In the 60s, Tibetan gurus were imprisoned during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
In the 80s, Tibetan monks claimed to recover Hidden Treasure Texts from their imprisoned gurus, showing how this phenomenon has more purposes than solely religious.

17.10.2025 16:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A tradition in Tibet, Hidden Treasure Texts are a phenomenon where Buddhist monks recover lost texts from older times by writing from memory while in meditation. The texts recovered are from previous gurus, thus re-establishing a severed lineage. to the Buddha, which is crucial.
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17.10.2025 16:18 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

According to P.O. Skjaervo's Introduction to Manichaeism, "The farther we come from Persia, the more common also is Buddhist terminology." Mani claimed to not only be the successor to the Buddha, Jesus and Zarathustra, but he saw himself as Maitreya, the future savior Buddha.
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17.10.2025 16:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The human realm is the only realm where the Buddha received enlightenment and thus the only realm for which Buddhism exists. But can one escape nirvana in another realm?
If not, what is unique to humans that only we can do this?
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04.10.2025 01:15 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

For Tibet, there's an origin story where Avalokitśvara (as a monkey) was the progenitor of the Tibetans. For how the Dalai Lama is recognized, he and the Panchen Lama, another Tibetan reincarnation, search each other out. I'm curious why he's important in Mahayana too.
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24.09.2025 05:18 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The name Avalokiteśvara keeps coming up in class. This bodhisattva is very important to the Tibetan people; they even relate their origin to him. The Potala Palace, that we spoke of on Friday, is named after Mount Potalaka, Avalokiteśvara's mythical abode.
Source: ASIA 188
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22.09.2025 14:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

That's a great observation about the name! I know we talked about Ātman and the antithesis, anātman. I assume the playwright was playing with the idea of no-self? Perhaps that's why the fish keeps getting replaced like you said.

22.09.2025 03:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I found this prayer flag in a Tibetan shop in Switzerland last winter. I thought of this because our reading for today mentions the mantra "om mani padme hum". This is that in Tibetan.
This flag has 7 syllables, not the 6 in that mantra. There is an additional "hrih" at the end!
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15.09.2025 14:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Today in class while we were discussing Guanyin, the professor had mentioned that she was the "Bodhisattva of Compassion". I was curious about this title. Is she special? Are there others? Do all Bodhisattvas have an epithet, and if not, why did she earn hers?
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08.09.2025 23:09 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0