TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)of this concept that the initiations studied in the previous chapter can be under-
stood as truly religious acts, profoundly affecting their participants. This we
must keep in mind in particular when dealing with the Consecration of the
Secret. In this connection, it should be pointed out-apparently noone has previ-
ously done so - that this consecration implies, as far as the preceptor is con-
cerned, an emission of the Thought-of-Enlightenment; how could it otherwise be
transferred to the pupil? Thus the statement that "all Vajrayana texts seem to
insist on seminal retention as a sine qua non" (A. Bharati)^93 , is only true if it is
understood to apply to the third consecration (admittedly the most important
one); but this distinction has so far, to the best of my knowledge, not been made.
Thus there is no need, as does Bharati^9 \ to resort to forced interpretations in
connection with passages like the following (PVS III.20--21 ):
The most blessed Master, having thereupon entered into union with the
Seal, and having thereafter caused the Thought-of-Enlightenment to
enter the Lotus-Casket, the dwelling of the Buddhas, ... thereupon con-
secrates the neophyte, who is (now) united with the Seal.These lines refer to the second and the third consecration in due succession. -
Now, there must be a reason for this emission, and this reason is, I believe, sug-
gested in the passage from FBT quoted above (p. 319): the union of the
Thought-of-Enlightenment (seed, white, male, etc.) with the female fluid (blood,
red, female, etc.)^95 points to that union of Wisdom and Means, manifested in the
form of man and woman, which the neophyte will experience for himself in the
subsequent consecration, thus restoring the unity and fullness of the Buddha-
nature. Even if the entire sequence of consecrations is envisaged as taking place
inside the neophyte, the function of the imagery remains the same as that of the
external rite.
III. The relation of the "Moments", "Joys", and "Seals" to
the ritualWe have seen that the progress of the neophyte towards complete spiritual real-
ization is made possible by a series of consecrations which at the same time
indicates the various stages of this progress. However, the same process of spir-
itual maturation is conceived of as a series of four "Joys" (ananda) taking place
at the appropriate "Moments" (k~al)a). Further, the female partner, indispensable
in one form or another throughout the ritual of the major consecrations, is like-
wise conceived of as fourfold. It is therefore important to establish, as far as pos-
sible, the relationship between these various concepts.
Basing ourselves, first of all, on HVT, we discover the following correspon-
dences96 (Fig. II).
As Fig. II shows, each Joy, experienced at a particular Moment, is connected
with one of the four Consecrations^97. How, then, are the four Joys described in