Ritual And Speculation In Early Tantrism

This book illustrates the extent to which we can understand the writings of the leading tantricas whose views regarding the universe and enlightenment developed from ritual practice and yoga. Contributors to this anthology include Helene Brunner, Gudrun Buhnemann, Richard H. Davis, Vrajavallabha Dviveda, Sanjukta Gupta, Minoru Hara, Paul Muller-Ortega, Navjivan Rastogi, Alexis Sanderson, Jan A. Schoterman, Raffaele Torella, and Teun Goudriaan.

This collection of original essays on Yoga in honour of Professor Gerald James Larson provides fascinating new insights into the yoga traditions of India as a historical and pluralistic phenomenon flourishing in a variety of religious and philosophical contexts.

This book takes readers on a fascinating journey to the very heart of Tantra: its key teachings, foundational lineages, and transformative practices. Since the West's discovery of Tantra 100 years ago, there has been considerable fascination, speculation, and more than a little misinformation about this spiritual movement. Now, for the first time in the English language, Tantra Illuminated presents an accessible introduction to this sacred tradition that began 1,500 years ago, in the far north of India. The book uses translations from primary Sanskrit sources, offers a profound look at spiritual practice, and reveals Tantra's rich history and powerful teachings.

Jainism originated in India and shares some features with Buddhism and Hinduism, but it is a distinct tradition with its own key texts, art, rituals, beliefs, and history. One important way it has often been distinguished from Buddhism and Hinduism is through the highly contested category of Tantra: Jainism, unlike the others, does not contain a tantric path to liberation. But in Making a Mantra, historian of religions Ellen Gough refines and challenges our understanding of Tantra by looking at the development over two millennia of a Jain incantation, or mantra, that evolved from an auspicious invocation in a second-century text into a key component of mendicant initiations and meditations that continue to this day. Typically, Jainism is characterized as a celibate, ascetic path to liberation in which one destroys karma through austerities, while the tantric path to liberation is characterized as embracing the pleasures of the material world, requiring the ritual use of mantras to destroy karma. Gough, however, argues that asceticism and Tantra should not be viewed in opposition to one another. She does so by showing that Jains perform “tantric” rituals of initiation and meditation on mantras and maṇḍalas. Jainism includes kinds of tantric practices, Gough provocatively argues, because tantric practices are a logical extension of the ascetic path to liberation.

An accessible and up-to-date survey of scholarly thinking about Hinduism, perfect for courses on Hinduism or world religions The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Hinduism examines the historical trajectories that have led to the modern religion of Hinduism. Covering main themes such as philosophy, practice, society, and science, this comprehensive volume brings together a variety of approaches and perspectives in Hindu Studies to help readers better appreciate the richness, complexity, and diversity of Hinduism. Essays by acknowledged experts in the field present historical accounts of all major traditions, analyze key texts, engage with Hindu theology and philosophy, address contemporary questions of colonialism and identity, and more. Throughout the text, the authors highlight the links, common threads, and issues that reoccur in the history of Hinduism. Fully revised and updated, the second edition of the Companion incorporates the most recent scholarship and reflects the trend away from essentialist understandings of Hinduism. New chapters examine the Goddess tradition, Hindu diaspora, Hinduism and inter-religious comparison, Hindu philosophy, and Indian astronomy, medicine, language, and mathematics. This edition places further emphasis on the importance of region-specific studies in analyzing Hinduism, discusses important theoretical issues, and offers fresh perspectives on current discourse in Hindu society and politics. Provides a thorough overview of major texts, their histories, and the traditions that preserve them Describes the major textual traditions in Sanskrit with examples in different Indian vernacular languages Addresses major issues and contemporary debates about the nature and study of Hinduism Discusses the importance of systematic, rational thinking in Indian sciences, philosophy, and theology Examines key socio-political themes in Hinduism that are of particular relevance to the modern world The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Second Edition is an excellent text for undergraduate courses on Hinduism in Religious Studies and Philosophy departments, and an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers in Hindu Studies.

Providing a systematic and complete overview of the highest scholarly quality on Tantric mantras in Hinduism, this book presents a summary on the nature of Tantric mantras, their phonetic aspect, structure and classifications. Additionally, it explains the metaphysical-theological nature of Tantric mantras and gives an introduction to their beliefs and practices. In individual chapters, Andre Padoux discusses the extraction and examination of mantras, certain characteristics such as their "perfect nature" and their imperfections, and he describes certain mantrics practices. For the first time, Andre Padoux' work on Tantric mantras is made accessible to an English-speaking readership. This book will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Theology, Indology, South Asian Studies, and Asian Religion.

Tantra Iluminado gu&ía al lector a lo largo de un viaje fascinante hacia el coraz&ón mismo del Tantra: sus ense&ñanzas principales, los linajes que le dan fundamento y sus pr&ácticas transformativas. Desde que Occidente descubri&ó el Tantra hace 100 a&ños, este movimiento espiritual ha sido objeto de gran fascinaci&ón, especulaci&ón, y una buena dosis de desinformaci&ón. Ahora, por primera vez en nuestra lengua, Tantra Iluminado nos brinda una introducci&ón accesible a esta sagrada tradici&ón que naci&ó hace 1,500 a&ños en el norte de la India. Esta obra se sustenta en fuentes originales en s&ánscrito, ofrece una mirada profunda a la pr&áctica espiritual, y revela la rica historia del Tantra junto con sus poderosas ense&ñanzas.Entrar en el mundo del Tantra original es adentrarse en un reino de magia y misterio, en una filosof&ía que expande nuestra mente; llena de ritos arcanos; panteones de diosas feroces encarnadas en s&ílabas m&ísticas; diagramas energéticos que dibujan un mapa de las dimensiones de la realidad; visualizaciones de los centros de poder del cuerpo; posturas que expresan las formas m&ás puras de la conciencia; experiencias nect&áreas del éxtasis m&ás absoluto, portadoras un poder sobrenatural, y conceptos que desaf&ían las normas fundamentales de la sociedad tradicional. En pocas palabras, un mundo que abarca todo el rango de la actividad religiosa y espiritual del ser humano, desde las contemplaciones m&ás sublimes y elevadas de nuestra naturaleza interna, hasta las m&ás extra&ñas supersticiones. Hoy en d&ía, algunos est&án interesados en la elevada filosof&ía del Tantra, otros s&ólo quieren conocer las técnicas netamente pr&ácticas, mientras que a otros m&ás los mueve la curiosidad de conocer el contexto hist&órico. No importa quién seas, para sumergirte por completo en este mundo, deber&ás no nada m&ás renunciar a cualquier noci&ón de aquello que t&ú creas que es Tantra, sino también despojarte de algunas de tus creencias m&ás arraigadas sobre la realidad en s&í misma.

This book is about how mythology may be purposively adapted in the service of theology. It does so at the hand of Hayagrīva, since the 14th century C.E. revered as a full form of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu in the local Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition of South India, but originally a relatively minor pan-Indian deity. Convincingly laying bare the complexity in respect of the pan-Indian images of Hayagrīva, it makes clear that there is no single unilinear history of this deity. It subsequently reconstructs the ‘Śrīnivaiṣṇava History’ of Hayagrīva, and brings out the selectivity involved in borrowing materials from the pan-Indian and local levels. Amidst the incredible complexity encountered here, this study exposes, however, that the emblems and functions of different images show continuity, although a god’s status may change according to the sect.