Practice Library

Omniscience and the Buddha’s Mind

A seminar on the Kalachakra reading of the Litany of the Names of Manjushri, and how far it departs from earlier Buddhist accounts.

An online seminar with Vesna A. Wallace, a scholar and translator of Indian Buddhism, on how the omniscience of a Buddha was understood in the Vajrayana tradition. The seminar traces the ways in which two thirteenth-century Indian commentators on the Litany of the Names of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti) spoke of the omniscience and the ultimate nature of the Buddha's mind through the interpretative lens of the Kālacakra tantric tradition. Vesna A. Wallace sets out how and why their reading departed radically from the early Buddhist interpretations, and how closely it came to resemble that of Dzogchen.

What this course covers

• How the Vajrayana tradition understands a Buddha's omniscience
• The Litany of the Names of Mañjuśrī and its Indian commentators
• Two thirteenth-century readings through the Kālacakra lens
• Where those readings depart from early Buddhist interpretation
• Points of contact with the Dzogchen view of mind

Sessions

1. Omniscience and the Buddha’s Mind 120 minutes