troduced, they go on to say, into Tíbet from India viâ Kashmir, in the year 1025 A.D. I cannot believe it accidental that the beginning of the Tibetan era of counting time, about which I shall have occasion to say some words in a later chapter, coincides with the introduction of this system. I am rather inclined to think (though as far as I know, this has not yet been pointed out as particularly important) that the readiness with which this system was received made it appear at once so important, that events were dated from its introduction.

The principal rites and formulæ of mysticism and the theories about their efficacy bear an extraordinary analogy to the Shamanism of the Siberians, and are, besides, almost identical with the Tantrika ritual of the Hindus; for it promises endowment with supernatural faculties far superior to the energy to be derived from virtue and abstinence, and capable of leading to the union with the deity, to the man who keeps in mind that all three worlds exist in the imagination only and regulates his actions accordingly. Its theories are laid down in two series of works, which are known under the collective titles of Dharanis (in Tibetan Zung), and Tantras (in Tibetan Gyut). The Dharani formulæ may be of considerable antiquity, and it is not unlikely that already the Mahāyāna leaders took some of them into their books. The Tantras are of a more modern date, especially those of them, in which the observance of magical practices is carried to a point which is an extreme Wilson believes Tanin India in the early

even for mysticism in any form. trika notions to have originated

THE KALA CHAKRA SYSTEM.

49

centuries of Christianity, but the present Hindu ritual seems to him not to date back beyond the tenth century; about at the same time the Tantras were probably introduced also into the Buddhist sacred literature. Their modern origin is proved by the statement of the Tibetan autorities respecting the appearance of the Dus kyi khorlo system, which makes the deliverance from metempsychosis dependent upon the knowledge of the Tantras. So at least says Padma Karpo, a Tibetan Lama, who lived in the sixteenth century, in his description of these doctrines. "He who does not know the Tantrika principles and all such, is a wanderer in the orb of transmigration and is out of the way (path) of the supreme triumphator, Sanskrit Bhagavan Vajradhara."1 Another and indirect proof of their recent origin is the fact, that there are much fewer works on Tantrika principles existing in the Chinese language; had the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who travelled in India still during the seventh century A.D. found such treatises (had they existed at all, they would soon have become acquainted with them), they would certainly have brought them home in order to have them translated into the Chinese language; and then, also, in this particular branch the Chinese Buddhist literature would be richer than the Tibetan, whilst the reverse is actually the case. Besides, it is also reported, that the most expert Indian magicians, or Tantrists, did not exist till after the travels of the

The claim that Sakyamuni is their original author, is undoubtedly inadmissable, both on account of their style and contents, as well as of historical dates.

Chinese pilgrims in India, and that the most important Tantras had been translated into Chinese during the reign of the northern Song dynasty which ruled from the years 960 to 1127 A.D.

Kala Chakra is also the title of the principal work of this system; it stands at the head of the Gyut division of the Kanjur, as well as, the Tanjur, and was explained and repeatedly commented on by several learned men who lived in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, of whom the most celebrated were Puton or Buston, Khetup, and Padmo Karpo.

I have arranged the dogmas propounded by mysticism in four groups.

I. There is a first, chief Buddha, Ādi Buddha, in Tibetan Chogi dangpoi sangye, who is without beginning or end; none of the human Buddhas have arrived at the Buddhaship for the first time, and the Sambhogakāya, or body of blissfulness of the Buddhas has existed from all eternity and will never perish. This first of the Buddhas is called in the Tantras Vajradhara (in Tibetan Dorjechang or Dorjedzin), and Vajrasattva (in Tibetan Dorjesempa). As Vajradhara he is epitheted "the supreme Buddha, the supreme triumphator, the lord of all mysteries, the prime minister of all Tathāgatas, the being who is without beginning or end, the being who has the soul of a diamond (Vajrasattva)." It is he to whom the subdued and conquered evil spirits swear that

1

1 Dorjechang and Dorjedzin have the same meaning, "holding the diamond (Vajra)." Sempa (sems-pa) means "the soul."

2

Sangbai Dagpo, "concealed lord," in Sanskrit Guhyapati.

DORJECHANG.-DORJESEMPA.

51

they will no longer hinder the propagation of the faith of the Buddha, nor in future do any mischief to man. To Vajrasattva the epithets are given of "the supreme intelligence, the chief (Tsovo), the president of the five Dhyani Buddhas." But Vajradhara and Vajrasattva are also considered as two different beings, as they occur in several treatises both at the same time, the one putting questions, the other answering them. Their respective position may be explained the best by supposing Vajradhara to be too great a god and too much lost in divine quietude to favour man's undertakings and works with his assistance, and that he acts through the god Vajrasattva, who would be to him in the relation of a Dhyani Buddha to his human Buddha. This explanation is also supported by the epithet of "president of the Dhyani Buddhas."

By the name of Dhyani Buddha, "Buddha of contemplation," or by the term Anupadaka, "without parents," celestial beings are designated corresponding to the human Buddhas teaching upon earth, who are called "Mānushi Buddhas." The Buddhists believe that each Buddha when preaching the law to men, manifests himself at the same time in the three worlds which their cosmographical system acknowledges. In the world of desire, the lowest of the three to which the earth belongs, he appears in

1 See Csoma, As. Res., Vol., 20, pp. 496, 503, 549, 550. Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. II., p. 57. Wassiljew, "Der Buddhismus," p. 205.

2 Respecting the theory of the Dhyani Buddhas see Schmidt, "Grundlehren," Mem. de l'Acad. de Petersb., Vol. I, p. 104. Burnouf, "Introduction," pp. 116, 221, 525, 627. "Lotus de la Bonne Loi," p. 400. The more theistical ideas of the Nepalese about their origin are noknot wn to the Tibetan Buddhists.

human shape. In the world of forms he manifests himself in a more sublime form as Dhyani Buddha. In the highest world, the one of the incorporeal beings, he has neither shape nor name. The Dhyani Buddhas have the faculty of creating from themselves by virtue of Dhyana, or abstract meditation, an equally celestial son, a Dhyani Bōdhisattva, who after the death of a Manushi Buddha is charged with the continuance of the work undertaken by the departed Buddha till the next epoch of religion begins, when again a subsequent Manushi Buddha appears. Thus, to each human Buddha belongs a Dhyani Buddha and a Dhyani Bōdhisattva, and the unlimited number of the former also involves an equally unlimited number of the latter.

Out of this vast number the five Buddhas of the actual period of the universe are particularly worshipped. Four of these Buddhas have already appeared; Sakyamuni is the fourth and the last who has appeared till now; his Dhyani Buddha is Amitābha, in Tibetan Odpagmed; his Dhyani Bodhisattva Avolōkitēsvara, or Padmapāni, in Tíbet generally implored under the name of Chenresi. To the Dhyani Buddhas of these five Manushi Buddhas is added, as a sixth and the highest in rank, Vajrasattva. To him or occasionally also to Amitabha who then takes his place, the Tibetans attribute the function of the "God

1 The Buddhas are men and subjected to the physical conditions established for human creatures; it is in consequence of this principle that the stay of every Buddha upon earth is limited by the laws which fix for the period during which he appears, the life-time of man, which varies from 80,000 to 10 years. When this period had elapsed he dies, or as the Buddhists say, he returns to Nirvana,

2 He has, besides, a female companion, a Sakti.