Read complete books and articles on: Tantric Buddhism

Tantra - tŭnˈtrə, in both Hinduism and Buddhism, esoteric tradition of ritual and yoga known for elaborate use of mantra, or symbolic speech, and mandala, or symbolic diagrams; the importance of female deities, or Shakti; cremation-ground practices such as meditation on corpses; and, more so in Hindu than in Buddhist tantra, the ritual use of wine, meat, and sexual intercourse. Tantric practices use both ritual and meditation to unify the devotee with the chosen deity. In Hindu Tantra, practice is graded into three types, corresponding to three classes of devotees: the animal, i.e., those in whom the guna, or quality, of tamas (darkness) predominates; the heroic, those in whom the guna of rajas (activity) predominates; and the divine, those in whom sattva (goodness) predominates (see Hindu philosophy). The practice of the heroic devotee entails actual use of the five elements, called the five m's: fish (matsya), meat (mamsa), wine (madya), aphrodisiac cereals (mudra), and sexual intercourse (maithuna). The animal devotee, not yet ready for the heroic practice, performs the rituals with material symbols; for the divine devotee the rituals are purely internal and symbolic. The object of the rituals, attainable only by the divine devotee, is to awaken kundalini energy, which is identified with Shakti, and merge with the Godhead. In Buddhist Tantra, or Vajrayana, in contrast to the Hindu, the female principle of "wisdom" (prajna) is seen as static, whereas the male, or "means" (upaya), is active. In Buddhism, rituals that appear to break basic moral precepts have for the most part been dropped, but the complex meditation practices have been retained.

See Y. Hakeda, Kukai (1972); A. Wayman, The Buddhist Tantras (1973); A. Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (1975); F. D. Lessing and A. Wayman, Introduction to the Buddhist Tantric Systems (2d ed. 1980); T. Goudriaan and S. Gupta, Hindu Tantric and Shakta Literature (1981); D. Brooks, The Secret of the Three Cities (1990).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Tantric Buddhism

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement » Read Now
by Ronald M. Davidson. 471 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Despite the rapid spread of Buddhism -- especially the esoteric system of Tantra, one of its most popular yet most misunderstood forms -- the historical origins of Buddhist thought and practice remain obscure. This groundbreaking work describes the genesis of the Tantric movement in early medieval...
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Despite the rapid spread of Buddhism -- especially the esoteric system of Tantra, one of its most popular yet most misunderstood forms -- the historical origins of Buddhist thought and practice remain obscure. This groundbreaking work describes the genesis of the Tantric movement in early medieval India, where it developed as a response to, and in some ways an example of, the feudalization of Indian society. Drawing on primary documents -- many translated for the first time -- from Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tibetan, Bengali, and Chinese, Ronald Davidson shows how changes in medieval Indian society, including economic and patronage crises, a decline in women's participation, and the formation of large monastic orders, led to the rise of the esoteric tradition in India that became the model for Buddhist cultures in China, Tibet, and Japan.
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2.

Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines: Or, Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path, According to the Late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering » Read Now
by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Chen-Chi Chang. 390 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Books, audiotapes, and classes about yoga are today as familiar as they are widespread, but we in the West have only recently become engaged in the meditative doctrines of the East--only in the last 70 or 80 years, in fact. In the early part of the 20th century, it was the pioneering efforts of keen...
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Books, audiotapes, and classes about yoga are today as familiar as they are widespread, but we in the West have only recently become engaged in the meditative doctrines of the East--only in the last 70 or 80 years, in fact. In the early part of the 20th century, it was the pioneering efforts of keen scholars like W. Y. Evans-Wentz, the late editor of this volume, that triggered our ongoing occidental fascination with such phenomena as yoga, Zen, and meditation. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines--a companion to the popular Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is also published by Oxford in an authoritative Evans-Wentz edition--is a collection of seven authentic Tibetan yoga texts that first appeared in English in 1935. In these pages, amid useful photographs and reproductions of yoga paintings and manuscripts, readers will encounter some of the principal meditations used by Hindu and Tibetan gurus and philosophers throughout the ages in the attainment of Right Knowledge and Enlightenment. Special commentaries precede each translated text, and a comprehensive introduction contrasts the tenets of Buddhism with European notions of religion, philosophy, and science. Evans-Wentz has also included a body of orally transmitted traditions and teachings that he received firsthand during his fifteen-plus years of study in the Orient, findings that will interest any student of anthropology, psychology, comparative religion, or applied Mahayana Yoga. These seven distinct but intimately related texts will grant any reader a full and complete view of the spiritual teachings that still inform the life and culture of the East. As with Evans-Wentz's other three Oxford titles on Tibetan religion, which are also appearing in new editions, this third edition of Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines features a new foreword by Donald S. Lopez, author of the recent Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West.
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3.

Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese ("Tibetan Tantric Buddhism" begins on p. 230, "Tantric Buddhism in China" begins on p. 397) » Read Now
by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Jan Bragt Van. 428 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...14 Tantric Buddhism in China Paul...one can speak of Buddhism as a simple "atheism...the exuberant Tantric tradition, whose...indigenous practices. Tantric practices...
4.

The Path of the Buddha: Buddhism Interpreted by Buddhists ("Esoteric Buddhism" begins on p. 176) » Read Now
by Kenneth W. Morgan. 432 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...important part in the growth of Buddhism in China, Japan, and Tibet...came to be called Tantrayana. Tantric practices consisted of special...grew up, unknown in earlier...
5.

Chinese Religions ("Tantric Buddhism: The Mongolian-Tibetan Religion" begins on p. 144) » Read Now
by Julia Ching. 268 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

...The Growth of Buddhist Sects 137 3. Tantric Buddhism: The Mongolian-Tibetan Religion 144 4...1260-1367 Kublai Khan r. 1260-1294 Tantric Buddhism dominant Franciscan...
6.

Vajra Brother, Vajra Sister: Renunciation, Individualism and the Household in Tibetan Buddhist Monasticism, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute » Read Now
by Martin A. Mills. 1 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...ignores the crucial role of tantric Buddhism in the ritual life of Tibetan...process I shall turn to now. Tantric Buddhism in Tibetan monasteries Unlike...logical extreme...
7.

The Vajrabhairava Tantras: Tibetan and Mongolian Versions, English Translation and Annotations, in The Journal of the American Oriental Society » Read Now
by Ludo Rocher. 2 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...xv + 279. The tantras of Vajrabhairava, one of the Buddhist tantric Yamantaka deities, belong to the "father" (pitr) type of the...the yogatantra, constitute the four...
8.

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, Or, the Method of Realizing Nirvana through Knowing the Mind: Preceded by an Epitome of Padma-Sambhava's Biography (Chap. X "Tantric Buddhism" begins on p.58) » Read Now
by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. 261 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, which was unknown to the Western world until its first publication in 1954, speaks to the quintessence of the Supreme Path, or Mahayana, and fully reveals the yogic method of attaining Enlightenment. Such attainment can happen, as shown here, by means of...
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The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, which was unknown to the Western world until its first publication in 1954, speaks to the quintessence of the Supreme Path, or Mahayana, and fully reveals the yogic method of attaining Enlightenment. Such attainment can happen, as shown here, by means of knowing the One Mind, the cosmic All-Consciousness, without recourse to the postures, breathings, and other techniques associated with the lower yogas. The original text for this volume belongs to the Bardo Thodol series of treatises concerning various ways of achieving transcendence, a series that figures into the Tantric school of the Mahayana. Authorship of this particular volume is attributed to the legendary Padma-Sambhava, who journeyed from India to Tibet in the 8th century, as the story goes, at the invitation of a Tibetan king. Padma-Sambhava's text per se is preceded by an account of the great guru's own life and secret doctrines. It is followed by the testamentary teachings of the Guru Phadampa Sangay, which are meant to augment the thought of the other gurus discussed herein. Still more useful supplementary material will be found in the book's introductory remarks, by its editor Evans-Wentz and by the eminent psychoanalyst C. G. Jung. The former presents a 100-page General Introduction that explains several key names and notions (such as Nirvana, for starters) with the lucidity, ease, and sagacity that are this scholar's hallmark; the latter offers a Psychological Commentary that weighs the differences between Eastern and Western modes of thought before equating the "collective unconscious" with the Enlightened Mind of the Buddhist. As with the other three volumes in the late Evans-Wentz's critically acclaimed Tibetan series, all four of which are being published by Oxford in new editions, this book also features a new Foreword by Donald S. Lopez.
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9.

Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition » Read Now
by Paul Williams, Anthony Tribe. 324 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Buddhist Thought guides the reader towards a richer understanding of the central concepts of classical Indian Buddhist thought, from the time of Buddha, to the latest scholarly perspectives and controversies. Abstract and complex ideas are made understandable by the authors' lucid style. Of...
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Buddhist Thought guides the reader towards a richer understanding of the central concepts of classical Indian Buddhist thought, from the time of Buddha, to the latest scholarly perspectives and controversies. Abstract and complex ideas are made understandable by the authors' lucid style. Of particular interest is the up-to-date survey of Buddhist Tantra in India, a branch of Buddhism where strictly controlled sexual activity can play a part in the religious path. Williams' discussion of this controversial practice as well as of many other subjects makes Buddhist Thought crucial reading for all interested in Buddhism.
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10.

The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual » Read Now
by Vesna A. Wallace. 273 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

The Kalacakratantra, the latest and most comprehensive Buddhist Tantra available in its original Sanskrit, has never been the topic of a full scale scholarly study. This fascinating volume fills that gap, concentrating on the inner Kalackaratantra and discussing the nature of human beings.
11.

Tantra: Sex, Secrecy Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion » Read Now
by Hugh B. Urban. 372 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

"A powerful book demonstrating how the Western study of Hinduism, Indian religious texts, and American popular culture have become related to one another in exceptionally intimate and creative ways. Urban refuses to narrate yet another postcolonial narrative about the evil West, producing instead a...
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"A powerful book demonstrating how the Western study of Hinduism, Indian religious texts, and American popular culture have become related to one another in exceptionally intimate and creative ways. Urban refuses to narrate yet another postcolonial narrative about the evil West, producing instead a subtle and much more accurate reading of the cultural encounter that produced, intentionally or not, a new form of erotic mysticism-Western Tantra."--Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of "Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna
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