INITIATION

Initiation (or "consecration" in tantric Buddhism) brought a candidate into the ma??ala of buddha families and, most frequently, authorized the individual to visualize himself or herself as some form of a buddha or bodhisattva. Only partly similar to initiation rituals in the Mediterranean mystery religions, Buddhist initiation was initially patterned on political rites of coronation that had been developed in the early medieval period of India (ca. 500–1200 c.e.). As such, the individual was consecrated or anointed with water at a specific moment in the ceremony; the ritual derived its name, abhi?eka, from this process of anointing (Öabhi?ic means "to asperse"). The term abhi?eka also denotes rituals employed in the bathing of images, such as pouring fragrant water on a Buddha statue during the Buddha's birthday celebrations, and the cleansing aspect of the consecration ritual was never entirely lost.

Buddhists had consistently relied on formal rites of passage, whether those of taking refuge (?ara?agamana) for the laity, or lower and higher ordination (pravrajy? and upasampad?) for monks and nuns. Mah?y?nist authors had developed a new ceremony for the assumption of the bodhisattva vow and had eventually termed it "bodhisattva ordination" (bodhisattva-upasampad?). The idea of royal consecration, however, was first applied to the bodhisattva Maitreya, who was said to be the crown prince (yuvar?ja) of the dharma, as the successor to ??kyamuni Buddha, who was denoted the king of the dharma. Thus, consecration indicated a political metaphor, which assumed a position of increasing importance during the fifth-and sixth-century transition between the classical Gupta and the early medieval period of India. As Mah?y?na developed this metaphor, a mythic rite of consecration became applied to all bodhisattvas who reached the tenth stage of the Mah?y?na path, so that the bodhisattva at the tenth stage became consecrated (abhi?ikta) in the heavenly realm of Akani?t?a by all the buddhas.

With tantric Buddhism, the initiation rite went from a narrative applied to exalted bodhisattvas to a new rite of passage indicating the entrance into a new vehicle, the vehicle of mantras, or the adamantine vehicle (Vajray?na). Initiation into this vehicle, employing the imperial metaphor, meant that the candidate was consecrated as the head of a ritual family (kula) through a Buddhist form of the medieval Indian coronation ritual. While details vary between texts and lineages, by the eighth century the normative initiation ritual involved a day of preparation and a day of consecration. The preparatory day was devoted to the consecration of the site, which included a request for permission from the snake spirits and autochthonous gods to hold the ceremony. The preparatory day also included the performance of a fire ritual (homa) for the sake of purity and auspiciousness. After the ma??ala was constructed and consecrated by the master, the candidate would be prepared by some teaching. After being presented with a piece of kusha or other variety of grass, the candidate would be told to place the consecrated grass under the pillow and to remember whatever dreams might occur in the night. Auspicious dreams (e.g., a sunrise or a view from the pinnacle of a high mountain) would mean that the candidate was appropriate; conversely, inauspicious dreams (e.g., imprisonment or losing one's way in a unknown place) might convince the master than the candidate was inadequate to the task, and cause the consecration to be canceled or postponed.

On the day of the consecration, the candidate would be brought in, sometimes blindfolded, to relate the dreams. The blindfold or screen would then be removed and the mandala revealed. The master would then have the candidate throw a flower into the mandala to determine which of the five families (buddha, vajra, ratna, padma, or karma) the person belonged to, so that the appropriate mantra and form of the buddha could be conferred. The candidate was then consecrated by anointing from a pot of water, by conferring a vajra-scepter, by bestowing a ritual bell, by placing a crown on the candidate's head, by entrusting a buddha's mantra to the candidate, and by granting the candidate a new name. Other subsidiary consecrations could be added as well, but the above were standard, although the order in which they were granted would vary with the event or lineage. The candidate was instructed especially in the proper use of the mantra and in the ritual of contemplation on the buddha, and was further granted the authority (in some traditions) to become a teacher. Vows of secrecy were essential to this process, even though the content of the secrets continued to change as the understanding of the ritual and its literature progressed. Other vows would include nonrepudiation of mantras, acquiescence to the authority of the buddhas, and acquiescence to the authority of the candidate's master (who was the buddhas' representative), all allied with the general commitment to cultivate the attitudes associated with the Mah?y?na. Increasingly, the candidate was instructed to visualize himself as the buddha or bodhisattva on whom the flower fell during the ma??ala rite. Finally, the candidate was granted the authority to perform rituals (especially fire rites) associated with pacification, accumulation, subjugation, and destruction; these were traditionally exercised on behalf of patrons and so represented the newly consecrated master's potential source of income.

By the late eighth century, the development and institutionalization of the new "perfected" (siddha) figures in Indian Buddhism led to a change in some of the initiatory rituals. In siddha-inspired literature, the above rites all came to be subsumed into the category of the "jug" or "ewer" consecration, since the candidate's aspersion from a pot was its hallmark. Added to this were three new forms of consecration, derived from siddha rituals, for ascension to kingship over celestial sorcerers (vidy?dhara): the secret consecration, the insight/gnosis consecration, and the fourth consecration. The first was secret, for the master was to copulate with a woman (often a prostitute), and the candidate was instructed to consume the ejaculate. In the insight/gnosis consecration, the candidate himself copulated with the consort, experiencing great bliss as a symbol of liberation. The fourth consecration was the revelation of a symbol to the candidate, who was expected to understand its significance.

These new rituals were not introduced without comment, for they represented a dramatic reorientation toward the fundamental values of Buddhist clerical celibacy. Although multiple opinions on their desirability or necessity were voiced throughout the ninth to twelfth centuries, they were eventually enacted almost exclusively in a visualized form, rather than the literal enactment seen earlier. Over time, the new consecrations were combined with new forms of yoga developed from non-Buddhist analogs and a new set of vows and sacraments (samaya) were added to provide a framework for the yogin's subsequent behavior.

See also:Mah?siddha; Tantra

Bibliography

Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Lessing, Ferdinand D., and Wayman, Alex, trans. Mkhas Grub Rje's Fundamentals of the Buddhist Trantras. The Hague, Netherlands, and Paris: Mouton, 1968.

Snellgrove, David L. "The Notion of Divine Kingship in Tantric Buddhism." In La Regalità Sacra: Contributi al Tema dell' VIII Congresso Internazionale di Storia delle Religioni. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959.

Snellgrove, David L. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors, 2 vols. Boston: Shambhala, 1987.

Strickmann, Michel. "The Consecration S?tra: A Buddhist Book of Spells." In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

Ronald M. Davidson