Tantric Communities in Context

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9783700183785
Total Pages : 602 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (837 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantric Communities in Context by : Nina Mirnig

Download or read book Tantric Communities in Context written by Nina Mirnig and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Ethnography of Tantra

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Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438494858
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ethnography of Tantra by : Carola E. Lorea

Download or read book The Ethnography of Tantra written by Carola E. Lorea and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-11-01 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first collection of essays to approach the topic of Tantric Studies from the vantage point of ethnography and lived religion, moving beyond the centrality of written texts and giving voice to the everyday life and livelihoods of a multitude of Tantric actors. Bringing together a team of international scholars whose contributions range across diverse communities and traditions in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region, the book connects distant shores of Tantric scholarship and lived Tantric practices. The contributors unpack Tantra’s relationship to the body, ritual performance, sexuality, secrecy, power hierarchies, death, magic, and healing, while doing so with vigilant sensitivity to decolonization and the ethics of fieldwork. Through diverse ethnographies of Tantra and attention to lived experiences and life stories, the book challenges normative definitions of Tantra and maps the variety of Tantric traditions, providing comparative perspectives on Tantric societies across regions and religious backgrounds. The accessible tone of the ethnographic case studies makes this an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate audiences working on the topic of Tantra.

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231162413
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism by : Christian K. Wedemeyer

Download or read book Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism written by Christian K. Wedemeyer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were “marginal” or primitive and situating them instead—both ideologically and institutionally—within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture. Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives—that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism—he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination. Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential Guhyasamaja Tantra underscore the text’s overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight—issues shared by all Indic religions—and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these “radical” communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism.

Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004432809
Total Pages : 632 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions by :

Download or read book Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic study of the tantric traditions has blossomed in recent decades, in no small measure thanks to the magisterial contributions of Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, until 2015 Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. This collection of essays honours him and touches several fields of Indology that he has helped to shape (or, in the case of the Śaiva religions, revolutionised): the history, ritual, and philosophies of tantric Buddhism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism; religious art and architecture; and Sanskrit belles lettres. Grateful former students, joined by other experts influenced by his scholarship, here offer papers that make significant contributions to our understanding of the cultural, religious, political, and intellectual histories of premodern South and Southeast Asia. Contributors are: Peter Bisschop, Judit Törzsök, Alex Watson, Isabelle Ratié, Christopher Wallis, Péter-Dániel Szántó, Srilata Raman, Csaba Dezső, Gergely Hidas, Nina Mirnig, John Nemec, Bihani Sarkar, Jürgen Hanneder, Diwakar Acharya, James Mallinson, Csaba Kiss, Jason Birch, Elizabeth Mills, Ryugen Tanemura, Anthony Tribe, and Parul Dave-Mukherji.

Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199909520
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation by : David B. Gray

Download or read book Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation written by David B. Gray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tantric traditions in both Buddhism and Hinduism are thriving throughout Asia and in Asian diasporic communities around the world, yet they have been largely ignored by Western scholars until now. This collection of original essays fills this gap by examining the ways in which Tantric Buddhist traditions have changed over time and distance as they have spread across cultural boundaries in Asia. The book is divided into three sections dedicated to South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia. The essays cover such topics as the changing ideal of masculinity in Buddhist literature, the controversy triggered by the transmission of the Indian Buddhist deity Heruka to Tibet in the 10th century, and the evolution of a Chinese Buddhist Tantric tradition in the form of the True Buddha School. The book as a whole addresses complex and contested categories in the field of religious studies, including the concept of syncretism and the various ways that the change and transformation of religious traditions can be described and articulated. The authors, leading scholars in Tantric studies, draw on a wide array of methodologies from the fields of history, anthropology, art history, and sociology. Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation is groundbreaking in its attempt to look past religious, linguistic, and cultural boundaries.

An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 100004923X
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival by : D.E. Osto

Download or read book An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival written by D.E. Osto and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2020-03-06 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the contemporary global revival of Nondual Śaivism, a thousand-year-old medieval Hindu religious philosophy. Providing a historical overview of the seminal people and groups responsible for the revival, the book compares the tradition’s medieval Indian origins to modern forms, which are situated within distinctively contemporary religious, economic and technological contexts. The author bridges the current gap in the literature between "insider" (emic) and "outsider” (etic) perspectives by examining modern Nondual Śaivism from multiple standpoints as both a critical scholar of religion and an empathetic participant-observer. The book explores modern Nondual Śaivism in relation to recent scholarly debates concerning the legitimacy of New Age consumptive spirituality, the global spiritual marketplace and the contemporary culture of narcissism. It also analyzes the dark side of the revived tradition, and investigates contemporary teachers accused of sexual abuse and illegal financial activities in relation to unique features of Nondual Śaivism’s theosophy and modern scholarship on new religious movements (NRMs) and cults. This book shows that, although Kashmir Śaivism has been adopted by certain teachers and groups to market their own brand of "High Tantra," some contemporary practitioners have remained true to the system’s fundamental tenets and teach authentic (albeit modern) forms of Nondual Śaivism. This book will be of interest to academics in the fields of religion and Asian philosophies, especially South Asian, tantric, neo-tantric and yoga philosophies, alternative and New Age spiritualities, religion and consumerism, and NRMs and cults. Winner of the inaugural 2021 New Zealand Asia Society Book Award, second prize.

Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004439021
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala by : Matthew Martin

Download or read book Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala written by Matthew Martin and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurgā rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyāṭṭam in North Kerala.

Kiss of the Yogini

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022602783X
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Kiss of the Yogini by : David Gordon White

Download or read book Kiss of the Yogini written by David Gordon White and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2006-07-07 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For those who wonder what relation actual Tantric practices bear to the "Tantric sex" currently being marketed so successfully in the West, David Gordon White has a simple answer: there is none. Sweeping away centuries of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, White returns to original texts, images, and ritual practices to reconstruct the history of South Asian Tantra from the medieval period to the present day. Kiss of the Yogini focuses on what White identifies as the sole truly distinctive feature of South Asian Tantra: sexualized ritual practices, especially as expressed in the medieval Kaula rites. Such practices centered on the exchange of powerful, transformative sexual fluids between male practitioners and wild female bird and animal spirits known as Yoginis. It was only by "drinking" the sexual fluids of the Yoginis that men could enter the family of the supreme godhead and thereby obtain supernatural powers and transform themselves into gods. By focusing on sexual rituals, White resituates South Asian Tantra, in its precolonial form, at the center of religious, social, and political life, arguing that Tantra was the mainstream, and that in many ways it continues to influence contemporary Hinduism, even if reformist misunderstandings relegate it to a marginal position. Kiss of the Yogini contains White's own translations from over a dozen Tantras that have never before been translated into any European language. It will prove to be the definitive work for persons seeking to understand Tantra and the crucial role it has played in South Asian history, society, culture, and religion.

Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism

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Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791408988
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism by : Teun Goudriaan

Download or read book Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism written by Teun Goudriaan and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1992-05-14 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book illustrates the extent to which we can understand the writings of the leading tantricas whose views regarding the universe and enlightenment developed from ritual practice and yoga. Contributors to this anthology include Helene Brunner, Gudrun Buhnemann, Richard H. Davis, Vrajavallabha Dviveda, Sanjukta Gupta, Minoru Hara, Paul Muller-Ortega, Navjivan Rastogi, Alexis Sanderson, Jan A. Schoterman, Raffaele Torella, and Teun Goudriaan.

The Secret of the Three Cities

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226075702
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret of the Three Cities by : Douglas Renfrew Brooks

Download or read book The Secret of the Three Cities written by Douglas Renfrew Brooks and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The esoteric Hindu traditions of Tantrism have profoundly influenced the development of Indian thought and civilization. Emerging from elements of yoga and wisdom traditions, shamanism, alchemy, eroticism, and folklore, Tantrism began to affect brahmanical Hinduism in the ninth century. Nevertheless, Tantrism and its key historical figures have been ignored by scholars. This accessible work introduces the concepts and practices of Hindu Sakta Tantrism to all those interested in Hinduism and the comparative study of religion.

Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199763690
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation by : David B. Gray

Download or read book Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation written by David B. Gray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the movement of tantric Buddhist traditions through time and space, from the early history of tantric Buddhism to the present day. These studies investigate the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in India, their dissemination into Central and East Asia, and exchanges between tantric Buddhist and rival religious traditions. From the hyper-masculine Buddha to the ritualized bodies of the siddhas, the first chapter traces shifts in Indian Buddhist ideal masculinities. The second chapter explores the intersection of Buddhism and Śaivism in early medieval India through the evolving figure of the yoginī. Another chapter explores how tenth- and eleventh-century scholars and translators in Tibet "purified" a Buddhist deity that showed signs of Śaiva Hindu origins. Two chapters use often-overlooked Tibetan and Chinese materials to explore the influence of incantations and ritual manuals on the formation of early tantric Buddhist literature. The volume's longest chapter is a detailed history of Vajrayāna Buddhism in Nepal. The work concludes with two studies of hybridity and transformation in East Asia: one on the Homa of the Northern Dipper, a fire ritual which passed from India to China to Japan, adapting to Daoist, Buddhist, and Shintō contexts; and another on the True Buddha School, a contemporary Chinese transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism.

Tantra: Theory and Practice with Professor Gavin Flood

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Publisher : Wise Studies
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 60 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra: Theory and Practice with Professor Gavin Flood by : Wise Studies

Download or read book Tantra: Theory and Practice with Professor Gavin Flood written by Wise Studies and published by Wise Studies. This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over five lectures, Gavin Flood, professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the Theology and Religion Faculty at Campion Hall at Oxford University, gives an overview of the history, theory and practice of Tantra. He explores aspects from the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition to the Non-Saiddhāntika, to Buddhist tantra. He gives an overview of the many developments in thought, cosmologies and the varied and fascinating practices that have emerged over the centuries. • Session 1 – Tantra in history, an overview • Session 2 – The Śaiva Siddhānta tradition, rituals, cosmology, initiation and liberation • Session 3 – The Non-Saiddhāntika traditions including the path of purity and the path of power • Session 4 – Tantric Śaiva views of the self, the porous self & the gnostic self, Tantric meditation • Session 5 – Buddhist Tantra – Vajrayāna and the influence of Śaivism best tantra books tantric yoga christopher wallis books shakti hindu god tantric texts kriyas yoga books techniques body tantra definition osho philosophy meditation sex shiva shakti yoga best books on kashmir shaivism

The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 900469174X
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery by : Elizabeth McDougal

Download or read book The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery written by Elizabeth McDougal and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ge bcags (Gebchak) dgon pa, founded in 1892 in Nang chen, Khams (Qinghai Province, PRC), is still active today with around 250 nuns practising intensive Vajrayāna rituals, yogas and meditation. The nuns’ knowledge goal is embodied, nonconceptual awareness, yet they spend many hours daily reading texts as part of their training. By investigating the whole context of the nuns’ lifeworld and ways of learning, this ethnography questions the role of reading in Ge bcags’ tacit knowledge tradition. At a time when Tibetan learning practices are quickly modernising, this book demonstrates a Buddhist tradition whose textual knowledge is not exactly literal, but cultivated through continuous, whole person learning.

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000686442
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia by : Andrea Acri

Download or read book Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia written by Andrea Acri and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting ‘magical’ and ‘shamanic’ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval Indic period up to the present, a wide geographical framework, and through the dialogue between various disciplines, it presents a coherent enquiry shedding light on practices and practitioners that have been frequently alienated in the elitist discourse of mainstream Indic religions and equally overlooked by modern scholarship. The book addresses three desiderata in the field of Tantric Studies: it fills a gap in the historical modelling of Tantra; it extends the geographical parameters of Tantra to the vast, yet culturally interlinked, socio-geographical construct of Monsoon Asia; it explores Tantra as an interface between the Sanskritic elite and the folk, the vernacular, the magical, and the shamanic, thereby revisiting the intellectual and historically fallacious divide between cosmopolitan Sanskritic and vernacular local. The book offers a highly innovative contribution to the field of Tantric Studies and, more generally, South and Southeast Asian religions, by breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries. Its variety of disciplinary approaches makes it attractive to both the textual/diachronic and ethnographic/synchronic dimensions. It will be of interest to specialist and non-specialist academic readers, including scholars and students of South Asian religions, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism, Tantric traditions, and Southeast Asian religions, as well as Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.

A Genealogy of Devotion

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231548834
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis A Genealogy of Devotion by : Patton E. Burchett

Download or read book A Genealogy of Devotion written by Patton E. Burchett and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.

An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136930760
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (369 download)

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Book Synopsis An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy by : Lyne Bansat-Boudon

Download or read book An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy written by Lyne Bansat-Boudon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Paramarthasara, or ‘Essence of Ultimate Reality’, is a work of the Kashmirian polymath Abhinavagupta (tenth and eleventh centuries). It is a brief treatise in which the author outlines the doctrine of which he is a notable exponent, namely nondualistic Saivism, which he designates in his works as the Trika, or ‘Triad’ of three principles: Siva, Sakti and the embodied soul (nara). This book presents, along with a critically revised Sanskrit text, the first annotated English translation of both Abhinavagupta’s Paramarthasara and Yogaraja’s commentary.

The Buddhist Tantras: A Guide

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197623832
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

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Book Synopsis The Buddhist Tantras: A Guide by : David B. Gray

Download or read book The Buddhist Tantras: A Guide written by David B. Gray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tantric Buddhist traditions emerged in India beginning in the seventh century CE and flourished there until the demise of Buddhism in India circa the fifteenth century. These traditions were disseminated to Central, East, and Southeast Asia, and continue to be practiced, most notably in Nepal, Tibet and Japan, as well as in the numerous Tibetan traditions disseminated around the world by Tibetan masters living in diaspora. The central scriptures for these traditions were generally designated by the term tantra. Tantras are works that purport to relate secret teachings of the buddhas that enable awakening in as short as one lifetime. As such they are understood by their advocates to be the inspired speech of a buddha, and hence worthy of inclusion in the canons of Buddhist traditions. Over the past twenty years there has been considerable growth in the study of tantras as well as translations of these works into Western languages. This volume provides a detailed introduction to the Buddhist tantras. It addresses their development in India, their dissemination to Central, East and Southeast Asia, and their reception in these contexts. It introduces the key teachings in the tantras, as well as the history of their interpretation, and their connection to traditions of ritual, and contemplative practices. It also introduces the classification of the tantras and their place in Buddhist scriptural canons. It concludes with a look at the transgressive rhetoric that characterizes many of the tantras, the impact this had on their dissemination and translation, and the ways in which Buddhists explained this. It suggests that transgressive rhetoric and practices served an important role in Buddhist tantric traditions, which may be why they persist despite the challenges they have presented to the dissemination of these traditions.