A Hermeneutic Exploration of Jung’s and Buddhist Commentary on the Bardol Thodol

Abstract

This research was focused on understanding the relationship between Carl Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious and the Tibetan Buddhist view of emptiness. The research utilized the Tibetan Book of the Dead, subsequent commentaries, and Jung’s psychological commentary as the textual participant to understand these two concepts. Jung’s Psychological Commentary of the Tibetan Book of the Dead was examined to understand Jung’s relationship between these two concepts, using a hermeneutic analysis to bring these two traditions into dialogue. Within the hermeneutic analysis, three distinct horizons provided means for analysis: Jung’s cultural and historical context in which he wrote his commentary, Jung’s view of emptiness and the collective unconscious as he described it in his commentary to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the Tibetan Buddhist view of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which has been clarified in the years after Jung’s commentary. As these three horizons were brought into dialogue through the hermeneutic circle, the additional element of alchemical hermeneutics was applied to understand some of the unconscious components of the research. This research was intended to provide further clarification and dialogue between these two traditions.