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49-402: "Cakrasaṃvara" may also refer to the main deity in this tantra as well as to a collection of texts or "cycle" associated with the root Cakrasaṃvara tantra. Tsunehiko Sugiki writes that this "Cakrasaṃvara cycle", "is one of the largest collections of Buddhist Yoginītantra literature from the early medieval South Asian world." As Gray notes, it seems to have been very popular in northern India "during

98-428: A damaru drum, an axe, a flaying knife ( kartri ), and a trident. His remaining left [hands hold] a khatvanga staff marked with a vajra, a skull-bowl filled with blood, a vajra noose, and the head of Brahma. A garland of fifty moist human heads hangs about his neck. He has the six insignia, and a sacred thread made of human sinew. He has a row of five skulls above his forehead, and a crest of black dreadlocks topped by

147-542: A Buddha in the Future, known as "Bhasmeśvara", included in Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra . 47-48 Then the myth also tells of how Vajradhara Buddha created body known as Śrī Heruka in order to subdue Bhairava and Kalaratri who had taken over the world with their hateful and lustful ways. Heruka takes Bhairava's form and sends out various deities to subdue and destroy Bhairava and his associated deities. These Buddhist deities then take

196-797: A charnel ground deity which is said to be "the guise assumed by the Buddha Vajradhara in his effort to subdue evil doers," in the Samayoga Tantra. In the Samayoga , the universe is being destroyed by evil beings (stirred up by Mara), and all the Hindu deities in the universe seek refuge in Supreme Buddha Vajradhara , who assembles all the Buddhas. Since these evil beings are not able to be subdued by peaceful means,

245-592: A left-oriented crescent moon and a double vajra. He is endowed with a fierce meditative state ( vikrtadhyana ) and bears his fangs. He brings together in one the nine dramatic sentiments ( navarasa ). As Gray writes, the tantra's cryptic and obscure chapters mostly focus on "the description of rites such as the production of the mandala, the consecration ceremonies performed within it, as well as various other ritual actions such as homa fire sacrifices, enchantment with mantras, and so forth. Moreover, like many tantras, and perhaps more than most, it omits information necessary for

294-463: A metaphor to enable us to discover our real condition." He further adds that: If we deem Samantabhadra an individual being, we are far from the true meaning. In reality, he denotes our potentiality that, even though at the present moment we are in samsara, has never been conditioned by dualism. From the beginning, the state of the individual has been pure and always remains pure: this is what Samantabhadra represents. But when we fall into conditioning, it

343-432: A solar disk atop the pericarp of the lotus. He is black and has four faces which are, beginning with the front [and continuing around counter-clockwise], black, green, red, and yellow, each of which has three eyes. He has a tiger skin and has twelve arms. Two arms holding a vajra and a vajra-bell embrace Vajravarahi. Two of his hands hold up over his back a white elephant hide dripping with blood. His other [right hands hold]

392-612: A two armed version. According to the Buddhist Tantric scholar Abhayakaragupta , the deity's mandala is described thus: In the Samvara mandala there is a variegated lotus atop Mount Sumeru within an adamantine tent ( vajrapañjara ). Placed on it is a double vajra, which sits as the base of a court in the middle of which is the Blessed Lord. He stands in the archer ( alidha ) stance on Bhairava and Kalaratri who lie on

441-594: Is a form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley , Nepal . It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on the Newar caste system and patrilineality . Its caste system has a non-celibate religious clergy caste formed of vajracharya (who perform rituals for others) and shakya (who perform rituals mostly within their own families). Other Buddhist Newar castes like

490-418: Is as if we are no longer Samantabhadra because we are ignorant of our true nature. So what is called the primordial Buddha, or Adibuddha, is only a metaphor for our true condition. Karl Brunnhölzl states: Longchenpa's Treasure Trove of Scriptures ...explains that Samantabhadra—one of the most common Dzogchen names for the state of original buddhahood—is nothing other than the primordial, innate awareness that

539-523: Is naturally free, even before any notions of "buddhas" or "sentient beings" have emerged. In Dzogchen thought, there are said to be five aspects of Samantabhadra. Longchenpa explains these as follows: Vesna Wallace describes the concept of Ādibuddha in the Kalachakra tradition as follows: when the Kalacakra tradition speaks of the Ādibuddha in the sense of a beginningless and endless Buddha, it

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588-648: Is not as important in the Newari tradition, which instead privileges the Samvarodaya. The main Indian commentaries to the root tantra are: There are also several Tibetan commentaries, including those of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), Buton (1290-1364), and Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). Newar Buddhism New branches: Tantric techniques : Fourfold division: Twofold division: Thought forms and visualisation: Yoga : Newar Buddhism

637-504: Is not the bodhisattva who is the master of the ten stages ( bhumi ). Rather, he is the non-dual gnosis ( advayajñāna ), the perfection of wisdom ( prajñāpāramitā ) itself. According to Anthony Tribe, this tradition may have influenced the Jñānapāda tradition of Guhyasamāja exegesis, which places Mañjuvajra (a tantric form of Mañjuśrī) at the center of the Guhyasamāja mandala. In

686-462: Is referring to the innate gnosis that pervades the minds of all sentient beings and stands as the basis of both samsara and nirvana. Whereas, when it speaks of the Ādibuddha as the one who first attained perfect enlightenment by means of imperishable bliss, and when it asserts the necessity of acquiring merit and knowledge in order to attain perfect Buddhahood, it is referring to the actual realization of one's own innate gnosis. Thus, one could say that in

735-620: Is some being called Samantabhadra that creates the universe, instead what it refers to is that all things arise from "the state of consciousness Samantabhadra, the state of Dharmakaya ." In this sense, Samantabhadra is seen as being a symbolic personification of the ground or basis ( ghzi ) in Dzogchen thought. Namkhai Norbu explains that the Dzogchen idea of the Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra "should be mainly understood as

784-625: Is the First Buddha or the Primordial Buddha . Another common term for this figure is Dharmakāya Buddha. The term emerges in tantric Buddhist literature , most prominently in the Kalachakra . "Ādi" means "first", such that the Ādibuddha was the first to attain Buddhahood . "Ādi" can also mean "primordial", not referring to a person but to an innate wisdom that is present in all sentient beings. In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism ,

833-554: Is the position followed by Kūkai, the founder of Shingon, who says in his Dainichikyō kaidai that “Mahāvairocana is the self-nature Dharmakāya, which is the intrinsic truth-body of original awakening ,” (大毗盧遮那者自性法身卽本有本覺理身). Meanwhile, in the Japanese Amidist or "Pure Land" sects , Amitabha Buddha ("Amida") is seen as being the "Supreme Buddha" or the One Original buddha ( ichi-butsu ). The Lotus Sutra reveals

882-521: Is therefore difficult to understand the tantra's practices without relying on a commentary and/or a teacher. There are three genres of Cakrasaṃvara literature: "explanatory tantras" ( vyakhyatantra ); commentaries; and ritual literature (sadhanas, mandala manuals, initiation manuals). The explanatory tantras refers to independent tantras that are seen as being part of the Cakrasaṃvara cycle. The main explanatory tantras (given by Buton Rinchen Drub ) are:

931-583: The Abhidhānottara, the Vajradāka ; Ḍākārṇava , Herukābhyudaya, Yoginīsaṃcāra , Samvarodaya, Caturyoginīsaṃpuṭa ; Vārāhī-abhisambodhi , and the Sampuṭa Tantra . Most of these texts show no internal evidence they consider themselves as subsidiary to the root Cakrasaṃvara Tantra , and it is likely they were grouped into this category by the later tradition. Furthermore, it seems the root Cakrasaṃvara Tantra

980-565: The Pradīpoddyotana , a tantric commentary, explains that the "three vajras" are the three mysteries of Body, Speech, and Mind, which are the displays of the Ādibuddha. Wayman further writes: Tsong-kha-pa 's Mchan-'grel explains the "lord of body": displays simultaneously innumerable materializations of body; "lord of speech": teaches the Dharma simultaneously to boundless sentient beings each in his own language; "lord of mind": understands all

1029-710: The Tibetan classification schema , this tantra is considered to be of the "mother" class of the Anuttarayoga (Unsurpassable yoga) class, also known as the Yoginītantras . These tantras were known for their sexual yogas . The text survives in several Sanskrit and Tibetan manuscripts . There are at least eleven surviving Sanskrit commentaries on the tantra and various Tibetan ones. The Cakrasamvara mostly comprises rituals and yogic practices which produce mundane siddhis (accomplishments) – such as flight – as well as

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1078-618: The Urāy act as patrons. Urāy also patronise Tibetan Vajrayana, Theravadin , and even Japanese clerics. It is the oldest known sect of the Vajrayana tradition outdating the Tibetan school of Vajrayana by more than 600 years. Although there was a vibrant regional tradition of Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley during the first millennium, the transformation into a distinctive cultural and linguistic form of Buddhism appears to have taken place in

1127-692: The chaitya (stupa), Baha and Bahi monastic courtyards, statues, paubha scroll paintings and mandala sand paintings, and by being a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit Buddhist texts , many of which are now only extant in Nepal . According to the authors of Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal : "Today traditional Newar Buddhism is unquestionably in retreat before Theravada Buddhism." Chachā (Charyā) ritual song and dance and Gunlā Bājan music are other artistic traditions of Newar Buddhism. Although Newar Buddhism

1176-571: The "Eternal Buddha" in the Essential Teaching (chapters 15-28). The Nikko -lineage, regard Nichiren himself as the Ādibuddha and dispute the contentions of other sects that view him as a mere bodhisattva . In the Medieval Orissan School of Vaishnavism , Jagannath was believed to be the first Buddha avatar of Vishnu , or Adi-Buddha; with Gautama Buddha and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu being further incarnations of

1225-448: The "dakini net" is the Cakrasaṃvara mandala, dominated by the three wheels of the dakinis and their consorts. Furthermore, "its 'binding' is the process of union or mystical identification in which the adept engages via creative visualization, thereby achieving "union with Sri Heruka." This term thus refers to the "body mandala" practice in which the adept visualizes the three wheels of the mandala within his/her own body." Gray writes that

1274-451: The 8th century. The noun samvara derives from a verb which means to "bind," "enclose," or "conceal," and samvara commonly means "vow" and sometimes "sanctuary". In the tantra it appears in various compounds, such as "the binding of the dakini net" ( ḍākinījālasamvara ), which is associated with the term "union with Śrī Heruka." In this sense, samvara can also refer to "union", which is supreme bliss and supreme awakening. According to Gray,

1323-399: The Buddhas must manifest ferocious appearances. Heruka is born from Vajradhara Buddha's transcendent power and he burns up the entire universe, purifying it in the process. Gray writes that eventually this earlier myth of Heruka's origin evolved into a more polemical version, in which Heruka is born to subdue Shaiva deities, like Rudra and Mahabhairava , which are here seen as the source of

1372-473: The Kalacakra tradition, Ādibuddha refers to the ultimate nature of one's own mind and to the one who has realized the innate nature of one's own mind by means of purificatory practices. The Guhyasamāja Tantra calls Vajradhāra (the " Vajra holder"), the Teacher, who is bowed to by all the Buddhas, best of the three vajras, best of the great best, supreme lord of the three vajras. Alex Wayman notes that

1421-544: The Nyingma School, the Adi-Buddha is called Samantabhadra (Skt.; Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་, Kuntu Zangpo ; Wyl. kun tu bzang po ), not to be confused with the bodhisattva Samantabhadra . Nyingma art often depicts this figure as a naked blue Buddha. According to Dzogchen Ponlop : The color blue symbolizes the expansive, unchanging quality of space, which is the ground of all arisings, the basis of all appearances, and

1470-412: The accoutrements of charnel ground dwelling yogins—did not solely derive from a mainstream monastic Buddhist context. Instead, they seem to have developed among and/or been influenced by liminal groups of renunciant yogins and yoginis, who collectively constituted what might be called the "siddha movement." ... who chose a deliberately transgressive lifestyle, drawing their garb and, in part, sustenance from

1519-627: The active appropriation of elements of both text and practice belonging to non-Buddhist groups, most notably the Kapalikas , an extreme and quasi-heretical Saiva group focusing on transgressive practices." The British Indologist Alexis Sanderson has also written about how the Cakrasaṃvara literature appropriated numerous elements from the Shaiva Vidyapitha tantras , including whole textual passages. Gray writes, The term yogini in

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1568-575: The appropriation and subordination of a non-Buddhist tradition. Samvara is one of the principal yidam or meditational deities of the Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism . Samvara is typically depicted with a blue-coloured body, four faces, and twelve arms, and embracing his consort, the wisdom dakini Vajravārāhī (a.k.a. Vajrayoginī ) in Yab-Yum (sexual union). Other forms of the deities are also known with varying numbers of limbs and features, such as

1617-467: The classical Hindu deities such as Maheśvara and Narayana , just as the asura were the perpetual foes of the older vedic deities such as Indra." In this, they may have also been influenced by Puranic sources which portrayed the Buddhist "heresy" as a trick meant to deceive the asuras. Regarding the name Heruka, it first appears as a name for a class of fierce demon like beings. Heruka also appears as

1666-698: The cosmic disorder. This was probably influenced by another myth in which Shiva is subdued by Vajrapāṇi in the Tattvasaṃgraha An Indian version of this myth can be found in Indrabhuti's commentary and is cited by Gray. In it, Vajrapāṇi forces Mahadeva, i.e. Shiva (along with a host of deities) to appear in Akanishtha ( Highest Realm of Rūpadhātu lokas), whereupon he is annihilated when he refuses to turn from his evil ways. Then Vajrapāṇi revives Mahadeva with his mantric power, and Shiva then becomes

1715-518: The fifteenth century, at about the same time that similar regional forms of Indic Buddhism such as those of Kashmir and Indonesia were on the wane. Newar Buddhism has a group of nine Sanskrit Mahayana sutras called the Navagrantha, these are considered the key Mahayana sutra texts of the tradition. They are: Newar Buddhism is characterized by its extensive and detailed rituals, a rich artistic tradition of Buddhist monuments and artwork like

1764-541: The form of the Bhairava deities as a skillful means (upaya). According to David Gray, This myth represents the adoption of non-Buddhist elements while at the same time representing the subordination of these elements within a Buddhist cosmic hierarchy, graphically represented by the placement of the Saiva deities under the feet of their Buddhist vanquisher. The myth provides an elaborate fourfold scheme for this process of

1813-626: The knowable which seems impossible. According to the 14th Dalai Lama , the Ādibuddha is also seen in Mahayana Buddhism as representation of the universe, its laws and its true nature, as a source of enlightenment and karmic manifestations and a representation of the Trikaya . In Chinese Esoteric Buddhism , and in Japanese Shingon , the Ādibuddha is typically considered to be Mahāvairocana . In Japanese Shingon Buddhism,

1862-686: The late tenth through late thirteenth centuries when the second transmission of Buddhism to Tibet took place." According to the modern scholar and translator David B. Gray, "its study and practice is maintained by the Newar Buddhist community in the Kathmandu valley, as well as by many Tibetan Buddhists, not only in Tibet itself but in other regions influenced by Tibetan Buddhism , including Mongolia , Russia , China , and elsewhere, as Tibetan lamas have been living and teaching in diaspora." In

1911-491: The liminal space of the charnel ground that was the privileged locus for their meditative and ritual activities. The Saiva Kapalikas constituted the best-known group in this subculture, as attested by the numerous references to them in Sanskrit literature. These appropriated non-Buddhist elements were transformed, explained or erased over time, with more Buddhist elements being added as the Cakrasaṃvara tradition developed and

1960-555: The name Yogini Tantra points to the unusual social context in which these texts arose. It appears almost certain that the Yogini Tantras, with their focus on sexual practices, the transgressive consumption of "polluting" substances such as bodily effluvia, female deities such as yoginis and dakinis, and fierce male deities, such as the Heruka deities—who are closely modeled on Saiva deities such as Mahakala and Bhairava , and bear

2009-583: The name of Samvara has an ancient lineage. A figure called Śamvara can be found in the Rig Veda , as an enemy of Indra and as a kind of asura . Asko Parpola has argued that Samvara and other similar deities which are associated with the power of illusion ( maya ) are remnants of pre-Aryan cults. Gray writes that there may have been an asura cult that the Buddhists drew from in their development of "new cults of deities who were viewed as manifesting hostility to

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2058-441: The performance of these rituals. It also often obscures crucial elements, particularly the mantras, which the text typically presents in reverse order, or which it codes via an elaborate scheme in which both the vowels and consonants are coded by number." The reason for the text's obscurity is mostly likely that these rites were considered secret and one was supposed to receive instructions on them from one's guru after initiation. It

2107-580: The presence of Saiva deities like Mahabhairava are explained referring to Buddhas (as stated in Jayabhadra's commentary). The Cakrasaṃvara commentators consider the tantra to be a timeless divine revelation of either the Dharmakāya Buddha Mahāvajradhara or of the goddess Vajravārāhī . The central deity of the tradition is called Samvara, Śamvara, Śrī Heruka , or simply Heruka . This figure became popular in Buddhist circles around

2156-536: The source of all phenomena. The absence of robes symbolizes the genuine reality beyond any dualistic, conceptual, or philosophical clothing. That is the dharmakaya buddha: the genuine body of absolute truth. In Nyingma, Samantabhadra is also considered to be the source of all Dzogchen teachings. The Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra calls Samantabhadra the "All-Creating King" (Tib. Kunjed Gyalpo ), because all phenomena are said to be manifestations or displays of Samantabhadra. According to Namkhai Norbu , this does not mean there

2205-410: The supramundane siddhi of awakening. These are achieved through practices such as deity yoga (visualizing oneself as the deity) and the use of mantras . New branches: Tantric techniques : Fourfold division: Twofold division: Thought forms and visualisation: Yoga : According to David B. Gray, the Cakrasaṃvara "developed in a non-monastic setting, and was composed via

2254-705: The term Ādibuddha is often used to describe the Buddha Samantabhadra (in Nyingma , not to be confused with the bodhisattva Samantabhadra ), Vajradhara or Kalachakra (in the Sarma schools). There was also a tradition in India which saw Mañjuśrī as the Ādibuddha, as exemplified by Vilāsavajra's commentary to the Mañjuśrīnāmasamgīti . Vilāsavajra states in his commentary: The gnosis-being Mañjuśrī

2303-611: The terms Primordial body ( honji-shin ) and Dharmakaya principle ( riho-jin ) are used to refer to the Ādibuddha. It is also associated with the letter A, the first letter of the Siddham Alphabet, and is seen as the source of the universe. Śubhakarasiṃha's Darijing shu (J. Dainichikyōsho ; 大日經疏) states that Mahāvairocana (teacher of the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi-sūtra ), is “the original ground dharmakāya.” (薄伽梵即毘盧遮那本地法身, at Taisho no. 1796:39.580). This

2352-422: Was adopted in major Buddhist institutions like Vikramashila (from about the 9th century onwards). A myth also developed in order to explain the appropriation (depicted as the subjugation of Shiva by Saṃvara). This both reduced Shiva ( Rudra ) and other Shaiva deities to a subordinate position under the Buddhist deities (which took their form) and explained the usage of Shaiva elements by Buddhists. In other cases,

2401-1253: Was traditionally bound to the Kathmandu Valley and its environs, there is at least one new Newar Buddhist temple in Portland, Oregon . A number of major street celebrations are held periodically involving processions, displays of Buddha images and services in the three cities of the Kathmandu Valley and in other parts of Nepal. The main events are Samyak (almsgiving and display of Buddha images), Gunla (holy month marked by musical processions and display of Buddha images), Jana Baha Dyah Jatra (chariot procession in Kathmandu), Bunga Dyah Jatra (chariot processions in Lalitpur , Dolakha and Nala ), and Bajrayogini Jatra (processions in Sankhu and Pharping). Adi-Buddha New branches: Tantric techniques : Fourfold division: Twofold division: Thought forms and visualisation: Yoga : The Ādi-Buddha ( Tibetan : དང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས། , Wylie : dang po'i sangs rgyas , THL : Dangpö Sanggyé )

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