Prajñâ is sometimes understood to be the female counterpart of Buddha or awakening. In this respect, prajñâ would be Bhagavatî while the Buddha would be called Bhagavân. While Buddha refers to being awakened whereas before one was spiritually asleep, prajñâ is the ability to discern or distinguish clearly the absolute essence from its phenomenalizations as in the example of gold from a gold ring.
Looking now at the three last paramitas (spiritual perfections) those being vîrya (zeal, vitality, virility, energy), dhyâna (musing, contemplation, intuition leading to samâdhi, meditation), and prajñâ, which I just explained, one gets the sense of sexuality, in a spiritual sense.
Vîrya, we could think of as spiritual desire but also a profound drive to seek direct intercourse with the feminine prajñâ. The means to this is through dhyâna. Dhyâna is a continual musing on the beloved, so to speak, prajñâ’s pure, immaculate body. But the dhyânist has not yet seen the immaculate prajñâ, let alone embraced her, directly. Dhyâna has to be refined becoming always more pure and less coarse so as to penetrate through the veil of illusion, both external and internal. Only this way can he see her.
We can visualize all three working together. Vîrya exerts itself perfecting its power and vitality along with dhyâna which is trying to approximate the purity of prajñâ, pushing aside the forces which make the vision of her impossible to realize. On the other hand, if there were a lack of vîrya for the beloved prajñâ, certainly no dhyâna would arise or be necessary by which to seek her.
Although it is true that in later schools of Buddhism such as Vajrayana, upâya (masculine) is the consort of prajñâ (feminine), it is also true that upâya and dhyâna are both a means. And while it is true that dhyâna is neuter, vîrya, the masculine uses dhyâna. In other words, vîrya, which can mean heroic, like the heroic Bodhisattva, is using dhyâna to win the beloved, immaculate prajñâ.
Dhyâna, in the Lalitavistara Sutra, is more of a device or means by which the Bodhisattva is able to become awakened. In Pali, upâya is a means of success against an enemy which seems hardly fitting. It is a more fitting term for a teacher who has to instruct people who are hostile towards the teaching.
Interesting blog. Reminds me of this quote by Nietzsche:
“Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent - that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.”
Posted by: Methexis | March 26, 2014 at 04:16 PM