Tibetan Sky-Gazing Meditation and the Pre-History of Great Perfection Buddhism: The Skullward Leap Technique and the Quest for Vitality

by Flavio Geisshuesler

Through a rigorous analysis of original scriptures and later commentaries, this open access book unearths a cornucopia of idiosyncratic motifs pervading the famous Tibetan sky-gazing meditation known as “Skullward Leap” (thod rgal). Flavio Geisshuesler argues that these motifs suggest that the practice did not originate in the context of Buddhism, but rather within indigenous Tibetan culture and in close contact with the early Bön tradition. The book argues that Dzogchen once belonged to a cult centered on the quest for vitality, which involved the worship of the sky as primordial source of life and endorsed the hunting of animals, as they were believed to be endowed with the ability to move in between the divine realm of the heavens and the world of humans.

The book also traces the historical development of the Great Perfection, delineating a complex process of buddhicization that started with the introduction of Buddhism in the 7th century, intensified with the rise of new schools in the 11th century, and reached its climax in the systematization of the teachings by the great scholar-yogi Longchenpa in the 14th century. The study advances an innovative model of meditation as an open-ended practice that animates practitioners to face the most challenging moments of their lives with courage and curiosity, imagination and creativity, and playfulness and excitement; qualities that are oftentimes overlooked in contemporary descriptions of contemplation.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Genres: Spirituality

239 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-built arguments except for chapter 8 in which drawing the line between ‘meaning’ and ‘frame/framework’ itself is meaningless. ‘Crystal’ interpretations are also inaccurate.

Ought to point out that the author has not yet looked into the human anatomy which all the tibetosphere incl academics and practitioners have failed to do so. Answers are always lying inside of humans internally, not externally seeking so called meanings.

The symbols and motifs are all within humans.
Skull- Sky (foramen as the door in the sky)
Frontal sinuses- deer/stag’s antlers
Crystal- liquids (2nd modality is then crystallization) in heart and CSF which ties directly with ‘vitality’
Navel horizon- ground
“dragon (liver), turtle and snake (gallbladder), two-headed deer (kidneys), red sparrow (heart), white tiger (lungs), and phoenix (spleen) ”- ‘The Chart for the Cultivation of Reality (Xiuzhen Tu)’
Lasso is 1 and 0, X
Sheep/RAm sits back at human brainstem
Sever/root-cutting (Christmas tree): it’s breathing in and out, each time it’s a ‘severed without returning’, not the so called ‘mind’.

Paddock mentioned in the work didn’t reveal its other meanings: in Middle English or Scottish it also means frog/toad, another ‘green man’ motif aligned with Ptah/Osiris has everything to do with human breathing. Ancient Hebrew lexicon PT/TP shall be put into consideration as well. (syllable ‘Phat’ is anagram of Ptah and path)

The wordplays involve all the languages, words, numbers and symbols as it’s a complete system.

The skull part: arch/arc/archer/arche/archon…should be another keyword(s) besides mentioned varieties in the presented work. 29 bones - 58 deities, good point of linking it with ‘mirror’, in fact the book has already shown enough dots and links with details even if the author might not aware the internal meaning which goes beyond the esoteric level and penetrates even into the ‘secrecy’ of ancient scripts- that includes comparative works of course, the rest leave it to the readers to further spot the internal blueprint.

Vertical or spherical, simultaneist or gradualist, 1 or 0,
It’s either, neither and both, depends on the perspective: seeing a tube/fiber in humans, you see both 0 and 1, that’s how it works. -something I leave it here for rest of you to ponder.

It’s not that difficult to connect the dots even if the book seems taking references from over a hundred works, while the obvious things people seem always turning a blind eye to which is interestingly how scholars these days are.

That being said, still a recommendation to people who’s interested in part-history, part-symbolism, part-religion, part-philosophy (not much metaphysics though). The argument isn’t neti-neti, but the structure is clear and easy to grasp. The footnotes shared some gems as well, appreciate author’s detailed descriptions and translations.

[Michael Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book discusses the pre-Buddhist influences of Dzogchen meditation in Tibetan Buddhism. Important symbols like the cosmology of the the vase of light which feature prominently in The Great Perfection myth arise from pre-Buddhist influences and comes from indigenous Tibetan motifs. Another important image that the author states comes from this milieu is the cosmic egg which is used later in the Nyingma scriptures. The concept of unearthing treasures is also an indigenously Tibetan motif which later influence the concept of terma (hidden treasures) in the Nyingma tradition. Stories of Buddhist scriptures as treasures being unearthed are inspired by the tales of royal kings descending from the sky and bringing vitality energy on flying sheep and deer, and hunting for such animals for their precious materials like conch shell coats, crystalline antlers, and long chases where the young hunter follows and injured animal throughout the whole land. All of these stories, narratives and symbols are from pre-Buddhist and indigenous motifs from Tibetan soil.

The author also highlights the significance of Kings in the ancient culture. Traditionally, kings were believed to have fortune ropes attached to their bodies, and this image was later internalised by the Buddhist yogis, wiith the original concept of acquiring vitality changed, and turned into a soteriology of freedom and liberation from the cycle of samsara, a phenomenon which occured due to the Buddhacisation of indigenous Tibetan practices and symbols. He provides examples of the influence that the ancient practices had on Dzogchen by describing the imagery of “deer-lamp tsitta,” the “far-reaching lasso,” “white silk thread,” “crystal tube,” or “buffalo horns.” which were all symbols of the hunter society specifically relating to the heavenly cord attached to the kings. Such symbols were then internalised in the practice of Dzogchen. Rather than kings and sky-cords, and celestian deers; it was now the yogis' inward meditations, their focus of latent energies within their bodies, through a network of luminosity consisting of deer, silk, crystal, or lassos, and finally engaging them in their perceptual field by domesticating them in the form of chained sheep.

The Dzogchen practitioners would imagine a buddha-field, be instructed to press into their eyes, to gaze into the skies and witness the vajra images that emerge from their vision, and eventually leave their bodies through their eyes, attain the rainbow bodies and merge into the sky. The Buddhist soteriology being linear and final, whereas the pre-Buddhist narratives about sky-cord and acquiring vitality were cyclical. He highlights this inherent contradiction and the scholar Longchempa's attempt to synthesise pre-Buddhist motifs with Mahayana Buddhism. Overall, the book is very dense and heavy in terminology, and is quite complicated. Some of these ideas I still haven't fully grasped, but it has thoroughly intrigued me to try to understand further the mysteriousness of Tibetan belief and practice. This book especially is helpful I find in the fourth chapter where it goes into the cognitive science angle. The book also goes into anthropology, and history and compares Tibetan shamanism to other forms of shamanism. All of this is helpful. Not an easy read, but a rewarding one.