DESCRIPTION
This session is dedicated to understanding the underlying philosophy of Vajrayana Buddhism. We will begin by looking at the life and thought of de facto founder of the tradition, Nagarjuna. This is followed by examining how tantric Buddhist teachings spread out of India to Central Asia, Tibet, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
Suggested Reading
“Nāgārjuna” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Leiden: Brill, 2019)
Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A social history of the Tantric movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), Chapter 4: The Victory of Esoterism and the Imperial Metaphor and Chapter 5: Siddhas and the Religious Landscape
Reginald A. Ray, Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002), Chapter 5: The View of Vajrayana
Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), Chapter 5: Troping the Lineage - The Construction of the Esoteric Nāgārjuna.
Charles Orzech, ‘The Legend of the Iron Stupa’ in Buddhism in Practice Ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr.
PART ONE: Ānanda
From Nagarjuna’s encyclopedic Mahāprajñāpāramitā Śāstra
“Ānanda's wisdom (prajñā) was great, but his power of samādhi was weak. That is why he did not obtain the Path immediately. If his power of concentration had been equal to his wisdom, he would have quickly obtained [the Path]. Finally, when the night was almost over and he was very tired, he lay down. Now, on lying down to reach his pillow, just as his head touched it, suddenly he attained enlightenment. As a bolt of lightning drives away the shadows, he saw the Path. Then Ānanda entered the Vajra Samādhi and crushed the mountain of all the afflictions (kleśa). He obtained the three knowledges (vidya), the six superknowledges (abhijñā), complete liberation (vimokṣa) and became an arhat of great power.
Then, during the night, he went to the door of the hall where the saṃgha was gathered [for the First Council], knocked at the door and called. Káśyapa the Great asked: "Who is knocking at the door?" He answered: "It is I, Ānanda!" Kāśyapa the Great said: "Why have you come?" Ānanda replied: "Tonight I have destroyed the impurities (āsravakṣaya)." Kāśyapa the Great said: "The door is not open to you. Enter through the key-hole." Ānanda answered: "So be it!" Then, thanks to his miraculous power (ṛddhibala), he entered by way of the keyhole.”
Also from Nagarjuna’s Mahāprajñāpāramitā Śāstra
“Thus, at the Buddha’s death, Aniruddha said:
Conditioned dharmas are like clouds: The wise man should not be proud of them. When the thunderbolt of impermanence (anityatāvajra) strikes It destroys the king of mountains that was the Holy Master
PART TWO: Nāgārjuna
- Nāgārjuna realizes dependent-origination himself by way of tantric magic
- His discovery of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra from the Nāgas, again by magic
- The essence of the Prajñā Sūtras, Nāgārjuna’s teachings, Mādhyamaka, etc. is that all conditioned dharmas lack svabhāva (inherent nature) and are, therefore, equally ‘empty’ and illusory, like dream things - See Vajra Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
- A teaching so profound, Śakra-devānām Indra, highest God of the Realm of Desire reveres it, “People consider lightning (vajra) to be solid, but Śakra Devendra who holds it in his hand like a man holding a stick (daṇḍa) does not consider it to be solid.”
- The conditioned is impermanent (i.e. destructible), the cause the suffering, without ‘self’
PART THREE: The Indestructible
VAJRA 金剛 (金剛杵) Vajra club; the thunderbolt scepter of Indra as god of thunder and lightning, with which he slays the enemies of Buddhism; the scepter of the exorcist; the symbol of the all conquering power of Buddha.
Also from Nagarjuna’s Mahāprajñāpāramitā Śāstra:
“When a bodhisattva comes to the foot of the bodhi tree, they sit in this place and attain supreme complete enlightenment (anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi). At that moment, the Bodhisattva penetrates the true nature of dharmas (dharmāṇāṃ dharmatā), and then there is no earth that can support them. Why? For beings the earth is a deception and exists as retribution (vipāka) conditioned by previous actions (karman); this is why it is incapable of supporting the Bodhisattva. When the Bodhisattva is about to realize saṃbodhi, they have knowledge of the true nature (dharmatājñāna) as ’body’ (kāya), and then the place where they are seated changes into Vajra. (vajrāsana)
From the Ten Grounds Sutra, 9th Ground
“The bodhisattva knows the sense realms of those in the world Knows the entangling difficulties connected to afflictions and views Knows they remain unserved from the beginningless past, Knows their mental intentions and all their latent tendencies, All of which acting together with the mind, And knows that the tie up the mind and are difficult to sever.
They know all of their latent tendencies and such, know they are but discriminations arising with discursive thinking, Know that they are devoid of any place wherein they abide, Know that they are also devoid of fixed phenomeal chararceristics,
that they do not exist apart from the body, that they are also difficult to become aware of, that one is able to block them through the power of dhyana-samadhi and know that one becomes able to sever them on the Vajra Path”
PART FOUR: The Legend of the Iron Tower
From Abé and Orzech
“For seven days Nāgārjuna circumambulated the iron stupa chanting. Taking seven grains of white mustard seed, he threw them against the stupa door and it opened!” (Orzech, p. 316-317)
“Having entered it, Nāgārjuna received abhiṣeka, face-to-face, from Vajrasattva. Having obtained this unexcelled Teaching of the Secret Mandala, he propagated it among humans.” (Abé, p. 221)
- Vajrasattva - The ‘disciple’ of Vairocana Buddha in the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra and Vajraśekhara Sūtra