Escaping the Tantric Trap (Part II)

Both forms of transmission the oral and the nonverbal still take place between humans. Here an adept discovers holy texts which were hidden for him in caves and mountain clefts by the dakinis in times of yore in order to instruct him following their discovery. The Kalachakra Tantra is explicitly modeled upon the traditional Indian coronation ceremony Rajasuya.

Just as the Rajasuya authorizes the heir to the throne to take on the status of a king, so the tantric initiation empowers the adept to function as the emanation of a Buddhist deity. Of course, it is also not as a person that the lama communicates the divine energies to the initiand, but rather as a superhuman being in human form. So that he never forgets the superhuman nature of his master, the Kalachakra Tantra prescribes a Guruyoga liturgy , which is to be recited by the initiand at least three times a day and three times per night.

Several of these liturgies are hundreds of pages long Mullin, , p. You must do what I tell you to do. You should not deride me, and if you do, This is also true for the Kalachakra Tantra. The self-sacrifice of the pupil. This is not the case for two reasons. On the one hand, the divine being behind master and pupil forms a unity. One could even consider it characteristic of divine entities that they are simultaneously able to appear in various forms. This empty body of the sadhaka is then in the course of the initiation occupied by the deity or the lama respectively.

Our body becomes the possession of the lineage; it is not ours any more. I mean that surrendering our body, psychologically our dear life is turned over to someone else. The pupil has completely ceased to exist as an individual soul and mind. Only his body, filled by a god or respectively by his guru, visibly wanders through the world of appearances.

In a central drama of the Time Tantra which is repeated several times, the oral destruction of the sadhaka is graphically demonstrated, even if the procedure does only take place in the imagination of the cult participants. The following scene is played out: As a drop the initiand then wanders through the body of his masters until he reaches the tip of his penis. From there the guru thrusts him out into the vagina and womb of Vishvamata , the wisdom consort of Kalachakra.

The rebirth of the sadhaka as a Buddhist deity takes place only after this vaginal destruction. So long the master is still alive he has, so to speak, created a double of himself in the form of the sadhaka; if he dies then his spirit continues to exist in the body of his pupil. He can thus reproduce himself in the world of samsara for as long as there are people who are prepared for his sake to sacrifice their individuality and to surrender him their bodies as a home.

This leads at the end of the initiatory path to a situation where the tantra master now lives on in the form of the pupil. The latter has de facto disappeared as an individual, even if his old physical body can still be apprehended. It has become a housing in which the spirit of his master dwells. The pupil serves as an empty vessel into which can flow not just the spirit of his master but also the lineage of all the former teachers which stretches back behind him, plus the deities they have all represented.

The divine energy flows from him through every part to deep in the roots. Evans-Wentz compares this down-flow to an electric current: All of the high initiates are separated by a deep divide from the masses of simple believers and the rest of the suffering beings, who either prostrate themselves before the dynastic line tree in total awe or are unable to even perceive it in their ignorance. The spiritual hierarchy draws its natural and spiritual resources from it, both material goods and religious devotion and loving energy.

The critical Tibet researcher, Peter Bishop, has therefore, and with complete justification, drawn attention to the fact that the mystic line tree in Lamaism takes on the appearance of a bureaucratic, regulated monastic organization: The first seven initiations. All together the Kalachakra Tantra talks of fifteen initiatory stages.

The first seven are considered lower solemnities and are publicly performed by the Dalai Lama and open to the broad masses. The other eight are only intended for a tiny, select minority. The Tibetologist Alexander Wayman has drawn a comparison to the Eleusian mysteries of antiquity, the first part of which was also conducted in front of a large public, whilst only a few participated in the second, secret part in the temple at night Wayman, , The seven lower initiations ought to be succinctly described here. All seven are compared to the developmental stages of a child from birth to adulthood.

In particular they serve to purify the pupils. Before beginning the initiatory path the neophyte swears a vow with which he makes a commitment to strive for Buddhahood incessantly, to regret and avoid all misdeeds, to lead other beings along the path to enlightenment, and to follow absolutely the directions of the Kalachakra master. But above all he must visualize his androgyne guru as the divine couple, Kalachakra in union with his consort Vishvamata. With blindfolded eyes he must imagine that he is wandering through a three-dimensional mandala an imaginary palace which is occupied by the four meditation Buddhas Amitabha, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, Vairochana and their partners.

After his blindfold has been removed, he tosses a blossom onto a sacred image mandala spread out before him, which has been prepared from colored sand. The place where the flower comes to rest indicates the particular Buddha figure with which the pupil must identify during his initiation journey. In the following phase he receives two reeds of kusha grass, since the historical Buddha once experienced enlightenment as he meditated while seated on this type of grass.

Further, the Lama gives him a toothpick for cleansing, as well as a red cord, which he must tie around the upper arm with three knots. Then he receives instructions for sleeping. Before he goes to bed he has to recite certain mantras as often as possible, and then to lay himself on his right side with his face in the direction of the sand mandala. Dreams are sent to him in the night which the guru analyzes another day. It is considered especially unfavorable if a crocodile swallows the pupil in his dream. The monster counts as a symbol for the world of illusions samsara and informs the sadhaka that he is still strongly trapped by this.

But via meditation upon the emptiness of all appearances he can dissolve all unfavorable dream images again. Further instructions and rites follow which likewise concern purification. We should never forget that the androgynous tantric teacher represents both time deities in one person. Since the pupil possesses absolutely no further individual existence right from the beginning of the initiation, the two time deities are doubled by this meditative imagining — they appear both in the tantra master and in the person of the sadhaka.

We can thus see that already in the first phase of the Kalachakra initiation, the alternation between dissolution and creation determines the initiatory drama. The teacher will in the course of the rituals destroy his pupil many times more in imagination, so as to replace him with a deity, or he will instruct the sadhaka to perform the individual act of destruction upon himself until nothing remains of his personality. This is in no sense a liberal interpretation of the tantra texts; rather it is literally demanded in them. The pupil has to offer himself up with spirit and mind, skin and hair to the guru and the gods at work through him.

Incidentally, these, together with all of their divine attributes, are codified in a canon, they can no longer develop themselves and exert their influence on reality as frozen archetypal images. The first two initiations, the water and crown initiations, are directed at the purification of the mystic body. The water initiation 1 corresponds to the bathing of a child shortly after its birth. The five elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether become purified in the energy body of the sadhaka. Subsequently, the guru in the form of Kalachakra imagines that he swallows the initiand who has melted down to the size of a droplet, then thrusts him out through his penis into the womb of his partner Vishvamata, who finally gives birth to him as a deity.

As already mentioned above, in this scenario of conception and birth we must not lose sight of the fact that the androgynous guru simultaneously represents in his person the time god and the time goddess. The complete performance is thus set in scene by him alone. Here, the shell is probably a symbol for the element of water.

The third and fourth initiations are directed at the purification of speech. In the silk ribbon initiation 3 , the androgynous guru once more swallows the pupil and — in the form of Vishvamata — gives birth to him as a god. In the development of the human child this third initiation corresponds to the piercing of the ears, so that a golden ring can be worn as an adornment. They are found alongside the spine and together build the subtle backbone of the adept, so to speak.

The right channel becomes the masculine vajra, the left the feminine bell gantha. The pupil now asks the Kalachakra deity, represented through the guru, to give him the vajra and the bell, that is, to hand over to him the emblems of androgyny. Yet again, an act of swallowing takes place in the fifth initiation. Accordingly, the six senses sight, hearing, smell, etc. In the name initiation 6 which follows, the ordained receive a secret religious name, which is usually identical with that of the deity assigned to them during the preparatory rites.

The guru prophecies that the pupil will appear as a Buddha in the future. Here the six abilities to act mouth, arms, legs, sexual organs, urinary organs, and anus and the six actions speech, grasping, walking, copulation, urination, and defecation are purified, dissolved and re-created. As seems obvious, the texts compare the naming of a child with the sixth initiation. The fifth and sixth initiations together purify the spirit. Five symbols the vajra, jewel, sword, lotus, and wheel which act as metaphors for various states of awareness in deep meditation are purified, dissolved and replaced.

The androgynous guru swallows the pupil once more and as Kalachakra in union with his consort gives birth to him anew.

He then hands him the vajra and the bell, as well as the five symbolic objects just mentioned, one after another. He then receives a mirror as an admonition that the phenomenal world is illusory and empty like a reflection in a mirror. A bow and arrow, which are additionally handed to him, are supposed to urge him on to extreme concentration. The ritual lays especial weight on the handing over of the diamond scepter vajra.

Through this closing remark the tantra master forcefully evokes the masculine primacy in the ritual. With this demonstration of dominance the seven lower initiations are ended. With immediate effect he gains the right to disseminate the teaching of Buddha, albeit only within the limits of the lower initiations described. Then only in the higher initiations which follow does it come to sexual union with a real partner.

The wisdom consorts of the seven lower levels are of a purely imaginary nature and no karma mudra is needed for their performance. Therefore they can also be given in public, even in front of great crowds. The divine time machine. So far, the vajra master and his pupil appear as the sole protagonists on the initiatory stage of the Time Tantra. The individual personality of the sadhaka is destroyed but his visible body is retained. The guru uses it as a living vessel into which he lets his divine substances flow so as to multiply himself.

See a Problem?

The same gods now live in the pupil and the master. But is there no difference between the guru and the sadhaka any more after the initiation? This is indeed the case when both are at the same level of initiation. But if the master has been initiated into a higher stage, then he completely encompasses the lower stage at which the pupil still finds himself. The initiation stages and the individuals assigned to them thus stand in a classic hierarchical relation to one another.

The higher always integrate the lower, the lower must always obey the higher, those further down are no more than the extended arm of those above. Should, for example — as we suspect — the Dalai Lama alone have attained the highest initiation stage of the Kalachakra Tantra , then all the other Buddhists initiated into the Time Tantra would not simply be his subordinates in a bureaucratic sense, but rather outright parts of his self.

In his system he would be the arch-god the ADI BUDDHA , who integrated the other gods or Buddhas within himself, then since all individual and human elements of the initiand are destroyed, there are only divine beings living in the body of the pupil. But these too stand in a ranked relationship to one another, as there are lower, higher and supreme deities. We thus need — to formulate things somewhat provocatively — to examine whether the Kalachakra Tantra portrays a huge divine time machine with the Dalai Lama as the prime mover and his followers as the various wheels.

They are known as: They may only be received under conditions of absolute secrecy by a small number of chosen. In all of the higher initiations the presence of a young woman of ten, twelve, sixteen, or twenty years of age. Without a living karma mudra enlightenment cannot, at least according to the original text, be attained in this lifetime. The union with her thus counts as the key event in the external action of the rituals. Further, in the higher initiations the adept is obliged to ritually consume the five types of meat human flesh, elephant meat, horseflesh, dog, and beef and drink the five nectars blood, semen, menses In texts which are addressed to a broad public the vase initiation 8 is euphemistically described as follows.

The adept visualizes a sacrificial goddess who carries the vase. The vessel is filled with a white fluid Henss, , p. In reality, however, the following initiation scene is played out: He then supplicates to receive initiation and sings a hymn of praise to his guru. According to another passage in the texts — but likewise in reference to the Kalachakra Tantra — the vajra master shows the undressed girl to the sadhaka and requires him to now stroke the breasts of the karma mudra himself Naropa, , p. In the tantric view of things this originally finds itself at a point below the roof of the skull and begins to flow down through the body into the penis when a man becomes sexually aroused.

Under no circumstances may it come to the point of ejaculation here! Let us now continue with the euphemistic depiction of the next secret initiation 9: The pupil is blindfolded. In reality something different is played out on this level: Then he presents him with a young and gracile girl. The lama demands that the sadhaka leave the room or blindfold himself.

When you say something is ugly, you are saying that you are affected in an antagonistic way. You are repelled or you are attracted But it is you, not the object. Sep 19, Kavytha rated it it was amazing. Food for the soul definitely. Found answers to many of my questions here. Its a book I'd refer to for the longest time. This is my first try for Osho maybe the last. The tantra teaching is very meditative, connects you to what is important and what matters nothing , it grounds you to enjoy the simplicity of the present moment.

A bit extreme like all present oriented teachings in my opinion the teaching inhibits goal orientation, ambitions, and change. It is incredibly repetitive, sometimes boring you can easily skip through pages even chapters and feel that you're running around the same point. On the other This is my first try for Osho maybe the last. On the other hand, I have picked a few things Ive learned especially regarding the "not-forcing" meditation to relax, the acceptance of whatever that you're in and the being like hollow bamboo.

I am not sure if I recommend it, but to me it was a nice escape from the stress of studying. Oct 26, Sumit rated it it was amazing. What is wrong and right? The more we depend on some one else do decide more incapable we are becoming. Tantra never talks about what is wrong and right, you decide yourself. People always look at Tantra with sexuality. The fact is in Tantra Sexuality is a spiritual act. If you have sex with meditativeness you can experience cosmic orgasm i. Sep 27, Megan Smith rated it it was amazing. I will read this book times over. The message is so pure and true. It's a great book to live by.

Sep 10, Sarath Thampi rated it it was amazing. This book contains discourses on the tantric way of Tilopa's song of Mahamudra. One of the best books about spirituality and tantra I've ever read. Amazing book, lots of deep insight. Some of it a bit skewed is as often ze case. Not for the spiritually faint. Mar 15, Thamme Gowda rated it it was ok. At first, the guru tells you to lose the critical mind. Losing critical mind, I mean, you should lose your ability to question and consider alternative possibilities.

They say you shouldn't question anything, then only you can attain the knowledge but, seriously, why so? That's not how it should work, or is it? Author or preacher and readers or listeners are adversaries in communication - usually, the author provides enough details and references to facts that address al Don't read it. Author or preacher and readers or listeners are adversaries in communication - usually, the author provides enough details and references to facts that address all the 'doubts' of readers and make them agreeable.

This book is opposite, it first tells the reader to kill the ability to doubt, and prepares the readers to agree whatever the author say in subsequent sections. What made me close the book in the midway is the Guru references things that are from uncredible sources. Let me tell you two you might want to debate: Some parts are about spiritual ideas that are based on Buddhism match with the other texts I have read, so rating 2 stars instead of 1 star. I would rather read from other Buddhist who have the view that 'If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change'.

I do so not because 'science can prove beliefs wrong', at least they consider the possibility that 'some religious beliefs can be wrong', instead of saying 'all are facts, you must accept it without questioning any. Aug 09, Simona Pierrovskaia rated it really liked it. Serie di discorsi di Osho in cui il Maestro traccia le linee della sua filosofia esistenziali a partire dalla canzone di Mahamudra di Tilopa.

Non si tratta di uno scritto organico ma di una serie di discorsi tenuti in occasioni diverse. Oct 08, Nathnael Shenkute rated it it was amazing. My meditations grow deeper and deeper when I read Osho. Jul 01, Amber Jade rated it really liked it. A beautiful and interesting read. Osho offers a great perspective on how to live our lives to the fullest, without getting hung up on preconditioning and fantasies from this culture.

He can thus reproduce himself in the world of samsara for as long as there are people who are prepared for his sake to sacrifice their individuality and to surrender him their bodies as a home. This leads at the end of the initiatory path to a situation where the tantra master now lives on in the form of the pupil. The latter has de facto disappeared as an individual, even if his old physical body can still be apprehended.

It has become a housing in which the spirit of his master dwells. The pupil serves as an empty vessel into which can flow not just the spirit of his master but also the lineage of all the former teachers which stretches back behind him, plus the deities they have all represented. The divine energy flows from him through every part to deep in the roots. Evans-Wentz compares this down-flow to an electric current: All of the high initiates are separated by a deep divide from the masses of simple believers and the rest of the suffering beings, who either prostrate themselves before the dynastic line tree in total awe or are unable to even perceive it in their ignorance.

The spiritual hierarchy draws its natural and spiritual resources from it, both material goods and religious devotion and loving energy. The critical Tibet researcher, Peter Bishop, has therefore, and with complete justification, drawn attention to the fact that the mystic line tree in Lamaism takes on the appearance of a bureaucratic, regulated monastic organization: The first seven initiations.

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All together the Kalachakra Tantra talks of fifteen initiatory stages. The first seven are considered lower solemnities and are publicly performed by the Dalai Lama and open to the broad masses. The other eight are only intended for a tiny, select minority. The Tibetologist Alexander Wayman has drawn a comparison to the Eleusian mysteries of antiquity, the first part of which was also conducted in front of a large public, whilst only a few participated in the second, secret part in the temple at night Wayman, , The seven lower initiations ought to be succinctly described here.

All seven are compared to the developmental stages of a child from birth to adulthood. In particular they serve to purify the pupils. Before beginning the initiatory path the neophyte swears a vow with which he makes a commitment to strive for Buddhahood incessantly, to regret and avoid all misdeeds, to lead other beings along the path to enlightenment, and to follow absolutely the directions of the Kalachakra master. But above all he must visualize his androgyne guru as the divine couple, Kalachakra in union with his consort Vishvamata. With blindfolded eyes he must imagine that he is wandering through a three-dimensional mandala an imaginary palace which is occupied by the four meditation Buddhas Amitabha, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, Vairochana and their partners.

After his blindfold has been removed, he tosses a blossom onto a sacred image mandala spread out before him, which has been prepared from colored sand. The place where the flower comes to rest indicates the particular Buddha figure with which the pupil must identify during his initiation journey. In the following phase he receives two reeds of kusha grass, since the historical Buddha once experienced enlightenment as he meditated while seated on this type of grass. Further, the Lama gives him a toothpick for cleansing, as well as a red cord, which he must tie around the upper arm with three knots.

Then he receives instructions for sleeping. Before he goes to bed he has to recite certain mantras as often as possible, and then to lay himself on his right side with his face in the direction of the sand mandala. Dreams are sent to him in the night which the guru analyzes another day. It is considered especially unfavorable if a crocodile swallows the pupil in his dream. The monster counts as a symbol for the world of illusions samsara and informs the sadhaka that he is still strongly trapped by this. But via meditation upon the emptiness of all appearances he can dissolve all unfavorable dream images again.

Further instructions and rites follow which likewise concern purification. We should never forget that the androgynous tantric teacher represents both time deities in one person. Since the pupil possesses absolutely no further individual existence right from the beginning of the initiation, the two time deities are doubled by this meditative imagining — they appear both in the tantra master and in the person of the sadhaka.

We can thus see that already in the first phase of the Kalachakra initiation, the alternation between dissolution and creation determines the initiatory drama. The teacher will in the course of the rituals destroy his pupil many times more in imagination, so as to replace him with a deity, or he will instruct the sadhaka to perform the individual act of destruction upon himself until nothing remains of his personality. This is in no sense a liberal interpretation of the tantra texts; rather it is literally demanded in them. The pupil has to offer himself up with spirit and mind, skin and hair to the guru and the gods at work through him.

Incidentally, these, together with all of their divine attributes, are codified in a canon, they can no longer develop themselves and exert their influence on reality as frozen archetypal images. The first two initiations, the water and crown initiations, are directed at the purification of the mystic body. The water initiation 1 corresponds to the bathing of a child shortly after its birth. The five elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether become purified in the energy body of the sadhaka.

Subsequently, the guru in the form of Kalachakra imagines that he swallows the initiand who has melted down to the size of a droplet, then thrusts him out through his penis into the womb of his partner Vishvamata, who finally gives birth to him as a deity. As already mentioned above, in this scenario of conception and birth we must not lose sight of the fact that the androgynous guru simultaneously represents in his person the time god and the time goddess.

The complete performance is thus set in scene by him alone. Here, the shell is probably a symbol for the element of water. The third and fourth initiations are directed at the purification of speech. In the silk ribbon initiation 3 , the androgynous guru once more swallows the pupil and — in the form of Vishvamata — gives birth to him as a god.

In the development of the human child this third initiation corresponds to the piercing of the ears, so that a golden ring can be worn as an adornment. They are found alongside the spine and together build the subtle backbone of the adept, so to speak. The right channel becomes the masculine vajra, the left the feminine bell gantha. The pupil now asks the Kalachakra deity, represented through the guru, to give him the vajra and the bell, that is, to hand over to him the emblems of androgyny.

Yet again, an act of swallowing takes place in the fifth initiation. Accordingly, the six senses sight, hearing, smell, etc.

In the name initiation 6 which follows, the ordained receive a secret religious name, which is usually identical with that of the deity assigned to them during the preparatory rites. The guru prophecies that the pupil will appear as a Buddha in the future. Here the six abilities to act mouth, arms, legs, sexual organs, urinary organs, and anus and the six actions speech, grasping, walking, copulation, urination, and defecation are purified, dissolved and re-created. As seems obvious, the texts compare the naming of a child with the sixth initiation.

The fifth and sixth initiations together purify the spirit. Five symbols the vajra, jewel, sword, lotus, and wheel which act as metaphors for various states of awareness in deep meditation are purified, dissolved and replaced. The androgynous guru swallows the pupil once more and as Kalachakra in union with his consort gives birth to him anew. He then hands him the vajra and the bell, as well as the five symbolic objects just mentioned, one after another.

He then receives a mirror as an admonition that the phenomenal world is illusory and empty like a reflection in a mirror. A bow and arrow, which are additionally handed to him, are supposed to urge him on to extreme concentration. The ritual lays especial weight on the handing over of the diamond scepter vajra. Through this closing remark the tantra master forcefully evokes the masculine primacy in the ritual.

With this demonstration of dominance the seven lower initiations are ended. With immediate effect he gains the right to disseminate the teaching of Buddha, albeit only within the limits of the lower initiations described. Then only in the higher initiations which follow does it come to sexual union with a real partner. The wisdom consorts of the seven lower levels are of a purely imaginary nature and no karma mudra is needed for their performance. Therefore they can also be given in public, even in front of great crowds.

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part I – 6

The divine time machine. So far, the vajra master and his pupil appear as the sole protagonists on the initiatory stage of the Time Tantra. The individual personality of the sadhaka is destroyed but his visible body is retained. The guru uses it as a living vessel into which he lets his divine substances flow so as to multiply himself.

The same gods now live in the pupil and the master. But is there no difference between the guru and the sadhaka any more after the initiation? This is indeed the case when both are at the same level of initiation. But if the master has been initiated into a higher stage, then he completely encompasses the lower stage at which the pupil still finds himself. The initiation stages and the individuals assigned to them thus stand in a classic hierarchical relation to one another. The higher always integrate the lower, the lower must always obey the higher, those further down are no more than the extended arm of those above.

Should, for example — as we suspect — the Dalai Lama alone have attained the highest initiation stage of the Kalachakra Tantra , then all the other Buddhists initiated into the Time Tantra would not simply be his subordinates in a bureaucratic sense, but rather outright parts of his self. In his system he would be the arch-god the ADI BUDDHA , who integrated the other gods or Buddhas within himself, then since all individual and human elements of the initiand are destroyed, there are only divine beings living in the body of the pupil.

But these too stand in a ranked relationship to one another, as there are lower, higher and supreme deities. We thus need — to formulate things somewhat provocatively — to examine whether the Kalachakra Tantra portrays a huge divine time machine with the Dalai Lama as the prime mover and his followers as the various wheels.

They are known as: They may only be received under conditions of absolute secrecy by a small number of chosen. In all of the higher initiations the presence of a young woman of ten, twelve, sixteen, or twenty years of age. Without a living karma mudra enlightenment cannot, at least according to the original text, be attained in this lifetime. The union with her thus counts as the key event in the external action of the rituals. Further, in the higher initiations the adept is obliged to ritually consume the five types of meat human flesh, elephant meat, horseflesh, dog, and beef and drink the five nectars blood, semen, menses In texts which are addressed to a broad public the vase initiation 8 is euphemistically described as follows.

The adept visualizes a sacrificial goddess who carries the vase. The vessel is filled with a white fluid Henss, , p. In reality, however, the following initiation scene is played out: He then supplicates to receive initiation and sings a hymn of praise to his guru.

Tantra: The Supreme Understanding - Discourses on the Tantric Way of Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra

According to another passage in the texts — but likewise in reference to the Kalachakra Tantra — the vajra master shows the undressed girl to the sadhaka and requires him to now stroke the breasts of the karma mudra himself Naropa, , p. In the tantric view of things this originally finds itself at a point below the roof of the skull and begins to flow down through the body into the penis when a man becomes sexually aroused. Under no circumstances may it come to the point of ejaculation here! Let us now continue with the euphemistic depiction of the next secret initiation 9: The pupil is blindfolded.

In reality something different is played out on this level: Then he presents him with a young and gracile girl. The lama demands that the sadhaka leave the room or blindfold himself. He then, exceptionally, allows his semen to flow into her vagina. The master then summons the pupil, or instructs him to remove his blindfold.

Today my life is fruitful. Today I have been born into the Buddha-Family. Concretely, this means that he has, through the consumption of the female and the male seed, attained the status of an androgyne. But there are also other versions of the second initiation. This white bodhicitta sinks to his own heart chakra and in so doing generates bliss In the wisdom initiation 10 which follows, the pupil is confronted with an even more sexually provocative scene: Both are instructed to engage in sexual union Naropa, , pp.

During the ritual performance of the yuganaddha fusion the adept may under no circumstances let go of his semen. The Kalachakra Tantra does not give away all of the secrets which are played out during this scene. It therefore makes sense to fall back upon other tantra texts in order to gain more precise information about the proceedings during the tenth initiation stage. For example, in the Candamaharosana Tantra, once the master has left the room, the mudra now provokes the pupil with culinary obscenities: It is thus also not revealed in any external scenario, but instead takes place exclusively within the inner subtle body of the former pupil, since the latter has already made the switch to a perfected consciousness and been transformed into a deity.

A commentary upon the eleventh higher initiation thus belongs in the next chapter, which concerns the microcosmic processes in the energy body of the practitioner. Sperm and menstrual blood as magic substances.

But before we continue with a discussion of the four highest initiations, we would like to make a number of reflections on the topic of sperm gnosis, which so decisively shapes not just the Kalachakra but rather all tantras. This already makes apparent how closely interlaced the semen virile and enlightenment are. In the tantras, the moon and water are idiosyncratically assigned to the male seed, which is idiosyncratic because both metaphors are of largely feminine character in terms of cultural history.

We will need to look into this anomaly in Tantric Buddhism later. But a solar assignation of sperm is likewise known Bharati, , p. The exceptional meaning which is accorded to the semen virile in Vajrayana has given rise to the conception among the Tibetan populace that, rather than blood, male seed flows in the veins of a high lama Stevens, , p.

The retention of sperm. For a Buddhist Tantric the retention of the male seed is the sine qua non of the highest spiritual enlightenment. This stands in stark opposition to the position of Galen — C.