Comments on Zen and Tibetan Buddhism in The Snow
Leopard
The path winds among potato patches and terraces of red buckwheat. Under the caves of a lone hut, a bright-colored fresco in blue, gold, green, and red portrays seven Buddha figures in symbolic postures that represent idealized aspects of Sakyamuni's life. These Buddha aspects, "celestial Buddhas," Bodhisattvas, and other embodiments of Buddhahood are all given separate names and attributes; and in these Himalayan lands, the chaotic nature of Buddhist iconography is compounded by the fact that everywhere, and almost from the start, Buddhists have adapted and adopted local deities rather than eradicate the old religions, so that even the most pernicious demon might be sanctified as a "Protector of the Dharma." Then, in the first centuries after Sakyamuni's death, certain yoga teachings of Vedic origin became systematized in esoteric treatises, called Tantras (it is sometimes claimed that they are the Fifth Veda) and the Tantric influences of these yoga cults brought about the creation of female wisdom principles, or for each of the already numerous demons and divinities. Avalokita, for example, was given a female counterpart called Tara; as a merciful savior, Tara became so popular that, in certain lands, She tended to displace Him. Kuan Yin, as Avalokita is known in China, [117] is distinctly a female presence, while the Japanese Kannon is given neither sex, or both. By the sixth century A.D., Tantric worship of female energies was dominant in both Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, and it was this Tantric form of Buddhism that was carried north into Tibet. The histories relate that an extraordinary naljorpa named Padma Sambhava, or Lotus-Born, established Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century. Yogins from northwest India—Kashmir, Gilgit, and Ladak—had carried certain teachings to western Tibet before this time, but Padma Sambhava, by discrediting the old B'on religion, established Buddhism on a firm basis and introduce the occult yogic Tantras (corresponding to kundalini yoga), some of which, tradition says, originated in the lost realm of Shambala, "in the north." (Padma Sambhava himself is supposed to have come originally from the "north country" of Urgyan, or Udyana, which is identified sometimes with Shambala but more often with a region north and ,%,est of the Indus River in what is now Afghanistan.) He is also credited with compiling the Bardo Thodol, or "Book of the Dead," as well as with founding Nyingma, the "Old Sect" of Tibetan Buddhism, which later developed the forms of Tantric practice that in Western eyes seemed decadent and orgiastic. Despite his persecution of B'on sorcerers, Padma Sambhava, in the Buddhist tradition of absorbing the local religions, seems to have tolerated the inclusion of much B'on magic in Nyingma, including the grim ch4id rites from the pre-Buddhist Tibetan manuscripts known as "Heart-Drops from the Great Space." The chöd rites may well be much older than B'on itself, deriving from archaic practices of sacrifice and exorcism. And the supreme Buddha figure of Nyingma, known as Samantabhadra, derives from an ancient deity who is probably close kin to such eminent sky gods as Zeus, Jupiter, and the Dyans-Pita of the Aryans, all of whom, it is supposed, had a common ancestor in the cultures of Central Asia. In Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, only a few Bodhisattvas and the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, are commonly portrayed, and the Ch'an [118] or Zen sect in particular has cut away most iconography, in keeping with its spare, clear, simple style; in its efforts to avoid religiosity, to encourage free-thinking and doubt, Zen makes bold use of contradictions, humor, and irreverence, applauding the monk who burned up the wood altar Buddha to keep warm. Tibetan Buddhism, on the other hand, having incorporated the Hindu pantheon as well as B'on, must pay homage to a multitude of Buddha aspects and manifestations, with varying orders of precedence and emphasis according to the sect. In such remote corners of the Himalaya as Tichu-Rong, the people still favor the Nyingma with its vestiges of B'on; here the B'on sky divinity who became king on earth lends his celestial colors of sky-blue and snow-white to Buddhist prayer flags. In the Tarakot Stupa, Samantabhadra and Padma Sambhava, the traditional founder of Nyingma, are given precedence over the Buddha Sakyamuni. The stupa is a monument, shrine, and reliquary that traditionally derives from the Buddha's tomb, but has come to symbolize existence. On a square red base (signifying earth) sits a large white dome (water) with a sort of spire (fire) crowned with a lunar crescent (air) and a solar disc (space); such structures guard the approaches to towns and villages throughout the Buddhist Himalaya. Larger stupas may enclose a room decorated with mandalas and iconographic paintings: the inner west wall of the Tarakot stupa, for example, portrays three Bodhisattvas, while on the east wall are three Buddhas. One is a Buddha of past ages (the light-giver, Dipankara), another the historical Buddha (Sakyamuni), the third the Buddha-to-come (Maitreya, who exists at present as a Bodhisattva but will be reborn as the Buddha in a future age).
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buddhist • Matthiessen • bardo • bodhisattva • death • meditation • zen • zen & tibetan |