Daimonic Imagination:
Uncanny Intelligence
Edited by
Angela Voss and William Rowlandson
Daimonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence,
Edited by Angela Voss and William Rowlandson
This book first published 2013
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Copyright © 2013 by Angela Voss and William Rowlandson and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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ISBN (10): 1-4438-4726-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4726-1
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
C. G. JUNG, TIBETAN TANTRA
AND THE GREAT GODDESS:
AN EXPLORATION OF SACRED ENTITIES
AND ARCHETYPES
JUDSON DAVIS
There are moments in the lives of nearly all human beings in which
everyday human perception gives way to encounters with miraculous
phenomena that cannot readily be explained. Often these experiences—
which may arise through the presence of discarnate entities, the emergence
of spontaneous visions or intuitions, or through powerful, transformative
dreams—leave a profound and lasting effect. It was just this kind of
miraculous encounter that was experienced by the author in Tibet back in
1996, an experience that is given a heightened sense of meaning when
examined through the lens of Jungian depth psychology and Tibetan
Buddhist Tantra.
The event in question occurred whilst I was travelling as part of a small,
overland expedition that had left the capital of Lhasa en route to the ancient
city of Kathmandu, Nepal. One evening, whilst sleeping at Rongbuk
Monastery near the base of Mount Everest, I awoke in the middle of the
night and instinctively found myself drawn up a neighbouring hillside
where, upon reaching the top, I encountered the undeniable presence of an
utterly vast feminine entity that seemed to blanket the sky above. Her being
exuded tremendous power, depth, and sensitivity, and at that moment I felt
that my mother might have passed away and that her expanded spirit was
now visiting me. However, when I put this question to the sky I received no
reply, and later I would learn that indeed my mother was still alive, which
draped this profound experience in mystery. What, then, was this immense
and unfathomable entity, and how, though invisible, was she able to exude
such power?
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
293
A few days later we arrived in Kathmandu, and the next day, while
strolling through the side streets of this medieval metropolis, I came upon an
image that immediately captured my attention. The image was of a female
figure, clearly presented in the context of veneration and surrounded by a host
of exotic and esoteric figures. At the time I was not well versed in the
pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist deities and religious icons, and so I was not
immediately attuned to the fact that this mysterious and alluring female
presence, with her air of serenity and deep green colouring, was the Goddess
Tara, accompanied by her cohorts and astral attendants. This specific
identification would come to me at a later date; all I knew then, after first
setting my eyes on her, was that she must return home with me. For more
than a year prior to my return to the States she lay peacefully rolled up and
stored away in my apartment in Kyoto, Japan. It was not until I returned to
California that she was carefully framed and subsequently began to assume a
distinct visual presence in my living space. However, a deeper appreciation of
her essential meaning—in a broader religious context and in my own personal
existence— remained largely beyond my conscious awareness.
Jungian depth psychology and Tibetan Buddhist Tantra
Some years later while in graduate school I became simultaneously exposed to
the work of C. G. Jung and the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism, with their
mutual focus on the sacred feminine. Jung, for example, placed great emphasis
on the importance of actively embracing the natural world in a deeply
spiritual and mythological framework,1 and in this context he viewed nature
as the ultimate manifestation of the archetypal Goddess. One of Jung’s
contemporaries, Erich Neumann, outlined the meaning of the sacred
feminine—and its prominent correlation to the Goddess Tara—as follows:
The archetypal feminine in man unfolds like mankind itself. At the
beginning stands the primeval goddess, resting in the materiality of her
elementary character, knowing nothing but the secret of her womb; at the
end is Tara, in her left hand the opening lotus blossom of psychic flowering,
her right hand held out toward the world in a gesture of giving. Her eyes are
half closed, and in her meditation she turns toward the outward as well as
the inner world: an eternal image of the redeeming female spirit. Both
together form the unity of the Great Goddess, who, in the totality of her
unfolding, fills the world from its lowest elementary phase, to its supreme
spiritual transformation.2
1
2
See Jung 1963.
Neumann 1983: 334-335.
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
294
Within the context of the archetypal feminine, Tara can be viewed as
belonging to a broader group of female embodiments of wisdom and divine
power in Tibetan Buddhism that include the dakini, which “has been
sometimes compared in the West with Jung’s concept of one of the major
archetypes, the anima.”3 The correlation of Tibetan feminine archetypes
with the anima exists as an important component in this study, because “in
the male-oriented Western world the concept of anima, as the feminine
counterpart of the masculine psyche, and the proper integration of the two
aspects, is crucial to the psychological balance of the individual and the
culture.”4 Marie Louise von Franz further exemplified the fundamental
importance of the anima as follows: “Vital is the role that the anima plays
in putting a man’s mind in tune with the right values and […] opening the
way into more profound inner depths […]. The anima takes on the role of
guide, or mediator, to the world within and to the Self.” 5 The role that the
sacred feminine plays in the process of spiritual development was further
outlined by Nathan Katz: “The inspiration of the anima or the dakini is a
call for one to look inward. As such, she is the link between the conscious
and unconscious. In appearing to consciousness, the anima calls its attention
to what has remained hidden; she is the door to the unconscious.” 6
Indeed, one of the most prominent archetypal figures in this process is
the Goddess Tara, who exemplifies compassion, enlightened activity, and
the fundamental qualities of a saviouress. Furthermore, she is “is revered as
the mother of all buddhas. Tara, in her essence, symbolises the totally
developed wisdom that transcends reason.”7 In Jungian terms, she
“represents the mother archetype […] she is the image of the mother who
has integrated in herself all the opposites, positive and negative.” 8 This
notion of the reconciliation of opposites represents a primary element in
both Tibetan Buddhism and Jungian psychology, and a fundamental
principle in both traditions is the fostering of one’s true nature through the
process of creative visualisation. Although there exists a conspicuous
differentiation between the Jungian “Self” and the Buddhist “no-self” (and
its attendant precept of “no-God”), in Tibetan tantra meditations and rituals
centred upon the visualisation of deities such as Tara play an important role
in this process:
3
Moacanin: 63.
Moacanin: 64-65.
5
Von Franz: 193.
6
Katz: 322.
7
Moacanin: 63.
8
Moacanin: 63.
4
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
295
Even though the notion of no-Self (Skt. anatma) is a central tenet of
Buddhism, the Buddhist tantric path conceives that our potential for
wholeness is personified in the symbolic form of a deity […] The deity in
Tantra is understood as a gateway or bridge between two aspects of reality
[…] In Buddhism we speak of ‘relative truth,’ the world of appearances and
forms, and ‘ultimate truth,’ the empty, spacious, non-dual nature of reality
[…] The deity stands on the threshold as the potential for creative
manifestation.9
Tara and other such archetypal deities are often depicted within the context
of a mandala, a universal form that Jung came to see as the ultimate
symbolic expression of psychic wholeness: “The mandala is an archetypal
image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the
wholeness of the self. The circular image represents the wholeness of the
psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man
[…] which spontaneously arises in the mind as a representation of the
struggle and reconciliation of opposites.10 He later explained:
It seems to me beyond question that these Eastern symbols originated in
dreams and visions, and were not invented by some Mahayana church father.
On the contrary, they are among the oldest religious symbols of humanity […]
and may even have existed in Paleolithic times […] The mandalas used in
ceremonial are of great significance because their centers usually contain one
of the highest religious figures: either Shiva himself—often in the embrace of
Shakti—or the Buddha, Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, or one of the great
Mahayana teachers, or simply the dorje, symbol of all the divine forces
together, whether creative or destructive.11
This passage emphasises the role that mythic imagery and sacred symbols
play in spiritual development, and indeed both Jungian psychology and
Tibetan tantra stress that such imagery arises in conjunction with the
developmental stages that accompany spiritual growth. Tenzin Wangyal
Rinpoche expressed this notion in the following statement: “The underlying
truth is that these teachings arise spontaneously from humans when they
reach a certain point in their individual development. The teachings are
inherent in the foundational wisdom that any culture can eventually access.
They are not only Buddhist or Bon teachings; they are teachings for all
humans”.12 So, even in Buddhism, in which one’s true
9
Preece: 38-39.
Jung 1963: 334-335.
11
Jung 1974: 170-172
12
Wangyal: 71
10
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
296
nature is understood as lacking any inherent existence, mythic imagery and
entities (e.g., Buddha Sakyamuni, Avalokitesvara and Tara) are employed
in tantric methodologies as a creative means of furthering one’s spiritual
development. According to Lama Yeshe, this is done with the understanding
that the deity we choose to identify with represents the essential qualities of
the fully awakened experience latent within us. To use the language of
psychology, such a deity is an archetype of our own deepest nature, our most
profound level of consciousness. In tantra we focus our attention upon such
an archetypal image and identify with it in order to arouse the deepest, most
profound aspects of our being and bring them into our present reality.13
Psychic projections and autonomous dimensions
The role of archetypal images and entities in spiritual development is
emphasised in both traditions, but their ontological status remains
something of a mystery. Do such images and entities have an autonomous
existence, or are they merely psychic projections? In this regard, although
thankas and other forms of sacred art used in Tibetan meditative practices
depict deities, paradises, and other dimensions, Lama Yeshe was careful to
clarify that “tantric meditational deities should not be confused with what
different mythologies and religions might mean when they speak of gods
and goddesses […] The deity we choose to identify with represents the
essential qualities of the fully awakened experience latent within us.” 14
Echoing the same perspective, Pratapaditya Pal stated that “on a more
metaphysical level, the divine images are simply symbols of the Buddha
[…] They are not themselves real but help to define reality, and are
dispensed with by the enlightened mind and by the true yogi.”15 Jung, in The
Psychology of Eastern Meditation, also emphasised this fundamental
principle when he stated that “in the meditation it is realised that the Buddha
is really nothing other than the activating psyche of the yogi—the meditator
himself. It is not only that the image of the Buddha is produced out of ‘one’s
own mind and thought,’ but the psyche which produces these thought-forms
is the Buddha himself”.16 However, in apparent contrast to these assertions,
Lama Govinda, in his foreword to The Tibetan Book of the Dead that
accompanies Jung’s own commentary on the same text, emphasised that:
13
Yeshe: 30
Yeshe: 30.
15
Pal: 36.
16
Jung 1936/1958: 567.
14
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
297
[…] animism permeates all Buddhist texts, wherein every tree and grove,
and every locality, is held to have its own peculiar deities; and the Buddha
is represented as discoursing with gods and other spiritual beings, inhabiting
the Earth and the realms beyond, as if it were a most natural procedure. Only
a completely intellectualised and Westernised Buddhism, which attempts to
separate the thought-content of Buddhism from its equally profound
mythological elements, can deny this animistic background and with it the
metaphysical foundations of Buddhism.17
According to the present Dalai Lama, these various realms are inhabited by
other conscious entities of widely varying characteristics:
Basically we can say there are different worlds, different experiences;
human life is just one of them. What we usually call spirits are some different
form of life, beings who have a different body and mentality. Within the
desire realm, and more specifically within the environment inhabited by
human beings, there is quite a variety of other entities […] And they’re all
cohabitating with us right here.18
It is thus essential to note that Tibetans consider spiritual entities to be more
than mere psychic projections, even if their religious practice of creative
visualisation involves the worship of such iconic figures as Tara (who in
this context would be understood as a psychic projection). Indeed, an array
of spiritual entities are thought to possess their own autonomous natures and
to exist in innumerable spiritual planes and universes, a phenomenon that is
given greater clarity in the following passage by Tulku Thongdup:
Buddhist cosmology encompasses an unimaginably vast number of world
systems beyond our earthly home. Outside of the mundane world, the six
realms of samsara, there exist innumerable pure lands extending in all ten
directions of the universe […] These purified paradises are the dwelling
places of advanced beings, including celestial buddhas and great bodhisattvas.19
In the light of the different perspectives presented above, one appears to be
left with a complex and ambiguous ontological problem: do such entities
and dimensions—as readily depicted in Tibetan sacred art itself—exist apart
from human psychic projection, or are they “real” in the same way that
human beings consider their own lives and the earthly physical domain they
inhabit to be a factual reality? Perhaps this question can be answered in part
when the Buddhist notion of “no-self” (i.e., no inherent
17
Govinda 1960: lvii.
Varela: 141.
19
Thongdup: 284.
18
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
298
existence) is applied to such entities, just as it applies to human beings.
Nevertheless, the Western mind continues to insist upon the ontological
reality of its own existence (on Earth and often elsewhere). More recently,
however, such considerations have been expanded and given further clarity
through the pioneering transpersonal findings of Stanislav Grof. His
extensive research into non-ordinary states of consciousness strongly
suggests the existence of an immense array of spiritual realms and
experiential dimensions that lie beyond the perception of ordinary waking
consciousness. His findings postulate the existence of two forms of ultimate
reality, which are referred to as absolute consciousness and cosmic
emptiness, or the Void. Absolute consciousness represents the supreme
creative principle (which is responsible for the creation of manifest
existence and finds a correlation in Jung’s notion of the Self), and this
creative principle is thought to co-exist with, and emanate from, the great
Void, as outlined below:
When we encounter the Void, we feel that it is primordial emptiness of
cosmic proportions and relevance. We become pure consciousness aware of
this absolute nothingness; however, at the same time, we have a strange
paradoxical sense of its essential fullness […] While it does not contain
anything in a concrete manifest form, it seems to comprise all of existence
in potential form […] The Void transcends the usual categories of space and
time, and lies beyond all dichotomies and polarities, such as light and
darkness, good and evil […] agony and ecstasy, singularity and plurality,
form and emptiness, and even existence and nonexistence […] This
metaphysical vacuum, pregnant with potential for everything there is,
appears to be the cradle of all being, the ultimate source of existence. The
creation of all phenomenal worlds is then the realization and concretization
of its pre-existing potentialities.20
This passage addresses a number of primary themes in Buddhist cosmology,
including the Void as primordial emptiness, the reconciliation and union of
all opposites (one is immediately reminded here of the famous Buddhist
adage, form is emptiness, and emptiness is form), the existence of a timeless
dimension, and the presence of countless world systems. It also touches
upon the theme of manifest existence arising out of this Void, and Grof
proposed that some of the various realms and the entities that inhabit them
are understood to interact with and inform our earthly dimension in ways
that are consistent with aspects of Jungian psychology:
20
Grof: 30.
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
299
The material realm that we inhabit and with which we are intimately familiar
seems to be just one of these worlds […]. Of special interest is a domain that
lies between our everyday reality and the undifferentiated Absolute
Consciousness. It is a mythological realm that has been extensively studied
by C. G. Jung and his followers […]. Jung referred to it as the archetypal
realm of the collective unconscious. The beings inhabiting these realms
seem to be endowed with extraordinary energy and have an aura of
sacredness or numinosity. For this reason they are usually perceived and
described as deities […]. The encounters with mythological beings and visits
to mythic landscapes […] can be in every respect as real as events in our
everyday life, or more so. The archetypal realm is not a figment of human
fantasy and imagination; it has an independent existence of its own and a
high degree of autonomy. At the same time, its dynamics seem to be
intimately connected with material reality and with human life. 21
Indeed, it is just this kind of heightened dimension that is sometimes
accessed through the creative, meditative and dream practices emphasised
in both Jungian psychotherapy and Tibetan tantra. Tulku Thongdup, for
example, confirmed that many stories in Tibetan Buddhist literature tell of
“meditators who leave their bodies for days at a time to travel through the
invisible world.”22 Such practitioners, who are known as delogs, then “come
back to their bodies to record their extraordinary journeys, which could span
the lowest rungs of hell and the sublime pure lands.” 23 One fascinating
account of just such a psychic journey—abounding with mythic imagery
and sacred entities—is revealed in the following experience of a young
Tibetan woman:
Dawa Drolma felt that she moved through the sky, soaring like a vulture.
She found herself in the manifested pure land of Guru Rinpoche, the Buddha
in the form of a realised master. There was a boundlessly vast field. In the
centre she saw a giant red rock mountain in the shape of a heart. The
mountain was surrounded by many sharp, sword-like mountains, all shining
with a reddish colour. The sky was adorned with a canopy of five colored
rainbow light. All kinds of beautiful birds were singing and playing joyfully.
The ground was covered with flowers of all kinds and colors. The whole
atmosphere was filled with an amazing sweet fragrance that overwhelmed
all her senses. There was also a blue mountain, as if made of sapphire. These
were not vague appearances, but vivid images with real presence […]. In the
middle of the mountain, she saw the inconceivable palace of Guru Rinpoche
called the Lotus of Light. The palace was the
21
Grof: 69-70.
Thongdup: 6.
23
Thongdup: 6.
22
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
300
enlightened wisdom of Guru Rinpoche himself, spontaneously appearing in
the form of a luminous mansion of light […]. This pure land was filled with
masters, dakas, and dakinis […]. Accompanied by White Tara, Dawa
Drolma entered into another inconceivably beautiful palace, made as if of
red crystal […]. In the middle of a great hall, Dawa Drolma saw an enormous
throne—higher, it seemed to her, than a three-story building […]. On that
throne she beheld the amazing presence of Guru Rinpoche,
Padmasambhava, the embodiment of the wisdom, compassion, and power of
the enlightened ones […]. Dawa Drolma drew closer to the throne and
touched her forehead to the feet of Guru Rinpoche […]. Guru Rinpoche
bestowed upon her empowerments and blessings. With great compassion, he
said […] ‘Tell people what you saw and entreat them to pursue virtue’ […].
Then White Tara led Dawa Drolma to the hell realms. Dawa Drolma
journeyed through the experiences of the bardo. She saw the Dharma King
of the Lords of the Dead in wrathful and terrifying form in his Court of
Judgment […]. She also saw the results of karmic effects and the severity of
sufferings of the hell realms with her naked eyes, so she would be able to
more effectively on her return to the world of the living […]. White Tara
then took Dawa Drolma to visit Potala, the pure land of Avalokiteshvara,
and Yulo Kopa, the pure land of Tara, before returning to the human world
[…]. Dawa Drolma spent the rest of her life teaching Dharma based on her
delog experiences and totally devoting her life to the service of others […].
In 1941, at the age of thirty-two, she died […]. People witnessed many
miracles at the time of her death and cremation. She and her delog accounts
inspired the hearts of many people in many parts of Eastern Tibet to believe
in the law of karma and rebirth. That in turn awakened a kinder nature in
many.24
This extract portrays an array of mythic imagery and entities that represent
aspects of the practitioner’s own inner spiritual processes while
simultaneously revealing heightened experiential domains. In the light of
the decidedly extraordinary nature (at least in modern Western terms) of this
other-worldly portrayal, the question must again be asked: how does one
differentiate between this woman’s own spiritual processes and projections
and the supposed autonomous existence of the entities who appear in her
experiential vision?
The intermediate world of the mundus imaginalis
Attempting to make sense of such psychic phenomena requires an approach
that is not limited to our usual modes of perception, and it is arguably in the
pioneering work of Henry Corbin that a cogent ontological
24
Thongdup: 151-155.
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
301
basis for such phenomena can be established. Corbin, who was an intimate
colleague of Jung, delved deeply into the ancient mystical traditions of Iran,
and through the work of Zarathustra, Mazdean angelology, and Sufism
discovered an inner world of archetypal forms and entities (consisting of
subtle bodies, as in the Tibetan tradition) that lies between cognitive
awareness and the five physical senses. This dimension of active
imagination, or medio mundi, requires an organ of perception inherent in
the soul, one that “implies an intellectual faculty that is not limited to the
sole use of conceptual abstraction nor to the sensory perception of physical
data.”25 Accessing this dimension thus reveals an intermediate universe that
is neither that of the Essences of philosophy nor that of the sensory data on
which the work of positive science is based, but which is a universe of
archetype-Images, experienced as so many personal presences.26
Perceiving this intermediate universe through the faculty of visionary
intuition reveals “a world of archetypal celestial Figures which the activeImagination alone is able to apprehend. This Imagination does not construct
something unreal, but unveils the hidden reality.”27 Corbin further
emphasised that:
[…] the active Imagination thus induced will not produce some arbitrary,
even lyrical, construction standing between us and ‘reality,’ but will, on the
contrary, function directly as a faculty and organ of knowledge just as real
as—if not more real than—the sense organs […] This being so, the
authenticity of the Event and its full reality consist essentially of this
visionary act and of the apparition vouchsafed by it. 28
This perspective is further echoed by the Tibetan Buddhist scholar David
Snellgrove as it relates to the tantric practice of creative visualisation:
It would be useless to invoke any form of divinity, higher or lower, without
believing in such a being. The high point of any such right is the descent of
the actual divinity (known as the ‘wisdom-being’ or jnanasattva) into the
symbol of the divinity (the sacramental-being or samayasattva), which has
been prepared for this mystical (or magical) conjunction. The practitioner is
certainly taught that the divine forms are also emanations of his own mind,
but they are not arbitrary imaginings and they are far more real than his own
transitory personality, which is a mere flow […] of consubstantial elements.
In learning to produce mentally such higher forms of emanation
25
Corbin: 4.
Corbin: 4.
27
Corbin: 11-12.
28
Corbin: 11.
26
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
302
and eventually identifying himself with them, the practitioner gradually
transforms his evanescent personality into that higher state of being. 29
This manner of visionary perception not only provides access to multiple
psychic planes, but according to Corbin also serves to transform the physical
Earth into a visionary geography in which “the Imago Terrae can reflect its
own Image back to the soul, or reciprocally, that the soul can fix its
meditation on the archetype-Image.”30 Thus, the various paradises in the
esoteric cosmology of all religious traditions are understood as the scene of
visionary events in which plants, water, mountains are transmuted into
symbols, that is, perceived by the organ of an Image which itself is the
presence of a visionary state. Like the heavenly Figures, the earthly
landscapes then appear haloed with the Light of Glory, restored to their
paradisal purity.31 Corbin further emphasised that:
The active Imagination perceives and shows itself an Earth which is other
than the Earth which is seen in ordinary sensory experience […].
Phenomenologically, we should understand it as being at the same time the
Light which constitutes, haloes, and enlightens the soul, and the primordial
Image of itself which the soul projects. […] The Imago Terrae, while it is
the organ of perception itself, also signifies those aspects and figures of the
Earth that are perceived, no longer simply by the senses nor as sensory
empirical data, but by the archetype-Image, the Image a priori of the soul
itself. The Earth is then a vision, and geography a visionary geography.32
The most essential representation of this Soul of the World is the Sacred
Feminine, and especially the figure of the Great Goddess, which
concurrently finds expression in such archetypes as the World Mountain (a
universal image that is further delineated below). As outlined previously,
such entities are accessed in the mundus imaginalis, an intermediate
dimension that is itself the centre—the “meeting place of Heavenly Beings
and Earthly Beings,”33 of time and eternity—and as such “the Earth of
visions has to be reached in medio mundi, where real events are the visions
themselves.”34 Such a psychic/subtle dimension thus represents “a world
symbolizing with the sensory, which it precedes, and with the intelligible,
which it imitates. It is a mixed world, mediating between the sensory and
29
Snellgrove: 131.
Corbin: 20.
31
Corbin: 16.
32
Corbin: 29-30.
33
Corbin: 16.
34
Corbin: 32.
30
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
303
the intelligible; it is the center of the worlds.”35 Thus, through such sacred
mythic imagery as the World Mountain:
[…] what the soul shows to itself […] is precisely its own image […]. The
universe thus imagined, free from misleading and perishable sensory data,
is therefore a function of the pure transcendental Imagination and depends
only on its categories, which are a priori archetypal Images. 36
Corbin further stressed that although such images and entities possess an
independent existence in the subtle dimension of the mundus imaginalis,
they may also on occasion manifest in the company of earthly inhabitants,
and indeed their symbolic existence finds ubiquitous expression in the art
of both world culture and religion.
Amplification of the mystical encounter at Mount Everest
Using this framework, I will now proceed to evaluate in greater depth my
encounter with the undeniably autonomous Goddess entity at the base of
Mount Everest, and my subsequent, inexplicable absorption with the Tara
image in Kathmandu. First of all, it must be remembered that the
reconciliation of opposites, and more specifically the union of one’s inner
nature and the world of physical form, exist as a fundamental aspect in depth
psychology as well as in the tantric tradition. Accordingly the energies of
both the physical body and the physical environment represent key aspects
in the process of spiritual growth and transformation: “Tantra cultivates a
return to the world where psyche and soma, consciousness and matter, are
in an intimate inter-relationship. The understanding of subtle energy, both
within the body and in the natural environment, makes this profound
reconnection possible, principally through the body”. 37 The body, then,
essentially acts as a kind of alchemical vessel in direct relationship with the
Earth, in that “throughout the body, both male and female elements localise
in twenty-four particular places […] These inner elemental centers
correspond to the surrounding land, which gives Tantra a particular
significance in relation to nature.”40 These male and female elements, which
represent both exterior and interior forces, are represented in the tantric
tradition as dakas (masculine aspects) and dakinis (feminine aspects) Preece
explains their connection as follows:
35
Corbin: 76.
Corbin: 76.
37
Preece: 245.
36
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
304
The relationship between the inner body centers and the outer land locations
is very subtle. In Chakrasamvara Tantra, the forces that inhabit these centers
take the aspect of dakas and dakinis. When a tantric practitioner meditates,
he or she aims to tune into the relationship of these inner and outer forces
and allow a process of healing to take place. In this way, the outer land
manifests through the dakas and dakinis and blesses and heals the inner
energies. The land is then experienced as if it were a complete mandala with
specific locations for different functions, just as the body serves different
functions.38
Within this context, it is interesting to note that Tibetans consider dakas and
dakinis to exist as definitive and very powerful spiritual entities who inhabit
the “above land” centres in “a dimension of reality known as Khacho Shing,
a realm closely related to our own, yet more subtle and more intimately
connected to the elemental forces of nature.”39 Further, in his book The
Sacred Place, Paul Devereux observed that the interaction of cosmic and
earthly forces appears to be highly concentrated in certain physical
environments, and it is especially pertinent to note that throughout human
history mountains in particular have been known to exist as the sacred
refuge of the Goddess. This is precisely the belief that is held by the native
Tibetan and Nepalese inhabitants who occupy both sides of Mount Everest.
This mountain has long been considered a sanctified entity because many
mystical experiences and encounters with various discarnate beings have
been reported in its immediate vicinity. With this understanding in mind,
the connection between Mount Everest and the Goddess in my own
experience deserves further consideration.
The World Mountain
Mountains hold a special place in the religious thinking and creative
iconography of the Himalayas, and Mount Kailash in particular (located in
western Tibet) ubiquitously appears on thankas and other forms of Buddhist
and Hindu art. Like Everest, Kailash represents the archetype of the World
Mountain, and Mircea Eliade noted that in its various manifestations “this
cosmic mountain may be identified with a real mountain, or it can be mythic,
but it is always placed at the center of the world.” 40 The Sacred Mountain,
as a form of axis mundi, thus represents both a physical and spiritual entity,
and, as the outer form serves to activate the inner archetype, it is also
directly linked with the union of
38
Preece: 247.
Preece: 248.
40
Eliade 1992: 110.
39
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
305
opposites and the psychosomatic dynamics of the chakra system. In the
words of Lama Govinda:
To Hindus and Buddhists alike Kailas is the center of the universe. It is called
Meru or Sumeru, according to the oldest Sanskrit tradition, and is regarded
to be not only the physical but metaphysical center of the world. And as our
psychological organism is a microcosmic replica of the universe, Meru is
represented by the spinal cord in our nervous system; and just as the various
centers (Skt.: cakra) of consciousness are supported by and connected with
the spinal cord (Skt.: meru-danda) […] in the same way Mount Meru forms
the axis of the various planes of supramundane worlds.41
This structural cosmology serves as the very basis of the all-important
Buddhist stupa, and in depth psychology the World Mountain is one of the
foremost archetypes of the Self and a most powerful and evocative symbol
of spiritual ascendance. It also warrants mention that “as Kailas corresponds
to the spinal column, it represents the axis of the spiritual universe, rising
through innumerable world planes.”42 Here one finds a direct
correspondence between the presence of the axial mountain, the human
chakras, and the concurrent access to other dimensions of reality. In Tibetan
Buddhist cosmology there exist numerous dimensions in various planes of
existence, including such realms as Khacho Shing (the Pure Land of the
Dakinis) and Yulo Kopa (the Pure Land of Tara).
In considering this relationship between sanctified realms and the
natural world, Eliade observed that “where the sacred manifests itself in
space, the real unveils itself […]. It opens communication between the
cosmic planes (between earth and heaven) and makes possible ontological
passage from one mode of being to another.”43 From this perspective it
seems quite probable that my contact with the Goddess was facilitated
through the spiritual axis of Mount Everest, and whether she derived from
the realm of Kacho Shing, Yulo Kopa, or one of the many other exalted
paradises, there can be no question of her advanced spiritual nature. In this
way her emergence served to activate a deep, on-going archetypal process
while simultaneously revealing a wholly expanded sense of divine potential.
This points to the existence of greatly heightened celestial or psychic realms
that are, in the Buddhist tradition, major steps forward along the path to final
liberation. The vital link that then resulted in the amplification of the
experience came through my subsequent encounter
41
Govinda 1966: 273.
Govinda 1966: 276.
43
Eliade 1957/1987: 63.
42
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
306
with Tara’s mythic image, as encountered in the shop in Kathmandu. For
me the image carried tremendous power (as a personal mythic
projection/association), and ultimately led to a much deeper appreciation of
my own unfolding spiritual direction and processes. It also demonstrated the
presence of a vast and autonomous spiritual entity, an utterly immense and
numinous mystery that is symbolised by—and transcends—the image of
Tara itself.
Therefore, what appears to have remained hidden and unconscious in
my own experience was a deep and abiding realisation of the archetypal
feminine, which was brought into direct conscious awareness through my
encounter with the Goddess entity at the base of Everest. If one thus
understands the deities depicted in mythic imagery as essentially symbolic
representations of transcendent forces, these symbols possess a potent
numinous quality by virtue of their archetypal nature. In Tibetan tantra they
also denote—like the progressively advanced stages of the chakras—
heightened levels of spiritual development to which inhabitants of this
earthly dimension aspire. As previously noted, the Buddha is said to have
interacted with otherworldly entities, and indeed the very basis of the
bodhisattva ideal involves the instruction and guidance of all sentient beings
in this earthly realm—and in innumerable other dimensions as well. The
very mysterious encounter with the vast ethereal and distinctly feminine
presence at the base of Mount Everest remains one of the truly remarkable
experiences of my life, and whether she is identified as Tara, a dakini, or
otherwise she certainly would seem to correspond directly to the sacrality
and divine mystery of a genuine Goddess.
Conclusion
These kinds of experiences involve encounters with sacred entities and
archetypes whose ultimate nature defies any absolute determination or
conclusion. At the same time, there appears to be an intriguing
interrelationship between such advanced entities and the related archetypes
that are recognised—and/or created by—the human psyche. Both Jungian
psychology and Tibetan Buddhist tantra emphasise the importance of
creative engagement with these archetypal figures, and each acknowledges
levels of spiritual autonomy that are distinct from the human psyche. In both
traditions spiritual awakening is the ultimate aim of human existence, a
process that is intended, in modern developmental terms, to lead the evermore actualised individual “from the ego to the Self, from the unconscious
to consciousness, from the personal to the transpersonal, the holy, the
realisation that the macrocosm is being mirrored in the microcosm
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
307
of the human psyche.”44
A deep and abiding awareness of this intimate interrelationship between
inner and outer—of the psychic processes that unite the archetype of the
World Mountain and the Sacred Mountain of Everest, or the blessed
Goddess entity and her sanctified mythic image—is fundamental to this
process, and accordingly the legitimacy of the imaginal workings of the
human psyche must be realised. In the words of Lama Govinda:
The subjectivity of inner vision does not diminish its reality-value. Such
visions are not hallucinations, because their reality is that of the human
psyche. They are symbols, in which the highest knowledge and the noblest
endeavor of the human mind are embodied. Their visualisation is the creative
process of spiritual projection, through which inner experience is translated
into visible form.45
As described above, this inner vision necessarily extends beyond the realm
of psychic projection to include an expanded cosmology of experiential
dimensions. As Tulku Thongdup was keen to emphasise, “there exist
innumerable pure lands extending in all ten directions of the universe […].
These purified paradises are the dwelling places of advanced beings” 46—
advanced beings that include the Great Goddess in one or more of her many
manifestations.
My encounter with the vast and enigmatic Goddess-entity at the base of
Mount Everest remains a great and enduring mystery, but the transformative
impact of this experience and the subsequent effect it had on the direction
of my spiritual development cannot be underestimated. Indeed, it seems that
this encounter served as the impetus for the realisation of a much broader
process, one that is ultimately shared by all human beings through their
engagement with sacred mythic images and symbols. These sacred forms
and archetypes constitute the guiding principles of spiritual awakening, and
point to the existence of autonomous entities who sometimes interact with
inhabitants of the earthly domain in a profoundly transformative manner.
44
Moacanin: 67.
Govinda 1969: 92.
46
Thongdup: 284.
45
C. G. Jung, Tibetan Tantra and the Great Goddess
308
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