Considering I read "the song of bulky magic" I cringed. Is the Tip Sutra a song of bulky "magic"? The definition of magic is "1 a : the use of system (as charms or spells) whispered to resist enchanting power quiet natural martial b : magic means or incantations 2 a : an extra special power or credence it appears that from a enchanting excavate b : whatever thing that seems to cast a spell : Amusement 3 : the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand." [fn. 2]
My connotations to the word "magic" don't be of the same opinion with the meaning and wisdom of the Tip Sutra. As I see it, enchanting powers are not part of the Tip Sutra. And for me, magic, equally not full as a enchanting power, is the third view of the word as what is done my magicians to take in people. Make-believe is illusion. The Tip Sutra is not a gospel or song of "bulky illusion." The Tip Sutra is one of the Prajna Paramita Sutras whose essential function is to decode the truth about illusion, about the made-up magic of the wizard floor the conceal, the cage draftswoman of the cage of illusions, as Buddha says in the Dhammapada, "I see you, oh Housebuilder..." As I see it, to protest the Tip Sutra "a song of bulky magic" is just the self-same as aptitude Buddha "a bulky magician." In Zen parlance this class of chat is very pleasant as a faux-insult, but necessity that type of Zen dub be recycled in the adaptation of a Buddhist sutra? I don't reflect on so.
And in fact, that Zen spoken exercise is not the view of the clause "magic" that Red Fade away is using. He is putting pushy the word "magic" as the legitimate adaptation of the Sanskrit clause "vidya". The Sanskrit for the passage (as translated by Red Fade away supercilious) is "tasmaj jnatavyam prajnaparamita mahamantro mahavidyamantro anuttaramantro asamasamamantrah",..." Appearing in are a few translations of the phrase "mahavidyamantro" that Red Fade away translates as "the song of bulky magic": "the Extraordinary Deduce Mantra" (by Zuio H. Inagaki), "the Mantra of bulky knowledge" (by Georg Feuerstein), "the song of bulky knowledge" (by Thupten Jimpal for the Dalai Lama's book on the Tip Sutra.), "the song of bulky knowledge" (by Donald S. Lopez, Jr.), "the spell of bulky knowledge" (by Edward Conze), "bulky well-behaved charm" (Dr. Michael E. Moriarty), "the song of bulky wisdom" (from Daylight magazine, December 1996/January 1997 by Theosophical College circles Persuade), "the bulky clear out song" (by Mu Soeng Sunim).
Appropriately in the supercilious examples the word "vidya" is rendered popular English as "knowledge" (supreme generally), "wisdom, well-behaved," and "clear out." The Chinese adaptation of the Sanscrit "vidya" (which is recycled in the Japanese mock-up of the Tip Sutra) uses the ideograph "ming2" (J. "myo", Unicode: U+660E) which system, " bright; light; robust clear; understandable; [v] clarify; understand; obvious; accepted intelligent; proficient eyesight; seeing skill day; daybreak; dawn [v] state; show; declare close (day or rendezvous)" [fn. 3.] That is why some translations relying on the structure "ming" bestow work out the word as "well-behaved, light", "clear out," or "robust" which are not found in the Sanskrit meaning of "vidya".
Appearing in is the Scent Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (CDSL) testimony [fn. 4] for "vidya":
2 vidyA f. knowledge (cf. %kAla-jAta-v-), science, learning, permit, philosophy RV. &c. 2. %AnvIkSikI, logic and metaphysics ; 3. %daNDa-nIti, the science of state-owned ; 4. %vArttA, practical arts, such as promotion, industry, tonic and Manu vii, 43 adds a fifth, viz. %Atma-vidyA, knowledge of type or of spiritual truth ; according to others, Vidya1 has fourteen divisions, viz. the four Vedas, the six Veda1n3gas, the Pura1n2as, the Mi1ma1n6sa1. Nya1ya, and Dharma or law [964,1] ; or with the four Upa-vedas, eighteen divisions ; others maintain 33 and even 64 sciences [= %kalAs or arts] ; Be subjected to is as well in person and celebrated with Durga1 ; she is even alleged to resist placid prayers and magical formulas) ; any knowledge whether true or untrustworthy (with Pa1s3upatas) Sarvad. ; a spell, incantation MBh. Ragh. Katha1s. ; magical dust MW. ; a class of magical shell (which placed in the chin is so-called to construct the power of rising to heaven) W. ; Premna Spinosa L. ; a mystical N. of the bit %i Up. ; a undersized buzz L. (cf. %vidyAmaNi). 1.
Here's the outlying enhanced little testimony in Capeller's Sanskrit-English Glossary [fn. 5]:
3 vidyA f. knowledge, learning, a handle or science, esp. sacred knowledge (threefold) or magic, spell.
So the word "vidya" primary system "knowledge learning," etc., with a slight meaning of magic or a magical dust or tool (e.g., spell or shell). The require arises, whether it is legitimate to use the inferior meaning of "magic" equally translating "vidya" in the Tip Sutra, or is using the word English word "magic" ascetically the alike of insincerely using the word Sanskrit word for "sexual intercourse" in a reverse adaptation popular Sanskrit of the English word "knowledge"? Confident "vidya" includes the meaning of "magic" just as the word knowledge includes the meaning of "sexual intercourse," but is that the within your rights meaning? Or has Red Fade away inadequately recycled a slight meaning in the liveliness of translation? Confident equally every other translator who has translated from the Sanskrit has recycled the word "knowledge" (or a alteration such as "wisdom") and anyplace the translator was not interpreting the Chinese mock-up with the structure ming2 and using a alteration of "clear out" or "well-behaved," impart is a strong pardon to require Red Pine's use of the word magic.
Here's Red Pine's explanation of his use of the word "magic":
The word "vidya" is less important from "vid", "to understand," and includes every class of mastery from science to practical arts to magic. Amid Buddhists, the clause "vidya" is habitually recycled as alike to the word song for instance it, too, encapsulates a presumption of mastery, nevertheless one that surpasses the ken of commonplace mortals. But "vidya" is as well haughty from song as referring to the mastery of female deities, stage song refers to that of male deities. Appropriately, the clause "mahavidya "(bulky master/magician) has become an celebrity for a choice of of India's supreme stylish goddesses, as well as Kali, Tara, Durga, Sarasvati, and Lakshmi (cf. "Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas", by David Kinsley, pp. 57-60). The pardon for such exercise is that mantras (or "vidyas") resist the power to construct origins to a new state of consciousness. Appropriately, each of these "mahavidyas" is contemporaneous with a punctilious form of spiritual insight and moral appears equally her song is chanted, just as a genie moral appears equally its magic kerosene lamp is rubbed. But not all mantras construct mount to such deities, moral mantras that grip bulky magic. In this casing, the song does not construct mount to Prajnaparamita but becomes her womb and consequently the excavate of the longest of all magic, the conclusion of a Buddha. [fn. 6]
From the time when it is true that the magical formulas or incantations are renowned as "Vidya", "Mantram", or "Dharani" the require explosive whether the use of "vidya" in the Tip Sutra is referring to such a magical found or to knowledge.
The CDSL has an testimony for "mahavidya" but it too refers basic to a "bulky science" with the lesser meanings of names for female deities or the plural of a class of personifications of the Shakti female energy of Shiva.
1 mahAvidyA f. a bulky or important science MW. ; N. of Lakshmi1 VP. (= %vizva-rUpo7pA7sanA Comm.) ; of Durga1 Ma1rkP. ; of a Mantra Cat. ; pl. of a class of personifications of the S3akti or female energy of S3iva (10 in quantity) RTL. 187 ; %-dIpa-kalpa m. %-prakaraNa n. %-prayoga m. %-sAra-candro7daya m. %-stava m. %-stotra n. N. of wks. ; %-ye7zvarI f. N. (conceivably a form of Durga1) Cat.
Fitting basic, is Red Fade away within your rights to be level with the clause "vidya" with "mastery" or "magic" reasonably than "knowledge"? As the CDSL indicates, "vidya" is recycled as an extensive clause that includes the twigs of learning and knowledge as well as for knowledge in the whole. Appropriately, impart are four, five, 14, 18, 33 or 64 "vidyas", depending on how knowledge is categorized or outlined in one's organization of learning. But impart is no impression that the affair of mastery of that knowledge is alleged in "vidya". Appropriately impart is no primary for Red Pine's preference that "mahavidya" system "bulky master" or "bulky magician" equally it actually system "bulky knowledge" or "bulky science" (cf. science system "having knowledge" and, neediness "vidya", comes from a look into meaning "to know").
If one presumes, neediness Red Fade away does, that "a song is neediness a magic kerosene lamp" and "if you rub it duly, its tenant genie bestow bring forward." [ fn. 7]. after that one may not be faulted too outlying for assuming that the use of "vidya" in the phrase great-"vidya"-mantra within is referring to magic reasonably after that knowledge. But is that a Buddhist boldness, or is it just the boldness of folk-superstition? The phrase great-"vidya"-mantra occurs as the display in a series of four phrases designating adjectives for the type of song that is the Tip Sutra: (1) "mahamantro" (great-mantra) (2) "mahavidyamantro" (great-knowledge-mantra) (3) "anuttaramantro" (unsurpassed-mantra) and (4) "asamasamamantrah" (unequaled-equal-mantra). When song is practicable in all four instances impart is no deep primary to take on that "vidya" system "magic" reasonably than "knowledge" considering impart are no magical connotations to the other three adjectives in the list, "bulky, incomparable," and "consummate equality."
More willingly, these three adjectives do resist time Buddhist connotations reasonably than folk-magic connotations. "Extraordinary" (maha) is of course the foundation stone adjective for the capacity of Buddhism, the Mahayana, that considers the Tip Sutra to be an essential teaching of the Buddha. "Beyond compare"(anuttara) is renowned in the phrase anuttara-samyak-sambodhi that epitomizes the meaning of Buddhism as "incomparable extensive unquestionable account." The clause asamasama meaning "totality to the consummate, consummate," or "unrivaled" is an adjective bring to a close in Buddhist exercise, for instance asamasama is one of the titles of the Buddha ("the unrivaled One, the unique One" or "the One of consummate course group") and his unrivaled account, so it hysteria as an adjective of the unrivaled song that expresses the essential pedestal of Buddha's account. [Zen Buddhists bestow see in asamasama, the Sanskrit title of Buddha as "a consciousness of consummate course group," the origin of the Chinese phrase "a consciousness of no course group" popularized by Zen master Linji Yixuan (Lin-chi I-hsuan; J. Rinzai Gigen) (d. 867 C.E.).]
So, stage the three other adjectives all resist time Buddhist references, is impart a primary for "mahavidya" to be interpreted as "bulky magic"? Categorical equally "mahavidya" is planned in Hindu Tantra it is full as "bulky wisdoms" or "bulky knowledges" and not "bulky magicians" and as such refers to the ten "wisdom" Goddesses not "magical" Goddesses. [fn. 8] All ten forms of the Mahavidyas, whether in her appeasing or spine-chilling aspect, are worshiped as avatars of the widespread Father appearing in the ten advice. So, even lacking behind the lack of repeat to "magic," impart is no primary to fasten or stock this Hindu mythological belief in goddesses, with its anthropomorphic representation, to the Buddhist exercise of "mahavidya" in a first Buddhist scripture neediness the Tip Sutra.
In Buddhist exercise "vidya" refers to knowledge or wisdom and "avidya" refers to obtuseness or unenlightenment. [fn. 9] "Vidya-carana-sampanna" or "Perfected in Deduce that even inanimate weight breathes with forthcoming promptness -- a Nature that is embryonic in all energy." [fn. 10] Give is no repeat to "magic" within, anyplace "vidya" is full in Buddhist tantra to deal with to the knowing promptness of the world.
The pen of folk "magic" popular Buddhism by way of aptitude the Tip Sutra a "song of bulky magic" is inoperably untrustworthy as a non-Buddhist interpretation. It is not that the Tip Sutra is illuminated as a tool of magic equally it is called a "song" but that the form of song itself is illuminated by Buddhism as an mug of wisdom by the Tip Sutra equally called a song of bulky knowledge. The "bulky knowledge" that is expressed in the Tip Sutra is not the folk magic of summoning a genie by resistance a magic kerosene lamp, but is the knowledge of stimulation to divine wisdom (prajnaparamita) expressed in the Tip Sutra as the insight that "Whatever thing has the aspects of emptiness: not arising not ceasing, not stained not flawless, not imperfect not showy."
The song of bulky knowledge that is included at the end of the Tip Sutra is "TADYATHA OM Read Read PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA" To view Buddhist use of this song as a magical tool to imagine up the conclusion of a Buddha is to go backside in the advance of holier-than-thou understanding that the Tip Sutra embodies. Mantras are not seldom appended to Mahayana sutras. The Indian affix Prasastrasena explains why the song is called "mahavidya": "While it readily understands and clears banned all the signs of superficial substance, it is the song of bulky knowledge." [fn. 11]
The eleventh century Indian affix Vajrapani, renowned as a master of the Tantric practice of mahamudra, wrote in his biased account on the Tip Sutra, "The song of the restitution of wisdom is not a song for reunion, climb, power, or rage. The same as is it? By very soon understanding the meaning of this song, the be concerned is not tied up." [fn. 12]
The practice of deity yoga that Red Fade away advocates in his book is a form of the tantric Mantra Sedan and is not planned part of the practice of the Perfection Sedan (paramitayana) of the prajnaparamita sutras. [fn. 13] Advocates of Mantra Sedan in general find out it to be superior to the Perfection Sedan, and conceivably vice versa. I, for one, find out the affair that the song is a magical incantation to be competent neediness the resistance of a magic kerosene lamp, as Red Fade away says, to be a non-Buddhist intrusion popular the Buddha Dharma. From gradation of view of One Sedan (Ekayana) Buddhism the image of a magic kerosene lamp can be an unscrupulous system of communicating to non-Buddhists or Buddhists of youthful understanding and soothing them to reduce with the Dharma guzzle the daydream of magical conjurations of the enchanting power and appearances of Buddha, but the literalization of such enchanting powers as magically less important, stage it may be the way of Vajrayana, is not the Zen way of the One Sedan.
As Zen foundation Linji alleged, even the enchanting powers of deities are karmic and subject. "They are not the six enchanting powers the Buddha possessed: inflowing the realm of forms lacking equally deluded by forms; inflowing the realm of burden lacking equally deluded by sounds; of smelling lacking equally deluded by smells; of passion lacking equally deluded by tastes; of carry lacking equally deluded by touch; and of mental configurations lacking equally deluded by mental configurations. Consequently the six fields of form, well-built, stink, passion, carry, and mental configurations are all formless; they cannot bind the man of true objectivity. While the Five Skandhas are permeable by arrange, yet mastering them they become your enchanting powers within on earth.." [fn. 14] This is the time Dharma of the Tip Sutra's restitution of wisdom, and has secret message to do with resistance magic lamps or magical incantations of deities, as well as the anthropomorphic knowledge of prajnaparamita as the mother of Buddhas.
Footnotes:
[fn. 1] "The Tip Sutra, The Womb of Buddhas"; Side and Commentary by Red Pine; 2004; Shoemaker page 3.
[fn. 2] "Merriam-Webster's Online Glossary" at http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/magic
[fn.3] http://www.chineselanguage.org/cgi-bin/view.php?query=660E&encoding=text&mode=&lang=en&beijing=pinyin&canton=jyutping&meixian=pinjim&sound=0 page 148.
[fn. 7] "The Tip Sutra, The Womb of Buddhas"; page 147.
[fn. 8] See, for classical, the Wikipedia testimony on Mahavidya at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya and the testimony at the Rudra Centre website at http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/mahavidyas.html
[fn. 9] "A Glossary of Chinese Buddhist Requisites" by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous.
[fn. 10] From the website of the Dharma Fellowship of His Piousness the Gyalwa Karmapa http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/way-of-the-yogi.htm
[fn. 11] "The Tip Sutra Explained" by Donald S. Lopez, Jr.; 1988; Lob College circles of New York Press; page 109. According to Lopez secret message is renowned about Prasastrasena other than his trim down extent biased account on the Tip Sutra.
[fn. 12] "The Tip Sutra Explained"; page 112.
[fn. 13] "The Tip Sutra Explained"; page 113.
[fn. 14] "The Zen Guidance of Rinzai" translated by Irmgard Schloegl; 1976; Shambala Publications,Berkeley CA; pp. 39-40.