PRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor TITLES IN THE SERIES Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Religions of India in Practice Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism in Practice BUDDHISM IN PRACTICE Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor WM PRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY X contents 20. A Prophecy of the Death of the Dharma ■ Jan Nattier 249 21. The Book of Resolving Doubts Concerning the Semblance Dharma • Kyoko Tokuno 257 22. A Heretical Chinese Buddhist Text • Jamie Hubbard 212 23. Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra • John Newman 284 24. Atisa's A Lamp for the Path to Awakening • Ronald M. Davidson 290 25. The Advice to Layman Tundila • Charles Hallisey 302 26. The Legend of the Iron Stupa ■ Charles Orzech 314 27. Two Tantric Meditations: Visualizing the Deity • Luis 0. Gomez 318 28. The Story of the Horn Blowing • Todd T. Lewis 328 29. A Summary of the Seven Books of the Abhidhamma • Donald K. Swearer 336 30. On Becoming a Buddhist Wizard • Patrick Pranke 343 31. Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China • Daniel B. Stevenson 359 32. Aryadeva and Candrakirti on Self and Selfishness • Karen Lang 380 33. A Modem Sermon on Merit Making • Donald K. Swearer 399 34. Saramati's Entering into the Great Vehicle ■ Ronald M. Davidson 402 35. Auspicious Things • Charles Hallisey 412 36. Tales of the Lotus Sutra • Daniel B. Stevenson 427 Sarigha 37. Daily Life in the Assembly • T. Griffith Foulk 455 38. Deaths, Funerals, and the Division of Property in a Monastic Code • Gregory Schopen 473 39. A Rite for Restoring the Bodhisattva and Tantric Vows • Donald S. Lopez, Jr. 503 40. Awakening Stories of Zen Buddhist Women • Sallie King 513 41. The Chinese Life of Nagarjuna • Roger Corless 525 42. Atisa's Journey to Sumatra • Hubert Decker 532 43. Bimba's Lament • Donald K. Swearer 541 44. Hagiographies of the Korean Monk Wonhyo • Robert E. Buswell, Jr. 553 45. The Illustrated Biography of Ippen • Dennis Hirota 563 46. Account of the Buddhist Thaumaturge Baozhi • Alan J. Berkowitz 578 47. Buddhist Chaplains in the Field of Battle • Sybil Thornton 586 48. Death-Bed Testimonials of the Pure Land Faithful • Daniel B. Stevenson 592 Index 603 23 Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra John Newman The Wheel of Time Tantra (Kalacakra-tantra) was the last Buddhist revelation produced in India. Although it draws on all the preceding developments of Indian Buddhism, the Wheel of Time is in many respects unique. Among the Wheel of Time's special features are its adaptation of a Hindu myth as part of its strategy of self-legitimation, and its emphasis on the ancient theory of the identity of the macrocosm (the universe) and the microcosm (the individual human being). Both of these elements play a role in the eschatology—the account of the end of time— of the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time Tantra originated in north India early in the eleventh century c.e., at a time when Buddhism was subject to two significant threats. On the one hand, Buddhism was gradually losing its ongoing competition with Hinduism for allegiance and support. On the other hand, the. early eleventh century saw the first major incursion of Islam, a religious and political force that eventually hastened the demise of Buddhism in northern India. The eschatology of the Wheel of Time reflects these historical circumstances: it presents a prophetic vision in which Buddhism, allied with a subordinated Hinduism, triumphs over the "barbarian" religion of Islam in a final apocalyptic war. To understand the eschatology of the Wheel of Time we must first examine the earlier Hindu myth of Kalki. According to the devotees of Visnu, this god manifests on earth in the form of ten sequential incarnations, nine of which have already appeared. It is prophesied that the future tenth incarnation of Visnu, Kalki, will appear at the end of the current age of decadence, when conditions have reached their very nadir. Humans will degenerate into a state of barbarism in which greed and malice will control every action; the basest forms of self-gratification will replace virtue and morality. Worst of all from the point of view of the followers of Visnu, the caste system will be violated, and outcastes will subjugate and oppress the brahmans. At the end of the cosmic cycle, when evil has almost entirely eclipsed good, the brahman warrior Kalki will be born in the village of Sambhala. Leading an army of brahmans, Kalki will annihilate the out- wheel of time tantra 285 castes and barbarians, establishing a new golden age of righteousness, prosperity, and social order. The Wheel of Time Tantra borrowed the Hindu myth of Kalki and adapted it to current religious and political conditions. The Buddhist refashioning of the prophetic myth says the Buddha taught the Wheel of Time Tantra to Sucandra, the bodhisattva emperor of the vast Central Asian empire of Sambhala. The eighth successor to the throne of Sambhala, Yasas, unified all of the brahman families of Sambhala within a single Buddhist Adamantine Vehicle clan. For this he was given the title Kalkin, which in the Buddhist myth means "chieftain." To this day the Kalkins of Sambhala reign in their Central Asian paradise on earth, preserving the Wheel of Time teachings from the forces of barbarism without. At the end of the current age of degeneration, when the barbarian Muslims have overrun the earth outside of Sambhala, the last Kalkin, Cakrin, will assemble a great army headed by the kings of Sambhala and the Hindu gods. Kalkin Cakrin and his army— elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry—will come out from Sambhala to eradicate the forces of Islam. After the great Armageddon, when the barbarian horde has been obliterated, Cakrin will return to Sambhala to initiate a new age of perfection. Buddhism will flourish, people will live long, happy lives, and righteousness will reign supreme. So much for the exoteric presentation of the Buddhist myth. The Wheel of Time explains that the external war with the barbarians is illusory; the Buddha taught it merely as a skillful means to attract the allegiance of Hindu brahmans. In fact, the external war will simply be a magical display Kalkin Cakrin will conjure up to overwhelm the arrogance of the Muslims: through meditative concentration he will radiate countless magic horses that will captivate the minds of the barbarians, causing them to convert to Buddhism. Furthermore, the actual war will not take place in the macrocosm—the outside world—it will occur within the microcosm—the body of the practitioner of the Wheel of Time Tantra. The real war is the struggle between the forces of enlightenment and ignorance that characterizes the path of the yogin, the tantric practitioner. When the yogin achieves adamantine gnosis, the transformative wisdom that is the goal of the Wheel of Time path, he or she overcomes the inner barbarism that creates the evils of existence. In this esoteric, allegorical interpretation of the myth, the war between Kalkin and Islam symbolizes the radical illumination of the yogin in which correct understanding of reality dispels the darkness of ignorance. Like many other prophetic, eschatological traditions, the Wheel of Time Tantra responded to contemporary religious, social, and political tensions by projecting them and their resolution onto an idealized future. The Buddhist author of the Wheel of Time was greatly troubled by the decline of Buddhism vis-a-vis Hinduism, and by the ominous appearance of marauding Muslim armies on the western borders of India. Earlier Buddhist eschatology (the prophecy of the future buddha Maitreya) provided no clear solution to these problems, so the Wheel of Time presented its own creative response. By adapting a Hindu myth to counter the threat of Islam, the Buddhists hoped to draw Hindus into the Buddhist camp 286 john newman to face a new common enemy. Whereas the Hindu myth of Kalki was devised to assert the caste privileges of the brahmans, the Buddhist myth attempted to unite all Indians against a foreign invader. Although this strategy met with no great success in India, the myth of the Kalkins of Sambhala lives on among the Tibetan and Mongol followers of the Wheel of Time. The exoteric myth of a Buddhist holy war against Islam may be powerful propaganda, but it creates tension within the Buddhist tradition itself. Buddhism is perhaps best known for its adherence to the principle of nonviolence, and Kalkin Cakrin's annihilation of the Muslim barbarians appears directly to contradict this. The conflict is resolved in two ways. The violent war, which the Wheel of Time Tantra first describes in glorious terms, is later explained to be mere illusion, a mere magical show the Kalkin emanates to convert, not destroy, the Muslims. Furthermore, the entire myth of the external war is interpreted as allegory: the Wheel of Time yogin understands the esoteric interpretation, that the myth of the apocalyptic war in reality symbolizes the victory of gnosis over spiritual nescience. The Wheel of Time Tantra shares a sophisticated theory of scriptural interpretation with Buddhism as a whole. Buddhists produced erstwhile utterances of the Buddha throughout the entire history of Indian Buddhism, but for the most part they debated the interpretation of scripture rather than its authenticity. The Wheel of Time Tantra pushed the limits of this openness through the wholesale borrowing of Hindu myth and imagery. Although this overt syncretism met with some resistance, in the end its power as myth and mysticism gave rise to a rich tradition that continues to this day. The Sri Kalacakra-tantra ("Splendid Wheel of Time Tantra") is the main textual source for the Wheel of Time system. Although Western scholars believe this tantra was composed long after the lifetime of the historical Buddha, the Wheel of Time tradition considers it a discourse the Buddha delivered to King Sucandra of Sambhala. The following translation consists of two excerpts, one from the first chapter (verses 1.154-65) and one from the second (verses 11.48-50). In the first excerpt the Buddha prophesies the exoteric eschatology, the external war in the macrocosm, and in the second he provides an esoteric interpretation that treats the war as an allegory for the inner yogic path. A brief overview of these passages will help the reader to follow the translation. Sn Kalacakra 1.154 foretells the succession of teachers of the "barbarian" religion, that is, Islam, and demonizes the Judeo-Christian-Islamic prophetic lineage. Elsewhere in the Wheel of Time texts Muhammad is singled out as the most important of the barbarian teachers, and al-Rahman (a name of Allah) is noted as their demonic deity. Verse 1.155 describes the alleged culinary habits of the barbarians in terms certain to disgust Indians observing brahmanical dietary restrictions. Verse 1.156 glorifies the power and omniscience of the Buddha, implicitly supporting the authority of the present prophecy. Note that the Wheel of Time claims the enlightened mind of the Buddha to be the source of the Vedas, the foundational texts of Hinduism. Verses 1.157-60 prophesy the lineage of the Buddhist kings of Sambhala, beginning with King Sucandra. The eighth king, wheel of time tantra 287 Yasas, an emanation of the bodhisattva Manjusri, will become known as Kalkin for unifying the castes of Sambhala into a single clan. The twenty-fifth and last Kalkin, Cakrin, will be the agent of the Buddhist Armageddon. Verses 1.161-63 depict the great war at the end of the eon, in which the Hindu gods will help the Buddhist army of Cakrin to defeat the army of Islam. Verses 1.164-65 describe the dawning of the new age, in which Cakrin's sons Brahma and Suresa will reign over the northern and southern halves of the world. Sri Kalacakra 11.48-50 correlate the elements of the Wheel of Time eschatology with its yogic path of spiritual transformation. Kalkin Cakrin symbolizes the gnosis of adamantine mind produced at the culmination of the path; the four divisions of the Buddhist army represent the four attitudes basic to the Buddhist path; and so on. Each of these has its opposite symbolized by members of the Muslim force: Krnmati, leader of the barbarians, represents nonvirtuous karma; the barbarian army signifies the evil attitudes of Death; and so on. Verse 11.50 correlates the new age of perfection with the state of enlightenment produced by the path. Cakrin's sons Brahma and Suresa, emanations of the bodhisattvas Manjusri and Lokanatha (Avalokitesvara), symbolize menstrual blood and semen. In the tantric yoga of the Wheel of Time these basic components of the human body are transmuted to produce a new adamantine body. The translation is based on my unpublished edition of these excerpts, which draws on the following editions of the Sanskrit, several manuscripts, and the Tibetan translations. Several glosses included in my translation of Sri Kalacakra 11.48-50 are taken from the Vimalaprabha commentary. Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra, Kalacakra-tantra and Other Texts, Part 1. Sata-pitaka Series vol. 69 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1966); Biswanath Banerjee, A Critical Edition ojSri Kalacakratantra-raja (Collated with the Tibetan Version). Bibliotheca Indica Series no. 311 (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1985). Jagannatha Upadhyaya, Vimalaprabhaftka oj Kalki Sri Pundarika on Sri Laghukalacakratantraraja hy Sri Manjusriyasa vol. 1. Bibliotheca Indo-Tibetica Series no. 11. (Samath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1986). Further Reading See Geshe Lhundub Sopa, et al., The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1991); John R. Newman, "The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayana Buddhist Cosmology in the Kalacakra Tantra" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1987); Edwin Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1980); Glenn H. Mullin, The Practice oj Kalachakra (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1991); Tenzin Gyatso the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, The Kalachakra Tantra: Rite oj Initiation jor the State oj Generation, translated by Jeffrey Hopkins (London: Wisdom Publications, 1985). 288 john newman Wheel of Time Tantra (1.154) Adam, Noah, and Abraham—there will also be five others of darkness in the family of demonic snakes: Moses, Jesus, the White-Clad One, Muhammad, and Mathani, who is the eighth—he will be blind. The seventh, Muhammad, will clearly be born in the city of Baghdad in the land of Mecca, where the mighty, merciless idol of the barbarians, the demonic incarnation, lives in the world. (1.155) The barbarians kill camels, horses, and cattle, and briefly cook the flesh with blood. They cook beef and the fluid of the womb with butter and spice, and rice mixed with vegetables, all at once on the fire. Where men eat that with forest fruit, King Sucandra, where they drink bird eggs, that is the place of the demons. (1.156) The gnosis body of the conqueror Buddha manifests on earth in these moving forms: drop, power, magic eye ointment, divine eagle, river of the gods, sage Narada, wishing cow, fort, lightning, good science, unchanging supreme digit, divine language, and the incorporeal. It proclaims what was, what is, and what will be, and all the texts on the Vedas, philosophy, and so forth. (1.157) O glorious King Sucandra, Kalapa, capital of the renowned land Sam-bhala, surrounded by mountains, measures five hundred leagues. Soon you will establish your son Suresa as supreme king there, then you will return to your divine abode. There will be seven kings in the splendid Sakya line, and the eighth will be Sri Yasas. (1.158) He will be Sri Manjusri, saluted by the best gods, Kalkin through the adamantine lineage. He will give the adamantine initiation, and make all the brahman sages into a single clan. Elevated on the true vehicle, terrorizing the demons, Sri Yasas, with a short spear in his hand, will teach the Wheel of Time on earth for the liberation of sentient beings. (1.159) At the end of the age, among those Kalkins, at the end of twenty-five reigns, the wrathful Kalkin Cakrin, lord of the gods, honored by the best gods, will appear in the lineage of Kalkins. His peaceful form will delight the righteous; he will annihilate the race of barbarians. Cakrin, mounted on a mountain horse, a short spear in his hand, radiant as the sun, will strike all the foes. (1.160) When eight Kalkins have reigned, the barbarian religion will certainly appear in the land of Mecca. Then, at the time of the wrathful Kalkin Cakrin and the vicious barbarian lord, a fierce battle will occur on earth. (1.161) At the end of the age Cakrin, the universal emperor, will come out from Kalapa, the city the gods built on Mount Kailasa. He will attack the barbarians in battle with his four-division army. The Hindu gods Siva, Skanda, Ganesa, and Visnu will assist Kalkin, as will the mountain horses, elephant masters, kings in gold chariots, and armed warriors. (1.162) There will be ninety million dappled mountain horses swift as the wind, four hundred thousand elephants drunk with wine, five hundred thou- wheel of time tantra 289 sand chariots, six great armies, and ninety-six crowned kings. Kalkin, with Šiva and Visnu, will annihilate the barbarians with this army. (1.163) Ferocious warriors will strike the barbarian horde. Elephant lords will strike elephants; mountain horses will strike the horses of Sindh; kings will strike kings in equal and unequal combat. Hanúmán, son of Mahácan-dra, will strike Ašvatthaman with sharp weapons. Rudra will strike the protector of the barbarian lord, the master of all the demons. The wrathful Kalkin will strike Krnmati. (1.164) Kalkin, with Visnu and Siva, will destroy the barbarians in battle with his army. Then Cakrin will return to his home in Kalápa, the city the gods built on Mount Kailása. At that time everyone on earth will be fulfilled with religion, pleasure, and prosperity. Grain will grow in the wild, and trees will bow with everlasting fruit—these things will occur. (1.165) Fifty years after eliminating the barbarian horde, Kalkin will achieve spiritual fulfillment in Kalápa, the palace the gods built on the back of lofty Kailása. The sons of the guru of gods and men, Brahmá and Sureša, will promote the dharma. Brahmá will be king in the north; Sureša on the earth to the south. (11.48) Cakrin is adamantine mind in one's body; Kalkin is true gnosis. The Hindu gods are the cessation of the twelve factors of worldly existence. The elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers are the noble boundless attitudes: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Rudra is the gnosis of the individual realizer; Hanúmán is the gnosis of the disciple. The wicked barbarian lord is living beings' sin. Krnmati is the miserable path of nonvirtue. (11.49) Ašvatthaman is ignorance. The demon army is the fourfold host of Death: malice, ill will, jealousy, and attachment and aversion. Their defeat in battle is destruction of the terror of existence. Splendid victory is the path of liberation. The gift of dharma on Mount Kailása is elimination of the fear of existence. The earth filled with wealth is the purified collection of the body's elements. (11.50) Cakrin's sons—Brahmá and Sureša, to the north and south, Maňjušri and Lokanátha, conquerors of the three existences—are the splendid menses and semen that give bliss. The lineages of brahmans and so forth in back of the earth are the numerous pure buddhas. Thus, the war with the barbarian lord definitely occurs within a living being's body; but the illusory, external war with the barbarians in the land of Mecca is certainly not a war. This document was created with Win2PDF available at http://www.win2pdf.com. The unregistered version of Win2PDF is for evaluation or non-commercial use only.