Item Details

Contemplative Principles of a Non-dual Praxis: the Unmediated Practices of the Tibetan ‘Heart Essence’ (sNying thig) Tradition

Issue: Vol 31 No. 2 (2014)

Journal: Buddhist Studies Review

Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies

DOI: 10.1558/bsrv.v31i2.215

Abstract:

This article focuses on the main contemplative principles of the ‘Heart Essence’ (sNying thig), a Tibetan Buddhist tradition that is characterized by a vision of non-duality and primordial wholeness. Due to this vision, which asserts an original reality that is not divided into perceiving subject and perceived object, the ‘Heart Essence’ advocates a contemplative practice that undermines the usual intuitions of temporality and enclosed selfhood. Hence, unlike the common principles of intentional praxis, such as deliberate concentration and gradual purification, the ‘Heart Essence’ affirms four contemplative principles of non-objectiveness, openness, spontaneity and singleness. As these principles transcend intentionality, temporality, and multiplicity, they are seen to directly disclose the nature of primordial awareness, in which the meanings of knowing and being are radically transformed. Therefore, the article will also consider the role of these non-dual contemplative principles in deeply changing our understanding of being and knowing alike.

Author: Eran Laish

View Full Text

References :

Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, eds. 2009. The Island: An Anthology of the Buddha’s Teachings on Nibbāna. Red Valley, CA: Abhayagiri Monastic Foundation.
Arnold, Dan. 2008. ‘Transcendental Arguments and Practical Reason in Indian Philosophy’. Argumentation 22(1): 135–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10503-007-9078-3
Baker, Ian. 2000. The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Bi ma la mi tra. 1977. ‘Rin Po Che ‘Byung Bar Byed Pa Sgra Thal ‘Gyur Chen Po’i Rgyud.’ In rNying Ma’i Rgyud Bcu Bdun, A ‘dzoms, 1: 1–205. New Delhi: Sanje dorje.
Butters, Albion. 2006. ‘The Doxographical Genius of Kun Mkhyen kLong Chen Rab ʾ́byams Pa’. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University.
Cuevas, Bryan J. 2003. The Hidden History of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dge dun blo gros. 1998. Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual Transformation through Meditation. Translated by Jeffrey Hopkins. Textual Studies and Translations in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Dowman, Keith. 2003. The Flight of the Garuda: The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Fink, Eugen. 1995. Sixth Cartesian Meditation: The Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Germano, David. 1994. ‘Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen)’. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 17(2): 203–335.
Germano, David. 1997a. ‘Food, Clothes, Dreams, and Karmic Propensities’. In Religions of Tibet in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, 293–312. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Germano, David. 1997b. ‘The Elements, Insanity and Lettered Subjectivity.’ In Religions of Tibet in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, 313–34. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Germano, David. 2005. ‘The Funerary Transformation of the Great Perfection (Rdzogs chen)’. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 1: 1–54.
Guenther, Herbert V. 1992. Meditation Differently, Phenomenological-Psychological Aspects of Tibetan Buddhist (Mahāmudrā and sNying-Thig) Practices from Original Tibetan Sources. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
Heidegger, Martin. 1996. Being and Time. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Higgins, David. 2013. The Philosophical Foundations of Classical rDzogs Chen in Tibet: Investigating the Distinction between Dualistic Mind (sems) and Primordial Knowing (ye Shes). Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien.
Hillis, Gregory Alexander. 2003. ‘The Rhetoric of Naturalness: A Critical Study of the gNas Lugs Mdzod’. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia.
Husserl, Edmund. 1997. Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger (1927–1931). Translated by Thomas Sheehan and Richard E. Palmer. Dordrecht; Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9923-5
Kant, Immanuel. 1998. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karma chags med and Gyatrul Rinpoche. 1998. A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Atiyoga. Translated by B. Alan Wallace. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Karma chags med and Gyatrul Rinpoche. 2000. Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen. Translated by B. Alan Wallace. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Karmay, Samten Gyaltsen. 1988. The Great Perfection (rDzogs Chen): A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching in Tibetan Buddhism. New York: E. J. Brill.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa. 2009a. Theg Mchog Mdzod I: Theg Mchog Rin Po Che’i Mdzod Stod Cha. Vol. 17. 26 vols. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009b. Tshig don mdzod: gSang ba bla na med pa ‘od gsal rdo rje snying po’i gnas gsum gsal bar byed pa’i tshig don rin po che’i mdzod. Vol. 19. 26 vols. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009c. Theg mchog mdzod II: Theg mchog rin po che’i mdzod smad cha. Vol. 18. 26 vols. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009d. ‘Khregs chod kyi rgyab yig nam mkha’ dri med.’ In Bla ma yang tig, 9: 229–51. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009e. Bla ma yang tig. Vol. 9. 26 vols. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009f. ‘gNas lugs mdzod: gNas lugs rin po che’i mdzod.’ In Yid bzhin mdzod smad cha dang gnas lugs mdzod, 14: 339–512. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009g. ‘Khregs chod ye babs sor gzhag gi don khrid.’ In Bla ma yang tig, 9: 217–28. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong chen rab ‘byams pa.2009h. Sems nyid ngal gso’i smad cha. Vol. 21. 26 vols. Kun mkhyen klong chen rab ‘byams kyi gsung ‘bum. Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe krun khang.
Klong-chen-pa Dri-med-ʾod-zer and Tulku Thondup. 2002. The Practice of Dzogchen. Edited by Harold Talbott. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Longchen Rabjam. 1998. The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding and the Exposition of the Quintessential Meaning of the Three Categories: A Commentary on the Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding. Translated by Richard Barron. Junction City, CA: Padma Pub.
Loy, David. 1988. Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mohanty, J. N. 1985. The Possibility of Transcendental Philosophy. Phaenomenologica 98. Dordrecht: M. Nijhoff. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5049-8
Nāgārjuna, and Louis de La Vallée Poussin. 1903. Mūlamadhyamakakārikās (Mādhyamikasūtras) de Nāgārjuna Avec Le Prasannapadā, Commentaire de Candrakīrti. Bibl. Buddhica 4. St. Petersburg: Acadêmie Imp. des Sciences.
Namkhai, Norbu. 1990. The Twenty-One Semdzins of the Dzogchen Upadesha. Merigar. Italy: Shang Shung Edizioni.
Scheidegger, Daniel. 2004. ‘Lights and Visions in Rdzogs Chen Thinking’. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bristol.
Scheidegger, Daniel. 2005. ‘Lamps in the Leaping Over’. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 8 (October): 40–64.
Sells, Michael Anthony. 1994. Mystical Languages of Unsaying. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Third Dzogchen Rinpoche. 2008. Great Perfection. Volume II, Separation and Breakthrough. Translated by Cortland Dahl. The Heart Essence Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Van Schaik, Sam. 2004. ‘The Early Days of the Great Perfection.’ Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 27(1): 165–206.
Wallace, B. Alan. 1998. The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. Chicago, IL: Open court.
Zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol. 2002. ‘ ‘Od gsal rdzogs pa chen po’i khregs chod lta ba’i glu dbyangs lam ma lus myur du bgrod pa’i rtsal ldan mkha’ lding gshog rlabs’. In gSung ‘bum, 9: 589–641. Zi ling: mTsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.