Buddhism : Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Vol. VI

ON THE CONCEPT OF SAHAJA

a single substance of the one same flavour." (HVT I.viii.40); the mystic identi-
fies himself, as we have seen, with "all things, moving and unmoving". The one,
the Essence, with which the mystic merges, is "the life of living things" (I.x.l 0)
_the word which is used, prar:m, signifies the biological life-force itself. It is the
Buddha-nature, and "Of Buddha-nature is this world" (l.ix.4). In this identifica-
tion with the cosmos, there is, indeed, more than "a hint of immoriality"^157 - in
the exultant words of one of the authors of OG, "Say how Kar;ha should cease to
exist! He incessantly shines forth, merged in the three worlds" ( 42.2).
At the same time, the experience is introvertive. It is "without discursive
thought" (nirvikalpaka), it is a condition of "enstasis" (samadhi) in which the
sense-faculties no longer occupy themselves with the objects of sense (SP 5); it
is an effulgence (prabhasvara) of consciousness ( citta). Thus the experience of
sahaja provides a clear confirmation of Stace's assertion (p.67) that "mystics in
general do not distinguish between the introvertive One and the extrovertive
One". And how indeed could they? The experience is non-dual (advaya), free
from the notion of subject and object, hence also free from the distinctions of
"inner" and "outer".
From the experience of unity follows the paradoxicality of the experience, for
as Stace has pointed out, logic depends on multiplicity^158 • The paradoxicality of
the mystic experience has been characterised by Stace as "the vacuum-plenum
paradox" (p.163), i.e. it is simultaneously described in positive as well as negat-
ive terms. This he formulates as follows (ibid.):

Positive Aspects

(plenum)

a) has qualities

b) is personal

c) is dynamic, creative,

active

Negative Aspects

(vacuum)

has no qualities

is impersonal

is static, motionless,

inactive

This analysis fits our case extraordinarily well. The Essence a) "is replete

with all forms", yet it is "Emptiness" (SP 31 ). b) It is personified in the figure of

Hevajra, or in the union of Hevajra and Nairatmya, and "this unity is known as

Vairocana, Ak~obhya, Amogha, Ratna, Arolika, and Satvika, as Brahma, Vi~I)u,

Siva, Sarva, Vibuddha, and Tattva" (HVT I.v.l2) - yet it is, equally clearly,

impersonal ("Essence", "Non-duality", etc.). c) Finally, it is dynamic, it is "the

source of the world" and "the life of living things"; but it is also static, it "does

not come from anywhere, nor does it go anywhere, nor does it remain in any

place" (SP 30). - It is difficult to regard paradoxicality as anything but yet

another expression of ineffability, and our texts frequently prefer the way of

negation rather than that of affirmation. "The yogin gains fulfilment in that

which is no fulfilment, for its characteristic is the very absence of any character-

istic" (HVT I.x.20). We are warned (SP 2) that even to say of the Essence that it

is "eternal" or "bliss" is nothing but a mental construction (sarikalpa). As YRM