PROGRAM

Monte Verità, Conference Centre, Pioda Room

FRIDAY 27th MAY 9:45 Registration 10:15 Opening: Angela HOBART, Centro Incontri Umani

Introduction: Jean-Pierre BRACH and Thierry ZARCONE, Conference Organisers

Session 1: Eremitism and the secluded body: Chair: Thierry ZARCONE 10:30 Geoffrey SAMUEL University of Sydney/Cardiff University Tibetan yogic practice: training the mindbody in a Tibetan Hermitage

11:15 Morning coffee 11:30 Rachida CHIH CNRS-EHESS, Paris A technique of the heart: spiritual seclusion (khalwa) in islam, past and present

12:30 Lunch Break Session 2: Diagrams and visualization: Chair: Jean-Pierre BRACH 14:00 Moshe IDEL Hebrew University, Jerusalem The Technique of Visualization of Colors in Prayer in Medieval Kabbalah 14:40 Thierry ZARCONE CNRS-GSRL, Paris Contemplative practices in Asian Sufism: about some diagrammatic representations of the subtle body and of the dhikr exercise

15:20 Afternoon Tea

Session 3: Psychosomatic techniques: chair: Angela HOBART 16:45 Patrick GARRONE independent scholar Significant techniques of Central Asian Shamanism 17:30 Vincent GOOSSAERT EPHE-GSRL, Paris Spiritual techniques among late imperial Chinese literati 18:15 Close

SATURDAY 28th MAY Session 4: Corporeity: Chair: Geoffrey SAMUEL 9:30 Cristina SCHERRER-SCHAUB EPHE, Paris An insuperable citadel? Corporeity and incorporeity in Indian Buddhism 10:15 Jean-Pierre BRACH EPHE-LEM, Paris In between body and soul: the « Subtle Body » as a spiritual technique in 19th century Occultism

11:00 Morning Coffee

11:30 Angela HOBART Centro Incontri Umani Spiritual experience through the Balinese shadow theatre: interview with the poet-priest and puppeteer I Wija 12:15 Close 12:30 Lunch Break

The CENTRO INCONTRI UMANI

The Cross Cultural Centre Ascona (Centro Incontri Umani Ascona) is a recognized Swiss Foundation. It was set up by Dr. Angela Hobart, London, in the memory of her parents, Dr. Edmund and Margiana Stinnes - von Gaevernitz. The aim of the Centre is to encourage understanding, respect, compassion and peace internationally, which is especially important in our contemporary era, beset by natural disasters and widespread human conflict. The Centre addresses issues of cross cultural concern in the domains of society, politics, philosophy, art, religion and medicine. By encouraging exchange among scholars, students, artists and laypeople of different countries and disciplines, the Centre seeks to honour the capacity of humans to revitalize consciousness and remake their lived realities.

ABSTRACTS

Jean-Pierre BRACH (EPHE-LEM, Paris), In between body and soul: the « Subtle Body » as a spiritual technique in 19th century occultism.

A well-known fixture of Western thought since Greek Antiquity is the theme of the ‘vehicle of the soul’ which has been presented according to several different perspectives. First described by scholars mainly as a platonic myth, its importance has gradually been recognized as a central tenet of hellenistic theurgy and later, of Early Modern magic and cosmology. We shall focus here on a few instances of some of its basic reinterpretations in the context of 19th century occultism, which conflates Renaissance and ‘oriental’ sources into a discourse on the ‘ astral’ or intermediary order of reality that the ‘Subtle Body’ supposedly pertains to. The use of contemporary ‘scientific’ concepts and/or terminology – such as ‘fluids’, light, energy levels, ‘ether’ and ‘invisible forces’ - attempts to give credibility to the existence of the ‘ethereal body’ from an anthropological perspective, as well as to its transformation into a powerful instrument of psychic and spiritual investigation. This contributes to giving it a new esoteric status as both a method and a token of spiritual achievement.

Rachida CHIH (CNRS-EHESS, Paris), A technique of the heart: spiritual seclusion (khalwa) in islam, past and present

Sufis practiced three types of spiritual retreat (khalwa): retreat in a solitary cell for a period to be specified by the Master; peregrination, or the perpetual pilgrimage (siyâha), especially through deserts, mountains and cemeteries; and the retreat in the midst of the crowd, or interior retreat, particularly important for the Naqshbandis of central Asia and practiced only by accomplished masters. The present article deals in most detail with the retreat to a solitary cell as it was practiced in the Sufi Paths where it played a fundamental role in the disciple’s spiritual education (tarbiyya). Disciples could adopt this method to focus on God and attain illumination (in Arabic fath, a spiritual ‘opening’). The Arabic word khalwa designates the retreat itself, as well as the space in which it takes place; it is constructed from the root khala, which expresses the idea of the void, for one must extinguish everything in oneself that stands in the way of the pure adoration of God – the disciple is dead to himself in order to be spiritually reborn. Thus the retreat is described as the entrance to a tomb, because the cell in which it took place was required to resemble a narrow opening with barely enough space for a man to accomplish the prostrations of ritual prayer. In order to kill the carnal soul (nafs) while silencing the intellect, the person beginning the retreat was challenged by a strict asceticism: hunger, wakefulness at night, silence and solitude. Knowing this, one understands why this difficult and demanding practice was not allowed to the beginner, and could only be undertaken with the authorisation and under the close supervision of the Sufi master.

Patrick GARRONE (independent scholar), Significant techniques of Central Asian Shamanism

Islamised shamanism of Central Asia is considered as a ‘peripheral’ and syncretic shamanism in contrast to the ‘central’ and original Siberian one. Consequently, if in Central Asia we really are in the presence of shamanism, it implies that this peripheral form should share some patterns with the Siberian model. As these two types of shamanism differ a lot in the ideology and the beliefs that inspire them, the present work will attempt to discover these significant patterns among the corpus of the mental and physical techniques used by the Central Asian shamans. The purpose of this brief survey is to make an attempt to highlight at least one technique which at the same time : 1) undoubtedly interlinks the various appearances of the Central Asian shamanism and 2) is connected to the Siberian model. Highlighting such technique(s) could thus contribute to the debate about the definition of shamanism and its reality outside its original area.

Vincent GOOSSAERT (EPHE-GSRL, Paris), Spiritual techniques among late imperial Chinese literati

The Chinese literati and scholar-officials of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have long been described as agnostics and skeptics. Recent scholarship is showing that this was far from being the case: many were active participants in all sorts of religious activities, in particular spirit-writing. During spirit-writing sessions, the scholar lends his body to a god who thereby writes instructions of various kinds, including self-cultivation techniques, notably inner alchemy (neidan), as well as liturgy. While not all these scholars were advanced practitioners, some were. And yet, because they were by no means recluses and ascetics (some were very high-ranking imperial officials), the techniques they engaged in had to somehow fit in their busy social lives. I would like to start from biographies and writings by such advanced practitioners, as well as records of the spirit-written instructions from the gods, and see what precisely they practiced (visualizations of the gods, inner-alchemical self-transformations, hyper-intensive recitations of mantras and dharanis, refinement of dead souls, etc.), how they learnt these techniques, in what kind of context, and how they wrote about their experiences. I will focus on the rich material produced by the Lüzu cult on Jingaishan (Huzhou region) between the 1770s and the 1830s.

Moshe IDEL (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), The Technique of Visualization of Colors in Prayer in Medieval Kabbalah

One of the most esoteric techniques in Kabbalah teaches a technique of visualizing colors as part of the regular Jewish prayers. The elements of this technique include the changing colors to be attached to the divine names in accordance to the ten divine powers, the sefirot. The qualities of the divine powers inform the mystical/magical result of this technique. I shall present a neglected Kabbalistic mandala where the details of the divine names, their vocalization, the colors and

their corresponding sefirot are explicated, and then also survey an inedited and unique manuscript, found in Switzerland, where additional details as to the way in which someone exercises visualization, as a preparation to actually praying.

Geoffrey SAMUEL (University of Sydney/Cardiff University), Tibetan yogic practice: training the mindbody in a Tibetan Hermitage

Becoming an accomplished ritual practitioner and teacher (lama) in the various traditions of Tibetan Buddhism is understood to require serious and extended engagement in the practice of Tantric yoga. This is a complex and sophisticated body of psychophysical techniques that is intended both to lead practitioners towards the central Buddhist objective of bodhi (awakening, enightenment, Buddhahood) and also to provide them with the skills to carry out effective ritual for healing, prosperity and other this-worldly goals. Initially, at least, the practices should be undertaken in extended retreat conditions under the direction of an experienced lama. The details vary between different communities, with a major contrast between the dGe lugs pa and Ris med (particularly rNying ma-rDzogs chen) traditions, but a general outline will be presented, and the integrated role of mental/cogitive and physical 'techniques' explored in some detail. I shall focus in particular on the version of the rNying ma-rDzogs chen tradition associated with the distinguished 20th century lama Dudjom Rinpoche (bDud ’joms ’Jigs bral Yes shes rDo rje, 1904-1987).

Cristina SCHERRER-SCHAUB (EPHE, Paris) An insuperable citadel? Corporeity and incorporeity in Indian Buddhism

From the very beginning both ascetism and spiritual praxis are essential to Indian Buddhism as they are part of a shared tradition of Indian lore. The importance of a variety of spiritual practices – some still in use nowadays – is known to us thanks to a series of important treatises dating to the first centuries A. D. The techniques that contemplate various steps giving access to a state beyond the human and world dimension combine visualization and knowledge proceeding in alternation. They are increasingly and incessantly discussed in the following centuries. Parallel to this, specific practical exercices of visualization are described that emphazise the visualized image in such a way that the external representation of the corporeal elements lead the practitioner to see and know the progressive detachment from and the successive fading away of corporeity. Yet, the path does not end here. Moving further to incorporeity (what we could call the ‘sphere of mind’) the practioner progresses towards the ‘insuperable citadel’. The adherence of the putative yogin to different doctrinal and religious obedienes can be reduced to one pattern in tune with the techniques displayed during the process. Nonetheless the various applications, such as the spiritual praxis in conjunction with subsidiary rites, the importance assumed by specific ancillary activities (painting, writing, etc.), and the emphasis placed on certain meditative stages, are important markers determining the various Indian Buddhist schools. Our purpose here is to concentrate our inquiry on a case attested in a specific historical context where we perceive that the ascetic, with the help of an ‘expanded’ technique of visualization integrates the totality of the universes – a technique that can be found didactically illustrated in narrative form – will surpass the insuperable and leave behind the limiting ‘body- mind’ problematic.

Thierry ZARCONE (CNRS-GSRL, Paris), Contemplative practices in Asian Sufism: about some diagrammed representations of the subtle body and of the dhikr exercise

This presentation aims to describe and analyze some aspects of the techniques of meditation in use among the members of the Sufi Naqshbandī brotherhood (a lineage that was set up in Central Asia in 15th century and then propagated in all Muslim Asia and in Egypt). It is based on written sources, interviews and observations made during field works among Naqshbandīs Sufis in Turkey, Central Asia and India. The specific characteristics of the Naqshbandī brotherhood are twofold: 1) the implementation of an eleven-fold set of principles, named ‘sacred precepts’ (kalimāt-i kudsiyya), that is a method to develop mindfulness, awareness, and to teach silent recollection (silent dhikr in opposition to oral dhikr); 2) the concept of a non physical, subtle body structured around five, six or seven subtle points / centers (called latā’if) that have cosmological meanings. The most interesting feature here is that some of these points are activated during the dhikr practice and lead the practitioner to higher states of consciousness. There also exist in the form of diagrammatic representations of the subtle body and the precise movements made by the mind during the dhikr when travelling from one subtle point to the others (such diagrams are used in Sufi books to make the written text clearer, and in portable sheets for didactic purpose).