The Twilight Language
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The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism the title of a 1986 book by Roderick Bucknell and Martin Stuart-Fox.
The authors explore the existence of a "Twilight language" (Sanskrit saṃdhyā-bhāṣā) employed in the exegesis of sacred texts and communication systems within Dharmic Traditions. This Twilight Language is employed to simultaneously evoke a spectrum of sub rosa meanings and concealment of esoteric truths by intentionally opaque language, metaphor, gesture, codes and signs.
To provide a cypher of the code of saṃdhyā-bhāṣā, the authors drew upon: semiotics, symbolism, iconography, Asian religions, Asian Philosophy, Indian religions, Indian philosophy, Buddhist symbolism, temple architecture, cosmology, mathematical notations, Zen Buddhism, Japanese Art, meditation, personal sadhana, tantra, macrocosm-microcosm parallelism, dialogue with many teachers including Anagarika Govinda and senior members of the Krishnamurti community. (1986: p.vii-xiii)
Contents |
[edit] Pali Canon
Bucknell, et al. (1986: p.vii) outline that the Thai bhikku Buddhadasa explored "the importance of symbolic language in the Pali canon...in a number of lectures and publications."
[edit] Vajrayana Tradition
As Bucknell, et al. (1986: p.vii) concisely state in implying a dichotomy between Indian Vajrayana and Himalayan Vajrayana:
In the Vajrayana tradition, now preserved mainly in Tibetan sects, it has long been recognized that certain important teachings are expressed in a form of secret symbolic language known as saṃdhyā-bhāṣā, 'Twilight Language'. Mudrās and mantras, maṇḍalas and cakras, those mysterious devices and diagrams that were so much in vogue in the pseudo-Buddhist hippie culture of the 1960s, were all examples of Twilight Language [...]
[edit] Editions
- Bucknell, Roderick & Stuart-Fox, Martin (1986). The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism. Curzon Press: London. ISBN 0-312-82540-4
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Nordstrom, L. (1989). Philosophy East and West. Pp: 104-106. [A detractory review.]
- Bucknell, Roderick & Stuart-Fox, Martin, Response to Lou Nordstrom's Review of "The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism", Philosophy East and West (1989).
