Multivariant Levels of Interpretations on Selected Caryās

Multivariant Levels of Interpretations on Selected Caryās

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Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the multivariant levels of interpretation within selected Caryās. The Caryās selected depict Buddha Nature as it was understood in tāntric Buddhism in the area of Bengal. There are three levels of interpretation. The first level is the blatant meaning, and is outlined in the translation section of the songs. The second level is the anuyoga/Mother tāntra meaning. A comparison is made between the interpretations of selected scholars. The final level is the Mahāmudra meaning. This level is inferred from various textual sources.

Citation	Bhattacherjee, Rupa. "Multivariant Levels of Interpretations on Selected Caryās." MA thesis, University of Calgary, 2000. https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ55135.pdf.

Contents

• Approvalii
• Abstractiii
• Acknowledgementsiv
• Dedicationv
• Abbreviationsvi

• I. Introduction4

• II. Comparative Doctrines10

• • 1. Essential ideology10
  • 2. Early Buddhist Schools11
  • 3. Tāntric concepts that stem from Mahāyāna14
    • a. Śūnyatā15
    • b. Prajñā and Upāya17
    • c. The three kāyas19
  • 4. Vajrayāna Buddhism20
    • a. Mantra23
    • b. Mudrā23
    • c. Maṇḍala25
    • d. The three higher classes of tāntra: Mahāyoga27
    • e. Anuyoga/ Mother Tāntra level28
    • f. Mahāmudra30
    • g. The three lower tāntras: Kriyāyoga30
    • h. The Buddhist Cakras31
    • i. Consort Practice34

• III. History of Buddhism in Bengal38
  • 1. Socio-economic Background38
  • 2. The Rise and fall of Buddhist Dynasties in Bengal41

• IV. Definitions of Buddha Nature47
  • 1. The Tathāgatagarbha Theory47
    • a. Definition of tathāgatagarbha51
    • b. Tathāgatagarbha as already Buddha55
    • c. Conventional and Higher Truths56
  • 2. The Sahaja Theory57
  • 3. Mahāsukha58
  • 4. Mahāmudrā59
  • 5. The meanings of terms summarized61

• IV. SANDHABHĀṢĀ (twilight language)62

• VI. Transliterated Verses of the Caryāgitīs69
  • 1. CARYĀ THREE: A Grog Shop69
    • a. Part One: About the Author: Birūpa69
    • b. Part Two: Textual Studies and Translations71
    • c. Translations:73
    • d. Sandhabhāṣā :75
    • e. Mahāmudra depictions in sandhabhāṣā81
  • 2. CARYĀ NINE: A Mad Elephant83
    • a. Part one: About the author: Kānhā83
    • b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation84
    • c. Translations:86
    • d. Sandhabhāṣā:87
    • e. Mahāmudra depictions in sandhabhāṣā93
  • 3. CARYĀ THIRTY-SIX: A Carefree Stalwart96
    • a. Part one: About the author: Kṛṣṇācarya96
    • b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation96
    • c. Translations:97
    • d. Sandhabhāṣā :98
    • e. Mahāmudra depictions in sandhabhāṣā100
  • 4. CARYĀ FORTY: Futility of Religiosity102
    • a. Part one: About the author: Kāṇhu102
    • b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation102
    • c. Translations:103
    • d. Sandhabhāṣā :103

e. M a h a m u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ............................................ 105 5. CARYA FORTY-TWO: Life and Death..............................................................107 a. Part one: About the author: K a n h a ....................................................................107 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation.........................................................107 c. Translations:..............................................................................................................107 d. S a n d h a b h a sa :........................................................................................................ 108 e. M a h a m u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa .......................................................109 6. CARYA FIFTEEN: A Benighted Traveler..........................................................I l l a. Part one: About the author: S a n ti.......................................................................I l l b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation.........................................................I l l c. Translations:..............................................................................................................113 c. S an d h ab h asa:........................................................................................................116 e. M a h a m u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa .......................................................118 7. CARYA TWENTY-EIGHT: A Couple of Savara Lovers................................ 120 a. Part one: About the author: Savaripa............................................................... 120 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation.........................................................121 c. Translations:..............................................................................................................122 d. S a n d h a b h a sa :........................................................................................................ 124 e. M a h a m u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa .......................................................129 8. CARYA TWENTY-NINE: The Unreal Reality.................................................. 131 a. Part one: About the author: L uipa....................................................................131

b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation........................................................ 131 c. Translations:............................................................................................................. 132 d. S an d h a b h a sa :........................................................................................................133 e. M ah am u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ...................................................... 134 9. CARYA THIRTY: The Rising M oon .’.......................................................... 136 a. Part one: About the author: Bhusuku.................................................................136 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation............. 136 c. Translations:............................................................................................................. 137 d. S an d h ab h asa:........................................................................................................137 e. M ah am u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ...................................................... 139 10. CARYA THRITY-SEVEN: An Experience of the Innate............................. 140 a. Part one: About the author: T a ra k a p a ............................................................ 140 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation........................................................ 140 c. Translations:............................................................................................................. 141 d. S an d h a b h a sa :........................................................................................................142 e. M ah am u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ...................................................... 144 11. CARYA THIRTY-EIGHT: Paddling and towing a boat.............................. 146 a. Part one: About the author: Saraha...................................................................146 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation........................................................ 147 c. Translations:.............................................................................................................148 d. S an d h yab h asa:..................................................................................................... 149 e. M ah am u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ...................................................... 150 12. CARYA THKTY-NINE: A Hapless Householder........................................ 152 a. About The Author: Saraha.................................................................................... 152 b. Part Two: Textual Studies and translation........................................................ 152 b. Translation:............................................................................................................. 154 d. S an d h ab h asa:........................................................................................................155 e. M ah am u d ra depictions in sa n d h a b h a sa ...................................................... 157 VH. Conclusion............................................................................................................... 159 VIU. Bibliography..........................................................................................................165

Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt. अनुयोग Tib. ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

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Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt. अनुयोग Tib. ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

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prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt. प्रज्ञा Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ Ch. 般若

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Vajrayāna - The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras. Skt. वज्रयान Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ། Ch. 金剛乘

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Mahāyoga - This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas. Skt. महायोग Tib. མཧཱ་ཡོ་ག,རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ།

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Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt. अनुयोग Tib. ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

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Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt. अनुयोग Tib. ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

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