Bodies of Knowledge: Bodily Perfection in Tantric Buddhist Practice

David B Gray

doi:10.3390/rel12020089

Abstract

This essay explores conflicting attitudes toward the body in Buddhist literature, with a focus on the tantric Buddhist traditions of yoga and meditation, which advanced the notion that the body was an innately pure site for realization while nonetheless still encumbered with earlier notions of the body as an impure obstacle to be overcome. Looking closely at a short meditation text attributed to the female Indian saints Mekhalā and Kanakhalā, the author argues that the body plays a central role in the creative re-envisioning of the self that characterizes tantric Buddhist practice.

Highlights

Buddhism has long harbored diverse and at times conflicting attitudes toward the body
This essay explores conflicting attitudes toward the body in Buddhist literature, with a focus on the tantric Buddhist traditions of yoga and meditation, which advanced the notion that the body was an innately pure site for realization while still encumbered with earlier notions of the body as an impure obstacle to be overcome
Looking closely at a short meditation text attributed to the female Indian saints Mekhalaand Kanakhala, the author argues that the body plays a central role in the creative re-envisioning of the self that characterizes tantric Buddhist practice

Summary

Introduction

Buddhism has long harbored diverse and at times conflicting attitudes toward the body. There will be an attempt to highlight the centrality of the body in tantric Buddhist literature on yoga and meditation practices, which weave earlier, dualistic views about the body into an increasingly complex tapestry of beliefs and practices concerning the body as the site of awakening. This will be done with a focus on “Oral Transmission on the Three Swirling Swastikas,” a little-known meditation manual focusing on Perfection Stage practices attributed to the Indian Buddhist female saints, the Yoginıs Mekhalaand Kanakhala

Dualistic Underpinnings to Buddhist Meditation Practices

Tantric Re-Envisioning of the Body

Perfecting Non-Duality