Shamanism and Tantrism

[Guest guest]

One common practice round the globe is that of sacrifice. Probably there has been no civilisation without the practice of even the human slaughter. Could anyone comment about the purpose of this common practice? Sriharsha. S|.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.||.~''~.|I am an angel; the horns are just to keep the halo

straight.kishore patnaik <kishorepatnaik09 ; Benjamin Fleming <dontread13; indiaarchaeology <IndiaArchaeology >Saturday, 27 December, 2008 4:07:53 PM Shamanism

and Tantrism

 

It is possible that Tantrism, since it is so widely accepted, may originate in a shamanic past and that it may have the ability to incorporate and to influence shamanistic beliefs and practices. Similarities between Tantrism and Shamanism can be found in the area of possession, ritual performance and the local and secret nature of the transmissions.

 

Tantrism, is a stage in the history of all the great Indian religions.- Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The oldest texts in which Tantrism is reflected may be dated to the Seventh century as per the standard chronologies. In any case, it is accepted that the roots of Tantrism extend to much earlier periods, in fact into obscure past. This obscurity and the complex character of its beliefs and practices still make Tantrism controversial in the scholarly world. Few of the basic and central Tantric texts are available in critical editions, and even fewer can be read in acceptable Western or vernacular translations. The interest in Tantric research is , however, growing and contemporary scholarship has produced important results in the fields of , for instance, Tibetan and Kashmiri Tantrism. Some of these results reveal that Tantrism

is an even more diversified tradition than had been earlier thought but on the other hand, they also establish a chronology according to which the Buddhist Tantras are seen to be later than and dependent on Hindu Tantras.

 

 

Origins, Beliefs and Practices

 

The features of magic, sexual practices, the caring of repulsive or otherwise forbidden substances, and ecstasy , to mention a few of the elements in mature Tantrism , seemed to earlier researchers difficult to connect to earlier phases of Hinduism. Thus, Tantrism's origin in tribal countries within or outside Hindu India was brought for discussion. The Himalayan area, especially the lands of Tibet, and even China, was considered a possible place of origin of Tantric practices. Later research, however, has often entered the possible root of Tantrism in ancient ascetic practices hinted at in Hindu and Buddhist texts. These practices, however obscure, probably began to a great extant in local cults, without a common ideology or terminology (but all probably to some extent shamanistic) and were normalized at a

later stage, "Sanskritized", and finally made parts of a greater tradition and provided with texts.

 

The development is thus from local ascetic and folk traditions of various kinds to a textual subsystem in the great tradition of Hinduism. Due to the lack of evidence, this process can not be traced in detail, but it seems that possession cults of a shamanistic nature, involving the ritual identification in one way or other of the practitioner with a divinity, were important element. This identification, ritual or psychological, was evidently seen as a pre requisite for the acquisition of the power to carry out, among other things, divination, curing and exorcism; at a later stage, this identification was seen as a prerequisite for attaining supreme union with the divinity. Scholars perceive that these sophisticated and advanced trends culminate in the latter development, in the 11thC. Kashmiri Saiva, Tantrism's radical monist speculation and

extremely rich symbolism using the human body, the nature of language and words, and the ritual process of recreating oneself and attaining absolute reality, the Siva.

 

There is now convincing evidence of the primary of Hindu Tantrism, from which much of Buddhist Tantrism can be derived. There is thus much in common between the two traditions In brief, Tantrism can be regarded as an aesthetic form of religion, one in which the participants use a symbolically rich dress, ritual instruments such as Yantras and mandalas, geometric patterns or schematic pictures of the palaces of gods and Buddhas, powerful letters and words (often not associated with legible meanings) and the like.

 

Using ritual, a master directs the adept through a series of initiations and empowerments, from a state of ignorance to ever deeper knowledge, understanding and realization. Central are visualization exercises during which deities are made present. In the process, the body of the adept loses its human significance and nature and become subtle and deified. Every stage in the ritual process leading up to the identification with the deity is symbolically emphasized in various ways. There is in the beginning of the process a stage usually called " the entry into the Mandala" which seems to involve a kind of possession experience during which the adept loses individual human conscious ness. This fits into the basic ideology of Tantrism, with the focus being on striving after the divine identity.

 

In addition to this often complicated ritualism and sophisticated psychology , other points of interest may be found. The Tantric traditions incorporate vast mythologies as well as extensive hagiographic literature. Here a rich corpus of legends and folklore is woven around famous Tantric Masters and illutstrates the ritual process and its parallel activities in the human mind. In these hagiographies, Buddhist and Hindu, the masters, accomplished magicians and perfected ones, naths and siddhas, demonstrate many abilities that may be called shamanic, such as ability to fly, to become invisible, and to contact supernatural beings, often female, in order to gain knowledge and receive initiations. These powers are often said to be gained after considerable difficulties, pain and suffering. Scholars interested in

comparative mythological or folkloristic motive studies will find here a rich field of research.

 

Hindu Tantrism and Shamanism

 

What has been mentioned above in a general description of the basic elements of Tantrism is of course true for Hindu Tantrism. In the ritual process, attention has been drawn especially to one moment, the so called "avesa" or the entering(into Mandala), also evident into Buddhist Tantras; what happens during this stage can be compared with Shamanistic possession. The term 'avesa' variously prefixed, is found carrying different meanings in Hindu texts from the Upanisadas and onwards. It also occurs in Kashmir Saiva texts, such as Malinivijayottara Tantra and the monumental exegetical commentary Tantraloka by the 11th C. sage Abhinavagupta. As has been seen, one of the basic purposes of Tantrism is the ritual and psychological transformation of the performer into the deity and the term 'avesa' denotes

this very process. Thus it can point to the deity's subtle penetration of the ritualist, as well as to the taking of possession of the ritualist at the initiatory entrance into the mandala. As with Shamanistic trance, the description of this experience in the texts makes it possible to interpret it as a possession in the psychological sense , as the adept is said to tremble, shake and lose consciousness.

 

The texts do not offer many explicit details, but it seems evident that what is found here is ritual possession, also found in other stages of the ritual, where the identification with the deity, leading to the acquisition of the divine power and ability , emphasized.

 

 

 

Buddhist Tantrism and Shamanism

 

Buddhist Tantrism is based on the same concepts and practices as Hindu Tantrism, and seems in fact to be derived from it. To ritually transform oneself by creating a subtle body, to visualize the deity, and then to become one with it is also here the central process. The avesa ritual is found also in Buddhist texts among which the Kalacakra Tantra commentaries, the Subahupariprccha Tantra and a few accounts of Tantric activities in Tang, China may be mentioned.

 

In one of the sub commentaries of Kalacakra corpus of texts, the sekoddesatika , we are offered a few details. The passage in question concerns the initiation or consecration , abhiseka. The initiation is carried out in the mandala., which is purified and protected from the demons. The purification also includes the candidate and all the other participants , as well as the ritual instruments. After the purification, the deities are invoked, and contact with them is established, just as a shaman enters trance , having been possessed by a local spirit. As the candidate is about to enter the mandala , the moment of Krodhavesa, " the entrance of Wrathful one" has occurred. A later Tibetan commentator explained this stage by saying that the candidate has to generate a Krodha or a wrathful god and get hold of its

identity. The text then says that the candidate will threaten the demons and evil forces with his body, dance even if he never has been able to do this before, and sing with sounds incomprehensible to men and other beings. He has acquired all the qualities of the god and has lost all sense of modesty and shame. Thus, the candidate behaves as he does because the deity has entered his body and is in control of his body and mind. Other texts mention that this possession is established for the purpose of prognostication. If the state of possession ceases by itself, the ritual goes on with further purifications, after which the candidate finally is led into the mandala. If the possession does not cease by itself, the master responsible for it stops it with appropriate mantras. Thus, the significance of

possession in Tantric rituals seems to be parallel with that of shamanism.

 

Interestingly enough, a ritual very similar to the one just described is carried out by contemporary Newar Buddhists in Nepal. As David Gellner(1992) reported, the participants , especially the women, are apt to tremble and shake, that is show signs of possession, when about to enter the mandala. This can be compared with other shamanistic performance practices of other Nepalese peoples.

 

Further details of the avesa ritual are given in some texts found in the Chinese Buddhist canon. A few of these texts are associated with the Indian Tantric masters Vajrabodhi and his disciple Amoghasiddhi, both active during the Tang dynasty. In the biography of Vajrabodhi, for instance, it is said that a princess was dying and lying unconscious. The Tantric master chose two young girls, wrapped their faces with red silk, and had them laid out on the ground. Vajrabodhi then entered into Samadhi, a state of concentration attained through meditation) and sent the two girls to Yama, the lordof the Land of the Dead, who allowed the princess's spirit to return for a short while; thus Vajrabodhi used his power to accomplish something similar to what a Siberian shaman accomplished by his own descent to the Underworld. In other episodes, the Tantric master used children in a

similar way. They had to be young, preferably seven or eight years old, without any marks on their face, perfect physically and mentally. After fasting, the child was placed on a platform, and its eyes were covered while mantras were recited. Then the child started to shake, which is the sign of possession , and those present could start to ask the deity questions concerning their future and otherwise hidden things.

 

In the process described above, it seems that the Tantric master first identified himself with the deity, thus aquiring the power to invoke other gods and make them take possession of the children, in order to answer the questions. This model, a master controlling his spirit mediums, has molded segments of Chinese shamanistic fold religions and Daoism.

 

The beliefs and rituals of dpabos of Tibetan Shamanism have a number of features that are derived from Tantric Buddhism. The beliefs of the spirit mediums that the human body contains "channels" along which the consciousness can leave the body and gods enter and take possession, that the spirit mediums carry a crown almost exactly like the one used by the Tantric practitioners, and that the mediums , just like the Tantrics , have a close relationship with female supernatural beings, who protect then during their séances, and who teach them inspire them – they are alike between shamanism and Buddhist Tantraism.

 

Similarities also exist between the Tantric visualizations of the deities and the spirit mediums ' visions of their gods.

 

Final Remarks

 

Possession involving exorcism and divinations are features of Tantrism. The term for possession , avesa , covers a range of meanings, from possession in the psychological sense to the subtle and mystic union or merging with the supreme reality. There are scholars who see the Tantric identification with the god as having its roots in older possession cults, while others see Tantrism as a sort of hiding place fo heterodoxy and alien practices entering at later stages. Thus Buddhism, which otherwise stresses meditation and calming of the mind, is according to this view still able to offer shelter to possession and similar phenomena. According to a third view, the meeting of Indian Buddhism with Tibetan and Chinese culture led to syncretism and absorption of local ritual practices, sometimes of a

shamanistic nature. No final answer can be given as to the what it exactly correct but only we can conclude that it seems probable that what has happened has been a combination of all these processes.

 

 

 

 

Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Invite them now.