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Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism Compared

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University of Latvia Faculty of Theology PhD Thesis Dimensions of Mystical Anthropology of the XX Century: Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism Compared Elizabete Taivåne Rîga 2005 In remembrance of Brother Roger from Taizé 2 Contents Page INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 5 The Interspiritual Age: The Aims of Dialogue among Religions.................................. 5 The Starting-point of Dialogue: Quest for Appropriate Methodology .......................18 The Phenomenological Approach of Mircea Eliade and Its Links to the Psychological School of C.G. Jung .....................................................................................................25 Mysticism as the Universal Core of Religions ............................................................38 Searching for a Clue to Differences .............................................................................58 The Notion of Mystical Anthropology.........................................................................63 A Survey of Sources in the Context of the Hystory of Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism ......................................................................................................................67 THE DOCTRINE OF MAN IN CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM.................96 Christian Theology and Buddhist Philosophy .............................................................96 Christian Anthropology and Buddhist Psychology...................................................103 Two Types of Holism: Christian and Buddhist.........................................................121 The Constitution of Man in Abhidharma...................................................................132 The Constitution of Man in Hesychasm ....................................................................142 The Ålaya-Vijnåna as the Link between the Abhidharmic Notion of Anåtman and the Tantric Doctrine of Light ............................................................................................155 The Doctrine of Man in Tantric Buddhism................................................................166 The Concept of Heart in Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism ...................................176 THE PSYCHIC INTROVERSION AS A SOTERIOLOGICAL MEANS ..........202 Introspection and Introversion: General Considerations ...........................................204 The Dissolution of Gross Winds and Its Hesychast Parallels .................................225 Entering Mysterious Darkness ...................................................................................272 The Experience of Light in Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism ..............................282 The Perception of Light in Hesychasm and Tantric Buddhism ................................303 The Experience of Christian Deification and Buddhist Liberation............................313 3 THE SOMATIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE LIGHT EXPERIENCE ..............325 The Effulgent Body in Christian Hagiography..........................................................326 The Rainbow Body in Tibetan Hagiography.............................................................334 Lumenophany and Reabsorption: From Symbols to Archetypes .............................344 The Theory of the Rainbow Body as a Return to the Primordial State.....................357 The Doctrine of a Salvific Body in Hesychasm and Tantric Buddhism ..................366 The Concept of the Resurrection of the Body in Christianity ...................................371 THE CONCLUSION.................................................................................................379 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................386 4 Introduction The Interspiritual Age: Aims of Dialogue among Religions We have entered the XXI century, the age when different cultures and religions meet. An author of several books and dozens of articles on mysticism and religion, Brother Wayne Teasdale, has denoted the new age as the interspiritual one. He underscores that it “is a radically new period of human history where the barriers between and among the great world’s religions are breaking down.”1 The situation of Asian religions introduced to the West is perfectly presented by Geoffrey Parrinder, “Not only visitors but immigrants and missions come from Asia to Europe and America; Gurus and Swamis, Sufis and Dervishes, attract large audiences and often become established teachers of religious experimentation. Meanwhile the disappearance of old political empires has brought decline to some formal structures of the churches and has lead to a reassessment of their role and message. The world becomes increasingly unified, religiously as well as commercially or politically, and this brings a shift away from exclusive organizations of former times.”2 In unison with Geoffrey Parrinder, Wayne Teasdale speaks about the dawn of a new consciousness in the situation of new historical circumstances entailing a number of shifts in our understanding. Beside a shift in our ecological, social, military etc. thinking, “a deep evolving experience of community between and among the religions” takes place. Now the way for a universal civilization, i.e., the civilization with a heart, is being prepared.3 A reason for the promising forward look to the dawn of the universal consciousness is, obviously, the commonplace knowledge now available of Eastern religions as well as the fact of serious academic studies of the religions of Asia in the West. As Geoffrey Parrinder contends, this influx of information was “one of the most significant factors in the religious scene of the twentieth century” creating “a new situation for traditional religion and theology”.4 1 Wayne Teasdale, “Foreword” in Marco Pallis, A Buddhist Spectrum: Contributions to Buddhist- Christian Dialogue (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2003), p. vii. 2 Geoffrey Parrinder, Mysticism in the World’s Religions (London: Sheldon Press, 1976), p. 4. 3 Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions (Novato: New World Library, 2001), pp. 4-5. 4 Geoffrey Parrinder, Mysticism in the World’s Religions, p. 3. 5 It is discernible that an interest of Western people in Eastern religions is not just a curiosity neither Eastern religious traditions are only an object of academic studies. As Mircea Eliade asserts, the discovery of a non-European and his spiritual world became the central event of the XX century because religion concerns the most important human value, i.e., his relationship with the sacred. The quest for this relationship is none other than an endeavor to find a meaning of human life. The Western interest in Eastern religions is a mark of a deep inward crisis of European civilization wherein man is not any longer aware of his life’s meaning. As the scholar contends, any crisis of a modern man is of religious nature. History of religions is intended to make a contribution in getting over this very crisis.5 A crisis of cultural identity in the Euro-American sector of Christianity was discussed also by Aloysius Pieris, S.J. He observes that now a decisive moment for the church, being an occasion for a “third reformation”, takes place. The term of the “third reformation” is borrowed by Pieris from Geoffrey Parrinder, who, in turn, “suggests on the analogy of the first reformation in the sixteenth century and the second, which came in response to the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution in subsequent centuries.” Aloysius Pieris continues, “My suspicion, therefore, is that the contemporary West, in allowing itself to be seduced by the mystique of the East, may probably be indulging in a massive sociological ritualization of a deep psychological need to sharpen its Oriental instinct blunted by centuries of disuses. This itself is the third reformation in germine.”6 According to Pieris, Thomas Merton was “a sensitive Christian whose life and works embody the third reformation”. During all his life he was searching for “the Eastern half of his own being”.7 As Harvey D. Egan, S.J., observes, for Thomas Merton Christianity represented a supernaturally revealed religion which “needs nothing from the East, but it must incarnate itself in specific social and cultural contexts, that is, assimilate elements from the East in the same way that Greek culture and Roman law were so important for Christianity.”8 Thomas Merton taught that “oriental religions could open a Westerner to 5 V. A. Fkm,tlbkm> Pthwfkj nhflbwbq% Xtkjdtr d le[jdys[ nhflbwbz[ Djcnjrf !Cfyrn-Gtnth,ehu% Fp,erf rkfccbrf% Gtnth,ehucrjt Djcnjrjdtltybt> 2003@> c. 14. 6 Aloysius Pieris, S.J., Love Meets Wisdom: A Christian Experience of Buddhism (Mariknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1990), p. 8. 7 Ibid., p. 9. 8 Harvey D. Egan, S.J., Christian Mysticism: The Future of a Tradition (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1984), p. 239. 6 the depths of his own Christian tradition, qualitatively improve upon it, and might even be necessary for the West’s physical and spiritual survival.”9 The increasing interest of Westerners in doctrines of ‘non-duality’ has been discussed by the defender and protector of the Tibetan tradition in the West, Marco Pallis. He admits that the idea of ‘non-duality’ has come to the West from India and beyond. Islam also has made its contribution through the teaching of Sufi masters. In the same way as Wayne Teasdale does, Marco Pallis, obviously, looks forward
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