The Combined Practice of Vinaya and Tantra in Nenghai’s Path to Liberation

Nenghai 能海 (1886–1967) was both a renowned Chinese Gelugpa tantric master and a vinaya expert, who advocated the “simultaneous practice of vinaya and tantra” (lümi jian xiu 律密兼修). He conceived the relationship between vinaya and tantra within an “exoteric and esoteric combined practice” (xianmi shuangxiu 顯密雙修), an approach drawn from the Gelugpa model. However, Nenghai integrated it with a reconnection to the Chinese vinaya lineage and with a modernist approach to vinaya and Buddhism. In so doing, he also advanced the fascinating idea that tantra and vinaya share the very same esoteric nature. Nenghai’s choice of the vinaya lineage of the Dharmaguptaka and the striking predominance of Chinese Buddhist monastic conventions placed his communities at the heart of the Chinese monastic tradition. Moreover, his textual-oriented approach to vinaya, and his interest in the Āgamas—two genres that he regarded as remnants of an alleged “original” and “primordial” Buddhism—reveal a modernist perspective, which had already made its way into South Asia, South-East Asia, Japan, and China but not so much into Tibet. In a nutshell, in acknowledging that Nenghai’s system of combining vinaya and tantra is based on the Gelugpa system—which promotes the practice of tantric Buddhism together with monasticism—this study highlights the peculiarities of Nenghai’s vision when compared with the standard Gelugpa practice, a vision which reflects a Chinese Buddhist identity as well as a modernist approach to vinaya.