Thesis Chapters by Stephen T Mulraney
Master's thesis for MPhil Tibetan & Himalayan Studies, University of Oxford, 2022
Shar rdza bKra shis rgyal mtshan (1859–1934) was the most influential practitioner and scholar of... more Shar rdza bKra shis rgyal mtshan (1859–1934) was the most influential practitioner and scholar of Bon of his time, and the individual with the single greatest legacy for the development of Bon in the modern era. Most famously, he is reputed to have manifested the rainbow body, a spectacular supernatural display that is the final result of the spiritual path called dzogchen, “the Great Perfection”. In this way he visibly demonstrated his achievement of enlightenment in the post-death state—a testimony to a life spent following his religious path to its ultimate conclusion.
Shardza was also well-known during his life as a luminary and saint who combined great erudition, a commitment to teaching, and the pursuit of a hermit’s life with a strong reputation for morality. His single-minded focus on developing his spiritual practice, bolstered by an array of vows intended to avoid entanglement in worldly affairs, paint a vivid image of a retreat-based yogi who has turned his back on mundane concerns.
This yogi and holy man left another legacy in the form of his vast literary output, which helped pivot the Bon tradition towards a more systematic and academic mode of education, taking up the model exemplified by the Buddhist Gelug school. Among Shardza’s writings, however, one can find a pair of previously untranslated rituals which seem perhaps at odds with this image of an admired scholar–saint. These texts beseech the “Queen of Phenomenal Existence”, a fierce goddess sworn to protect the Bon teachings, to deal with the enemies of the religion in no uncertain terms:
The time to quickly dispel the enemies has come:
cut their lives, tear their hearts out!
eat their flesh and drink their blood!
Grind their lands into particles of dust.
How can we make sense of this ferocity, particular in the light of Shardza’s writings, which show his high regard for ethical behaviour and nonviolence in the contexts of meat-eating and ritual killing?
In this thesis I aim to form an understanding of these two ritual texts. To this end, I translate them for the first time and examine their religious and linguistic contexts. To contextualize their meaning, I look at the political and religious tensions of the times their author lived through, seeking information on his intention in writing these texts and on the reception of the texts by his contemporaries.
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Thesis Chapters by Stephen T Mulraney
Shardza was also well-known during his life as a luminary and saint who combined great erudition, a commitment to teaching, and the pursuit of a hermit’s life with a strong reputation for morality. His single-minded focus on developing his spiritual practice, bolstered by an array of vows intended to avoid entanglement in worldly affairs, paint a vivid image of a retreat-based yogi who has turned his back on mundane concerns.
This yogi and holy man left another legacy in the form of his vast literary output, which helped pivot the Bon tradition towards a more systematic and academic mode of education, taking up the model exemplified by the Buddhist Gelug school. Among Shardza’s writings, however, one can find a pair of previously untranslated rituals which seem perhaps at odds with this image of an admired scholar–saint. These texts beseech the “Queen of Phenomenal Existence”, a fierce goddess sworn to protect the Bon teachings, to deal with the enemies of the religion in no uncertain terms:
The time to quickly dispel the enemies has come:
cut their lives, tear their hearts out!
eat their flesh and drink their blood!
Grind their lands into particles of dust.
How can we make sense of this ferocity, particular in the light of Shardza’s writings, which show his high regard for ethical behaviour and nonviolence in the contexts of meat-eating and ritual killing?
In this thesis I aim to form an understanding of these two ritual texts. To this end, I translate them for the first time and examine their religious and linguistic contexts. To contextualize their meaning, I look at the political and religious tensions of the times their author lived through, seeking information on his intention in writing these texts and on the reception of the texts by his contemporaries.
Shardza was also well-known during his life as a luminary and saint who combined great erudition, a commitment to teaching, and the pursuit of a hermit’s life with a strong reputation for morality. His single-minded focus on developing his spiritual practice, bolstered by an array of vows intended to avoid entanglement in worldly affairs, paint a vivid image of a retreat-based yogi who has turned his back on mundane concerns.
This yogi and holy man left another legacy in the form of his vast literary output, which helped pivot the Bon tradition towards a more systematic and academic mode of education, taking up the model exemplified by the Buddhist Gelug school. Among Shardza’s writings, however, one can find a pair of previously untranslated rituals which seem perhaps at odds with this image of an admired scholar–saint. These texts beseech the “Queen of Phenomenal Existence”, a fierce goddess sworn to protect the Bon teachings, to deal with the enemies of the religion in no uncertain terms:
The time to quickly dispel the enemies has come:
cut their lives, tear their hearts out!
eat their flesh and drink their blood!
Grind their lands into particles of dust.
How can we make sense of this ferocity, particular in the light of Shardza’s writings, which show his high regard for ethical behaviour and nonviolence in the contexts of meat-eating and ritual killing?
In this thesis I aim to form an understanding of these two ritual texts. To this end, I translate them for the first time and examine their religious and linguistic contexts. To contextualize their meaning, I look at the political and religious tensions of the times their author lived through, seeking information on his intention in writing these texts and on the reception of the texts by his contemporaries.