TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)Masters who teach evil doctrines, having performed the (Consecration
of the) Gnosis of Wisdom and having stated that "The Simultaneously-
arisen (joy) has (now) been experienced!" cause (the neophyte) to feel
(false) satisfaction.The confusion into which such masters lead their neophytes is compared, as
we shall see, with the erroneous belief that the reflection of a face in a mirror is
the face itself'^11 • In other words, a profane orgasm, however blissful, is not iden-
tical with the ultimate state of spiritual transcendence; yet the similarity -
whether deceptive or real-is so close that CMN (p. 33) calls the bliss of sexual
union "the inferior Simultaneously-arisen (Joy)", adding, however, that this "is
not the immobility of the (transcendent) Simultaneously-arisen (Joy)"^112 •
In the context of the Consecrations, then, the ultimate Joy is experienced
during the third Consecration, i.e. it arises simultaneously with it. This is stated
clearly in passages of which the following (M1,2) is typical:
Having obtained the Consecration of the Gnosis of Wisdom,
measure the Fourth Joy! ... In the Joy of Cessation, know the
Simultaneously-arisen Joy!Thus from point of view of consecration, it is necessary that the Joy of Cessa-
tion should be fourth^113. "If Consummation is the reflection (viz. "I have enjoyed
bliss"), how can it be thought to come as third?" (AVS p.28)^114 • Snellgrove, who
quotes this passage from AVS, has already suggested this^115 :
"One suspects that the placing of the Joy Innate as third is, however, in direct
analogy with the ritualistic embrace and actual experience. As third, it is fol-
lowed by the Joy called Cessation, which is a return to normal experience".
This conclusion receives final confirmation from CMS (A VS p. 32) where we
find the following significant passage:
When one places Blank in the middle (i.e. between Development and
Consummation), this is to be understood in (the context of) Consecra-
tion. In Hathayoga, however, the position of Simultaneously arisen
(Joy) and of (the corresponding) Blank must be understood to be at the
end. But this has been taught by the Lord both in the context of Conse-
cration and of Hathayoga.Placing the Joy of Cessation last reflects accuracy of observation both in the
context of the ritual, and in psychological terms. While it is not quite clear what
is meant by "Hathayoga" in the passage quoted from CMN, I nevertheless
suspect that it indicates an interiorized experiencing of the Four Joys, connected
with the upward march of the Thought-of-Enlightenment through the cakras of
the navel, heart, throat, and head, the latter being frequently referred to, for
example in M, as the "cakra of Great Bliss" (2.4, 8.2, 16.5, 21.4, 47.2), equated