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rooster and a knife in her hands. While she moved around
him, the priest continued performing rituals, writhing on
the ground and motioning. The priest had a fire burning in
front of him. After shouting and hooting for a while, she
cut the rooster and killed it. She then drank some blood
and offered some to the priest. This is how they performed
the hail rites.64
Yeshe Dorje considered this to be a bizarre ritual, but he acknowl-
edged that it was a big success and blamed his subsequent poor health
on the terrible climate that ensued. In competition with this same local
priest, and angered at the situation, Yeshe Dorje revealed his power.
He says,
One day, in a sudden fury, I decided to so something. I
lifted up my shabten [ritual worship] cup and, evoking the
deities, called out the name of this priest and said, You
want this: you have it! I visualized throwing the cup to the
priest. Sadly, there was a thunder and hailstorm a few
moments later. Heavy hail fell near the house of the priest.
His wife lay unconscious, in shock for several hours, due to
the surprise of the storm. There was loud thunder and light-
ning, as if pieces of meteorites were landing. The priest s
house was flooded, carrying out his belongings, while noth-
ing happened to the other houses.65
In such ways, Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, past and present, show
themselves proficient in shamanic power while maintaining impor-
tant distinctions between themselves and other ritual specialists.
SHAMANISM AND SOTERIOLOGY
Since the spiritual goal of Buddhism is liberation or salvation from
saµsåra, the wheel of death and rebirth, it is important for our com-
Dream in the Tibetan Context 91
parison to consider how, or if, such a concept could fit into an under-
standing of shamanism. In defining soteriology, Ninian Smart states:
The implication of the idea is that human beings are in some kind of
unfortunate condition and may achieve an ultimately good state either
by their own efforts or through the intervention of some divine
power. 66 This definition ties the concept of salvation to the human
condition (characterized as unfortunate) and the utter transcendence
of that misery (characterized as ultimately good ). Willard Oxtoby
notes three further aspects that inform the traditional Christian view
of salvation: victory over death, victory over sin and evil, and victory
over purposelessness.67 These three aspects relate to the Christian
emphasis on resurrection, the final defeat of Satan, and the ultimate
goal of human life.
Scholars who apply this concept of soteriology to shamanic com-
plexes often interpret salvation according to Christian themes of res-
urrection and victory over death and evil. For example, with regard to
tribal religions Smart says, In small-scale societies the figure of the
shaman is often important in serving as the expert who provides healing
and reenacts the death and resurrection of the person who has expe-
rienced evil. 68 Jonathan Smith, however, questions whether soterio-
logical patterns must rely on the theme of triumph over death. He
proposes a basic dichotomy of worldviews, between the locative,
and the utopian. The locative refers to those traditions or currents
in a tradition that emphasize one s place in the world, the delineation
of boundaries, and the labor of maintaining the fragile balance of the
cosmos. The utopian vision of the world stresses the value of no place,
the breaking of all boundaries and limits.69 According to Smith, for
locative traditions, to return from the dead is not a sign of salvation:
What is soteriological is for the dead to remain dead. If beings from
the realm of the dead walk among the living, they are the objects of
rituals of relocation, not celebration. 70 Yet, even in this instance, the
use of the word soteriological still implies the idea of ultimate good,
and to speak of ultimate good from a shamanic perspective can be
misleading in light of the shamanic tendency to accord evil its place
in the cosmos.
The concept of salvation in shamanism has also been interpreted
in terms of themes such as the vision quest. In his study of the encoun-
ter between the Tibetan yogi Khyung-po and the yogini Niguma,
Kapstein identifies four types of soteriological themes in the story: the
soteriology of the shamanic vision quest, of the guru s grace, of yogic
perfection, and of Buddhist insight.71 The latter three all deal with
salvation as defined by Smart the utter transcendence of the unfor-
tunate human condition accomplished by means of devotion to the
guru, the practice of yoga, or insight arising from meditation practice,
92 Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism
respectively. The soteriology of the shamanic vision quest, however, is
based on Kapstein s recognition of certain shamanic themes in the
Tibetan story. He states: [The] superabundance [of shamanic motifs]
in the culminating moments of a pilgrim s quest must be seen above
all as authenticating the hero s attainment of a shaman s salvation,
through power won from a woman during a dream-flight on a magi-
cal mountain of gold. 72 Here, the shaman s salvation is related to the
successful completion of, and the power gained from, the vision quest.
Yet, it would be important to note that the completion of the vision
quest and the attainment of power in a shamanic tradition usually marks
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