The prosperity of Buddhism in Western society was mainly due to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Buddha himself taught sentient beings more than 2,500 years ago, and the spread was only in the surrounding areas of India. Later, the inheritance of the true Buddhist lineage mainly blossomed in the land of China(not Tibet), from Master Kumarajiva to Bodhidharma who taught Zen Buddhism ,then Master Xuanzang, and The Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism had one flower with five leaves，which means his five disciples were true enlightened and the authentic Zen Buddhism came into prosperity.
People who don’t know the truth often think that Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism are the same, or at least have a subordinate relationship. In fact, Buddhism is Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism is a branch of Hinduism and Tantra. The two are somewhat similar at first glance, but they are completely opposite in nature. They are two completely different religions and have no affiliation.
Western Buddhist researchers have been exposed to fake Tibetan Buddhism since they first came into contact with Buddhism. Due to the tantric branch of Hinduism ,they misunderstand that the highest buddhism's practice is sexual intercourse and the Buddha was interested in sex like normal human beings. The scholars themselves only use Buddhism as academic research, which is different from believers' belief in Buddhism and practical practice of Buddhism,because the latter have the ability to distingguish .So, her book's dening and slanderding the true Buddha Dharma and Sakyamuni Buddha is reasonable.Despite this, Professor Young still has a high enough scholarly spirit. Her research has objectively unveiled the mystery of Tibetan Buddhism, namely Tantra! In the eighth chapter of the book "Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual", the entire chapter is used to prove and discuss the false Tibetan Buddhist masters, whose pursuing throughout their lives is nothing more than sexual climax, and sexual intercourse between men and women is the only way they claim to practice secretly.
These sexual secrets in Tibetan Buddhist tantras and the empowerment is skillful sexual intercourse are all revealed by the author Professer Young，which coincide with the views in the book of "Behind the Façade of Tantric Buddhism " written by Taiwan Buddhist Master --Venerable Pings Xiao.In his books, Venerable Pings Xiao criticizes the evil teachings of sexual intercourse in tantric buddhism according to the Buddhist scriptures. The difference is that the masters of Buddhism use the realization of practitioners to transcend the heights of the world, and explain the so-called Madhyamaka in Tibetan Buddhism, which distorts the true meaning of Buddhism. For Buddhist disciples at home and abroad who really want to explore the true principles of the universe, it can be an indispensable guiding light on the path of spiritual practice.
Kali straddling Shiva
CHAPTER 8
TANTRIC CONSORTS: INTRODUCTION
IMAGES AND PRACTICES
The yab/yum couple is one of the most ubiquitous images of Tantric
Buddhist art. Representing the sexual union of divine beings with
their consorts, these images strive to express the oneness of the two
necessary elements for the generation of enlightenment: wisdom (Skt:
prajña; Tib: shes rab), a passive female principle,1 and skillful means
(upaya; thabs), an active male principle,2 joined together on the plane
of ultimate reality. The bliss they experience arises from their apprehension
of the essential emptiness (sunyata; stong nyid) of all existent
beings and objects. In Tantric Buddhism the couple is imaged either
standing or seated, never lying down (Plates 6 and 7, and Fig.8. 1).3
Importantly, these images are only created for and meant to be seen
by initiates; they function as supports for meditation and as objects of
worship.
The yab/yum image is so central to tantric doctrine that its meaning
is made explicit in the opening lines of many anuttarayoga tantras
(highest yoga tantras, Tib: bla na med pa’i rnal ‘byor), such as the Hevajra
Tantra, which states: “Thus have I heard: at one time the Lord
dwelt in the vagina (bhaga) of Vajrayogini—the heart of the Body,
Speech and Mind of all Buddhas.”4 Hevajra is an important yidam, a
male initiatory deity, and Vajrayogini is a divine yogini with enormous
initiatory powers who is often depicted alone, as the central deity. The
first lines of the Tantra make the point that the vagina is the place
where tantras are preached, and imply that this is also where initiations
and realizations take place,5 thus revealing the importance of the
tantric consort for spiritual development. Yet, except for very rare images
of the female as the dominant partner (Plates 8 and 9),6 in all other cases
the females are unnaturally small compared to the male
figure, indicating their subordination,7 and are depicted with curving,
voluptuous bodies that accentuate their femaleness and recall earlier
Buddhist images of auspicious fertile women.
Tantra8 refers to a wide range of religious paths that developed
mainly in northern India, perhaps as early as the third century C.E.,
among Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains, although it took several centuries
to achieve widespread influence.9 While its earliest history is
unclear, we know that tantra drew extensively on preexisting traditions
such as yoga, the Vedic sacrifice, rituals of sacred union, and
from tribal practices. In addition to conferring divine or magical powers
(siddhis) on its adepts, it is described as a fast path to enlightenment
(in a single lifetime), a path appropriate for the current dark age
(kaliyuga), and one of its essential features is an abundance of female
symbolism. These include divine females such as Tårå and Vajrayogini,
and various Dakinis and yoginis usually depicted in their fierce
forms. Additionally, there is the symbolic or actual use of menstrual
blood (and semen) in rituals and the valorization of female-identified
attributes such as wisdom (prajña).
Tantric practice utilizes the human body, upholding it as the means
to salvation, and central to tantric ritual are the “five m’s” (pañcamakara),
words that in Sanskrit all begin with the letter m: madya,
mÅmsa, matsya, mudra,10 and maithuna (respectively, wine, meat, fish,
parched grain, and sexual union).11 The first four are described as
aphrodisiacs and lead up to the fifth, actual or symbolical sexual
union. Theoretically, the right-handed path (daksinamarga) uses substitutes
for the first four and visualizes the fifth, sexual union, while the
left-handed path (vamamarga) imbibes these and other unpleasant
substances12 and involves ritual sexual intercourse. In point of fact,
though, left-handed practice also frequently uses substitutes and visualization,
which raises the issue of what tantrikas actually did or did
not do. Ambiguity about practice is inherent in the tantras themselves,
the primary texts of tantra, in that they purposely utilize twilight language
(sandhabhasa), a secret and metaphorical language that makes it
hard to pinpoint literal practice.13 Archaeological evidence from India
between the eighth and twelfth centuries indicates that the highest
yoga tantras, with their emphasis on sexual union, were practiced in
private shrines rather than in large-scale temples.14 This accords with
the general understanding that Indian left-handed practitioners were
usually wandering yogis while right-handed practitioners were traditional
brahmans. A similar situation arose in Tibet where free-wheeling
tantric practices were fairly widespread among nonmonastics both
householders and wandering yogis, while a more rationalized
tantra flourished in the monasteries. There were, however, exchanges
between the two groups.15
Whether through visualization or actual practice, the tantrika ritually
uses these forbidden and sometimes polluting substances to get
beyond the concepts of good and evil, forbidden and allowed, in
order to experience the negation of all dualities, including gender. In
tantra reality is one, but it is understood through a process of conceptual
and intuitive polarization, or duality, symbolized in terms of female
and male. The goal in Tantric Buddhism is to generate the thought
of enlightenment (bodhicitta; byang sems), often glossed as semen.16
This is accomplished through meditation techniques and yogic control
over the energy channels of the subtle body combined with visualizing
or ritually enacting the sexual union of wisdom (prajña; shes
rab) and skillful means (upaya; thabs). The union of wisdom and skillful
means leads to a supreme bliss (mahasukha), a direct and compassionate
experience of the emptiness (sunyata) of all existent beings and
objects, which being empty lack any duality.17
Toward this end, the later biographical tradition of Indo-Tibetan
Buddhism introduces a new type of female practitioner, the tantric
consort. Tantra needs sexually active females, real or envisioned,
human or divine, to enact its rituals and appear in its iconography,
and it draws upon the voluptuous imagery of the courtesan and the
auspicious, fertile women of the early Buddhist tradition. Westerners
have become used to the term sakti (power) for the female consort, but
more often this refers to the Hindu tantric tradition. The Buddhist
uses prajña and shes rab, wisdom, or vidya and rig ma,18 knowledge. In
Hindu tantra the female energy of sakti is active, even dominant, as is
often shown in images of goddesses standing on the prone god, such
as Kali on Siva (Figure 8.2).19 In Buddhist tantra the female element of
prajña is passive, a point I will return to shortly.
Tantric Buddhism has a rich terminology for the female consort.
When visualized she is called jñanamudra (ye shes kyi phyag rgya), wisdom
or knowledge consort.20 When an actual woman acts as a tantric
consort she is karmamudra (phyag rgya21 or gZungs ma, or las kyi phyag
rgya), often translated as action consort. Whether visualized or actual,
they are considered to be Dakinis, initiatory goddesses.22 Yeshe Tsogyel’s
biography uses gSang yum,23 secret consort, as does June Campbell,
who claims to have been a modern gSang yum.24 Yeshe Tsogyel’s
biography is of some interest, containing as it does a rare record of a
male consort, for whom it uses terms such as hero (dPa’ bo) and thabs,
meaning skillful means, the male complementary attribute to female wisdom.
Of course, the primordial terms for the male and female consort
are yab and yum, the honorific terms for father and mother, respectively.
Just as meditation on an initiatory deity (yidam) is believed to be
more efficacious when he is visualized in conjunction with his consort,
25 practice with an actual woman is believed to be more beneficial
than with a visualized consort since it can lead to enlightenment in
this lifetime. However, the practice of union, or sexual yoga, only begins
after vigorous training in the lower yogas under the supervision
of a qualified guru and at the completion stage of the highest tantras
(anuttarayoga; bla na med pa’i rnal ‘byor). These earlier practices purify
the subtle body (maya deha; sgyu lus), an imaginary or spiritualized
bodily system believed to be quite influential on one’s physical and
spiritual well-being. Activation of the subtle body is the first step in
sexual yoga. It consists of three primary channels (nadi; rtsa): the
winds (prana; rlung) that move along them, the generative fluids
called drops (bindu; thig le) that are located in the heart, and the five
energy centers (cakra; ‘khorlo) where the three channels meet. The
main channel runs from the cakra at the base of the spine up to the
cakra at the crown of the head; parallel on its left and right run the
other two channels, one white and thought of as male (skillful
means), and the other red and thought of as female (wisdom). Sexual
union, whether enacted or visualized, involves the belief that women
inherently possess something men do not: prajña (wisdom or insight).
Advanced male practitioners can access and appropriate that wisdom
through sexual yoga. For female practitioners, men are the source of
upaya, skillful means, which women can access and appropriate
through sexual yoga. From the male point of view, which we will see
is the dominant view, during sexual union the adept, who will lose
any spiritual benefit if he ejaculates,26 absorbs his consort’s red drops
(uterine fluids),27 mixing them with his white drops (semen), which
he then absorbs through his penis (vajroli mudra or maithunasya
paravrtti; bcud len), up into the subtle body channels to the top of the
head.28 The female’s red drops are not necessarily red, as they are also
referred to as the vaginal secretion a woman is believed to ejaculate
during intercourse. In other words, the female equivalent of semen.29
The many stories about courtesans seducing ascetics remind us
that from the earliest periods of South Asian religious history semen
has been equated with spiritual power and ejaculation with the loss of
power. Sexual yoga takes this idea a step further, and completely reverses
orthodox sexuality,30 wherein the female partner absorbs the
sexual fluids of the male. This reversal, combined with the prohibition
against ejaculation, makes the point that tantric sexual activity is not
about normal procreation, but rather about procreating the energy
that will lead to enlightenment. It does not produce life, it produces
the cessation of life through enlightenment, and in this it participates
fully in the tantric emphasis on practicing in cremation grounds.31
In this reverse sexuality the male practitioner mimics but does not
assume the female position of being the receptor. Yab/yum iconography
expresses this, first by avoiding prone images (the missionary position),
although the female on top would be a more gravitationally
accurate representation of reversing the flow of sexual fluids. The
women on top is described in the Kama Sâtra, but Paul’s research
among Sherpas revealed this is considered wrong and defiling to the
man, although he suggests that Tibetans are more sexually sophisticated.
32 However, Gedün Chöpel’s sex manual, even though influenced
by the Kama Sâtra, does not include the woman on top.33 Seated
images, where the woman is on top, seem to capture this idea of reversing
the fluid exchange, just as standing images do to a lesser degree.
Regardless, all the yab/yum images do allow for the female to be
in the weighted if not the dominant position, with the exception of the
few images that depict women in the dominant position, facing the
viewer and larger than their male partners (Plates 8 and 9). It would
seem that for all its forbidden aspects and despite Hindu images of
Kali lying and/or standing on siva’s prone body (Fig. 8.2), having the
woman lie on top of the man is too much of a challenge to Buddhist
male dominance and authority.
Turning to the female practitioner, theoretically she can mix her partner’s
semen with the uterine fluids within her body, absorbing and carrying
them up to the top of her head,34 but this requires that he shed a
few drops during coitus, or ejaculate, in which case he loses any spiritual
benefit for himself. Alternatively, visualization practices allow a
woman to visualize herself as a man, and men can visualize themselves
as women, for instance as in Vajrayogin≠ practice.35 There seems to be
some reciprocity in this for men, as Vajrayogin≠ can manifest and is said
to have manifested as a man or a woman in various historical contexts.36
The reverse is not necessarily the case for women. While the possibility
exists that male deities can manifest as male or female—being deities
they can do/be whatever they want—I do not know of any stories in
which male Buddhist deities appear as females. A possible exception is
the celestial bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, a complex figure who in East
Asia is frequently depicted in the female form of Kuan Yin. The fluidity
of his/her sexual characteristics, and those of other deities and human
beings, is discussed in chapter 12, where it is shown that the dominant
tendency in sex change stories is always toward male forms.
In unpacking the meanings of female consorts, one needs always to
bear in mind that the Buddhist tantric couple represents prajña and
upaya, with prajña being a passive principle, the enjoyed, not the enjoyer;
the known, not the knower; the object, not the subject. The
meanings and implications of this will become clearer as we now turn
to the biographical evidence.
MAHÄSIDDHAS
One of the first places where we meet tantric consorts is in the biographies
of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas37 (grub chen thob pas), eighty male and
four female wandering tantric yogis who flourished in
northern India between the eighth and twelfth centuries, and who
deeply influenced Tantric Buddhism. Tantra’s origins were outside
the great monastic institutions of the period; it began and flourished
among wandering yogis from a wide range of social backgrounds,
though eventually tantra became part of the monastic curriculum.
Mahāsiddha biographies reveal that several male siddhas practiced sexual
union with actual women, though their practice is not usually
elaborated upon. An exception is the following instruction given to
the mahāsiddha Babhala:
In the lotus mandala [vagina] of your partner,
A superior, skillful consort,
Mingle your white seed [semen]
With her ocean of red seed [womb blood].
Then absorb, raise and diffuse the elixir
And your ecstacy will never end.
Then to raise the pleasure beyond pleasure
Visualize it inseparable from emptiness.38
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 nonenduring.
As this example shows, gender, as it is defined by one’s sexual organs,
is essential for these practices, engaging as they do the karmic body,
which we have seen is the gendered body.39 It is the male gender that
is important, though, because the instructions are completely phallocentric
and almost always directed to the male practitioner.40 I will return
to this point at the end of this chapter.
Taranatha, writing in sixteenth-century Tibet, lists many more consorts
than other collections, possibly because his own guru’s guru,
Santigupta, had an accomplished consort, Menaka.41 Mahasiddhas who
had human consorts include Dombipa (a twelve-year-old girl), Saraha
(a fifteen-year-old girl), Ghantapa (a twelve-year-old girl), Bhusuku/
Santideva, Rama (a disciple of mahasiddha Sakara), Naropa, Tilopa,
and Marpa.42 The tantras usually recommend that the female consort
be young and attractive, between the ages of twelve and twenty,43
with sixteen being the most popular age. This seems to have been the
age preferred by the controversial twentieth-century tantric master
Chogyam Trungpa, who renounced his monastic vows in order to
marry a sixteen-year-old English girl who had been his student,44 and
around whom rumors swirled about his additional sexual relationships
with young female disciples.45 Ancient Indian ideas about female
sexuality partially explain this preference for younger women. It is
believed that younger women have more female seed than older
women. In a tantric context this means the male adept will receive
greater benefits from a young woman.46 Women are also believed to
be more sexual than men; indeed they are thought to be insatiable and
sexually aggressive, thus mature women pose a real threat to men by
taking their semen.47 This emphasis on teenagers also maintains the
male adept’s dominance and promotes the idea that female tantric
consorts are inexperienced, that they are vessels and aids for men’s
spiritual advancement and not accomplished practitioners in their
own right. Janet Gyatso has made this point,48 and speaking more
generally, Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty explains that a consort “is usually
implied to be a mere appendage, far inferior in power and status
to his or her spouse.”49 Indeed, the age requirement suggests that
women have to stop practicing when they reach twenty. The Hevajra
Tantra says that a female tantric consort can be trained by her male
partner in just one month, which markedly contrasts with his years of
practice.50 We will, however, soon meet some examples of accomplished
women practitioners of various ages.
Mahasiddhas who were involved with courtesans or prostitutes include
Vyalipa, Tilopa, and Santigupta, which is appropriate in that
prostitutes were occasionally used as female consorts in tantric rituals.
51 King Darika, for one, was sold as a slave to a devadasi, a Hindu
temple dancer and courtesan, and he is called sMad ‘tshong wa ma’i gyog
(from sMad pa, to lower, and tTshong wa, to sell), the prostitute’s
slave, or sMad ‘tshong can,52 the prostitute’s man. Frequently, the
tantric consort is a low-caste woman, such as a barmaid—alcohol
being one of the forbidden substances utilized by tantrikas—and taverns
often doubled as brothels.53 A well-known example is the barmaid
with whom Virupa is often depicted (Plate 10), and others can
be found in the stories about Luyipa, Tengipa, Saraha, Kala Virupa
and Santigupta, while Dombipa was one among many whose consort
was an outcaste woman.54 As mentioned above, important terms for a
female tantric consort are Dombi and candali, female outcastes, though
the latter term carries additional important meanings, such as the Tibetan
yoga of raising mystic heat (gtum mo),55 and it is also the name
of a female deity corresponding to the Hindu Kundalini.56 These examples
are connected to the so-called forbidden aspects of tantra,
most obviously the five m’s, but may include incest—as when the
Guhyasamaja Tantra recommends sexual union with one’s mother, sister,
or daughter as the best means for realization. It even suggests
union with the Buddha’s mother,57 while the Hevajra Tantra recommends
the wives of others.58 As we saw in the discussion of early
Buddhist sexual ethics, these are all forbidden women, which makes them
appropriate tantric consorts. Similarly, the use of menstrual
blood is considered efficacious precisely because it is thought to be so
polluting.59 At the same time, prostitutes, barmaids, and outcastes are
marginal women and as such often are also powerless women, creating
yet another image of female tantric consorts as vehicles for men’s
development and not as accomplished practitioners in their own
right.60 Sometimes tantric consorts are wives (Saraha), as in the case of
many married practitioners, for instance the Newari Buddhists of
Nepal.61 In the next chapter we will see some tantric consorts who
were royal women.
References to female tantric consorts as dakinis introduce the divine
and semidivine initiatory females who are so prominent in the lives of
Tibetan saints, although they are sometimes actual historical women
who initiate adepts, awaken their consciousness, and instill them with
supernormal powers.62 On rare occasions the term is used to describe
a highly advanced, living female practitioner. Dakinis was translated
into Tibetan as mKha’ ‘gro ma, which means “sky goer”—they cross
over between realms, as between the divine and the mundane. Being
initiatory goddesses, they have important salvational roles and they
also represent wisdom (prajña), which they can bestow along with siddhis,
the supernormal powers that lead to enlightenment. They do this
through dreams, visions, or sudden appearances in various forms: as
old, disgusting women, or as dogs (a despised animal in India), or as
young, beautiful women, and so on. Milarepa is a well-known example
of a celibate tantrika who constantly interacted with dakinis, as did
the mahasiddhas Kanhapa, Bhiksanapa, Kantalipa, Udhilipa, and
Naropa, among others. The divine dakinis Vajravarahi and Vajrayogini
frequently appear to siddhas (Plate 11), especially in Taranatha’s version
of their lives.63
Dakinis are comparable to yaksis in their ability to grant boons, to
bestow blessings. The great alchemist and mahasiddha Nagarjuna was
said to have propitiated numerous yaksis in order to obtain power
over the elements, and they acted as his consorts.64 Iconographically,
dakinis are usually depicted like the yaksis in early Buddhism, as
voluptuous, mostly nude women.
According to Taranatha, the female tantric consort was not simply
a tool in the hands of the male adept, or at least not always. For example,
Dombipa’s consort, known as the yogini of the Dombi caste, is
listed as one of his most prominent and successful disciples—she became
a teacher in her own right and created her own lineage of teachings.
65 In general, he mentions many women practitioners and
teachers, referring to them as accomplished yoginis.66 The next chapter
examines fuller biographies of female tantric consorts.
Many deities and celestial buddhas are frequently portrayed in the
yab/yum posture of sexual union, though others are simply flanked by
two female figures (Plate 12).67 Similarly, mahasiddhas are often depicted
with the human or divine females who helped them, though
their iconography is rather inconsistent, especially in whether or not
it includes females.68 Sometimes women stand to the side, or sit on
one thigh—rarely are they shown in yab/yum.69 A particularly startling
exception is that of Legs smin kara (Plate 13), a Tibetan form of the
name Lakasminkara, one of the four women mahāsiddhas. Even though
Lakasminkara is the more important person in this scene, she is placed
in the typical female subordinate position. Unfortunately, this image
comes from an incomplete set of mahāsiddha banners of unknown
provinance, so it is unclear if any other siddhas in this set are presented
in yab/yum.
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