The systematic dynamics of guru yoga in euro-north american gelug-pa formations

Abstract

This thesis explores the adaptation of the Tibetan Buddhist guru/disciple relation by Euro-North American communities and argues that its praxis is that of a self-motivated disciple’s devotion to a perceptibly selfless guru. Chapter one provides a reception genealogy of the Tibetan guru/disciple relation in Western scholarship, followed by historical-anthropological descriptions of its practice reception in both Tibetan and Euro-North American formations. Through a structural analysis of the Gelug-pa school’s primary ‘guru yoga’ text, Blo-bzang chos-kyi rgyal-mtshan’s Bla-ma mchod-pa, chapter two argues that the ritual’s basic definition is the guru/disciple relation mediated by the gift and transvalued through the principle of emptiness. Through structural analyses of anthropological data, chapter three identifies the Euro-North American guru/disciple hierarchy as Tibetan monk teacher/non-Tibetan student, in which the guru’s authority derives from his perceived transcendence of what Anthony Giddens calls the reflexive project of the self.