Subproject A03

Metaphors and their Semantic Fields in Texts of the ‘Experience Instruction’ Genres of Tibetan Buddhism

Subproject A03 investigates the role of metaphors in Tibetan tantric Buddhism, with a particular focus on yoga, visualization, and ritual practice. While metaphors are often understood as linguistic expressions, the project explores how they also operate through images, bodily techniques, gestures, and ritual objects. In this context, metaphors are not merely descriptive but performative: they shape perception, experience, and processes of spiritual transformation.

The project focuses on representations of the “subtle body” in Tibetan Buddhism, including networks of channels, winds, and luminous points that practitioners engage through meditation and ritual. Texts, visualizations, and embodied practices work together to create complex metaphorical structures that guide practitioners toward specific ways of experiencing mind, body, and reality. Images of light, movement, flow, and transformation play a particularly important role in this process.

Building on its first funding phase, which examined metaphors of mind, light, and the path in Tibetan Buddhist instruction texts and developed methods for the analysis of multimodal metaphors, A03 now expands its focus to visual and ritual domains. Combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory, the project investigates how metaphorical meaning emerges across different media and sensory domains. By examining textual, visual, and ritual forms together, A03 contributes to a broader understanding of how metaphors shape religious experience and support transformative practices in Tibetan Buddhism.

Publications

• Meinert, Carmen. 2025. "The Great Wisdom Mind like the Light of the Sky: Light Metaphors in the Early Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Tradition.“ In More Light on the Metaphors of Light, edited by Carmen Meinert and Vivian Staps. Metaphor Papers 26. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.601.

• Meinert, Carmen und Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. 2025. “Mountain Retreat in Tibet: How to be Mindful Towards Nature – An Approach of Metaphor Analysis and Its Contextualisation.” In Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 48: 163–212. https://doi.org/10.2143/JIABS.48.0.3295426.

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich. 2023. Do You Speak Mahāmudrā? How the Inexpressible is Said Through Metaphors. With a Translation of Tilopa’s Gangama Upadeśa and of Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé’s Commentary. Metaphor Papers 5. 85 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.260.

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich. 2025. "The Way in Tibetan Buddhism—How Metaphors Transform Practice.“ In Characteristics and Developments of WAY Metaphors in Religious Traditions, edited by Kianoosh Rezania, Neda Mohtashami und Roman Seidel. Metaphor Papers 19, 25 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.430.506

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich. 2025. "‘Nothing to be Practiced’ (bsgom du med)—A Paradox and a Metaphor in the Tibetan Instruction Genres.“ In Contemplation and Non-Doing, edited by Dylan Esler. Entangled Religions 14/4. https://doi.org/10.46586/er.14.2025.12536.

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich. Forthcoming. The Kusāli Yogi. How Vinaya, Mahāmudrā, and Yoga Converge in the Kagyupa Yogi-Monk. Dynamics in the History of Religions 17. Leiden: Brill.

• Jürgens, Claudia und Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. Forthcoming. Sahajayoga Mahāmudrā: Basic Texts and Metaphors. Leiden, Brill.

Edited Special Volumes

• Meinert, Carmen und Vivien Staps (Hrsg.). 2025. More Light on the Metaphors of Light. Metaphor Papers 26. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.

  • Artemov, Nikita. 2025. "‘In your light do we see light’ (Psalm 36:9). Light Metaphors in the Book of Psalms: Cross-cultural Conceptual Background and Religious Functions.“ , 54 pp.https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.600.

  • Jürgens, Claudia und Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. 2025. “Embodied Light-Metaphors: The Example of the ‘Flame Meditation,’” 36 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.529

  • König, Götz. Forthcoming. "On the Metaphor of ‘Light’ in the Zoroastrian, especially Old Avestan and Younger Avestan Literature. A Critique of Hans Blumenberg’s Metaphorological Essay on ‘Light’ from the Perspective of an Iranist."

  • Meinert, Carmen. 2025. „The Great Wisdom Mind like the Light of the Sky: Light Metaphors in the Early Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Tradition.“ 44 pp.https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.601.

  • Meinert, Carmen und Vivien Staps. Forthcoming. "Light Metaphors in Religious Traditions in a Comparative Perspective—An Introduction." 

  • Newton, Nic. Forthcoming. "The Patterns of Light: Knowledge, Aesthetic Experience, and Metaphor in the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra." 

  • Orofino, Giacomella. 2025. “From Metaphor to Metaphysics: The Triad of Metaphor, Meaning, and Sign in Bön Dzogchen Philosophy,” 17 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.527.

  • Piras, Andrea. 2025. "The Recovery of Light: Metaphors of Rescuing the Light Soul in Manichaeism.“ 15 pp.https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.599.

  • Stünkel, Knut. 2025. “Towards a Refined Everyday Metaphorics of Light. On Cusanus’ Sermons CXXVIII, CXXIX, and CXXX,” 26 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.528.

• Nikita Artemov, Linda Simonis und Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (eds.). 2025. Sealing, Molding, Imprinting, and Inscribing as Religious Metaphors. Metaphor Papers 22. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.

  • Simonis, Linda. 2025. "Sealing, Molding, Imprinting, and Inscribing as Religious Metaphors,“ 5 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.496.

  • Artemov, Nikita. 2025. "“You shall set these my words upon your heart” (Deuteronomy 11:18) Sealing and Writing as Metaphors for Interiorizing Messages in Biblical Hebrew and their Ancient Near Eastern Background,” 44 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.493.

  • Simonis, Linda. 2025. "‘Written in the Mind.’ Genealogies and Affiliations of a Melanchthonian Metaphor,“ 28 pp. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.492.

  • Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich. 2025. "Seal, Mold, Print-Imprint, and Propelling. A Glimpse of Powerful Metaphors in Tibetan Buddhist Literature,“ 37 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.494.

Presentations

• Meinert, Carmen: Introduction to Workshop—Tibetan Materials on the Rainbow Body. DiF Group Light Workshop Explorations of Metaphors of Light in Religions on the Eurasian Continent, 24.05.2023, Bochum, Germany. 

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich: Digitized Tibetan Metaphors: Tracing the Formation and Development of Religious Ideas. Lecture Series—Digitalization of Memory Practices and Heritage in Global Perspectives, 13.6.2023, Bonn, Germany.

• Meinert, Carmen: Mountain Retreat in Tibet: How to be Mindful Towards Nature. 21st Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions, 19.–23.08.2024, Gothenburg, Sweden. 

• Meinert, Carmen: The Great Wisdom Mind like the Light of the Sky: Light Metaphors in the Early Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Tradition. International Conference More Light on the Metaphors of Light, 12.–13.12.2024, Bochum, Germany. 

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich: The Kusāli Yogis of the 12th/13th c.. The XXth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 10.–15.08.2025, Leipzig, Germany.

• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich: The Mind and the “Clear Light” Metaphor in a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. IAHR Congress, 24.–30.08.2025, Krakau, Poland.

• Meinert, Carmen: The Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Tradition from Past to Present and through Metaphors, 27.05.2026, University di Napoli „L’Orientale", Italy.

• Meinert, Carmen: Metaphors in Early Dzogchen Literature, 03.06.2026, Hamburg, Germany.