Esoteric Midterm Flashcards
tantra
- a broad pan-indic term
- from root ‘to weave’, with a connotation of ‘continuum’
- non-literal translation: tantra == ‘ritual’
- Tantra is an extension/subclass of Mahayana buddhism
- Tantra inverts brahmanical culture
- genre of text found in Buddhism among others
- Tantra can also mean ‘science’
- Tantra from Maha Budd perspective = form of skillful means
- focus on transformation?
- enlightenment in this lifetime?
vajra
- old sanskrit word that predates buddhism
- literally ‘thunderbolt’ and ‘diamond’
- a ritual object in buddhism & a staff of martial office , representing the properties of indestructibility & irresistible force
- played a role in coronation?
- mandalas sit on a cross-vajra (visvavajra) - 4 compass points
- Vajra = indic, dorje = tibetan
vajrayana
- term appearing in 7th C meaning ‘the way of the diamond thunderbolt’ or (quick path/vehicle, secret mantra)
- indigenous term for what is sometimes called Esoteric/Tantric buddhism
- subclass of Mahayana Buddhism
- with a focus on: transformation of physical elements, initiation and enlightenment in this lifetime
mantranaya
- we can say that mantranaya & vajrayana = contemporary synonymous terms in their earliest occurrences
- Tantric forms appear in the late seventh century
- late 7th century appearance
- ‘mantranaya - ‘the path of the means of mantra’
- we can say that paramitayana = basic mahayana while mantranaya = advanced mahayana that includes mantra
- we can say that mantranaya & vajrayana = contemporary synonymous terms in their earliest occurences
mantra
- ritual process for accessing the power of sound
- process required authorization through consecration
- the use of seed symbols that invoke deities and presences -can manipulate reality thru sound
- conjoined with ‘practice of perfections’ in mahayana
orientalism
- term popularized by Edward Said in 1978
- refer to a patronizing Western attitude towards non-Western societies
- Often the implication that this is an unavoidable trap for the west
- the perspective that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior. It is essentially different from and superior to/in dominion over the orient
belligerence
-belligerence = aggressive, prone to violence & warfare
(prof likens to Middle East right now)
-fragmentation in N and central india
-‘culture of belligerence’, destabilization
-occurs during unstable political situations, prevalence of war
-occurs in a specific type of feudalism (Samanta feudalism)
Pizza Effect
immigrants invent something, export it back to culture of origin, it gets popularized and re-appropriated. In this way, the community’s self-understanding is influenced by foreign sources.
pizza from new york!
this is what happened with Mahayana!
Metaphor of Organic Development
-archetype conceives that all phenomena go through a natural cycle of birth, growth, maturity, decline and death (like living things
-This organic life-cycle becomes the conceptual model for understanding civilizations, cultures and other social structures
-this is one of the most common modes of emplotment for the study of Indian Buddhism, because it is ‘dead’ already
-it is ultimately metaphorical and can be problematic because it does not represent objective reality, but is a cognitive model around which we can conceptualize a story - accurately or not
-The narrative of civilizational decline following upon moral (espe-
cially sexual) degeneracy was well established in the classical historical
tradition
Emplotment
- a fictive phenomenon found in historiography
- identical series of events can be rhetorically cast in tragic, comedic, romantic or satiric modes.
- the creation of specific narratives/themes by historiographers in telling a story based on their individual perspectives and biases, leading to the creation of a fictive narrative arc
- various players are cast in roles in a specific type of story
- fitting the ‘facts’ of history around established narratives, themes, archetypes and tropes
- the historian, as narrator, decides what kind of a story he is telling
- gets encoded and replicated. it’s a meme that sticks
- for Indian Buddhism, one of the most common models is the metaphor of organic development
Normative Inversion
occurs during unstable political situations, prevalence of war, “culture of belligerence”
rap culture
previosuly disreputable groups become models for breaking out of the strictures of traditional religion: siddhas and tribal people
stigmatized become the trendsetters, drivers of change
outliers propagating very transgressive form of culture
-emic/etic, etc - also ‘centre-periphery’ (order/chaos) THEN SHIFT!! this is a common dynamic
-NORMATIVE INVERSION
-invert dominant cultural model
-ancient judaism in egypt
-multiple deities - rome and egypt at war, etc -but never religious war
-shit just got grandfathered in
-jewish group monotheist
-not ok with grandfathering in multiple deities
-this becomes the model
-under pharaoh akhenaten
-example of normative inversion in western culturewhen one group turns another group’s obligations into abominations and vice versa
- -NORMATIVE INVERSION
-invert dominant cultural model
-ancient judaism in egypt
-multiple deities - rome and egypt at war, etc -but never religious war
-shit just got grandfathered in
-jewish group monotheist
-not ok with grandfathering in multiple deities
-this becomes the model
-under pharaoh akhenaten
-example of normative inversion in western culture
-centre-periphery
Ganacakra
-Tantric Feast or sacramental gathering (lit ‘gathering/offering in a circle)
Group offering that is celebrated by a group of Tantric practitioners on auspicious occasions or after special sessions of intensive practice
certain rules for it - no anger, etc
only for consecrated people doing authorized shit
would take in forbidden substances, either metaphorically or literally
right time, right place, right people, right way
acquiring power
basic forces of life
try to harness this power
Coronation (abhisekha)
- literally means ‘sprinkling’ or ‘anointing’
- political process becomes sacralized
- just as the crown prince becomes the king, so too does the aspiring monk become the siddha
- gives him the authority to practice
- defined by kingship metaphor
- initiation vs kingship
- Coronation - king is centrepiece, not passive
- coronation/consecration
- crown prince/bodhisattva
- vajra = staff of martial officefeudalization of divinity
- empower the practitioner AS controlling person in a disturbing world
Ksetra (domain)
-field, family? a group is limited to a domain in mandalas
homa
fire sacrifice ritual performed by consecrated ‘king of dharma’
- generally the process by which the four tantric karmas are effected
- establishes a ritual bond between the officiant, the divinities involved and the beings effected by the ritual
- sometimes internalized (esp later) as yogic heat/sexual energy
