Prof. Georgios T. Halkias: “Reflections on the dhāraṇī of Aparimitāyurjñāna in Tibetan Buddhist Literature”

27 June 2016

Buddha Aparimitāyurjñāna’s reputation across the prosperous peripheries of the Tibetan Empire is evidenced by the discovery of more than one-thousand Tibetan copies of his dhāraṇī-sūtra in Dunhuang. The Aparimitāyur-jnāna-nāma-mahāyānasūtra (Tib. Tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo) is also extant in Sanskrit, Khotanese, Chinese, Mongolian, and Xi-xia. The successful reproduction of this Indo-Sino-Tibetan “Pure Land text” across Asia, is arguably the outcome of its dual currency as a) a ‘material object’ seen, read and held, and as b) a ‘spiritual object’ that offers health, prosperity and protection from the fear of death through the invocation of pure land aspirations and the performance of ‘merit-making’ remedies typical of Mahāyāna. In this presentation, we will examine its position in Tibetan religious literature from the times of the Tibetan empire to present-day contexts with Tibetan Buddhist masters, like Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1946-present), recommending its reproduction in different media for collecting merit and dedicating it to future rebirth in Amitābha’s pure land, Sukhāvatī.

• Click here to download the invitation (PDF)

June 27th, 2016 - 16.00h
Universität Hamburg,
Alsterterrasse 1, Raum 117
Free Entrance.