Browsing by Author "Klein, Anne C"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    A Genealogy of the Subtle Body
    (2019-10-18) Cox, Simon Paul; Kripal, Jeffrey J; Klein, Anne C
    This dissertation traces the historical genealogy of the term “subtle body,” following it from its initial coinage among the Cambridge Platonists back to the Neoplatonic sources from which they drew, then forward into Indology, Theosophy, Carl Jung, and the American Counterculture, showing the expansion of the term’s semantic range to include Indic, Tibetan, and Chinese materials.
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    Recognizing Purity: Space, Non-change, Luminosity, and Effort in Longchen Rabjam’s Presentation of the Great Completeness (rdzogs chen)
    (2022-04-13) Kelley, Justin James; Klein, Anne C; Clements, Niki K; Faubion, James
    This dissertation studies the role purity (dag pa) plays in 14th-century Longchen Rabjam’s (klong chen rab ‘byams) presentation of the Great Completeness (rdzogs chen). In service of this aim, I rigorously consider the semantic field of purity and its impact on our contemporary understanding of the Great Completeness. I specifically consider four major themes related to purity: space, non-change, luminosity, and effort. In doing so, my analysis builds on existent scholarship on the Great Completeness, highlighting how understanding Longchen Rabjam’s usage of purity elucidates often misunderstood elements of this contemplative system. Taken comprehensively, the semantic field of purity consists of a broad and remarkably diverse spectrum of attributes, each of which are employed by Longchenpa in service of describing the Great Completeness. In this way, I contend that purity is a vital lens for understanding Longchenpa’s presentation of the Great Completeness and its critical shift in emphasis from the ethical to the epistemological.
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    To Know a Buddha: A Tibetan Contemplative History and Its Implications for Religious Studies
    (2015-04-23) Villarreal, Elena Claire; Klein, Anne C; Kripal, Jeffrey J; Long, Elizabeth
    This dissertation examines the introduction, critique, and re-framing of other-emptiness (gzhan-stong) by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361), Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa (1357–1419), and Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) respectively. Each author's writings on emptiness were deeply informed by his own contemplative and visionary experiences. Such peak religious moments--along with historical, social, and textual context--must be considered seriously to provide the richest possible history of other-emptiness.