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© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part
I – 7. Kalachakra: The inner processes
7. KALACHAKRA: THE INNER PROCESSES
So far we have only described what takes place in
the external world of the rituals. But the perceivable tantric stage has
its correspondences in the “inside” of the yogi, that is, in his
consciousness and what is called his mystic body. We now wish to examine
this “internal theater” more closely. It runs in parallel to the external
events.
An anatomically trained person from the
twenty-first century requires a godly portion of tolerance to gain a
familiarity with the concepts of tantric physiology, then for the tantras
the body consists of a network of numerous larger or smaller channels
through which the life energies flow. These are also known as “veins” or
“rivers” (nadi, rtsa). This
dynamic body structure is no discovery of Vajrayana, rather it was
adopted from pre-Buddhist times. For example, we can already find it in the
Upanishads (ninth century
B.C.E.).
Three main channels are considered to be the
central axis within the subtle-physical system of a person; these run from
the lower spine to the head. They are, like everything in the tantras,
assigned a gender. The left channel is called lalana (or ida, kyangma, da-wa), is masculine, its symbol is the moon and its element
water. The right, “feminine” channel with the name pingala (or roma, nyi-ama)
is linked to fire and the sun, since both are also seen as feminine in the
Buddhist tantras. We can provisionally describe the central channel (avadhuti or susumna, ooma, ) as being androgynous. It represents among other
things the element of space. All of the life energies are moved through the
channels with the help of winds — by which the Tantric means various forms
of breathing.
In a simplified depiction (such as is to be found
in most commentaries), the left, masculine channel (lalana) is filled with white, watery semen, the right-hand,
feminine channel (rasana) with
red, fiery menstrual blood. The main channel in the middle, in contrast, is
originally empty. Via sacred, in part extremely painful, techniques the
yogi succeeds in pressing the substances from both side channels into the avadhuti , the
main channel. The mixture (sukra)
thus created now flows through his entire body as enlightenment energy body
and transforms him into an androgynous “diamond being”, who unites within
himself the primary energies of the masculine and the feminine.
 The
three inner channels (see
footnote 1)
All three channels pass through five energy
centers which are to be found in the body of the yogi, which are known as chakras (wheels) or “lotus circles”.
In Tibetan Buddhism, the count begins with the navel chakra and leads via
the heart, throat, and forehead chakras to the highest thousandfold lotus
at the crown of the skull. Of great importance for the tantric initiation
is the equation of the individual “energy wheels” with the five elements:
navel = earth; heart = water; throat = fire; forehead = air (wind); highest
lotus (crown of skull) = space (ether). Likewise, the chakras are
apportioned to the various senses and sense objects. In addition to this
there are numerous further assignments of the lotus centers (chakra), as long as these can be
divided into groups of five: the five “blisses” similarly count among
these, likewise the five meditation Buddhas with their wisdom consorts, and
the five directions.
Fine energy channels extend from the “wheels” and,
like the physiological nervous system, branch through the entire human
body. The tantras describe an impressive total of 72,000 fine channels,
which together with the lotus centers and the three main channels form the
“subtle” body of the yogi. In an “ordinary mortal” this network is blocked.
The energies cannot flow freely, the chakras are “dead”, the “wheels” are
motionless, the perception of spiritual phenomena limited. One also speaks
of a “knotting”.
Now it is the first task of the yogi to untie
these knots in himself or in his pupil, to free
and to clean the blocked channels in all directions so as to fill the whole
body with divine powers. The untying of the “knots” is achieved in the Guhyasamaja Tantra through the
blocking off of the two side channels (lalana
and pingala), in which the
energies divided according to their sexual features normally flow up and
down, and the introduction of the masculine and feminine substances into
the avadhuti (the middle channel)
(Dasgupta, 1974, p. 155). In the original Kalachakra texts (see footnote) the anatomy of the channels is
much more complicated. [1]
The tantric dramaturgy is thus played out between
three protagonists within the yogi — the masculine, the feminine, and the
androgynous principle. Correspondingly, the three main energy channels
reflect the tantric sexual pattern with the lalana as the man, the pingala
as the woman, and the avadhuti as
the androgyne. The lotus centers (chakras)
are the individual stage sets in which the plot unfolds around the
relationship between this trinity. Thus, if the microcosmic, “inner” world
of events of the tantra master is supposed to square with the external,
already described ritual actions, then we must rediscover the climaxes of
the external performance in his “internal” one: for example, the tantric
female sacrifice, the absorption of gynergy,
the creation of androgyny, the destruction and the resurrection of all body
parts, and so forth. Let us thus inspect these “internal” procedures more
closely.
The Candali
The Kalachakra
Tantra displays many parallels with the Hindu Kundalini yoga. Both secret doctrines require that the yogi’s
energy body, that is, his mysto-magical channels and chakras, be destroyed
through a self-initiated internal fire. The alchemic law of solve et coagole ("dissolve and
rebuild”) is likewise a maxim here. We also know of such
phoenix-from-the-ashes scenarios among the occidental mystics. For our
study it is, however, of especial interest that this “inner fire” carries
the name of a woman in the Time Tantra. The candali — as it is called — refers firstly to a girl from the
lowest caste, but the Sanskrit word also etymologically bears the meaning
of ‘fierce woman’ (Cozort, 1986, p. 71). The Tibetans translate “candali” as ‘the hot one’ (Tum-mo) and take this to mean a
fiery source of power in the body of a tantra adept.
The candali
thus reveals itself to be the Buddhist sister of the Hindu fire-snake (kundalini), which likewise lies
dormant in the lowest chakra of a yogi and leaps up in flames once it is
unchained. But in Buddhism the destructive aspect of the inner “fire woman”
is far more emphasized than her creative side. It is true that the Hindu kundalini is also destructive, but
she is also most highly venerated as the creative principle (shakti): “She is a world mother, who
is eternally pregnant with the world. ... The world woman and Kundalini are the macrocosmic and
microcosmic aspects of the same greatness: Shakti, who god-like weaves and bears all forms” (Zimmer, 1973,
p. 146).
With regard to the bodily techniques
which are needed to arouse the kundalini, these vary between the cultural
traditions. The Buddhist yogi, for example, unleashes the inner fire in the
navel and not between the anus and the root of the penis like his Hindu
colleagues. The candali flares up
in his belly and, dancing wildly, ascends the middle energy channel (avadhuti). One text describes her as
“lightning-fire”, another as the “daughter of death” (Snellgrove, 1959, p.
49). Then, level for level, the “hot one” burns out all the adept’s
chakras. The five elements equated with the energy centers are destroyed in
blazing heat. Starting from below, firstly the earth is burned up in the
region of the navel and transforms itself into water in the heart chakra.
Then the water is burnt out and disintegrates in fire in the throat. In the
forehead, with the help of the candali
the air consumes the fire, and at the crown of the skull all the elements
vanish into empty space. At the same time the five senses and the five
sense objects which correspond to the respective lotus centers are
destroyed. Since a meditation Buddha and his partner inhabit each chakra,
these also succumb to the flames. The Kalachakra
Tantra speaks of a “dematerialization of the form aggregate” (Cozort,
1986, p. 130).
Lastly the candali
devours the entire old energy body of the adept, including the gods who, in
the microcosmic scheme of things, inhabit him. We must never forget that
the tantric universe consists of an endless chain of analogies and
homologies and links between all levels of being. Hence the yogi believes
that by staging the destruction of his imperfect human body he
simultaneously destroys the imperfect world, and
that usually with the best intentions. Thus, Lama Govinda describes with
ecstatic enthusiasm the five stages of this fascinating micro-macrocosmic
apocalypse: “In the first, the susumna
(the middle channel) with the flame ascending within it is imagined as a
capillary thin as a hair; in the second, with the thickness of a little
finger; in the third, with the thickness of an arm; in the fourth, as broad
as the whole body: as if the body itself had become the susumna (avadhuti), a single fiery vessel. In the fifth stage the
unfolding scenario reaches its climax: the body ceases to exist for the
meditater. The entire world becomes a fiery susumna, an endless storm-whipped ocean of fire” (Govinda,
1991, 186).
But what happens to the candali, once she has completed her pyrotechnical opus? Does
she now participate as an equal partner with the yogi in the creation of a
new universe? No — the opposite is true! She disappears from the tantric
stage, just like the elements which were destroyed with her help. Once she
has vaporized all the lotus centers (chakras) up to the roof of the skull,
she melts the bodhicitta (male
seed) stored there. This, on account of its “watery” character, possesses the power to extinguish the
“fire woman”. She is, like the human karma
mudra on the level of visible reality, dismissed by the yogi.
In the face of this spectacular volcanic eruption
in the inner bodily landscape of the tantra master we must ask what the
magic means might be which grant him the power to ignite the candali and make her serve his
purpose. Several tantras nominate sexual greed, which brings her to the
boil. The Hevajra Tantra speaks
of the “fire of passion” (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. xxix). In another text
“kamic fire” is explicitly mentioned
(Avalon, 1975, p. 140). The term refers to the Hindu god Kama, who represents sexual
pleasure. Correspondingly, direct reference is made to the act of love in a
further tantric manual, where it can be read that “during sexual
intercourse the Candali vibrates a little and great heat arises” (Hopkins,
1982, p. 177).
The equation of the sexual act with a fire ritual
can be traced to the Vedas, and
was later adopted by Tantric Buddhism. There the woman is referred to as
the “sacrificial fire, her lower portion as the sacrificial wood, the
genital region as the flame, the penetration as
the carbon and the copulation as the spark” (Bhattacharyya, 1982, p. 124).
From a Vedic viewpoint the world cannot continue to exist without a fire
sacrifice. But we can also read that “the fire offering comes from union
with the female messengers [dakinis]" — this from Tsongkhapa, the
founder of the Tibetan Yellow Hat school (Shaw, 1994, p. 254).
In his classic, Yoga and the Geheimlehren Tibets [Yoga and the Secret Teachings
of Tibet], Evans-Wentz described an especially impressive scene concerning
the “kindling” of the candali.
Here the “fire woman” is set aflame through a meditation upon the sun.
After the master has required of his pupil that he visualize the three main
channels, the chakras, and the “empty form” of a yogini, the exercise
should continue as follows: “At this point in the performance you should
imagine a sun in the middle of each palm and the sole of each foot. Then
see these suns placed opposite one other. Then imagine a sun at the meeting
of the three main psychic nerves [the main channels] at the lower end of
the reproductive organ. Through the influence upon one another of the suns
at your hands and feet, a flame is kindled. This fire ignites the sun
beneath the navel. ... The whole body catches fire. Then when breathing out
imagine the whole world to be pervaded by the fire in its true nature”
(Evans-Wentz, 1937, p. 154). The inner unleashing of the candali in the body of the yogi is
so unique that it raises many still unanswered questions which we can only
consider step by step in the course of the following chapter: Why must it
be a woman and not a man who flames up in the belly of the tantra master?
Why is the woman, who is linked with the element water in most cultures,
equated with fire here? Why is the candali
so aggressive and destructive, so enraged and wild instead of mild,
constructive, and well-balanced? But above all we must ask ourselves why
the adept needs to use a real girl in order to ignite the “inner woman” in
his own body? Is there perhaps a connection between the external woman and
the inner woman, the karma mudra
and the candali?
We shall only address these questions briefly
here, pointwise as it were, in order to treat them in more detail in the
course of the text. As we have already said, the origin of the candali lies in the Hindu kundalini snake, of which Heinrich
Zimmer says: “The snake embodies the world- and body-developing life force, it is a form of the divine world-effecting force
[shakti].” (Zimmer, 1973, p.
141). Life, creation, world, power: kundalini or candali are manifestations of the one and the same energy, and
this is seen in both Hinduism and Buddhism as female. Zimmer therefore
explicitly refers to the mystic snake as the “world woman” (Zimmer, 1973,
p. 146). Corresponding descriptions of the candali are likewise known. The Buddhist yogi, whose attitude
towards the world of appearances is extremely hostile, makes woman and the
act of birth responsible for the terrible burden of life. For him, “world”
and “woman” are synonymous. When, in his imagination, he burns up a woman
within himself, then he is with this pyromaniacal act of violence
symbolically casting the “world woman” upon the pyre. But this world likewise
includes his old bodily and sensory aggregates, his psychological moods,
and his human structures of awareness. They all become victims of the
flames. Only once he has destroyed the existing universe, which suffers
under the law of a woman, in an inferno, can he raise himself up to be a
divine ruler of the universe.
Thus the assignation of the feminine to the fiery
element imputed by Tantrism proves itself upon closer examination to be a
symbolic manipulation. Everything indicates that in Indian culture too,
woman was and is fundamentally associated with water and the moon rather
than with fire and the sun as is claimed in the tantras. In non-tantric
Indian cults (Vedic, Vishnuite) the classic assignments of the sexes have
completely retained their validity. Hence, the ignition of the “fire woman”
concerns an “artificial” experiment which runs contrary to the cultural
norms; what the European alchemists referred to as the “production of
burning water”. Water — originally feminine — is set on fire by the masculine
potency of the flame and then becomes destructive. We shall have to show
later that the candali is also to
be symbolically understood as no more than such an
ignited water energy. The water serves in this instance as a type of
fuel and “explodes” as the ignited feminine principle in the service of
androcentric strategies of destruction. Such a clever idea can only be
derived from the tantric law of inversion which teaches us that a thing
arises from its opposite. As the Candamaharosana
Tantra thus says, “Women are the supreme fire of transformation” (Shaw,
1994, p. 39).
If one assumes that the feminine catches fire
against its will in the Kalachakra
ritual, then one can understand why the candali
reacts so aggressively and destructively. Perhaps, once she has flared up,
she instinctively detects that the entire procedure concerns her systematic
destruction? Perhaps she also has an inkling of the perfidious intentions
of the yogi and like a wild animal begins to destroy the elementary and
sensory aggregates of her tormentor in the hope of thus exterminating him
and freeing herself? Confronted with her obvious success in the bodily
destruction of the patriarchal archenemy, she becomes maddened by power,
unaware that she thereby only serves her enemy as a tool. For precisely
what the tantric adept wants is to attain a state in which he still exists
only as pure consciousness. His first goal is therefore the complete
dematerialization of his human body, down to the last atom. For this he
needs the fiery rage of the candali,
who represents nothing other than the hate of a goddess incapacitated by
patriarchy.
But it could also be the opposite, that the candali falls into the grip of the
“consuming fire”, that mystic fire of love which burns women up when they
celebrate the “sacred wedding” with their god. Christian nuns often
describe the unio mystica with
Christ, their heavenly husband, with metaphors of fire. In the
case of Theresa of Avila, the flames of love are linked with an
unequivocally sexual symbolism. The words with which she depicted the
divine penetration of her love have become famous: “I saw Him with a long
lance of gold, and its tip was as if made of fire, it seemed to me as if he
repeatedly thrust it into my heart and it penetrated to my very entrails!
.... The pain was so great that I had to groan, and yet the sweetness of
this excessive pain was such that I could not wish to be freed of it”
(quoted by Bataille, 1974, p. 220). A woman, who completely and totally
surrenders herself to her yogi with her whole being, who opens to him the
love of her entire heart, she too can burst into flames. Hate and mystic
love are both highly explosive substances.
Regardless of what sets the feminine on fire, the
pyromaniacal drama which is played out on this inner stage is from start to
finish under the control of the yogi as the “master of the fire”. He never
surrenders this position as “director”. Two beings are always sacrificed at
the end of the tantric theater: the old energy body of the vajra masters and the ignited candali herself. She is the tragic
inner symbol of the “tantric female sacrifice”, which — as we have
explained above — was in the outside world originally executed upon a fire
altar.
But here too the already often-repeated warning
applies: Woe betide the adept who loses control
over the kundalini or candali. For then she becomes a
“terrible vampire, like an electric shock”, the “pure potency of death”,
which exterminates him (Evola, 1926, p. 232).
The “drop theory” as an expression of androgyny
Let us now following the act of destruction
examine the inner act of creation in the mystic body of the yogi as it is
described in the various tantras, especially the Kalachakra Tantra. We have already considered the event where
the “fire woman” (candali)
reaches the inner roof of the yogi’s skull and melts the bodhicitta (semen) there. This
latter is symbolically linked with water and the moon. Its descent is
therefore also known as the “way of the moon”, whilst the ascent of the candali goes by the name of the “sun
way”. The bodhicitta is also
called bindu, which means
‘point’, ‘nil’, ‘zero’, or ‘drop’. According to the doctrine, all the
forces of pure consciousness are collected and condensed into this “drop”,
in it the “nuclear energy of the microcosm” is concentrated (Grönbold, Asiatische Studien, p. 33).
After the channels and chakras have been cleansed
by the fire of the candali, the bodhicitta can flow down the avadhuti (the middle channel) unrestricted.
At the same time this extinguishes the fire set by the “fire woman”. Since
she is assigned the sun and the “drops of semen” the masculine moon, the
lunar forces now destroy the solar ones. But nevertheless at the heart of
the matter nothing has been changed through this, since the descent of the
“drop”, even though it involves a reversal of the traditional symbolic
correspondence, is, as always in the Buddhist tantras, a matter of a
victory of the god over the goddess.
Step by step the semen flows down the central
channel, pausing briefly in the various lotus centers and producing a
feeling of bliss there, until it comes to rest in the tip of the aroused
penis. The ecstatic sensations which this progress evokes have been
cataloged as “the four joys”. [2]
This descending joy gradually increases and
culminates at the end in an indescribable pleasure: “millions upon millions
of times more than the normal emission [of semen]" (Naropa, 1994, p.
74). In the Kalachakra Tantra the
fixation of orgiastic pleasure which can be attributed to the retention of
semen is termed the “unspilled joy” or the “highest immovable” (Naropa,
1994, p. 304, 351).
This “happiness in the fixed” is in stark
opposition to the “turbulent” and sometimes “wild” sex which the yogi
performs for erotic stimulation at the beginning of the ritual with his
partner. It is an element of tantric doctrine that the “fixed” controls the
“turbulent”. For this reason, no thangka can fail to feature a Buddha or
Bodhisattva who as a non-involved observer emotionlessly regards the
animated yab–yum scenes (of
sexual union) depicted or impassively lets these pass him by, no matter how
turbulent and racy they may be. We also do not know of a single
illustration of a sexually aroused couple in the tantric iconography which
is not counterbalanced by a third figure who sits in the lotus posture and
observes the copulation in total calm. This is usually a small Buddha above
the erotic scene. He is, despite his inconspicuousness the actual
controlling instance in the sexual magic play — the cold, indifferent,
serene, calculating, and mysteriously smiling voyeur of hot loving
passions.
The orgiastic ecstasy must at any price be fixed
in the mystic body of the adept, he may never squander his masculine force,
otherwise the terrible punishments of hell await
him. “There exists no greater sin than the loss of pleasure”, we can read
in the Kalachakra commentary by
Naropa (Naropa, 1994, p. 73, verse 135). Pundarika also treats the delicate
topic in detail in his commentary upon the Time Tantra: “The sin arises
from the destruction of pleasure, ... a dimming then follows and from this
the fall of the own vajra
[phallus], then a state of spiritual confusion and an exclusive and
unmediated concern with petty things like eating, drinking and so on”
(Naropa, 1994, p. 73). That is, to put it more clearly, if the yogi
experiences orgasm and ejaculation in the course of the sexual act then he
loses his spiritual powers.
Since the drops of semen symbolize the “moon
liquid”, its staged descent through the various energy centers of the yogi
is linked to each of the phases of the moon. Beneath the roof of the skull
it begins as a “new moon”, and
grows in falling from level to level, to then
reach its brightest radiance during its sixteenth phase in the penis. In
his imagination the yogi fixates it there as a shining “full moon” (Naropa,
1994, p. 72, 306).
Logically, in the second, counterposed sequence
the “ascent of the full moon” is staged. For the adept there is no longer a
waning moon. Since he has not spilled his seed, the full shining abundance
of the nightly satellite remains his. This ascendant triumphal procession
of the lunar drop up through the middle channel is logically connected to
an even more intensive pleasure than the descent, since “the unspilled joy”
starts out in the penis as a “full moon” and no longer loses its full
splendor.
During its ascent it pauses in every chakra so as to conjure up anew the
“highest bliss” there. Through this stepwise ecstatic lingering in the
lotus centers the yogi forms his new divine body, which he now refers to as
the “body of creation” (Naropa, 1994, p. 311). This is first completed when
the “full-moon drop” reaches the lotus in the forehead.
Sometimes, even if not all the time, in wandering
through the four pleasure centers the “drop” encounters various goddesses
who greet it with “diamond” song. They are young, tender, very beautiful,
friendly, and ready to serve. The hissing wildness and the red wrath of the
candali is no more!” May you,”
the beauties call, “the diamond body, the revolving wheel that delights
many beings, the revealer of the benefit of the Buddha aim and the supreme-enlightenment
aim, love me with passion at the time of passion, if you, the mild lord
wish that I live” (Wayman, 1977, p. 300). Such erotic enticements lead in
some cases to an imaginary union with one of the goddesses. But even if it
doesn’t come to this, the yogi must in any case keep his member in an erect
state during the “ascent of the full moon” (Naropa, 1994, p. 75).
In several Kalachakra
commentaries the ecstatic model of the rise and fall of the white
moon-drops within the mystic body of the adept is determined by the triumph
of the male bodhicitta alone. In
the first, falling phase it destroys the fiery candali and leads her into emptiness, so to speak, since the bindu (drop) also means “nothing”,
and has control over the power of dissolution. In the second phase the drop
forms the sole cosmic building block with which the new body of the yogi
will subsequently be constructed. In this view there is thus now talk of
the male seed alone and not of a mixture of the semen virile and semen
feminile. In his Kalachakra commentary
Naropa writes explicitly that it is the masculine moon which produces the
creation and the feminine sun which brings about the dissolution (Naropa,
1994, p. 281). One must thus be under the impression that after the extinguishing
of the candali there are no
further feminine elements existing in the body of the yogi, or, to put it
in the words of the popular belief which we have already cited, that perm
rather than blood flows in his veins. But there are other models as well.
Daniel Cozort, for example, in his contemporary
study of the Highest Yoga Tantra, speaks of two fundamental drops. The one
is white, masculine, lunar, and watery, and is located beneath the roof of
the skull; the other is red, feminine, solar, and fiery, and located in the
region of the genitals(Cozort, 1986, p. 77). The
“four joys from above” are evoked when the white drop flows from the
forehead via the throat, heart, and navel to the tip of the penis. The
“four joys from below” arise in reverse, when the red drop streams upwards
from the base of the spine and through the lotus centers. There are a total
of 21,600 masculine and the same number of feminine drops stored in the
body of the yogi. The adept who gets them to flow thus experiences 21,600
moments of bliss and dissolves 21,600 “components of his physical body”,
since the drops effect not just pleasure but also emptiness (Mullin, 1991,
p. 184).
The process is first completed when two “columns
of drops” have been formed in the energy body of the adept, the one
beginning above, the other from below, and both having been built up
stepwise. At the end of this migration of drops, “a broad empty body, embellished with all the
markings and distinguishing features of enlightenment, a body which
corresponds to the element of space [is formed]. It is 'clear and shining',
because it is untouchable and immaterial, emptied of the earthly atomic
structure”, as the first Dalai Lama already wrote (Dalai Lama I, 1985, p.
46).
A further version (which also applies to the Time
Tantra) introduces us to “four” drops of the size of a sesame seed which
may be found at various locations in the energy body and are able to wander
from one location to another. [3]
Through complicated exercises the yogi brings these four principle drops to
a standstill, and by fixating them at certain places in the body creates a
mystic body.
The anatomy of the energy body becomes even more
complicated in the Kalachakra
commentary by Lharampa Ngawang Dhargyey when he introduces another “indestructible
drop” in the heart of the yogi in addition to the four drop mentioned
above. This androgynous bindu is composed of the “white seed
of the father” in its lower half together with the “red seed of the mother”
in the upper. It is the size of a sesame seed and consists of a mixture of
“extremely fine energies”. The other lotus centers also have such
“bisexual” drops, with mixtures of varying proportions, however. In the
navel, for example, the bindu
contains more red seed than white, in the forehead
the reverse is true. One of the meditation exercises consists in dissolving
all the drops into the “indestructible heart drop”.
Luckily it is neither our task, nor is it
important for our analysis, to bring the various drop theories of tantric
physiology into accord with one another. We have nonetheless made an effort
to do so, but because of the terminological confusion and hairsplitting in
the accessible texts, were left with numerous insoluble contradictions. In
general, we can nevertheless say that we are dealing with two basic models.
In the first the divine energy body is constructed
solely with the help of the white, masculine bodhicitta. The feminine energy in the form of the candali assists only with the destruction of
the old human body.
In the second model the yogi constructs an
androgynous body from both red and white, feminine
and masculine bodhicitta
elements.
The textual passages available to us all presume
that the masculine-feminine drops can already be found in the energy system
of the adept before the initiation. He is thus regarded from the outset as
a bisexual being. But why does he then need an external or even an imagined
woman with whom to perform the tantric ritual? Would it in this case not be
possible to activate the androgyny (and the corresponding drops) apparently
already present in his own body without any female presence? Probably not!
A passage in the Sekkodesha,
which speaks of the man (khagamukha)
possessing a channel filled with semen
virile and the woman (sankhini)
a channel filled with semen feminile,
leads us to suspect that the yogi first draws the red bodhicitta or the red drop off from the karma mudra (the real woman), and that his androgyny is
therefore the result of this praxis and not a naturally occurring starting
point.
This view is also supported by another passage in
the Kalachakra Tantra, in which
the sankhini is mentioned as the
middle channel in the mystic body of the yogi (Grönbold, 1969, p. 84).
Normally, the menstrual blood flows through the sankhini and it may be found in the lower right channel of the
woman (Naropa, 1994, p. 72). In contrast, in the body of the yogi before
the sexual magic initiation no “menstrual channel” whatever exists. Now when this text refers to the avadhuti (the middle channel) of the
tantra master as sankhini,
that can only mean that he has “absorbed” the mudra’s red seed following union with her.
We must thus assume that before the sexual magic
ritual the red bodhicitta is
either completely absent from the adept’s body or, if present, then only in
small quantities. He is forced to steal the red elixir from the woman. The
extraction technique described above also lends support to this
interpretation.
Regardless of whether the Tibetan Lamas are
convinced of the overwhelming superiority of their theories and practices,
there is in principle no fundamental difference between Hindu and Buddhist techniques(Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, 294). Both systems
concern the absorption of gynergy and
the production of a microcosmic/masculine/androgyne/divine body by the
yogi. There are, however, numerous differences in the details. But this is
also true when one compares the individual Buddhist tantras with one
another. The sole teaching contrary to both schools which one could
nominate would be total “Shaktism”, “which elevates the goddess above all
gods” (von Glasenapp, 1936, p.125).
Excursus: The mystic female body
But is it at all possible to apply the mystic
physiology described in the Buddhist tantras to a woman? Or is the female
energy body subject to other laws? Does the kundalini also slumber in the perineum of a woman? Does a woman
carry her red drop in her forehead? Where can the white bodhicitta be
found in her and what are its movements? Are the two side channels within
her arranged just like those in a man or are they reversed? Why does she
also work with fire in her body and not with water?
There are only very few reports about
the mystic body of the woman, and even fewer instructions. The books on
praxis which we have been able to consult are all drawn from the Chinese
cultural sphere. The Frenchwoman, Catherine Despeux, has collected some of
these in a historical portrait (Immortelles
de la Chine Ancienne). A practical handbook by Mantak and Maneewan Chia
is available; it is subtitled The
Secret Way to Female Love Energy.
Generally, these texts allow us to say
that the spiritual energy experiences undergone by women within their
mystic bodies follow a different course to those for men described above.
The two poles between which the “tantric” scenario is played out in the
woman are not the genitals and the brain as in the case of a man, but
rather the heart and the womb. Whilst for the yogi the highest pleasure is
first concentrated in the tip of the penis, from where it is drawn up to
the roof of the skull, the woman experiences pleasure in the womb and then
a “mystic orgasm” in the heart, or the energy emerges from the heart, sinks
down to the womb and then rises up once more into the heart. “The sudden
opening of the heart, chakra, causes an ecstatic experience of
illumination; the heart of the woman becomes the heart of the universe”
(Thompson, 1981, p. 19).
According to Chinese texts, for
example, the red seed of the woman arises between her breasts, and from
there flows out into the vagina and is, unlike the male seed in Vajrayana, not to be sought under
the roof of the skull (Despeux, 1990, p. 206). The techniques for
manipulation of the energy body which result from this are therefore
completely different for men and women in Taoism.
Without further examining the inner
processes in the female body, what has been said in just a few sentences
already indicates that an undifferentiated transferal of Vajrayana techniques to the female
energy body must have fateful consequences. It thus amounts to a sort of
rape of the feminine bodily pattern by the masculine physique. It is
precisely this which the Fourteenth Dalai Lama encourages when he — as in
the following quotation — equates the internal processes of a woman with
those of a man. “Some people have confirmed that the white element is also
present in women, although the red element is stronger in them. Therefore
the praxis in the previously described tantric meditation is the same for
women; the white element sinks in exactly the same manner and is then drawn
back up” (Varela 1997, p. 154).
Should a woman adopt androcentric yoga techniques
then her sexual distinctiveness disappears and she is transformed in energy
terms into a man. In so doing she thus fulfills the sex change requirement
of Mahayana Buddhism which is
supposed to make it possible for a women to
already in this lifetime be reincarnated as men — at least in regard to
their mystic bodies.
Spiritual feminists (and there are a number of these)
who believe they can overcome their female impotence by copying the male
yoga techniques of Tantrism become caught in the most insidious and cynical
trap which the patriarchy was able to set. In the delusion that by
unchaining the candali within
their own body they can shake off the androcentric yoke, they unwittingly
employ sexual magic manipulations which effect
their own dissolution as gendered beings. They perform the “tantric female
sacrifice “ upon themselves without knowing, and
set fire to the stake at which they themselves are burned as a candali or a witch (dakini).
The method or the manipulation of the divine
But let us return again to the male tantra
techniques. The “method” which the adept employs to produce his androgynous
body is referred to as the “Yoga with Six Limbs” (Sadanga yoga). This system of teaching is valid for both the Kalachakra Tantra and the Guhyasamaja Tantra. It has been
referred to as the highest of all techniques in Vajrayana Buddhism. Fundamentally, sexual intercourse with a
woman and the retention of semen are necessary in performing this yoga. Of
course, if a partner cannot be found, masturbation can also be employed
(Grönbold, Asiatische Studien, p.
34). [4]
The six stages of Sadanga yoga are called (1) Individual retreat (pratyahara); (2) Contemplation (dhyana); (3) Breath control (pranayama); (4) Fixation or
retention (dharana); (5)
Remembering (anusmrti); and (6)
Unfolding or enlightenment (samadhi).
We shall briefly present and interpret the six levels.
1. Pratyahara
(individual retreat): The yogi
withdraws from all sensory abilities and sense objects back into himself;
he thus completely isolates himself from the external world. It is also
said that he locks the doors of the senses and draws the outside winds into
himself so as to concentrate them into a drop (Cozort, 1986, p. 124). The
meditation begins at night and must be conducted in complete darkness. The
American tantra interpreter, Daniel Cozort, recommends the construction of
a “light-proof cabin” as an aid. The yogi rolls back his eyes, concentrates
on the highest point of his middle energy channel and envisions a small
blue drop there. During this exercise the ten photisms (light and fire
signs) arise in the following order before his inner eye as forebodings of
the highest enlightenment, the infinite clear light. (1) Smoke; (2) a ray
of light; (3) glow worms; (4) the light of a lamp — these are the first
four phenomena which are also assigned to the four elements and which Sadanga yoga describes as “night signs,
since one still lives in darkness so to speak, as in a house without
windows” (Grönbold, Asiatische
Studien, p. 36). The remaining six phenomena are called the “day
signs”, because one now, “as it were, looks into a cloudless sky”
(Grönbold, Asiatische Studien, p.
35). They begin with (5) the steadfast light, followed by (6) fire, which
is considered to be the shine of emptiness, (7) moonlight and sunshine, (8)
the shine of the planet Rahu,
which is compared to a black jewel. Then, in (9) an atom radiates like a
bright bolt of lightning, and lastly (10) the great drop appears, which is
perceived as “a shining of the black orb of the moon” (Grönbold, Asiatische Studien, p. 35). Grönbold
interprets the fact that a “dark light” is seen at the end as an effect of
bedazzlement, since the light phenomena are now no longer comprehensible
for the yogi (Grönbold, Asiatische
Studien, p. 35). [5]
2. Dhyana
(contemplation): On the second level
of Sadanga yoga the adept through
contemplation fixes beneath the roof of the skull his thoughts and the ten
day and night signs. This contemplation is characterized by five states of
awareness: (1) wisdom; (2) logic; (3) reflection; (4) pleasure; and (5)
imperturbable happiness. All five serve to grant insight into the emptiness
of being (Grönbold, Asiatische
Studien, p. 32). When he has stabilized the signs, the yogi has
attained the purity necessary to ascend to the next level. He now possesses
the “divine eye” (Naropa, 1994, p. 219).
3. Pranayama (wind or breath control): Breath, air, and wind are synonymous in
every form of yoga. The energies internal to the body which flow through
the subtle channels are called winds. A trained adept can control them with
his breathing and thus has the ability to reach and to influence all 72,000
channels in his body by inhaling and exhaling. The energy wind generally
bears the name prana, that is,
pure life force. In the Kalachakra
school the opinion is held that prana is the primordial wind from
which the nine main winds are derived (Banerjee, 1959, p. 27). Time is also
conceived of as a coming and going of breath. Accordingly one who has his
breathing under control also has mastery over time. He becomes a superhuman
being, that “knows [about] the three times”: about the future by inhaling, about
the past by exhaling, and about the eternal present by holding his breath
(Grönbold, Asiatische Studien, p.
29).The wind, as the yogi’s highest instrument of control, dominates the
entire scenario, sometimes propelling the mystic indestructible drops
through the channels, sometimes pushing through the knots in the chakras so
that the energies can flow freely, sometimes burning up the yogi’s bad
karma via breathing exercises. There are numerous catalogs of the various
types of wind. Coarse and subtle, secondary and primary, ascending and
descending winds all waft through the body. In the Kalachakra Tantra a total of ten principle types of breath wind
are distinguished. The high point in pranayama
yoga consists in the bringing of the winds found in the right and left side
channels into the central channel (avadhuti).
In an ordinary person, prana pulses
in both outer channels, of which one is masculine and the other feminine.
Therefore, from a tantric point of view he still lives in a world of
opposites. Through the activation of his middle, androgynous channel the
yogi now believes he can recreate the original bisexual unity.
4. The fourth exercise is called dharana
(fixation). The breath wind is fixated or retained firstly within the
middle channel, then in the individual chakras. The emotions, thoughts, and
visions of particular deities are also fixed through this. Throughout this
exercise the yogi’s penis must remain constantly erect. He is now the “lord
of the winds” and can let the energies wander through his body at will in
order to then fix them in particular locations. This also applies to the
entry of the breath into the drops, wherever these are to be found.
Although the adept now controls the ten main winds, at this stage his body
is not yet purified. Therefore he concentrates the energy in the navel
chakra and combines it with “the drop of sexual ecstasy”. It is this
procedure which first results in the ignition of the candali.
5. The entrance of the “fire woman” (candali) dominates the scenario of the
fifth yoga, known as anusmriti. Oddly, this has the meaning of
‘recollection’ (Grönbold, 1969, p. 89). Why is the catching sight of the candali “in the body and in the sky”
linked to a mystic reminiscence? What is it that the yogi remembers?
Probably the “original unity”, the union of god and goddess.
6. In the last stages of Sadanga yoga the adept reaches samadhi
(enlightenment or unfolding), the “indestructible bliss”. This state is
also equated with the “vision of emptiness” (Wayman, 1983, p. 39). All winds,
and thus all manifestations of existence as well, are now brought to a
standstill — peace reigns among the peaks. For a night and a day the yogi
suspends the 21,600 breaths, that is, he no longer needs to breathe. His
material bodily aggregates are dissolved. Complete immobility occurs, all
sexual passions vanish and are replaced by the “motionless pleasure”
(Naropa, 1994, p. 219).
Since the flow of time depicts nothing other than
the currents of the energy winds in the body, the adept has, by stilling
these, elevated himself beyond the cycle of time and become its absolute
master. Back at the third level of the exercises, during pranayama, he had already won
control over the flow of time, but he only halts it when he attains the
state of samadhi.
It is astonishing that all six stages of Sandanga yoga should be performed
during sexual union with a karma
mudra (a real woman). But until it comes to this, many hours of
preparation are needed. The inner photisms described also arise in the
course of the sexual act.
For example, to press the masculine and feminine
energy currents into the middle channel in pranayama, the adept employs drastic Hatha yoga practices, which are known as “the joining of the
sun and moon breaths” (Evans-Wentz, 1937, p. 33). In translation ha means ‘sun’, and tha ‘moon’. Hatha, the combination of ha
and tha, significantly means
‘violence’ or ‘violent exertion’ and thereby announces the element of
violence in the sexual magic act (Eliade, 1985, p. 238). This consists of a
sudden, jerking leap up during sexual intercourse accompanied by
simultaneous pressure on the perineum with the hand or the heel. That such
“methods” (upaya) are especially
enticing and erotic for a “wisdom consort” (prajna) is something we would like to doubt. The lack of
feeling, the coldness, the cunning, and the deep misogyny which lies behind
these yoga techniques actually ought to hit the karma mudra in the eye at once. Yet in the arms of a godlike
Lama she would only seldom dare to take her skeptical impressions seriously
or even articulate them.
Sadanga yoga describes the Kalachakra Tantra “method” (upaya)
to be employed during the higher and highest initiations. We are dealing
here with an emotionless, “rational”, purely technical set of instructions for
the manipulation of energies which are profoundly emotional, arousing, and
instinctive — like love, eroticism, and sexuality. In the classic tantric
polarity of “wisdom” (prajna) and
“method” it is the latter which is covered by these yoga techniques. The
yogi does not need to bother about anything else — wisdom, knowledge, or
feelings. They are already to be found in the “prajna”, the feminine elixir
which he can snatch from the woman by properly practicing Sandanga yoga. Now what is the
result of this calculating and sophisticated sexual magic?
Footnotes:
[5] In contrast, alongside
the four “night signs” mentioned above, Daniel Cozort mentions the
following six “day signs”: (5) destructive fire; (6) the sun; (7) the moon;
(8) the planet Rahu; (9) a stroke
of lightning; and (10) the blue point (Cozort, 1986, p. 125). In the eleventh sign Kalachakra and Vishvamata
reveal themselves in sexual union within the blue drop. The Sekkodesha
calls this event the “universal, clear shining image” and speaks of an
epiphany of the all-knowing Buddha,
who shines “like the sun in water, unbesmirched, of every color,
with all aspects, recognized as an expression of our own consciousness,
without any objectivity” (Naropa, 1994, pp. 229, 254). Other texts specify still more photisms,
but in all cases they concern pure fire and light meditations which the
yogi has to successfully traverse.
Next Chapter:
8. THE ADI BUDDHA: HIS MYSTIC BODY AND HIS ASTRAL
ASPECTS
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