Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
2021, Philosophy East and West
Not all tantras are monistic in their worldview. The paradigm and the specific philosophers from tantric literature that I am engaging here come from a non-dual Saiva-Sākta paradigm. The key issues from tantric literature relevant to this conversation involve visualization or sustained meditation upon specific phonemes called ‘mantras’, geometric designs called ‘maṇdalas’, or images of the deity. Tantric rituals and gestures help address the enactive domain of representation. Complex manuals define sign-reference systems to contextualize representation grounded on cognitive dualism. Mainstream discourse on representation dichotomizes schema and categories against experience, and although this approach helps us contextualize some sets of tantric representation, it tends to miss the target meaning. I apply a phenomenological and cognitive scientific critique of these positions onto the backdrop of tantric monist hermeneutics. Siva or the absolute, in this paradigm, is a singular essence endowed with latent potential for higher order consciousness and agency, with it being the all-encompassing pure consciousness that unfolds to blossom as manifold subjects and objects. This absolute consciousness is non-directional, non-representational, and the foundation for all that exists.
2012 •
2007 •
By applying the contemporary theories of schema, metonymy, metaphor, and conceptual blending, I argue in this paper that salient cognitive categories facilitate a deeper analysis of Tantric language. Tantras use a wide range of symbolic language expressed in terms of mantric speech and visual man. d. alas, and Tantric texts relate the process of deciphering meaning with the surge of mystical experience. In this essay, I will focus on some distinctive varieties of Tantric language with a conviction that select cognitive tools facilitate coherent reading of these expressions. Mystical language broadly utilizes images and metaphors. Deciphering Tantric language should therefore also provide a framework for reading other varieties of mystical expressions across cultures.
A celebration and critical evaluation of Sthaneshwar Timalsina's brilliant book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. In this groundbreaking work, Timalsina utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric " truths " are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent " truth " or " being " that is the stated aim of Tantric practice. The mainstream hermeneutic approaches to reading Tantric culture have failed to address the nuanced domains of inscribing and deciphering meanings and images. The argument made here is the cognitive approach gives a new direction and finds meaning beyond the literal. —Timalsina (2015 p. 48) The Wisdom of a Lineage Bearer In his groundbreaking book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach (Timalsina 2015), professor of Indology at San Diego State University, Sthaneswhar Timalsina, utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric " truths " are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent " truth " or " being " that is the stated aim of Tantric practice. Sthaneshwar Timalsina is a scholar of uncommon gifts in the field of Tantric studies. Blessed to claim Sanskrit as his mother tongue, Timalsina spent the first 20 years of his life excelling in the traditional fields of Sanskritic learning, including grammar, poetry, aesthetics, Vedānta, Mīmāṃsakā, Yoga-Sāṅkhya and other classical darśanas, as well as multiple traditions of Tantric literature, including Trika Kaula and the Sarvāmnāya tradition of Nepal. When I first met Timalsina in 1997 in Nepal he could already claim being head of the Department of Tantric Studies at Valmiki Sanskrit Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal, despite being barely 30 years old. At that time he was widely regarded by his Nepalese colleagues as a foremost authority on Tantra-vidyā and was extensively
The Nature of Awareness As Tantra :A Phenomenology.docx
The Nature of Awareness As Tantra :A Phenomenology.docx2017 •
Revista Científica Arbitrada de la Fundación MenteClara
The Nature of Awareness as Tantra: A PhenomenologyEste artículo explora la fenomenología de la conciencia como la naturaleza misma del tantra. El documento también aborda fenomenológicamente la naturaleza de la praxis tántrica. A través de estas fenomenologías se produce una convergencia de entendimiento sobre la naturaleza de la conciencia como tantra y tantra como la naturaleza misma de la conciencia humana. Gran parte del énfasis en este documento es el budismo tibetano y, esencialmente, el linaje y las tradiciones fenomenológicas de Dzogchen.This paper explores the phenomenology of awareness as the very nature of tantra. The paper also approaches phenomenologically the nature of tantric praxis. Through these phenomenologies there is the bringing forth a convergence of understanding about nature of awareness as tantra and tantra as the very nature of human awareness. Much of the emphasis within this paper is Tibetan Buddhism and most essentially the phenomenological Dzogchen lineage and traditions.
Religion and the Arts, 12
Embodied Consciousness in Tantric Yoga and the Phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty2008 •
Journal of Hepatology
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in women with polycystic ovary syndrome2007 •
Journal of Analytical Science and Technology
Mixed mode monolithic sorbent in pipette tip for extraction of ractopamine and clenbuterol prior to analysis by HPLC-UV and UHPLC-Q ExactiveTM Plus Orbitrap MS2021 •
Estudos de Psicologia
Análise psicométrica da escala de heteroavaliação de estilos de liderança2016 •
2020 •
2014 •
2018 IEEE 10th Latin-American Conference on Communications (LATINCOM)
A Review of Indoor Channel Modeling Techniques for Visible Light Communications2018 •
American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics
Growth modification of the mandible with ultrasound in baboons: A preliminary report2006 •
Open Science Research III
Investigación Psicosocial en Adultos Mayores: Perspectiva De Proceso VitalJournal of Applied Physics
Investigation of electromigration induced by field emission current flowing through Au nanogaps in ambient air2017 •
Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. B2 (Coastal Engineering)
Development of a Numerical Analysis Method for the Flapgate Breakwater during a Huge Tsunami2011 •
JAMA ophthalmology
Treatment with 9-cis β-carotene-rich powder in patients with retinitis pigmentosa: a randomized crossover trial2013 •
Ecology and Evolution
Inbreeding reveals mode of past selection on male reproductive characters inDrosophila melanogaster2013 •
2007 •
Reliability Engineering & System Safety
An Operational Risk Analysis Model for Container Shipping Systems considering Uncertainty Quantification2021 •
Uncertain Supply Chain Management
Multi-product multi-vehicle inventory routing problem with vehicle compatibility and site dependency: A case study in the restaurant chain industry2021 •
2023 •