White Robes, Matted Hair...

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Grigoris
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White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Grigoris »

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Dr. Ben Joffe, he is the author behind the blog "A Perfumed Skull" and recently published his Doctorate thesis on Ngkapa and Ngakma.

White Robes, Matted Hair: Tibetan Tantric Householders, Moral Sexuality, and the Ambiguities of Esoteric Buddhist Expertise in Exile

by Joffe, Ben Philip, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, 2019, 542; 27663085
Abstract (Summary)

This dissertation offers an ethnographic study of ngakpa/ma (sngags pa/ma, m.f.)–Tibetan Buddhist non-monastic, non-celibate tantric yogis and yoginis–living in the Tibetan diaspora. Like monks and nuns, ngakpa/ma are professionally religious, yet unlike their monastic counterparts they can marry, have families, and pursue worldly work. Living in ‘the village’ like ordinary laypeople but also spending much of their time in retreat or working as ritual specialists for hire, ngakpa/ma occupy a shifting, third space between monastic renunciation and worldly attachments. Based on roughly five years of fieldwork research conducted in Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist communities in India, Nepal, Northeastern Tibet, and the United States, this thesis explores how ngakpa/mas’ historically decentralized, morally ambiguous esoteric expertise has become implicated in various projects of cultural preservation and reform for exile Tibetans, even as it has come to circulate and have meaning well beyond the purview of ethnic Tibetan communities and interests. Chapters One to Five offer an overview of how ngakpa/ma and ngakpa/ma orientations have been pinned down (or have failed to be pinned down) in exile, via language; gendered divisions of labor; in physical space and permanent institutions; through hair, clothing, and embodied comportment; and as part of new family and career trajectories. Chapters Six to Nine examine how contentious esoteric tantric yogic practices, associated with sexuality and Tibetan medicine in particular, are being popularized and reframed in exile in new ways and for new audiences as part of increasingly transnational networks of exchange. In these chapters, I underscore the polysemous quality of tantric practices, and reflect on my own collaborations with a Tibetan ngakpa-doctor to translate and share information on Tibetan tantric yogic practices more widely. In conclusion, I assess trends and quandaries that have dominated the academic study of secrecy and esoteric religions and highlight the implications and value of an ethnographic approach to researching tantric traditions.
https://perfumedskull.com/2020/01/12/wh ... -download/

You can also find an interview with him titled "Siddhi, Samaya, and Duels of Magick"

titled
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Kris
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Kris »

Thanks for sharing.
I check out the blog from time to time.
The profound path of the master.
-- Virūpa, Vajra Lines
jet.urgyen
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by jet.urgyen »

thanks!
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Tlalok
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Tlalok »

Good find Grigoris, it looks very interesting, hell of a job for a doctoral dissertation.
jet.urgyen
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by jet.urgyen »

just watched the video, it's very interesting and nice to hear. there is a part 1 also, thx again Greg :)

true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Lingpupa
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Lingpupa »

If you have time, reading almost the whole of his blog might be both enjoyable and informative. It was for me, anyway.

I read his thesis too, which is perhaps harder going, though I was glad to have read it.

It's good to have thinkers like him around.
All best wishes

"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
n8pee
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by n8pee »

If you have time, reading almost the whole of his blog might be both enjoyable and informative. It was for me, anyway.
Agreed - I particularly liked the post on the 'why' behind mantra.
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Grigoris
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Grigoris »

Smart cookie and really nice guy.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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Hazel
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Hazel »

And a long jacket...
Happy Pride month to my queer dharma siblings!

What do you see when you turn out the lights?
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climb-up
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by climb-up »

It’s so great, and Ben is so awesome.
When it came out I so excited, but also quickly realized that reading a book that long on my phone was not going to happen, so I made a print copy from lulu.com and now I have a lovey edition on my bookshelf. :)
"Death's second name is 'omnipresent.' On the relative truth it seems we become separate. But on the absolute there is no separation." Lama Dawa
Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

“Polysemous” is a valuable new word for me for use in the context of Dharma. It’s right up there wi Alan Wallace’s use of “coterminous”.

I like it when DW improves my vocabulary.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
Varis
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Re: White Robes, Matted Hair...

Post by Varis »

Speaking of what he said about how in the West there is a lack of access to the structured training that Tibetans have, can someone recommend some teachers that do teach in a structured manner?

I remember some moons ago a couple of lamas who were doing online courses that were designed to be structured and teach in a systematic way. But can't for the life of me remember who they were!
"I have never encountered a person who committed bad deeds." ― Ven. Jìngkōng
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