Conjuring the Buddha

Conjuring the Buddha
Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Total Pages : 227
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780231556187
ISBN-13 : 0231556187
Rating : 4/5 (87 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Conjuring the Buddha by : Jacob P. Dalton

Download or read book Conjuring the Buddha written by Jacob P. Dalton and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual manuals are among the most common and most personal forms of Buddhist literature. Since at least the late fifth century, individual practitioners—including monks, nuns, teachers, disciples, and laypeople—have kept texts describing how to perform the daily rites. These manuals represent an intimate counterpart to the canonical sutras and the tantras, speaking to the lived experience of Buddhist practice. Conjuring the Buddha offers a history of early tantric Buddhist ritual through the lens of the Tibetan manuscripts discovered near Dunhuang on the ancient Silk Road. Jacob P. Dalton 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. He suggests that ritual manuals were the literary precursors to the tantras, crucial to the emergence of esoteric Buddhism. Examining a series of ninth- and tenth-century tantric manuals from Dunhuang, Dalton uncovers lost moments in the development of rituals such as consecration, possession, sexual yoga, the Great Perfection, and the subtle body practices of the winds and channels. He also traces the use of poetic language in ritual manuals, showing how at pivotal moments, metaphor, simile, rhythm, and rhyme were deployed to evoke carefully sculpted affective experiences. Offering an unprecedented glimpse into the personal practice of early tantric Buddhists, Conjuring the Buddha provides new insight into the origins and development of the tantric tradition.


Conjuring the Buddha Related Books

Conjuring the Buddha
Language: en
Pages: 227
Authors: Jacob P. Dalton
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-01-17 - Publisher: Columbia University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ritual manuals are among the most common and most personal forms of Buddhist literature. Since at least the late fifth century, individual practitioners—inclu
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism
Language: en
Pages: 338
Authors: Christian K. Wedemeyer
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-05-06 - Publisher: Columbia University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging t
Behold the Buddha
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: James C. Dobbins
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-03-31 - Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Images of the Buddha are everywhere—not just in temples but also in museums and homes and online—but what these images mean largely depends on the backgroun
Battling the Buddha of Love
Language: en
Pages: 406
Authors: Jessica Marie Falcone
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-09-15 - Publisher: Cornell University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Battling the Buddha of Love is a work of advocacy anthropology that explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, a transnational Budd
The Taming of the Demons
Language: en
Pages: 325
Authors: Jacob P. Dalton
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-06-28 - Publisher: Yale University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Taming of the Demons examines mythic and ritual themes of violence, demon taming, and blood sacrifice in Tibetan Buddhism. Taking as its starting point Tibe