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CLIFF EDWARDS
A Few Notes on Norman Dubie's The Spirit Tablets
at Goa Lake
Norman Dubie's The Spirit
Tablets at Goa Lake projects Tibetan Buddhist strategies and concepts
forward to the year 2277 as setting for the story of a family of spirit
warriors whose Vajrayana wisdom allows them to cope with cosmic disasters,
spiritual impostors, and syncretistic visions. The long poem can weave
its magic whether one understands the world of Tibetan Buddhism and its
vocabulary or not. Perhaps the author is interested in the manner the
strange vocabulary matches the mysterious happenings in the futuristic
scene, and expects that it will all fit together by the conclusion. Nevertheless,
some knowledge of the world-view and technical terms of Tibet's Vajrayana
might enrich one's reading and open another level of understanding. I
will make just a few suggestions regarding the Tibetan Buddhist background,
and will name a few books as resources.
Pre-Buddhist Tibet embraced
a shamanism focused on divination, exorcism, coercive magic, and guidance
for spirits on their death journeys. Indian Tantrism added to this shamanism
its own secret texts and initiations that involved complex mandalas or
power-circles mapping the universe and empowering the initiate. Indian
Tantrism found a home in Tibet's "third vehicle" of Buddhism,
the thunderbolt or diamond vehicle called Vajrayana. Vajrayana furnished
Tantra's mandalas with cosmic Buddhas, employed mantras or meditation
syllables capable of changing the very structure of reality, and taught
mudras or hand-gestures that brought siddhi or magical powers to adepts.
This Tantric-Buddhist-Shamanistic mix celebrated the power of women called
"dakinis" (khadroma), "sky-walkers" whose spiritual
guidance was essential for initiates. The sexual union symbolized in the
joining of vajra and lotus, and in the mantra, "Om Mani Padma Hum"
("the jewel is in the lotus"), transcended dualism and brought
about the unity of compassion and wisdom, emptiness and bliss. Embodied
in all these practices was the Buddhist sense expressed in the opening
verse of the Buddhist Dhammapada: "We are what we think. .
. . With our thoughts we make the world." In Tibetan Buddhism, monsters
and gods alike might well be viewed as creatures of the mind or karmic
projections. Projections or not, they could be powerful forces to reckon
with.
Several books currently in many bookstores
will help explain Tantric, Vajrayana concepts and terms met in Dubie's
poem. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (Boston: Shambhala,
1991) allows one to turn to definitions of Tantrism, Vajrayana, dakini,
the Bardo, and more. Lama Anagarika Govinda's Foundations of Tibetan
Buddhism (Boston: Weiser Books, 1969) continues to be available and
is useful. Lama Yeshe's Introduction to Tantra (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 2001) is also valuable reading. For a beginner, the section
on "The Diamond Thunderbolt" in Huston Smith's The Illustrated
World's Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994) is easily available.
For those interested in research in the deeper mysteries of the role of
women in Tantric Buddhism, there is Miranda Shaw's Passionate Enlightenment
(Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1994) The eighteen-page bibliography
in Shaw's book should provide even the expert with fascinating directions
for further reading. ![](../../images/bug_print.gif)
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