As Long as Space Endures

– 9–

The Body as a Text and the Text as the Body: A View from the Kālacakratantra’s Perspective

Vesna A. Wallace

Introduction

When contemporary geneticists study the body, they look at it as a genetic text and strive to read it as an intelligible blueprint for how the body is formed and maintained. In this sense, for geneticists, a malleable genetic text serves as a metaphor of the body. The holders of the Kālacakra tradition in India saw the body in a similar way. They viewed it as a tantric text, consisting of mantras and letters that provide a blueprint of the mind-body complex, its operations, its habitual propensities, and its potentialities for transformation. They devised their own method of interpreting, editing, and changing that text in order to transmute the ordinary body characterized by afflictions into the blissful body of empty form.

One can say that, in the context of the Kālacakra tradition, a tantra is also interpreted as a metaphor for the body, since the tantric text and its discourse are themselves treated as blueprints of the individual’s mind and body. However, a tantric text is also understood as representational of the body of ultimate reality, manifesting in a literary form, as a literary reproduction of Vajrasattva, the Buddha’s gnosis of bliss.

In this paper, I will discuss both—the Indian Buddhist interpretation of the Kālacakratantra discourse as the body, and the interpretations of the body as the Kālacakra tantric text having a performative function. These two interpretations can be equally relevant for our understanding of the concepts of tantra and the tantric body. I surmise that these two interpretations could also have broader implications for contemporary theories in literary and cultural studies, as they extend the existing notions of the text, its function, and the role of the reader.

In the context of Indian tantric Buddhism, the concept of the body as a sacred text is evoked in various definitions of the term tantra and is elaborated within the Buddhist tantric discourse on the body and tantric practice.

The Buddhist tantric concept of the body as a Dharma discourse or as a sacred text has its precursors in earlier Buddhist literature. In the early Pāli sources, its antecedents can be recognized in the Buddhist definitions of Dharma, contained in discussions pertaining to the Buddha’s discourse on Dharma. In the Ariyapariyesanā sutta of the Majjhimanikāya, I. 167, Dhamma is defined as dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda), which is synonymous with saṃsāra, the condition of a sentient being, and it is also defined as nibbāna. The Mahāhatthipadopama-sutta (MN, 2001, p. 282) further states that one who sees dependent origination sees Dhamma, and one who sees Dhamma sees dependent origination. In the Pāli suttas, the Buddha himself is identified with Dhamma due to his insight into dependent origination. Therefore, one of the epithets of the Buddha in the Pāli suttas is dhamma-bhūta (“one who has become Dhamma”); and the Buddha is quoted as saying: “He who sees the Dhamma sees me, and he who sees me sees the Dhamma.”¹ This early Buddhist interpretation of Dharma suggests that by gaining transformative insight into a Dharma-discourse, one becomes the embodiment of Dharma. It further shows that in the context of early Buddhism, a saṃsāric individual who fully grasps a Dharma-discourse with both of its aspects—saṃsāric and nirvāṇic—becomes transformed into its nirvāṇic aspect. Thus, there is nothing outside the Dharma itself that is being transformed, and there is nothing outside the Dharma that brings about a transformation. This interpretation can be also supported by a statement given in the commentary on the Paṭisambhidā-maggā, which interprets the phrase “dhamma-cakka” as Dharma being a weapon (paharaṇa-cakka) by means of which mental afflictions (kleśa) are destroyed.² This understanding of Dharma as a three-faceted phenomenon, consisting of the basis, means, and the result of a transformative insight, is echoed in the later Buddhist views of Mahāyāna sūtras and in the Buddhist tantric interpretations of the term tantra.

In the subsequent Mahāyāna literature, a Mahāyāna sūtra, sometimes referred to as a Dharma text, is seen as a textual embodiment of all the good qualities of Buddhahood. Therefore, one is told that by listening, memorizing, reciting, or copying a Mahāyāna sūtra, one will acquire those good qualities and see the Buddhas.³ Similarly, the Saddharmapuṇḍarika asserts that by reading, copying, mastering, and teaching this text to others, one attains the pure and perfect body, which reflects the triple universe with all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in it.⁴ Moreover, it is stated in the Lalitavistara that the house in which this Dharma text is found is the dwelling place of the Tathāgatas, and one who masters it will be like the imperishable ocean.⁵ Statements like these indicate that also in the context of Mahāyāna, by mastering a Dharma discourse, which is a container of all virtues and the means of attaining the virtues, one becomes a living Dharma text, instilled with virtue and worthy of reverence.

In Indian Buddhist tantric sources, the term tantra is frequently defined as a “connected discourse.”⁶ In the Amṛtakaṇikā, one reads the following:

A tantra is called a “connected discourse.” Saṃsāra is considered a tantra. A tantra is called a “secret mystery.” The higher is called a “tantra.”⁷

Thus, like the early Buddhist definition of Dharma, here a tantric discourse has saṃsāra and nirvāṇa as its two interconnected aspects.

According to other Buddhist definitions of this term, this “connected discourse” is said to have three aspects, namely: the cause (hetu), result (phala), and method (upāya) leading to the result. Although in various Buddhist tantric texts, interpretations of these three mutually related aspects of a tantric discourse differ slightly, they equally suggest that the individual may be viewed as a tantra with all of its facets. According to the Yogaratnamālā commentary on the Hevajratantra (1959, p. 105), the causal aspect of a tantra is sentient beings (sattva) who are the members of the vajra-family. The Hevajrapañjikā-muktāvali, which is another commentary on the Hevajratantra, presents the causal tantra as a causal Hevajra (hetu-hevajra), which it identifies as a genealogical line (gotra) and as a vajra-family.⁸ In the Guhyasamājatantra (Ch.18, vv. 34-35), the causal aspect is the nature (prakṛti), which is the cause of a form, or appearance (ākṛti).⁹ In the Guṇavatiṭikā, a commentary on the Mahāmāyātantra, (1992, pp. 2-3), it is the beginningless and endless mind of sentient beings, which is luminous by nature (prakṛtiprabhāsvara) and the cause of spiritual awakening.¹⁰

As for the method aspect of a tantra, in all the aforementioned texts, it is described as a means of transforming a tantra’s causal aspect into its resultant form. As will be demonstrated later in this paper, the method aspect of a tantra is an embodied practice; it is a performative facet of an embodied tantric text.

Furthermore, the resultant form of a tantra, which is reality (tattva), or the gnosis of supreme and imperishable bliss, is declared to have its origin and place in the body. In the Amṛtakaṭikā, the gnosis of sublime bliss (mahā-sukha-jñāna) is referred to as a sublime tantra (mahā-tantra) and as a sublime mantra (mahā-mantra).¹¹ In this and other Buddhist tantric texts, the identification of a mantra with the gnosis of sublime bliss is justified on the basis that the mantra secures protection (trāṇa) of the mind (manas) through the regulation of prāṇas, while innate bliss is the source of the origination of all mantras and their accomplishments.¹² In the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, Ch. 4, v.7, the state of supreme, indestructible bliss (paramākṣarasukha) is identified with the syllable a, which, as the first syllable of the Sanskrit alphabet, stands for the dharma-source (dharmodaya) and for the vajra-womb of all the Buddhas. As such, it is seen as the fundamental cause of all expressions, as the birthplace of all mantras.¹³ In light of this view, the individual syllables that constitute a tantric discourse are declared to be of the nature of a mantra;¹⁴ and the mantra is said to be in the body. Thus, a tantra, which is identified with mantra on this ground, is a text that is encoded in the individual’s body in the form of mantric syllables.

Here too, then, that which is being transformed on the tantric path is not something outside the tantra itself, but rather one aspect of a tantra is transformed into its other aspect by means of yet another aspect of a tantric discourse. This suggests that a tantra as a text that is encoded in a human body is malleable and therefore can be altered. It is an embodied tantric text that can be changed not through an external agency but through its own internal workings. As will be shown later, only the inner workings of an embodied tantric text, or its own self-manipulation, leads to its transformation.

A Perspective from the Indian Kālacakra Tradition

In the Sekoddeśa, the following is said with regard to the Ādibuddhatantra:¹⁴

Thus, the Ādibuddha [tantra], denoting the Kālacakra, is purified by means of the six points (koti),¹⁵ four vajra-yogas,¹⁶ four perfect awakenings, six families of the psychophysical aggregates (skandha), elements (dhātu), and sense-bases (āyatana), five chapters known as “Cosmos,” and so on, and by means of the two truths.^17,¹⁸

These two verses clearly suggest that the Kālacakratrantra text, which is purified by its content and structure, should be understood not only as a mere discourse on the Kālacakra, but also as the Ādibuddha himself. Sādhuputra and Nāropā, commenting on these two verses in the Sekoddeśaṭippaṇī and Sekoddeśaṭīkā respectively, point to the Ādibuddhatantra as the Ādibuddha Kālacakra himself. For Sādhuputra, the Ādibuddhatantra is “without beginning or end, devoid of adherence to the two doctrinal positions, and imparting the complete mundane and supramundane knowledge.”¹⁹ Referencing the verse cited in the Vimalaprabhā, Vol. 1, 1986, p. 43, which gives the Kālacakra tradition’s etymological explanation of the phrase “kālacakra” and reads:

kākārāt kāraṇe śānte lakārat layo ‘tra vai cakārāc

calacittasya krakārāt kramabandhanaiḥ

Sādhuputra identifies the Ādibuddhatantra with the resultant aspect of the tantra, the Buddha Kālacakra. Nāropā does the same by explaining the Vimalaprabhā’s above-cited expostion of the term “kālacakra” in the following way. With regard to the syllable kā, he asserts, “The cause (kāraṇa), called the body of bodhicitta, is peaceful and free from conceptualizations (vikalpa) on account of the destruction of the waking state; and it is a Nirmāṇakāya owing to the cessation of the drop of the body (kāya-bindu) in the lalāṭa.” With regard to the syllable la, he says: “When it is so, a dissolution (laya) of prāṇa, which is of the nature of the destruction of the dreaming state, is a Saṃbhogakāya owing to the cessation of the drop of the speech (vāg-bindu) in the throat.” With respect to the syllable ca, he states: “A motion (cala) that moves toward the sense-objects such as sound and the like in the waking and dreaming states is the mind that is of the nature of [seminal] emission (cyuti), overcome by darkness, and acquired through a transformation of the eighteen bodily constituents. Its binding is a removal of darkness, a destruction of the dreamless state owing to the cessation of the drop of the mind (citta-bindu) in the heart, a Dharmakāya.” Lastly, with regard to the syllable kra, he comments: “A sequential process (krama) is an emission of the drops of the body and so on. A binding of that [emission] is a destruction of the fourth state by means of innate bliss. Owing to the cessation of the drop of gnosis (jñāna-bindu) of perishable [bliss], it is a Sahajakāya. Thus [Kālacakra] consists of the four bodies.”²⁰

Moreover, since Kālacakra is said to be a unity (ekatva) of the knowledge of indestructible bliss, referred to by the term “time” (kāla), and of the object of knowledge, or the world characterized by endless beings of the three realms, referred to by the term “wheel” (cakra),²¹ the Kālacakratantra with which he is identified, is to be seen not only as a representation of the Buddha Kālacakra’s mind but also as the representation of the body of sentient beings. Nāropā supports this interpretation with the verse from the Kālacakratantra (1994, Ch. 5, v. 56), which identifies all sentient beings within the six realms of existence with a cakra, referred to in the same text as the body of the Buddha.²²

In the Kālacakratantra and in the Vimalaprabhā, a tantra is also identified with the body of the individual, as a sublime mantra and as a tantric discourse and its subject matter. One reads in the Vimalaprabhā²³ that the original Ādibuddhatantra, which consists of 1,620 deities, is the nāḍīs in the body. From that root-tantra emerged the Kālacakratantra in accordance with the classification of the nāḍīs of the heart-cakra. According to the Kālacakra tradition, the number of nāḍīs in the body is 72,000. It is worth noting that this number of bodily nāḍīs corresponds to the number obtained by adding the 12,000 lines of the Kālacakratantra to the 60,000 lines of the Vimalaprabhā commentary.²⁴ Since the significance of the number of lines in these two texts has not been discussed by their authors, it is not clear whether or not the authors or redactors of these texts wrote the aforementioned numbers of lines with the intention to correlate them to the number of the nāḍīs in the body.

One is further informed in the Vimalaprabhā that not only the Ādibuddhatantra but also all other tantras are contained in the body. In some places, it is said that the yogini-tantras are present in female bodies, and the yoga-tantras are in male bodies;¹⁷ and in other places it is asserted that both of these classes of tantras are in a single body. The body is presented as a collection of the kings of tantras (tantra-rāja)—namely, the threefold Māyājālatantra and the sixfold Samājatantra.¹⁸ The origination of the two mentioned tantra-rājas within the body is described as a process of their gradual composition. The expansion of the number of their emerging sections is understood to accord with the development of a child from the moment of its conception to the age of sixteen. Thus, the three phases of the Māyājālatantra’s composition in the body take place in the following way. With the arising of the five psychophysical aggregates (skandha), five elements (bhūtas), eight bodily constituents (dhātu), twelve sense-bases (āyatana), six faculties of action (karmendriya), four cakras, and three doṣas—vāta, pitta, and kapha—the Māyājāla emerges as a text having forty-two parts, or sections. With the development of the uṣṇiṣa and secret (guhya) cakras, it expands into a text with forty-five sections; and with the arising of the mental afflictions (kleśa) of attachment, aversion, delusion, and pride it becomes a complete text consisting of forty-nine sections.¹⁹ The process of the composition of the Samājatantra in the body is also understood to accord with the development of a human being from the initial embryonic state to a sixteen-year-old person. With the arising of the psychophysical aggregates and elements of the fetus, the Samājatantra emerges as a text that has nine sections. Upon the origination of the four cakras, it has thirteen sections; and with the arising of the sense-faculties (indriya) and sense-objects (viṣaya), it extends into a text with twenty-five sections. Afterwards, with the emergence of the faculties of action, the secret cakra, and uṣṇiṣa, it has thirty-two sections; and with the arising of the divine faculty (divyendriya) and bliss (sukha), it becomes a complete text with thirty-four sections.

Furthermore, according to the Kālacakratantra tradition, one becomes the Buddha Mañjuvajra by knowing the manner in which the Ādibuddha and all other tantras that are included in the Ādibuddhatantra are present in the body.²⁰ Here too then, right insight into one’s own body as a tantric text and its subject matter is a requisite for spiritual transformation. One should know the tantras that are present in the body by their respective classes of consonants, which are the letters of a mantra. Here, like in other anuttara-yoga-tantras, a tantric body is constructed on a specific linguistic model, on the taxonomic order of syllables. This suggests that Indian Buddhists considered linguistic structures of the embodied tantric texts to be important and powerful. Consonants are referred to as the presiding deities of the nāḍis and the lords (nātha) of the cakras.

For example:

In the joint of the left shoulder and upper arm are gutturals with short vowels of space, etc. in inverted order.

In the joint of the right shoulder and upper arm are gutturals with long vowels of gnosis.

In the joint of the left upper arm and forearm are palatals with short vowels of space, etc.

In the joint of the right upper arm and forearm are palatals with long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the left hand and forearm are retroflex consonants with six short vowels of space, etc.

In the right joint of the left hand and forearm are retroflex consonants with long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the right hip and thigh are labials with six long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the left hip and thigh are labials with six short vowels of space, etc.

In the joint of the right knee and thigh are dentals with six long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the left knee and thigh are dentals with six short vowels of space, etc.

In the joint of the right foot and shin are sibilants with six long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the left foot and shin are sibilants with six short vowels of space, etc. in the inverted order.

Thus, every single class of consonants, making up thirty syllables, is in the twelve cakras, which have thirty spokes—in the action (karma) cakras and in the activity (kriyā) cakras.

In every joint of the right thumb are gutturals with six long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the lower knuckle of the thumb are six nāḍis, or gutturals with six long vowels of gnosis, etc.

In the joint of the right forefinger is the syllable kha.

The syllable ga is in the middle finger.

The syllable gha is in the joint of the right ring finger.

The syllable ṅga with six long vowels of gnosis, etc. is in the joint of the right little finger.

The syllable ṅga with six short vowels of space, etc. is in the joint of the lower knuckle of the left little finger.

The syllable gha with six short vowels of space, etc. is in the joint of the left forefinger.

The syllable ga with six short vowels of space, etc. is in the left middle finger. The syllable kha with six short vowels of space, etc. is in the left ring finger. The syllable ka with six short vowels of space, etc. is in the left thumb.

The six classes of consonants—ka, ca, ṭa, pa, ta, sa—make up thirty consonants due to their respective fivefold divisions.²¹ These thirty consonants, together with ha, ya, ra, la, va, and kṣa, are considered to be the lords of the thirty-six bodily cakras. Each class of the six consonants is further divided into thirty-six syllables, in accordance with the accompanying short and long vowels, guṇas, and vṛddhis. These thirty-six syllables of each consonantal class are declared to be the lords of the cakras in thirty-six tantras in the body, namely, in the ka-vajratantra, kha-vajra-tantra, and so on.²² Thus, each class of consonants with its thirty-six syllables is itself a tantra.²³ This implies that each nāḍicakra is an individual tantra. These diverse individual tantras are linked together, forming a single, all-inclusive tantra—namely, the Ādibuddhatantra, or the Kālacakratantra. Among these multiple tantras, not a single tantra exists independently of other tantras. The numerous tantras in the body are linked together by their common pervader (vyāpaka), which is the mind (citta), or gnosis (jñāna). Perhaps this presentation of the interconnection of the multiple tantras in the body could be interpreted as a unique Kālacakratantra’s theory of intertextuality, one that pertains to the embodied texts.

The aforementioned thirty-six consonants are also identified as the six psychophysical aggregates, six elements, six faculties of action and their activities, sense-faculties, sense-objects, and the like.²⁴ Thus, every bodily constituent is to be known as an individual tantric text, and the body is to be seen as a multi-volumed tantra. These individual tantric texts in the body, represented by the groups of thirty-six syllables, are also identified as the yoga (method) and yogini (wisdom) tantras.²⁵

However, due to being a corporeal text, this inclusive tantra in the body is characterized by finitude, as it is subject to destruction. It carries the meaning of ordinary, conventional reality, which must be transcended. For this reason, this corporeal and provisional tantra is in need of transformation into the definitive text. Its transformation requires a certain kind of translation, a transition from presentation to reality. Its transition from a finite text with a provisional meaning to a transcendent text with a definitive meaning is a process of transformation from the conceptually constructed text to the nonconceptual text. This transition of a text from one state of being to another involves a rewriting of personal history. In this process of rewriting, the old signs must be reinterpreted and subsequently replaced by new signs needed for capturing reality. The signs that express the unitary and partless reality are deemed as nonconceptual signs; and thus, although functioning as signs, ultimately they are not signs at all.

It is the earlier-mentioned, third aspect of a tantra, known as the method, or sādhana, that provides the new encoding necessary for such transition. In the course of the sādhana, or the stage of generation practice, the earlier-discussed groups of thirty-six consonants of various tantras are mentally dissolved. The embodied tantric text is disintegrated. Upon this disintegration, a new tantra is generated, the thirty-six consonants are encoded in a new form—in the form of a deity-maṇḍala—and their new meaning is produced. The consonants are transformed into the textual body of mantric deities (mantra-devatā). By being generated with new meanings into the new textual form, the consonants undergo a gradual transformation in the same six-phased sequence in which they initially had emerged from the time of the individual’s conception till the age of sixteen. Upon their regeneration in the new form with new meaning, they continue to undergo further metamorphosis in the six main cakras (uṣṇiṣa, heart, lalāṭa, and guhya) brought by the intervention of different sets of vowels.²⁶ The vowels are the six types of wisdom (prajñā), or the pure psychophysical aggregates, elements, and the like. Spliced on the top of the consonants, which carry the meaning of compassion in relation to the vowels, they take possession of the consonants. In the context of the Kālacakratantra practice, this process of altering the embodied text, carried out through the “splicing” of the completely different classes of sounds—namely, the consonants and vowels—is called “sealing,” or “printing” (mudraṇa) of the revised text of the body, speech, and mind. In this phase too, the redacted consonants, or the revised yoga and yogini tantras, in the body are mutually linked by the mind (citta), or the pervading gnosis (jñāna), which is their presiding deity (nāyaka).

However, the embodied tantric discourse that is redacted in this way is still a provisional and conceptually constructed text, which is said to be a fabrication of the individual’s own mind.²⁷ Although in this new form it continues to be a complete and coherent unit, it is still structured as a composition of the mutually connected but disparate parts. Consequently, a further redaction is needed for its complete alteration, the redaction that will amalgamate the mutually differing parts of the text in a novel way. A subsequent phase of revision entails the mutual assimilation of the different classes of consonants that have been earlier sealed by their respective vowels. In Buddhist tantric jargon, this is referred to as an “embracing of a different family” (para-kula-liṇgana). It is a preparatory phase for the actual merging of the body’s yoga and yogini tantras into each other, forming a unitary text, devoid of diverse parts. It is followed by a further redaction by means of which the embodied text becomes a partless and nondual text, in which all the letters of the nāḍi-prāṇas are unified into the single word evaṃ. The word evaṃ is said not to be a term, or a conceptual sign, because it is the union of wisdom and method. E is a syllable a, or emptiness, the space-element, in the locative case; and vaṃ is gnosis, sublime bliss, which arises from and abides in emptiness, or space. Thus, the multi-syllable text is reduced to a two-syllable text, which is neither a yoga nor yogini tantra.

In the final phase of revision, the embodied text is completely transformed with the incineration of all of its letters by the fire of the same gnosis that previously linked them together. Following the model of the six-phased composition, dissolution, and reconstruction of the text’s two earlier forms—phenomenal and conceptual—the process of its incineration is also carried out in six consecutive phases. This new text, which is devoid of parts and signs (nimitta), is said to have a unique nonconceptual form, characterized by nonpronounceable consonants and vowels. It is reduced to the single syllable a. As such, it is likened to formless, nonembodied (arūpa) space and is characterized as inexplicable (anirdeśya) and ungrounded (apratiṣṭha) in anything.²⁸

On account of being reduced to the single letter, it transcends the subject-object duality and is thereby self-cognizant in the sense that it is an indivisible union of the discourse, its subject matter, and the author. In contrast, the embodied, conceptual text, consisting of many letters, exists as an object of knowledge in relation to the reader as its subject. Furthermore, the embodied, conceptual text, which is composed of a complex set of systems, exists in dialectical relationship with other sets outside its boundaries; whereas, the nonembodied and nonconceptual text is seen as free from controversial relations due to being nonlocalized. Although the disembodied tantric text is not characterized by form, it is said not to be characterized by formlessness either, since it exists in the vowel a, which is its empty form.²⁹

The discussed revisional methods and their results suggest that a tantric text is always productive of what it denotes. Arising from the syllable a, the source of all expressions and gnosis in the body, a sublime tantra takes on various phenomenal forms. In order to elucidate the mundane and transcendent truths and paths, it takes on the form of a book, consisting of mantra symbols and characterized by articulation. It also assumes the form of the text embodied in a human figure, consisting of the nāḍis, psychophysical aggregates, and the like. Due to sharing a common source (yoni), these two phenomenal forms of a sublime tantra—the book and the body—are fundamentally nondual. In this regard, they are not just mere metaphors of each other, but two different manifestations of the same reality. A reader of a tantra who knows this truth knows that he is not a mere consumer of the text but also its producer. He knows that it is his mind alone that links all the letters together into a single text and gives it different meanings until it finally absorbs them into its own gnosis, from which they initially arose. By knowing himself to be all of these—the text itself, its author and revisionist, and its subject matter—one becomes liberated from the mind’s ideation and spiritual ignorance. One’s impermanent body, subject to illness, aging, and disease becomes altered into the blissful body of gnosis.

Although all of the anuttara-yoga-tantras agree that a single-syllable text of the gnosis of sublime and imperishable bliss is fundamentally the same in all sentient beings, they offer different transcriptions for it. For example, in the Hevajratantra,³⁰ it is transcribed as the syllable he, standing for Hevajra, in the Kālacakra tradition as the syllable kā, or Kālacakra, and so on. Its different transcriptions are determined by differing forms in which it may appear and not by any other factors. Thus, in the context of the anuttara-yoga-tantras, just as the evolution of the physical body corresponds to the creation of a canonical tantra, so the closing of the physical body corresponds to the closing of the canonical tantric text. In the case of the Kālacakratantra, which is the latest Indian Buddhist tantra, the closing of the body intimates the closing of Indian tantric tradition. The implications of these notions are intriguing. One of the implications that is significant for the Indian Buddhist tantric tradition is that a canonical tantric text and the body, which are ultimately nondual and function as a vehicle to spiritual awakening, are like a raft that is discarded when its purpose is accomplished. In that respect, a canonical tantric text and the body are to be understood as the Vajrayāna itself.

Moreover, while being closed and cast aside in the case of the individual who has reached his final goal, a canonical tantra continues to be open and functional for those who have not yet reached spiritual awakening. Thus, being simultaneously closed for one person and open for another, a tantric text calls for diverse hermeneutical approaches.

Vimalaprabhāṭikā of Kalkin Śripuṇḍarika on Śrilaghukālacakratantrarāja by Śrimañjuśriyaśas. Vol. 2. 1994. Edited by Vrajavallabh Dwivedi and S. S. Bahulkar. Rare Buddhist Texts Series, vol. 12. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies.

Vimalaprabhāṭikā of Kalkin Śripuṇḍarika on Śrilaghukālacakratantrarāja by Śrimañjuśriyaśas. Vol. 3. 1994. Edited by Vrajavallabh Dwivedi and S. S. Bahulkar. Rare Buddhist Texts Series, vol. 13. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies.

Endnotes

1. Saṃyuta Nikāya, III.

2. Paṭisambhidamaggā Aṭṭhakathā cited in the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, 1979-1989, vol. 4, 371-372.

3. The Ugraparipṛcchāsūtra, 2003, ch. 7, pp. 319-320.

4. Saddharma-puṇḍarika or The Lotus of the Good Law, 1963, ch.18, pp. 349-353.

5. Lalitavistara Sūtra, 1983, vol. 2, 673-674.

6. See the Guhyasamājatantra, 1965, ch. 18, v. 34, the Mahāmāyātantram with Guṇavatiṭikā, 1992, p. 2, Amṛtakaṇikā commentary on the Mañjuśrināmasaṃgiti, 1994, p. 200, the Yogaratnamālā, 1959, p. 105: tantraṃ prabandham, tantram iti prabandhaḥ.

7. The Amṛtakaṇikā commentary on the Mañjuśrināmasaṃgiti, v. 13, 1994, p. 9: tantraṃ prabandham ākhyātaṃ saṃsāraṃ tantram iṣyate/ tantraṃ guhyaṃ rahasayākhyātam uttaraṃ tantram ucyate//

8. Cf. the Hevajrapañjikā-muktāvali, 2001, p. 9: “A tantra is a connected discourse (prabandha). It is of three kinds: the causal tantra (hetu-tantra), the resultant tantra (phala-tantra), and the method tantra (upāya-tantra). Therefore, Hevajra is also of three kinds: causal Hevajra, resultant Hevajra, and the method Hevajra. A cause (hetu), a genetic line (gotra), and a family (kula) are synonyms. Here, a vajra-family itself is called a ‘causal Hevajra’ and a ‘causal tantra’ due to being a receptacle of virtues that have the sublime compassion (mahā-karuṇā) and wisdom (prajñā) as their essential part. Why is it Hevajra? Because Hevajra is the cause. Why is it a connected discourse? Due to the multitude of sentient beings who belong to the vajra-family and due to the power of causal Hevajra, the state of the sublime Vajradhara, which is attainable through the long-term practice of the method Hevajra, is called a ‘resultant Hevajra’ and a ‘resultant tantra.’”

9. prabandhaṃ tantram ākhyātaṃ tat prabandhaṃ tridhā bhavet/

ādhāraḥ prakṛtiś caiva asaṃhāryaprabhedataḥ//

prakṛtiś cākṛter hetur asaṃhāryaphalaṃ tathā/

ādhāras tadupāyaś ca tribhis tantrārthasaṃgrahaḥ//

10. tantram iti prabhandham/ trividhaṃ tantraṃ—hetutantraṃ phalatantram upāyatantraṃ ca/ tatra prakṛtiprabhāsvaram anādinidhanaṃ cittaṃ bodhicittam/ sa hetus tadbijam/ kasya bijam/ bodheḥ/

11. The Amṛtakaṇikā, 1994, pp. 9, 21.

12. The Amṛtakaṇikā, 1994, p. 200, the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 4, v. 7, ch.1, v. 1. Cf. the Hevajrapañjikā-muktāvali, 2001, p. 29: “It is a mantra due to protecting the world from cogitating on reality.” (tattvārthamananāj jagat trāṇāc ca mantraḥ.)

13. The Mañjuśrināmasaṃgiti, vv. 28-29, cited in the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 1, v. 3. Cf. the Hevajrapañjikā-muktāvali, 2001, p. 24: A mantra itself is reality (tattva), the letter a, and so on. Gnosis itself is reality, free from mental elaborations (niṣprapañca) and unexcelled (anuttara) gnosis of bliss (sukha-jñāna).

14. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 4.

15. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 2, vv. 56-57.

16. According the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, these two texts are traditionally considered to consist of sixty thousand lines and twelve thousand lines, respectively.

17. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 2, v. 53.

18. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 2, v. 55.

19. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 2, v. 52.

20. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 2, vv. 56-57.

21. According to the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 1., v. 1, the six classes of consonants with their individual fivefold divisions are:

ka kha ga gha ṅga

ca cha ja jha ña

ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa

pa pha ba bha ma

ta tha da dha na

sa ḥpa ṣa ḥka

The vowels are listed as these: a ā i i u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ aṃ aḥ e ai ar ār o au al āl ha hā ya yā ra rā va vā la lā

22. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 5, vv. 7-8.

23. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 5, v. 9: kha-vajrādikaṃ tantram ucyata eka vyañjānātmakaṃ ṣaṇtriṃśan-mātrā-bhinnam iti.

24. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 5, v. 10.

25. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 5, v. 9.

26. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 5, v. 10:

A, i, u, ṛ¸ ḷ, aṃ—or Akṣobhya, Amoghasiddhi, Amitābha, Vairocana, Ratneśa, and Vajrasattva— for the transformation of the body.

ḷ, u, ṛ, i, a, for the speech, or prāṇa

oṃ, āh, hūṃ for the mind (citta)

a for gnosis (jñāna).

27. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 1, v. 1.

28. The Sekoddeśaṭikā of Naḍapāda, 1941, pp. 57-58.

29. The Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, ch. 1, v. 1.

30. See the Hevajratantra, 2001, ch. 1, v. 7, and the Hevajrapañjikā-muktāvali, 2001, p. 9.

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