. esoteric buddhism and its relation to healing 213
spell that “the earlier and later buddhas, more than thirty-thousand
people, have all utilized... to attain unsurpassed ultimate, nirvāṇa” (T.
2906.85:1451a4–5; the text describes a procedure employing this seal
that is intended for use by all both monks and laypeople to cause them
to achieve the same level as dhāraṇī-bodhisattvas and receive proph-
ecies of their future buddhahood (Strickmann 2002, 163–166). This
kind of ritual, in my opinion, is an appropriately esoteric supplement
to what I consider to be the premier practice of tantric/esoteric Bud-
dhism: the ritual attainment of buddhahood by emulating the body,
speech, and mind of the Buddha, employing graduated meditation and
visualizations in a mandala under the direction of a guru.
Spirit possession by a religious specialist to treat someone afflicted
by demons or possessed by spirits is typically considered by scholars to
be properly within the realm of shamanism. Nevertheless, the contents
of several tantric/esoteric scriptures, including the Amoghapāśa sūtra
(Bukong juansuo tuoluoni zizaiwang zhou jing
, T. 1097), which was translated by Baosiwei (*Mani-
cintana, d. 721) in 693, the Yogins’ Book of All the Yogas (Jin’gangfeng
louge yiqie yuzhi jing , T. 867), trans-
lated by Vajrabodhi (Jin’gangzhi , 671–741), and the Questions
of Subāhu (Sobohu tongzi qingwen jing , T. 895),
translated by Śubhākarasiṃha (Shanwuwei , 637–735) in 726,
contain detailed ritual instructions for inducing spirit possession in
children (āveśa) and exorcising spirits from children.
For example, another text translated in the mid-eighth century by
Amoghavajra (Bukong , 705–774), entitled the Instantly Effica-
cious Āveśa Ritual Explained by Maheśvara (Suji liyan Moxishoule tian
shuo aweishe fa , T. 1277), describes
rituals that can be performed in the four basic processes of tantric
ritual performance: cessation of ills, increase of benefits, subjugation of
enemies, and conciliation of friends. The sūtra begins with Nārāyaṇa
(Viṣṇu) paying a visit to Maheśvara (Śiva), the chief god of the Indian
pantheon. Nārāyaṇa explains that the great bird Garuḍa, his own per-
sonal mount, is a heavenly messenger who able to respond to and fulfill
all the requests that human beings make of him; however, Nārāyaṇa
is not able to accomplish these quickly. Thereupon, Nārāyaṇa has
Maheśvara describe a ritual procedure titled “the āveśa ritual of swift
and instant accomplishment” for the benefit of all people in the future.
By means of this procedure, which uses four or five virgin girls or boys
of about seven or eight years of age, the adept turns himself into the