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Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia

Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia
Author: Andrea Acri
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2022-11-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000686442

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This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting ‘magical’ and ‘shamanic’ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval Indic period up to the present, a wide geographical framework, and through the dialogue between various disciplines, it presents a coherent enquiry shedding light on practices and practitioners that have been frequently alienated in the elitist discourse of mainstream Indic religions and equally overlooked by modern scholarship. The book addresses three desiderata in the field of Tantric Studies: it fills a gap in the historical modelling of Tantra; it extends the geographical parameters of Tantra to the vast, yet culturally interlinked, socio-geographical construct of Monsoon Asia; it explores Tantra as an interface between the Sanskritic elite and the folk, the vernacular, the magical, and the shamanic, thereby revisiting the intellectual and historically fallacious divide between cosmopolitan Sanskritic and vernacular local. The book offers a highly innovative contribution to the field of Tantric Studies and, more generally, South and Southeast Asian religions, by breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries. Its variety of disciplinary approaches makes it attractive to both the textual/diachronic and ethnographic/synchronic dimensions. It will be of interest to specialist and non-specialist academic readers, including scholars and students of South Asian religions, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism, Tantric traditions, and Southeast Asian religions, as well as Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.


Of Ancestors and Ghosts

Of Ancestors and Ghosts
Author: Adeana McNicholl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2024
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0197748902

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"In Part I of this book, I argued that preta narratives participated in a larger world-building process that negotiated the contours of the Buddhist cosmos and, with it, the place of the departed. Through stories about encounters between humans and pretas, Buddhist authors explored the place of the departed in a karmic cosmological system, worked out how to best assist them, and advocated for the importance of the sangha in facilitating these offerings. These tales do not merely reflect the process through which the preta as a specific entity and rebirth category became distinguished from the ancestral departed, but also participated in this process. This illustrates the importance of viewing narratives, in Rob Campany's terms, as argumentative. Stories are not merely the distillation of more abstract doctrine but are sites for the construction of religious worldviews. This illustrates that religious cosmologies are not laid down fully formed in doctrinal treatises. They are cumulatively built over time, and "popular culture" can do important work in the aggregative construction of cosmologies"--


The Path of Desire

The Path of Desire
Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2024-03-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0226831116

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A provocative study of contemporary Tantra as a dynamic living tradition. Tantra, one of the most important religious currents in South Asia, is often misrepresented as little more than ritualized sex. Through a mixture of ethnography and history, Hugh B. Urban reveals a dynamic living tradition behind the sensationalist stories. Urban shows that Tantric desire goes beyond the erotic, encompassing such quotidian experiences as childbearing and healing. He traces these holistic desires through a series of unique practices: institutional Tantra centered on gurus and esoteric rituals; public Tantra marked by performance and festival; folk Tantra focused on magic and personal well-being; and popular Tantra imagined in fiction, film, and digital media. The result is a provocative new description of Hindu Tantra that challenges us to approach religion as something always entwined with politics and culture, thoroughly entangled with ordinary needs and desires.


The Power of Tantra

The Power of Tantra
Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2009-10-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0857715860

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In the West, the varied body of texts and traditions known as Tantra for more than two centuries has had the capacity to scandalize and shock. For European colonizers, Orientalist scholars and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was generally seen as the most degenerate and depraved example of the worst tendencies of the so-called 'Indian mind': a pathological mixture of sensuality and religion that prompted the decline of modern Hinduism. Yet for most contemporary New Age and popular writers, Tantra is celebrated as a much-needed affirmation of physical pleasure and sex: indeed as a 'cult of ecstasy' to counter the perceived hypocritical prudery of many Westerners. In recent years, Tantra has become the focus of a still larger cultural and political debate. In the eyes of many Hindus, much of the western literature on Tantra represents a form of neo-colonialism, which continues to portray India as an exotic, erotic, hyper-sexualized Orient. Which, then, is the 'real' Tantra? Focusing on one of the oldest and most important Tantric traditions, based in Assam, northeast India, Hugh B Urban shows that Tantra is less about optimal sexual pleasure than about harnessing the divine power of the goddess that flows alike through the cosmos, the human body and political society. In a fresh and vital contribution to the field, the author suggests that the 'real' meaning of Tantra lies in helping us rethink not just the history of Indian religions, but also our own modern obsessions with power, sex and the invidious legacies of cultural imperialism.


Tantra in Practice

Tantra in Practice
Author: David Gordon White
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 662
Release: 2000
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9788120817784

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Tantra in Practice is the eight volume of Princeton Readings in Religions and the first substantial anthology of Tantric works ever to appear in English. The thirty-nine contributors, drawn from around the world, are leading scholars of Tantra. Each contributor has provided a translation of a key work, in most cases translated here for the first time. Each chapter in the volume begins with an introduction in which the translator discusses the history and influence of the work, identifying points of particular difficulty or interest. David White has provided a general introduction to the volume that serves as an ideal guide to the riches contained between the covers of this book. He has organized the volume thematically, providing fascinating juxtapositions of works from different regions, periods, and traditions. Two additional tables of contents are provided, organizing the works by tradition and by country of origin. The range of works represented here is remarkable, spanning the continent of Asia and the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam over more than a millennium. With the publication this volume, the long disparaged and neglected Tantric traditions of Asia receive the attention they so rightly deserve. This is a groundbreaking work.


Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond

Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond
Author: István Keul
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2012
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9783110258103

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The essays in this volume, written by specialists working in the field of tantric studies, attempt to trace processes of transformation and transfer that occurred in the history of tantra from around the seventh century and up to the present. The volume gathers contributions on South Asia, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, North America, and Western Europe. The chapters cover a wide thematic area, which includes modern Bengali tantric practitioners, tantric ritual in medieval China, the South Asian cults of the mother goddesses, the way of Buddhism into Mongolia, and countercultural echoes of contemporary tantric studies.


Vegan Tantra Volume 1

Vegan Tantra Volume 1
Author: Neo Sufi
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9781539158547

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Vegan Tantra is about the history, philosophy, rituals, symbolism, and applications of Eastern Tantra and Western Magic, and their ancient, inseparable bond with Veganism going at least as far back as 10,000 B.C.. The original tantric experiences of mankind underlie the birth of song, dance, poetry, painting and all other forms of art that have laid the very foundations of our religions and cultures as we know them today. Recent literature associating Tantra with indulgent sex and black magic is not baseless, but it only represents a very limited aspect of a system of knowledge that is dynamic, all encompassing and constantly evolving as we are ourselves. The dictionary definition of magic is - the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. Tantra is exactly that, the science of influencing events by using forces of nature. Tantra and Magic have both been misunderstood for many years to represent evil, non-serious or even fictional practices. Tantrics actually believe that the entire manifest universe is alive and governed by laws of a higher intelligence we can choose to call God or nature. They believe, that just like the numerous cells in a human body that make up different organs to sustain a larger organism, all parts of nature are constantly communicating and engaging with each other in an eternal dance of competition and cooperation to evolve together as a whole. While much knowledge of the many tantric practices of ancient civilizations has been lost during the dark ages, what survives unmistakably and most importantly is the fact that whether we know it or not we are all tantrics, little magicians, doing Tantra in our everyday lives. The question remains only of our awareness and the purpose of this book is to share exactly that. Vegan-Tantra traces the development and culmination of various pre-historic systems of magic into the three source texts of the Indian Vedas, the Greek Hermetica and the Chinese I-Ching, which further shaped the face of all major world religion to come later. What the Vedic tradition was to religions of Hindusim, Buddhism and Jainism in the Eastern Word, Hermeticism was to the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the West. Similarly the I Ching went on to influence the Bon, Taoism and Confucianism. However, the consolidation of social power to build empires over thousands of years led to the process of politicization and industrialization of these religions ultimately culminating in the very suppression of Tantra and magic. This book maps the journey of the rise and fall of the original nature worshiping religion of mankind, known as Tantra, and its elusive practitioners called Tantrics. Also discussed are diverse themes such as tantric techniques of increasing sexual bliss, heightening creative/intuitive abilities, use of psychoactive substances to develop extra sensory perceptions, reincarnation, life after death, ancient alchemy, modern psychology, the science behind new age fields of music/sound therapy, colour therapy, bio-mimicry and the pit-falls of black magic using animal sacrifice. Using several quotes from the four Vedas and the Hermetica, studying the life of their authors and with references to many anecdotes, characters and archetypes form eastern and western mythology the book promises to be a roller coaster ride through the fabled world of Eastern Tantra and Western Magic encountering celestial nymphs, dreadful monsters and orgiastic celebrations from our sexually brilliant past. In a nutshell Vegan Tantra is about the eternal tantric truth of 'All is One' - the unity of all life without any bounds or exceptions. It is your journey through words to experientially feel that truth and with it be born again as your higher, more complete self. It is a book to awaken and empower the tantric in you, so that you may use your magical powers in life, at least when it matters the most, starting from right now!


Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions

Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 632
Release: 2020-08-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004432809

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Academic study of the tantric traditions has blossomed in recent decades, in no small measure thanks to the magisterial contributions of Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, until 2015 Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. This collection of essays honours him and touches several fields of Indology that he has helped to shape (or, in the case of the Śaiva religions, revolutionised): the history, ritual, and philosophies of tantric Buddhism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism; religious art and architecture; and Sanskrit belles lettres. Grateful former students, joined by other experts influenced by his scholarship, here offer papers that make significant contributions to our understanding of the cultural, religious, political, and intellectual histories of premodern South and Southeast Asia. Contributors are: Peter Bisschop, Judit Törzsök, Alex Watson, Isabelle Ratié, Christopher Wallis, Péter-Dániel Szántó, Srilata Raman, Csaba Dezső, Gergely Hidas, Nina Mirnig, John Nemec, Bihani Sarkar, Jürgen Hanneder, Diwakar Acharya, James Mallinson, Csaba Kiss, Jason Birch, Elizabeth Mills, Ryugen Tanemura, Anthony Tribe, and Parul Dave-Mukherji.


A Genealogy of Devotion

A Genealogy of Devotion
Author: Patton E. Burchett
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231548834

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In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.


Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples

Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples
Author: Hajime Nakamura
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 740
Release: 1981-05-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780824800789

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"There is hardly any book equal to Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples in terms of its thorough and systematic presentation of the intricate thought patterns of Asian peoples. The book not only is an essential reference for the student of Asian culture, but also for students of philosophy, religion, anthropology, and art, as it is an excellent source for aiding the student in gaining a deeper understanding of each facet of Oriental thought." --Isshi Yamada, Northwestern University "The clearest discussion and analysis of these complex subjects that I have found. My advanced undergraduate students find this work to be 'stimulating', 'challenging' and comprehensible.' The organization of the text enhances the usefulness of this volume, but it is the high quality of the scholarship that makes Ways of Thinking a most valuable addition to Asian studies and to the academic training of upper division students." --Ann B. Radwan, University of North Florida "I find Ways of thinking a most provocative source for exploring with my students certain basic themes in Eastern religion and culture. Used carefully, it is a most stimulating and effective source for tapping Eastern 'ways' at a fundamental level of inquiry." --Wilbur M. Fridell, University of California, Santa Barbara