As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice,
Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel
the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating
ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal
scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan,
Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day,
and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu,
Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often
for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also
provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and
general readers alike will find the book rich and informative.
The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies,
inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical
conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text
illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra.
Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series
of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees,
yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century
Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven
Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to
scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a
modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black
Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a
seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden
doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs
her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text,
identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence
of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or
difficulty.
The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric
phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in
Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas
spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand
our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.
