Description
Book SynopsisJacob P. Dalton offers a history of early tantric Buddhist ritual through the lens of the Tibetan manuscripts discovered near Dunhuang on the ancient Silk Road. He argues that the spread of ritual manuals offered Buddhists an extracanonical literary form through which to engage with their tradition in new and locally specific ways.
Trade ReviewWhen we read the tantras, they often strike us as merely magic. How did these strange texts, filled with demonic deities, become the foundation for the empowering rituals and sophisticated meditations so widely practiced across the Buddhist world? This book, with its profound analyses and precise translations, finally answers that question. -- Donald S. Lopez Jr., Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan
Based on a somewhat random cache of largely tenth-century Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, Jacob Dalton delivers to us a masterful new narrative of much of the history of Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhism. This innovative history rests on the plastic and more human genre of local ritual manuals, rather than the formalized tantric scriptures. Dalton's lens of analysis allows us to see the creative shifts in ritual practice that unfolded over the centuries, from the chanting of spells to self-visualization, the inner experiences of sexual yoga, and beyond. Replete with full translations of key works, this book is highly recommended for university courses on Buddhist ritual and tantrism, not to mention lay students of Asian religion and yogic practitioners alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of
Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis unique, approachable and well-organized book not only mines an extraordinary number of Dunhuang manuscripts, of which Dalton is one of the acknowledged experts, but also offers excellent examinations of the practices and controversies in the development of forms of Buddhist tantra in the eighth century. -- Ronald M. Davidson, author of
Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric MovementTable of ContentsPreface
Introduction
1. Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local
2. From
Dhāraṇī to Tantra: The
SarvadurgatipariśodhanaAppendix: A
Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Initiation Manual
3. Evoking Possession: The
Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgrahaAppendix:
Tattvasaṃgraha-sādhanopāyika4. Secretory Secrets: Sexual Yoga in Early Mahāyoga
Appendix:
The Generation of Fortune Sādhana
5. Circles of Blazing Breaths: A Manual for Mantra Recitation
Appendix:
Samādhi Sādhana with Commentary
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
