Sexuality plays a crucial part in the doctrines of Vajrayāna Buddhism. In this article, some of the main reasons behind the use of sexuality within the practice, iconography and symbolism of the Vajrayāna practice will be discussed.
There is perhaps a generalised view that sexuality within Vajray?na Buddhism gives the practitioner ‘the best of both worlds’. My aim is to provide a more critical analysis of the practice of sexuality in an effort to dispel the myths surrounding the use of it for anything other than religious purposes. Practitioners of Vajray?na Buddhism have taken their ideologies mostly from that of Mahayana Buddhism and incorporated their own values within it, encompassing some rather Hindu-like beliefs, which have caused a lot of misunderstanding and even hostility with other practicing Buddhists. The place of sexuality is often criticised in the Vajray?na practice. Buddhists following other paths believe that the union of two people goes against the celibacy vows of the monks, which it appears to do, although, the practitioners of Vajray?na have provided doctrines to counter this belief. Symbolism also plays a major part in the sexuality of Vajray?na Buddhism. While the union of couples is practiced in the flesh, there is room for it to be a symbolic act rather than a full blown act of intercourse, which provides a way for monks to follow the monastic vow of celibacy. Although it is thought to be incredibly powerful to harness human sexuality which in turn provides a way of liberation, both by joining the prajn? (female/wisdom) with karun? (male/method) which creates non-duality and an androgynous singular formation, it also links in with the idea of breaking free from the ideas of what is considered pure and impure. These ideas and practices encourage the practitioner to accept the idea that everything is in fact empty, and that in practicing this type of religion, they are realising the way to liberation which they believe is a more succinct way than their Mahayana counterparts.
Harnessing human sexuality in the quest for liberation is an important part of the Vajray?na practice. It is not so much the actual act of sexual intercourse that is important, but rather that one realises the symbolism surrounding the union of deities. Depicted in this fashion, it was thought that the qualities of each individual deity merged into one. As suggested by Cabezón, the act in a sense formed the creation of something new, in turn breaking through the idea of dualism or two separate entities, and to illustrate this, the deities were depicted in sexual union:
The psychosexual imagery assimilated into Buddhism with the development of Vajray?na provides a rich elaboration of the nondualistic bipolarity incipient in the Prajn?p?ramit?. [a feminised term which means something along the lines of: ‘the mother of all Buddha’s/wisdom personified, used in reference to a set of shortened texts]. Basic psychological states of mind, especially those conductive to or disruptive of liberation, were symbolised as both masculine and feminine deities, each with its own consort of the opposite sex, and enlightenment, the optimum mode of existence, was depicted in terms of a sexual union representing the androgynous ideal (Cabezón, p ).
Thus, the idea of non-duality can be seen in the androgynous single deity, who was neither male nor female, but both. The practice of copulation was not seen in terms of creating new life, or satisfying sexual needs, but about realising that the way to reach salvation was encompassed in the idea that everything is inseparable, non-dual, as is expressed by Dasgupta in the following quote, “The synthesis or rather the unification of all duality in absolute unity is the real principle of union” (Dasgupta, p 113).
This non-dual union is known as the joining of prajn? (female/wisdom) with karun? (male/method). There are different symbolic representations that are associated with this union, and in general it is known as the unification of wisdom with compassion, which as A. Tribe wrote in his work are the “twin aspects of awakened cognition” (Tribe, 161). One symbolic representation of this joining can be seen in the bell and vajra tantra which is described by Tribe in the quote below:
Held along with a bell, the latter usually in the left hand, the vajra now symbolises compassion and the bell wisdom. Together they stand for the non-dual unity of the awakened mind. As has been noted, this unity can also be symbolised by the sexual union of male and female tantric deities. This sexual unity can itself be symbolised by holding the vajra and bell in a particular way, known as the embrace gesture (mudr?). The vajra thus comes to be associated with the male figure in sexual union (Tribe, 164).
However, not all of the practice revolves around the symbolism of sexual intercourse, and indeed, the actual practice of it was considered an incredibly powerful thing. Sexual fluids were thought to be extremely powerful and ingesting them in some way was the ultimate act done in the highest yoga’s. A female consort would be chosen and given to the practitioner’s teacher who would copulate with her and the mingled fluids would be fed to the practitioner. This was believed to give the practitioner what was termed as ‘ultimate bliss’. It is this practice which has received a lot of attention, and more often than not, negative attention for its seeming lewdness.
