DOCSLIB.ORG

Interpretations of Unity: Hermeneutics in ŚĀKYA MCHOG LDAN‖S Interpretation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Interpretations of Unity: Hermeneutics in ŚĀKYA MCHOG LDAN‖S Interpretation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya Interpretations of Unity: Hermeneutics in ŚĀKYA MCHOG LDAN‖s Interpretation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya Philippe Turenne Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal August 2010 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Philippe Turenne, 2010 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the process through which Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, by synthesizing doctrines and texts into consistent models, integrates views of reality within doctrinal and soteriological systems. It consists of an analysis of the most fundamental doctrinal tension found in the Tibetan tradition, namely the apparent inconsistency of doctrines belonging to the negative Mādhyamika and to the more affirmative Yogācāra trends of Mahāyāna Buddhism. As a case study aiming to provide a first systematic examination of that problematic, the dissertation surveys and analyzes Tibetan interpretation of the set of texts referred to as the Five Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga), and at the way those interpretations deal with the doctrinal tensions found in that set of text. In addition to providing a recension of major interpretations of the Five Treatises developed between 1100 and 1500, a detailed account is given of the model of interpretation given by gSer mdog Paṇ chen Śākya mchog ldan, a famous teacher of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism. When confronted with the features of other interpretations, Śākya mchog ldan‖s interpretation of the Five Treatises, which proceeds primarily by allowing a plurality of views to be maintained even at the level of definitive meaning, , provides us with a new insight in the Tibetan philosophical tradition: the most fundamental dimension of philosophical reconciliation of doctrinal views, especially of the kind found in the Five Treatises, can be described as pertaining to textual hermeneutics. Moreover, Śākya mchog ldan‖s contribution to that domain of Buddhist thought, by placing hermeneutics at the very centre of his system of Buddhist doctrine and practice, suggests that hermeneutics is a fundamental category of all Buddhist philosophical 2 debates, and that it should be part of any attempt to understand the Tibetan philosophical tradition. La présente thèse consiste en une étude du processus par lequel la philosophie bouddhiste tibétaine intègre des descriptions de la réalité au sein de systèmes doctrinaires et sotériologiques, c‖est-à-dire en effectuant la synthèse de différentes doctrines et textes. Elle présente une analyse du plus important sujet de tension doctrinaire de la tradition tibétaine : les contradictions apparaissant au sein des deux courant principaux du bouddhisme Mahāyāna, le Madhyamaka et le Yogācāra. Cette problématique n‖ayant pas jusqu‖ici été étudiée systématiquement, la thèse propose une étude de cas visant à en produire, pour la première fois une analyse systématique. Le cas étudié est celui des interprétations tibétaines du groupe de texte appelé les cinq Traités de Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga), en particulier de la façon dont ces interprétations parviennent à résoudre les tensions doctrinaires présentes dans ces textes. Outre un résumé et une analyse des plus importantes interprétations de ces textes produites approximativement entre les années 1100 et 1500, la thèse fournit une exposition détaillée de l‖interprétation développée par gSer mdog Paṇ chen Śākya mchog ldan, un célèbre auteur appartenant à l‖école Sa skya du bouddhisme tibétain. Lorsque comparée aux autres principales interprétations, l‖approche construite par Śākya mchog ldan, qui repose sur la possibilité pour une multitude de perspectives de cohabiter, même au sein du sens définitif, nous révèle une nouvelle facette de la tradition philosophique tibétaine: l‖herméneutique textuelle joue un rôle fondamental dans l‖organisation des doctrines bouddhistes, et en particulier dans le type de débat ayant lieu autour des cinq Traités. De plus Śākya mchog ldan, en plaçant 3 l‖herméneutique au centre de son système d‖interprétation et de pratique de la doctrine bouddhiste, nous suggère que l‖herméneutique représente une dimension fondamentale de toute forme de philosophie bouddhiste. 4 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Abbreviations ..............................................................................................................................................10 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................13 1. Context ................................................................................................................................................13 2. Buddhist Hermeneutics: Literature Review ..................................................................................28 3. Division of Topics ...............................................................................................................................38 Chapter 1 .....................................................................................................................................................43 The Place and Importance of the Five Treatises of Maitreya in Tibetan Buddhist Doctrine .........43 1. Tibetan fields of knowledge .............................................................................................................43 2. The importance of Madhyamaka for doctrinal identity..............................................................48 3. Scriptural sources for Perfection of Wisdom and Madhyamaka ...............................................51 4. The Tension Between Two Currents ...............................................................................................56 5. The Importance of a Resolution ......................................................................................................60 Chapter 2 : Tibetan Interpretations of the Five Treatises ...................................................................70 Note on Method .................................................................................................................................71 1. Definition and History of the notion of the "Five Treatises" ................................................74 1. History of the Five Treatises in Tibet ...................................................................................75 a) The Treatises translated during the early propagation (snga dar) .............. 75 b) The Five Treatises at the time of the later propagation (phyi dar) .............. 77 2. History of the Concept of the Five Treatises .............................................................................80 2. Interpretations of the Five Treatises ..............................................................................................89 rNgog Lotsāwa Blo ldan shes rab (1059-1109) ........................................................... 89 Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge (1109-? ) .............................................................................. 90 Sa skya Paṇḍita Kun dga‖ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) ................................................ 92 Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292-1360) ............................................................ 96 Bu ston Rin chen grub (1290-1364) .............................................................................. 99 kLong chen rab ―byams (1308-1363) .......................................................................... 101 Third Karmapa Rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339) ..................................................... 104 Blo gros mtshungs med (early 1300s) ....................................................................... 106 Red mda‖ ba gZhon nu bLo gros (1349-1412) ........................................................... 108 Tsong kha pa bLo bzang grags pa (1357-1419) ........................................................ 110 5 Rong ston Shes bya kun rig (1367-1449) ................................................................... 112 3. Analysis and typology of interpretations ................................................................................... 113 Chapter 3: Śākya mchog ldan‖s defense of the definitive meaning of the Five Treatises in the Byams chos lnga‖i nges don rab tu gsal ba ................................................................................................. 120 1. The Byams chos lnga‖i nges don rab tu gsal ba .......................................................................... 122 2. The Order of the Five Treatises .................................................................................................... 125 3. The Doxographical Classification of the Five Treatises ............................................................ 130 1. Privileging the authority of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu ......................................................... 133 2. Stressing passages against reification of mind in the Five Treatises and their commentaries. ................................................................................................................................ 139 3. Śākya mchog ldan's systematic harmonization of the meaning of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Searching for a Possibility of Buddhist Hermeneutics: Two Exegetic Strategies in Buddhist Tradition
    Searching for a Possibility of Buddhist Hermeneutics: Two Exegetic Strategies in Buddhist Tradition Sumi Lee University of California, Los Angeles One of the main concerns in religious studies lies in hermeneutics 1 : While interpreters of religion, as those in all other fields, are doomed to perform their work through the process of conceptualization of their subjects, religious reality has been typically considered as transcending conceptual categorization. Such a dilemma imposed on the interpreters of religion explains the dualistic feature of the Western hermeneutic history of religion--the consistent attempts to describe and explain religious reality on the one hand and the successive reflective thinking on the limitation of human knowledge in understanding ultimate reality on the other hand.2 Especially in the modern period, along with the emergence of the methodological reflection on religious studies, the presupposition that the “universally accepted” religious reality or “objectively reasoned” religious principle is always “over there” and may be eventually disclosed through refined scientific methods has become broadly questioned and criticized. The apparent tension between the interpreter/interpretation and the object of interpretation in religious studies, however, does not seem to have undermined the traditional Buddhist exegetes’ eagerness for their work of expounding the Buddhist teachings: The Buddhist exegetes and commentators not only devised various types of systematic and elaborate literal frameworks such as logics, theories, styles and rhetoric but also left the vast corpus of canonical literatures in order to transmit their religious teaching. The Buddhist interpreters’ enthusiastic attitude in the composition of the literal works needs more attention because they were neither unaware of the difficulty of framing the religious reality into the mold of language nor forced to be complacent to the limited use of language about the reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhist Spiritual Practices
    Buddhist Spiritual Practices Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy, and the Path Edited by David V. Fiordalis Mangalam Press Berkeley, CA Mangalam Press 2018 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA USA www.mangalampress.org Copyright © 2018 by Mangalam Press. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, published, distributed, or stored electronically, photographically, or optically in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-89800-117-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930282 Mangalam Press is an imprint of Dharma Publishing. The cover image depicts a contemporary example of Tibetan Buddhist instructional art: the nine stages on the path of “calming” (śamatha) meditation. Courtesy of Exotic India, www.exoticindia.com. Used with permission. ♾ Printed on acid-free paper. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Printed in the USA by Dharma Press, Cazadero, CA 95421 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 David V. Fiordalis Comparisons with Buddhism Some Remarks on Hadot, Foucault, and 21 Steven Collins Schools, Schools, Schools—Or, Must a Philosopher be Like a Fish? 71 Sara L. McClintock The Spiritual Exercises of the Middle Way: Madhyamakopadeśa with Hadot Reading Atiśa’s 105 James B. Apple Spiritual Exercises and the Buddhist Path: An Exercise in Thinking with and against Hadot 147 Pierre-Julien Harter the Philosophy of “Incompletion” The “Fecundity of Dialogue” and 181 Maria Heim Philosophy as a Way to Die: Meditation, Memory, and Rebirth in Greece and Tibet 217 Davey K.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhism / Dalai Lama 99
    Buddhism / Dalai Lama 99 Activating Bodhichitta and A Meditation on Compassion His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Translated by Gonsar Rinpoche The awakening mind is the unsurpassable way to collect merit. To purify obstacles bodhicitta is supreme. For protection from interferences bodhicitta is supreme. It is the unique, all-encompassing method. Every kind of ordinary and supra-mundane power can be accomplished through bodhicitta. Thus, it is absolutely precious. Although compassion is cultivated in one’s own mind, the embodiment of it is the deity known as Avalokiteshvara (Tib. Chan-re- PY: 1979,2006 zig). The various aspects that are visualized in meditation practices and 5.5 X 8.5 represented in images and paintings are merely the interpretative forms of 80 pages Avalokitephvara, whereas the actual definitive form is compassion itself. ` 140 paperback ISBN: 81-86470-52-2 Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Edited by Donald S.Lopez,Jr. Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gentle and profoundly eloquent instruction for developing the basis of the spiritual path: a compassionate motive. With extraordinary grace and insight, His Holiness shows how the Tibetan Buddist teachings on compassion can be practiced in our daily lives through simple meditations that directly relate to past and present PY: 2008 relationships. 5.5 X 8.5 This illuminating and highly accessible guide offers techniques for 178 pages deepening and heightening compassion in our lives and the world around ` 215 paperback us. ISBN: 81-86470-68-9 Commentary on the Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Translated by Acharya Nyima Tsering Ngulchu Gyalse Thogmed Zangpo’s The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most popular texts, incorporated in the Mind Training text and also able to be explained according to the Lam Rim tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • SYMPOSIUM Moving Borders: Tibet in Interaction with Its Neighbors
    SYMPOSIUM Moving Borders: Tibet in Interaction with Its Neighbors Symposium participants and abstracts: Karl Debreczeny is Senior Curator of Collections and Research at the Rubin Museum of Art. He completed his PhD in Art History at the University of Chicago in 2007. He was a Fulbright‐Hays Fellow (2003–2004) and a National Gallery of Art CASVA Ittleson Fellow (2004–2006). His research focuses on exchanges between Tibetan and Chinese artistic traditions. His publications include The Tenth Karmapa and Tibet’s Turbulent Seventeenth Century (ed. with Tuttle, 2016); The All‐Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide (with Pakhoutova, Luczanits, and van Alphen, 2014); Situ Panchen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in Eighteenth‐Century Tibet (ed., 2013); The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa (2012); and Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain (2011). His current projects include an exhibition which explores the intersection of politics, religion, and art in Tibetan Buddhism across ethnicities and empires from the seventh to nineteenth century. Art, Politics, and Tibet’s Eastern Neighbors Tibetan Buddhism’s dynamic political role was a major catalyst in moving the religion beyond Tibet’s borders east to its Tangut, Mongol, Chinese, and Manchu neighbors. Tibetan Buddhism was especially attractive to conquest dynasties as it offered both a legitimizing model of universal sacral kingship that transcended ethnic and clan divisions—which could unite disparate people—and also promised esoteric means to physical power (ritual magic) that could be harnessed to expand empires. By the twelfth century Tibetan masters became renowned across northern Asia as bestowers of this anointed rule and occult power.
    [Show full text]
  • Challenging Central Tibet's Dominance
    ! CHALLENGING CENTRAL TIBET’S DOMINANCE OF HISTORY: THE OCEANIC BOOK, A 19TH-CENTURY POLITICO-RELIGIOUS GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY GRAY TUTTLE This article considers how the northeastern part of the Tibetan plateau, called A mdo (now in Qinghai, Gansu, and northern Sichuan) came to be seen as part of Tibet, focusing mainly on a mid-nineteenth-century text but also examining pre-modern sources.1 Explicitly geographic texts dealing in detail with most of the territory of what we now consider Tibet only date from the eighteenth century.2 These relatively late geographic sources share a distinctively early modern conception of a plateau-wide Tibetan region, and are quite different from earlier histories of ‘Tibet,’ which tended to pay little attention to most of eastern Tibet. But rather than merely focusing on such texts, I have expanded my focus to include all historical works that are dominated by any suggestion of ‘cartographic’ narratives. By this I mean texts that focus on broad regions of Tibet and especially how particular regions are politically and religiously controlled. This is what Julia Thomas has called “the 1 I want to thank the late Gene Smith, Dan Martin, Kurtis Schaeffer and Jann Ronis for all their bibliographic work on Tibetan histories, on which I have relied in this present study. For an introduction to Gene Smith’s work see www.tbrc.org and Gene Smith 2001 Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau. Kurtis R. Schaeffer (ed.) Boston: Wisdom Publications. For Dan Martin, see his 1997 Tibetan Histories: A Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism 145
    Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies ^-*/^z ' '.. ' ' ->"•""'",g^ x Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 1995 ^ %\ \l '»!#;&' $ ?j On Method \>. :''i.m^--l'-' - -'/ ' x:N'' ••• '; •/ D. SEYFORT RUEGG £>~C~ ~«0 . c/g Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism 145 LUIS O. G6MEZ Unspoken Paradigms: Meanderings through the Metaphors of a Field 183 JOSE IGNACIO CABEZ6N Buddhist Studies as a Discipline and the Role of Theory 231 TOM TILLEMANS Remarks on Philology 269 C. W. HUNTINGTON, JR. A Way of Reading 279 JAMIE HUBBARD Upping the Ante: [email protected] 309 D. SEYFORT RUEGG Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism I It is surely no exaggeration to say that philosophical thinking constitutes a major component in Buddhism. To say this is of course not to claim that Buddhism is reducible to any single philosophy in some more or less restrictive sense but, rather, to say that what can be meaningfully described as philosophical thinking comprises a major part of its proce­ dures and intentionality, and also that due attention to this dimension is heuristically necessary in the study of Buddhism. If this proposition were to be regarded as problematic, the difficulty would seem to be due to certain assumptions and prejudgements which it may be worthwhile to consider here. In the first place, even though the philosophical component in Bud­ dhism has been recognized by many investigators since the inception of Buddhist studies as a modern scholarly discipline more than a century and a half ago, it has to be acknowledged that the main stream of these studies has, nevertheless, quite often paid little attention to the philosoph­ ical.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Article
    Research Article Journal of Global Buddhism 4 (2003): 18 - 34 Buddhism in Mongolia After 1990 By Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz Professor for the History of Religions University of Berne, Switzerland [email protected] Copyright Notes: Digitial copies of this work may be made and distributed provided no chargeis made and no alteration ismade to the content. Reproduction in any other format with the exception of a single copy for private study requires the written permission of the author. All enquries to: http://www.globalbuddhism.org Journal of Global Buddism 18 ISSN 1527-6457 R e s e a r c h A r t i c l e Buddhism in Mongolia After 1990 by Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz Professor for the History of Religions University of Berne, Switzerland [email protected] Introduction In 1990 Mongolia turned from a communist country highly dependent, economically as well as ideologically, on the Soviet Union, into a democratic country.(1) Free elections took place for the first time ever, and the country managed the transition to a democracy patterned after the Western model comparatively well. In 1992 the Mongols confirmed this historic turn by giving themselves a democratic constitution.(2) The shaking off of communist rulership brought about a resurgence of Mongolian religious traditions, Buddhism and the autochthonous Mongolian religion alike.(3) In northern Mongolia, the revival of the indigenous religious traditions of the Mongols, including owō-worship, the mountain-cult and, of course, shamanism, seem to be predominant. But in the rest of Mongolia, Buddhism has experienced a massive renaissance.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhism and Written Law: Dhammasattha Manuscripts and Texts in Premodern Burma
    BUDDHISM AND WRITTEN LAW: DHAMMASATTHA MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXTS IN PREMODERN BURMA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Dietrich Christian Lammerts May 2010 2010 Dietrich Christian Lammerts BUDDHISM AND WRITTEN LAW: DHAMMASATTHA MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXTS IN PREMODERN BURMA Dietrich Christian Lammerts, Ph.D. Cornell University 2010 This dissertation examines the regional and local histories of dhammasattha, the preeminent Pali, bilingual, and vernacular genre of Buddhist legal literature transmitted in premodern Burma and Southeast Asia. It provides the first critical analysis of the dating, content, form, and function of surviving dhammasattha texts based on a careful study of hitherto unexamined Burmese and Pali manuscripts. It underscores the importance for Buddhist and Southeast Asian Studies of paying careful attention to complex manuscript traditions, multilingual post- and para- canonical literatures, commentarial strategies, and the regional South-Southeast Asian literary, historical, and religious context of the development of local legal and textual practices. Part One traces the genesis of dhammasattha during the first and early second millennia C.E. through inscriptions and literary texts from India, Cambodia, Campå, Java, Lakå, and Burma and investigates its historical and legal-theoretical relationships with the Sanskrit Bråhmaˆical dharmaßåstra tradition and Pali Buddhist literature. It argues that during this period aspects of this genre of written law, akin to other disciplines such as alchemy or medicine, functioned in both Buddhist and Bråhmaˆical contexts, and that this ecumenical legal culture persisted in certain areas such as Burma and Java well into the early modern period.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhism and Cross-Cultural Hermeneutics
    93 ISSN 1648-2662. ACTA ORIENTALIA VILNENSIA. 2002 3 INTERPRETATION AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: BUDDHISM AND CROSS-CULTURAL HERMENEUTICS Audrius BEINORIUS Centre of Oriental Studies, Vilnius University The article deals with a problem of relation between textual interpretation and methodology of enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition. According to traditional exegesis, works of Buddhist philosophy are something like a samadhi, a sustained and penetrating contemplation of certain pathways of thought and insight. The author reveals that the Buddhist hermeneutical tradition is a tradition of realization, and devoid of any dichotomy between intellect and experience, the rational and the mystical. A principal role of the tradition is to supply the intertextual context of prejudices that makes the reading and talking possible and the background in which the revelation of meaning and the composition ofa meaningful text become possible. Finally, it is pointed out that it is impossible to separate the study of Buddhist hermeneutics from the question of hermeneutics of the modern scholar who having his prejudices and preunderstandings determined by time and culture interpretes traditional Buddhist texts. Whatever is well spoken, has been spoken by the Buddha AIiguttara nikaya IV. 163 In recent years hermeneutical reflexiveness has become a hallmark of East-West studies by reflecting the historical relativity of the comparative process itself in a self-critical way. It is by now a commonplace to remark that attempts to interpret Buddhist thought in Western terms have generally reflected the intelectual perspectives of interpreters as much as those of the Buddhist thinkers we wish to intrepret. Nagarjuna has seen Hegelian, Heideggerian, and Wittgensteinian readings come and gol; Vasubandhu has been incarnated as both transcendentalist idealist and phenomenologist; the arguments of Dharmakirti and his successors might have stepped out of the pages of Husserl's Logishe Untersuchungen or the Principia Mathematica of Russell and Whitehead.
    [Show full text]
  • The Buddhist Educational Psychological Concept of Anattā in Pāli Nikayas Qing MING Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, China [email protected]
    2017 International Conference on Education Science and Education Management (ESEM 2017) ISBN: 978-1-60595-486-8 The Buddhist Educational Psychological Concept of Anattā in Pāli Nikayas Qing MING Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, China [email protected] Keywords: Buddhist Psychology, Anattā, Pāli Nikayas, Ǡlayavijnāna. Abstract. “Anattā” is a key concept of Buddhist educational psychology, it has exerted a tremendous, profound and far-reaching influence upon the history of Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhist psychology. In this paper, the author will use Buddhist hermeneutics as research method to explain the philosophical and psychological concept of anattā, address the different interpretive strands, classical and modern, of this concept, and to interpret some of the widely identified problematiques of this concept. Finally, there will be a summary of the basic characteristics of the “anattā” as the nature of human being. Introduction Robert H. Thouless, a renowned Cambridge University western psychologist, is known for his scholarship on the Theravada Buddhist psychology and western psychology. After made a comprehensive survey of Theravada Buddhist Pāli Nikayas, he said: “anybody with a good knowledge of psychology and its history who reads the Pāli Nikayas must be the fact that the psychological terminology is richer in this than any other ancient literature and that more space is devoted to psychological analysis and explanations in this than in any other religious literature.”[1] The concept of anattā is the foundation of Buddhist educational psychology that has been discussed in Pāli Nikayas, thus, this paper took this concept as its objects of research. Description of Anattā in Classical Pāli Texts The Buddhist educational psychological and philosophical Pāli term “anattā” (it is known as “anātman” in Sanskrit) is often translated as “no-self,” “not-self,” “no-soul,” or “no-ego” by western researches.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Mahāmudrā Traleg Rinpoche
    What is Mahāmudrā Traleg Rinpoche The Mahāmudrā tradition encompasses many key Buddhist terms and presents them in a unique light. The Sanskrit word mahāmudrā literally translates as “great seal,’’ or “great symbol,’’ which suggests that all that exists in the conditioned world is stamped with the same seal, the seal of ultimate reality. Ultimate reality is synonymous with the quintessential Buddhist term emptiness (śūnyatā), which describes the insubstantiality of all things—the underlying groundlessness, spaciousness, and indeterminacy that imbues all of our experiences of the subjective and objective world. In the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the word mahāmudrā is also used to refer to the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind is a pivotal concept in this tradition. The essential quality of the mind is emptiness, but it is described as a luminous emptiness, for the mind has the inherent capacity to know, or to cognize. When spiritual fulfillment is attained, this lumi- nous emptiness is experienced as pervasively and profoundly blissful, and enlightenment is characterized as luminous bliss. The Tibetan term for Mahāmudrā is chag gya chen po. The word chag denotes wisdom; gya implies that this wisdom transcends mental defilement; and chen po verifies that together they express a sense of unity. At a more profound level of interpretation, chag gya suggests that <4> our natural state of being has no origin, because we cannot posit a particular time when it came into being, nor can we say what caused it to conic into existence or what it is dependent upon. Our natural state of being is self-sustaining, self- existing, and not dependent upon anything.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eighth Karmapa's Life and His Interpretation of the Great Seal
    THE EIGHTH KARMAPA'S LIFE AND HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE GREAT SEAL Jim Rheingans A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Bath Spa University, School of Historical and Cultural Studies June 2008 UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND ABSTRACT THE EIGHTH KARMAPA'S LIFE AND HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE GREAT SEAL Jim Rheingans This thesis investigates the Eighth Karmapa (1507-1554) and his Great Seal instructions. It demonstrates that the Eighth Karmapa was not only one of the most significant scholars of his school, but one who mastered and taught its highest meditational precepts. The thesis argues that analysing his Great Seal teachings through studying instruction-related genres in their historical, doctrinal, and literary contexts reveals a pedagogical pragmatism. It is more useful to view the Great Seal as an independent key instruction that the guru adapts to the students' needs, rather than a fixed doctrine. The thesis contributes significantly to the religious history of Tibet by interpreting a number of previously unstudied Tibetan sources. The main textual sources are selected spiritual biographies (rnam thar), question and answer texts (dris lari), meditation instructions (khrid), esoteric precepts (man ngag), and advices (slab byd) from the Collected Works of the Eighth Karmapa (2000-2004). Chapter One engages with previous research and justifies the methodologies employed. Chapter Two elaborates key points of the bKa' brgyud pa Great Seal and the religious and political contexts of the Eighth 11 Karmapa. Chapter Three evaluates the main textual sources and genres used.
    [Show full text]