Dazzling Displays and Hidden Departures
Bodhisattva Pedagogy as Performance in the Biographies of Two Twentieth Century Tibetan Buddhist Masters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3244347 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Annabella Pitkin (Lehigh University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 173 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel8090173 |
| OpenAlex | W2752696687 |
| Language | NL |
| References cited | 24 |
This article, part of a special issue on pedagogy and performance in Tibetan Buddhism, explores two closely-related yet apparently opposite Tibetan repertoires of virtuoso Buddhist mastery as sites of performative pedagogy. One of these modes of Buddhist mastery is connected with the ideal virtuoso figure of the yogic siddha, or druptop (Tib. grub thob), and with remarkable manifestations of yogic prowess (what are sometimes called yogic "miracles" in English). The other mode is connected with the ideal of renunciation, and the Tibetan Buddhist virtuoso figure of the renunciant hermit-wanderer, or chatralwa (Tib. bya bral ba). In Indic and Tibetan literature, both of these repertoires of Buddhist mastery are classically associated with a bodhisattva's teaching activity in the world, and with a bodhisattva's use of many kinds of skillful means (Skt. upāya; Tib. thabs) to develop individuals on the Buddhist path. (A bodhisattva, in Mahayana Buddhist terms, is someone who has vowed to achieve Buddhahood to benefit others.) I explore how these related modes of virtuoso pedagogical performance emerge in oral and textual life stories of two notable twentieth-century Tibetan masters. These modes of virtuoso Buddhist pedagogy and Tibetan ways of talking about them challenge our understandings of what it means to "perform" and what it means to "renounce," with renunciation emerging as a guarantor of the genuineness of someone's altruism
Aesthetics · Art · Bodhisattva · Buddhism · Epistemology · Literature · Renunciation · Theology · Diverse Music Education Insights · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Philosophy · Theatre and Performance Studies
More than Real
Rituels bouddhistes de pouvoir et de violence
Introduction To Buddhism Beyond The Monastery
Varieties of Secularism in Asia
The Making of Buddhist Modernism
Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia
Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks
Apparitions of the Self
The Yogin and the Madman
Ritual as History in Tibetan Divine Kingship
Performative Acts and Gender Constitution
Vajra Brother, Vajra Sister
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |