Self-possessed and Self-governed: Transcendent Spirituality in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism

ABSTRACT

Among Tibetan Buddhist tantric practitioners, including in the U.S., visualisation and incorporation of mandala deities imparts a parallel world against which conventional reality is considered impermanent and afflicted. Tantric adepts aspire through meditation, visualisation, and mind-training to dissolve normal selfhood and simultaneously embrace both ‘conventional’ and ‘ultimate’ reality. Ethics of compassion encourage efficient reengagement with conventional world dynamics rather than escaping them: the transcendental ‘non-self’ is perceived to inform effective and compassionate waking consciousness. Transformation of subjective ontology in tantric self-possession resonates with Foucault’s late exploration of ethical self-relationship in alternative technologies of subjectivation and with Luhrmann’s notion of transcendent spiritual absorption through skilled learning and internalisation. Incorporating recent developments in American Tibetan Buddhism, this paper draws upon information derived from a range of scholarly visits to rural and urban areas of the Himalayas, teachings by and practices with contemporary Tibetan lamas, including in the U.S., and historical and philosophical Buddhist literature and commentaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Tibetan Buddhism
• tantra
• spirituality
• selfhood
• ontology
• spirit possession

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefitted from perceptive comments and important suggestions by anonymous reviewers and the journal editors; these are greatly appreciated. Helpful comments on previous versions of this paper are also gratefully acknowledged from Kathryn Bennett, Anne-Sylvie-Malbrancke, Glenn Mullin, Tawni Tidwell, and members of the Highest Yoga Tantra sangha associated with the North American seat of Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta, Georgia. This paper would not have been possible without the unstinting time and support for Tibetan Buddhism and its practitioners by a wide range of lamas, geshes, monks, and Western Buddhists both in the Himalayas and in the U.S.; their service is of inestimable value. Support for field research in association with Buddhism in Tibet / China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia is gratefully acknowledged from the States in Transition programme of The Carnegie Corporation of New York. All shortcomings of the paper remain my own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Comparative Post-Conflict Recovery Project.