The Mar Ngok Summer Teachings 2024: Day 5
2 August 2024
Reciting mantras for self-protection
In this teaching, the Karmapa continued exploring the aspects of Secret Mantra that were present in Early Buddhism. These include protective mantras (paritta), and particularly mantras that were meant to be used for self-protection (attaparitta). These were accepted and allowed, in contrast to the debased awareness mantras that were considered a cause of downfall, as attested by discussions of the debased arts in the Vinaya scriptures of the various schools. Debased awareness mantras were, in particular, explicitly prohibited in the Bhikkhunī-Pāṭimokkha and Vibhaṅga.
The Karmapa reiterated, however, that some exceptions were allowed. In the Pali Vinaya, these include, in the twelfth part of the Bhikkhunī-Vibhaṅga, in the discussion of the forty-ninth downfall for the bhikshunis, exceptions for learning writing, learning dhāraṇa, learning protective mantras and teaching protective mantras to others. The Karmapa suggested that the dhāraṇa mentioned in the Pali scriptures was probably the same as the dhāraṇī mantras found in Mahayana teachings. In the specific case of the exception for learning writing, the Karmapa pointed out that the word for letters used in the Pali text is lekhā. He contrasted this with a known later method called the “method of the forty-two letters”, where the term used for letters is lipi or akṣara; it was not clear, he noted, whether these were the same as the lekhā of the Pali Bhikkhunī-Vibhaṅga . This “method of the forty-two letters” is described in the Prajñāpāramitā as a method for meditating on the forty-two consonants and vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet.
Besides the recitation of mantras to learn letters, the Karmapa listed additional examples of the use of protective mantras found in the Chinese translation of the Dharmaguptaka Four-Part Vinaya. For instance, if one has a parasite that causes intestinal illness, it is allowed to recite a mantra to cure that illness. It is also allowed to recite mantras to cure indigestion, after consuming food that one is unable to digest and causes an illness; and to recite mantras when one is poisoned, to neutralise the poison. The exceptions extend, too, to reciting mantras to convert worldly non-Buddhists.
Similarly, in the Chinese translation of the Ten-Part Vinaya of the Sarvāstivāda school, it is said that one may use mantras to cure toothaches, and to cure stomach aches, and again to neutralise poisons. In summary, the Karmapa said, if the mantras are for one’s own protection, then there is no offence in reciting them; it is not an infraction to recite mantras in order to remain healthy, physically and mentally.
(The Karmapa recalled that, as a general principle in the Vinaya, acts committed when one is insane, not in control of one’s mind, are not considered infractions. Also, offences do not apply retrospectively: thus, the first person to commit an act that is subsequently deemed to be an offence is not considered to have, themselves, offended.)
Protective mantras in the Foundation Vehicle
The Karmapa highlighted, further, that within the Pali tradition, protective mantras are considered very important. This can be attested by the variety of scriptures in which they are found, and the many different types of protective mantras that are taught in them.
In the Pali canon, the Karmapa pointed to a very well-known text called the Milinda-Pañhā, or The Questions of King Milinda. It is included within the five Nikāyas, in the Minor Discourses. It records a question-and-answer session between a bhikshu and the Bactrian Greek king Milinda, and it lists several different protective mantras. For example, mantras to protect the aggregates, i.e. to protect the body (khanda-paritta); peacock mantras (mora-paritta), which have their equivalent in the Vajrayana tradition as the Great Peahen (Mahāmāyūrī) mantra; the ornament of the flagpole mantras (dhajagga-paritta); the Āṭānāṭiya mantras (āṭānāṭiya-paritta); the Ratana-Sutta, or Sutra of the Jewels; and several other mantras.
What we can understand from this text, the Karmapa argued, is that already at the time of King Milinda, in the second or third century BCE, there were already many different protective mantras being used. The modern Sri Lankan Theravada school, as well as those from Burma and Thailand, have many more protective mantras than that, which are regularly recited to remove obstacles, or, similarly to the Tibetan tradition, to gather auspiciousness. According to some Japanese scholars, within the Southern Buddhist tradition, there are twenty-nine different sutras that teach these protective mantras. Besides the ones already mentioned, that were already recited regularly in the second or third century BCE, others were added by the middle of the 5th century CE, such as the Aṅgulimāla protective mantras (Aṅgulimāla-paritta).
The Karmapa then proposed to examine in greater detail the content and meaning of the protective mantras listed above, and their sources.
Protective mantras related to snakes and Nāgas
The first of these is the khanda-paritta, the aggregate mantra or mantra for protecting the body. The Karmapa recalled, as explained in a previous teaching, that the Vinaya of the Pali scriptures is made up of three parts: the Vibhaṅga, or detailed explanations; the Khandhaka, or aggregates, in twenty-two chapters; and an appendix. (The first and second parts are very similar to the Tibetan scriptures on discipline and the finer points of discipline.) The Khandhaka teaches several of the different protective mantras, and in particular, there are methods taught about how to meditate on loving-kindness and compassion for snakes, and mantras that one recites whilst meditating, to protect oneself from harm from snakes. The circumstances that led to these mantras is that in the past, there was a bhikshu who was bitten by a snake and died. And because of this, the Buddha said to the bhikshus, “Those whose loving-kindness permeates the four royal Nāga lineages will not die of snake bites, even if they are bitten by snakes”. The Buddha then taught the bhikshus the verses to recite in order to effect that self-protection (attha-paritta).
In fact, such mantras that are related to Nāgas, or to snakes, come up in many different areas of the scriptures. Specifically in terms of Foundation Vehicle scriptures, the original story described above is found, as already mentioned, in the Khandhaka in the Pali Vinaya, more precisely in its second volume, the Culla-Vagga. Some people hypothesise that this is probably where it first came from. In the Pali canon, within the five Nikāyas, there are two further scriptures with teachings on protection from snakes: a second occurrence is in the Ahinda-Sutta, in the Numerical Discourses, and a third occurrence is amongst the Jātaka tales, which are part of the Minor Discourses.
Still in Foundation Vehicle texts, but outside the Pali canon, the fourth scripture with mantras for protection relating to Nāgas is in the Four-Part Vinaya of the Dharmaguptaka tradition, in the forty-second fascicle. But whereas the original Pali text talks about four royal Nāga lineages, here they become the eight Nāga kings, and it is a mantra for protection of the eight Nāga kings that is taught. This is a bodhichitta mantra for self-protection: if one recites it whilst meditating on bodhichitta, then snakes will not bite.
There is a fifth scriptural occurrence in the ninth fascicle of the Connected Discourses, in the Chinese translation of the Four Āgamas, where a verse for protection for snake bites is taught, and the eight Nāga kings are also listed. Here there are additional details: the bhikshu bitten by a snake in the story is named as Bhikshu Upasena; and after the verses, a dhāraṇī mantra is added, which is referred to in the Chinese text as zhòu shù zhāng jù. Here, zhòu shù means mantra or awareness mantra, so this Chinese term translates literally as “the words of an awareness mantra”, and we can understand it to mean protective words to be recited; in this particular case, to avoid being harmed by snakes. This shows us, the Karmapa suggested, that at this point, already, the protective mantra had a tantric form.
The sixth scripture that is related to snakes is found in the twenty-sixth fascicle of the Mahīśāsaka Five-Part Vinaya; it is also in the twentieth volume of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, and in the sixth fascicle of the Chinese translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, in the Vibhaṅga section containing the detailed explanations of the discipline. The Tibetan version of this sixth fascicle includes the story of Arhat Upasena being bitten by a venomous snake, and the Buddha teaching verses and a mantra to help him neutralise the poison. The Karmapa pointed out that there are passages within these verses that are often recited during Tibetan name-card rituals for the dead (where the consciousness of the deceased is represented by an effigy and/or their name written on a card). For example:
Greed, hatred, and delusion, three,
Are the three poisons of the world.
The Bhagavan Buddha has no poisons—
The Buddha’s power destroys the poisons.
Verses like this are recited for each of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Because these are true words, it is through the power of the truth of the Three Jewels that poisons may be neutralised. In the Tibetan translation, they are called “words of the secret mantra”, and the Chinese translation likewise uses the term “secret mantra” for them (jìn zhòu).
The last Foundation Vehicle scripture cited by the Karmapa (but without a specific scriptural location) was the Sutra of Upananda, which includes the by now familiar story of a bhikshu – this time, Bhikshu Upananda – being bitten by a venomous snake, and the Buddha teaching these verses and the mantra that would neutralise poison.
Protective mantras of the Great Peahen
After these examples of mantras related to snakes and Nāgas found in the Foundation Vehicle texts, the Karmapa proposed to examine their counterparts in the Mahayana and in Secret Mantra.
In Mahayana, the mantras for snake bites appear in the Sūtra of the Great Peahen, Queen of Awareness (Mahāmāyūrī-Vidyārārjñī). The mantras were included in the sūtra, and thus, when the Secret Mantra developed, they were preserved. Amongst the masters who translated the sūtra into Chinese, is Amoghavajra (705-774 CE). He was born in Sri Lanka but travelled to China. It is said that he translated a text called the Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Peacock Queen. It is said, however, that the first translations of this sūtra were done at a very early time, in the fourth century CE, during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Eastern Jin (317–322 CE). There are mentions of texts such as the Sūtra of the Great Peahen, Queen of Spells in one fascicle, translated by Śrīmitra (active 307-312 CE), as well as the Mantras of the Miscellaneous Deities of the Queen of Peacocks. However, Śrīmitra’s translations of the sūtras of the Great Peahen are probably no longer extant. Likewise, later, during the Liang Dynasty (502-557 CE), the Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Peacock King, in two fascicles, was translated.
The Karmapa indicated that there are, in total, six different Chinese translations of this sūtra. Besides the ones he had already mentioned, there’s also one translated by Master Paramārtha (499-569 CE), the Sūtra of the Dhāraņī of the Peacock King and one by Yijing (635 – 713 CE). And there’s even a Sanskrit manuscript of this sūtra, that has been found and published. What this shows, according to the Karmapa, is that in Chinese, this sūtra was considered really important and very significant; through the frequency of translations in different periods of time, we can gain an idea of the degree of importance it had.
[A translation of the Mahāmāyūrī-Vidyārārjñī into English by the 84,000 Project can be found at https://read.84000.co/translation/toh559.html.]
The Karmapa noted that the titles of these translations all include the word “peacock”, but that their topic is actually reciting the names of the eight Nāga kings with loving-kindness, and because of the power of this, preventing snake bites. The Karmapa explained that there is, traditionally, an association between the two, in that peacocks are known to eat small snakes, and for this reason, many people believed that they had a special power to overcome venomous snakes. Likewise, it’s also traditionally said, in Tibetan, that peacocks are not affected by snake poison. The Karmapa contended that it may be the case that peacocks have an ability to digest certain types of venom, or a certain, small, quantity of it, rather than not being harmed by any type of snake venom.
Returning to the sūtras containing mantras related to snakes, the Karmapa recapitulated that he had given an overview of seven of these in total: the first six from the Foundation Vehicle, whilst the seventh the Sūtra of the Great Peahen, Queen of Awareness is a Mahayana or tantric text. In the latter, too, there is a bhikshu (called Svāsti) bitten by a snake, and the Buddha teaches that if one recites the names of the eight Nāga kings with loving-kindness, and then recites the mantra, then one won’t be harmed by snake venom. The Karmapa then contrasted the view of Japanese scholar Hirakawa Akira, who suggested that this story appears in many different Mahayana and tantric texts, but that it originally comes, in its earliest form, from the Culla-Vagga in the Pali Vinaya, and from the Connected Discourses in the Four Āgamas; and that of another Japanese scholar, Matsunaga Yukei, who holds that there is not much relation between the Mahayana and tantric version of the story and the ones in the Dharmaguptaka Four-Part Vinaya, in the Connected Discourses in the Four Āgamas, or in the Mahīśāsaka Five-Part Vinaya, and that the final version, the Great Peahen sūtra, is closer to the original account in the Pali Vinaya (Culla-Vagga) and must have grown gradually from it, incorporating elements from the Ahinda Sutta, Khandavatta-Jātaka from the Pali Minor Discourses, the Sūtra of the King of Peacocks Golden Appearance and the Sūtra of the Mantra of the King of Great Auspiciousness.
The Karmapa added that there is another story that contains the same basic elements as the Mahayana and tantric versions of the Great Peahen sūtra, and that story is found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda chapter on medicine in the Vinaya texts, which has been translated into Chinese. There is also a Sanskrit manuscript, although possibly not complete, of this chapter; and the complete version has also been preserved in the Tibetan translation. We can see, in conclusion, that the awareness mantra of the Mahāmāyūrī spread widely across the three main Buddhist traditions: it is found in the Southern tradition, in many different places in the Pali Canon; in the Northern tradition, in Chinese translations; and in the Tibetan tradition.
To conclude the discussion on texts relating to the Mahāmāyūrī mantra, the Karmapa mentioned that amongst the five hundred Jataka tales of the Theravada tradition, there is one called the “Peacock Jataka” (Mora-Jātaka), which also describes protecting oneself from snake bites by reciting the mantra. In the Northern, that is, primarily Chinese tradition, there is similarly a Jataka of the King of Peacocks, relating a story of a previous lifetime of the Buddha when he was a King of Peacocks, in which the mantra is also found.
Other protective mantras
After the mantras related to snakes and Nāgas, and the Mahāmāyūrī mantras, a third example of protective mantra surveyed by the Karmapa is called the banner mantra, or flagpole mantra. This comes from a story recounting that in the past, when the gods and demigods were in battle, the gods would see Indra’s banner and then be inspired and freed from fear. This story appears, in the Southern tradition, in the Connected Discourses within the five Nikāyas, in the section called the Chapter of Verses (Sagāthā-Vagga). It is also in the Chinese translation of the Four Āgamas, both in the Connected Discourses and in the fourteenth fascicle of the Numerical Discourses.
The fourth type of protective mantra is the Āṭānāṭiya mantra, which appears in the Sutra of the Palace of Āṭānāṭiya(here, Āṭānāṭiya is the name of the palace), which is the thirty-second sutra in the Long Discourses in the Pali Canon. This is a mantra taught by the king of yakṣas (Pali: yakkha), King Vaiśravaṇa (Pali: Vessavaṇa), to protect the yakṣas by rousing faith in the Buddhist teachings, and to protect the fourfold community of bhikshus and bhikshunis (i.e. monks and nuns), as well as laymen and laywomen. This story also appears in the twentieth sutra in the Long Discourses, the Sutra of the Great Assembly (Mahā-Samaya-Sutta). Indeed, some modern scholars believe that the story first appeared in the Mahā-Samaya-Sutta, and then, based on it, the Āṭānāṭiya-Sutta evolved later. The Āṭānāṭiya mantra is present in the Tibetan canon, too, in the Minor Sutras on Prajñāpāramitā. It also appears in other Mahayana and tantric texts: in the Sutra of the Great Peahen, as well as in the Chinese translation of the Sutra of the Great Assembly, in the chapter called The Moon Essence ( Skt.Candragarbha). The Karmapa remarked that this Candragarbha chapter also includes the prayer known as The Blaze of the Teachings Aspiration.
Here, however, the Karmapa made the distinction between the Candragarbha chapter as a whole, and the seventeenth section within it, which is called the Candragarbha-Sūtra. Although there is a complete translation of this text in Chinese, the Karmapa pointed out that it does not exist in its entirety in Tibetan. Nevertheless, Lord Atiśa’s Compendium of the Sutras, which is included in the Tengyur, quotes over eleven fascicles of the Candragarbha-Sūtra . In fact, the actual Dharma Blaze Aspiration prayer that is recited at the end of every day during the Kagyu Monlam is taken from Lord Atiśa’s Compendium of the Sutras, precisely because there is no complete Candragarbha-Sūtra in Tibetan. Additionally, in the Tibetan Kangyur, there is the Sutra of Noble Candragarbha, which has predictions of the manner in which the Buddhist teachings will remain and disappear. According to Butön’s Dharma History (written in the fourteenth century CE), this sutra originally had two fascicles, but only a little of it has been preserved.
Mantra recitation and the evolution of Buddhism
The Karmapa noted that the term paritta, which is applied in the Theravada tradition to the mantras that give physical protection, seems not to have been preserved, over time, into the Secret Mantra tradition; this term is not much used there, and it is not clear, either, whether it was used in the other schools of Early Buddhism. Yet the important point recalled by the Karmapa was that, in Early Buddhism, permission was given for protective mantras for physical protection to be recited, and the many different examples he mentioned of such mantras present in the scriptures of Early Buddhism corroborate that they were considered very important.
Ultimately, though, the Karmapa stressed that, in the case of snakes, for instance, if one has genuine loving-kindness for snakes, if one has no hostility and no wish to harm others, then snakes don’t just bite anyone. When one recites a protective mantra without any feeling of hostility, then that mantra will certainly have a really particular efficacy. And this being so is what makes the protective spells recited in the mantra actually different from the debased arts, such as formulating medical treatments, and making predictions, that are prohibited in the Vinaya.
When examining the possible reasons why protective mantras were allowed in Early Buddhism, the Karmapa quoted the main points made by Japanese scholar and monastic Matsunaga Yukei. Firstly, he considered the difference in culture and customs between urban and rural environments in ancient India. In the cities, the society was somewhat more developed, whereas in the countryside, tribal structures based on clan and caste persisted, and the use of traditional witchcraft and of awareness mantras was still quite frequent; the need for rituals incorporating them was more keenly felt. Secondly, when considering the growth of the Buddhist community, whether the monastic community or the lay community, it started in the cities and spread into the countryside. And there, the influence of the traditional tribal customs would have been stronger. Then, a third reason would have been a change, a gradual softening in people’s attitudes. Originally, in Early Buddhism, awareness mantras were very strictly prohibited. But later, as the teachings of Buddha spread into many different areas of India, and in particular, as it spread into villages in the countryside, practitioners became a little bit more relaxed. This is accompanied, as a fourth reason, in a change in attitude specifically towards the use of mantras. From one perspective, many mantras and spells continued to be prohibited in Early Buddhism, namely those that did not accord with the Dharma; whereas those that did accord were allowed, for example, as already discussed, mantras that protect one’s own body. Finally, a fifth point made by Matsunaga Yukei is that the paritta, the protective mantras found in the Pali canon, are actual examples of how attitudes changed. It was precisely because it was considered very important that one could recite mantras to protect oneself that these appeared in the scriptures of early Buddhism.
The Karmapa argued that this shows the adaptability of Buddhism: adaptability not only when talking about a Buddhist community that started including both male and female monastics, but also in that, as the areas of Buddhist influence expanded, Buddhists had no choice but to accept the differences of traditional customs of the different societies in those areas. And particularly, when it spread into the countryside, where there was much more traditional use of mantras and of witchcraft, it is quite possible that the Buddhist religion also had to be more flexible, whilst preserving its essence. This is an example of very skillful means and great compassion: maintaining the essence of the religion, but being able to make changes and take a form that was appropriate to the needs of the different social and cultural environments it was in. If we look at the stages of the spread of Buddhism and at the earlier masters, the Karmapa said, it shows that they had a very practical attitude to the situations that they were in, and that they went to great lengths, in particular, to carefully consider how they could gain acceptance from the public amidst very different cultural backgrounds. And that it was in doing so that they were able to spread the Buddhadharma.
True words in the Foundation Vehicle
Next, the Karmapa proposed to discuss “true words” (satya-vacana), which often, in the Pali Canon, take the form of a “true oath” (sacca-kiriyā, in Sanskrit satya-kriyā). These basically mean an oath or a mantra of truth, which has a special, inconceivable power. This is not only a Buddhist understanding, but it is also found in the Indian Brahmanical religions.
The first example of a “true oath” in the sutras of the Southern transmission of Buddhism is found in the Jataka tales. As the Karmapa mentioned before, there are five hundred of these in the Pali Canon, and amongst them, the 444th recounts that there was a child who was bitten by a snake and brought by his parents to an ascetic to ask for help. “Please help our child,” they requested of the ascetic, “Please protect his life.” The ascetic replied with a recapitulation of his deeds up to then, spoken, according to him, very truthfully and honestly and straightforwardly. And then at the end he said, “If this is true, then by this truth, may this child be healthy.” As he said that, then immediately the poison in the child’s body was expelled, and so his life was rescued. And there are also many other accounts of such true speech in the Jatakas.
Likewise, there is the Aṅgulimāla-Sutta, which is the eighty-sixth sutra in the Middle-length Discourses of the Pali Canon. Aṅgulimāla was a fearsome bandit who had killed many people. His name means “finger necklace”, because he had cut off fingers from each of his victims and strung them as a garland that he wore around his neck. Later, he went for refuge to the Buddha, became the Buddha’s disciple, and actually achieved the result of arhatship. (In the Foundation Vehicle, the Karmapa recalled, arhatship is the highest result, just as achieving Buddhahood is in the Mahayana and Vajrayana.) After achieving arhatship, on one occasion he went to Śrāvastī (Pali: Sāvatthī), an important city in ancient central India, to beg for alms. And there he saw a woman who was in labour, but unable to give birth to the child, and therefore in great difficulty; and he felt incredible compassion for her. But he didn’t know what to do, so he immediately went back and consulted with the Buddha, who advised him to say to the woman, “From the time I have been born in a noble family,” (meaning, since achieving the result of arhatship,) “I have never knowingly taken the life of any sentient beings. If this is truth, then by this truth, may you be healthy.” Aṅgulimāla did as the Buddha instructed, and the woman immediately gave birth to the child. So, even someone who had been a really evil person, like Aṅgulimāla , had gone to the Buddha and been able to achieve arhatship; and having given up the taking of life, through the power of true words, gained the capacity to help others.
Now, the Aṅgulimāla-Sutta– does not actually use the term “true words” in this story. Nevertheless, the text called The Questions of King Milinda, already mentioned by the Karmapa, lists many different types of awareness mantras or protective mantras that Buddhists recited at the time (second or third century BCE), and amongst them, there is one called the Aṅgulimāla mantra. According to the latest scholarship, this can probably be identified as the one from the Aṅgulimāla-Sutta. If we look at the formal aspects, the external forms, we can see the similarity between the “true words” spoken in the Aṅgulimāla-Sutta and in the Jataka tales. Both use the term tena saccena (“by this truth”), so these can indeed be understood as instances of “true words”, of the power of speaking truly, present even in the Pali Canon.
However, things become less clear-cut when we look at alternate translations of these stories. In the Chinese version of the Connected Discourses, in the eighteenth fascicle of the text, there is a discussion on how Aṅgulimāla became a Buddhist. This includes no mention of his meeting and helping a woman in labour, after he achieved arhatship, by reciting true words. On the other hand, in the Chinese version of the Numerical Discourses, the thirty-first sutra is another Aṅgulimāla-Sūtra , and this one does include the following speech: “From the time I was born in the noble family, I have not taken life again. By these words spoken genuinely from the bottom of my heart, may the baby be freed from the womb.” This indicates this is an instance of “true words”, even though the term “true words” is not actually used in the sutra. Likewise, other translations of the Aṅgulimāla-Sūtra , including The Words of the Buddha: The Sutra of Aṅgulimāla, also include the story. The Karmapa noted that in the alternate translation of the Angulimala Sutra it says, “spoken from my heart with no falsehood”, whereas in The Words of the Buddha: The Sutra of Aṅgulimāla, it says “words from my heart”. In any case, all these versions of the sutra accept that there is a particular power to speaking true words, or to the mantras of true words.
A third example of the utterance of “true words” is found in the Mahāvastu-Sūtra, probably a Mahīśāsaka text, parts of which are also in the Pali Canon. In this one, in the story called the Kinnarī-Jātaka (a Kinnara (feminine: Kinnarī) is a type of spirit, part human and part bird), one does find the actual term “true words” being used. The story relates how the daughter of the King of Kinnaras, King Druma, was captured by a hunter but escaped by the power of true words. Likewise, there’s also the Śyāmāka-Jātaka which tells the story of how, when Śyāmāka was struck by a poison arrow, his father recited true words, and by their power, the poison was neutralised. This story, too, actually uses the term “true words”. And so, we can see that even the Mahīśāsaka school accepted the use of true words.
True words in the Mahayana
Up to this point, the Karmapa had focused on the use of “true words” in the Foundation Vehicle, particularly in the Pali scriptures. He proposed to examine, next, their spread and use in Mahayana Buddhism.
An example of this occurs at the end of the Prajñāpāramitā in 8000 Lines, in a story about the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita (“Ever-Weeping”). Seeking the dharma of transcendent prajña, he went to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata; and thinking that he needed to make an offering in order to receive the teachings, he thought he should sell his own body. The king of the gods, Śakra, understanding Sadāprarudita’s intentions and wishing to test his resolve, emanated himself in the form of a young man and said, “Please give me your heart, and your blood, and some of your bone marrow.” And so, the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita took a sharp knife, cut his arm, and drew some blood; he cut some flesh from his thigh; and he broke one of his bones, and was about to take the marrow out of that. Śakrawas amazed at Sadāprarudita’s incredibly firm resolve, and he immediately cast off the form of a young man, showed himself in his own divine form, and promised to give Sadāprarudita whatever things he wished. In order to heal his wounds, Sadāprarudita recited these true words: “By the power of the truth of theTathāgata, of all the Buddhas predicting that I would never be turned back and I would definitely achieve Buddhahood, and knowing that my altruism is unshakable, if what I am saying is true, then by the power of that truth, may my body be just as it was before.” And this is also called an empowerment of the blessing of true speech (Skt: satya-adhiṣṭhāna).
The Karmapa remarked, however, that there are several Chinese translations of the Prajñāpāramitā in 8000 Lines, and that these “true words” do not appear in all of them; for instance, they are not in the oldest translation, made by Lokakṣema, and neither in the Shorter Chapters on Prajñāpāramitā translated by Kumārajīva, in ten fascicles. On the other hand, they are in the surviving Sanskrit manuscript of the Prajñāpāramitā in 8000 Lines, and in the Tibetan translation. Then, there’s also the Chinese translation of the Treasury of the Three Dharmas Born of the Victor’s Mother: the Sutra of Prajñāpāramitā, with over 20 chapters. There, one finds the term, “the power of true words”. As for the other word for “blessings”, adhiṣṭhāna, , that appears in the Prajñāpāramitā in 8000 Lines, this is a very important word in Secret Mantra.
Secrets of body, speech and mind
In summary, within the Mahayana, there are the protective mantras, the paritta, and there are the awareness or vidyā mantras, and both of these are able to affect, or to exert some power over, other beings. However, “true words” were thought to be able to exert an even stronger and more immediate capacity, to have a much greater power than either the protective mantras or the awareness mantras. So, in terms of elements of Early Buddhism that are related to Secret Mantra, awareness or vidyā mantras were not completely forbidden; there were a few that were allowed, and particularly, the protective mantras to protect oneself, and the power of true words, were allowed. And this was the case whether in the Foundation Vehicle or in the Mahayana.
Furthermore, when one thinks about the word vidyā, awareness, and the Buddha’s clear realisation and clear wisdom, there’s a connection between them, as the Karmapa recalled discussing in an earlier teaching. Awareness mantras, protective mantras and true words, all of these are considered to be among the three secrets of body, speech, and mind: namely, they are considered to be secrets of speech. This can be understood in the sense of the hidden capacities of our speech. We, as ordinary people, are not able to access this hidden power of speech, but it is there. And, in the Four Āgamas, not only are there these secrets of speech, there are also secret philosophies, secret thoughts that can be encountered.
This is akin to comparing the lives of ancient and modern people, and seeing how very different they are from each other. In our modern lifestyle, we have mobile phones, we have the internet, we have video screens… These are all things that the people of ancient times could hardly even conceive of. They would not have been able to imagine that we had this material and technological development. Even looking back to when we were all young, things like the internet were unavailable and unthinkable then. But, conversely, ancient people thought about the internal mind, and spoke about the benefits of the mind, in a way that may be hard to understand for us today. The level of people’s thinking was different; they had a secret world, a hidden world, that modern people, in turn, would not be able to conceive of. In brief, during the time of Early Buddhism, people lived in a world of mind where they were able to have conversations with the gods. Even in the Four Āgamas, there are many appearances of gods, such as Brahma and Indra.
There is one bodhisattva, in particular, who became very important in later Buddhism, and this is Vajrapāṇi. He is there in the Four Āgamas, and in the third sutra of the Long Discourses in the Pali Canon, called the Ambaṭṭha-Sutta. The story in the sutra tells of a young Brahmin named Ambaṭṭha, who was asked a question by the Buddha three times and which he never answered. The third time he did this, this yakṣa Vajrapāṇi (Pali: Vajirapāṇi)got angry. In the sutra, he’s described as a sort of bodyguard protecting the Buddha. So Vajrapāṇiappeared in the sky above Ambaṭṭha with a blazing iron club and said, “The Buddha asked you the question three times, if you aren’t going to answer it, then I’m going to strike your head with this, and split it into seven pieces!” So the young Brahmin went to refuge with the Buddha and said,
“Please protect me, please tell me your question once more, and I’ll immediately answer you.” In the Pali sutra, Vajrapāṇiis said to be ayakṣa (Pali: yakkha), but nothing else is said about him; whereas in the Mahayana, he became a very important bodhisattva, and in the Vajrayana, he is seen as the compiler of the Secret Mantra.
Similarly, there’s also the Tarka-Jvālā (Blaze of Reasoning) of Bhāvaviveka (c. 500-570 CE), in which it is mentioned that within the Mahāsāṃghika, there’s a particular school called the Haimavata school, and that their scriptures teach about Avalokiteshvara. We do not have their scriptures anymore, but they were extant at the time of Bhāvaviveka.
So, the Karmapa concluded, according to Bhāvaviveka, when one thinks about the secrets of the body, speech, and mind of the bodhisattvas, they are something that the shravakas, the arhats and pratyekabuddhas cannot understand; nor can they know anything about the qualities of Avalokiteshvara. Bhāvaviveka records the saying, “If you can only remember the name of Avalokiteshvara, this will protect all sentient beings.” He records this as being said to Ananda, and that the person who said it was the Buddha; after which, Ananda recited a stanza: “The Buddha is a great, powerful being, and I prostrate to Avalokiteshvara.” So here, in the scriptures of a sub-school of the Mahāsāṃghika school, we have a discussion of the seeds of the Mahayana, and particularly the Vajrayana, schools. Many of these seeds are found in the scriptures of Early Buddhism. And these are the areas that we have researched; there are probably many other areas that we have not yet researched, where they might also turn up.
