Tantric Techniques (16 page)

64
Tantric Techniques

of which is fraught with developmental crisis.

3. Jung’s Warnings Against Inflation

As we have seen, in deity yoga compassion and wisdom are combined in a single consciousness such that the mind of wisdom realizing emptiness is used as the basis from which oneself emanates as, or appears as, a deity. The mind of wisdom itself appears compassionately as a deity; the “ascertainment factor”
a
of the consciousness realizes emptiness while the “appearance factor”
b
appears as an ideal being, whose very essence is compassion and wis-dom.

Tsong-kha-pa singles out this practice of deity yoga as the central (but not the only) distinctive feature of Mantra. The S
ū
tra systems involve meditation that is similar in aspect to a Buddha’s Body of Attributes in that in meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness the Bodhisattva’s mind realizing emptiness is similar in as-pect to a Buddha’s exalted knowledge of the mode of being of phenomena in its aspect of perceiving only the ultimate, emptiness. However, the S
ū
tra systems do not involve meditation similar in aspect to a Buddha’s form body, in that the meditator does not imagine himself or herself to have a Buddha’s physical form, whereas such does occur in Mantra. Thus, for Tsong-kha-pa, visualizing oneself as a deity and identification with that deity comprise the central distinguishing feature of tantric meditation. In descriptions of the distinctiveness of Mantra in other orders of Tibetan Buddhism also, deity yoga is a distinguishing feature of Mantra but is not singled as out as the
central
difference.

On the surface, Carl Jung’s warning that inflation necessarily attends identifying oneself with an archetypal motif would seem completely applicable to the practice of deity yoga. His cautions are profound and serve to highlight the enormity of the task that the tantric systems are attempting. Jung frequently warns against the inflation attendant upon assimilation of autonomous complexes and identification with their content, as, for instance, when he says:
c

a
nges cha
.

b
snang cha
.

c
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 243 (the last number refers not to the page number but to the paragraph number, which is used for coordination between editions).

66
Tantric Techniques

It will be remembered that in the analysis of the personal unconscious the first things to be added to consciousness are the personal contents and I suggested that these contents which have been repressed, but are capable of becoming conscious, should be called the
personal unconscious
. I al-so showed that to annex the deeper layers of the unconscious, which I have called the
collective unconscious,
produces an extension of the personality leading to the state of inflation.

Jung feared the perils of inflation that he found in Westerners who attempted Eastern yoga. To counteract this, he stressed assimilation of contents of the collective unconscious, not through identification, but through confrontation, wisely avoiding equation with either the lowest or highest aspects of one’s own psyche.

This Tibetan system, however, stresses the importance of “di-vine pride,”
a
in which the practitioner seeks to develop such clear imagination of herself or himself as a deity that the sense of
being
a deity occurs strongly (though not to the point of utter conviction). As we have seen in the previous chapter, in Action Tantra this practice begins with emptiness yoga, called the “ultimate deity,” and the deity is an appearance of the wisdom realizing the emptiness of inherent existence—the deity being merely the person designated in dependence upon purely appearing mind and body. Because the empty status of the person is being realized, it is said that deity yo-ga serves even to counteract the conception of oneself as inherently existent and thereby to prevent afflicted pride, a version of ego-inflation which Jung sought to avoid by advising against identifying with assimilated contents.

In exploring these issues, let us first consider Jung’s very sensible and profound warnings and then whether any of the specific steps in the practice of deity yoga in Buddhist Tantra could serve to prevent inflation. I find Jung’s framing of the issue to be profoundly stimulating, serving as a foil for appreciating the significance of deity yoga.

To Carl Jung it is by no means so simple. This can be seen when he

a
lha’i nga rgyal
.

Jung’s Warnings Against Inflation
67

speaks of great dangers in Westerners’ attempting the Eastern yoga which, for him, is amoral but is misinterpreted in the West as a pre-text for immorality:
a

Anyone who affects the higher yoga will be called upon to prove his professions of moral indifference, not only as the doer of evil but, even more, as its victim. As psychologists well know, the moral conflict is not to be settled merely by a declaration of superiority bordering on inhumanity. We are witnessing today some terrifying examples of the Su-perman’s aloofness from moral principles.

I do not doubt that the Eastern liberation from vices, as well as from virtues, is coupled with detachment in every respect, so that the yogi is translated beyond this world, and quite inoffensive. But I suspect every European attempt at detachment of being mere liberation from moral considerations. Anybody who tries his hand at yoga ought therefore to be conscious of its far-reaching consequences, or else his so-called quest will remain a futile pastime.

Such misapplication of yoga leads to positive and negative inflation and all their attendant ills of which Jung speaks repeatedly and eloquently throughout his works. For instance:
b

In projection, he vacillates between an extravagant and pa-thological deification of the doctor, and a contempt bris-tling with hatred. In introjection, he gets involved in a ridiculous self-deification, or else a moral self-laceration. The mistake he makes in both cases comes from attributing to a
person
the contents of the collective unconscious. In this way he makes himself or his partner either god or devil. Here we see the characteristic effect of the archetype: it seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity. It causes exaggeration, a puffed-up attitude (inflation), loss of free will, delusion, and enthusiasm in good and evil alike.

Positive inflation of the religious sort can lead to assumptions of grandeur, viewing oneself as having the universal panacea:
c

a
Collected Works,
vol. 11, para. 825-826.

b
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 110.

c
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 260.

68
Tantric Techniques

The second possible mode of reaction is identification with the collective psyche. This would be equivalent to acceptance of the inflation, but now exalted into a system. In other words, one would be the fortunate possessor of
the
great truth that was only waiting to be discovered, of the eschatological knowledge that means the healing of the nations. This attitude does not necessarily signify megalomania in direct form, but megalomania in the milder and more familiar form it takes in the reformer, the prophet, and the martyr.

Just as the prophet convinced that he/she has
the
final truth is inflated through identification with the forces of deep contents, so is the humble disciple, affecting the posture of only following the master’s dictums:
a

But besides the possibility of becoming a prophet, there is another alluring joy, subtler and apparently more legiti-mate: the joy of becoming a prophet’s disciple.…The disciple is unworthy; modestly he sits at the Master’s feet and guards against having ideas of his own. Mental laziness becomes a virtue; one can at least bask in the sun of a semidi-vine being.…Naturally the disciples always stick together, not out of love, but for the very understandable purpose of effortlessly confirming their own convictions by engendering an air of collective agreement.…[J]ust as the prophet is a primordial image from the collective psyche, so also is the disciple of the prophet.

In both cases inflation is brought about by the collective unconscious, and the independence of the individuality suffers injury.

In a similar vein:
b

These few examples may suffice to show what kind of spirit animated these movements. They were made up of people who identified themselves (or were identified) with God, who deemed themselves supermen, had a critical approach to the gospels, followed the promptings of the inner man, and understood the kingdom of heaven to be within. In a

a
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 263-265.

b
Collected Works,
vol. 9.ii, para. 140.

Jung’s Warnings Against Inflation
69

sense, therefore, they were modern in their outlook, but they had a religious inflation instead of the rationalistic and political psychosis that is the affliction of our day.

Jung’s description of his own time as being under the sway of a “rationalistic and political psychosis” in which gathered libido is invested in rationalism as a cure-all and is invested in politics as a panacea for all ills prompts me to add that today such inflation is also found in excessive concentration on economics, such that the focus of improvement is on the level of personal income and the gross national product with personal fulfillment being almost for-gotten.

Too much attention is turned to externals, as if proper social, political, and economic arrangements would cure our situation. Jung advises against identifying with offices and titles since such excludes the richness of our situation:
a

A very common instance is the humorless way in which many men identify themselves with their business or their titles. The office I hold is certainly my special activity; but it is also a collective factor that has come into existence historically through the cooperation of many people and whose dignity rests solely on collective approval. When, therefore, I identify myself with my office or title, I behave as though I myself were the whole complex of social factors of which that office consists, or as though I were not only the bearer of the office, but also and at the same time the approval of society. I have made an extraordinary extension of myself and have usurped qualities which are not in me but outside me.

And:
b

There is, however, yet another thing to be learnt from this example, namely that these transpersonal contents are not just inert or dead matter that can be annexed at will. Rather they are living entities which exert an attractive force upon the conscious mind. Identification with one’s of-fice or one’s title is very attractive indeed, which is precise-ly why so many men are nothing more than the decorum

a
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 227.

b
Collected Works,
vol. 7, para. 230.

70
Tantric Techniques