Semantic search

Abstract

Magical movement is a distinctive Tibetan practice of physical yoga in which breath and concentration of the mind are integrated as crucial components in conjunction with particular body movements. Present in all five spiritual traditions of Tibet---some more prevalent than others---it has been part of their spiritual training since at least the tenth century C.E. Focusing on the magical movement from the ancient Bon tradition's Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung and its contemporary representatives and lineageholders, this dissertation will include textual translation and analysis as well as ethnographical research reporting how it is used in Bon lay settings and monastic curricula today. In particular I will use a commentary by the famous Bonpo scholar and meditator Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, who allegedly attained the rainbow body in 1934 (a sign, in the tradition, of the highest contemplative state). He was also part of the non-sectarian ( ris med) Tibetan movement of his time. Although this aspect does not transpire in his Commentary, I feel that Shardza's example is present as an inspiration to the spirit in which I relate to the context of the practice and material contained in his text. Examining the use of the subtle body in magical movement and the understanding of "magic" in that context, I propose that here magic can have the external meaning of magic, the internal meaning of medicine and the most internal or secret meaning of mysticism. Thus, these magical movements provide the yogin or practitioner an opportunity to break through or go beyond the limitations of the body and to bring forth the mystical experiences together with the magical and healing aspects. Finally, tracing the migration of this practice to the West, both in dharma or Buddhist centers and the contemporary Western medical settings, I report some of the benefits of using these mind-body techniques as part of a CIM (Complementary and Integrative Medicine) treatment for people with cancer. This may allow magical movement to participate in a larger dialogue, one that extends the conversation to the fields medical humanity and integrative medicine, among others. (Source Accessed Nov 27, 2023)

Abstract

This thesis attempts to present three separate but related bodies of material which might contribute towards the eventual establishment of a new basic descriptive category in the field of Buddhist Studies: non-tantric pūjā. The first part deals with a previously unacknowledged form of the relic-cult; the second, with an equally unacknowledged cult of the book; the third with the image-cult. A fourth part indicates a few problematic factors involved in future research in the area.

Abstract

Among the magnificently diverse syntheses of Indian Buddhist thought elaborated in Tibet, the understanding of gzhan stong (zhentong) or “extrinsic emptiness” as articulated through authors of the Jo nang tradition has come to inhabit a distinctive place within Tibetan Buddhist philosophical discourse. Exploring the history and literary heritage of gzhan stong philosophical thinking within the Jo nang tradition, we trace the sequential lineage (rings lugs) of the Jo nang pa, examining the distinctive gzhan stong view through a study and translation of the gzhi (ground) section of 'Dzam thang Mkhan po Ngag dbang Blo gros grags pa's (1920-75) seminal text titled, the “Gzhan stong Chen mo” or the “Great Exposition on Extrinsic Emptiness.”
      Part I presents the genesis of Jo nang gzhan stong thought. Situating the Jo nang within the history of Buddhism in India and Tibet, this section explores the lives of selected forefathers of the Jo nang pa and central figures in Tibet, as well as the life and works of Mkhan po Blo grags. Emphasis is placed on both the sūtra and tantra lineages of gzhan stong thought and attention is given to the specific lineage of the Kālacakra within the Jo nang.
      Part II is on the exegesis of the Tibetan Buddhist genre of Jo nang gzhan stong literature. Here, we discuss Mahāyāna Buddhist hermeneutical schemas employed by the tradition to interpret what is of definitive (nges don) and provisional (drang don) meaning, as well as the core textual basis for sūtra gzhan stong.
       Part III is an annotated translation of chapter I.A of the gzhi (ground) section of the Gzhan stong Chen mo. This part provides readers with the first English translation of a text explicitly on the gzhan stong view from a modern Jo nang author, and one of the few translations of a text from the Jo nang tradition. Here, Mkhan po Blo grags explains the abiding reality (gnas lugs) of the ground for reality, the principles that the ground relies upon, and how reality's basic ground is effulgently full of enlightened qualities while devoid of superficial phenomena.

The purpose of the present thesis is to study the origin of the RGV's tradition in Tibet, studying the earliest Tibetan commentary, Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa by rNgog-lo, and to clarify the historical and doctrinal background of the transmission of the RGV from India to Tibet as well as rNgog-lo's impact upon the later doctrinal development with regard to the RGV. To avoid the kind of prejudices that sometimes appeared in the course of the later doctrinal development, we remain mindful of the gap between the original purport of the RGV, which clarified the Buddha nature teaching in line with a group of the “Buddha nature sūtras” (critical successors of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtras), and that of later Indian and Tibetan traditions, which sometimes integrated the Buddha nature teaching into their Madhyamaka or Yogācāra while losing sight of the RGV's original purport. One of the tasks in the present thesis is to clarify how such a gap had arisen and come to be accepted by a certain tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

Part I, the historical and doctrinal background, consists of six chapters: Chapter 1 describes the authorship and the history of the transmission of the RGV in India, using Indian and Tibetan materials. Chapter 2 studies six different Tibetan translations of the RGV, clarifying how the RGV was transmitted from India to Tibet. Chapter 3 outlines rNgog's life and writings. Chapter 4 presents rNgog's philosophical positions taught in his RGV commentary. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the impact of his interpretations on the later Tibetan doctrinal developments, and reactions to them. Part II is a critical edition of rNgog-lo's RGV commentary, Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa (1a-46a5 and 65a5-66a4), preceded by an explanation of textual materials and an outline of the whole text. Part III presents an annotated translation of that commentary.

Appendix A presents a diplomatic edition of rNgog-lo's “topical outline” of the RGV, his other work related to the RGV (discovered at Kharakhoto and preserved in the British Library). Appendix B presents a critical edition of a versified summary of the RGV in Sanskrit, the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa composed by the Kashmiri Paṇḍita Sajjana, a teacher of rNgog-lo. Appendix C provides another Sanskrit commentary on the RGV, Vairocanarakṣita's Mahāyanottaratantraṭippaṇī, while appendix D presents translations of relevant passages from the Sākārasiddhi and Sākarasaṃgraha of Jñānaśrīmitra. Appendix E presents rNgog-lo's identification of the passages of the RGVV that refer to the Nidānaparivarta (“introductory chapter”) of the Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra, as well as a topical outline of this chapter of the sūtra. Appendix F investigates the dating of Blo-gros-mtshungs-med, who among later Tibetans criticized rNgog-lo's position most severely. Appendix G presents a list of commentaries on the RGV. Appendix H lists records of the RGV's transmission lineage from gsan yigs. (Kano, introduction, 12-13)