Today. We are very thrilled to have one of my long term friends, very good friend of mine and around and present her research for us today.
When Chandra is a doctoral candidate in religious studies in Munich and an anthropology and anthropology in Paris.
And has been trained in he's done in the Car Research Centre focuses on how scriptural
training translate to mixed reality in the context of monastic order of Tibetan Buddhism.
And a very fascinating, still technically challenging one.
But without further ado, I'm going to shed these speaking away.
Good evening, everybody. It's an honour and pleasure to be here.
I feel humbled and inspired. At the same time. I want to express my particular thanks to Daniel and Jacob for the gracious invitation.
And I'm much looking forward to this chance to share my research with you.
Given that this is a graduate seminar, I'm eager to receive your feedback, thoughts and impressions.
In dissent, my short talk will be less a polished presentation, but rather look at my research desktop,
at the materials, thoughts and preliminary conclusions we might find on it.
Today we will be beginning with mapping out the field, giving an introduction.
You were looking at the one where we look at the tree of practice.
We will then go to pad to the practice of practice and then conclude with preliminary conclusions.
If I may start with this picture, it's an image at the debate ground of Saroj, a monastery in South India,
and displays this peculiar because in the morning it has something very gentle, inspirational.
And in the evening when the floodlighting is installed and thousands of monks debate, shout and wrestle, it feels rather fierce.
So it shows.
I feel that this place was particularly proud of how spaces can be have different faces like this very much and that I start out with that.
In terms of the background and motivations for this research, I have studied 12 years in the traditional Decima curriculum,
from which the greatest part was dedicated to be man on camera.
And before that, the preliminary topics.
I remember a certain amount of perpetual confusion if those studies were supposed to inform a form of Buddhist practice.
In the practical sense of the word something embodied, or if it was supposed to be understood as a technical digest.
Offensive Buddhist encyclopaedia on Buddhist practice.
In an ideal sense, it was actually our Jacob Fisher here in the audience to remind me that Limits on Cover made an analogy in that regard,
which we can find at the very beginning of the Lemon Chan more after having elaborated on the divisions
of the teachings offered by was abandoned and his epidemic kosher to which we shall return later.
The lam reads, for example. It is like showing a horse to racecourse before you race.
Once you have shown it, you then race there.
It would be ridiculous to show the horse one race course and then race on another.
Similarly, why would we determine one thing by means of study and reflection?
And then when you go to practice, practice something completely different.
In the same vein, the last of Camel,
actually last three stages of meditation says further What you meditate on with the wisdom arisen from meditation is just that which,
you know, with the wisdom that has arisen from a study and reflection, you do not meditate something else.
And this is similar to how you show a horse, a racetrack and then race on it.
So I would like to start with my preliminary research questions and how I started the whole project and my initiative.
My initial query was if the Jewish studies in the same way,
then our horse would know that on paper I dare to familiarise oneself with a racetrack before then racing on the track,
or in other words, a theoretical trial run aimed at familiarisation with the theory of practice and.
Then what is it? Yeah. What is it all about? If you look in the same way at the bottom unknown cara and follow the same logic are these ideas.
Read a mouse study. They become an Ankara. Such a logic or practice or theoretical acquisition of yeah, of clearly how things should be.
And so my initial motivation within this research was to inquire if there be some unknown Kara,
which I studied over eight years in the monasteries and then reserve to get a
prediction would be the acquiring of theory of practice and would that a causal step?
Or pudding of practice or so and what is causal relationship was.
In terms of research methods.
It was interesting because already when I formulated my research proposal, I was faced with confronting critics on the one hand,
or the one critique was that I pretended to have a crystal sphere professing other people's level of practice.
The other party or the other side said that I was trying to deduce an application from a text.
Well, it has been why they asked the communities applying, studying to enter practice malankara.
And actually I agree with both criticisms, criticisms and hence I opted for a mixed method approach.
On the one hand, I have been working with philological methods, analysing, understanding and contextualising the Scripture dimension.
And on the other hand, I employed qualitative research methods to understand how a text such as they become known,
Kyra, is used by the communities within it is embedded.
So the theory of practice. So if you want to start with a part which is theoretical and with which I work with a philological research approach.
I would like to start with this dichotomy between orthodoxy and ultra practices
and with canon and charisma as theoretical life motifs in Tibetan cultures,
religious religion and religious traditions continue to play a central role in public life.
Religious traditions of various use and vintage have been offering and continue to provide a vital source of personal and collective identity.
When looking at a dichotomy of orthodox in art practices in the Tibetan context,
Canon and Karisma are particularly in esoteric traditions a fundamental fundamental pair.
The canon and canonical traditions in themselves can be understood as a stabilising factor.
The canonical traditions guaranteed the permanency of a strong religious identity in particularly in terms of its philosophical,
ritualistic and moral aspects. Periodically the charismatic teacher bring in a fresh influx of charisma.
We adjust to CONAN. The contemporary needs and dispositions are taken into considerations,
and these charismatic figures legitimise new interpretations for the commentator contributions.
In other words, the canon characterises the result of a deliberate attempt to collect range and
preserve the original message of the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist heritage,
and to protect it against corruption and to define and secure Indian and Tibetan religious identity.
The canon, once fixed, is permanent standing still.
In a world going to perpetual change, though. And on the other side, we have charisma.
We're just a spark into a routine ization of religion and ordinary life.
Legitimising religious leadership and change.
Great charisma gifts usually in Tibetan tradition him the legitimate legitimisation letter and words that
are my speciality to innovate and to push a new configuration of religious tenets into public acceptance.
He brings them into a convincing shape and offers innovative ideals, concepts and models.
We certainly can observe the interdependent between charisma and calendar, and the chain of philosophical and religious legitimation.
Provide looking at the global tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and more particularly at the role of Canonical works in that tradition,
such as the perfection of wisdom from which the ornament or Arabism alone characterised by the vast corpus of collected works such as the Schumann's,
and in the group, a tradition that will be the song Moms of Lament on Cover gets up in Captivity.
Those are considered timeless pillars of the global identity and tradition.
Perhaps there are, in fact, the most cherished factor of the traditions survival.
So theory versus practice. When I initially started out my research, I attempted to roughly define what theory and practice would mean to me,
and in particular in the context of the look of monasticism and within the great centres of their learning today.
To your study. I understood to be the theoretical engagement with the classic Buddhist text to instruction and dialectical debate,
as well as the resulting understanding of this teachings and this forming a basis for practice where such
logic a practice I understood to be an experience based engagement with the given manuals and instructions,
but developing the notion of practice as an analytical category, a plan to inquire into this gap between idealised prescriptions and actual practice.
Investigate the relationship between study and practice as set out in the issue curriculum and with due respect to the absent medico and particular,
and also examine our contemporary monastic scholars facing secularising and strongly modernising realities.
Understand and enact some copper's exhortation to engage with the entire body of teachings.
So many of you will know what some airline cover is, where it comes from.
But just to refresh your memory, man on camera is a gift to.
Is a short encyclopaedic digest or in other words,
a massive condensation of the question of parameters through dress into only 275 verses or trust pages.
To contextualise the scale of the water mattress synoptic efforts.
One has only to recall that a dagger kangaroo, for example, has 13,600 pages dedicated to the perfection of wisdom address.
Generally speaking, to be some unknown, Kara is related to the three largest perfection for wisdom citrus.
However, judging by the order of its particular topics, it is primarily related to the perfection of wisdom, dress and 25,000 lines.
Keeping in mind that Harry Bhadra two degrees here would remove dissent on this,
he asserts that you become known correlates under perfection of persons which are on 8000 versus the subject matter after be some on Ankara.
Is the unmistakeable part taught in the perfection of wisdom or address?
Those include all paths and realisations of Savarkar's particular Buddha's Bodhisattvas and Buddhas alike.
In terms of structure, there be some Alan Carr can either be understood in categories 70 topics or 20 to an asset point, including all subdivisions.
To become an anchor.
I was ordered roughly in the third or fourth century, and traditional geological sources attribute Maitreya not to the future Buddha as the author.
Whereas Western Scholarship ascribes authorship from anonymous archer attempting to attract the authority of a Buddha or actual historical figure.
As every student of your business. Kara is well aware of their 21 commentaries and maybe some unknown, Kyra, that were brought from India to Tibet.
You've become an anchor, has the most lasting impact of impact impact of any sort of commentary in Tibet.
It serves as a gateway for the study of the perfection of wisdom, stress.
But Tibetan Buddhists of all schools with amply added over the centuries to a number of its Indian commentaries,
despite the fact that that the engagement with Indian commentary in the global scholarship
is filtered through the Tibetan Commentator Corpus and the textbook literature.
The main Indian sources referenced next debate in Malankara text, of course, are.
Our remoteness and as I become Malankara Ritchey or the niche in our it's a commentaries and hundred and
98 followers from the sixth century and read that the oldest preserved commentary on the episode cover.
It was also the first commentary to systematically establish the correlations between certain passages
in the perfection of wisdom and 25 top lines and to 70 points presented in some unknown colour.
Another important Indian work that is highly regarded in a Tibetan corpus is Harry Burroughs,
a laugher light illuminating the ornament of realisations.
X Is this just in perfect wisdom or in Tibetan?
In short, ganong. Again, our very extensive text in 341 for years and which relies on the perfection of wisdom in each line.
And then finally, we have Harry Badass Allocca. The explanation of the treatise, the first quarter and moment of globalisation, the Dehradun cell,
which is a much shorter commentary in 62 folios and based on the much more extensive commentary of how you bhadra.
It does not directly quote the perfection of Wisdom Sutra and also true due to its brevity.
It is the main Indian commentary employed in the monastic education.
But back to the episode alone cover. It was initially translated in the first effusion of the doctrine, the latter in the eighth century.
But it was really the second diffusion to China in the 10th century,
which really brought about a strong effort in translation of the Indian works about embrace of matter and cover,
and to first original authors from from Tibet itself,
such as the 11th Century Permanent Translator, Indian Sound Board, 11th century scholar Moor Krotoa,
who was the first known Tibetan scholar to water works and to be some unknown current self.
The first exegetical activity, however, on December nine was recorded in the 12th and 13th century.
More precisely, the monastic college of Sample, where initially its scholars challenger Kissinger and then Newton wrote important works.
Bertrand's work is particularly famous.
And it's his massive commentary and years of scriptures has 818 followers, and his transmission has strongly influenced the Sacra master Yacktman.
And just shortly later on, who composed a large and intermediate and short commentary.
Developer commentaries, one particular lease, one particular start with limits on cuppa and his golden gallon of eloquence.
Again a massive works six and a 74 years which is particularly attractive in the but tradition but also the commentary works of turn copper's
main disciples get up engine and caterpillars care tumble crucial in the tradition and later textbooks after that worth mentioning the Sirajuddin
chicken garrison as well as the first John Young shipper and in particularly for be someone uncovered a textbooks are important because they allow
the students to cover topics that are not explicitly covered by the ornament such as the Tsonga or at a tongue election in bill by John Harper.
So how is the how is your bottom line, Kyra?
Studied in the Asian studies in the monastery. As we know, the first of the five major treatises studied in a geisha studies establishment in Korea,
which lays the sociological and philosophical foundation for the other texts to come into geisha curriculum.
My own character studied from year 4 to 10.
And this leads me to my next follow in my or my next slide, which are the lenses and analytical tools.
And here I'm really open for input. It's something where I'm still a little bit struggling on and.
Yeah. Having that is foundational introduction to become an Ankara.
And I'm aware, as I said, this might have come as a repetition to you.
I would like to come back to Lamont's on campus or as example and as you remember, the allegory with which you wants to know.
The allegory was that she wants to explain to us the causal relationship of the tree of realisation and realisations themselves.
So what type of practice and practice. And in this,
if this is the case where can be situate there be some and uncover in this context what are the monastic rituals or any group of monastery
hope for when studying the text for eight years full time and having looked at the textual dimension first I have been looking for,
you know, as I said, the analytical tools or lenses which might support or contextualise the abbey.
Some might be similar in Cara's function as a canonical text,
its function in the scholastic issue curriculum and also for the singer practitioner, him or him or herself.
So I came up with certain lenses, analytical aspects that I could think of, but I'm open to.
Yeah, any feedback on this would look to me possible as tools or lenses that show a sequential character of theory of practice.
And practice would be the three baskets or sculpture collections, the denosumab versus the tree hire trainings.
And I also have been looking at Bosom Buddies presentations of the Buddhist doctrine as the dharma of realisation.
The topic here and the dharma of precept. The long teacher.
And then finally, I have also been thinking of the causal relationship that we have in,
for example, later becoming a shoot at a sequence of the tree ackerman's of listening.
Contemplating and meditating and.
What the protocol is for the three baskets, the teaching for Scripture,
as as the occurrence of listening and contemplation, it appears sufficiently clear.
How would you agree? Somalia and Ankara situated serve in a category of theory of practice.
Query is if or perhaps how it leads to acumen up to the acumen of meditation, the Dharma realisation or the higher training of concentration.
To find an answer to this question, I attempted to find manuals, committees or duties which facilitate the transition from theory to practice.
The transition from the acumen of listening and contemplating. From the Scripture teachings.
Determining interior of practice to the teaching of realisation. Determining a practice of practice.
So if you look at the scholastic treatises versus the meditation manual, it's.
Both scholarly and non scholarly academic and popular popular publications seem to agree that literature on the Buddhist path,
MAGA or lamb should be practical. It should be about real practitioners doing real, somewhat controllable practices.
In that vein, scholars such as Bezalel and Jameel or Clark point out that they become an anxious internal dichotomy between the two ethical
elaborations on the path and the lack of relevance that peer to the person experience of the single practitioner is outstanding.
One could even go as far as to say that this seems to be a general perception that there'd be some unknown
cover and his commentary Corpus poses hardly any practical relevance in the monastic education context.
These studies are clearly some, and Ankara a priori understood as being encyclopaedic tracts with the primary purpose,
as we saw in the beginning, to stabilise and sustain a strong religious identity and philosophical lineage.
This becomes also apparent when we look at the language employed in the commentary corpus of cubism
in colour and take a look at tradition in particular or the way these commentaries are thought.
There are nearly no traversing, no indications or descriptions of person experience.
First person is not employed and they are not missions to people.
Obstacles to the practitioner might have encountered and the way the order of art of a text mastered them.
This also holds true for more practice oriented commentary such as longer dilemmas,
collection of terms occurring in the personal parameter or gets up just way to practice a sequence of clear realisations to which will come later on.
Again, similar claims rare and voiced by Robert Schaff as well as George Dreyfus.
The real focus in the work on the summit in Cairo seems to be theoretical.
And so the intended training of terrorism at Ankara has been intramural and monastic virtuoso
who is already fully oriented at obtaining to finance such a logic and aim of enlightenment,
living in an environment that is set out to achieve the paths and grounds within the Mahayana framework as set out in a perfection of wisdom,
stress as well as terrorism. And Ankara, the lay audience is traditionally foreseen.
The text being too telegraphic in its style and only accessible to those who already engaged in fair amount of studies and is
considered to be beyond depends on a lay person can employ in terms of time and without neglecting his or her worldly pursuits.
So if you look at the texts that actually tried to bridge this two practice divide.
I have been working so far with pretexts mainly.
First and foremost were 2/18 century yoga.
Lorna Lemon long law songs collection of times occurring in depression of her me to partner join me in them tongue.
This is a relatively short treatise with 1333 Folios in the BLOCK,
print versions and part of an encyclopaedic series of 14 writings on canonical texts tantra,
poetry, grammar, medicine, astrology and astronomy as well as the religious history.
The genera of these texts of London among all or some, and can be attributed to what we know in the Indian literature as number per year.
Pronunciation of this was wrong, but this refers to a genre of quasi synonymous designations structured by subheadings and comprehensible lists.
In Western literatures, a similar designations might be both come from the list in this interesting way.
Covering all the eight categories and some of the topics distinguishes itself from the 70 topics genre.
It offers this particular text offers interwoven pit instructions and at times long dilemmas by original point
of use indications which are only helpful to those who already studied texts and intended to revise it.
Cryptic to those. In fact, we're not familiar with the eight categories and 70 topics already.
The second takes I also work for it is gets up Dharma relations the way to practice the sequence of clear realisations that opens the door.
Her supreme vehicle, the cinematographer remains within the picture and Steriliser takes hundred 16.
Folio similarly covers the 18 aid categories and 70 topics, and it provides additionally a word commentary and be somewhere along the route.
Texas release contemplation and meditation instruction.
Noteworthy is that all these instructions again reverberate the paradigm into imperative, and David and David have a rather impersonal register.
And then finally, I have been also working more for comparative purposes to get up Jay's explanation ornament of the essence, the national bargain.
And this is perhaps the most attractive commentary used in a Tibetan tradition and in the monastics curricula.
Huge text or very extensive text,
three and 446 folios offering both commentary and maybe some unknown crude text as but as a commentary on how a bad dress driven cell.
And despite this text in particular, lays a stronger focus on doctrinal disputes rather than on meditation oriented instructions.
As I said in traditional scholarship, this is to go to text when you study the abyss, this amount and cover our commentary.
So I thought one of the main interests in terms of my research is to not solely use the text application from its content,
but rather to understand and analyse how did someone uncover,
as used by the best scholars and the great centres of learning and applied in the curriculum in which we find that embedded?
So I did an additional classical approach and did an addition and translation of loan dilemmas.
Text. And. Yeah.
As I mentioned earlier, all of the texts and have something dry and eclectic and to a certain extent sterile in the global centres of learning.
The main matter to enliven these texts is to the evocative word commentary,
the tickler only for those that have gotten this kind of commentary and debated
those texts in the dialectical debate format during a daily debate session,
this dry text and the technical vocabulary would become juicy and reverberate with meaning.
When the Jewish is confirmed is our commentaries on maybe some online cover.
It is like they roll out a map of the Buddhist worldview.
They then indicate connections to other texts, to logic that can be brought into dialectical debates and disconnection and reconnection,
then exert a transformative force on the mind of the monks and the audience.
To retrace this process. From my own research, I have received word commentary on the long dilemma text from the lament of the
Goodman Hunter College sandwich alarm dishing on Tangier taking daily class.
The classic of pity in the stylish column would receive classes.
However, you got always rather unhappy when I would start asking Pokey questions about context of texts or something too scholarly,
he would put me back in my place and say, If you want to be a monk, if you want to play a man, play among.
And no set of questions, please. Yeah, there was not much wriggle room there.
So come to the second part.
If you want to look at the practice of practice, you have a young monks breeding a ritual practice in government college and.
Yeah. You want to first perhaps look at the qualitative research.
Field research and the field research I conducted to find the big study communities
of the Columbia tradition and in particularly my last few trip in winter,
further 22. And that was a trip where I wanted to understand if and how the textual studies actually become and uncover,
which I implemented through hermeneutical practices of commentary and debate of prerequisites for practice and meditation.
Having already been familiar with the field, I opted for a triple track of qualitative inquiry.
I work at questionnaires. I know it's very unpopular and a bit of logic a fields but still went for it.
I had a digital and an analogue questionnaire and these questionnaires consisted of eight simple questions from which me and multiple choice format.
And this question is we had just an idea to query a general meaning and then individual contextualisation.
I have to be someone on cover for to sing about. I was I was expecting I wouldn't get anything back, but I got back 35.
Filled out questionnaires at Sir Roger and 78 questionnaires at DePaul Nursing and among Koeman Monastery,
as well as questionnaires from a couple of nannies. I also mainly work for interviews.
Those are in-depth, semi-structured conversation,
usually about 60 to 90 minutes and hold entirely in Tibetan if they would like to do the English report mix.
But I didn't work with an interpreter and I interviewed 25 dishes in leading positions.
Key position of education and administration efforts.
Reincarnated lamas and dishes that had been a long term retreats.
I also interviewed 18 students in Turkish studies ranging from the semantic class to the final lamp class.
And I spoke to ten Tibetan and Westerners teaching Tibetan Buddhist philosophy in a Western context.
I would always introduce interviews with a small abstract kind of introduction and then try to stick,
if possible, with my question sheet that I memorised. And that way, a subsequent comparison analysis would be easier and more precise.
From the outset of the most recent field research, it became evident, though, that speaking Tibetan was not equal to being understood in Tibetan.
In particular, though, when it came to less tangential questions, were the language employed in the debate format could not be used.
And then on paper that a lay woman would ask noisy questions about philosophical topics,
something generally reserved for monastic virtuosi and Tibetan.
And then connecting this to something practical was apparently rather intimidating for some monks.
Um. Yeah.
So the first part of my question I, of my question,
I do it in the interview would inquire about maybe some online course placement in the curriculum methods,
employed techs and commentaries that would be read on the site, etc.
And this part of the interview, in fact, this was rather irrelevant or less relevant for my research, but and I nearly always get the same replies.
But it was a vital step to gain the trust of mental academic interlocutors.
So I would come in and room sometimes they would be clutching their their chairs, you know, in sheer distress.
I would ask embarrassing questions. And then when I would come with my classical question, what is the some unknown cover?
How do you study it? Why is debates important?
There were kind of relax and reason, and then after ten, 15 minutes, it would get bearable for both of us.
And for me, as honest as were quite embarrassing because you had this kind of famous issue that everybody respected and he thought,
I don't know what it does sometimes, but you could clearly see that they were very uncomfortable.
And yeah, only about ten or 15 minutes later when they were impressed by the Tibetan or by the way,
how, you know, they got over their defeat, I think. Scott and more comfortable.
And then in the second part of the interview,
I could inquire actually on how the interviewee would bridge listening and contemplating which to practice.
In any case, in the first interview is that those are always pilot project.
I had to see how, you know, the monks would understand my questions and if the question were logical and straightforward.
Yeah. And I saw oftentimes that there was really no guarantee that would understand the question.
Well, correct. But yeah, something that's not appreciate by my interlocutors.
One of those practical challenges I would like to share with you here was, for example, the translation of the word practice.
You know, maybe we would in Yemen, we would say probably would say seminar, Georgia, Lackland, Cuba.
Yeah. And it's also interesting how this word practice is very different, accommodated by the different schools in Tibetan Buddhism.
Um, I, we, referring to practice are referring to contemplative practice.
I was referring to, you know, getting our hands on something on, on brutalisation, on habits, on karmic imprints.
So this is, there's a vast range.
And that made it really difficult because for example, the word in Yemen is heavily concentrated in the Tibetan language,
but something which is very advanced, more meditative and hermit, nearly and same or very similar.
You had the same problem with Gone with meditating that we have of traditions of meditating in the Tibetan tradition.
However, when Tibetan monks, he had gone this day to think of Western contemplative students and not MBAs
and mindfulness course courses and don't really know how to relate to that.
So yeah, right from the start I observed how using Tibetan Yunlin let my interlocutors more or less instantly
to disassociate from themselves as an individual and to switch into some kind of preaching mode,
prescriptive style, remembering in a me of traditional paradigms rather than of their own personal experiences.
Or they would simply make clear that meditation and their mindfulness style as we know it in the West is really not that cup of tea.
And they don't engage into that. Oftentimes they would also make reference.
Yeah, as I said, to Western styles of meditation, um, contemplative practices,
mindfulness and yeah, like to dissociated themselves from, from all of that.
And in light of this,
the task at hand was to find formulations which would not motivate interviewee to simply deduce from the text and from the textual,
but to find a way to explore together his very experiences and to understand how he dealt with the altering interpretations of practices,
institutional contexts and social frameworks in these times of great change.
And then I wrote. Yeah, I would field notes.
These are notes at one writes while doing research.
Objective notes. One tried to be as objective as possible, as descriptive, if possible.
And I just had a taking some pictures.
I always feel rather silly when I do them, but then when I'm home, I can really zoom in again into a space and through an experience.
Into a place where I have been. And setting up those interviews was always a big challenge.
Again, as a lay Western woman interested in philosophy, most dishes were a priority rather suspicious.
And then at another try to say, Oh, I'm a researcher.
And it didn't help at all, because these days as a researcher, one is supposed to be equipped with microscopes and brain scan equipment.
So I was oftentimes asked where my equipment was, which I unfortunately didn't have.
It was even converted to camera microscope next time to have some kind of alibi for being a researcher.
And it's also interesting that oftentimes the research that comes into these monasteries have very minimal knowledge of the Tibetan language,
culture and religion. So for them that somebody comes and already knows, it's.
Yeah, it's weird. And.
It is therefore, the best way to go to get these interviews from you was to go to an intermediary with substantial power leverage.
So in my case, that would be getting alongside your dilemma under from government and from a disciplinarian after a street.
And he had so much power that every interview that he set up worked.
So you would do a phone call and people would just say, yes, if I would have done a phone call.
And I guess nobody would have picked up.
And it was interesting because if I had also other people who helped me like a Shailaja and little Typekit, a younger director for Modern Studies,
I would say about your monastery or two philosophy teachers I interviewed, or even colleagues and friends,
and would a lot of these colleagues and friends, the acceptance rates tended to be rather low and there wasn't.
But there was always a fair share of scholars beside with additional thank you that declined and didn't feel comfortable.
Okay. We can skip that preliminary findings.
I just want to make clear by providing preliminary that my data is still in the evaluation.
I'm quite at the beginning with all of that, and my conclusions are in fact preliminary, but I find it exciting.
So I'm proud. I share what I have with you. And but I want to warn that this might all change in a couple of months.
So the question I would like to start with is the question to what and why.
It is essential to the studies to study tourism and encourage currently being visited.
The question asked in particular, would we got to be some in Ankara are the studies.
You know, if these studies are relevant and how do what to what actually relevant.
So other relevant to get a degree and other relevant in preparation to become a good practitioner at a relevant to get a degree
that India at an Indian university other relevant to the contemporary application either relevant to remain a true monastery.
This question somehow read everywhere and yet at the same time not too pressing.
And it was interesting that I could see that being culturally endowed with faith in the Buddhist path,
the monastic scholar traditionally had less a need to control this process of relevancy of the studies,
to have a strong belief in to a long term, in to not into the power of a long term process of karmic imprints.
What was so interesting was to see that the younger generation had other point of views,
and for them it was rather challenging to invest eight years of their life or 25 years if one sees the whole A curriculum,
and to only have a return of all of that in the next life or in three conditions.
What is also very interesting is the adapted teaching styles.
So if one speaks to older teachers or students of older teachers, I had a conversation with Caitlin which she started said, Ah, I'm so a gymnast.
We are students, of course, jump I our children. They were saying it in the past.
The teaching style was completely different. One had classes every day and those classes had two parts.
The first passports, philosophical, intellectual input. Philosophical input.
And the second part would be. A connection to something practical, a practical aspect of practice.
And there would be the teachings and then the movement or the treatment aspect of the path and principles,
the paths or the foundation of all good qualities.
So there would do this bridge of theory of practice and practice of practice, but in one class classes would belong to padded.
And this is something we don't have at all anymore.
Also the language would be different and the philosophy that philosophical teachings in
this two parted classes would be much more like a teaching rather than a philosophy class.
Okay. Yeah. And we got the contemplative meditation and meditation.
It was so much in decline in the monasteries after they came out of Tibet.
That meditation as a practice itself was recently reintroduced into me by the Abbot.
No, on Jordan several years back, and Becket started serving the current abbot.
And very recently. Same for Sarah, dishing out what I'm saying.
Introduced a couple of minutes of Sarah meditation just after the mantra recitation
during the recital of the Heart Sutra in the context of the trip prayers in the evening.
It's also interesting to see that all of these abbots had introduced contemplative practice, even if a couple of minutes into the monks,
they had been longtime in the West or had a strong exchange with Western cultures and had a sense or a need for meditation in a more modern sense.
And interesting to see that this is somehow a retrospective adaptation inspired by the West and
perhaps more on that than an intrinsic wish of the monks themselves to practice oral and meditation.
And yes, one could say that the focus today is really on studying debate and exam.
Relevancy, for example, is something that is becoming more and more strong.
Exam and degree relevancy. For example, exams results are now shared online on Excel charts.
And, you know, just kind of where am I? What?
And yeah I married my ma with my grades are really forming the identity of the monks in a quite strong form.
It's it seems that this examined degree oriented and has really changed in the last couple of years.
Without further ado. Yes.
To come to some conclusions. Again, preliminary conclusions.
My preliminary findings show that sweeping statements that we all like, such as the loop amongst listen and contemplate,
but that do not meditate or the study after be someone encourages purely scholastic or to strictly or d to acquire solely interpret,
you know to acquire to acquire a solely encyclopaedic function is the main aim of to be someone uncover or ever.
On the other hand, everything in the evidence from my card is out of practice,
are in fact through generalised statements and come from the use of an analytical lens which does not allow a
differentiated analysis of scriptural and lived realities in which the studies of this text are embedded within,
in particularly the communities in Indian exile, which are increasingly dealing with the friends and the toll modern media,
social media, secular education and modern lifestyle takes on the life and.
Yeah. I designed for a different outlook.
So esoteric curricula and esoteric institutions or traditions.
And this was one one of my findings at the very end of the finding.
But yeah, an important point that that really came out of my research that if you look
at tradition of Tibetan Buddhism as represented in the great monastic seeds,
it's mainly a tantric and a mainly tantric traditions in terms of the institutional infrastructure and the final practice aims.
And but if you speak to amongst themselves, they represent themselves as predominant.
You know, they represent themselves and institution as predominantly strict institution,
even if one can clearly see that on a personal level, they identify their identity, brings together sutra studies and tantric practice.
So yeah, this is something that I want to further look at, but I found very interesting.
The second point was no priority to former practices, theoretical focussed practice in theory, in the theory of practice.
So there'd be some uncover the dead.
And yeah, it's mainly seen as a as a text to study an accumulation of merit top debate
ritual and that comes and it's yeah it's seen as part of a two article training.
And. Even if no contemplative practices that monks practice directly deriving from the segment encourage itself.
There's great value attributed to the study of this text.
From an institutional perspective, the study of two canonical sources has much to do with the sense of preserving,
preserving of intellectual heritage, upholding a distinct heritage and canonical traditions quite unique to Tibetan culture.
On a more personal level, it lays a blueprint.
It's like a folder the other that adapt text and turn it in so the monks at establishment Ankara and then inserts
into it a B some unknown cover folder the media mecca that supplements the view the benighted supplements,
the ethical training hippie dharma that sets the basis of analysis.
And then finally Promina Vatika that provides the logic to reflect the meanings.
And yeah, so every time I don't care I seen as a fold that it.
Really excellently prepared for practice. And then the main aim familiarisation with the preliminaries, as you know, for tantra,
and here the ackermans for hearing and kind of getting into such a tradition provide the necessary preparation for tantra.
So this is one of the main aims at the scene in these long studies.
In other words, to be some unknown, Kara prepares and strengthens the three prerequisites for tantra, which are,
as we all know, renunciation from samsara, this existence, this life than Buddha, Gita and emptiness.
And. Those topics are extensively taught in the first chapter.
And to conclude.
To come back one second to our horse where we said, you know, we shouldn't show a horse around one racetrack and then race somewhere later.
One has to wonder if it's perhaps the case that the acumen of listening and
contemplating are separated in the Sutra Vehicle Rasta and acumen of meditating.
You know, what we understand as contemplative practices is allocate in the Tundra series and it is no contradiction for Tibetan mind.
Text it address contemplative practices, meditations and training.
It's in concentration. Amanda Smith From the Tantric Vehicles, the text about practices,
meditations and training and concentration that are sourced from the shooter vehicles
have a mandatory article or preservation application if they're not applied themselves,
but they are studied to preserve a heritage, a canonical tradition.
And for example, we have the study of after concentration and font absorption for a whole year and maybe some unknown cover,
but nobody ever would practice that. And it's made quite clear and it's in the in the classes after classes.
And this also explains why the text that I was looking at by a long dilemma and get up, gee, I'm not really interested.
Interesting to the mouse they're not seen as a bridge between the training of
listening and contemplating and industrial vehicle and meditation and tantra.
Vicar And it's yeah, but we have to remember that it's interesting as well that this bridge is also not done in class anymore,
something that happened in the past. So that got lost at a certain extend and one has to wonder how this bridge is to be rebuilt.
The monastic communities are trying takes into their re organised now regular teachings and the layman would their and daily tutors.
But yeah this is remains a question so if the texts that are supposed to give this bridge are not used, it's not done in class.
Where is it done? So to repeat the conclusions and let you go, the episode might uncover has indeed a theoretical focus it.
It is really, really important for the preservation of a canonical and scholastic tradition,
for the preparation of tantric practices, and for meditation and practice and tantra.
And this is also the main reason why should practice text are not so much considered.
And yeah, I wonder, looking back at our horrors, if the acumen of hearing and contemplating a man need to be situated in its super vigour
and preparations to then a training of concentration and meditation directly in tantra,
and that being then the result of all that and the connection of those two is done with the lamb or shorter text that we advocated before.
And yet not a point we made in conclusion was that the great look percenters of learning and predominantly represent a citric
institution and on an individual level be their identify as bringing together citric and tantric elements in any case.
I want to thank you for your attention. I hope there are not too many mistakes.
And yeah, my reading was not too bumpy and I look forward to your feedback and any thoughts or inputs you might have.
Yeah. Don't hesitate to speak to me out. Read me. I'm looking forward to that.