This study chronicles a non-modern pedagogical tradition, Indo-Tibetan (Gelugpa) Buddhist education, as it negotiates a modern, global context in exile in India. As an enlightenment tradition, Buddhism emphasizes investigative inquiry over scriptural orthodoxy and belief, making it compatible with some aspects of modern, secular culture. This is a study of the relationship between these two educational cultures within one educational institution—Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute of Dialectics in the Indian Himalayas. The text itself is arranged in the form of a mandala, which is divided into five sections or stages of learning: intention, path, inference, experience, and realization. The intention section highlights the value of cultural and educational diversity, and includes a brief synopsis of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist educational history. The path section describes specific Buddhist approaches to ethnography and social research. The inference chapter is the empirical (ethnographic) component of the study, and considers the practice of dialectical debate as a case of what Wittgenstein called a "language game." This chapter includes photographic documentation and the text of a public (Western-style) debate held at Dolma Ling on the subject of the merits of their traditional debate system. The experience chapter considers the unique role of direct perception (experience) in Buddhism, and how it can be educated through combined meditational and testimonial practices. The author explores the tendency to segregate experiential from rational paths, especially when liminal experiences of suffering, bliss, and death are involved. She concludes that such experiences strain our powers of reason and, in some cases, representation, resulting in a tendency to marginalize such experiences within formal, rational education systems and their knowledge bases. Narrative, poetic, and direct experiential methods of meditation are better suited to deal with these subjects. The "realization" chapter discusses conceptions of realization, praxis and embodiment, that is, rational inferences translated into direct experience and action, as of particular relevance to educators. In the Buddhist view, such realizations are the desired end of all inquiry. This end is accomplished through creative and direct "conversations" (testimonies, dialogues) between reason and direct experience on the path of learning.

This study explores the idea that the Western adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism is in fact a continuum of the Protestant Reformation. With its inhospitable terrain and volatile environment, the geography of Tibet has played an important role in its assimilation of Buddhism. Demons, ghosts and gods are a natural part of the Tibetan world. Yet why is it that Tibetan Buddhism often downplays these elements in its self portrayal to the West? Why are Westerners drawn to an idealistic view of Buddhism as being rational and free from belief in the supernatural when the reality is quite different? This thesis will show that in its encounter with Western modernity Tibetan Buddhism has had to reinvent itself in order to survive in a world where rituals and belief in deities are regarded as ignorant superstition. In doing so it will reveal that this reinvention of Buddhism is not a recent activity but one that has its origins in nineteenth century Protestant values. While the notion of Protestant Buddhism has been explored by previous scholars this thesis will show that rather than solving the problems of disenchantment, Buddhist Modernism ignores the human need to find meaning in and to take control over one’s surroundings. In doing so it will argue that rather than adopting a modern, crypto-Protestant form Buddhism, Westerners instead need to find a way to naturally transplant Tibetan Buddhism onto their own surroundings.

The extent of the ethical component in the Buddha's teachings is often commented upon but has received disproportionately little attention from scholars. This thesis is intented to make a contribution in this area by (i): examining the substantive content of Buddhist ethical categories; (ii) locating ethics and the goal of ethical perfection in the context of the overall soteriological framework elaborated by the Buddha; (iii) offering a characterisation of the formal structure of Buddhist ethics according to the typology of philosophical ethical theory. The scope of the enquiry will include ethical data from both the Small and Large Vehicles. Previous research has concentrated almost exclusively on the Theravāda system and this has resulted in a truncated presentation of Buddhist ethics which has failed to reveal the underlying structure and its development through time. The present discussion therefore proceeds in a roughly chronological sequence in the selection of its data, considering first of all material from Theravādin sources (both Canonical and commentarial) and passing on to an investigation of the systematisation of ethical categories in the Abhidharma of the Small Vehicle as found in the scheme of the Sarvāstivāda preserved in the Abhidharmakośa. Subsequently, in Chapter 4, an account of Mahayana ethics is offered drawing mainly on the Śila-paṭala of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. The final two chapters (5 and 6) discuss two influential theories of ethics elaborated in the Western tradition which bear a prima facie resemblance to the theoretical structure of Buddhist ethics. Chapter 5 will deal with Utilitarianism and its resemblance to Buddhism, and Chapter 6 will be devoted to the Aristotelian ethical system. My conclusion will be that the Aristotelian model provides the closest analogue to Buddhism and a preliminary attempt will be made to pursue certain points of contact as an indication of the direction for future research. The overall argument, which is cumulative throughout the thesis, will be that ethical perfection in Buddhism is an integral and inalienable component in the perfection of human nature envisaged and attained by the Buddha. This, together with the intellectual perfection epitomised by the attainment of insightful knowledge (paññā). constitutes the Summum Bonum or complete good for man.

The Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī ('An Explanation of the Meaning of the Namemantras') is an early, and major, commentary on the Nāmasaṃgīti ('The Chanting of Names'). Written by the eighth century Indian ācārya Vilāsavajra, it survives in the original Sanskrit and in Tibetan translation. The Nāmasamgīti enumerates the 'Names' of Mañjuśrī, the Mahayana figure embodying wisdom, and it exerted a strong influence on liturgy, ritual and meditation in the later phase of Buddhism in India (750-1200 CE). Vilāsavajra's commentary is written from a Yogācāra perspective and interprets the 'Names' within an elaborate ritual framework which consists in a maṇḍala that has Mañjuśrī as its central deity. The central part of the thesis comprises a critical edition and annotated translation of the Sanskrit text of the first five chapters of Vilāsavajra's commentary, approximately a quarter of the whole. The critical edition is based on eight Nepalese manuscripts for which a stemma codicum is established. Two blockprint editions of the Tibetan translation are consulted at cruces in the Sanskrit. Their readings, treated as those of any other witness, are incorporated into the apparatus as appropriate. The edition is followed by textual notes. Introductory material is divided into two parts. Matters relating to the Sanskrit and Tibetan materials are discussed in a section placed before the edition. These include a description of the manuscripts, discussion of the method of editing, establishment of the stemma codicum and an assessment of the Tibetan translation. An introduction to the contents precedes the translation and is primarily concerned with an outline of the ritual structure of the commentary, giving particular attention to chapters 1-5. Evidence concerning the life and date of Vilāsavajra is considered, suggesting he should be placed in the latter part of the eighth century. Assessing the work's significance for the study of Buddhism, 1 suggest that it is of historical importance in that it throws light on the process by which Tantric methods were being related to soteriology in this period; and that it contains material, especially in the sādhana of chapter 4, that contributes to an understanding of the development of Tantric forms of Buddhist meditation. The work is also the only known instance of a commentary of a Yogatantra type that survives in Sanskrit.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-249). / Microfiche. / viii, 249 leaves, bound 29 cm

This thesis aims to explore the doctrine of sukkhavipassaka (“dry-insight practitioner”) in Pāli Buddhism. The focus of the thesis is to utilize the canonical and commentarial sources of the various Buddhist schools to evaluate the position of this doctrine in the history of early Buddhism. Since the early 20th century the sukkhavipassaka doctrine and its practice have been reemphasized by eminent meditation monks in Burma, and later they spread to other Buddhist countries in Asia and beyond. Some scholars, nevertheless, have cast doubts on the authenticity of the sukkhavipassaka doctrine. They argue that it is a later development, not recorded in the Pāli Nikāyas since the form-sphere jhāna (Skt. dhyāna) is always necessary for the realization of arahantship, or even for stream-entry, the first stage of enlightenment. The first part of this thesis investigates the concept of the sukkhavipassaka in the four Nikāyas. Many suttas in the Pāli Nikāyas imply an acknowledgement of noble beings who lack form-sphere jhānas; also many meditative techniques described in the suttas can be practised in the so-called dry-insight way. However, it is in the Pāli commentarial literature, which is discussed in the second part of this thesis that the sukkhavipassaka doctrine appears in a full-fledged form. The Pāli commentaries not only specify the concentration that dry-insight practitioners use to develop insight knowledge, but also reveal the advantages and disadvantages of the dry-insight meditative approach. In the third part of this thesis, the canonical and commentarial materials related to the Susīma Sutta which are preserved in schools other than the Theravāda are investigated. This thesis reveals that the concept of arahants who lack the first form-sphere jhāna is accepted not only by the Theravāda but also by the Sarvāstivāda, the *Satyasiddhisāstra, and the Yogacārabhūmiśāstra. Since various Buddhist schools in India unanimously advocate the idea that there are arahants who have not achieved the form-sphere jhāna, this research concludes that the dry-insight meditative approach and dry-insight arahants are not an invention by Theravādin commentators, but a common heritage which was most probably handed down from the time of the Buddha and then shared by various Buddhist schools.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D. in anthropology)--Washington State University, May 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-386).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 285-300) Also available in print.