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Document Details : Title: Mountain Retreat in Tibet Subtitle: How to be Mindful towards Nature - An Approach of Metaphor Analysis and its Contextualisation Author(s): MEINERT, Carmen , SOBISCH, Jan-Ulrich Journal: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume: 48 Date: 2025 Pages: 193-212 DOI: 10.2143/JIABS.48.0.3295426 Abstract : Buddhist practitioners in Tibet ideally spend extended periods in retreat, typically in the solitude of the mountains, where body, speech, and mind become isolated due to the absence of other people. Special writings, referred to as Mountain Dharma, Mountain Regulations, or richö (Tib. ri chos), were composed, among other purposes, to prepare practitioners for their encounter with nature and to regulate their interaction with it. The Inexhaustible Source of Nectar, a bilingual English-Tibetan compilation of seven Tibetan texts by Jigten Sumgön (1143-1217) assembled by the contemporary Tibetan master Nubpa Rinpoche, which we examined closely, suggests that nature does not belong to the person residing there, but rather to other entities, such as deities and spirits. In order to take things from nature or to leave waste behind, the practitioner must seek the consent of these 'others'. This text resonates with the notion of approaching nature with awareness. Drawing on this text, we conduct a metaphor analysis to explore how religious meaning is attributed to nature within it. We also discuss our findings in relation to broader Buddhist conceptions of the natural environment. Thereby, this article also contributes to the increasing engagement of scholars in Buddhist Studies with 'religion-and-ecology discourse' from the angle of metaphor analysis. |
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