[Buddha-l] As Swami goes, so goes the nation? (Dan Lusthaus and Richard P. Hayes) (Dan Lusthaus)

[Richard Hayes]

On Apr 21, 2010, at 5:59 PM, Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> 2/ Paratantra as equivalent to paticcasamuppaada/pratiityasamutpaada: what is the understanding of the tantra (or the tan-) part of this?

A simple explanation is that when 'tantra' occurs at the end of a compound, it means 'depending on' whatever is named by the first member of the compound. So 'svatantra' means 'self-dependent' (which really means 'independent') and 'para-tantra' means 'dependent on something else.' If the question is WHY 'tantra' at the end of a compound means what it means, it sounds like a dodge to say that it's just idiomatic and is one of those many phrases that one should not try to understand too literally, but that is sort of the case here. As you know, 'tantra' is from the verb 'tanoti' (to stretch out, to extend), and a 'tantra' is a place where that is done, and so a 'tantra' is a loom. It is also the warp of a woven fabric. From those primary meanings come a whole bunch of figurative meanings. So a tantra can be a principle, a source, a thread, a book, a lineage. There is hardly any limit to how the meaning of the word can be warped to make it mean whatever one needs it to mean.

There is no stretch at all in understanding 'paratantra' as 'pratītyasamutpāda.' That is completely expected, given the meanings of both of those words.

Richard