Tantric Visual Culture

A Cognitive Approach

Sthaneshwar Timalsina

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317606321
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Indian culture relies greatly on visual expression, and this book uses both classical Indian and contemporary Western philosophies and current studies on cognitive sciences, and applies them to contextualize Tantric visual culture.

The work selects aspects of Tantric language and the practice of visualization, with the central premise to engage cognitive theories while studying images. It utilizes the contemporary theories of metaphor and cognitive blend, the theory of metonymy, and a holographic theory of epistemology with a focus on concept formation and its application to the study of myths and images. In addition, it applies the classical aesthetic theory of rasa to unravel the meaning of opaque images. This philosophical and cognitive analysis allows materials from Indian culture to be understood in a new light, while engaging contemporary theories of cognitive science and semantics. The book demonstrates how the domains of meaning and philosophy can be addressed within any culture without reducing their intrinsic cultural significance.

By addressing these key aspects of Tantric traditions through this approach, this book initiates a much-needed dialogue between Indian and Western theories, while encouraging introspection within the Indic traditions themselves. It will be of interest to those studying and researching Religion, Philosophy and South Asian Culture.

Section 1

Image in the context of Tantric practice

1 Mnemonics, image compression, and Tantric visualization

Mnemonics is the study of the systems linked with improving and assisting memory. While mnemonic devices have historically been of interest for people wanting to expand their capacity for recalling specific content, in recent years this has become a topic of interest for those addressing human cognition and memory in more general terms. As we shall see, in Indian Tantric culture, deity images and the geometric designs called ma

alas are used in a way that is comparable to mnemonic devices. While these images bear considerable religious and devotional significance, in the context of visualization practices they are utilized to evoke complex systems of signification, sometimes encompassing entire Tantric systems. The opacity of deity images in the Hindu culture has perplexed many people, and the extant studies have done very little to unravel the complexity of the visual culture. As will soon be made apparent, visual images play a central role in contemplative practice and are used to enhance attention and retain memory. Furthermore, such images are intertwined with imagination and the creative aspect of human cognition.¹

Recent studies have established that visual images are powerful devices for enhancing memory.² The interaction of images with each other effectively consolidates the retention of meaning.³ Bizarre images are found to remain in memory for a longer time than, for example, an esthetically appealing landscape.⁴ Such insights, along with various related studies on human cognition and memory, have inspired me to explore the cognitive domain of Tantric visualization. This does not mean that contemplative practices and their philosophies provide only the raw materials for a newly emerging discipline. For scholars in religious studies, engaging cognitive aspects of images shifts our attention from the dominant historical and sociological perspectives and helps us describe the aspects that have remained misunderstood. In turn, through a plethora of case studies, ethnographic and textual materials validate the research of cognitive scientists. Moreover, various arguments from indigenous philosophies compel a reevaluation of our understandings regarding human cognitive behavior.

Before we engage with complex issues on Tantric rituals and their relevance to contemporary studies in the area of cognitive science, it is vital that we demonstrate that Tantric visualization fits the criteria of mnemonic techniques. For instance, entities to be recollected in these practices are spatialized, and categories are vertically or horizontally organized. The categories to be remembered are localized in the body through the ritual of ‘installation’ (nyāsa). Different limbs in the body thus relate to Sanskrit phonemes, various mantras, the underlying philosophical principles (tattvas), and the cosmic planes (bhuvanas). A contemporary finding suggests that spatialization is twice as effective in recollecting the items.⁵ Accordingly, retrieval of memory is easier if its organization follows a systematized framework. In this process, 1) the items to be remembered are conceptualized in meaningful units, 2) arranged in a hierarchy, and 3) designated by the first letters of each article to create an acronym. All these techniques are used in Tantric visualization. Besides instructing the subject to complete a series of visual projections, liturgies and philosophical texts also prescribe the cultivation of specific emotions or their absence. Experiments suggest that a balanced state of mind achieved through various mindfulness practices also leads to more effective recollection.⁶

What is common to all Tantric visualization practices is repeating mantras while actively imagining the divine bodies or geometric designs called ma

alas. In order to create experiences that are felt to be real, Tantric practice relies on bringing to mind both image and speech. Within the realm of mental representation, Allan Paivio introduced a dual-coding theory where two alternative verbal and non-verbal methods represent events.⁷ Our concepts, following this theory, can be held both in images and words. The dual-coding theory demonstrates that lasting memory can be created by the use of both image and words. While images can evoke information simultaneously, words follow one after another in recall. Accordingly, words are used also to describe mental images. Verbal memory rests on a different system than the analogous codes utilized in images that allow the mind to preserve in memory an almost identical imprint of what has been experienced. Although dual-coding theory has some limitations,⁸ the central claim that memory can be enhanced by use of both image and word remains unchallenged. The Tantric visualization that primarily rests on utilizing both words and images can, in this sense, be seen in light of Paivio’s thesis. In the context of visualization, when images are recalled, the texts or mantras are actively attained, and when texts are played simply out of memory, images are recalled. What is unique to this model is the activation of different cognitive processes at the same time.

Speech is the primary device of visualization in Tantras. Rather than simply recalling words, visualization practice uses mantras as a template for contemplating various other categories. Further imprinting the process of recollection, mantras are not just simply ‘heard,’ remembered, or brought forth through recall, but rather, they are mentally situated in different parts of the body and ‘seen’ as images. Speech and image merge in a single cognitive domain, as the speech becomes very subtle at the stage of paśyantī.⁹ This level of speech, following grammarians and Tantric philosophers, merges speech and vision, where words are ‘seen’ in the screen of mind. Meditations upon speech meticulously cultivate subtle states where the ‘sound’ aspect of words collapses and are merely ob...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Overview
• Section 1: Image in the context of Tantric practice
• Section 2: Image, metonymy, and metaphors
• Section 3: Image compression and decompression
• Section 4: Visualization and emotions
• Bibliography
• Index I: Deity Names and Technical Terms
• Index II: Scholars Cited