Sky Divination: An Elemental Practice from the Unimpeded Sound Tantra

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article comprises an introduction to and annotated translation of a pair of passages from the Great Perfection text known as the Unimpeded Sound Tantra (Sgra thal ’gyur) and one of its earliest known commentaries from the twelfth century. The passages describe practices of divination that involve the interpretation of signs in the outer environing elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, manifesting as omens in the sky. The purpose of this practice, the commentary informs us, is to determine a community’s collective karma, understood as their reservoirs of virtue and the consequent likelihood of positive or negative destinies. The theme of community is emphasized throughout the passages in multiple examples: in a narrative that describes the interdependence that exists between human communities and more-than-human beings known as lha (gods); in descriptions of the engagements between human beings and the elemental ecologies in which they are situated; and in the forms of relationship that are implied between the contemplative practitioner and the communities for whom they perform divinations. As such, the article explores how these materials might invite reconsiderations of enduring perceptions of Buddhist contemplatives as world-abdicating renunciates living in exclusion from society, emphasizing instead a vision of contemplative life as immersed within the overlapping social domains of human, non-human, and more-than-human beings.