College 11 Flashcards
Tibet
- Region in Central-Asia
- Buddhism
- Shamanism, Bon
- Centre of Spirituality
- Big secrets, hidden mysteries
- Shambhala, Shangri-la (regions where time does not pass)
Tibetan Buddhism
- Yumbalhakang, palace where Buddhism came down from heaven…(5th-7th CE?)
- Mahayana (Bodhisattva ideal) exert for the wellbeing of all creatures
- Wisdom and Compassion
- Social attitude to the universe
- Reincarnation till all beings are liberated
Vajrayana
• Ritual practices to become a Bodhisattva
• Reincarnation till all beings are liberated (like Mahayana)
Vajrayana Ritual practices
Tantric Buddhism
• Application of: • 1. mamsa (meat) • 2. matsya (fish) • 3. madhu (wine) • 4. mudra (handgestures, fermented grain or vaginal fluids) • 5. mithuna (ritual eroticism) - Siddha’s, Tantric ascetics
Bon religion
- Shamanistic
- Spirits of ancient kings
- Founded by Shenrab (who looks like the Buddha)
Tibetan kings
Songtsen Ganpo (605-650 CE) Trisong Detsen (742-800 CE) Padmasambhava (8th century CE)
Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
Red hats • Nyingmapa • Karmapa • Kargyupa • Drigungpa • Sakyapa
Yellow hats
- Tsong Kha Pa (1357-1419 CE)
Reincarnating Lama’s (Tulku)
Bon: spirit of the king
Buddhist: Bodhisattva
Young Dalai lama Rimpoche
Kalu
Ösel Lama, ‘El Nino Lama’
Western incarnations: Steven Seagal / Seagal-pa
Dalai lamas
- (institute founded by Mongolian emperor Althan Khan 1507-1582)
- 5th Dalai Lama
- 13th Dalai lama: the Bodhisattva warrior
- 14th Dalai Lama, incarnation of four-armed Avalokiteshvara, Chenrezig
- Potala, palace monastery of the Dalai lamas (built 17th century)
Western Esotericism
• is a scholarly term for a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements which have developed within Western society. They are largely distinct both from orthodox judeo-Christian and from Enlightenment rationalism. A trans- disciplinary field, esotericism has pervaded various forms of western philosophy, religion, pseudoscience, art, literature, and music, continuing to affect intellectual ideas and popular culture. • ‘New Age’ • Astrology • Intuitive knowledge • Spirits • Clairvoyance • Aura • Meditation • Shamanism • Magic etc.
Rise of esotericism in USA
- Example ‘New Religious Movement’: mormons. Joseph Smith (1805-1844)
- Fox sisters (ca. 1830-1890)
- Roots in Europe
- No sacred places in USA
- ‘Dust Bowls’, periods of drought
- Spiritualism
- Travel outside is travel within
Theosophical Society
- (founded 1875)
- Mdm Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891)
- Sir Henry Olcott (1832-1907)
- Mahatma’s: Hoot Khutumi, Al Moriya
- Chohan Lama
- Henry Olcott (1832-1907) declared the tooth of Buddha to be a piece of fossil deer antler…
- Shangrila, Shambhala
- Kalacakra initiation
- Blavatsky in Tibet?
Theosofische ideeën
• To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.
• To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science.
• To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.
• Sympathy with the above objects was the sole condition of admission to the society. The Society was organized as a non-sectarian entity.
• The following was stated in the Constitution and Rules of the Theosophical Society
• The Theosophical Society is absolutely unsectarian, and no assent to any formula of belief, faith or creed shall be required as a qualification of membership; but every applicant and member must live in sympathy with the effort to create the nucleus of an Universal Brotherhood of Humanity
• Offences
1. Any Fellow who shall in any way attempt to involve the Society in political disputes shall be immediately expelled.
2. No Fellow, Officer, or Council of the Theosophical Society, or of any Section or Branch thereof, shall promulgate or maintain any doctrin[e ]as being that advanced, or advocated by the Society
Travellers in Tibet:
- Alexandra David Néel (1868-1968)
Exoteric (obvious, outward)-esoteric (hidden, secret)
Bharata Natyam (Indian classical dance)
- Rukmini Devi (1904-1986)
- Balasarasvati (1918-1984)
- sacred patterns?
