Comparative Mystical Theology of Love and Emptiness: Nondual Union in Buddhists and Beguines

The mode of ‘comparison’ is essential, especially when it comes to the contemplation of Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch, the French and Dutch Beguine mystics from 13th century; Their notoriously enigmatic mysticism, by which radical and unique meditations on indistinct union with Divine are expressed in erotic and ecstatic manner, may discover a counterpart in nondualist tantric traditions of Buddhism and the broader Indian discourse of self and soul. In short, I will argue for the significance of desire and emotion in the study of comparative mysticism. Chapter 2 “Nondual Anthropology of Nothingness and No-Self,” therefore, attempts an interpretation of French Beguine Porete, and her core notion of nothingness, first and foremost as Buddhist. In order to do so, the problem and method of comparative discourses will be examined and applied. I cope with this challenge by primarily showing how atypical, radical, and nontraditional Porete's theological anthropology of nothingness is; and how her mysticism actually becomes even clearer and more resonant when first compared to Buddhist philosophers such as Personalists (pudgalavadin), and more profoundly, the Tibetan other-emptiness followers (zhentongpa) whose teaching also contain an unorthodox interpretation of no-self and emptiness, both transcendental and unconventionally ‘theological’- introducing Tibetan zhentong philosopher Dölpopa, German mystic Eckhart as the counterparts. They serve the purpose of understanding Porete's nothingness, in nondual relation with Buddhist no-self, that is not total nonexistence of self. Having grounded philosophical commonalities between the Beguines and the Buddhists, Chapter 3 will historically survey between Porete's deification and divinization side-to-side by Buddhist Goddesses tradition, focusing on common features between the Beguine mystic and Buddhist tradition. The chapter reviews the past and current scholarship that has taken keen interest in female deities, divine-human union and the problem of gender, both from Christian and Buddhist fields. Chapter 4 is a prequel to the last, and the serious consideration of how love and desire play a role in mystical union. Here, the psychology in Dutch Beguine Hadewijch, focusing on her noted mode of despair, and love-madness as a genuine human response to the fluctuating experience of nondual divine-human union. I will engage with the relevant notion of ecstatic emotion in South Asian context, such as ‘Mahā-bhāva’― a term for ‘divine ecstasy’ or ‘religious madness,’ in the context of highest spiritual love toward the deity. Finally, in “Joy That is Bliss and Beatitude,” the dissertation culminates in addressing the enigmatic Porete’s joy, her union with Divine Love, modes of illumination via seeing and knowing. Porete’s joy, carrying the connotation of bliss and beatitude, finds profound affinity in Tibetan tantric Buddhist practices, with an influence of Kaśmīr Śaivism, a significant interlocutor of the French Beguine. I will make a tentative conclusion that it is the nondualist tantric union in Buddhism and Śaivism, that truly resonates with Porete best. As evidence, the fundamental concepts in South Asian rapture, such as the notion of aesthetic emotion (rasa) will be introduced, along with sense imageries and phenomena that intensify the ecstatic and erotic union