Tantra in Practice

by White, David Gordon

• ISBN13: 9780691057798
• ISBN10: 0691057796
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-26
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

As David White explains in the Introduction toTantra 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 BuddhistGarland 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 Practicecontinues 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.

Table of Contents

Princeton Readings in Religions	v
Note on Transliteration	vii
Contents by Tradition	xiii
Contents by Country	xv
Contributors	xvii
Introduction	3	(38)
David Gordon White
Gurus and Adepts
The Tantric Guru	41	(11)
Andre Padoux
King Kunji's Banquet	52	(20)
Matthew T. Kapstein
Interviews with a Tantric Kali Priest: Feeding Skulls in the Town of Sacrifice	72	(9)
June McDaniel
A Parody of the Kapalikas in the Mattavilasa	81	(16)
David N. Lorenzen
A Trance Healing Session with Mataji	97	(22)
Kathleen M. Erndl
Kings and Priests
The Consecration of the Monastic Compound at Mount Koya by Kukai	119	(12)
David L. Gardiner
Praises of the Drunken Peacocks	131	(15)
Richard H. Davis
Precepts for an Emperor	146	(21)
Allan G. Grapard
Devotees and Deities
Raising Snakes in Bengal: The Use of Tantric Imagery in Sakta Poetry Contests	167	(17)
Rachel Fell McDermott
The Wedding of Siva and the Goddess in the	184	(11)
Kulalikamnaya Teun Goudriaan
An Advertised Secret: The Goddess Taleju and the King of Kathmandu	195	(11)
Bronwen Bledsoe
Tantric Rites in Antal's Poetry	206	(25)
D. Dennis Hudson
Traditions in Transition and Conflict
The Jain Monk Jinapati Suri Gets the Better of a Nath Yogi	231	(8)
Paul Dundas
Longchenpa and the Possession of the Dakinis	239	(27)
David Germano
Janet Gyatso
The Anonymous Agama Prakasa: Preface to a Nineteenth-Century Gujarati Polemic	266	(19)
Robin Rinehart
Tony K. Stewart
Conversation between Guru Hasan Kabiruddin and Jogi Kanipha: Tantra Revisited by the Isma ili Preachers	285	(14)
Dominique-Sila Khan
Tantric Paths
Emptiness and Dust: Zen Dharma Transmission Rituals	299	(9)
William Bodiford
The Necklace of Immortality: A Seventeenth-Century Vaisnava Sahajiya Text	308	(18)
Glen A. Hayes
The Tibetan Practice of the Mantra Path According to Lce-sgom-pa	326	(21)
Yael Bentor
The Ocean of the Heart: Selections from the Kularnava Tantra	347	(14)
Douglas Renfrew Brooks
Tantric Buddhism and Chinese Thought in East Asia	361	(22)
Fabio Rambelli
Rites and Techniques
Worship of the Ladies of the Dipper	383	(13)
Charles D. Orzech
James H. Sanford
The Great Wisdom Mother and the Gcod Tradition	396	(21)
Giacomella Orofino
Worship of Bell-Ears the Great Hero, a Jain Tantric Deity	417	(17)
John E. Cort
Secret Yantras and Erotic Display for Hindu Temples	434	(13)
Michael D. Rabe
The Six Rites of Magic	447	(16)
Gudrun Buhnemann
The Worship of Kali According to the Todala Tantra	463	(26)
Sanjukta Gupta
Ritual Manual for the Protective Fire Offering Devoted to Manjusri, Chuin Lineage	489	(20)
Richard K. Payne
The Purification of the Body	509	(14)
Gavin Flood
Yoga and Meditation
A Tantric Meditation on Emptiness	523	(20)
Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Japanese Tantra, the Tachikawa-ryu, and Ryobu Shinto	543	(14)
Bernard Faure
Assorted Topics of the Great Completeness by Dodrupchen III	557	(16)
Anne Carolyn Klein
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche
On the Seal of Sambhu: A Poem by Abhinavagupta	573	(14)
Paul E. Muller-Ortega
Vajrayoga in the Kalacakra Tantra	587	(8)
John Newman
Jain Tantra: Divinatory and Meditative Practices in the Twelfth-Century Yogasastra of Hemacandra	595	(10)
Olle Qvarnstrom
Cheating Death	605	(20)
Michael Walter
Glossary of Foreign Terms	625	(10)
Index	635