vajra

[Stephen Hodge]

Harunaga Isaacson wrote:

> I suppose you (Stephen) intended to write 'not borne out by
traditional
> commentaries' ? Or have I failed to catch your drift?
Well spotted !   You are quite right -- too much to do in too little
time :)

> But the sentence which Stephen regards as 'misleading
over-imaginative rubbish',
> and which strikes me as indeed rather sensationalist and distortive,
is, it must be
> admitted, actually one which seems to be at least partly/distantly
based
> on textual evidence.
OK, perhaps a bit hyperbolic. But my point is that Walker (and others)
are extrapolating from just one text and apparently generalizing.
It's strange how they always seem to use the Hevajra Tantra as a
source -- perhaps because it is one of the few tantras readily
available in English :)

> It seems to be inspired by some famous lines from the Hevajratantra:
   vihare 'ha.m sukhaavatyaa.m sadvajrayo.sito bhage (II.ii.38ab)
But the Yogaratnamaalaa indicates that "sukhaavatii" is not being used
in the traditional sense of Amitaabha's Pure Land, not that one would
realize this from Walker's statement.
His further statement, that `the truth discovered by Gautama is that
"Buddhahood abides in the female organ"` seems a bizarre fiction of
his own making -- I wonder what his grounds are for saying this given
that "Gautama" is never one of the persona dramatis in the relevent
tantras.  I would understand if he had predicated this of Hevajra etc.
but to state this of Gautama seems rather sloppy scholarship to me.

> In general, it is hard to find any secondary literature at all on
> Buddhist tantra that is well-informed and avoids sensationalism
> and/or overly strong prejudice/bias.
O how true !!   Once in the long-drawn out saga to get my MVT
published, it was at one stage with a well-known Buddhist publisher.
The editor there wanted to put a nice juicy yab-yum illustration on
the cover.  When I pointed out that such iconography has no relevence
to that work, I was told that this didn't matter since it would be
eye-catching and help sell the book !

> Those really interested in (the history of) Vajrayaana in India are
strongly
> advised to learn to read primary sources.
I am minded of the lines in the Dao-de-jing, "Those who know do not
speak and those who speak do not know".

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge