Deity practice in the FPMT: understanding the nature of the Tibetan Buddhist deity from the Western practitioner’s perspective

IF 0.3 0 RELIGION Culture and Religion Pub Date : 2019-04-03 DOI:10.1080/14755610.2019.1627376
Glenys Eddy
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT In contrast to forms of Buddhism popular in the West such as Vipassana meditation and Zen Buddhism which emphasize doctrinal study, meditation practice, and personal transformation above traditional rituals of deity yoga and merit-making, and Buddhist cosmology, Tibetan Buddhism retains its traditional framework of belief and practice. The worldwide Gelugpa Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) teaches the traditional practice of deity visualization, during which the meditator generates the view of the visualized deity as that of emptiness, the understanding that all objects, including buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities are ultimately empty of inherent existence. Data obtained from fieldwork conducted at two FPMT centres: Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, Australia, and Kopan Monastery in Nepal, suggests an interpretation of the manner in which practitioners come to an appreciation of deity practice in the broader context of the FPMT's teachings. In outlining how this occurs, I discuss the role of doctrine including the ontological status of the deity, and the role of personal experience and both personal and traditional religious authority in this interpretive process. Here, I aim to add to scholarly understanding of how Western practitioners come to accept the traditional elements of non-Western religions such as forms of Tibetan Buddhism.
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FPMT中的神性修持:从西方修持者的角度理解藏传佛教神性的本质
与西方流行的佛教形式(如内观冥想和禅宗)相比,藏传佛教保留了其传统的信仰和实践框架,这些形式强调教义研究,冥想练习和个人转化,而不是传统的神瑜伽和功德制造仪式以及佛教宇宙论。世界各地的格鲁派保存大乘传统基金会(FPMT)教授观神的传统修持,在此修持中,禅修者将观神视为空性,理解所有的物体,包括佛陀、菩萨和神,最终都是空的,没有内在的存在。从两个FPMT中心(澳大利亚悉尼的金刚乘学院和尼泊尔的科本修道院)进行的实地调查中获得的数据表明,在FPMT教义的更广泛背景下,从业者对神性实践的欣赏方式进行了解释。在概述这是如何发生的过程中,我讨论了教义的作用,包括神的本体论地位,以及个人经验的作用,以及个人和传统宗教权威在这一解释过程中的作用。在这里,我的目标是增加对西方修行者如何接受非西方宗教的传统元素,如藏传佛教形式的学术理解。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
8
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