Scholars have long recognized the influence of canonical Indian tantras and their attendant sādhanas and vidhis on the formation of new Buddhist traditions in Tibet. The impact of the more popular tantric preliminaries has, however, received far less attention. This dissertation argues that the Tibetan preliminary practices that are so widespread today are historically rooted in the rise of the lay tantric guru. In early medieval India, lay gurus were controversial, so much so that even a well-known collection of devotional practices for relating to such figures—Fifty Verses on the Guru—cautions against bowing to them in public. In eleventh- and twelfth-century Tibet, however, influential lay lamas came to serve as respected heads of monastic institutions. Throughout this period, preliminary practices were an important site for innovation, where Indians and Tibetans alike worked out the changing place of the guru within Buddhism. In Tibet, the popularization of preliminary rites such as guru yoga (bla ma’i rnal ‘byor) reflected the elevated status of the lama in the new (gsar ma) Buddhist schools. By the thirteenth century, preliminary practice systems (sngon ‘gro) that were almost entirely focused on the lama—lay or monastic—had become a mainstay of Tibetan Buddhism.

This dissertation focuses on the life, writings, and thought of the Indian Buddhist yogin and tantric exegete Buddhajñānapāda, remembered as the founder of the Jñānapāda School of tantric theory and practice. Through an in-depth study of his oeuvre, I attempt to excavate the late eighth-century world of tantric Buddhism as it emerges in his narrative, doctrinal, and ritual writings. I focus, in particular, on his most important composition, the Dvitīyakramatattvabhāvanā-mukhāgama in which Buddhajñānapāda uses autobiographical narrative and visionary revelation to frame assertions about the nature of reality and outline rituals that lead to its realization. I examine the key features of both the doctrinal positions articulated in his works, as well as the ritual systems through which a yogin was to embody and realize those doctrines, showing that Buddhajñānapāda was an important and innovative figure in the realms of both tantric Buddhist doctrine and ritual. The dissertation also includes a Tibetan edition and an annotated English translation of the Dvitīyakrama.

The importance of organosilicon molecules for synthesis and applications increases each year. However, methods to access Si-stereogenic molecules are underexplored. This dissertation includes the development and mechanistic analysis of an organocatalytic method for generating silicon-stereogenic siloxanols from prochiral silanediols. The introduction surveys the properties and applications of silanols. Notable methods for the synthesis of functionalized Si-stereogenic molecules are presented. Finally, the quantification of intermolecular interactions using NMR is briefly discussed. Chapter one will discuss the reaction development of the organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of siloxanols. A catalyst is selected from a collection of chiral agents, and reaction conditions, including solvent, catalyst loading, reaction time, and acid-scavenging additives, are optimized. The component scope of the reaction and synthetic routes to prochiral silanediols are presented. Chapter two will present the mechanistic analysis of the asymmetric synthesis of siloxanols. An x-ray structure for the catalyst-substrate complex is determined, and catalyst intermolecular interactions are probed by 1H and 29Si NMR titration. Catalyst analogs are synthesized and tested for activity, non-linear effects are ruled out, and attempts to obtain a kinetic profile of the reaction are included. Appendix A will present a collection of work related to the organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of siloxanols that did not develop into complete projects. Efforts to modify the enantioenriched siloxanol products are discussed. Desymmetrization of symmetrical partially condensed POSS tetraols using the method described in chapters one and two are attempted. Finally, modifications to the organocatalyst to improve catalytic performance are reported.

The Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra (SDP), or Purification of All Negative Rebirths, is a Buddhist yoga tantra that has long been associated with funerary practice in multiple Buddhist cultures. However, when it comes to ritual practice, the tantra itself, as with most canonical tantras, does not give practical guidance. Rather, this task falls to the genres of local ritual manuals and handbooks that have grown up around the text and evolved over the centuries. This dissertation examines several such manuals, drawn from two separate traditions where the SDP has been important: Tibetan texts from Dunhuang, and bilingual Newari-Sanskrit texts from the Kathmandu Valley. Since they originate from very different historical contexts, the aim is not to compare them with one another, but rather to consider the diverse range of ritual traditions that have developed with the SDP as their basis. In doing so, this dissertation shows that, rather than drawing on funerary elements alone, Buddhist tantric funerary rites in these traditions make use of the same basic tantric technology central to yoga tantra in general, including initiation and sādhana techniques. So too, it argues that the adaptability of the text relates to its capacity to combine with other types of Buddhist tantric ritual technology, a quality that may also contribute to its widespread popularity and remarkable longevity.

Part One focuses on a Tibetan initiation manual from Dunhuang that may be used for the living or dead. It proposes a re-ordering of the manuscript and a reading of the text as a coherent whole centering on the SDP maṇḍala and incorporating two others. Notable, in particular, is the relative lack of customization in the text and the absence of any particular focus on the deceased's consciousness. Part Two examines Newari-Sanskrit manuals of the 19th century, in particular, ones that combine the SDP tradition with the practice of utkrānti, an advanced technique that involves recalling the deceased's consciousness to their body, performing initiations, and finally directing the consciousness to depart again via the crown of the head, in order to ensure a good rebirth. Finally, Part Two provides new material for the study of Newar Buddhism, an area that has received comparatively little attention. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the SDP tradition and brings into conversation differing Buddhist tantric funerary practices on its basis. It also takes a closer look at the genre of ritual manuals, and considers the relationship between localization, levels of detail, and pragmatic needs of ritualists.

In this dissertation I attempt to recreate through thick description a picture of monastic mentorship,i.e. The niśraya apprenticeship, as it is depicted by the compilers of and commentators on the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (MSV). I interpret the emerging picture of the niśraya apprenticeship using a philologically-based post-critical method for reading literary forms and a theoretical language derived from French and American sociology. On a theoretical level, my interest is to better understand how the person of a new Buddhist monk or nun is shaped by the ("obligatory") 5– to 10–year niśraya apprenticeship and how that shaping process can be understood as a form of self-care, a technology of the self that harnesses discipline as an instrument in a larger project of self-perfection. In my introduction, I briefly explain how I came to the topic of niśraya and wonder whether L.A. Waddell's Lāmaism prejudiced those in his wake to think the guru-disciple relationship was intrinsically Tantric. I then explain the theoretical language and critical lenses that I use in this study before giving a brief social history of ancient and medieval India, with special attention to the gurukula, where the Vedic student serves their ācārya or guru in exchange for which, the disciple receives the instruction they need to become an ācārya or guru themself. Interpreting the niśraya apprenticeship as a Buddhist gurukula, I then consider the Vinaya's intertwined development with the Dharmaśāstric literature, drawing upon recent scholarship to argue that the dharmas early Buddhist monastics were debating are better regarded as "rules" than "laws". In closing, I review previous scholarship on the niśraya apprenticeship and Guṇaprabha's Vinayasūtra. In chapter 1, I demonstrate, with a close reading of the extant canonical vinayas in Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese, and Tibetan, that all Indian Buddhist monasticisms shared a model of and vocabulary for monastic training, generally introduced with the ordination rite under the rubric niśraya. 1 In chapter 2, I introduce Guṇaprabha's first sūtra, consider the claim about the Vinaya he makes with it, and examine Guṇaprabha's appropriation of the sūtra form from his Buddhist rivals in medieval India's other philosophico-religious disciplines. I then attempt a genealogy of śīla, as Guṇaprabha uses it in his own comments on the first sūtra, first, surveying the opinions of MSV commentators, followed by contemporary opinions on śīla and its relation to the Vinaya, and an examination of the Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika takes on śīla with Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa and Abhidharmakośabhāṣya as my guide. I reflect briefly on the Vaibhāṣika interpretation of śīla, considering it a reflection of a more fundamental sense of śīla, śīla-as-habitus. To close the chapter, I discuss how Dharmamitra's Vinayasūtraṭīkā demonstrates the exegetical principles stipulated by Vasubandhu in his Vyākhyāyukti and consider Dharmamitra's style as an instance of the Buddhist śāstric or "scholastic" style. The formal and stylistic choices made by Guṇaprabha and Dharmamitra are best understood against the background of Mathurā's contested Sanskrit culture, which I discuss briefly before closing the chapter. In chapter 3, I focus on Guṇaprabha's digest of the Pravrajyāvastu's niśraya section (sūtras 70–77) and use thick description—drawing especially upon narratives and rulings from the Kṣudrakavastu and the Uttaragrantha—to construct a picture of the master-apprentice relationship as it is prescribed in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (MSV). I examine the niśraya master's and the niśrita apprentice's duties to one another, their daily routines and monthly calendars, their environment, and the official curriculum that are to follow, etc., Drawing upon the recent work of Gregory Schopen and in the Dharmaśāstric literature, I argue that the saṅgha functioned as a guild of ascetics whose skills-in-trade were learning and the possession of śīla. I thus consider how the niśraya apprenticeship affords for monastic apprentices to gain the knowledge and practical mastery of saṅgha culture they need to secure independence and become masters themselves. From a theoretical perspective, I consider the structures, forms, rhythms, and hierarchies I discuss in this chapter as instrumental to the monastic's acquisition of practical mastery. In chapter 4, I discuss those ways in which the monastic apprenticeship describes the process of becoming "learned". In chapter 4, I focus on sūtras 78–102 of Guṇaprabha's Vinayasūtra, which present 21 pentads of qualities that comprise the niśraya master's qualifications. I close read Guṇaprabha's auto-commentary alongside commentaries by his Indic heirs and the main Tibetan Vinaya authorities, Tshonawa, Buton Rinchen Drub, the First Dalai Lama, and the Eighth Karmapa. I examine in these sūtras, patterns of Buddhism's "culture of oral transmission"