The wisdom goddess: a comparison of the Buddhist Prajnaparamita and the Gnostic Sophia
The wisdom goddess: a comparison of the Buddhist Prajnaparamita and the Gnostic Sophia
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Issue Date
1993
Authors
Zielinski, David E.
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Abstract
The scholar in the tradition of the emerging Study of Consciousness Field must make the best use of what scholarship is available while constantly realizing the need for connection to the living tradition of practice. In other words, not only 'What does it mean?', but 'How does it work?', and 'How does it relate to us here and now?'
To that end I propose using David Sneligrove's Indo-Tibetan Buddhism as the current standard of Western scholarship on Vajrayana Buddhism backed up by such native scholars as Dudjom Rimpoche and his Fundamentals and History of Nyingma Buddhism as well as numerous other authors. Much of this plethora of scholarship on Vajrayana Buddhism is a direct result of the diaspora of Tibetan teachers to various universities and locations in the West after the invasion of their country.
However we must put limits to our investigation. In order to have a more perfect comparison, I intend to focus on Syro-Egyptian Gnosticism on the one hand and Tantric Buddhism as it existed in India up to its demise in the thirteenth century C.E. This will include all of the First Period of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet as well as the Second Period of Introduction of late Bengali and Kashmiri Tantrism up to but excluding the emergence of the later native Tibetan schools (Tson Khapa) and setting down of the "Canon".
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Keywords
Wisdom--religious aspects--Buddhism , Gnosticism , Goddesses , Paramitas