Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Philosophy, Asian – History'

This thesis is a reflection upon objects of power and their roles in the lives of people through the lens of a single case example: power objects as they appear throughout the narrative, philosophical, and ritual writings of the Tibetan Buddhist ritual specialist Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-1624) and his milieu. This study explores their discourse on power objects specifically for what it reveals about how human interactions with certain kinds of objects encourage the flow of power and charisma between them, and what the implications of these person-object transitions were for issues of identity, agency, and authority on the personal, institutional, and state registers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Tibet.

My investigation of Sog bzlog pa's discourse on power objects shows how the genres of narrative, philosophy, and liturgy are related around such objects, each presenting them from a slightly different perspective. I illustrate how narratives depict power objects as central to the identity of Sog bzlog pa and his circle, mediating relations that are in turn social, political, religious, aesthetic, and economic in tone, and contributing to the authority of the persons involved. This flow of power between persons and objects, I demonstrate further, is connected to tensions over the sources of transformational power as rooted in either objects, or in the people instrumental in their ritual treatment or use. I show how this tension between objective and subjective power plays out in Sog bzlog pa's philosophical speculations about power objects and in his rituals featuring them. I also trace the persistence of this discourse after Sog bzlog pa's death in the seventeenth-century state-building activities of Tibet and Sikkim, and in the present day identity of Sikkim's Buddhist population. Power objects emerge as hybrid subject-object mediators, which variously embody, channel, and direct the flow of power and authority between persons, objects, communities, institutions, and the state, as they flow across boundaries and bind these in their tracks. Finally, I illustrate how this discourse of power objects both complicates and extends contemporary theoretical reflections on the relationships between objects, actions, persons, and meanings.

This research investigates anusmr&dotbelow;ti (Sanskrit), rjes su dran pa (Tibetan), anussati (Pāli), and considers how this term might serve as a link for finding a commonality in practices in Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions. The research was inspired by the work of Buddhist scholars Janet Gyatso, Paul Harrison, and Matthew Kapstein. Each of them has noted the importance of the term anusmr&dotbelow;ti in Buddhist texts and Buddhist practice. Harrison sees a connection between Hīnayāna practices of buddhānusmr&dotbelow;ti and a host of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna practices. He notes that buddhānusmr&dotbelow;ti can be seen as a source of later, more elaborate Vajrayāna visualization practices ("Commemoration" 215). Gyatso investigates contextual meanings of the term anusmr&dotbelow;ti and cites meanings that include an element of commemoration and devotion. She notes that varieties of anusmr&dotbelow;ti are considered beneficial for soteriological development and are deliberately cultivated for that purpose (Mirror of Memory 2-3). Matthew Kapstein refers to a type of anusmr&dotbelow;ti that is the palpable recovery of a state of being or affect. This, he says, is not simply the memory of the experience but the recovery of the sense of being in that state ("Amnesic Monarch" 234). Essential to the research were the teachings of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and Anam Thubten Rinpoche on Buddha-nature and Pure Vision.

In this study I have coined the terms "Buddha-nature anusmr&dotbelow;ti" and "Pure vision anusmr&dotbelow;ti." Though these terms do not appear in the literature, they may be seen as useful in investigating core remembrances (anusmr&dotbelow;ti) in the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions respectively. "Buddha-nature anusmr&dotbelow;ti " refers to a key remembrance or commemoration in Mahāyāna Tibetan literature and practice. "Pure Vision anusmr&dotbelow;ti " refers to a key remembrance or commemoration in Vajrayāna Tibetan literature and practice. This dissertation cites passages from key texts and commentaries to make the point that these coined terms meaningfully reflect a major aspect of their respective traditions. They describe that which is worthy and important, that which should be remembered and commemorated.

Faith and culture enjoy a harmonious relationship. In the past centuries of Catholicism, evangelization did not take into cognizance the culture of a people. The translation and adaptation approaches were the dominant models missionaries often used in the context of evangelization. Sadly, these approaches failed to create adequate contact with the local cultures where the faith was transplanted. The distance between faith and culture has caused the Catholic faith to be foreign in many cultures across the globe including, North African countries and Japan. In Tiv society of central Nigeria too, Catholicism is yet to take concrete root.

Building on the worship experiences of educated emerging adult Catholics in institutions of higher education in Tivland, this dissertation uses the circle method and other related contextual approaches to contextualize Catholicism in Tiv culture. The data gathered from participant observation, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups discussions was narrowed to what most connects emerging adults with Catholic worship, and what the Catholic Church needs to know about them. The data revealed a constantly recurring notion of unappealing worship and inadequate catechesis on core doctrines. One way to connect their experiences of worship is by synthesizing cultural symbols with Catholic worship symbols.

Community formations, intensive catechesis, and service to the church are the three practical strategies that can synthesize faith and culture and ground the Catholic Church in Tiv culture. Pious organizations that bring emerging adults together as community will serve as forum to adequately catechize them by synthesizing Catholic symbols with cultural texts that are already familiar to them. This leads to a mutual enrichment of both Tiv cultural practices and Catholic worship symbols ultimately making emerging adults community theologians who can effectively articulating the faith to others including, those in rural communities.

This dissertation looks at an attempt in Buddhist history to theorize the role and status of the body as the prime focus of soteriological discourse. It studies a text titled Explanation of the Hidden Vajra Body (Rdo rje lus kyi sbas bshad), composed by Yang dgon pa Rgyal mtshan dpal (1213-1258). This work, drawing on a wide range of canonical tantric Buddhist scriptures and Indic and Tibetan commentaries, lays out in detail a Buddhist theory of embodiment that brings together the worldly realities of the body with their enlightened transformation. This dissertation analyzes the ways Yang dgon pa theorizes the body as the essential ground of the salvific path, and endeavors to provide a thematic guide to his rich and complex discussion of what the body is and does, from a tantric perspective. The thesis parses a key term, dngos po'i gnas lugs, that Yang dgon pa uses as an organizing principle in Explanation of the Hidden. If taken literally, the term means something like "the nature of things" or "the nature of material substance," but Yang dgon pa deployed the term specifically to refer to the nature of the human psychophysical organism, in its ordinary state. By way of this term, Yang dgon pa argues that the body itself makes enlightenment possible. In the course of this thesis, I consider the prior history of this category as it was gradually developed by a series of Bka' brgyud writers until it reached Yang dgon pa. Then, in light of this category, I explore Yang dgon pa's own vision of embodiment. This vision, I argue, reflects an attempt to refocus soteriological attention on the power of the body, over and above the mind, as the salient basis for non-dual knowing. Finally, I reflect upon the lasting contributions of Yang dgon pa's conception of the body to the ongoing exploration of such topics in the history of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist soteriology, as well as upon why some of the more radical elements of his thinking seem to have been eliminated in subsequent generations of his lineage.