THE INNER BODIES & THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD
QUESTION TO A. I.:
“According to your understanding, what is the historical and technical relationship of the ten perfections with both the Yogacara school and the Yoga tantra class??”
ANSWER FROM GEMINI A. I.:
Of course. This is an excellent question that delves into the evolution of Buddhist thought and practice, showing how a core concept—the Ten Perfections—is adapted and deepened as it moves from the Sutra-based philosophical schools into the transformative methods of Tantra.
Here is a breakdown of the historical and technical relationship of the Ten Perfections (Pāramitās) with both the Yogācāra school and the Yoga Tantra class.
Part 1: The Ten Perfections in the Yogācāra School
Historical Relationship:
The Yogācāra (or Chittamatra, "Mind-Only") school did not invent the Pāramitās. The concept of the Six, and later Ten, Perfections is foundational to the entire Mahayana tradition, arising from key sutras like the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras (Perfection of Wisdom Sutras).
The historical contribution of the Yogācāra founders, the brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu (circa 4th-5th century CE), was to systematize and psychologize the Bodhisattva path. They took the existing framework of the Pāramitās and integrated it into their comprehensive model of the mind. Asaṅga's magnum opus, the Bodhisattvabhūmi ("The Bodhisattva Levels"), is essentially a detailed instruction manual on how a practitioner progresses through the stages of the path by cultivating the Ten Perfections.
So, the relationship is one of inheritance and profound systematization. Yogācāra provided the most detailed psychological and philosophical explanation of how the Pāramitās function to bring about enlightenment.
Technical Relationship:
Technically, within the Yogācāra framework, the Pāramitās are the primary active methodology for achieving the school's ultimate goal: the purification of the storehouse consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna).
The Problem: The ālaya-vijñāna is filled with impure karmic "seeds" (bīja) planted by past actions rooted in the delusion of a subject-object duality. These seeds ripen into our experience of a flawed, suffering world.
The Solution: The Ten Perfections are the direct antidotes to the poisons that create impure seeds and the primary means of planting "pure seeds."
Generosity directly counteracts the seed of grasping and attachment.
Ethics prevents the planting of new negative seeds from harmful actions.
Patience counteracts the seeds of anger and aversion.
Wisdom (Prajñā) is the ultimate tool, directly realizing the non-existence of the subject-object duality, thus uprooting the fundamental ignorance that allows impure seeds to grow.
The Goal: The perfection of these Pāramitās over vast periods of time culminates in the āśraya-parāvṛtti—the "transformation of the basis." This is the revolutionary event where the impure ālaya-vijñāna is completely transformed into the pristine Mirror-Like Wisdom of a Buddha.
In Yogācāra, the Pāramitās are the essential tools used in a causal process: one practices these causes to achieve a future result.
Part 2: The Ten Perfections in the Yoga Tantra Class
Historical Relationship:
Yoga Tantra, as a class of Buddhist Tantra, emerged later than the foundational Yogācāra school. It builds directly upon the philosophical and ethical framework of the Mahayana. In many cases, Yoga Tantra systems explicitly use Yogācāra philosophy as their basis for understanding reality.
Crucially, the Bodhisattva Vow—the promise to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings through the practice of the Pāramitās—is an absolute prerequisite for entering the Tantric path. Therefore, Yoga Tantra doesn't re-introduce the Pāramitās; it assumes them as the foundational context for its unique methods.
Technical Relationship:
This is where the most significant shift occurs. Yoga Tantra does not discard the Pāramitās; it radically reframes and accelerates their practice through its core technology: Deity Yoga.
From Practice to Embodiment: In the Yogācāra (Sutra) path, a Bodhisattva practices generosity. In Yoga Tantra, the practitioner visualizes themselves as an enlightened deity (e.g., Ratnasambhava) who is the very embodiment of perfect generosity. The perfection is no longer just an action to perform but an intrinsic quality of the enlightened identity one assumes.
Taking the Result as the Path: This is the key distinction. Sutrayana is a causal path. Tantra is a resultant path. Instead of practicing for three countless eons to become a Buddha, the yogi assumes the "divine pride" of already being the deity. The Pāramitās are thus seen not as distant qualities to be attained, but as inherent aspects of one's own Buddha Nature, which are actualized through the practice of sādhana.
Personification in the Mandala: In many Yoga Tantra mandalas, the Pāramitās are personified as attendant goddesses surrounding the central deity. For example, the goddess of generosity, the goddess of patience, etc. This allows the yogi to relate to them as living principles of enlightenment to be invoked and integrated.
Transformation over Accumulation: The technical goal shifts from the slow accumulation of merit and wisdom to the rapid transformation of impure perception. By seeing oneself as the deity, the world as the mandala, and all sounds as mantra, the yogi transforms their ordinary, defiled experience into a pure expression of the enlightened state, which is inherently endowed with all Ten Perfections.
Summary of the Relationship
Aspect | Yogācāra School (Sutrayana) | Yoga Tantra Class (Vajrayana) |
Historical | Systematizes the Pāramitās within a psychological framework. | Assumes and incorporates the Pāramitās as a foundational prerequisite. |
Path Type | Causal Path: Practice the causes (Pāramitās) to achieve a future result. | Resultant Path: Take the result (Buddhahood) as the path now. |
Core Method | Gradual purification of the ālaya-vijñānathrough antidote-like practices. | Rapid transformation of perception through Deity Yoga and embodiment. |
View of Pāramitās | Qualities to be developed and accumulatedover eons. | Inherent qualities of enlightenment to be actualized and embodied. |
Ultimate Goal | Āśraya-parāvṛtti (transformation of the basis) after long practice. | Swiftly manifesting the inherent enlightened state, complete with all its qualities. |
In essence, Yogācāra provides the detailed "why" and "how" of the Pāramitās within a psychological model of the path. Yoga Tantra takes that entire framework and supercharges it, providing a method to realize the goal not in a distant future, but within the very fabric of the practice itself.
EPILOGUE:
manomayakāya. (T. yid kyi rang bzhin gyi lus; C. yishengshen; J. ishōshin; K. ŭisaengsin 意生身).
In Sanskrit and Pāli, “mind-made body”; a subtle body acquired during meditative practice, which can exercise psychical and magical powers (ṚDDHI), such as passing through solid objects, appearing in many places at once, or flying. This body is described as living on joy, not solid nutriment; lacking such characteristics of a physical body as solidity, cohesion, heat, and motion; and being invisible to normal sight.
The SĀMAÑÑAPHALASUTTA refers to the manomayakāya as something achieved by the meditator who has mastered the fourth of the four meditative absorptions (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA) associated with the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPADHĀTU); this meditative body is created from one’s current physical body, the sutta says, as if drawing a sword from its scabbard or a reed from its sheath.
The LAṄKĀVATĀRASŪTRA lists three types of manomayakāya achieved by a BODHISATTVA: (1) a body obtained through the enjoyment of SAMĀDHI on the third, fourth, and fifth stages (BHŪMI) of the bodhisattva path; (2) a body obtained by recognizing the self-nature of the dharma itself, which is achieved on the eighth bhūmi; and (3) a body the bodhisattva assumes in accordance with the class of being he is seeking to edify.
The manomayakāya is also analogous to the “transitional being” (GANDHARVA) that abides in the ANTARĀBHAVA, the intermediate state between death and rebirth. Existence in any of the four meditative (dhyāna) heavens of either the subtle-materiality realm (rūpadhātu) or the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU) may also sometimes be designated as a heavenly mind-made body (divyo manomayaḥ kāyaḥ). Finally, the mind-made body is manifested by great bodhisattvas (vaśitāprāptabodhisattva) and other sanctified beings during their transfigurational births-and-deaths (PARIṆĀMIKAJARĀMARAṆA)—viz., the births-and-deaths that may occur even after enlightenment—one of the two categories of SAṂSĀRA, along with the determinative birth-and-death (PARICCHEDAJARĀMARAṆA) experienced by ordinary sentient beings within the three realms of existence (TRILOKADHĀTU). Mind-made bodies may be perceived only by the DIVYACAKṢUS, literally the “divine eye,” one of the five (or six) superknowledges (ABHIJÑĀ) and three “knowledges” (TRIVIDYĀ).
The term also figures in the development of the theories of the two, three, or four bodies of the Buddha (BUDDHAKĀYA). Early scholasts speak of the Buddha having both a physical body and a manomayakāya, or “emanation body” (NIRMĀṆAKĀYA), a second body that he used to perform miraculous feats such as visiting his mother in the TRĀYASTRIṂŚA heaven atop Mount SUMERU after her death.
— Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
No comments:
Post a Comment