TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)true nature of the Buddha; the lama aggregates these three things. His
body is the lama, his speech the tutelary, his mind the diikir:zl; he aggre-
gates all the three veins. His body is the incarnate form, his speech the
fruitional form, his mind the dharma form; he aggregates all three
forms. He is the incarnation of all past Buddhas, the source of all future
Buddhas, the representative of all present Buddhas.
(Dpal-sprul 1971: 8-9)The lama stands for simultaneity and contiguity of sacred time and space. All
the dimensions collapse into a single figure alone But these qualities can be
"unpacked," at least in part, and other figures can attain at least partial charis-
matic status by achieving spatio-temporal control of the sacred environment. By
comparing four such figures-the saint, the eustatic mystic, the shaman and the
oracle-with the 'das-log we may be able to gain in insight into the structure
and history of charisma in Tibetan religion.
There are no firm distinctions between the first two named here. There are,
quite simply, no living saints (siddhas); mystics are expected, in the broad sense,
to become saints. Once this status is achieved, the saint is able to travel physi-
cally to other worlds by rddhi, like Maudgalyayana or any of the other arhants.
Normal corporeal or physical restrictions do not apply to them, and the tradi-
tional marks of saintliness emphasize this quite plainly: the ability to float on
water, to go beneath the earth, to emenate other forms, etc.
The eustatic mystic, through meditative skill, may also "send" his mind to
other realms and times, recalling the past and predicting the future. While not
yet a saint, he controls his mind to the point where time and space may be over-
come. Some compare this ability to the daydream; no mental element necessar-
ily leaves the soma, but somehow the visions received or engendered in this
process are viridical. The biographies of eustatic mystics are filled with their
visions of hell, heaven, things to come and so forth. This ability is also a major
component in religious innovation. Prophets, for instance, typically regard
unique visions (dgong-gter) as legitimation to inititate and spread new doctrines
or ritual.
In the case of shamans and oracles, there are numerous references in archaic
Tibetan records to specialists that travel to other worlds, riding upon rainbows,
sunbeams, drums and other odd vehicles, to battle with malign or illness-causing
demons, rescue souls, find out the future and so on. These practices are fully
consistent with the so-called classical shamanism of northern Asia. For the most
part, this kind of shaman has disappeared from modem Tibet, but they are found
occasionally among the peoples of Tibet's ethnic fringes. Most modem Tibetan
oracles are possessed by supematurals. They do not send their minds or bodies
anywhere, but rather act as a corporeal vessel for a possessing deity.
If we compare 'das-log with these other specialists, they may be seen to
occupy an intermediate category. With regard to the oracle and the 'das-log, the
oracle generally (1) has an early pos<>ession experience, which he must somehow