Chinese and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism
Robert H. Sharf! University of California, Berkeley!
Esoteric!Buddhist!Influence!on!the!Emergence!of!Chan!in!Eight-Century!China!
There!has!been!considerable!debate!of!late!concerning!how!to!characterize!Esoteric! Buddhism! in! China:! was! it! a! self-conscious! religious! movement! that! innovated! in! terms!of!doctrine!and!soteriology,!and!that!saw!itself!as!superseding!earlier!Buddhist! teachings?! Or! is! it! better! viewed! as! a! new! ritual! technology! that,! rather! than!
supplanting!existing!Mah"y"na!doctrine!and!ideology,!simply!supplemented!it?!This! paper! will! take! a! somewhat! different! approach! to! the! issue,! exploring! features! of! early! Chan! that! were! arguably! influenced! by! the! arrival! of! the! eighth-century! Esoteric! teachers! #ubhakarasi$ha! (Shanwuwei;! 637-735),! Vajrabodhi!
(Jin'gangzhi ^I^JW, 671-741), and Amoghavajra (Bukong 705-774). I will focus on three topics about which one might theorize direct influence. First, was the early Chan notion of a lineal "patriarchal" transmission influenced by the arrival of Esoteric rituals and texts that foregrounded Indian notions of abhi%eka and master¬disciple initiatory succession (guru-&i%ya parampar")? Second, did the Esoteric use of ma'(alas and "altar rites" (tanfa 8^) contribute to the understanding of the initiatory "platforms" mentioned in, for example, Huineng's "Platform Sutra" and Shenhui's ## "Platform Sermon" (Nanyang heshang dunjiao jietuo chanmen shiliaoxing tanyu (Note that the Chinese
sometimes used the single term tan to refer to ordination platforms, abhi%eka altars, and ma'(alas, leading to some confusion.) Third, did Esoteric teachings, such as those found in the Sarva-tath"gata-tattva-sa$graha, contribute to early Chan theories of the naturally luminous mind, inherent enlightenment, sudden awakening, or awakening in this very body? These are all complex topics, and the sources do not always allow us to determine clear lines of influence. Nevertheless, the correspondences are suggestive, and may reveal something about the nature and influence of Esoteric Buddhism in East Asia that has not yet been fully appreciated.
Meir!Shahar
Tel!Aviv!University!&!IIAS!
The!Tantric!Origins!of!the!Horse!King:!Hayagr"va!and!the!Chinese!Horse!Cult!
This!essay!examines!the!Tantric!manifestation!of!Avalokite&vara!as!a!Horse-Headed! divinity.!!The! equine! Bodhisattva! was! revealed! to! his! Chinese! devotees! in! esoteric! Buddhist! scriptures! that! were! translated! from! the! Sanskrit! during! the! Tang! Period! (618-907).!!The!Tantric!manuals!featured!a!wealth!of!information!on!the!divine!steed,! which!was!referred!to!as!Hayagr)va.!I!argue!that!the!mythology!and!iconography!of! the! Horse-Headed! Bodhisattva! have! had! a! decisive! impact! upon! the! Chinese! pantheon! of! divinities.! ! Hayagr)va! is! the! ultimate! ancestor! of! the! Horse! King! (Mawang)! whose! cult! has! been! widespread! in! Daoist! circles! and! in! the! popular! religion! all! through! the! late-imperial! period.! ! In! this! respect! the! equine! Avalokite&vara! illustrates! the! long-term! impact! of! Tantric! Buddhism! upon! the! Chinese!imagination!of!divinity.!!!!
Vincent Durand-Dast&s
INALCO, Centre d'etudes chinoises, Equipe ASIEs, Paris
Esoteric!Buddhism,!Violence!and!Salvation!in!Ming-Qing!Vernacular!Novels!
It is by now a rather well-established fact that esoteric Buddhism's influence in shaping the Chinese imaginations of love and death should not be neglected. As mizongs' contribution to late imperial erotic narratives has been relatively well explored, thanks to the works of scholars like Shen Weirong, our paper will be more concerned by Thanatos than by Eros. As early as 1996, the late Michel Strickmann gave us an interesting lead about the relationship between esoteric Buddhism and sanctified violence in his book “Mantras et mandarins”:
“In the works of fiction depicting the martial epics of gods and daemons, some fictional characters have without doubt a tantric background, and it is possible to hear in those narratives distinct echoes from the tantric mythology of conquest. The first specialist of Buddhism who will venture into this field will certainly make some astounding discoveries .”
Our paper tries to follow some of the directions Strickmann pointed to in exploring violence-related features in Chinese novels that may be linked to esoteric Buddhism : first, it will explore the rich meaning attached to the figure of the multi-faced and multi-armed warrior (A^AWW), directly borrowed from the esoteric pantheon. Then, it will try to find out to what extent the figure of the strategical maze (zhen of many military novels could have been modeled after the mandala. Turning then to the consequences of violence, the paper will eventually analyse the role played by the Shuilu ritual in a significant number of Ming and Qing vernacular novels.
This “feast of the spirits”, that Strickmann deemed to be the most constantly performed ritual of tantric inspiration in Chinese religions, plays an interesting structural role in the novels. Appearing generally at the end or more rarely at the beginning of the story, the Shuilu scene both soothes the victims and brings forgiveness to their heroic murderers, allowing the narrative to reach a satisfactory morally and literary conclusion.
Jacob!P.!Dalton
University of California, Berkeley!
Observations!on!The!!rya-tattvasa"graha-s#dhanop#yik#!and!its!Commentary!
from!Dunhuang!
The! Dunhuang! archive! includes! several! manuscript! copies! of! an! apparently! then- popular! Tibetan! s"dhana! based! on! the! Sarvatath"gata-tattvasa#graha.! ! A! nearly complete! copy! of! the! s"dhana! may! be! reconstructed! by! cobbling! together! these incomplete!manuscripts.!!The!resulting!$rya-tattvasa#graha-s"dhanop"yik"!appears to! be! an! imperial-period! Tibetan! translation! from! an! Indic! original! that! provides valuable!insights!into!the!early!development!of!this!crucial!tantric!ritual!system.!The present! paper! will! begin! by! reviewing! the! available! materials! and! their! possible
provenance,!before!turning!to!the!contents!of!the!s"dhana!themselves.!The!paper!will
also!look!to!an!extensive!commentary!to!this!same!s"dhana,!also!from!Dunhuang,!a commentary! that! provides! numerous! clarifications! and! insights! into! early! Tibetan tantric!practice.!
Yael!Bentor
The!Hebrew!University!of!Jerusalem!&!IIAS!
Conflicting!Positions!over!the!Interpretation!of!the!Body!Ma#$ala!
My!starting!point!is!the!Ocean!of!Attainments,!in!Tibetan!the!Bskyed!rim!dngos!grub! rgya! mtsho,! a! treatise! on! the! creation! stage! of! the! Guhyasam"ja,! by! one! of! Tsongkhapa's!important!disciples,!Mkhas!grub!rje!Dge!legs!dpal!bzang!(1385-1438).! Though!this!work!is!widely!known!to!be!a!polemical!composition,!my!purpose!is!not!
to!study!polemics!for!their!own!sake,!but!rather!to!use!them!to!better!comprehend!the! way! the! tantric! traditions! in! Tibet! crystallized! during! the! twelfth! to! fifteenth! centuries.! ! This! was! the! epoch! of! the! systematization! of! Buddhist! thought! and! practice! in! Tibet,! the! peak! of! exegetical! writing! activity,! when! Tibetan! scholarship!
developed!its!own!styles!of!Tibetan!Buddhism!within!the!frameworks!of!a!number!of! schools.!!The!purpose!of!my!studies!is!to!understand!the!factors!that!stimulated!the!
creation!of!systems!of!thought,!specifically!in!the!area!of!Tantric!Buddhism.!!In!this! paper! I! will! stress! how! dynamic! these! debates! were.!!Though! nowadays! it! is! not! uncommon!to!encounter!live!debates!over!frozen!positions!held!by!one's!monastery,! during!the!formative!era!of!Tibetan!Buddhism,!scholars!who!participated!in!debates!
influenced!each!other,!and!the!issues!that!were!discussed!evolved!and!transformed!in! the!process.!
Jampa!Samten!
Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath,!Varanasi!
The!Secret!Signs!(Chommaka)!as!Described!in!the!Sa$varodaya!and!other!
Buddhist!Higher!Yoga!Tantras!
In! response! to! the! fifteenth! question,! out! of! about! forty! questions! asked! by! bodhisattva! Vajrapa'i! in! the! Sa%varodayatantra,! the! signs! (Chommaka)! of! communication! between! the! Yogi! and! Yogini! are! described! in! detail! in! the! ninth! chapter.!The!Tantric!Yogi!with!high!realizations!passes!through!various!tantric!p&'ha!
and!upap&'ha,!seeking!an!appropriate!Yogini-!female!consort!who!ought!to!belong!to! the! same! divine! family! for! swiftly! attaining! higher! accomplishments.! They! communicate!in!secret!signs,!the!Chommaka.!The!reason!as!! Sa%varodayatantra!states:!
ath"ta(!sa%k)epato!vak)ye!v"mahastan!tu!cchomakam/!
yena vijnayate *&ghra% siddhi( prajayate/ !Laghusa%varatantra!states:!!
athata(!sarvasa%vare)u!chommakana!vak)ye/! !yo!janati!tattvena!sa!siddhyati/!!
To! paraphrase:! In! order! to! conceal! and! protect! the! tantric! pledges! from!#r"vakas! (Hearers)!and!other!people!who!have!no!faith!in!Tantric!Teachings,!the!Chommaka! were! explained.! The! signs! are! of! two! types,! the! physical! gesture! and! syllabic! representation.! The! Yogini! willing! to! confer! her! favor! upon! the! Yogi! conveys! her! intent!in!signs.!The!Yogi!should!respond!in!sign!and!please!her!so!as!to!get!her!favor! and!accomplishment.!!
The!word!'chommaka'!is!spelled!differently!in!various!texts!such!as!choma,!chomma,! cchomaka!and!their!etymologies!is!not!found!in!any!of!the!Prak+ta,!Ardhamagadh&!
and!Buddhist!Sanskrit!dictionaries.!However,!in!the!Buddhist!tantric!literature,!it!is! used! as! a! synonym! of! sa%keta,! meaning! 'signs'.! In! the! 24th! chapter! of! the! non- Buddhist!Gorak)asa%hita!entitled!'chomasa%vacalak)anam',!choma!is!described!as!a! divine!language.!!
This!paper!intends!to!discuss!the!significance!and!application!of!the!signs!as! described!in!Buddhist!Higher!Yoga!Tantra!literature.!
Sudan!Shakya!
Shuchiin University, Kyoto!
U%#"%avijay&!in!the!Esoteric!Buddhist!Texts!
U%')%avijay" (Tib. gtsug tor rnam par rgyal ma, Ch. AJMWM) is popularly known as a female deity of longevity. This three-faced eight-armed deity is categorized as a member of the Vairocana family, and is closely associated with caitya. She is said to be a deification of the U),&)avijay"dh"ra,&, which is recited on Wednesday in Nepal as it is counted as one of the dh"ra')s of the Saptav"ra, a group of seven different dh"ra')s.
In the S"dhanam"la (B. Bhattacharyya ed.), three different s"dhanas are recorded related to U%')%avijay", while the Tibetan Tripi*aka (bsTen 'gyur) lists five works. Again, in Nepalese Buddhism, there exits Nepal-original Buddhist rites called ‘Ja$ku', performed to celebrate the long-life for three times at the age of 77, 88 and 99. The G+ham"t+k"-ma'(ala, Vasudh"r"-ma'(ala, U%')%"vijay"-ma'(ala are the three ma'(alas used respectably for the rites. And, all these ma'(alas are elaborated in the Ac"ryakriy"samuccaya,!the esoteric ritual text compiled by Jagaddarpa'a (also known as Darpa'"c"rya flourished in between 12-13CE). The chapter called ‘U%')%avijay"p"thavidhi' contained in this ritual compendium gives the details of an eight-spoked U%')%avijay"-ma'dala, presided by U%')%avijay" deity. Interestingly, since these rites are still practiced in the present Newar Buddhist community of Nepal, there exit Sanskrit-Newari texts for the U%')%avijay"-rite as well.
Focusing on the sources preserved in the above-mentioned Sanskrit, Tibetan and Sanskrit-Newari media, this paper will discuss on the role and appearance of U%')%avijay" deity in the esoteric Buddhist texts.
Carmen!Meinhert
Ruhr!University,!Bochum!
Localisation!of!the!Tantric!Deity!Vajrav&r&h"!in!the!Tangut!Empire!(12th!c.)!
Tantric!Buddhism!played!a!pivotal!role!in!the!religious!and!political!centers!of!Tibet! and!of!the!various!empires!along!the!borders!of!and!on!Chinese!soil!(Tangut,!Mongol,
Manchu)!in!the!second!millennium!AD.!However,!important!formative!developments! took! place! in! the! periphery! of! those! empires,! namely! in! multi-ethnic! Central! Asian! oases!around!the!turn!of!the!first!millennium.!!!
As! Tantric! Buddhism! spread! throughout! Eastern! Central! Asia! around! and! after! the! turn! of! the! first! millennium,! Tantric! ritual! texts! were! translated! and/or! transmitted! into!various!languages.!The!Tangut!Empire!(982-1226)!played!a!crucial!role!in!the! very!first!transmission!of!Tantric!materials!from!Tibetan!into!Chinese.!In!fact,!textual! and!visual!evidences,!which!hint!to!a!strong!presence!of!Tantric!communities!in!the!
Tangut!Empire,!are!among!the!manuscript!findings!from!Khara!Khoto!dating!around! the! 12th! century.! Among! these,! several! Tangut! and! Chinese! Khara! Khoto! manuscripts!are!dedicated!to!the!female!deity!Vajrav"r"h):!it!is!one!of!the!most!well! documented! transmissions! of! Tibetan! Tantric! traditions! in! the! Tangut! Empire! and! much!in!line!with!the!spirit!of!the!time!came!to!enjoy!a!particular!local!popularity.!!
This!paper!aims!to!investigate!the!transmission!lineages!of!Vajrav"r"h)!rituals!in!the! Tangut! Empire,! provide! textual! examples! from! Chinese! manuscripts! and! circumscribe! the! context! that! enabled! the! transmission! of! these! rituals! in! order! to! illuminate!an!important!step!in!the!larger!transmission!processes!of!Tibetan!Tantric! teachings!to!the!Sinitic!world.!!
Yang!Fuxue!
Dunhuang!Research!Academy,!Lanzhou,!Gansu!
Tibetan!Buddhism!among!the!Uighurs!
The!Uighurs!began!to!contact!with!Tibetan!Buddhism!extensively!since!the!middle!of! the! ninth! century.! In! the! Mongol! Empire,! Tibetan! Buddhism! was! prevailing! and! a! large! number! of! practicing! Tibetan! Buddhist! monks! emerged! among! the! Uighurs.! Some! of! them! resumed! secular! lives! after! their! monkhood,! among! whom,! some! became!a!member!of!the!ruling!class!of!Yuan!government,!replaced!their!emperor!as! monks,!participated!in!the!National!Buddhist!management!as!a!senior!monk!officials! and!more!acted!as!translators!to!help!emperors!to!contact!and!communicate!with!the! Mongolia! aristocrats! and! Tibet! lamas.! Considering! the! Uighur! manuscripts! from! Dunhuang!and!Turpan!and!other!places,!a!considerable!number!of!Tibetan!Buddhist! scriptures were translated into Uighur, such as S&t"tapatr"dh"r"n&
), Arya-T"r"-buddha- m"trikarimsati-p-ga-stotra
- )) ), Mahju*ns"dhana ( ), Avalokite*vara S"dhana
), Tisastvustik (((+^^^^5)) ), Sri-cakrasamvara
^$O) , $rya R"j"vav"daka( O4^^l'°l^))) and so on. Om Mani Badme hum, the Dh"r"n) prevalent in Tibetan Buddhism was also being spread among the Uighurs. Recently, the eighty-four siddhases of Tibetan Buddhism were found in the Uighur murals of Yuan Dynasty in Turpan. All the above shows the great influence of Tibetan Buddhism on Uighur.
Leonard!van!der!Kujip!
Harvard!University,!Cambridge!
Text-Critical!and!Philosophical!Concerns!in!an!Indian!Tantric-
Buddhist!!Commentary!by!Bhavyak"rti!or!Bhavya!(ca.!1000!AD)!
!!!!!!!!!!!! Though! many! of! their! salient! aspects! have! yet! to! be! worked! out! systematically,!it!is!well-known!that!a!number!of!synopses!of!and!commentaries!on! the!highly!esoteric!tantric!literature!written!by!Indian!Buddhists!from!circa!the!late! seventh!or!early!eighth!century!to!the!twelfth!century!reflect!the!kind!of!theoretical! concerns!and!approaches!to!their!subject-matter!that!we!normally!expect!to!encounter! in! exegeses! of! more! exoteric! literary! contributions,! such! as! *"stra-treatises! on! phenomenology! (abhidharma),! analytical! philosophy,! and! logic! (madhyamaka,! yog"c"ra,! pram",a),! and! the! like.! Indeed,! aside! from! the! general! focus! of! these! writings!on!esoteric!Buddhist!literature,!there!is!really!nothing!else!that!distinguishes! them! from! the! latter! in! terms! of! method! and! the! tacit! and!occasionally! more! overt!
applications!of!what!are!recognizably!quite!rational!criteria.!We!may!thus!tentatively! call!these!concerns!and!intellectual!practices!"scholastic"!and!consider!them!to!be!an! absolutely! vital! component! of! what! has! been! designated! "vajray"na!scholasticism"! and!"institutional!esotericism."!
In!this!talk,!I!will!first!examine!the!available!information!on!the!late!tenth!or! early!eleventh!century!Bhavyak)rti!or!Bhavya,!a!largely!neglected!but,!in!my!view,!a! very!interesting!exponent!of!these!aforementioned!practices.!I!then!turn!to!his!large! commentary! of! the! study! of! the! Guhyasam"jatantra! that! was! written! by! the! early! tenth! century! Candrak)rti.!! After! some! considerations! of! the! sources! that! he! used! while!writing!his!work,!I!will!consider!a!very!interesting!passage!in!the!first!chapter! of!his!work!where!he!discusses!a!number!of!philosophical!issues!that!bear!on!what! we! might! call! philosophical! anthropology.! In! the! long! passage! in! question,! he! addresses!some!of!the!ideas!of!six!non-Buddhist!and!four!Indian!Buddhist!schools!of! thought.!!
Eran!Laish
The!Hebrew!University!of!Jerusalem!&!IIAS!
Perception,!Body!and!Selfhood:!The!Transformation!of!Embodiment!in!the!
Togal Practice of the "Heart Essence" Tradition
The!effects!of!contemplative!practices!on!the!external!and!internal!dimensions!of! the! human! being! were! richly! described! by! numerous! Buddhist! traditions.! For! example,! the! major! and! minor! marks! attributed! to! the! Buddha! signified! the! close! connection! between! the! experiential! state! of! liberation! and! visible! bodily! signs.! As!
such,!the!Tantric!recurring!theme!of!gaining!an!ability!to!control!the!elements!which! constitute!the!external!world!and!the!physical!body!is!a!natural!continuation!of!well! established!motifs!in!the!Buddhist!doctrine.!One!of!the!most!explicit!expressions!of! thi
s! theme! is! found! in! the! visionary! process! that! serves! as! the! core! of! the! "Leap! Over"! (Tib.! Thod! rgal)! practice! of! the! Tibetan! "Heart! Essence"! (Tib.! sNying! thig)! tradition,!which!is! one! of! the! main! strands! of! "The! Great! Perfection"! (Tib.! rDzogs! chen).! According! to! this! tradition,! the! culminating! process! of! liberation! unfolds! through! four! visionary! stages! that! involve! radical! transformation! of! the! perceptual! field!and!the!somatic!selfhood!of!the!practitioner.!
In!my!presentation!I!plan!to!discuss!the!visionary!process!initiated!by!the!"Leap! Over"!practices!and!its!implications!on!the!actual!experience!of!liberation.!To!begin!
with,!I!will!introduce!the!key!points!of!these!practices!and!the!manner!through!which! they!integrate!the!principle!of!non-duality!with!structured!manipulations!of!body!and! perception.! Following! this,! the! four! stages! of! visionary! transformation! will! be! addressed! along! with! their! accompanying! perceptual,! somatic! and! affective! expressions.!Finally,!I!will!consider!the!doctrinal!meanings!of!the!visionary!process,! as!it!indicates!the!essential!place!of!an!embodied!transformation!in!the!realization!of! a!liberated!mode!of!being.!
Dorji!Wangchuk!
University of Hamburg
The!Philosophy!of!the!*Guhyagarbhatantra!
According to the *Guhyagarbhatantra, which is arguably the most important Tantric scripture of the Ancient (rNying-ma) School of Tibetan Buddhism, the Buddha had taught five kinds of vehicles or soterical ways (y"na:! theg! pa), namely, *Devamanu%yay"na, (2) #r"vakay"na, (3) Pratyekabuddhay"na, (4) Bodhisattvay"na, and (5) *Niruttaray"na (i.e. Mantray"na/Vajray"na), the first four considered “Causal Vehicles” and the latter one “Resultant Vehicle.” The *Guhyagarbhatantra, of course, sees itself as teaching the doctrine or philosophy of the fifth and final vehicle. According to the dKon! mchog! 'grel, which is perhaps the earliest full-fledged autochthonous Tibetan commentary on the
- Guhyagarbhatantra, all the inconceivable number of vehicles can be subsumed under the five philosophical tenets (siddh"nta:!grub!pa'i!mtha'), namely, those of the (1) Yog"c"ra and Yog"c"ra- Madhyamaka, (2) Vaibh"%ika, Sautr"ntika, and Sautr"ntika-Madhyamaka, (3) Kriy"tantra, Cary"tantra, and Outer Yoga, (4) Mah"yoga, and (5) *Guhyagarbhatantra. The philosophical system of the *Guhyagarbhatantra is considered there a “special kind of Mah"y"nic system” (theg!pa!chen!po!thun!mong! ma!yin!pa'i!gzhung), “system of the special Mah"y"na” (theg!pa!chen!po!thun!mong! ma! yin! pa'i! tshul), “the system of those who maintain the indivisibility of the two modes of truth/reality”
(bden!pa!rnam!pa!gnyis!dbyer!med!par!'dod!pa'i!gzhung), or, explicitly as the Sarvadharm"prati%*h"nav"da (Chos-thams-cad-rab-tu-mi-gnas-par- smra-ba). But what is that which is said to make the philosophical system of the *Guhyagarbhatantra!special?
In this paper, an attempt will be made to show that it has been considered special for five reasons, namely, on account of special kind of (a) ontology (i.e. here “theory of being or true reality”), (b) gnoseology (i.e. here “theory of liberating insight”), (c) epistemology (i.e. “theory of knowledge”), (d) soteriology (i.e. here “theory of being or becoming free from sa$s"ric bondage”), (e) what I now describe as the psychology of sentient beings, (f) axiology (i.e. here as “theory of values, mainly of ethical-spiritual values”), (g) Buddhology (i.e. “theory about the Body, Speech, Mind, Qualities, and Activities of the Buddha or a buddha), and (h) eschatology (i.e. here “Buddhist theory of the final destiny of the world and its inhabitants, and of Buddha's teachings”). By doing so, I wish to present what may be called the special philosophy of the *Guhyagarbhatantra.
Li!Ling!
National Museum of China, Beijing & IIAS
Nobuyoshi!Yamabe!
Tokyo University of Agriculture
Possible!Esoteric!Elements!in!Qumtura!Cave!75:!
A!Reexamination!of!Paintings!and!Inscriptions!through!Digital!Restoration!
Qumtura Cave 75, which may have been a memorial or meditation cave from the Uighur period (9th century), is a small cave far from the center of this cave site. On its rear wall, we see a painting of the front view of a meditating monk sitting under a tree. Lines extend from the bowl in his hands to the five or six destinies painted around him. This painting very likely shows visionary images seen by a practitioner. The key to interpreting this unique and interesting painting is the lengthy Chinese inscription at the bottom of the wall. Unfortunately, this inscription is now badly faded and is almost illegible. Two scholars have presented hypothetical interpretations of its content based on earlier transcriptions. Since neither of them could confirm their readings against the original inscription, however, their arguments remain inconclusive. In collaboration with Xinjiang Qiuci Academy and the Kucha County Cultural Bureau, I have tried to digitally restore this faded inscription. In this paper, I present the results of this restoration and suggest a more solid interpretation of the inscription and painting based on the restored image. Close examination of the inscription suggests that it has some connection to Esoteric Buddhism. In addition, I investigate two sa$s"racakras on the left wall of this cave in comparison with Tibetan paintings on the same motif and discuss possible ties between Qumtura Cave 75 and Tibetan traditions.
Yan!Yaozhong
Fudan!University,!Shanghai!!
Israel!Institute!of!Advanced!Studies!
Shen Weirong
Renmin!University,!Beijing
A Comparative Study of Three Chinese Translations of!!
The%Hevajra%Tantra%in Song, Xixia, and Ming!
Recently,! I! discovered! two! Chinese! translations! of!the!Hevajratantra,! which! were! translated in Xixia (1032-1227) and Ming (1368-1644) respectively. Entitled
the first is included in a rare collection of Tantric ritual texts that was rescued, in the 1920s, by the prominent late Qing scholar Luo Zhenyu from the endangered Qing court archives. The title of the text can be traced back to Kye'i! rdo!rje! mkha'!'gro!ma! dra!ba'i! sdom! pa! bsdus! pa!gsang! ba! chen!po'i! rgyud, one of the Tibetan translations of!the!Hevajratantra. The second one entitled is It was discovered among the rare book collections of
the Chinese National Library in Beijing. It is the second part of the commentary of Kyai! rdo! rje! rtsa! rgyud! brtag! gnyis! that was written by the Yuan Imperial Preceptor 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1235-1280). Through these two discoveries we now know that there were actually at least three Chinese translations of the Hevajratantra. The earliest Chinese translation of the Hevajratantra entitled -S was made by Dharmap"la, who was one of the most
prominent translators of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1125).
Since Song translations of Buddhist tantras were mostly inaccurate, and full of additions and deletions, thus often not understandable at all, they did not have much impact on Chinese Buddhism of the Song dynasty. To the contrary, Tibetan tantric Buddhism penetrated deeply into the heart of Tangut kingdom of Xixia. Tantric Buddhism became a very dominant factor in the Buddhist history of the Tangut kingdom. All major tantras along with their commentaries were translated either into Tangut or Chinese during that period. With the discovery of the Xixia translation of the Hevajratantra we are certain now that all three major tantras of the Yogin)tantras, namely the Hevajra-, Cakrasa#vara- and Sa#pu'atantras, were all translated into Chinese or Tangut. The translation and transmission of all these Yogin)tantras during the Tangut times forms a new chapter in the history of Chinese esoteric Buddhism. These have been totally ignored so far and can be the subject of a fruitful research project. Tibetan tantric Buddhism was dominant and popular continuously both in Yuan and Ming dynasties. Even more Tibetan tantric Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese at the early time of the Ming. After I conducted a preliminary comparative study of all three translations of the Hevajratantra, I came to the following conclusions: 1) the Song translation is so inaccurate and fallacious that it mostly does not make any sense and cannot at all be understood without consulting either its Sanskrit original or its Tibetan translation; 2) both the Xixia and Ming translations of the Hevajratantra are of an excellent quality. While the Xixia translation stays loyal word for word to its Tibetan original, its Ming counterpart is written in a much more elegant and stylish Chinese; 3) the discovery of two translations of the Hevajratantra from the Xixia and Ming periods demonstrates the consistency of the penetration of Tibetan tantric Buddhism into the Chinese Buddhist world from the Tangut kingdom of Xixia to the Han Chinese dynasty of the Ming.
Hou!Haoran
Leipzig University!
The!Homavidhi Section in!the Sa#pu'a-tantra: A Critical Study of Its Sanskrit
,
Tibetan!and!Tangut!Versions!
In 1991, Chinese scholars recovered more than 30 precious Tangut documents from a square pagoda in the valley Baisigou of the Helan Mountain of Ningxia. The major part of these documents belongs to the Buddhist scriptures, which are present both in Tangut and Chinese. Among all of them, the best-preserved one is a translation from Tibetan into Tangut with the title rendered into Chinese as Jixia!bianzhi!kouhe!benxu (Tib: dPal!kun!tu!kha!sbyor!zhes!bya!ba'i!rgyud!kyi!rgyal!po). The Tangut colophon reveals that the text is translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the Tibetan translator 'Gos Lo-tsa-ba Khug-pa lha-brtsas in the presence of the Indian Pa'(ita Gayadhara (d.1103) and subsequently retranslated from Tibetan into Tangut by a Tangut monk official the Vice-commissoner Piputifu. The translation by 'Gos khug pa lha brtsas cannot be found anywhere else and nowadays the extant Tibetan translation of the Sa#pu'a-tantra with the title Yang!dag!par!sbyor!ba!zhes!bya!ba'i!
rgyud!chen!po (T,hoku No. 381) is executed by the same Indian Pa'(ita Gayadhara and the Tibetan translator 'Brog-mi Lo-tsa-ba Shakya Ye-shes (993-1077?). Known from the other Tangut scriptures unearthed from the pagoda, the monk Piputifu also translated three commentary and explanatory texts belonging to the corpus of the Sa#pu'a-tantra. The colophons show that these three supplements are presumably associated with the son and disciple of rNgog Chos kyi rdo-rje (1036-1097), namely rNgog Zhe-sdang rdo-rje of the rNgog transmission of the Mar-pa bKa'-brgyud tradition. The texts should at the earliest be put at the disposal of researchers and scholars. In recent years, several interesting and important studies have been produced on this topic, which provided the foundation of the present study. As far as we know, no one has covered, compared and analyzed all these trilingual scriptures; however, the lacunae should be urgently filled. For this reason, the Homavidhi! section of the Sa#pu'a-tantra has been selected as the subject of this paper. By employing four Newari manuscripts, the speaker will present a critical edition of the Sanskrit text, followed by a Tibetan critical edition based on the Peking, sDe-dge and sTog Palace editions of the bKa'-'gyur. In light of four Tibetan commentaries, I intend to make an annotated translation of the Tangut Homavidhi!section.
Henrik H. S0rensen
Copenhagen!Seminar!of!Buddhist!Studies
Esoteric!Buddhism!as!Reflected!
in!the!Early!Chinese!Sources!
The!purpose!of!this!paper!is!to!discuss!the!nature!of!the!phenomena,!which!—for!lack!
of better terms— may be referred to as ‘Esoteric Buddhism (Ch. mijiao W-M).' This
form of Mah"y"na can be characterized by its focus on spells and incantations, the
application of a wide range of magic methods, including certain transgressive acts, as
well as an overwhelming and over-all concern with ritual practices. Here I will
concentrate on the manner in which Esoteric Buddhism is formulated and
represented in the Chinese Buddhist sources from the Nanbeichao period
(317-581), and seek to come up with a viable model showing how Esoteric Buddhism rose and developed as a distinct form of Buddhist practice, not only in China but also in India.
Charles!D.!Orzech
School of Critical Studies
University of Glasgow
Tantric!Subjects:!Liturgy!and!Vision!in!Chinese!Esoteric!Ritual!Manuals!
In this paper I first argue that there are important similarities between abhi%eka found in high Tang esoteric manuals and in ordination practices. Second, I suggest that the visions in esoteric s"dhanas have much in common with earlier Buddhist visionary practices. Finally, drawing on recent work on the creation of ritual subjects in traditional Christian liturgy, I suggest that the “visualizations” found in Chinese ritual manuals can be understood as part of a liturgical performance that produces publicly accessible subjects.
Lin!Peiying!
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem!
Meditation!and!Precepts!in!'ubh&karasi(ha's!(637-735)!“Elements!of!
Meditation”!(Wuwei!sanzang!chanyao):!A!Comparative!Approach”!
This paper looks into the interesting precept-conferral procedure in #ubh"karasi$ha's “Elements of Meditation” (Ch. Wuwei sanzang chanyao
WM, T. 917, 18: 942b-46a): repentance, proclamation of vows, dh"ra') recitation, and meditation. An Esoteric practitioner must go through all the above steps so as to receive effective Bodhisattva precepts. Or, alternatively, as the title of the text suggests, the purpose was rather an initiation for approved meditation. In either case, each step of the procedure represents an important function for practice, just as #ubh"karasi$ha explained in the text.
These steps comprise important components in his Esoteric praxis, in which the theme of “purification of the mind” is at the center. This set of procedure, however, was not necessarily exclusive to Esoteric teachings in eighth-century China. !
In seeking a better understanding of #ubh"karasi$ha's perceptions in relation to contemporaneous Chinese Buddhism, this paper investigates other eighth century texts of similar contents, including: a.) the “Five Skillful Means of Mah"y"na” (Ch. Dasheng wu fangbian” T. 2834, 85: 1273a-8b),
which is allegedly attributed to Shenxiu (606-706); b.) Amoghavajra's (705-74) “Conferment of Bodhicitta Precept” (Ch. Shou putixin jieyi” T. 915,
18: 940b-1b); c.) Zhanran's (711-82) “Bodhisattva Precept Conferral” (Ch. Shou pusa jieyi X. 1086, 59: 354b-7a).
In comparing the text in question with the others, one finds similarities between Tiantai, early Chan and Esoteric Buddhism. The notions of “pure precepts” and “purified meditation” played essential roles in the precept conferral ceremony in all the mentioned texts. A comparison of these texts indicate a rather fluid religious environment in eighth century China where different branches of Buddhist communities share much doctrines in common assectarian boundaries impede us to see. !
Dan!Martin
Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem!
Crazy!Wisdom!in!Moderation!
Padampa SangyS's Counterintuitive Methods of Dealing with Negative Mental
States
Some people have problems with Buddhism being identified with psychology, while others have problems with it being anything else. While I count myself among the former, my assertion is that, whatever Buddhism is as a whole, it indubitably includes a great deal of what we would today call psychology. In this paper we will bring focus to a particular Indian Vajray"na Buddhist teacher in Tibet, Padampa Sangye, his Peacemaking school, and his approaches to dealing with mental states deemed counterproductive to the aims of human life according to Buddhist ideals. We then zero in on a particular (and perhaps particularly mysterious) counterintuitive therapeutic method he calls by the rare term gya-log, supplying examples of its literary and (so far as possible) practical deployment. This remarkable evidence gives pause to reflect on such phenomena as psychological projection and even transference, as well as what might with good reason be called reverse!psychology. I suppose the more general question might be this: Are we going to let our psychological (Freudian, Jungian etc.) assumptions rule our ideas about Buddhism, or will we admit that Buddhist psychology can have consequences for our own ways of thinking about our own mental events? The now-familiar master! discourse (or rather discourse!of!mastery) theme seems to get turned on its head, or is it just turning somersaults? Who do we think we are, after all?
Penpa!Dorjee!
Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi!
The!Spread!of!Tantra!in!Tibet:!Doubts!and!Facts!
The spread of Tantra in Tibet encountered many difficulties. From the very start, people were skeptical as to its suitability for Tibetan culture. The two specific incidents, in which Vairocana and Namkha'i Nyingpo were expelled, are evidence of how the practice of Tantra was received in Tibet at that time. Sgra! sbyor! bam! po! gnyis!pa gives us additional proof of doubts regarding the Tantra, and which resulted in restrictions that were imposed on translating Tantra texts into the Tibetan language in the 9th century AD.
Later, Atisha's clear objection to conferring and/or receiving the two higher initiations by a monk (bhikshu), echoes his reservation. He categorically refutes the idea by writing the two following works, Bodhipathaprad&pa written while he was in Tibet, and Ratnakara,/akodgha'ane-Mah"y"na-Upade*a written when he was in India.
This paper is a study of the historical background of the spread of Tantra in Tibet, the doubts raised by great scholars on Tantra practice in Tibet, how the Tibetans adopted Tantra practice for their own purposes, and lastly the textual facts on the intermingling of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Tantra.
Gazang Jiacheng
The Research of Classics of Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Studies
Interpretation of An%Overview%of%Tantra by Bu Ston Rin Chen Grub
Institute of World Religions
Chinese Academy of Social Science
Generally speaking, classics of Buddhism are divided into classics of Hinayana and classics of Mahayana, and classics of Mahayana can be further divided into classics of Exotoric Buddhism of Cause Vehicle and classics of Tantras of Result Vehicle. Classics of Tantras have been attached great importance and been specifically studied in the field of classics of Buddhism, especially in that of Tibetan Buddhism, which are of great philological value.
Classics of Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Studies are the classics that specifically study on Buddhist Tantras. Taking An!Overview!of!Tantra written by the eminent monk of Tibetan Buddhism—Bu Ston Rin Chen Grub as example, this book is composed of six parts as introduction, the merits of Tantras, the classification of Tantras, the origin of Tantras, the definition of Tantras and conclusion, which gives a systematic and comprehensive elaboration of the history, contents and functions of Buddhist Tantras. This article will make a deep analysis, by taking An!Overview!of!Tantra as example of the theoretical meanings and academic value of classics of Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Studies.
Hou Chong
Shanghai Normal University
On!Dali!Tantric!Buddhism!Belongs!to!Chinese!Tantric!Buddhism
!!Which!system!does!Dali!tantric!Buddhism!belong!to?!There!are!basically!four!kinds! of! views,! namely! India,! Tibet,! Han! and! Local! Integrated.! Public! opinions! are! divergent.
!!The!author!of!this!paper!is!inclined!to!that!Dali!Tantric!Buddhism!belongs!to!Han! Tantric,!Dali!Tantric!is!Han!Tantric!Buddhism!spread!in!Yunnan!area.At!least!three! credible!evidences!can!prove!it.!
!!!!Firstly,! some! Buddhism! ritual! texts! of! Dali! Kingdom! such! as! Guangshi! wuzhe! daochangy i Wuzhe dengshi fahuiyi (^M'^^fe^R)are similar
with Jingangjunjing (^BJ^^) only found in Dunhuangyishu (^M^^) , and all of them are Yankoushishiyi of Han Tantric esoteric Buddhism
formed!in!the!Han!area!after!tantric!Buddhism!spread!to!China!in!Tang!Dynasty.
!!!!Secondly,! Buddhist! inscriptions! caved! on! the! Dharani! Sutra! pillar! in! Dizang! temple!of!Kunming!,!belong!to!Han!Tantric!Buddhism.!
Thirdly, Scriptures of Dali and Dunhuang can be used in Shuilufahui OKMfe ^) , the biggest Buddhist rite in Han Buddhism.
Megan!Bryson
Department of Religious Studies
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Between!China!and!Tibet:!Mah&k&la!Worship!and!Esoteric!Buddhism!in!the!
Dali!Kingdom!!
The Dali kingdom (937-1253) ruled an area encompassing modern-day Yunnan Province, along with parts of modern-day Sichuan, Guizhou, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. Its position near or next to Southeast Asia, India, Tibet, and Song China potentially places it within a transnational Buddhist network. Rulers of the preceding Nanzhao kingdom (ca. 649-903) formed alliances with both Tibet and Tang China, which suggests frequent interactions with those two regions. However, extant sources from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms reveal that their ruling elites looked primarily to the Buddhist texts of Tang and Song China rather than other traditions. This orientation is particularly striking in the Dali-kingdom cult of the esoteric Buddhist god Mah"k"la. By this period Mah"k"la had become an important deity in Tibetan Buddhism, while his cult appears to have been relatively limited in Song China. One would expect Dali-kingdom Mah"k"la worship to draw on Tibetan, rather than Chinese, materials. However, neither texts nor images of Mah"k"la from the Dali kingdom show evidence of Tibetan influence. The three texts from the Dali kingdom that mention Mah"k"la (and which have only been found in Dali) clearly use Chinese materials as their models and sources. Images of Mah"k"la follow Indian iconographies, but are stylistically Chinese. In this paper I use texts and images of Mah"k"la from the Dali kingdom to argue that Dali-kingdom rulers adopted most of their Buddhist tradition from China, but represented it as Indian because of India's authoritative status as the source of Buddhism. Mah"k"la's Indian appearance and relative obscurity in Tang-Song Buddhism allowed Dali rulers to claim him as a distinctive guardian of their kingdom. Despite Tibet's proximity to Dali, the longer history of Chinese outposts in the region and the greater allure of India as the Buddha's birthplace meant that Dali Buddhists did not seek either textual or symbolic sources there. This locates the esoteric Buddhism of the Dali kingdom closer to esoteric Buddhism in Tang-Song China and Japan than to the tantric Buddhism of Tibet. Studies of esoteric Buddhist texts and art from the Dali kingdom can greatly enrich our understanding of esoteric Buddhism in China from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, as well as the nature of regional Buddhist networks between China and Tibet.
Ester!Bianchi
University of Perugia
“Tibetan%Buddhism%Fever”%in%China:%Continuities%and%Discontinuities%
The Case of Nenghai fW’s Legacy in the Contemporary Era
In nowadays PRC, it is possible to see Han Chinese devotees offering Tibetan scarfs or hatas to their Han Chinese master, or to encounter monks and lay Buddhists prostrating themselves before a stupa!in Tibetan style, as well as others taking part in rituals officiated by a Tibetan lama together with Tibetan people. Similarly, inside Buddhist temples or lay people's houses it is likely to come across statues, images and religious objects in Tibetan style placed next to others in Chinese style, or to see mantras belonging to Tibetan tantric practices written in Chinese script on walls, bells and talismans. All this is clear evidence of a second wave of interest in Tibetan tantric teachings and practices shown by Han Chinese people.
As it is well known, a first wave of this phenomenon, took place during the first half of the 19th century, when a number of Chinese Buddhists began to go on pilgrimage to Tibet in search of the (Tibetan) dharma; as a result, during the 1930s and 1940s translations and commentaries of Tibetan tantric practices and texts were explicitly compiled for Han Chinese practitioners. As for the Gelugpa! tradition, the monk Nenghai fW (1886-1967), significantly called the “Chinese lama”, is generally regarded as one of its most significant representatives. In the present study, I shall make an attempt to evaluate Nenghai's legacy at the beginning of the 20th century, particularly focusing on Zhimin (1927-)'s vajra monasteries, seen against the background of the general context of the contemporary “Tibetan Buddhism fever”.
Fabienne Jagou,
Ecole frangaise d'Extreme-Orient, Paris
Today's Taiwanese Hagiographies of Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Masters:
A Search for Legitimacy
From the 60s to today, Tibetan Buddhism enjoys a rapid development in Taiwan. Chinese lay Buddhists were pioneers before Tibetan masters were officially invited to teach esoteric Buddhism there. Some of these Chinese lay Buddhists collected and edited Tibetan teachings. Others decided to follow the example of their Tibetan masters and began to transmit the teachings they have received. One of them was Shen Shuwen H'J'rZ. She was one of the few I can trace from that period. She studied Tibetan Buddhism with Gangs dkar Rinpoche (Gongga qutu-tu
H , 1893!1957), a Tibetan master from the Tibetan Khams province when she was in Mainland China. In 1958, she went to Taiwan where she began to teach Buddhism and transmit Tibetan esoteric initiation. These two factual biographical informations could already be discussed and, in this paper, I will analyze the writings of her biographies and hagiographies to explore how she told her story and how her disciples wrote it to allege her legitimacy to teach Tibetan Buddhism esoteric teachings.
