Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines
—it must be remembered that nirvana is the centre and supreme goal of Buddhist practice. It is described by such words as supreme, peaceful, pure, holy, peace, imperishable, stable, true, infinite, unborn, unconditioned, unity, alone, and auspicious.1
The Tantras too generally use nirvana and great bliss in the same sense. Nirvana means a state of uninterrupted happiness, the centre of bliss and liberation, unbroken supreme joy, the seed of all things, the consummation of fulfilled desire, and the Buddhas' supreme abode: Sukhavati.
The progression of seals, states of mind, and bliss is presented as follows:
| Seal | State of mind | Bliss |
|---|---|---|
| Action-seal | variegated | bliss |
| Dharma-seal | maturation | supreme bliss |
| Great seal | complete blending | cessation-bliss |
| Pledge-seal | extraordinary | innate bliss |
The state of great bliss is also commonly expressed in these very terms. It has neither beginning, middle, nor end. The great bliss arising from the union of wisdom and skilful means is the condition of Vajrasattva. The Hevajra Tantra presents a magnificent and exalted account: bliss is the Supreme Principle; it is the Dharma-body; it is the Blessed Buddha himself. The colour of bliss is black, blue, red, white, and green. It is the entire universe. It is wisdom and skilful means. It is paired union itself. It is being and non-being. It is the Blessed Vajrasattva himself.
It has already been said that another name for Vajrayana is Sahajayana. Its entire practice centres upon great bliss, while yogic discipline and paired sexual yoga are so completely intermingled within its method that they cannot be separated. Great bliss is thus the concentrated essence of all esoteric practices. It is the innate state of every esoteric religious discipline, mentioned above. The word sahaja appears far simpler than it really is. Its literal explanation is “that which is born together”—2
Footnotes
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Rhys Davids' Dictionary of the Pali Language includes among the equivalents of nirvana: “the harbour of refuge, the cool cave, the island amidst the floods, the place of bliss, emancipation, liberation, safety, tranquillity, the home of ease, the calm, the end of suffering, the medicine for all suffering, the unshaken, the ambrosia, the immaterial, the imperishable, the abiding, the further shore, the unending, the bliss of effort, the supreme joy, the ineffable, the holy city,” and others. ↩
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Tasmāt sahajaṃ jagat sarvaṃ sahaja-svarūpam ucyate / svarūpam eva nirvāṇaṃ viśuddhākāra-cetasaḥ //—“Therefore the whole world is innate and is said to possess the nature of the innate. For those whose minds have a perfectly pure form, that very essential nature is nirvana.” Hevajra Tantra, p. 39. ↩