- Paperback: 664 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (Jun 26 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0691057796
- ISBN-13: 978-0691057798
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.4 x 3.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 930 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,310,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
This extremely welcome reader is the first substantial anthology devoted to tantra. Translations are crisp and clear, and the contextualizing essays provide expert guidance that allows the uninitiated access to the symbolism of this profound world. -- Kidder Smith, Religious Studies Review
Book Description
As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative.
The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty.
The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
The choice of topics misses the heart of tantra,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tantra in Practice (Paperback)
I would not recommend this book since the choice of topics enfogs the subject rather than illuminating it. This collection does indeed have some excellent contributions from leading scholars, but it is the whole package that is disappointing. I was also disappointed with White's own contributions.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tantra in Practice (Paperback)
World-class scholars ANDRE PADOUX, PAUL E. MULLER-ORTEGA, DOUGLAS R. BROOKS and many others come together to write about Buddhist Tantra, Hindu Tantra, Jain Tantra, and Tantra and Islam in South Asia; //the countries covered are China, India, Japan, Nepal and Tibet.//The topics discussed include: --GURUS AND ADEPTS including "The Tantric Guru" by Andre Padoux, one of the best Kashmir Shaivism scholars in the world. --KINGS AND PRIESTS --DEVOTEES AND DEITIES --TRADITIONS IN TRANSITIONS AND CONFLICTS --TANTRIC PATHS including "The Ocean of the Heart: Selections from the Kularnava Tantra" by Douglas R. Brooks, one of the only brilliant scholars in the world to know Tantra "from the inside". --RITES AND TECHNIQUES --YOGA AND MEDITATION including "On the Seal of Shambhu: A Poem by Abhinavagupta" by Paul E. Muller-Ortega, the leading authority on Abhinavagupta, one of the 3 best scholars of Kashmir Shaivism with Alexis Sanderson and Andre Padoux. //Any Indology student has to have read this book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Forgets to focus on the central idea of tantra,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tantra in Practice (Paperback)
This book has many excellent articles. Yet, it forgets to focus on the central idea of tantra which is the connections between the outer and inner cosmologies. The contributions thus get lost in the details, unable to find the grammar that would unlock the esoteric language of the medieval tantra texts.
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