DEBATING GROUND FOR LAMAS.. INCLUDES MANY YEARS OF RIGOROUS STUDY, MEMORIZATION & DEBATE.
Along with memorization, debate is a major method used in Tibetan Buddhist monastic studies. With its elements of rigorous dialectical analysis and competition combined with a rich choreography of hand gestures and body movements, debate engages and actively involves the speech, body and mind of the student-practitioner so totally that no lesson learned can easily be forgotten.
Wildlife, Untamed Mind includes an unrehearsed debate on a topic that changes with each performance. This excerpt concerns a subject from the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. The seated monk wearing is the one being questioned; the standing monks are doing the questioning. Every sound and gesture has a meaning. For example, as the Narrator explains:
The palm of the left hand facing downward symbolizes the wish to close the door to all available unfortunate states of birth. The palm of the right hand facing upwards symbolizes the aspiration to free every living being into the state of total liberation from suffering and an attainment of ultimate happiness. The back of the right hand slapping into the palm of the left hand indicates that the point just defended was lost. The rosary is used to count various points in the course of the debate.
The Narrator likens such debate to what happens when two Western lawyers cross-examine a witness, formulating questions in the most tricky and misleading terms possible and forbidding the witness to say little more than Yes or No. Each question has many layers, and a skillful answer will quickly and succinctly penetrate to the core, undistracted by all the verbal or philosophical smokescreens. If a questioner seems to lack skill in trapping the student being questioned, his colleagues will try to push him aside and present their own questions. Students being questioned may also compete to be the first to present the most cogent answers.
Thus the student exercises his or her mental and physical muscles, sorts through and assimilates memorized texts, and lets off steam after long hours of study, thereby avoiding stress and overexhaustion. Debates such as this may be interspersed throughout a day's study, or could go on all night into the dawn of the next day
Wildlife, Untamed Mind includes an unrehearsed debate on a topic that changes with each performance. This excerpt concerns a subject from the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. The seated monk wearing is the one being questioned; the standing monks are doing the questioning. Every sound and gesture has a meaning. For example, as the Narrator explains:
The palm of the left hand facing downward symbolizes the wish to close the door to all available unfortunate states of birth. The palm of the right hand facing upwards symbolizes the aspiration to free every living being into the state of total liberation from suffering and an attainment of ultimate happiness. The back of the right hand slapping into the palm of the left hand indicates that the point just defended was lost. The rosary is used to count various points in the course of the debate.
The Narrator likens such debate to what happens when two Western lawyers cross-examine a witness, formulating questions in the most tricky and misleading terms possible and forbidding the witness to say little more than Yes or No. Each question has many layers, and a skillful answer will quickly and succinctly penetrate to the core, undistracted by all the verbal or philosophical smokescreens. If a questioner seems to lack skill in trapping the student being questioned, his colleagues will try to push him aside and present their own questions. Students being questioned may also compete to be the first to present the most cogent answers.
Thus the student exercises his or her mental and physical muscles, sorts through and assimilates memorized texts, and lets off steam after long hours of study, thereby avoiding stress and overexhaustion. Debates such as this may be interspersed throughout a day's study, or could go on all night into the dawn of the next day
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