Twilight Language and Apophatic Modes of Mystic Speech
TUESDAY, 2:10-5:00 PM, 922 SPROUL

Building Upon Michael Sells’ Mystical Languages of Unsaying (University of Chicago Press, 1994) this course explores apophatic modes or mystical speech. After examining Sells treatment of Plotinus and Ibn Arabi our study will focus specifically on the works of Asian mystics. Our main emphasis will be on South Asian modes of esoteric speech in India, Nepal and Tibet, which utilize secret tantric dictionaries and coded discourse through English translations of traditional works that are characterized as Sandhyā (or Sandhā) Bhāṣya (“Twilight Language” or “Intentional Speech”), Cūṉiya Camapāsaṇai (“A Dialogue with Emptiness”) of the Tamil Siddhas (Cittarkal), the Beḍagina Vacanas (“Fancy Poems”) of the Viraśaiva saints, and the Ulaṭ Bhāmsi (“The Upside-down Language”) of the bhakti poet Kabir. A special examination with be made of the Doha Kośa and Caryā Gīti poetic collections in an early form of Bengali, which are attributed to the Mahāsiddhas, the architects of Vajrayāna Buddhism. We will then shift to East Asian Literature beginning with Daoist classics of Laozi and Zhuangzi, as well as later Daoist works that explore Neidan (inner alchemy) where the inner body is an allegorical landscape that is transited through meditation, breath manipulation and visualization. Next, we study Sengzhao’s “Wild Words,” a Later Qin Dynasty philosopher and leading student of Kumārajīva. Lastly, we will turn to Ch’an and Zen works examining gongan/koan traditions, along with a host of other Buddhist poets and visual artists that find inventive ways to express their sublime epiphanies in diverse and intriguing ways in both China and Japan.

All texts in English translation.