YAB-YUM IMAGES: THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL FORM IN TIBETAN TANTRIC BUDDHISM AND ITS ART
Abstract - Tibetan Tantric Buddhism is today considered as one of the most important and controversial forms of Asian culture. Compared to other schools of Buddhism, the traditional art of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism offers a rich and powerful range of magnificent, compelling, and somewhat controversial visual materials and meditative practices. To this end I am interested in this paper exploring the most mysterious nature of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its art by grasping the religious value, historical context, and artistic quality of Yab-Yum images.
Keywords - Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, Sexual Images, Visualization, Meditative Practices, Representation, In-Between State Of Consciousness
INTRODUCTION
Among the most significant contributions that the
Tibetans have made to their artistic tradition, sexual
images, such as the Yab-Yum images, are often
regarded as the most startling, radical and
controversial form of Tibetan Buddhism today. These
images represent the sexual union of the Buddha father
and Buddha mother, which are created mainly as a
means to support meditation and worship. In short,
these images strive to express the in-between state of
consciousness between man and woman and are
created to help mankind achieve enlightenment with
the wisdom of union and compassion as a guide in
some Tantric meditativepractices.
„Meditation‟, as Philip Rawson claimed in The Art of
Tantra (1973), „has the job of filling the abstraction
with a valid content of reality‟.Mental concepts that
unify man and woman on the plane of ultimate reality
are expressed in Tibetan Tantric Buddhist art by
drawing a large number of Yab-Yum images, and
imagining sexual yoga by developing skills and in so
doing a presence of mind to reach the state of
in-between when practicing Tantric meditation.
According to Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, the mother-Buddha symbolizes the abstract
and quiescent concept of wisdom, which is necessary
for any practitioner to be able to reach an awareness of
a higher level of reality evident in the Buddha‟s
experiences and thoughts, and the Father-Buddha
represents compassion for all sentient beings. By
embracing and uniting each other through their sexual organs, the Tibetan Buddhists believe that wisdom and
compassion are combined into one; and when in this
state of union the practitioners are able to reach the
perfect state of mind to attain the ultimate enlightenment as emptiness. In the contemplation of
icons such as Thangka, sculptures and the Mandala,
the male deity, often seen standing or sitting in a lotus position, and his consort are seen like an impassioned
couple looking adoringly at the face of their beloved
embracing each other —the aim is a state of ecstasy in
balance with the peaceful consummation of
physicalunion.
For instance, one of the common sexual images in
Tibetan Buddhism is about Aksobhya, who is a central
Buddha in one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas in his
family, and his consort Lochanā, who plays a
dominating role in the later developmental phase of
Tantric Buddhism. The Sanskrit term „Akshobhya‟,
literally means„ Immovable One‟, is also translated to
„Āchùrúlái‟( 阿閦如来 ) in Chinese. According
to the Scripture of the Buddha-land of Akshobhya
(known as Ā chù fó GuóJīng《阿閦佛國経》
inChinese), a monk committed himself to practice the Dharma in the eastern world of delight with a vow of
great compassion towards any beings in their quest to
attain enlightenment. In fact he proved himself
„immovable‟ when confronting difficulties and in the
end, he became the Buddha Akshobhya, who
represents consciousness as a mere reflection of actual
reality. The Buddha Akshobhya is located in the east
of the Diamond Realm (known as JinGangJie金剛界
in Chinese), a metaphysical space where Five Wisdom
Budd has inhabit, and also in the Eastern PureL and
Abhirati (called as MiaoLeShiJie 妙 樂 世 界
inChinese), where various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
reside. In Tibetan Tantric paintings, he is often
depicted as a blue body covered in three robes in
semi-fierce forms, holding a bell along with a jewel,
lotus, and sword (occasionally an elephant), and
sitting in sexual union with his consort Lochanā, who
is also shown in the same semi-wrathful mood.
Although there are some sexual elements and rituals
presented marginally in earlier Yoga tantras, the
iconography of Buddha and his consorts in sexual union supports the Tantric practitioner in
visualization, which has gained great prominence and
popularity in Anuttarayoga or Mahayoga tantra. As
Reginald Raystates,
In Mahāyoga, one visualizes oneself as the divinity
with consort. "All manifestation, thoughts and
appearances are considered to be the sacred aspects of
the divinities within relative truth," in the words of
Tulku Thondup. By visualizing all phenomena as the
deities of the mandala of buddhahood, in the
development stage, all appearances are purified.
From my personal viewpoint, there are two
outstanding features of sexual images in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its art. The first is the use of the
sexuality as a skillful means of attaining enlightenment as a metaphorical approach in the
Tantric meditative practices; and the second is a
Tantric initiation, which enables disciples to engage in
rituals with sexual elements.
On the one hand, as I mentioned earlier, the Yab-Yum
image is regarded as Tantric visual representations
„wisdom and compassion‟. Firstly, it presents the
sexual union of Buddha father and Buddha mother in
iconographical or ritual contexts with great symbolic
value, which is identified with cosmic energy as its
emblem. Tantric Buddhism regards sexual intercourse
as an important form of „enjoyment‟ or „pleasure‟,
with the goal of reaching spiritual ends with divine
ecstasy. When it links to Mandala, it can be seen as
part of the process of purification in Tantric meditative practice in order to cleanse the inner energetic palate
so that one can enter and be lifted into a higher state of mind in meditation practice. Also mental concepts that
unify man and woman on the plane of ultimate reality
are expressed visually in the Yab-Yum images. By
means of drawing a large number of Yab-Yum images
or visualizing these sexual images with complete
concentration, it is also a process of imagining sexual yoga through the fully developed skills of maximizing
the power of one‟s imagination and stabilizing one‟s
subtle body of channels and wind-energies in Tantric meditation. Furthermore, Tantric followers believe
that it is from one‟s apprehension of the essential emptiness of all that exists in beings and objects that
one can experience the negation of all dualities and
supreme bliss that arises from going beyond the
concept of man and woman, self and other, good and evil, forbidden and allowed. This description of sexual
images is meant to help both those who wish to make
and use outward images, as well as those who need
only to be reminded of the attributes of images, which
they will inwardly realize in their own meditation.
Here one can also see a distinction between Tantric Hinduism and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. Unlike
Hinduism, which believes that in every image or
reality there is„something‟, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism
asserts that where we think we are seeing something,
in actuality and in truth we see „nothing‟. As Philip
Rawson concludes in his book The Art of Tantra, the
Yab-Yum image and practice aims to be in a state of mind devoid of any normal existential content what so
ever. That is to say, a Tibetan Tantric image could be
considered as a device for empting the pre-given mind
on its way to „the void fullness of Nirvana‟, which is
empty of any existential thought. Lastly, Tantric Buddhism teaches that a visual representation is a
reflection of the true transcendent image whose sphere
of existence is the MIND-mind. „What one worships‟,
Philip Rawson says, „that one becomes‟. As Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche has taught, that one can find that all
images are on a plane of emptiness, in which past,
present, and future coexist and can be ordered in
various ways. When confronting the Yab-Yum image,
practitioners are „surrounded by a mist of virtual
sexual images, distributed themselves in mobile
circuits‟ towards enlightenment. The belief here is that
through the union of opposites in meditation wisdom
and compassion might be attained. Meditational
practices are thus an attempt to return to a state of
union with all living beings that is thought to have
co-existed togetheroriginally.
On the other hand, differing from the other schools of Buddhism, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism also expresses
the physical body form in an innovative way by having
the potential of becoming the „enlightened body‟ in
Tantric rituals with the aid of communication through
exceedingly visual representations. For example, in
the contemplation of icons about Vajradhara, the
personification of Sakyamuni, and his consort
Tilottama, Vajradhara is often depicted as two-armed
sitting in a lotus position whilst embracing his consort
with a peaceful consummation of physical union. For
Tibetan practitioners, confronting these sacred sexual
images, to meditate with a sexual consort in both mind
and physical levels can be a swift method in the
intermediate stage of Tantric practice to make the
mind-body deeds magical. According to Robert A.F
Thurman, whostates:
Sexual union between coarse bodies is the only
situation, other than death, in which all the neural
wind-energies dissolve into the central channel. Thus
the consort is essential to reach such depth in this life.
Also Tantric followers believe that, during this Tantric ritual towards the image of Vajradhara and consort,
they lay aside their rational knowledge and enter into a
world where love can transform into sex and vice versa. Whereby sex can be sublimated into sacredness
and in so doing the body becomes the shrine to this
sacredness. In both their imagination and physical
practices, as Buddha father, they gently hold our
beloved in the most intimate embrace. The
impassioned lover gazes upward in rapture, meeting
their downward glance in such a peaceful
consummation of physical union. They are fully
absorbed with the beloved ones, who project the
energy of transcendent wisdom, looking out of the
past, the present, and the future and coexisting in the
centre of the forehead that can see a deeper spiritual
reality. They also should become Buddha mother, the
beloved, feeling the ecstatic and unrestrained passion
of love, in which pleasure is raised beyond pleasure
and visualized as inseparable from emptiness. Here,
Tantric Buddhism expresses the fluidity of bodies
beyond biological sex through both the very common
Tantric meditation practice of „self-visualization‟ and
its rituals engaged with one‟s physical body. Unlike
many other spiritual traditions that reject the physical body, Tantric Buddhism does not. Instead, Tantric
followers use the physical body in such a way that it
becomes the fundamental tool in the spiritual journey.
There is a note that the employment of the physical body within the Tantric rituals of Tibetan Buddhism is
fundamentally different from the ordinary experiences
of having sexual intercourse in daily life. As Robert
A.F Thurman continues tostate:
For the process to work, both partners must be at the
same stage, neither using the other as a mere
instrument. Both must have the same visualization, the
same understanding, the same motivation, and the
sameconcentration.
Yet, the genuine performance at such a high level for
the practitioner and his or her consort is probably very
rare and the impure mind and motivation are very
likely to lead to scandals about sex abuse in the
physical performance within Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. Subsequently, modern Tibetan Tantric practices put much more emphasis on visualization in
its meditation, in which the practitioner doesn‟t need a
realconsortor even a coarse form of sexual images on a
much more advanced level. It also requests that the
Tantric practitioners are purely motivated, and have
great understanding of the Sutra and Tantra Buddhist traditions, as well as the correct employment of
stabilized wind-energies of the subtle body, and the
powerful imagination, which would probably take
decades of diligent meditative practices.
Nonetheless, from the western perspective, these
images and Tantric practices may appear romantic and
idealistic, with regards to gender relations and
sexuality. However, from my own understanding, a
beautiful and correctly conceived image of the
Yab-Yum couple, such as Vajradhara and consort, is a
magical visual pattern for meditation that can possibly
awaken its inner image in the mind by fully
concentrating on it and practicing the Tantric
disciplines with great patience. As Serenity Young
explains further: „Through meditative skill the
sensation of sexual pleasure is experienced as
emptiness, the profound realization that all beings and
all things are essentially empty, without individuality
and non-enduring.‟ The cognitive notion of emptiness
is known as „unknowing mind‟, which is regarded as
the leading role of „correct mind‟ rather than the
physical sensation of bodies themselves in the Tantric visualization. To some extent, the practice of Tantric meditation is about a state of mind or a state of consciousness with the fully acceptance of one‟s
physical body as the natural and neutralpath.
As discussed above, in contrast to Mahayana Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism proposes a more
effective and visualised method within sexual images
for its realization. Moreover, it also offers a profound,
liberal and transformative potential in Buddhist
values. In a very immediate and direct way, Tantric practices challenge practitioners to evoke the power of
creative visualization in order to experience the empty nature of mind, and to seek a paradigm shift of
breaking down conventional and dualistic thought
patterns. In Tantric literature, stories of Tantric adepts
practising meditation in remote caves, desolate forests,
and terrifying cremation grounds proliferate. Some
abandoned their royal or aristocratic privilege. Some
others pursue lowly forms of livelihood for Tantric practice to seek the freedom and enlightenment. For
example, the „fallen‟ monk Saraha, who broke his
monastic vows and abandoned solitary wandering,
found a young woman from the low arrow smith caste
to be his spiritual companion, and adopted her trade
and lifestyle as an arrow-maker himself. When he was
denounced at the royal court, Saraha recited a series of
spontaneous realization songs in his defense. One of
his unconventional verses is like this: „Perfect knowledge can only be attained, while one is enjoying
the pleasure of the senses‟.
…a great surge of joy and bliss will carry you soaring
beyond all bodily sensation. The heat of an inner fire,
like the fire that blazes on the southern edge of the
universe, will rise through your body, burning away
the thickets of mental obstructions (and) it will purify
your body and transform it into the indestructible
diamond body of bliss.
Whilst accepting that Buddha‟s have suppressed
desires, emotions, and sensations of worldly life,
Tibetan Tantric Buddhism nonetheless claims that an
ascetic path is not necessary in order to attain
Buddhahood. It requires a great deal of energy,
diligent practice and determination to suppress desire
over life-times, and by rejecting ordinary hopes, fears
and desires that lead to the renouncers‟ lifestyle is very
difficult for most Buddhists to achieve. Thus, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism recognises that desires, emotions
and ecstasies are very powerful forces in human beings, and if their energy is re-directed to the spiritual path correctly by the aid of Tantric teachings, they can
bring not only the freedom from sufferings, but an
expanded capacity for creativity, purification, and also
great bliss. Put another way, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism believes that all aspects of the psyche,
including anger, fear, desire, joy, and ecstasy, should
be embraced positively on the religious path to enlightenment. As John Powersstates,
Tantra proposes to incorporate all actions, all
thoughts, all emotions into the path. Nothing in itself is
pure or impure, good or bad, mundane or transcendent;
things only appear to us in these ways because of
preconceived ideas. In the Vajrayana (Tantric)
systems, any action—even walking, eating,
defecating, or sleeping— can be an element of the
spiritual path. Tantric practitioners seek to overcome
the pervasive sense of ordinariness that colours our
perceptions of dailylife.
As sexual encounters provide excitement, pleasure
and intimacy to ordinary people, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism considers the orgasmic state as the best
occasion for medication. The reasons are explained
well by the Indian mahasiddha Naropa in his A
Treatise on Empowerment in the Eleventh Century,
…three qualities of consciousness that arise during
orgasm (in the sexual encounter). The first of these is a
sense of great pleasure or bliss. The second isan utter
radiance or lucidity. Thirdly, an all-pervasive sense of
non-duality or non-separateness arises. Tantric
meditators utilize these three factors for their quick
liberation and enlightenment.
Building upon early Indian Buddhism, the Mahayana
and Tantric Buddhism in India, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism inherits, extends and develops many rituals
and practices with various meditative techniques,
known as „skilful means‟ for the swift attainment of
enlightenment. It offers a new way to transform their
ordinary awareness in the midst of their daily
experiences and to attain ecstatic inner freedom by
visual meditation. In the process of developing
meditations in any activities, including sex, Tantric
followers are able to affirm that their emotions,
desires, passions and all sense experiences are the fuel
and energy for cultivating detachment and compassion
and wisdom for meditation upon emptiness. The
employment of sexual images as an art form in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism intends to transform the psyche and
physical continuum of practitioners through extensive
use of ritual, imagery, visualization, and meditation practice.
Here, I admit that the Tantric emphasis on sexuality
and the other pleasures of the senses in Tibetan Buddhist art were not entirely new, and some texts
seemed to condemn women while the iconography
looks expressively to be exalting them. However, I
argue that the form of these sexual images implies that
a distinctive understanding of sexuality and the value
of femaleness are presented both by Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its artistic tradition. To my knowledge,
firstly, some texts in the Guhyasamāja Tantraand
Hevajra Tantra, are the two most important scriptures
of late Tantric Buddhism, that claim that, not only are
the biological sexes unstable and emphatically
illusionary, enabling women and men to change into
each other, but also, women have the same or even
greater potential to achieve enlightenment than men.
According to Ajit Mookerjee, the spirit of a human being transcends all natural restrictions to attain
eternal enlightenment for both man and woman in
Tibetan Tantric art and practice. When one achieves
enlightenment, the enlightened person is neither man
nor women, but transcends gender. Secondly,
TibetanTantricBuddhismgivesgreatsignificancetosex,
andhonourandshowsrespect towards women consorts,
in theory. „Tantric notion is the only spiritual path that
says that sex is sacred and not a sin,‟ as Krsnananda
Agamavagisa (the Sixteenth Century) comments, „the
pleasure derived from sexual union is of the nature of
the Supreme Bliss‟. The Tibetan Tantric Buddhist
practitioner believes that in sexual union, women
inherently possess wisdom or insights that procreate
the energy for enlightenment, while men do not. For
example, the Yab-Yum image in Tibetan Buddhist art
is the visualisation of transforming and liberating
desire positively, as cosmic power provoked by the
female deity. Therefore, „women are embodiments of
female deity‟and men should respect and even
worship women in Tibetan Tantric practice or
meditation. This respect has been shown explicitly in
some major Tantric scriptures in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism:
One must not denigrate women,
In whatever social class they are born,
For they are Lady Perfection of Wisdom,
Embodied in the phenomenal realm.
One who knows this yoga should always worship,
By the method of wisdom and skilful means,
Mother, sister, daughter, and niece,
He should always worship women
With his powerful sceptre of wisdom,
Even crippled women, artisans, and women of the
lowest class.
Built upon the same fundamental Buddhist philosophy, there are somewhat contradictory views
about the wide range of biographies, iconographies,
and rituals related to the sexuality and women in
Tibetan Tantric Buddhism over the centuries. In recent
studies of gender and religion, some scholars, like
Reginald Ray and Kalu Rinpoche, have paid serious
academic attention on the sexuality of women in
Indian and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. For example,
David Kinsley (1939-2000) points out in his paper
Women‟s Studies and the History of Religion that
women‟s studies of religion are greatly different from
men‟s. Firstly, historians of religions found that there
were quite distinct male and female subcultures within
the larger patriarchal societies. Also, the religious experience for males and females in the same religious community can be evidently different. Thus, these
scholars, such as Kinsley, address that the study of
women‟s religion is still a new field full of challenges
and difficulties. On a positive note, these scholars‟
endeavours have made some progress in exploring the
positive aspects of women imagery and symbols in
Indo- Tibetan Buddhism. They point out the historical
evidence that models of female divinity in
Indo-Tibetan Buddhism have had a powerful influence
on women‟s spiritual liberation; therefore, Tibetan
women seem to have enjoyed more freedom and
fulfilled more religious achievement than their
counterparts in other Asian countries. From my own
perspective, the re-analysis on sexual images engaged
with figures of women and female deities in both the
texts and visual presentations of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism is worthy of further discussion at depth.
However, the space here is limited for more detailed
discussion in thispaper.
CONCLUSION
As I explained in the beginning, among the most
significant contributions that the Tibetans have made
to their artistic tradition, sexual imagery represents
the sexual expectation or union of male and female deities, which are created mainly as supporting
elements to the Tantric practices. In summary, I think
that there are two outstanding features of sexual
imagery—such as the images of the Yab-Yum couple
—in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and its art. The first is
the use of the sexuality as a skilful means of attaining enlightenment. That is, it serves as a metaphorical
approach in the Tantric meditative practices. These
sexual images strive to express the in-between state
of consciousness between man and woman and are
created to help mankind achieve enlightenment with
the union of wisdom and compassion, as a guide in
the advanced Tantric meditative practices. And the
second is a Tantric initiation, which enables disciples
to engage in rituals with sexual elements. Yet,
genuine performance at such a high level for the
practitioner and their consort is probably very rare,
and the impure mind and motivation run the risk of
sexual abuse. Subsequently, modern Tibetan Tantric practices put much more emphasis on visualisation in
meditation, in which the practitioner does not need a
real consort or even a coarse form of sexual images.
It also insists that Tantric practitioners are purely
motivated, and have great understanding of the Sutra
and Tantra Buddhist traditions, as well as the correct
employment of stabilised wind-energies of the subtle body, and the powerful imagination—something that
takes decades of diligent meditative practice to
cultivate.