Universität Wien

142076 SE Perceiving the Tibetan medical body: (2022W)

Applying pramana to physiological and alchemical signs of transformation in Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho’s Bai durya sngon po’i malli ka, commentary on g.Yu thog yon tan mgon po’s rGyud bzhi (12th cent.)

10.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Continuous assessment of course work
ON-SITE

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Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 36 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes

Di 12:45-14:45, SR 2 Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde (Universitätscampus, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Wien), ab 4.10.-13.12.

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

**Feel free to email Professor Tidwell for any questions about the course at tawni.tidwell@gmail.com.

In this seminar we will read secondary literature related to Tibetan medicine and excerpts of its root medical texts in English translation, alongside related works discussing valid evidence in Buddhist epistemology (pramāṇa) as it relates to Tibetan medical diagnostics and establishing reliable perceptually-based inferences akin to “biomarkers” or “standardized data” about psychophysiological changes in the body.

The course will explore coarse and subtle anatomy and physiology from the Tibetan medical and Buddhist perspectives, as well as the development, maintenance, and dissolution of the body-mind complex in birth and death, health and illness. Modes of transformation through contemplative practice as well as therapeutic treatment approaches will be discussed and both acute and chronic illness contexts will be explored.

Contemporary research applications covered in the course include: Tibetan medical treatments for COVID-19; chronic inflammatory conditions and neurodegeneration; individual constitutionally-directed needs for maintaining health, meditation practice type effects; and the unique case of thugs dam as a post-death meditative state that resists the normal postmortem chronology of decomposition.

In English translation, selected chapters from the Tibetan medical classic, Four Tantras (rGyud bzhi), compiled in the 12th century by g.Yu thog yon tan mgon po and his students, will be integrated into the course, including discussions of key excerpts from commentarial contributions of the 14th through 18th centuries.

By the end of the class, students will gain knowledge of how Tibetan physicians use their senses for procuring valid evidence for differential diagnostics as well as physiological and pharmacological insights. This course will provide a unique opportunity to see how pramāṇa theory or Buddhist epistemology is applied in the medical context and its relationship to contemporary paradigms of scientific inquiry.

Knowledge of Tibetan is helpful but not essential. Materials will be circulated beforehand.

Class Sessions & Syllabus Outline — Tuesdays, 12:45-14:45 (11 sessions)
• Tues, Oct 4 Introduction to Tibetan medicine & concepts of the body
• Tues, Oct 11 Introduction to diagnostics —signs of health and dis-ease
• Tues, Oct 18 Between Worlds, Tukdam Documentary, Donagh Coleman (2022)
• Tues, Oct 25 Perception-Inference Dialectic Paradigms in Perceiving the Tibetan Medical Body – physician as diagnostic instrument
• Tues, Nov 1 Embryology & constitutions in Tibetan medicine — signs of individual health
• Tues, Nov 8 Virulent infectious disease & the case of COVID-19 — signs of pathology & modes of recovery
• Tues, Nov 15 Chronic inflammatory disease & neurodegeneration — tracking signs of chronicity through varied temporalities
• Tues, Nov 22 Subtle anatomy — signs of transformation & potential risks in long-term retreat practice
• Tues, Nov 29 Dissolution of the body-mind complex — signs of death and dying
• Tues, Dec 6 Revisiting Tukdam: the case of meditative equipoise — signs and ontologies of extraordinary states
• Tues, Dec 13 Paper proposals — presentations of paper concept/focus

Assessment and permitted materials

Continuous assessment course: short reflections from week to week, 1 final written paper.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Active participation in class 50%, 1 final paper 50%.

Examination topics

Presented lectures and assigned readings.

Reading list

Readings will include excerpts from the following readings (not the entire texts), in addition to translations by the instructor:
• Primary sources:
• Four Tantras (aka, Four Medical Treatises) in English/German Translation (Men-Tsee-Khang/Florian Ploberger), G.yu thog yon tan mgon po. Bdud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud [The Secret Quintessential Instructions on the Eight Branches of the Ambrosia Essence Tantra], 12th century.
• Secondary sources:
• Gerke, Barbara. 2014. “The Art of Tibetan Medical Practice.” Bodies in Balance. Ed. by Theresia Hofer. New York: Rubin Museum: 17-31.
• Pasang Yonten Arya. 2022. New Light on Tibetan Medicine.
• Ozawa-de Silva, C. and Ozawa-de Silva, B. 2010. “Neither Dualistic Nor Monistic: Mind/Body Theory and Practice in Tibetan Medicine.” Body & Society 8(2): 21-38.
• Dunne, John. 2004. Foundations of Dharmakīrti. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
• Tidwell forthcoming. “Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers for Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State.” Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry: 1-37.
• Tidwell forthcoming. “Individual differences in contemplative practice response: Tibetan medical predictive frameworks.” In Special Issue “Cultural Practices in Differential Well-Being & Resilience.” Ethos, Journal of Psychological Anthropology: 1-22.
• Cameron et al. 2012. “Tibetan Medicine and Integrative Health: Validity Testing and Refinement of the Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool and Lifestyle Guidelines Tool.” Explore 8(3): 158-163.
• Husted & Dhondup. 2009. Tibetan medical interpretation of myelin lipids and multiple sclerosis. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1172: 278-296.
• Tidwell & Gyatso. 2021. “Tibetan Medical Paradigms for the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Understanding COVID-19, Microbiome Links, and Its Sowa Rigpa Nosology.” Asian Medicine 16(1): 89-127.
• Tidwell, Nianggajia, Fjeld. 2022. “Chasing dön spirits in Tibetan medical encounters: Transcultural affordances and embodied psychiatry in Amdo, Qinghai.” Transcultural Psychiatry.
• Sheehy forthcoming. “Obstructions (Gegs sel), Wellbeing and Resilience.” In Special Issue “Cultural Practices in Differential Well-Being & Resilience.” Ethos, Journal of Psychological Anthropology
• Miller, Willa. 2013. Secrets of the Vajra Body: Dngos po'i gnas lugs and the Apotheosis of the Body in the Work of Rgyal ba Yang dgon pa. Harvard University.
• Wallace, Vesna. 2001. “The Cosmic Body.” Inner Kālacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual: 56-108.
• Lati Rinpochay & Jeffrey Hopkins. 1981. Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism: 29-68.
• Recommended additional primary sources (not required):
• Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 17th century CE. Bai durya sngon po’i malli ka
• Zur mkhar blo gros rgyal po. 16 th century CE. Mes po’i zhal lung.
• Karma chags med. 17th century CE. Ri chos mtshams kyi zhal gdams (Engish translation by KTD Publications 2011)

Association in the course directory

MATB7

Last modified: Tu 01.11.2022 12:48