her authorship of them. The vast majority of the inherited literature was presumably pro­duced in Tibet from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, but most was written in canonical assumed buddha-voices rather than exegetical forms, and as such its authorship was deferred to an experiential domain without discrete conventionally specifiable locations.

The Seminal Heart tradition can thus be defined as those texts which take The Seventeen Tantras, Bi rna snying thig and subsequent works developing out of them as authoritative. This literature consists of (i) tantras with the standard psycho-cosmic dramatic setting of a dialogue between a Buddha and his / her retinue; (ii) cycles or systems such as kLong chen rab 'byams pa's bLa rna yang fig providing a comprehen­sive interlinked series of texts with lineage histories, supplication prayers, empowerment rituals, indexes, meditation handbooks and philosophical exegesis; and (iii) more strictly philosophical works rang­ing from the scholastic (kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Theg mchog mdzod) to the intensely poetic (his Chos dbyings mdzod), as well as works focusing on a particular contemplative topic. Only the second category of texts offers a comprehensive system containing everything necessary to transmit, study and implement it along traditional lines. Apart from the four principal collections of the early Seminal Heart tra­dition outlined above, a massive body of other literature on the Great Perfection was also produced during the tenth to fourteen centuries including canonical tantras, supposed "translations" of texts attributed to Indian figures such as Padmasambhava, and works penned by indige­nous Tibetan lamas. Thus much research remains to be done in discern­ing other textual gestalts and their interrelations with the corpus deemed canonical by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. It is also an imperative to study later affiliated traditions in the Great Perfection incorporating these

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new visionary trends which may have had a distinct identity from the Seminal Heart traditions, analyzing their canonical sources, terminology, and distinctive Structures.221 If the primary source of any given text or cycle is The Seventeen Tantras or cycles established as belonging to its lineage, it would be classifiable as Seminal Heart. If, on the other hand, it does not draw upon these literary sources but uses strikingly similar terminology and practices, it will be necessary to look carefully at its textual authorities, and consider whether or not the creator of that tradi­tion was surreptitiously borrowing from Seminal Heart circles while uti­lizing the "treasure" (gter rna) ideology to obscure its debt. In doing so, one must analyze the role of Space Series materials in bridging the gap between Mind Series and Esoteric Precepts Series, as well as the precise significance of such alternative rubrics as yang ti and spyi ti. Finally, it is essential to chart out the transmission of the original Seminal Heart lit­erature during the fourteenth and fifteen centuries to discern lineages for which kLong chen rab 'byams pa's work was not the final say, or even necessarily quite that relevant.222 In this way, it will be possible to begin to discern whether there were alternative sources for direct tran­scendence practice and its associated ideologies, or attempts to appro­priate Seminal Heart innovations without crediting it as the source, as well as sketch out the historical circulation of the direct transcendence­based uniqueness of Seminal Heart within Great Perfection circles from the twelfth century onwards.

The Seminal Heart's ambivalent relationship to other Tibetan tantric yoga systems and ideologies The eleventh to twelfth centuries in Tibet witnessed the flowering (and in many cases simultaneous withering) of a tremendous variety of yogic systems experientially based upon the human body and claiming to offer comprehensive systems to arrive at the ultimate realization of buddha­hood. The systematization and codification of the ensuing centuries

221. Examples are Rig 'dzin rgod kyi Idem 'phru can's (1337-1408) dGongs pa zang thaI, Sangs rgyas gling pa's (1340-1396) bLa rna dgongs 'dus and Mi 'Gyur rdo Ije's (1645-1667) gNam ehos. 222. For example, Ronald Davidson pointed out in his presentation at the U. Va. Great Perfection symposium that U rgyan gter bdag gling pa does not even list kLong chen rab 'byams pa in his "teachings received" under Esoteric Precepts Series, but rather places gYung ston rdo tje dpal after Kumaradza

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produced a widespread acknowledgment of a limited range of such sys -terns as the most prominent, most of which focus on perfection phase practices with a consequent emphasis on interior movements of energy, breath, sexuality and perception normally constituting unconscious organismic processes. There are numerous passages 223 where a set selection of these are listed out as reflecting experiential paths with a certain unity on the ground (identified by kLong chen rab 'byarns pa as "seeing the dimension of the mind-as-such")224 that may seem lacking in the more intellectualized practices of the various tenet systematizations of each sect and sub-sect. Some of the more prominent systems are the Great Perfection, the Great Seal (phyag rgya chen po, mahiimudra), the Sakya tantric synthesis of the path and the fruit (lam 'bras), the six doc­trines of Naropa (naro chos drug), 225 the six doctrines of Niguma (ni gu chos drug) in the Shangpa Kagyu tradition (shangs pa bka' brgyud),226 the pacification (zhi byed), the object of cutting (gcod yul), the various practices stemming from the Kalacakra tantric system, the six yogas (sbyor drug, ~a4aizgayoga) and five phases (rim lnga, paficakrama);227 these are often further linked back to non-tantric ideologies through references to the "great Middle Way" (dbu ma chen po, * mahamadhyamaka) 228 and the "transcendent consummation of insight

223. See Dudjom 1991,926, for a famous passage by PaI,l chen bla rna blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan (1567-1662); Schmidt 1987, 90-1 for a passage by rTse Ie sna tshogs rang grol (b. 1608); kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Yid bzhin mdzod (673.2) and Shing rta roam dag (119.4). 224. Shing rta rnam dag 119.3. 225. See Guenther 1978 and Gyatso 1982.h 226. Kapstein (1992a, 200) says that the six yogas of Niguma differ from Tilopa / Naropa's six yogas primarily in points of emphasis, the most strik­ing difference being Tilopa's emphasis on the fierce woman (gtum mo) and radiant light ('od gsal) contemplations as opposed to Niguma's focus on the illusory body (sgyu Ius) and dreams (rmi lam). Niguma (Kapstein 1992a, 193) is said to be either the wife or sister of the famous siddha Naropa. Khyung po mal 'byor (?-c. 1135), the Tibetan founder of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition, claims to have studied with her and received texts authored by her. See Mullins 1985 for extensive comments on this version of the six yogas. 227. See Cozort 1986, 66-67, footnote 114, for a list of the six yogas and five phases, followed by a detailed discussion. 228. As explained by Hookham (1991), this term was used in two principal ways in Tibet: (i) to refer to the "emptiness of other" (gzhan stong) traditions

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(of abiding reality)" (gnas lugs don gyi shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa; A typical passage can be found in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Yid bzhin mdzod:229

Now is the introduction to the manifestation of the indwelling innate naturally radiant primordial gnosis which comes to pass through these techniques:

The primordial gnosis of expansive insight coming to pass via such techniques

Is the glowing lucency beyond all expression indicating it as localized or not localized,

Existent or non-existent, something that is or is not the case, Within the range of radiance and bliss.

Self-awareness is vivid in its non-discursive brightness and radiance,

Like the sky in its lack of fragmentation and polarization. Resembling the solar and lunar m~Qalas in its unwavering

brightness and radiance, Like the ocean free from the turbidity of reifying concepts.

This is what the sacred ones introduce you to As self-emerging primordial gnosis, mind-as-such, and radiant

light -This body of reality, innately co-emerging, Should be perpetually contemplated.

of Yogacara-Madhyamaka and (ii) a syncretic and contemplatively-oriented interpretation of Nagrujuna and Asailga with a special emphasis on the Uttaratantra. While clearly kLong chen rab 'byams pa's reference below indicates a thoroughly experiential and phenomenological interpretation of Madhyamaka, it should be noted that earlier in the text (549.2) he identifies the "Great Madhyamaka" as referring to the Prasailgika tradition. Interest­ingly, van der Kuijp (Hookham 1991, 157) claims the term's earliest occur­rence is in Great Perfection tantras. 229. Yid bzhin mdzod 672.4.

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Our own sacred master, the glorious precious lord of the sacred teachings,230 contextualized the primordial gnosis involved in the four great seals in precisely this manner. 231 When previously meditating on the winds one's awareness of radiance is non-conceptual, while when meditating on the seminal nuclei one's awareness of bliss is radiant. But in both states you look nakedly at the face of self-aware­ness, and thus there is no question of either abiding or non-abiding even in these mere [experiences of] bliss, radiance, and non-concep­tuality. Within the essence of this radiant empty self-awareness, there is only a dimension totally beyond thought, expression or even analo­gies, devoid of such considerations as existence or non-existence, being or not being the case. This self-purifying self-awareness is like the ocean inits pellucidity and non-wavering depths, like the solar and lunar m~c;lalas in its radiance and non-conceptuality, and like the m~c;lala of the clear sky devoid of fragmentation and polarization. He thus introduced [us] to this very self-awareness in which the discur­siveness of the mind and its operations fade away as the [true signifi­cance of the] reality body, the great seal and self-emerging primordial gnosis. He also spoke of precisely this as being the Great Perfection, the Great Middle Way, the essence of the six branched yoga, the essence of the path and fruit system, the pacifying which calms all elaborations without exception, and the transcendental consummation of insight of the abiding dimension of reality.

I myself as well have had a little experience of this, and have seen clearly that this dimension is described as such in the sutras and tantras. The Guhyasamlija Tantra describes it thus:

Not meditating is the real essence of meditation; Having meditated is not meditation Since the real thing is not a thing Meditation is devoid of objective referents ....

230. Presumably this refers to his own root Great Perfection teacher KIlIllilradza. 231. The four "great seals" (mahtlmudra) evidently refers to the standard list of four dimensions of a consort participating in sexual yogic practices: the action seal, gnosis seal, great seal and commitment seal. The action seal is explained as an actual physical woman; the gnosis seal is a visualized god­dess stemming from generation phase practice; the great seal is an empty-form goddess appearing via perfection phase contemplation; and the commitment seal then is the integration of all three.

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Aside from such phenomenological claims of identity and at times striking surface differences, all of these systems are based on the same milieu of late Buddhist tantrism in India and associated regions, and hence are inextricably interconnected. They are simultaneously some­what heterogeneous anthologies, and coordinated integrations into a single pathway, of yogic techniques for going beyond the mere visual­ization of deity images to cOming to terms with the human body and radical emptiness, to bring these images back home to their grounding matrix in a body of emptiness. The hagiographic and exegetical litera­ture abounds with very clear and particular references to the experiential implementation of these systems for psycho-physical transformation of individual practitioners (for example note the passage by gTer bdag gling pa cited below), clearly indicating that from a very early period the prevalent talk of experience in these texts was not mere rhetoric (which is not to deny the diverse rhetorical usages of such discourse, as well as the variegated social functions of ritual and contemplation in Tibet). 232

I would thus like to briefly look at two Nyingma authors' (kLong chen rab 'byams pa and gTer bdag gling pa) attempts to delineate Great Perfection practices from other Tibetan tantric yoga systems, since even attempts to assert difference also reveal the lingering shadows of simi­larity. The symbolic perfection phase practices, i. e. those centered on internal manipulations of energy utilizing visualization, breathing, and tactile sensations, are generally referred to in Tibetan as "channel­wind"233 (rtsa rlung) practices. This derives from their focus on the human body, which in its experiential felt presence (termed the "adamantine body" (rda rje'i Ius» is discussed as a triad of qualities: channels (rtsa, nli{lf), winds (rlung, viiyu) and seminal nuclei (thig Ie, bindu). In short, these can be understood as characteristic patterning lines of energy in the body, the movements of energy through those lines, and the particular intelligences and organizing capacities borneby those movements. In addition to the Seminal Heart transforming these symbolic perfection phase techniques in innovative ways (especially those centered on "radiant light"), its cycles also include versions of those standard techniques as "ancillaries" or "adjuncts" to its main prac­tices. They thus incorporate the practices of the fierce woman (gtum mo), dream yoga, sexual yoga and so on, but generally refrain from the

232. See Sharf 1992. 233. For example see kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Yid bzhin mdzod 672.3.

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emphasis on focusing energy in the central channel as well as constantly criticize the rhetoric of manipulation and control that ideologically under­lay such techniques.

Given their inordinate importance for understanding Tibetan Bud­dhism in general, and the Seminal Heart traditions in particular, I will briefly summarize perfection phase ideology based on kLong chen rab 'byams pa's succinct summary in the twentieth chapter of the Yid bzhin mdzod. As the early Seminal Heart tradition often does, he divides these practices into two overarching rubrics:234 (i) wind-yoga235 focusing on the "winds," the body's internal currents of energy closely linked to the breath; and (ii) practices focusing on the "seminal nucleus," the body's organizing points of energy closed linked to the sexual fluids (he also associates these two rubrics with the father and mother tantras respectively, the standard internal dyadic classification of Anuttarayoga Tantras). In fact, the latter practices generally also deal with the winds or breath, while the former category functions to embrace practices that almost exclusively focus on the winds themselves. Leaving a more detailed discussion of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's presentation to a later forum, I would merely like to point out that the principal contemplative processes are characterized by two central intertwined ideologies focused on the body, and based on the resolute belief that our mental images and experiences are heavily dependent on internal transforma­tions and states of energy (which is why all such manipulation of inter­nal energy is marked by unusual visual experiences): (i) dissolving or confining all winds into the body's central channel (dbu rna or kun 'dar rna) as marked by a series of visual experiences of light (smoke, fire­flies, etc.) and (ii) mastering the movement of energy within that central space, generally described as impelling seminal nuclei up and down through the body's four main energy "wheels" (' khor 10, cakra) accom­panied by orgiastic sensations of bliss graded into a set of four "joys" (dga' ba, linanda). The Geluk scholar Geshe Kelsang Gyats0 236 sum­marizes such techniques as "generating simultaneous bliss," which is done in conjunction with emptiness meditation. He divides them into two categories: the fierce woman or inner fire (gtum mo) practices in which a visualized flame at the navel ignites the melting of seminal bliss

234. Ibid., 666.4ff. 235. Ibid., 668.6. 236. Gyatso 1982, 18.

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from the crown's lunar treasury, and sexual yoga, which relies on sexual intercourse to stimulate the movement of energy up the body's center. He further 237 characterizes the inner fITe practices as the "foundation" of all perfection phase techniques-its process of igniting internal warmth and consequently melting the two types (white I red) of seminal nuclei (sometimes summarized as "blazing and dripping") is at the heart of such techniques, directly or indirectly. While kLong chen nib 'byams pa's presentation here is somewhat more complex than this, it does in general correspond to the structure of a short text in his Zab mo yang tig entitled the Zab rno phra khrid. In that presentation of channel-wind practices, he divides them up into three categories corresponding to channels, winds and seminal nuclei respectively. The third category238 is entitled "esoteric precepts on the great bliss of the [nuclei]" and is further subdivided into "techniques on your own body" and "relying on another's body." He clearly specifies239 that prior to engaging in sexual yoga with a partner, one must first master these fierce woman practices utilizing merely one's own body.

The key throughout is this concentration and manipulation of energy in the body's center, usually discussed in terms of "dissolving" (thirn) or "taking hold" (zin)240 of the winds into a central channel running through the upper torso"s center, connecting the genitals and brain. Clearly there is a strong physiological (the lungs, blood circulation, ner­vous energy) and experiential basis to this focus on tactile sensations in the center of the torso, which are strikingly similar to practices found in other traditions, such as Daoist Qigong,241 Hindu ku1).c;lalinI I hiitba

237. Ibid., 33. 238. Zab rna phra khrid 376.3-389.2. 239. Ibid., 382.6. 240. See Cozort 1986, 73, and Guenther 1978, 60.1, Tibetan on 256 respectively. 241. See Robinet 1993 and Deng 1990. I am largely indebted to John Alton, who studied for several years in Beijing with a contemporary Chinese teacher, for my exposure to the physical orientations and implications of such practices, as well as general discussions concerning body-oriented contempla­tion (see his autobiographical account of Qigong to be published by Shambhala with the title Adventures with Qt)'

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yoga242 and even the Christian Hesychasts.243 Thus we find a focus on breath and sexual sensation, both critical and immediately accessible experiences one has of the body's internal flows of energy, and in par­ticular' of its intensification in the center. It could be argued that sym­bolic perfection phase techniques begin as breath and sex, felt sensations of currents of movement and bliss running up the center of the body, which are then contemplatively mimicked, controlled, altered, and deep­ened; its non-symbolic dimensions, in contrast, begin in experiences of absence, of the intangible. In the Yid bzhin mdzod,244 kLong chen rab 'byams pa responds to criticism of channel-wind practices as inferior (since they are shared by non-Buddhists) by linking them to exoteric Buddhist techniques of meditating on the breath-by focusing on inhalations and exhalations to calm the ordinarily frenetic activity of your mind, one can give rise to deep contemplation (ting nge 'dzin):

The following reconciles sutric and tantric contemplative techniques:

Since the sutras and their exegetical literature teach that you actualize "calming"

Through focusing the mind on the winds (breath) and external objective supports,

I see this as similar to these (tantric techniques).

Some people think that since these wind-channel [tantric practices] also exist in the non-Buddhist "outsiders" traditions, they are an infe­rior path. Yet the sl1tras and associated exegetical literature of the Lesser and the Great Vehicles such as the Nyi ma'i snying po'i mdo and the mDzod all teach that you meditate on the winds [breath] as an antidote to conceptuality out of control, and thus give rise to contem­plation. In these people's view, we would have to say that this also is inferior. Since all the sl1tras and tantras are thus in harmony with each other in terms of techniques for giving rise to contemplation, there is no conflict here.

242. See Silburn 1988 and White 1995. 243. See Palamas 1983, 5, 8, 9, 14-16, 46, 47 and 129 for discussions of the Hesychasts' body-based approach to spirituality with its focus on the navel, breathing, and the heart. . 244. Yid bzhin mdzod 672.3.

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In fact, the term for "winds" (dung) is often used interchangeably to refer to the literal breath (dbugs), a semantic linkage founded on metaphorical and physiological grounds. With these techniques, one discovers extraordinary dimensions of breath and semen, i. e. other movements and charges of intensity in the body that can be actually experienced in ways analogous to ordinary experiences of the coursing of breath and stimulation of orgasm. In addition to the emphasis on tactile sensations in the body's interior with the concomitant feelings of bliss, the phenomenology of this intensification of energy within the body's center focuses on light, a luminosity that has its own logic expe­rientially and philosophically. This unfolding radiant light (' od gsal) both creates a felt impression of the body's own luminosity and sparks changes in one's visual field as flashes of light begin to dominate experience externally and internally. Thus perfection phase practices are generally characterized as meditation on "radiant lighf' (the title of chap­ter twenty in Yid bzhin mdzod) or "primordial gnosis," indicating these practices unfold radiance and gnosis from one's embodied being, our bodies being pervaded by luminousity and intelligence.

The Great Perfection's notion of a triune ground-empty (stong pa), radiant (gsal ba) and self-organizing intelligence (thugs lje}-reflects the traditional triune characterization of this ultimate dimension, "emptiness" being the third (along with radiant light and primordial gnosis). Additionally there is the standard categorization of meditative experiences (nyams) into bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality (bde gsal mi TtOg). The various gradations and sequences described in discussing these practices-such as the four joys, four visions (snang ba bzhi) and four emptinesses (stong pa bzhi)--thus represent attempts to talk about the phases in one's increasing realization of this unitary triune dimen­sion, simultaneously an immersion in the felt human body of experience and in its grounding in, and as, an intense luminosity that is no-thing at all, yet reveals itself as intensely blissful sparks oflight.245 In this way,

245. While Gyatso (1982) is perhaps the clearest and most detailed factual account of these processes, the most interesting English language account interpretatively is found in Beyer 1973, 127-143. My one qualm about Beyer's account is he almost entirely ignores the physiological/ experiential basis of these processes (taking note of his disclaimer on 133 and his invoca­tion of an "experiential given" on 135) to exclusively focus on the symbolic logic of the contemplative systems, a logic which he brilliant unpacks.

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the dual emphasis of perfection phase techniques on immersion in the human body (symbolic) and in emptiness (non-symbolic) intertwine, as the divine images of the generation phase are brought home to an interior of swirling currents of sensed energy (heat, stimulation, rippling move­ments), an interior which also gradually reveals itself as a groundless abyss of possibilities. Beyer points this out in his consistent emphasis on both dissolving the divine image-representations of magical simulacra (which one is) into the emptiness of radiant light and re-emerging from that dissolution as a gnostic body that now represents one's own inner embodied fluidity given new form. Obviously there is a great degree of latitude in what type of experiential aspects are emphasized in this pro­gression-Beyer focuses on the Hindu emphasis on sonic experiences in contrast to Buddhist privileging of the visual,246 while other traditions focus almost exclusively on tactile sensations (together representing our three major senses); another important issue is the extent of analogical associations. From the perspective of the collapse oftypical habituated patterns we talk of dissolution or dissipation (the byang of byang chub and sangs of sangs rgyas), while from the perspective of the gradual unfolding of an inner luminosity we are impelled to speak of these events as taking hold of an inner citadel (btsan sa zin), an increas ing apprehension of a palace implicated within nothingness (chub; rgyas). Buddha-nature thus represents a trust in embodied identity, that the breakdown of socially enframed structures does not lead inevitably to chaotic instinctual violence,247 but also can allow the emergence of new self-organizing patterning more sensitive to interior and exterior worlds of experience, as well as the abyssal field of possibilities that constitutes the life-process. Thus these contemplative ideologies are based upon processes said to occur in the body at moments of gap or fissure, when our typical strategies of ordering the body collapse: orgasm, sleeping, fainting and death. 248 Luminosity unfolds dudng these "shifting interstices" 249 (bar do) in which paradigms shift and foundations

Given this tendency, it tends to partially obscure other possibilities as he tightly interweaves the entire contemplative process in a very traditional way. 246. Beyer 1973, 136. 247. See Levin 1988, particularly 303-317. 248. See Cozort 1986, 72 and Beyer 1973, 139. 249. Beyer 1973, 138.

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tremble, since radiant light is none other than the fluid process of life­energy, the self-organizing intensity ordinarily trapped and repressed within entrenched structures and dominant frames, the ground zero which contemplation aims at contacting, and then channeling more directly.

Despite this theme of collapse and fissure, a consistent tantric rhetoric of control, domination and manipulation is also evident, of forcing a collapse of the ordinary to marshal one's forces into an extraordinary intensity. One contracts one's ordinarily dispersed energy into a central conduit, arrest its fluctuations and confine it to quarters, so to say, with the justification of making it "pliable" (las su rung), 250 more amenable to the demands and needs of the center (often imaged with explicitly political tropes-kings, ministers, armies, etc.). In this way, discourse­practices situating themselves as non-symbolic perfection phase systems often rhetorically denigrate such practices as lower order techniques dominated by danger, stress, politicization and forced contrivance, even to the point of placing themselves beyond the entire generation / perfec -tion ideology all together, though in fact they are all heavily dependent on the ideological and contemplative landscape shaped by such practices. In the Yid bzhin mdzod's account of conventional tantric practice we find an integrated approach acknowledging this indebtedness with little of the aggressive rhetoric of denial and transcendence that we find in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Great Perfection writings. He begins his account with a warning that these wind-channel practices are not the real or ultimate path, but still strongly urges the prospective practitioner to exert him / herself in these contemplative systems until they are per­fected, given their essential importance in facilitating progress along the path.251 After detailing the systems, he then turns to the Great Perfec­tion in a very low key manner252 by speaking of an "introduction" (ngo sprad) to the manifestation of indwelling primordial gnosis which is coemergent with the natural radiance and clarity produced by such tech­niques. He advocates intently gazing upon self-awareness against this backdrop of these unusual experiences of mental clarity, bliss, and non­conceptualitY produced by reliance upon the contemplative techniques. manipulating the winds and seminal nuclei, this striking fluidity or lumi-

250. Yid bzhin mdzod 667.1. 251. Ibid., 666.7. 252. Ibid., 672.4ff. See my translation above.

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nosity in one's perceptual field, such that one begins to sense an intelli­gence or wisdom at work deep within one's embodied unconscious. It is this vivid, lucent, unfragmented and non-conceptual dimension that is specified as the heart of the Great Perfection, Great Middle Way, Six­branched Yoga, Path and Fruit, and so on. In the ensuing discussion he even casually cites a key Great Perfection text, the Kun byed rgyal po, 253 and in giving general guidelines for meditation refers to its medi­tation on awareness (rig pa) as a third alternative along with focus on the winds and seminal nuclei, depending on "which is comfortable". 254

However, the overall context makes clear that the key is to first work with one's embodied psyche's energy via the winds and nuclei contem­plative techniques, and only then does direct contemplation of one's own vivid radiant awareness, such as detailed in Mind Series texts, become a natural further deepening of the practice. Obviously his intent in the Yid bzhin mdzod is in part to provide a mildly Great Perfection-influenced reading of Mahayana and other Vajrayana traditions that can reach out to other circles of Tibetan Buddhism not directly involved with the Great Perfection's own unique terminology and practices (though this is quite subtle as opposed to the more manifest agenda of the Ngal gso skor gsum).

Such conciliatory motivation and corresponding expression is quite distinct from the tone ofkLong chen rab 'byams pa's explicitly Great Perfection corpus in passages where he deals with the relationships of Seminal Heart practices to seemingly similar techniques found in the modernist tantras. For example, in the following passage from the Theg mchog mdzod,255 he attempts to strictly differentiate between the visual appearances of spheres or circles of light (termed "seminal nuclei") which appear in the practices of direct transcendence and the similar apparitions appearing in the context of other Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices:

Although both (i) the seminal nuclei (thig Ie, bindu) of radiant light's primordial radiation and (ii) the seminal nucleus of rainbow light [deriving] from holding the winds and mind are similar in terms of being empty forms, in fact they are exceedingly different.

253. Kun byed rgyal po 675.1. 254. Yid bzhin mdzod 675.4. 255. Theg mchog mdzod vol. 2, 103.5.

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[The fonner manifests in Seminal Heart contemplation], in which these seminal nuclei of natural thorough purity are the lighting-up of the expanse and awareness. For this reason they are bright and lucent, while provisionally in the "intensification" [vision of Direct Transcen­dence contemplation] they shine forth up until [the manifestation of full] maJ;lQalas [of buddha images]. [Since these visions] are not dependent on holding the winds, emotional distortions andconceptu­ality naturally cease, and they are adorned by the meditative state of naturally abiding within lucency.

However, the thoroughly pure ten signs of wind-channel [practices that the latter involves] is brought about in the wake of strenuous activities involving the winds. 256 For this reason, they are quite unstable, constantly oscillating between intensification and obscura­tion-following non-lucency, partial obscuration, coarse conceptuality and emotional distortions, there is only a little moisturization of clari -ty's emergence and stable focus. For these reasons and others, the difference is exceedingly great.

Though such [visions] manifest when you meditate on the Path and the Fruit, the six yogas, and the Phra tik(?) of the Guhyasamiija Tantra, when compared to the immediacy of the Seminal Heart (practices), the difference is like between gold and brass.

In a later passage from the same text,257 kLong chen rab 'byams pa strictly differentiates Great Perfection meditation from lower order subtle body contemplations, including the well know "six yogas" (sbyor drug). 258 In general he describes these techniques as being very

256. These ten signs are phenomenological markers describing visual images one sees and feels as one progresses further and further in controlling the body's internal currents of energy, or "winds," in the "fierce woman" (gtum mo; car.uJllli) practices, with each step corresponding to a particular type of visual image. See Guenther 1978, 60-1; a somewhat different account is given by Cozort (1986, 74), in correlation with the dissolution of the winds into the body's central channel, whether by perfection phase practices or nor­mal phenomena such as sleep, orgasm, and fainting. Both Hopkins (1981, 18) and Gyatso (1982, 70) give the same account as a series of eight, elimi­nating the first two signs, and referring to breathing patterns rather than visual experiences. Cozort (1986, 124-5) and Dhargyey (1985, 135) also discuss this in the context of the night yoga practiced in Klliacakra system. 257. Theg mchog mdzod 195.2-196.2. 258. These are explicated in Cozort 1986.

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"strenuous" in their directly attempting to forcefully manipulate and redirect one's conventional energy (i. e. physical body and. ordinary thought activity), such that they are beset by obstacles and potential pit­falls. In contrast to this, direct transcendence contemplation works directly with one's inner spontaneous gnostic energy, avoiding the coarse dimensions of one's body, speech and mind apart from their mere "restriction" via the three modes of non-wavering (see below). Since it thus only involves "undistorted" ultimate gnostic energy, the many potential obstacles and pitfalls inherent in working with distorted, mate­rialized energy are absent In addition, these lower order contemplations tend to deviate through fixating on the various psychic experiences and sensations (shes nyams) that emerge during contemplation. Direct tran­scendence contemplation, however, does not prioritize or cling to these psychic experiences, and instead remains focused on the "visionary experiences" (snang nyams) of the radiant light's natural radiation, i. e. the exteriorized images of awareness' radiation that fills one's sUrround­ing space. The Tshig don mdzod259 explains t.llls contrast between "psychic experiences" and "visionary experiences" as referring to inter­nal sensations and external visions respectively. Since in these visions one perceives primordial gnosis in direct sensory experience, there is no possibility of error or deviation, unlike the changing succession of inner psychic sensations. Finally, kLong chen rab 'byams pa differentiates direct transcendence from the "six yogas" thus: direct transcendence involves "awareness' radiation" (riggdangs) which is like "the light of a lamp" and is the "radiation of (awareness') actual radiant light, i. e. pure appearances" via which one can become free; the six yogas instead involve "the winds' radiation" (rlung gdangs) which is like "the light of ajewel" and is "the radiation of awareness' impure dynamism, i. e. dis­torted appearances" via which one cannot become free. This distinction between different types of "radiation" is one I have heard echoed several times in oral explications of the difference between Seminal Heart visions and those inspired by the modernist Kalacakra Tantra.

kLong chen rab 'byams pa explicitly criticizes the perfection phase's principal ideology of confining the winds into the central channel in the following discussion of the gnostic winds from the mKha' 'gro yang tig: 260

259. Tshig mdan mdzad 390.4ff. 260. mKha' 'gra yang tig vol. 2, 161.6ff.

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In brief, "gnostic winds" is just a label applied to compassionate resonance's essential awareness-since it is present with the indivisi -ble triune identity of essence, nature and compassionate resonance, it is termed "primordial (ye) cognition (shes)" (the literal rendering of "gnostic"). It is termed "wind" (rlwzg) in that its mere stirring and mere aware-ing share concordant qualities with wind. The "real" energy winds (i. e. the karmic winds) should be understood as its dynamism manifesting in terms of the ordinary "mind" [i. e. the neu­roticized mind], such that primordial gnosis' radiation as a mere "aware-ing" is carried off by the wind-horses, and operates in terms of the pluralized modes of ordinary perceptual consciousness (mam shes).

The gnostic winds themselves are beyond all extremes of discur­siveness by force of being empty in their essence-dimension; they light-up as the spiritual bodies and primordial gnoses by force of being radiant in their nature-dimension; and they manifest in terms of the primordial gnosis sensitive to everything's [final reality] and the primordial gnosis sensitive to all their specifics by force of being aware in their compassionate resonance-dimension. Though this is itself labeled "wind," it in fact manifests in the contemplative path of visionaries as primordial gnosis' inner radiance, and its thoroughly pure radiation as it externally manifests.

The "channel/winds" [praxis and theory] oflower spiritual vehicles are ignorant of this, such that they view the non-elaborated essence of the moving winds as the gnostic winds. Having thus seized hold of them, they insert the coarse winds from the right and left [channels] into the central channel. In this way bringing about [sensations of] "clarity" through the right channel's winds, "bliss" through the left channel's winds, and "non-conceptuality" through the central chan­nel's winds, the winds remain in the central channel with these triune [sensations of] bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality, such that [visions of] seminal nuclei and rainbow light emerge. Furthermore, this is [believed] to be the sign oftaking hold of the [body's] five elemental energy-winds [fire, earth, water, wind and space].

This is, however, a quite distorted view. If the five moving winds had color, then why does not the wind of our mouth and nose [i. e. breath] come with color? As for attaining stability upon taking hold of these [winds], though they claim they have taken hold of the gnostic winds, actually they are not cognizant or aware of even an iota of their true dimension, except for having simply heard the name "gnostic winds." I do not believe that enlightenment can be attained through checking the winds of the mouth and nose, since [nothing ensues] through these practices of the lower vehicles taking hold of those

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"gnostic winds," apart from a type of non-conceptuality deriving from the non-movement of breath. Such a practice resembles the filling and emptying of a bellows-not only do no enlightened qualities ensue upon exerting yourself in this, but your body grows cold and shakes, your speech becomes trivial and false, your mind becomes even more coarse than before in its dualistic conceptions, and cannot withstand any [adverse] conditions.

Here [in the context of the Great Perfection tradition, in contrast], we say that taking hold in the following manner is termed "gnostic winds": when in a single period you bring together the three watching postures and the three enlightened gazes via the three spiritual bodies [i. e. the key points of direct transcendence contemplation], you experience a radiant, immaculate, crystal clear state of consciousness which is beyond discursiveness through the emptiness of essence, to which radiant light manifests through the clarity of nature, and which is utterly non-conceptual through the awareness of compassionate res-0nance. While not conceptualizing anything at all, the visual dimen­sion of whatever might appear remains unceasing. [Because we hold that, when you say "gnostic winds" we say it is taken hold in this manner].

In his Grub mtha' mdzod261 kLong chen rab 'byams pa also incisively criticizes these normative modernist tantric practices of forcefully insert­ing the energy winds into the central channel in the attempt to achieve primordial gnosis. He contrasts this to Great Perfection contemplation in which the body's luminous channels are let be, and thus naturally expand outwards from their current presence as a thin thread of light at the body's center, so as to directly permeate one's entire existence and dissolve all energy blockages therein. He retains the emphasis on the body's center and light-experiences, yet undercuts the tone of control and manipulation. 1his indicates the reoccurring issue of whether con­templation should be the forceful assertion of a predetermined pattern, or a more personalized quest to find one's own way, patternings that reveal themselves only when one releases the attempt to fore-structure them:

The lower secret mantra [systems] hold that by inserting the wind­mind energies of your solitary and flavor channels [i. e. right and left]

261. Grub mtha' mdzod 382.1-383.3. See Dudjom 1991,40-341, for a translation of his abridged account, which is simply a reworded presentation ofkLong chen rab 'byams pa's comments.

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into the central channel, a primordial gnosis of bliss, clarity and non­conceptuality will emerge, which they identify as innate [gnosis]. However in fact this in no way reverses your ordinary eight fold con­sciousness based on the universal ground: the blissful sensation is due to the ordinary egoic psyche and the emotionally distorted psyche, while the lack of conceptuality in the undivided lucency is the univer­sal ground The slight clarity and lucency [they experience] is the uni­versal ground consciousness, while that which appears in terms of the individual five types of coarse sensory objects and cognitive faculties [such as visible forms and sounds] are the five sensory modes of con­sciousness. Yet if those [modes of consciousness] are not reversed, you will not become free of cyclic existence, since you are manifestly not free from the mind-sets of cyclic existence. Since this style of practice is not different from that outlined in the SlUpkhya scriptures [he cites a passage from therein .... ], they do not accomplish freedom from the mind-state of the formless meditative states [dhyana].

They hold that the joy of mixing the channels, winds and seminal nuclei into a single flavor is the pristine dimension [mal rna], and thus believe that the respective enlightened qualities manifest by force of liberating the corresponding channel-knots as the winds and seminal elements enter the central channel from the flavor and solitary chan­nels. Thus there are many obstacles-as the winds enter the channel­petals energetically corresponding to the various six types of living beings, many delusory appearances manifest In this way it constitutes the key point of why deviation comes to pass [for such practitioners].

Since in the context [of Great Perfection contemplation] the winds are left to naturally calm down of their own accord, there is no inser­tion into the central channel. When the wind currents of the individual channel petals become naturally purified, the gnostic winds of the luminous channel shines of their own accord in their own state. Thus there is a lighting-up of primordial gnosis as there manifests such visions as the spiritual bodies, lights, and pure realms, while no dis­torted appearances at all manifest. As the luminous channel in the center intensifies, the channel-knots sequentially pass into light and are free-this is what we assert. The enlightened qualities of the [spiritual hero/ine] stages manifest in a self-presencing way. To expand on that, by force of the first two channel-knots becoming liberated into light, twelve hundred Buddha realms manifest within the luminosity that lights up externally ....

Thus this is exceedingly superior to the level of the lower vehicles. If your mind is of cyclic existence when you practice, the result will be cyclic existence .... Since [the Great Perfection] is free of the mind­sets of cyclic existence via the path, this is the key point of rapidly

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arriving right at the fruit. Nowadays those who desire BuddhahoOd from the ordinary mind do not understand this key point, and thus do not know the real path-primordial gnosis and the mind substantially contradict each other. ...

Finally, in the following passage from the Tshig don mdzod262 kLong chen rab 'byams pa criticizes two key contemplative procedures associ -ated with perfection phase systems-sexual yoga and the yogic body exercises known as "magical wheels" (' phrul 'khaT, yantra):

Furthermore, it is taught that ordinary minor psychic attainments and depth-contemplation [which involves the mind's stabilization] can be accomplished on the path in reliance upon the conventional catalytic seminal nuclei, yet the supreme spiritual attainment [the meditative state wherein the Reality Body and primordial gnosis naturally flow] can be made directly manifest only in reliance upon the ultimate semi­nal nuclei of radiant light. Since along these lines the tradition of the Great Perfection does not view the conventional seminal nuclei as an essential part of the spiritual path, it advocates meditation on radiant light in reliance upon the ultimate seminal nuclei. However, some individuals' psychic makeup is such that engaging the conventional seminal nuclei here [in the Great Perfection tradition] becomes neces -sary. In this sense, the means of meditation on the conventional semi­nal nuclei, reliance on a sexual consort and so forth are taught simply as a kind of special method or "efficacious means" for taking care of those otherwise blocked from the Great Perfection path, so that those people obsessively addicted to the conventional seminal nuclei can cir­cuitously enter [the path of the Great Perfection]. Then, subsequently the stage of engaging the ultimate seminal nuclei is taught to such individuals. As for that prior stage [of yogically manipulating the conventional seminal nuclei], the sGra thal 'gyUT says:

Since you desire to rely on the reality of seminal nuclei, [I will discuss the contemplative techniques] Relating to the ultimate and conventional [seminal nuclei].

[i] Those who for the time being desire buddhahood In reliance upon the conventional seminal nuclei should do as

follows:

262. Tshig don mdzod 258.

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Your consort should have the complete requisite characteristics -When you spot one with the perfect characteristics Whether she be a goddess, demi-goddess, brahmin, Low caste, or a heretic, You begin with the techniques for attracting her, And then you must perfect your body Via the object of reliance [i. e. consort], the channels, And the focus of visualization [i. e. the seminal nuclei, etc.].

Then, you must bring the conventional seminal nuclei down, retain them, reverse them [back upwards]

Disperse them within the channels, and mix them with the winds; You then must rely upon emptiness, eradicate your intellect, And reverse your ordinary body and mind.

[ii] On the other hand, through reliance upon the ultimate seminal nuclei

You can meet with the objects of the empty reality body:

Stimulating the lamp of the empty seminal nuclei You train on awareness' efflorescent dynamics, And when you finally gain deep attunement such that [their lumi­

nosity Is vividly clear] without ordinary distinctions between daytime and

nighttime, These [luminous nuclei] directly manifest without any exertion on

your part -This is the measure indicating experiential mastery [of this practice].

Therefore, the two classifications of seminal nuclei are related as fol­lows: the conventional seminal nuclei are not the real spiritual path, aside from simply being a belief and interest-inspiring efficacious means of entering [certain typeS of people] into this path [of the Great Perfection]. Thus, here in this text these systems of practice will be left at that, while since the ultimate seminal nuclei are the real path, I will discuss them extensively. The stimulation of the [empty seminal nuclei] lamp is discussed in particular within the chapter on the "objective sphere" [chapter seven], and thus you should take [those discussions] as the point of departure for understanding it. This is an extremely important point, since nowadays some people assert that both the conventional and ultimate seminal nuclei are the Great Perfec­tion path, and in particular, those people fixated upon the conventional seminal nuclei do not see these [luminous nuclei's vital] significance.

322 JIABS 17.2

They advocate many strenuous practices in training on the conven­tional seminal nuclei such as "binding" with yogic physical exercises [yantras] and forced visualizations, while as fruit of such training they desire the bliss and emptiness of depth-contemplation within the coarse body. The Great Perfection tradition is quite the opposite: in its avocation of a series of triadic key points in contemplation [your body being unshakable from the "watching postures" and so on] and its desired attainment of a body of light, there is a very important dis­tinction.

The ''ultimate seminal nuclei" are synonymous with the "luminous semi­nal nuclei" discussed above, and are principally located within the soli­tary' all-encompassing and luminous channels). These light nuclei play the key role in direct transcendence contemplation, and thus are the prin­cipal focus of Seminal Heart meditation and theory as the internal bases or supports for the contemplative optimization and revelation of one's internal latent nucleus of gnostic light. They should be understood in opposition to the conventional nuclei which concentrate within the flavor channel, and in general are distributed throughout the body's internal channels in their various red and white forms (the concentrations of the white nuclei at the crown and the red nuclei at the navel play key roles in "lower" contemplation techniques). These conventional seminal nuclei ultimately all stem from the "white and red" nuclei initially inherited from one's father (white) and mother (red) at conception. Their coarser forms are the material sexual fluids involving the male's white sperm and the female's red blood / ovum, such that both their subtle and coarse forms play the key role in sexual sensation, intercourse and orgasm.

For those who do not have any trust or belief in the significance and importance of the ultimate luminous nuclei or spiritual concerns in gen­eral (which are not immediately manifest to reason or experience), working with the conventional nuclei (whose role in sexuality provide an easily accessible path to their dynamics) is an alternative means to engage them on the path. Thus they can be gradually led to see the real­ity and importance of the ultimate nuclei, and overcome their initial dispar agement of any type of spiritual practices concerning the non­material (which they otherwise confuse with the "immaterial"). For this reason kLong chen rab 'byarns pa briefly outlines the techniques of sex­ual yoga, but does not go into any detail since these lower order con­templations are not actually part of the system of Great Perfection medi­tation proper. In kLong chen rab 'byams pa's other Great Perfection

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writings, however, sexual yoga is discussed in extensive detail, purport­edly as a popular and efficacious means to help people enter the spiritual path who would otherwise be disinterested or bewildered by the prac­tices of breakthrough and direct transcendence. Needless to say, tre rhetorical disclaimers do not exorcise such practices from the system, but rather situate them within it in particular ways. The final paragraph refers to subtle body contemplations such as sexual yogas which involve complicated physical movements, complex forced visualizations, diffi­cult breathing techniques and so on which forcibly "bind" and restrict our energies to prevent ordinary neurotic thought activity, none of which play a part in Great Perfection contemplation. In particular "yogic exer­cises" (' phrul 'khar, yantra) refer to various physical postures and movements performed along with certain patterns of breathing (ranging from simple to near impossible), which are designed to manipulate our body's internal energies (i. e. the seminal nuclei and wind-currents); "visualization" (dmigs pa) indicates the various visualizations utilized in the channel-winds practices of the lower vehicles, which are contrived in their forcible manipulation and concentration of physical and psychic energy. In contrast to this, direct transcendence contemplation involves only very simple postures and gazes, while the focal object is self-mani­fest visions (snang ba) spontaneously unfolding without any fabricated visualizations. kLong chen rab 'byams pa thus contrasts these two con­templative systems both in terms of their techniques and the desired "fruit" or "climax": the Great Perfection involves very simple, natural postures and spontaneous visions rather than difficult contortions and forced artificial visualizations, while the ultimate goal is a "body of light" wherein all corporeality dematerializes rather than simply sensations of bliss and concentration within our current corporeal body. As for being "unshakable" from the body's "way oflooking" or "watChing postures," these are explained 263 as the three "postures" or "looks" which the body should remain within without any wavering. Together with speech being unshakable from silence and mind being unshakable from undis­tracted non-conceptual gazing at the center of the open sky, they form the three modes of being "unshakable" in direct transcendence contem­plation. In general, the key points of this contemplation simply empha­size being "unwavering" in the sense of remaining within a calm, natural

263. Ibid., 375.6-7.

324 JIABS 17.2

state of quiet disturbed by neither the ordinary turbulence of neurotic activity nor strenuous yogic contortions.

I will conclude with a brieflook at a very interesting section of a text written by gTer bdag gling pa (1646-1714) entitled gTer chen chos ki rgyaZ po gter bdag gling pa gar dbang 'gyur med rdo rje'i zhaZ snga nas mchog sman mams kyis dri ba sna tshogs pa 'i Zan rim par speZ ba rin chen phreng ba (chab shog) (The Garland of Answers to Various Questions with the Supreme Medicine).264 This particular reply is ostensibly written in response to inquiries as to the difference between the Great Seal and Great Perfection traditions. In understanding this text, it is essential to keep in mind that gTer bdag gling pa lived during times when Nyingma traditions had fallen upon hard times in Central Tibet, and that he was a key figure in stimulating their reviVal. He dis­cusses the Great Perfection in terms of the standard three Series, which he individually correlates to particular modernist yogic systems. Despite his acknowledgment of a certain surface similarity, he stresses critical differences that he perceives between the two members of each dyad. The Mind Series is associated with the Great Seal, with the major differ­ence being that the latter seals external objects located "thither" in the field of our experience, while the former ascertains the subject located "hither," mind-as-such, empty awareness' original purity. The Space Series is then associated with, and differentiated from, "the five stages," the popular systematization of perfection phase techniques deriving from Nagarjuna's exegetical work on the Guhyasamiija Tantra. He specifies that the similarity is in their common focus on radiant light (' od gsal), while the difference lies in the latter's forceful binding of the internal winds in contrast to the latter's no-activity praxis divested of any such objectifications or forced foci. The Esoteric Precept Series then is asso­ciated with the "six yogas" (sbyor drug), an important systematization of perfection phase techniques also deriving from the Guhyasamiija Tantra literature. The similarity lies in the emphasis on light visions, while the difference is again presented in terms of "exertion" and "stress": the latter utilizes sexual practices and forcefully binds the winds into tre body's central channel, while the latter involves releasing all such willful manipulation, and instead perceiving the self-radiant abiding reality in

264. This text is written in the forms of questions and answers;· this partic­ular section can be found at 345.6-357.6.

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sensory immediacy. He als0 265 stresses the importance of how the Eso­teric Precept Series' exegetical traditions with its own unique terminol­ogy had been maintained through kLong chen rab 'byams pa's efforts without becoming mixed up with other esoteric yogic traditions such as the Great Seal.

Conclusion . While the Great Perfection represents one of the most interesting, com­plex' and vital set of contemplative / scholastic traditions in Tibetan reli -gion, until recently in Euro-American circles 266 it was largely known for its controversial claims to non-Tibetan roots, its supposed anti-nomian rejection of normative Buddhist categories and its mystic emphasis on an arguably phenomenological notion of awareness' bare simplicity. In particular, there has been a persistent tendency to literalize its rhetoric, ignoring the complex ways in which a language of denial can function on the ground. This has led many casual observers to assume these movements involved a paradoxical rejection of formal contemplation, or intense adherence to simple contemplative techniques with neither serious intellectual inquiry nor a corresponding production of complex literature. There have also been few non-traditional attempts to account for the internal dynamics of the growth and transformation of these traditions over time, perhaps in part because the seeming absence of rigor would appear to entail a lack of historical dynamism and change. The common thread of these misunderstandings has ancient roots in Tibetan Buddhist polemics, namely that an emphasis on process dynam­ics and the organismic intelligence of the unconscious at the expense of established normative structures often rhetorically appears to others as

265. Ibid., 351.6. 266. I am aware of the inadequacies of the term "Euro-American" with re­gards to scholarship as opposed to contrasting "modem" to "traditional" to acknowledge the contemporary work of Japanese, Indians and other ethnic groups. However I do not think that my current usage implies restricting par­ticipation in privileged "modernism" to Europeans and North Americans, and I worry that using the term modernism broadly can legitimize evolutionary strategies put forward implicitly by many authors to privilege their own cul­tural world views, as well as contribute to the stigmatization of discourses and practices that do not seem to belong to our collective illusion of "modernity."

326 JIABS 17.2

deviating into simplistic chaos or even inaction (bya bral). To articulate a quite different vantage point viewing these traditions as located in the dangerous yet stimulating oscillation between architecture (structure, images, the intellect) and absence (process, emptiness, the body), my present inquiry has centered around the issues of rhetorical negation and contemplative practice in the early Mind Series (sems sde) traditions, the emergence of the Seminal Heart (snying thig) movement within that matrix, and the relation of both to the tantric categories and practices forming their overarching background. I have thus traced the general outlines of the true heterogeneity and interrelationships of the move­ments that went under the rubric of the Great Perfection in Tibet from the ninth to fourteenth centuries,·their complex relationships to the tantric categories and practices being imported by other groups under the ban­ner of "modernism," their intricate balancing act between architecture and absence, and the deep human significance of what at first may seem abstruse issues.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Tibetan and Sanskrit works

Note: "Kaneko" refers to the numbers given works in the gTing skyes edition of the rNying rna rgyud 'bum in Kaneko 1982.

Kun byed rgyal po. Kaneko 1. See Neumaier-Dargyay 1992 for a translation and Lipman 1987 for a translation of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's commentary.

Kun bzang bla rna'i zhal lung by dPal sprul 0 rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po. Chengdu: Sichuan Minorities Press (1988). See Kazi 1989 for translation.

kLong chen snying thig by , Jigs med gling pa. Published in three volumes. New Delhi: Ngawang Sopa (1973); I-Tib 73-904268. See Goodman 1983 for a study of this cycle.

kLong gsal. As cited in kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Zab mo yang thig (vol. 1,473.3,478.4,487.6 and so on), this text is found in vol. 24 ("Ra") of the contemporary print of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum available in sDe dge (344a.I-361b.7) with the title Kun tu bzang rna klong gsal nyi ma'i gsang rgyud. The colophon identifies it as transcribed by Ye shes mtsho rgyal from Padmasambhava's words.

Khrid yig ye shes bla mao This text is found in the kLong chen snying thig. mKha' 'gro snying thig. This cycle is found in the sNying thig ya bzhi. mKha' 'gro yang tig. This cycle is found in the sNying thig ya bzhi.

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Grub mtha' mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. dGongs pa zang thaI by Rig 'dzin rgod kyi Idem 'phru can. Published as

volumes 60-64 of the Smanrtsis shes rig spendzod. Leh, Ladakh: S. W. Tashigangpa (1973).

rGyud bcu bdun. Kaneko 143-159. Also published separately in a three volume edition based on the Adzom blocks; New Delhi, India: Sanje DoIje (1973). The individual titles are as follows: sGra thaI 'gyur, bKra shis mdzes klan, Kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long, sGron ma 'bar ba, rDo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long, Rig pa rang shar, Nor bu phra bkod, Ngo sprod spras pa, kLong drug, Yi ge med pa, Seng ge rtsal rdzogs, Mu tig phreng ba, Rig pa rang grol, Rin chen spungs pa, sKu gdung 'bar ba, Nyi zla kha sbyor, and rDzogs pa rang byung.

rGyud 'bum of Vairocana. Published as volumes 16-23 of the Smanrtsis shesrig spendzod. Leh, Ladakh: S. W. Tashigangpa (1971). I-Tib 70-924557.

sGyu ma ngal gso. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 2, 547-579).

Ngal gso skor gsum by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. 4 volumes. Gangtok, Sikkim: Dodrup Chen Rinpoche (1973). Page references are from the enlarged reprint of this edition in India which I obtained in 1988 in three volumes without any additional publishing information. This trilogy is an interlocking series of three root texts, which has been translated by Guenther (1975-6): the Sems nyid ngaZ gso (vol. 1,1-111), bSam gtan ngal gso (vol. 3, 1-25), and sGyu ma ngal gso (vol. 2, 547-579). Each has its own lengthy auto-commentary: the Shing rta chen po (vol. 1, 112-729 and vol. 2, 1-381), Shing rta mam dag (vol. 3, 35-126) and the Shing rta bzang po (vol. 2, 593-761). In addition each has a "practical guidance" (don khrid) presentation of its associated contemplative system: the Byang chub lam bzang (vol. 2, 441-546), Yid bzhin nor bu (vol. 2, 761-766) and sNying po bcud bsdus (vol. 3, 126-130).

Ngal gso skar gsum gyi spyi don legs bshad rgya mtsho. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 3, 131-244).

ehos dbying s mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. Chos 'byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi'i bcud by Nyang ral nyi rna 'od

zero Volume 5 of the series entitled, Gangs can rig mdzod. Lhasa, Tibet: the People's Publishing House of Tibet (1988).

'Jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa (Mafljusri nama sa1Jtgiti). See Davidson 1981 for an edition of the Sanskrit and a translation.

'Jam dpal zhallung by BuddhaSrijiianapada. Toh. 1853-4. The full title is ('Phags paY 'jam dpal (gyi de kho no nyid sgrub pa'i) zhal lung (Dvikramatattvabhlivananamamukhligama). There is also a shorter version entitled Maiijusrimukhligama.

328 JIABS 17.2

Nyi rna' i snying po by rTse Ie sna tshogs rang grol. The Tibetan text I have is without any publishing information, and is in dbu can with fifty five folios. This has been translated by Schmidt as The Circle of the Sun and by Guenther in Meditation Differently.

rNying rna bka' rna rgyas pa. Editor Dudjom Rinpoche; 55 volumes. KaIimpong, WB: Dubjung Lama (1982). I-Tib 82-900981.

rNying rna rgyud 'bum. There are currently a number of different editions of this basic collection of the N yingma Tantras circulating, among which exist considerable differences (Dharma Publishing under Tarthang TuIku' s direc­tion [Berkeley, CAl is apparently currently attempting to systematically gather all variations together in order to publish a delmitive edition). The 36 volume gTing skyes edition printed by Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche in Thimphu, Bhutan (1973; Bhu-Tib 73-903590) has been catalogued by E. Kaneko (1982). In addition there is the mTsham sbrag edition in 46 vol­umes, printed by the National Library, Royal government of Bhutan in Thimphu, Bhutan (1982; Bhu-Tib 82-902165).

sNyan brgyud kyi rgyab chos zab don gnad kyi me long. This text is found in the 'hlb rna yang tig vol. 2, 153-494.

sNying thig ya bzhi by miscellaneous authors. All page references are from the eleven volume edition. New Delhi: published by TruIku Tsewang, Jamyang and L. Tashi (1971). The current redaction has five sections, despite its title: the bLa rna yang tig by kLong chen rab 'byams pa (vols. 1); mKha' 'gro snying thig by Padmasambhava (vols. 2-3); mKha' 'gro yang tig by kLong chen rab 'byams pa (vols. 4-6); Bi rna snying thig by VimaIamitra and other early Great Perfection Masters (vo1s. 7-9); and 'hlb rna yang tig by kLong chen rab 'byams pa (vols. 10-11).

sNying thig Zo rgyus chen mo by Zhang ston bkra shis rdo Ije (?). This text is found in the Bi m snying thig (voI. 3, 1-179). See Valby 1983 for a partial translation.

sNying po bcud bsdus. This text is found in the NgaZ gsa skar gsum vol. 3, 126-130.

gTer chen chos ki rgyaZ po gter bdag gZing pa gar dbang 'gyur med rdo rje'i zhaZ snga nas mchog sman rnams kyis dri ba sna tshogs pa'i Zan rim par speZ ba Tin chen phreng ba (chab shog» by gTer bdag gling pa. This text is found in the Collected religious instructions and letters of gTer-bDag­gLing-Pa-'Gyur-Med-rDo-rJe (159-493). Dehra Dun: D. G. Khochhen Tulku (1977). I-Tib 78-9000434.

bsTan bcos kyi dkar chag Tin po che'i mdzod khang by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. kLong chen rab 'byams pa produced this partial catalogue of his own works included in some editions of his gSung thor bu (I obtained mine from the modern day Derge edition) while residing in Bhutan at Bum thang thar pa gZing.

GERMANO 329

Thig Ie kun gsal. Kaneko 81 as well as volume "Pa" of the mTshams brag edition of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum (296.6-492.5).

Thig Ie rgya can: this text is found in thekLong chen snying thig (vol. 2, 403-421).

Theg mcJwg mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. mThar thug don gyi snying po. This text is found in the Zab mo yang tig

vol. 1, 293.6-307.6. Deb ther sngon po by 'Gos 10 tsa ba gzhon nu dpal. Two volumes. Chengdu:

Sichuan Minorities Press (1974). See Roerich 1976 for a translation. gDams ngag mdzod. 12 volumes. Delhi: N. Lungtok and N. Gyaltsan (1971). mDo dgongs 'dus pa. Kaneko 160. gNam chos by Mi ' gyur rdo rje. 13 volumes. Paro, Bhutan: published by

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Perna Norbu Rinpoche (1983). Bhu-Tib 84-901303.

gNas lugs mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. Padma bka' thang by 0 rgyan gling pa. Chengdu: Sichuan Nationalities

Press (1987). See Douglas 1978 for a very erratic translation of the Tibetan via Toussaint's original French translation.

Phyogs bcu'i mun pa thams cad rnam par sel ba by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. Published as volume 26 of the rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa. It has been translated in its entirety by Gyurme Dorje. It is also the subject of a difficult, yet at times brilliant, study by Herbert Guenther (The Matrix of Mystery).

'Phags pa 'jam dpal dbyangs kyi zhal lung gi 'grel pa (Sukusumanllma­mukhllgamav.rtti) by Vitapada. Toh. 1866.

Bar do thos grol revealed by Kar ma gling pa. I have referred to a version in a small size 549 page Tibetan edition of the Zhi khro rang grol printed on January first 1985 in India. See translations in Freemantle 1987 and Thurman 1993.

Bi ma snying thig This cycle is found in the sNying thig ya bzhi. Byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po'i don khrid rin chen sgru bo by

kLong Chen Rab 'Byams Pa. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 4, 142-177 of the 1973 edition-I have utilized the former). See Lipman 1987 for a translation.

Byang chub lam bzang. This text is found in the NgaZ gso skor gsum (vol. 2,441-546).

bLa ma yang tig. This cycle is found in the sNying thig ya bzhi. Man ngag Ita ba'i phreng ba by Padmasambhava. See Karmay 1988 for an

edition of the Tibetan text (163-171) as well as a translation (152-163). See Dowman 1994 for a second translation.

Mun sel skor gsum by kLong chen rab 'byams pa See the Phyogs bcu mun sel for its separate listing. The other two texts in this trilogy are (i) the bsDus don ma rig mun pa thams cad sel ba published in volume 27 of the

330 JIABS 17.2

rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa; also a xylographic edition published by Sonam Kazi (1973); I(Sik)-Tib 73-905823; and (ii) sPyi don legs bshad snang bas yid kyi mun pa thams cad sel ba published in volume 27 of the rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa; also a xylographic edition published by Sonam Kazi (1973); I(Sik)-Tib 73-905821.

Tshig don mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. mDzod kyi Ide mig by the third rDo grub chen, 'jigs pa'i bstan pa'i nyi rna.

This text is found in volume m of The Collected Works (gSun 'bum) of rDo grub chen 'jigs med bstan pa'i fiyi mao Gangtok: reproduced by Dodrup Chen Rimpoche. I(Sik)-Tib 74-901179.

mDzod bdun by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. All page references are to the six volume edition; Gangtok, Sikkim: published by Sherab Gyaltsen and Khyentse Labrang (1983). 1-Tib 83-905058. While three of these texts con­sist of root verses with separately titled lengthy auto-commentary, I have made no distinction between these two elements in my page references.

Zab don rgya mtsho'i sprin. This text is found in the mKha' 'gro yang tig (vol 2, 1-488).

Zab mo phra khrid. This text is found in the Zab mo yang tig (vol. 1, 369-389).

Zab mo yang tig. This cycle is found in the sNying thig ya bzhi. Yid bzhin nor bu. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 2, 761-

766). Yid bzhin mdzod. This text is one of the mDzod bdun. Yon tan mdzod by 'Jigs med gling pa. This is found in vols. 1-2 of the

'Jigs med gling pa'i gsung 'bum, which is itself vols. 29-37 (1970 onwards) of the Ngagyur rNying may Sungrab. Gangtok, Sikkim: pub­lished by Sonam T. Kazi. I(Sik)-Tib 74-917093. It is also found in vol­ume 38 of the rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa. It is also published sepa­rately-Bodnath, Nepal: Ngagyur Dojod Ling (1981). N-Tib 82-902339.

Rang grol skor gsum by kLong chen rab 'byams pa. These texts are pub­lished with the Ngal gso skor gsum (see below, vol. 3). The three root texts are as follows: the Sems nyid rang grol (vol. 3, 251-284), Chos nyid rang grol (vol. 3, 310-329) and mNyam nyid rang grol (vol. 3,349-376). The fIrst text has a "practical guidance" (don khrid) on it entitled Lam rim snyingpo (vol. 3, 284-306). See Guenther 1975 for a translation of the fIrst versifIed root text of the trilogy. This was retranslated by Thondup (1989; 316-354), who also tr'dllslated its "practical guidance" (355-374).

Shing rta chen po. This text is found in the Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 1, 112-729 and vol. 2, 1-381).

Shing rta rnam par dag pa. This text is found in the Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 3, 35-126).

Sems nyid ngal gso. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum. (vol. 1, 1-111).

GERMANO 331

Sems sde bco brgyad. There is disagreement over the precise identification of the eighteen, but most titles can be found in volume 1 of the gTing skyes edition of the rNying rna rgyud 'bum. See Karmay 1988, 23-4, for details. See Lipman's Primordial Experience for a translation I study of one text and Karmay 1988,41-59, for a translation I study of another.

gSang 'grel phyogs bcu'i mun sel gyi spyi don 'od gsal snying po by Mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho. I have referred to a contempo­rary xylographic print without any printing information or date.

gSang chen rgyud sde bzhi'i sa lam gyi rnam gzhag rgyud gzhung gsal byed by Ngag dbang dpalldan. This text is found in volume 2 of The Collected Works of Chos rje ngag dbang dpal ldan of Urga. Delhi: Mongolian Lama Gurudeva (1983). 1-Tib-83-905048.

gSang ba snying po (Guhyagarbha Tantra). Kaneko 187. See DOlje 1987 for a critical edition of the Tibetan (the Sanskrit original no longer exists), and English translation of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's extensive commen­tary on the tantra.

gSang ba 'dus pa (Guhyasamaja Tantra). The Sanskrit text is in The Guhyasamaja Tantra edited by Yukei Matsunaga Osaka: Toho Shuppan, Inc. (1978). P81. Toh 442.

gSung thor bu by Kun mkhyen klong chen pa dri med 'od zero Two vol­umes. Delhi, India: Sanje Dorje (1973).

bSam gtan ngal gso. This text is found in Ngal gso skor gsum (vol. 3, 1-25).

bSam gtan mig sgron by gNubs chen sangs rgyas ye shes. Reproduced by 'Khor-gdon gter-sprul 'chi-med-rig-'dzin as vol. 74 of the Smanrtsis shes rig spendzod. Leh, Ladakh: S. W. Tashigangpa (1974). I-Tib 74-902536.

Secondary literature Beyer, Stephen. 1973. The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual In Tibet.

Berkeley: University of California Press. Cozort, Daniel. 1986. Highest Yoga Tantra. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion

Publications. Dargyay, Eva. 1977: The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet. Delhi:

Motilal Banarsidass. Davidson, Ronald M. 1981. "The Litany of Names ofMaiijusn." Melanges

Chinois et Bouddhiques 20: 1-69. de Jong, 1. W. 1984. "A New History of Tantric Literature in India" Acta

Indologica 6. Deng, Ming-Dao. 1990. Scholar Warrior. New York: Harper SanFrancisco. Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang. 1985. Kalacakra Tantra. Dharmsala: Library of

Tibetan Works and Archives.

332 JIABS 17.2

DOlje, Gyunne. 1987. "The GuhyagarbhatattvaviniScayamabatantra and its XIVth Century Tibetan Commentary Phyogs bCu Mun Sel." Diss. The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Dorje, Gyunne, and Matthew Kapstein. 1991. The rNying rna School of Tibetan Buddhism. Vol. 2. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

Douglas, Kenneth, and Gyendolyn Bays, trans. 1978. The Life and Libera­tion of Padrnasambhava. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing. Translated from Toussaint's French translation of 0 rgyan gling pa's Padrna bka' thang.

Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe DOlje. 1991. The rNying rna School of Tibetan Buddhism. Trans. and eds. Gyunne DoIje and Matthew Kapstein. Vol. 1. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

Eastman, Kenneth W. 1981. "The Eighteen Tantras of the VajrliSekhara Mayajala". Unpublished paper. The 26th International Conference of Orien­talists. Tokyo, May 8th 1981.

Eastman, K. W. 1983. ''Mabayoga Texts at Tun-huang." Bulletin of Insti­tute of Buddhist Cultural Studies 22. Kyoto, Japan: Ryukoku University.

Ehrhard, Franz-Karl. 1992. "The "Vision" of rDzogs-chen: A Text and its Histories". Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the Inter­national Association for Tibetan Studies (Narita 1989). Vol. 1. Eds. Ihara ShOren and Yamaguchi Zuiho. N. p.: Naritasan Shinshojji. 47-58

Freemantle, Francesca, and Chogyam Trungpa. 1987. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Boston and London: Shambhala Publications.

Gennano, David. 1992. "Poetic Thought, the Intelligent Universe, and the Mystery of Self: the Tantric Synthesis of rDzogs Chen in Fourteenth Cen­tury Tibet." Diss. University of Wisconsin.

Goodman, Steven. 1983. "The kLong Chen sNying Thig: An Eighteenth Century Tibetan Revelation." Diss. The University of Saskatchewan.

______ , 1992, "Rig-'dzin 'Jigs-med gling-pa and the kLang-Chen sNying-Thig." Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation. Eds. Steven Goodman and Ronald Davidson. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Goodman, Steven, and Ronald Davidson, eds. 1992. Tibetan Buddhism: Rea­son and Revelation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Guenther, Herbert. 1970. The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. London: Rider and Company.

______ . 1975. The Natural Freedom of Mind. Crystal Mirror 4: 113-146.

______ . 1978. The Life and Teachings of Nllropll. London: Oxford University Press.

______ , 1975-6, Kindly Bent to Ease Us. 3 vols. EmeryvilUe, CA: Dharma Publishing .. Translation of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Ngal gso skar gsum.

GERMANO 333

_-----. 1983. '''Meditation' Trends in Early Tibet." Early Chan in China and Tibet. Eds. Whalen Lai and Lewis Lancaster. Berkeley: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series. 351-366.

______ . 1984. Matrix of Mystery: Scientific and Humanistic Aspects ofrDzogs-chen Thought. Boulder and London: Shambhala.

_-----,. 1992. Meditation Differently. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. 1982. Clear Light of Bliss. London:, Wisdom

Publications. Gyatso, Janet. 1986. "Signs, Memory and History: A Tantric Buddhist

Theory of Scriptural Transmission." The Journal of the International Asso­ciation of Buddhist Studies 9.2.

______ ,. 1993. "The Logic of Legitimation in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition." History of Religions 33.2.

Heesterman, Jan. 1993. The Inner Conflict of Tradition. Chicago: Univer­sity of Chicago Press.

Hookham, S. K. 1991. The Buddha Within. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Hopkins, Jeffrey. 1981. Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth. Valois, NY:

Snow Lion. ______ .1987. Deity Yoga. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. ______ . 1987a. Tantra in Tibet. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion

Publications. Ibara, ShOren, and Yamaguchi Zuiho, editors 1992. Tibetan Studies: Pro­

ceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (Narita 1989). 2 vols. Naritasan Shinshojji.

Jampal Zangpo, Tsering Lama 1988. A Garland of Immortal WiSh-fulfilling Trees: the Palyul Tradition of Nyingmapa. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

Kaneko, Eiichi. 1982. Ko-Tantora Zenshu Kaidai Mokuroku. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai. This is a catalogue to the gTing skyes edition of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum.

Kapstein, Matthew. 1992. "Samantabhadra and Rudra: Innate Enlightenment and Radical Evil in Tibetan rNying-ma-pa Buddhism." Discourse and Practice. Eds. Frank Reynolds and David Tracy. Ithaca, NY: State Uni­versity of New York Press. 51-82.

______ . 1992a. "The Illusion of Spiritual Progress: Remarks on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Soteriology." Paths to Liberation. Eds. Robert Buswell and Robert Gimello. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Karmay, Samten. 1975. "A Discussion on the Doctrinal Position of rDzogs­chen from the 10th to the 13th centuries." Journal Asiatique Tome CCLXIII: 147-156.

Karmay, Samten. 1988. The Great Perfection. London: E. J. Brill.

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Kazi, Sonam, trans. 1989. KUn-zang La-may Zhal-lung. By dPal sprul 0

rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po. Upper Montclair, NJ: Diamond-Lotus Publishing.

Klein, Anne. 1986. Knowledge and Liberation. Ithaca, New York. Kvaerne, Per. 1972. "Aspects of the Origin of the Buddhist Tradition in

Tibet." Numen 19. ______ .1976. "Who are the Bonpos?" Tibetan Review 11.9. Levin, David Michael. 1988. The Opening of Vision. New York and

London: Routledge. Lhalungpa, Lobsang P., trans. 1992. The Life of Milarepa. By gTsang

smyon Heruka (1452-1507). New York, NY: Arkana. Lipman, Kennard, and Merril Peterson, 1987. You are the Eyes of the

World. Novato, CA: Lotsawa. A translation of kLong chen rab 'byams pa's Byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po'i don khrid rin chen sgru boo

Lipman, Kennard, and Namkhai Norbu, trans. 1987. Primordial Experience: An Introduction to rDzogs-chen Meditation. By Mafijusrimltra. Boston and London: Shambhala.

Mullins, Glenn, trans. 1985. Selected Works of the Dalai Lama II: Tantric Yogas of Sister Niguma. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

Neumaier-Dargyay, E. K., trans. 1992. The Sovereign All-Creating Mind­the Motherly Buddha. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. A translation of the Kun byed rgyal po.

Norbu, Namkhai. 1984. Dzogchen and Zen. Oakland, CA: Zhang Zhung Editions.

Norbu, Namkhai. 1986. The Crystal and the Way of Light. New York and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

______ . 1989. Dzogchen: the Self-perfected State. Ed. Adriano Clemente. Trans. John Shane. London: Arkana.

Olivelle, Patrick. 1992. Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceti­cism and Renunciation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Orofino, Giacomella. 1990. Sacred Tibetan Teachings on Death and Libera­tion. New York: Avery Publishing.

Palamas, Gregory. 1983. Gregory Palamas: the Triads. Trans. Nicholas Gendle. New York: Paulist Press.

Robertson, Raymond E., and Kenneth K. Tanaka, 1992. "A Chan Text from Tun-huang: Implications for Chan Influence on Tibetan Buddhism." Tibet.an Buddhism: Reason and Revelation. Eds. Steven Goodman,and Ronald Davidson. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 57-78.

Robinet, Isabelle. 1993. Taoist Meditation. Trans. Julian Pas and Norman Girardot. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Roerich, G. N. 1976. Blue Annals. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

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Ruegg, David. 1989. Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.

Samuel, Geoffrey. 1993. Civilized Shamans. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Sanderson, Alexis.1985. "Purity and Power among the Brahmans of Kashmir." The Category of the Person. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer­sity Press. 190-216.

Schmidt, Erik, trans. 1987. The Mirror of Mindfulness. By Tsele Natsok Rangdrol (Rtse Ie sna tshogs rang grol; b. 1608.) Kathmandu: Rangjung Yeshe Publications.

Schmidt, Erik Hein. 1990. The Circle of the Sun by Tsele Natsok Rangdrol. Kathmandu: Rangjung Yeshe Publications. Restricted circulation publication.

Sharf, Robert H. 1992. "Buddhism and the Rhetoric of Experience." Unpub­lished paper. American Academy of Religions Convention.

Silburn, Lilian 1988. KuT}{lalini: The Energy of the Depths. Albany, NY: SUNY.

Smith, Gene. 1969. Introduction. The Autobiographical Reminiscences of Ngag-dBang dPal-bZang, Late Abbot of Ka~-Thog Monastery. Gangtok: printed by Sonam T. Kazi.

______ .1970. Introduction to Kongrul's Encyclopedia of Indo­Tibetan Culture. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture.

Snellgrove, David. 1987. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors. Boston: Shambhala.

Sopa, Geshe, Roger Jackson, and John Newman. 1985 The Wheel of Time. Madison: Deer Park Books.

Thondup Rinpoche, Tulku. 1984. The Tantric Tradition of the Nyingmapa. Marion, MA: Buddhayana.

______ .1986. Hidden Teachings of Tibet: an Explanation of the Terma Tradition of the Nyingma School of Buddhism. Ed. Harold Talbott London: Wisdom Publications.

______ .1989. Buddha Mind. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. Thurman, Robert. 1993. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York:

Bantam Books. Valby, James. 1983. "The Life and Ideas of the 8th Century A. D. Indian

Buddhist Mystic Vimalamitra." Diss. The University of Saskatchewan. Wayman, Alex, and F. D. Lessing, trans. 1980. Introduction to the Buddhist

Tantric Systems. New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc. White, David. Forthcoming. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in

Medieval India. To be published by the University of Chicago press, 1995.

PAUL L. SWANSON

Understanding Chih-i: Through a glass, darkly?

Neal Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson. 1993. The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-i's Mo-ho chih-kuan. A Kuroda Institute Book. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. xx: 388 pp.

Ng Yu-Kwan. 1993. T'ien-t'ai Buddhism and Early Miidhyamika. Tendai Institute of Hawaii Buddhist Studies Program. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. xviii: 254 pp.

Recent Trends

The appearance of these two volumes in 1993 reflects the emer­gence of a strong core of T'ien-t'ai ~tJl specialists in the West, and shows that T'ien-t'ai Buddhism is finally getting a fair and deserved hearing. After a long hiatus following the pioneering work of Leon Hurvitz (1960), we have seen in the last few years the publication of David Chappell's translation of the T'ien-t'ai ssu-chiao-i ~tJrm~{i (1983), Paul Groner's study of Saich6 (1984), and my study and partial translation (1989) of the Fa-hua hsuan-i *"';t~ [T. #1716]; important articles on Chih-i by Donner (1987) and Stevenson (1986); and in French the study and translation of Gishin's ~Jl: Tendai hokke shugi shu ~tJi:i;;"'* ~~ by Jean-Noel Robert (1990).2 T'ien-ta'i was the theme of a

l. Or Tiantai; Jpn. Tendai. Henceforth, for simplicity's sake, the term "T'ien­t'ai" will be used to refer to the entire East Asian development of this tradition, including Korea and Japan. 2. The Hokke shugi shu (Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School) is a survey ofT'ien-t'ai teachings by aJapanese Tendai monk in the 9th century. It consists mostly of excerpts from Chih-i's writings, and thus serves as a handy

337

338 JIABS 17.2

major panel at the 1993 Annual Conference of the American Academy of Religion, on "Living Words: Scriptural Trans­formation and Meaning in Tiantai,"3 and there appear to be graduate students majoring in T'ien-t'ai in the wings. 4 In the meantime Kosei Publishing Co. in Tokyo has been sponsoring a project to translate the full text of the Mo-ho chih-kuan ~~iiJ1l.ft (T 1911) (see Swanson 1991).5 There has also been a spate of Mo-ho chih-kuan translations in modern Japanese recently­Muranaka Yusho (1988) has translated the first three fascicles, and Nitta Masaaki (1989) just the first two fascicles. Kanno Hiroshi (1992) has published a short study and annotated trans­lation of the first part of the fifth fascicle. Ikeda Rosan's com­plete translation in three volumes is scheduled for publication beginning in 1995. A complete index of all terms in the Mo-ho chih-kuan has been published (see Yamada 1985), as well as an index to the texts quoted by Chih-i in the Mo-ho chih-kuan (see Chugoku Bukkyo Kenkylikai 1986).6

In this review article I will examine the contents of these two impressive books by Donner/Stevenson and Ng, and use this as an opportunity to reflect on the role of traditional T'ien-t'ai exe­gesis (especially that of Chan-jan rlr&, 711-782), in under­standing Chih-i ~~J! (538-597), the founder of T'ien-t'ai Buddhism. In short, I will argue for attempting a more direct reading of Chih-i's work, in light of the possible pitfalls of relying too heavily on traditional commentaries and interpretations.7

introduction to Chih-i's work. On this subject see Swanson 1985. My English translation of the Hokke shugi shu is scheduled for publication by the Numata Center in 1995. 3. Chaired by Stanley Weinstein, with papers by Stevenson, Swanson, Linda Penkower, and Daniel Getz; with a response by David Chappell. 4. See, for example, the article by Brook Ziporyn (1994) in JIABS 17.l. 5. As of the fall of 1994, first drafts have been completed by Robert (French) and Swanson (English) for up to halfway through the fourth (of ten) fascicles, with plans for a limited publication upon completion of the fourth fascicle. 6. Significant recent Japanese publications on T'ien-t'ai chih-kuan include Yamauchi Shun'yii's study (1986) on T'ien-t'ai chih-kuan and the development of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, and Ono Hideto's study (1994) on Chih-i's medita­tion manuals and the early development of chih-kuan practice. 7. My comments are directed also to recent modern Japanese translations of

SWANSON 339

Donner and Stevenson on the Mo-ho chih-kuan First, The Great Calming and Contemplation is a substantial rework­ing by Daniel Stevenson of Neal Donner's already superb transla­tion of the first two fascicles of Chih-i's Mo-ho chih-kuan (T 1911, 46.1-140), submitted as a Ph. D. dissertation in 1976. The trans­lation is preceded by three highly informative essays, all of great importance to T'ien-t'ai specialists and valuable also for scholars in East Asian Buddhism. The care and effort that go into a vol­ume such as this, and especially to do it right, are immeasurable. Both authors are to be commended highly for this significant and handsome contribution. And one must not forget the edi­tors, whose oft-overlooked work is crucial for bringing such a project to completion-it is clear that steady editorial hands guided this volume.

Chapter 1, "The text of the Mo-ho chih-kuan," outlines the importance of the Mo-ho chih-kuan as one of the central texts of T'ien-t'aiBuddhism, and puts it in its context with other texts by Chih-i. There is also a good discussion of the main themes of the Mo-ho chih-kuan: the binome chih-kuan ll::lm (the Chinese transla­tion of samatha-vipasyana, but with additional nuances); the three truths and three discernments; and the four teachings and the perfect and sudden path. Finally, there is a summary of the contents of the Mo-ho chih-kuan, with a focus on the first two fas­cicles (traditionally known as 'The Synopsis") that are translated in this volume.

Chapter 2, "The status of the Mo-ho chih-kuan in the T'ien-t'ai tradition," is an insightful essay on how the Mo-ho chih-kuan has been understood and used historically in the T'ien-t'ai tradition. The essay rightly focuses on Chanjan, the sixth T'ien-t'ai patri­arch, whose leadership and commentaries on Chih-i's work set the course for subsequent T'ien-t'ai activity. As Stevenson points out, "Chanjan's emphasis on the patriarchal vision and his identification of that vision with the Mo-ho chih-kuan recast the

the Mo-ho chih-kuan such as Nitta 1989, Muranaka 1988, and the yet unpub­lished full translation by Ikeda Rosan (forthcoming; scheduled for 1995). Given Ikeda's strong advocacy of relying on Chanjan for understanding the Mo-ho chih-kuan in previous publications (see Ikeda 1986), I assume that his translation will be strongly colored by traditional exegesis.

340 JIABS 17.2

T'ien-t'ai spiritual enterprise in profoundly new ways.. . Thus the hermeneutical principles and the view of text, canon, and tradition laid down by Chanjan-epitomized above all in his monumental commentaries to Chih-i's 'three great texts on the Lotus'8-came to serve as the basis of later T'ien-t'ai orthodoxy" (1993,48-51). The essay also traces the ritualized use of texts in Sung monastic life, concluding that "what this meant for the Mo­ho chih-kuan and other works of the sectarian canon was that access and interpretation were tightly controlled by the monas­tic elite .... This involved a lengthy tenure at the feet of an acknowledged master and was earned only through demonstrat­ed mastery of the exegetical norms and attendant ethos of nor­mative tradition. While this did not necessarily obviate individual growth and creativity, it did ensure that that innovation remained carefully ensconced within certain prescribed social and cultural contexts" (1993, 61). I will return to this point later.

Chapter 3, "The problematic of the Mo-ho chih-kuan and T'ien­t'ai history," discusses problems in interpreting the "vexatious text" of the Mo-ho chih-kuan. It is structured on the T'ien-t'ai emphasis of a balance between teaching and practice, and shows how this balance shifted in terms of doctrines, ritual, and prac­tice in the T'ien-t'ai tradition. It includes a perceptive discussion of the "home-mountain" LlJ* and "off-mountain" LlJY'~ debates of the Sung. To put it too simply, "the off-mountain position is characterized by the tendency to read Chih-i and Chanjan from a strongly tathagatagarbha-oriented perspective" (1993, 86), while Chih-li ~:tL (960-1028), the spokesman for the home­mountain, insisted on a greater regard "for patriarchal prece­dent set forth in such works as the Mo-ho chih-kuan and Chih-i's ritual manuals" (1993, 88).

The above summaries pick up only a few main points of these rich essays, which serve as strong supporting material for the core of this work which is, of course, the annotated translation of

8. This is a traditional phrase used in the T'ien-t'ai school to refer to the three texts of the Mo-ho chih-kuan, Fa-hua hsiian-i, and Fa-hua wen-chii (T. 1718), but it

is more accurate to refer to them as the "three ,great works of T'ien-t'ai." Strictly speaking, the Mo-ho chih-kuan is not a commentary on the Lotus Sutra,

and it is a misrepresentation to refer to it as such.

SWANSON 341

the Mo-ho chih-kuan. Let me say first concerning the translation that it is lucid and accurate, and the notes very useful (though sometimes, perhaps limited by publication restraints, too brief). This is a translation that is most suited to that hoary old book­review cliche that it "should be on'the shelves of everyone in the field. "

Of course there is more than one way to skin a cat, and, as every translator knows, more than one way a text can be proper­ly rendered, especially a "vexatious" and notoriously ambiguous text like the Mo-ho chih-kuan. To illustrate differences in style and vocabulary, I will give first Donner's original translation in his dissertation and then Stevenson's reworking, followed by other translations, of a passage from the early part of the Mo-ho chih­kuan (T 46.2b12-17):

~HJli~±'~. 0 ~~/\ ~1l:§.iZ9 ~ 0 ~flJt ~ 1llftft ~ Jl'uHtftm ~;Htftf:j:j 0

ft;!J~*8/fJ}j/F*o ffii;!J~--SVMli~/fraJ o*~ljpfrQJb J:ig!3 ;mjlJln~Jln{EU!n ~ /fJ}]¥ttEo ffii%3iftft~1~ftftm oi&1J iii)] mJl:sL.#~o

Hence we cite the dragon-king (niiga) as an illustration. In height he compasses the six heavens (of the Realm of Desire), and in breadth reaches across the (above-mentioned) four continents. He raises all manner of clouds, wields all manner of thunder, flashes all manner of lightning and causes all manner of rain to fall, and (does it) without budging from his own palace. His activity appears differ­ent to everyone (who sees him). This is what a bodhisattva is like. Having attained internally and for himself full realization of (the Ultimate Truth which is simultaneously) identical to Emptiness, Provisionality and the Middle, he (is able), without disturbing the Dharma-nature (dharmatii) , to (externally) cause (animate beings) to gain a variety of benefits and engage in a variety of activities (while enlightened). This is what is called "establishing animate beings (in the Dharma by means of his) perfect energy."

(Donner 1976, 50)

Hence we cite the dragon-king as an illustration. In height he encompasses the six heavens of the realm of desire and in breadth reaches across the four continents. He raises all manner of clouds, wields all manner of thunder, flashes all manner of lightning, and causes all manner of rain to fall, all without budging from his own palace. His activity appears different to everyone who sees him. This is what a bodhisattva is like. Having attained internally for himself full

342 JIABS 17.2

realization of the simultaneous identity of emptiness, provisionality, and the middle, he is able, without disturbing the dharma-nature, externally to cause animate beings to gain a variety of benefits and engage in a variety of activity [to effect their salvation]. This is what is called "establishing animate beings in the dharma by means of his perfect energy."

(Stevenson 1993, 117)

One can see how Stevenson has smoothed out the prose, while compromising somewhat the technical need for brackets to indi­cate terms that are not explicitly in the text. Donner also con­tains more detailed notes to this passage that are not included by Stevenson, and he is more concerned with identifying technical terms, a style consistent with a doctoral dissertation. The result of Stevenson's reworking is a text that is lucid and flows natural­ly. Let us compare it with another translation:

... [The Dragon King] makes various kinds of clouds, thunder, lightning, and rain. The Dragon stays in his own palace, yet he is able to make all of these without the slightest movement himself. The bodhisattva is likewise. Penetrating into the identity of Emptiness, the Provisional and the Middle Way, he enables [sentient beings] to obtain various kinds of benefit and acquire various kinds of abilities, yet with no effect on the Dharma Nature. This is called "putting sen­tient beings into correct places with the perfect function."

(Ng 1993, 70)

This translation suffers from stilted phrasing and overly literal translation of technical terms, and so does not convey the majes­tic cadence of the original.

I also have access to translations of the Mo-ho chih-kuan now being prepared as part of a project to translate the complete text into Western languages (see Swanson 1991). Both are first drafts subject to revision before final publication:

Therefore let us take up the analogy of the Dragon King: In height [his power] encompasses the six heavens [of the realms of desire], and in breadth [his power] spans the four continents. He arouses all manner of clouds, manipulates all manner of thunder, flashes all manner of lightning, and causes all manner of rain to fall. The Dragon [King does all this] while in his own palace, immobile and secure, and yet his activity appears different to all. The bodhisattva is also like this. Internally he has himself fully consummated [the truth

SWANSON 343

of] the identity of emptiness, conventionality, and the Middle, and [on the basis of] the unmoving nature of reality (dharmatii) he can lead [sentient beings] to acquire all manner of benefits and attain all manner of functions [that lead to Buddhahood]. This is called "per­fect power that functions to establish sentient beings [in the truth]."

(trans. by Paul Swanson)

On pourra donc prendre pour exemple Ie roi des dragons: verti­calement, il embrasse les cieux des six dieux, horizontalement, il s'e­tend aux quatre regions. 11 sus cite les nuees dans leur diversite, il provoque toutes les especes de tonnerre, il fait luire toutes les sortes d'eclair, il fait tomber la grande variete des pluies. Or Ie dragon, dans son palais, ne se meut ni ne s'ebranle et cependant il dispense a tous des dons qui ne sont pas identiques. 11 en va de meme pour Ie bodhisattva. 11 est interieurement parvenu aux identifications a la vacuite, a la conditionnalite et a la medianite et, sans cependant s'ebranler de la nature de dharma, il permet de gagner toutes les sortes de bienfaits et d'obtenir toutes les sortes d'operativites. C'est ce que l'on appelle la parfaite edification des etres en force opera­tive.

(trans. by Jean-Noel Robert)

These translations also show a bent for technical precision, and I must admit that the Stevenson rendition reads the best (though I confess to a penchant for my own translations of tech­nical terms). These different translations also support my convic­tion, honed over many years of translating various types of texts, that there is no single "correct" translation, and that differing translations can be equally "right" (or equally wrong). Stevenson and Donner's translation is superb, but there's room for remix­ing and new renditions.

Let us take a look at the opening passage of the Mo-ho chih­kuan (T 46.1al-7), one of the best known passages of this text. As above, I will first give Donner's original, then Stevenson's reworking, and then some other options:

Calming and contemplation (which mean, reversing their sequence), luminous understanding and tranquility, had not yet been heard of in former generations, when Chih-i, beginning on the 26th day of the 4th month of the 14th year of K'ai-huang (594 A. D.), at the Jade-spring monastery in Ching-chou, expounded (this work) twice a day throughout the summer, compassionately raining down (his wisdom). Although his desire to preach knew no bounds, he

344 JIABS 17.2

only completed the (section on the) realm of false views, and there­upon brought to a halt the turning of the wheel of the Dharma, and did not discourse on the final portion (of the whole work).

Yet drawing water from a stream, one seeks its source, and scenting an aroma, one traces its origin. The Treatise says, "In my practice I have not had a teacher." And a sutra says, "I (Sakyamuni) received the prophecy of Buddhahood from (the Buddha) Dipailkara." A (secular) writing says, "It is best to have inherent knowledge, but to acquire it through study is next best." The Buddhist teachings are vast and subtle. Do they shine of themselves with the heavenly light of truth, or is their blue derived from an indigo plant?

(Donner 1976, 36)

Calming and contemplation as luminosity and tranquility: [this teaching] had not yet been heard of in former generations when Chih-i, beginning on the twenty-sixth day of the fourth month of the fourteenth year of K'ai-huang (594), at the Jade Spring Monastery (Yu-ch'uanssu) in Ching-chou, expounded this work twice a day over the course of the summer, compassionately raining down [his wis­dom]. Although his desire to preach knew no bounds, once he com­pleted the section on the sphere of views, he brought to a halt the turning Of the wheel of the dharma and did not discourse on the final sections of the work.

Yet drawing water from a stream, one seeks its source, and scenting an aroma, one traces its origin. The Great Treatise says, "In my practice I have not had a teacher." Yet a sutra says, "I (Sakyamuni) received the prophecy of Buddhahood from the Buddha Dipaqlkara." A [secu­lar] writing says, "Those who are born with knowledge are the high­est. Next come those who attain knowledge through study." The Buddhist teachings are a vast and subtle truth. Do they shine of them­selves with the heavenly light of truth or is their blue derived from the indigo plant?

(Stevenson 1993, 100)

The following is, I suggest, another possible rendering of the same passage, often with an alternative reading deliberately cho­sen to illustrate possible options:

The luminous quiescence of cessation-and-contemplation was unknown in former ages. The Wise Master [Chih-i] elucidated this during one summer from the twenty-sixth day of the fourth month of K'ai-huang 14 [594] of the Great Sui dynasty, at the Yu-ch'uan ssu in Ching-chou, pouring forth his compassion twice a day. Although his eloquence was boundless, he completed only through [the section

SWANSON 345

on the contemplation of] the "objects of [false] views." Thus the Dharma-wheel ceased turning, and he did not expound on the latter sections.

Yet in drawing water from a stream, one seeks its source, and scent­ing a fragrance, one traces its origin. The Ta chih tu lun says, "I [the Buddha] practiced without a teacher."g Yet, a sutra says, "I [Sakya­muni] received the prediction [of attaining Buddhahood] from Dipailkara." The Analects says, "One who is born with knowledge is superior; one who acquires it through study is next best." The Dharma teachings are vast and sublime; they shine forth sponta­neously with the truth of Heaven, and [Chih-i's expositon of them] is like the blue from an indigo plantL which is derived from, but bluer than, the plant itself].

Many of these phrases need extensive annotation to flush out their multivalent nuances. The first phrase of eight characters JllmfJ,EJ~1ltr{-t*JiO, for example, has traditionally been read in eight different ways, the subtle differences of which would be dif­ficult to convey in any English translation po In a note Stevenson gives a translation of Chanjan's interpretation.

Another key paragraph from the introduction, the "core" of the Mo-ho chih-kuan that is often chanted in T'ien-t'ai temples, is a passage on the "perfect and sudden cessation-and-contempla­tion" (T 46.1c23-2a2):

The perfect and sudden calming-and-contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality (shih-hsiang) as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is here nothing that is not true reality (chen­shih). When one fixes [the mind] on the dharmadhatu [as object] and unifies one's mindfulness with the dharmadhatu [as it is], then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates (skandha) and sense-accesses (iiyatana) [of body and mind] are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away. Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves iden­tical with enlightenment (bodhi), there is no origin of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false

9. Or, "My conduct does not require [the recognition of] a teacher." 10. See the extensive note by Sekiguchi Shindai, Makashikan: Zen no shiso genri,

vol. 1 (Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko, 1966), 364-66.

346 JIABS 17.2

views are the right view, there is no path to be cultivated. Since sarp.sara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the [intrinsic] inexistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of the path and cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality (shih-hsiang) is all there is-no entities whatever exist outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent (chi) is called "calming" (chih); that, though quiescent, this nature is ever luminous (chao), is called "contemplation" (kuan). Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is ultimately no duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called the "per­fect and sudden calming and contemplation."

(Stevenson 1993, 112-14)

The flow of this translation is broken by the inclusion of numer-,:"" ous technical terms in parenthesis, a practice that Stevenson usu­

ally avoids. Here, however, it is necessary to identify and differen­tiate key terms, such as shih-hsiang J{;f§ and chen-shih ~J{ (both translated as "Ultimate Reality" in Donner's original). Once

again, the following rendition presents possible alternatives:

The perfect and sudden [method of practicing cessation-and-con­templation] involves taking the true aspects [of reality] as the object from the very beginning. Whatever is made to be the object [of con­templation], it is the Middle; there is nothing that is not truly real. [When one attains the state of contemplation wherein] reality itself (dharmadhiitu) is fixed as the object [of cognition and contempla­tion], and one's thoughts are integrated with reality itself, [then one realizes that] there is not a single color nor scent that is not the Middle Way. It is the same for the realm of the individual [mind] ,the realm of the Buddha, and the world at large [i. e., the "realm of sen­tient beings"]. All [phenomena experienced through the] aggregates and senses are thusness [i. e., reality as it is]; therefore there is no [substantial] suffering that needs to be removed. Since ignorance and the exhausting dust [of passionate afflictions] are indivisible with bodhi-wisdom, there is no origin [of suffering, i. e., craving] to be severed. Since the extreme [dualities] and false views are [indivisible with] the Middle and the right [views], there is no path to be culti­vated. Since [this cyclic world of] sarp.sara is [indivisible with] nirvaI?-a, there is no extinguishing [of craving] to be realized. Since there is no [substantial] suffering and cause [of suffering], there is no mundane world [to be transcended]; since there is no path and no extinction [of craving], there is no transcendent world [to be

SWANSON 347

gained]. There is purely the single true aspects [ofreality]; there are no separate things outside these true aspects. For things in them­selves (dharmatii'; to be quiescent is called "cessation"; to be quiescent yet ever luminous is called "contemplation." Though earlier and later [stages] are spoken of, they are neither two nor separate. This is called perfect and sudden cessation-and-contemplation.

A major difference in my rendering is to use the (admittedly awkward) term "indivisible" to soften the idea of "identity" JlP in this passage. (I will return to this topic later with regard to Ng's book.) Once again, most of Stevenson's notes in this section quote Chanjan's interpretations of the passage.

If there is one point where I am uncomfortable with Steven­son's work or approach, it is in the danger of an over reliance on Chan-jan's commentary. A great many of Stevenson's notes begin with "Chanjan says" or deal mostly with Chanjan's expla­nation. All of these notes are informative and helpful, and it is to Stevenson's credit that he does not use Chanjan's work uncriti­cally. Also to his credit, Stevenson is aware of having taken this approach, and in fact has deliberately chosen it. In his preface he explains (xvi):'

There are two reasons for relying so heavily on [Chanian] .... First, it is at best tenuous to attempt any systematic reconstruction of the Mo­ho chih-kuan apart from Chanian's commentary, given the lack of early materials as well as the enormous impact that Chanian's work has had on shaping the current text. And second, since Chan-jan's version of the text and commentary became the normative one for virtually all of East Asia, adopting his reading at least puts us within the mainstream oflater T'ien-t'ai exegetical discourse.

These are good reasons, and certainly this is a valid approach. Chanjan's commentary is often quite useful, and sometimes even critical for understanding difficult passages.l l However, it

11. To give just one example, Chanjan's commentary provides support for arguing against "the persistent tendency among Japanese scholars to render the four characters of chi yuan fa-chieh ~~it<.J'il as 'fIx (or identify) all mental objects/conditions in (or with) the dharmadhatu'," instead of "fIx your mind on the dharmadhatu as the o*ct [of meditation]" (Stevenson 1993, 226, note 32).

348 JIABS 17.2

must be said that there are also problems with this approach. By relying so heavily on Chanjan, there is the danger that we will see Chih-i only through his eyes, yet is it not preferable (as much as possible) to encounter Chih-i directly? Besides, quoting Chan­jan's (or another traditional) commentary sometimes lulls one into thinking that the ambiguity in Chih-i's texts has been clarified or adequately explained, when in fact some times it has not. It also becomes a habit that leads one away from wrestling directly with Chih-i's text itself.

Another unfortunate byproduct of this approach is that many of the subjective but fascinating notes in Donner's dissertation have been omitted. For example, a note by Donner (1976, 185) to what appears to be a quote from the Heart Sutra (T 46.5b20) has been omitted in Stevenson (1993, 158). The note reads, "Verbatim from the Heart Sutra as translated by Kumarajiva (T 251), though this passage happens to be identical to the better­known translation of Hsuan-tsang (T 252), which postdates Chih-i.." This anomaly is easily overlooked and could easily be brushed aside as a casual rewording by Chih-i (a not uncommon practice, I might add). But on a closer inspection one realizes that the quote is not from the Heart Sutra at all but from Kumara­jiva's translation of the Paiicavi'Y(/,sati-siihasrikii-prajiiiipiiramitii-sutra (T 223, 8.223aI4), or from the quotation of this sutra passage in the Ta chih tu lun (T 25.327c22). One may well wonder why Chih-i would quote from the larger sutra or treatise instead of the more convenient Heart Sutra (if in fact he had the "Heart Sutra" available) ,especially since Chih-i used Kumarajiva's trans­lations for almost all of his major texts. This example buttresses Jan Nattier's argument (1992, 187) that "the so-called Kumara­jiva version (T 250) ofthe Heart Sutra was created on the basis of the Ta chih tu lun," and that the "Hsuan-tsang version" is also an extract from the Paiicavi'Y(/,sati-siihasrikii-prajiiiipiiramitii-sutra­"that it was first classified simply as a Prajiiaparamita text, in all probability listed as 'translator unknown,' and that only later­through its close association with Hsuan-tsang and his activities in popularizing it-it came to be attributed to him" (1992, 190). But I digress.

To give another example of Donner's helpful notes just a few pages later, Stevenson (165, note 132) retains the information identifying the quote "The afflictions are identical with enlight-

SWANSON 349

enment; enlightenment is identical with the afflictions," as a pas­sage from the Vise~acintabrahma-parip!cchii-sutra, but omits Donner's extensive comments on this subject, including an explanation of the traditional threefold T'ien-t'ai understanding of this "identity" (Donner, 191).

One final example: in a note on the Vimalak"irti-sutra passage that "The defilements are the seeds of the Tathagata" (Donner, 397; Stevenson, 316), Stevenson retains the explanation that "Maiijusri explains here that, just as lotus seeds must be planted in the mud and will never germinate in empty space, so the seeds of Buddhahood will flourish only when planted in the mire of worldly afflictions." However, he leaves out Donner's colorful (and suggestive) aside that "in truth, the metaphor would be improved to say that the defilements are the manure for the seeds of the Tathagata."

Whether the omission of such notes was done for reasons of space or personal preference (more likely the former), the effect is the unhappy absence of much useful and stimulating modern commentary. Like Bob Dylan's unreleased or bootleg tapes, some of the best and most interesting of Donner's contri­butions were left out of the final published version. Thus, like Dylan freaks who collect unreleased versions of the master's work, dyed-in-the-wool Chih-i aficionados will have to get their own copy of Donner's dissertation from University Microfilms in order to have a truly complete T'ien-t'ai collection. Of course they must have the "official" published version, too. This is a work that sets a high standard, and paves the way for future work on Chih-i and the T'ien-t'ai tradition.

Ng on Miidhyamika and Chih-i Let us now turn to the second book under review, Ng Yu-Kwan's T'ien-t'ai Buddhism and Early Miidhyamika. This is an intriguing, careful, and insightful study of Chih-i's ideas and their relation­ship to Nagarjuna's Madhyamika ideas. Ng argues vociferously against many standard Japanese and Western interpretations of Chih-i's work (including my own, e. g., 1989), especially the idea that the threefold truth and threefold contemplation are the key concepts in Chih-i's work. Despite our differences of opinion I found Ng's work informative and challenging; as a result I have

350 JIABS 17.2

modified some of my interpretations, but not others (especially with regard to buddha-nature). Let us take a look at the contents of Ng's work and discuss some of the issues raised therein.

In the Introduction (Chapter I) Ng outlines three critical ques­tions for his study:

1. How does Chih-i understand and criticize Madhyamika's concepts of emptiness and the middle way?

2. How does Chih-i's "Middle Way-Buddha Nature"12 differ from Madhyamika's middle way?

3. What are Chih-i's philosophical methods in relation to the realization of the Middle Way-Buddha Nature, and how can they be related to Madhyamika?

We can see that one of Ng's major concerns is the question of buddha-nature, and he states repeatedly that it is a key part of Chih-i's Buddhism that modern scholars have failed to adequately address. (More on this later.) He then comments on the Madhya­mika and T'ien-t'ai sources he uses for his study. Particularly significant here is Ng's choice of a wide variety of Chih-i's work, especially the later commentaries in his own hand by Chih-i on the Vimalak"irti-sutra such as the Wei-ma-ching hsiian-shu (T. 1777) and Wei-ma-ching lUeh-shu (T. 1778).

Chapter II, "Emptiness and the Middle Way in Madhyamika," is a concise and clear discussion ofNagarjuna's Mulamadhyamaka­kiirikii. One important conclusion Ng reaches is that "the endeavor to elevate the Middle Way to a level of a Truth higher than the Truth of Emptiness, as the T'ien-t'ai School does, can­not be justified from Nagarjuna's standpoint" (1993,31). The following Chapter III, "Chih-i on Madhyamika," expands on this point. Ng argues (contra Swanson 1989, 6-8), for the difference between Nagarjuna and Chih-i rather than their continuity, par­ticularly with regard to the famous verse 24:18 of the Mula­madhyamaka-kiirikii.I3 Although the Chinese translation of this

12. Ng frequently uses capital letters for key terms such as Middle Way, Buddha Nature, Emptiness, and Truth. 13. The Sanskrit reads:

yaJ;, prat"ityasamutpadalJ sunyatar[! tar[! pracak~mahe, sa prajiiaptirupadaya pratipatsaiva madhyama.

SWANSON 351

verse easily lent itself to a threefold interpretation-that empti­ness, conventional names, and the middle way refer back in a threefold way to causally-arisen dharmas (pratityasamutpiida), Ng shows that in the Sanskrit original the last two phrases (on con­ventional names and the middle way) refer back to emptiness. Ng is correct to point out that Nagarjuna and Chih-i are differ­ent. I plead guilty to having (in my book) unconsciously, and uncritically, considered Nagarjuna the "orthodox position" or "standard" by which to measure others. However, my concern is (and was) to counteract the view that belittles Chih-i's, or other Chinese, interpretations because they "deviate" from a strict adherence to Sanskrit originals. The very fact that Nagarjuna and Chih-i are separated by time, social background, language, and culture means that their understanding is necessarily differ­ent; the question is: in what way are they different? Do they "deviate" and disagree in a strikingly significant way, or are their commonalities more significant? Certainly Chih-i's threefold interpretation of Mulamadhyamaka-kiirikii 24:18 is different from Nagarjuna's Sanskrit original, but not (I feel) so fundamentally as to make it a radical break. For Ng, however, the difference is critical. For him it is a prime example of the difference in inter­pretation of the middle way between Madhyamika and Chih-i.

For Ng, this difference is best expressed by the phrase, as in the title of Chapter IV, "Middle Way-Buddha Nature as the Truth." Ng insistently repeats that "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" r:p~1?!ltt, as a positive expression of the middle way, goes beyond the middle way (identified with emptiness) of Madhyamika and is the central tenet of Chih-i's Buddhism rather than the three­fold truth. This position is outlined in his preface:

How does Chih-i understand Buddha Nature? What are the charac­teristics of the Truth for Chih-i? Mter a long period of painstaking study, I concluded that Chih-i takes Buddha Nature to be ever-abiding, functional, and all-embracing. Consequently, the characteristics of the Truth for Chih-i are permanency, dynamism, and all-embracing

The Chinese (T. 30.33bll) reads:

1t<:1B~!t1:t; ~Ull.Jln~!!lli (~)

lj);:$~*i; lj);~cpiii/Ji

352 JIABS 17.2

nature. Among these characteristics, dynamism is most emphasized and should deserve greatest attention. (x)

So far, so good. But then Ng continues:

That the Truth is dynamic or functional indicates that the Truth can act. It can initiate actions .. (x)

This claim gives me pause. Does this mean that truth is some­thing apart from that on which it acts? Is it a "separate reality"? Is it "personal"? Ng continues:

Towards what are these actions directed? For what purpose are they initiated? For Chih-i they are directed towards the actual phenome­nal world so as to cause the cultivation and transformation of sen­tient beings. (x-xi)

But, as far as I understand Chih-i and basic Buddhist thought, "truth" and ''buddha-nature'' are not separate from phenomena, as independent agents to act on them. What does it mean to have "actions directed" by "the Truth"? Does Ng really mean to propose such a dualistic structure? Later he goes so far as to claim that truth "is established in terms of an indestructible spir­itual substance or body, which Chih-i associates with the Dharma Body and Buddha Nature" (85). Why insist on such substantialist buddha-nature language to explain the positive aspects of ulti­mate reality, or the middle, when Chih-i himself uses so many other expressions even more frequently? Ng himself admits that the term "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" is not that common in Chih-i's work.

The closing part of the Synopsis of the Mo-ho chih-kuan (T 46.21a26-b5), for example, lists various ways to refer to ultimate reality:

Such is the ultimate quiescence of the three qualities which repre­sents the "returning of the purport." What words could possibly denote it? How is one to label it? Forced to give it a designation, we call it "the middle way," "reality," "the dharma body," "neither­quiescence-nor-Iuminosity." Or we use such terms as "omniscient wisdom of all modes," the "great wisdom of perfect equality," the "prajiiaparamita," "insight or contemplation (kuan) "; or we force on it such labels as "surangama-samadhi," "mahiiParinirvary,a," "the incon­ceivable liberation," or "calm (chih)."

(Stevenson 1993, 347)

SWANSON 353

No mention of buddha-nature here. Why not, if "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" is Chih-i's favored expression for ultimate reality? Additional terms are used throughout Chih-i's writings: wondrous existence (miao-yu); true, good, and wondrous form; ultimate emptiness; suchness; empty buddha-nature; and supreme truth. Why insist on "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" as the key concept in Chih-i's system of thought instead of these other terms? To his credit, Ng addresses exactly this question- to summarize his argument. He gives three reasons:

First, the main issues in Chih-i's system are the conception of the Truth and its realization .... The truth is permanent, functional and ail-embracing, possessing the three characteristics of ever-abidingness, meritorious function and embracing various dharmas. These charac­teristics are mainly explicated in the context of the Buddha Nature .... The other terms or phrases enumerated above do not clearly convey these ideas.

Perhaps, but I am not convinced.

Second, the compound term "Middle Way-Buddha Way" carries an important practical message, which does not seem to be manifest in other terms.

Once again, this is not completely convincing. Other terms can convey an important practical message as well as "buddha­nature," including the term "middle way" interpreted in the con­text of the threefold truth as the simultaneous integration of both emptiness and conventionality (which includes the bodhi­sattva's practical working in this world).

Third, among the three characteristics of the Truth, the meritorious function is most striking and is emphasized by Chih-i more than other characteristics .... The Truth is not merely to be depicted, but also to be realized. (Ng 1993, 88-89)

Function and activity is certainly emphasized by Chih-i, but this does not require resorting to buddha-nature language. A middle way that is understood to embrace both emptiness and conven­tionality (i. e., the threefold truth) is sufficiently positive to show the differences between Chih-i and Nagarjuna and convey the practical, all-embracing, functional nature of truth. Also, there seems to be a circular argument here: i. e., it is claimed that the

354 JIABS 17.2

major characteristic of Chih-i's thought is the dynamism, perma­nence, and all-embracing nature of truth, because "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" is the central idea; on the other hand, it is claimed that "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" is the most appropri­ate term for Chih-i's central idea of the Truth because it best reflects the aspects of the dynamism, permanence,· and alI-

_ embracing nature of the truth. Throughout the book the point is brought home by insistent repetition, which amounts to exhor­tation, not evidence.

Why, then, does Ng insist on using the term "Middle Way-Buddha Nature"? I suspect that it is more influenced by later T'ien-t'ai tradition, with the great importance buddha­nature ideas came to play, than by intrinsic necessity. Ng states that Japanese and Western scholars have "widely ignored" the crucial position of "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" in Chih-i's thought (1993, 64). On the contrary, massive tomes have been written on buddha-nature, tathiigata-garbha, and inherent enlightenment in Chih-i and T'ien't'ai Buddhism, as well as the wider Chinese and Japanese Buddhist tradition. 14 Scholars have not "ignored" the crucial position of "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" in Chih-i's thought, it just is not there-at least not in the way buddha-natUre thought developed in later times.

A great strength of Ng's argument, it should be pointed out, is his extensive use of Chih-i's late commentaries on the Vimalakirti-sutra. These commentaries are not only Chih-i's later (and arguably more "mature") work, but are also written in his own hand (unlike the Mo-ho chih-kuan and Fa-hua hsuan-i). As Ng points out, "the incidence of Buddha Nature or Middle Way­Buddha Nature is much greater in these commentaries than in the Fa-hua hsuan-i, Fa-hua wen-chu, and Mo-ho chih-kuan, manifest­ing a deeper concern with the Buddha Nature or Middle Way­Buddha Nature on Chih-i's part in his old age" (40). If, in fact, "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" is more central, more explicit, more developed in Chih-i's later commentaries on the Vimalakirti­sutra than in the Mo-ho chih-kuan, then this is a very significant finding. It would require the T'ien-t'ai tradition to reevaluate

14. I've even seen a pirated Chinese translation of Anda Toshio's Tendai shogu

shiso ron (1973).

SWANSON 355

Chih-i's late writings and reconsider the centrality of the so­called three major works of Chih-i that have historically been the main focus in T'ien-t'ai Buddhism since the time of Chanjan. Ironically, my criticism of Ng's position is based on a greater familiarity with the earlier Mo-ho chih-kuan and Fa-hua hsuan-i, a traditional T'ien-t'ai approach, and I may have to eventually eat my words.

Ng continues in Chapter V, "Four alternatives in Madhyamika and Chih-i," Chapter VI, "Epistemic-soteriological character of the Threefold Contemplation," and Chapter VII, "Practical significance of identification," to give meaty and helpful analysis of various aspects of Chih-i's thought. I would like to add one word of caution with regard to the concept of "identity" llP (dis­cussed in Chapter VII). This is certainly an accurate rendition in the case of "the identity of emptiness, conventionality, and the middle" llP~llP-w.llP9='. However, there are many other cases in which this character is used, but in which I believe a mathemati­calor total identity is not intended. Perhaps the most important of these are the phrases "the identity of bodhi-wisdom and pas­sionate afflictions" l!:H.£llP:t]['it¥! and "the identity of sarp.sara and nirvaIfa" ~%llPi1E~. In these cases, despite many passages that could easily be interpreted as such, Chih-i does not mean that there is no difference between the two opposites. Rather, using such paradoxical phrases as "neither one nor different" /f­/fJl., he argues that they are "indivisible"-they have no mean­ing apart from each other; they are not exactly overlapping equivalents of each other. In such cases, then, it is preferable to use the awkward yet more accurate rendition of "indivisibility" rather than "identity." An unbalanced emphasis on their "identi­ty" can misrepresent Chih-i's teaching, which also involves their differences.

Ng returns in his Conclusion (Chapter VIII) to argue against the standard position that the threefold truth and threefold con­templation are most central in Chih-i's thought, saying that "only the Middle Way-Buddha Nature, with its characteristics, can account for the Threefold Contemplation and Threefold Truth" (188). On the contrary, I would go so far as to say that even if all references to "Middle Way-Buddha Nature" were excised from Chih-i's work, it would not be seriously affected-there are plen­ty of other terms that serve the same purpose; if, however, the

356 JIABS 17.2

threefold truth were banished from T'ien-t'ai discourse and one could not apply the threefold pattern to Chih-i's argument, then the bulk of Chih-i's work would be reduced to nonsense.

In this review I have concentrated on Ng's handling of the issue of buddha-nature, not only because it is a central theme in his book but also because of its importance in East Asian Buddhist thought and practice. Our disagreements have been sharp, but this should in no way detract from my positive assess­ment of Ng's contribution. His work deserves close study that will be rewarded by many insights into Chih-i's work and Buddhist thought, and I look forward to further discussions and clarifications on these issues.

On the use of traditional commentaries Earlier in this review I advocated the attempt to have a "direct encounter" with Chih-i rather than relying too much on the clas­sical commentators or traditional interpretations. By advocating a direct encounter I am not claiming that this is easily done or even completely possible, as if one could pick up a phone and give Chih-i a ring. ("Excuse me, but could you clarify for your fans exactly what you meant by 'buddha-nature'?") One cannot even be sure which parts of the central texts attributed to Chih-i are his own words rather than those of his disciple and note­taker Kuan-ting iim (561-632). To complicate matters further, Hirai Shun' ei (1985) has shown that large portions of the Fa-hua wen-chu appear to have been lifted from the San-Iun scholar Chi­tsang's commentaries on the Lotus Sutra. Nor do I advocate com­pletely ignoring the traditional commentaries. Rather, I am endorsing a reading of the text that wrestles with it nakedly before glancing over at the traditional commentaries to check what it says, which can be like cheating at a crossword puzzle by peeking at the answers in the back of the book (except that we cannot rely on the commentaries to always provide the "right" answers). It means checking in detail the sources that Chih-i quotes to see if they really say what he claims they say in support of his teachings, and if they do not, to speculate on what that may imply. It means admitting that the text is ambiguous or con­voluted at places, and not always trying to force a translation. It can mean taking a forward rather than a backward look-to look

SWANSON 357

at Chih-i through the perspective of his predecessors (e. g., Hui­ssu), instead oflooking at Chih-i through his successors (such as Chanjan). It means cultivating an attitude that takes the later commentarial tradition (even Chanjan) with a grain of salt-to cultivate an awareness that a traditional interpretation is, after all, one opinion, of which others are possible, and to be critically aware that the tradition colors Chih-i's statements in a certain way. One of the more significant ways in which Chih-i's position is "colored" by T'ien-t'ai tradition, I believe, is precisely on the question of buddha-nature, and that is why it is so important to be careful in our interpretation of Chih-i on this point.

From the time of Chanjan and his advocacy of the buddha­nature ,of even non-sentient beings, to the remarkably influential role of the idea of inherent enlightenment (;<$:j':, Jpn. hongaku) in Japanese Tendai, buddha-nature has been a seminal concept in the T'ien-t'ai tradition (as well as, for that matter, most of East Asian Buddhism). But what did Chih-i really advocate with regard to buddha-nature? It can certainly be argued that later developments were not only in accord with, but also natural developments based on, Chih-i's teachings. However, it can also be argued (and I take this view) that in handling the concept of buddha-nature, and in contrast to some later developments, Chih-i is very wary of possible substantialist (and thus mistaken) interpretations, and that he treads very gingerly around the sub­ject. His use of buddha-nature language is much less frequent than many of his successors. His formulation of threefold buddha­nature in terms of a synergy of the nature of reality, wisdom, and practice (see Swanson 1990) was, I believe, a careful and deliber­ate way to circumvent the potential problems that could arise from positing a substantial, "pure" buddha-nature, and the dan­gers of buddha-nature language led him to avoid advocating buddha-nature as a central proposition in his theory and prac­tice.l5 This studious avoidance can act as an important corrective to an overemphasis on, or substantialist interpretations of,

15. I do not think it is accidental, for example, that the Awakening of Faith is never referred to in Chih-i's work, except for one occasion in the T'ien-t'ai hsiao

chih-kuan 'Ril/J'll:W!, and this reference is probably a later addition not by Chih-i himself.

358 JIABS 17.2

buddha-nature. One nagging difficulty I have with Ng's insis­tence that buddha-nature be accepted as the central tenet of Chih-i's Buddhism is that it vitiates Chih-i's potential role to counteract the excesses of buddha-nature thought in the later T'ien-t'ai and wider East Asian Buddhist tradition.

So let us try to encounter Chih-i directly. To use a Biblical image, must we view Chih-i "as through a glass, darkly"? Is it a chimera to hope that we can encounter him "face to face"? I see it as similar to the ideal of scholarly objectivity-no one can be sure (or even hope) to achieve it totally, but it is a goal worthy of pursuit. Surely there is the possibility that we will not be able to see or understand Chih-i clearly, or even "correc;tly." But at least it will be our own vision, and perhaps even lead to the birth of a new and vigorous tradition.

REFERENCES

Ando Toshio 'ti:Rif3i:Mt 1973. Tendai shagu shisa ron :;Ra'lifJ'(.}[!.l,;t~~ii!. Tokyo: Hozokan.

Chappell, David W. et al .. 1983. T'ien-t'ai Buddhism: An Outline of the Fourfold Teachings. Tokyo: Daiichi Shobo (distributed by the University of Hawaii Press) .

Chiigoku Bukkyo Kenkyiikai J:f:l 00 1L~-liJf~~, eds. 1986. Makashikan in'ya tenkyo saran rJtl~iiJlI:lll.J5I)tL.1JHt'Jt. Tokyo: Nakayama Shobo.

Donner, Neal Arvid. 1976. The great calming and contemplation of Chih-i. Chapter one: The synopsis (translated, annotated, and with an introduction). Diss. The University of British Columbia. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International.

------, 1987. "Sudden and gradual intimately conjoined: Chih-i's T'ien-t'ai view." Sudden and Gradual Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought. Ed. Peter N. Gregory. The Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 5. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 201-26.

Groner, Paul. 1984. Saicha: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. Berkeley: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series.

Heng-ching Shih. 1990. "T'ien-t'ai Chih-i's theory of Buddha nature: A realistic and humanistic understanding of the Buddha." Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru

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Kiyota. Eds. Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan. Reno, Nevada: Buddhist Books International, 153-70.

Hirai Shun'ei 3f#13f:*. 1985. Hokke mongu no seiritsu ni kansuru kenkyu y:t~)C"iiJO)Mlz:~::~T :OliJf~. Tokyo: Shunjusha.

Hurvitz, Leon. 1960-62. Chih-i (538-597): An Introduction to the Life and Ideas of a Chinese Monk. Melanges chinois. et boud­dhiques XII, Bruxelles: Institut BeIge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises.

Ikeda Rosan it!H!3i:·~. 1986. Makashikan kenkyu josetsu ~~iiJll::.Wi liJf§'EJ¥;m. Tokyo: Daito Shuppan.

------. Forthcoming. Makashikan~~iiJll::.Wi. 3 vols. Tokyo: Daizo Shuppan.

Kanno Hiroshi ~lJt~5!:. 1992. Ichinen sanzen to wa nanika -~=+c'±1jjJ;Q'. Regulus Library 204. Tokyo: Daisan Bunmeisha.

Muranaka Yusho i't9=';f.tioi:. 1988. Daijo butten **{L~, Chugoku, Nihon hen 9='OO'B*lii 6, Makashikan ~~iiJll::.Wi. Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha.

Nattier, Jan. 1992. "The Heart Sutra: A Chinese apocryphal text?" Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15.2: 153-223.

Nitta Masaaki *JfEB;Jl~. 1989. Makashikan ~~iiJll::.ft. Butten Koza 25. Tokyo: Daizo Shuppan.

Gno Hideto *IJ*A. 1994. Tendai shikan seiritsushi no kenkyu ::Rall::.WiMlz:5!:O)liJf~. Tokyo: Daizo Shuppan.

Robert, Jean-Noel. 1990. Les doctrines de l'ecole Japonaise Tendai au debut du IX' siecle: Gishin et le Hokke-shu gi shu. Paris: Maisonneuveet Larose.

Sekiguchi Shindai ~D~*, trans. 1966. Makashikan: Zen no shiso genri ~~iiJll::.Wl. ·1¥0),\!',1~UJjiJJ.. 2 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko.

Stevenson, Daniel B. 1986. "The four kinds of samadhi in early T'ien-t'ai Buddhism." Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism. Ed. Peter N. Gregory. The Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 4. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 45-97.

Swanson, Paul L. 1985. "Tendaigaku nyumonsho to shite no 'Tendai shikyogi' to 'Tendai hokkeshugishu'" ::Ra¥:AF~if cL'lO) l~alZ9~!diJc l~ay:t~*~~J. Indogaku bukkyogaku kenkyu 34.1: 52-56.

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------. 1986. "T'ien-t'ai studies in Japan." Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 2: 219-39.

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------.1991. "Report on the 10-year project to produce a fully annotated translation of the Mo ho chih kuan in Western languages." Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture 15: 13-20.

------. Forthcoming. Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.

Yamada Kazuo WEBfDx et al. eds. 1985. Makashikan ichiji sakuin ~~iiJJl:~-*~r~I. Tokyo: Daisan Bunmeisha.

Yamauchi Shun'yu WF9~a. 1986. Zen to Tendai shikan t!jie: 3I::tlJl:~. Tokyo: Daiz6 Shuppan.

Ziporyn, Brook. 1994. "Anti-Chan polemics in Post Tang Tiantai." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 17.1: 26-65.

In Memoriam Michel Strickman (1942-1994)

Michel Stickman died unexpectedly on August 11, 1994 at Taussat, a small seaside resort on the French Atlantic coast, thirty mIles from Bordeaux University-where he had been teaching since 1991. For his friends, the shock caused by this sudden loss is aggravated by the sadness of unfulfilled promise. Despite the old-fashioned charm of his last residence, and his attachment to the exotic garden he had so lov­ingly created around it, there is no denying that this was an exile. The forthcoming publication of his works would have at last brought him the recognition that he deserves, but he will have been denied this satisfaction.

The self-styled author of the "Strickwick Papers" and self-appointed head of the Ananda Panda Ashram was by all accounts an unusual, and at times controversial, scholar. His dismissal from Berkeley in 1991 became the talk of the provincial town we call "the field," and it gen­erated serious misperceptions. Although I believe that an injustice was committed then and that a rehabilitation is due, this is not the place and time to enter this debate. I simply want to share the little I knew about this person, who had been for many years one of the scholars I most respected, and who had more recently become a friend.

Michel was born on November 24, 1942 in Fall River Massachusetts. He followed a rather untypical scholarly path. He did not graduate from high school and left for Europe before completing his B. A., going to Bruges and then to Leiden, where he studied Tibetan Buddhism with Professor David Seyfort Ruegg. He was soon invited by Professor Kristofer Schipper to lecture at the Ecole Prac­tique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, and eventually received his doctorate from this school for his work on Six Dynasties Taoism. During that time, he also studied with Professors Erik ZUrcher, Rolf A. Stein, and Max Kaltenmark. Invited to Japan in 1972 for the Tateshina Confer­ence on Taoist Studies, he was to stay there for five years. He came to live on the Kurodani Hill in Kyoto, where he became familiar with Shingon, the form of esoteric Buddhism practiced at Shinnyodo, the temple across the street. There also he became friends with another

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much-missed Taoist scholar, Anna Seidel, co-editor with Hubert Durt of the Buddhist encyclopedia HobOgirin, and founder of the Cahiers d' Extrerne-Asie .

Michel's growing fame in the world of Buddhist and Taoist Studies led to an opportune appointment at Berkeley in 1977, where he was soon granted tenure. Despite some setbacks, his commitment to and popularity with students never diminished. A few days before his death, he was still expressing to me his concern for some of his gradu­ate students at Bordeaux University. On the day of his cremation, sev­eral students came from Paris and Bordeaux to honor their teacher. A letter I received from one of his former students at Berkeley expresses sorrow at the loss of "the man who first got me interested in Chinese religion and taught the most uproariously funny, provocative course I've ever taken." Too provocative for his own good perhaps.

Among scholars too, Michel's work and personality had won him many friends and admirers. His first articles in English, soon followed by the publication of his French dissertation on the Maoshan school, had established him as a leading specialist.on Taoism. He continued with a magisterial review article on Tibetan Buddhist Studies, and undertook the edition of three volumes of Tantric and Taoist Studies in honor of R. A. Stein. Then came several book-length manuscripts on Chinese and Japanese popular religion, which were circulating among scholars long before being published. Among those, his work on The Consecration Siltra-a small part of which appeared in the book edited by Robert Buswell on Chinese apocrypha-is particularly significant. However, most of these manuscripts remain unpublished: the most important to my mind, "Mantras et mandarins," is scheduled to appear in the spring of 1995 in Gallimard's prestigious Bibliotheque des Sciences Humaines. It is a ground-breaking study of Chinese tantric Buddhism, a tour de force of erudition that only Michel could achieve-navigating as it does between India, Tibet, China, and Japan, and showing the debt that Taoism owes to Tantrism. It also contains fascinating studies on animate icons, dreams, oracles, and possession, on tantric deities such as Vinayaka and rituals such as the Goma ritual (about which Michel had already published an article in Frits Staal's Agni). Another significant work, entitled "Divination and Prophecy," examines the oracular tradition in China and Japan. A third manuscript deals with "Magical Medicine," and it is a study of the

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medical aspects of Taoism. It is to be hoped that they will be rapidly published.

Michel's work, ranging geographically from India to Japan, set up new standards of excellence in the field of Asian Religions. Following in the footsteps of European scholars like Paul Mus, Paul Demieville and Rolf A. Stein, Michel was also conversant with other fields like classical studies, comparative literature, medieval history, and anthro­pology. I vividly recall one of our last discussions about a recent book, La hete singuliere by Claudine Fabre~Vassas, a fascinating historical-anthropological study on the pig and its role in Christian antisemitism. He had incorporated some of Fabre-Vassas' insights in his discussion of Vinayaka, the elephant-headed-or sometimes pig­headed-god of obstacles, in "Mantras et mandarins." In return, his discussion of tantric materials sheds new light on Christian and Jewish imagery. This is comparativism at its best, of a scope reminiscent of the work of Georges Dumezil.

Michel's immense erudition, obvious at every page of his works, is also well reflected in his Borgesian library, which contains many rare books and covers practically every important publication in fields ranging from tantric rituals to Western philosophy, from medicine to botany. It is hoped that this library will find its way to a research insti­tution that will make it available to scholars in all fields.

It will take us time to realize the extent of the loss we incurred. Michel was not only a colleague and a friend, but an incomparable guide. His death, following that of Anna Seidel in August 1991, leaves the field of Asian Religions orphaned, and the academic world a little more dull. May at least the spirit of these two scholars and indi­viduals continue to inspire us.

Bernard Faure Stanford University