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The Female Buddhas
by Glenn H. Mullins An Excerpt from The Female Buddhas: Women of Enlightenment in Tibetan Mystical Art Any visitor to a Tibetan temple will be impressed by the large number of female images that appear in wall frescos and tangka paintings, as well as in various sculptured forms. This strong role of the feminine in Tibetan sacred art is common to the chapels of monasteries and nunneries alike, as well as in communal meditation hermitages. The feature stands in sharp contrast to the predominance of male images seen in the temples of most other Buddhist countries. When it comes to female buddhas in their mystical art, the Tibetans seem rich beyond compare. The two-hour drive from the Gongkhar airport in Central Tibet to the sacred city of Lhasa demonstrates the point. The first temple one comes across on the way stands near the road at roughly the halfway point of the journey. Known to Tibetans as the Dolma Lhakhang, or “Sacred Tara Chapel,” it is dedicated to Arya Tara, most ubiquitous of all the female buddhas. Built in the mid-eleventh century under the inspiration of the Indian master Atisha, it has stood here for the past ten centuries as a statement in stone to Tibet’s devotion to Arya Tara. Although a somewhat small temple, it is considered to be one of the most sacred power sites in the country, containing several dozen images of Tara in various mediums, including clay statues, bronzes, and exquisite paintings. A monastery stands at the top of the valley behind the Dolma Lhakhang, perhaps a mile away, and readily visible from the road. This is the famed Rato Gompa, a meditation hermitage again strongly linked to Arya Tara. Yogis and yoginis have come here for generations to meditate in the many caves and huts on the hills above it. Again in Rato one beholds numerous images of Tara and the other female buddhas, the most famous of these being a small bronze of Tara said to have been brought to Tibet by Atisha himself when he first came to Tibet in 1042. The proliferation of female buddha images continues throughout the sacred city of Lhasa. The Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lamas, is a prime example. Numerous chapels are dedicated to various female buddhas, including Tara, Vajrayogini, Prajnaparamita, Ushnishavijaya, and many others. Similarly the Norbu Lingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer residence, has several chapels dedicated to feminine images, the most famous being the White Tara Chapel built by the Seventh Dalai Lama in the mid-eighteenth century. The same holds true for the Jokhang, Tibet’s oldest and most sacred temple. Established at the heart of Old Lhasa in the mid-seventh century, the Jokhang is comprised of dozens of small chapels, each dedicated to a particular spiritual theme or energy. Here one beholds several hundred female buddha figures. Who are all these beings? What do they represent? And why do the Tibetan Buddhists hold them in such high regard? Some years ago the Dalai Lama gave a public talk in a New England university. At the end of his discourse he opened the floor to questions. A young lady stood up and asked, “What is the position of women in Tibetan Buddhism? And what is the Buddhist view of how gender relates to enlightenment?” The Dalai Lama thought for a moment and then replied, “In general, it can be said that Buddhism considers men and women to be equal in their enlightenment potential and capacity.” He then thought further on the matter and added, “In particular, however, there are two levels of the Buddhist teachings. One of these is called the Sutra Way, and is based on Buddha’s open or public teachings. The other is called the Tantra Way, and is based on Buddha’s secret or restricted teachings. Perhaps I should qualify what I said above by adding that in the Sutra Way men are credited with having something of a superior position, whereas in the Tantra Way women are credited with having the advantage.” Later we will look at what the Dalai Lama meant by these two Buddhist “ways,” and why the status of males and females is said to be opposite to one another in the two, with males dominating in the former and females in the latter. Perhaps then we will appreciate why the female buddhas, who are the focus of this book, are mainly connected to what the Dalai Lama refers to here as “the Tantra Way.” Hopefully we will also then appreciate why they have been such a source of inspiration to the artists and mystics of Central Asia for so many centuries. It may be prudent here to mention a misunderstanding about Tantra that is prevalent in the West. Tantra in Western literature often seems to refer almost exclusively to sexual practices of a somewhat indulgent nature. This is probably because early Western writings on Tantra were produced during the age of Victorian puritanism, and the Victorians took an illicit titillation in looking at erotic aspects of Asian and African cultures. Moreover, the Victorians heard of the Tantric sexual practices from Indian aristocrats during the zenith of the British Raj days, and the Indian aristocrats, who often had dozens of wives, often drew from the Tantric tradition in order to keep up to their extensive conjugal duties. It is true that the Buddhist Tantric tradition does offer elaborate instruction in spiritual love-making. In Tantric Buddhism this is termed karmamudra, or “the seal of destiny.” The sexual partner is a person with whom one shares great destiny; the “seal” refers to the fact that, through the act of sexual intercourse with the destiny partner or partners, one arouses a state of consciousness characterized by bliss, radiance and non-duality. These qualities of consciousness arise during the sex act, and come to an intense presence at the moment of orgasm. The practitioner engages certain Tantric techniques in order to sustain orgasm, thus augmenting the experience of these three aspects of consciousness. This unique state of consciousness is then in turn utilized for the higher Tantric activities. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama commented that the Tantric path has four defining characteristics. One of these is vastness of methods. The Tantric path includes practices for every experience in life, from sex yoga, sleep and dream yogas, eating yoga, going to the toilet yoga, death yoga, and so forth. There is even a killing yoga, so that policemen and soldiers can practice meditation while performing the duties involved in their vocations. Sexual yoga is in a sense more important than the others listed above, simply because the orgasmic consciousness is more useful to the Tantric process than, say, eating consciousness or toilet consciousness. The three qualities of consciousness (listed above) that arise with intensity during the sexual encounter— bliss, radiance and non-duality—are life’s metaphors for the enlightenment experience. These three have been brought to eternal perfection in buddhahood, whereas in sexual orgasm they are experienced momentarily. Put another way, it is during the moments of sexual orgasm that the ordinary human consciousness most closely parallels the enlightenment consciousness of a buddha, because the three mental qualities of bliss, radiance and non-duality are most powerful at that time, and these three are always there in enlightenment. Most paths only tell us what not to do with our sexuality, and not what to do. For example, ordinary Buddhism tells us not to have sex more than five times a day, not to force or deceive others into having sex with us, not to have sex with anyone under the age of puberty, not to have sex on new or full moon days, and so forth. In other words, the it only outlines the “don’t aspect” of sexual behavior, and not the “do aspect”. The Tantric tradition, on the other hand, clearly outlines techniques for Tantric love-making, in which the Tantric consciousness is made ever-stronger through the course of sexual engagement. Let’s come back for a moment to the statement by the present Dalai Lama quoted earlier, in which he said “…in the Sutra Way men are credited with having something of a superior position, whereas in the Tantra Way women are credited with having the advantage.” It is possible that men have something of an advantage in the Sutra approach, and women an advantage in the Tantra approach, because of the difference in the texture of the aesthetic sensitivities of the two genders, and how these aesthetic sensitivities are able to adapt to the linear and non-linear situations of the two Ways. And, as Charles de Gaul once put it, “Viva la difference.” Glenn H. Mullin, author of The Female Buddhas, will be appearing at Healing Earth Resources, 3111 N. Ashland, Chicago, for a lecture and slideshow on Fridiay, November 14. For more informaiton call 773/EARTHLY. |
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