Buddhism
Damiani often drew attention to the thousand-year-old controversy between the Hindu schools that affirmed a self and sought self-realization and the Buddhist schools that denied a self and sought realization of the emptiness of self. The debate could also be framed as between those who affirmed something eternal and unchanging and those who denied this and propounded the truth of universal momentariness. He thought T. R. V. Murti’s framing of the debate in his book The Central Philosophy of Buddhism: A Study of the Mādhyamika System as between those who took substance as real (and denied the reality of function) and those who took function as real (and denied the reality of substance) was very insightful.
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But it seemed incomprehensible to Damiani that only one of these traditions had insight into Truth and the other was radically mistaken. Indeed, one of his central projects was to show how these two points of view were complementary and not opposed.
He found this balanced and complete view in PB, as well as in Plotinus and some of the other Neoplatonists who gave substance and function equal status. For Plotinus, there is no authentic Being that is without power and there is no power, or activity, without authentic Being.
And the astrological mandala exhibits this by having the zodiacal signs represent substance and the planets in dignity in those signs represent its functions, and this in turn is reflected in the natal horoscope, where each planet (function) is on a certain degree of a sign (substance).
But the metaphysical chart also demarcates the realm of becoming (that is, the fourth quadrant, or houses 10-12) from the realm of Being (that is, the first three quadrants), and so the Buddhist schools were usually mapped on to the planets, houses, and signs in the fourth quadrant. One exception to this is the notion of Buddhahood, which is placed, according to the meanings for the signs and houses formulated by T. S. Row, in house 5, and is intimately connected to the Idea of Man, the five Dhyani Buddhas, and their five forms of wisdom.
Indian Buddhism
Although Damiani studied Zen Buddhism (for example, the books by D. T. Suzuki), and he often recommended Zen meditation techniques (for example, hua-t’ou) to his students and held intensive meditation weekends (that were called “sesshins” after the zazen practice in Zen monasteries), there weren’t a lot of classes on Zen Buddhism. Rather Damiani initially focused on such texts as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, Buddhist Logic (2 vols.), Paul Dahlke, Buddhism and Science, Julius Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening, The Awakening of Faith, and Asanga, The Sublime Science (Uttaratantra). He was quite interested in the Buddhist Logicians (for example, Vasubandhu, Dignaga, Dharmakirti) because of their sharp distinction between the perception of particulars and inference involving conceptual generalities (their two ways of knowing, pramana).
See, for example, the two class series “Buddhist Philosophy and Epistemology: An Introduction” and “Epistemological Synthesis.”
The Nidana Chain and the Five Skandhas
Damiani was also interested in the Buddhist nidana chain, the twelvefold causal chain that explains how the birth and death of our mind/body arises from prior causes, as well as the analysis of a person into the five skandhas (nonpermanent aggregates). These twelve links very naturally map on to the twelve houses of the metaphysical chart.
You can find the diagrams from his sketchbooks that depict how the nidana chain and the five skandhas are related to the metaphysical chart by choosing “Nidana Chain and the Five Skandhas (Buddhism)” from the drop-down menu of topics in the diagram archive, and you can find classes on this topic by searching the document archive by typing “nidana chain” or “skandhas.”
Damiani makes some fascinating comparisons by correlating the twelve links of the nidana chain, the twelve liberated gods of the Orphic theology, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. He saw both sets of dodecads as factors that structure the psyche of the embodied individual. In terms of the metaphysical chart, these dodecads are often placed in house 11. Many of these diagrams depict house 11 as a vesica formed by the intersection of two circles, representing houses 10 and 12. The vesica itself is then divided into twelve sectors, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the links of the nidana chain, and the twelve liberated gods.
Tibetan Buddhism
As the connection with His Holiness the Dalai Lama deepened (he visited Wisdom’s Goldenrod in 1979 to dedicate the new library), Damiani began conducting classes on Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan tantra, especially the Kalachakra Tantra. For example, he led a series of classes commenting on Herbert Guenther’s essay “The Concept of Mind in Buddhist Tantrism” in Tibetan Buddhism in Western Perspective, “Buddhist Philosophy and Epistemology: An Introduction.”
Kalachakra Tantra
After His Holiness the Dalai Lama invited Wisdom’s Goldenrod to attend an upcoming Kalachakra initiation, Damiani began investigating the Kalachakra tantra and the constituents of the subtle body manipulated in tantric practice—vital winds (pranas), subtle channels (nadis), and subtle drops (bindus). His approach, as always, was comparative and synthetic. In particular he compared the transformations of the subtle body in tantric practice to the alchemical processes described in Western alchemy, drawing on both C. G. Jung’s and Atwood’s writings on alchemy (M. Atwood, A suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery and Alchemy). Also, he used the astrological symbolism he had been developing to create a framework to compare Kalachakra and alchemy. In particular, the threefold structure of our cosmos—the inerratic sphere, planetary spheres, and the elements—were correlated with the alternative, outer, and inner Kalachakra, respectively, and with mercury, sulfur, and salt in alchemy. For more about these strikingly original investigations, see the two class series:
“Kalachakra Tantra and Western Alchemy”
The Four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
Damiani also investigated the four schools of Buddhism (as presented in the Tibetan Buddhism): Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Yogacara, and Madhyamaka (but usually referred to in classes as “Madhyamika”). He found many parallels between Yogacara, sometimes called the Mind Only school, and PB’s mentalism, especially between the alayavijnana as a storehouse consciousness and the World-Mind as the ground consciousness supporting all individual centers of consciousness. Also PB’s exposition of the seed-thoughts that are projected forth as the world-image seems to be the same as the Yogacara school’s view that our experience of an external world is the ultimate effect of seed-thoughts (bijas) that are projected forth from a deeper level of mind.
Indeed, Damiani suggested that the basic tenets of all four schools could be found, reformulated and presented in jargon-free English, in PB’s “The Birth of the Universe” chapter of The Wisdom of the Overself. He challenged students to read this chapter carefully and try to identify which paragraphs pertained to which schools. This led to a series of classes in which students presented the tenets of the four schools and Damiani challenged them to go beyond pat verbal formulations and get to fundamental meanings. These classes were among the last Damiani ever gave. They were to prepare students for an upcoming audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Middlebury, CT, September, 1984. In a private meeting with His Holiness during that visit, Damiani asked him to take responsibility for guiding Wisdom’s Goldenrod after he died, and His Holiness agreed to assist the group as much as possible. Damiani passed away a few days after this audience.
There are two series on this topic:
“Tibetan Buddhism: The Yogacara and Madhyamaka Schools”
“Paul Brunton’s The Wisdom of the Overself: ‘The Birth of the Universe’”