TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)in tum sexual yoga with the girl and teaches him the process of promoting bod-
hicitta allowing him experience himself the pleasures of each stage. This process
is a homologous miniaturization of the Mahayanic process of accumulating
merits over the period of the three great uncountable aeons.
When the bodhicitta of the disciple reaches the mahiisukha-cakra located in
the head, according to the Tantric logic of symbolism, he should enter in to the
sphere of the universal pleasure, or the ultimate state of enlightenment. He
should have nothing more to do; still he goes beyond this.
The disciple, having attained the great pleasure through his yogic practice
with the girl who was once given to the master, rejoices. He thanks the master
heartily and gives him a great amount of honorarium. He even offers him
himself as a slave as well as his wife and children, and subsequently asks to
receive the fourth consecration. The master, according to the Samputodbha-
vatantra "will give him the (precious) consecration like a jewel with nothing but
words, which the disciple will realize later" ( viicaiva dadyiid abhi!}ekaratnam I
pasciit svasamvedayate sa si!}ya/;^45 //). The fourth consecration is the consecra-
tion with words, or Upani~adic teaching of the secret expression in the form of
maxims.
According to the Tantric way of thinking, there can be no truth which can not
be attained through Tantric practice of manipulating symbols. The yogic prac-
tice of the third consecration was perfectly successful in symbolyzing the world
of reality. It should have convinced the disciple that the pleasure he experienced
in the consecration is nothing other than the universal pleasure which is an
aspect of the ultimate reality. There should be no further truth to be received
through words. Still in the fourth consecration, the truth was to be taught with
words. Thus the system of the Hevajra-tantra itself betrayed Tantrism. Here, we
notice the critical turn, or rather a critical turning back from Tantrism to
Mahayana Buddhism.
What was the ultimate truth then? Bu ston (1290-1364 A.D.) offers in his
dpal bde mchog sdom pa l;byun bal;i dkyil J;khor gyi cho ga dri rna med pal;i
chu rgyun,^46 the following sentence, which appears at the end of the Hevajra-
tantra, as the substance of the fourth consecration:
idam jiiiinam mahiisii/cymam vajramm:ujam nabhopamam I
virajam mo/cyadam siintam pitii te tvam asi svayam/1 (HV. II. xii. 4.)
"This wisdom is very subtle; it is the cream of the adamant and is like
the empty sky.
It is free from the dust (of passion), brings about liberation and is
tranquil.
You are your self your own father."^47Followers of the Hevajra-tantra were betrayed in the last moment in the
Hevajra-tantra itself through this verse. In time, however, recovering from
bewilderment, they again rose from meditation and started on a pilgrimage