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The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects

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The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’ The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects By Eben Matthew Yonnetti B.A., Siena College, 2012 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado Boulder in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies 2017 ii This thesis entitled: Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’ The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects written by Eben Matthew Yonnetti has been approved for the Department of Religious Studies __________________________________________ (Dr. Holly Gayley, Committee Chair) __________________________________________ (Dr. Jules Levinson, Committee Member) __________________________________________ (Dr. Greg Johnson, Committee Member) __________________________________________ (Dr. Amelia Hall, Committee Member) __________________________________________ (date) The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii Abstract: Yonnetti, Eben Matthew (M.A., Religious Studies) Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’ The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects Thesis directed by Assistant Professor Holly Gayley This thesis examines the role of translation and the formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects in religious transmission through an analysis of the tantric Buddhist ritual practice, the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā (SOM). Reported to be revealed as a Mind treasure (ད"ངས་ག'ར་) by the Tibetan reincarnate teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche ()ས་*མ་,ང་པ་.ན་0་1་; 1940-1987) while on retreat in Bhutan in 1968, and subsequently translated into English by Trungpa Rinpoche and his student Richard Arthure (1940- ), the SOM played an important role in the early process of the transnational transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism to the ‘West.’ Nevertheless, after more than fifty years of practice by individuals and communities around the globe, the role of the SOM in this process has yet to be studied. Moreover, scholarship on the role of Vajrayāna rituals in contemporary religious transmission is also in its nascency. In this thesis, I aim to address this lacuna through a study of the revelation of this text, its strategic translation, and its role in the making of Vajrayāna Buddhist subjects. Given that the SOM emerged at a pivotal moment as Trungpa Rinpoche re-evaluated how to best teach the buddhadharma in the ‘West,’ I argue that its partially domesticating translation was a strategic means of inducting ‘Western’ students into a foreign ritual world. As such, I argue that the SOM was a skillful method to introduce ‘Western,’ non-Buddhist students to the Vajrayāna through an iterative process of ritual enactment and training in a subjectivity both described and prescribed within the text. As such, in this thesis I analyze the important role that the SOM played in the early formation of Vajrayāna subjectivities as Vajrayāna Buddhism came to North America and in preparing the ground for the later teachings that Trungpa Rinpoche would introduce to his students. This thesis informs my broader research question: how are new subjectivities created in the process of religious transmission across radically different cultural contexts? More generally, it contributes to emergent conversations around performativity in Buddhist ritual practice and will also prove relevant to those working on the intersection of ritual practice and religious transmission in other traditions. iv Acknowledgements Coming to the culmination of my studies at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), this thesis has only been possible through the support, generosity, and input of numerous individuals over the past several years. While space does not permit me to mention all of those who have contributed to the success of this work, I would like to thank the CU Boulder School of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Religious Studies, the Center for Asian Studies, the University Libraries, and the Graduate School at the CU Boulder for financially supporting my studies in the US and abroad. I would particularly like to thank my colleague and friend Sonam Nyenda, who was always happy to share his experience and knowledge, and whose modesty with what he knew was always overstated. My thanks also go to Sherab Wangmo, Noel Smith, Greg Mileski, Caitlyn Brandt, Tyler Lehrer, Joshua Shelton, Scott Brown, and other members of my graduate cohort in the CU Boulder Department of Religious Studies who have all been engaging conversation partners and good friends during our studies together. Thanks also to participants in the Tibet Himalayan Study Group at CU Boulder creating a robust and interactive interdisciplinary environment for the study of Tibetan and Himalayan cultures. I also wish to thank Executive Director of the Nālānda Translation Committee, Larry Mermelstein, who granted permission and supported my work on the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, as well as to Kunga Dawa (Richard Arthure), Frank Berliner, Barry Boyce, and Derek Kolleeny for sharing their experience and knowledge of this ritual practice. Moreover, thanks go to Walter and Joanne Fordham and to Carolyn Gimian whose work on the Chronicles Project and the Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project has preserved and made accessible to the public Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings in a wide variety of formats. I would also be remiss if I did not thank Hubert Decleer, Isabelle Onians, and Nazneen Zafar who first ignited my interest in the Tibetan and Himalayan region as an undergraduate studying abroad in Nepal, and who have served as sources of wisdom and inspiration ever since. At the CU Boulder and Naropa University, I would like to thank Jules Levinson, Amelia Hall, Sarah Harding, Phil Stanley, and Lhoppon Rechung for nurturing and supporting my studies of Tibetan language and Vajrayāna Buddhism. Moreover, I would like to thank Greg Johnson, Loriliai Biernacki, Terry Kleeman, Lucas Carmichael, and faculty in CU Boulder’s Religious Studies Department whose courses and conversations helped me to grow as a scholar. Deep thanks also go to my advisor, Holly Gayley, who has supported my work and professional development throughout my graduate studies and pushed me to develop as a critical thinker and close reader of texts. She is an inspiration for the type of scholar I hope to become. Thanks to my family who have supported me in ways too numerous to mention throughout my years of study and travel in places near and far. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Sierra Gladfelter, whose profound insight, kindness, and patience have helped tremendously in many drafts of this thesis, as well as every other piece that I have written. It is truly a blessing to share my life with such a supportive partner. v Table of Contents I. Introduction 1 II. Transformation: Trungpa Rinpoche and the Treasure Tradition in the ‘West’ 16 III. Translation: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, Treasure Texts, and Domestication 37 IV. Transmission: The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Formation of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects 61 A. Disciplinary Practices, Speech-Acts, and Vajrayāna Subject-Making 64 B. The Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects in the Sādhana of Mahamudra 74 V. Conclusion: Taming Subjects and Opening the Gates for the Ocean of Dharma 90 VI. Bibliography 98 VII. Appendices 107 1 I. Introduction This is the darkest hour of the dark ages.༔ Disease, famine and warfare are raging like the fierce north wind.༔ The Buddha’s teaching has waned in strength.༔ The various schools of the saṅgha are fighting amongst themselves with sectarian bitterness; and although the Buddha’s teachings were perfectly expounded and there have been many reliable teachings since then from other great gurus, yet they pursue intellectual speculations.༔ […] As a result, the blessings of spiritual energy are being lost. Even those with great devotion are beginning to lose heart.༔ If the buddhas of the three times and the great teachers were to comment, they would surely express their disappointment.༔ So to enable individuals to ask for their help and to renew spiritual strength, I have written this sādhana of the embodiment of all the siddhas.༔1 Thus begins the Sādhana of Mahāmudrā Which Quells the Mighty Warring of the Three Lords of Materialism and Brings Realization of the Ocean of Siddhas of the Practice Lineage ("་ནང་གསང་བ)་*་+,་ག-ལ་/ན་0་བ1ོག་ 3ང་4ན་བ5ད་7་8བ་9བ་:་མ<་མ=ན་>་?བ་པ)་A་ག་Bག་:་/ན་0་Cས་D་བ་བEགས་F།). According to its opening lines, the mundane world is in an awful state, full of suffering, and even formerly-dedicated religious practitioners have abandoned their soteriological pursuits in favor of exploiting the buddhadharma for the sake of material gain. Due to this wretched state of the world and the degeneration of the Buddhist community, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote down this liturgical text as a means of correcting the deterioration of spiritual practices and to renew the strength of the Vajrayāna Buddhist teachings in the contemporary world. In doing so Trungpa Rinpoche hoped this practice would spread and cause, “the chariot of the new perfected [age] to be ushered in.”2 What makes this text unique, however, is not its claim to renew the Buddhist teachings, but rather its role as a ritual practice in English that played a 1 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā, trans. Chögyam Trungpa and Kunga Dawa (Halifax, NS: Nālānda Translation Committee, 2006), 5. 2 :ས་ལ་Hགས་Iན་གསར་པ)་Kང་L་Mར་>་Nང་Oབ་པ)་Pར་5ར་3ག; zur mang drung pa chos kyi rgya mtsho, phi nang gsang ba’i kla klo’i gyul chen po bzlog jing don bgyud kyi grub thob rgya mtsho mngon du sgrub pa’i cho ga phyag rgya chen po zhes bya ba bzhugs so (Halifax, NS and Boulder, CO: Nālānda Translation Committee, 1988, 2011), 24A.
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