Rituals of Initiation and Consecration in Premodern Japan, 2022
This essay opens with a survey of the history of tantric consecration rites in the "early" and "l... more This essay opens with a survey of the history of tantric consecration rites in the "early" and "later" dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet. It then turns to one of the most important doctrinal disputes to emerge out of the period of the "later dissemination" concerning the relationship between the practice and realization of Mahāmudrā and the tantric consecration rites associated with the mahāyoga-and yoginītantra scriptural traditions. After highlighting the variations between the consecration chapters from three Indian works at the center of this doctrinal dispute, I introduce three potential methodological assumptions-that of chronological development, textritual conformity, and institutional scholastic homogeneity-that might obscure one of the most important functions of the consecration rituals in these texts as a means for empowering a disciple to teach the Dharma in any way that they see fit. The essay then concludes with a discussion of the guru's "authorizing command" (anujñā, rjes gnang) in these three works as a call to authorial creativity.
This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of bo... more This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of both Indian Buddhist traditions and Āyurvedic medicine. Unlike the study of Buddhist traditions in other geographic regions, there has been relatively little scholarship on the dialogue between Indian Buddhist communities and the localized spirit deity cults with which they have interacted for more than two millennia. The modern study of Āyurverda, with few exceptions, demonstrates a similar trend in the marginalization of bhūtavidyā, or demonology, which has constituted a legitimate branch of Āyurvedic medicine from at least the time that the earliest Āyurvedic compendium, the Carakasaṃhitā, was composed. This essay argues that this lack of proper attention to Indian Buddhist and Āyurvedic medical demonology is symptomatic of a broader, persistent bias in the human sciences. The essay then examines a handful of stories from the Karmaśataka, a collection of Buddhist avadānas, to argue that...
This chapter opens with a brief description of The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of tantric works ... more This chapter opens with a brief description of The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of tantric works composed by seven Indian mahāsiddhas that is understood in Tibet to represent the oldest collection Indian treatises to provide detailed instructions on the Buddhist tantric practice of the "Great Seal" or Mahāmudrā. Sometime prior to their transmission to Tibet, The Seven Siddhi Texts were combined with another collection of works, The Sixfold Corpus on the Essence (Snying po skor drug), to constitute the oldest practical canon of Indian Mahāmudrā Works transmitted to Tibet under various permutations of the compound title Grub snying gi skor (alt. Grub snying, Grub snying skor). The data for the various transmissions of this corpus in Gö Lotsawa's Blue Annals (Deb ther sngon po) have gone unnoticed largely based on the misinterpretation of the compound Grub snying gi skor (and its various permutations) as a short-hand for Saraha's collection of three dohās.
The chapter then turns to a detailed discussion of the role that The Seven Siddhi Texts played in a volley of Mahāmudrā polemical/curricular works composed by Tibetan scholars in the Sa-skya and Bka' brgyud schools. The Seven Siddhi Texts are evoked in this literature primarily around the topic of whether or not Mahāmudrā can be taught and understood outside of the context of a formal ritual performance of the complete set of four consecrations associated with the so-called highest yogatantra (bla na med pa'i rgyud). Here we see how authors on both sides of this debate at times manipulated or misrepresented their sources in support of their own positions. These observations highlight some of the consequences that accompany the tendency among Tibetan authors to imagine a homogenous "Indian" tradition in their appeals to textual authority and provide further data around the relationship between textual authority and scholastic innovation in the composition of Tibetan Buddhist curricular literature.
This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of bo... more This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of both Indian Buddhist traditions and Āyurvedic medicine. Unlike the study of Buddhist traditions in other geographic regions, there has been relatively little scholarship on the dialogue between Indian Buddhist communities and the localized spirit deity cults with which they have interacted for more than two millennia. The modern study of Āyurverda, with few exceptions, demonstrates a similar trend in the marginalization of bhūtavidyā, or demonology, which has constituted a legitimate branch of Āyurvedic medicine from at least the time that the earliest Āyurvedic compendium, the Carakasaṃhitā, was composed. This essay argues that this lack of proper attention to Indian Buddhist and Āyurvedic medical demonology is symptomatic of a broader, persistent bias in the human sciences. The essay then examines a handful of stories from the Karmaśataka, a collection of Buddhist avadānas, to argue that certain Buddhist communities may have held their own biases against systems of medical demonology, albeit for entirely different reasons. The balance of this essay then concludes with an analysis of The Sūtra of the Seven Buddhas that presents this work as an example of Buddhist medical demonology.
In this chapter, I posit that the problem of ineffability serves as primary issue of concern that... more In this chapter, I posit that the problem of ineffability serves as primary issue of concern that is held in common by both the Buddhist epistemologist and esoteric ritual specialist. I discuss the employment of formal epistemological language in The Seven Siddhi Texts, three tantric Buddhist yogic theories of representationalist enlightened epistemology, and the importance that the treatment of mental representation (ākāra) holds for understanding The Seven Siddhi Texts in light of their Tibetan designation as an early corpus of Indian mahāmudrā works.
This document contains the abstract and contents for my dissertation on The Seven Siddhi Texts, a... more This document contains the abstract and contents for my dissertation on The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of Indic esoteric Buddhist works widely recognized in Tibetan Buddhist traditions as some of the earliest independent treatises on the tantric meditation traditions of Mahāmudrā or the "Great Seal."
La relation entre Pakpa ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan ; 1235−1280), patriarche des S... more La relation entre Pakpa ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan ; 1235−1280), patriarche des Sakya (Sa skya), Qubilai Qa'an (1215−1294) et la cour des Yuan occupe une place unique dans les travaux historiques prémodernes tibétains et mongols et parmi les érudits modernes de l'histoire politique et religieuse du Tibet, de la Mongolie et de la Chine. Conseils au Prince Jibik Temür: un chapelet joyau contient ce qui est probablement le premier ouvrage littéraire de Pakpa sur le concept des deux systèmes (tsül nyi ; Wylie : tshul gnyis), une théorie politico-religieuse qui souligne les dynamiques de la relation tibétaine yönchö (yon mchod), appelée aussi « relation de maître spirituel à protecteur laïc » que les récits historiques tibétains et mongols considèrent souvent comme ayant été officiellement codifiée lorsque Pakpa était précepteur impérial de Qubilai Qa'an. Cet article commence par fournir des données historiques sur Jibik Temür (né c. 1246) en identifiant sa place dans la lignée ainsi que son rôle dans les années de formation de l'empire Yuan. Il se poursuit par une analyse du tsül nyi qui est le thème principal du Conseils au Prince Jibik Temür et par une clarification des usages de ce terme par Pakpa dans son texte. Cette recherche détermine plusieurs sources canoniques des vers de Pakpa sur l'éthique du gouvernement et, finalement, appelle à considérer l'importance de ce texte en tant qu'exemple d'éthique appliquée au lieu de le lire comme un ouvrage général sur l'éthique bouddhique normative. Placés dans leur contexte historique, plusieurs des vers de Pakpa portant sur les instructions de gouvernance paraissent directement aborder les problèmes auxquels le prince était confronté quand le texte fut composé, pendant l'été 1266. Cette analyse se conclut sur des considérations plus larges concernant les dynamiques de la relation entre Pakpa et Jibik Temür. Les écrits de Pakpa adressés à Jibik Temür révèlent que le rôle de Pakpa, en tant que précepteur du prince, était simultanément religieux, politique et personnel. C'était à la fois une relation de nature personnelle et religieuse qui fut intégrée dans une structure politique plus formelle et institutionnalisée. Pakpa and the Construction of Sino-Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist State Identities Pakpa's ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan; 1235−1280) relationship to Qubilai Qa'an (1215−1294) and the Yuan court occupies a unique position in pre-modern Tibetan and Mongolian historical works and among modern scholars of the political
Rituals of Initiation and Consecration in Premodern Japan, 2022
This essay opens with a survey of the history of tantric consecration rites in the "early" and "l... more This essay opens with a survey of the history of tantric consecration rites in the "early" and "later" dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet. It then turns to one of the most important doctrinal disputes to emerge out of the period of the "later dissemination" concerning the relationship between the practice and realization of Mahāmudrā and the tantric consecration rites associated with the mahāyoga-and yoginītantra scriptural traditions. After highlighting the variations between the consecration chapters from three Indian works at the center of this doctrinal dispute, I introduce three potential methodological assumptions-that of chronological development, textritual conformity, and institutional scholastic homogeneity-that might obscure one of the most important functions of the consecration rituals in these texts as a means for empowering a disciple to teach the Dharma in any way that they see fit. The essay then concludes with a discussion of the guru's "authorizing command" (anujñā, rjes gnang) in these three works as a call to authorial creativity.
This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of bo... more This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of both Indian Buddhist traditions and Āyurvedic medicine. Unlike the study of Buddhist traditions in other geographic regions, there has been relatively little scholarship on the dialogue between Indian Buddhist communities and the localized spirit deity cults with which they have interacted for more than two millennia. The modern study of Āyurverda, with few exceptions, demonstrates a similar trend in the marginalization of bhūtavidyā, or demonology, which has constituted a legitimate branch of Āyurvedic medicine from at least the time that the earliest Āyurvedic compendium, the Carakasaṃhitā, was composed. This essay argues that this lack of proper attention to Indian Buddhist and Āyurvedic medical demonology is symptomatic of a broader, persistent bias in the human sciences. The essay then examines a handful of stories from the Karmaśataka, a collection of Buddhist avadānas, to argue that...
This chapter opens with a brief description of The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of tantric works ... more This chapter opens with a brief description of The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of tantric works composed by seven Indian mahāsiddhas that is understood in Tibet to represent the oldest collection Indian treatises to provide detailed instructions on the Buddhist tantric practice of the "Great Seal" or Mahāmudrā. Sometime prior to their transmission to Tibet, The Seven Siddhi Texts were combined with another collection of works, The Sixfold Corpus on the Essence (Snying po skor drug), to constitute the oldest practical canon of Indian Mahāmudrā Works transmitted to Tibet under various permutations of the compound title Grub snying gi skor (alt. Grub snying, Grub snying skor). The data for the various transmissions of this corpus in Gö Lotsawa's Blue Annals (Deb ther sngon po) have gone unnoticed largely based on the misinterpretation of the compound Grub snying gi skor (and its various permutations) as a short-hand for Saraha's collection of three dohās.
The chapter then turns to a detailed discussion of the role that The Seven Siddhi Texts played in a volley of Mahāmudrā polemical/curricular works composed by Tibetan scholars in the Sa-skya and Bka' brgyud schools. The Seven Siddhi Texts are evoked in this literature primarily around the topic of whether or not Mahāmudrā can be taught and understood outside of the context of a formal ritual performance of the complete set of four consecrations associated with the so-called highest yogatantra (bla na med pa'i rgyud). Here we see how authors on both sides of this debate at times manipulated or misrepresented their sources in support of their own positions. These observations highlight some of the consequences that accompany the tendency among Tibetan authors to imagine a homogenous "Indian" tradition in their appeals to textual authority and provide further data around the relationship between textual authority and scholastic innovation in the composition of Tibetan Buddhist curricular literature.
This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of bo... more This essay begins with a brief discussion of the marginalization of demonology in the study of both Indian Buddhist traditions and Āyurvedic medicine. Unlike the study of Buddhist traditions in other geographic regions, there has been relatively little scholarship on the dialogue between Indian Buddhist communities and the localized spirit deity cults with which they have interacted for more than two millennia. The modern study of Āyurverda, with few exceptions, demonstrates a similar trend in the marginalization of bhūtavidyā, or demonology, which has constituted a legitimate branch of Āyurvedic medicine from at least the time that the earliest Āyurvedic compendium, the Carakasaṃhitā, was composed. This essay argues that this lack of proper attention to Indian Buddhist and Āyurvedic medical demonology is symptomatic of a broader, persistent bias in the human sciences. The essay then examines a handful of stories from the Karmaśataka, a collection of Buddhist avadānas, to argue that certain Buddhist communities may have held their own biases against systems of medical demonology, albeit for entirely different reasons. The balance of this essay then concludes with an analysis of The Sūtra of the Seven Buddhas that presents this work as an example of Buddhist medical demonology.
In this chapter, I posit that the problem of ineffability serves as primary issue of concern that... more In this chapter, I posit that the problem of ineffability serves as primary issue of concern that is held in common by both the Buddhist epistemologist and esoteric ritual specialist. I discuss the employment of formal epistemological language in The Seven Siddhi Texts, three tantric Buddhist yogic theories of representationalist enlightened epistemology, and the importance that the treatment of mental representation (ākāra) holds for understanding The Seven Siddhi Texts in light of their Tibetan designation as an early corpus of Indian mahāmudrā works.
This document contains the abstract and contents for my dissertation on The Seven Siddhi Texts, a... more This document contains the abstract and contents for my dissertation on The Seven Siddhi Texts, a corpus of Indic esoteric Buddhist works widely recognized in Tibetan Buddhist traditions as some of the earliest independent treatises on the tantric meditation traditions of Mahāmudrā or the "Great Seal."
La relation entre Pakpa ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan ; 1235−1280), patriarche des S... more La relation entre Pakpa ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan ; 1235−1280), patriarche des Sakya (Sa skya), Qubilai Qa'an (1215−1294) et la cour des Yuan occupe une place unique dans les travaux historiques prémodernes tibétains et mongols et parmi les érudits modernes de l'histoire politique et religieuse du Tibet, de la Mongolie et de la Chine. Conseils au Prince Jibik Temür: un chapelet joyau contient ce qui est probablement le premier ouvrage littéraire de Pakpa sur le concept des deux systèmes (tsül nyi ; Wylie : tshul gnyis), une théorie politico-religieuse qui souligne les dynamiques de la relation tibétaine yönchö (yon mchod), appelée aussi « relation de maître spirituel à protecteur laïc » que les récits historiques tibétains et mongols considèrent souvent comme ayant été officiellement codifiée lorsque Pakpa était précepteur impérial de Qubilai Qa'an. Cet article commence par fournir des données historiques sur Jibik Temür (né c. 1246) en identifiant sa place dans la lignée ainsi que son rôle dans les années de formation de l'empire Yuan. Il se poursuit par une analyse du tsül nyi qui est le thème principal du Conseils au Prince Jibik Temür et par une clarification des usages de ce terme par Pakpa dans son texte. Cette recherche détermine plusieurs sources canoniques des vers de Pakpa sur l'éthique du gouvernement et, finalement, appelle à considérer l'importance de ce texte en tant qu'exemple d'éthique appliquée au lieu de le lire comme un ouvrage général sur l'éthique bouddhique normative. Placés dans leur contexte historique, plusieurs des vers de Pakpa portant sur les instructions de gouvernance paraissent directement aborder les problèmes auxquels le prince était confronté quand le texte fut composé, pendant l'été 1266. Cette analyse se conclut sur des considérations plus larges concernant les dynamiques de la relation entre Pakpa et Jibik Temür. Les écrits de Pakpa adressés à Jibik Temür révèlent que le rôle de Pakpa, en tant que précepteur du prince, était simultanément religieux, politique et personnel. C'était à la fois une relation de nature personnelle et religieuse qui fut intégrée dans une structure politique plus formelle et institutionnalisée. Pakpa and the Construction of Sino-Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist State Identities Pakpa's ('Gro mgon 'Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan; 1235−1280) relationship to Qubilai Qa'an (1215−1294) and the Yuan court occupies a unique position in pre-modern Tibetan and Mongolian historical works and among modern scholars of the political
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The chapter then turns to a detailed discussion of the role that The Seven Siddhi Texts played in a volley of Mahāmudrā polemical/curricular works composed by Tibetan scholars in the Sa-skya and Bka' brgyud schools. The Seven Siddhi Texts are evoked in this literature primarily around the topic of whether or not Mahāmudrā can be taught and understood outside of the context of a formal ritual performance of the complete set of four consecrations associated with the so-called highest yogatantra (bla na med pa'i rgyud). Here we see how authors on both sides of this debate at times manipulated or misrepresented their sources in support of their own positions. These observations highlight some of the consequences that accompany the tendency among Tibetan authors to imagine a homogenous "Indian" tradition in their appeals to textual authority and provide further data around the relationship between textual authority and scholastic innovation in the composition of Tibetan Buddhist curricular literature.
The chapter then turns to a detailed discussion of the role that The Seven Siddhi Texts played in a volley of Mahāmudrā polemical/curricular works composed by Tibetan scholars in the Sa-skya and Bka' brgyud schools. The Seven Siddhi Texts are evoked in this literature primarily around the topic of whether or not Mahāmudrā can be taught and understood outside of the context of a formal ritual performance of the complete set of four consecrations associated with the so-called highest yogatantra (bla na med pa'i rgyud). Here we see how authors on both sides of this debate at times manipulated or misrepresented their sources in support of their own positions. These observations highlight some of the consequences that accompany the tendency among Tibetan authors to imagine a homogenous "Indian" tradition in their appeals to textual authority and provide further data around the relationship between textual authority and scholastic innovation in the composition of Tibetan Buddhist curricular literature.