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 3 - Tantric Doctrine in Hevajra Tantra
18 (of 138)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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anything. Buddhahood is not a temporary but an immortal state in which
body and mind, though impermanent, are similarly and endlessly produced.
Buddha set forth the non-literal teaching of a Tath膩gata essence for
Mah膩y膩na trainees who are not yet able to cognize
to cognize
the profound
emptiness; he taught it in order to allay their fears of emptiness.176
The Buddha nature, that is, emptiness of the mind, of each sentient
being is his natural lineage, that quality which naturally abides in the
mental continuums of all sentient beings allowing them to attain
Buddhahood and thus giving them the Buddha lineage (gotra) or Buddha
constituent (dh膩tu). The emptiness of the mind is permanent, or
non-disintegrating, because although it is a predicate of the mind, it is
not produced and destroyed each moment as the mind is. Emptiness is
the mere negative or absence of objective existence. However, the
emptiness of the mind is both non-disintegrating and always existent
because from beginningless cyclic existence each sentient being's mind
has existed and will continue to exist uninterruptedly right through
Buddhahood when it is the Wisdom Body (j帽膩nak膩ya). The emptiness of
the mind because it is the precondition of change and transformation, is
called a 'cause' of Buddhahood. At Buddhahood, the Bodhisattva lineage
becomes the Nature Body (svabh膩vikakaya) of a Buddha. Though the
emptiness of the mind is permanent and non-changing, it is said to
improve when the mind of which it is a predicate improves. Finally, the
mind itself reaches consummation as the Wisdom Body, and the
emptiness of the mind becomes the Nature Body these being the two-
aspects of a Buddha's Truth Body (dharmk盲ya), so called because the
Wisdom Body is the ultimate true path and the Nature Body is the
ultimate true cessation.177
In reality neither Cittam膩trins nor Pr盲sangikas accept as literal the
teaching of a permanent body of Buddha obscured in the continuums of
all sentient beings. The Pr膩sangikas, taking the "Descent into Lank膩
176 Jeffrey Hopkins, Ibid., p.381
177 Jeffrey Hopkins, Ibid., p.382
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