Download Distorted Views: Buddhism with a "Self"?

The 9th Annual Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Lecture
Distorted Views: Buddhism with a "Self"?
The Inversion of Traditional Doctrinal Categories
in the [Mahāyāna] Mahāparinirvāṇa Mahā Sūtra
By
Dr. LUIS O. GÓMEZ
Charles O. Hucker Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Michigan
Research Professor at El Colegio de México
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
5:30 PM
Augusta Conradi Studio Theatre, 123 Williams
Open to the Public
This event is part of the ongoing Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Memorial Lecture Series,
sponsored by the Religion Department, Florida State University
Distorted Views: Buddhism with a “Self”?
The Inversion of Canonical Doctrinal Categories
in the [Mahāyāna] Mahāparinirvāṇa Mahā Sūtra
In the technical language of Buddhism, a viparyāsa, or in the full canonical phrase a
viparyāsa-saṃjñā, is a misperception, misapprehension or misconception of certain
essential attributes of things. It is a distortion such that we imagine those attributes as
their exact opposites. Typically it is the misconception of the fleeting as stable and
lasting, the impure and imperfect as pure and perfect, the painful as pleasurable, and
what is not self as self.
The last of these four is considered, by most accounts, the cornerstone of a Buddhist
philosophy of liberation. And the distortion itself (the idea of a self) is the cause of
most, if not all, human ills. Yet, Buddhists often speak of “our true nature,” a “Buddha
nature,” a Dharmakāya, “seeing into one’s true nature,” and even of “a true self.” These
expressions admit to many different interpretations. The question is, how shall we
understand an interpretation that openly asserts that there is a true self and that to
imagine that we have no self is an inverted view?
The history of Buddhism offers more than one example of “re-visions” that assert the
opposite of an accepted or canonical view, yet claim to be revealing the true meaning of
the accepted view. Not surprisingly, it is possible to assert the opposite of a doctrine
grounding this assertion on a particular interpretation of the “true intent” of that same,
original doctrine.
In this lecture I will contextualize one such re-vision, an inversion of an inversion, if
you will.
LUIS O. GÓMEZ, is Research Professor at El Colegio de México, México, DF. and A.
F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Asian Languages and Cultures, Religious Studies and
Psychology, University of Michigan. He was formerly the Charles O. Hucker Collegiate
Professor of Buddhist Studies (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures &
Program on Studies in Religion), Professor of Religious Studies, and Professor of
Psychology (Department of Psychology) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.