The virile Virūpa

Virūpa served by the future Sukhasiddhi (detail HA101354) 

Virūpa is not only a key figure for Haṭhayoga, but also for Tibetan Buddhism in general, and the Sakya school in particular. What would remain of it without this legendary mahāsiddha, whose life we only know through hagiographies written during the Tibetan Renaissance[1]. According to these sources Virūpa would have lived in the 8th-9th century in India. Many Tibetan texts are attributed to him and many Tibetan transmissions owe him some kind of spiritual paternity, but only as the first human and Indian recipient of revelations received from a yoginī or a ḍākinī, not just any yoginī or ḍākinī, but from an esoteric Buddhist Vajraḍākinī[2] or Vajrayoginī. According to some academics (e.g. Miranda Shaw, Is Vajrayoginī a Feminist?[3]) as soon as the 7th-8th century. Tibet and Nepal had to wait until the 12th century, before any of these transmissions trickled through, or were processed in the workshops of the likes of the 3rd Sakya Trizin Sa chen kun dga' snying po[4] (1092-1158).

Nairātmyā and Virūpa

According to Tibetan traditions the Indian mahāsiddha Virūpa received instructions from Nairātmyā, various forms of Vajrayoginī and of King Indrabhūti’s sister Lakṣmīṅkārā. It is my hypothesis that most “Indian” transmissions have three steps: a tantric deity or yoginī instructs a mahāsiddha, who instructs an Indian or Tibetan, and from there may enter history if there are no other hagiographic gimmicks at play. Tibetan texts may also be attributed to known Tibetan translators, reputed for having traveled to India and Nepal and met with Indian teachers. Hagiographies present Virūpa as a practitioner of the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, who only later (at 70 years old) was brought into contact with the Hevajra Tantra through Nairātmyā, a “Vajrayoginī” who is Hevajra’s consort.

Indrabhūti with Lakṣmīkarā on the lap and Virūpa to his back to the left and,
possibly Padampa Sangye to the right (Wanla Interior Christian Luczantis)

This could be another hagiographic gimmick required because the main tantras had already been taught, commented etc., and amendments and additions are only possible through aural lineages, in which celestial messengers (ḍākinī, yoginī, khecarī) can instruct preferably Indian siddhas and mahāsiddhas, because of the required Indian pedigree for gsar-ma canonical textes. Once a transmission received and passed on by Virūpa was accepted, other transmissions using the same procedure became possible. For a fully canonical text, tantra or treaty, the mention of an Indian teacher, an Indian paṇḍit and a Tibetan translator were required. Later on, aural transmissions and revelations (gter ma) were another possibility.

The Vajrayoginī Chinnamasta transmission (HA7597)
is said to have its origin in Lakṣmīṅkārā, passing through Virūpa 

When new, often non-Buddhist, materials appeared in Nepal or elsewhere on the silk road, and were of interest to Tibetan Buddhists, they may have been integrated in this way into Tibetan canonical literature. I am merely speculating. It seems that for śaktī material related to Mother tantras, Virūpa was the ideal Indian mahāsiddha for it to make it enter Tibetan transmissions, through often already established Tibetan figures, both real or fictional, with a hagiographical pedigree. Any śaktī material would be passed on through Virūpa who himself received it from a “Vajrayoginī”. E.g. Nairātmyā for śaktī material related to the Hevajra Tantra, Vajravārāhī for the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, Lakṣmīṅkārā for the Guhyasamāja. This is the gist, I am still speculating here.

I don’t think Tantrism, Buddhist or other, was “feminist” or concerned with including women and giving them a place in their hierarchy other than as a hierarch’s wife or consort. Tantrism is a symbolic world, where everything points to something else, and a “few good men” were in charge.

In theories of matter and form a woman is the “animated” property of a man (father, husband, a son or the king for widows), it is a man who “determines” a woman[5], who (as “undetermined matter”) has no determination of herself and receives it from a man. E.g. Mrs. John Smith.

“Aristotle (and legions after him) believed that things are unions of matter and form. In the case of animals, the four elements in combination (matter) are shaped by form, which governs both the purposeful configuration of things and their growth, and is related to soul, which in its turn is related to pneuma or "breath," a principle of life and movement. This fifth higher element, this quintessence, is related to the heavenly bodies, to their light, and to their perfect movement. This pneumatic spark of life, Aristotle believed, is carried and transmitted by semen. Men thus represent the immediate contact of heaven and earth. Women are at one remove from that contact. Men are associated with the two higher elements -air, which is closer to the heavens, and fire, which tries to reach the heavens. Women, by contrast, are associated with the lower elements of water and earth. It is for this reason that women are by nature colder than men, says Aristotle, and because of this coldness women are unable to convert blood into semen. This is Aristotle's explanation of menstruation. The monthly failure to convert blood into semen is, according to Aristotle, systematically related to other relative imperfections in female nature --passivity chief among them-- and it was possible for Aristotle to formulate the idea, which has had a long historical life of its own, that the female is an incomplete or mutilated male[6]....” David Summers, "Form and Gender," New Literary History, 1993, 24: 243-271), p. 254.

In the Ayurveda theory of the seven bodily constituents (saptadhātu), there is a gradual refinement of the constituents : rasa or lasikā (plasma), rakta (blood), māṃsa (muscular tissue), meda or vasā (fat tissue), asthi (bone), majjā (bone marrow), śukra (reproductive tissues). This may give rise to ideas like those spread by Sri Swami Sivananda (in Practice of Brahmacharya 1934). Confused ideas or perhaps not…

“My dear brothers! The vital energy, the Veerya [vīrya] that supports your life, which is the Prana of Pranas, which shines in your sparkling eyes, which beams in your shining cheeks, is a great treasure for you. Remember this point well. Veerya is the quintessence of blood. One drop of semen is manufactured out of forty drops of blood. Mark here how valuable this fluid is!”

Tibetan medicine, like Ayurveda, aims to refine and purify ojas (t. mdangs) for rejuvenation (rasāyana t. bcud len). In Tibetan Buddhism, bodhicitta is another word for bindu (t. thig le) or semen (bīja, vīrya). According to the refinement theory, lymph is the gross form of “seed-essence”, as Keith Dowman translates bindu, and “purified 'semen' is Awareness” (jñāna, t. ye shes)”[7].

"The nutrition extracted from food in the stomach passes through the "vein which seizes the distilled essence" to the liver, where it is assimilated by bile, phlegm and air (the three humours). Refined nutrition forms blood, and refined blood forms flesh while the unrefined blood forms bile. Refined flesh forms fat, and unrefined flesh is excreted through the nine orifices. The distilled essence of fat forms bones, and unrefined fat forms grease and sweat. Refined bone forms marrow, and unrefined bone forms nails, teeth and hair. Refined marrow forms semen or menstrual blood (conceived as female creative seed), while the unrefined marrow forms the flesh around the anus. Refined semen is stored in the heart centre as "radiance", which produces long-life and gives a shine to the complexion.”

“The refined semen in the heart centre permeates the body as Awareness; "heart centre" is here a metaphor for the all-pervasive sphere of essential being (dharmakaya).” Sky Dancer, p. 247

For rejuvenation purposes, the objective is to fill the whole body with Awareness, i.e. refined semen, bodhicitta. Hagiographies sometimes specify that when cutting the body of a realised yogi, not blood but white bodhicitta is seen to be flowing in his veins. Should we “reinterpret” (recycle) this sort of refinement theory? Could we? June Campbell in Traveller in Space (p. 116-117) is very specific about this[8].

“In anuyoga, though not in Dzokchen atiyoga, loss of semen is equated with killing a Buddha. Semen, seed-essence and bodhicitta are synonymous.” Keith Dowman, Sky Dancer, p. 247

If loss of semen is equated with killing a Buddha, is loss of menstrual blood also?

For a Śaiva/kaula take on this, Lilian Silburn writes in Kundalini , The Energy of the Depths[9]:

“As a conscious energy, Kuṇḍalinī is at the source of the two currents that govern life: prāṇa, vital energy, and vīrya, virile potency, in the broad sense of the word. The former term denotes essentially the expanding aspect of energy, the latter its adamantine intensity. They are the two manifestations of the inmost vitality (ojas), from which they emerge until they blend into one energy of unique flavor (sāmarasya)—the bliss born from the merging of instinctual life with the inner mystical life. Thus vīrya, effective power, includes all forms of efficience and inspires every kind of fervor, whether of lovers, of artists or of the mystic.

This Kuṇḍalinī yoga, therefore, is the ultimate achievement on the path of energy, a higher path, complete in itself, advocated by the Kula system; but since it involves the body, it is also related to the lower path, known as the individual path. Since tantric practices aim at awakening and controlling Kuṇḍalinī, it is not possible to grasp the true meaning of Tantrism without a real knowledge of Kuṇḍalinī.[10]”

Lilian Silburn makes more sense, but still what are we to do with this notion of “vīrya” in the broad sense of the word? “Adamantine intensity”, “effective power”, agency as the opposite of passivity, “Awareness”, why the connection with “virile potency”? And what do ḍākinīs have to do with that? In Virūpa’s Amṛtasiddhi, similar ideas about “form and matter” can be found. I don’t say it’s the same, but when this sort of imagery is at the foundation of an ideology, how could it not go wrong, from a liberal modern point of view of course?

Semen (bindu), male (bīja) and female (rajas), is moved by pneuma (prāṇa), joined at heart level, projected by pneuma (prāṇa), thus piercing the four elements, moves into space (brahmā) via the central channel, and leaving the body through the Brāhma aperture. For Tibetan Buddhism, this solution was very welcome but too basic, too ascetic, too much like “yogic suicide” (utkrānti) into “mere emptiness”, without any interest for eternal symbolic Tantric (after)worlds, where ḍākinīs, yoginīs and khecarīs had the mission to receive a Heroe’s (vīra) or yogi’s bindu and to carry it to a Tantric pure land (khecara), where it could manifest as a siddha or vidyādhara.

Virūpa is also considered to have played a major role in approaching the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra and the Hevajra Tantra through the development of the Sampuṭa Tantra. Sampuṭa is a alchemical term (“a sealed crucible[11]”) found in Virūpa’s Amṛtasiddhi, and could represent the union of male bīja (white) and female rajas (red) into a bindu, over which a yogi is said to be able to have control of. In Virūpa’s Amṛtasiddhi to liberate the bindu. In Tibetan ‘Pho ba practice to transfer it to specific pure lands, directly or with a ḍākinī serving as a vehicle, such as described in the 2nd Dalaï-lama’s work on Niguma’s tantric yogas[12]. One specific form of transference is the use of “mystical substances”, without the use of active pneumatic support.

“Should one wish to perform the transference in conjunction with the use of mystical substances, this is described in the oral tradition as follows:
One’s own and a female’s fluids
Lead energy and mind upward.
Salt opens the mouth of the channel
And brain guards against hindrances.

As indicated here, one takes a small quantity of each of these substances, places them in one’s palm and recites many mantras. The substance is then applied to the Brahma aperture. This has been taught by the gurus of old. This method is known as ‘transference by the power of intention’. In it there is no need for transference by the power of the airs.”[13]

For similar recipes, see the Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa from chapter 12 onwards. To me this is very telling of the “spiritual materialistic” ideology behind yogic practice in esoteric Buddhism. “One’s own” fluid is the male semen (bīja) and the “female’s fluid” is rajas. Not because the point of view of the author “happens to be” that of a male monk, but because this practice is meant for male yogis. Without male semen as one’s natural “mystical substance”, to which the “female’s fluid” is added, there would be no way for the mixture to work. It is not a question of simply interchanging the “mystical substances”, in case a dying female yogi would apply her own “determinable“ fluid (rajas) and a given male’s fluid (bīja) with the other “mystical substances”. It’s about “form and matter” ideology. A woman needs to be “reborn” as a man first to be able to have access to this sort of practice, and for it to succeed (allegedly). In this medieval sexist ideology there also is no room for adapting “sexual practice” into same-sex practice, etc., not because of any moral considerations, but simply because it is Amṛtasiddhi-technically not possible. If Amṛtasiddhi practice and its later derivations and integrations are the heart blood of Tibetan Buddhism, then there is no way out of this. It’s a fundamental part of it as “form and matter” ideology is also in other religions.

form - matter
heaven - earth
puruṣa - prakṛti
God - Nature
Śiva - śaktī/powers
male - female
lama - consort/mudrā/sang yum/ḍākinī, etc.

“As the “coupling pair” conceive of themselves as deities, sampuṭa can be regarded as a nondual, blissful awareness as expressed by the sexual union of Heruka (whether Saṃvara or Hevajra) and his consort. All these esoteric connotations, however, boil down to the union (sampuṭa) of emptiness (female) and compassion (male), or gnosis and skillful means. The cultivation of this nondual state (sampuṭa) is the central theme of the Father and Mother tantras, with the former laying the theoretical foundation for the processes that occur in the body by explaining the subtle body with its channels, winds, and drops, and the latter shifting the emphasis to consort practice with its powerful dynamic. Whatever the exact method, the result of this practice is the recognition of the ever-present (but mostly unrecognized), blissful, nondual wakefulness, in which emptiness and compassion are an indivisible unity.” Introduction to the 84000 translation of the Sampuṭa Tantra

Sampuṭa can be and is indeed often glossed like that, but from a Amṛtasiddhi point of view the fact remains that according to Virūpa’s widespread concrete ideology and methods,[14] mind (including reinterpreting) is not part of the solution[15], even when applied to constructive imagination (svādhiṣṭhanena yogena). This anti-intellectualist strand is still very widespread.

“(8.9) He who tries to control Mind by means of self-empowering yoga (svādhiṣṭhanena yogena) deludedly chews a rock and, thirsty, drinks the sky.
(8.10) He who has not attained the level of a Siddha, does not have the grace of a guru, does not have the innate capability of abiding by the Dharma agotraḥ) [and] is full of demerit will lead [his] Mind to emptiness [alone].”

Only pneuma (prāṇa) can control Bindu and lead to the full liberation of the yogi, or rather of his reunited “non-dual” essence, substantially speaking, with a different further use depending on the yogi’s inclination: “yogic suicide” or a khecara career. Because of haṭhayoga’s own principles, this can’t be reinterpreted on “mind” level, it’s not a question of understanding, knowing, or even “wakefulness”, but of simply doing. Or so I understand the core message of Virūpa’s Amṛtasiddhi… How to "reinterpret" the 2nd Dalaï-lama’s mystical recipe (see above) or those of the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra?...

As long as Tibetan Buddhism considers this sort of ideology and method as the nec plus ultra of Buddhism (more generally defined through its triple training - triśikṣa), and the only way to genuine liberation, it will indeed be difficult to be conciliatory. This strong belief seems to explain a lot to me about the current attitude of Tibetan hierarchs.

It has to be specified here that different forms of yoga may have a different ideology. Haṭhayoga gives priority to prāṇa, Rājayoga to mind, and Jñānayoga resorts to the intellect (buddhi) and will. They can even coexist. Similar approaches exist in Tibetan Buddhism, but it does still claim that only the highest practices of Vajrayāna lead to full Buddhahood or equivalent realisations. And in that case being a man is clearly and at the least an advantage.

***

[1] 950-1200 C.E., Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture, Ronald M. Davidson, Columbia University Press

[2] “Vajraḍākinī wrote instructions for visualizing Vagiśvara, a form of Mañjuśrī”. Shaw, p. 84
note 60: “ 'Phags pa 'jam dpal ngag gi rgyal po'i sgrub thabs, sDe-dge 3442. This form of Mañjuśrī is also known as Vāgrāja and Vādirāja”.

[3] "Is Vajrayogini a feminist? A Tantric Buddhist Case Study?" In Alf Hiltebeitel and Kathleen M. Erndl, Is the Goddess a Feminist? (2000), p. 167

[4] “Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, who had received (the whispered lineage of) Lamdre teachings from his Tibetan teacher, Zhangton Chobar, had also received Lamdre teachings directly from Mahasiddha Virupa in a pure vision. In Mahasiddha Virupa's lineage, the Hevajra Tantra is classified as Non-dual Tantra, and the only sole tradition* for Lamdre teachings is the Sakya tradition.” The Origin of the Hevajra Tantra,

[5] « Pour Thomas d'Aquin, les femmes n'ont guère de choix « existentiel» : elles doivent être « déterminées ou déterminables ». Aristote avait comparé la « femelle » à « la matière aspirant au mâle comme à une forme», c'est-à-dire à une détermination. Transposée sur un plan juridique, cette métaphore trouve sa conséquence ultime. Une femme est déterminée quand elle appartient à un homme dans un cadre légal, c'est-à-dire matrimonial (secundum legem matrimoni) ; elle est déterminable quand rien n'empêche qu'elle appartienne à quelqu'un. » Penser Au Moyen âge, Alain De Libera, Éditions Points, 1991. p. 207

[6] E.g. in the Generation of Animals (2.1.732a3-10) it is argued that in the formation of a fetus a man's semen imparts the superior form and a woman's menstrual fluid the inferior matter. Wikipedia

[7] Keith Dowman, Sky Dancer, The Secret Life & Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel, Snow Lion (1996), pp. 247-248

[8] “It seems unlikely that the crude equation of menstrual blood with semen in Tibetan texts was due to an ignorance of the facts of male and female physiology and sexuality, but in the medical texts which describe human physiology, it is written that ‘Refined marrow forms semen or menstrual blood (conceived as female creative seed)’,41 thus linking the two substances as parallel. Why the female creative seed should be equated with red menstrual blood, rather than the yellow corpus luteum of the ovum, which, as the carrier of the life force, would be the true equivalent of the semen, can only be supposed, but it is evident that the symbolism associated with the colours red and white, to represent the female and male respectively, is conveniently found in these two fluids. It is also apparent that the function of menstrual blood is confused by its association with procreativity and the sexual act, for as modern scientific investigation has shown, the ovum, if not fertilized, is destroyed long before the onset of menstruation, and therefore menstrual blood contains no ‘seed essence’ in the way semen can be said to. Indeed the most recent research points to the purpose of menstrual blood as being related to a protective mechanism in female physiology, to prevent infection by rogue sperm, rather than being simply the aftermath of ovulation, and unsuccessful fertilization, as has long been thought.” Traveller in Space, June Campbell

[9] Kundalini, The Energy of the Depths, A Comprehensive Study Based on the Scriptures of Nondualistic Kasmir Saivism.

[10] « L'éveil de la kuṇḍalinī est, en quelque sorte, l'éveil de l'énergie cosmique qui gît, latente, en chaque être humain, une telle énergie étant à la source de tous les pouvoirs, de toute la force, de toutes les formes de vie dont il est capable. (...) Energie consciente, la kuṇḍalinī est à l'origine des deux courants qui régissent la vie : prāṇa, énergie vitale, et vīrya, efficience virile au sens large, le premier mettant l'accent sur l'aspect épanoui de l'énergie et le second sur son intensité adamantine. Ce sont les deux manifestations de la vitalité profonde (ojas) dont ils émanent avant de se fondre en une seule énergie à saveur unique (sāmarasya), béatitude propre à la fusion de la vie de l'instinct et de la vie intérieure et mystique. » Lilian Silburn, La Kuṇḍalinī ou l'Énergie des profondeurs : étude d'ensemble d'après les textes du Śivaïsme non dualiste du Kaśmir, Paris, les Deux Océans, 1983, p. 17.

[11] “Sealed fire-resistant pot containing mercury and other reagents.” “Process of stabilising mercury to resist heat; result of heating mercury with gold or silver to form a solid ball.”

[12] Zab lam ni gu'i chos drug gi khrid yig ye shes mkha' 'gro'i zhal gyi lung, translated into English by Glenn Mullin in Selected Works of the Dalai Lama II, The Tantric Yogas of Sister Niguma, Snow Lion (1985).

[13] The Tantric Yogas of Sister Niguma, p. 146

[14] “The essence of the body is Bindu, semen. Death comes about by the fall of Bindu, life by its preservation. Control of Bindu brings about all supernatural powers and liberation. Bindu is of two kinds. The lunar kind, called Bindu, is situated at the top of the central channel; the solar kind, called Rajas, is at its bottom. The best yoga is joining the two of them in the head. Bindu, breath and the mind are all connected: controlling one controls the other two (ch.7). The mind presides over the body. Despite what is taught elsewhere, the mind cannot be controlled by the mind, but only by the breath (ch.8). Prakṛti manifests in the body as mental and physical disturbances, the latter as the three Doṣas (Pitta, Kapha and Vāta), and must be destroyed (ch.9).

The Guṇas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) arise from Prakṛti. Rajas and Tamas must be destroyed; there is a special Mudrā for doing so (ch.10).” The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: the Earliest Texts of the Haṭhayoga Tradition. Critically Edited and Translated by James Mallinson and Péter-Dániel Szántó. Introduction.

[15] “(8.11) In the same way that fire is not conquered by fire, nor air by air, nor water by water, Mind [is not conquered] by Mind.”