Thanks for the interesting references expanding on the notion of

an ākāśagāmin in immediate textual association with the early Aśvaghoṣa,

and likewise to Dan for reminding me/us of YS 3.42.

Of course, the spiritual metaphors of moving in(to)/within space and doing

so 'auf dem Pfade des Windes' are both ancient and belong together; we just

have to recall the frequently studied Vedic hymn ṚV 10.136.

Thus, considered decontextualized, Vajrasūcī 12 has little force with respect

to revealing much about its historical authorship.

Yet, when stumbling over this verse, its authorship had already been

disconnected from Aśvaghoṣa, the 1st–2nd century CE author, with the

weight of his erudition by Vincent, saying “we might perhaps agree that

the Vajrasūcī is unlikely to have been composed before the 3rd-4th century CE.

I am inclined to believe that it is even younger.” Placing the terminus post quem

into the 3rd-4th century does likewise entail that “the word of caution about

chronology with respect to Manu” as shortly elaborated by Johannes Bronkhorst,

however pertinent for the cases adduced, has rather lost its relevance for

the Vajrasūcī. And having not yet met with the notion of an ākāśagāmin

in the various Buddhist philosophical contexts elaborating their notions of

mārga in the centuries pointed out as the temporal frame for preliminarily

(at the present stage of our knowledge) locating a terminus post quem, the

question of siddhācārya as a marker that distinguishes the Vajrasūcī’s author

Aśvaghoṣa from Aśvaghoṣa, the 1st–2nd century CE author, did assume

suggestive significance. That is, despite the often questionable reliability

of colophons.

Yet, once we hypothetically admit the significance of such a marker to

socially and historically contextualize a siddhācārya Aśvaghoṣa, it is possible

to look at the assertion of Vajrasūcī 12 and try to understand it in the broader

context of how the Buddhists historically have dealt with the ethical problem

of killing animals/sentient beings and enjoying them as food for human beings

(ritually embedded or not). Doing so one may arrive at reasonable results,

which nevertheless remain hypothetical ones, unless additionally backed up.

All the best, Hartmut