[Buddha-l] Prof. Guenther: some essays

[M.B. Schiekel]

Dear folks,

a small German Buddhist publishers: Buddhistischer Studienverlag,
Berlin, (that is Peter Gaeng and friends) recently has published:
  "Herbert Guenther, Wirbelndes Licht -
  Texte zur holistischen Prozessphilosophie des tibetischen Buddhismus
  der aelteren Ueberlieferung"

This book gathers the German version of 8 essays about the early
Dzogchen tradition (namely Padmasambhava), Guenther wrote in the years
1994-2002:
- The Re-Cognition of Being's Infrastructure as Self-Completion,
- The Complexity of the Initial Condition,
- Is the Mind in Search of Itself?
- Light - An Emergent Phenomenon,
- Sound, Colour, and Self-Organiszation,
- Mandala and/or dkyil-'khor,
- The Intensity-Immensity Singularity,
- The Lama -From Authenticity to Theatrics.

The German translation for this edition was done by Herbert and Ilse
Guenther. Might be, this was the last work, Guenther could finish.

I've been asked to review this book for a German Buddhist journal. Long
time ago, I've read and enjoyed Guenther's:
- The Tantric view of Life,
- Ecstatic Spontaneity: Saraha's Three Cycles of Doha,
but his recent "Wirbelndes Licht" I find not easy to read, very complex
and I encounter many questions - might be, anybody here could help me.


1. all the time Guenther speaks from the "rDzogs-chen thinkers" - is
this really a valid approch to Dzogchen or isn't this focus too small?

2. very often Guenther compares the ontological dimension of
Padmasambhavas "thinking" with the thinking of Heidegger?
Well, is this only Guenther's view, or would you agree?

3. Guenther is seeing a strong influence of oriental gnostic ideas in
Padmasambhavas writings - would you agree?

4. a central term in Dzogchen and also in Guenther's book is "rigpa". He
translates rigpa with: "overconscious ecstatic intensity".
Well, until now, I understood rigpa as "insight/vipassana". What do you
think about "rigpa" and Guenther's view?

5. in Guenthers book, and especially in the essay "The Lama ...", I miss
the word "byams-pa" (metta, loving kindness).
The words "light, ecstatic, dynamic, ontic ground" are used very often.
Do you think, this is the view of Guenther or the view of Padmasambhava?

By the way, in the end of "The Lama ..." there are some very unkind and
in my view unknowing words about the american Nyingma Lama Surya Das.


Thank you for your patience and feedback,
bernhard


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