Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

goddess care for humankind as if we were their children and devote themselves to the concerns of the
world. As master and mistress of all forms of time they determine the rhythm of history. Being and
not-being fuse within them. In brief, the creative polarity of the divine couple produces the universe.
Yet this image of complete beauty between the sexes does not stand on the highest altar of Tantric
Buddhism. But what could be higher than the polar principle of the universe and infinity?
Wisdom (prajna) and method (upaya)
Before answering this, we want to quickly view a further pair of opposites which are married in
yuganaddha. Up to now we have not yet considered the most often cited polarity in the tantras,
“wisdom” (prajna) and “method” (upaya). There is no original tantric text, no Indian or Tibetan
commentary and no Western interpreter of Tantrism which does not treat the “union of upaya and
prajna” in depth.
“Wisdom” and “method” are held to be the outright mother and father of all other tantric opposites.
Every polar constellation is derived from these two terms. To summarize, upaya stands for the
masculine principle, the phallus, motion, activity, the god, enlightenment, and so forth; prajna
represents the feminine principle, the vagina, calm, passivity, the goddess, the cosmic law. All women
naturally count as prajna, all men as upaya. “The commingling of this Prajna and Upaya [are] like the
mixture of water and milk in a state of non-duality” (Dasgupta, 1974, p. 93). There is also the stated
view that upaya becomes a fetter when it is not joined with prajna; only both together grant
deliverance and Buddhahood (Bharati, 1977, p. 171).
Prajna and Upaya