Topic: Betwixt and Between
Reading: Thurman. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Ch. 6-8.
Lecture: Bardo Thodol in the United States
In addition to the assignment below, you will need to complete a survey this week evaluating your own and group members' contributions to successful group interaction.
Assignment: Practice Preparations for the Between-State
Preamble: Thurman prepared his translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead to respond to the increasing interest in the Bardo Thodol in the American hospice movement. In fulfilling this objective, he distinguished between the underlying philosophy of the text and its Tibetan cultural expression. At various points in his notes he offers ecumenical suggestions on how to apply the philosophy of the text to various religious and secular traditions by substituting familiar deities and concerns for unfamiliar Tibetan deities. In the spirit of further participant observation, this assignment permits us to begin the types of practice preparations for our own between-state that Thurman has suggested.
Overview: We will identify a familiar embodiment of mild or fierce deities in the life of one of our group members, represent it in a make-shift tangka, rewrite a two to three paragraph (about one page) selection from the text, read it aloud, and explain the tangka and revision to the class.
Role Playing: Like the Egyptian assignment this one is dependent upon the equitable division of tasks among the members of our small groups. While we will engage in role playing again, the roles should not be taken so literally as to prevent the equitable distribution of tasks. Each group should select a group member who will serve as the dying person. In the interest of revolving roles, each group should select someone other than the one selected for the Egyptian assignment. Another (or the same) person might take primary responsibility for creating the tangka, another for rewriting the selection from the text, and (if possible) another for reading and explaining the text to class.
Selecting a mild or fierce deity: For the purpose of selecting a mild or fierce deity you may want to follow one of the many suggested possibilities outlined by Thurman. Because deities can be seen as metaphorical embodiments of a broad range of fears and/or wishes in our lives, you should feel free to define the term "deity" in a broad enough fashion to represent any of our wishes and/or fears.
Creating a make-shift tangka: In addition to the tangka Denise showed us in class and those we've seen or will see in videos, you can find examples of Tibetan tangkas between pages 138 and 139 in Thurman. In order to leave sufficient room for creativity and cultural expression, I'm defining tangka very broadly as an artistic rendering of your selected mild or fierce deity. You should feel free to select from existing portraits of deities that you are already familiar with or to create your own. Some possibilities might include a collage, montage, or overlay that represents your selected deity in a Tibetan style setting. You should feel free to take advantage color photocopies, cutting and pasting, computer based manipulation of images, etc.
Rewriting a selection from the text: You should select a few paragraphs from chapters six to eight to rewrite in a manner that will aid the deceased person in achieving liberation by recognizing this deity as a "natural exercise of your own awareness," "as an object of my mind's own vision," "an image of your own awareness," "having emerged from within your own brain," etc. You should feel free to adapt the text as you feel appropriate or to create something even more original than any single selection. The rewritten passage, though, should work within the Tibetan philosophy of achieving liberation through the recognition of deities as creations of our own minds (even if one or more members of the group may personally disagree with this philosophy--remember we're role playing in the interest of participant observation).
Showing, Reading and Explaining: In class on Monday, July 31, one or more members of the group should display the tangka, read the revised passage, and explain the tangka and revision to the class. I encourage and reward creativity and performance in this aspect of the assignment.
Web Resources:
http://www.globalideasbank.org/ndw/NDW-26.HTML
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/dead/
http://www.johnworldpeace.com/tibet1.html
http://pears2.lib.ohio-state.edu/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/robert.htm