Tibetan Buddhist Guru Devotion

*Square brackets signify a powerpoint slide [ … ]

To conclude our discussion of religious authority …

1. The Lama in Western Imagination (NOT on exam)

2. The Lama in Tibetan Buddhism

Historical Context

Before Buddhism arrived in Tibet (7th century), guru devotion had a long history in India (Hindu and Buddhist). Upanisads, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita (and the poetry of Kabir), all encourage veneration of the spiritual teacher = “One of the most enduring features of Hinduism has been the central position accorded to the ST.”

The guru/disciple relation has also existed for as long as Buddhism has existed. In the earliest Indian Buddhist scriptures the Buddha states: “the complete fulfillment of the religious life depends upon a kalyanamitra” (a spiritual friend or teacher).

The emphasis on devotion (to the ST) increased with the rise of the Mahayana (c. 0) until the guru = the human representative of the Buddha. Finally, in the Vajrayana (c. 3rd century), the guru was no longer considered as the Buddha, but actually was the Buddha. …

It was the Mahayana and Vajrayana systems of Buddhism that were transmitted from India to Tibet b/w the 7th and 11th centuries.

Bla-ma (bla and ma) = ‘highest mother’ / ‘highest potency’ Its usage began in 9th century as the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit term guru.

Doctrine

THE guru devotion text: Gurupancasika (50 Verses of Guru Devotion), Asvaghosa, 2nd century.After outlining the 10 necessary characteristics of a qualified guru, Asv. gives the instruction: “A disciple with the good qualities of compassion, generosity, moral self-control, and patience should never regard as different his Guru and the Buddha Vajradhara.”

It is here in the early Vajrayana that there developed the doctrinal distinction b/w the outer and the inner guru—b/w one’s human teacher (Skt. kalyanamitra; Tib. dge-shes) …[3) Dalai Lama] …… and one’s own potential for enlightenment, symbolized by the tantric deity (Tib. yi-dam) …[5) Yidam image] …

Guhyasamaja Tantra: “All the bodhisattvas and tathagatas look on [the guru] as the vajra mind of enlightenment. Why? Because the master and the mind of enlightenment are the same—they are not divisible into two.”

[6) Dalai Lama-Yidam fusion]

[7) Guru yoga field of merit] … example of Axis Mundi (sacred bursting into the profane)

Guru Yoga (‘uniting with the spiritual teacher’)= a specialized ritual in which the practitioner meditatively assumes the knowledge and wisdom of his teacher, here equated to the Buddha.

[8) GY elements]

In sum of the outer/inner gurus:[9) L. Yeshe quote]

So … One accesses the inner guru through the outer guru. The inner guru is the disciple’s deepest level of consciousness (his/her Buddha-nature) … Its actualization depends upon the outer guru’s inspiration and guidance.

The important (and complex) point is that there is overlap. …

In Tibetan Buddhism the dge-shes and yi-dam (outer and inner guru) are brought together in what has been called “the lama proper.” Tibetans call this the lama lha (‘divine master’ or ‘guru-deity’).

[10) Lama’s Authority: the lama lha formula]‘Lha’ (Skt. deva): a label for something in which the transcendent has found expression.

- The complex social dynamics of this simple relation (lama lha = geshe + yidam) have been widely observed but rarely understood by Western scholars.

- The ‘outer’ lama has been amply observed; His relation to his disciples’ ‘inner’ lama, or Buddha-nature, has been overlooked. …

[11) Back to Dalai Lama photo] …The lama may seem a godman imposing his authority on his subjects. …When in FACT: those subjects are (usually) disciples engaged in highly complex tantric practices of guru devotion. B/c you can’t SEE the inner!(Of course this is the teaching … not always practiced)

IT TURNS OUT … Just as early Western scholars misrepresented the lama due to their ignorance of the outer/inner guru relation, this same ignorance is the greatest threat to a healthy Western practice of guru devotion. …

3. The Lama in Western Tibetan Buddhism

(context):From the founding of the first American TB monastery in New Jersey by Geshe Wangyal in 1955, to the American counter-culture’s enchantment with Chogyam Trungpa’s ‘crazy wisdom’ in the 70’s and 80’s, to the Dalai Lama’s present day international celebrity status … the modern West’s embrace of Tibetan Buddhism has been defined by its charismatic lamas.…[12) Trungpa and Ginsberg] … problems; the West is anti-hierarchy but pro-celebrity …

Daniel Capper (2002): ethnographic study of Tibetan guru devotion in the U.S. …

[13) DC’s 2 findings]

C’s method: Heinz Kohut’s model of self-psychology.His informants’ lama experiences exhibited the same stages mapped by Kohut in a child’s developmental relationship with its primary caregiver …= Same stages that Kohut’s psychoanalysis uses in the therapist-patient relationship:

[14) Kohut’s Self Psychology]

= the movement of a child’s psychological maturation: a need-based ideal is projected, frustrated, and internalized. When it unfolds properly, the child, or patient, develops new psychic structure and an increased sense of personal autonomy.

DC charts these 3 stages in American Buddhists’ relationships with their lamas:

1. Enchantment: An experience of the lama’s caring and compassionate nature is the foundation for enchantment (for all his informants)

2. Disillusion: Many experiences force practitioners to “perceive that their lama is not an omnipotent wellspring of transforming spiritual energy” (his physical absence, his perceived favoritism of other disciples, his delegation of unpleasant tasks, perceived errors in his teachings, etc.) = the key ‘come down.’

3. Introjection: Pack it up (i.e. take it IN) and carry on.

--- Those interpreters who experienced this dialectic smoothly “enjoyed increased feelings of compassion, increased self-esteem and confidence, improved interpersonal relations, improved vocational efficacy, and contentment arising from increased meaning in their lives” (Capper 2002, 227-228). --- Those whose lama relations were less psychologically constructive were those who missed the last step: failed to internalize the projected ideals in response to their frustration.

[15) In Kohutian and TB terms …]

CONCLUSION:

DC: The disciple’s attitude swings from: enchantment disillusion.

--- After these bipolar attitudes towards the ‘outer guru,’ however, the disciple must internalize their enchantment to experience an increase in personal autonomy—or, to meet the ‘inner guru.’

--- The authority of the lama lha (as fusion of outer and inner guru, or teacher and tantric deity) is projected in order to be introjected as a means of developing new psychic structure—or, tantric Dharma realizations.