{"product_id":"conjuring-the-buddha-9780231205832","title":"Conjuring the Buddha","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJacob 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen 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\u003cbr\u003eBased 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 \u003ci\u003eBeing Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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 \u003ci\u003eIndian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e1. Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local\u003cbr\u003e2. From \u003ci\u003eDhāraṇī\u003c\/i\u003e to Tantra: The \u003ci\u003eSarvadurgatipariśodhana\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: A \u003ci\u003eSarvadurgatipariśodhana\u003c\/i\u003e Initiation Manual\u003cbr\u003e3. Evoking Possession: The \u003ci\u003eSarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgraha\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: \u003ci\u003eTattvasaṃgraha-sādhanopāyika\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4. Secretory Secrets: Sexual Yoga in Early Mahāyoga\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: \u003ci\u003eThe Generation of Fortune\u003c\/i\u003e Sādhana\u003cbr\u003e5. Circles of Blazing Breaths: A Manual for Mantra Recitation\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: \u003ci\u003eSamādhi\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eSādhana\u003c\/i\u003e with Commentary\u003cbr\u003eConclusions\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51534924153175,"sku":"9780231205832","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780231205832.jpg?v=1755858068","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/conjuring-the-buddha-9780231205832","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}