***as per the previous assignment***

"3. Select one verse--or set of verses-- from Saraha's iTreasury or couplets (i.e., Roger Jackson's Tantric Treasures, pp. 53-116). Discuss issues this verse (or verse set) raises in light of points raised in the course readings thus far. Pretend as though you are writing to a reader who is as smart as you are, but completely uninformed about tantric ideas. How would you explain this verse (or verse set) in a way that makes the issues it raises intelligible to this audience?

Because your reader doesn't know anything about Buddhist tantra, you'll need to provide a certain amount of background information--but you don't want to overwhelm your reader with details that are irrelevant to the specific themes invoked in and by the passage you've selected. So you'll need to work to strike a balance: your reader will need enough information, clearly presented, to appreciate the issues raised by the verse (or verse set)-- but not so much information that the reader loses sight of these issues."

41--        The single seed of everything

                is mind, where

                existence and nirvana both arise;

 

                bow down to it—

                like a magic jewel,

it grants the things you wish.

 

42a         Grasp the mind

                as being like space;

               

as naturally spacious

grasp the mind to be.

 

When thought has turned

into nonthought,

 

you’ll gain thereby

unsurpassed awakening.

 

These verses may seem deeply steeped in mystery, and they are, but they may also illuminate the transformations that allow realizations of existence’s ultimate and fundamental nature, along with providing an image of nondual reality.

A quick introduction to the verses’ author would likely be helpful, as understanding the climate and culture from which they stem is one tumbler in the lock that opens the door of integration into one’s ontology. Saraha is described in Roger Jackson’s introduction as a “mahasiddha  (great adept, or great perfected one, ‘siddha’ for short).” Along with his fellows he acted as a point of spiritual inspiration during a period of great change in Indian society when the divisions between spiritual ascension and kingly ascension became quite blurred.  Possibly disillusioned with the strict ritualism of monastic living, he boldly displayed his “criticism of the status-quo… and celebration of a mystical ecstasy attainable through the human body and the grace of a guru” (Jackson, 4). In fact, the first dozen or so couplets, in Saraha’s Treasury, simi-systematically criticize many of the common spiritual practices of his day.

Siddhas like Saraha weren’t satisfied with big words that led to more big words but little active or passive transformation. Instead they chose to live and teach non-conventional spiritual paths intended “to transform all pleasures into the transcendental experience of deep penetrative awareness.” And beyond, as they worked ‘to transform all [experiences] …’ Saraha, undoubtedly, “emphasized that it is much more effective for human beings to enjoy themselves and channel the energy of their enjoyment into a quick and powerful path to fulfillment and enlightenment;” (Yeshe, 17) even stating “if enjoying things intently doesn’t free you… how can consciousness be free?” (Jackson, 63).

As Roger brought up, guru devotion was a significant part of Siddha teachings, and Saraha was no different, saying: “the guru’s teaching tastes ambrosial; fail to drink it right up, you’ll die of thirst in the desert of variant texts and meanings” (Jackson, 84). Saraha’s guru eludes quick deduction though, possibly owing to his emphasis on non-duality, but appears to be mind itself, which he declares “the single seed of everything,” instructing us to “bow down to it—“ as we might our beloved guru. Then he describes it as a “magic jewel” capable of granting “the things you wish.” When we look closer (or maybe at a bit of a distance) we can see the truth in those statements. Mind is what we perceive irrelevant of stimulating factors. Our mental state is what we label ‘samsara’ or ‘nirvana.’ We can see this in our own experience. When we wake refreshed, calm and ready for whatever the day brings; when the day shines bright but doesn’t blind, and every sight, scent, sound, touch and taste brings a subtle electrification, like the sensation of a slumbering limb, that pulses through the body; we might call that state ‘heaven’ or ‘nirvana.’ But when we wake exhausted, with a sense of disconnection from all that passes before us, when even thoughts are met with aversion, we might call that state ‘hell.’ It’s suffering one way or another, and it’s experienced in the same world, amongst the same people, as the pleasant day. What changed? Nothing changed except our perception; our mental state. Okay, but how can mind itself be a guru? Well, what do we bow to when we bow to a guru? It’s the guru’s mind, that something we suppose for one reason or another to be something worth understanding. And why do we seek understanding of the guru’s mind? Is not the goal to understand our own experience? When we release control and bow before a ‘greater mind’ we gain a third-person perspective of our internal mindscape. This, in light of the guru’s lessons, can illuminate our hidden motivations and behaviors. And when mind itself is the guru, any lesson is the guru’s and could be given the same credence as those uttered by Buddha.

So often our limited sense of self-worth prompts us to look externally for examples of a desirously ‘greater mind,’ but as with examples of nirvana and hell, we need not always look further than our own internal mental processes to find examples of ‘greater mind’ that can be realized quicker, given their internal origin. In order to bring this about though, we need to remember that our world consists of both an outer sphere perceived through the senses and an inner sphere where dreams are born and raised. In order to transform our internal worlds we must enter them. Once inside, we need to have the fortitude to do some spring cleaning, and “any tendency we have towards indecision and fear is a symptom of our dualistic mind, the mind that churns out… ‘I hope I look good but I’m afraid I look bad.’” Upon early entries into the inner realm, we may experience the mirror image of ‘The Mind Distracted Outward’ that “sometimes seems… is running in every direction…” as a barrage of thoughts that seem to come from every direction (Yeshe, 35-35). We may be inclined to attach to self-identity and consider those thoughts ‘ours’ but “by contemplating our stream of consciousness in meditation we can be led naturally to [the] spacious experience of nonduality. As we observe our thoughts carefully we will notice that they arise, abide, and disappear themselves” (Yeshe, 71). As we allow our consciousness to flow without the damming effects of rumination, our inner sphere of illumination expands, and greater understanding can come about, a kind of seeing the forest from the clearing; where the trees are dualistic concepts like small and big and the clearing is the residence of all gurus.

Saraha says “Grasp the mind as being like space… as naturally spacious…” A good analogy to spaciousness would be inclusivity; meaning the spacious mind is one that includes within itself more and more and contains each new addition in balance with all that came before. The spacious mind doesn’t cling to one concept while rejecting its opposite or intermediate alternatives. Instead, it allows room for us to move amongst the possibilities and poles of dualistic thinking; which in turn allows us to “know the in-between completely.” And when we do, Saraha says we “cancel the sea of confusion” (Jackson, 68). To run with the water simile, we might see our early attempts at internal movement as a white water rafting excursion where the raft of a guru’s lessons aid our safe passage among the rocks of ‘ordinary appearances.’ As we enter into a mind-space of increasing inclusivity we might be likened to sailors on ‘the sea of confusion’ where we integrate the ‘variant texts and meanings’ into a nondual perspective of the fundamental nature of reality. When we enter into such a state we might be likened to oceanic explorers expanding the spiritual cartographer’s sense of the landscape. Practicing and developing this kind of internal third-person observation of our mental processes can help us “repeatedly cut through our confused dualistic concepts and abide undistractedly in the underlying clarity of our essential mind” (Yeshe, 76) where ‘thought… [turns] into nonthought.’ As the ‘variant texts and meanings’ resolve into “the vast expanse of the blue sky or blue ocean” (Yeshe, 78) our practice becomes more like a clarity feedback loop, making it easier and easier to “Grasp the mind as being like space” and to grasp its “naturally spacious” nature. This clarity then provides the foundation for the practice of the ‘higher yogas’ such as yidam and mandala visualizations where our physical form is perceptually interwoven with actualized beings and cosmic energy conduits until a clear realization of “the culmination and fulfillment of all practices” (Ray, 261) becomes an internal and external reality and we “gain thereby unsurpassed awakening.” That is, we gain the flowering of the ‘single seed of everything:’ our potential.

 

 

 

Bibliography[1]

 

Jackson, Roger R. Tantric Treasures Three Collections of Mystical Verse from Buddhist India. New York: Oxford UP, USA, 2004.

Ray, Reginald A. Secret of the Vajra World The Tantirc Buddhism of Tibet. Boston: Shambhala, 2001.

Yeshe, Lama, Jonathan Landaw, and Philip Glass. Introduction to Tantra The Transformation of Desire. Minneapolis: Wisdom Publications, 2001.

 

Self-proclaimed

novices, monks and elders,

 

these dress-up

friars and ascetics!

 

Some sit writing comments

on the sutras,

 

others seek

to dry up intellect.

 

---Saraha

 

 

REL 300

STUDIES IN RELIGION: TANTRIC BUDDHISM

Spring 2009

TuTh 9:30-10:45 am / BH 247

 

Instructor:  Richard Nance

Office: SY 201

Hours: Tu 2:30-4:30 pm

Email: rfnance@indiana.edu

Office phone: 855-6159

 

THIRD ESSAY ASSIGNMENT—DUE MAY 5 (NOON) IN SY 201 OR VIA EMAIL

 

In a typed (11 or 12 point font), well-written essay of 5-7 double-spaced pages, please answer one of the following question sets. Please read over your work carefully before giving it to me. Your finished paper should be as free from spelling and grammatical errors as you’re able to make it; errors in spelling and grammar will impact your grade. While you're welcome—and encouraged—to discuss your thoughts with fellow students, the work of writing this paper falls to each of you alone: the paper you submit must be your own. Once again, let me remind you of the zero-tolerance policy concerning plagiarism in this course. (For more on this policy, please refer to the syllabus.)

 

In your essay, you'll be expected to support substantive claims with evidence and argument, drawing judiciously from the assigned readings. Quoted material must be (a) in quotation marks, and (b) properly cited (i.e., given in a way that allows me to locate the passage you’re citing in the source text you have used—make sure to provide page numbers). Please bear in mind that citing a wealth of textual passages isn’t sufficient to show me that you actually understand the material you choose to cite. In order to do well on this assignment, you'll need to show evidence that you can make sense of this material; simply quoting what others have said doesn’t provide that evidence.

 

The page limit noted above is suggested but not required. If you think that you can clearly and completely answer one of the question sets below in fewer than five pages, you're free to try. You're also free to exceed seven pages if you feel that it's necessary. Note, however, that a short paper that offers ungrounded assertions en route to a slapdash conclusion will not be judged successful—nor will an essay that has clearly been padded with useless or irrelevant filler in an attempt to make it appear longer. Remember: the point of this assignment is not to produce a 5-7 page paper, but to produce a seamless, well-written, carefully argued essay that answers a specific set of questions.

 

Please give your finished essay a descriptive title, and note explicitly which question set you've chosen to answer.  If you want to receive detailed comments on your work, you should submit a hard copy of the paper accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope; please affix two stamps to the envelope to ensure sufficient postage. All papers that are not accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope will simply be assigned a letter grade. (You're welcome to submit your work via email attachment if you wish, but written comments will not be returned on emailed submissions.)

 

Questions:

 

1. Tantric practitioners often insist that their teachings should be kept secret. Various explanations are offered for this secrecy; at times, explanations offered by scholars within the tradition diverge from explanations offered by scholars outside it. What are some of the ways in which the issue of secrecy is raised in (or in relation to) tantric texts? Why might these texts—and/or the communities in which the texts are used—insist on the importance of keeping their teachings secret?  In answering these questions, you should consider how secrecy is traditionally discussed and justified (on which see Ray and Yeshe), as well as the ways in which traditional explanations of the nature and function of secrecy are complicated (or bolstered, or challenged) by Davidson's discussion of tantric secrecy and by Luhrmann's comparative data on communities of magicians in the U.K.  

 

2. Miranda Shaw has recently argued that in Indian Buddhist tantric literature, "men are portrayed not as dominators of women but as supplicants, lovers, and spiritual sons and brothers."[1] Tantric texts, on Shaw's reading, advance "an ideal of cooperative, mutually liberative relationships between women and men."[2] Begin by considering these claims in light of the portion of the Caṇḍamahāroṣanatantra you have read. What passages in the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa might plausibly be seen as lending support to Shaw's position? What passages in the text might plausibly be seen as challenging her reading? Once you have done this, widen your focus to encompass additional readings from this semester that discuss tantric attitudes toward gender and sexuality. Does this widening of focus render Shaw's claims above more plausible, or less so? Is her position convincing to you? Why or why not?

 

3. In "The Cult of Ecstasy: Tantrism, the New Age, and the Spiritual Logic of Late Capitalism," Hugh Urban writes that "there is an intimate relationship between the recent fascination with Tantrism and the current socioeconomic situation of the West" (p. 270), and that "Tantrism could be said to represent the quintessential religion for late twentieth-century consumer capitalist society" (p. 271, emphasis original). How does Urban justify these claims?  What specific features of tantric practice, in his view, suggest that such practice is exceptionally well-suited to what he calls "late capitalism"? Are there aspects of tantric practice—or of modern consumer society—that Urban misrepresents or ignores in the service of making his argument? If so, what are they, and how might attention to them impact his conclusions? If not, what does Urban's argument imply about contemporary interest in tantric Buddhism—including your own?