PROBLEMS OF LANGUAGE IN BUDDHIST TANTRAthe difference in candidates for whom different methods need to be expressed.
Thus, the Tantras continue the general Buddhist concern for appropriate teach-
ing found in Pali Buddhism and later emphasized in the Mahayana. Yet the
attempt here to be precise about which texts function in which way is character-
istic of Buddhist Tantrism and, we suggest, an advance of the tradition. Of
course, the fourfold scheme is somewhat arbitrary in practice, since the texts
classified appear prior to their classification and frustrate its precision. But the
attempt remains. We see its persistence in a note to the Lessing and Wayman
translation of Mkhas-grub-rje's Fundamentals. There, we learn that the literature
associated with the Pradipodyotana offers the further complexity of a fivefold
typology of the Anuttara Yoga candidate alone. This refinement is made with
regard to faculty: "The 'sandlewood-like' is in the family of fools (blun po/:zi
rigs can); the 'blue-lotus-like' has inferior faculty (indriya) (dbali po dman pa);
the 'white-lotus-like' has intermediate faculty (dbali po bar pa); the "red-lotus-
like' has keen faculty (dhali po rna ba); the 'jewel-like' has the most excellent
offaculties (dbali po rab lcyi rab po )Y
As was seen above, a difference of candidate again controls a difference of
expression of Tantra; thus, these five types receive instruction by way of "six
alternatives" (.yatkoti; mthal:z drug) for expressing the method of "inner samiidhi
completely." We list the six instructions here in paris with titles provided by
Tson-kha-pa' s Jiiiina-vajrasamuccaya:^14
Alternatives of word (sabda):
Nontwilight language (na-sa1Jldhi-bhii.yii, dgolis pa can rna yin pa)
Twilight language (sa1Jldhi-bhii.yii, dgolis pa can).
Alternatives of meaning (artha):
Hinted meaning (neyiirtha, drali don).
Evident meaning (nlthiirtha, lies don).
Alternatives of both word and meaning:
Coined terminology ( na-yathiiruta, sgra ji b:Zin pa rna yin)
Standard Terminology (yathiiruta, sgra ji biin pa).^15The first "alternative" of each pair is expressed to the first four types of candid-
ates treated as a group, while the second of each pair is reserved for the fifth can-
didate, the "jewel-like" person who has superior faculty. Mkhas-grub-rje notes
with regard to the Guhyasamaja Tantra-a chief text of the Anuttara Yoga divi-
sion-that -that the 'jewel-like" candidate arrives at the limit of the first divi-
sion of vogic practice called the Steps of Generation (utpattikrama) but
singularly goes on to the second and final division of yoga called the Steps of
Completion (ni.ypanna-krama).^16
These many distinctions have taken us deep inside the Buddhist Tantras and
face to face with the problem of language there, especially within the Anuttara
Yoga division; even its special terms for that problem have appeared, namely,
"word" and "meaning." We will want to tum our attention to that particular