ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to treats the sadhana formula in a more generalized form, together with its symbolic values, and signals the non-tantric Buddhist progression which the Tantras claim to quicken. It explains a comparison of Manjusri’s arrows with Kamadeva’s arrow attack on Siva, leading to a comparison of the Greco-Roman tradition with the skandha-centers of the body. It has been a special pleasure for the writer to weave together the above materials, casting some light on Tantric sadhana, indicating also some of the non-tantric background of Buddhist tantric ideas—and generally certifying Tson-kha-pa’s tantric reform that requires non-tantric Buddhism as the indispensable preparation for the Tantras. A preeminate sadhana sequence in the Buddhist Tantras, occurring innumerable times in the Sadhana-mala and similar literature, is the order realization of the void, imagining there a germ syllable, from that generating a hand symbol—the emblem of the deity, and from that accomplishing the body of the deity.