Essay name: Hevajra Tantra (analytical study)
Author:
Seung Ho Nam
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
This is an English study of the Hevajra Tantra: an ancient Sanskrit text that teaches the process of attaining Buddha-hood for removing the sufferings of all sentient beings. The Hevajratantra amplifies the views and methods found in the Guhyasamaja Tantra (one of the earliest extant Buddhist Tantras) dealing with Yoga and Mandalas.
Chapter 1 - Tantric Buddhism
26 (of 63)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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non-Madhyamikas wrongly claim. For then, the t of itya is added
because the root i is being used to form an action noun. Ya is then an
affix used to form a secondary derivative noun. Thus, for them itya
means 'that which goes', and 鈥榩rati' means 'multiple', or 'diverse', or 'this
and that'. In this mistaken interpretation prat墨tya means 'that which goes
or disintegrates diversely'. Prat墨tya being viewed not as a continuative
but as a noun, it is wrongly asserted that in the compound
prat墨ty膩samutp膩da a genitive plural case ending has been erased and
should be added when taken out of compound, making prat墨ty膩n膩m which
means 'of those which go, depart, or disintegrate diversely'. The
etymological meaning of prat墨ty膩samutp膩da is thereby wrongly taken to
mean 'the composition and arising of effects which disintegrate in each
diverse moment and which have definite, diverse causes and conditions'.
Chandrak墨ti does not say that this meaning is wholly wrong, but that it
is a bad etymology because though it would apply to a use of
prat墨ty膩samutp膩da in a general sense, it would not apply when
prat墨ty膩samutp膩da refers to a specific arising of a single effect from a
single cause. However, taken as 'having depended, arising' or
dependent arising, it applies to both general and specific references.
The Pr膩sangikas say that samutp膩da does not just mean 鈥榓rising' (lit.,
going out'), in the sense of arising from causes and conditions in the
way that a sprout arises from a seed. It also menas 鈥榚stablishment'
(siddha) and 'existence' (sat), (two words that are often used
interchangeably in Buddhist terminology). The term prat墨ty膩samutp膩da
thereby refers not just to products since their existence is relative. All
phenomena are dependent-arisings.38
The term 'dependent-arising' not only refers to a process of production
and of coming into existence but also to these things which are produced
and come into existence. Phenomena themselves are dependent-arisings;
a pot is a dependent-arising; a consciousness is a dependent-arising; an
emptiness is a dependent-arising, and so forth.
38 Jeffrey Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, p.164.
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