Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines

Mahayana raised the Buddha from the human condition and established him in a divine form. The Supreme Principle became the Adi-Buddha, to whom four bodies were ascribed: (1) the Dharma-body, (2) the Enjoyment-body, (3) the Emanation-body, and (4) the Innate body. Of these, only the Emanation-body is historical. The Dharma-body, Enjoyment-body, and Innate body are not historical. Mahayana's goals were: (a) the cessation of suffering, (b) nirvana, and (c) the attainment of Buddhahood.

The Adi-Buddha's Innate body alone is ultimately real. Because it knows purity, it is perfectly pure. True compassion arises in this body; it is therefore the “vajra of knowledge.” Because the Dharma-body is the ground of nonconceptual mind, it is called the “vajra of mind” or “Dharma Yoga.” Mantra arises in the Enjoyment-body, which is therefore called the “vajra of speech” or “Mantra Yoga.” The Emanation-body is related to the waking state. By means of it the Buddha destroys afflictions. It is called the “vajra of body” and “Formation Yoga.”¹

Asanga and Nagarjuna

Asanga was a powerful advocate of the Yogacara tradition. He too is regarded as a cause of Tantra's entry into Buddhism. It is said that Maitreya initiated him into this path. Some say that Nagarjuna of the Madhyamaka tradition began the movement toward esoteric practice. Nagarjuna's teacher was Buddha Vairocana, whose own teacher was the divine bodhisattva Vajrasattva.

In the opinion of some scholars, Asanga's Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṅkāra contains clear indications of the practice of Buddhism's paired or sexual aspect. The word “transformation” recurs in its accounts of the Buddha's divine qualities. One verse reads:

Maithunasya parāvṛttau vibhutvaṃ labhyate param /
buddha-saukhya-vihāreṣu dārā-saṃkleśa-darśane //
“Through the transformation of sexual union, supreme mastery is obtained; within the Buddha's abodes of bliss, the affliction associated with a wife is seen.”

Scholars have interpreted maithunasya parāvṛttau in different ways. Sylvain Lévi says that “sexual union” here means the union of Buddha and bodhisattva. Winternitz says that parāvṛtti means disregard or abstention. Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj takes parāvṛtti to mean transformation or purification. Some scholars hold that the Buddha himself instructed qualified learned disciples in seals, mandalas, and Tantras.