1 00:00:03,030 --> 00:00:22,970 It is now my great pleasure to introduce Dr. Robert Mayer, the convenor of this Treasure Seminar Series. 2 00:00:22,970 --> 00:00:25,790 Of course, Rob hardly needs any introduction. 3 00:00:25,790 --> 00:00:33,800 He is well known as an expert in the Tibetan tantric traditions, with a particular focus on the Nyingma tantras, and on Buddhism. 4 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,140 During the time of the Tibetan Empire. 5 00:00:37,140 --> 00:00:46,140 This academic education started with a BA at Bristol, where he studied with such well-known authorities as Paul Williams and Stephen Collins. 6 00:00:46,140 --> 00:00:50,760 He completed a Ph.D. at Leiden, for which his main influences, as you wrote to me, 7 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:58,910 included Tilman Fitter, Alexis Sanderson, Dan Martin, Gyurme Dorje and Cathy Cantwell. 8 00:00:58,910 --> 00:01:07,490 Rob Mayer has spent most of his academic career at Oxford with shorter periods in the School of Anthropology at the University of Kent, 9 00:01:07,490 --> 00:01:17,980 as a visiting professor at Humboldt University in Berlin and as a fellow of the Käte Humburger Kolleg at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. 10 00:01:17,980 --> 00:01:27,620 Most of his research focuses on the early Nyingma tradition, and he has collaborated with his wife, Catherine Cantwell, both on many publications. 11 00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:29,240 Their books include, amongst others, 12 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:40,840 the publication of early Tibetan documents on phur pa from Dunhuang and the Noble Noose of Methods a Mahāyoga Tantra and its commentary. 13 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:47,000 Together with Anna Sehnalova,Yegor Grebnev,Robert Mayer is a convenor of the Oxford Treasure 14 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,590 Seminar Series. Previous seminar series held at Merton and Wolfson College in Oxford, 15 00:01:53,590 --> 00:02:00,010 looked at Tibetan and other Asian treasure traditions in a comparative perspective. 16 00:02:00,010 --> 00:02:07,030 This year's Treasure Series is the first to focus on Indian Buddhist traditions. 17 00:02:07,030 --> 00:02:12,830 The series will now be rounded off by Robert Mayer's talk, which is titled dharmabhāṇakas, 18 00:02:12,830 --> 00:02:20,890 Siddhas, Avatārakasiddhas, and gTer stons. We look very much forward. 19 00:02:20,890 --> 00:02:30,130 Few would argue with the proposition that Mahāyāna Buddhism and its tantric offshoots were religions based on the revelation of scriptures. 20 00:02:30,130 --> 00:02:33,730 Even the most conservative traditional Buddhist masters will often concede 21 00:02:33,730 --> 00:02:37,690 that while sūtras, dhāraṇīs and tantras generally purport ultimately to be 22 00:02:37,690 --> 00:02:42,010 taught by the historical Buddha, they had to reach as far as circuitous route that 23 00:02:42,010 --> 00:02:47,280 require an additional and subsequent act revelation into our Jambudvīpa. 24 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:56,480 Perhaps I should share my screen, actually. I think we're still on. 25 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:13,740 For the sake of the recording, we I think we're going to have to start again. Because I can't share my screen, I can only share your screen. 26 00:03:13,740 --> 00:03:23,700 That's more like it. Okay, I'm going to go back to the beginning. 27 00:03:23,700 --> 00:03:31,370 No, I still can't reach my. I can't reach my, I've only got your. 28 00:03:31,370 --> 00:03:39,760 Screen Ulrike. Let me try again. 29 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:52,810 We've got this. I don't think there's anything I can do about it. 30 00:03:52,810 --> 00:04:03,160 So let's see. OK, now we can do something about it. 31 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:11,500 So few would argue with the proposition that Mahāyāna Buddhism and its tantric offshoots were religions based on the revelation of scriptures, 32 00:04:11,500 --> 00:04:16,090 even the most conservative traditional Buddhist masters will often concede that while sūtras, 33 00:04:16,090 --> 00:04:21,820 dhāraṇīs and tantras generally purport ultimately to have been taught by the historical Buddha, 34 00:04:21,820 --> 00:04:36,300 they had to reach us via circuitous routes that required an additional and subsequent act of revelation into our Jambudvīpa. 35 00:04:36,300 --> 00:04:47,670 Oh. Is it recording? 36 00:04:47,670 --> 00:04:54,280 I do wish Daniel was here. It is recording, Rob, it says it is recording. 37 00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:59,270 OK, good. The recording button is on. OK, good. We can all see you and we can see your slides. 38 00:04:59,270 --> 00:05:06,830 OK. Mahāyāna history in South Asia was therefore the history of more than a thousand years of continuous, 39 00:05:06,830 --> 00:05:09,830 ongoing revelation of scriptures previously unheard by humans, 40 00:05:09,830 --> 00:05:16,400 beginning with the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras up to the final revelations of the late tantric period. 41 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:22,070 The ongoing revelation of scriptures is surely amongst the most definitive and significant features of South Asian Buddhism, 42 00:05:22,070 --> 00:05:25,130 without which it would have been a very different religion. 43 00:05:25,130 --> 00:05:33,720 If you want to understand South Asian Buddhism at all, understanding its processes of ongoing scriptural revelation is surely indispensable. 44 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,770 Because ongoing revelation of scriptures was so integral to Indian Mahāyāna, 45 00:05:37,770 --> 00:05:44,280 it's hard to imagine how it could have failed to impact on Tibetan Buddhism, too, like their counterparts in China, 46 00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:48,000 Tibetan Buddhists must immediately have been confronted in the Mahāyāna scriptures. 47 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,760 They translated with numerous narratives, 48 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:56,940 describing prophetic declarations made by the Buddha about the future propagation to the sūtras by reincarnation 49 00:05:56,940 --> 00:06:03,390 dharmabhāṇakas who would appear after his parinirvāṇa more frequently than their Chinese counterparts, 50 00:06:03,390 --> 00:06:07,410 especially through the first few centuries of Tibetan Buddhism. 51 00:06:07,410 --> 00:06:15,510 Numerous Tibetan scholars and translators visiting South Asia must also have encountered actual practises of ongoing tantric revelation, 52 00:06:15,510 --> 00:06:23,870 which continue to pace at notably and holy places geographically proximate to Tibet, such as Oḍḍiyāna and Bengal. 53 00:06:23,870 --> 00:06:29,840 The prolific nature of such revelations in Sanskrit Buddhism should not be underestimated. 54 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:37,910 Excluding dhāraṇīs and later Nepali revelations, Isaacson and Sferra estimate around 5000 original tantric scriptures. 55 00:06:37,910 --> 00:06:40,580 With South Asian origins remain extant. 56 00:06:40,580 --> 00:06:50,240 Some in Sanskrit, others only in Tibetan and Chinese translations produced over the roughly 500 years from the 6th to the 11th centuries. 57 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,500 This gives a very approximate, 58 00:06:53,500 --> 00:07:02,230 Average frequency of around one script revelation, every event, one scriptural revelation event per annum through five centuries. 59 00:07:02,230 --> 00:07:07,480 The real figure was probably higher since more texts were revealed than the 500 which survive. 60 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:17,500 And because the Sanskrit tradition resembled its Tibetan successors in re-repeating the same scripture to different persons on different occasions. 61 00:07:17,500 --> 00:07:23,620 Scripture revelations continues in Nepal after the decline of Buddhism in the Indian heartlands, 62 00:07:23,620 --> 00:07:31,360 Isaacson and Sferra observe the compilation of tantric scriptures seems to have continued in Nepal, almost up to modern times. 63 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:38,290 Some were influential, such as the 15th century revelations of the Svayambhū Purāṇa and the Gunakāraṇḍavyūha  . 64 00:07:38,290 --> 00:07:47,990 The former remains the basis for all the extensive vajra practises in contemporary Newari Buddhism and the latter for the important cult of Lokeśvara. 65 00:07:47,990 --> 00:07:53,540 Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dunhuang's sources witness a number of indigenous Tibetan tantric scriptures appearing 66 00:07:53,540 --> 00:07:59,120 by the 10th century showing that Tibetan soon produce their own revelations. 67 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:06,620 It's likely they began by adapting the methods of the Indian teachers since at least one or two centuries Tibetan scriptural revelation was 68 00:08:06,620 --> 00:08:14,360 contemporaneous with tantric revelation still occurring in India and early Tibetan scriptures were closely modelled on Sanskrit tantra, 69 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:31,230 albeit with some degree of localisation. Robert, have you deliberately stopped screen sharing? 70 00:08:31,230 --> 00:08:38,440 Yeah, I'll come to another slide later. 71 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:46,420 Perhaps unsurprisingly, more surprisingly, little study has yet been made of the impacts of Sanskrit revelatory practises on Tibet. 72 00:08:46,420 --> 00:08:52,630 The first phase of Tibetan revelation was characterised by the anonymous production of tantric scriptures in genres. 73 00:08:52,630 --> 00:08:56,080 First witnessed at Dunhuang, later preserved in the rNying ma'i rgyud 'bum canon 74 00:08:56,080 --> 00:09:04,310 Little has been written about this early phase, although it surely, surely influenced later developments. 75 00:09:04,310 --> 00:09:10,000 There is also clear overlap of style and content between the earlier anonymous rNying ma tantras and the later gter ma texts 76 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:16,610 It is even claimed that the rNying ma rGyud 'bum unimaginable and provides the measure by which the validity of gter ma is assessed. 77 00:09:16,610 --> 00:09:23,960 Any gter ma diverging too far from the Nyingma rgyud 'bum's doctrinal, ritual, and iconographic norms might not be deemed valid. 78 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:28,160 Likewise, some new MEGABOOM texts can simultaneously be classified as gter ma. 79 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:37,800 For example, the root tantras of Myang ral Nyi ma 'Od zer's bka' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa. And gter stons are still revealing and gter stons are still revealing tantras in the genre of the rNying ma rGyud 'bum texts. 80 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:41,850 Yet all we currently know about this first key phase of Tibetan revelations is 81 00:09:41,850 --> 00:09:45,960 that they resemble their South Asian counterparts in being largely anonymous, 82 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,370 but in the similar styles and contents of their output. 83 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:58,110 The second phase of revelation, known as gter ma, was no longer anonymous in this, it differed from most Indian Buddhist revelation, 84 00:09:58,110 --> 00:10:07,020 but resembles a contemporaneous revelatory practise of nearby Kashmir, where many Tibetans were studying in its Buddhist monasteries. 85 00:10:07,020 --> 00:10:13,200 In this Kashmiri tradition of revelation, chiefly associated with the nondual Shaiva traditions like the kaula, 86 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:19,480 but also, with some Buddhist examples publicly named scripture revealers became the new norm. 87 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:25,330 Typically, the Śaivas revealed new tantric scriptures in their holy place of Uḍḍiyāna. 88 00:10:25,330 --> 00:10:30,850 The nascent Tibetan gter ma system likewise prominently referenced Uḍḍiyāna, citing Uḍḍiyāna. 89 00:10:30,850 --> 00:10:36,880 dakinis as agents of revelation and Padmasambhava of Uḍḍiyāna as the patron of revelation. 90 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,590 But differed by developing other, more specifically Buddhist narratives too. 91 00:10:41,590 --> 00:10:49,900 Above all, Tibetan gter stons adapted the aforementioned Mahāyāna literary device of prophetic declarations made by the Buddha regarding the future 92 00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:56,270 propagations of the sūtras by reincarnated dharmabhāṇakas as appearing after his parinirvāṇa. 93 00:10:56,270 --> 00:11:00,860 Localising this Mahāyāna trip to Tibet and spun narratives of prophesied, 94 00:11:00,860 --> 00:11:07,730 reincarnated gter stons discovering sacred texts hidden for later recovery by major Buddhist missionaries to Tibet. 95 00:11:07,730 --> 00:11:12,830 Notably Vimalamitra and above all, Padmasambhava who now stood in for the Buddha. 96 00:11:12,830 --> 00:11:30,950 Similarly, Atiśa was said to have discovered such texts in Tibet. Fortunately, the major scholar of gter ma's origins, Ronald Davidson, 97 00:11:30,950 --> 00:11:36,630 has consistently understood it as a product of both Indian and Tibetan influences. 98 00:11:36,630 --> 00:11:45,600 Less fortunate. Perhaps he never found much time to enlarge of the Indian aspects, mainly focussing on the non-Buddhist indigenous aspects. 99 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:54,480 This is understandable. First, it continues the conversation begun by Erik Haarh in the 1960s and continued by Michael Aris in the 1980s. 100 00:11:54,480 --> 00:12:00,720 Secondly, the Tibetan aspects are more elusive than the Indian ones because little textual evidence for them survives. 101 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:06,870 Exploring them has thus become an intriguing intellectual challenge that few authors can resist. 102 00:12:06,870 --> 00:12:15,660 I confess to being no exception, and I'm developing a major collaborative work on the vital non-Buddhist indigenous influences on the gter ma tradition. 103 00:12:15,660 --> 00:12:23,030 However, a discussion that merely acknowledges Indian influences without actually examining them is manifestly incomplete. 104 00:12:23,030 --> 00:12:26,690 So far, insufficient studies have tackled the Indian influences. 105 00:12:26,690 --> 00:12:33,470 And despite Davidson's and Janet Gyatso's assertions of their importance, most authors still overlook them. 106 00:12:33,470 --> 00:12:42,110 Obviously, it would be retrograde in the extreme to try to reduce Tibetology to an appendage of Indology, as it sometimes was in its early days. 107 00:12:42,110 --> 00:12:46,790 But to ignore the extraordinarily creative civilizational exchanges that occurred 108 00:12:46,790 --> 00:12:54,190 between Tibet and South Asia over many centuries would equally be a missed opportunity. 109 00:12:54,190 --> 00:13:01,540 This was a rare interaction between two exceptionally vibrant cultural spheres, the study of which offers numerous insights. 110 00:13:01,540 --> 00:13:05,320 We will therefore invest a proportionate effort into researching South Asian 111 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:10,210 influences on gter ma, too, for if we don't know what came with Sanskrit Buddhism. 112 00:13:10,210 --> 00:13:17,920 How can we differentiate what was indigenous and Tibetan? Moreover, South Asian and indigenous elements tended to merge, 113 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:25,150 like the ingredients of a cake after baking, and they've proven very difficult to reverse engineer. 114 00:13:25,150 --> 00:13:31,420 Our efforts should therefore not attempt the impossible by presuming to isolate indigenous aspects from the outset. 115 00:13:31,420 --> 00:13:41,030 Rather, we should adopt a more holistic perspective that accepts the admixture of South Asian and indigenous cultures as our point of departure. 116 00:13:41,030 --> 00:13:44,510 Fortunately, restoring this perspective should not prove difficult, 117 00:13:44,510 --> 00:13:50,420 since the thus far ignored South Asian influences on gter ma appear easy to access from a plethora of excellent 118 00:13:50,420 --> 00:13:58,130 textual sources in both Sanskrit and Tibetan translation in Indologists might even find them obvious. 119 00:13:58,130 --> 00:14:06,800 Certainly, my undemanding and simple efforts cannot be compared with the brilliance and virtuosity demanded of scholars like Davidson and Guntram Hazod, 120 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:10,970 who have done so much to infer the altogether more elusive non-Buddhist indigenous 121 00:14:10,970 --> 00:14:18,850 influences on gter ma from sometimes little more than circumstantial evidence. 122 00:14:18,850 --> 00:14:28,080 But in a paper in press, I start by reflecting on the translation of the Indian term nidhi into the Tibetan word gter. 123 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:34,000 The word gter is not evident in old Tibetan before its usage in Buddhist translations. 124 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:42,390 Joanna Bialek therefor speculates it might have been a Buddhist neologism specifically created to translate the Sanskrit term dGe bshes Po to ba. 125 00:14:42,390 --> 00:14:49,860 I continued by looking at Guru Chos dbang's comprehensive explorations of the full range of meanings of this translational term gter and 126 00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:58,770 how he seeks to understand it in the light of the complex Indian understandings which Sanskrit original nidhi being Buddhist, Chos dbang, 127 00:14:58,770 --> 00:15:06,600 like his successors Ratna gling pa and Urgyen Lingpa upholds the old Indian Buddhist enumeration of nidhi as fourfold, 128 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:11,940 distinct from the ninefold enumerations favourite by Brahmans and Jains. 129 00:15:11,940 --> 00:15:14,310 The Buddhist fourfold enumeration is very old, 130 00:15:14,310 --> 00:15:21,450 described in such varied texts as the Mūlasarvāsstivādin Vinaya, the Divyāvadāna, Mahāvastu, Pali commentaries, 131 00:15:21,450 --> 00:15:26,610 the Khotanese book of Zambasta, the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa sūtra, Maitreyavyākaraṇa, 132 00:15:26,610 --> 00:15:33,000 the karmaśataka, and plenty more. But the inquisitive Chos dbang went much further. 133 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:38,280 I think it seems consulting the Tibetan translation of the Amarakoṣa lexicon, 134 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:44,460 since his exhaustive analysis also subsumes popular Indian understandings of the famous nine nidis, 135 00:15:44,460 --> 00:15:54,470 as found in such texts as the Amarakoṣa, or the 12th century Jain Hemachandra's Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra. 136 00:15:54,470 --> 00:16:03,590 I also translate 16 pages from the Indian Buddhist Āryavidyottamamahātantra on the finding and opening of treasure doors or gter sgo, 137 00:16:03,590 --> 00:16:09,460 one among dozens of passages on nidhi and Buddhist kriyātantras. 138 00:16:09,460 --> 00:16:14,230 It describes gter sgo as complex and varied magical portals whose hidden 139 00:16:14,230 --> 00:16:20,080 location is disclosed to yogins in dreams by treasure deities. 140 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:27,730 Although guarded by dangerous spirits, great yogis can nevertheless magically open and reclose to access their treasures. 141 00:16:27,730 --> 00:16:32,530 Such material was very influential in the Tibetan gterma tradition. 142 00:16:32,530 --> 00:16:38,620 This particular passage has also extensive parallels with the nidhi śāstras, the manuals of the nidhivādas, 143 00:16:38,620 --> 00:16:43,330 the typically tantric treasure hunters of mediaeval India who recovered hidden 144 00:16:43,330 --> 00:16:48,070 treasures caused by territorial deities from the landscape and the elements, 145 00:16:48,070 --> 00:16:52,930 as well as from old temples, lingas, religious statues and the like. 146 00:16:52,930 --> 00:17:04,200 Although often typified as Pāśupata, Nalini Balbir reports that their śastras very prominently reference the Buddhist figure Nāgārjuna. 147 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:09,420 In a further paper in press, I evaluate Padmasambhava as a siddha, some within the tantric 148 00:17:09,420 --> 00:17:14,410 culture of his native Uḍḍiyāna, a task never previously attempted. 149 00:17:14,410 --> 00:17:19,510 Although the term "siddha" might seem familiar, as we learned from John Nemec last month. 150 00:17:19,510 --> 00:17:26,660 Appearances can be deceptive because "siddha" had rather differing implications in different genres of Sanskrit literature. 151 00:17:26,660 --> 00:17:27,510 In earlier texts, 152 00:17:27,510 --> 00:17:34,580 such as the Epics, Purāṇa, and in Kāvya siddhas were mythic semi-divine beings who lived in the sky comparable to ghandharvas 153 00:17:34,580 --> 00:17:44,170 yakṣas, and devas. In later centuries, Buddhas understood siddhas mainly as human beings who achieved realisation through tantric practise. 154 00:17:44,170 --> 00:17:48,370 But in Kashmir's nondual Shaiva traditions, the term was more complex. 155 00:17:48,370 --> 00:17:57,610 While some siddhas could approximately resemble the Buddhist definition, others were much more, divine non-humans primordially realised from the start. 156 00:17:57,610 --> 00:18:05,680 They merely adopted the guise of human siddhas to descend from an exalted spiritual plane to specific geographical locations in the Kashmir region, 157 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:12,390 notably with Uḍḍiyāna. for the express purpose of disseminating previously unheard tantric scriptures. 158 00:18:12,390 --> 00:18:19,290 The term applied to such primordially realised siddhas descended from on high to disseminate tantric scriptures was avatāraka, 159 00:18:19,290 --> 00:18:24,540 which Sanderson translates as promulgator and Williams as agent of Revelation. 160 00:18:24,540 --> 00:18:30,750 Another term used was avatīrṇa implying Siva descended to Earth. 161 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:37,140 Some avatāraka siddhas were hugely important as sources of entire tantric dispensations. Jayaratha 162 00:18:37,140 --> 00:18:43,110 for example, described Matsyendranātha also as the sole source of revelation of the entire kaula tradition. 163 00:18:43,110 --> 00:18:45,900 While Abhinavagupta described Tryambaka, 164 00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:55,920 Āmardaka, and Śrinātha as the respective founders of the nondual, dual, and non-dual-cum-dual teachings of Śiva. 165 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:58,440 Despite being heavily mythologised, 166 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:05,110 most modern scholars believe the avatāraka siddhas were historical persons and Kalhaṇa’s 12th century history of Kashmir. 167 00:19:05,110 --> 00:19:08,400 The Rājataraṅgiṇī, mentions them. 168 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:17,970 It's still not clear to me if some version of the avatāraka siddha trope already accompanied Padmasambhava when he came to Tibet, 169 00:19:17,970 --> 00:19:26,220 or if it was retrospectively applied to him in later years. But the more I reflect, the more confident I am that the mythology of Padmasambhava, 170 00:19:26,220 --> 00:19:32,600 as preserved in Tibet reflects the cultural backdrop of the Kashmiri avatāraka siddha. 171 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:37,520 It's equally striking how the first emergence of named avatāraka siddhas in Kashmir 172 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:42,740 and of name gter stons in nearby Tibet were historically near contemporaneous, 173 00:19:42,740 --> 00:19:48,390 and that the mythology of the Tibetan gter stons refers so repeatedly to Uḍḍiyāna. 174 00:19:48,390 --> 00:19:55,380 Again, Tibetology has sought for many years, but without complete success to understand the Padmasambhava and related gter ma 175 00:19:55,380 --> 00:20:00,870 mythology exclusively through the prism of Tibetan history and Tibetan culture. 176 00:20:00,870 --> 00:20:09,710 Again, these tasks might have been eased a bit by considering from the outset the distinctive Kashmiri cultural background as well. 177 00:20:09,710 --> 00:20:16,130 Still awaiting my attention is a comparison of the constant reference, references to dakinis in the Tibetan gter ma, 178 00:20:16,130 --> 00:20:23,920 tradition with a prominent role of dakinis in Indian vajrayāna revelation. 179 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:31,890 The rest of today's presentation will return to the Mahāyāna theme of dharmabhāṇakas reincarnating into future times to propagate sūtras. 180 00:20:31,890 --> 00:20:35,820 They had first heard directly from the Buddha in his own lifetime and how it came 181 00:20:35,820 --> 00:20:40,590 to play a highly visible role in the construction of Tibetan gter ma narratives. 182 00:20:40,590 --> 00:20:45,810 This also commits me to correct a mistake I make in a recent article Rethinking Treasure Part 183 00:20:45,810 --> 00:20:52,370 One where I gave a brief preview of this topic in advance of a more detailed study. 184 00:20:52,370 --> 00:20:57,500 In Rethinking Treasure Part One, I described things shaped by an Indian Mahāyāna Sūtra, 185 00:20:57,500 --> 00:21:05,480 the Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra, henceforth Pratyutpanna and the Tibetan gter ma traditions. 186 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:08,540 The Pratyutpanna has been extensively studied by Paul Harrison, 187 00:21:08,540 --> 00:21:13,280 and much of its materials on the concealment and revelation of Mahāyāna sūtras do indeed 188 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:20,120 find striking parallels in Tibetan tTer ma traditions so that my analysis was partially correct. 189 00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:28,760 However, I also made a naive mistake. I mentioned the Pratyutpanna was somehow unique or at least rare in containing such narratives. 190 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:36,800 On the contrary, as we learnt from David Drewes last week, the scenario described in the Pratyutpanna is neither rare nor unique. 191 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:43,070 The diametric opposite is actually the case. This narrative structure is so commonplace in Mahāyāna sūtras, 192 00:21:43,070 --> 00:21:47,900 so ubiquitous, that it constitutes David Drewes has termed the standard claim 193 00:21:47,900 --> 00:21:52,580 of Mahāyāna sūtra literature and is replicated in dozens of different Mahāyāna, 194 00:21:52,580 --> 00:21:58,590 sūtras as a prime method of explaining their existence. As David Drewes explained, 195 00:21:58,590 --> 00:22:03,420 the standard claim is that the Buddha spoke the sūtras to Bodhisattvas during his final 196 00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:09,600 life and appointed them with a task of returning to this world to reveal them 500 years later. 197 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:17,130 This scenario was actually presented already Aṣṭasāhasrikā. 198 00:22:17,130 --> 00:22:23,430 Numerous Mahāyāna sūtras contain self-referential narratives intended to explain their own existence, 199 00:22:23,430 --> 00:22:28,560 a necessity since Mahāyāna sūtras were not passed down through the traditional āgamas or nikāyas, 200 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:36,480 it nevertheless claimed to be the Buddha's own speech. The internal logic of these narratives partly resembles that of the Jātakas. 201 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:44,060 The stories of the Buddhist past lives with similar themes of karmic cause and effect, of travel through time, and of reincarnation. 202 00:22:44,060 --> 00:22:52,790 But the Mahāyāna sūtra narratives focus specifically on how the sūtras will continue to be propagated after the Buddha's nirvana. 203 00:22:52,790 --> 00:22:56,870 The Pratyutpanna's narratives to this effect, are typical of many others, 204 00:22:56,870 --> 00:23:00,980 most occurs in Chapter 13, which opens with interlocked, interlocutor, 205 00:23:00,980 --> 00:23:10,010 a layman Bhadrapāla asking the Buddha, "Reverend Lord, at a future time in that age following the nirvana of the Tathāgata, 206 00:23:10,010 --> 00:23:15,200 Will this samādhi of the Pratyutpanna Sūtra spread here Jambudvīpa?" 207 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:20,060 The Buddha replies that, while the samādhi of the Pratyutpanna Sūtra will continue to circulate for a while after his 208 00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:24,700 nirvana, at a later date copy of it will have to be sealed within caskets, 209 00:23:24,700 --> 00:23:33,990 sgrom bu, and hidden in caves, stūpas, rocks, and mountains where they will be protected by nāgas and such like deities. Then says the Buddha, 210 00:23:33,990 --> 00:23:40,400 the disastrous last 500 years. When true dharma is in decline and false dharma and bad morality prevail, 211 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:48,170 a few beings of exceptional merit and karma will deliberately appear specifically to recover the Pratyutpanna from its hiding places. 212 00:23:48,170 --> 00:23:54,720 These special persons will rediscover the Pratyutpanna, make copies of it, study it and expound it to others. 213 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:56,790 While hearing this from the Buddha, the interlocutor, 214 00:23:56,790 --> 00:24:03,450 Bhadrapāla, and his layman colleagues were deeply moved and made a mighty aspiration that they should be the ones to reincarnate 215 00:24:03,450 --> 00:24:10,590 into that dreadful last 500 years to recover the Pratyutpanna from its places of concealment and teach it to others. 216 00:24:10,590 --> 00:24:15,750 But they were not unaware of the gravity of the undertaking and the difficulties with which it would be fraught for, 217 00:24:15,750 --> 00:24:20,070 as they observed, they would be proclaiming teachings that would not have been heard before 218 00:24:20,070 --> 00:24:25,650 and preaching a profound dharma in which the inhabitants of future times might not believe. 219 00:24:25,650 --> 00:24:29,100 Others in the audience exhorted the Buddha to entrust to Pratyutpanna, 220 00:24:29,100 --> 00:24:34,680 these noble volunteers so that they could fulfil their great aspiration, which the Buddha duly did. 221 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:41,140 The Buddha then made precise prophecies, specifying the eight named individuals within his audience who would be the ones to 222 00:24:41,140 --> 00:24:47,980 reincarnate in the future to uphold the Pratyutpanna and enlarged on the vast merits. 223 00:24:47,980 --> 00:24:57,590 They would thereby acquire. Although are a layman, there is no mention of what their status was to be when they reincarnate, 224 00:24:57,590 --> 00:25:04,550 the Buddha then prophesied that a further 500 persons within his audience would also reincarnate in these future times to receive, 225 00:25:04,550 --> 00:25:12,740 make copies of, and further propagate Pratyutpanna teachings recovered by the reincarnations of the eight laymen. 226 00:25:12,740 --> 00:25:16,580 The similarities of this narrative to Tibetan gter ma narratives are self-evident. 227 00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:23,210 I set them out in more detail in the handout, which is the same as the last three screens. 228 00:25:23,210 --> 00:25:32,210 Those unfamiliar with Tibet-- the handout is in the chat, those unfamiliar with Tibetan gTer ma should mainly remember a few key substitutions. 229 00:25:32,210 --> 00:25:37,160 Firstly, the location is moved from Jambudvīpa in general to Tibet in particular. 230 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:41,000 Secondly, important Buddhist missionaries to Tibet notably Vimalamitra and above all, 231 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:46,040 the second Buddha Padmasambhava have become substituted for the Buddha of the Mahāyāna texts. 232 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,730 Thirdly, the close students of these missionaries, especially those of Padmasambhava, 233 00:25:49,730 --> 00:25:55,640 were accordingly become the ones prophesied to reincarnation in the future to revive the teachings. 234 00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:03,500 And along with this basic narrative framework, some of the less crucial details and items of terminology are also adopted. 235 00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:07,700 My analysis in Rethinking Treasure Part One was therefore partly correct. 236 00:26:07,700 --> 00:26:12,500 There are striking parallels between the narratives of the Pratyutpanna and Tibetan gTer ma. 237 00:26:12,500 --> 00:26:15,950 However, I fail to realise the extent to which the Pratyutpanna's 238 00:26:15,950 --> 00:26:21,680 narratives are typical of Mahāyāna sūtras in general. As David Drewes has explained, 239 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:30,650 such narratives are the standard claim of Mahāyāna sūtra literature replicated across numerous sūtras to explain their existence, 240 00:26:30,650 --> 00:26:37,460 although not always the same in every detail, the basic structure remains constant in most cases. 241 00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:41,270 More pertinently, we can certainly say that many of the famous sūtras, 242 00:26:41,270 --> 00:26:47,210 best known to early Tibetan Buddhism, carry such themes, often quite prominently. The Akṣayamatinirdeśa, 243 00:26:47,210 --> 00:26:55,610 The Aṣṭasāhasrikā, the Kāraṇḍavyūha,, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, the Samādhirāja, the Suvarṇabhāsottara,, the Pratyutpanna, 244 00:26:55,610 --> 00:27:00,740 The Vimalakīrti, and more that I'm not yet aware of. 245 00:27:00,740 --> 00:27:06,250 With Tibetan gTer ma literature came to reproduce a conspicuous Mahāyāna sūtra literary trope, 246 00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:17,180 again this is not down to the disproportionate influence of a single text, but rather the pervasive cultural influence of the entire Sūtra genre. 247 00:27:17,180 --> 00:27:22,570 Since this is the case, it becomes much easier to understand what I previously found puzzling. 248 00:27:22,570 --> 00:27:28,130 How, when, and why did such narratives become appropriated into Tibetan gter ma literature? 249 00:27:28,130 --> 00:27:29,270 To approach these questions, 250 00:27:29,270 --> 00:27:37,520 it's best to begin by investigating the nature of Tibetan engagement in Buddhist scholarship in the period leading up to the first appearances of gter ma, 251 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:43,590 which Dan Martin has established as not later than the final decades of the 10th century. 252 00:27:43,590 --> 00:27:48,710 The recent conference presentation Ulrike Roesler explains that before the 11th century, 253 00:27:48,710 --> 00:27:57,140 and especially during the so-called early dissemination of the dharma in Tibet, the Mahāyāna sūtra corpus dominated Tibetan Buddhist scholarship. 254 00:27:57,140 --> 00:28:04,840 She observed that Mahāyāna sūtras made up approximately two thirds of all texts listed in the two early imperial translational catalogues, 255 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:09,640 the Ldan dkar ma and ‘Phang thang ma, she continued with these words 256 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:14,440 "In addition to the sheer predominance of sūtra over śastra in terms of numbers, 257 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,780 we are also informed in a document from the Tibetan Imperial Court the two sūtras, the Ratnameghasūtra, 258 00:28:19,780 --> 00:28:24,820 and the Laṅkāvatārasūtra sūtra were amongst the earliest text translated into Tibetan, 259 00:28:24,820 --> 00:28:32,260 and the vocabulary used became normative for subsequent translations. It is therefore evident that during the eighth and ninth centuries, 260 00:28:32,260 --> 00:28:38,080 Mahāyāna sūtras were given pride of place among the Buddhist texts received from India and elsewhere. 261 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:40,810 They were amongst the first Buddhist texts to be translated. 262 00:28:40,810 --> 00:28:47,440 They form the largest group of texts amongst the Buddhist translations, and they are listed first in the imperial catalogues. 263 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:53,920 It was not until the second translation period from the 11th century onwards that there was a noticeable shift away from the Mahāyāna, 264 00:28:53,920 --> 00:29:02,670 sūtras and towards the later stages of tantric literature on the one hand, and scholastic literature on the other." 265 00:29:02,670 --> 00:29:07,860 Roessler acknowledges the Buddhist translations were an elite activity sponsored by the royal 266 00:29:07,860 --> 00:29:12,780 court and that on the ground Tantric Buddhism was also practised by often hereditary lay householder. 267 00:29:12,780 --> 00:29:16,560 lineages, some of which might have been influential, 268 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:21,630 but that in no way detracts from her main point that the period is characterised by the considerable 269 00:29:21,630 --> 00:29:27,870 impact of Mahāyāna sūtras amongst those actively involved in the dissemination of Buddhist texts. 270 00:29:27,870 --> 00:29:34,770 Since those were the greatest and most revered part of the Buddhist translations available at the time. 271 00:29:34,770 --> 00:29:42,630 Named gter stons began to appear in the tenth and early 11th century, probably building on an already existing tradition. 272 00:29:42,630 --> 00:29:48,600 Certainly, gShen chen klu dga' in the early 11th century describes a gTer ma culture already complex and mature, 273 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,810 which cannot have been very new in his own time. 274 00:29:51,810 --> 00:29:59,130 It therefore seems highly probable that the first gter stons emerged from an intellectual environment preceding the 11th century shift. 275 00:29:59,130 --> 00:30:07,410 That Roesler describes. In other words, from an intellectual environment where the study of Mahāyāna sūtras was still paramount. 276 00:30:07,410 --> 00:30:17,640 And what is so striking about the various early extant Buddhist gTer mas is precisely the prominence within them of Mahāyāna motifs. 277 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:22,560 Two of the earliest surviving Buddhist gTer mas, the bKa' 'chems kha khol ma and the Maṇi bka' 'bum 278 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:28,530 were both allegedly found in the Jokhang in Lhasa, notionally in the 11th century. 279 00:30:28,530 --> 00:30:37,020 They share overlapping text present, the first great topic religious king, Srong btsan sGam po as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, bodhisattva of compassion. 280 00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:40,370 He was to become the patron deity of Tibet. 281 00:30:40,370 --> 00:30:47,060 Both these influential early gTer mas, therefore, drew substantially from a famous Mahāyāna sūtra, the Kāraṇḍavyūha, 282 00:30:47,060 --> 00:30:52,980 which introduced for an Indian public, is a cult of Avalokiteśvara and his mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ. 283 00:30:52,980 --> 00:30:57,150 The Maṇi bka' 'bum has even been described as a reformulation of the Kāraṇḍavyūha for a 284 00:30:57,150 --> 00:31:03,030 Tibetan audience to convey its message of devotion to Avalokiteśvara and his mantra. 285 00:31:03,030 --> 00:31:11,890 The discovery of the Kachem Kakholma coma was attributed to Atiśa and hence the Kadampa school, but the Maṇi bka' 'bum is a composite gTer ma with three Nyingma discovers. 286 00:31:11,890 --> 00:31:18,420 Grub thob dNgos grub, precise dates unknown. His student Myang ral Nyi ma 'Od zer 1124-1192 287 00:31:18,420 --> 00:31:24,910 And Myang ral's spiritual successor, Guru Chos dbang, 1212 to 1270. 288 00:31:24,910 --> 00:31:31,590 Certainly, the Maṇi bka' 'bum itself is often counted as the earliest extant, really important Nyingma gTer ma. 289 00:31:31,590 --> 00:31:39,630 Yet it draws as heavily on sūtra themes as on tantric ones in contrast to subsequent Nyingma gTer mas, which are mostly tantric. 290 00:31:39,630 --> 00:31:46,440 The same is true of the early Bon gTer stons, gShen chen klu dga', while his gTer mas included many genres of scripture. 291 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:52,950 The sūtra texts of his khams brgyad were by far the greatest in terms of sheer bulk. 292 00:31:52,950 --> 00:31:56,310 It's significant to two of the Maṇi bka' 'bum's discovers, Myang ral and, 293 00:31:56,310 --> 00:32:03,080 Chos dbang are also considered the earliest and most definitive codifiers of the Nyingma school of Buddhism. 294 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,840 Much of their codification is pertain to gTer ma, 295 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:12,320 including the first comprehensive literary formulations of the narrative structures that framed Nyingma gter ma discovery, 296 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:19,920 as well as complex theoretical explorations and practical advice. I'm referring here to such works as Myang ral's famous biography of Padmasambhava, 297 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:26,300 of Padmasambhava, the bKa' thang Zang glingma, his huge bka' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa, and Chowang's analysis of the 298 00:32:26,300 --> 00:32:31,610 meaning of the word gter and the practise of its recovery in his gter 'byung chen mo. 299 00:32:31,610 --> 00:32:39,590 This seems to indicate, what this seems to indicate is that the two great masters who did most to codify the Nyingma gter ma system were themselves 300 00:32:39,590 --> 00:32:46,820 reasonably well versed in Mahāyāna sūtra literature because both were also directly involved in the production of a major gter ma, 301 00:32:46,820 --> 00:32:51,810 the Maṇi bka''bum, that substantially depended on a Mahāyāna sūtra. 302 00:32:51,810 --> 00:32:53,550 In addition, Myang ral, Myang ral 303 00:32:53,550 --> 00:33:01,680 was the author of historical work such as the Chos 'byung me tog snying po brang rtsi'i bcud, that had much to say about general Buddhism India. In my view, 304 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,910 we therefore need not be surprised that Myang ral was also capable of adapting a Myang ral 305 00:33:05,910 --> 00:33:10,970 prominent Mahāyāna sūtra literary motif for use at the very heart of his vision of gter ma. 306 00:33:10,970 --> 00:33:15,230 Especially since, in all likelihood, there were already precedents for him to work from. 307 00:33:15,230 --> 00:33:22,320 Nor need we be surprised that everyone referenced various Mahāyāna sūtra texts to his work, in his work. 308 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:29,400 Not everyone agrees with me, however, a colleague recently suggested that the Myang ral was so ignorant about sūtras that any similarities 309 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:37,310 between his vision of gter ma and Mahāyāna sūtra literary motifs could only be coincidental. 310 00:33:37,310 --> 00:33:42,710 To my thinking. While Myang ral might show little sign of engagement in śastric Buddhist scholarship. 311 00:33:42,710 --> 00:33:48,380 I don't think he was necessarily ignorant of Mahāyāna secret literature, which as all Ulrike Roesler points out, 312 00:33:48,380 --> 00:33:57,040 remains a predominant field of Buddhist learning until very shortly before the Myang ral's own time. 313 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:02,680 For further circumstantial evidence, I can point to the example of Myang ral's older contemporary the bKa' gdams pa turned 314 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:08,630 bka' brgyud pa sGam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1097-1153, 315 00:34:08,630 --> 00:34:14,720 sGam po pa was commonly known as Zla 'od gzhon nu, or Chandraprabha Kumāra after the protagonist by 316 00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:19,760 name in the Mahāyāna Samādhirāja sūtra in this influential sūtra, Chandra 317 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:24,860 Prabha kumāra is the principal interlocutor whom the prophesies will reincarnate as a dharma-- 318 00:34:24,860 --> 00:34:31,010 bhāṇaka in a future age to promote the teachings of the Samādhirāja after the Buddha's nirvana. 319 00:34:31,010 --> 00:34:34,910 According to David Jackson, sGam po pa was recognised by his bKa' gdams pa teacher, 320 00:34:34,910 --> 00:34:40,040 dGe bshes Po to ba, as the reincarnation of that very same Chandraprabha Kumāra from the Samādhirāja. 321 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:47,220 Thus, according to Jackson, sGam po pa's promotion of a controversial and uniquely sūtra based Mahāmudra 322 00:34:47,220 --> 00:34:53,220 meditation system was interpreted by some of his contemporaries as deriving from the Samādhirāja, 323 00:34:53,220 --> 00:34:58,170 which they believed sGam po pa specifically reincarnated to propagate. 324 00:34:58,170 --> 00:35:07,340 Indeed, the central teaching of this Mahāyāna sūtra is a meditation on evenness or mnyam pa nyid, a key technical term in both Mahāmudrā and rDzogs chen. 325 00:35:07,340 --> 00:35:12,890 Be that, as it may, we can see that classic Mahāyāna sūtra literary themes of prophecy, 326 00:35:12,890 --> 00:35:19,730 reincarnation, and the revelation of previously concealed teachings definitely played a vital role in the tradition building. 327 00:35:19,730 --> 00:35:30,620 In the tradition building, the characterised 12th century Tibet. In a lecture delivered in Paris on the 23rd of March, travelling in time, 328 00:35:30,620 --> 00:35:34,820 the role of Jataka stories and prophecies in the construction of the bKa' gdams pa School, 329 00:35:34,820 --> 00:35:39,140 Ulrike Roesler gave a fascinating account of the important role of certain classic 330 00:35:39,140 --> 00:35:45,480 Indian Buddhist literary conventions in the tradition building texts of the bKa' gdams pas. 331 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:51,600 Specifically, she painted a compelling picture of how Jātaka and sūtra derived notions of vyākaraṇa time travel and 332 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:57,540 reincarnation were adapted for incorporation into the narratives of the Pha chos and Bu chos of the bKa' gdams pa glegs bam 333 00:35:57,540 --> 00:36:06,780 And analysing the Sanskrit term vyākaraṇa, Roesler explains that it means rather more than its usual translation of prophecy. 334 00:36:06,780 --> 00:36:11,910 Vyākaraṇa implies a broader understanding of causality through all the three times of past, 335 00:36:11,910 --> 00:36:16,620 present and future a supernormal knowledge, abhijñā, or accessible only to 336 00:36:16,620 --> 00:36:23,970 extremely advanced beings and a necessary component of a Buddha's omniscience. 337 00:36:23,970 --> 00:36:30,900 And these bKa' gdams pa narratives, Atiśa thus assumes a role parallel to the Buddha of the Indian literary prototypes. 338 00:36:30,900 --> 00:36:37,120 While Atiśa's leading disciples as roles parallel to those of the Buddha's leading disciples. 339 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:41,770 When Atiśa discloses his past and future births with these disciples to illustrate 340 00:36:41,770 --> 00:36:46,810 their long-standing karmic destinies with his teachings through many lifetimes, 341 00:36:46,810 --> 00:36:53,930 he thereby simultaneously signals his own Buddha-like knowledge of the three times. 342 00:36:53,930 --> 00:37:00,170 Turning now to the most influential Tibetan gter ma tradition, the still thriving practises of the rNying ma pa school. 343 00:37:00,170 --> 00:37:04,850 We again find such knowledge of the three times central to their narratives. 344 00:37:04,850 --> 00:37:12,470 But as David Gray showed us three weeks ago, scriptural revelation in tantric Buddhism is often visionary in nature. 345 00:37:12,470 --> 00:37:20,540 Hence, by the 12th century Nyingma gTer ma ideology had become articulated and codified into what I am very provisionally going to call a vision, 346 00:37:20,540 --> 00:37:27,080 myth or maybe a vision narrative. I'm not sure yet. I'm referring here to the coherent and consistent, 347 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:34,400 but nevertheless, flexible mythic narrative structure woven around the life story of Padmasambhava which has determined 348 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:41,200 to shape and content of the visionary experiences of all Nyingma treasure founders since the 12th century. 349 00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:48,460 By lending form to their visionary experiences, it has also shaped and predicted the content of the actual treasure discoveries. 350 00:37:48,460 --> 00:37:52,060 In turn, the vision itself becomes reaffirmed, 351 00:37:52,060 --> 00:37:58,210 perpetuated, and enriched with each subsequent visionary experience and with each subsequent treasure discovery. 352 00:37:58,210 --> 00:38:06,740 Century after century. While this vision myth has perhaps served most prominently to underpin the ongoing revelations of new gter mas, 353 00:38:06,740 --> 00:38:12,960 it simultaneously supports most, most other aspects of Nyingma ritual, practise, and identity. 354 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:22,410 Since these are often inseparably connected since these are often inseparably connected with treasure discovery and with Padmasambhava. 355 00:38:22,410 --> 00:38:27,030 Anthropologists might detect some resemblance between my provisional terminology of vision, 356 00:38:27,030 --> 00:38:32,160 myth or vision narrative, with the idea of the mystery proposed by the Canadian 357 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:38,620 anthropologist Kenelm Burridge and subsequently adapted by further anthropologists. 358 00:38:38,620 --> 00:38:46,360 Recently, Charles Stewart used Burridge's ideas in his fascinating study of the key role played by communally occurring and, 359 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:53,620 communally curated religious streams in the miraculous rediscovery by a Greek Orthodox community of a series of 360 00:38:53,620 --> 00:39:02,560 long hidden ancient sacred icons reputedly buried on the island of Naxos by ancient Christian refugees from Egypt. 361 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:11,490 These dreams were received by several different persons, continued over time and were characterised by a specific, coherent, repeated narratives. 362 00:39:11,490 --> 00:39:19,400 They indicated to the villages where they should take to fund the icons. Well, illustrating their ancient origins and sacred power. 363 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:28,890 Today, after decades of sustained religious outpouring, these icons form the basis of one of the major pilgrimage sites in Greek Christianity. 364 00:39:28,890 --> 00:39:37,620 The myth-dream Stewart describes in Naxos is not very unusual, and ethnographers have described comparable examples in various parts of the world. 365 00:39:37,620 --> 00:39:44,160 It's remotely possible that David Drewes has termed the standard claim of the Mahāyāna sūtras was one such myth-dream, 366 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:49,650 since it worked as an implicit mythic structure that lent a unifying cohesion to the multifarious 367 00:39:49,650 --> 00:39:57,700 revelations of Mahāyāna sūtras by different dharmabhāṇakas over long periods of time. 368 00:39:57,700 --> 00:40:03,730 But what sets the Nyingma vision-myth apart from the dreams of most other cultures, including the Mahāyāna, 369 00:40:03,730 --> 00:40:10,600 is a comprehensive manner in which it has been extracted from its wider contexts and developed into an independent theme, 370 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:18,220 moving from the implicit to the explicit becoming formally codified and organised being committed to writing not merely once, 371 00:40:18,220 --> 00:40:25,730 but many times over and developed as a major literary genre in its own right. 372 00:40:25,730 --> 00:40:34,430 As far as we currently know, the Nyingma vision-myth was first committed to writing in the twelfth century by Myang ral in his seminal bKa' thang Zang gling ma 373 00:40:34,430 --> 00:40:38,910 Although Myang ral definitely drew on earlier sources. 374 00:40:38,910 --> 00:40:47,250 In a variation on Po to ba's recognition of sGam po pa as the reincarnation of Chandraprabha Kumāra, and setting a precedent for all subsequent gter stons,, 375 00:40:47,250 --> 00:40:58,110 Myang ral saw himself as a prominent figure from the vision-myth. He was the reincarnation Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra's most illustrious disciple, the emperor Khri srong lde btsan. 376 00:40:58,110 --> 00:41:02,970 Hence, he was able to rediscover both of phur pa 'phrin las section and actually root tantras of the 377 00:41:02,970 --> 00:41:07,650 bKa' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa cycle directly from the emperor's own personal manuscripts. 378 00:41:07,650 --> 00:41:17,060 The very same manuscripts entrusted by Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava brought to the emperor 400 years previously and then concealed as gter ma. 379 00:41:17,060 --> 00:41:26,250 Further iterations of the Nyingma vision-myth were subsequently committed to writing by numerous later masters, notably again, O rgyan gling pa's 14th century Padma bka' thang. 380 00:41:26,250 --> 00:41:34,170 The Nyingma vision-myth became so influential that it now counts as a cultural property of all Tibetans, regardless of skills or lineage. 381 00:41:34,170 --> 00:41:38,340 The name given to such text is bka' thang, which is difficult to translate. 382 00:41:38,340 --> 00:41:46,650 Dictionaries give such words as order, edict, or command, but add that it usually refers to the biographies of Padmasambhava concealed as gter ma. 383 00:41:46,650 --> 00:41:54,080 Treasures. The religious aspects of the bKa' thang genre remain less explored and historical. 384 00:41:54,080 --> 00:42:00,680 Yet their primary function has always been religious, playing a key role in the inner religious lives of contemporary rNying ma pas. 385 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:08,390 It informs their meditative experiences, religious dreams and visions, while also shaping their revelations of gter ma. 386 00:42:08,390 --> 00:42:11,990 Its relation to ritual performance is equally pronounced. 387 00:42:11,990 --> 00:42:20,310 Whole episodes of the bka' thang can originated tantric ritual subsequently transcribed into symbolic narratives about Padmasambhava. 388 00:42:20,310 --> 00:42:30,480 bKa' thang-based liturgies such as Rig 'dzin rgod ldem’s Le'u bdun ma are recited at the tenth day mtshogs, or gaṇacakra, which itself worships the Padmasambhava of the bka' thangs. 389 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:37,280 An interesting contrast to the dharmabhāṇakas performances described to us in February by Natalie Gummer. 390 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:45,560 One could cogently argue that the bka' thang narratives enjoy even more life than the countless liturgical and visionary and ritual manifestations, 391 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:51,110 than in the few famous hagiographies by Myang ral, O rgyan gling pa 392 00:42:51,110 --> 00:42:59,300 In these intensely devotional narratives themselves mainly discover as gter ma as Padmasambhava is envisaged as the second Buddha, 393 00:42:59,300 --> 00:43:09,290 a direct emanation of Amitābha, who takes miraculous birth, fully formed and fully enlightened upon a magical lotus on a lake in Uḍḍiyāna. 394 00:43:09,290 --> 00:43:18,050 Like his avatāraka or avatīrṇa Śaiva counterparts his purpose in manifesting is to teach non-ideal tantras never previously heard by humans. 395 00:43:18,050 --> 00:43:26,610 But he also has a special karmic relationship with Tibetans so that he can manifest teachings for them that no other nations have received. 396 00:43:26,610 --> 00:43:30,930 Plus, the bka' thang texts usually placed special emphasis on his stay in Tibet with 397 00:43:30,930 --> 00:43:36,160 a discussion of his prolific concealment of gter mas in the Tibetan landscape. 398 00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:44,860 And here the bka' thang literature borrows a major narrative framework from the Mahāyāna sūtra literary conventions previously described. As a knower 399 00:43:44,860 --> 00:43:51,040 Of the three times, the second Buddha, Padmasambhava, has the ability to understand all karmic causes and effects in the minutest 400 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,610 detail. Like the Buddha of the Mahāyāna sūtras, 401 00:43:54,610 --> 00:44:01,000 He, too, can foresee the future vicissitudes of his teaching dispensation down to the smallest particulars. 402 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:07,450 Armed with that foresight, like the Buddha of the Mahāyāna sūtras, he can see that the teachings he has just given his disciples in 8th century 403 00:44:07,450 --> 00:44:12,910 Tibet will need to be concealed for time and then re-revealed in future centuries. 404 00:44:12,910 --> 00:44:15,040 Like the Buddha in the Mahāyāna sūtras, 405 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:22,060 Padmasambhava's knowledge of even the most minute workings of pratītyasamutpāda allow him to discern to which of his disciples he should, 406 00:44:22,060 --> 00:44:26,740 at this moment entrust each particular teaching and in which particular future time 407 00:44:26,740 --> 00:44:32,950 in which precise location in Tibet they must be reborn to recover those teachings. 408 00:44:32,950 --> 00:44:39,310 He also knows exactly where, when and with which companions they should recover in those future lives, 409 00:44:39,310 --> 00:44:44,180 like the Buddha's students in the Mahāyāna sūtras Padmasambhava’s students, too, are inspired, 410 00:44:44,180 --> 00:44:51,690 to take mighty vows to be reborn in those future times to uphold the teachings with which Padmasambhava has entrusted them. 411 00:44:51,690 --> 00:44:56,730 Accordingly, like the Mahāyāna sūtras bka' thang texts attribute prophecies to Padmasambhava 412 00:44:56,730 --> 00:45:02,170 in which he discloses details about the future vicissitudes of his teachings, their concealment, his entrustment. 413 00:45:02,170 --> 00:45:04,500 of those teachings to his close students, 414 00:45:04,500 --> 00:45:12,800 the vows of those students to be reborn to propagate them in future lives, and many particulars about daily discoveries. 415 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:21,060 O rgyan gling pa's Pema bka' thang is perhaps the most famous for its sheer quantity of prophecies but all bka' thang texts describes them. 416 00:45:21,060 --> 00:45:26,280 Turning from bka' thang ideology to the practical mechanics of revelation in Tibet, 417 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:33,720 we find that tantric and indigenous things play equally prominent roles, which we have no time to discuss here. 418 00:45:33,720 --> 00:45:45,710 Nevertheless, I should mention that the outer classificatory envelope containing these mechanics once again adopts Mahāyāna categories as paramount. 419 00:45:45,710 --> 00:45:50,930 Paul Harrison, who has researched Indian Mahāyāna scriptural revelation for many years, 420 00:45:50,930 --> 00:45:56,570 he argues that its various mechanics of revelation are summarised in Shantideva's ŚikSasamuccaya 421 00:45:56,570 --> 00:46:05,800 when it cites a passage from the Sarvapuṇyasamuccaya-samādhi-sūtra Harrison translates as follows: 422 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:12,580 "For, Vimalatejas, the Buddhas and Lords resident in other world systems show their faces to reverent and respectful bodhisattvas, 423 00:46:12,580 --> 00:46:17,700 and mahāsattvas wanting the dharma, and they cause them to hear the Dharma. 424 00:46:17,700 --> 00:46:21,610 Vimalatejas, treasures of the Dharma are deposited in the interiors of mountains, 425 00:46:21,610 --> 00:46:27,160 caves and trees for bodhisattvas and mahāsattvas wanting the dharma and endless dharma teachings in book form. 426 00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:37,980 Come into the hands. Vimalatejas, deities who have seen former Buddhas provide bodhisattvas and mahāsattvas wanting the dharma with the inspired eloquence of Buddhas." 427 00:46:37,980 --> 00:46:46,110 A parallel tripart classificatory structure was applied to Buddhist revelation in Tibet through appropriation of the Mahāyāna schema, 428 00:46:46,110 --> 00:46:52,620 although already apparent in early authors such as Guru Chos dbang, this classification to quite its present-day terminology. 429 00:46:52,620 --> 00:46:54,150 More recently, 430 00:46:54,150 --> 00:47:02,610 nowadays we know them as, firstly, dag snang or pure vision of meeting the Buddha face to face in a vision or dream and receiving teachings. 431 00:47:02,610 --> 00:47:11,400 Secondly, Sa gter or Sa gter ma, earth treasure, meaning sacred texts concealed within the material world or in the environment. 432 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:21,740 And thirdly, dgongs gter or mind treasure a direct, divine inspiration of the mind committing the spontaneous, confident utterance of dharma. 433 00:47:21,740 --> 00:47:29,960 To summarise, Tibetology is always claimed that Tibet's gter ma traditions grew from a mixing of indigenous and Indian influences. 434 00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:35,390 Undoubtedly, both India and Tibet had their own treasured cultures that merged over time. 435 00:47:35,390 --> 00:47:43,310 So far, however, the Indian influence have remained little explored. I hope to begin this exploration, and it promises to be interesting. 436 00:47:43,310 --> 00:47:48,770 On the one hand, we believe there might have been some direct historical continuity between Indian and Tibetan 437 00:47:48,770 --> 00:47:54,710 revelatory practises in the largely anonymous revelation of some early Nyingma tantras. 438 00:47:54,710 --> 00:47:59,840 As careful calques of Sanskrit tantras, and largely based on reused Indian texts, 439 00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:06,800 they were quite likely produced with the same revelatory methods still used at that time by Indian gurus. 440 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:16,010 By contrast, the slightly later gter ma system was a uniquely Tibetan melange of numerous sources with no precise counterparts anywhere else. 441 00:48:16,010 --> 00:48:21,470 Unlike Indian Buddhism's largely anonymous dharmabhāṇakas and tantric siddhas it openly identified, 442 00:48:21,470 --> 00:48:26,660 its text revealers mixing the contemporary contemporaneous tantric traditions of Kashmir 443 00:48:26,660 --> 00:48:32,660 and India with powerful indigenous Tibetan elements in the spirit of 11th century Tibet. 444 00:48:32,660 --> 00:48:40,370 It seems to draw these together within frame narratives inspired by Mahāyāna sūtra literary motifs long discontinued in India, 445 00:48:40,370 --> 00:48:49,280 but which thereby found a remarkable new life in 10th century Tibet. 446 00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:53,930 So, thanks. Thank you, Rob. That was fantastic. 447 00:48:53,930 --> 00:49:02,900 That was beautifully clear, and I think after all the previous talks, I really enjoyed hearing how you fit it all together into a bigger picture. 448 00:49:02,900 --> 00:49:21,129 So, thank you very much for that.