Liberative Uses of the Imagination

Many studies of imagination in classical India focus on the term kalpanā. But David Shulman’s pioneering work More than Real draws attention to the—related, but distinct—concept of bhāvanā as a culturally specific notion of imagination. As an active noun derived from the causative form of the root bhū (“to be”), in its most literal sense the term denotes a process of bringing-into-being or creation. While Shulman focuses upon the Sanskrit poeticians’ understanding of poetic creativity, I submit that it is identifiably the same culturally specific conception of imagination behind two other prominent uses of the term. One, within the Mīmāṃsā school of philosophy, refers to the process of verbal comprehension. (Cf. Maṇḍanamiśra’s Bhāvanāviveka.) The other, which spans the various schools of Indian Buddhism, denotes a range of contemplative spiritual practices. (Cf. Kamalaśīla’s Bhāvanākrama.) The purpose of this talk is to draw out the continuity between these three concepts.

This study aims to explore the role of religious imagination in the Lotus Sutra, one of the most influential Buddhist texts in East Asia. The Lotus Sutra is known for its rich imagery and creative use of language, which have captured the imagination of Buddhist devotees for centuries. In recent years, scholars of religion have increasingly recognized the importance of religious imagination in faith communities and religious literature. Based on Kumarajiva’s Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra (T 262), this paper will investigate how the Lotus Sutra uses imagination to inspire its readers and encourage them to engage with its teachings. It will demonstrate how the text challenges conventional modes of thought and encourages readers to see the world in new ways. By examining the Lotus Sutra's use of imagination in detail, this study will contribute to our understanding of religious literature and its significance for believers and non-believers alike. 

In this paper, I explore imagination as potentiality and peril within a fifteenth-century debate between two Tibetan scholar monks about a tantric ritual practice called body mandala. Imagination is central to body mandala, in which choreographed acts of vision, sound, and gesture are used to transform the body into a celestial palace inhabited by buddhas. For the authors of the body mandala debate, Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (1382-1456) and Khédrupjé Gélek Pelzangpo (1385-1438), imagination can only be “productive” if it is conducive to enlightenment. These thinkers grapple with questions of ritual efficacy deeply tied to their distinct perspectives on the relationship of representation and reality— a relationship troubled by imagination. I illuminate how Ngorchen and Khédrupjé navigate Buddhist skepticism toward mental representations and also extol the properly executed body mandala as “productive” in establishing continuity with Buddhahood, building a proper foundation for practice, and getting at the heart of embodiment.

This presentation focuses on the function of imagination in three early twentieth-century, ritual texts related to Mongolian Kālacakra practices of caring for the dead, reciting the Kālacakratantra, and a text devoted to the quick path to empty form. In these ritual texts, the dividing line between bodily and vocal performance and acts of imagination is diminished. Despite the difference in the modes of ritual activity, they share certain common features, equally involving formalized and stylized forms of interaction and communication with the visualized world. In these rituals, the acts of imagination equally perform, create, and enact new realities. The stylized bodily postures and hand gestures and the modulated tone of reciting the text appear to be just as important as the content of the message to be conveyed or enacted and influence the imagination by animating a mentally created imagery.