TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)that is associated with what is sometimes called 'psychic heat'. In pre-tantric Bud-
dhism, the boat can symbolize the path to nirval)a or the human body (whose passen-
gers are the four 'mental aggregates', sensation, perception, formations and
consciousness); in tantra, the boat may refer, among other things, to the 'mind of
enlightenment' (bodhicitta), which is not, as in pre-tantric Mahayana, so much an
altruistic attitude, but the white seminal drop inherited from the father, that is located
at the crown cakra and is associated with bliss. In pre-tantric Buddhism, the moon is
a symbol of bodhicitta as the altruistic aspiration to enlightenment; in the tantric tra-
dition, as noted, it is the 'white drop'. On the homologies among compassion, the
'mind of enlightenment' and 'orgasmic bliss', see Jeffrey Hopkins, 'Tantric Bud-
dhism, degeneration or enhancement: the viewpoint of a Tibetan tradition', Buddhist-
Christian Studies I 0 (1990), p. 91 ff.
24 Munidatta's commentary is edited and translated by Kvaeme, op. cit.
25 Reginald Ray, 'A reassessment of Bengal Blackie', Buddhist-Christian Studies 5
(1985), p. 184.
26 Ibid., pp. 184--5.
27 Voidness is the source of all dharmas not in a substantial cosmogonic sense (though
clearly the imagery of cosmogony is invoked), but in the sense that because there is
no inherent existence anywhere, phenomena can change or come to be; if phenomema
existed substantially, there could be no change, no coming to be of what has not yet
arisen. Voidness, thus, is the condition for the possibility of dharmas; see Nagarjuna's
Madhyamakakiirikii, chapter 24, for the classic source of this idea. The equation of
the female with the wisdom realizing voidness is most explicit in the naming of the
consort of the tantric deity Hevajra: Nairatmya, which means 'no-self', and, by exten-
sion, voidness.
28 Kvaeme, p. 127; Beyer, p. 260.
29 According to Tsong kha pa and the dGe lugs tradition of which he was founder,
Highest Yoga Tantra (anuttara-yoga-tantra) is the highest of the four classes of
tantric practice (the others are Action (kriyii), Performance (caryii) and Yoga Tantra),
and the only class through which fully enlightened Buddhahood can be achieved.
Highest Yoga Tantra is divided into a generation stage (utpattikrama), on which
'ordinary apearances' are overcome through imaginative transformation of oneself
into a Buddha, one's speech into mantra, one's environment into a mal)qala, etc. The
completion stage (sarrtpannakrama), at the culmination of which Buddhahood actu-
ally is achieved, involves working in the subtle body to transform one's body into a
divine body and one's mind into the omniscient consciousness of a Buddha -
equivalent to the Form and Dharma bodies of a fully enlightened being.
30 See e.g. Daniel Cozort, Highest Yoga Tantra, Ithaca, NY, Snow Lion 1986, p. 88;
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Clear Light of Bliss: Mahamudra in Vajrayana Buddhism,
London, Wisdom Publications 1982, pp. 126~9. The use of visualized consorts by
physically celibate individuals like Tsong kha pa and Milarepa raises interesting ques-
tions about the limits of the concept of 'celibacy', though we cannot explore them
here.
31 See e.g. Herbert V. Guenther, The Tantric View of Life, Boulder and London, Shamb-
hala 1976, p. 62ff. Subtle scholar that he is, Guenther is of course aware of a variety
of possible readings. However, in this particular section, he does stress the way in
which tantric images of sexuality evoke the possibility of human 'love' relationships
that transcend either prudery or power. Thus, he reads a passage from Kfu:lha's
Dohiikosa, no. 29, (Bengali: to biiJU taruQi nirantara nehelbohi ki liibhaf ena bi dehe;
Tibetan: gzhon num dang rtag tu mdza' bde med nallus 'di yis ni byang chub ji !tar
'grub (cf. Shahidullah, p. 81)] as follows: 'How can enlightenment be attained in this
bodily existence/Without thine incessant love, o lovely young girl' (Guenther, p. 66;