Living Relics of the Buddha(s) in Tibet

INTRODUCTION

BUDDHISM IS THE ONE INDIGENOUS RELIGION IN ASIA WITH A LONG AND

continuous record of successful migration, an impressive two and halfmillennia history from its northern Indian origins to the furthest reaches ofAsia in every direction. This process has been marked as much by trans-formation and diversity as by continuity and unity, whether we look to itsliteratures, doctrines, practices, or institutions. Yet within this diversity,there is a persistent and even defining concern with the figure of the Bud-dha(s), whether serene or horrific, celibate or sexual, historical or cosmic,iconographic or doctrinal, ritual or contemplative, objects of emulation orobjects of negation. These figures proliferated in the shimmering purelands, dense mandalas, and alternative cosmologies of later forms of Bud-dhism, while the simple historicity of a north Indian founder of a religionunderwent similar transformations to the point of including primordial fig-ures whose defining identity was their lack of historicity and temporaldevelopment, massive cosmological Buddhas who create and host entiregalaxies, and intimate interior Buddhas pervading the body’s interior. Andyet within this diversity and divinity, there has remained a consistenthumanist association stemming from the human origins of Buddhas, andthe rejection of a creator deity who sits outside of interdependence, evenwhen this rejection sits side by side with rhetoric that celebrates “Buddha”or “bodhicitta” in terms that seem all but indistinguishable from such adivine, creative force.

With this humanism, there comes an equally persistent problem ofpresence and absence, of how a discrete, specific Buddha is present in this

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CHAPTER THREE

LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET

David Germano

ordinary world of samsara when his/her self-transfiguration by definitioninvolves extrication from that world. It is thus not surprising that whereverwe find Buddhism, we also find a concern for what could only be termed“relics”—bits and pieces of the Buddha, or Buddha-like historical figures,which have retained a material presence in the world even when the Bud-dha has departed or is only accessible in brief glimpses of visionary expe-rience or ritual evocation. Relics have been one of the most omnipresentand sought after phenomena of Buddhist material culture, often presentedin recent scholarship as a way to mediate the Buddha’s historical absencefollowing death. Relics and statues of the Buddha are in many ways con-sidered as the living Buddha, that is, as radically active agents, rather thana mere remainder from, or image of, a distant past. This quality of per-sonhood or agency has been demonstrated through examination of con-crete social practices surrounding relics and statues, including the attribu-tion of such classic characteristics of ownership of property, the ability tobe murdered, and so forth. In Mahayana traditions, this persistent agencyof the Buddhas in material form has been further formalized in the theol-ogy of the “three Bodies” of a Buddha: a Buddha’s innermost recessesbecome coterminous, in some sense, with reality (dharmata\), and out ofthis matrix a vast array of material forms both animate and nonanimate areemanated. We might thus speak of relics and emanations, which are uni-fied in their divine agency and derivation, but different in being perceivedas persistent forces that are a legacy of the past in contrast to newly emer-gent manifestations that are a direct outflow of the present. In practice,however, these distinctions are far from clear.

Relics can be pieces of the material body—a tooth, a bone, dried upflesh, odd crystalline derivates of the cremated body, or material itemsassociated with a Buddha—clothing, ritual items, or other possessions.They can also be verbal, as encapsulated in the Buddhist scriptures,believed to have persisted orally in the hearts and minds of disciplesbefore being committed to written, canonical form. Indeed it has beenargued that stupas, images, and a wide spectrum of other items believedto derive from, emulate, represent, or incarnate a Buddha’s presenceshould be considered relics.1 “Relics” also extend from the historicalBuddha to other Buddhas, divine figures, and historical personages in agiven tradition’s lineages. In the present volume, such relics are analyzedacross a variety of situational contexts and functions—intellectual, ritual,social, literary, and political—and across an equally diverse array of cul-tural contexts—India, Japan, Thailand, and China. In this chapter I willturn to yet another cultural context, namely, Tibet, and to yet another sit-

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uational context, namely, a philosophical interpretation of relics in rela-tionship to Buddha-nature. Thus I will be concerned with the philosophyof the production of relics rather than practical issues of their subsequentuse, thereby showing that there is not always a clear bifurcation betweenhigh intellectual traditions and a detailed interest in the material phe-nomenon of relics.

The Tibetan tantric tradition known as the Great Perfection (rdzogschen) systematically relates the bodily relics of a saint to the constellationof concepts and practices that assert a bodily presence of Buddha-naturewithin all living beings. It emerged in Tibet by at least the ninth century,though claiming almost entirely to be Indian revelations concealed inTibet during the eight and ninth centuries. It appears, however, that in factits many variant traditions and corresponding bodies of literature emergedat different periods over many centuries as original Tibetan developments.The earliest public Great Perfection traditions in the ninth century aremarked by the absence of presentations of detailed ritual and contempla-tive technique and by the absence of “funerary” Buddhism. Then there isa gradual incorporation of diverse ritual and contemplative techniques andfunerary elements culminating in the eleventh-century rise of the SeminalHeart (snying thig), which was systematized in the fourteenth century byLongchenpa (klong chen pa, 1308–1363). “Funerary” Buddhism signifiesthe late Indian Buddhist tantric obsession with death on multiple fronts:(1) the focus on charnel grounds and their corpses, (2) funerary rituals, (3)the signs of dying and death (particularly relics), (4) “intermediateprocess” theory (bar do, Sanskrit antara\bhava), and (5) contemplativeyogas based on death.2 In this process of transformation, we find a concernwith relics blossoming in conjunction with an elaborate tantric synthesisrevolving around death, vision, and the body in relationship to Buddhas. Iwill show how relics are closely tied with Buddha-nature theory inscribedwithin an elaborate and architectonic philosophical synthesis. We thus willsee that the traditional connection of Buddha-nature with birth, womb, andgenesis is here balanced by associations with cemeteries, death, and relics,with tombs as much as with wombs.

DISEMBODIED RELICS IN THE EARLY GREAT PERFECTION

We will begin with The All-Creating King, the chief tantra of the earlystrata of the Great Perfection. These early texts are characterized by a lackof reference to funerary Buddhism, and a general tendency toward aes-theticization, which abstracts from discrete particulars, whether ritual and

LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 53

contemplative processes or any other type of concrete detail. Thus, whileThe All-Creating King devotes its seventeenth chapter to a discussion ofrelics, it is an abstract and metaphorical account:

Then the All-Creating King, the enlightening mind, spoke aboutholding on to his own Bodily bones (sku gdung):

O Great Heroic Being, grasp this! If you continually hold on tothese Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres (ring bsrel), youwill be equal to me, the All-Creating, the original ancestor of theVictorious Ones.

Then the Adamantine Heroic Being made this inquiry:

O original ancestor of all the Buddhas of the three times,teacher of teachers, the All-Creating King! As to continually hold-ing on to the Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres, “Bodily”refers to the Bodies (sku, ka\ya) of which Victorious Ones? “Bones”refers to the bones of which Buddhas? How should “precious (relic)spheres” be understood?

The All-Creating King’s response:

Listen, O Great Heroic Being! “Bodily” is the Spiritual Bodiesof my sons, the threefold Victors. “Bones” signifies my mind in theVictors of the three times. If you hold on to this, Heroic Being, con-tinually and without temporal [break], it is the receptacle of offer-ing to all the Buddhas of the three times. This should be understoodas the referent of “Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres.”

The Adamantine Heroic Being made a further inquiry:

O teacher of teachers, the All-Creating King! Even if the Bod-ily bones and precious (relic) spheres are thus, how do you offer tothe Buddhas of the three times therein? What are the virtues to behad in offering?

The All-Creating King’s response:

Listen, O Great Heroic Being! You worship these Bodily bonesand precious (relic) spheres of mine by continually seeing the Bud-dhas of the three times as your own mind. Having attained indivis-ibility with the virtues of that [act], you will become as potent as theKing who creates all phenomena.3

“Precious relic spheres” (ring bsrel) are generally etymologized as“held/proliferating (bsrel) for a long time (ring),” based upon the notion

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that unusual crystalline spheres collected out of cremation and other con-texts are supposed to grow in number over time if kept in careful stew-ardship. The passage above plays off this etymology to reinterpret thestock phrase “Bodily bones and precious relic spheres”—usually referringto material residue of various types from the remains of a Buddha orsaint—as “perpetually embodying the realization of the body and mind ofthe Buddhas.” The content and style of this passage is typical of the text,with its twin rhetorical strategies in interpreting normative Buddhist cate-gories of theory and praxis: deconstructing them via a resolute denial oftheir cogency and reinterpreting them allegorically as applying to facets ofthe primordial enlightened mind (byang chub sems, Sanskrit bodhicitta).Bodhicitta is explicitly identified as the personified speaker of this tantra,as well as creator of the cosmos. The passage translated above is an exam-ple of the allegorical strategy, though the overall effect is still to suggest anegation or at least devaluation of the conventional understanding of the-ories and practices relating to relics.4

There hardly seems any flesh to these bones, either our own or thoseof the Buddhas. This is in line with the text’s general tendency to devaluethe phenomenal characteristics of discrete items constituting one’s ordi-nary experience in preference for an emphasis on the in-visible realitybody of the Buddha (chos sku, Sanskrit dharmaka\ya), also referred to asthe “enlightening mind,” “the enlightened nucleus of Buddhas” (de bzhingshegs pa’i snying po, Sanskrit tatha\gatagarbha), “ground” (gzhi), andthe “All-Creating King.” At the core of this notion is reality’s (chos nyid,Sanskrit dharmata\) absence, latency (nang gsal), and indeterminacy, thetotal converse of our ordinary cyclic existence (sam≥sa \ra) with its manifeststructures (phyir gsal) of discrete things and karmic laws of cause andeffect forming a prison. While normally reality’s virtual character entailsits retreat from the field of our awareness, the tantra asserts its primacy asthe source, ongoing reality, and ultimate destination (‘byung gnas ‘gro) ofordinary modes of existence.

The generalized phenomenological correlate to this emphasis onreality in this virtual sense is a turning from focal modes of attention(dmigs pa) on discrete manipulatable items (chos, Sanskrit dharma) todiffusive modalities (dmigs med) expressed as a “letting-go” (cog bzhag),which opens out to the all-embracing field (dbyings, Sanskrit dha \tu) con-stituting such discrete items. In traditional Great Perfection terms, this ischaracterized as the difference between karma (las) and gnosis (ye shes,Sanskrit jña \na), the world of discrete forms in rigid hierarchies in con-trast to emptiness interpreted positively as a fluid web of paradoxical


presences (med bzhin snang ba).5 This simple dyad can be explored per-ceptually in terms of meditative processes, hermeneutically in terms ofthe different types of textuality, institutionally in terms of a contrastbetween diffuse village-based lay movements and more formal monasticorganizations, and indeed in terms of the interpretation of any classicBuddhist phenomena.

The text here utilizes this opposition to undercut relics as discretephysical items from which authority almost physically emanates, whetherphysical remnants of a Buddha or saint; miraculous excrescence fromsuch remnants; or their possessions, texts, or other traditional categoriesof sacred relics suitable for worship and installation within a stupa. Suchrhetorical tactics could have undercut scholastic ventures as well as pop-ular practices, but we know too little about the significance of relic wor-ship or stupas during this period or indeed any socioreligious contexts inthe tenth century to determine what ideological significance such rejectionmight have had. For instance, it is not clear that authors of these textsshared the elitist approach and fundamental distrust of popular religiosityattributed by Faure to some elements of Chan, since such rhetorical strate-gies need not be automatically interpreted literally to signify a disregardfor the object of denial.6 But at least textually or philosophically, the over-whelming stress is on absence as well as rhetorical disembodiedness in thebody of the text; the “relics” of the Buddha are none other than one’s ownmind, and their possession seems a bit intangible, to say the least. It is adiscourse of the bare bones, and perhaps we can characterize the comingtransformation of relics in the tradition as a discovery of the radicalagency of these bones: they have something to say and a fully embodiedpresence with which to speak.

THE BLAZING UP OF RELICS IN THE SEMINAL HEART

The early foundational literature of the Seminal Heart is a collection ofseventeen tantras revealed in Tibet gradually from the eleventh to thetwelfth centuries, which were then systematically interpreted in the four-teenth century by the tradition’s great systematizer, Longchenpa in TheTreasury of Words and Meanings and The Treasury of the Supreme Vehi-cle.7 The Seventeen Tantras range from lengthy texts surveying diverseissues to succinct texts discussing single topics.8 For instance, The Tantraof the Sun and Moon’s Intimate Union9 is devoted to the subject of inter-mediate processes (bar do) and forms the earliest known literature outlin-ing the characteristic doctrines and practices later shaped by Karmalingpa

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(kar ma gling pa, 1327–1387) into The Liberation upon Hearing in theIntermediate Process.10 The Blazing Relics Tantra is instead devoted torelics and issues surrounding the moment of death from the perspective ofthe survivors.11 In contrast to The All-Creating King, this tantra discussesat length the types of relics and other odd signs emerging in the death ofa saint.12 These are each correlated with the varying levels and nature ofrealization of the person in question, indicating that this detailed accountof relics in part concerns the generation of belief, a legitimization of thedeceased and the lineage s/he incarnated. But the manifestation of suchmarks is also explicitly connected to the theory of Buddha(s) locatedphysically within human interiority and thus embedded within the broaderarchitecture of the Seminal Heart.

The Blazing Relics Tantra presents relics as a subset of a discussionof “signs” (rtags) marking enlightenment—“living” signs manifest in avisionary’s body, speech, and mind by force of contemplation, while relicsmark enlightenment within death. Its three chapters correspond to signsemerging in a visionary’s body, speech, and mind (1) in the present due tocontemplation in past lives, (2) in the present as immediate feedback onsuccess in present contemplative endeavors, and (3) after death indicatingattainments in the immediate postmortem future. The tantra is thus orga-nized around signs relating to contemplative practice in the past, present,and future. Much of the text is focused on relatively straightforwardaccounts of the phenomenology of different contemplative practices alongwith descriptions of the various capacities thereby attained. Despite this,the text’s overall title of “blazing relics/bones” (sku gdung) points to relicsas its overarching organizational rubric, in which capacity it signifies gen-erally the bodily markers or transfigurations that authentic contemplationgenerates—literally, “the body’s bones blaze.” Its centrality no doubtderives from the importance of relics in Tibetan Buddhist practices con-cerning death and postmortem interpretation of sanctity but also from thetradition’s philosophical interpretation of the body and its indwellinggnostic agency described in terms reserved for a Buddha(s).

Chapter 1 unfolds in response to a question from the audience askingwhat the signs are like for an enlightened individual. The Teacherresponds by talking about the signs of enlightened Body, Speech, andMind manifesting in someone via previous training. For example, trainingon the Buddha’s Body results in physical marks, which tend to be of threetypes: wrinkles, protrusions of skin, and light colorations in shapes resem-bling auspicious items such as ritual implements or sacred syllablesappearing. Chapter 2 deals mainly with this life and signs that correspond


to success in various Great Perfection practices. In contrast toLongchenpa’s The Treasury of Words and Meanings, the signs tend to bemore external indicators (such as flying through air, walking on water, orremembering teachings) rather than phenomenological indicators linkedto procedures of contemplative practices. Chapter 3 unfolds in response toa D≥a\kinê asking what type of signs emerge when a yogi is unable to suc-cessfully bring contemplation to its fulfillment and dies. Buddha VajraHolder’s (rdo rje ‘chang) response surveys five topics: Body images,bones, lights, sounds, and earthquakes. He correlates material events atdeath such as odd material objects appearing at cremation, strange phe-nomena observed in the surrounding environment, and so on to the timingof liberation for the deceased visionary—whether at death, four days laterin the postdeath intermediate process, or otherwise.

Longchenpa’s The Treasury of Words and Meanings has eleven chap-ters corresponding to the essential rubrics of the tradition and onlyincludes topics he understands as crucial within a practice-oriented digest(lag len).13 The fact that the ninth topic corresponds to the discussion ofrelics in The Blazing Relics Tantra, citations of which pervade it, thus sig-nifies that Longchenpa views relics as a vital topic within the overall sys-tem.14 Just like the tantra, it concerns the psychophysical and visionarysigns manifesting in the practitioner’s body, speech, mind, and externalenvironment as realization deepens in his/her contemplative path. Suchanalyses are presented as an aid for the practitioner to empirically observehis/her own progress, keeping alert for stagnation, deviation, and otherpitfalls, as well as aiding teachers in evaluation and sequential instructionof disciples. The variety and remarkable nature of many of the signs arealso intended to serve as a curb against intellectual hubris for those whomay mistake intellectual comprehension with experiential realization, asthe former will not issue forth in the extraordinary psychic powers andother measures marking the latter. Three sections correlated to the past,present, and future again constitute the bulk of the chapter: (1) the signsmarking proper progress in the Great Perfection’s contemplations,15 (2) thesigns naturally occurring in one’s current body, speech, and mind indicat-ing successful engagement in these practices during previous lifetimes,16

and (3) the external environmental signs and internal signs evident in aperson’s death and cremation.17

The first section is a complement to the contemplative practices dis-cussed in the preceding chapter, with signs ranging over the feeling ofbeing able to fly, an astonishingly youthful complexion, internal sensa-tions, and psychic capacities. The discussion focuses on the specific trans-

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formations occurring in the different elements of the visions in direct tran-scendence contemplation (thod rgal). It is of note that much of theimagery involves the spontaneous unfolding of visual images of Buddhasand lights from within the body, strikingly similar to the postmortemevents discussed elsewhere in the text. The practice of direct transcen-dence itself involves the use of postures, gazes, and breathing exercises tostimulate a spontaneous flow of visions that gradually shape into visionsof Buddhas.

The second section describes the diverse signs naturally occurring inone’s current body, speech, and mind indicating successful engagement inthese practices during previous lifetimes. These range from a naturalcapacity for concentration to birthmarks which are remarkably similar toclassic auspicious symbols. While the manifestation of such contempla-tion within the practitioner’s speech and mind is more straightforward(eloquence, clairvoyance, etc.), the signs manifesting within a practi-tioner’s body are of particular interest. The Blazing Relics Tantradescribes these living bodily relics as follows:

(i) A conch spiraling to the right,Or wrinkles going upwards like three tips [of a vajra, trident and

so on],Or, likewise the letter Om≥Will emerge in image or naturally protrudeOn the expanse of the foreheadOf whoever tunes into the Blissful Ones.

Whoever has such signs emergePreviously spiritually trained on the Buddha’s Body;That yogi who trains on thisWill in two lifetimes attainThe time of utter assuranceIn being inseparable from the Buddha’s Body.Thus you should value highly in this very lifeDiligence in meditative cultivation,Without allowing obstructions to gain sway.

(ii) The fortunate individualWho previously spiritually trainedOn the Speech of all the Buddhas,Has images or protruding shapesOn the right and left side of the throat:


An eight petaled lotus,Conch spiraling to the right,Or likewise the tip of a silk prayer flag curling upwards,Iron hook or sword,Or marked by the letter Ah.

The individual who has these marksHas previously spiritually trainedOn the Speech of all the Buddhas,And thus in two lifetimes will come to attain the definitive fruitAs s/he becomes one with Enlightened Speech.

Also with this you should value the absence of obstructions—When you meditatively cultivate the Enlightened Speech without

any obstructionsIt is certain beyond a shadow of a doubt it will be attained.

(iii) Whoever has previously become experientially familiarWith the Mind of the Buddhas,Will find their body marked by the following signs:At the location of the heartIs an upright trident and vajra,Or likewise a four spoked wheel,Flesh glowing in the form of a trident,The shape of precious jewels,Or the mark of the letter Hu\m≥.

The person for whom these emergeIs a fortunate one who has experientially familiarized himselfWith the Mind of the Buddhas;When diligent in meditative cultivation,Without obstructions in three livesThere can be no doubt that s/he will be expansively awakenedWithin the man≥d≥ala of the Buddha’s Mind.18

Longchenpa explains19 the rationale for these signs’ manifestationwith respect to the primordial ground of being and nonbeing.20 TheEnlightened Body, Speech, and Mind are present naturally within all liv-ing beings as the all-pervading primordial potencies or self-emergentdynamic qualities of the ground, and thus by previous spiritual refinementand training they become manifest in the present. They also indicateimminent realization—bodily signs indicate that by further training on the

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Enlightened Body one will attain the adamantine Body in two lifetimes,verbal signs indicate that adamantine Speech can be accomplished withintwo births, and mental signs indicate enlightenment within three lifetimes.However, he also stresses that the signs are not ultimate indicators and thateverything depends on one’s current actions21—hence the signs shouldmotivate further practice. Otherwise the positive karma that led to thosesigns will become mixed with current negative karma and result in subse-quent birth in the form realms, the god Brahma’s level, and as a demi-godrespectively (corresponding to the signs of Body, Speech, and Mind).22

Longchenpa concludes the chapter with an analysis of what we wouldconsider “relics” proper: the various external environmental signs (such asweather, earthquakes, or strange appearances) and internal signs (such asrelics or marks on bones) evident in a given person’s death and cremation.These signs are interpreted as indicating an advanced visionary’s post-mortem spiritual realization (i.e., his/her possible enlightenment withindeath or in one of the phases of postdeath experience). The manifestationof these signs is clearly understood as the coming to the fore of the latentBuddhas based in the body rather than something fashioned anew by dintof diligent yogic practice.

The Treasury of Words and Meanings23 cites The Blazing Relics Tantrain its division of a quintet of signs marking saintly death: images on bones,small spheres emerging from the cremated remains, lights, sounds, orearthquakes. The signs of saintly death are described as “the signs of free-dom for those with the right karmic fortune” or “the signs of a practitionergaining the optimal measure of freedom”:

When one passes beyond misery [i.e., death/nirvana],The images of Spiritual Bodies, bones, andLikewise lights, sounds,And earthquakes are present.24

While the components of this fivefold classification in general arecommon aspects of Buddhist signs of saintly death, the interpretativedetail, as we shall see below, is seamlessly interwoven with the SeminalHeart’s distinctive ideology of a radically active Buddha-nature. Earlier inthe chapter, Longchenpa25 cites The Tantra of the Adamantine Hero’sHeart-Mirror’s threefold classification of the signs of saintly death: (1)ascertaining the measures and signs of freedom in this very life for thoseof supreme diligence in practice; (2) the measures and signs of freedom inthe postdeath intermediate process; and (3) the measures and signs ofgaining respite in a pure land following death:


Hey friends, teach the precepts thus to those individuals whoabide within this teaching. As indicatory omens of a person passingbeyond misery in transcendence, these occur. If you stay alone yourexperience is joyous; your body is as light as cotton fluff; you don’tlong for companionship with people; you feel as if you could flythrough the sky; when these appearances cease there is a joyous mood;you are unattached to body and life; your mind doesn’t get wrapped upwithin any appearances whatsoever; cognition is radiantly clear with-out any depressed quality, and is naturally at ease; you are comfortablein company; no emotional distortions whatsoever are able to rise up,and though emotional distortions may arise, you don’t cling to themwith reifications; no attachment develops to attractive forms and thereis no aversion to unattractive forms; considerations of food and drinkdon’t come about by virtue of the potency of your contemplation; andwhen in the company of people you will act in accordance with others’mental states. These are the indicatory omens of completely tran-scending misery.

Transcending misery (mya ngan las ‘das pa, Sanskrit nirva\n≥a) istwofold: the perfect ultra-pure expansive awakening, and the perfectmanifest expansive awakening. The perfect ultra-pure expansive awak-ening is the expansive awakening of Buddhahood devoid of any remain-der of the psycho-physical components, while for the person of the per-fect manifest expansive awakening, lights, sounds, bones, earthquakesand so forth emerge.

Light is of two types: appearance in the manner of a luminoushome [circular in appearance], and appearance in the manner of a lad-der, with light in vertical pillars or bands. The light appearing as if ahouse indicates that in five days stability is attained, and the person isperfectly and manifestly expansively awakened; the light appearing asif a staircase indicates that in seven days s/he is perfectly and mani-festly expansively awakened.

Sound is also of two types: if it emerges in a humming fashion, thenin seven days s/he is perfectly and manifestly expansively awakened; ifit emerges like a roaring sound then in fourteen days s/he is perfectly andmanifestly expansively awakened.

As for bones, they are fivefold: the color blue indicates being per-fectly and manifestly expansively awakened in the pure realm of theIlluminating One (Vairocana); the color white indicates being perfectlyand manifestly expansively awakened in the pure realm of the Adaman-tine Hero (Vajrasattva); the color yellow indicates the pure realm of thePrecious Matrix (Ratnasambhava); the color red indicates the pure realmof Limitless Illumination (Amita\bha); and the color green indicates the

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pure realm of the Efficacious One (Amoghasiddhi). If a variety of col-ors occurs, that individual will proceed to the site of the spontaneous ful-fillment of these five Buddha-Bodies.

The Spiritual Body-images as well are twofold: the peaceful Bod-ies, and the wrathful ones. If the peaceful Bodies manifest, thedeceased obtains stability the moment these appearances cease, and isunable to emit Emanational Bodies. If the Wrathful Bodies manifest,s/he obtains stability right there and in twenty one days can emit Ema-national Bodies.

If those signs don’t manifest, final enlightenment will be delayed byone more birth, and then it is impossible that they won’t manifest justlike that. In this way lights, sounds, bones, Spiritual Body-images, or atleast the “precious (relic) spheres” on upwards manifest.26

In conversations with contemporary figures from the Great Perfectiontradition, the subject of relics has come up frequently as part of a generalcategory of physical proof of mysticism or the materialization of psychicpowers. These include the manifestation of “precious (relic) spheres”(ring bsrel) as tiny translucent spheres from cremated corpses, a sacreditem such as a stupa, or in rare cases a living person; footprints and hand-prints in stone, handwriting on conch shells, or odd marks resemblingsacred syllables or designs on a lama’s body in the forms of wrinkles ordiscolorations. These are all a matter of considerable interest in Tibetanreligious culture from lay to monastic, from the highest rinpoche to thelowliest monk. For example, I was told by a reliable source that thefamous Khenpo Jikme Phuntshok (mkhan po ‘jigs med phun tshogs) on avisit in the early 1990s to Bylakuppe, India, was very interested in gettingPenor Rinpoche (pad nor rin po che) to write a mantra on a conch shellafter hearing that such handwriting produced a protruding image on theshell. Monks within the relevant lineages often relay stories of the famousnineteenth-twentieth-century master Khenpo Ngakchung (mkhan po ngagchung, 1879–1941) having light colored designs of the symbolic handimplements of the five Buddhas on his body and wrinkles on his nose tipin the shape of an “A” syllable (which in some ritual contexts of intro-duction for special disciples would seem to emanate light rays). The pat-terns evident in skin from various shades of coloration are particularly afocus of attention in religious circles, with dark discolorations consideredinauspicious, while lighter marks are auspicious. Penor Rinpoche is alsosaid to have many such white marks on his body, particularly whitespheres around his waist. Even “precious (relic) spheres” are in somecases said to come from living persons; one such instance I have heard of


again relates to Penor Rinpoche. He gave one of his teeth to his attendantKunzang lama (kun bzang bla ma), who kept it in a box. Later this pro-duced small, white, very translucent spheres, which then themselves havecontinued to multiply.

I have encountered considerably more enthusiasm than skepticism onthese issues, especially when the subject of discussion pertains to the per-son’s own root teacher or recent lineage masters. Such discussions usuallytend to revolve around convincing the listener of the genuine sacrednessof the person in question and are often framed by obviously genuineexhortations to the listener to be thus inspired to diligence in contempla-tion.27 The fact that such legitimization is also indirectly, yet clearly, anauthentication of the disciple, that is, the speaker, is hard to miss, even ifsincere respect is also manifest. Conversely, disparaging remarks tend notto be about the phenomena in general, but rather directed toward others,that is, other lineages about which the speaker may have little invested.One conversation I remember in particular concerned a famous Tibetanteacher who died in the United States, after which his Western disciplesgathered together “relics.” Some visiting lamas were invited to view therelics subsequently but to their disappointment found that “mere bones”were the object of valorization. The disparaging character of the remarkwas clear (see figure 3.1).

Just as direct transcendence contemplation involves images of Bud-dhas literally projecting from the visionary’s eyes as an exteriorization ofinternal Buddhas into experience, this first category of signs involvesimages of Buddhas protruding from the cremated bones of the saint so asto be visible to the naked eye. The Blazing Relics Tantra classifies them astwofold in accordance with the peaceful and wrathful Buddhas (in life, theformer is located in the heart and the latter in the skull within the subtlebody’s internal map):

In the passage beyond misery of one of the select,By cremating what remains of the body(His/her contaminated material remainder),Two types of Bodily Images show up on the bones,Corresponding to the peaceful and wrathful Bodies.

For whoever tunes into the deity yogasVisualizing the forms of these two types of Spiritual Bodies,Images of both forms will manifest at death;Should both become evident in death,This indicates s/he will thus come to be possessed of the assurance

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Of the great originally pure essence,Without even having to pass onto the postdeath intermediate process.If the peaceful Bodies’ signs show up,It indicates that in five days s/he will see the truth,And dissolve into the expansive awakening of Buddhahood.

Should the wrathful Bodies’ sign show up,It indicates s/he will come to be freed in five instantsWithin the postdeath intermediate process of reality,O D≥a\kinê!28

The corresponding section in The Supreme Vehicle discusses theseimages in terms of their essence, classifications, causal impetus, location,and fruit.29 The opening description of the variety of images is identical topassages laying out the initial visionary appearances of Buddhas withindirect transcendence contemplation. Longchenpa then clearly specifiesthat these relics are to be understood as activated aspects of the visionary’sprimordial Buddha-nature, thereby supporting the direct transcendenceimaging of “truth” as a body-based process of unfolding rather than amore epistemological process of correspondence:

Their essence is the manifestation of the deities’ appearance—asingle Body, a half body, Mother-Father consort pairs, a cluster ofdeities, a full man ≥d ≥ala, or their concordant images of stu \pas, “wheels,”vajras, precious items, lotuses, crossed vajras, swords and so forth.Manifesting from the sustained practice of the developing and perfect-ing phases of tantric meditation are letters, hand emblems, half Bodiesand single Bodies, while from the complete perfection of these twomeditative phases there manifests the pairs in sexual union, clusters ofdeities and the man ≥d ≥alas . . .

Their causal impetus is twofold. Their essential cause is the pri-mordial presence of the luminously radiant Spiritual Bodies and “bones”within all sentient beings, whereas in the current context a practitioner’svivid visualization in the developing and perfecting meditative phasesacts as the causal impetus of these images’ direct manifestation, as theyemerge out of his/her body’s vibrant energies being thus concentrated.When merely latently present these Spiritual Bodies are unripened intheir own being, while when directly manifest the ripened Spiritual Bod-ies and bones appear clearly . . .

In terms of location, they predominantly show up on the skull orbackbone. Although they may show up elsewhere as well, for Great Per-fection practitioners these Bodily images emerge via experientially tun-

DAVID GERMANO66

ing into radiant light, and thus are taught as emerging from these twolocations (where our internal radiant light is especially concentrated) . . .

In terms of corresponding meditative fruit, the manner of theseimages’ manifestation indicates the sequencing in this practitioner’sattainment of freedom. If both peaceful and wrathful images emerge,when in dying the practitioner’s consciousness dissolves into the sky,s/he becomes free right when this sky arises (original purity’s naturalradiation), and thus is expansively awakened without passing throughthe postdeath intermediate process of reality. Thus these practitioners areincluded within the category of those who become freed within this verylife, since their freedom takes place in the latter portion of the processduring which they become separated from their current life’s physicalbasis (i.e., death).

If the image of a peaceful Body emerges, as soon as this vision (i.e.,of the “sky”) ceases, the self-presencing visions of radiant light willdawn and the practitioner will become free in five contemplation-days.“Contemplation-days” refers to contemplation’s stability, which can beshort or long depending upon the practitioner.

If the image of a wrathful Body emerges, after death “the guidingrope of the Adamantine Hero” emerges from the practitioner’s eyes, andas the self-presencing of sounds, lights, and rays manifests s/he will befreed in five instants.30

This is followed by a long discussion of how those freed within orig-inal purity without passing through the postdeath intermediate processcannot emit Emanational Bodies right then and there, though this abilityemerges subsequently as the ground’s spontaneous dynamics reawakenwithin the empty energy of enlightenment. This is opposed to those prac-titioners who become freed within the postdeath intermediate process ofreality, who can emit emanations in the forms of the six types of livingbeings following twenty-one days of contemplation, which is a direct con-tinuation of the energy of his/her style of awakening:

The Adamantine Hero’s Heart-Mirror says: “If the image of apeaceful Body should manifest, after death as soon as this vision (i.e.,of the “sky”) ceases, the practitioner gains stability, though s/he cannotemit Emanational Bodies (sprul sku, Sanskrit nirma \n ≥aka \ya). If theimage of a wrathful Body should manifest, (the practitioner) gains sta-bility right there, and is able to emit Bodies of Emanations in twenty-one days.”

The practitioner for whom a peaceful Body-image manifestsfocuses on the path of radiant light, thus becoming directly free within


the site of original purity. In this way, the self-presencing emanationsdon’t emerge from the intermediate process—since this site of originarypurity is devoid of the emanations’ appearances, it is not a dimensionwhere the self-presencing emanations manifest from your own side.However, since that dimension is the pure grounding potential of theEnjoyment (longs, Sanskrit sambhoga) and Emanational Spiritual Bod-ies which manifest to and for others (“other-presencing”), enlightenedactivity for others’ welfare does eventually emerge in dependence uponit. Even so it must be recognized that original purity in itself is devoidof any manifest dimension of emanations.31

When the practitioner for whom a wrathful Body-image manifestsfrees him/herself through recognizing the triad of sounds, lights and rays(of the postdeath reality intermediate process) as self-presencing, s/heremains for a while in the manifestation of the spontaneously dynamicground-presencing, and thus completes twenty-one days of contempla-tion. Subsequently the six types of living beings’ experiences manifestthrough the impure gateway of self-presencing cyclic existence, whilethrough the pure gateway Emanational Bodies diffuse forth in forms cor-responding to those requiring spiritual training, and thus efficaciouslyact for others’ welfare. Like a magical illusion acting for illusory ends,these self-presencing emanations efficaciously act within this self-pres-encing world. Having emitted emanations, it is necessary that prior tothat you have already taken hold of freedom, since if you are not freeyourself there is no way any benefit to others can derive from a personwho has not perfected his/her own spiritual telos. These emanations areexplained as resembling shooting stars, and while they in fact endurelonger than that, are uncertain in duration.

Having erred as to this discussion of whether or not the freed prac-titioner is able to emit emanations (in a “self-presencing” style rather than“other-presencing” style), many fret over whether or not a Buddha is ableto act for others’ spiritual benefit following his/her expansive awaken-ing—this is a major mistake. In the Great Vehicle (theg chen, Sanskritmaha\ya\na), it is not believed that there are any Buddhas that once expan-sively awakened don’t or can’t act for others’ benefit, and in fact that isimpossible. The significance of whether or not emanations can be emit-ted is as follows: those who are freed directly within original purity with-out pausing within the postdeath intermediate process’s manifestation ofthe gateways to spontaneous presence, lack emanations, since the impure“training fields” of emanations don’t manifest at this time. If, once thegateways to spontaneous presence subsequently remanifest, the enlight-ened ones didn’t act for others’ welfare by means of emitting emanationswithin these impure appearances, cyclic existence’s appearance would

DAVID GERMANO68

not subside. Thus to perfectly complete the Buddhas’ activities whichwere not perfected in self-presencing fashion (i.e., right out of the veryforce of awakening, as opposed to subsequently emerging due to extrin-sic considerations such as disciples’ needs), emanations are then dis-patched by these newly enlightened ones. Having emptied out cyclicexistence through these emanations’ efficacious action, again these man-ifest emanations proceed to the site of original purity as they dissolveinside the eight gateways to spontaneous presence. Since this site of orig-inal purity is beyond manifestation or non-manifestation, the individualthree Spiritual Bodies are not directly differentiated within it aside fromits being their pure source potential. Thus you should understand the wayin which once the ground-presencing dawns externally out of its dimen-sion, the benefiting of others comes about.32

BONES

Literally the honorific form of bone, gdung also signifies “heritage” or“lineage” (the bone connection), or the “remains” of a dead person (sincebones survive the decay or burning of flesh and tissue). However, in addi-tion to signifying “bodily remains,” in the present context it refers to tinyluminous spheres filled with color found amidst the cremated remains ofa saint. The sense of “heritage” or “descendants” is present in the sensethat these derive from one’s affinity with the individual Buddha familiesand embody their energy. In addition they are the “progeny” or effect ofone’s spiritual endeavors in this life, which culminates in a death thatgives birth to “bones,” earthquakes, and so forth, as well as the subsequentlimitless display of enlightened activity.

The term translated below as “precious (relic) spheres” (ring bsrel,Sanskrit óarêra), often translated into English as “relics,” appears to havetwo senses etymologically: “multiplying long afterwards” and “to hold,keep or revere for a long time.” The former sense is connected to beliefthat these spheres physically divide and multiply long after their initialemergence, while the latter sense would appear to indicate that these areitems of enduring value. In colloquial Tibetan, the term is used to refer tosuch minute spheres rather than the general bodily remains and is usedwith the verb to descend or happen (‘babs). This distinction is the basis ofthe story I cite above concerning how some Tibetan lamas were dismayedby Western Buddhists claiming to possess “precious relic spheres” but infact having only “bones.”

The Blazing Relics Tantra classifies the “bones,” these tiny spheresthat emerge from the cremated remains of a saint, as fivefold in dependence


upon the five Buddha “families” (rigs). Correlating this to Longchenpa’sdiscussion of Buddha-nature in The Treasury of Words and Meanings’ thirdchapter with its emphasis on the five “families,” this again emphasizes howthese signs are simply the manifestation of indwelling forces signified as“Buddhas.” The five are named with evidently Tibetan transmutations ofthe standard Sanskrit term for relics, óarêra:

Shariram is the bones of the Blissful Ones’ familyAnd likewise BariramIs the bones of the adamantine family.

Churiram is the precious family’s bones,And seriram is the lotus family’s.

Similarly Nyariram is the activity family’s bones.33

Longchenpa characterizes the tantra’s following detailed explanationas indicating these bones’ individual colors, size, causal substance, andlocations. The specificity of bodily location echoes the very specific loca-tions indicated for the mind, gnosis, Reality Body (dharmaka \ya), anduniversal ground (a \laya) in the fourth chapter of The Treasury of Wordsand Meanings. In addition to such detailed mapping out of the bodybeing a strong evocation of the physical inherence of the “Buddha”within all life, it illustrates how the entire spectrum of philosophicalinquiries pursued elsewhere in abstract language is additionally thoughtout through the detailed medium of the body’s interiorities and capacities.From the same tantra:

(i) Shariram is a lucent white,A lustrous sphere with shining colorThe size of a single pea.

It ripens from the vibrant quintessence of boneAnd thus condenses into a sphere,Emerging from the head of one who has actualized the path’s

meditative techniques.

(ii) Bariram is a dark blueThe size of a white mustard grain,Or single small pea.

It is the concentration of warmth’s vibrant quintessenceAnd emerges from the space between the ribs,O D ≥a\kinê!

DAVID GERMANO70

(iii) Churiram is yellow in color,The size of a mustard seed, and the vibrant quintessence of blood;It emerges on top of the liver.

(iv) Seriram is a lucent red,Also a mere mustard seed in size;It is synthesized from the concentration of bodily elements,And emerges from the kidneys of the fortunate one,O D≥a\kinê!

(v) Nyariram is an emerald green,The size of a mustard seed with radiant color;From the vibrant quintessence of cognition,It emerges atop the lungs.

All of these are unified in a general spherical shape,And have a depth-hue of the five colors.34

Longchenpa characterizes these “bones” as indestructible and con-trasts them to another type of minute sphere that emerges in the crematedremains, which he labels “precious (relic) spheres.” These are liable todestruction by the elements, and my own experience among contemporaryTibetan communities is that while the former are extremely rare, these lat-ter are a quite common phenomenon. Longchenpa interprets the latter asa sign indicating the practitioner has found respite within a pure land ofemanations following death. He cites The Blazing Relics Tantra thus:

Similar to these bonesAre the subtle and fine “precious (relic) spheres,”Which are a mere sesame seed or dust mote in size,And are liable to destruction by the elements;Their presence indicates the deceased practitioner has gone to the

pure land of emanations.

Bones in contrast cannot be destroyed by anyone at all,And with this hardness impervious to all fear,All these practitioners attain the fearless expansive awakening of

Buddhahood.35

In prefacing the first citation in The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle,Longchenpa again describes these as a manifestation of a primordiallypresent Buddha-nature inherent in all living beings. Thus these passageson relics not only legitimize such rhetorical assertions, but also are them-selves granted a philosophical significance:


Since in general all living beings are primordially expansivelyawakened, the nature of the Buddhas’ five spiritual affinities is presentwithin them in both an individualized and non-individualized fashion.However the affinity and sustaining life-force of their (particular) Bud-dha-body is not ripened into the five bones and thus is only a latent pres-ence. The attuned practitioner ripens them into direct manifestation bytraining on the path of the radiant light nucleus, and by one of this quin-tet (shariram and so on) thus emerging in your death, you will be freedwithin your particular spiritual family.36

In followup remarks37 Longchenpa clarifies that the particular Buddhafamily manifesting in a practitioner’s bones indicates that in the postdeathintermediate process of reality the practitioner will see the Body corre-sponding to his/her own spiritual family and thus become free as s/he isenlightened within that Buddha’s pure land. In this way, whether one typeof “bone” or all five types together manifest in a person’s remains follow-ing death, it is a sign indicating that the practitioner will become free as aBuddha of that familial lineage in his/her vision of the five families’ man-dalic cluster.

The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle indicates that the color corre-spondences (based on these bones embodying the five Buddha families)are for the “peaceful bones,” while the color correspondences for the“wrathful bones” are given from The Self-Arisen Tantra as follows:38

shariram is a lucent white, churiram is a black-blue, bariram is a burntyellow, nyariram is a dark purple, and panytsaram (corresponding to seri-ram) is a dark red-green. He also cites39 The Adamantine Hero’s Heart-Mirror to the effect that the color blue corresponds to being perfectlyawakened within Illuminating One’s (Vairocana) pure realm, the colorwhite to that of the Adamantine Hero (Vajrasattva), the color yellow tothat of Precious Matrix (Ratnasambhava), the color red to that of Limit-less Illumination (Amita\bha), and the color green to that of the EfficaciousOne (Amoghasiddhi); multicolored bones signify proceeding to the site ofthe five Spiritual Bodies’ spontaneous presence.

As to their respective sizes, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle40

says that the shariram are the size of a “mon” pea (i.e., from the regionssouth of central Tibet), which is equivalent to the size of a white pea. Theothers are as big as a white mustard seed, or a small pea, and are lustrous,condensed, and spherical. As for the “causal impetuses” described here,The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle identifies these as relating to the“peaceful bones,” while the “wrathful bones” are specified from The Self-Arisen as deriving from the following quintessences:41 shariram from the

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gray matter of the skull, churiram from blood’s vibrant quintessence, bari-ram from the joints’ vibrant quintessence, nyariram from marrow’svibrant quintessence, and panytsaram from the body’s four elements’vibrant quintessence.

Finally, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle42 says that with thepeaceful bones the deceased is free within the site of the spiritual familyascertained to be his/her own particular manifestation, while with thewrathful bones s/he obtains respectively the Reality Body, the EnjoymentBody, the Emanational Body, the Body of Efficacious and MeaningfulManifest Enlightenment, and the Body of Unchanging Adamantine Real-ity. Thus in the latter list Longchenpa has correlated the five as given inThe Self-Arisen to the standard enumeration of five Spiritual Bodies—TheSelf-Arisen specifies that with shariram you obtain the unborn, with churi-ram the efficacious and meaningful (also translatable as the EfficaciousOne), with bariram the Enjoyment Body, with nyariram the EmanationalBody, and with panytsaram the adamantine reality itself.

The difference between the bones and “precious (relic) spheres” isdealt with at length in The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle.43 The precious(relic) spheres are spherical and possess different combinations of the fivecolors. As to their causal impetus, they emerge from the condensation ofthe white and red quintessences and the vibrant quintessence of flesh,bones, warmth, and breath, whereas the “bones” emerge from the utterquintessence of these vibrant quintessences. As for the location wherethey develop and emerge, it is between the body’s joints or between itsflesh and skin. As for the location of their ripening, since they exist in allthe bones, flesh, and skin, they subsequently emerge from all over. In par-ticular there are four types: those emerging from the flesh, skin, andbones; those emerging from the blood, lymph, and quintessence; thoseemerging from warmth; and those emerging from breath. The correspond-ing colors are white, red-yellow, red, and green-blue.

As for the fruit of the precious (relic) spheres, fortunate ones whohave meditated on the “heart-essence” teachings will find respite in thepure land of natural emanations, while for others the effect is uncertain.Some will be born in high rebirths, some will be born in miserablerebirths, and so forth. This is because they can also manifest in ordinaryliving beings, birds, dogs and other animals, evil people, and virtuousteachers overly given to intellectual pursuits. The difference betweenthe precious (relic) spheres of an ordinary individual and those of aBuddha is that the latter are extremely vibrant and clear, while the for-mer are not, the latter possess the five lights, while the former lack


them, and the latter are the tree of enlightenment, while the former aremerely its leaf. Finally, if it is hoped that precious (relic) spheres willbe retrieved from a cremated body, then it is important not to overdo theburning—unlike “bones,” the precious (relic) spheres will be destroyedby too much exposure to the heat.

LIGHTS

Light is at the heart of the Seminal Heart system. A distinctive descriptionof odd shapes of light gradually forming into pure lands of Buddhas is atthe heart of its innovations in cosmogony, contemplative practices, andpostdeath theory. Thus the manifestation of various patterns of light as aclassic sign of saintly death is described in terms directly drawn from thatcontext. Longchenpa classifies lights into encircling walls, vertical pillars,and horizontal beams in accordance with The Blazing Relics Tantra:

Light has three aspects:For whomever light-walls of encircling hoopsEmerge in the wake of their cremation,This person will attain the definitive fruit.Within the first part of the postdeath intermediate process

Should pillars of light emerge,Without the intermediate process manifesting, this personIs expansively awakened into Buddhahood in an instant.If the light manifests in horizontal beams,At the end of the postdeath intermediate processS/he will attain manifest enlightenment.44

The Supreme Vehicle discusses light in terms of its essence, causalimpetus, divisions, and fruit:

Light’s essence is the natural radiance of the five colors. Its causal impetus: light is summoned forth at the time of passing

away (indicating both transcendence and death) through the conjunctionof the dyadic natural radiation deriving from the practitioner’s experien-tial tuning into his/her internal vibrant elements and awareness.

As for its internal classifications, it can be seen as the triad of ver-tical pillars, horizontal beams, and encircling hoops of light, or alterna-tively this light is found in the manner of a staircase leading into thesky, and in its arriving at the sky’s center it manifests as a luminous cir-cular house.

DAVID GERMANO74

As for the corresponding fruit it indicates, if the light emerges inencircling hoops, you will be free in the first intermediate process. If itemerges like vertical pillars leading you into the sky, you will be freewithout proceeding through the intermediate process of reality by directlypassing to original purity. If it is beams of light, the practitioner will befree during the final intermediate process. If staircases of light are foundaround the deceased’s body, house, or crematorium’s walls, in seven daysof contemplation s/he will become free in the four unified primordialgnoses (a phase of the postdeath visions explained in the tenth chapter ofThe Treasury of Words and Meanings). If the light emerges like a lumi-nous house, s/he will be free in five days at the manifestation of “clus-ters” of deities (also a phase in the postdeath visions). . . .

Here also when the ground’s spontaneous presence manifests, theenlightened one radiates forth emanations. In this external diffusion ofemanations from within its range for the benefit of sentient beings in theworlds’ ten directions, their welfare is actualized by two forms of ema-nation in the “training environments” (i.e., our impure worlds being“fields” where living beings need, and may receive spiritual teach-ings)—emanations as self-presencing reflection-forms corresponding tothe six types of livings beings, and emanations as other-presencing (seeabove) self-characterized concrete-forms corresponding to the six typesof living beings.45

My translation emphasizes the architectural imagery of light in thesevisions, terminology drawn straight from the tradition’s descriptions of avisionary experience of light flowing from the internal divinity of theBuddha-nature to gradually pervade the sky in the form of pure lands.46

Longchenpa’s interpretation is explicit, describing the lights of a saintlydeath as an exteriorization of inner divine light that echoes the explosionof cosmogonic light as well as its manifestation in the contemplative prac-tice of “direct transcendence” (see figure 3.2).

SOUNDS

The odd sounds marking a saintly death are interpreted in terms of theSeminal Heart’s distinctive and unusually strong concern for sound, evi-dent in its core tantra, The Tantra of Unimpeded Sound, which intro-duces motifs relating to sound not found elsewhere in esoteric Bud-dhism.47 Longchenpa divides these funerary sounds in accordance withtheir particular direction and aural quality,48 citing The Blazing RelicsTantra as follows:


76

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If the sound is particularly resonantIn a spot near to the eastern directionFrom the resting place where s/he has passed away,This practitioner is of the adamantine family.

Likewise if in the southern direction,The sound indicates a manifestation of the family of

preciousness,While if in the west, it is thus the lotus family.

In the north, it is the family of action,And similarly to the zenith (above) it is the family of the realized

(tatha\gata).

The nature of such sound isThat it can be distinguished as peaceful or wrathful—There is roaring and humming, a staccato of sharp jangling

sounds,And a smooth flow of long mellifluous sounds respectively.

If the death is marked by such sounds,It indicates the deceased has obtained the fruitOf the Spiritual Body of Complete Enjoyment.49

The Supreme Vehicle discusses sound in terms of its essence, divi-sions, causal impetus, and fruit. In so doing it emphasizes the peaceful andwrathful dualism so pervasive of the tradition’s iconography, in additionto the fivefold Buddha family emphasized in the preceding. These alsodirectly echo the description of sound in direct transcendence and post-mortem visions of internal Buddhas emerging out of the body:

Sound’s essence is resonance in the auditory faculty. Though soundcan be classified into melodious, discordant, and neutral types, in thiscontext there is said to be two: the drum roll of the peaceful deities, along and smooth flowing sound, and the thunder clap of the wrathfuldeities, fierce and short, which can also be expressed as “humming” and“roaring” sounds respectively. As to its impetus, in general sound’s cau-sation is said to stem from the condition of two things striking againsteach other in space’s openness, while here it emerges via the causalimpetus of obtaining meditative stability.

As for the fruit it indicates, the practitioner attains the Spiritual Bodyof Enjoyment, and the diffusion of Emanational Bodies from within it.Furthermore, by the long, smooth flowing humming the practitioner


attains stability regarding the peaceful Bodies in seven days of contem-plation, while by the short and fierce staccato of roaring s/he is freed interms of the wrathful Bodies in fourteen days. The five spiritual familiesapply to both of these (peaceful and wrathful), and the examination of thecharacteristics indicating which of the five spiritual families the practi-tioner becomes free in is as follows. If the sound resonates to the east ofthe deceased practitioner’s residence or the place where his/her corpsehas been carried and cremated, s/he accomplishes expansive awakeningin the adamantine family; the south indicates the preciousness family; thewest indicates the lotus family; in the north the action family, and soundemerging from above indicates the realized ones’ family.50

EARTHQUAKES

The final sign of saintly death is the ancient motif of earthquakes (sa g.yo).Since the term for “earth” is the same used in describing stages (sa, San-skrit bhu\mi) of realization, it enables a word play: the earth quaking (g.yo)marks the visionary’s impelling (g.yo) him/herself to a new spiritual level.Longchenpa thus interprets earthquakes in terms of very specific stages ofrealization attained by the deceased. In The Treasury of Words and Mean-ings, he simply cites The Blazing Relics Tantra:

The individual for whom earthquakes emergeObtains the “spiritual level” of a ListenerAt the same time of his/her being divested of breath.

Likewise if in three days after deathThe earthquake comes to pass,S/he attains the level of a Self-Awakened One.

If it emerges in six days,S/he enters the level of an “Awakening Hero/ine” (Sanskrit

bodhisattva).O D ≥a\kinê!

Should the earthquake come to passIn nine days,S/he will be able to enjoy at his/her own pleasureThe status of “the spiritually aware” (rig ‘dzin, Sanskrit

vidya\dhara).

For the one with the fortune of earthquakes appearing,The fruit of expansive awakening will not manifest,

DAVID GERMANO78

But rather s/he will continue for a long time to train in and remain within

The spiritual levels and paths.51

The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle discusses these earthquakes interms of their essence, causal impetus, internal classifications, and corre-sponding fruit:

Its essence revolves around the lower foundation of the physicalenvironment, which supports and sustains living beings. Its causal impe-tus is that the deceased individual’s potency incites winds, which thuscause the earth to quake. As to its internal classifications, there is thequartet of an earthquake, an intense earthquake, an even greater earth-quake, and a widespread major earthquake.

As to its corresponding fruits, earthquakes are a sign marking com-mon people who belong to the family of Spiritual Heroes and so forth52 anddie while training in the preliminaries (for direct transcendence contempla-tion) though they haven’t seen the gateway of this (probably referring todirect transcendence visions), or the life-transference (i.e., death) of thoseinvolved in practices for the intellect wrapped up in objective references,53

or even those ordinary individuals who wear “liberation upon wearing”amulets with aspiration and diligence towards the spiritual paths.54

Furthermore, if the earthquake occurs in the center of that area assoon as the deceased is without breath, that practitioner attains the visionof a Listener’s “white exalted level,” and then continues to train in itsseven subsequent stages—with the stages of “spiritual affinity,” “theeighth,” “vision,” “diminishment,” “realizing completion,” “listener,”and “self-awakened.” These are the eight levels of the inferior path.55

If the earthquake takes place from the eastern direction three daysafter death, the practitioner has attained the level of a Self-AwakenedOne, with its four successive stages of neophyte, once-returner, non-returner, and vanquisher.

If the earthquake is in the south within six days, the practitioner hasgained the level of a Spiritual Hero. Herein are the ten causal spiritualstages of Intense Joy, the Stainless, the Illuminating, the Radiant, theDifficult to Refine, Coming to the Fore, Dispersion Far Away, the Unwa-vering, Superior Wisdom, and Clouds of Spirituality, as well as theeleventh fruitional stage of Universal Light.

If the earth should quake nine days after death from the zenithtogether with a little sound, the practitioner has attained the stage of theSpiritually Aware, which has the four stages of maturation, mastery oflife span, the great seal, and spontaneous presence.


Furthermore, since these individuals will not quickly attain theirrespective definitive spiritual fruits, it is said that from this attainment ofthe first in their particular succession of meditative stages up until theysuccessfully master those stages’ total perfection, these practitionersremain a long time in the intervening period.56

RELICS AND BUDDHA-NATURE

These accounts of relics must thus be understood within the tradition’sown broader discursive architecture. Following The Seventeen Tantras,Longchenpa’s Treasury of Words and Meanings uses a structure of “elevenadamantine topics” to present the Seminal Heart’s system. (1) A cos-mogonic “ground” is presented as a primordial pure potentiality, which isan absence brimming with possibility. It ceaselessly gives rise from itsinterior self-contained potentiality to exteriorized actuality in the ground-presencing, which is described in terms of traditional Buddhist represen-tations of pure lands. Two paths open up in this process, the first of whichis the liberation of a primordial Buddha Samantabhadra upon self-recog-nizing this process, involving dissolution of all structures. (2) The secondpath is the process of straying and pollution as the distorted worlds of suf-fering and alienation materialize out of that formless primordiality via alack of such self-recognition. This process is characterized by the fabrica-tion of rigid laws and structures. (3) The ground’s primordial purity andvirtual potentiality continue to pervade all living beings with its fivefolddynamics as an “enlightened nucleus” or “Buddha-nature.”

(4) Longchenpa next turns to the location of primordial gnosis withinone’s body/mind and its relationships to one’s ordinary distorted psychicactivity. This consists of differentiating between two linked pairs—theBuddhas’ Reality Body (chos sku, Sanskrit dharmaka\ya) and primordialgnosis (ye shes, Sanskrit jña\na), in contrast to ordinary beings’ universalground (kun gzhi, Sanskrit a\laya) and mind (sems, Sanskrit citta). Thefocus is on an ongoing fluid intelligence that constitutes, yet remains dis-tinct from, ordinary existence. We thus have a psychological version of thesource-derivative opposed pair first presented cosmologically in the firsttwo topics. (5) The fifth topic is subtle body theory, that is, tantric physi-ology presenting the pathways via which gnosis operates within one’s ownbody. This functions to internalize the pseudo-cosmogonic account oftopic one within ordinary experience and the human body.

(6) Four gnostic lamps are the operators enabling this inner gnosis tomanifest through the “gateways” of the practitioner’s eyes into the external

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space surrounding him/her, where s/he can contemplatively tune into itsinner significance. The forms gnosis takes externally are pure lands. (7) Thisconcerns the objective sphere or “expanse” (dbyings, Sanskrit dha\tu) inwhich this gnostic energy exteriorizes itself and the key points of contem-plation with regard to this expanse as well as the awareness or “intelligence”(rig pa) that is an inherent quality of the expanse. (8) The eighth topic pre-sents the specific contemplative techniques and systems that will ultimatelyenable one to reexperience the primordial grounds and thus eradicate cor-poreality and neurosis. These practices culminate in the spontaneous visionof pure lands known as “direct transcendence” contemplation.

(9) This describes the various external and internal psycho-physicaland visionary signs that should be used as indicators informing one’sprogress in deepening contemplative realization that stays on track towardthe goal of ultimate enlightenment, as well as a discussion of relics stem-ming from the death of a saint. (10) This is an analysis of the phases indying and postdeath “intermediate processes” with an eye toward the spe-cial opportunities they afford for spiritual enlightenment. (11) Finally,Longchenpa discusses the nature of the activities and gnosis issuingdirectly from the ground (i.e., a “Buddha”) as the ultimate climax of theentire process.

While by just looking at its discussion in The Blazing Relics we coulddoubt the centrality of this expanded notion of relics within the overall tra-dition, its placement here dispels any such doubts. In fact contemporaryNyingma lamas frequently stress that particularly striking examples ofrelics or bodily based marks can only stem from the practice of direct tran-scendence, a practice unique and central to the Seminal Heart. Followingthe lengthy eighth chapter devoted to Seminal Heart contemplation,Longchenpa turns to a discussion of the types of experiences and psycho-physical effects or capacities generated by those procedures. The turntoward issues of death at the chapter’s end then naturally leads into thetenth chapter on postmortem intermediate process theory and praxis,which is presented as being a supplement to the preceding two chaptersfor those practitioners unable to bring their contemplation to fruition priorto death. While the overarching term for the ninth chapter is thus literally“signs” or “marks” (rtags), it simultaneously constitutes an expansion ofthe notion of “relics” as the traces and signposts of spiritual realization.

The manifestation of the Buddha’s indicators manifesting in the prac-titioner’s body during this life and at death is intertwined with the system’soverall emphasis on Buddha-nature as the core of everyone’s physicalbeing (topic three). The pseudocosmogonic discussion of the ground and


its presencing (topic one) is an exteriorized dramatization of the Buddha-nature’s unfolding, a process with the two interpretative pathways ofSamantabhadra and sentient beings (topic three). This is then relocatedwithin the self-structuring interiority of a distinctively human space inthe subtle body discourse (topic four to five), an interiority that thus func-tions as the ultimate source of value and authority since the ground isidentified as the always potent Buddha. Given the strong emphasis on theBuddha-nature as life’s ongoing source and ordinary psycho-physicalstructures as its distortion, we could characterize the ordinary individualas conventionally the relics or “remains” of the Buddha. In other words,our lived bodies are both womb and tomb to the Buddha; they are the siteof both the pure lands and cyclic existences correlating to the environ-ments set up by the Buddha’s two types of absence—the divine absencederiving from the Buddha’s own retreat into the perpetual internally radi-ant (nang gsal) creative absence (med pa) of the Reality Body and themundane absence deriving from the nonrecognition and latency of thisforce in ordinary individuals.

Thus the third topic’s treatment of Buddha-nature concludes with anextended reverie on the human body as a temple, that is, the living Bud-dha’s natural setting; one of the main images of topic one is the “youth-ful-body-within-a vase,” evoking the still dynamic Buddha nowentombed within an obscuring funerary urn. Topics six through eight thenpresent the means by which one’s relationships to this interiority and itsstructuration can be reapproached. Two important themes runningthroughout this are absence and pure lands. The Buddha is understood asa continuing virtual presence with the moment of enlightenment (byangchub, Sanskrit bodhi) being a full dissolution of all structure or manifestactuality into the original purity (ka dag) of the internal expanse (nangdbyings, Sanskrit dha \tu). Yet at the same time this absence that is at thecore also gives birth always to a culture, represented as the mandalic ret-inues that constitute pure lands. In these contexts, the ninth topic of signsor relics, is powerful evidence of this indwelling presence of the Buddha-as-absence and the pure lands to which he inexorably gives rise. Theyalso function as signposts both to lead the practitioner into this evolvingnew configuration of experience and relationships and to invest specificTeachers with authority within these alternative pure cultures. The tenthtopic then explores in general the issue of reformulation that takes placein crucial periods of breakdown and collapse, while the eleventh topic isa meditation on the nature of the new pure land that comes into being asa result of all the preceding.

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It is of interest that the theme of the ultimate Buddha being a type ofcemetery in which sentient beings and Buddhas alike perish is a motif inseveral of the tantras in their presentations of the “view” of the Great Per-fection. For example, The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness:

I am the cemetery of all the Buddhas!The cemetery grounds of the unchanging exists in me.I am the locus of all sentient beings,Where their karmic propensities appear in deceptive bodily

forms.57

Subsequently:

The non-conceptual adamantine body itselfEmerges authentically also from your own body—The funerary grounds of the Buddhas are placedWithin sentient beings’ own bodies.

The yogi who understands thisWithin the sky of pure consciousness,Should take it into his/her experience with deepening attunemnt.58

Finally:

I am the great cemetery,The cemetery of all Buddhas and sentient beings!All the Buddhas of the three times emergeFrom my inspiring blessings.59

The Great Esoteric Unwritten Tantra:

The esoteric emotional distortions are my magical displays,Buddhas and sentient beings are my funerary grounds—I, the all creating, am a great intrinsically radiant manifestation.60

The Tantra of the Lion’s Perfect Dynamism:

If you “liberate” the Buddha and dispatch him to the cemetaryFor the sake of the manifestation of the three Enlightened BodiesThe realization of self-aware self-presencing will ensue. . . .

If you “liberate” all sentient beings simultaneouslyIn order to experience the dimension of insight,All appearances become empty.


If you kill yourselfIn order for compassion to be unceasing,You will meet with the object of self-awareness.61

The Garland of Precious Pearls Tantra:

Because it is adorned with the expanse of reality,The gnostic body of all the BuddhasIs the cemetary of all Buddhas and sentient beings.62

All of these passages make a consistent association of the death of theBuddha, and implicitly his relics, to the bodies of sentient beings. The pas-sages are all embedded within classic Great Perfection rhetoric expousinga negative theology of transcendence of formal structures and programs,even classic Buddhist ones. The rhetoric is also marked by the tendencyin radical forms of tantra to claim that transgression can free the mind,while extreme states of human being can also be the locus for extremerealizations of truth, as well as the use of coded language. Finally therhetoric is marked by lengthy celebrations of “I,” with the divine speakeressentially coterminous with reality—“I am the ancestor of all the Bud-dhas!”—and thus at the center of all existence, transcendent of all con-ventionalities, replete and omnipresent.

The significance of this motif is even clearer when we turn toanother passage in The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness, which devotesits eighty-fifth chapter to the subject of how the Buddha leaves behind“supports” (rten) for his Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind afterdeath.63 All of the Buddha Youthful and Mighty Hero’s retinue togetherpetition him, asking what will be those “supports” after he passes intonirvana. They ask for a detailed prophecy of events after his death, andthus the chapter is presented as an account of this Buddha’s legacy, hisenduring presence after his manifest absence. The support for his Bodyis the triad of “Bodies (images on bones), bones and precious (relic)spheres,” and he describes the fivefold nature of bones in detail.64 Thesupport for his Mind is the inner luminosity he leaves behind in the tsitta(i.e., subtle heart) of all living beings, while the support for his Speechis the more traditional body of canonical teachings he leaves behind,which culminate in the present tantra. He also says that his “manifesta-tions” (snang ba) will be in the eyes of all living beings as the blazinglamps one must gaze upon in direct transcendence praxis. While par-tially a traditional account of the enduring presence of the Buddha’sbody, speech, and mind as his postnirvana legacy, it also makes very

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clear the intimate identification of the relics of the Buddha with the Bud-dha-nature contained within our body’s interior.

This focus on the Buddha as an absence that is productive of presencepoints to a valorization of the unarticulated other that underlies all articu-lation of self, whether construed as focal modes of attention and the organ-ism’s unconscious processes, community life and its organization, or thehermeneutical play of reason and the principle of reason.65 Thus concep-tions of presence and absence are more complex than notions of “true” or“imagined” presence mitigating “actual” absence. In the Seminal Hearttradition, absence is instead seen as laced with intelligence (rig stong) andprofoundly active when one has the wisdom to leave it in itself as the in-visible, without feeling compelled to replace it with real or imagined pres-ence. In this way this indwelling absence gives rise to mandalically pat-terned visual images that are its reflection (gdangs), which the visionarycan perceive in direct sensory immediacy (mngon sum); when listened toinstead of looked for, this absence emerges as the Buddha’s Reality Body“without face or hands” (zhal phyag med), which speaks in strange voicesyielding the literary equivalent of glimpsed pure lands. When one lets go(cog zhag), the Buddha emerges as a radically active agent within thewomb/tomb of one’s body, not a vague potential or the result of painstak-ingly constructive activity. With the qualification that the stupa or relicchamber has now become the human body, it echoes Schopen’s charac-terization of the relic as “a living presence animated and characterized bythe same qualities that animated and characterized the living Buddhas.”66

This is in fact the central dialectic of the Seminal Heart, between the invis-ible ground and visible worlds of appearances, a dialectic imaged by theBuddha’s absence as invisible being in contrast to a visible present, theBuddha’s visionary coming to light (snang ba) within the field (dbyings)opened up by contemplation in contrast to his ultimate dissolution backinto reality at the vision’s end. The ongoing tension between these oscil-lating relations between the visible and invisible is mediated by the humanbody, which in part explains the intense focus on physically locating everykey doctrinal facet: the “universal ground” within the aorta, the mindbetween the lungs and heart; the relics in the kidneys, liver, and elsewhere;the wrathful deities within the skull; or the ground-presencing within crys-tal channels within the body’s center.

Since the body also has social meaning and significance, these con-flicts over understanding of the body also inscribe cultural struggles, espe-cially when the ultimate authority in Tibetan culture, the figure of the Bud-dhas themselves, is what is at stake. Though this notion of indwelling


Buddha is all about absence and latency, paradoxically proof requires dis-crete material things. Thus along with the stress on the apophatic discourseof the ground, we find an emphasis on concrete signs of legitimization andauthority. In direct transcendence the pure land can be seen directly (mngongsum) with one’s own two eyes naturally (rang bzhin gyis). Relics too offersuch physical evidence, from the letter A outlined in the tip of a nose to thesparkling spheres found in the funerary ashes of a saint.

The discussion of relics is thus closely intertwined with the Buddha-nature theory that forms the backbone of Seminal Heart thought. Through-out the tradition we find this constant focus on the Buddha as an activeagent similar in general to the continuing conception in Indian Buddhismof relics as a means of making the Buddha present again:67 “[T]he relicsare characterized by—full of—exactly the same spiritual forces and fac-ulties that characterize, in fact constitute and animate, the living Bud-dha . . . [;moreover,] the relic is not a part or piece of the departed Buddhathat is there in the chamber, but the Buddha himself who is wholly presentthere.” The literature stresses the literal living presence of the Buddha asthe premier active agent within all life, the spontaneous ground that givesrise to all of samsara and nirvana. Not only does this agent well up as avoice within refusing all efforts to quiet it, but physically it was believedto continually imprint marks on saints’ very flesh and bones and to giverise in death to small spheres, which would then continue to multiply inliving ferment long afterward. Thus this Buddha force can still shake one,light up one’s life, mark one’s bones, surge up from within—earthquakes,lights, bodies, bones, and relics.

PROVISIONAL CONCLUSIONS

I have tried to present systematically one of the most important Tibetan lit-erary traditions with regard to classifications of relics. I have shown howrelics are treated within a broader topic of signs of contemplative practice,as well as how they are integrated into the mainstream of a philosophicalsystem. The analysis and classifications of “relics” as powerful icons or liv-ing presences are deeply contextualized within the tantric contemplationsand theories that form its matrix. Focusing exclusively on relics as linger-ing physical influences or residues of a deceased saint, or even as makingpresent an absent Buddha/saint, can thus be misleading. The Seminal Hearttradition suggests an alternative strategy complementing the desire to makethe Buddha(s) present again, namely, to preserve and value the otherness ofthe Buddha’s absence precisely as the ongoing source of renewed vision.

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Important issues that I have not dealt with adequately at this pointinclude biographical discussions of how these groups were treating orexperiencing relics on the ground during this time period, as well as thelarger issue of material evidence for mysticism, around which a wholecult formed in the Nyingma tradition with the “treasure” (gter ma) move-ment. The latter involves such things as the omnipresent stone “chests”(sgrom bu) from which visionary documents are revealed, which are sim-ilar to stone relics containing the literary heart of saints. In addition, thetradition is driven by very complex notions of the body—the Buddha’smultiple bodies, subtle body discourse, embryogeny, and so on—andmore nuanced consideration of relics in this light is necessary. Finally, Ihave limited my treatment to the philosophical and contemplative mate-rials, but the Seminal Heart also includes an extensive body of narrativeliterature in which relics figure prominently.68 This final body of literatureis particularly interesting in its discussion of disembodied forces called“the three sources of the teachings” (bstan pa’i btsas gsum)—essentiallya flying statue, book, and vajra—which suggest that relics, statues, andso forth are not just the legacy of the historical Buddha but are them-selves originally generative forces that create Buddhas in their own right.Thus it may well be that in some systems relics precede Buddhas, how-ever paradoxical that may seem at first glance. However tentative myconclusions may thus be, the paper has both sketched out an alternativesignificance to “relics” and the Buddha’s absence in an important Bud-dhist tradition, and the importance of fleshing out seemingly discrete top-ics within their broader literary contexts, even if such contexts remain atpresent only the bare bones.

NOTES

1. See Yael Bentor, “On the Indian Origins of the Tibetan Practice of Deposit-ing Relics and Dha\ran≥ês in Stu\pas and Images,” Journal of the American Orien-tal Society 115, no. 2 (1995): 248–61; and idem, “The Content of Stu\pas andImages and the Indo-Tibetan Concept of Relics,” forthcoming.

2. See the discussion in David Germano, “The Funerary History of the GreatPerfection (rdzogs chen),” in The Journal of the International Association forTibetan Studies (volume one, forthcoming, see www.jiats.org).

3. The All-Creating King (kun byed rgyal po), ch. 17, in Tk 1:65.7–66.6 (seenote 8 for the sigla). This is translated in E. K. Neumaier-Dargyay, The SovereignAll-Creating Mind—the Motherly Buddha (Albany: State University of New YorkPress, 1992), 98–99. The translation here is my own.


4. See a description of similar rhetorical strategies in Chan in Bernard Faure,The Rhetoric of Immediacy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).

5. Guenther interprets this dyad in terms of “process and structure,” thoughhe ultimately interprets gnosis in terms of “process-structures.” See HerbertGuenther, From Reductionism to Creativity: rDzogs-chen and the New Sciences ofthe Mind (Boston and Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989).

6. Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, 87–95, and many other pas-sages.

7. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings (tshig don mdzod)(Gangtok, Sikkim: Sherab Gyaltsen and Khytense Labrang, 1983); and idem, TheTreasury of the Supreme Vehicle (theg mchod mdzod) (Gangtok, Sikkim: SherabGyaltsen and Khytense Labrang, 1983). All further citations will refer to thesetexts by the English titles for ease of reference by the nonspecialist.

8. The Seventeen Tantras (rgyud bcu bdun). These are located in most editionsof The Collected Tantras of the Ancients (rnying ma rgyud ‘bum), a canon exist-ing in different editions available at http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/collections/lit-erature/ngb (in www.thdl.org). I use abbreviations in the citations to signify edi-tions, followed by the volume and page numbers (i.e., Tk 4:43–45):

1. Tk (gting skyes ed., Thimphu, Bhutan: Jamyang Khytense Rinpoche, 1973).2. Tb (mtshams brag ed., Thimphu, Bhutan: National Library of Royal Gov-

ernment of Bhutan, 1982).3. Ab (a ‘dzom ‘brug pa ed., New Delhi: Sanje Dorje, 1973).

9. The Tantra of the Sun and Moon’s Intimate Union (nyi ma dang zla ba khasbyor ba rgyud), in Tb 12:491–560 and Ab 3:152–233.

10. Karmalingpa (Kar ma gling pa), Liberation through Hearing in the Inter-mediate State (Bar do thos grol) belongs to a larger cycle, The Profound Doctrineof Wisdom’s Natural Freedom (in Encountering) the Peaceful and WrathfulDeities (zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol) (Delhi: Sherab Lama, 1975–76).This has become well known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, such asKarmalingpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, trans. Francesca Freemantle andChogyam Trungpa (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 1987).

11. The Blazing Relics (sku gdung ‘bar ba), in Ab 3:15–151. Its three chapterstake place within a dramatic setting involving a dialogue between the TeacherVajra Holder (rdo re ‘chang, Sanskrit Vajradhara) and a D≥a\kinê.

12. As Martin indicates, this text deals with the particular issue of “signs ofsaintly death” rather than the general classifications of relics per se. See DanielMartin, “Crystals and Images from Bodies, Hearts and Tones from Fire: Points ofRelic Controversy from Tibetan History,” in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, ed. Ihara Sho\renand Yamaguchi Zuiho\ (Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji, 1992), 184.

13. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 160.1.

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14. Chapter 9 of Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings,411–437.4 corresponds to chapter 22 in Longchenpa, The Treasury of the SupremeVehicle, 2:356.1–399.1. The latter text is essentially an expansion of the formertext.

15. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 411.4–424.3 and427.6–433.6.

16. Ibid., 424.3–427.6.

17. Ibid., 433.6–437.4.

18. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 790.5 and Ab 120.2. It is cited byLongchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:358.5.

19. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:357.4–359.7.

20. Ibid., 2:358.2 ff.

21. Ibid., 2:361.4–7.

22. Ibid., 2:359.5 ff.

23. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 433.

24. The Tantra of the Adamantine Hero’s Heart-Mirror (rdo rje sems dpa’ sny-ing gi me long gi rgyud), in Tb 12: 193–245 and Ab 1:315–88. This specific cita-tion is in Tb 808.3 and Ab 142.4. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury of theSupreme Vehicle, 2:383.2. This passage provides a general outline for the ensuingdiscussion.



27. I would agree with Martin’s characterization of Tibetan relic cults empha-sizing “the miraculous nature of some of the relics in and of themselves” ratherthan “the wonder working power of the relics” (see Dan Martin, “Crystals andImages,” 183), though in many contexts this is definitely not the case. In the lat-ter contexts, relics themselves become active agents working wonders.

28. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 808.7 and Ab 143.2. It is cited byLongchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:383.6 and 384.6.


30. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 478.6, for adescription of these five. This “guiding rope” is discussed subsequently as “pathto the Adamantine Hero’s interior” (464.1)—in our present context the referenceis to the five-colored light-cord rather than the four-colored one.

31. Rather than the emanations being self-presencing out of the force ofenlightenment’s own dynamics, they are other presencing, impelled forth out ofempty potential by the needs and perspectives of others.




34. Ibid., Tb 810.3 and Ab 144.5. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury ofthe Supreme Vehicle, 2:388.4.

35. Ibid., Tb 811.2 and Ab 145.5. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury ofthe Supreme Vehicle, 2:390.1.

36. The corresponding section on “bones” is in Longchenpa, The Treasury ofthe Supreme Vehicle, 2:386–390.2.

37. Ibid., 2:386.7–387.2.

38. Ibid., 387.4–6.

39. Ibid., 387.2.

40. Ibid., 387.6–7.

41. Ibid., 388.1–3.

42. Ibid., 389.1–2.

43. Ibid., 389.2–390.2.



46. “Pillars” literally means “standing upright” (i.e., vertical rays of light),“walls” the “circumference,” though the term can refer to “walls” around a city,and “beams” the corbels, or the “ribs” of a tent (i.e., horizontal rays of light).These are discussed in detail within David Germano, Mysticism and Rhetoric inthe Great Perfection (forthcoming).

47. The Tantra of Unimpeded Sound (sgra thal ‘gyur rgyud), Tb 12:1–173 andAb1:1–205. For an example of the tantra’s distinctive practices regarding sound,see David Germano, “The Elements, Insanity, and Lettered Subjectivity,” in Reli-gions of Tibet in Practice, ed. Donald Lopez (Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1997), 313–34.




51. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 812.6 and Ab 147.4. It is cited byLongchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle 2:393.4.

52. This evidently signifies those who have taken the bodhisattva vows, gen-erated the altruistic desire for enlightenment, and so forth in their involvementwith the exoteric Mahayana teachings.

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53. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 313 ff, for adescription of these practices, which are subordinated to Seminal Heart practicesproper characterized as “for those to whose intellects awareness is self-manifest.”

54. These are amulets containing graphic representations of mandalas or scrip-tures believed to have the potency to grant liberation merely by “wearing,” thoughhere faith is described as activating them.

55. These represent the standard list of eight levels or grounds of spiritual pro-gression used to systematize the path of Hinayana, corresponding to the famous“ten stages” of a bodhisattva in Mahayana.


57. The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness (rig pa rang shar chen po’i rgyud),in Tb 11 323–696 and Ab 1:389–855. This specific citation is in ch. 34, Ab 546.

58. Ibid., ch. 51, Ab 640.

59. Ibid., ch. 78, Ab 785.

60. The Great Esoteric Unwritten Tantra (yi ge med pa’i gsang ba rgyud chenpo), in Tb 11:298–322 and Ab 2:215–44. This specific citation is in ch. 1, Ab 222.

61. The Tantra of the Lion’s Perfect Dynamism (seng ge rtsal rdzogs chen po’irgyud), in Tb 12:560–712 and Ab 2: 245–415). This specific citation is in ch. 8,Ab 346.

62. The Garland of Precious Pearls Tantra (mu tig rin po che phreng ba’irgyud), in Tb 12 304–93 and Ab 2:417–537. This specific citation is in ch. 4, Ab436.

63. The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness, ch. 85, in Tb 689.2–693.4 and Ab844.3–849.2.

64. Ibid., 848.

65. See, for example, the chapter entitled “Toward a Postmetaphysical Ratio-nality” in John Caputo, Radical Hermeneutics (Bloomington: Indiana UniversityPress, 1987), 209–35.

66. See Gregory Schopen, “On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception ofa Relic in the Inscriptions of Na\ga\rjunikon≥d≥a,” Journal of the American OrientalSociety 108, no. 4 (1988): 533.

67. Ibid., 532 and 535.

68. See my forthcoming Prophetic Histories of Buddhas, D≥a\kinês, and Saintsin Tibet from Princeton University Press.


Living Relics of the Buddha(s) in Tibet

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