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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part I – 8.
The ADI Buddha: His mystic body and his astral
aspects
© Victor & Victoria
Trimondi
8. THE ADI BUDDHA: HIS MYSTIC
BODY
AND HIS ASTRAL ASPECTS
The highest goal of the Kalachakra initiation is the
attainment of a spiritual state which is referred
to as ADI BUDDHA. In the year 1833, the founder
of western Tibetology, the Hungarian Csoma de
Körös, quoted for the first time in a European
language the famous Kalachakra
theses which the Maha
Siddha Tilopa is said to have fixed to the
gates of the Buddhist university in Nalanda. In
them the ADI BUDDHA is introduced as the highest
ONE, from whom everything else emerges: “He, that
does not know the chief first Buddha (Adi-Buddha), knows not the
circle
of time (Kalachakra). He, that does
not know the circle of time, knows not the exact
enumeration of the divine attributes. He that
does not know the exact enumeration of the divine
attributes, knows not the supreme intelligence.
He, that does not know the supreme intelligence,
knows not the tantric principles. He, that does
not know the tantric principles, and all such,
are wanderers in the orb transmigratos, and are out
of the way of the supreme triumphator. Therefore
Adi-Buddha must be taught
by every true lama, and every true disciple who
aspires to liberation must hear them” (quoted
by Körös, 1984, pp. 21, 22). No other tantra has
made the idea of the ADI BUDDHA so central to
its teaching as the Kalachakra
Tantra.
It would be false to assume that
the ADI BUDDHA is a being who resides in the highest
spiritual sphere which the historical Buddha referred
to as nirvana. This becomes apparent
when we examine the three gateways of consciousness
which lead to this ultimate realm of enlightenment
(nirvana): (1) the emptiness
(shunyata);
(2) the signless (animitta);
and (3) the wish-less (apranihata).
Nirvana, the raison d’être of Buddhism,
is because of these three gateways a greatness
no longer able to be defined in words. We can
only ever talk “about” it, yet never capture it
in words or conceptually grasp it. Edward Conze,
the eminent historian of Buddhism, has assembled
a great number of such formulations with which
Buddhist authors have attempted to “picture” the
highest spiritual level of their religion. We
would like to quote some of these here: nirvana
is the deathless, immutable, endless, enduring,
it is peace, rest, silence, liberation, renunciation,
the invisible, refuge, supreme good.
The impersonal “character” of nirvana is already apparent
from this list. Nirvana
is thus under no circumstances a person, but rather
a state of consciousness. For this reason the
bodily depiction of the enlightened Buddha was
forbidden in early Buddhist iconography. Following
his entry into nirvana he could only be portrayed
symbolically and never physically — as, for example,
a wheel or a pillar of fire or even through his
absence whereby the artist drew an “empty” throne.
The “Sublime One” who already dwells in the emptiness
could not be portrayed more graphically.
Accordingly, nirvana is no creation, not
even the prime cause of creation, but rather standstill.
It is no action, but rather inaction; no goal-directed
thought, rather non-thought. It is without intent
and knows no motivation. It does not command,
but rather remains silent. It is disinterested
and lacks engagement. It stands outside time.
It has no gender. It is not even, in the initial
historical phase of Buddhism, identical with the
mystical “clear light”. All this, however — the
creative force, the highest clear light, action,
thought, motivation, command — does apply to the
ADI BUDDHA.
Unlike nirvana, the ADI BUDDHA is
not sexually neutral, rather he is the Great Cosmic
Androgyne who has integrated the polarity of the
sexes within himself. He arose from himself, exists
through himself, that is, he has no father or
mother. He is birthless and deathless, without
beginning and without end. He is the highest bliss
and free of all suffering. He is untarnished and
flawless. He is the collapse of opposites, the
undivided. He is wisdom and method, form and formlessness,
compassion and emptiness. He is the quiet and
the motion, he is static and dynamic. He has countless
names. He is the universal god, the highest lord.
In the words of an old Indian hymn dedicated to
him,
He is the ONE and
proclaims the teaching of unity;
He stands at the summit of
being.
He permeates everything;
he is the infallible way.
He is the victor,
one whose enemy is defeated,
a conqueror, a world ruler
who possesses the great powers.
He is the leader
of the flock, the teacher of the flock,
the lord of the
flock, the master of the flock, the wielder of
power.
He has great power,
withstands all burdens.
He does not need
to be led by others; he is the great leader.
He is the lord
of speech, the master of speech,
the eloquent one,
the master of the voice, the eternal word.
(quoted by Grönbold, 1995,
p. 53)
We are standing here at an interesting
turning point in the history of the Buddhist teaching.
Instead of the unnamable, impersonal and sexless
emptiness of nirvana, we are suddenly confronted
by an androgynous universal ruler. A Buddha dwelling
in nirvana
is outside of all time, the ADI BUDDHA in contrast
is, according to a statement by the Maha
Siddha Tilopa, identical with the time god
Kalachakra. “He is the Wheel
of Time, without an equal, imperishable” (Carelli,
1941, p. 21). “The Primordial Buddha [ADI
BUDDHA] gives rise to Wheel of Time, the cycle
of creation and destruction, unceasing change,
that defines our existence”, we are told by Bernbaum
(Bernbaum, 1980, p. 127). He is the “king of the
Kalachakra Tantra”.
He knows the entire secret doctrine
of the tantras, controls the body, the language,
the awareness and possesses all magic powers.
The Kalachakra Tantra celebrates
him as the lord of illusions, “who emanates many
illusory forms. He uses those emanated forms to
uproot trees, and also to shake the mountain tops”
(quoted by Newman, 1987, p. 296). He is a dharmaraja, a king of laws,
because he commands all beings as the hierarch.
He presides over gods and mortals as the highest
universal judge. As the bringer of salvation he
vanquishes the foes of Buddhism and leads his
followers into the golden age. The ADI BUDDHA
stands active at the center of the Buddhist universe,
which at the same time emanates from him. Nevertheless
he can appear in the anthropomorphic form of a
human, a yogi.
If we were to describe the ADI
BUDDHA in the terms of philosophical idealism,
then we would have to introduce such phrases as
“absolute spirit”, “absolute subjectivity”, “absolute
ego”. He is the ego ipsissimus of the yogi,
whom the latter tries to attain through his sexual
magic practices. At the end of his initiation,
in one tantric text he proudly cries out: At the end of his
initiation, in one tantric text he proudly cries
out: “I make the universe manifest within myself
in the Sky of Consciousness. I, who am the universe,
am its creator. [….] The universe dissolves within
me. I who am the flame of the great eternal fire
of Consciousness.” (quoted by Dyczkowski, 1987,
p. 189). Of course, these sentences are not addressed
to an individual “ego”, but rather the “superego”
of a divine universal being.
Alongside the absolute subjectification
of the ADI BUDDHA, whose will is law and whose
power is unbounded, there is oddly also the view
which would see in this supreme being a great
cosmic machine. The universal Buddha has also
been imagined to be a clockwork in which every
cogwheel is linked to others and all the cogs
mesh. The mechanism of Buddhist cosmogony and
its controller proceeds in unending repetition,
without anything in this chain of events being
able to be changed. Everything has its place,
its order, its repetition. Even its own destruction
— as we shall show — has become an inbuilt event
of this mega-machine, just like the inevitable
subsequent resurrection of the divine apparatus.
A never-ending process, which can never be stopped,
never turned back, never varied. Friedrich Nietzsche
must have caught a glimpse of this cosmic clock
when he experienced his vision of “eternal repetition”.
The ADI BUDDHA is this world clock, the dieu
machine or divine machine. Absolute will and
absolute mechanism, absolute subjectivity and
absolute objectivity, the absolute EGO and the
OTHER are supposed to find unity in the absolute
archetype of the ADI BUDDHA. This paradox is put
about by the tantric teachers as a great mystic
secret.
Undoubtedly the universal Buddha
(ADI BUDDHA) of the Kalachakra Tantra exhibits
all the characteristics of a universal god, a
world ruler (pantocrat), a messiah (savior) and a creator; he
undoubtedly possesses monotheistic traits. [1]
The idea of an omnipotent divine
being, many of whose characteristics match the
Near East concept of a creator god, was already
accepted in Mahayana Buddhism and was
taken up from there by the early tantras (fourth
century C.E.). It first found its maturity and
final formulation in the Kalachakra teachings (tenth
century). Many western researchers are led by
the monotheistic traits of the ADI BUDDHA to suspect
non-Buddhist, primarily Near Eastern influences
here. Convincing references to Iranian sources
have been made. The continuing development of
the image and its contour are further indebted
to a reaction against Islam. In India and the
Near East the personally-oriented theophany of
Allah presented the common populace with an attractive
and emotional counter-model to the elitist and
“abstract” nirvana doctrine of the learned
Buddhist monks. It thus seemed natural to incorporate
appropriate charismatic images into one’s own
cult. As arch-god, the ADI BUDDHA also represents
an alternative to Hindu polytheism, which at that
time threatened Buddhism just as strongly as the
teachings of the Koran later did.
There had not been such a subjectification
of the image of god in the philosophically oriented
opinions of the early Buddhist schools up until
the great scholar Nagarjuna (second to third century
C.E.). They were all at pains to portray the “Buddha”
as a level of consciousness, a cognitive field,
a stage of enlightenment, as emptiness, in brief
as a mental state, yet not as a Creator
Mundi. In the ADI BUDDHA system, however,
the creative aspect plays just as great a role
as, for example, the epiphany of divine wrath
or the apocalyptic judgment of divine destruction.
But the highest mental and transpersonal Buddha
consciousness exists on a level beyond creation
and destruction, beyond life and death.
The ADI BUDDHA is according to
doctrine the “theological” principle, which pervades
the entire tantric ritual system. In his perfected
form he appears as the “androgyne cosmocrat”,
in his incomplete form he is still progressing
through the individual initiation levels of the
Kalachakra Tantra as a practicing
yogi. In principle the mystic body of the tantra
master coincides with that of the ADI BUDDHA,
but complete identity first occurs when the yogi
has “exterminated” all elements of his human body and transformed
it into a divine
body.
Let us now look at the expansion
of power of the ADI BUDDHA as it is described
in the Kalachakra Tantra. Essentially
it exhibits five aspects:
- An inner aspect,
which can be described via microcosmic procedures in
the androgynous energy body of the yogi (or
of the ADI BUDDHA respectively). There is a
“physiological map” of this, depicted with a
complicated symbolic character, the so-called
dasakaro vasi (the ten energy
winds). We shall examine this sign more closely.
- A temporal/astral aspect,
which stretches to the stars. In his macrocosmic dimension the
ADI BUDDHA encompasses the whole universe. As
far as the heavenly bodies of sun, moon and
stars are mentioned, they are treated, in the
Kalachakra
Tantra as in all archaic cultures, as the
indicators of time. Anyone who controls them
is accordingly the master of time. In this chapter
we analyze the various tantric models of time.
- A spatial/cosmic aspect,
which likewise extends across all of space.
The ADI BUDDHA is, although also a person, likewise
identical with the structure of the Buddhist
cosmos, or — to put it another way — the macrocosmic model of the
universe is homologous with the microcosmic body of the
ADI BUDDHA. Both take the form of a mandala
(a cosmic diagram). Here we describe the structure
of the universe over which the ADI BUDDHA exerts
his power.
- A global/political aspect,
which is focused upon the idea of a Buddhist
world ruler (Chakravartin). As we shall
show, the ADI BUDDHA makes an outright claim
for real political power over the whole globe.
- A mytho-political program.
The Kalachakra
Tantra does not just treat the topic of
the world ruler in general, but has also developed
a specific utopia, ideology, and form of state,
which are summarized in what is called the Shambhala myth. This global
political program of the ADI BUDDHA is so significant
for an understanding of the Kalachakra Tantra and later
for the analysis of Tibetan history that we
devote a separate section to it.
In the second, political part of
our study (“Politics
as ritual”) we shall examine all of these
five aspects in connection with the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama. He is currently the highest Kalachakra master, whose person,
actions and thoughts most closely approximate
the conception of an ADI BUDDHA.
The “Power of Ten”: The mystic
body of the ADI BUDDHA
The control of cosmic energies
through a mystic body described in the Kalachakra Tantra is a tradition
which was also known in medieval Europe. There
were philosophical schools in the West as well
which regarded the anatomy of the human mystic
body and cosmography as the same science. The
person and the universe formed a unity. Homo omnis creatura — “man
is the entire creation”. In this view, the microcosmic organs and limbs
— the heart, the navel, the arms, the head, the
eyes, for example — all had their macrocosmic
correspondences.
In order to realize the microcosmic conditions for
the expansion of power of the ADI BUDDHA, an androgynous
body of a yogi is needed, that is, the internalization
of the maha mudra (inner woman) which
we have described above. This obsessive conception,
that absolute power can be conjured up through
the “mystic marriage” of the masculine and feminine
principles within a single person, also had European
alchemy in its thrall. We are once again confronted
with an event which plays so central a role in
both cultures (Western and Eastern) that the equation
Tantrism = alchemy ought to be taken most seriously.
At the end of the “great work” (opus magnum) of the Westerners
we likewise encounter that transpersonal and omnipotent
super being of whom it is said that it is “at
the same time the controlling principle (masculine)
and the controlled principle (feminine) and therefore
androgynous” (Evola, 1989, p. 48). In the relevant
texts it is also referred to as Hermaphroditus, to indicate
that its masculine part consists of the god Hermes, and its feminine part
of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. This bisexual deity
is like the ADI BUDDHA a creative spirit who produces
the universe. In the Corpus
Hermeticum, the late Egyptian collection of
mysto-magical texts (200 B.C.E.–200 C.E.) from
which European alchemy is derived, we can already
read that an “intellectual being, the masculine/feminine
god, is the life and light”, which produced the
universe (Evola, 1989, pp. 78, 79). Such fundamental
correspondences reveal that we are confronted
with far more than an astounding parallel between
two cultural spheres. There is therefore much
to be said for the suggestion that the Kalachakra Tantra and European
alchemy both stem from a common source.
As we have already reported in
some detail, the artificial genesis of the cosmic
androgyne in both the occidental/alchemic and
the tantric/Buddhist experiments is preceded by
the sacrifice of the feminine sphere and its subsequent
integration into the masculine sphere. Additionally,
in both cases the old mental and physical “aggregates”
of the adept are destroyed. At the same time as
his tantric colleague the alchemist also dies
and “lives through” several subtle deaths until
he attains his goal. He too dissolves his human
existence so as to be born as a deity. He strips
away what the texts refer to as his “old Adam”
(his human existence) in order to develop himself
up into the “new Adam”, the universal superhuman
(or god), just as the Tantric must let his earthly
personality and ego die so as to then serve as
the vessel of a deity.
According to the micro/macrocosmic doctrine,
the cosmic androgyne — in alchemy as in Vajrayana — exercises control
over the entire universe with the help of his
mysto-magical body. The origin of the universal
power lies inside the yogi and then grows out
of his “small” body to finally expand to the “great”
body of the universe, just as an oak tree grows
from an acorn. In this micro/macrocosm theory
we must regard the mystic body of the yogi as
the central monad of which all other monads (and
all other people too) are simply reflections,
or, to put it more concretely — and both the alchemists
and the Tantrics were so concrete — through the
control of his energy body the cosmic androgyne
(the ADI BUDDHA or the alchemic Hermaphroditus) determines
the orbit of the stars, the politics of the world
we know, and the psyche of the individual.
The dasakaro vasi
The microcosmic body of the ADI
BUDDHA, with which he controls the whole universe,
is depicted in the Kalachakra
Tantra by an enigmatic symbol which goes by
the name of the “Power of Ten” (Sanskrit dasakaro
vasi; Tibetan namchuwangdan).
The German orientalist, Albert Grünwedel, called
it the “Powerful in Ten Forms” and the first Western
Tibetologist, Csoma de Körös, the “Ten Protectors
of the World”.
We find the character on numerous
Lamaist objects. It adorns the covers of books,
small boxes and containers for amulets, appears
on stupas, and is considered a talisman in everyday
life. As the personal seal of the Panchen Lama
it is surrounded by the mythic bird, garuda, swallowing a snake.
The dasakaro
vasi is said to have been displayed for the
first time together with the above-mentioned ADI
BUDDHA theses of the Maha Siddha and Kalachakra specialist, Tilopa,
on the gates of the Indian monastic university
in Nalanda.
The dasakaro vasi (Tib. namchuwangdan)
The sign incorporates seven interwoven
letters, of which each is in a different color.
Letters one to five depict the five elements in
the following order: air, fire, water, earth,
space. The sixth letter represents Mount Meru,
the cosmic axis of the Buddhist universe; the
seventh the lotus, or the twelve continents arranged
in a wheel around Mount Meru in Buddhist cosmology,
one of which is supposed to be our earth. Above
this we find the moon (10), and the sun (11).
Both are crowned by the dark demon Rahu
in the form of a small flame.
This entwined character (dasakaro vasi) is the anatomical
map of the microcosmic body of the ADI BUDDHA.
The individual lines forming the letters are therefore
described as his inner venous or nervous system.
On a mysto-physical level the dasakaro vasi symbol refers
to the ten main energy channels from which a total
of 72,000 side channels branch off. The starting
point for the whole body schema is — as we have
described above — formed by the three central
veins assigned to the genders, the masculine on
the left (lalana), the feminine on the
right (rasana)
and the androgynous middle channel (avadhuti).
Each of the letters composing the
dasakaro
vasi corresponds to a particular form of energy.
The elements — earth, fire, water and space— also
count as energies. Each of the energy currents
which flow through the veins can be activated
by a corresponding magic spell (mantra).
Put together, the various mantras form a single
magic formula, which is said to grant whoever
pronounces it correctly power over the entire
universe; the word is “hamkshahmalavaraya” (Mullin,
1991, p. 327). This global mantra controls all
ten of the main energies which constitute creation
and which the tantra master controls through the
force of his spirit and his breathing.
This too has its counterpart in
European alchemy or in the cabbala closely interwoven
with it. The androgynous cabbalist deity in the
Jewish system likewise possesses a mystic body
composed of ten (!) energy centers, the
ten sephirot,
and 32 canales occultae (occult channels)
coming out of these. The first three sephirot correspond to the
three main tantric channels of the sexes: chochma is the masculine,
bina the feminine, and kether the androgynous one.
There is no doubt that the ADI
BUDDHA is identical with the venous system of
the dasakaro vasi. Yet we must
make a differentiation here, for there are numerous
indications in the Kalachakra
Tantra that the “Power of Ten” (dasakaro vasi) is exclusively
regarded as the symbol of a feminine energy system
which the adept renders subservient via the “method”
(upaya). The term is namely
also translated as the “ten shaktis” or the “ten powerful
goddesses”. (Bryant, 1992, p. 157). Each of them
bears a special name. These shaktis represent the ten
primal forces of the ADI BUDDHA. They are additionally
equated with the ten “states of perfection” of
the consciousness: magnanimity, morality, patience,
effort, concentration, wisdom, method, spiritual
goal setting, spiritual power, and transcendent
wisdom.
The ADI BUDDHA has — as it says
in one Kalachakra
text — dissolved the shaktis
within himself (Dalai Lama XIV, 1985, p.406).
It must be concluded from this sentence that prior
to this inner act of dissolution they must have
existed in the external world, either really or
subtly. If our suspicion is correct, then these
ten shaktis of the dasakaro vasi are the ten
mudras who celebrated a ganachakra together with the
tantra master in the four highest initiations
of the Time Tantra. A further passage from the
Kalachakra Tantra makes reference
to this: “At that time there appear the forms
of the various empty body Shaktis”, it says there, “The
yogi, who has arisen in the form of the empty
body deity, then sexually unites with these goddesses,
giving rise to the extraordinary, supreme, unchanging
bliss” (Mullin, 1991, p. 235).Here, his “empty
body” absorbs the “form bodies” of the goddesses,
so that these continue to exist within his interior
as energy currents or as a mystic venous system.
In the previous sections we have shown how the
real women (karma mudras) at a ganachakra are transformed
via a ritual sacrifice into spirit women (dakinis) so as to then continue
their existence as the maha mudra ("inner woman”)
in the body of the yogi. Adelheid Herrmann-Pfand
writes that “the dakinis (or ten shaktis)
are identified with the veins of the mystic yoga
physiology, so that the [yogi’s] body [becomes]
a horde of dakinis. The process of their union
is conceived as a union of these veins or, respectively,
of the energies circulating within them which
unite into a great current, ascend, and finally
pulse through the whole body. ... Through the
union with all dakinis one becomes the same as
all Buddhas” (Hermann-Pfand, 1992, pp. 400, 401).
In the image of the dasakaro vasi then, the ten
shaktis
(the ten mudras) flow together into
a single powerful female being, the so-called
“world woman”. We know her from the Kalachakra
Tantra under the name of Vishvamata, the goddess of
time. The various lines of the sign (dasakaro vasi) therefore symbolize,
strictly speaking, her mystic venous system which
is inserted into the empty body of the yogi or
ADI BUDDHA at the culmination of the tantric ritual,
becomes a part of his self and lies under his
control. The male tantra master is thus in possession
of a female energy body.
Breathing
We
must thus now ask what remains of him as a man?
Are the yogi and his male body made female and
transformed into the “great goddess”? No! As “empty”
as the tantra master may have made himself, he
would never relinquish his breathing. His breathing
is the absolute control instrument with which
he steers the incorporated “world woman” or the
“ten shaktis”.
A yogi who has mastered his breathing is said
to ride the energy wind. He possesses a “wind
or breath body”. Wind, air, and breath form a
unity in tantric terminology and praxis. For this
reason, and homologous to the ten shaktis or the ten veins of
the “world woman”, the dasakaro vasi are spoken of
in the Time Tantra as the ten “main winds”: “The
first eight winds correspond to the eight goddesses
(shakti) who surround the divine
couple, Kalachakra
and Vishvamata,
whilst the last two are linked to the center and
are associated with the goddess Vishvamata”
(Brauen, 1992, p. 55).
The final step in controlling the
winds is “holding the great breath”. With it,
the yogi dissolves the “world woman” in his imagination
into emptiness, that is, he exterminates her or
brings her to a standstill. But since he can recreate
her from nothing at any moment he is “lord over
her life and her death”. With her death the world
ends, with her creatio ex nihilo it arises
anew, then the wind energies of the yogi “are
endowed with special potencies that are capable
of shaping a new world”, as the Tibetan Kalachakra
interpreter Lodrö Tayé tells us (Tayé, 1995, p.
177).
Once the yogi has incorporated
the dasakaro
vasi, the world woman or the “ten powerful
goddesses” he has become the ADI BUDDHA, who now
possesses a bisexual “diamond body” (vajrakaya). The tantra researcher,
Alex Wayman, has described how the vajrakaya emerges from the
gender dynamics: “The fact that in each instance
the goddess is imagined as the initiator, or as
the female element behind the scenes, indicates
the initiations as the step-wise progress in the
solidification of the innate body of the tantras
... meaning the progress of that body to the pregenetic
androgyne state and then to the Clear Light” (Wayman,
1977, p. 69). European alchemy also has its vajrakaya,
the “glory body” which the adept receives in the
finale of the opus (the great work).
Let us summarize: according to
the teachings of the Kalachakra Tantra, the mystic
body of the ADI BUDDHA consists of ten main energy
channels. These correspond on a macrocosmic level
to the ten main energies from which all the forces
of our universe are derived. To move and lead
the individual energies, the ADI BUDDHA makes
use of above all his breathing. His energy body
is symbolically depicted as the dasakaro vasi.
An “etiology” of this sign leads
us to the ganachakra,
or the four last initiations of the Time Tantra.
The ten energy winds, which also go by the name
of the ten shaktis, correspond to the
ten karma
mudras who participate in the sexual magic
ritual. The dasakaro vasi is therefore
a further proof for the fundamental significance
of the “tantric female sacrifice” in Vajrayana Buddhism, since
the gynergy
of the ten tantric sexual partners is stolen in
the ganachakra and then integrated
into the mystic body of the yogi so that he can
obtain the androgynous diamond body of an ADI
BUDDHA with it. This body is the powerful instrument
through which he controls all the processes of
the universe.
The astral-temporal aspects
of the ADI BUDDHA
There is an occult correspondence
between the microcosmic body of the ADI BUDDHA
and the macrocosmic universe. In the Kalachakra
Tantra the term ADI BUDDHA encompasses both
the energy body of the practicing yogi or vajra master and the entire
universe with all its worlds and stars. The yogi,
the ADI BUDDHA, the tantra master, and the laws
of the universe are thus synonymous and form a
mystic unity. (We take the liberty of repeating
that this doctrine of magic correspondences is
absolutely essential to an understanding of tantric
logic and that, under the influence of our western/scientific
world view, we tend to forget this.)
Already, the story has it, when
the historical Buddha was explaining the Kalachakra Tantra to King
Suchandra for the first time,
he indicated that the entire universe was to be
found within his body. The map of the heavens
is similarly inscribed in his body. Sun, moon,
and stars are found not just outside, but also
within, the mystic body of the yogi (ADI BUDDHA).
It was thus that the conception could arise that
an enlightened tantra master could move the planets
through his internal energy winds. Consequently,
the rotation of the stars which we can observe
in the firmament is also an action of the winds.
“The wheel of stars, fixed at both poles [the
pole star], propelled by driving winds, rotates
untiringly”, it says in an astronomical fragment
from the Kalachakra Tantra (quoted
by Petri, 1966, p. 58). This driving wind is considered
to be “the cosmic breath” of the ADI BUDDHA. Since
the motion of the heavenly bodies proclaims the
time, the microcosmic “star body” of the tantra
master (ADI BUDDHA) is correspondingly a type
of time machine, a “cosmic clock”.
Since a universal drama (the fiery
ascent of the candali) is played out in
the energy body of the yogi, there must, according
to the doctrine of correspondences, be a matching
performance in the macrocosmic heavens. We now
wish to examine this spectacle in more detail:
the sun and moon play the main roles here, the
five planets have bit parts. Two further powerful
astral protagonists, unknown to us here in the
West, also take to the stage. They are called
Rahu and Kalagni. The zodiac and the
fixed stars initially remain in the audience,
but become caught up in the general whirlwind
of events at the end.
Sun—feminine
∙ Moon—masculine
The sun and moon correspond in
the Kalachakra
Tantra to the right and left energy channels
in the mystic body of the yogi respectively. Here
too, just as in tantric astrology, the sun is
considered feminine and linked to fire and menstrual
blood; the moon in contrast is masculine and corresponds
to water and semen. This homology is, as we have
already pointed out more than once, very unusual
in terms of cultural history, then traditionally
the moon is seen as feminine and the sun as masculine.
Perhaps we can grasp this symbolic
inconsistency better if we take a look at the
astral and elemental associations of fire and
water, sun and moon in the Indian cultural sphere.
In the Vedic era (1500–1000 B.C.E.) the symbolic
linkages were still classical: man = fire and
sun; woman = water and moon. The horse symbolism
at this stage central to religious life also reflected
this “classic” orientation: The stallion represented
the sun and the day, the mare the moon and the
night. The “sun stallion” symbolized the accumulation
of masculine power, the “moon mare” feminine power.
The latter was thus equated with the loss of male
power in the androcentric society and was considered
a symbol for castration anxieties.
In the Upanishads (800–600 B.C.E.)
fire continued to be regarded as a masculine element.
The man thrust his “fire penis” and his “fire
semen” into the “watery” cave of the female vagina.
(O'Flaherty, 1982, p. 55). Here too the feminine
was classified as inferior and harmful. The “way
of the sun” led to freedom from rebirth, the “way
of the moon” led to unwanted incarnation.
Even in the first century (C.E.),
the Puranas
(a collection of old Indian myths) employed the
fiery energy as a name for the semen virile. Yet at this
time the conception had already emerged that the
male seed ought to be assigned to the moon on
account of its pale color, while menstrual blood
should depict a solar energy. This idea then became
codified in Tantrism, of both the Hindu and Buddhist
form. For example, we can read in a shivaite text
that “the male semen represents the moon, the
female flux represents the sun, therefore the
Yogi with great care must combine the sun and
the moon in his own body” (O’Flaherty, 1982, p.
255).
The symbolic equipment of the Hindu
god Shiva
also provides a vivid example of this 180-degree
change in the sexual significance of the sun and
moon. Shiva wears the moon upon
his head as a crown, is mounted upon the animal
symbol of the great mother, the bull Nandi,
and has her midnight blue skin (like the goddess
Kali). He, the masculine god,
is also fitted out with emblems which were regarded
as feminine in the preceding cultural epochs.
In terms of religious history, the symbolic reinterpretation
of sun and moon probably takes effect in his appearance.
But why?
We have already indicated on a
number of occasions times that androcentric Tantrism
must be deeply rooted in matriarchal religious
concepts since it accords the universe a feminine
character, even if the yogi exercises universal
dominance at the end of the tantric ritual. This
could be the reason why the male seed is symbolically
linked to the moon. An androcentric claim to power
over the traditionally feminine is, namely, already
expressed in this association, before the whole
tantric initiation process is set in motion. The
most supreme masculine substance of all, the semen virile, reveals itself
in feminine guise in order to demonstrate its
omnipotence over both genders. Shiva
wears the moon crown to indicate that he has integrated
all the energies of the moon goddess in himself,
that is, he has become the commander of the moon
(and thereby of the feminine).
Naturally, we must now ask ourselves
what happens to the semen feminile and the menstrual
blood of the goddess. For reasons of symmetry,
these symbols are assigned to the sun and to fire.
But doesn’t the woman through this culturally
anomalous distribution now absorb the force and
power of the formerly masculine solar principle?
Not at all — then in the tantras the “feminine
sun” and “feminine fire” have obviously not taken
on the many positive characteristics which distinguished
the “masculine sun” and “masculine fire” in the
preceding cultural epochs in India. In the Kalachakra Tantra they are
no longer shining, warm, rational, and creative,
in contrast they represent deadly heat, pyromania,
flaming destructive frenzy, and irrationality
on all levels. The yogi does admittedly understand
how to deal skillfully with these negative feminine
fire energies, he even outright uses them to burn
up his coarse body and the universe, but they
are not thereby transformed into anything positive.
Whilst the tantra master — as we have shown —
survives as “pure spirit” the flaming adventure
of destruction in which his human body is exterminated,
in the end his “inner fire woman” (the autonomous
feminine principle) burns herself up and disappears
for good from the tantric activities. We must
thus distinguish between a destructive feminine sun and
a creative
masculine sun, just as we must draw a distinction
between the ruinous fire of the candali
and fire as a significant masculine symbol of
the Buddha’s power.
The ADI BUDDHA (Kalachakra
master) as the androgynous arch-sun
The association of the image of
the Buddha with sun and fire metaphors is, in
contrast to his links to moon and water symbols,
pervasive and is already attested in early Buddhism.
Buddha’s father, Suddhodana, was descended from
a “sun dynasty” and counted as a member of the
“sun race”. As a sign of his solar descent his
son bore images of the sun upon the soles of his
feet, a thousand-rayed wheel or a “hooked cross”
(the swastika is an ancient sun
symbol), for example. A sun-wheel adorns the back
of his “spiritual” throne.
In all cultures the lion represents
the “sun animal” par excellence; this is also
true of Buddhism. According to a well-known legend,
Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha roared like a lion upon
leaving his mother’s body. From then on he was
called the “lion of the house of Shakya”. After
the young Gautama had fled his palace in order
to follow the path of enlightenment, he also roared
“with the sound of a lion”: “Till I have seen
the farther shore of birth and death, I will never
enter again the city ...” (Joseph Campbell, 1973,
p. 265). How the gods rejoiced when they heard
this powerful “leonine voice”. Joseph Campbell,
a researcher of myths, comments upon this significant
moment in world history in the following words:
“The adventure had begun that was to shape the
civilization of the larger portion of human race
The lion roar, the sound of the solar spirit,
the principle of the pure light of the mind, unafraid
of its own force, had broken forth in the night
of stars. And as the sun, rising, sending forth
its rays, scatters both the terrors und the raptures
of the night: as the lion roar, sending its warning
out across the teeming animal plane, scatters
the marvelously beautiful gazelles in fear: so
that lion roar of the one who had thus come gave
warning of a lion pounce of light to come.” (Joseph
Campbell, 1962, 265)
Both in Mahayana Buddhism which followed
and later in Tantrism this solar apotheosis of
the Buddha is strictly maintained and even extended.
The sun metaphors lie at the center of the Kalachakra
Tantra too. The time god has a “body like
the Sun”, it says there (Newman, 1987, pp. 225,
326). Kalachakra is particularly
often spoken of as the “daymaker sun” (Newman,
1987, p. 243). He is the lord of the “three hundred
and sixty solar days” (Newman, 1987, p. 454) and
sits upon a “vajra lion throne”. His believers
worship him as “the splendid lion of the Sakyas”
(Newman, 1987, p. 243). In a commentary upon the
Time Tantra we can read that “Kalachakra
is in all three worlds as the sun,
which is the image of time” (Banerjee, 1959, p.
133).
When the universal regal power
of the Buddha needs to be illustrated, then the
sun symbols step back out into the limelight in
Tantrism as well. The images of the moon, which
are of such great significance in the mystic body
of the yogi, now in the very same texts play second
fiddle, or sometimes count as emblems of negativity.
Hence the Kalachakra researcher Günter
Grönbold places the “solar” descent of the historical
Buddha in direct contrast to the lunar sphere:
“The dynasty of the sun stands, as the reader
is aware, for the principle of the unadulterated
light. The light of
the sun is pure. The light of the moon
in contrast has its share of darkness. Moreover,
the light of the sun is eternal, whilst the light
of the moon, which waxes and wanes in the counterplay
with its own darkness, is mortal and immortal
at the same time” (Grönbold, 1969, p. 38). That
such a sudden “heliolatry” can be only poorly
squared with the logic of tantric physiology,
in which the masculine principle is represented
by the moon and the feminine by the sun, is also
apparent to several commentators upon the Kalachakra Tantra. Therefore,
so that no doubts can arise about the solar superiority
of the male time god, these authors have degraded
the time goddess, Vishvamata,
who according the tantric understanding of the
body possesses a solar nature, as follows: She
“represents not the sun itself, but the sun's
effect of daily cycles [hours]" (Mullin, 1991,
p. 273). She thus symbolizes a “small feminine
sun” which is overshadowed by the “great masculine
sun” of the ADI BUDDHA.
Fundamentally it must be said that
in the Kalachakra
Tantra the androgynous ADI BUDDHA unites fire
and water, sun and moon within himself — but nevertheless
in the final instance he lets himself be glorified
as an androcentric arch-sun, so as to demonstrate
the masculine light’s primacy in comparison to
the darkness. The sun symbol is therefore of a
far greater radius than the natural sun. It integrates
within itself all the light metaphors of the universe.
In a description by Herbert Guenther the highest
Buddha (ADI BUDDHA) appears “as if the light of
the sun were to fall into an ocean of vermilion;
as if the luster of all the suns in the universe
were to gather in a single sun; as if a golden
altar were rising higher and higher in the sky;
... as it fills the sky with its rays of light
as if all the suns in the universe had become
a single sun” (quoted by Guenther, 1966, p. 101).
The reader should never lose sight of the fact
that the ADI BUDDHA, and hence the arch-sun, is
identical with the mystic body of the initiated
yogi.
Rahu—the swallower of sun
and moon
In Greek mythology the union of
sun (Helios)
and moon (Selene) is celebrated as a
mystic marriage, as the collapse of opposites.
We can also find such statements in the Kalachakra school, but here
the Hieros
Gamos is a marriage of death, brought about
by a terrible existence by the name of Rahu,
which we now wish to examine in more detail.
In Tibetan astronomy and astrology
(which are not distinguished from one another)
two further planets with the names of Rahu and Ketu are to be found alongside
the seven wandering stars (the sun, moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). Seen from an
astronomical point of view we are not dealing
with real heavenly bodies here, but rather with
the ascendant and descendant lunar nodes, that
is, the two points at which the moon’s orbit intersects
the ecliptic (the path of the sun). These are
also known in the occident as the “dragon’s head”
and the “ dragon’s tail”, or together as the “
dragon points”. When, at times which can be determined
astronomically, the moon passes through such an
orbital node (or syzygy), then an eclipse can
occur: when the moon is full a lunar eclipse,
and with a new moon a solar eclipse.
Rahu – the Kalachakra demon of darkness
Both types of eclipse gave rise
to the belief in the minds of the Indian astronomers
that a gigantic planet swallowed the relevant
heavenly orb. Since the shadow of the moon which
obscures the sun during a solar eclipse is always
pitch black, one of the imaginary planets, Rahu (which consumes the sun),
is also black. In lunar eclipses the shadow of
the earth appears to have a colored border and
the moon becomes copper red, and hence the other
planet, Ketu (which consumes the moon),
is described as being colorful. Nonetheless, in
the Kalachakra Tantra Ketu remains
largely in the background and all the events associated
with it (the lunar eclipses) are transferred to
Rahu. Thus Rahu appears here as the swallower
of the sun and the moon.
Let us now take a closer look at
the mythical origin of the dark demon (Rahu). In old Indian tales
Rahu
storms across the heavens in a dark chariot drawn
by eight black horses as swift as thought itself.
He pursues the orbs of sun and moon, snapping
at their heels with his huge jaws. In another
version of the myth, however, only Rahu’s
head still exists floating above the firmament,
having been severed by Indra, the sun god, as the
dark demon tried to steal the vital drink of the
gods. Nonetheless, this decapitation did not hinder
him from continuing to fly through the heavens
and swallowing the sun and moon. It is just that
these now passed through him unharmed and soon
reappeared, freed from the lower end of his throat.
In astronomical terms this process signifies the
end of the solar or lunar eclipse respectively.
Rahu plays such a prominent role in the philosophy
of the Kalachakra
Tantra that according to Helmut Hoffmann the
events associated with him form a “darkness theology”
of their own (Hoffmann, 1964, p. 128). The epithets
of the dark demon alone have much to say about
his psychology and proclaim his comprehensive
mythic program. He is known, among other things,
as the “enemy of the moon, subduer of the moon,
darkling, flesh-devourer, lion’s son, the roarer,
but also [as the] lightgiver of the heavenly paradise”
(Petri, 1966, p. 141). He is also called “dragon”,
“snake”, “eclipser”, and “lord of the darkness”.
In the Hevajra
Tantra it is still said that it is solely
the consciousness of the yogi which brings the
sun and moon under control. But in the Kalachakra Tantra, the Vajra master in league with
Rahu
pronounces the sentence of destruction over
the two heavenly bodies. It becomes the task of
the “darkling” (Rahu) to destroy the two shining
orbs as autonomous forces, that is, to bring the
masculine and feminine energies to a standstill.
The destruction of the gender polarity
appears — as we have seen — as a necessary stage
along the road to power in every tantric ritual.
The final goal is first reached by that initiand,
“by whom the ways of the sun and the moon are
completely destroyed” (Grönbold, 1969, p. 74),
as a text from the Sadhanga
Yoga says, and the famous tantra master Saraha
requires that: “Where motility and intentionality
are not operative / And where neither sun nor
moon appear, / There, you fools, let mind relax
restfully” (Guenther, 1976, pp. 69-70). Since
the sun and moon both indicate the time, their
exterminator
Rahu is also described as “free from time”
(Wayman, 1973, p. 163).
Likewise, in the Kalachakra Tantra the middle
energy channel within the yogi’s body (avadhuti), which draws the
right-hand, solar and left-hand, lunar energy
currents into itself and thereby shuts them down
as independent forces, is equated with Rahu
which indeed also destroys the sun and moon. The
avadhuti therefore bears its
name and is called “Rahu’s channel” (Wayman, 1973,
p. 163). In reference to the “lord of the darkness”
the middle channel is also known as the “leading
channel of the darkness” (Naropa, 1994, p. 272).
Its association with the bodily
geography of the yogi also brings the planetary
demon into contact with the mystic heat. Accordingly,
Rahu, the swallower of the
shining orbs, blazes as an “androgyne fire” in
the Tantric’s body (Wayman, 1983, p. 616). “Hence
also when one reaches the androgyne as fire in
the middle the sun and the moon will disappear”
(Wayman, 1983, p. 616), The relationship of this
fire symbolism to the candali, who is conceived
of as purely fe |