TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)no. 13, where he says: 'My body is compassion, voidness is my woman'.^28 In
short, to speak of sexual intercourse may really be to speak of the joining of
wisdom and method-or, in a tantric context, gnosis and bliss-in the yogi's
mind, without any necessary external referent.
A symbolic interpretation of KaiJ}la's songs certainly places him back in the
mainstream of Buddhist thought, but if they are read as strictly symbolic, then an
important historical fact is ignored: there definitely have been, at various times
and places, tantric practices that did involve the performance of ritualized sexual
intercourse. Even if the countless references to such practices in texts of the
Highest Yoga Tantra-class are dismissed as symbolic - a reading that requires
considerable hermeneutical ingenuity - and even if past or present claims by
some Tibetan masters to have engaged in such practices are dismissed as anecdo-
tal, it seems difficult to gainsay the evidence of such Tibetan tantric comment-
ators as Tsong kha pa (1357-1419), who though himself a celibate monk, reports
nevertheless that if one hopes to attain enlightenment in this lifetime, one must
utilize an actual physical consort, an 'Action Seal' (karmamudrii), on the comple-
tion stage of the Highest Yoga Tantra.^29 If one merely uses a visualized consort, a
'Knowledge Seal' (jitiinamudrii)-as a monk must-then enlightenment must
await one's death.^30 It seems highly unlikely that Tsong kha pa would fabricate
an account of the tantric tradition that diminishes his own and his fellow monks'
chances for speedy enlightenment, so it probably is safe to assume that his report
of the existence of sexual practices is accurate. In this way of understanding
sexual references, then, there is a literal component, so when KaiJ}la refers to
sexual intercourse with the l)ombi he is referring to an actual physical event. The
reference to sex may be literal, but its depiction or interpretation as 'orgiastic' is
misleading, since it actually is part of an advanced yogic ritual that requires con-
siderable discipline and concentration.
Still, it may be insisted, even if ritualized tantric sexual practices are far from
wanton, they nevertheless entail a sort of consecration of the body and sexuality,
with the consequence that pleasure - including sexual pleasure - is neither
demeaned nor suppressed on the tantric path. Further, the imaginatively ritual-
ized sexuality of tantra may provide both a means and a model for understand-
ing how men and women might relate to each other without ego, regarding each
other as divineY The difficulty with this view is that an analysis of the prerequi-
sites and procedures of ritualized sexuality reveals that neither sexual pleasure
nor the male-female 'relationship' as generally understood seem to play much
of a part. In the view of Tsong kha pa and others of his school, who reflect a
considerable body of Indian and Tibetan opinion, a physical consort, an Action
Seal, is required at the 'isolated mind' stage of the completion stage of Highest
Yoga Tantra practice,^32 for the specific purpose of inducing one's mind and
prii!Ja (vital energies) to enter the indestructible drop at one's heart cakra?^3 The
purification of the very subtle mind and prii!Ja within that drop is the basis for
the actual transformation of oneself into a Buddha. The Action Seal must be a
tantric practitioner, but the texts do not specify unambiguously that she (or he -