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The Concept of Ādibuddha in the Kālacakratantra

Urban Hammar

 

The ādibuddha (dang-po sangs-rgyas) is a concept which has been the object of much controversy and misunderstanding in the history of research on the Kālacakra and other tantras where it has been mentioned. The word in Sanskrit is composed of ādi- and Buddha: ādi- means the first or the original, and consequently the ādibuddha means the first, or the original, Buddha. It can be a purely temporal concept, saying that it is the Buddha which came first in time. It can also mean the original Buddha-concept which can stand for the Buddha-principle which was at the origin of everything. It can also mean the Buddha-principle corresponding to the void/śūnyatā. In Tibetan the translation is always dang-po sangs-rgyas, which means literally “the first Buddha.”

Below I will provide a short review of how the concept and related concepts are used in the Kālacakra literature. This article is mainly based on my doctoral dissertation from 2005.¹ But it is necessary to begin with a brief account of how the concept has been treated in occidental research.

The first short article on the ādibuddha concept was written by Csoma de Körös in 1833. He mentioned the ādibuddha in the context of quoting a text from the Tibetan historian Padma dkar-po, but the verse was originally from the Vimalaprabhā. “He that does not know the chief first Buddha (Ādibuddha), knows not the circle of time (Kālacakra).”² It probably only alluded to the Kālacakra root-text, Paramādibuddha.

B. H. Hodgson published an account of the ādibuddha concept that seemed as though it would have great importance.³ He presented the ādibuddha as a sort of creator god that stood above and beyond the four tathāgatas (or jinas). The study was based on Nepalese material, especially the Svāyambhū Purāṇa, which was written in the tenth century and followed the model of the Hindu purāṇas. This aiśvarika system of Nepal cherished the idea of an ādibuddha that was at the origin of the five jinas and had its origin in the Void (śūnyatā). Western (Christian) scholars here found an idea which could be interpreted as monotheistic. Later studies by Gellner have shown that the Nepalese concept is more polytheistic and does not correspond to the semitic monotheistic concept of god.⁴

The most important contribution to the study of the ādibuddha in the Kālacakratantra was made by Grönbold in his article in 1992. He studied the different places where ādibuddha can be found in the Kālacakra texts and determined that it could mean different things in these texts. It can be purely temporal and often stand merely as the name of the Kālacakra texts; it can be found in an enumeration of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, without any specific meaning; and finally it can stand as a personification of the highest principle, which also implies that it can stand for the impersonal concepts of śūnya (the void), tathatā (suchness), mahāsukha (the great bliss). Grönbold also studied some of the Tibetan works on the Kālacakra and concluded that, in terms of the three-body system, the ādibuddha has a position superior to the dharmakāya concept. In some texts it is obvious that the ādibuddha actually represents the fourth body, which is most frequently called svābhāvikakāya.⁵

The latest study has been made by Wallace in her recent work on the second chapter of the Kālacakra texts. Wallace notes that the ādibuddha concept in the Kālacakratantra is primarily related to the corresponding concept in the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti. The ādibuddha is called the primordial Buddha because he was the first to obtain buddhahood by means of the unchanging bliss characterized by perfect awakening in a single moment. In the Vimalaprabhā ādi means “without beginning or end” and “without origination and cessation.” Wallace stresses that in the Kālacakra tradition this refers to the “innate gnosis” (sahaja-jñāna) that pervades the minds of all sentient beings and is the basis for both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. When the tantra speaks of the ādibuddha as the one who first attained perfect enlightenment by means of unchanging bliss, it is referring to the actual realization of one’s own innate gnosis. Wallace concludes that the ādibuddha refers to the ultimate nature of one’s own mind and to the one who has realized that innate nature by purificatory practices.⁶ Her conclusions seem to be perfectly coherent, but I will here try to make some complementary observations which point to other interpretations of the ādibuddha concept.

Ādibuddha in the Kālacakratantra

The basic texts

I have studied the basic Kālacakra texts to find the concept of the ādibuddha and how it is expressed. The texts are as follows:

1. The Paramādibuddha is the lost root-tantra text, which according to the Kālacakra tradition contained twelve thousand verses and now only can be found as a small fragment in the Sekoddeśa⁷ and through scattered citations in other texts, especially the Vimalaprabhā commentary. The text is supposed to have been written by the king Sucandra of Śambhala who requested the Buddha´s preaching of the text. Consequently, it was supposedly written during the lifetime of Buddha Śākyamuni, perhaps in the later part of his life,

2. The Paramādibuddhoddhṛta Śrī Kālacakra-nāma-tantra-rāja (the laghutantra), (KCT or Śrī Kālacakra) contains 1,048 verses and is the extant basic text of the Kālacakratantra. For the Sanskrit I have used mainly the Vimalaprabhā editions from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi edited by Samdhong Rinpoche, where the KCT is included. The Tibetan translations are in Tohoku 362 and 1346 and Peking 4. This text is supposed to have been written as an abbreviation of the Paramādibuddha by a successor of Sucandra as king of Śambhala called Mañjuśrī-Yaśas. This text, together with the Vimalaprabhā commentary, definitely appeared in India at the beginning of the eleventh century and is now the extant surviving basic Kālacakra text. The dating of the text is uncertain, but the references to Islam, Muhammad, and Mecca, and the fact that Muslims are the enemies (mlecchas), indicate a date after or during the Muslim invasions of India, beginning towards the end of the tenth century.

3. The Vimalaprabhā commentary (VP) in twelve thousand lines. This is the great commentary on the KCT and the Paramādibuddha which has always been transmitted together with the KCT; it is considered of the same value as the laghutantra. The Sanskrit editions are from Varanasi, Vimalaprabhāṭīkā, vol. 1 1986, vol. 2 1994, and vol. 3 1994. Tibetan translations are in Tohoku 845 and 1347 and Peking 2064. The Vimalaprabhā was written by Puṇḍarika, a later king of Śambhala. There is also said to have existed a root-Vimalaprabhā of sixty thousand lines.⁸

These texts have now been translated into English in great part. John New-man translated the first chapter of the KCT, verses 1-27 and 128-170 together with the Vimalaprabhā. Banerjee translated the whole of the KCT into German, but not the Vimalaprabhā. Wallace translated the whole of the second chapter together with the VP commentary, and a translation of chapter four is coming. Andresen translated chapter three only of the KCT without the commentary. Hartzell has translated the greater part of chapter five in his lengthy doctoral dissertation. Finally, Stril-Rever has translated the whole of the second chapter into French.⁹

The concept of ādibuddha and paramādibuddha as found in the basic texts Śrī Kālacakra-tantra-rāja and Vimalaprabhāṭīkā

I have gone through the Śrī Kālacakra and Vimalaprabhā looking for ādibuddha and paramādibuddha as well as concepts related to them. There are five chapters, but most quotations occur in the first chapter. Actually the word ādibuddha is mentioned only seven times in the whole laghutantra (KCT). There are not many places where the words ādibuddha or paramādibuddha are found, but the content of these concepts can be found in many other ways. They are related, for example, to the concepts of the fourth body of the Buddha, the sahajakāya, and also to the concept of the supreme unchanging/indestructible which is treated in the fifth chapter. Also, for example, the word jinapati (master of jinas), which is related to the ādibuddha concept, is mentioned forty-two times in chapters three to five of the laghutantra (KCT). The most common use of the word ādibuddha in the Kālacakra texts is in referring to the very texts themselves. The basic root-tantra of the Kālacakra teachings is called the Ādibuddha or the Paramādibuddha. In other contexts also both designations are given.

In the Vimalaprabhā commentary to the basic text there are elaborated the basic ideas of a philosophical ādibuddha concept. Ādibuddha is given the following qualifications in two of the introductory verses to the text:¹⁰

• Omniscience (sarvajñā), or the knowledge body (jñānakāya): this qualification is given at several places in the Kālacakra texts and can sometimes be regarded as another designation of the fourth body of the Buddha, normally given the name of sahajakāya (the innate body) in the Kālacakra texts.

• Progenitor of the Buddhas: it is not clear which Buddhas are intended, but normally these should be the five jinas, or as in the Kālacakra, the six jinas, as the number “six” is very important in this tantra.

In these verses the concept of paramādibuddha is also said to be uncreated and without end. This is of course one of the fundamental ideas in Buddhism, that one must transcend the changing world; therefore, this may be a way of expressing the concepts of nirvāṇa or śūnyatā. Paramādibuddha is also said to be equipped with three bodies, which corresponds to the three-kāya system. There is the complication that there seems to be the system of four bodies in the Kālacakra literature, but actually the fourth body seems to correspond to the concept of ādibuddha/ paramādibuddha. “Knowing the three times, past, present, and future” is another designation of the paramādibuddha, who is consequently beyond time. Another designation of the ādibuddha is nonduality (advaya), which indicates that the concept is beyond the wisdom/means duality (prajñā/upāya). He is also known as the wisdom body (jñānakāya) which can be seen as the fourth body of the Buddha; this qualification is given in several places in the texts. The ādibuddha is further designated as the supreme of the four bodies, the sahajakāya (the innate body), which is the transcendent level of existence. In these same verses the ādibuddha is also said to be the master of jinas (jinapati), and he is consequently at the origin of the five jinas—Akṣobhya, Amitābha, Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, and, at the maṇḍala’s center, Vairocana/Kālacakra. The sixth jina, usually called Vajrasattva, is mentioned many times. Slightly later it is written that Viśvamāta, the female counterpart of Kālacakra, is the progenitor of the Buddhas and of Kālacakra that he is arisen from the unchanging (paramākṣara).¹¹ All these indicate that the concept of ādibuddha is beyond time and existence, but also that it can have several meanings within the same text.

Another interesting qualification of the ādibuddha is that it is defined as without family/connection/parts/relation. The variant translations depend on the Sanskrit word niranvaya, which is problematic. The Sanskrit word anvaya can be interpreted as following: succession, connection, logical connection of cause and effect, descendent, lineage, or family; nir- is a negation of that word and consequently the concept means “without causal connection, connection, family, etc.”¹² In Tibetan it has been translated as rgyu-med, “without cause,” in the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti, but in the Kālacakratantra it is translated as rigs-med, “without family or retinue.” In the Kālacakratantra this word is found in many places in connection with the ādibuddha or paramādibuddha. The first is in the beginning of the Vimalaprabhā where it is said that the ādibuddha is without parts (niranvaya) and a little later where the paramādibuddha is also said to be without parts.¹³ The use of this qualification of the ādibuddha strongly indicates that it is nondual and also without connection with other levels of existence. Actually this designation of the ādibuddha is already found in the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti, the first text where the ādibuddha is mentioned and defined. There it is written that the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is the ādibuddha without causal connection, and this is to say that the ādibuddha is beyond the world of causality.¹⁴

Later in the Vimalaprabhā it is stated that the paramādibuddha is indivisible and undivided.¹⁵ Later still the word niranvaya is analyzed in the text itself, where it is said that anvaya is the dharma which consists of wisdom and means, and then that is negated by nir- in niranvaya. Consequently this means that the concept of niranvaya is completely unified and without duality, and is also indicated as unchanging bliss.¹⁶ Then, in a commentary on the first verse of the laghutantra it is written that the ādibuddha is without beginning or end and also again without connection. The ādibuddha is consequently eternal but not a creator of the world. He is also unchanging bliss.¹⁷

In another place in the Vimalaprabhā, again commenting on the first verse of the KCT, there is this interesting elaboration: “The oneness of these two minds [the yogin’s own mind and the knowledge mind of unchanging bliss], consisting of wisdom and method, the vajrayoga, the great aim, the supreme unchanging (paramākṣara), the ādibuddha without connection (niranvaya), Bhagavān Kālacakra, is renowned in all the various tantras as Vajrasattva.”¹⁸ This seems to be a way of relating many ideas together without defining them explicitly and placing them all under the name/concept of Vajrasattva. There is a tendency to regard these various concepts as being unchanging/imperishable, using the word paramākṣara which is composed of parama-, the supreme, and akṣara-, the imperishable or unchanging. This tendency can be found in Mahāyāna Buddhism in many other texts, as has been very well remarked by Jens Braarvig in his work analyzing the concept of the indestructible in the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra. He states that this idea of something eternal or imperishable became widely accepted in Mahāyāna Buddhism when the concepts of ālayavijñāna and tathāgatagarbha were elaborated in Yogācāra Buddhism.¹⁹

In the second chapter of the KCT and the VP an example of how the word ādibuddha signifies the Kālacakra maṇḍala can be found. The maṇḍala normally hosts 722 divinities which all have different roles in the context of the KCT, but here there are 1,620 divinities in the maṇḍala. It is explained that this is the maṇḍala of the root-tantra Paramādibuddha, now lost. That changed in the abbreviated Kālacakra maṇḍala where only 722 deities are arranged in the maṇḍala; these figures are based on calculations of the reckoning of time in hours, days, etc.²⁰

Verse 92 in the second chapter of both the KCT and the VP contains interesting information: “ . . . so he, Bhagavān the unique teacher, is not one who is a creator. He is the omniscient ādibuddha, revered by the three worlds, Kālacakri, not Cakri, at the root of whose foot-lotus Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Rudra have found refuge. Kālacakra, who is the jina-producer, who is without qualities, who is without mental constructions (nirvikalpa), to him I pay homage.”

It is stated in Bu-ston’s commentary to the VP that the ādibuddha has attained the fourth body of the Buddha, the sahajakāya, and later also possesses Buddha’s other three bodies. Also, direct correspondence is made between Kālacakra and the ādibuddha: they have the same characteristics. Finally it is said that this is the precept of a śūnyatā-vādin, that is, someone who honors śūnyatā/the void as the ultimate goal.²¹

The consequences of these quotations are that Bhagavān/Ādibuddha is not a creator, but he is omniscient and producer of the jinas. He is also the same as Kālacakra and the master of the three great Hindu gods, which supports the theory of why the Kālacakra appeared around year 1000 when Muslim armies were entering India: the Kālacakra could have been an effort to try to unite the Indian peoples against the invading Muslims.²²

Verse II: 92 is the first time in the KCT, and its commentary in the VP, that something more substantial is said about the ādibuddha; it is here more than merely a name, as the quotation above shows. He is also equated with Kālacakra, which makes the understanding of the Kālacakra deity figure easier—Kālacakra is therefore definitely a deity of the ādibuddha type, like Samantabhadra and Vairocana. It is of course impossible to give the concept of ādibuddha a gender, but I use the male gender here, following convention. When not in union with his female consort, Viśvamāta, Kālacakra himself contains the two principles of wisdom and means and consequently is the union of these two concepts. It is also important that Puṇḍarika, the author of the Vimalaprabhā, claims here to be a śūnyatā-vādin, that is, an adherent of the Mādhyamika school of Buddhism. Other aspects of the teachings, however, show perhaps even more influence from the Yogacārā school.

The next mention of the ādibuddha is in chapter five of the KCT and the VP. Puṇḍarika states: “I will explain the characteristics of the four bodies of the Buddha as Mañjuvajra extracted them from the ādibuddha without causal connection/ family.”²³ This is another place where the term niranvaya has a special role. If interpreted as meaning “without logical connection of cause and effect,” then it means that the ādibuddha is a deity outside of the world of cause and effect and without connection with normal existence. From this cosmic principle Mañjuvajra drew out the four bodies of the Buddha. Another possible, more prosaic meaning is that Puṇḍarika simply intends that Mañjuśrī-Yaśas, the author of the laghutantra, drew out the characteristics of the four bodies from the root-tantra text called the Ādibuddha, which is still not found. The latter interpretation is the more probable, but why then would the text be qualified with niranvaya? This does not seem to make much sense and is one of the disputed places in the Kālacakra texts.

The last place where the word ādibuddha is mentioned is in KCT V: 256: “ . . . even though you [Mañjuśrī] are born from all the jinas, so were you in the beginning [Bu-ston: ‘because you have been transformed into the wisdom body (jñānakaya) of all the Tathāgatas you are the ādibuddha’] the ādibuddha.”²⁴ I have included this interesting remark from Bu-ston’s commentary here because there is no Vimalaprabhā commentary on these last verses and because Bu-ston’s commentaries are basic for the interpretation of Kālacakra when the Fourteenth Dalai Lama gives his Kālacakra initiations.

Ādibuddha in this verse seems to be a contradictory concept because it is stated that Mañjuśrī is, in the beginning, the ādibuddha but is also the son of the jinas. Bu-ston comments that Mañjuśrī is the wisdom body of the Tathāgatas/jinas and therefore is the ādibuddha. One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the ādibuddha seems to be an independent concept meaning approximately “the first Buddha” or the wisdom body/fourth body of the Buddha.

Preliminary conclusions

What then can we understand about the ādibuddha from analyzing the two basic Kālacakra texts, KCT and VP? In the KCT the most important characteristics are that he is not one who acts; he is omniscient (sarvajñā); he is progenitor of the best of jinas (jinavarajananam); he is without qualities (nirguṇa); he is without mental constructions (nirvikalpa); he is master of jinas (jinapati); and he is ruler of the three worlds. In the Vimalaprabhā these characteristics and the following ones can be found: he is unchanging bliss (akṣarasukha); he is progenitor of the buddhas (jinajanaka); he is nondual (advaya); he is beginningless and endless; he is nondual wisdom and means; he is the first to obtain buddhahood; and he is without parts/connection.

Consequently, it is possible to discern in these texts a number of qualifications of the ādibuddha which fit quite well with general ādibuddha theories, especially in that the ādibuddha brings forth the jinas and is without beginning or end. Consequently, it can be stated that the ādibuddha is described as an entity in these two texts, but it is not possible to find one ādibuddha deity described in the concrete way as Hogdson attempted. What are described more concretely are aspects or emanations such as Kālacakra, Akṣobhya, Viśvamāta, Vajrasattva, and Vajradhara. In the Indo-Tibetan iconography one can recognize an aspect of the ādibuddha in that they all have their arms crossed over the chest with vajra and bell in their hands. Another possible conclusion is that the whole description of the different aspects of the ādibuddha is a positive way to describe śūnyatā (the void) according to Madhyamaka Buddhism.

Still another way of interpreting the concept of the ādibuddha is as a designation of the concept of tathāgatagarbha, the notion that there exists a permanent Buddha-seed (garbha) in all beings and whose discovery results in buddhahood. Ruegg has studied this subject in detail and states about the tathāgatagarbha that it is “characterized as permanent (nitya), immutable (dhruva), blissful (sukha) and eternal (śāśvata), and sometimes we are even told that it is Ātman.”²⁵ These epithets correspond well with the ones given to the concept of the ādibuddha in the KCT and the VP. In the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra the concept of tathāgata indicates the ideas of being permanent, blissful, void, without marks, and very pure (viśuddha).²⁶ These concepts are found as designations of the ādibuddha in the KCT/VP. In his analysis Ruegg concludes that the concept is not identical to the brahmanical ātman, but that it is founded on a distinct theory which may neutralize and cancel both the ātmavada and the anātmavāda. Perhaps there is a common stock of experiences which are described by both Buddhists and Hindus.²⁷ This idea about the tathāgatagarbha has recently been studied further by Stearns in his work on Dol-po-pa.²⁸ Dol-po-pa states that the ādibuddha is to be compared to “indestructible self-arisen gnosis,” probably corresponding to the phrase “acintyasahaja-jñāna” in Sanskrit.²⁹

Despite these seeming contradictions, it seems that there exists some consistent idea of the ādibuddha in the KCT and VP. The problem is that it is almost impossible to find a systematic explication of the idea. As will be shown later, more possibilities for interpretation appear when examining the theory of the four bodies of the Buddha (the fourth body is sahajakāya or śuddhakāya) and the whole complex of ideas concerning the concept of the supreme unchanging, supreme unchanging gnosis, or supreme unchanging bliss (paramākṣara). The concept of something unmanifest which manifests itself in some way to shape the world as we see it is known in other branches of Indian philosophy. In Sāṃkhya philosophy there are some similarities, with its discussion of the root-base (mūla-prakṛti, pradhāna) which is the unmanifest (avyakta) that becomes manifest (vyakta).

The fourth body of the Buddha and the ādibuddha concept

The concept of “kāyas,” bodies of the Buddha, came to be elaborated in the Mahāyāna. Often the tradition holds that there exist three so-called bodies (kāya), dharmakāya, sambhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya, but in some texts a fourth body is introduced, especially in the Abhisamayālaṃkara of the Yogācāra tradition. This controversy has been analyzed by John Makransky: Vimuktisena’s view holds that there are only three bodies, with the fourth body, the svābhāvikakāya, a kind of essence of the other three; the other line of interpretation, Haribhadra’s, counts four bodies, with the svābhāvikakāya an essence body, unconditioned and related to the tathāgatagarbha, the Buddha-seed as found in all beings.³⁰ In the Vimalaprabhā, a connection is made to Haribhadra’s interpretation of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra and is taken as an argument for the theory of the four bodies presented in the Kālacakratantra.³¹ In this context the fourth body is named sahajakāya and is given some of the same characteristics as the ādibuddha, such as omniscience.³²

The fourth body in the Kālacakra is variously called sahajakāya (the simultaneously arisen body), śuddhakāya (the pure body), and svābhāvikakāya (the essence body). I have not seen the term śuddhakāya in other contexts, and in these texts it seems to mean the fourth body of the Buddha. There is an interesting place in the second chapter of the KCT and VP where śuddhakāya is described at the microcosmic level of the birth of a child. The śuddhakāya represents the moment when the child has been conceived in the womb but is still without characteristics, unmanifested, and in unity. The moment of birth when the child comes into existence is on the dharmakāya level.³³ In general in the Kālacakra there are the different levels of macrocosmos, the external world, and microcosmos, the human body, and there are correspondences between what happens in the two worlds. In the human body the śuddhakāya is on the unmanifest level, while in the outer cosmos it can be compared to the Ādibuddha concept which is on the unmanifest level.

In the second chapter, which treats the human body, this theme is continued by correlating the four bodies to the six cakras of the human body. Principally the fourth body, sahajakāya, is situated in the head cakras, in the forehead or crowncakras. In the fifth chapter of the KCT and the VP there is a subchapter discussing the four bodies of the Buddha, KCT V: 89-126. The Vimalaprabhā comments: “ . . . the sahajakāya is not prajñā and is not even upāya; it is the sahajatanu of the Buddhas . . . Thus, from the sahajatanu’s (tanu means form or body and thus equates to kāya) being accomplished for the sake of itself, and being accomplished for the sake of others, became the dharmakāya, the sleep being ended. And that one [the dharmakāya] has as its very nature prajñā and upāya . . . Thus, sahaja [-kāya] is one, and there are four separate kinds, this very one [Bu-ston: sahajakāya], the dharma [-kāya], the sambhoga [-kāya], and the nirmāṇa [-kāya].”³⁴ It is interesting that here it is said that the sahajatanu is transformed into perfection for the benefit of itself, as this is another confirmation of the transcendence of the concept. It is beyond this world and said to be in a sort of sleeping state—waking up from this sleep, it becomes the dharmakāya. Having become the dharmakāya, it can be of perfect benefit for others. This is another indication that the sahajakāya is beyond the world of appearances. This kind of “body” is presented as being transcendental but on other levels is manifested as dharmakāya and the other “bodies” which become more and more active in the world. This kind of principle is very similar to the way the ādibuddha is presented in other places in the tantra, and this fourth body of the Buddha may be another way of presenting the principle of the ādibuddha.

A disciple of Tsong-kha-pa’s disciple mKhas-grub-rje, Zhang-zhung Chosdbang-grags-pa, wrote an important commentary on the Kālacakratantra. It is part of the collected works of mKhas-grub-rje.³⁵ He adds interesting explanations regarding the nature of the four bodies of the Buddha, and these together with the material from the Kālacakra texts themselves are the basis of the following scheme of the relation between the four bodies and the concept of ādibuddha:

• Sahajakāya exists by itself, and the great bliss (mahāsukha)-side and the void (śūnya)-side are united in the sahajakāya as the water is with the wet. It can be seen as another way of denominating the content of the concept of ādibuddha.

• Sahajakāya has a mind-side with the concept of mahāsukha and mahāsukhakāya and a body-side with the void-form body (śūnya-rūpa-kāya). On the mahāsukhaside is also the svābhāvika-kāya and prajña (wisdom), and on the body-side is upāya (means).

• Dharmakāya comes into existence when the sahajakāya is turning into benefit for others. It comes into existence from a state of sleep. Dharmakāya divides into jñāna (knowledge) and vijñāna (discriminative knowledge).

• Sambhogakāya then emerges when sound comes into existence. This level is when sound begins to be transferred to living beings.

• Nirmāṇakāya is the gross level where the teachings for maturing the living beings can be done.

This analysis by Zhang-zhung Chos-dbang-grags-pa corresponds well with verse 89 of the Śrī Kālacakra-tantra-rāja and its commentary in the Vimalaprabhā. The original level of sahajakāya can be compared directly to the concept of ādibuddha, and we may conclude after this brief investigation that there are lines of development in the ādibuddha concept in connection with the svābhāvikakāya (self-existent body) system of the four Buddha-bodies. Already in the Abhisamayālaṃkara, and especially in the commentary to this text by Haribhadra, one can find information on the svābhāvikakāya that points forward to the concept of śuddhakāya (the pure body) which is found in the main Kālacakra texts. As yet I have not seen in any literature that the fourth body should be named śuddhakāya as in the Kālacakra texts, but Haribhadra writes about the fourth body which is pure (viśuddha). Thus there is a link to the Kālacakra texts, from the developed concept of svābhāvikakāya to the ādibuddha concept. The sahajakāya is here also said to be beyond the duality of prajñā (wisdom) and upāya (means) and can consequently be seen as being on the level of the ādibuddha principle.

Paramākṣara: the supreme unchanging/immutable and its relation to the ādibuddha concept and the fourth body of the Buddha

Beginning with KCT V: 127, there is a subchapter called the Paramākṣara-jñānasiddhi (“The supreme unchanging perfection of knowledge”) which addresses the concept of the supreme unchanging/immutable/indestructible. It has by far the most extensive commentary in the Vimalaprabhā of all the verses in the Śrī Kālacakra-tantra-rāja. The word paramākṣara can be analyzed as parama- a-kṣara. Parama- means “supreme,” kṣara- means “melting away, perishable,” and a- is the negation of that which melts away—thus the translation is “unchanging or immutable or indestructible.” There is, for example, a mention of the supreme unchanging in the Vimalaprabhā commentary to KCT V: 127: “Therefore, from the sahajakāya produced from that which is unchanging, there is a perceiving of the dharmas that assume the form of syllables . . . ”³⁶ This supports the analysis of the fourth body of the Buddha in connection with the ādibuddha, for it is said that the sahajakāya is produced from the unchanging/immutable. This could mean that the level of the unchanging is above the level of the fourth body and nearing the ādibuddha concept. Later in the text there is a mention of the imperishable knowledge (jñāna) of the supreme unchanging bliss of the vajrin (the one possessing the vajra). That there exists an imperishable knowledge which is also unchanging indicates that the concept of ādibuddha is very close to this theory of the supreme unchanging.

The word bindu (drop, point) has an important place in the verse KCT V: 127. There it is described as that which has created all aspects, and in the next line the supreme master of jinas (paramajinapati) is mentioned.³⁷ Later the imperishable bindu is called the supreme unchanging (paramākṣara) and therefore could be interpreted as the unchanging point which is imperishable from one life to another, being an imperishable principle in the human body.³⁸ In that way it approaches the ādibuddha principle which is beginningless, endless, and imperishable. It could be a relation between micro- and macrocosmos. A summary of the places where the supreme unchanging (paramākṣara) is mentioned provides interesting information.

• There is the transcendent level where there is the supreme unchanging/imperishable (paramākṣara) which contains the imperishable bindu (point). On that level is also the moment of imperishability where there is no transmigration; the supreme unchanging has passed beyond the dharmas of indivisible particles. It is also the cause which has consumed all the obscurities.

• The first level of manifestation emerges as sahajakāya and Vajrasattva (the essence of means and wisdom), the most perfect Buddha, the bindu of all beings, jinapati, the Buddha-essence which is nonexistence and is attached to the knowledge of the completely pure supreme unchanging bliss.

• The next level of manifestation is Kālacakra/Viśvamāta, the supreme unchanging bliss. Bu-ston comments that the knowledge of the supreme unchanging bliss is the own nature of knowledge characterized by time.³⁹

A clarification of the meaning of the supreme unchanging bliss can be found near the end of the Vimalaprabhā commentary on KCT V: 127. There information on the relationship between the six-limbed yoga (ṣaḍaṅga-yoga), which is the essence of the practice of Kālacakra, and the concept of the supreme unchanging is given. The experience of the supreme unchanging bliss in the sixth limb of that yoga is related with the retention of the semen.⁴⁰ This has to do with the ultimate goal of this yoga, which is to stop all motion and to stop time (kāla). When one has reached that goal, one will experience the great bliss, which in this context is the same as the supreme unchanging bliss.

Final comments

Clearly it is not an easy task to define the doctrine of ādibuddha in the Kālacakra texts. A comparatively simple solution is to hold that ādibuddha is just another way of describing the tathāgatagarbha concept, which means that there is the Buddha-seed present in all sentient beings. In that case, it is another way of saying that one must strive to obtain the state of Buddhahood. It can also be a positive way of describing the void (śūnyatā) which is ever present.

Despite the above-mentioned arguments, it is still possible to state that there is a coherent concept of a transcendent “ādibuddha” who was the first Buddha or in some way at the origin of everything, though not a creator. The fourth body of the Buddha, sahajakāya or śuddhakāya, is a sort of primordial manifestation in the world. Of course the fourth body has many other connotations on the individual level, but on the cosmological level it is connected with the origin of the five jinas. The concept of the supreme unchanging bliss, paramākṣara-sukha, may be regarded as a qualification of the fourth body. The supreme unchanging then should represent the bindu that is without beginning or end in beings.

The ādibuddha concept is qualified by various epithets, as has been shown: omniscient, without qualities, master of jinas, without mental constructions, unchanging or indestructible, unchanging bliss (akṣarasukha), nondual, progenitor of the Buddhas, simultaneously arisen master of jinas, beyond origination and dissolution, nondual wisdom and means, pure yoga (śuddhayoga), without causal connection (niranvaya), supreme (parama), the one who first (ādi) obtained Buddhahood, without beginning in time, without termination, indivisible vajrayoga, endless Buddha, and the supreme unchanging (paramākṣara). All these qualifications are strong evidence of there existing a concept of something transcending the apparent world, and this transcendent concept could be called the “ādibuddha.” Actually, these qualifications can also be applied to other deities or principles, though the true importance is that there exists such a concept.

As found in KCT V: 127, there also exists the concept of bindu which can be compared to the ādibuddha concept of the individual level. The bindu stands for the indestructible or unchanging in the heart cakra of the human body, which is described in a similar way as the ādibuddha. Consequently, the concept of ādibuddha has both a macrocosmic and microcosmic interpretation. The fourth body of the Buddha—known as the sahajakāya, śuddhakāya, and svābhāvikakāya—can also be associated with pure, unchanging mind which transcends everything, sahajakāya being beyond wisdom and means (prajñā and upāya). Finally, the concept of the knowledge (jñāna) of the supreme unchanging bliss, paramākṣarasukha jñāna, can be compared to the transcendent concept of something unchanging or indestructible, describing the final state of bliss attainable.

Abbreviations

KCT - Śrī Kālacakra-tantra-rāja, the laghutantra

VP - Vimalaprabhā-ṭīkā

Toh. - A Complete Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons, Tohoku Catalogue

P - The Tibetan Tripitaka. Peking edition

Endnotes

1. See Hammar 2005: 88-201.

2. Csoma de Körös 1833: 58-59. Vimalaprabhā I.6 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 52; Hammar 2005: 88-89.

3. Hodgson, B. H. 1874.

4. Gellner, David 1989: 7-19; Hammar 2005: 88.

5. Grönbold 1992: 128-131.

6. Wallace 2001: 17-18; Hammar 2005: 94-95.

7. The Sanskrit text has not been found, but an analysis has been made by R. Gnoli in Orofino 1994, which also contains an edition of the Tibetan text (Peking 7, Tohoku 365).

8. Vimalaprabhā I.1 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 3, lines 17-20.

9. Newman 1987, Banerjee 1958, Wallace 1995 and 2001, Andresen 1997, Hartzell 1997, and Stril-Rever 2000.

10. The Vimalaprabhā commentary, chapter I, subchapter 1, in VP vol. 1, 1986: 1, lines 3 and 11; Hammar 2005: 99-102.

11. Vimalaprabhā I.1 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 2, lines 19 and 21; Hammar 2005: 103.

12. Monier-Williams 1976 (1899): 46.

13. Vimalaprabhā I.2 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 12, line 24; 15, line 3; Hammar 2005: 106-107.

14. Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṃgīti, verse 100, Tohoku no. 360; trans. in Davidson 1981: 30; Ham-mar 2005: 76-77.

15. Vimalaprabhā I.2. in VP vol. 1, 1986: 16, line 26; Hammar 2005: 108.

16. Vimalaprabhā I.2. in VP vol. 1, 1986: 17, line 9; Hammar 2005: 108-109.

17. Vimalaprabhā I.4 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 32, lines 16-21; Hammar 2005: 112-113.

18. Vimalaprabhā I.5 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 42, line 22; 43, line 3; Hammar 2005: 115-116.

19. Braarvig 1993: vol. 2, lviii-lxiv.

20. Vimalaprabhā II.3 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 188, lines 5-14; Hammar 2005: 118-120.

21. Vimalaprabhā II.3 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 219, lines 18-28; Hammar 2005: 122-124.

22. This has been underlined already by B. Bhattacharya 1958: 109, Banerjee 1959: 50-51, and lately by Newman, among other places, in a paper given at Stockholm University on May 26, 2005.

23. Vimalaprabhā V.2 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 45, line 14; an introduction to KCT V: 89.

24. Vimalaprabhā V.4 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 153; Tibetan: Bu-ston 1965a: 295, line 7, to 296, line 4; Hammar 2005: 134-135.

25. Ruegg 1992: 19.

26. Ruegg 1992: 22; Ruegg 1973: 123-124.

27. Ruegg 1992: 54-55.

28. Stearns 1999: 238-239, notes 30-32.

29. Stearns 1999: 118.

30. Hammar 2005: 143-144.

31. Vimalaprabhā I.5 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 43, lines 5-6; Hammar 2005: 146.

32. Vimalaprabhā I.5 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 45, line 20; Hammar 2005: 147.

33. KCT II: 16 and 17; Vimalaprabhā II.1 in VP vol. 1, 1986: 164; Hammar 2005: 148-151.

34. Vimalaprabhā V.2 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 45-46; Hammar 2005: 160-164.

35. Zhang-zhung Chos-dbang-grags-pa 290: 7 to 293: 1; Hammar 2005: 164-168.

36. Vimalaprabhā V.3 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 60, line 4; Hammar 2005: 175-177.

37. Vimalaprabhā V.3 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 60, lines 7-10; Hammar 2005: 175.

38. Vimalaprabhā V.3 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 61, lines 3-4; Hammar 2005: 179-180; Dhargyey 1985: 91.

39. Vimalaprabhā V.3 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 62, line 16; Bu-ston 1965c: 107, lines 1-3.

40. Vimalaprabhā V.3 in VP vol. 3, 1994: 102, lines 23-33; Hammar 2005: 199-200.

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