Prof. Dr. Vincent Eltschinger: The Yogācārabhūmi against Superstitious Beliefs and Astrology

15 January 2020

Am Mittwoch, 15.01.2020, um 16 Uhr in ESA-Ost, Raum 120.

In its so-called paravāda section, the Yogācārabhūmi (300–350 CE) presents and criticizes sixteen “allodoxies” (paravāda), predominantly non-Buddhist doctrines, practices and institutions, some of which had already been targeted in canonical texts such as the Brahmajāla- and the Śrāmaṇyaphalasūtras. The newly added doctrines include Sāṅkhya and perhaps grammatical ideas on causality, orthodox brahmanical conceptions of ritual violence, the caste-classes and purification. The last among these allodoxies is labelled kautuka­maṅgalavāda, that is, “the doctrine of festive ceremonies and auspicious things,” which comes very close to the Western idea of “superstition” in its perceived opposition to reason. Quite unexpectedly though, what the Yogācārabhūmi criticizes under that name is astrology both as a determinist theory of human destiny and as a body of propitiatory practices. In challenging superstition and astrology for their incompatibility with reason and karmic determinism, the Yogācārabhūmi often echoes Sarvāstivāda texts such as Kumāralāta’s Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā and the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra. After tracing the genealogy of the Indian Buddhist treatment of superstitious beliefs and practices, the talk will address the Yogācārabhūmi’s and parallel texts’ arguments against them.

• Click here to download the invitation [PDF]

Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk (Director)
Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS)
Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, AAI, Universität Hamburg
Alsterterrasse 1, D-20354 Hamburg