Thank you, Petra. So the title of my talk tonight is Achimoh. Moh is the Tibetan term

for divination, a Dice divination of the Tibetan deity. I've been always interested in Tibetan

divination and I actually got this text maybe 20 years ago from its publisher, Sando Senge,

my friend, but I never had really the opportunity to study it. And so now I'm really very grateful

that this institution here provides me the chance to actually enter into a study of it

and to benefit especially from the massive experience and expertise that has been built

up in this institution. But I have to apologize right at the beginning of course, as I said,

I'm a total beginner on this field of studies and I'm just seven weeks into it. So I hope

that at least some bits of my talk are of some interest for you. My talk will have four parts.

At first I would like to start with a brief discussion of this deity, of the nature of this

deity. Then I will talk about the Achimoh text itself a bit, especially about the structural

and technical similarities with other divination texts. And thirdly, I would like to talk about

divination in the context of Mahayana Buddhism. And finally, my fourth point is to allow some

reflections on the process through which Buddhism absorbs seemingly foreign elements. And these

reflections should be an impetus for reflecting on the, especially on the high mobility of

divination texts and structures and techniques across languages and cultures and even across

vast geographical distances. So I would like to start, as I said, with a very few remarks

on the nature of the deity and for that I want to explain something because I think

that maybe some of you are not familiar with this kind of terminology. So when we talk

about the Buddha and about the Dharma, the teaching of the Buddha, then usually we think

it's the Buddha's Dharma. But there are certain perspectives we can take and certain aspects

that need to be kept in mind. An interesting perspective is given by the Buddha himself.

There was, towards the end of his life, he was visited by a monk who was also, who became

monk very late in his life. And then he was for a long time sick and so he was unable

to see the Buddha. And finally, when he saw the Buddha, he complained to the Buddha and

said, oh, now I'm so late and this may be the last time I see you and this is such my

bad karma and so on. So the Buddha replied to that, what benefit is it to see my rotting

body? Whoever sees the Dharma sees me. And also in another sutra, he said, the Dharma,

the teachings are, is my actual body. So after the Buddha's death, the Dharma was regarded

to be the Buddha. And we have to remember in this context that the Dharma was at that

time transmitted orally. So to recite or to listen to the Dharma was like seeing the Buddha.

At least that was the idea. But what was the Dharma? And in that context, it is interesting

that the Buddha himself pointed out that for him, the Dharma was not his Dharma, but that

he was discovering it. And he made an interesting, gave an interesting example. He said in the

Nagara Sutta, suppose because a man wandering through the forest would see an ancient path

traveled upon by people in the past, an ancient city inhabited by people in the past. So too

because I saw the ancient path traveled by perfectly enlightened ones of the past. So

what he is saying is, is that the Dharma is not really the Buddha's, but it exists throughout

space and time and it has been discovered by him. The Pali Sutta, the early sutras speak

also at several places of 24 previous Buddha's. And of course there are future Buddha's like

Maitreya and so forth. So the idea that the Dharma is there, something like an Urdharma

or whatever you want to call it, that is beyond the actual Buddha that is being visible here,

that exists throughout space and time is there. And this Dharma will then be called at some

point Dharma Kaya. Kaya is one of the Sanskrit terms for body. So Dharma Kaya is the Buddha

body. And it means it is that kind of Dharma, the teaching that exists throughout space

and time, but is only perceptible to someone who reaches awakening for the Buddha and it

is not perceptible for ordinary beings. So we have here at this point two Kaya, two bodies

of the Buddha. One is the Dharma Kaya, which is not visible, where the real Dharma is to

be discovered. And the other one is the Nirman Kaya. Here you see this wonderful Greek inspired

depiction of the Buddha. So and this is his manifestation form that ordinary people can