brewing and drinking the beer of enlightenment in tibetan buddhism

8/2/2019 Brewing and Drinking the Beer of Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism

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Brewing and Drinking the Beer of Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism: The DOH Traditi

in TibetAuthor(s): John A. ArdussiReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 97, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1977), pp. 11124Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599000 .Accessed: 30/11/2011 08:36

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BREWING AND DRINKING THE BEER OF ENLIGHTENMENTIN TIBETAN BUDDHISM: THE DOHA TRADITION IN TIBETJOHN A. ARDUSSI

AUSTRALIANATIONALNIVERSITYAmong the non-scriptural literary remains of Indian Tantric Buddhism, enigmatic spiritu-al songs (Skt. dohd) composed by accomplished yogic adepts have received a degree ofattention by Western scholars. Less well-studied, however, is the far more voluminousliteratuie produced in the genre by Tibetan Tantric yogins, who adapted it to suit their needsand personal inspiration. A thorough examination of these innovations may eventuallyprovide greater insight into the kernel of their meaning and, by inference, into the Indiancultic environment from which the doha originated. The present essay explores one suchthematic innovation from Tibet, the contemplative practice of brewing and drinking the"beer of enlightenment."

THE BUDDHISM THAT CAME TO BE PRACTISED inTibet inherited a wide variety of commentatorialand didactic literary forms characteristic of thelate Buddhism sprung from the soil of India. Ofthese, the song of spiritual realization (doha; Tib.mgur) came to be of particular significance, ascan be judged from the volume of indigenousTibetan materials in this genre.l It was especiallyamong yogins that this tradition flourished,

1 Some of the songs of the Indian magician-saint Sarahaare now available in translation in Herbert V. Guenther,[trans.], The Royal Song of Saraha, Seattle & London:University of Washington Press, 1969. For Kanha, andfurther verses of Saraha, there is M. Shahidullah, Leschants mystiques de Kadha et de Saraha, Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1928. The songs of Mi-la-ras-pa have notbeen critically edited, but are translated (with somenotable lapses in accuracy) in Garma C. C. Chang, TheHundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, New York: Uni-versity Books, 1962, 2 vols. An excellent translation ofvol. 1 of the autobiography (containing many songs) of'Brug-pa Kun-legs (1455-1529?) is now available fromR. A. Stein, Vie et chants de 'Brug-pa Kun-legs le yogin,Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1972. The sameauthor has provided a version of the text in "Le textetib6tain de 'Brug-pa kun-legs," Zentralasiatische Studien7 (1973): 9-219. An edition and translation of the firsthalf of vol. 2 of the same autobiography. by the presentwriter, is available in his M. A. thesis "'Brug-pa Kun-legs, the Saintly Tibetan Madman," (University of Wash-ington, 1972), pp. 84-256. The vast bulk of Tibetan mgurliterature, unfortunately, remains untapped and un-translated.

although it was not exclusive to them. For itwas they, more than any other class of TibetanBuddhists, who sought to maintain and emulatein a living tradition the life style and religiousapproach of the great Tantric magician-saints (sid-dhacarya; Tib. grub-thob) of India.2 Thus thesongs of such Indian saints as Saraha and Kanhawere highly respected and much imitated byTibetans. But for the better poets and the yoginsaccomplished in meditation, these songs came toserve simply as models in a rather elastic genreallowing wide scope for adaptation and elabora-tion. In fact, as is well known, it was the greatTibetan poet-saint Mi-la-ras-pa (1040-1123) whocame to embody and personify the characteristicsof the ideal yogin, one who has abandoned allhis worldly possessions and aspirations, enablinghim to devote his entire existence to the pursuitof qualified teachers and the techniques of con-templative training which they have to impart.Later generations of yogins, especially the "mad"saints (Tib. smyon-pa) of the revival movementof yogic ideals in the 15th-16th centuries, pat-

2 The canonical source for the eighty-five magician-saints is AbhayadattaSri (Mi-'jigs-pa-sbyin-pa-dpal), Lii-yi-pa'i sogs grub thob brgyad bcu rtsa bzhi'i yang dag lorgyus, Peking Bstan-'gyur vol. 87, pp. 175-201 (rgyud-'grel, Lu: ff. 2.a-68.a); cf. a translation by A. Grilnwedel,Die Geschichten der vierundachtzig Zauberer, Baessler-Archiv 5 (4/5), Leipzig, 1916, and an illustrated studyby Toni Schmid, The Eighty-Five Siddhas, Stockholm,1958.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)terned themselves after his life and activities.3This conscious emulation extended as well to thecomposition of spiritual songs, so that the songsof all these yogins, mostly of the Bka'-brgyud-pasect, can be considered as forming a more or lessunified body of literature.4 Whether the songsare found interspersed through their hagiographies,or collected into separate works, the circumstantialmotives for their composition are usually given,providing us with a valuable means of studyingtheir social relevance.

Athough there have been isolated attempts totranslate the mgur of some of the more importantTibetan yogins, there has been so far no syste-matic study of the genre from a comparative pointof view. Such an undertaking would involve thatwe examine the philosophical and contemplativeassumptions underlying the songs, as well as re-quire that we identify recurrent themes and relatethem to the religious tradition as a whole. TheTibetan mgur, moreover, have been strongly in-fluenced by popular traditions of song and dance,as has been ably demonstrated by the researchesof R. A. Stein. In fact, it is in its adaptation toTibetan social modalities that the genre mostclearly demonstrates a departure from the Indianmodel.5 It would be premature in this essay toattempt to trace in detail the entire history of themgur literature in Tibetan, much of which hasyet to become available in printed editions. RatherI hope to illustrate some of the basic character-istics of the genre by studying what is an appar-

3 On the tradition of religious madmen in Tibet cf.Lokesh Chandra, [ed.], The Life of the Saint of Gtsang(New Delhi: InternationalAcademy of Indian Culture,1969), Introductionby E. GeneSmith; also John Ardussiand Lawrence Epstein, "TheSaintly Madman n Tibet,"in John Fisher [ed.], Himalayan Anthropology (TheHague: Mouton [in press, 1977]).4 The connectionbetween the later "mad"saints andMi-la-ras-pa s further emphasized by their use of thespelling Dkar-brgyud-pa("White Lineage") in place ofthe morecommonBka'-brgyud-pa("OralLineage")usedelsewhere in the sect. The two terms are pronouncedvirtually identically, but the formerstresses their reten-tion of the white meditationgarb of Mi-la-ras-pa,as hasbeen pointed out by E. Gene Smith, op. cit., p. 2.5 R. A. Stein, Recherches sur l'epopee et le barde auTibet (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959),pp. 485-506; Stein, TibetanCivilization(London: Faber& Faber, 1972), pp. 259-76.

ently unique Tibetan elaboration of the Indianyogic doha, namely songs composed by highly ac-complished Tantric yogins on the contemplativepractice of brewing and drinking the "beer ofEnlightenment. "6Both the content and the context of Tibetanmgur must be understood in the light of the multi-faceted complex of Indian Tantric Buddhism fromwhich they emerged. Briefly, we may say that thespiritual path adopted by Tibetan yogins of latercenturies consisted of a practical philosophicalsystem (Tib. grub-mtha') passed on as an oraltradition (snyan-rgyud), deriving ultimately fromIndian siddhdcdryas, and grounded in the ritualsand contemplative techniques of Tantric literaturebut stressing the importance of intense individualeffort. The process aims at a rapid, though dif-ficult obtainment of enlightenment through power-

ful contemplative methods designed to restructurethe personal reality of the practitioner's state ofmind, so that he is brought quickly to comprehendand unify the paradoxical thesis of the Two Truthsof Madhyamika philosophy: Conventional (samvr-ti) and Ultimate (nirvrti).7 The yogin comes torealize, and not merely to believe in the purelyrelative and dependent character of the experien-tial world, and in the process gains certain magicalpowers such as the ability to fly, and, as we shallsee, to compose songs of spiritual realization.The Indian dohd seems to have arisen as aninstructional technique, sufficient unto itself, butmust certainly also be related to the style andsymbolism of the Diamond Songs (vajra-giti; Tib.rdo-rje-glu) sung during the Tantric ritual of the

6 Guentherhas provided a thoughtful and importantanalysisof the Indiandohdsn Part I, Ch.2 "TheTeachingof the Dohas" of his study The Royal Song of Saraha(pp. 21-41). In particular, taking his cue from a textby the 15th century Tibetan scholar Karma Phrin-las-pa, he distinguishes (p. 24) between three increasinglyprofoundlevels of doha understandingor meaning: pic-torial, emotional, and cognitive. These categories canalso be usefully applied to the indigenousTibetan mgur,and the readershould consult Guenther'sdiscussionfortheir meaning. The "Tibetan" component of Tibetanmgur, however, requires further, partly historical, inter-pretation. The present study is meant to be a contribu-tion towards that end.

7 The Two Truths are dealt with by T. R. V. Murti,The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin, 1955), esp. pp. 243-55.

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ARDUSSI: The Doha Tradition in TibetCircle of Hosts (gana-cakra; Tib. tshogs-'khor).8For the songs are always symbolic and ordinarilyconsist of analogical expressions of the paradoxof existence, rendered in the language of Tantricritual thinking, and compressed to the format ofversified song. Yet there is a further componentin addition to the didactic and symbolic. LikeMi-la-ras-pa, the famous Tibetan yogin 'Brug-paKun-legs (1455-1529?) had a gift for song, anability that, by implication, possessed the natureof a magical attainment, resulting from their highlevel of yogic realization and from the great meritthey had accumulated during their previous lives.Having gained control over their "subtle physio-logy," the cakras or mystical centers symbolicallylocated along the axis of their bodies, and the"winds" or forces which move along the mystical"veins," they are able to concentrate this forcein the center located at their neck, usually iden-tified with the Sambhoga-kaya (Tib. longs-spyod-sku) or "Enjoyment Body" of the Buddha.9 Theprocess is a meditative one, and the practitionerat this level is regarded as partaking of Buddha-hood and becomes able to produce songs of theAbsolute Truth spontaneously; they simply ap-pear in his mind as mental experience (Tib. nyams)natural to one who has achieved the longs-spyodlevel of Buddhahood. Thus, Mi-la-ras-pa saysthat when the Four Joys move upward and reachthe level of longs-spyod in his neck, his "treasuryof Diamond Song spontaneously flows forth."10

8 Cf. M. Lalou, "Pr6liminairesd'une Etude des Gana-cakra," Studies of Esoteric Buddhism and Tantrism (Koya-san, 1965), pp. 41-46. Muchwork remainsto be done onthe theory and practiceof this key Tantric ritual.9 On the interpretationof this contemplative "psycho-physiology," cf. D. L. Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra(London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1959), vol. 1, pp. 27-28, 35-39. H. Guenther'swell-known insistence on thecommunicativeaspect of Samrbhoga-kaya"communica-tion-with-others") can be usefully noted here; cf. H.Guenther, (trans.), The Life and Teaching of Naropa(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 267. Conflictingtheories on translating this kind of terminology havebeen dealt with by R. A. Stein, Vie et chants de 'Brug-pakun-legs le yogin, pp. 31-35, and I concur with his rea-soning on the difference between translation and inter-pretation (p. 32).10 Gtsang-smyon-pa Sangs-rgyas rgyal-mtshan (1452-1507), Rnal 'byor gyi dbang phyug chen po rje btsun bzhadpa rdo rje'i rnam thar rgyas par phye ba mgur 'bum

Similarly 'Brug-pa Kun-legs, at the court of the2nd Dalai Lama, was once asked to sing "oneof those introspective songs that arise in yourheart."ll Mi-la-ras-pa further adds that "the littlesongs which come to my mouth just appear, asif in a book," and also that he sings his songs fromthe realm of the Absolute.l2In Tibet, the spiritual song came to be a par-ticularly important form of religious instruction,directed as well at monks, yogins, and laymen.It thus evolved into special forms, many of whichconsist of a complex of analogies between theprocesses and stages of yogic contemplation andthe processes of the farming, animal husbandry,and household arts of the Tibetan peasantry.Since parallelism is the key to this kind of song,the tight compositional structure is itself an es-sential part of the instructional message, leadingthe listener by the universal Buddhist pedagogicaltechniques of parable and simile to a more profoundrealization of ineffable reality.(1) "You are a cultivator of this worldly realm,I am a cultivator of rebirthinto Eternity;At harvest time we shall see [whosecropsare]more,And in the end we shall compare [the amount of]joy."1l

(cited hereafter as Mgur-'bum), folio 151.b: dga' ba bzhimgrin pa longs spyod kyi gnas su phyin pas rdo rje'i glu'imdzod dang shugs su rdol ba. All references to the Mgur-'bum, except where so stated, are to the printedversionin 342 folia at the Universityof Washington(Far EasternLibrary: FEL-TIB-4A).11 Rnal 'byor gyi dbang phyug chen po kun dga' legspa'i rnam thar gsung 'bum rgya mtsho las dad pa'i kushas chu thigs tsam blangs pa ngo mtshar bdud rtsi'i zilmngar (cited hereafter as Autobiography of 'Brug-paKun-legs, vol. 2), folio lO.b: nyams dbyangs thugs la sharba. All readings of this text are from the British Librarywood block print $19999sl0.12 Mgur-'bum, f. 103.b: kha ru glu chung len pa de / /snang ba dpe char shar ba yin //; Ibid., f. 112.b: gnas lugsngang nas glu gcig len. Compare the similar statementof Gtsang-smyon-pa in his biography by (Lha-btsun)Rin-chen rnam-rgyal, Grub thob gtsang pa smyon pa'irnam thar dad pa'i spu slong g.yo'a ba, f. 38.a (containedin S. W. Tashigangpa, [ed.], Bde mchog mkha' 'gro snyanrgyud (Ras chung snyan rgyud), Leh, 1971, vol. 1).13 Mgur-'bzum, f. 89.b-90.a: khyod 'jig rten 'di yi sonam mkhan // nga skye ba gtan gyi so nam mkhan // stonthog su mang blta yang blta // nam phugs su skyid 'granyang 'gran //.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)Other songs, while yet retaining some of thesymbolism of the Indian doha and vajragiti, adaptit to more uniquely Tibetan conditions. Since itwas a popular prejudice among some groups ofmonastic Buddhists that yogins spent all their

time in meditation and begging, while doing no-thing to earn a livelihood, Mi-la-ras-pa once repliedin the following way to the argument of hisdisciples that even he needed a home, food andclothing.14(2) "Fearinghunger I sought for food;The food I ate was deepmeditation of the Absolute;Now I have no feat of hunger.Fearing thirst I soughrfor drink;My drinkwas the ambrosialbeer ofmindfulmindful-ness;Now I have no feat of thirst."

Beer or alcoholic drink as a symbol for nectarousessence (amrta; Tib. bdud-rtsi), the refined essentialof teachings or contemplative experiences, is com-mon in Tibetan Buddhist writing, and initiallyderives from Indian usage.15 In the case of thefollowing beer-drinking songs, however, both thepreparation and the drinking serve as symbols ofyogic endeavour. The fermented beverage hasbeen shifted to a different, pictorial, level ofsymbolism, while the motif of the songs hasprobably been adapted from peasant-agriculturalfolk themes. Here, in fact, the pedagogical paral-lels could only have been intelligible to personsacquainted with the terminology and techniqueof the household art of brewing beer. The firstexample, from the "Collected Songs" (Mgur-' bum)of Mi-la-ras-pa, seems also to be the earliest tocome down to us in writing.16 The setting is in

14 Mgur-'bum, f. 40.a: ngas Itogs kyis dogs nas zas cigbtsal // zas ni chos nyid ting 'dzin zas // da Itogs kyis dogspa nga la med // ngas skom gyi dogs nas btung ba btsal //btung ba dran shes bdud rtsi'i chang // da skom gyis dogspa nga la med //.15 Tibetan beer (chang) is technically an infusion offermented barley, but the name is also loosely appliedto any kind of alcoholicbeverage,much as Sanskritsurdcame to be used.16 There are also oral versions, of unknown age. Cf.the Reverend H. Hanlon, "TheFolk-Songsof Ladak andBaltistan," Transactions of the Ninth International Con-gress of Orientalists (London, 1893), vol. 2, song j#102.The following translation is based on readings fromMgur-'bunz, ff. 291.a-292.b, as well as two separateeditions from the Toyo Bunko collection of Tibetan

the vicinity of Mt. La-phyi on the Nepal-Tibetfrontier, a favorite meditation site of Mi-la-ras-pa."At that time many other discipleshad also come, andthe Reverend [Mi-la-ras-pa] said, 'Let us go for funto the top of the high mountain which is there in frontof Mt. La-phyi.' But the disciples said, 'Please, webeg you not to go as you are old and probablywon'tmake it I' 'It is okay for me to do something as easyas this,' he said, and sang this song:

(3) 'I bow down to all my Lamas.Now Mi-la wants to climb that mountain peak,But Mi-la-ras-pa is old,His powers have weakened, so he cannot go.Lie down, oh inanimate mountain I'Immediately as he sang that verse the mountain bentdown its head and on its peak the Reverend plantedhis feet. Then it straightened back up again. There onthe mountain peak he sat for some time encloaked in arainbow. Then he flew back down again and said to thedisciples, 'Up there on the mountain peak someonecame and served me beer.' 'Please tell us the methodwe too can use to get there, and how we can obtain thebeer I' they requested. 'If you would reach the moun-tain peak,' replied Mi-la-ras-pa, 'you must meditateaccording to these instructions,' and he sang this song:

(4) 'Oh disciples of mine, desiring to see the sights ofthe mountain,17Grasp them as you would with the Clear Light ofthe self-mind [in meditation];Group them into divisions, as you would in a cata-

logue;works on history (364A-2642,ff. 249.a-250.b;364B-2643,ff. 289.a-291.a). The differences, however, are mostlyinsignificant. The earlier translation by Chang (TheHundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, pp. 572-75) isdefective largely because he was ignorant of the technicalterms used in brewing beer. Fortunately, the Autobio-graphy of 'Brug-pa Kun-legs, vol. 2, ff. 9.a-b, containsa detailed recipe which clears up most of the difficulties,and the present translation is based on it. I plan to dealwith this unique recipe in a separate article.

17 There is here a deliberate play on the words Itasand Itad, which are pronounced the same but have dif-ferent meanings. The text has Itas which means 'sight'in the sense of 'insight,' or 'prognostic,' but is meantto call to mind Itad, a 'view' as of a landscape. Theentire stanza 4 compares the climbing of a mountain andviewing of the sights with a kind of contemplative sddha-na in which the visualizations are described in terms ofgrasping, binding, etc.

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ARDUSSI: The Doha Tradition in TibetBind them firm as you would with a great knot;Hold them firm as you would with a great hook.If you meditate thus, you will arrive,18And reaching the mountain peak, you will see the

view,And will drink the beer of this experience.(5) But come within, you suitable men and women 1The sights and feast will fully satisfy you.19You unsuitable ones who remain without,Though you are unable to drink the beer which is

pure,Can you not at least drink the [material] weak beer?Though you cannot strive for Enlightenment,Can you not at least strive for a superior birth?'Then Ras-chung-pa [his principal disciple] said, 'Yes,I can strive for Enlightenment, and I pray you allowme to drink the beer as well.' The Reverend replied,'This is how we drink the beer: according to the system

of our dear Mar-pa [Mi-la-ras-pa's guru],' and he sangthis song:(6) 'I bow down to the feet of Mar-pa the Translator,Who dwells in the unbroken flow of innate reality,The master of spiritual truth.These are the marks of him, my [spiritual] father:Like the sky, he is clear and pure;

Omnipresent is he, like sun and moon;Beyond measure in stature is he, like a thicket of

reeds;This man from Lho-brag is the Lord Buddha,Residing as the adornment of my head,

inseparable from me.20(7) Chief among the six classes of beings are humans.Yet every spring and every autumn

They busy themselves first with their useless crops,And then with the making of beer from yellow barley.(8) We, too, brew a batch of beer and drink.Now to explain our method for the brewing of beer:Set out the hearth stones of Body, Speech and Mind;Within the copper pot of EmptinessPour the barley of Purest Faith;2118 Again a double meaning, for the verb thar-pa meanboth 'to reach' the mountain top, and also to 'achieveliberation.'19 Probably a subtle suggestion of the gana-cakra, onwhich cf. below, p. 122.20 This recalls the practice in Buddhist iconography,where a Bodhisattva is depicted with a miniature imageupon his forehead of the Buddha of which he is an ema-nation.21 Chang (Ibid., p. 575, fn.) gives "the pure WhiteElement," but the texts clearly have the common for-mula dkar-mo-dad-pa, not -dang-ba.

Pour in also the water of Mindful Compassion;Light the fire of Great Wisdom,Then cook to a mash of Dimensionless Uniformity.Spread it out in the central plain of Sameness,Upon the rug of Great Joy;22Add the starter of Sacred Instructions, thenKeep it warm in the bed of the Four Immeasurables.23When it has risen and become the ferment of Many-with-one-flavor,Pour it into the pot of the [five] Impulses;Infuse it with water to a union of Wisdom and

Means;Strengthen it into the beer of the Five Knowledges.

(9) From the spiggot, the source of all desires,Tap the beer, the endless flow of nectar.Its raw material is the Pure Heruka;Its other ingredients are the Heruka of the Dharma-

realm;Its color is the Lotus Heruka;Its flavor is the Diamond Heruka;Its smell is the Various Heruka;Its touch is the Heruka of sensuous beauty.24

(10) And now one drinks the beer of yoga.With the first [drink] he clarifies and purifies himselfas Diamond Body;With the second he perfects his Buddhahood asEnjoyment Body;With the third he appears visibly as EmanationBody.The suitable man will drink of this unending flow ofbeer, which becomes [for him] nectar;

There is no chance for the unsuitable to drink it.22 Phyar-bar bdal does not mean to raise a flag (Chang,Ibid., p. 574), but rather to spread out on a rug. Thecooked barley is spread out onto a large rug (often calleda brdal-phyar) or winnow to cool, before adding the starter.23 Tibetan beer starter, like that for sake, contains not

only yeast but also mold spores (Aspergillus oryzae),chemically essential for fermentation. This fact was con-firmed by clinical analysis performed for me on a sampleof phabs (graciously supplied by Dr. Melvyn Goldstein),by Dr. Howard Douglas of the University of WashingtonSchool of Medicine. The usual translations of phabs andchang-rtsi as 'yeast' must therefore be rejected. Phabsis stirred into the cooled barley, which is then kept warmfor several days while it ferments as a kind of dampmash (glum). It is then infused with water (bsings) ina large pot, where it absorbs the alcohol, thereby be-coming 'strengthened into beer' (chang du ngar).24 The practitioner here contemplates himself in themaid1ala of Heruka, experiencing within himself theaspects of the various Buddha families.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)Here is another parable of drinking:(11) With the first beer of purest experience,

Tapped in the Dharma-realm,One makes offerings to the Buddha and Lamas,possessed of the three [vows].

With the second beer of Wisdom and Means,Summoning them through one's sacral pledges,One pleases the various deities of the mandala.With the weakest beer, of high and ordinary,25Keeping it within the realm of sensory experience,One satisfies the desires of self and all others.

(12) In the beer ladle of the Six AdornmentsIs the beer of the pure oral teachings;26To drink that beer is to radiate joy,To taste its flavor is to achieve liberation.(13) This is the technique for drinking the beer of the

yogin,A special teaching, not for everybody.It is a wondrous and astonishing practice;Indeed, is it not the greatest of miracles?'"

A different kind of beer-drinking song, by thefamous Tibetan yogin Lo-ras-pa Dbang-phyugbrtson-'grus (1187-1250), shows the same kind ofanalogical parallelism, but extended to includeagriculture and plowing. This song was sung tochide some monks who had been engaging indrinking and merriment during the harvest seasonin the province of Gtsang, perhaps in the regionof Dol Ma-ma-gser-stengs as suggested by thesecond stanza.27

25 High and ordinary: the two kinds of magical attain-ment, Nirvana, and the lesser ones such as the abilityto fly. When the glum is first infused, the beer whichis strained off is the first or strongest beer. More wateris added and stirred in, making a second, weaker infusion.A third infusion will be very weak in alcohol.26 The Six Adornments (mdzes-pa drug) are probablynot the adornments of a Tantric yogin, as Chang implies(Ibid., p. 575, fn.) but rather the Nd-ro chos-drug, the'six teachings of Naropa,' the principal oral teachings ofthe Bka'-brgyud-pa sect. The master 'ladles out,' asit were, the profound instructions to his disciples, oftencalled 'vessels' in Tibetan.27Rgod-tshang ras-pa Sna-Tshogs-rang-grol(1494-1570),Chos rje lo ras pa' i rnam par thar pa bdud rtsi' i phreng ba,ff. 62.b-63.a (Khams-sprul Don-brgyud-nyi-ma, [ed.],Bka 'brgyudpa Hagiographies, Tashijong, Palampur, H. P.[India], 1972, vol. 2, section 2). The text of this and thenext song are given here on account of their relative scar-city in western libraries. So nam byed pa de rgyal khamsphyogs med na byed kyang // lo legs pa rnal 'byor rang re

(14) "While agriculture is practiced everywhere in theworld,The yogin, too, has his good crops.To explain a bit about this system of goodness:I - plow the ground of the fields of faith;II - plant the seeds of the oral instructions;III - fertilize with the water and manure of thepractices.In due time, when these three have been broughttogether,The sprouts of Enlightenment will grow up little bylittle.

Happy am I when neither frost nor hail touchesthese crops.(15) While the beer is tasty in Dol Ma-ma-gser-stengs,Yogins, too, become intoxicated from beer.To explain a bit about this system of intoxicationfrom beer:

I - that from the excellent barley grains from thefields of faith;II - that from the practices of the Wisdom-Dakinis;III - intoxication on the beer of the dance of theinstructions.In due time, when these three are in abundance,One spews out the vomit of disgust with Samsara;Having vomited and become free from drunkenness,how happy am II"

In another beer-drinking song, this one by 'Brug-pa Kun-legs, the imagery of brewing the beer ofTantric yoga is combined with an even clearermoralistic element, instructing the listener thatspiritual affairs should take priority over theworldly. Here, 'Brug-pa Kun-legs is staying atan inn in Lhasa, and the hostess, who ordinarilywould be skilled in making beer herself, has askedhim if he, too, knows how to brew. He repliestsho legs // legs pa'i legs lugs bshad tsa na // gzhi dadpa'i sa zhing bshim dang gcig // gdams ngag gi sa bonthebs dang gnyis // nyams len gyi chu lud 'dzom danggsum // khongdegsum 'dzompa' i dus tshod na // byang chubkyi myu gu ban ma bun mar skye bar gda' ste // lo la saddang ser ba mi yang (sic. yong) ba de blo re rang bde //chang zhim po de dol gyi ma ma gser stengs na zhim kyang //chang bzi ba de rang re rnal 'byor tsho bzi // chang gis bziba' i bzi lugs de bshad tsa na // gzhi dadpa' i nas 'bru bzangba dang gcig // ye shes mkha' 'gro'i lag len thon danggnyis // gdams ngag gi gar chang bzi dang gsum // khong degsum 'dzom pa'i dus tshod na // 'khor ba la zhen log giskyugs pa chal ma chil // skyugs kyang skyur 'gong medpa de nyams su dga' //. The text consistently has gzi-ba,which I have changed to the more proper bzi-ba.

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ARDUSSI: The Doha Tradition in Tibetin the affirmative with the recipe mentioned above.Assured of this, the hostess has apparently decidedto leave 'Brug-pa Kun-legs in charge of her affairsduring a short absence.28

"She put down four measures of barley and said, 'Brewa batch with this, Kun-dga' legs-pa'. Then she wentoff, carrying her cold weather clothing. In three daystime she returned and asked, 'Has the beer risenyet?' 'If it has risen it has risen; if it hasn't risenit hasn't risen. It's still in the winnow,' I said.29 Andshe replied, 'You're a disaster as a teacher ! The know-ledge you have, but still you didn't brew the beer I' Tothis I replied, 'Hostess, I [as a yogin] must know allthings; but I also must not do them. What is achievedby doing everything one knows how? I even knowhow to kill goats [but don't do so] !'And I sang this song:

(16) 'Oh hostess, concerned with yourself alone,Hear without distraction the words of this melody IIn the Mandala of Victory which is my own body,I have laid out the hearth stones of Wisdom and

Means;In the spacious vessel of Bliss-EmptinessI pour the water of indivisible Union-contemplation,And ripened barley of the Three Bodies.

28 Autobiography of 'Brug-pa Kun-legs, vol. 2, ff. 10.a-b: nas bre bzhi bzhag // khyed dpon slob kyis 'di 'tshodbsnyol mdzod cig zer / khyag chad (sic. chas) khur nas songngo // zhag gsum na 'khor byung nas / chang langs e byungzer bas / langs na 'ang langs zma angs na 'ang ma langs /zhib ma'i nang na yod byas pas / khyed dpon slob kyithabs brdugs pa / mkhyen rab ni 'dug mi 'tshod pa zer bala / ngas 'di byas / gnas mo bya ba thams cad shes dgos /mi byed dgos zer ba yin / shes tshad rang lag tu blangs pasci yong / shes pa ra gsod pa yang shes byas nas / mgur 'di'then no // ang gi gnas mo rang don can // ma yengsdbyangs kyi tshig la nyon // nga rang lus rgyal ba'i dkyil'khor du // thabs shes gnyis kyi sgyed bu btsugs // bdestong gi khog ma yangs pa ru // zung 'jug ting 'dzin'bral med chu // sku gsum 'bras bu'i nas cig blug // dongnyis grub pa'i chang cig tshod tshod nas / gnas mo'ichang tshod brjed de thal // nga byang sems kyi khang payangs pa ru // gzhan don gyi stan dkar gsum brtsegs bting// 'gro drug gi yon bdag 'bod 'bod nas / yog pa rta 'gugskyi mgron 'bod brjed de thal // nga mtha' gnyis bral ba'ithab kha la // ye shes tsha ba'i me sbar te / stong nyid kyija bzang skol skol nas // rgya ja'i g.yo sta brjed de thal //.29 The winnow (zhib-ma) is used here as a brdal-phyarfor cooling the cooked barley, which according to thestory, 'Brug-pa Kun-legs has allowed to become com-pletely cold and unsalvageable.

Brewing, brewing the beer of achievement of thetwo goals [of self and others],The time has passed and I have forgotten to brewthe hostess' beer.(17) In the spacious edifice of the Thought of Enlighten-

ment,I have erected the three white mats of the goals ofothers;

Calling, calling the patrons of the six classes ofsentient beings,The time his passed and I have forgotten to call theguests, driving their horses and servants [to theinn].

(18) Upon the hearth, devoid of the two extremes,I have lit the fire of burning wisdom;Boiling, boiling the good tea of Emptiness,The time has passed and I have forgotten to preparethe tea for the crowds.'"

For the present we need not concern ourselveswith the technical terms, but rather with themain thrust of the songs, which is the parallelprocess or progressive movement of the tasks ofthe peasant-agriculturalist and the yogin.30 Herethe appropriateness of brewing and drinking beeras a symbolic parallel to yogic meditation, whichmight seem unusual in a Buddhist setting, canbe seen to stem partly from the particular charac-ter of Tibetan culture. Whereas in India theconsumption of alcohol was especially prohibitedfor Brahmans as a potential cause for pollutivevarna degradation (on account of the sins, suchas illicit sexual intercourse, to which it mightlead), no such social stigma attached to the practicein Tibet (if done in moderation), where barleybeer was popular with all classes. A study of thehagiographical literature suggests further that,in spite of their vows of abstention, the monks'fondness for beer was a frequent cause of disci-plinary unease in Tibetan monasteries, and nu-merous tracts were written to condemn its use.31

30 Most of the terms have been dealt with as they occurin the sddhanas translated by Stephan Beyer, The Cultof Tdrd (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973),pp. 66-170.31 Among Rnying-ma-pa writers may be cited Dpal-sprul O-rgyan-'jigs-med-chos-kyi-dbang-po (b. 1808), My-os byed kyi btung ba'i nyes dmigs mdo rgyud bstan bcosrnams las btus pa nyes pa'i 'phreng sgrol (Sonam T.Kazi, [ed.], The Collected Works of Dpal-sprul O-rgyan-'jigs-med-chos-kyi-dbang-po [Gangtok, 1971], vol. 5,pp. 587-631); for the Dge-lugs-pa cf. Thu'u-bkwan Blo-

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)We have seen that the song of Lo-ras-pa wasmotivated by similar reasons. Thus, the overalltheme of the songs and their connected stories isto introduce the subject of beer and then to dis-courage its use, by calling attention to a spiritual-ly more proper kind of "beer."The symbol can be seen to have more subtleimplications, however, when the songs are viewedin their original environment as grounded in Tan-tric ritual thinking. Although lay Tibetan lis-teners would probably have seen in its pictorialcontent a kind of quixotic yogic humor, for monksand yogins it is clearly meant to evoke emotional,and hopefully (using Guenther's terms) cognitiveresponses. From a religious viewpoint, the medi-tative processes alluded to in these songs aresubsumed under what is termed Generation inOneself (Tib. bdag-bskyed), an aspect of the Processof Generation (utpatti-krama; Tib. bskyed-rim),the first of the two-fold division of Tantric medi-tation according to the highest Tantra class (Anut-tara-yoga Tantra). Here, the practitioner visualizesfrom the realm of Emptiness ("the copper pot ofof Emptiness," etc.) an image of himself (termedthe Symbolic Being - samaya-sattva) as a particulardivinity accompanied by its retinue of attendants,the mandala of the divinity. The locus of thevisualization is the practitioner's own body ("thehearth stones of Body, Speech and Mind," "theMandala of Victory which is my own body").Having purified and empowered the visualizedimage by mantras, the actual divinity (termedthe Knowledge Being - jnina-sattva) is summonedfrom the realm of the Absolute to fuse with thevisualized image, by which technique the medi-tator "becomes" the deity and gains its "ego"(Tib. nga-rgyal); and he is firmed in this statusby a contemplative initiation involving a con-secration with nectar - bdud-rtsi. It is here thatthe analogy of drinking beer has its first ap-plication. Most sddhanas (of which these medita-tions are but the mental aspect), however, gobeyond this and continue with a series of food anddrink offerings contemplatively projected to allthe Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and sentient beingsof the six destinies (as in stanza 17). Since thebzang-chos-kyi-nyi-ma (1737-1802), Dben gnas bde chenchos gling gi bsam gtan pa rnams kyi bca' khrims bstanpa'i pad tshal rgyas pa'i nyin byed sogs bca' yig gi rimpa phyogs gcig tu bkod pa, esp. ff. 19.a-b (Nawang GelekDemo, [comp.], Collected Works of Thu'u-bkwan Blo-bzang-chos-kyi-nyi-ma [New Delhi, 1969], vol. 2).

practitioner also partakes of the offering material,and since the offerings have all been purified todivinely pure status, to nectar, the beer symbolis again applicable (stanza 11). In the concludingmeditation, the Process of Perfection (sampanna-krama; Tib. rdzogs-rim), the yogin strives to fusehis now divine being with the Clear Light (Tib.'od-gsal) and Great Bliss (Tib. bde-ba chen-po)of Emptiness, and it is particularly in this ex-perience that the analogy of intoxication frombeer is commonly used.32 One technique of per-forming the Process of Perfection involves usingthe symbols of the "veins," "winds," and "drop,"to generate bdud-rtsi which the practitioner (whohas become the deity) then "drinks" in an anal-ogical representation of experiencing the Absolute.Variations in the symbolic details of these twoprocesses, which also appear in our songs, derivefrom the fact of different elaboration in individualcontemplative and sectarian practice, althoughtheir fundamental ritual structure remains thesame.33We should finally recall that the contemplativeact of generating oneself as the mandala of thedeity and its retinue is related thematically tothe Tantric practice of the Circle of Hosts (gana-cakra; Tib. tshogs-' khor). In this ritual, aimed atthe rapid obtainment of Enlightenment, yoginsand their ritually purified consorts (originally low-caste women) assemble to perform a combinedphysical and contemplative enactment of theProcesses of Generation and Perfection. And inthose contemplations the gaining of divine statusis celebrated by consumption of sacramental fleshand alcohol, and in addition by the performance ofritual dancing and Diamond Song (vajra-giti). Inboth India and Tibet the extent to which thephysical implements and actions of this ritualwere either used or replaced by symbols wasrather a matter of traditional or sectarian inter-pretation, since its only real significance was seento lie in the simultaneous contemplative realiza-

32 See the vajra-giti of the 1st Panchen Lama wherehe speaks of his "perceptions, perpetually intoxicatedby the beer of Clear Light" (yul 'od gsal chang gis rtagmyos pa'i ...). Panchen Lama I, Blo-bzang chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan (1567-1662), Chos smra ba'i dge slong blobzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan gyi spyod tshul gsal bar stonpa nor bu'i phreng ba, f. 55.a (Nawang Gelek Demo,[comp.], The Autobiography of the First Panchen LamaBlo-bzang-chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan [New Delhi, 1969]).

33 Beyer, The Cult of Tara, pp. 108-27.

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ARDUSSI: The Doha Tradition in Tibettion. The entire rite could also be, and was,performed purely as a mental event.34 But it isinteresting to note that even in certain YellowHat Dge-lugs-pa monasteries, during the perform-ance of the gana-cakra, sacramental beer wasconsumed by the monk participants, though invery small quantities and only with the contem-plative conviction that it was ritually purifiedbdud-rtsi.35

Thus, while the various Tibetan schools cameto stress more and more the purely contemplativeimportance of the Processes of Generation andPerfection, the underlying material aspect hasbeen retained in at least a symbolic way. TheTibetan yogic beer-drinking songs, insofar asthey are structured around these Processes, havesimply adapted the pictorial terminology of thepopular practice of beer making and drinking toillustrate their meaning. There is thus both aritual-structural and a social origin for the beersymbol in this context.I will conclude by suggesting that the main func-tion of the spiritual song be understood as a"skilful means" (upaya) of contemplation and reli-gious instruction, guiding the listener throughanalogy and paradoxical juxtaposition of symbolsto more subtle levels of meditative realization,or, if he be but a simple peasant, to a clearerawareness of spiritual modes of thought. In thisrespect they are similar to icons or painted man-dalas as meditative aids, though it must be pointedout that not all are as highly symbolic or concernedwith such profound aspects of religious truth asthose translated above.

Although in this essay I have purposefully iso-lated those elements of Tibetan culture and reli-gious history which have contributed to themeaningfulness of contrasting the brewing anddrinking of beer analogically with the cultivationof certain meditative experiences, it would bemisleading to be too emphatic about any realconnection between them. As we have seen (stan-za 18), 'Brug-pa Kun-legs felt that the brewingof tea was an equally valid analogy. In one song

34 Cf. on this the noteworthy statement of Snellgrove,The Hevajra Tantra, vol. 1, p. 43, last paragraph.35 Thu'u-bkwan Blo-bzang-chos-kyi-nyi-ma, op. cit.,f. 11.b. Whether this held true for all Dge-lugs-pamonasteries cannot yet be stated with certainty. Theuse of intoxicants has some important ramifications inTibetan Buddhist practice, which I intend to deal within a separate study.

Mi-la-ras-pa likened the Processes of Generationand Perfection to the process of building a house,which should prove that such analogies are pri-marily poetic in inspiration.3 Drinking alcoholto produce intoxication does not seem to havebeen regarded even by Tantric Buddhists as a"skilful means" of comprehending the intoxicationof Enlightenment. On the contrary, its use inthe gana-cakra appears designed to illustrate thepractitioner's acquisition of power over experien-tial reality, in effect his power to resist its intoxi-cating effect.37

36 Mgur-'bum, f. 46.b.37 I believe that this is an important point whichdeserves emphasis. There are certain traditions in thegeneral Hindu framework, especially of the bhakti mode,where the devotee's personalexperienceof the divine isdescribed in terms of intoxicating madness (David Kins-ley, "Through the Looking Glass: Divine Madness in theHindu Religious Tradition," History of Religions 13[May, 1974], pp. 286-305). But there it is clear that theintoxicating experience is basically dependent in character,one bestowed by the deity as a kind of 'grace'. In theBuddhist Tantric tradition, on the other hand, wherethe practitioner cultivates his own divinity, his own salva-tion, through Wisdom (prajila) and Means (upaya), theemphasis is on his perfect mental control of every con-templative act. Of course, nothing can be said aboutthe differences or similarities of the final experience, butI would summarize by suggesting that whereas the H1indubhakta receives or gives way to intoxicating madness, theBuddhist Tantric yogin methodically creates it. Indeed,it is mainly because of its debilitating effect on thevisualizing faculties that prominent Tibetan thinkers ofevery sect have condemned the use of alcohol, and notsimply on moral grounds.For this reason I find it difficult to agree with FritsStaal's contention that Vasubandhu's reference to magicalpowers deriving from the use of herbs (AbhidharmakosaVII.53) suggestsa type of mystical experiencecomparableto, or contributing to the better understanding of, ex-periences obtained otherwise through meditation (FritsStaal, Exploring Mysticism [Berkeley: University of Cali-fornia Press, 1975], pp. 162-64). We do not know justwhat Vasubandhu meant by osadhikrta-rddhi, since heprovided no explanation in his autocommentary. How-ever, two noted Tibetan scholars have commented onthis passage, and both concluded that he was referringto such practices as applying herbal concoctions to thearms and legs and gaining thereby the power to flythrough the air. Cf. Kun-mkhyen 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa'i-rdo-rje, Dam pa'i chos mngon pa mdzod kyi dgongs

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)At the simplest level, then, the songs and storiesconnected with them teach the greater importanceof the spiritual over the mundane, of the properlife of the yogin over that of the householder.Here, more notably than with the Indian dohd,

the Tibetan approach has been to incorporate animmediate social dimension, culling similes frompeasant-agriculturalist occupations. To the morediscerning and religiously trained listener theydemonstrate further the process by which yogicrealization can be obtained, that it is a naturalprocess like building a house or brewing beer,with a predictable result. But ultimately, and thisseems to me the fundamental message conveyedby the analogical technique, they teach not that

'grel gyi bstan bcos thub bstan nor bu'i gter mdzod dusgsum rgyal ba'i bzhed don kun gsal, ff. 40.a-b: sman lasskyes pa sman gyis chyab par lag pa dang / rkang pa labskus na nam mkhar 'gro ba Ita bit dang .... (NawangGelek Demo, [comp.], The Collected Works of Kun-mkhyen'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa'i-rdo-rje [New Delhi, 1972], vol.10; cf. also 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa II, Dkon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po (1728-1791), Dam pa'i chos mngonpa mdzod kyi don legs par bshad pa rin po che' i gru gzings,f. 24.b (Nawang Gelek Demo, [comp.], The CollectedWorksof Dkon-mchog-' jigs-med-dban-po[New Delhi, 1972],vol. 7). This is clearly not the kind of mystical expe-rience Staal had in mind.

the student should abandon the mundane (whichwould involve making the kind of subject-objectdistinction condemned by Madhyamika philos-ophers), but rather that he should employ it togain yogic insight into the total interrelationshipbetween the spiritual and the mundane, betweenNirvana and Samsara. The student is taught thatNirvana is not other than Samsara, and thatfrom the moment this realization arises and dis-places dualistic thought, there can be no effectivedistinction between drinking alcoholic beer andthe beer of enlightenment.38

38 Precisely this point is made by the Rnying-ma-pascholar 'Jigs-med-gling-pa (1730-1799), ". . . the wordsof the poetic songs . . . are a cause for the experience ofthe flavor of the mutual interrelatedness of Samsaraand Nirvana ..." Cf. 'Jigs-med-gling-paRang-byung-rdo-rje Mkhyen-brtse-'od-zer, Yul Iho rgyud du byungba'i rdzogs chen pa rang byung rdo rje mkhyen brtse'i 'odzer gyi rnam par thar pa, f. 138.a (Sonam T. Kazi, [ed.],The Collected Works of Kun-mkhyen 'Jigs-med-gling-pa[Gangtok, 1971], vol. 9).The present essay is based on a rather different earlierversion presented before the Inner Asia Colloquium,University of Washington,during1970, and I would liketo thank the then members and particularlythe Chair-man, Professor T. V. Wylie, for their criticismsand sug-gestions. However, the responsibilityfor any errors isentirely my own.

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