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Imaginative Realization in the Vijñānabhairava Tantra
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Journal Article
Imaginative Realization in the Vijñānabhairava Tantra
2017
Overview
Among the religious traditions that developed in ancient India, the Tantric tradition offers one of the most vigorous efforts at vindicating the powers of the imagination. A key term in this context is bhāvanā, literally the “act of bringing something into being”, used to indicate a disciplined cultivation of the mind’s natural capacity to form images. This brief article addresses the meaning of bhāvanā in the Vijñānabhairava Tantra (VBh), a short scripture written in the spirit of the Śaiva Tantric Trika tradition around the first half of the 9th century CE. In this text, as the article shows, bhāvanā is understood not only as a human faculty but now also as a divine power with important ontological and soteriological implications. In this way, the centrality of the imagination common to many Tantric texts reaches a remarkable zenith in the VBh, anticipating the view of later influential thinkers such as Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja (10th-11th centuries).
Entre las tradiciones religiosas que se desarrollaron en la antigua India, si hay una que vindicó la imaginación, ésa es la tradición tántrica. Al respecto, el término clave es bhāvanā, literalmente, el “acto de hacer que algo cobre existencia”, usado para indicar un cultivo disciplinado de la capacidad natural de la mente para formar imágenes. Este artículo analiza el significado de bhāvanā en el Vijñānabhairava Tantra (VBh), breve escritura redactada hacia el siglo IX en el seno de la tradición śaiva tántrica conocida como Trika. En este texto, bhāvanā es concebida no sólo como una facultad humana sino además como un poder divino con profundas implicaciones ontológicas y soteriológicas. De este modo, la centralidad que la imaginación tiene en muchos textos tántricos alcanza una cúspide en el VBh, anticipando la perspectiva de influyentes pensadores posteriores como Abhinavagupta y Kṣemarāja (siglos X-XI).
Publisher
Indialogs,Indi@logs. Spanish Journal of India Studies,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
