Some Dimensions of the Recent Work of Raimundo Panikkar: A Buddhist Perspective

The Dalai Lama is fond of quoting a statement in which the Buddha is said to have asserted that no one should accept his word out of respect for the Buddha himself, but only after testing it, analysing it ‘ as a goldsmith analyses gold, through cutting, melting, scraping and rubbing it’. The Dalai Lama is often referred to as the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet, but in truth as a spiritual figure His Holiness, while respected, indeed revered by almost all Tibetans, usually speaks from within the perspective of one particular tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, that of the dGe lugs (pronounced ‘Geluk’). Founded in the late fourteenth century by Tsong kha pa, the dGe lugs has always stressed the importance of reasoning, analytic rationality, on the spiritual path. This dGe lugs perspective is by no means shared by all Buddhists, at least not in the form it there takes. Nevertheless it does represent an important direction in Buddhist thinking on reasoning and the spiritual path which can be traced back in Indian Buddhism a very long way indeed, and it is in the light of dGe lugs thought that I want to contemplate two points which seem to be crucial in Raimundo Panikkar's approach to interreligious dialogue and understanding: first, that Reality, Being, transcends the intelligible, the range of consciousness, and second, that understanding this is the only basis for tolerance, not seeking in one way or another to overcome the other.

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Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa (1357–1419)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-f034-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Tom J.F. Tillemans

Keyword(s):

Political Power ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

Great Emphasis ◽

Political Situation ◽

Northeastern Region ◽

Indian Buddhism ◽

Tsong Kha Pa ◽

Long Term Impact ◽

Original Thinker

Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa (Dzongkaba Losang dragba), the founder of the dGa’-ldan-pa (Gandenba) school of Tibetan Buddhism, was born in Tsong-kha, in the extreme northeastern region of Tibet. He is often depicted as a type of reformer, putting great emphasis on moral precepts and interpreting Tantra in a way which would not create any conflict with the traditional Mahāyāna doctrines found in the sūtras and treatises. He was also an eclectic, drawing upon and synthesizing numerous different currents of Indian Buddhism – for example, he put forth a version of *Prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika which was inextricably bound up with the logical tradition of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. On the Tibetan side, one of his major philosophical debts was undoubtedly to the gSang-phu (Sangpu) traditions stemming from the highly original thinker Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge (Chaba Chögyi sengge, 1109–69). Finally, his dGa’-ldan-pa school subsequently became the dGe-lugs-pa (Gelukba), a predominantly monastic tradition which in time became the dominant current of Buddhism in Tibet. Tsong kha pa thus had, in addition to his philosophical influence, a long-term impact on the Tibetan political situation, contributing to the transfer of power from the southern provinces to the Lhasa region and laying the groundwork for the peculiarly Tibetan synthesis of religion and political power which was to be embodied in the institution of the Dalai Lamas.

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Bioethical Threads in the Reflection of Tibetan Refugees in India

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel12060436 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 436

Author(s):

Marcin Lisiecki

Keyword(s):

Medical Practice ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

Modern Medicine ◽

The State ◽

Tibetan Medicine ◽

Sex Reassignment ◽

Dalai Lama ◽

Basic Concepts ◽

Tibetan Refugees ◽

Medical Traditions

This article aims to trace and describe the bioethical threads in medical practice and the understanding of medicine among Tibetan refugees living in India. Taking up such a task results mainly from the fact that only traces of bioethical reflection are visible in Tibetan society, but without the awareness that it requires systematic reflection on its essence and changes that accompany modern medicine. I define the state of the discussion on Tibetan bioethics as preparadigmatic, i.e., one that precedes the recognition of the importance of bioethics and the elaboration of its basic concepts. In this paper, I will show how the Tibetan refugees today, in an unconscious way, approach bioethics, using the example of life-related topics, namely beginning and death. To this end, I chose topics such as abortion, fetal sex reassignment, euthanasia, and suicide. On this basis, I will indicate the main reasons that hinder the emergence of bioethics and those that may contribute to systematic discussions in the future. An introduction to Tibetan medicine will precede these considerations. I will show how medical traditions, especially the Rgyud bzhi text, are related to Tibetan Buddhism and opinions of the 14th Dalai Lama.

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An Identity Prescribed & Non-Negotiable: The Childhood of Tibetan Tulkus

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.11510 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Amy Hetherington

Keyword(s):

Personal Autonomy ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

The Body ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Physical Body ◽

Familial Relationships ◽

Spiritual Leader ◽

Sanskrit Word ◽

Family Leisure ◽

Identity Changes

A lama is a spiritual leader or guider of the dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. When a lama dies their spirit is said to move into the body of an infant born shortly after their death, and this child is called a tulku. The word tulku translates to the Sanskrit word nirmanakaya. This means "pure physical body," and is in reference to a fully enlightened being. In the following essay, I engage in a discussion about the childhood experiences and notions of individuality of Tibetan tulkus. Due to the shortage of academic material on this topic, I draw on personal written accounts of specific tulkus and from these make my own inferences and conclusions. By exploring notions of discipline, familial relationships, personal autonomy, identity, and exploitation, I argue that the recognition and identification as a tulku does not allow one to experience an ordinary childhood and deprives one of pursuing a normative or undisturbed upbringing. In this essay, I utilize the term ‘normative’ to mean any version or rendition of childhood that the child would have experienced had they not been identified as a tulku. I hope my findings will be useful in further discussions about whether a child’s putative identity changes their right to access a typical childhood characterized by family, leisure, and personal exploration, or whether their tulku status overrides and reconditions this right.

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Battling the Buddha of Love

10.7591/cornell/9781501723469.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Marie Falcone

Keyword(s):

Cultural Values ◽

Life Story ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

Uttar Pradesh ◽

Full Scale ◽

Rural India ◽

The World ◽

The Future ◽

The Buddha ◽

Resistance Movement

This ethnography explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, as they worked to build the “world's tallest statue” as a multi-million dollar “gift” to India. This effort entailed a plan to forcibly acquire hundreds of acres of occupied land for the statue park in the Kushinagar area of Uttar Pradesh. The Buddhist statue planners ran into obstacle after obstacle, including a full-scale grassroots resistance movement of Indian farmers working to “Save the Land.” In telling the “life story” of the proposed statue, the book sheds light on the aspirations, values and practices of both the Buddhists who worked to construct the statue, as well as the Indian farmer-activists who tirelessly protested against it. Since the majority of the supporters of the Maitreya Project statue are “non-heritage” practitioners to Tibetan Buddhism, the book narrates the spectacular collision of cultural values between small agriculturalists in rural India and transnational Buddhists from around the world. The book endeavors to show the cultural logics at work on both sides of the controversy. Thus, this ethnography of a future statue of the Maitreya Buddha—himself the “future Buddha”—is a story about divergent, competing visions of Kushinagar’s potential futures.

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The Oriental Monk in American Popular Culture

10.1525/california/9780520291447.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jane Naomi Iwamura

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Popular Culture ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

The United States ◽

Current Image ◽

Dalai Lama ◽

American Popular Culture ◽

Asian Religions ◽

History Of

This chapter analyzes the history of representation that has contributed to the current image of the Dalai Lama. We “know” the Dalai Lama, not simply because of the fact that we may understand his views and admire his actions, but also because we are familiar with the particular role he plays in the popular consciousness of the United States—the type of icon he has become—the icon of the “Oriental Monk.” To get a sense of what makes the Dalai Lama so popular, we need to get a sense of the history of this icon and how it has been used to express and manage our sense of Asian religions. The chapter asks: How did the Dalai Lama come to represent all that he does for Americans? Indeed, what exactly does he represent? How have we come to “know” him? Is our ability to embrace someone and something (Tibetan Buddhism) once considered so foreign, anything other than a testimony to a newfound openness and progressive understanding?

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The Tibet-Mongolia Political Interface in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

The Early 20th Century Resurgence of the Tibetan Buddhist World ◽

10.5117/9789463728645_ch04 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Sergius L. Kuzmin

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

Local Resistance ◽

Dalai Lama ◽

The Relationship

Sergey Kuzmin’s paper draws on Russian and Mongolian archives to discuss the relationship between the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the Jebtsundamba Khutagtu in the context of their joint hopes for future independence. This was promoted by the prevalence of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, the leadership of the Tibetan-born Jetsun Dampa Khutuktu, the influential Tibetan colony in the Mongolian capital of Niislel Khuree, and permanent contacts between Mongols and Tibetans. It demonstrates how the two states co-ordinated their independence struggle during the first half of the twentieth century. This association continued after the two states had broken away from China and continued into the 1930s, with individual Tibetan hierarchs becoming involved in local resistance to the Socialist suppression of Buddhism in Mongolia.

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Study on the Composition of Inner Mongolia Wudangzhao Monastery Building Complex

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.357-360.141 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 357-360 ◽

pp. 141-144

Author(s):

Yun Zuo

Keyword(s):

Inner Mongolia ◽

Tibetan Buddhism ◽

Tibetan Buddhist ◽

Architectural Style ◽

Different Types ◽

History Of ◽

Almost All ◽

Tibetan Architecture

Tibetan Buddhist monasteries embody almost all achievements of the Tibetan community in religious, scientific, cultural and artistic. The erection of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are closely related to the history of Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Mongolia. As the Tibetan Buddhism had been spread to Inner Mongolia in different periods, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries presented different features in its architectural style. Wudangzhao Lamasery is the grandest integral monastery complex still remaining in Inner Mongolia.Its buildings have high value of art and characteristically Tibetan Buddhist Architectural style on monasterys arrangement and style. Different types of the building gathered together form a Tibetan monastery, buildings complex reflected the intact standard of Tibetan Architecture. They express the Tibetan traditional mountain worship idea, and Buddhist the Mandala Cosmology and Three Realms idea.

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