Yoga Tantra Theory and Praxis_ In the ligh - Dr. Tomy Augustine by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author
Language: eng
Format: epub

CHAPTER 4

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF

TANTRA

Vajrayana, as we have seen, inherited much from its Mahayanic ancestry. There was no direct transplanting of Mahayanic categories on to the soil of Vajrayana; nevertheless, Vajravanic speculation came to be highly influenced by the Madhyamika-Yogacara mindset. Equally important and influential were certain specifically tantric theoretical assumptions that contributed to the crystallisation of thfe'Vajrayanic theory. The focus of the present chapter is to identify and analyse these tantric principles as we find them in the Hevajra Tantra. Principal among these principles is the notion of the Absolute as bipolar in nature. In the text, the Mahayanic categories of sunyata and karuna arc considered as constituting the two polarities within the Absolute, and these two polarities are viewed as female and male. Another important tantric insight is that the body is the microcosm, and hence, the abode of truth. It is within the body that truth is realised through direct personal experience (svasan'jvedyant). Finally, the realisation of the Absolute leads the enlightened person to have a ‘homologous-vision’ of the world. 1

terms of a diametrical polarity.1 Everything is “conjunctio oppositorum."2 3 In everything there is a built-in polarity, which may be expressed in terms of positive-negative, potential-kinetic, thought-action, intelligence-emotion, male-female etc. This insight must have led to the intuition that the ultimate reality is bi-polar. Both the Hindu and the Buddhist Tantras hold that, “the ultimate non-dual reality posses two aspects in its fundamental nature - the negative (niv/tti) and the positive {pravitti), the static and the dynamic, and these two aspects of the reality, are represented in Hinduism by fiva and sakti and in Buddhism by prajna and upaya (or funyata and karuna)."4 Prajna and upaya arc the two aspects of the absolute reality, namely, the principle of passivity and the principle of activity respectively. The former is associated with the dharmakaya. while the latter is the whole world comprised of sariibhogakdya and nirnianakdya. These two are the manifestations of karuna, since they are meant to lead all sentient beings to the ultimate goal. The relation between prajna and upaya is likened to that of a lamp and its light -they are different yet inseparable.5

Dasgupta considers this bi-polar conception of the Ultimate Reality a theological principle. However, it appears to be a metaphysical necessity as well. In Vajraydna, phenomena is not utterly naught but is a real emanation of the noumenon. The latter therefore must already contain within itself some principle of selfdiversification. It must have within it the germ of everything phenomenal. Hence the noumenon, in tantric parlance, must be both passive and active. This does not conform exactly with the MahSyanic trend of thought where phenomena is not integral to funyata. but something thrust on it from without.6 7 The bi-polarity is the tantric attempt to bridge the gulf between the Absolute and the relative (paramartha and sanivrti) - a unique way to accommodate the empirical. The quiescent as well as the creative (emanative) aspects of the neumenon are polarised into the static and the dynamic.

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