La Contaminación de las Aguas a) Generalidades

In the last two chapters we have met the guru and the yidam, the esoteric versions of the Buddha and Dharma Refuges. N o w it is time to meet the dakini, the third esoteric Refuge, the hidden jewel - the hidden ruby, we could say - of the Sangha.

Personally, I think it is impossible to produce an adequate definition of a dakini. To attempt to catch a dakini in the iron trap of mundane logic is a hopeless task. In one Sanskrit dictionary the word dakini is said to refer to a class of flesh-eating demoness. T h e Tibetan translation, khandroma, means female sky-goer. Sometimes she is referred to as a sky-dancer. The male counterparts, dakas, do exist, but they play a relatively insignifi- cant role in the Tantra, whereas dakinis are central to it.57

Rather than define the dakini, let us try to see the situations in which she appears. We have seen that she is the esoteric Sangha Refuge, so we can expect her to be related to the guru in the same way that the Sangha is re- lated to the Buddha. T h e Sangha is the community of all those w h o are learning from the Buddha h o w to follow the path to Enlightenment. T h e Sangha gathers round the Buddha as often as possible - to learn from him and for the sheer pleasure of being with him. On the esoteric level, then, we should expect to find dakinis clustering around the vajraguru. This is indeed the case. If you find the vajraguru, the dakinis will not be far away. However, the Tantric guru - the 'thunderbolt guru' w h o will stop at nothing to show you Reality - is often difficult to find. For ex- ample, Naropa spent a very long time searching for Tilopa. W h e n you do

A Guide to the Deities of the Tantra

find the guru he will often be in a strange or frightening place: on an island in the middle of a poisonous lake like Kukkuripa (one of Marpa's gurus), in the depths of the jungle like Naropa, or most frequently in a cremation ground. It is in places like these that you find the vajraguru, and so it is in these fearsome places that you will meet the dakinis. Padmasambhava, for example, spent many years meditating in cremation grounds (that had names like Piled-Up Corpses, and Sleep in the Mys- terious Paths of Beatitude). In each one he feasted and danced with the dakinis, and taught them the Dharma.

So to meet a dakini is not easy. They are not domesticated but wild. To find them you have to leave behind the security of your views and ideas. You have to abandon the tidy civilized world of mundane concepts. You have to walk out into the unknown, the unexplored, the unimaginable. A Tibetan yogin named Khyungpo Naljor visited India many times,

searching for a highly-realized teacher w h o could show him the way to full Enlightenment. All the teachers he met told him that he should try to meet the yogini Niguma, w h o had been the disciple and Tantric consort of Naropa. On simply hearing the name of Niguma, Khyungpo Naljor was filled with great happiness, and he set off to find her. He had been told that she had gone beyond any dependence on the physical body, but that she sometimes appeared in a certain cemetery.

When he arrived in the cemetery, the yogin fearlessly sat himself down in the midst of the corpses and the wild animals that dwelt there. As a result, he had a vision of a brown dakini. She was completely naked, except for a few ornaments, all made of h u m a n bone. She had a khatvanga and car- ried a skull cup. She was dancing ecstatically in the sky high above his head. At times she multiplied herself into many wild dancing figures, filling the sky, at others there was just one great figure in the air above him.

Khyungpo Naljor realized he must be in the presence of Niguma, and asked for instruction. But the dakini said that she was an ogress, and when her helpers arrived they would feast on his blood; he had better es- cape while he still had his skin. Kyungpo Naljor ignored this threat, and continued asking for teaching. Seeing that he could not be scared away,

Dancing in the Sky

the dakini changed tack. She asked him for a large amount of gold for her teaching. (In Tantra it is usual to give something of value for initiation, to demonstrate one's seriousness, and out of gratitude for the immense spiritual riches to which the empowerment gives access.) Kyungpo Naljor had saved up a great deal of gold with which to seek teachings in India. Very reverently he offered it all to the dakini. Without a moment's hesitation she threw it away into the jungle.

If there had been any doubt in the yogin's mind before, it was wiped away by this evidence of the dakini's complete non-attachment, even to tremendous wealth. He knew that he was dealing with an Enlightened teacher. T h e dakini then proceeded to give him initiation, m u c h of it in dreams.

In this story we see how the dakini can appear. She irrupts out of another realm. It can happen anywhere, at any time, but she reveals herself most truly when she dances free in the sky of Emptiness. There is nothing fixed about her, though. She is quite capable of shifting shape. She may manifest as a beautiful young maiden or goddess, or as a decrepit old crone. T h e dakini Vajrayogini appeared to Naropa as a hag with thirty- seven ugly features. (After she had convinced Naropa to seek Tilopa, and then vanished like a rainbow, Naropa sang a song giving thirty-seven similes for the dangerous and unsatisfactory nature of samsara.)

The dakini may appear as voluptuous and alluring, or as threatening. (Niguma first warned Kyungpo Naljor that she was a flesh-eating demoness.) Some dakinis are part animal. They may have the heads of boars, tigers, crows, bears, jackals, or a host of other strange creatures. Their bodies can be any of, or all of, the colours of the rainbow. Most usually, however, the dakini appears as a naked, dishevelled, dancing, witch-like woman. H e r element is the sky, and it is there that she dances. Let us look more closely at one of the most important of all dakinis. This is Vajrayogini (Tibetan Dorje Naljorma), w h o to Naropa appeared with- ered and wrinkled (perhaps because he had lost himself in scholarship, so the upsurging forces of inspiration, which dakinis embody, had become dull and neglected.) More commonly, Vajrayogini appears as a sixteen- year-old girl, an age considered by Indians to be the prime of youth. She

A Guide to the Deities of the Tantra

is a virgin, symbol of her complete innocence in relation to samsara. Her body is a brilliant, fascinating red - the colour of arousal and passion, for Vajrayogini is fiercely in love with the Dharma. She has flowing dishev- elled black hair, for she has gone beyond concern for worldly appear- ances. She dances, abandoning herself to the inspiration of the Dharma. In her right hand she brandishes a vajra-chopper above her head. This is a brutal implement, used by butchers for cutting and flaying. It has a vajra handle, and its blade is razor-sharp. With her chopper the dakini cuts off all attachment, especially concern for the physical body. For the faint- hearted, the brandished vajra-chopper is a threat of destruction. For the brave it is an invitation to approach and be cut free of all limitations. In her left hand she clasps to her heart the skull cup of Sunyata, filled with the ambrosia of Great Bliss, for it is this mahasukha which the dakini pours out like wine to her devotees.

On her head is a tiara, for she is spiritually rich. However, rather than jewels, it is set with five h u m a n skulls. These are reminders of the Wisdoms of the five Buddhas in a form that cannot be ignored.

Around her neck hangs a garland, not of flowers but of human heads, freshly-severed and dripping with blood. There are fifty of them. These correspond to the sixteen vowels and thirty-four consonants of the San- skrit alphabet, known as ali and kali. As her ornaments they symbolize that the dakini has purified speech on the subtlest level. T h e circle of heads also suggests the endless round of birth and death. T h e dakini thrusts herself beyond it, and life and death become her ornaments. T h u s she wears armlets, wristlets, and anklets of human bone. In the centre of her chest, secured by strings of bone, is a mirror in which all beings can see the effects of their past actions. These adornments are the dakini equivalents of silks and jewels - symbolizing the six Perfections of the Bodhisattva. While dakinis are beautiful and can appear in wondrous raiment, it is as though they are too close to the realities of existence to cover themselves in pretty, alluring things. They are the Truth, and you can take them or leave them, they are not going to try to entice you. It is as though the Bodhisattvas such as Avalokitesvara and Tara are the Dharma experienced in the warmth of the heart. Dakinis are the Dharma felt in one's guts.

Dancing in the Sky

In the crook of her left arm Vajrayogini holds a magic staff, similar to Padmasambhava's. This symbolizes her mystic consort. T h o u g h she appears in female form, the dakini is not lacking in masculine qualities. She is the perfect synthesis - feminine and masculine dancing together. The masculine is present, but more hidden and inward.

She dances with her right foot raised, so that her legs form a rough bow and arrow shape. T h e supporting left leg is the bow, the upraised right the arrow. T h e bow and arrow are important symbols in Tantra, symbol- izing the inseparability of wisdom and method. With her left foot she is trampling on a prostrate h u m a n figure - symbol of the craving, hatred, and ignorance that she has subdued, and which she n o w victoriously stamps into the ground. Yet she is not concerned with what is happening under her feet. Her mastery of samsara is so total that she flattens obs- tacles effortlessly, like a small boy treading on an ant.

T h e whole movement of her being is upwards. H e r hair stands on end. She leaps as she dances, as though impatient to take off into a higher dimension. In the centre of her forehead is a third eye, for she is able to see a higher truth, a wisdom beyond duality. All around her body, flames leap upwards. These are the fires of her soaring inspiration, her unquenchable energy, her purifying wisdom. They are fires of love burning for all that lives.

Her expression is ecstatic. She is drunk with wisdom, entranced with spiritual power, wild with compassion, insatiable for truth. At the same time her look is dangerous, warning. Like all dakinis, she doesn't fool around.