Feeling the Way to Revelation: Patterns of Doubt and Persuasion in Tibetan Buddhist Auto/biographical Treasure Narratives

Abstract

Abstract In the Tibetan Buddhist Treasure (gter ma) tradition, communities cohere around the marking of certain visions as offering insight into the proper method of ritual practices, the veracity of reincarnation claims, decisions about institutional structures, assertions of lineage relationships, and most importantly for the purposes of this article, the phenomenology of Buddhist enlightenment for readers lacking such experience. There is a long and robust history of doubt around such visions and their narrative accounts. Doubters seek to debunk and disenfranchise those whose visions they dispute. This article analyzes the emotional dynamics and aesthetic charge of five exemplary visionary accounts from the 17th–20th century, with a focus on how doubts are overcome through intense positive sensory experiences within their life stories. Such narratives generate a sense of religious belonging in Tibetan Buddhist Treasure communities, beginning with the visionary him- or herself whose successful navigation of doubt is resolved by the persuasive power of intensely positive aesthetic experience.