Tibetan Portraits of the Selfless Self

Catalog description

The Buddha famously taught that the self is an illusion, and yet generations of Buddhist authors in Tibet have produced hundreds of accounts of the lives of what were, to them, illusory subjects. In this course, we will investigate the seeming contradiction between models of the self in Buddhist philosophy and a range of Tibetan literary and artistic traditions. How does one tell a life story in Tibetan? What are the elements of a generic life? What conceptions of selfhood are presumed or constructed in the writing of a life? Along the way, we will examine selfless selves depicted as religious icons, mapped onto the landscape, and embodied in song and ritual. We will start our reading with a formative Indian classic, the Life of the Buddha by Ashvaghosha, followed by the Tibetan lives of the two great saints Padmasambhava and Milarepa, and three Tibetan autobiographies: a nun devoted to meditation, a visionary who revealed hidden scriptures, and a twentieth-century scholar monk who died in exile. The course will include several films, a trip to the Met, and possible visits by guest speakers. All readings are in English.