Mathes, K.
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From 1980-1984 he lived in the Himalayas and studied Buddhism, later obtaining a master's degree in Tibetology from the University of Bonn and then a Doctorate from Marburg in 1994 with a study of the Yogācāra text Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (published in 1996 in the series Indica et Tibetica). He served as the director of the Nepal Research Centre and the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project in Kathmandu from 1993 to 2001. He was then a lecturer and visiting professor variously at the University of Hamburg, Vienna, and EPHE, Paris, until his current appointment in March 2010 as full Professor of Tibetology and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. In 2014 he and his team hosted the IABS meeting in Vienna and has organized and presented at many other conferences and symposiums.
His publications include A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsawa´s Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Wisdom, 2008) and A Fine Blend of Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka: Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra) (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2015). His latest work, The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in India and Tibet (coedited with Michael Sheehy) was published by SUNY Press in 2019. He is also a regular contributor to the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.
20 Library Items
The contributions to this volume were presented at the gzhan stong panel organized by Klaus-Dieter Mathes (University of Vienna) at the Twelfth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2010. Its full name was "The History of the Rang stong/Gzhan stong Distinction from its Beginning through the Ris-med Movement." The contributors were, besides the organizer, Karl Brunnhölzl (Tsadra Foundation), Anne Burchardi (The University of Copenhagen and The Royal Library of Denmark), Douglas Duckworth (Temple University), David Higgins (University of Vienna), Yaroslav Komarovski (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and Tsering Wangchuk (University of San Francisco). It is regretted that Karl Brunnhölzl and Douglas Duckworth were unable to include their work in the present publication. (Mathes, introduction, 4–5)
Notes:
- See Brunnhölzl’s Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas," and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong; and Mathes’s "Tāranātha's ‘Twenty-One Differences with Regard to the Profound Meaning’—Comparing the Views of the Two gŹan stoṅ Masters Dol po pa and Śākya mchog ldan," and "The gzhan stong Model of Reality. Some More Material on Its Origin, Transmission, and Interpretation."
Drawing on Maitripa’s autobiographical writings and literary work, this book is the first comprehensive portrait of the life and teachings of this influential Buddhist master. Klaus-Dieter Mathes also offers the first complete English translation of his teachings on nonconceptual realization, which is the foundation of Mahamudra meditation.
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Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes is a professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. His research interests include the Indian origin of the Tibetan Mahāmudrā traditions, buddha nature and the Tibetan gzhan stong tradition. He spoke with students at RYI on April 3, 2018. (Source Accessed Aug 13, 2020)
Tāranātha begins his somewhat delicate task of comparing the two masters Dol po pa and Śākya mchog ldan in a conciliating manner, by explaining that both supposedly see what is profound reality and hence should not have different thoughts about it. It is only in order to accommodate the different needs of their disciples that they enunciate variant views. Even though the essential gźan stoṅ view and meditation practices of both masters are the same, there are a lot of minor differences regarding tenets (grub mtha') that arise when formulating the view on the level of apparent truth.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000ADC-QINU`"'
The first four of the twenty-one points address differences in the exegesis of the Madhyamaka and Maitreya texts which are considered to be commentaries on the Buddha's intention underlying the second and third turnings of the "Wheel of the Dharma" (dharmacakra).'"`UNIQ--ref-00000ADD-QINU`"' Points 5-8 embody Śākya mchog ldan's and Dol po pa's different understanding of non-dual wisdom. In points 9-16, their views on the trisvabhāva theory are distinguished. In a related topic, Tāranātha also elaborates the different understandings of self-awareness (point 11), entities and non-entities, and conditioned and unconditioned phenonema (all in point 13). Next, our attention is drawn to different ways of relating the four noble truths with the apparent and ultimate (point 17). The last four points deal with the two masters' views on the Buddha-nature. (Mathes, "Tāranātha's 'Twenty-One Differences with Regard to the Profound Meaning'," 294–95)
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About this person
- Recent Writing of Interest from Doctor Mathes:
- "The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet. Edited with Michael Sheehy. Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2019.
- "Introduction: The Philosophical Grounds and Literary History of Zhentong.’” The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Discourse in Tibet. Albany: SUNY Press, 1-27 , 2019.
- "Liberation through Realizing the Emptiness of Dependent Origination: A Modern Interpretation of the Buddhist “Beyond” in the Light of Quantum Physics." Experiencing the Beyond: Intercultural Approaches. Ed. by Gert Melville and Carlos Ruta (Challenges of Life: Essays on Philosophical and Cultural Anthropology 4). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 198-211, 2018.
- "The Eighth Karmapa Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-1554) on the Relation between Buddha Nature and its Adventitious Stains." Critical Review for Buddhist Studies 22 (2017. 12), 63-104.
- "Did ‘Gos Lo tsā ba gZhon nu dpal (1392-1481) Espouse a gZhan sTong View?" In: Fifteenth Century Tibet: Cultural Blossoming and Political Unrest. LIRI Seminar Proceedings Series 8. Lumbini 2017, 291-311.
- "Introduction: The History of the Rang stong/Gzhan stong Distinction from Its Beginning through the Ris-med Movement". Journal of Buddhist Philosophy 2 (2016), 4-8.
- "Presenting a Controversial Doctrine in a Conciliatory Way: Mkhan chen Gang shar dbang po's (1925-1958/59?) Inclusion of Gzhan Stong ("Emptiness of Other") within Prāsaṅgika". Journal of Buddhist Philosophy 2 (2016), 114-131.
Affiliations & relations
- Universität Wien · workplace affiliation
- Universität Hamburg · secondary affiliation
- Rangjung Yeshe Institute · secondary affiliation
- CIRDIS · secondary affiliation
- IABS · secondary affiliation
- IATS · secondary affiliation
- http://www.tantric-studies.uni-hamburg.de/people/klaus-dieter-mathes/ · websites