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with the man’s flesh as the sacrament. Virupa proceeded there with his two
disciples. The yogins wanted to eat them, so they called them into their assembly
hall. The Acarya [Virupa] said to his two disciples, “Don’t continue
to release your breath—but stay here holding it inside!” The Acarya himself
entered the hall, and the yogins asked, “Where did your two friends
go?” He replied, “They’re outside.” “Well, bring them in!” they exclaimed.
“Bring them in yourself,” the Acarya replied. One yogin called them but the
two did not answer. He poked them with his finger, but from the impression
made by his poking, out came some foul breath—hiiissss. Then some
feces began to bubble out—bloop, bloop. “This comes from rotten flesh!”
he said and returned inside. The trident began to quiver and shake and,
with a single clap of the Acarya’s palms, the trident was reduced to fragments
and dust. Then the statue of Devi Candika began bouncing up and
down. Virupa placed the palm of one hand on top of the image and bound
up the statue between the head and the heart. 128 At that point he grabbed
it by one ear and affixed a stupa [caitya] to its crown. With that, all the yogins
fainted. When they revived, they all asked, “If you Buddhists are greatest
in compassion, why have you done this to us?” Virupa replied, “You
must cease making your offerings with warm flesh and blood from murdered
beings!” They all paid homage to the feet of the Acarya and, having
taken refuge, became Buddhist yogins. 129
It would be hard to argue that this episode and the many others like it were
not understood as humorous. In the story we are presented with three Buddhist
yogins, their leader Virupa having received direct transmission and authentication
from the embodiment of feminine wisdom, Nairatmya. 130 Virupa
has performed miracles—turning the Ganges back in its path, holding the
sun at knifepoint—that demonstrate his superiority to the gods themselves, for
both the river and the sun are gods. And yet, when his two disciples are prodded
by the flesh-hungry %akta yogins, out bubbles fecal matter and rotten
flesh. Contrary to the doctrines of the Adamantine Body (vajrakaya) or analogous
doctrines of yogic purity, in place of the divine inner form that is supposed
to be the property of the awakened siddha, here we find bodies that are
walking bags of stinking filth. 131 At the heart of this episode is the inversion
of expectations, the discontinuity between juxtaposed images. Whereas the
non-Buddhists may be polluted from eating human flesh, the Buddhist yogins
ooze and bubble.
Buddhist esoteric humor thus finds additional expression in discontinuity
and incongruity, over and above its Indian emphasis on the humor of physical