Mandala of the Self: Embodiment, Practice, and Identity Construction in the Cakrasamvara Tradition

Abstract

Tantric traditions have often been ignored by scholars studying Asian social history, in part because the structure of traditions, and hence their social impact, have been poorly understood. This paper seeks to remedy this lacuna by exploring in some depth a particular tradition, that centring around the Cakrasamvara Tantra, an Indian Buddhist scripture that became the basis of a popular practice tradition in Nepal and Tibet. Following Charles Taylor and the Comaroffs, I will argue that the Cakrasamvara practice tradition encourages a construction of self-identity based on a rather different set of assumptions than those common in the West, i.e., assumptions concerning the limits and constitution of the self. I will explore the nature of this considerably more expansive and fluid sense of self and its social and historical ramifications, both in the pre-modern and contemporary manifestations of this tradition.

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