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Bell & Howell information and Learning Company 300 North Zeb Road P.O. Box 1346 ‘Ann Arbor, Mi 48106-1346© 2001 David Barton Gray All Rights ReservedABSTRACT On Supreme Bliss: A Study of the History and Interpretation of the Cakrasamvara Tantra David Barton Gray This thesis explores the development of an important Indian Buddhist scripture, the Cakrasamvara Tantra, and the tradition of exegesis and practice based upon it. It consists of an edition and translation of the first four chapters of the Cakrasamvara Tantra, as well as a translation of the corresponding portion of Tsongkhapa’s Toral Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, a Tibetan commentary on this scripture. These texts are contextualized via efforts to define “Tantric Buddhism” as it is understood by the tradition itself, and via explorations of both the intellectual and socio-historical contexts within which Tantric Buddhism developed, and the ways in which different subtraditions within it were elaborated and categorized. Iis argued that a common element of Tantric traditions is their resistance to the hegemonic ideology of caste. An exploration of this ideology and Buddhist resistance to it is undertaken. Tantric discourse was deployed as a form of resistance against caste ideology, but also constituted a counter ideology, which centered around the figure of the guru as a nexus of power and authority, and articulated in the model of the mandala. The Cakrasamvara Tantra is notable for the strong presence of “non-Buddhist elements”. The Cakrasamvara Tantra is a composite text drawing from diverse sources, and while it probably reached its final form in a Buddhist monastic context, there is significant textual evidence suggesting that it was the product of a non-monastic, renunciant milieu in which sectarian identification was not particularly relevant. The Cakrasamvara Tantra is, in Lévi-Strauss’ terms, a bricolage. It provides a particularly striking example of the processes of adaptation and reinterpretation which have continually led to thedevelopment of religious traditions. The Cakrasamvara's identification as a Buddhist tradition was the result of the efforts of commentators in India who constructed it as such, and by Tibetan commentators, who completed this process of adaptation.TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Study of the Cakrasamvara Tantra: Contextualizing the Tantric 1.“Tantrism” and Colonialism 2. Defining “Tantrism” and the Tantric 3. Tantrism in Context 1. Non-Origins 2. Buddhist Origins 3. Hindu Origins 2, Passion, Compassion and Self-Mastery: Approaches to Tantric Buddhism 1. Purity 2. Transformation and Perfection I. The Alchemy of Passion and Compassion 2. Union and Self-Consecration 3. The Way of Great Bliss 1. Joy and Asceticism 2. Transgression and Self-Mastery 1. Interpretation and Ambiguity 2. The Logic of Mastery 4, Concluding Models 3. Competing Discourses in Theory and Practice 1. The Discourse on Varna 1. Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Ideologies 2. Myth, Counter-myth and Ritual 3. On Dissent, Protest and Counter-Culture: Resistance or Reproduction? 2. The Practice of Dissent | Heresies 2. Renunciation and Liminality 1. Liminal Persons 2. Liminal Places 3. Cosmic Mastery: Visions of Authority Within and Beyond the World 1. Cosmology and Awakening 2. The Collapse of Time and Space in the Mandala 3. Mastery in and of the World 1. The Guru, the King and the Mandala 2, Lineage and the Transmission of Alternate Modes of Authority 4, Revelation and Taxonomy: Categorizing Tantric Literature 1, Modes of Tantric Discourse 1. Primary Revelation 2. Primary Exegesis 3. Secondary Revelation 4. Secondary Exegesis 2. Tantric Doxography 1. Compilations 2. Classification Schemes 3. Tantric Taxonomy and Early Medieval Indian Society 5. Tantric Historiography 1. Traditional Histories 2. Modern Chronologies 25 39 45 53 65 66 86 95 103 13 128 147 152 153 lel 178 193 200 223 240 250 262 280 293 299 303 309 313 314 319 348 364 3896. The Cakrasamvara Tantra and the Origins of Heruka The Texts of the Cakrasamvara Tantra 1. Description of Texts 2. Survey of Contents 2. A Geneology of the Cakrasamvara Tantra 1. Buddhist Sources 2. Hindu Sources 3. Heruka 1. The Origin of Heruka 2. The Purification of Heruka Bibliography: Primary Sources Bibliography: Secondary Sources Appendix A: An Edition of the Cakrasamvara Tantra, Chapters One to Four Appendix B: A Translation of the Cakrasamvara Tantra, Chapters One to Four Appendix C: Tsongkhapa’s Total Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, Ch. \-4 Appendix D: Sumatikirti's Laghusamvaratantraparalabhisandhi Appendix E: Cakrasamvara Lineage Lists 431 438 446 473 496 505 525 588 614 622 760 165ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the assistance of a large number of people, not all of whom can be acknowledged here. Thanks is due, first and foremost, to my advisor Dr. Robert A. F. Thurman, who oversaw its progress from beginning to end, providing both encouragement and advice when needed. Without his inspiration and guidance it would have hardly been possible, particularly given the fact that, moved by synchronicity, it was he who first encouraged me to undertake this course of study. The many long hours he spent reading through Tsongkhapa’s commentary with me attests to his dedication to teaching. I should also thank Lelung Rinpoche, who also encouraged me to undertake this work, and Mrs. Nena Thurman, who played the devil's advocate in urging me to carefully consider the options before making my decision. Dr. Ryuichi Abé as well has served as an to advisor to me throughout my years of study at Columbia, and this study would hardly have been possible without his excellent advice on both academic and practical matters. His introduction to the study of the Chinese canon opened up new worlds of research for me. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Gary Tubb, whose excellence in the teaching and the study of Sanskrit literature inspired me to strive to follow his example, and whose assistance in editing the manuscripts was invaluable. I should also thank Dr. Lozang Jamspal for the kind assistance he provided in reading with me some of the Tibetan commentaries in the early stages of this project. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Rachel Fell McDermott as well, for taking the time to read through long sections of this work, and for offering many helpful suggestions on improving it. ‘There were numerous scholars in India and Nepal who also assisted me. I should thank Dr. Yeshe Thapkay at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies who spent ‘many hours patiently reading through Tibetan commentaries with me and answering my many questions. Geshe Yama Tseden and Geshe Tenzin Dargyay likewise spent many hours with me in Dharamsala answering my numerous questions. Likewise, I should