<p>The use of codified sacred utterances, formulas or hymns called “mantras” is widespread in India. By and large, scholarship over the last few decades studies and explains mantras by resorting to Indian sources from over a millennium ago, and by applying such frameworks especially related to language as speech-act theory, semiotics, structuralism, etc. This research aims to understand mantra, and the visionary experience of mantra, from the perspectives of practitioners engaged in “mantra-sadhana (personal mantra practice).” </p><p>The main fieldwork for this project was conducted at three communities established around “gurus (spiritual teachers)” regarded by their followers as seers, i.e., authoritative sources with visionary experience, especially of deities. The Goddess, in the forms of Kali and Lalita Tripurasundari, is the primary deity at all three locations, and these practitioners may be called tantric or Hindu. Vedic sources (practitioners and texts) have also informed this research as they are a part of the history and context of the informants. Adopting an immersive anthropology and becoming a co-practitioner helped erase boundaries to get under the skin of mantra-practice. Fieldwork shows how the experience of mantras unravels around phenomena, seers, deities, intentionality and results. Practitioners find themselves seers mediating new mantras and practices, shaping tradition. Thus, practitioners are the primary sources of this research. </p><p>This dissertation is structured in three phases: preparation (Chapters One and Two), fieldwork (Chapters Three, Four and Five) and conclusions (Chapter Six). Chapter One discusses the groundwork including a literature review and methodological plan— a step as crucial as the research itself. Chapter Two reviews two seers in recent times who have become role-models for contemporary mantra practitioners in Andhra-Telangana. Ethnographic chapters Three, Four and Five delve into the visionary experience and poetics of mantra-practice at three locations. Chapter Six analyses the fieldwork findings across all three locations to arrive at a number of conclusions.</p><p>Chapter Three takes place in Devipuram, Anakapalle, where a temple in the shape of a three-dimensional “Sriyantra (aniconic Goddess form)” was established by the seer AmritanandaNatha Sarasvati. Chapter Four connects with the community surrounding the seer Swami Siddheswarananda Bharati whose primary location is the Svayam Siddha Kali Pitham in Guntur where the (image of the) deity manifested in front of a group of people. Chapter Five enters the experience of mantras at Nachiketa Tapovan ashram near Kodgal with Paramahamsa Swami Sivananda Puri and her guru, Swami Nachiketananda. </p><p>Across these three locations, which I find akin to “mandalas (groups, circles of influence, chapters),” practitioners describe their experiences including visions of deities and mantras, and how mantras transformed them and brought desired and unexpected results. More significantly, practitioners share their processes of practice, doubts, interpretations and insights into the nature of mantras and deities. Practitioners who begin “mantra-sadhana (mantra-practice)” motivated by some goal are encouraged by phenomena and results, but they develop attachment to deities, and continue absorbed in sadhana. Practitioners care to discriminate between what is imagined and what actually occurred, but they also consider imagination crucial to progress. Deities are sound-forms and powerful other-worldly friends existing both outside and within the practitioner’s (not only material) body. We learn about mantras received from deities, seen and heard mantras, hidden mantras, lost mantras, dormant mantras, mantras given silently, mantras done unconsciously, and even the “no”-mantra. </p><p>Chapter 6, Understanding Mantras Again is an exploration of the fundamental themes of this research and a conceptual analysis of the fieldwork, keeping the mantra-methodologies and insights of practitioners in mind—what are mantras and how do they work in practice, what is visionary experience in mantra-practice, what are deities and how do they relate to mantras, and other questions. I conclude with a list of the primary sources of this research— practitioners.</p> / Dissertation

Buddhist tantric practitioners embrace the liminal status of the human body to manifest divine identity. In piercing to the pith of human embodiment, the tantric practitioner reconfigures the shape and contours of his/her reality. This article investigates the evolution of one particular technique for piercing to the pith of the body on Tibetan soil, a ritual practice known as body mandala [lus dkyil Skt. deha-man. d. ala]. In particular, it uncovers a significant shift of emphasis in the application of the Guhyasamaja body mandala practice initiated by champions of the emerging Gandenpa [Dga' ldan pa] or Gelukpa [Dge lugs pa] tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) and Mkhas grub rje (1385-1438). This article reveals some of the radical implications of ritual exegesis, ranging from the socioreligious aspects of securing prestige for a tradition to the ultimate soteriological goals of modifying the boundaries between life and death and ordinary and enlightened embodiment.

佛教信仰中，儀軌是一種普遍性與多元性兼具的文本。近年來有關印藏佛教研究隨著國內學術環境及相關經典語文的學習人口增加，各種對於教義研究和譯註以及儀式觀察的論文乃至相關期刊，專書的數量與日俱增。但就成果而言，大部分作經典文本和哲學思想的學者對於儀式並興趣缺缺；同樣的從事儀式的研究學者或許不乏經典語言解讀能力，從人類學角度出發的田野調查和社會學觀點文章比比皆是，但是絕大多數是關注在儀軌的展演性和社會功能。 　　 　　 美國學者麥爾福‧史拜羅(Melford E. Spiro) 指出，雖然佛經的教義，讓我們質疑自己對大多數的宗教所抱持的觀念是否正確，甚至質疑對人類本性的看法是否正確，但現代研究佛教信仰和儀式的人類學家以及其他社會科學的學者，除了少數特例外，大都忽略了信仰和儀式的經典根源（即規範性的根源），而且由於前者與後者幾乎沒有相近之處，因此，鮮少有人去釐清佛教的教義疑問。(Spiro.1996：36~37) 　　 　　 此點殊為可惜，因為佛教乃具有深遠歷史根源的宗教，並非現在佛教徒所創立的。信仰的歷史根源（即佛經教義），有些成為信徒的信仰（或迷信）；而某些部分教義，甚至是較核心的教義，則被信徒忽視或是排拒；更有一些教義則被非規範性及反規範性的信仰同化，而且使這些非規範性及反規範性的信仰也被合理化了。因此除非研究者了解宗教信仰者和規範性宗教教義層面及造成前述三種關係的動機和其認知的基礎，否則將難以真正了解宗教理念在人類生活中所扮演的角色。 Melford表示其研究嘗試要彌補經典學術研究與人類學田野調查間的差距。因為前者強調佛教的獨特性，而後者則想研究佛教置諸跨文化領域裡所呈現的多元化樣貌。這兩者各自強調之處雖然都有某程度的正確性，但分別探討時，也可能會造成誤導。 而作者使用《卓瑪玉埵：度母破障》做為研究主體，除了本法乃台灣西藏佛教信仰圈多年來在教義養成發展之外普遍舉行的儀式，儀式中包含了豐富的韻文禱詞、唱腔、法器使用、壇場布置、彩線、穀物食子、禳災祈福的法事、替身贖命儀軌等等。