The Creative Vision: The Symbolic Recreation of the World According to the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of Tantric Visualization Otherwise Known As the Developing Phase PDF
Preview The Creative Vision: The Symbolic Recreation of the World According to the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of Tantric Visualization Otherwise Known As the Developing Phase
HE BERT GUE THER THE CREATIVE VISION The Symbolic Recreation of the World According to the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of T antric Visualization Otherwise Known as The Developmg Phase HERBERT GUENTHER LOTSAWA C 1987 by Herben Guenther All nghts reserved. No pan of this work may be cop1ed, reproduced, photographed, stored tn any format, or ttansm1tted tn any fashion Without pnor written pennlSSIOn from the publisher. For mfonnat1on address: 175 San Mann Drive, Su1te 108, Novato, CA 94941. Production Coordination: Matnx ProductiOns Cover An: Cynthia Moku and Video Ans Copy Edittng: Russell Fuller Book Des1gn: Merrill Peterson Production An1st: Kim Freeman Typesetting: The Compos1ng Room of Michtgan, Inc. Library of Congreu Cataloging·in·Publication Data 'Gyur-med·rshe·dban·mchog-grub, [)ge·rtse Pal)dira, b.1764? The creative VISiOn. Translation of: Bskyed·pa' 1 nm·pa cho-p dan sbyar· ba'i gsal-byed Nn·jug snye·ma. Bibliography: p. 160 Includes mdex. I. Yoga (Tantnc BuddhiSm) 2. Tantnc Buddhlsm Chtna-Tibet-Docrnnes. 1. Guenther, Herben V. II. Title. BQ7805.0982513 1987 294.3'44 87-2799 ISBN: 0-932156..03·7 Prtnted tn the Untted Srates of Amenca 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Nena ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While preparing the translatton and wntmg thas book I have been extremely fortunate to benefit from correspondence and fru1tful discus· sioras w1th friends and colleagues, artists as well as writers, philosophers, and scientists. I am particularly indebted to professor K.J.G. Haderlam, David Higgiras, Mariana Neves·Anders, and, last but not least, my wife Dr. lise Guenther. I have also rece1ved Important mformat1on from professors Eva and Lobsang Dargyay. Lastly, I w1sh to thank my publisher Merrill Peterson for has valuable editonal suggesuoras. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION v1 PART ONE WESTERN PERSPECTIVE 1 Prelude 3 Bemg's Holomovement and the Two Realiues 4 The Symbolic Re-creat1on Process 10 In-depth Appra1sals and Phase Trans1t1ons 21 Imagmatlon and the Symbolic Re-creatton of the World 30 The lmagmative Recapltulatton of Morpho- and Ontogenetic Processes 4 7 Condus1on 57 PART TWO EASTERN PRESENTATION 59 Prologue 63 Introduction 63 Preparation 65 The Mam Part 74 CONCLUDING REMARKS 105 NOTES 111 REFERENCES 160 Works in Western languages 160 Tibetan Works 162 INDEXES 168 INTRODUCTION The Creative Vision addresses Itself to an indivtdual's creauve v1s1on of htmself and h1s env1ronmg world. Its subntle, "The Symbolic Re-Cre ation of the World," paraphrases the Tibetan term bskyed-nm (bskyed-pa'i nm-pa), rendermg the Sansknt terms utpattikrama and utpannakrama, both of whtch may be translated, more or less literally and hence rather madequately, as developmg phase or phases. The first Sansknt term emphasizes the process and the second emphames 1ts result or product. Re-creaung one's world and by 1mplicat1on oneself through v1v1dly expenenced symbols 1s discussed m a relanvely small work, the bsKyed pa'i nm-pa cho-ga dang sbyar-ba'i gsal-byed zung-'jug snye-ma ("The ear of com symbolizmg the umty of the human and the divme-the shmmg sun of the developmg phase With 1ts attendant ntual"),1 by 'Gyur-med tshe-dbang mchog-grub, also known as the Kao-thGg dge-rtse pat:tdita. He was probably born m 1764, but the year of hts death 1s unknown. Thts small but tmportant text is, to a certam extent, an excerpt from the author's larger gSang-sngags ruing-g1 lam-nm rgya-cher 'grel-pa Sangs rgyas gnyiS-pa'i dgongs-rgyan ("The ornament that IS the Second Buddha's [Padmasambhava's] sense-bestowmg world des1gn-an exhaustive com mentary on the psych1c progress in the mdivtdual's extstennal approach to life's meanmg"), whtch was wrmen m 1805. Unfortunately, the ex cerpt from thts work has been transmitted to postenty m rather poor shape. Rampant wtth omtssions and abounding m mtsspellings, at places lt IS even illegible and, worst of all, qutte garbled. We can onlv surmtse the reasons for this deplorable condition. The work may have been humedly written, and the person who took down the notes to be elabo rated m the body of the text was not always attentive. The pnntmg blocks were probably carved by an illiterate craftsman and never passed through a corrector's hands. However, these defects could be mended bv consulting the author's larger work and by referrmg to other works s1milar m content. viii INTRODUCTION A translation of a text like this one presents enormous difficulties. First no two languages are sufficiently alike to permit a mechanical trans· fer of the style and meanmg of an ongmal text from one language to another. Further, translatmg is above all an ongoing hermeneutical pro cess that demands the utmost of the translator. A translation deservmg of the name must be fa1thful to the substance--the meanmg of the text. If the text contains a word that has no English eqmvalent, it must be paraphrased rather than be replaced by a word from another language- m the case of Tibetan from Sanskrit-whose semantic value may be qu1te different from the connotations the anginal word aroused m the mmd of the person who used it. Apart from being thoroughly tramed m the language of the text to be translated and h1ghly sensitive to the subtleties of one's own language, the translator must know both the subJect matter of the text and the context m wh1ch 1t was conce1ved and composed. 2 'Gyur-med tshe-dbang mchog-grub's work belongs to a group of texts that favor an ex1stent1al-expenential rather than ep1stemolog1cal ap· proach to one's enworldedness (rgyud, Skt. tantra), mvolvmg self-explo ration coupled with self-mterpretatlon. and world mterpretatlon. As a "way," such an approach mvolves a progressively deepenmg understand mg of how the nexus of meamngs, wh1ch 1s what we call world, evolves. However, as the Buddh1sts noted long ago it is more correct to speak of vanous approaches that reflect differences in and levels of an individual's intellectual acumen, which is always mterpretlve in nature. "There 1s no such thmg as a way or ways m consciousness; individual ways tum up merely by VIrtue of consciousness makmg Itself understood," says Klong· chen rab-'byams-pa. 3 . Following the Indian predilection for systematization and classifica tion, the Tibetans accepted mne ways or spnitual pursmts (theg-pa, Skt. :Ydna). 4 Three of these are more or less well known m the West because they fitted easily mto the framework of traditional Western philosophtcal systems that acted as powerful fore-structures or fore-conceptions m pre senting and interpreting Indian philosophy m general and Buddh1st pht· losophy m parucular.s These three pursuits are (1) the Sravakayana the way of those who listen and who, as social bemgs, make others listen too; (2) the Pratyekabuddhayana-the way of those who auustlcally withdraw as each-a-Buddha-for-himself; and (3) the Bodhisattvayana the way of those who have a strong SOCial awareness and who have become reflectively aware of the meaning of the mundaneness of ordi nary mentation. In general, the first two pursutts constitute the Hina· yana, a rather conservative movement that, philosophically, represents a na1ve realism. The th1rd pursuit constitutes the Mahayana, a more com· prehens1ve movement embracmg all the varieties summed up by the term
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