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Abstract

This dissertation examines the transformation of Tibetan artefacts into fine art. I seek to understand how this transformation originated, why and when it occurred and, most significantly, the value creation processes associated with maintaining artworlds. My original contribution is the analysis of the history of Tibetan art's reception in the west. In essence, I investigate the western commodification of Tibetan art during the twentieth century. The focus of this study is the central locus for this phenomenon, the United States, specifically New York City. Beginning with the premise that the concept of Tibetan art as a fine art is a western construct, I trace the (re)presentation of Tibet and Tibetan culture within the western artworld. The exhibition of Tibetan art by the prestigious New York Asia Society in 1969 exemplified the worthiness of Tibetan artefacts as art and began an 'informational' cascade phenomenon. I argue that the institutionalization of Tibetan art discourse at this exhibition, acknowledged the transforming process. Through observations and critical analysis of primary and secondary material, this dissertation investigates the transformation of Tibetan artefacts into art by means of the value creation processes of art exhibition catalogues and associated New York Asia Week activities - the art auctions and fairs. This analysis found that the recent emphasis on the aestheticization of Tibetan art has generated a burgeoning private demand for museum-quality masterpieces, resulting in anomalies in collecting and exhibiting practices. For instance, the alleged practice of overpainting highlights the over emphasis on aesthetic appreciation, while bringing into question the interrelationship of authority and authenticity. At the same time, the narrative of lost Tibetan culture obscures questions of representation, consuming and ownership.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the idea of ethical revaluation — taking things we normally see as good for our flourishing and seeing them as neutral or bad, and vice versa — in the Mahayana Buddhist thinker Śāntideva. It shows how Śāntideva's thought on the matter is more coherent than it might otherwise appear, first by examining the consistency of Śāntideva's own claims and then by applying them to contemporary ethical thought. In so doing, it makes four significant contributions.
      Śāntideva claims that property and relationships are bad for us because they promote attachment, and that others’ wrongdoing is good for us because it allows us to generate patient endurance. Yet he also urges his readers to give property to others, and to prevent their wrongdoing. Is he caught in contradiction? The dissertation argues that he is not, because giving to others is not intended to benefit them materially, but rather to produce beneficial mental states in them, and preventing wrongdoing is intended to benefit the wrongdoer and not the victim. In both cases, Śāntideva emphasizes individual action in a way that makes social or political action more difficult to justify.
      The dissertation's first contribution is to show how this interpretation of Śāntideva contrasts notably with standard presentations of Mahāyāna ethics. Its second contribution is to refute claims that Buddhists have no normative ethics.
      Śāntideva's resolutions of these apparent contradictions also have relevance for contemporary ethical thought. Martha Nussbaum argues against an ethical revaluation similar to Śāntideva's, on the grounds that such a revaluation makes it contradictory to argue for providing goods to others, preventing others' wrongdoing or engaging in political action. Śāntideva's views show that ethical revaluation is a more sustainable position than these criticisms of Nussbaum's would imply; if it is to be rejected, it must be rejected on other grounds. To show this point is the dissertation's third contribution. The fourth contribution is methodological; by finding similarities of concern and differences of opinion between Śāntideva and a contemporary thinker, it helps bridge the gap between normative and comparative religious ethics.

Abstract

From a very early age I have been drawn to create art. I have followed this passion closely throughout my entire life. After acquiring a master’s degree in art education, and subsequently, teaching high school art for 3 years I was compelled to enter the MFA program at Rochester Institute of Technology with a concentration in painting and new forms. Through this process, I discovered a great calling.

After the first year of study in the MFA program I traveled to Tibet. This journey was instrumental in the formation of my thesis: Art for Healing, Art for Consciousness Change, as was my marriage to my partner Daixin whom I met in China 3 years ago. With her as the narrative model found in each painting, I created an installation of 8, 4x8 ft paintings based upon a myriad of concepts taken from Tibetan Buddhism, my personal insights and experiences, and the book Prometheus Rising, by Robert Anton Wilson, which outlines his 8-Circuits of Human Consciousness.

The installation I created, Daixin's 8-Circuit Path to Light, followed a symbolic model of the human Chakra system as a guide for each of the 8-Circuits to explore imagery evoked in my mind through the correlations I drew as I progressed through my understanding of the human body as an energy system. During this process I was able to bring myself from a very graphic and unsure use of oil paint, to a masterful level, capable of captivating audiences, and stimulating the minds of those who viewed my work. Such is the effect of the work of visionary artist Alex Grey, who is the single greatest western influence on my artistic path.

The experience of completing this work brought me balance in terms of my perceptions of religion, spirituality, and my artistic pursuits. I gained a deep desire to create art that is supportive of the Tibetan culture and their prophetic understanding of consciousness. This calling is supported by my everlasting desire to create works inspired by all my travels throughout the world for the purpose of bringing healing elements to the areas in which my work is displayed.

ABSTRACT: With both the Euro-American and Tibetan- both etic and emic- imaginaries, the renouncer is seen as the spiritual practitioner ensconced in an isolated world of retreat, totally separate from the world. This vision, of course, produced out of the allure of the renunciate ideal- part fantasy, part reality- that sustains the authority of the religious teacher and lineage. In this thesis I examine the category of " renunciation" in Tibetan Buddhism and the means by which the seemingly contradictory renunciate ideal and need to be involved in practical, worldly affairs are negotiated and bridged. I ground my thinking by way of a close examination Mountain Dharma: Direct Advice on Retreat, a seminal retreat advice text (Tib. zhal gdams) of 17th century religious meter Karma chags med, a luminary of the Karma bka' brgyud lineage of Tibet.

Drawing from my original translations of selected chapters of Mountain Dharma, I demonstrate that the negotiation of the ideal and the actual, in terms of renunciation, was an active process of Karma chags, med, who was acutely aware of the need to account for practical, social engagement. By situating Mountain Dharma in the historical, political, and religious conjunctures of its production, I propose that Karma chags med be understaff as engaging in domestication of renunciation. His lineage was in a nadir, its leader exiled by the Dge lugs pa sect, and the articulation of a domesticated renunciation may have been conductive to the Karma bka' brgyud pas operating under reduced circumstances.

Building upon theorists of South Asian religion and culture, I suggest that renunciation and retreat, for Karma chags med, is best understood as orbital. His advice text explicity prescribes a renunciate ideal, and simultaneously includes chapters detailing practices by which a retreating can attend to worldly, social affairs, such as garnering wealth or maintaining protection from brigands. I argue that we can understand renunciation as orbital in the "renunciation" is the productive tension between the ideal and the actual, and that, in this Tibetan context, we can make sense of the term only by considering and coming to understand both.

Preface

The Ninth or Perfection of Wisdom Chapter (Praiñāpāramitā-Pariccheda- PP) of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (BCA) was the last comprehensive statement of the Indian Mādhyamika school which was written from the Prāsangika standpoint of Buddhapālita and Candrakīrti. For that reason, and because of the insight that it gives into the thought of one of the major Indian Buddhist teachers, I believe that it merits the attention of Buddhologists and other scholars concerned with Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet. In the present study I have sought to remedy the lack of an adequate translation and exposition of this work in English.
      The Prāsangika-Mādhyamika school had long been of interest to me, and I had also greatly admired those portions of the BCA that I had read in Sanskrit and Tibetan in the course of my graduate training. Therefore when Prof. Geshe L. Sopa suggested in 1972 that I make a translation and study of the PP the subject of my dissertation I found it a most congenial project. In the years that followed I have become well aware of the difficulties that beset the translator of a complex work of philosophy like the PP. Obviously the few years that I have devoted to this task are insufficient to produce the definitive treatment of a work about which some of Tibet’s finest thinkers have debated for over five hundred years without causing a definite consensus of opinion to be reached. It has been my object merely to render Śāntideva's verses into English with as little distortion of their meaning as possible, and to provide a reasonable exegesis of them according to the major Indian and Tibetan commentaries. There is of course often more than one plausible explanation for a verse, and while I have followed my personal preference on such occasions I have also tried to indicate all possible alternatives. In addition, I have included a brief introduction dealing with the PP in the context of Śāntideva's writings, and with some of the philosophical problems contained in it. (Sweet, preface, ii-iii)

The Śrīmālādevī siṁhanāda sūtra (ŚDS) (The Treatise on the Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā) is a Mahāyāna text no longer extant in Sanskrit but preserved in both the Chinese and Tibetan Tripiṭakas. This text is a unique development within the Buddhist tradition because of its egalitarian view concerning women, portraying, on the one band, the dignity and wisdom of a laywoman and her concern for all beings, and on the other, the role of woman as a philosopher and teacher. Doctrinally, the major emphasis is upon the Tathāgatagarbha and Ekayāna.
      Because of the number of citations and references which are retained in Sanskrit Buddhist texts, the Śrīmālādevī sūtra seems to have been widely circulated throughout India. This text is quoted in the Ratnagotravibhāga-mahāyānottara-tantra śāstra (The Supreme Exposition of Mahāyāna: A Commentary on the Jewel Lineage)[1] and the Śikṣāsamuccaya (A Compendium on Instruction)[2] with allusions made in the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra[3] and the Mahāyāna sūtrālaṁkāra (The Ornament of the Mahāyāna sūtras).[4] The Ch'eng wei-shih lun (Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi) by Hsüan-tsang also quotes from the Śrīmālādevī sūtra but does not identify the sūtra by name.[5]
      According to the Sung kao seng chuan[6] Bodhiruci used a Sanskrit text of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra for reference in translating the text into Chinese. From the above evidence, it may be concluded that a Sanskrit original of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra did exist and that this text was part of the Indian Buddhist tradition.
       The classical Chinese text is extant in two recensions:
1) Sheng-man shih-tzu-hou i-ch'eng ta-fang-pien fang-kuang ching (1 ch.) (T.v.12, no. 353, pp. 217-223), translated by Guṇabhadra (394-468) in 435.
2) Sheng-man-fu-jen hui which is the forty-eighth assembly in the Ratnakūṭa anthology (Ta-pao chi ching) (T.v.11, no. 310, pp. 672-678), translated by Bodhiruci[7] (572-727) of T'ang between 706 and 713.
      Because Guṇabhadra's translation is almost three hundred years older than Bodhiruci's, it has been chosen as the basic text in order to trace the development of Tathāgatagarbha thought in its original form. Bodhiruci's translation is used when Guṇabhadra's translation is ambiguous and when differences in interpretation are indicated.
      The Tibetan recension, Hphags-pa lha-mo dpal-phreṅ gi seṅ-geḥi sgra shes-bya-ba theg-pa chen-poḥi mdo (Tōhoku no. 92, Bkaḥ-ḥgyur), which is part of the Ratnakūṭa anthology, will not be used. When significant differences between the Chinese and Tibetan recensions occur, the Tibetan text will be noted also.[8]
      The commentaries which are extant are few and only in Chinese and Japanese. There are no Tibetan commentaries now extant, which discuss only the Śrīmālādevī sūtra.[9] According to the Kao seng chuan,[10] immediately after the translation of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra many commentaries were composed by monks who had studied and memorized the Śrīmālādevī sūtra. These texts, now lost, were dated between the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. According to Chi-tsang's Sheng-man ching pao-k'u, monks studied and composed commentaries on the Śrīmālādevī sūtra from the North-South dynastic periods through the Sui (i.e. from approximately 440-618 A.D.).
      The major commentaries[11] extant in Chinese are:
1) Hsieh-chu sheng-man ching (T.v.85, no. 2763) - Although the commentator is unknown, this text was probably the composition of a noble woman of Northern Wei, attested to by the calligraphy and literary style of the Tun-huang manuscript. Completed before 500 A.D., it is the oldest extant commentary on the Śrīmālādevī sūtra.[12] Only Chapter 5, "Ekayāna" is discussed.
2) Sheng-man ching i-chi (2 ch.) (Dainihon zokuzōkyō, v.1, no. 30-1) by Hui-yüan, (523-692) of Sui - Only the first half of the text is extant, corresponding to the first four chapters of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra.
3) Sheng-man ching pao-k'u, (3 ch.) (T.v.37, no. 1744) by Chi-tsang (549-623) of Sui.
4) Sheng-man ching shu-chi, (2 ch.) (Dainihon zokuzōkyō v.1, no. 30-4) by K'uei-chi (632-682) of T'ang.
5) Sheng-man ching su-i ssu-ch'ao, (6 ch.) (Dainihon bukkyō zensho, v.4) by Ming-k'ung[13] of T'ang in 772.
      The major commentaries extant in Japanese are:
1) Shōmagyō gisho (1 ch.) (T.v.56, no. 2184) attributed to Prince Shōtoku (573-621) but probably the composition of a North Chinese Buddhist scholar.[14]
2) Shōmangyō shosho genki, (18 ch.) (Dainihon bukkyō zensho, v.4) by Gyōnen (1240-1321). First five chüan are missing. The extant text begins with the chapter "The Ten Ordination Vows".
3) Shōman-shishikugyō kenshūshō (3 ch.) (Nihon daizōkyō, v. 5; Dainihon bukkyō zensho, v.4) by Fūjaku (1707-1781)
      The Sheng-man ching pao k'u and the Shōmangyō gisho are the two primary commentaries upon which the present study's interpretation of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra is based. These two commentaries have been selected because the former, written by a San-lun master, interprets Tathāgatagarbha from a Mādhyamikan perspective whereas the latter is representative of the North Chinese scholars' interpretation and frequently overshadows the sūtra itself in popularity, particularly in Japan. The Sheng-man ching i-chi and the Hsieh-chu sheng-man ching are used as references in analyzing Chapters 4 and 5, "The Acceptance of the true Dharma" and the "One Vehicle" respectively of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra.
      In Chapter One, a historical analysis will be attempted, suggesting the place and time of composition on the basis of external and internal evidence now available. In Chapter Two, the evolution of the Tathāgatagarbha will be outlined, based upon the first two Tathāgatagarbhan texts, the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra and the Pu tseng pu chien ching, which predate the Śrīmālādevī sūtra.[15]
      In Chapter Three the characteristic format of the Śrīmālādevī sūtra is summarized in relation to the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra and the Pu tseng pu chien. In Chapter Four the Tathāgatagarbha as presented in the Śrīmālādevī sūtra is analyzed with relation to the text as a whole, and in Chapter Five the annotated translation of the Śrīmālādevī-siṁhanāda sūtra is presented with notations of key differences between the two Chinese recensions and with references made to the two commentaries, Sheng-man ching pao-k'u and Shōmangyō gisho, and to the Sanskrit fragments noted above.
      Appendix I is an attempt to lay the groundwork for a methodology of Buddhist studies which would provide a foundation for the skills needed for a critical analysis and interpretation of Buddhist phenomena. Appendix II is an annotated bibliography for studying the Śrīmālādevī-siṁhanāda sūtra. Appendix I is admittedly limited and will provide only the most general outline of the requisite methodological procedure in analyzing a Buddhist text. (Paul, introduction, 1–6)

Notes

1. There are two English translations of the Ratnagotravibhāga-mahāyānottara-tantra śāstra: E. E. Obemiller, The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism (Rome: Acta Orientalia, 1932), (Shanghai reprint: 1940) and Jikido Takasaki, A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism (Rome: Series Orientale Rome XXIII, 1966). The Sanskrit text of the Ratnagotra-vibhāga-mahāyānottara-tantra śāstra, ed., by E. R. Johnston (Patna: Bihar Society, 1950) cites the Śrīmālādevī sūtra on pp. 3, 12, 15, 19, 20, 22, 30, 33, 34, 36, 37, 45, 50, 55, 56, 59, 72, 73, 74, 76, and 79. A portion of these Sanskrit fragments have been noted below, in the translation, wherever differences or ambiguities in the Chinese recensions occur.
2. Cf. Çikshāsamuccaya (A Compendium on Buddhist Teaching, ed. by Cecil Bendall (St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, (1897-1902), vol. I of Bibliotheca Buddhica, reprinted by Indo-Iranian Journal (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957), pp. 42 and 43.
3. Cf. Laṅkāvatāra sūtra, ed. by Bunyiu Nanjio, (Second edition, Kyoto: Otani University Press, 1956), p. 222 line 19 and p. 223 line 4.
4. Cf. Mahāyāna sūtrālaṁkāra, ed. by Sylvain Lévi (Paris: 1907), (Shanghai reprint : 1940), Tome 1 (XI, 59), p. 70. The cited passage, attributed to the Śrīmālādevī sūtra, could not be found in either Chinese recension. Lévi also was unable to find the passage but does allude to the citation as being in the Çikshāsamuccaya, ed. by Cecil Bendall, op. cit., but these two citations are not of the same passage.
5. The following citations are quoted in the Ch'eng wei-shih lun, translated by Hsüan-tsang (T.v.31, no. 1585, p. 1-60): (The remainder of this note is handwritten in Chinese and is unavailable.)
6. (The first part of this note is handwritten in Chinese and is unavailable.) In the second year of T'ang emperor Chung-tsung in the reign of Shen-lung (706) he (Bodhiruci) returned to the capital (Loyang) to Chao ch'ung-fu temple to translate the Mahāratnakūṭa anthology. This anthology bad forty-nine old and new assemblies, totaling 120 ch., which were finished in the fourth month, eighth day of the second year of Hsun-t'ien (713). In the translation hall, the monks Ssu-chung and the Indian director Iśara (?) translated the Sanskrit: while the Indian monks Prajñāgupta (?) and Dharma were consulted concerning the Sanskrit meaning." (T.v.50, no. 2061, p. 720b)
   The Sung kao seng chuan, 30 ch., was compiled by Chih-lun and Tsang-ning of the Sung dynasty during the period from the beginning of the T'ang dynasty until 967 according to Ui Hakuju, Bukkyō jiten (A Buddhist Dictionary), (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1971), p. 654 and until 988 according to Nakamura Hajime, Shin-bukkyō jiten (The New Buddhist Dictionary), (Tokyo: Seishin shobō, 1972), p. 329.
7. According to the Sung kao seng chuan, op. cit., (p. 720c) Bodhiruci died in the fifteenth year of K'ai-yuan (727) of T'ang at the age of 156.
8. The differences noted between the Chinese and Tibetan recensions are based upon the Shōmangyō hōgatsu dōji shomongyō (Kyoto: Kōkyō shoin, 1940) by Tsukinowa Kenryū.
9. Tibetan commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga do interpret the passages which cite the Śrīmālādevī sūtra. These are not discussed within the present study.
10. Kokuyaku-issaikyō hōshaku-bu shichi, Ono Masao (gen. ed.) (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1958), p. 84 lists the monks who attempted to write commentaries now lost. The Kao seng chuan, compiled by Hui-chao of the Liang dynasty, is the record of approximately 253 eminent monks from 67 A.D. through 519 A.D. Cf. Ui, Shin-bukkyō jiten, op. cit., p. 303.
11. For a complete listing of all commentaries in both Chinese and Japanese, extant and no longer extant, see below - Appendix II, Annotated Bibliography.
12. Fujieda Akira, "Hokucho ni okeru Shōmangyō no tenshō" in Tōhō gakuhō, v.XL, 1973, p. 334. (Journal of the Institute of Humanities) (Jimbun Kagaku kenkyūsho) (Kyoto University).
13. According to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten, Ono Masao {gen.ed.) (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1966), vol. V, p. 350, this text was composed by both Prince Shōtoku and Ming-k'ung.
14. Prince Shōtoku most probably did not compose the Shōmangyō gisho since many of the texts which the Gisho cites were not known to Prince Shōtoku but were introduced to Japan at a much later date. For the transmission of the Chinese commentaries on the Śrīmālādevī-siṁhanāda sūtra, see "Hokucho ni okeru Shōmangyō", op. cit. For the "original" Gisho, composed by a Chinese scholar of the North-South dynastic period, residing in North China, see "Shōman gisho hongi" in Shōtoku taishi kenkyū, v. 5 (Osaka: Shitennoji Joshi Daigaku, 1973) by Koizumi Enjun in which the original Chinese commentary is edited and later almost entirely copied in the Shōmangyō gisho.
          The research on these commentaries at the time of this writing has been undertaken by members of the Jimbun Kagaku kenkyusho who are affiliated with Kyoto University. From analyzing the Tun-huang manuscripts, two very similar hypotheses have been developed: a) The Gisho itself was written by a Chinese scholar, or b) The original for the Shōmangyō gisho, viz. Shōman gisho hongi (or, Sheng-man i-su ben-i), was composed by a Northern Chinese scholar and later almost entirely interpolated into the Shōmangyō gisho by Prince Shōtoku or one of his followers.
15. The analysis of Tathāgatagarbha was undertaken in consultation with Professors Yuichi Kajiyama, Chairman of Buddhist Studies, Kyoto University, and Gadjin Nagao, Professor Emeritus in Buddhist Studies, Kyoto University.

Abstract

The present study is designed to introduce the previously untranslated middle length Mahāyāna sūtra Aryasatyakaparivarta, an early Mahāyāna work, which was widely cited by many ancient Indian and Tibetan authors. Satyavādin, a non-Buddhist teacher, is the bodhisattva and main hero of the sūtra who expounds the Buddhist teachings.

The text of the sūtra deals with all the major Buddhist subjects on both conventional and ultimate truths as well as integrating these teachings with advice on state policy. The sūtra describes the stages of practice of the path to enlightenment, starting with the ten virtuous and non-virtuous actions and their results, upward to the universal compassion of the bodhisattvas and the Buddha, and includes the six perfections, the skillful means of the bodhisattvas and the Tathāgata, the Buddha vehicle as the ultimate vehicle, the Buddha body adorned with the thirty-two auspicious characteristics and eighty distinctive marks, the thirty-two compassions of the Tathāgata, the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment, the four confidences of the Buddha, and ultimate truth as an inexpressible reality.

Satyavādin gives extensive advice on state policy to the king and discusses the flaws and virtues of some of his contemporaries. At the sūtra's conclusion the Buddha prophesies Satyavādin's future perfectly full enlightenment.

The introduction deals with plausible evidence to date this sūtra prior to other well-known Mahāyāna sūtras. It also discusses the meaning of nirgantha in analyzing Satyavādin's non-Buddhist guise, and contrasts Satyavādin's advice on state policy, in particular on punishments and war, with other ancient Indian non-Buddhist and Buddhist scriptures.

Furthermore, it describes the use and expansion of Satyavādin's ideas by later Indian and Tibetan authors.

The appendices explain the sūtra's teachings on karma, the thought of enlightenment, the meaning of prajñāpāramitā, and other topics based o later Indian and Tibetan sources.