Diatribes and Dialogues : Understanding Bön’s Relations with Tibetan Buddhism Through the Life and Work of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1934)=비판과 대화 : 샤르자 따시 겔첸(1859-1934)의 생애와 저작을 통해 이해하는 뵌교와 티벳불교의 관계
The historical relationship between Buddhism and its “others” has long been a topic of interest — and sometimes controversy — amidst a variety of cultures that assimilated Buddhist traditions. Tibetan culture is no exception. At a fairly early stage in the Tibetan reception of Buddhism during the early imperial era (seventh-ninth centuries) , certain types of ritual practitioners and religious specialists who preceded Indian Buddhism’s arrival came to be collectively designated as bönpo, after which this term came to represent a tradition and a community that was to be differentiated from the newly imported dharma from India. Oftentimes, this process aimed at asserting Buddhism’s moral superiority, its soteriological sophistication, or its ritual or magical efficacy relative to an inferior rival, as is seen in some historiographical narratives that would later recount Buddhism’s decisive triumph over its early adversaries. (One particularly well-known example may be found in the fifteenth century narrative of the iconic Buddhist yogin Milarepa’s defeat of a bönpo dubbed Naro Bönchung.) Yet contrary to these narratives that suggest decisive victory and closure in the relationship between Buddhism and this particular “other,” in reality the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism would unfold through a centuries-long, unfinished process of cultural change and dialogue that defied whatever clear boundaries were sometimes erected in textual sources to divide Buddhism from its imagined predecessor in Bön. Ultimately, these two traditions have developed in tandem over the past millennium, from the post-imperial “renaissance” that began in the tenth century to the present day. While the narrative histories of Buddhism and Bön diverge on key issues of significance to their respective religious identities, scholars of Bön such as Per Kværne have noted that the two traditions share a host of philosophical, ritual, monastic, contemplative, and artistic traditions that broadly unite them.2) Indeed, casual visitors to Menri monastery, the headquarters of Bön in India, could very easily imagine themselves at a Buddhist institution, and the general ethos, the forms of training undertaken, the daily observances, and the broader seasonal rhythms and routines of life are virtually indistinguishable from those found in other Tibetan monastic centers. Depending on one’s perspective and one’s interests, one may find legitimate bases for underscoring either general unity or particular kinds of distinctiveness. Historically speaking, in various times and places, it turns out different religious figures reached different conclusions when faced with decisions about whether to emphasize similarities or differences between Buddhism and Bön. Given that general features of Bön may not be well known to my audience, what follows briefly introduces the Yungdrung Bön tradition —the “Everlasting” or “Eternal” Bön lineage that emerged in the post-imperial period— before going on to describe how inclinations toward both similarity and difference between this enduring Bön tradition and Buddhism appear in the life and work of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, a nineteenthtwentieth century lama broadly recognized as the most influential Bön figure in modern times. In this more recent context, one finds that this important Bön teacher encountered both types of responses among leading Buddhist masters in eastern Tibet, and his own writing and that of his disciple-biographer attempt to highlight the distinctive value of ancient, traditional Yungdrung Bön teachings while simultaneously emphasizing their compatibility with Buddhist truth and Buddhist practice.
불교 전통을 융화한 여러 문화 속에서 불교와 “외도(外道)” 간의 역사적 관계는 오랫동안 관심의 —그리고 때론 논쟁의— 대상이었다. 티벳 문화도 예외가 아니다. 티벳은 초기제국 시대(7~9세기)에 불교를 받아들였는데 그 최초기 단계에서, 인도 불교가 도착하기 전에 활동한 특정 유형의 의례 주관자들과 종교 전문가들을 뭉뚱 그려서 ‘뵌뽀’(bönpo)라 불렀다. 나중에 이 용어는 하나의 전통과 공동체를 대표하게 되고 인도에서 새로 들여온 ‘다르마’와는 차별화되었다. 빈번히, 이 차별화 과정에는 불교가 열등한 경쟁자보다 도덕이 뛰어나다고, 구원
目次
∙ Introduction 514 ∙ Early Yungdrung Bön Tradition and Its Relations with Buddhism 515 ∙ Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen: Diatribes and Dialogues in the 19th-20th Century Milieu 521
