VAJRAYANA AND LATER INDIAN BUDDHISM 125tiate's mind, and then from the mind to the entire world on which the ritual
is to exert its influence.
In the course of the initiation, the student is taught the words of the
mantra, some of which are standard Sanskrit or Prakrit words, others of which
are dharm;tis, strings of syllables abbreviated from longer passages or strung to-
gether for psychological effect. However, the purpose of the mantra is not to
convey a message as an ordinary sentence, but to provoke a spontaneous reac-
tion in the mind of the initiate and to effect a change in the sonic substructure
of reality. The student is also taught mudrifs, or gestures-some of which in-
volve the manipulation of ritual objects such as vajras and bells-to accom-
pany the recitation of the mantra. Many of the mud6is are identical with the
gestures of classical Indian dance, which is hardly surprising, considering that
the dance and ritual have a common source.
With the visualization of the maJ:?.9ala, the repetition of the mantra, and
the performance of the mudras, Tantric ritual demanded the total involve-
ment of the initiate's body, speech, and mind. The effect it had on the micro-
cosm of the initiate's being was thus said to alter the macrocosm that he/ she
wanted to manipulate.
Action and Performance Tantras were aimed at acquiring siddhi (success)
that could be put to three sorts of uses: pacifying (such things as illness and
dangers); fostering (prosperity and merit making through acts such as wor-
shiping relics and building stupas); and destroying (enemies, dangers). These
three classes correspond, in order, to the three families of deities that were said
to enter the maJ:?.9ala under the coercion of the mantra: the Tathagata family
ofBuddhas, the Lotus family headed by Avalokite§vara, and the Vajra family
headed by VajrapaJ:?.i. These families fall into a distinct hierarchy, with the
Tathagatas at top and the Vajras on the bottom, forming an interesting con-
trast with the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras in which all the families coalesce into
one, headed by VajrapaJ:?.i.
The Action and Performance Tantras differ from earlier Buddhist ritual
texts on two important counts, reflected in the Lotus and Vajra rites: (1) the
belief that merit depends on knowing the right verbal formula to accompany
the act of merit making, rather than on the quality of the intention motivat-
ing the act; and (2) the inclusion of rituals that are avowedly harmful. How-
ever, all of these Tantras are similar to early ritual texts in that they deal only
with subsidiary goals. None of them claim to bring about Awakening.
6.3.2 Yoga Tantras
With the Yoga Tantras, however, we enter the realm of the true Vajrayana, in
which Awakening was to be attained not through the arduous means of the
Noble Eightfold Path or the bodhisattva Path of the paramitas, but through an
empowerment ritual performed in the Great MaJ:?.9ala of the Vajra (Adaman-
tine) Realm. To justify this vision of the Buddhist Path, the Sarva-tathagata-
tattva-sa1]1graha (Reality of All Buddhas Symposium Tantra) retells the story of
Gautama's life, stating that at the crucial juncture of the night of his Awaken-
ing, the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, headed by Samantabhadra (see Section