Conceptual Blending Theory, ‘Reverse Amnesia’, and the Study of Tantra (original) (raw)
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Metaphoric Worlds and Yoga in the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Tantric Traditions of Medieval Bengal
Scan of a chapter from Yoga: The Indian Traditions, edited by Ian Whicher and David Carpenter, London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, pp. 162-184. This chapter applies "contemporary" or conceptual metaphor theory, developed initially by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, to translated portions of a seventeenth-century Vaisnava Sahajiya Hindu Tantric text, the "Necklace of Immortality." It focuses on issues of embodiment and the subtle yogic body, tantric rituals, visualization,and gender.
The present work comprises a detailed study of specific terms of discourse in the pre-twelfth century sources of esoteric “Tantric” Shaivism, both scriptural and exegetical, some of which are still unpublished and others of which are published only in the original Sanskrit. As a dissertation in South Asian Studies using the philological method, the primary purpose of the study is to ascertain the range of meanings of certain technical terms of great importance to the theology and practice of the Śaiva religion, namely āveśa, samāveśa, and śaktipāta. The work focuses on both the independent meaning and the intersection of these key terms, incorporating also the terms dīkṣā and vedha in the latter endeavor. The intersection of these terms constitutes a complex set of relationships, a nexus of ideas that lie at the very heart of the Śaiva tradition and which, due to the latter’s widespread influence, came to be important in Tantric Buddhism and later forms of Hinduism as well. This thesis contends that samāveśa—meaning the fusion or commingling of one’s self with the energy of one’s deity and/or the consciousness of one’s guru—is the key term that distinguishes Tantric Shaivism from mainstream (esp. Vaidika) Indian religion. This constitutes a reinterpretation and overcoding of the earlier meaning of āveśa, i.e. self-induced controlled possession by a deity. Samāveśa is important to all forms of Shaivism, whether dualistic and ritualized (the Siddhānta) or nondual subitist charismatic forms (the Kaula). This thesis further contends that a philological study of samāveśa and related terms like śaktipāta demonstrates that religious experience (or evidence thereof) was considered central and indispensable to initiatory Shaivism throughout the medieval period. Śaktipāta was requisite to receive the basic level of initiation, and in the Kaula branch of the tradition, samāveśa denoted forms of religious experience that were necessary for aspirants to demonstrate in order to receive higher-level initiations. The former term is still commonly used in many Hindu communities today to designate a “spiritual awakening” or initiatory experience that is transmitted by a qualified guru. Part One of this work is a comprehensive overview of the nature and structure of the Śaiva religion, providing important context to what follows. Part Two studies the key terms of (sam)āveśa, śaktipāta, etc. in a) early Sanskrit literature generally, b) Śaiva scriptures, and c) the abundant exegetical literature based on those scriptures.
A celebration and critical evaluation of Sthaneshwar Timalsina's brilliant book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. In this groundbreaking work, Timalsina utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric " truths " are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent " truth " or " being " that is the stated aim of Tantric practice. The mainstream hermeneutic approaches to reading Tantric culture have failed to address the nuanced domains of inscribing and deciphering meanings and images. The argument made here is the cognitive approach gives a new direction and finds meaning beyond the literal. —Timalsina (2015 p. 48) The Wisdom of a Lineage Bearer In his groundbreaking book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach (Timalsina 2015), professor of Indology at San Diego State University, Sthaneswhar Timalsina, utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric " truths " are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent " truth " or " being " that is the stated aim of Tantric practice. Sthaneshwar Timalsina is a scholar of uncommon gifts in the field of Tantric studies. Blessed to claim Sanskrit as his mother tongue, Timalsina spent the first 20 years of his life excelling in the traditional fields of Sanskritic learning, including grammar, poetry, aesthetics, Vedānta, Mīmāṃsakā, Yoga-Sāṅkhya and other classical darśanas, as well as multiple traditions of Tantric literature, including Trika Kaula and the Sarvāmnāya tradition of Nepal. When I first met Timalsina in 1997 in Nepal he could already claim being head of the Department of Tantric Studies at Valmiki Sanskrit Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal, despite being barely 30 years old. At that time he was widely regarded by his Nepalese colleagues as a foremost authority on Tantra-vidyā and was extensively