Sky Divination: An Elemental Practice from the Unimpeded Sound Tantra
Journal of Contemplative Studies November 17, 2025 Devin Zuckerman
The Great Perfection text known as the Unimpeded Sound Tantra and a twelfth-century commentary describe divination practices that interpret signs in the outer elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—manifesting as omens in the sky. The purpose is to determine a community's collective karma, understood as their reservoirs of virtue and the consequent likelihood of positive or negative destinies. A narrative illustrates interdependence between human communities and more-than-human beings called lha (gods), engagements between humans and elemental ecologies, and relationships between contemplative practitioners and the communities for whom they perform divinations. The article explores how these materials invite reconsiderations of Buddhist contemplatives as world-abdicating renunciates, emphasizing contemplative life as immersed within overlapping social domains of human, non-human, and more-than-human beings.