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Tibetan Buddhism in Western Perspective
A scholar's freshest insights are often expressed in articles that seldom reach beyond a small circle of peers. Here, gathered for the benefit of everyone intersted in Tibetan Buddhism, are ten articles by Dr. Herbert Guenther, outstanding pioneer in Tibetan Buddhist studies. These short articles offer insights into the quest for truth and its extraordinary expression in the Buddhist teachings. Essays and excerpts from the author's translations clarify the distinctive qualities of Tibetan philosophy and religious practice.
Articles include, "Tantra and Revelation", "Toward an Experience of Being," and "Excerpts from the Gandavyuha Sutra."
Articles include, "Tantra and Revelation", "Toward an Experience of Being," and "Excerpts from the Gandavyuha Sutra."
- GenresBuddhism
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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May 23, 2024
AN EXCELLENT SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Herbert V. Guenther is Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He wrote in the Introduction to this 1989 book, “Over a century ago, Alexnder Csoma de Körös… made the erroneous statement that ‘the literature of Tibet is entirely of Indian origin.’ He did not realize that … he had been duped by the Tibetan ‘propaganda’ that everything the Tibetans had to offer had come to them from India. This propaganda which the Tibetans themselves eventually came to believe in, seems to have had its root in a political situation in the eighth century… When I began my academic studies in 1936 I was naturally exposed to this climate of misinformedness and misrepresentation… when I took up my academic duties… I was given the chance to recognize the falsity of what was thoughtlessly… perpetuated in academic circles… the fact that the Tibetans constantly referred to their own thinkers and to how they had understood and developed the stimulus that had come from India… was decisive for my taking up the study of Tibetan thought and Tibetan Buddhism in their distinct quality.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He continues, “Much of what is discussed in Tibetan works is of a philosophical and psychological nature… the Tibetans were capable of thinking independently and … they… developed a language geared to the task of philosophical inquiry coupled with a keen insight into psychological processes… Therefore a new approach has to be made and this necessitates a new set of concepts of new stipulative definitions. This I have attempted in the following essays of this book. They are exploratory in nature… The essays selected for this book were written at various times and in various places, always in closest contact with Tibetan scholars …” (Pg. viii-x)
In one essay, he states, immediate experience is the key-note of Buddhism. Experience, however, is a term belonging to the group of process-product ambiguities: the same word stands for the process and the product of that process… Taken as process-product, experience is symbolic activity, and the symbol itself is always the product or the end-phase of the process, never its beginning… Since experience has the quality of knowledge and knowledge seems to have to do with that which we are accustomed to call mind, mind is of paramount importance.” (Pg. 36-37)
He observes, “The peculiar fact about the series of successive mental events is that it appears as a unity of center and not as a mere unity of system. It is the nature of this renter that is the crucial problem. Even in Buddhism it has found different explanations. There is complete agreement between the various schools of Buddhist thought only in so far as the supposition of this center being a Pure Ego is ruled out.” (Pg. 48-49)
He explains, “My appearance is an outer no-thing-ness because in it there is no reified object, and my no-thing-ness is an inner no-thing-ness because in it no reifying mind is found, and the infinitude of cognitiveness is an inalienable no-thing-ness because the transcending awareness has not suffered a rift. In brief, since all entities which one admits to exist have found their fulfillment… in a modality where no substance obtains, the ground is a great initial purity, the path a great self-authentication, and the goal a great self-freedom. By meditation Buddhahood is not attained, and by not meditating one does not stray into Samsara.” (Pg. 125)
He notes, Transcendence must be understood as a dynamic movement, not as a static entity, and therefore by its very nature it transcends the idea that ‘all the DIFFERENT things in the world become ONE, become identical with one another.’ It is true that in the writings of the mystics ‘oneness’ is emphasized, but it is wrong to conclude that this is an existential or ontological oneness; rather, it is a noetic oneness.” (Pg. 139-140)
He says, “Quiescence is like a man who is not in the possession of all his faculties. It has an objective reference for its inspection in which the noetic capacity is gathered [to the exclusion of everything else] in a clear, distinct, elated, and speedy manner. The wider perspective of insight is like a man having the five senses in full. In knowing the nature of mind its sees its being and intellectually pursues its objects and other topics through intensive discursive reasoning.” (Pg. 146)
He outlines, “These four topics, the uniqueness of human existence, the impermanence of all that is, the relation between our actions and the situation in which we will find ourselves, and the general unsatisfactoriness of the situation in which we and our fellow beings are caught up, represent the teaching of the ‘spiritual friends’ to this very day.” (Pg. 183) He continues, “The psychological insight is remarkable and characteristic of Buddhism: escapism into a soporific absorption in an absolute is no answer to the problems a man faces and which he has to solve.” (Pg. 184)
He states, “These ways in which man reacts to the divine impingement point to an important character of revelation. Its experience may be interpreted as coming from without (being exogenous), or it may be felt as coming from within (being exogenous). This distinction, which is not wholly absent in Christianity, has been clearly stated in Buddhist Tantrism.” (Pg. 206)
He explains, “inseparability is the key word of Tantrism: inseparability of the absolute and relative, of the divine and the human, and, by implication, of fact and expression. The fact of absolute knowledge is expressed through its act of imagination, which ultimately remains self-knowledge; this self-knowledge, as we have seen, never means that there is a self in abstract isolation becoming the ostensible object of this knowledge but that it is the knowledge of a knowing mind by itself.” (Pg. 209)
He observes, “Exterior revelation in Tantrism is essentially a suggestion of themes, categories, propositions, and symbols which have to be thought out and applied. Exterior revelation, therefore, is not the ultimate in living religiously; it is merely a stimulus.” (Pg. 223)
This book will be of great interest to those (particularly Westerners) studying Tibetan Buddhism.
Herbert V. Guenther is Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He wrote in the Introduction to this 1989 book, “Over a century ago, Alexnder Csoma de Körös… made the erroneous statement that ‘the literature of Tibet is entirely of Indian origin.’ He did not realize that … he had been duped by the Tibetan ‘propaganda’ that everything the Tibetans had to offer had come to them from India. This propaganda which the Tibetans themselves eventually came to believe in, seems to have had its root in a political situation in the eighth century… When I began my academic studies in 1936 I was naturally exposed to this climate of misinformedness and misrepresentation… when I took up my academic duties… I was given the chance to recognize the falsity of what was thoughtlessly… perpetuated in academic circles… the fact that the Tibetans constantly referred to their own thinkers and to how they had understood and developed the stimulus that had come from India… was decisive for my taking up the study of Tibetan thought and Tibetan Buddhism in their distinct quality.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He continues, “Much of what is discussed in Tibetan works is of a philosophical and psychological nature… the Tibetans were capable of thinking independently and … they… developed a language geared to the task of philosophical inquiry coupled with a keen insight into psychological processes… Therefore a new approach has to be made and this necessitates a new set of concepts of new stipulative definitions. This I have attempted in the following essays of this book. They are exploratory in nature… The essays selected for this book were written at various times and in various places, always in closest contact with Tibetan scholars …” (Pg. viii-x)
In one essay, he states, immediate experience is the key-note of Buddhism. Experience, however, is a term belonging to the group of process-product ambiguities: the same word stands for the process and the product of that process… Taken as process-product, experience is symbolic activity, and the symbol itself is always the product or the end-phase of the process, never its beginning… Since experience has the quality of knowledge and knowledge seems to have to do with that which we are accustomed to call mind, mind is of paramount importance.” (Pg. 36-37)
He observes, “The peculiar fact about the series of successive mental events is that it appears as a unity of center and not as a mere unity of system. It is the nature of this renter that is the crucial problem. Even in Buddhism it has found different explanations. There is complete agreement between the various schools of Buddhist thought only in so far as the supposition of this center being a Pure Ego is ruled out.” (Pg. 48-49)
He explains, “My appearance is an outer no-thing-ness because in it there is no reified object, and my no-thing-ness is an inner no-thing-ness because in it no reifying mind is found, and the infinitude of cognitiveness is an inalienable no-thing-ness because the transcending awareness has not suffered a rift. In brief, since all entities which one admits to exist have found their fulfillment… in a modality where no substance obtains, the ground is a great initial purity, the path a great self-authentication, and the goal a great self-freedom. By meditation Buddhahood is not attained, and by not meditating one does not stray into Samsara.” (Pg. 125)
He notes, Transcendence must be understood as a dynamic movement, not as a static entity, and therefore by its very nature it transcends the idea that ‘all the DIFFERENT things in the world become ONE, become identical with one another.’ It is true that in the writings of the mystics ‘oneness’ is emphasized, but it is wrong to conclude that this is an existential or ontological oneness; rather, it is a noetic oneness.” (Pg. 139-140)
He says, “Quiescence is like a man who is not in the possession of all his faculties. It has an objective reference for its inspection in which the noetic capacity is gathered [to the exclusion of everything else] in a clear, distinct, elated, and speedy manner. The wider perspective of insight is like a man having the five senses in full. In knowing the nature of mind its sees its being and intellectually pursues its objects and other topics through intensive discursive reasoning.” (Pg. 146)
He outlines, “These four topics, the uniqueness of human existence, the impermanence of all that is, the relation between our actions and the situation in which we will find ourselves, and the general unsatisfactoriness of the situation in which we and our fellow beings are caught up, represent the teaching of the ‘spiritual friends’ to this very day.” (Pg. 183) He continues, “The psychological insight is remarkable and characteristic of Buddhism: escapism into a soporific absorption in an absolute is no answer to the problems a man faces and which he has to solve.” (Pg. 184)
He states, “These ways in which man reacts to the divine impingement point to an important character of revelation. Its experience may be interpreted as coming from without (being exogenous), or it may be felt as coming from within (being exogenous). This distinction, which is not wholly absent in Christianity, has been clearly stated in Buddhist Tantrism.” (Pg. 206)
He explains, “inseparability is the key word of Tantrism: inseparability of the absolute and relative, of the divine and the human, and, by implication, of fact and expression. The fact of absolute knowledge is expressed through its act of imagination, which ultimately remains self-knowledge; this self-knowledge, as we have seen, never means that there is a self in abstract isolation becoming the ostensible object of this knowledge but that it is the knowledge of a knowing mind by itself.” (Pg. 209)
He observes, “Exterior revelation in Tantrism is essentially a suggestion of themes, categories, propositions, and symbols which have to be thought out and applied. Exterior revelation, therefore, is not the ultimate in living religiously; it is merely a stimulus.” (Pg. 223)
This book will be of great interest to those (particularly Westerners) studying Tibetan Buddhism.
Displaying 1 of 1 review