Buddhism : Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Vol. VI

TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)

least according to certain texts: "How could the distinction between the
Moments and the Joys be realized without the Action-Seal? Therefore the
Action-Seal must not be vilified"^83. This particular feature has been interpreted
as an aspect of a general resurgence of the non-Aryan religious substratum,
manifested in the tantric movement, Hindu as well as Buddhist, i.e. a resurgence
of a religious universe in which the role of the female creative force, manifested
in every woman, comes to the fore^84 • With all possible reservations for the Bud-
dhist tantras, where the active part is always played by the male element
("Means", "Compassion", etc.) and the female element is represented as passive
("Wisdom", "Void", etc.), this nevertheless seems to provide a plausible expla-
nation of the emergence of erotic symbolism-and practices!-in Buddhism.
The other major "well-spring" with which we are concerned is to be found in
the Upanishads, for here we discover, at an early stage in Indian religious life,
that identification of the sexual act and of ritual which is so typical of the tantras.
Thus the Brhadiirm:zyaka-up. expresses the sexual act in terms of ritual; i.e. the
sexual act is sanctified by being homologized with a ritual:

La femme, en verite, est Agni. Son giron est le combustible, les poils Ia

fumee, Ia vulve Ia flamme, ce qu'on y introduit les charbons, Ia jouis-

sance les etincelles. Dans ce feu-la les dieux offrent le sperme; de cette

offrande nait l'homme (VI.2.13)^85.

Or the sexual act may be regarded as a liturgical chant:

Ill'appelle, c'est le hi1ikiira; illui fait sa proposition, c'est le prastiiva;

il s'etend avec Ia femme, c'est I'udg"itha; il s'etend sur Ia femme, c'est

le pralihiira; il arrive au terme, c'est le nidhana. Ceci est le (siiman)

Viimadevya realise dans le coit.

Celui qui connait ainsi que le Viimadevya se realise dans le colt,

celui-a s'accouple, il se reproduit de colt en colt, il va jusqu'au terme

de sa vie ... II ne faut se refuser a aucune; telle est !'application pra-

tique. (Chiindogya-up II. 5. 13.1-2)^86

Conversely, we find that as early as in the Briihmal)as, the ritual itself was
explained in sexual terms:

Si, dans le cours d'une recitation, le pretre separe les deux premiers

quarts du. vers, et rapproche etroitement les deux autres, c'est que Ia

femme ecarte les cuisses et que l'homme les serre dans l'accouplement;

le pretre represente ainsi 1' accouplement, afin que le sacrifice donne

une posterite nombreuse. La recitation a voix basse par le hotar est une

emission de semence; l'adhvaryu, quand le hotar lui adresse l'appel

sacramentel, se met a quatre pattes et detoume le visage; c'est que les

quadrupedes se toument le dos pour emettre Ia semence.^87 •