Papers by Georgi Krastev
University of Vienna, 2022
Among the many arcane allusions in the Kālacakra corpus of texts, the comparison of the visions o... more Among the many arcane allusions in the Kālacakra corpus of texts, the comparison of the visions of “one united with Reality” (tattvayogī) to the nature of a prognostic image (pratisenā) is one of the most intriguing. However, limited attention has been devoted to it with a single article being exclusively devoted to it (Orofino 1994) and several other prominent researchers either simply mentioning it (i.e. Newman 1987) or exploring it in other contexts (i.e. Vasudeva 2014, McGrath 1993, Strickmann 2002). The ritual of pratisenā (or, more commonly, prasenā) was not invented by the author of the Kālacakratantra, but has much older, deeper and more complex roots, perhaps partly even in the Greco-Roman world. Some permutation on the practice is attested in Śaiva, Buddhist and even Jain sources. This thesis strives to build upon the previous scholarship on the topic, locate and examine further texts related to prasenā and seek a preliminary answer to the question why prasenā was of such prominence and how it came to be so.
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Abstract:
This thesis investigates the grammaticalization of the be going to construction in Engl... more Abstract:
This thesis investigates the grammaticalization of the be going to construction in English on the basis of Cognitive Grammar theory (Langacker 1987) using samples taken from the Early English Books Online corpus of historical English (Davies 2017). Each of the 1944 individual examples was analyzed with the help of theoretical criteria developed on the basis of CG and Hopper and Traugott’s model of the grammaticalization of be going to (ibid. 2003) and then statistical analyses were conducted in order to pinpoint major instances of change in the construction’s usage as well as to look for patterns in its semantic shift over the course of 17 decades from the 1530s to the 1690s. In this way, three distinct periods were identified: 1530s – 1580s, when the instances of the construction’s usage begin to increase, in the two periods between the 1580s – 1630s and the 1630s – 1690s the number of instances doubles. It was observed that initially all usages of the construction became more frequent, between the 1640s and the 1680s the more metaphorical spatial usages of be going to began to compete with its uses with verbs of action, which use began to prevail from the 1690s onwards by a large margin. Additionally it was determined that the usage of be going to to express intention rather than future might have been a more prominent element of its grammaticalization than its use as a marker of tense.
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A short paper on the idiomatic expression in the Anglo-Saxon poem.
The text is followed by a lis... more A short paper on the idiomatic expression in the Anglo-Saxon poem.
The text is followed by a list of idiomatic expressions and a table with the expressions in context, as well as their translation.
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An essay tracing the conflict of Partition synchronically with the life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in... more An essay tracing the conflict of Partition synchronically with the life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in an attempt to provide at least a relatively objective view on the relationship between historical events and their (anti)epification in Salman Rushdie's novel.
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A short comparative essay on hospitality within the brahmanical framework and within modern Japan... more A short comparative essay on hospitality within the brahmanical framework and within modern Japanese society, surveying some similarities and differences.
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A short review paper on the evolution of cosmological frameworks and though in Indian philosophy ... more A short review paper on the evolution of cosmological frameworks and though in Indian philosophy with a focus on Sāṃkhya and Buddhism and their roots in the texts of the Ṛgveda. Compiled for the "Indian Paths to Liberation" course with Dr. Cristina Pecchia, who was kind enough to provide some pointers on the content.
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Are colour terms universal across languages? Is the concept of {COLOUR} universal? How are these ... more Are colour terms universal across languages? Is the concept of {COLOUR} universal? How are these encoded? A juxtaposition between the research of Berlin & Kay and Kay & McDaniel and a new proposal of stratifying "lexical items for the description of visual information characteristics".
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A small paper on the metaphor of "Africa" in J. Conrad's novel stands for the uncharted "darkness... more A small paper on the metaphor of "Africa" in J. Conrad's novel stands for the uncharted "darkness" of the inner world of man and explores the text as a highly spiritual (Not religious!) narrative, questioning what it really means to be human.
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A short paper on Athol Fugard's novel "Tsotsi", accenting on its historical context and intricate... more A short paper on Athol Fugard's novel "Tsotsi", accenting on its historical context and intricate symbolism. I look at the concepts of a dream existence, identity amnesia and their metaphorical weft into the novel.
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A short (and perhaps rather documentary) essay on the subject of Siddhi in the The Yoga-Sūtra of ... more A short (and perhaps rather documentary) essay on the subject of Siddhi in the The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali written for an introductory course to the history and theory of yoga by Dr. Dominik Wujastyk at the University of Vienna 2014.
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Conference Presentations by Georgi Krastev
16th IATS Seminar 2022 Prague, Panel “Ethnicity in the Tibetan Highlands”, 2022
This paper aims to tell the story of the name sDe dge according to two indigenous Eastern Tibetan... more This paper aims to tell the story of the name sDe dge according to two indigenous Eastern Tibetan sources and examine the patterns of identity narration, as well as the quest for spiritual and secular legitimisation of the sDe dge royal house represented within.
According to the sDe dge’i rgyal rabs,1 it was bSod nams rin chen, who was first given the honorific “sDe dge” by Chos rgyal ’Phags pa - the imperial preceptor and guru of Kublai Khan - in the 13th century. The use of this title conferred spiritual and later secular authority to the sDe dge family thus elevating their standing in both worldly and religious matters.
In the 14th century, the sDe dge bka’ ’gyur dkar chag2 tells the story of how bSod nams bzang po - another descendant of that family - began to be known by the same honorific while serving as a minister of king bDag drung of gLing
In the 15th century, bSod nams bzang po’s son Bo thar received vast swaths of land as dowry, later fulfilling a prophecy by the 7th Karma pa, by commissioning Thang stong rgyal po to found Lhun grub steng monastery. Over time the spiritual and dynastic center sDe dge, the capital of the eponymous dynasty, would grow around it, and the monastery itself would come to be known as sDe dge dgon chen. The texts narrate how the hereditary line of the sDe dge kings continuously upheld the four aspects of wellbeing (sde bzhi) and the ten virtues (dge bcu) - sDe dge, and benefited from the pedigree that came with that name.
Thus, these two narratives serve the purpose of presenting the double sDe dge identity, both secular and religious, as having a foundation firmly rooted in legitimising historical authority.
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Presentation at the YDYS - Abstract, 2022
Having been consecrated by a ritual officiant, a maiden looks into a mirror and sees a vision of ... more Having been consecrated by a ritual officiant, a maiden looks into a mirror and sees a vision of a thief or a stolen thing. Yet, she is blindfolded and there is nothing reflected therein. An accomplished yogin looks at the sky or space and sees a vision of Emptiness. Yet, he does not see with “the eyes of the flesh,” nor is this an intentional visualisation or the reflection of some physical object. The case of both is that they possess divine vision (divyacakṣus) by virtue of consecration (adhiṣṭhāna).
In the case of the maiden, she has been made to be possessed by a deity, by whose power she can see things past, present and future and far away. In the case of the yogin, however, what is being consecrated as the deity is his own mind which, self-manifest as a goddess in the realm of space, appears as a luminous vision of Emptiness.
This phenomenon, described at length in numerous passages of the Vimalaprabhā, the definitive commentary on the Laghukālacakratantra, illustrates the continuity and cross-pollination of practices from an ancient Indian ritual substratum with more well-known traditions, such as tantric Buddhism. This paper aims to explore this interaction in light of the information given to us by the Vimalaprabhā and other Kālacakra sources.
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Among the many mantra rituals taught in the second chapter of the Hevajratantra, the one named “v... more Among the many mantra rituals taught in the second chapter of the Hevajratantra, the one named “vajra divination” (vajrajyotiṣa) - a ritual for the retrieval of stolen or lost things with the help of a maiden - is of particular interest. The world of Buddhist magic is broad and diverse in its practices, timespan and geography, so one may wonder what is so special about this specific ritual, since the Hevajratantra teaches it alongside many others. This paper aims to provide compelling evidence that this ritual is, in fact, a form of prasenā divination.
The main obstacle to identifying the ritual as prasenā is the fact that in both the Hevajratantra itself and all its available original Sanskrit commentaries (including those now only available in Tibetan) the word prasenā or any of its many variants in both Sanskrit and Tibetan is not used, but instead the ritual is called “vajra divination” (vajrajyotiṣa, rdo rje skar mda’). Helpfully, substantial information about prasenā is found in the much earlier Subāhuparipṛcchātantra. Nāropā, in his Paramārthasaṃgraha, provides a more contemporary reference for the practice of prasenā (there referred to by the uniquely Kālacakra term pratisenā). A comparison of the three yields too many matches for the similarities to be dismissible as a coincidence.
Aside from a several comments by Newman, Sanderson and a few others, prasenā has only been written in a more rigorous way by Orofino (1992), Vasudeva (2014), McGrath (2017) and Van Shaik (2020), but rarely in any significant diachronic detail and never in view of the Hevajratantra. Demonstrating that the vajrajyotiṣa is a form of prasenā would mean that the ritual has influenced more than just one of the unexcelled yoga tantras, changing its status to that of a much more significant pan-tantric phenomenon.
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A Reflection of Emptiness: śūnyatābimba in select passages of the Sekoddeśa and Nāropā's Paramārthasaṃgraha commentary, 2019
A maiden looks in a mirror. What she sees, however is not herself, but a thief, who is not there.... more A maiden looks in a mirror. What she sees, however is not herself, but a thief, who is not there. This impossible occurrence is given in the 11 th century tantric text of the Sekoddeśa as the analogy to the way in which a yogī can catch a glimpse of Emptiness (śūnyatā) at the beginning of his six-fold practice (ṣaḍaṅgayoga). The Sekoddeśa is one of the oldest extant texts from the Kālacakra corpus and is essential in the tradition's discussion of the path to Ultimate Gnosis (jñāna). In the first limb of the six-fold yoga (pratyāhāra), consisting of the arrestation of the five sense organs and the mind, the success of the process is indicated by the apparition of ten signs: smoke, glow, celestial light, etc. Nāropā explains in his Paramārthasaṃgraha commentary that these Empty Forms (śūnyatābimba) are not a product of the mind (akalpita), but a reflection of Emptiness. The nature of the images (bimba) that emerge is likened to the magical image (pratisenā), empty of substance (vastuśūnya) that a maiden can see conjured in a mirror. In the same way, a yogī can catch glimpses of non-dual True Reality (tattva) via a specific meditation practice. This paper presents an English translation and a discussion of the respective passages of the Sekoddeśa (24-38) and its commentaries in relation to the cosmology of the Kālacakra tantric system.
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Spelling mantras and offering ghee into a fire lit in an upside-down pyramidal-shaped copper vess... more Spelling mantras and offering ghee into a fire lit in an upside-down pyramidal-shaped copper vessel is not the average image one associates with the word “yoga”. Yet, exactly that, together with a curious mash-up of sāṅkhya philosophy, haṭha yoga and various tantras is what is contemporaneously being taught at the Bihar School of Yoga (BSY).
Founded in 1963, the BSY is the enterprise of Svāmī Satyānanda Sarasvatī (1923 - 2009), disciple to Svāmī Śivānanda Sarasvatī of Rishikesh. The school has since spread globally with the Munger (in Bihar) and Rikhiapeeth (in Jharkhand) ashrams as its “head” and “heart”. The school teaches a synesthetic merge of yogic, tantric and vedāntic practices ranging from standard āsana and prāṇāyāma to meditation and simplified fire ritual. The official mission of the Rikhiapeeth ashram is to help lift the local population out of poverty through providing education as well as material and medical help to the needy. However, they offer instruction on what in the West would be considered atypical for a school of yoga. In the summer of 2016, a five-day “Mantra, Swara Yoga and Havan Retreat” took place at Rikhiapeeth, prior to the celebration of guru pūrṇimā (12th-16th of July that year). The current paper reports and reviews the practices and philosophy taught at BSY in relation to the context of traditional Brahmanical practices and looks at the varied influences that have informed this particular iteration of the ancient fire rites, as well as at the rather unusual topics of “yoga ecology” and “inner havan” that are being propounded by the school.
The information presented herein is intended as an informative account of the contemporary practices and philosophies associated with the performance of the fire ritual as taught by the Bihar School of Yoga.
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Drafts by Georgi Krastev
As Buddhism travelled to the East, so did its languages. Sanskrit, and even some texts in Prakrit... more As Buddhism travelled to the East, so did its languages. Sanskrit, and even some texts in Prakrits like Gāndhārī gradually found their way into China. But these sacred texts did not contain mere narratives—they also had mantras—potent formulae with soteriological, ritualistic and even magical significance. There was a problem, however. The argument for the necessity of a mantra’s exactitude had been inherited from the ritual environment of South Asia where Buddhism had grown up. But how to render the sacred sounds of mantras into Chinese? When, a few centuries later, it was brough to Japan, the same problem arose, but this time with Chinese as an intermediary, creating a perfect storm of systems nested within other systems—phonetic, semantic and scriptural. By a roll of the phonetic dice, Japanese is acoustically much better suited to the rendition of Sanskrit than its mainland counterparts. However, this did not prevent Japanese Buddhist schools from developing their own ideas about mantras and their usage, mixing and matching phrases, pronunciations and meanings as they went along. In this talk I will attempt to lay out the fascinating problematics of this dynamic using the example of a Japanese Siddham manual from the year 1695. I will explore the interplay of historic pronunciations and their written renditions and look at examples of how Japanese Buddhist traditions took mantras and over the centuries made them their own. This process is still ongoing, as mantras continue to be made, live and evolve even in present-day Japan.
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Measurements described in the Lalitavistarasūtra,
P.L. Vaidya, Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute,... more Measurements described in the Lalitavistarasūtra,
P.L. Vaidya, Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1958, pp 103:
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Conferences & workshops by Georgi Krastev
Mantras: Sound, Materiality, and the Body (Workshop Programme), 2022
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Papers by Georgi Krastev
This thesis investigates the grammaticalization of the be going to construction in English on the basis of Cognitive Grammar theory (Langacker 1987) using samples taken from the Early English Books Online corpus of historical English (Davies 2017). Each of the 1944 individual examples was analyzed with the help of theoretical criteria developed on the basis of CG and Hopper and Traugott’s model of the grammaticalization of be going to (ibid. 2003) and then statistical analyses were conducted in order to pinpoint major instances of change in the construction’s usage as well as to look for patterns in its semantic shift over the course of 17 decades from the 1530s to the 1690s. In this way, three distinct periods were identified: 1530s – 1580s, when the instances of the construction’s usage begin to increase, in the two periods between the 1580s – 1630s and the 1630s – 1690s the number of instances doubles. It was observed that initially all usages of the construction became more frequent, between the 1640s and the 1680s the more metaphorical spatial usages of be going to began to compete with its uses with verbs of action, which use began to prevail from the 1690s onwards by a large margin. Additionally it was determined that the usage of be going to to express intention rather than future might have been a more prominent element of its grammaticalization than its use as a marker of tense.
The text is followed by a list of idiomatic expressions and a table with the expressions in context, as well as their translation.
Conference Presentations by Georgi Krastev
According to the sDe dge’i rgyal rabs,1 it was bSod nams rin chen, who was first given the honorific “sDe dge” by Chos rgyal ’Phags pa - the imperial preceptor and guru of Kublai Khan - in the 13th century. The use of this title conferred spiritual and later secular authority to the sDe dge family thus elevating their standing in both worldly and religious matters.
In the 14th century, the sDe dge bka’ ’gyur dkar chag2 tells the story of how bSod nams bzang po - another descendant of that family - began to be known by the same honorific while serving as a minister of king bDag drung of gLing
In the 15th century, bSod nams bzang po’s son Bo thar received vast swaths of land as dowry, later fulfilling a prophecy by the 7th Karma pa, by commissioning Thang stong rgyal po to found Lhun grub steng monastery. Over time the spiritual and dynastic center sDe dge, the capital of the eponymous dynasty, would grow around it, and the monastery itself would come to be known as sDe dge dgon chen. The texts narrate how the hereditary line of the sDe dge kings continuously upheld the four aspects of wellbeing (sde bzhi) and the ten virtues (dge bcu) - sDe dge, and benefited from the pedigree that came with that name.
Thus, these two narratives serve the purpose of presenting the double sDe dge identity, both secular and religious, as having a foundation firmly rooted in legitimising historical authority.
In the case of the maiden, she has been made to be possessed by a deity, by whose power she can see things past, present and future and far away. In the case of the yogin, however, what is being consecrated as the deity is his own mind which, self-manifest as a goddess in the realm of space, appears as a luminous vision of Emptiness.
This phenomenon, described at length in numerous passages of the Vimalaprabhā, the definitive commentary on the Laghukālacakratantra, illustrates the continuity and cross-pollination of practices from an ancient Indian ritual substratum with more well-known traditions, such as tantric Buddhism. This paper aims to explore this interaction in light of the information given to us by the Vimalaprabhā and other Kālacakra sources.
The main obstacle to identifying the ritual as prasenā is the fact that in both the Hevajratantra itself and all its available original Sanskrit commentaries (including those now only available in Tibetan) the word prasenā or any of its many variants in both Sanskrit and Tibetan is not used, but instead the ritual is called “vajra divination” (vajrajyotiṣa, rdo rje skar mda’). Helpfully, substantial information about prasenā is found in the much earlier Subāhuparipṛcchātantra. Nāropā, in his Paramārthasaṃgraha, provides a more contemporary reference for the practice of prasenā (there referred to by the uniquely Kālacakra term pratisenā). A comparison of the three yields too many matches for the similarities to be dismissible as a coincidence.
Aside from a several comments by Newman, Sanderson and a few others, prasenā has only been written in a more rigorous way by Orofino (1992), Vasudeva (2014), McGrath (2017) and Van Shaik (2020), but rarely in any significant diachronic detail and never in view of the Hevajratantra. Demonstrating that the vajrajyotiṣa is a form of prasenā would mean that the ritual has influenced more than just one of the unexcelled yoga tantras, changing its status to that of a much more significant pan-tantric phenomenon.
Founded in 1963, the BSY is the enterprise of Svāmī Satyānanda Sarasvatī (1923 - 2009), disciple to Svāmī Śivānanda Sarasvatī of Rishikesh. The school has since spread globally with the Munger (in Bihar) and Rikhiapeeth (in Jharkhand) ashrams as its “head” and “heart”. The school teaches a synesthetic merge of yogic, tantric and vedāntic practices ranging from standard āsana and prāṇāyāma to meditation and simplified fire ritual. The official mission of the Rikhiapeeth ashram is to help lift the local population out of poverty through providing education as well as material and medical help to the needy. However, they offer instruction on what in the West would be considered atypical for a school of yoga. In the summer of 2016, a five-day “Mantra, Swara Yoga and Havan Retreat” took place at Rikhiapeeth, prior to the celebration of guru pūrṇimā (12th-16th of July that year). The current paper reports and reviews the practices and philosophy taught at BSY in relation to the context of traditional Brahmanical practices and looks at the varied influences that have informed this particular iteration of the ancient fire rites, as well as at the rather unusual topics of “yoga ecology” and “inner havan” that are being propounded by the school.
The information presented herein is intended as an informative account of the contemporary practices and philosophies associated with the performance of the fire ritual as taught by the Bihar School of Yoga.
Drafts by Georgi Krastev
P.L. Vaidya, Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1958, pp 103:
Conferences & workshops by Georgi Krastev
This thesis investigates the grammaticalization of the be going to construction in English on the basis of Cognitive Grammar theory (Langacker 1987) using samples taken from the Early English Books Online corpus of historical English (Davies 2017). Each of the 1944 individual examples was analyzed with the help of theoretical criteria developed on the basis of CG and Hopper and Traugott’s model of the grammaticalization of be going to (ibid. 2003) and then statistical analyses were conducted in order to pinpoint major instances of change in the construction’s usage as well as to look for patterns in its semantic shift over the course of 17 decades from the 1530s to the 1690s. In this way, three distinct periods were identified: 1530s – 1580s, when the instances of the construction’s usage begin to increase, in the two periods between the 1580s – 1630s and the 1630s – 1690s the number of instances doubles. It was observed that initially all usages of the construction became more frequent, between the 1640s and the 1680s the more metaphorical spatial usages of be going to began to compete with its uses with verbs of action, which use began to prevail from the 1690s onwards by a large margin. Additionally it was determined that the usage of be going to to express intention rather than future might have been a more prominent element of its grammaticalization than its use as a marker of tense.
The text is followed by a list of idiomatic expressions and a table with the expressions in context, as well as their translation.
According to the sDe dge’i rgyal rabs,1 it was bSod nams rin chen, who was first given the honorific “sDe dge” by Chos rgyal ’Phags pa - the imperial preceptor and guru of Kublai Khan - in the 13th century. The use of this title conferred spiritual and later secular authority to the sDe dge family thus elevating their standing in both worldly and religious matters.
In the 14th century, the sDe dge bka’ ’gyur dkar chag2 tells the story of how bSod nams bzang po - another descendant of that family - began to be known by the same honorific while serving as a minister of king bDag drung of gLing
In the 15th century, bSod nams bzang po’s son Bo thar received vast swaths of land as dowry, later fulfilling a prophecy by the 7th Karma pa, by commissioning Thang stong rgyal po to found Lhun grub steng monastery. Over time the spiritual and dynastic center sDe dge, the capital of the eponymous dynasty, would grow around it, and the monastery itself would come to be known as sDe dge dgon chen. The texts narrate how the hereditary line of the sDe dge kings continuously upheld the four aspects of wellbeing (sde bzhi) and the ten virtues (dge bcu) - sDe dge, and benefited from the pedigree that came with that name.
Thus, these two narratives serve the purpose of presenting the double sDe dge identity, both secular and religious, as having a foundation firmly rooted in legitimising historical authority.
In the case of the maiden, she has been made to be possessed by a deity, by whose power she can see things past, present and future and far away. In the case of the yogin, however, what is being consecrated as the deity is his own mind which, self-manifest as a goddess in the realm of space, appears as a luminous vision of Emptiness.
This phenomenon, described at length in numerous passages of the Vimalaprabhā, the definitive commentary on the Laghukālacakratantra, illustrates the continuity and cross-pollination of practices from an ancient Indian ritual substratum with more well-known traditions, such as tantric Buddhism. This paper aims to explore this interaction in light of the information given to us by the Vimalaprabhā and other Kālacakra sources.
The main obstacle to identifying the ritual as prasenā is the fact that in both the Hevajratantra itself and all its available original Sanskrit commentaries (including those now only available in Tibetan) the word prasenā or any of its many variants in both Sanskrit and Tibetan is not used, but instead the ritual is called “vajra divination” (vajrajyotiṣa, rdo rje skar mda’). Helpfully, substantial information about prasenā is found in the much earlier Subāhuparipṛcchātantra. Nāropā, in his Paramārthasaṃgraha, provides a more contemporary reference for the practice of prasenā (there referred to by the uniquely Kālacakra term pratisenā). A comparison of the three yields too many matches for the similarities to be dismissible as a coincidence.
Aside from a several comments by Newman, Sanderson and a few others, prasenā has only been written in a more rigorous way by Orofino (1992), Vasudeva (2014), McGrath (2017) and Van Shaik (2020), but rarely in any significant diachronic detail and never in view of the Hevajratantra. Demonstrating that the vajrajyotiṣa is a form of prasenā would mean that the ritual has influenced more than just one of the unexcelled yoga tantras, changing its status to that of a much more significant pan-tantric phenomenon.
Founded in 1963, the BSY is the enterprise of Svāmī Satyānanda Sarasvatī (1923 - 2009), disciple to Svāmī Śivānanda Sarasvatī of Rishikesh. The school has since spread globally with the Munger (in Bihar) and Rikhiapeeth (in Jharkhand) ashrams as its “head” and “heart”. The school teaches a synesthetic merge of yogic, tantric and vedāntic practices ranging from standard āsana and prāṇāyāma to meditation and simplified fire ritual. The official mission of the Rikhiapeeth ashram is to help lift the local population out of poverty through providing education as well as material and medical help to the needy. However, they offer instruction on what in the West would be considered atypical for a school of yoga. In the summer of 2016, a five-day “Mantra, Swara Yoga and Havan Retreat” took place at Rikhiapeeth, prior to the celebration of guru pūrṇimā (12th-16th of July that year). The current paper reports and reviews the practices and philosophy taught at BSY in relation to the context of traditional Brahmanical practices and looks at the varied influences that have informed this particular iteration of the ancient fire rites, as well as at the rather unusual topics of “yoga ecology” and “inner havan” that are being propounded by the school.
The information presented herein is intended as an informative account of the contemporary practices and philosophies associated with the performance of the fire ritual as taught by the Bihar School of Yoga.
P.L. Vaidya, Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1958, pp 103: