Buddhism : Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Vol. VI

TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)

than HVT which it explains, it nevertheless enables us to complete and clarify
our study of the tantric consecration in certain important respects.
In the first place, it correlates the Four Seals and the Four Consecrations, as
follows:

Fig. V

Action-Seal

Convention-So

Dharma-so

Great so

Master

Secret

Wisdom

Fourth

We also note that the union of the neophyte with the Wisdom is here stated to
take place during the Consecration of the Secret, and that nothing is said of a
transference of the Thought-of-Enlightenment from the preceptor to the disciple
during this consecration, on which other texts, as we have seen, insist. The
essential point, however, is this: during the first consecration, the preceptor
("master") unites with the Action-Seal, and experiences, in due succession, the
various Joys; in the second, the neophyte enters the same union, and experiences
the same succession of Joys - i.e., strictly speaking, during the second consecra-
tion he experiences only the second (or perhaps the first and second) Joy, but the
important point is that the third and fourth consecrations follow - provided he
has the required spiritual keenness -while the disciple remains in union with his
Wisdom. Thus in the second consecration, he is united with the Action-Seal (the
"Jewel" being placed in the "Secret"); but at the same time he is initiated into
the Convention-Seal, which is a "meditation", literally a "thought-construction"
(bhavanii)^144 • Thereupon-if he has the ability-he enters a state of samiidhi, i.e.
"enstasis", in which there is no "thought-construction", only "Gnosis" (jii.iina) in
which all elements-of-existence reveal themselves as being nothing but one's
own mind (in its pure, non-discursive state) - this is the Dharma-Seal; and at
that very instant he may experience that transcendent, eternal state, beyond the
range of words (viiggocariitlta) which is the Great Seal. Here YRM exhibits
great clarity of expression: the Great Seal is experienced, hence "one makes it an
object of perception" (iilambanlkaroti); however, the process by which it
becomes an object of perception cannot in itself be an object of experience
(aniilambana), for as we have seen (HVT Il.iv.45), the Great Seal is
Simultaneously-arisen, it manifests itself "without any interval" (anantaram,
YRM). To this final state, then, we shall now turn our attention.

IV. Mysticism and the experience of sahaja

We shall now study the actual experience of sahaja, particularly as described in
HVT. The various ways in which this text describes the Simultaneously-arisen
condition will be arranged under a series of headings as shown below^145 •