I am a Ph.D. Candidate, finishing my dissertation in Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia in the Religious Studies Department. For my full bio visit www.KaliCape.com Address: Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
In the wake of the brave voices of the #metoo movement, Buddhist responses to sexual abuse have l... more In the wake of the brave voices of the #metoo movement, Buddhist responses to sexual abuse have led to important questions about Buddhist sexual ethics and the female consort in Tibetan cultures. One issue raised by current debates is the question of who is an appropriate consort, a discourse that has historical precedent. These debates highlight the gaps left by the understudied history of consorts in Tibetan tantric communities. This research addresses that history through a study of female consort discourse in key scriptures of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) from the fourteenth century. The text studied is The Ḍākki’s Path and Fruit (dakki lam ‘bras skor), which is part of a corpus known as The Seminal Heart of the Ḍākinī. The scriptures are analyzed in terms of taxonomic discourse, interpreted with attention to structures of knowledge production as described by Foucault. It addresses the discursive transformations that facilitated the inclusion of women in the androcentric w...
“Re-envisioning Trauma,”
University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture... more “Re-envisioning Trauma,” University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture, Development, Science. Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2014. Abstract This paper reflects the first stage of a study of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Severance (gcod) in the context of psychological theories of trauma and transformation. It explores the question: What models of coping with fear, threat and trauma are presented in Severance? Severance has been examined by scholars from the perspective of ritual sacrifice, as a practice with soteriological goals and evaluated in terms of its historical claims and literary antecedents. Severance could also be considered in terms of its social functions. However, this study takes another approach examining Severance in terms of its function as a Buddhist contemplative technique for coping with fear, threat and trauma. Sheehey (2005) discusses Severance’s philosophical framework as a contemplative practice for overcoming fear with a focus on the philosophical paradigms therein. However there has not been a scholarly analysis of the Severance liturgies themselves in terms of which psychological frameworks they deploy for grappling with and overcoming fear, anxiety and trauma. This paper seeks to open the door to such a discussion by examining four severance liturgies through a preliminary statistical analysis of which psychological tropes, if any, are emphasized and which are de-emphasized.
Until recently there has been an absence of abundant material documenting the religious lives of ... more Until recently there has been an absence of abundant material documenting the religious lives of women in Tibet. In 2013 a groundbreaking effort was made through the publication of a comprehensive body of literature dedicated to women in Tibet’s Buddhist history: Garland of White Lotuses: The Liberation Stories of Great Female Lives in Tibet. This collection is selected from a vast array of genres including the Buddha's life story, monastic disciplines, doctrinal discourses, both exoteric (sūtra) and esoteric (tantra), history, hagiography, and revealed treasures. In an attempt to portray a comprehensive survey of women’s life stories, it includes hagiographies, biographies, autobiographies, and legends about female divinities as well as practitioners. This recent publication is the only collection of Tibetan hagiographies in Tibetan Buddhist literature highlighting the presence of women through assembling accounts from Tibetan religious memory. Thus it provides a rare opportunity to glimpse the manner in which the tradition narrates the presence and absence of women in its own memory. This paper presents an overview of the subjects of this collection and discusses how this reveals the scope of female roles which the tradition has chosen to remember. It will explore questions including the presence of women's religious life through temporal, regional, and sectarian divisions; the scope of religious roles represented by women; and the concepts of Tibetan literary genres which are utilized to inflect women into Tibetan Buddhist history.
Review of: Tsomo, Karma Lekshe (ed). 2014. Eminent Buddhist
Women. Albany, New York: State Unive... more Review of: Tsomo, Karma Lekshe (ed). 2014. Eminent Buddhist Women. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 278. Preface, introduction, index. ISBN: 978-1- 4384-5130 (paperback, 29.95USD).
Eminent Buddhist Women edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, is in part the product of the 2010 Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The chapters feature narratives about exceptional Buddhist women, contributing to the growing genre of literature on female Buddhist figures. The stated aim of the collection is to make visible women's contributions to Buddhism within multiple traditions. The volume is organized geographically into five sections with twenty chapters. These chapters feature Buddhist women in South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Tibetan cultural region, and the West. The essays vary from translations with commentaries, to first person narratives told in the style of Buddhist hagiographies, to ethnographic accounts and oral histories. The editor made a deliberate decision to present heterogeneous narrative forms in order to recount a variety of narratives: ...
In the wake of the brave voices of the #metoo movement, Buddhist responses to sexual abuse have l... more In the wake of the brave voices of the #metoo movement, Buddhist responses to sexual abuse have led to important questions about Buddhist sexual ethics and the female consort in Tibetan cultures. One issue raised by current debates is the question of who is an appropriate consort, a discourse that has historical precedent. These debates highlight the gaps left by the understudied history of consorts in Tibetan tantric communities. This research addresses that history through a study of female consort discourse in key scriptures of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) from the fourteenth century. The text studied is The Ḍākki’s Path and Fruit (dakki lam ‘bras skor), which is part of a corpus known as The Seminal Heart of the Ḍākinī. The scriptures are analyzed in terms of taxonomic discourse, interpreted with attention to structures of knowledge production as described by Foucault. It addresses the discursive transformations that facilitated the inclusion of women in the androcentric w...
“Re-envisioning Trauma,”
University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture... more “Re-envisioning Trauma,” University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture, Development, Science. Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2014. Abstract This paper reflects the first stage of a study of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Severance (gcod) in the context of psychological theories of trauma and transformation. It explores the question: What models of coping with fear, threat and trauma are presented in Severance? Severance has been examined by scholars from the perspective of ritual sacrifice, as a practice with soteriological goals and evaluated in terms of its historical claims and literary antecedents. Severance could also be considered in terms of its social functions. However, this study takes another approach examining Severance in terms of its function as a Buddhist contemplative technique for coping with fear, threat and trauma. Sheehey (2005) discusses Severance’s philosophical framework as a contemplative practice for overcoming fear with a focus on the philosophical paradigms therein. However there has not been a scholarly analysis of the Severance liturgies themselves in terms of which psychological frameworks they deploy for grappling with and overcoming fear, anxiety and trauma. This paper seeks to open the door to such a discussion by examining four severance liturgies through a preliminary statistical analysis of which psychological tropes, if any, are emphasized and which are de-emphasized.
Until recently there has been an absence of abundant material documenting the religious lives of ... more Until recently there has been an absence of abundant material documenting the religious lives of women in Tibet. In 2013 a groundbreaking effort was made through the publication of a comprehensive body of literature dedicated to women in Tibet’s Buddhist history: Garland of White Lotuses: The Liberation Stories of Great Female Lives in Tibet. This collection is selected from a vast array of genres including the Buddha's life story, monastic disciplines, doctrinal discourses, both exoteric (sūtra) and esoteric (tantra), history, hagiography, and revealed treasures. In an attempt to portray a comprehensive survey of women’s life stories, it includes hagiographies, biographies, autobiographies, and legends about female divinities as well as practitioners. This recent publication is the only collection of Tibetan hagiographies in Tibetan Buddhist literature highlighting the presence of women through assembling accounts from Tibetan religious memory. Thus it provides a rare opportunity to glimpse the manner in which the tradition narrates the presence and absence of women in its own memory. This paper presents an overview of the subjects of this collection and discusses how this reveals the scope of female roles which the tradition has chosen to remember. It will explore questions including the presence of women's religious life through temporal, regional, and sectarian divisions; the scope of religious roles represented by women; and the concepts of Tibetan literary genres which are utilized to inflect women into Tibetan Buddhist history.
Review of: Tsomo, Karma Lekshe (ed). 2014. Eminent Buddhist
Women. Albany, New York: State Unive... more Review of: Tsomo, Karma Lekshe (ed). 2014. Eminent Buddhist Women. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 278. Preface, introduction, index. ISBN: 978-1- 4384-5130 (paperback, 29.95USD).
Eminent Buddhist Women edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, is in part the product of the 2010 Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The chapters feature narratives about exceptional Buddhist women, contributing to the growing genre of literature on female Buddhist figures. The stated aim of the collection is to make visible women's contributions to Buddhism within multiple traditions. The volume is organized geographically into five sections with twenty chapters. These chapters feature Buddhist women in South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Tibetan cultural region, and the West. The essays vary from translations with commentaries, to first person narratives told in the style of Buddhist hagiographies, to ethnographic accounts and oral histories. The editor made a deliberate decision to present heterogeneous narrative forms in order to recount a variety of narratives: ...
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Papers by Kali N Cape
University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture, Development, Science.
Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2014.
Abstract
This paper reflects the first stage of a study of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Severance (gcod) in the context of psychological theories of trauma and transformation. It explores the question: What models of coping with fear, threat and trauma are presented in Severance? Severance has been examined by scholars from the perspective of ritual sacrifice, as a practice with soteriological goals and evaluated in terms of its historical claims and literary antecedents. Severance could also be considered in terms of its social functions. However, this study takes another approach examining Severance in terms of its function as a Buddhist contemplative technique for coping with fear, threat and trauma. Sheehey (2005) discusses Severance’s philosophical framework as a contemplative practice for overcoming fear with a focus on the philosophical paradigms therein. However there has not been a scholarly analysis of the Severance liturgies themselves in terms of which psychological frameworks they deploy for grappling with and overcoming fear, anxiety and trauma. This paper seeks to open the door to such a discussion by examining four severance liturgies through a preliminary statistical analysis of which psychological tropes, if any, are emphasized and which are de-emphasized.
Reviews by Kali N Cape
Women. Albany, New York: State University of New York
Press. 278. Preface, introduction, index. ISBN: 978-1-
4384-5130 (paperback, 29.95USD).
Eminent Buddhist Women edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, is in part the product of the 2010 Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The chapters feature narratives about exceptional Buddhist women, contributing to the growing genre of literature on female Buddhist figures. The stated aim of the collection is to make visible women's contributions to Buddhism within multiple traditions. The volume is organized geographically into five sections with twenty chapters. These chapters feature Buddhist women in South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Tibetan cultural region, and the West. The essays vary from translations with commentaries, to first person narratives told in the style of Buddhist hagiographies, to
ethnographic accounts and oral histories. The editor made a
deliberate decision to present heterogeneous narrative forms in order to recount a variety of narratives: ...
University of Virginia Buddhist Meditation Conference: History, Culture, Development, Science.
Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2014.
Abstract
This paper reflects the first stage of a study of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Severance (gcod) in the context of psychological theories of trauma and transformation. It explores the question: What models of coping with fear, threat and trauma are presented in Severance? Severance has been examined by scholars from the perspective of ritual sacrifice, as a practice with soteriological goals and evaluated in terms of its historical claims and literary antecedents. Severance could also be considered in terms of its social functions. However, this study takes another approach examining Severance in terms of its function as a Buddhist contemplative technique for coping with fear, threat and trauma. Sheehey (2005) discusses Severance’s philosophical framework as a contemplative practice for overcoming fear with a focus on the philosophical paradigms therein. However there has not been a scholarly analysis of the Severance liturgies themselves in terms of which psychological frameworks they deploy for grappling with and overcoming fear, anxiety and trauma. This paper seeks to open the door to such a discussion by examining four severance liturgies through a preliminary statistical analysis of which psychological tropes, if any, are emphasized and which are de-emphasized.
Women. Albany, New York: State University of New York
Press. 278. Preface, introduction, index. ISBN: 978-1-
4384-5130 (paperback, 29.95USD).
Eminent Buddhist Women edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, is in part the product of the 2010 Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The chapters feature narratives about exceptional Buddhist women, contributing to the growing genre of literature on female Buddhist figures. The stated aim of the collection is to make visible women's contributions to Buddhism within multiple traditions. The volume is organized geographically into five sections with twenty chapters. These chapters feature Buddhist women in South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Tibetan cultural region, and the West. The essays vary from translations with commentaries, to first person narratives told in the style of Buddhist hagiographies, to
ethnographic accounts and oral histories. The editor made a
deliberate decision to present heterogeneous narrative forms in order to recount a variety of narratives: ...