[Buddha-l] Written and oral traditions.

[Margaret Gouin]

On Thu, May 31, 2007 7:30 pm, Christopher Fynn wrote:
> In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition it is considered vital to receive the
> oral transmission of any religious text before reading and studying it.
Some
> Tibetan traditions insist that certain ceremonies - particularly monastic
> ordination - are conducted by recitation entirely from memory.

My impression, which is subject to correction, is that the main importance
of oral transmission is that it shows clearly you have received the text
from an authorised source--the teacher who has recited it to you. In the
empowerments I have received, we are then given a printed text to use as
the basis for further practice. As far as I am aware, Tibetan Buddhism has
nothing that can be called an 'oral tradition', since from the very start
it was text-based.

I would be interested to know if any studies have been done on Tibetan
Buddhist memorisation techniques. They seem to me to be very similar to
the medieval Christian techniques described by Mary Carruthers in _The
Book of Memory_ and _The Craft of Thought_.

-- 
Margaret Gouin
PhD Candidate
Centre for Buddhist Studies
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol (UK)