Vajrayana And Hindu Tantricism
Differences In Base, Path And Fruit ( I )
ÄcÄrya Dharma Vajra (Sridhar SJB Rana)
Published: Sunday Dispatch (July 12, 1992)
The last article (published in the Sunday Dispatch, May 31) was about the very definition of the word âTantraâ in the two systems and how they are drastically different. In the Hindu Tantra, Tantra means systematization of liberation by expansion whereas in the Buddhist Tantra, it means continuum or integration. By continuum was meant Base Tantra, Path Tantra and Fruit Tantra.
We shall attempt to see how the two systems are very different from each other in their base, path and fruit.
The base of Hindu Tantra practice is of Non-dualism (advaitism) in one form or the other. The Kashmir Shaiva Tantra calls itself very clearly Shaivadvaita and the Shakta tantra calls itself Shaktadvaita. Needless to say, Hindu Tantra is not all unanimous in vouching for Advaitavada. So there are forms of Hindu tantra which border on the Visistadvaita (special non-dualistic) of Ramanuja and Dvaitavada (dualistic) of Madavacharya. But for lack of space we shall not deal with Visistadvaita and Dvaitavada schools of Hindu Tantra as no effort is required to show that such forms of Hindu Tantra are totally different from Buddhist Tantra. The base (Bhumi) of the Hindu Tantra can be summed up in the words âShiva Shaktyatmakam Visvamâ i.e., Shiva and Shakti are the essence of the universe. In other words Shiva Shakti is/are the base, the ground of the base. The Universe is the lila (play) of the two. The universe is based or grounded in Shiva Shakti, comes out of Shiva - Shakti as its lila (play) and remains grounded in Shiva-Shakti in the end. Anyone who knows the Advaita Vedanta can see that if Shiva-Shakti are replaced by Braman - Maya, this view is not very different from the Advaita Vedanta of Sankaracharya. Of course, since there are many forms of Hindu Tantra, like Shakta Tantra, Shaiva Tantra and even within Shaiva Tantra there is Chumma Sampradaya, Pratyabhigya Sampradaya, Kuala Sampradaya, the Trika Sampradaya and within the Shakta Tantra there are the Dachinachara and the Vamachara and the Siddhantachara and Kualachara, there are slight variations to the Base as given above. But basically and broadly speaking they would all agree to âShiva-Shaktyatmakam Viswamâ. So it becomes necessary to understand what Shiva and Shakti means.
Shiva is the static aspect of the Universe and Shakti is the dynamic in the microcosmic sense. In the microcosmic sense Shiva is the basic awareness aspect of Mind (as per Shiva Sutra) which in being only aware and not able to do anything else but be a witness (Sakchi of the Upanishadas) is static. Shakti are the moving thought, emotions etc. of the Mind which is ever in movement (Spandana of the Spandana Karika).
The base of man is the interplay (lila) of these two (Kama Kala Vilasa i.e., Erotic play of Kama-Shiva and Kala-Shakti).
Likewise, the base of the cosmos is the same Shiva-Shakti evoked in a macrocosmic scale. In the words of the Pratyabhiga Sastra the base of the ultimate reality is Prakash - Vimarsamaya. Prakash is the eternal light without which nothing can appear and it is Shiva. Vimarsa is the Shakti, the Swabhava (characteristic) of Shiva. It is so to speak, the mirror in which Shiva realizes his own grandeur, power, beauty. Vimarsa is the Kartitva Shakti of Shiva. The ultimate reality is cit or Parasamvit, the non-relational consciousness which is Kama Kala, Shiva Shakti, Prakash-Vimarsa.
Whether the emphasis is given to Shiva or Shakti depends on whether one is seeing the ultimate reality from the eyes of the Shiava Tantra or Shakta Tantra. So this is the ultimate reality ( the Paramartha Satta) of the Hindu Tantra which substitutes only in the name the Vedantic Braman and is two rather than only one (Brahma) as in the Vedanta. However, like the Braman, these two Shiva and Shakti are actually one. Therefore they truly exist; otherwise they could not be the Paramartha Satta, the ultimate reality.
The Buddhist Base is totally different. The Base (ground) of the Buddhist Tantra can be described in various ways. The Sutra Mahamudra and the Mahasandhi traditions define the Ground as âPrimordially Pureâ which is just a technical way of saying âPrimordially Emptyâ which again in Theravada language would boil down to Anatma (no-soul). Of course âPrimordially Pureâ goes deeper than just Anatma, but again this is another subject. In the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, it is said Sal tong zung juk rgyu yee chen key dang or in Sanskrit â Prabhaswar sunyata yuganadha cha sahaja hetu â which means âClarity, emptiness and their two in one are the spontaneously born Cause-Baseâ. Another term used is âGroundless Awarenessâ, which means Empty Awareness. What all the above words (and many others) mean is that the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate reality/existent (Paramartha Satta) that one can grasp or hold on to as something. It is exactly this non-graspability because there is nothing to grasp because everything is ultimately empty of real existence or that there is no Atman (truly existing self) whether in the personal (Pudgal Nairatmya) or in the phenomenal (Dharma Nairatmya) world â that is the ground of Buddhist Tantra.
So Hindu Tantra has a Paramartha Satta by the name of Parasamvit, which is the union of Shiva and Shakti as its base, which is to be actualized, as its Phala (fruit). But Buddhist Tantra has Anatma or emptiness of real existence of all Dharma and Pudgal. Including the mind which is technically in Tantric terminology called groundless or unity of Emptiness and Clarity, Emptiness and Appearance, emptiness and Bliss or Primodially Pure as its base to be actualized as its fruit. In other words, Buddhist Tantra is based on the non-existence of any Paramartha Satta and is geared towards the realization/actualization of this existential fact, whereas Hindu Tantra is based on Paramartha Satta and its actualization.
It is obvious that the very ground or base (Bhumi) on which these two systems of Tantra are based are diametrically opposed.
One on the realisation by a Wisdom Consciousness of the non-findability of any sort of Paramartha Satta (Ultimate Reality) anywhere and the other on the actualization or realization of some Paramartha Satta (an ultimate reality that truly exists). Needless to say this is the basic difference between Buddhism and Hinduism as a whole.