ABSTRACT
The assumption of a clear or correct view (yang dag lta) is characteristic of the Great Vehicle. This view is that of the Madhyamika system (dbu ma). The principle of a correct view, implicitly contained in the Pharphyin (Prajnaparamita) scriptures, was placed by Nagarjuna at the centre of his doctrinal system. It states that all that can be thought and known is relative and 'void', is not Being-in-itself; this inability to qualify the apparent world is itself its transcendence. This certainty becomes an experience unfolded in five phases or 'paths ' : (1) The path of the 'accumulation of virtue' (tshogs lam), forming an indispensable preparation, the overcoming of the moral and intellectual defilements which are inborn in us and grow steadily in the course of our lives. A purifying ethical practice and intellectual understanding are required to counterbalance these defilements. (2) The phase of practice (sbyor lam), of the putting into practice of the truth postulated by the Mahayana , of reflection over the previous path and on the path to be entered upon in order to achieve Buddhahood, that final stage to
place within the individual himself and exclusively on the basis of his own powers and his own will, without any assistance from divine acts of grace. The literature concerning this process, and the actions prescribed within it, are surrounded by secrecy and closed to the non-initiate. There arises therefore the imperative need for an initiation, and of an overcoming through this initiation of inborn or acquired ignorance, of an ever more perfect conquest of every dichotomy. The Tantras, all the Tantras , offer their assistance in this process, thanks to a revelation of the Buddhas, transmitted through direct teaching from master to master. In schools of this kind extremely ancient mythical elements are called into service to indicate in symbolic form the various phases of the ascent; throughout the preparatory or liturgical procedure there occurs the momentary apotheosis of mystical states, or even of individual factors in the ritual. If we hold the opinion, on these and other grounds, that Tantrism can be considered as forming part of the gnostic movement, we are not in this way maintaining that it is a kind of offshoot of the gnostic currents of the West, although it is difficult to deny the possibility, even the fact, of mutual influence between Western and Eastern gnosticism. Essentially it is a question rather of homologous attitudes, of the effort, in both East and West, to substitute a lived experience of salvation for purely rational processes, to transcend the spatio-temporal experience through a flight into absolute space, and absolute time, an ex-cessus mentis into the indefinable 'Void' which contains all. It should however be born in mind too that the content of the Tantra has by no means been exhausted by what has been said. There are also purely magical elements to be found in the Tantra, as in much Western gnosticism also (e.g. Pistis sophia), elements that indicate the close links between Tantr ism on the one side, and popular traditions uninfluenced by orthodox theological schools on the other side. Such aspirations have been particularly active at times of political and social crises, at times of breakdown of traditional values, when the longing in men for contact with the divine and for faster paths to salvation becomes manifest. The Tant ras of the 'superior class' are above all addressed to men in whom non-religious impulses, especially those of a sexual nature, are at their most powerful. These practices have the goal of bringing about a 'transfer' of emotions, of becoming free of passion through passion, through a psychological technique anticipating the latest achievements of psychoanalysis. The ordinary man is born from desire ('dodchags) and bound to desire, yet desire can become a means to liberation. With the help of the Tantra the passions can be changed into forces assisting in the work of salvation (No.101, p. 13b).
