Tibetan Philosophy

A review of Dr Joel L. Whitton PhD, Joe Fisher, Life Between Life: Scientific Explorations into the Void Separating One Incarnation from the Next, Grafton Books, 1986, 265 pp.

What is 'rebirth' in Buddhism? The contribution of hypnotic regression.

This paper focuses on the history of dzogchen within the heart essence tradition.

This paper focuses on the contributions of phenomenology to Dzogchen.

This paper focuses on Prajna and the discernment of knowningness.

This paper focuses on the essence of dzogchen as Presence.

This paper focuses on Dzogchen and self liberation.

This paper focuses on the path of appearance and awareness.

This paper focuses on the appearance of emptiness through time.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of timeless awareness.

This paper describes the phenomenology of gazing within dzogchen practice.

This paper focuses in detail on the practice of meditation as becoming aware of awareness as a field vast and multidimensional.

This paper focuses on meditation as natural luminousity.

This paper focuses on deathlessness awareness.

This article originated in a brief but inspiring analysis by Margaret Nowak. Nowak used Sherry Ortner's concept of ‘summarising symbol’ to imply that, much the same way as the American flag was the epitome of the United States to each and every American, the Dalai Lama encompasses everything Tibetan to the Tibetan people. What does this comparison say about the Dalai Lama? I examine the relationship between symbol, power and charisma with Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, as a case (...) in point. With exile, there has been a shift in the symbolic importance of the Dalai Lama, both as a man and as an institution, from a symbol of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism to a symbol of the Tibetan cause and, more generally, to a symbol of Buddhism in the world. These changes have given Tenzin Gyatso a new authority in the Tibetan community: he is now the unique and unquestioned leader of the Tibetan cause in the world. I discuss the problems that occur when a symbol is also a man and a leader, as well as the solutions proposed, at a moment when the Tibetan community in exile is experiencing democratisation. (shrink)

Originally published under the title: Tsong Khapa's Speech of gold in the Essence of true eloquence.

It is common for philosophers from the Madhyamaka school of Indian Buddhist thought to offer a presentation of the two truths, ultimate truth ( param rthasatya ) and conventional truth ( sa v tisatya ), as a vehicle for presenting their views on the ontological status of entities. Though there is some degree of variance, generally ultimate truths are described as objects known by an awareness of knowing things as they are. Conventional truths are objects as conceived by a mistaken (...) awareness, one that superimposes a mode of existence onto objects that is not actually there. These two truths are contrasted (one is accurate; one is not) and used as a vehicle for understanding the ontological status of phenomena and the means by which they are known. ntarak ita (725-788 CE) was among the most important Madhyamaka thinkers in Indian Buddhist history, yet his presentation of the two truths has several features that signal its uniqueness. This paper will discuss two particular unique dimensions to ntarak ita's views on the two truths: his integration of aspects of Cittamatra/Yog c ra thinking, including the rejection of external objects, into his presentation of conventional truths, and the dynamic way in which conventional truths are not merely presented as objects of a mistaken awareness, but rather as an important soteriological step in the process of realizing the ultimate. This syncretic and dynamic integration of Yog c ra thought, where its ideas are fully engaged and incorporated into an over-arching Madhyamaka philosophical system is a key component to the thought of one of the most important, influential, and innovative figures in the late period of Indian Madhyamaka, and one which has yet to be fully acknowledged in secondary literature. (shrink)

Santaraks&dotbelow;ita's text, The Ornament For The Middle Way is commonly considered as the foundational or root text of the final major development in Indian Buddhist thought, a philosophical system known in Tibet as Yogacara-Svatantrika-Madhyamika. This system of thought offered a unique synthesis of major trends in Mahayana discourse by presenting the Yogacara framework as a viable presentation of conventional truth while maintaining a Madhyamika perspective for ultimate analysis, and all the while stressing the necessity of incorporating recently formalized systems of (...) Buddhist logic. This dissertation conducts a comparative analysis of the ideas presented in The Ornament For The Middle Way in the context in which they arose in eighth century India with the way in which they have been understood, interpreted and represented within the dGe-lugs school of Tibetan Buddhism. As such this study offers a historical and contextual framework for understanding this text in both its Indian and Tibetan settings. In particular a new three-fold model is presented for contextualizing dGe-lugs commentarial literature on the subject which is cognizant of these contexts in which the texts operate and the pedagogical and hermeneutical objectives of the dGe-lugs school. Included in this study are translations of Santaraks&dotbelow;ita's text The Ornament For The Middle Way, and one of the primary dGe-lugs commentaries on that text, rGyal-tshab's Remembering ' The Ornament For The Middle Way'. (shrink)

In his famous text the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the 8th century Buddhist philosopher Śāntideva argues that anger towards people who harm us is never justified. The usual reading of this argument rests on drawing similarities between harms caused by persons and those caused by non-persons. After laying out my own interpretation of Śāntideva's reasoning, I offer some objections to Śāntideva's claim about the similarity between animate and inanimate causes of harm inspired by contemporary philosophical literature in the West. Following this, I argue (...) that by reading Śāntideva's argument as practical advice rather than as a philosophical claim about rational coherence, his argument can still have important insights even for those who reject his philosophical reasoning. (shrink)

A brief introduction to some of the major issues in Tibetan philosophy.

Keywords Tibetan Buddhism - Gzhan stong - Dolpopa.

In this autoethnographic essay, I reflect on my brief personal experiences of conducting field research on ways in which way a small group of Tibetan Buddhist monks enact a monastic total institution in Ladakh, India. More specifically, I analyze my experiences in view of the relationship between dual and nondual mind, as discussed by Henry Vyner (2002) in Anthropology of Consciousness, and use this analysis to develop preliminary insights into the ways in which a Tibetan Buddhist monastery is constituted.

Western scholars have written on the theory of Buddhist argumentation. They have also analyzed examples of arguments found in philosophical and polemical writing. However, little has been written to date about what might have transpired when Buddhists and their opponents met in face-to-face debates in classical India. Drawing on Chinese and Tibetan historical and biographical writings about famous Indian debates, this essay analyzes the structure and conventions of these accounts as a literary form. While it is difficult to assess the (...) historicity of particular narratives, an analysis of this literature as a whole gives us clues about what might have occured when Indian scholars faced their adversaries in live debates. These sources provide us with a picture of the etiquette, rules of engagement, and strategies that may have been used in such encounters. They also suggest what constituted defeat in ancient Indian verbal contests, and they point to some of the real-political and material benefits of victory. The essay ends by reflecting on the function of these narratives vis-à-vis Tibetan Buddhist scholastic identity. (shrink)